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StarCraft19 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Grand final: Summary

The WCG Grand Final has come to an end and I'm now posting some of the events taking place at the finals which were not all related to the tournament. I'm also rating the whole event and posting personal opinions and speculations with it!




It has now finished and I'm looking at all the pictures taken at the event. Entropy must have taken over a thousand of them and they're most really good. He has a habit - good or bad you name it - to take a picture of everything he finds interesting or funny. Whenever there's a story Entropy was there with the camera. Whenever there were show girls Entropy asks them to round up next to him and ask someone else to take a picture. Whenever United States XG3 or Poland Draco[pG] were drunk (which unfortunately seemed to happen quite frequently) he was there.

San Francisco - What a mistake!


As a whole I'm definitely satisfied with the World Cyber Games. It's greatest improvement and also greatest mistake was to move to San Francisco. First of all, at the negative side, the city was not far as supportive as Seoul has been or what Singapore probably will be. This could easily be told by looking at the situations of the buildings, the distance between them and how they were like. The player village was quite a bit away from the Civic Auditorium where the tournaments were played. The only show match area there was was located outside of the tournament area in the middle of a smaller park, and showed mostly local bands which, seemingly, no one else but the local fans appreciated due to the free entrace. All the facilities were rented and the player hotel was not dedicated to WCG. A few regular costumers were also checked in which caused some inital major problems with what room every player should check in to. Some teams, like the Starcraft players from Netherlands, were all split up and were sharing rooms with random Unreal Tournament players they had never before met. However, as I explained earlier in one of my daily reports, there was nothing wrong with the budget behind the project. Though, at some times it felt like all the spectacular shows and fireworks they had set up for the ceremonies just weren't suitable. The applauses during the prize ceremony felt weak and weren't heard. A few more cheers when the Starcraft ceremony began, all thanks to me and XG3 standing up and screaming "Go Xellos!" which seemed to draw more attention than the actual ceremony.

The finals had such a low level of spectators, I did not actually see it myself though from the cheers and what people told me, it was about 50-60 people there.

San Francisco - What a success!


Despite all said above, choosing San Francisco was a masterplan. The attention WCG drew to American medias was huge and all the major networks had reports from it. WCG 2004 opened for western media and the western communities (both off- and online ones) which was a step in the right direction. San Francisco opened possibilities for people who never could afford going to Asia just like it will, next year, open possibilities for people who couldn't afford going to the U.S. The culture mix at the drinking evenings with Shiva and his laptop playing Korean music, Americans drinking Red Bull and Vodka, Europeans being drunk beyond recognition, some very talkative and some teams sitting for themselves. It was all a great mix and was featured throughout the event as a whole.

The whole idea of moving the WCG from city to city increases the will of some players who already won their national preliminaries one year to try again the next one. We all know many players who was finally made it to WCG and then, when on top, quit playing because some might claim they already achived everything. A fairly good reason amongst players seems to be to actually get to travel and to see the city and the country. See what Slayer said about his » reason to participate the Norweigan preliminary 2004, for example.

No change on the complex map situation?


On the one hand, "Martian Cross is not a Terran map" says Xellos. On the other hand, looking at the op four in WCG 2004 we can see that they were all playing Terran. Even though Martian Cross was played as one of the three standard ones played in every group (since only the groups of five actually played on more than three maps). Yes, the map situation is both controversial and complex.

As you might know, the four original maps before these were made were: Lost Temple, Legacy of Char, Gorky Island and Hall of Valhalla. You can see several similarties between Lost Temple and today's version of Khoral of Ceres. The main complaint people had regarding Lost Temple included that the map's advantages of certain positions versus other. Khoral of Ceres tried to change this by making all positions equal in terms of mineral patches, expansions, ramps - basically they tried to make it more balanced. A similar resemblance might be seen between Hall of Valhalla and Gorky Island where the later is perhaps a more symetric version of the first. What might have been missed out, however, is the balance between the races on a pro gaming level of play.

Sources has told SG that the map making of WCG was a long process, not to mention an expensive one. Apparantely, professional map makers with an history as Starcraft Gamers (notice the space - n.t.s) were put back into the scene and during a couple of months created what we now call the maps of WCG 2004. Perhaps WCG wanted their own maps just like OGN has their. SG experiences that it is not very likely this process will take place again and therefore suggests you not to hope for any differences until next year.

The importance of this social event


The day after we arrived Sweden Arlanda, Stockholm, I participated a new debate regarding Internet and adolescents spending a lot of time in front of their computers. What most of the parents at this debate saw was their own boys sitting seemingly alone in their dark rooms, playing computer games.

What I could tell them was the connection between the players. The team play. The communication, friendship and solidarity that is created through the online gaming communities. Just coming back from WCG I could naturally relate to the situation where it is not at all weird meeting people I have never before met though I know very much about them and their personalities. I saw many eyebrows raised when I explained that many of these persons - despite where they live - were persons I would classify as my real friends and who - believe it or not - plays a big role for me.

What WCG encourages by this event is not only the competition but also the social activities hosted for communities, the connections and the communcations established. What am I trying to say?

Each community needs atleast a few couple of key persons to be discussed. This comes naturally in gaming communities where good players normally are ones to discuss and you can all have your own opinion on. This will eventually create lists of "who is the best non-korean toss" which might be nonsense because everyone is just guessing and most won't name the correct list even for five dollars. Though these lists have their own purpose and importance because they promote the community. And without these social events such connections, details about players, rumours, friendsships or top level clans would never be created. One can only become famous within a community for doing everything but being good. The TeamLiquid community is very good at putting new community personalities to life. Let me quote one of these, United States ilnp, who even created his own blog basically because he owned up everyone else with his comments:

On the Internet our only way of communicating is textually. Poor reading comprehension/writing ability irks the ¤#%& out of me because it turns you into the equivalent of a deaf-mute chit chatting on the phone.
- ilnp


This quote recently became fresh by the publishing of the thread called
» Funniest things you have read on TL. It might not itself be related to the subject though it is only an example of the importance of social events and what key persons in the community can contribute with.

Social event yadda yadda, but is it really worth going?


Most of the events did not take place in the tournament area. The tournament area was a reasonably quiet place where you played your games and then left the arena. No, most took part at the player villages

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