GGL’s Reid Landeen translated this interview from Chinese into English for GGL China.
With 2008 underway, details about the big e-Sports events of the New Year are coming out. Recently, ESWC has officially decided that the location for China’s qualifier for the finals will be held Wuxi, in Jiangsu Province.
It is understood that this year’s ESWC China will have brand new organizers running the event. Since China is hosting the Olympic Games this year, what kind of surprises will the new 2008 ESWC China competitions ultimately give us with this non-Olympic sporting event? Bringing a ton of questions, we interviewed Lu Chen, the person in charge of the Wuxi Digital Media Company who is hosting the ESWC 2008 China competitions.
Hello Mr. Lu. Can you first explain a little about the undertaking organization of ESWC 2008 China’s competitions?
Mr. Lu: Hello. The undertaking organization for the ESWC 2008 China competitions is the Wuxi Digital Media Company. Specializing as an e-Sports company, our team is mostly made of people who come from China’s e-Sports industry, so they have a very deep understanding of e-Sports competitions as a whole. So, we have a lot of confidence that we can make the ESWC 2008 China qualifiers the single most successful competition in ESWC history, while at the same time making this become one of the most influential and prosperous cultural events in all of China. Continued…
John “ZeRo4″ Hill is one of the most accomplished Quake 3 duelers in history with three QuakeCon titles, a World Cyber Games 2001 gold and the CPL Babbages championship, to name just a few. In an interview, ZeRo4 talks about a possibility of a comeback for the ESWC 2008 and throws down the gauntlet to one of his biggest rivals, Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel.
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It was announced today that Quake 3 and Defense of the Ancients are official competition games for the 2008 season of the Electronic Sports World Cup. At the same time, the future of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 in the competition is uncertain.
The full lineup of ESWC games for today is Counter-Strike 1.6 (male and female competitions), Warcraft 3, Trackmania Nations ESWC, Quake 3 and DotA. The selection of Q3 as a game is not that surprising - the game has always been a very significant title for the ESWC. Some of the most memorable matches in the game’s history took place at the French event. The title also has a larger following than Quake 4 and looks like a better long-term platform, considering that QuakeZero will be based on Quake 3.
Considering that well over 90% of Warcraft 3 games played online are DotA matches, the choice of DotA for ESWC is not that surprising either. Competitive DotA has grown rapidly in recent times, with many online competitions for the game.
It may be that Pro Evolution Soccer will not come back to ESWC. At this stage, the game is suspended, as the organizers of the ESWC have not yet received a permission from Konami to use the game in their event.
My last interview with Matthieu Dallon opened up the question of what the “pure FPS” game should be at the 2008 Electronic Sports World Cup. And it opened it up big time, since it does not seem like there is a clear favorite to win the race, but it seems like Quake 4 will not be it.
Traditionally, the ESWC has always hosted a 1v1 shooter competition, and more often two shooters from the Unreal Tournament and Quake franchises. The event’s creators understand and love deathmatch, and have always been willing to support it whenever it could be justified. The duality was broken in 2006, when UT2004 failed to provide enough reasons to stay.
Today, it is Quake 4 that fails to provide enough reasons to convince anyone. Personally, I don’t think it makes sense to have it at the ESWC. By this summer, no one will be playing that game, let alone someone interesting enough to watch a tournament for. Continued…
The recent announcement of the Electronic Sports World Cup re-marrying nVIDIA and moving the final to California has pleased many fans of competitive gaming all over the world. In an interview with Wire, ESWC President Matthieu Dallon talks the prizing and the games of the 2008 season and the future plans of the organization.
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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. Continued…
A press release about a German Electronic Sports World Cup qualifier revealed that the tournament will not be held in Europe in 2008.
Traditionally, the ESWC has been a French tournament. The first two editions, in 2003 and 2004, were held in Poitiers. From 2005 onwards, the event was held in various locations in Paris.
In an interview with Wire dated July 2007, Matthieu Dallon, the president of the ESWC, said that moving the event out of France is “a necessary evolution we have to make.”
The most likely place to hold an ESWC outside Europe seems to be Asia. The esports market is rapidly expanding there and there are rumors that the next Warcraft 3 Champions League finals will be held in China. Continued…
