High school dropout and videogame wizard Tseng Jeng-cheng (曾政承) took first prize in the game "Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors" at the first World Cyber Games in Seoul yesterday.
But the spirit of the games was marred by Chinese bullying, however, when 17-year-old Tseng became the focus of severe criticism from Chinese journalists for displaying an ROC flag after his victory.
The games, dubbed "the Olympics of computer gaming," started on Wednesday with the best players remaining from an international pool of 170,000 contestants.
Yesterday's championship events decided winners in six different game categories.
Tseng, the only player from the Taiwan team to make it to the final championship round, beat South Korean Kang Byung-geon for the "Age of Empires" gold.
Tseng, whose style of play depends heavily on a "blitzkrieg" strategy, established an early advantage in his game with Kang.
Despite Kang's tenacious defense and formidable counterattacks -- skills honed in the course of winning this year's Microsoft AOC world championship as well as the Asia Pacific Cup Invitational -- the balance of power had tipped decisively in Tseng's favor within the first 20 minutes of play.
When Kang finally conceded the game, Tseng raised an ROC flag and shouted, "Taiwan No. 1! Taiwan No. 1!"
His teammates from Taichung Best Team, Chen Ming-chu (
Their celebrations were short-lived, however, as Chinese television journalists immediately rushed forward and harassed them. "What flags are you holding in your hands? Those aren't event flags. This is wrong! Wrong!" the journalists said.
Organizers of the competition eventually managed to block the reporters from continuing with their line of political questioning and got them off stage, but the reporters immediately filed a complaint with event organizers.
The Chinese embassy in Seoul, in a phone call to the organization, demanded that any television footage showing the ROC flag be cut out and that the flag not appear in the prize ceremony.
Nevertheless, Tseng remained ebullient in later interviews with Taiwanese media.
He attributed his victory to a combination of luck and skill and commented that he had felt enormous pressure facing an opponent as formidable as Kang.
"I was under pressure, but my good luck held," he said.
His delight in placing first was also enhanced by the fact that South Korean contestants had boasted loudly before the competition that they would undoubtedly take first place.
Tseng's earnings from this competition are considerable, including US$20,000 from the games' organizers, NT$500,000 from Taiwan cyber-cafe chain Aztec (戰略高手) and NT$150,000 from another Taiwan sponsor, Hinet.
Chang said that he and his two teammates had agreed before the competition to divide any earnings equally between themselves. They also plan to donate some money to their team.
Tseng also said he owes his girlfriend some attention because in the recent weeks of training over five hours per day, he has had few opportunities to spend time with her.
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