ESWC in California, gets nVIDIA sponsorship back?

After Readmore broke the news that the Electronic Sports World Cup will move out of Europe, Rakaka and Against All Authority wrote that the 2008 ESWC will be staged in San Francisco, CA. Additionally, nVIDIA is rumored to be back as a sponsor for next year.

The news about the ESWC going to San Francisco is very surprising. Firstly, the organizer of the ESWC has never had stable partners that would run their qualifiers in North America. The 2007 qualifiers were organized by the World Series of Video Games, a company that no longer operates.

Secondly, World Cyber Games finals in Seattle attracted a disappointingly low number of spectators. From this point of view, Asia would have been a much better choice.

Perhaps the location has something to do with the rumors of nVIDIA being back on board as a sponsor. The headquarters of the American concern are in Santa Clara, CA, not far from San Francisco at all.

Instead of the grand final event, France will host a Masters tournament for the ESWC. In Wire’s interview with Matthieu Dallon from last July, the ESWC president talked about the possibility of adding Masters competitions to the season. Those would be independent international tournaments, with the additional purpose of giving players and teams a new avenue of qualifying for the ESWC finals.

If the “Where?” is answered, then the “Why?” surely becomes a much more interesting question at this point.