The cream of the crop from among Taiwan's cyber-nerds duked it out yesterday in the final rounds of the country's preliminaries for the First World Cyber Games (WCG).
The WCG, which will be held in Seoul between Dec. 5 and Dec. 9, is billed as the computer game equivalent of the Olympics. Organizers, Samsung, Microsoft, Intel and Sony have dubbed the competition "e-sport," and plan to change the event's name to Cyber Olympics by 2003.
PHOTO COURTESY OF AZTEC
In Taiwan, the WCG preliminaries were organized by cyber-cafe chain Aztec and took place over the past three weekends at locations in Taipei and Taichung. The final rounds whittled down the number of competitors to the top players or team in the four games in which Taiwan will compete -- Quake III, StarCraft, Age of Empires and Counterstrike. The WCG also features competition in FIFA 2000 and Unreal Tournament, but Taiwan is not joining those events, apparently because of lack of interest in those games.
The top three competitors in Quake III, StarCraft and Age of Empires and the top five-member team in Counterstrike will enjoy an all-expenses paid trip to Seoul courtesy of Aztec to represent Taiwan at the WCG, although they will do so under the name Chinese Taipei.
WCG competition does not divide the sexes, but nevertheless, the games are almost exclusively the domain of males in their teens and 20s. In total, 1,200 players competed in the preliminaries, and among them, only 10 were women. At the sprawling flagship Aztec store in the Asia World building across from the Taipei Railway Station the competitors faced off in pitched battles in their respective events. Playing under strict rules to avoid cheating and tampering with the computers, judges observe each player's screen and issue warnings and penalties to players who slammed down their mouses, hit their keyboards in frustration or cursed at the screen.
Players also wear earphones and smoking is prohibited, which makes the competition site distinctly unlike the typical smoky, loud cyber-cafe. Some teams and players have coaches, who pull the competitors aside at regular breaks in the competition to offer advice on strategy or soothe frayed nerves.
Counterstrike was the most popular event and, according to Chen Hsiu-fen (
Jackal Lee (
Until their departure for Seoul, the 14 winners of the Taiwan preliminaries will undergo rigorous training at camps in Taipei and Taichung starting next Tuesday. The teams will train in their respective categories for five days and will then embark on a two-week tour of Taiwan starting Nov. 11 to take on challengers at Aztec branches.
Once in Seoul, the teams will be in competition with 500 players from 37 countries, among which the powerhouse is unquestionably Korea, where gaming is now a well-paid professional activity. Players will be competing for US$300,000 in total prize money. Aztec has also promised NT$2 million to divide among the players in Taiwan's representative group who place in the top three in any event.
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