In this Issue:
IeSF Conference in Leipzig
IeSF Conference in Leipzig
By Heieun, Kim
Riverside Soccer Cup 2010 Provincial Championship in Western Cape town Midnight Party in Bulgaria eSports Festival in Antwerp Once again in Taebaek city People of this month
For 3 days, from July 8th to 10th, the IeSF 2010 Euro Conference was held at the Convention Center Leipzig (CCL) in Leipzig, Germany. Representatives from 9 European nations out of 15 IeSF members and 3 associate members participated in the conference and discussed important issues in e-Sports. In particular, current conditions and countermeasures on prohibition against video gaming in Switzerland, Intellectual Property Rights, and International e-Sports Standardization (referee committee, e-player committee) were covered at the conference. In addition, Italy, Portugal and Norway, the prospective member nations of this year had opportunities to be recognized by existing IeSF members. This was the first ever IeSF Euro Conference. The IeSF 2010 Euro Conference was very successful in attendance and diverse programs. The IeSF 2010 Euro Conference was opened together with the Game Convention Online (GCO). The GCO is where game and IT business partners from all parts of the world gathered to provide all participants with a chance to meet new people in the IT & Game industry who are interested in building e-Sports associations in their respective countries. Moreover, various attractions and amusements supported by Leipziger Messe included a ‘Welcome Dinner and Exhibitor’s Party’, a ‘White-water rafting tour’, and a ‘Farewell Party and Rollercoaster Ride’ which added enjoyment to the conference.
(White Water Rafting Tour)
(Farewell party in Velantis)
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In this Issue: IeSF Conference in Leipzig
Austria
Digital Warm Up with Riverside Soccer Cup 2010
Riverside Soccer Cup 2010
By Elisabeth Haider
Provincial Championship in Western Cape town Midnight Party in Bulgaria eSports Festival in Antwerp Once again in Taebaek city People of this month
(Spectators of Riverside Soccer Cup 2010)
In cooperation with the Social Democratic Party the Austrian eSport association (esvoe) hosted the new eSport event called Riverside Soccer Cup 2010. On the 10th and 11th of July, simultaneous with the finals of the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa; the competitors got their hands on the new football simulation “FIFA Football World Cup 2010“. The event took place at the Flex, which is a well known club in Vienna located beside an arm of the Danube River. Once there is a big sport event like the football World Cup the Flex provides their guests with huge video walls so everybody who is interested can follow the games in a nice atmosphere. In this tournament 8 teams consisting 2 players were competing every day. The games were exciting and thrilling; in some situations the crowd was even more stunned than during the real football matches. At the end of the day the winners have been rewarded with a copy of EA’s “FIFA Football World Cup 2010”. During the event Peko Baxant a speaker of the Social Democratic Party in Austria hold a short speech about the importance of eSports and its growing to a serious sport. “eSport comes up as a part of the youth culture – to be successful in e-Sports it claims maximum power, excellent teamwork and an intensive training from all participants – exactly like “real” sports challenges are.” The president of the Austrian e-Sport association Stefan Baloh was pleased about the good cooperation with the politicians concerning the eSport issue in Austria and is looking forward to future projects which may be realised together.
(Soccer Cup 2010)
(The winner of Soccer Cup 2010) 2
In this Issue: IeSF Conference in Leipzig
South Africa
Riverside Soccer Cup 2010 Provincial Championship in Western Cape town Midnight Party in Bulgaria eSports Festival in Antwerp Once again in Taebaek city People of this month
Provincial Championship in Western Cape town By Colin Webster
Thanks to the generous sponsorship from ASUS, the MSSA was able to host the first ever Western Cape Provincial LAN Championships. Even though some of the administrators had to travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town (a distance of approximately 1600km's), the event was worth every minute and cent spent. Edgemead High School proved to be an excellent venue for the ASUS 2010 MSSA Western Cape LAN Championships that was held on the 17th and 18th of July 2010. Special thanks must be extended to Bryan Banfield and The Lair who set up the network and ensured the smooth running of the competition. By hosting the event at Edgemead High School, the MSSA was also able to further its goals of getting schools to become more envolved in eSports and to even establish eSports clubs on their premises. As a result of the gaming, besides numerous medals being awarded, two Capetonians also qualified for provincial colours. It is always satisfying to award provincial colours to deserving gamers. The colours are not awarded lightly and are awarded only when gamers meet the following criteria, and are always awarded on residency: - Win all of their games at a Provincial Championships, and/or - Finish in the top 20% of gamers at both a Provincial and National LAN Championships. It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce that the following gamers have earned their Provincial Colours at the Western Cape Championships: Mohammed Javadinia of Edgemead High School, and Gage Ridley of The Lair.
Bulgaria
STARCRAFT II in Bulgaria with Midnight Party By Belosveta Peneva
12 years continuously developing story, a huge, vibrant universe came from the world of computer games to be developed further in a series of short stories and one emblematic name, throbbing hearts of millions - StarCraft! On July 27, 2010 the cult RTS of Activision Blizzard returned even more compelling than before with the first part of a trilogy StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. In Bulgaria the publication was marked with a midnight launch party, which will began at 20:00 on 26 July (Monday) and was completed in the early hours of the next day. In addition, everybody were able to receive their pre-reserved copy of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty or to buy it on place at the Bulgarian party of StarCraft. Fans also had the opportunity to meet one of the legendary characters from their favorite game and to win many prizes, kindly provided by the official importer of the game. Visitors were enjoying unique footages of the creation of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and watched interviews with the team that developed the game, as well as the sound of its original soundtrack. Special guest of the festival Midnight StarCraft II was the rising singer Eli Radanova known to us by the TV show "Music Idol". The culmination was a withdrawal of lottery, which brought big surprises for ten of those that were present at the launch party. 3
In this Issue: IeSF Conference in Leipzig
Belgium
The Antwerp eSports Festival is about to start! By Steven Leunens
Riverside Soccer Cup 2010 Provincial Championship in Western Cape town Midnight Party in Bulgaria eSports Festival in Antwerp
The Antwerp eSports Festival is the largest competitive tournament in the Benelux, boosting almost â‚Ź20,000 in cash prizes for Call of Duty 4 and Enemy Territory. With nearly 64 Call of Duty 4 teams in attendance the event is also the largest ever offline Call of Duty 4 competition ever held in the entire world, with people attending from over 27 different countries. With the best players in the world attending, the competition will be fierce and Antwerp will be stage for some interesting matches.
Once again in Taebaek city People of this month
Not only is there a competition for Call of Duty 4 and Enemy Territory, the event will also host several matches in the European Nations Championship, presented by ASUS and Microsoft and hosted by the ESL. This competition will be held on Saturday and will feature games such as Counter-Strike 1.6 and Quake Live. Furthermore the partnership with ASUS and Microsoft also ensures the organization that the competitions will run on the latest gaming hardware and that a full free play area can be made where spectators can play several games. The event also has the support of the city of Antwerp, a cooperation that will only be strengthened in the future. The two stages at the event will see a series of live streams happening where people can watch the games on a big screen or on Friday evening enjoy a little party with our guest DJ, DJ ESP (Resident DJ @ Club Versuz). On Friday the most famous Belgian gamebabe, Charlotte Van Brabander, will also be present to do a shootout in CounterStrike Source against anyone who wishes to compete against her. She will be promoting female gaming and eSports in general and will also be available for interviews. Sunday are the finals as we see the teams battle it out for the gold! Enough reasons to come and take a look in Antwerp!
Once again in Taebaek city By Heieun, Kim The IeSF 2010 Asia Conference is going to be held in Taebaek city where the IeSF 2009 Challenge was held from August 11th to 13th. Following the success of the IeSF 2010 Euro Conference held in Leipzig in July 2010, the IeSF also plans to convene a 2010 Asia Conference for Asia members and associate members. It is significant for the IeSF to hold the first IeSF 2010 Asia Conference in Taebaek, as it reinforces thespecial relationship between Taebaek and the IeSF. Not only was Taebaek the first host city for the first IeSF tournament, but it is also the home of the IeSF’s Torch. Discussion and presentation of issues in regard to e-Sports will be covered at the conference. In addition, there will be a torch-lighting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the IeSF torch and to commemorate the IeSF 2010 Asia Conference. Furthermore, On-line Torch Relay ceremony with 15 member nations will be presented at the same time.
(Related Picture of On-line Torch Relay)
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In this Issue:
People of this month
IeSF Conference in Leipzig
By Heieun, Kim
Riverside Soccer Cup 2010 Provincial Championship in Western Cape town Midnight Party in Bulgaria eSports Festival in Antwerp Once again in Taebaek city People of this month
PD of ‘Ongamnet’, Crisis, Wi (Young Kwang, Wi)
[Contact] Editor Heieun, Kim heieun05@ie-sf.org
General Manager Noha, Park noha@ie-sf.org
Deputy Manager Mibu, Kim mibu@ie-sf.org webpage: www.ie-sf.org
It is not too much to say that Korean eSports has evolved together with the game broadcast channel. It tells us that ga me br oadcast channel has been important role for games to be e-Sport. Wel l -ma d e and i nt e r es t i ng ga me programs that the game broadcast channel has edited more dramatically to catch viewers’ eyes has contributed the development of diverse culture in e-Sports such as ‘Fan Club’ and ‘Star Player’.
In this interview, the IeSF, met a producer of Ongamenet, the world’s first game broadcast channel, and had an interview with the producer to inform IeSF members of the Past, Present and Future of game broadcast channel in Korea. How did the game broadcast channel get started? The first game program was started from Tooniverse channel, an animation channel of ‘Onmedia’ broadcasting company. At that time, it was 1998 World Cup season. For a promotion event, Tooniverse produced ’Who is the winner of 1998 France World Cup’ program with the FIFA game. It was the first time that the program with the game was aired on a television channel. Unexpectedly, the program appealed many viewers and got a favorable response. So Tooniverse made another game program: Pro-gamer of Korea (POK) which is the former body of Star League. With continuous support from the fans, Onmedia accordingly established game broadcast channel, ‘Ongamenet’ in 2000. What is the key reason that the e-Sport program is continuously beloved by many viewers? Two things can be taken for the success of e-Sports program. The first is recreation culture of the Korean youth. Young people in Korea usually love to play video game, online game and other kinds of games for their amusement. So e-Sport program can maintain its popularity thanks to their interest in games. Secondly, key factor of e-Sport also contributes to keep its position: ‘Competition’. The producer of game broadcast channel catches ‘competition’ factor from the games and makes the most of its characteristic emphasizing the competition to attract people’s attention. What do you think of e-Sports, and how would you define the relationship between e-Sports and broadcasting? I am not sure when the term of e-Sports has begun, and who started to use the term. However, in my opinion, 4 key factors have taken significant role for making us start to feel the concept of e-Sport substantially. The 4 factors are ‘Game’, ‘Gamer’, ‘Spectator’ and ‘Broadcasting’. The game tournament without ‘Spectator’ and ‘Broadcasting’ is nothing but a ‘LAN Party’. These two new factors have influenced on the development of e-Sports. Specifically, broadcasting spreads the culture of e-Sports while conveying on-site story that shows the hardship and success of players during the tournament. At the same time, the viewers who watch the broadcasting will feel the joy of victory, the bitterness of defeat just as e-players felt. This exchange between players and viewers through the cable line became the growth factor of e-Sports. You’ve been working e-Sports industry about 10 years, what do you think the future of e-Sports? ‘Globalization of e-Sports’ is an issue rising up the agenda. Various parties in e-Sports are now concerned about the questions such as “how to raise e-Sports to the international level and how to achieve balance among e-Sports tournament of each nation”. Thus, the establishment of International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) who leads the task is very significant at this point in time. 5