Me and the WCG

With so many great players in the same tournament, WCG is always the most special event for me. It was the first E-sport event I actually payed attention to as me and my former classmate Carl followed MaDFroG in WCG 2004. I remember how we used to log in on the computers in the school's library to get up to date on the results.

To our disappointed, MaDFroG didn't do that well, but I still remembered how exciting it was to follow. Before that, I had no idea how big the pro gaming scene was. Back then, I was merely playing Arranged Team with friends and didn't take much heed to the professionals.

Three WCG's later, I still feel the same excitement as I did back then. Although events like ESWC and WEG are also big events, the WCG is something extra for me. The fact that it's not only the best players participating, but also players from minor gaming countries, intrigues me. This is definetly the Olympics of E-sports.

Thoughts on WCG 2007

2007's WCG is definetly the toughest looking WCG yet. When I scanned through Genie's news posts listing the top matches of each playdays, I realized there's so many great games coming up. I am somewhat disappointed by a number of things, but on the other hand there's been some positive surprises as well. For starters, there doesn't seem to be much of a crowd there. I mean when the host goes "Lets give these players a round of applause" you only hear some scattered clapping at best.

A thing I'm definetly not satisfied with so far is the videostream. They only streamed four WC3 games today, and in my opinion, they didn't even pick the best ones. I also hate how it's filled with commercials and the host keeps handing out T-shirts between the games. Would have been great if they could use some of that time to show some more games.

Another thing that's really grinded my gears is that some players has been unable to attend due to not being able to receive a VISA in order to travel to the event. Not only the two Russian representatives TitaN and Swift, but also the Chinese player Lyc has dropped out of the tournament. Although Lyc's been replaced by xiaOt, it has totally messed up the groups as the Chinese seedings were altered which made Group D ridiculously tough, while granting Fly100% a very easy passage to the playoffs.

On a more postive note, some players has impressed me greatly so far. The reigning champion Sky's been on top of his game and won the "Group of Death" in front of SoJu. In the two games I watched, he did not rely on securing expansions by towering them up, as we've gotten used to see Sky play lately. Instead, we saw glimpses of the old aggressive Sky. Unfortunately, some top players were bound to be eliminated from Group D and it saddens me that great players like Lyn and Zeus, who played an impressive game against Lyn on Terenas Stand, won't be seen in the playoff stage.

Also, I must throw a bone to XyLigan, who went undefeated through Group A, beating the Night Elves HoT, Kowi and LongWalk. It will be very interesting to see how he can do as the opposition gets tougher in the playoffs.

Finally, I wish there were some top Undead players at this event such as FoV or Sweet, but I guess they had their shot at the Korean WCG Qualifications...