The E-Sports World Cup has left France.
ESWC boss Mattieu Dallon has made good on his promise to keep at least some semblance of the ESWC in its home country, however, and the organization today announced the ESWC Masters for July 4-6, 2008 in Paris Bercy.
ESWC Masters will be an invite competition for all the official ESWC disciplines, including Defense of the Ancients, Trackmania Nations, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Counter-Strike 1.6 (mixed and ladies) and (hail to the king, baby!) Quake 3. The winners will all receive berths into the Grand Final.
Prizing, autoberth, and qualification details will be released at a later date.
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…
