World Cyber Games 2004 takes aim in San Francisco
Joystiq special correspondent Edward Ho contributes a report for us from this past week's World Cyber Games:
The Samsung bankrolled World Cyber Games came to San Francisco this past week, bringing with them the world's fastest twitchy-fingered kids.
It's 2004 and the WCG is still playing Counter-Strike and 2 generations of RTS from Blizzard. I think the youngest player in the tournament was 9 when Counter-Strike hit the streets? Never mind the age of the games, the action was intense as players would crowd the sidelines with binoculars to scope the competition's screens.
While the scary-good gamers were battling in the arena and dishing out beat downs on the street, Samsung was busy trying to get a return on their investment by pushing wares instead of showing matches on their big screens.
During the Counter-Strike final, the main hall played advertisements with no match commentary, leaving the players isolated with only the press on hand. Hundreds of fans crammed into an adjoining hall to follow the action. It was like watching a baseball game on a TV in a stadium lobby. If the idea was to prevent the home team from having an advantage, it was a wasted effort as the predominately American ?press? decided to cheer the US team on to victory. I think the only other event that has press that cheers is a monster truck rally? oh wait? those monster truck reporters have more class than that.
For no apparent reason the organizers decided to punish the gamers and any locals in the area by subjecting them to traditional dances and a gospel choir (no joke) before awarding the players their checks. The sight is still making me cringe?
