201111

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News Game Trend reading from G-Star

Member Nations‟ News The 3rd Korea e-Sports Games edited by Alex Lim

The game, which our parents‟ generation used to hugger-mugger, has been

Trend in the World Today

settled as one significant industry, repelling all these negative perceptions, with

e-Sports Column

the name of „e-sports‟. The proof of the power of „e-sports‟ had arranged at

People of the Month

Suwon, Korea on last 29th of Oct. The Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hosted the 2011 Korea e-Sports Games (KeG) from 29th to 30th with

Notice

Suwon City. Having 3rd anniversary in this year, KeG has become the most prestigious amateur e-sports tournament in Korea, and is aiming expansion of ssports infrastructure for amateurs, promotion of domestic e-sports titles, and activation of local e-sports.

600 players from 16 local cities have participated and compete on 4 official

titles (FIFA ONLINE2, Special Force, Slugger, and A.V.A) and 1 demonstration title (Karma). Also, for opening ceremony on 29th, many of VIPs have participated and encouraged all the players with high praise. Especially, the minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr. Kwang Sik, Choi, caught people‟s attention by personally playing „Slugger‟, a baseball game.

Cont. on next page.

1

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News

The 3rd Korea e-Sports Games (Cont.)

The Minister said, “Although e-sports have been recessed by recent negative perceptions on games, as befits to the name of e-sports suzerain, we will spare no

Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today

effort to upraise the e-sports as general sports.”

In the main tournaments, all the skilled players, who have been through

e-Sports Column

cutthroat local preliminaries of 6months, showed up incredible matches in every

People of the Month

bit as good as professional gamers do. The championship in general fell upon team Busan, who won the 1st place on FIFA Online2 and did well in general. The

Notice

team Busan also won the award of minister and 5milion KRW of prize money at the same time.

Experiential events at the online game promotion booths also caught attention of people as well as the tournament. First of all, at the promotion zone of Drangonfly Co. Ltd., experience zone for „Special Force‟ and „Karma‟ was arranged, as well as shooting zone and convenience store. Also, at the booth for Neowiz Games, various giveaways were provided to participants in promotional events for „A.V.A‟, „FIFA Online2‟, and „Slugger‟. At the com2us booth, homerun derby event was conducted with popular mobile game, „Homerun battle 3D‟. Besides, a product sponsor of this event, Razer provided promotional booth

where people can try Razer‟s gaming devices.

The industry of e-sports is being settled as one of the most important growth engine for next generation. Hope the KeG may provide opportunity to develop esports as sound industry, and to improve negative perceptions on games and esports.

Quote: http://reporter.korea.kr/reporterWeb/getNewsReporter.do?newsDataId=148721446&sectionId=PE_SEC_1_EDS0303005&call_from=extlink

2

In this Issue: Austrian Consoles Championship

Member Nations‟ News

by Kevin Trau

Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today

The Austrian consoles championship is

e-Sports Column

finished.

People of the Month

professional gamers in the city hall of

Notice

Vienna.

60.000

visitors

met

50

The final tournament was held at the gaming exposition “Game City 2011” on the 23rd of October. (www.game-city.at) This year the Austrian gamers were playing on 3 different consoles for the first time: XBOX 360 ( Microsoft ) / Playstation 3 ( Sony ) / Wii ( Nintendo ) On each console the best players/teams were fighting for the official title “Austrian State Champion 2011”.

The best 4 were invited to the grand final, which was held in the city hall of Vienna. The tournament system and the qualifications were played at the

Consoles Sports League (www.consoles.net).

Titles: Formel 1 – 2011

( Racing– XBOX 360 )

FIFA 11

( Sport – XBOX360 )

Guitar Hero 6

( Highscore – XBOX360 )

Call of Duty Black Ops

( Teamplay – XBOX360 )

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

( Beat em Up – Wii )

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011

( Sport – Ps3 )

Official site: (www.esvoe.at/staatsmeisterschaft)

Cont. on next page.

3

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today e-Sports Column People of the Month Notice

Austrian Consoles Championship (Cont.)

The official results: Call of Duty- Black Ops Place 1: plan-B Sta.me Place 2: AuT pBo Red Place 3: AuT pBo White Place 4: plan-B Memento

FIFA 11 Place 1: AuT pBo.GS Poco Place 2: planB TypischAndy Place 3: KF MrColl Place 4: Selfman

Formel 1 – 2011 Place 1: plan-B Sackl Place 2: AuT pBo.GS Gamie Place 3: AuT pBo.GS GTRaser Place 4: planB xxMustang1986x

GH6 Place 1: plan-B Spatzikoff Place 2: VISA eatrusk Place 3: Hierzn Place 4: plan-B Moony

PES11 Place 1: AuT pBo.GS Ramos Place 2: Decks Place 3: AuT pBo.GS Triplex Place 4: AuT pBo.GS SerrA

SSBB Place 1: Luigi Player Place 2: vyQ Place 3: plan-B Link Place 4: sword

Support: Official site: (http://www.en.bmwfj.gv.at) The Austrian Consoles Championship couldn‟t get that big without the help of the Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth, which supports this event from the very first days.

4

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News

The Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2011 e-Sports Championship

by Gamer.LK

Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today e-Sports Column

The Sri Lanka Cyber Games e-Sports and Gaming tournament is back again this year celebrating its fourth consecutive instalment. This year, just as last year, SLCG ‟11 will be Sri Lanka‟s largest gaming tournament yet with an expected

People of the Month

number of 1,500 participants taking part in a wide range of gaming disciplines

Notice

and a forecasted 50,000 spectators attending.

The SLCG Grand Finals will be held in collaboration with the Infotel 2011 IT and education exhibition held at the BMICH from the 2nd to the 4th of December.

The grand finals will be preceded by regional qualifiers in Kandy and Galle. The event will come to a climactic end on the 4th of December with the South Asian Cyber Games, where the champions of the Sri Lanka Cyber Games will face off against the Maldivian national team in what is sure to be action packed and electrifying competition.

Kandy Qualifiers

Dates: October 29th and 30th 2011 Venue: Kandy City Center Register: http://slcg.lk Galle Qualifiers Dates: November 19th and 20th 2011 Venue: Galle Register: http://slcg.lk Colombo Qualifiers and Grand Finals Dates: December 2nd to 4th 2011 Venue: BMICH Register: http://slcg.lk SLCG is the proving ground for self Sri Lankan cyber-athletes and is the chosen battlefield for rivals to prove once and for all who is can lay claim to the champions title - the place where titles are won, lost and reclaimed. Every

gaming enthusiast waits in anticipation till the end of the year to show off their gaming talents at Sri Lanka‟s premier e-Sports event.

Cont. on next page.

5

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News

The Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2011 e-Sports Championship (Cont.)

SLCG caters to gamers from a wide variety of backgrounds from the generic PC

Game Trend reading from G-Star

gamer who plays Counter-Strike 1.6 (CS), Defence of the Ancients (DOTA), Call

Trend in the World Today

of Duty 4 (COD4), FIFA 11 and Trackmania, all the way to recent additions of

e-Sports Column

the console genre from titles such as HALO 3 and Mortal Kombat 9 making it a

People of the Month

true “gamers event”.

The requirement for an e-sports tournament such as SLCG came from the need Notice

to have a more significant recognition of the gaming sub culture which was starting to take root. Young gamers with the need to showcase their talents got together and the first Cyber Games tournament in Sri Lanka was born. Although there were mini tournaments of this nature at gaming cafés, the exposure was always limited to the people who frequented those venues and was mostly highlighting one particular game. At the time of the first SLCG in 2008, nothing

of its magnitude had been attempted before, but our gamers showed us that once they put their heads together nothing is impossible.

Starting from its small roots 4 years ago, to today‟s SLCG ‟11, the tournament has evolved in leaps and bounds gaining major sponsors and along with it a wider exposure to the general public. However, compared to the international professional gaming scene, Sri Lankan e-Sports are still in its infancy after comparing talent of participating gamers as well as the prize money involved.

From its conception in 2008 SLCG has grown both in size and ambition and this year we hope to continue the snow balling effect that we‟ve maintained throughout. Sri Lanka Cyber Games is organised by the e-Sports and Gaming community, Gamer.LK (http://gamer.lk).

6

In this Issue:

Game Trend reading from G-Star 2011

by Alex Lim

Member Nations‟ News Game Trend reading from G-Star

One of the most famous game show in the world, G-Star 2011 was hosted in

Trend in the World Today

Busan, Korea, from 10th to 13th of Nov. A lot of major game publishers and

e-Sports Column

developers have participated in this game show, and million of visitors have

People of the Month

stopped by and have seen what the newest trends of game markets are. The G-

Notice

Star 2011 this time attracted attention of many related stakeholders and third parties from many other nations as well. We would like to introduce how it went, and what kinds of publishers and developers brought up with their newest product.

Neowiz Games showed off the newest hardcore military shooting game, „Dizzel‟, and two new MMORPG games, „Bless‟ and „Ein‟.

Cont. on next page.

7

In this Issue: Member Nationsâ€&#x; News

Game Trend reading from G-Star (Cont.)

Nexon launched a huge booth , advertised their newest online RPG, Mabinogi2.

Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today e-Sports Column People of the Month Notice

There were also promotion booth for NC Softâ€&#x;s newest games, Guild Wars 2 and Lineage Eternal.

This year, Blizzard showed off Starcraft2, Diablo3, and newest version of Warcraft.

Many other publishers such as M Game, Com2us, SEGA, Wemade, Ongame, NHN, CJ E&M and etc. have also participated.

Cont. on next page.

8

In this Issue: Member Nationsâ€&#x; News Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today

Game Trend reading from G-Star (Cont.)

G-Star 2011 provided not only the new arrival games, but also promotion of universities and colleges related to game and e-sports markets. They showed off their academic achievement and research result, and attracted especially high school students. Also, there were various experience zones such as, 4D virtual

e-Sports Column

reality experience zone, console and arcade game experience zones.

People of the Month Notice

This year, approximately 290 thousands of visitors have participated in this event, and around 6800 cases of business counseling have been collected with active operation of B2B booths.

As Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) signed MOU with the hosts of GAMESCOM and Tokyo Game Show here, there will be possible cooperation

expected with other international game shows in the future, and will lead the GStar as an global game show with more influence and public confidence.

9

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News

Trend in the World Today Smart Phone Games change the game industry rapidly edited by Alex Lim

Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today e-Sports Column People of the Month Notice

On 2nd of Nov, the magnates for mobile games gathered at COEX in Seoul, Korea, and put their opinions into perspective at the “Smart Content 2011”, an international conference event. The session was conducted with the subject of “the change of game industry derived by game apps”. Martin Noyong,the Chairman of IMGA (International Mobile Gaming Awards) presided at the session, and Chris James the CEO of Pocket Gamer, Se Wook Oh from Gamevil, and Lee Ing from Tencent participated as presenters.

Chris James, as the first presenter, defined his opinion about the reshuffle of game market derived from change of game distribution flow with appearance of app store. He claimed, “After the appearance of App Store, developers turned to have more choices, and this brought rapid growth of smart phone game market.”

As the role of “gate keeper”, which the license issuing companies or related organizations used to take in the past, has downsized, the chance for small developing company to advance directly into the market has increased, and it brought even more support for merchandizing outstanding ideas.

He prospected that, as number of female gamers‟ involvement grows with increase of social games‟ portion, contents purchase per individual also increases, and will increase at 50% of total app sales till 2015. However, he also pointed that not every app brings income to game developing company even though the number of apps keeps increasing, and more than 50% of apps bring in less than $3,000 of income. Also, he said, “more various strategies are demanded to change gamers‟ response as positive, such as discount or free purchase event, and brand marketing.” Besides, he also prospected several new trends of smart phone game market: Power of major publishers will increase as they avert their attention on the smart phone game market. Tablet market will be nothing to sneeze.

Premium market with high price and high quality will expand. The choice of partial charge model will be diversified. There will be more app stores. Window mobile phone will have public confidence. Smart phone game market will grow as smart phone market grows.

Cont. on next page.

10

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News

Trend in the World Today (Cont.)

Lee Ing from Tencent, the second presenter, threw presentation on the status of smart phone market in China. Recent status of mobile market in China for past

Game Trend reading from G-Star

two years is recording positive achievement exceeding average growth rate of

Trend in the World Today

total market, but monthly income of major user group is mostly not even over

e-Sports Column

3,000 CNY. The price of a game application in Chinese mobile market is mostly

People of the Month

around 2 to 6 CNY, and the data usage plan is also relatively expensive, which is 15 CNY/300mb. Due to these causes, high capacity games have trouble with

Notice

getting popular. As following the global trend, social network games gradually

become more preferred. For the platform, android is more preferred by people who spend more money on games. As the reason for it, Lee defined, “In China, text service system, that users send SNS text message to the service provider and pay the bill at the end of the month, is near 60%. However, in case of iOS, since it requires credit card, it is quite inconvenience.” In accordance with this issue, he said it is necessary to adopt payment method matched well with Chinese market.

As the last presenter, Se Wook Oh from Gasmevil introduced “the difference of settlement method between partial charging games and premium games. He said, “There is gap between partial charging game and premium game as 65:35.

However, since both games have both strength and weakness, we provide both and make the customers make a choice.” Recently, partial charging games adopted by a lot of companies including Gamevil extend its strategy to create profit, such as not only old method inducing clicking the bar with the advertisement, but also full page or video advertisement when the game starts.

Since gamers can obtain game points when they click the advertisement, it is winwin strategy both for gamers and the company. Also, he prospected that this method will keep increasing at the 10 times of scale until 2015.

Besides, premium policy often shown at old mobile games is suitable to provide high quality, which is hardly seen from partial charging games. He said that it will satisfy the gamers who want remake version of old school games or games of console style by one time payment with no additional payment.

Quote: http://www.gamedonga.co.kr/59401/

11

In this Issue: Member Nationsâ€&#x; News

e-Sports Column e-Sports, not a Test, but a Challenge!

Game Trend reading from G-Star

by WS Oh (The Secretary General of IeSF) Trend in the World Today

What would be a life without regrets like? I

e-Sports Column

will try not to make this self-justification or

People of the Month

excuse, but to be honest. There would be no Notice

such life with no regret, but everybody wants to seek for happiness of life. So do I. Well, as taking a look back of my life, the pleasure had

always been a moment, and the preparation period for the pleasure had always been so long.

Also, mostly the preparation period had been tough and weary. So, I do not have such courage to spit out that my life has mostly been happy even though I sometimes felt the great pleasure after all. Merely, in my case, I remember the fruit of result has always been sweeter as the preference period got more painful.

Since I become an adult, I think I have always been chosen rather rough challenge than easy way, which acquaintances and even my family members

would tilt their heads. I think I might have enjoyed these challenges, and will keep up with my adventure in the future to live my life with no regret.

Recently, there are voices worrying about the crisis that e-sports are facing globally. I, sometimes, question if I am doing the right things now, but I also pledge my attempt again when I see my children are immersed in games. As a father and an elder generation, I would like to give 100% support on what our younger generation loves. Is it appropriate that we thoughtlessly say no to their way because we have anxiety derived from the ignorance of games? Isnâ€&#x;t it one

responsibility for us to set the circumstance where they can enjoy it healthily and appropriately? Well, there is, of course, huge gap on the concept of leisure culture between elder and young generation now. However, with the development of IT and medical technologies, the age gap may become meaningless as well as the gap on the concept of leisure culture. It is such a pleasurable thing, if we can imagine that we have a leisure culture that whole generations can enjoy together beyond time and spatial obligations.

Cont. on next page.

12

In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today

e-Sports Column (cont.)

How long time do we, the elder generations, have communication with our children for a day? Don‟t we just take it granted that we wall against our children‟s way with the excuse of generation gap, and with no attempt? I would like to recommend playing a game if an elder generation has not done it before,

e-Sports Column

especially if he or she has a kid who likes to play games. It must be hard at the

People of the Month

beginning, but surely lead us to communicate with our kids a lot more easily.

Notice

Also, parents will acquire practical and concrete wisdom to guide their children, as they experience the difference between immersion and addiction.

Not to make the efforts that we have dome insignificant, we take a look back of our past activities, and conduct international conference and some benchmarking as well. However, since we can only see the world as much as we know, sometimes I feel agonies and depression. Pioneer work is not that easy. I know it, my staffs know it, and our member nations also know it. Merely, I just give my sincere appreciation to all my people who follow my will.

With some trials and errors, I think we have a rough sketch now. Some of our member nations throw themselves into a matter of inviting new members with enthusiasm. Some publishers and universities start getting interested in our global standardization project, and related broadcasters start attempting to negotiate with potential partnership businesses. However, since all of them are at the beginning stage, the base root is not stable yet. Any partner can cut their interest if we neglect our efforts, and we may lose the base root. Hence, the support of government of each country is essential element for survival regardless of the quantity. It is very crucial to spread the case of Korea to other countries, and have them to derive the support of their government.

Moreover, as the academic-industrial cooperation, there should be training programs established in several colleges for training e-sports manpower. Even though the global standardization and the base of e-sports are settled, unless there are human resources who will maintain and develop them, all the project will end in the empty phrase.

Some may call our attempt as a test or rashness. Well, in some prospective, it is understandable. However, as mentioned at the beginning, if it is too easy, it can‟t

be attractive. We are still in the middle of our rough journey, and it is expected that we may face bigger obstacles in the future. However, I boot my computer as imagining the sweet fruit that we will take from the e-sports in the future.

13

In this Issue:

People of the month

Member Nations‟ News

edited by Alex Lim

We are introducing Miodrag Stakić, the president of “eSports Serbia”. “eSports Serbia” is the sole and representative e-sports federation of Serbia, which newly joined as one of the respectful IeSF members.

We would like to share his vision and passion toward esports with you all.

Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today e-Sports Column People of the Month Notice

1. How long have you been working in e-sports field and what motivation brought you into this field?

I am considering myself lucky to be able to participate in e-Sports development in Serbia from its very beginning. To be more precise, I found myself in this fine story since 2003. My main motives were, and still are oriented around something new in that time, which can and will be directed and developed in completely equal discipline within conventional sports all around the world.

2. Please tell us briefly about beginning, history, and current status of esports market in Serbia.

Like in every field in life, all startups are usually hard. It was like that with esports in Serbia. We, nationally had more obstacles compared to other countries, mainly oriented within non-educated population. Because of that, pace was generally a bit slower in those times than it should be. Infrastructure was underdeveloped, internet access analogue and very slow, gaming culture rudimental. But, on year-to-year basis, things changed. Thanks to general engagement of e-sports pioneers things started to roll out in adequate direction. I find myself very proud of that, and also the fact that we were there from day one, doing things that mattered. Today, we are in league with much bigger countries, being able to participate and contribute both on national, regional and international levels.

3. Please give us introduction of “eSports Serbia” and major projects of it.

eSports Serbia is only national organization rounding up all e-Sports players in Serbia. Developing regionally, we cooperate with players from neighbor countries, giving possibilities for further close development. From starters, we were able to produce and organize World Cyber Games events on annual basis covering Serbia, and later on Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Montenegro and IeSF from 2011.Simultaneously, eSports Serbia started project of e-Sports acknowledgement as regular sports discipline.

Cont. on next page.

14

In this Issue:

People of the Month (cont.)

Member Nations‟ News

4. If there is any difficulties or obstacles to operate national league and

Candidates for New Membership

manage a national federation? And what do you think is crucial and

IeSF Torch Lightening Ceremony

necessary to make a national federation better?

Of course, many obstacles are in front of us. But, being able to overcome them

e-Sports Column

is key guideline we are following all these years, and plan is to continue in that

People of the Month

matter. Main obstacle in these times is funding. Economy crisis has strong impact

Notice

on our country and is creating many problems we did not face before. From that perspective, we are doing tremendous work to maintain level of operation within national federation, trying to fulfill expectations from our members. Second obstacle, strongly connected with mentioned is e-Sports status in Serbia.

Although progress is obvious, we still lack more support from government and institutions. When this project comes to conclusion, I believe that we will be able to consider ourselves and all e-Sports in Serbia and region rock solid.

5. As one of new member of IeSF, what do you expect „eSports Serbia‟ can contribute to global e-sports? And what do you expect IeSF can contribute to e-sports in Serbia?

Mutual development is one of our goals. In that way, we are expecting to transfer our various experience in building e-Sports Federation in country that is pretty specific. Experience we gained in turbulent times with lack of some things that are generally normal is priceless. Because of that, I think that global e-Sports will be able to benefit from Serbia as a member. On the other hand, tremendous

development that e-Sports internationally has can and will provide us tools to make ourselves even better.

6. What do you think should necessarily be taken to raise and develop esports in Europe?

Standardization is the key point. To be able to unify national federations and to maintain high level of e-Sports culture within government and educational sector will produce consciousness of e-Sports as absolutely equal discipline with any other sports. Number of participants around the world is proof of that.

7. If there is any recommendation or supplement point that you want to comment on IeSF for being the global leader of e-sports, please tell us.

Just keep the good work. Together, as we grow, we will be able to do anything!

15

In this Issue:

Notice

Member Nationsâ€&#x; News

1. 2012 Event Schedule of Member Nations

Game Trend reading from G-Star Trend in the World Today

As wrapping up the year of 2011 and starting new year, IeSF is collecting the 2012 business and event schedule of our members. With all these schedule, IeSF

attempts to overlook what is going on with member nations. Then, we will look e-Sports Column

for something to tie up your events with IeSF business plan to make better

People of the Month

performances and effective synergy. We will collect them by end of January 2012,

Notice

and the format was sent to you all by group notice e-mail.

2. IeSF collects News Articles for IeSF Newsletter!

We appreciate members always share interesting ideas and news in their nations.

Please remember that the idea your sharing surely will motivate other members and reduce the gap between them, and create new era of e-Sports. If you have trouble on coming up with ideas, please concern of topics such as Game Title (trends, hot issue, popularity, newly published of game titles and related technology), Policy (promotion, governmental and non-governmental support for e-sports business), Event (information of exhibition, competition, symposium, conference, and related), Issues needed to be share with members, and People (player, referee, coach, game developer, publisher, journalist, broadcaster, sponsor and etc.). So, if you just had Ah-ha moment now, please share them with your friends and family

[Contact] General Manager Noha Park noha@ie-sf.org

Manager Sungchul Byun byunsch@ie-sf.org

Deputy Manager Alex Lim limcw@ie-sf.org

webpage: www.ie-sf.org

16