Nintendo Wii News
Countdown Begins to World Cyber Games 2006
Posted by: Aaron Lockard on October 12, 2006 4:06:52 PM (78 Reads)
Potential for 1,360 matches at the Grand Final with live-satellite broadcasting in real-time for Korea and China, a first in gaming competition history
The world's largest computer game festival, the World Cyber Games 2006 Grand Final in Monza, Italy, kicks off in just six days.
The
WCG 2006 is planned to be the largest-scale event in WCG history with
700 gamers from 70 countries participating, including six new countries
such as Ireland and Saudi Arabia, which will send representatives to
the WCG Grand Final for the first time.
WCG 2006 Grand Final in
Monza, Italy, starts on October 18 with the opening ceremony on a main
stage erected on the Formula 1 track at 6:00 p.m., local time. The
opening announcement will be offered by Jong-Yong Yun, co-chairman of
WCG Committee and Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics Co.,
Ltd., beginning the 5-day long world's largest gaming festival, held in
Europe for the first time. The spectacular opening ceremony will
feature the march of the national flags of WCG 2006 participating
countries, the players' and referees' oath, and a special live concert
featuring top local singers like Carmen Consoli, Max Gazzà ¨ and Italy's
favourite female singer, Gianna Nannini.
The WCG tournament
officially kicks off the following day with a StarCraft : Brood War
match by Yoen-Sung Choi of Korea and Ivan Velikov of Bulgaria on the
paddock stage, which is the tournament dedicated stage. Approximately
1,360 matches will be played in eight official game titles as well as
some special tournaments such as PangYa, a Quake4 Invitational
Tournament, and Carom3D. In addition to official sponsors such as
Samsung, Microsoft, AMD and ATI displaying their new products, various
events such as mini-racing, sumo-wrestling and an international food
court will be presented so that general spectators can enjoy the
world's best e-Sport festival.
However, the most remarkable
characteristic of this year's Grand Final is the efforts organizers
have made to make the tournament more fun to watch for those who can't
make it to Italy by significantly strengthening the broadcasting access
through television channels as well as the Internet. For the first time
in gaming history, real-time live broadcasting of 18 stage matches will
be offered via satellite to Korea and China. The Korean host
broadcaster, OngameNet, will air the major stage matches for Korea in
real-time for six hours daily and Chinese TV channels including GTV and
SiTV will also broadcast the same contents in Korean so that Korean and
Chinese game fans can enjoy WCG 2006 as if they were there.
An
additional 109 matches in four cyber spaces dedicated to on-site
broadcasting for spectators will also be broadcast on the Internet at
NeoTV.com in China, Global Gaming League, and the WCG official website in English, Italian and Chinese.
In
addition, satellite broadcaster SKY TV will join as the host
broadcaster. It will feature the major events including the highlights
of the opening ceremony, interviews with players and stage matches.
Hyoung-seok
Kim, CEO of International Cyber Marketing (ICM), the organizer of WCG,
said, "As the premier worldwide e-Sport festival for a generation, the
WCG has become a pioneer in growing e-Sports as a spectator event over
the years." He added, "This year will generate even more momentum for
the gaming competition by featuring real-time satellite broadcasting of
the tournament as well as multiple Internet broadcasts in English,
Italian, Chinese, and Korean."
Samsung Electronics is the worldwide sponsor of World Cyber Games.
Microsoft Xbox 360 and AMD joined as the premier sponsors of WCG 2006 Grand Final. ATI and SyncMaster are official sponsors.
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