Grand Final: 7th October

7th October was the kickoff day for WCG 2004 Tournament in Starcraft. 33 players (Groups A-H) played for 16 spots in the playoffs. Strict - including some new and odd - rules applied and caused some initial confusion but then it all ran perfectly. Come with us for the latest.

The practice time for the Starcraft players was longer than for most of the other games because the first round started at 11 AM compared to 10 AM for the other games. This means one and a half hour warmup for the ones who were there in time - players like ENJoY and Beast. As it was time for the start meeting, after the referees had been introduced by XG3, we went through the rules with the players. Let me give you some of them, apart from the general ones with not using bugs such as stack scv etcetera:

• Once a game was finished, no one is allowed to stand up, move, browse the net or observe any other player. All you was allowed to do was to watch your own replays but otherwise you had to wait until everyone in the round finished their best-out-of-one matches.
  
  
• The players can not save the replays themselves. This has to be done by a referee giving them a specific name. Once that is done, the players have to sign a paper saying the game was successfully played.
  
  
• During practice, players, press and team leaders can be in the tournament area. Only players can be in the tournament area during match paly.
  
  
• All games in each rounds have to start simultaneously. Every game. If someone is late then all wait.

The last rule was the one causing a problem for the tournament. Everyone did not understand this rule and therefore some matches were started when they shouldn't have been and they all had to pause. We waited until we got a start command from the WCG head quarters and then started / resumed all matches. After the first round it all ran smoothly and all games were started on the referees' command.

The second main task was to get all the players who were not participating today off the tournament area and get them up to the spectator area. This was apparantely a rule very hard to follow and I know several people I told multiple times that they had to leave but after a while came back pretending to not know or not have heard. That was the way most warnings were given out.

However, let's get away from the practical and more to the tournament details. It certainly was a great competition going on and a lot of players looked really tense. It was absolutely impressing to hear all the clicks a few minutes after start when everyone was warming up their speed by selecting minerals/peons/main building very fast. It was also very tense due to the fact which is very special with WCG comparing it to other Starcraft events: the best-out-of-one factor. Lose two straight games and, sorry, you're most likely out. Every game, move, strategy and lost unit or drop matters so much in a way which might be hard to compare or understand.

Nevertheless, it meant a lot of good matches and we collected all the replays but we can not upload them until the WCG site does it, which probably will be tomorrow morning or during this night (WCG Time). You can go to » our main coverage to see all the groups with statistics and all the matches including races and winners!



We realized that when it was time for pictures and our referee job was done, everyone had almost already left... We'll try our best tomorrow!

In group G KazioWichura, vWebyAn and Razor all ended up 1-2 in their group which meant we had to tiebreak. They faced each other in rematches where vWebyAn started out beating Kazio on Gorky in a close match. He thereafter faced Razor and meanwhile Kazio seemed to be praying for him to lose. He played very good though and microed out Razor's lurkers and beat him and finally advanced as second in his group after Xellos.

Speaking of the Koreans, some of you might have been surprised that Advokate[S2] managed to beat midas[gm] on Khoral of Ceres. Don't be suprised. My opinion - which is just speculations and nothing confirmed whatsoever - is that midas threw the match. He built five barracks and attacked with marines, firebats and medics versus Advokate's six tanks and four goliaths. He did not even micro and once his troops were slaughtered he left after a quick "gg". When the round was over Xellos came over to his fellow Korean friend and clapped on his hand and spoke their always the same interesting language and I had a feeling they had both accomplished exactly what they intended to do. The Koreans did not seem to be the only ones throwing games since many want to end up second. However, I wish to emphasize that these are only speculations on my part.



Another smaller upset was that Grrrr did not qualify in his group. He faced Legionnaire, a PvP on Gorky Island in a deciding game for the spot and lost after a long match showed on the big screen. Redcloak explained that Grrrr did not seem to focus at all and that just before his matches begun he was playing Halo. He's definitely our next interview victim!

Tomorrow's tournament will feature groups H to P and we're expecting the same sweat and intensity by then. Make sure you check the main coverage for the result of today's tournament and all the matches - we'll be back with replays as soon as we're allowed to release them.

And oh, for tomorrow's live update, please don't hit refresh every minute because that will maybe over load the site when so many people are doing at the same time: we update maybe every 30 minutes so that would be enough if you refresh that frequently. Thanks guys!

/ Mazor and poGDI from World Cyber Games 2004 Grand Final, San Francisco.

PS: Copy/pasting material without permission is forbidden by international copyright laws.

Links
SG WCG Coverage - Everything.