Gamers Unite for Video Game Olympics

The Hobo writes "About 700 of the world's best gamers began battling it out Wednesday, as the fourth annual World Cyber Games got underway in San Francisco. The five-day annual event is a culmination of national competitions held around the world and pits the best players against each other in a variety of widely popular games like Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Starcraft and FIFA Soccer.

Comments

Should be a great tournament

[dnixon112]

Despite some early rumors of accomodation problems, this should be a great tournament. Here's some pics of the opening ceremony.
Gallery 1 Gallery 2

Wow

[The-Bus]

The incentive to win is high: in addition to total cash prizes of about $400,000 US, winners get global bragging rights and could go on to professional careers, like Canadian Guillaume Patry. Five years ago, the Quebec-born Patry became the Starcraft world champion and was offered a job as a professional game player in South Korea, initially making about $100,000 a year. His annual salary is now estimated at about $500,000 and, as the star of a Korean Starcraft TV program, he needs bodyguards to protect him from his fans.

Well done. Didn't think there was that much money in videogames.

In other news, the word "Cyber" hasn't been cool since 1988. Please don't use it anymore.

Re:Wow

[Lisandro]

Seriously, more power to him. But who exactly pays him a salary? No pun intended, i've always wondered - it seems quite a sum for sponsorship of a relatively niche "sport", and i always thought the ones who decided to try making a living out of computer games aimed at competition prizes as their main income.

And, Starcraft? I know South Koreans are crazy about that game, but still... does people still gather arround to see someone playing it? I always thought that was one of the main problems with "cybersports"; if you play soccer, you're pretty much playing the same way people did 50 years ago. If you play Counterstrike and pour man-hours into it, who knows if you'll still be playing it the near future.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

£400,000 sounds impressive. But that's the total prize pool. Split it maybe three of four ways, to reflect the fact that there are several games being played. Then, in the cases of the game with the biggest prizes (Counter-Strike), divide it by five to reflect the fact that this is a team game. You'll find you're left with less than $40k per player... probably significantly less. The CPL and the WCG are the only competitions with any prizes of note. You'd need to win both of them in one year to make an even vaguely comfortable living out of this, at a "job" which demands insanely long hours if you want to keep your edge. Professional gaming is a long way from being reality. Long may it remain so!

And treat any stories or figures you hear quoted about gaming in Korea with extreme skepticism. Gaming *is* big there, but a lot of what you hear in the West is pure invention on the part of gamers and pundits wistful for some supposed far-off gaming utopia.

Re:Wow

[Dot.Com.CEO]

Well, for those who don't know, "cyber" comes from the greek verb "kyvernein" that is also the root for the word "government". It means, oddly enough "to govern".

"Cyber" has been used in its present (non)sense since some obviously idiotic academic or journalist thought it sounded cool. Other such idiotic words were "Matrix" as a superset of the internet and I, for one, am glad they are dead. Leave them there.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

"But who exactly pays him a salary?"

Money comes from the audience and sponsors, just like with any other sport.

"does people still gather arround to see someone playing it?"

Yes people are watching games live and on TV.

Re:Wow

[z0ink]

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of kids squander all their money on video cards (the primary promoters of large events) and half a dozen crappy titles a year - hoping to become 'a pro.' This really is a big scam. In racing, golf, any other sport the payouts roll all the way down. In gaming, typically, only the top 3 get payed. Airfare and a week of living in a hotel is not cheap. Not to mention it takes either knowing somebody with a lot of cash or already being a top team to get a sponsorship - but even then you'll be hard pressed to break even.

This stuff isn't all just a bunch of having fun on the internet either. The serious competitors work like dogs to get to where they are at. I like games as much as the next guy, or perhaps even more than, but once you start playing something 8 hours a day it becomes a second job -- one that you have to pay to work at.

Re:Wow

[DigitumDei]

Well in South Korea obviously it is popular enough to make a ton of cash off advertising since enough people watch the games. Once you have that, it is always possible for a select few to make a small fortune off playing a game.

Funnily enough if you watch any old soccer matchs, the game was indeed quite different. Strategies were different, a few seemingly minor rules differences can mean a complete change in strategy. Now in the last 10 years games that were popular have changed immensly. But with the release (as of today I believe) of CS:Source, valve is making sure that this game continues into the next generation of computer games with the same style of game play, just better graphics. I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility that a version of CS (although definitely more advanced graphics wise) will still be being played in 10 years time. Even if there isn't, there will be some team based objective capturing fps game that is popular. (speaking from experience, if you can play cs well, you can move to other games and play them well in very little time).

Also, I think what South Korea has going for them is that they don't have this "gaming is a waste of time" attitude. They see gaming like any other sport, something to be practiced and perfected, and any time spent in that pursuit is not wasted. When the world treats amatuer gamers like they treat amateur football players (american or european), then you will truely see professional play take off.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent post. If I was at home, rather than work, and had access to my mod points, I'd mod you up. I've seen countless gamers burn their lives away in the belief that "going pro" is just around the corner. The vast majority of them, and even then only the very skilled, will never earn more than a couple of $50 vouchers for games and hardware. And yes, if you want to play these games seriously, you need to put a hell of a lot of time and effort into them. 12 hour days are pretty much a must, which when you factor in the rather paltry prizes on offer, means that even the absolute top players will be very lucky to earn minimum wage. If you get a good sponsor, they'll pay your travel and hotel costs and maybe foot the bill for an occasional hardware upgrade, but you can forget about making any kind of a living off them. You can't even play the game for fun any more, as being seen getting killed by Joe Public on a random server might put your sponsors off.

To be honest, though, I think this problem is wider than just professional gaming. I grew up in Manchester, England. Living near the most commercially successful soccer club in the world meant that we had huge numbers of kids who were convinced they were going to make a living as professional footballers. Consequently, they never put any effort in at school and never earned any qualifications. I must have known at least a dozen kids like this, probably more. Last I heard, every single one of them was either unemployed or in a dead-end job on minimum wage. There's got to be some way of getting through for kids that you're more likely to become rich through a lottery win than as any kind of professional sportsman. How many people seriously base their futures on the assumption that they'll win the lottery?

Keep the sport clean!

[BaltikaTroika]

So would overclocking be considered "performance enhancement"? ;)

BaltikaTroika

Re:Keep the sport clean!

[dotwaffle]

To be honest, if you're sad enough to play computer games for a living (says here sitting at a Linux workstation at university trying to organise a meeting for the computer society) then you will probably never need "performance enhancement" :)

Geddit? No? Honestly, wasted! Wasted I tell thee!

Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

We can reach world unity and peace... through bloody virtual conflict!

Re:Finally

[cap'n foolsy]

it's not so farfetched. if we worked out our aggressions by playing games instead of actually waging war, wouldn't that be so much better?

Gamers for Peace!

Machines specs ?

[mirko]

So what are the specs of the machines ?

Do the players have to bring theirs or is it considered fairer to have them all use the same ?

Re:Machines specs ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you look at the photo gallery? All of the machines are already set up using the exact same parts, even same keyboard and monitor.

visa rejected for european player

[perler]

in a german games television show they had an interview with a german warcraft player who qualified for the WCG but it's visa to the US was rejected. the only problem was (as he described it) that he had the german /and/ the turkish citizenship (which is quite usual in germany, we have some 3 million turkish immigrants (out of a population of 80 million)).

i think the US is shooting it's own foot if they continue to behave this way. a lot of people here already wait with their holidays in the US in the hope, that the obligatory fingerprints when entering the US will go away sometimes (which i doubt personally)

PAT

Re:visa rejected for european player

[KombuchaGuy]

A lot of CS Players had a similar problem. They all ticked the 'sometimes' box for the "Are you a terrorist?" question on the Green Card.

Professional Starcraft Player

[asuzuki]

From the article:
Five years ago, the Quebec-born Patry became the Starcraft world champion and was offered a job as a professional game player in South Korea, initially making about $100,000 a year.

His annual salary is now estimated at about $500,000 and, as the star of a Korean Starcraft TV program, he needs bodyguards to protect him from his fans.

Thanks, that made me feel really bad about my job.

Re:Professional Starcraft Player

[Anonymous Coward]

he needs bodyguards to protect him from his fans.

OMG ZERG RUSH!!!!!

Turkish!?

[ImaLamer]

No... I believe it was because the CIA had learned of an earlier "Cat Stevens" CD purchase the player had made...

correction: Re:visa rejected for european player

[perler]

to correct myself, as reported here (it's in german, use the fish):

not the visa itself was rejected but a special entry permission which was neccessary to arrive to the WCG in time. they refered him to the normal visa application process which takes around 1,5 weeks - but which has no use when the WCG starts today..

PAT

Dear Slashdot

[Cybertect]

We notice that your recent story titled "Gamers Unite for Video Game Olympics" contains an unauthorised use of the word 'Olympics', a trademark that is owned by the International Olympic Committee.

Cease and desist immediately. Failure to do so will result in legal action seeking punitive damages.

Yours sincerely,

IP Freely
Partner
Sue, Grabbett and Runne
Solicitors for the IOC

I know you're out there

[Moo Moo Cow of Death]

Anyone remember Fatal1ty? Quake player from a long time ago? After winning all those tourney's and being declared Quake champ and all he started up his own little shop selling stuff with his name on it and the ever famous "fat pad" an extremely large mouse pad because of his ultra low mouse sensitivity.

Anyway, he comes by every now and then and hangs out with us and tells us what he does. He plays video games for 8 hours a day to practice and does endorsement deals. That's right, he plays video games for a living (and drives around in a painted alien vs. predator hummer he won).

I only wish I was half that lucky :)

any other parallels with olympics?

[circletimessquare]

are we going to have drug testing? no caffeine?

are we going to have boycotts? the muslim world boycotting all civilization iii competitions because cities can build cathedrals instead of mosques?

are we going to have cities competing to host? i think seoul will host the next 25 olympics then, considering their massively superior bandwidth infrastructure as compared to the rest of the world

are we going to have sports no one watches? minesweeper for example? ;-P

are we going to have judging scandals? are we going to have overwhelmingly nationalistic audiences? etc.

Where's DEE DEE ARR?

[Bega]

I'm kind of, sortof, disappointed at this event and having no Dance Dance Revolution (or other dancing game) competition, while it's name is "Video Game Olympics".

Bemani? Argh!

[bi_boy]

Missing? Three words. Dance Dance Revolution.

Re:Dear Cybertect

[RichardX]

We notice that your recent post titled "Dear Slashdot" contains unauthorised use of the words "cease" and "desist", and furthermore is a cease and desist notice. As I am the holder of the patent for "Method of causing cessation and desisting of activities by a third party via the means of sending a 'cease and desist' notice" I require you to immediately cease and desist in your use of cease and desist notices.

Yours spuriously,

Sue Eweblind
Pardner
Yee-Haw Legal Cowboys inc.

Re:I want to see

[dbretton]

Super Mario Brothers 3!

Some photos of the Opening Event

[zr-rifle]

I work for the Italian GSP in charge of selecting the our country's national team and sending them to San Francisco. A lot of the hassles came from the young age of the partecipants (some of them only recently turned 18) and the fact that, for the first time, it was going to be a BYOC LAN. For this reason we had a hard time finding sponsors willing to give the team some decent hardware on which to play. We didn't have any luck so the players had to scout ahead and fin a place where to rent some monitors. Good luck in finding a place where to warm up and practice a bit.

Another problem was that the hotel is no way in a decent walking distance from the place where the games will be played. So players not only have to drag along their stuff to the battlefield, but also have to walk quite a bit to get there.

Fortunately, our guys seem to be quite positive about it. It's great to travel so far and represent your country. Even if it's videogames we're talking about. And, believe me, you get pretty popular with girls about the whole thing. "What? You came all the way from Italy to play... videogames? charming!"... hehe, pretty amusing stuff.

Anyway, check out the pics