In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News
Member Nations‟ News “e-Sport meets Sport” in Austria by Kevin Trau
2011 Retrospect e-Sports Column People of the Month Notice
On the second day of December the Austrian Esport Association, together with the “Federal Office for the Positive Assessment of Computer and Console Games” held an “eSport meets Sports”-event at the health department of Austria. On this information day we tried to get the players back to a better lifestyle and tried to help the parents to pay attention with their children‟s gaming behavior. Playing too much without taking care of your own health is a growing problem; especially for young people. The goal of “E-Sport meets Sports” is to merge the fun of online-gaming with the necessity of offline activities.
Therefore, we created a system, where online- and offline-activities come together. We arranged a tournament, where people have to play Wii-Golf first and on a real golf putting mat later. Players get points for every activity and are able to win nice prizes. Next year the project “eSport meets Sport” will be pushed to the next level. We will show best practice examples for sports like tennis, swimming, boxing and even more.
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In this Issue:
Dutch e-sport development
Member Nationsâ€&#x; News
by Jasper Schoo 2011 Retrospect e-Sports Column
On October 15 it finally happened. For us it was like a dream came true. The
People of the Month
first Dutch E-sport club became a fact in Enschede. This E-sport club is the first
Notice
of hopefully many more E-sport clubs through the entire Netherlands. The opening was a huge success. Many visitors enjoyed the Xbox 360 kinect, PS3 move, Nintendo Wii or 1 of the pcâ€&#x;s with trackmania and FIFA. The club was opened by Tencate sportboulvard manager Henny Roerink and E-sportclub
Enschede president Oscar Ruiterkamp. The Logo of the E-sport club Enschede was also presented. The visitors had the possibility to compete with Koen Weijland, wich is one of the Best Dutch FIFA gamers. Further Ravi Bhikhie, gave a Dance dance revolution demonstration. The club opening also attracted a lot of media attention. Two famous news programs, Rtl nieuws & Het Jeugd journaal visited the opening to take some film shots and interview the visitors and organisers of the E-sportclub. At the same night the items were shown on national television. The items can be watched by following these links; Rtl nieuws: http://www.rtl.nl/xl/#/u/cdb5798a-5c06-421e-a253-510801ea5ebc/ Jeugd journaal: http://jeugdjournaal.nl/item/304100-gamen-bij-een-sportclub.html. We could say that October 15 was a big step forward for the E-sport development in The Netherlands.
Cont. on next page. 2
In this Issue:
Dutch e-sport development (Cont.)
Member Nationsâ€&#x; News
The Dutch E-sport association (E-sportbond)
2011 Retrospect
also
e-Sports Column
Promoting E-sport, E-sportbond and letting
People of the Month
people experience different kinds of gaming
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was the main goal during these events.
participated
on
different
events.
On Friday 4 and Saturday 5 November the E-sportbond visited the HCC digital in Utrecht. The HCC Digital is an huge electronic knowledge event which
attracts thousands of spectators. The E-sportbond promoted themselves by organising game competitions together with the gaming community Mouse Control. There were 2 competitions on both Friday and Saturday. The games that were played are Track Mania Nations forever, StarCraft 2, FIFA 2012. The ranks 1,2 and 3 were granted some nice prices. Another Event on which the E-sportbond participated was Het Festival van talent (the talent festival). This is an festival for highly gifted people. It took place on Sunday 6 November. The E-sport was there with different game sets. Young visitors could play the Xbox 360 kincect, PS3 move and nintendo wii. The 16+ visitors also had the possibility to play PC games and different kind of E-sport games. Later that day Koen Weijland organised an competition wich Enjoyed many participants and spectators. There were 3 nice prices given away for the ranks 1,2 and 3. The month October was an huge succes. The E-sportbond promoted themselves, E-sports and all the Dutch gamers succesfully.
E-sports is growing in the
Netherlands and we are a big part of it.
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In this Issue: Member Nationsâ€&#x; News
The Activities in 2011 of Bulgarian Federation of Electronic Sports By Niky Slavchev
2011 Retrospect e-Sports Column People of the Month Notice
Bulgarian Federation of Electronic Sports is sending 2011 as a very successful and beneficial for the development of e-sports, gaming society and cyber culture as whole. January ran in preparation for the upcoming game season which was expressed in negotiations and meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Physical Education and Sport and potential sponsors and partners. The month of February went under the theme of Safer Internet. Bulgarian Federation of Electronic Sports celebrated The International Day of Safer Internet with multiple trainings among the smallest, campaigns and demonstrations with educational character. On February 8th itself, BFES, together with Deputy
Minister of Transport and Communications Parvan Rusinov, Deputy Culture Minister Todor Chobanov and Deputy Chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection Kalin Kamenov as well as representatives of "Parents" Association played a game with the fourth graders in different schools with the aim to explain to the children the basic steps and rules that must comply with in the cyber space. March was marked by qualifications for the coming national competition in the next months. This was the period of the last live tests of the Beta version of the ranking system that BFES is developing for automatic arrangement of competitions, ranking and management of players. In April, BFES took part in the National Sports Panorama, which was held between 28 and 30 April. It took place in front of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, where more than 80 sports federations participated. The event brought together representatives from across the country and enjoyed great public and media attention. The presence of BFES was marked by demonstrations of PC and console games in a network where everyone had the opportunity to stand face to face with the opponent in a live online game or observe the demonstrations of the best players in the most popular games in Bulgaria.
During May, June and July the Bulgarian Federation of Electronic Sports held a number of competitions in the bigger cities across the country, which aimed to bring together the best players in fair play matches to compete according to their ranking. Great success enjoyed the competitions in Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo and Burgas, where players took part in different age groups and levels of experience.
Cont. on next page. 4
In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News 2011 Retrospect
The Activities in 2011 of BFES (Cont.) BFES marked the month of August with two significant events. On August 12th we celebrated the International Day of Youth and Sports. The event was held in the largest metropolitan park in the capital. The team of the Bulgarian Federation
e-Sports Column
of Electronic Sports presented a variety of computer games that are part of the People of the Month Notice
gaming disciplines. Furthermore BFES demonstrated its renowned web site and new online-based system for competitions and qualifications in e-sport – “World Cyber League”. The stand of the Federation awakened the interest at all guests present, among whom there were many hard core gamers. Minister of Education and Science, Sergey Ignatov, and MP Irena Sokolova showed their optimism about e-sports and their development.
At the end of August began the organizational preparation for the IeSF World Championship 2011. The entire month of September passed in qualifications and training of our gamers for the upcoming World Championships in Andong, South Korea. After clarification of the winners, the Bulgarian Federation of Electronic Sports spent special time and attention to the Bulgarian representatives, which aimed to achieve good mental preparation of the players for the upcoming competition as well as the desire to win. The second half of November and the month of December mark the final steps before the release of the online based system for competitions, ranking and management of players – World Cyber League. BFES team can put the year 2011 in its archives as a year full of initiatives, campaigns, competitions and qualifications. The team of the Bulgarian Federation of Electronic sports will continue to strive for positive development of e-sports in Bulgaria.
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2011 Retrospect
In this Issue: Member Nationsâ€&#x; News
Rinie Ramli (President / Malaysia e-Sports Federation)
2011 Retrospect
The year of 2011 has been another great year for Malaysia e-Sports Federation e-Sports Column
as we were able to host our very own Malaysia e-Sports League last weekend(26People of the Month Notice
27 November). It was the first of its kind and we receive tremendous support from the gamers and all parties involve. Special thanks to AMD Malaysia and Cyberview Sdn Bhd who has been supportive of our noble mission. We are looking forward to host the next season in middle of 2012 as we are one step closer to make e-Sports a reality in Malaysia. I would like to show my greatest gratitude to IeSF committees & its members for helping us and recognizing MeSF as one of its members. We are very humbled by this opportunity and we look forward to work together in making e-
Sports a reality around the world. Thank you everyone and have a great happy new year!
Colin Webster (President / Mind Sports South Africa) The 2011 year was by no means an easy year, The world-wide economic downturn seriously affected every country in the world and every sport known to man. However, not all is 'doom and gloom'. The IeSF under the skilful
management still held true to its course and even when all around there was a tightening of belts and a great deal of cutting back, the IeSF (under the astute guidance of Won Oh, Noha Park, and Alex Lim) still managed to show solid growth in terms of its membership and still held a first class world championship. The growth of member nations is not just for the sake of growth. The new members that were admitted into membership met the exacting standards as laid down by the IeSF's own Statutes as well as those as required by SportAccord. Thus not all applicants were successful in attaining membership on their first attempt. Some applicants were indeed not admitted into membership, but such applicants are encouraged to review the way they operate and reapply in future years.
Cont. on next page. 6
In this Issue: Member Nationsâ€&#x; News 2011 Retrospect e-Sports Column
2011 Retrospect (Cont.) In order to have a proper functioning IeSF, all the members must also hold themselves to the highest standards. However, anything of value does not come cheaply or easily – and so it is with the IeSF membership. All applicants for membership are expected to have their own nations recognition, and to also be a
People of the Month
properly constituted association. And this year, the following members were Notice
accepted into membership; Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Greece, Namibia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and United states. The IeSF as a whole heartily welcomes all the
new members and hopes that they will all benefit from their association with the parent body. Few could have imagined that the IeSF could have topped the championship at Taebeck (2009), and then in 2010 the championship was held in Daegu in 2010. Daegu was without doubt even better than the championship held in 2009, and all the gamers and officials on their return home longed to return to the next championship. Then there was the 2011 IeSF World Championship in Andong! The 2011 Championship exceeded all expectations. Few realise the work that goes into running a successful championship, from finding sponsors, venue, accommodation, meals, happy helpers, etc., etc., there is also a great deal of work to do in terms of the 'back-end'. For example, the development of suitable the rules, training of officials, etc. In other words, the ability to host a championship, does not start just a couple of months prior to the event, but is instead a reflection of the parent body as a whole. The championship is nothing more than the outward expression of the IeSF's vision, dedication, good governance and proper administration. Although there are still areas which can be improved upon, the commitment from all the members and the Secretariat will undoubtedly lead to an even better 2012 championships. Thus, looking back at 2011, the IeSF has been able to further cement its foundations to create a fully accredited International eSports Federation that can proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the other international sporting
federations. With such accreditation, the IeSF will lead eSports into the mainline sporting area and into a brave new world!
Cont. on next page.
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In this Issue:
2011 Retrospect (Cont.)
Member Nations‟ News 2011 Retrospect
Steven Leunens (Belgian Electronic Sports Federation) 2011 was a fantastic year for eSports and the IeSF World Championships were
e-Sports Column
the perfect apotheosis for this eventful year. Bringing together gamers from all
People of the Month
across the globe and letting them compete at the highest possible level in perfect
Notice
conditions is what eSports is all about and we have the IeSF to thank for that. I for one am already looking forward to what 2012 has in store for us
Dario Salice (President / Swiss E-Sports Federation) From the perspective of the Swiss E-Sports Federation (SESF) as well as the eSports Community in Switzerland, 2011 has been kind of a restart. After a couple of years, where activity in the community of electronic sports decreased, this year first improvements have been visible. The most visible improvement was the increase of players participating on tournaments and interested in competitive gaming. Like in other European countries, the release of Stacraft 2 had a positive impact on the community in Switzerland. Aside from the known players which left Warcraft 3 behind and found new motivation with the new Blizzard Title, a good amount of new players coming into the eSports Community have been noticed. This “new blood” has a very positive impact on the Swiss community and the way they behave and enjoy eSports. Starcraft also brought one Swiss player on the international stage. The very talented player biGs, with Korean roots, managed to get a contract with one
of the major organizations in Europe: Mousesports. Various successes in online tournaments certainly made him the star of the Swiss eSports season 2011. With the start of a new community site “thisisesport” a couple of eSport enthusiasts launched a new site to write about eSports in Switzerland. Surfing on the wave of Starcraft, they also managed to reach an audience beyond the RTS Genre and combine a part of the local scene. Following this “rebirth” of Swiss eSports journalism, motivated clans and players to increase their activity thanks to the existing coverage of BYOC-Events and Online-Tournaments.
Cont. on next page. 8
In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News
2011 Retrospect (Cont.) One of the most innovative events in Switzerland was the first Barcraft. A small
2011 Retrospect
group of motivated people reached to the SESF to ask for support. Together with
e-Sports Column
the group called “Barcraft Switzerland” the SESF helped to put in place a
People of the Month
“Barcraft” covering the MLG Event in the US (Providence, Rhode Island). This
Notice
cooperation was successful and brought around 100 spectators to one of the most traditional pubs in the old part of Zurich. The SESF also made a couple of small and large steps to be more prepared for the future. In 2011 the focus has been on the structure of the federation. In this process various new people joined the federation to improve it‟s performance and support the eSports community at its best. Benyamin Küry took over the role of the “LAN Ambassador”. His mission will be to support clubs, which organize BYOC-Events in areas like Promotion, finding suitable dates and all other questions, which come up. Thanks to Benyamin‟s help, conflicts of dates between LAN-events shouldn‟t happen anymore. The role of the second ambassador, the “Clan Ambassador” is taken by Lars Vögtlin, which gained a lot of experience over the last couple of years with his own Multigaming Clan. This experience now will be used to support existing or new clans to improve their operation and structure. One of the issues the Swiss eSports Federation faced, was the communication towards the community. This gap will be filled with Marco Juen, which took over the place of the “News Coordinator”. His job is to coordinate News with partner
organizations through available channels. This way the SESF will be able to distribute relevant information trough different channels reaching a broader audience with its activities. Looking forward to 2012, I expect the re-organization to proceed and finish. With that new structure the federation will be able much more to support the Swiss community and reach a sustainable growth in the eSport scene in Switzerland.
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In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News 2011 Retrospect
e-Sports Column Profitability and Human Resource in e-Sports !
by WS Oh (The Secretary General of IeSF)
e-Sports Column
As looking at the natural disasters occurring
People of the Month
around the world, it strikes me how fine
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situation I am facing, what I despond of the current position for, and if the situation itself that I can try at least is the happiness. Wouldn‟t it be the right thing to look for if there is anything left for trial, before we whine for
being stuck in the trials of life? We may need to rather have another hope than regrets when we trip on a hurdle of the life, even at the end of our best shot. Now, I‟d like to take a short to reflect what I have in my hands as the secretary general of IeSF. There are, not sufficient enough though, fiscal supports from the
government and the presidential company. I have experiences in this field accumulated for the past 10 years, and friends and colleagues from in and out of the country who listen to my words. Also, there are universities interested in cultivating human resources, a broadcasting company well disposed to us, and game publishers who would like to support us for good. When considering all these attention and supports, I may need to count my blessings and stop complaining. Rethink one by one as going back to the time when there was no infrastructure of e-sports. Wipe out all of the useless agonies, anxieties, and regrets. Imagine if it is empty hands as releasing all the worthless interests. And I ask myself if I really did my best or selected right devices in the given circumstance. I reflect myself if this is just my own desperation after only few times trial. Now, my reflection brings me back to my first intention. What are the people‟s expectations on me regarding e-sports? What are my duties and specialties to meet these expectations? To talk about the relationship between e-sports and myself, I should go back to end of 90‟s. In fact, when I first met e-sports, I was a bit aloof on it, because I had
been more like general sports oriented person with less interest in gaming. Preferably than gaming itself, I was just fascinated by somewhat nonsense vision,
Cont. on next page.
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In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News
e-Sports Column (cont.) which we could organize international game tournament for the very first time in the world, or could establish an international organization such as IOC. I
2011 Retrospect
remember that the pride and sense of duty as a pioneer somehow attracted me as
e-Sports Column
well. To me at the time, it was not an important matter whether e-sports have the
People of the Month
potential to grow up as a sound industry. I just felt good with that I could dream
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cool and challenge drastic. Moreover, the promise of companies triggered my decision, which would support a good sum of sponsorship with considerable interest in this unfamiliar field.
It went pretty well at the beginning. It was the world‟s first attempt and unique, but, for last 10 years, it has ended up with the current crisis as it met the limitation of profitability and creating human resources. In those days, I somehow overlooked the fact that sustainability may get threatened when fails to secure long term profitability and fine human resources, howsoever the idea was unique and attractive. Thus, for the better future of e-sports, I deeply contemplate these two missions. First of all, since e-sports have several aspects differed from general sports do, esports organizations should arm themselves with more business oriented mind than other sports organizations do in order to position themselves as reputable sports organizations. Also, they need to design and create things for ROI with dedicated attitude getting rid of dictatorial behaviors. Even a moral obligation clearly justified works only when there is fundamental demand. We need to realize that anything is worthless unless there are needs of consumers. For realization of sports-wise of e-sports, even if it is hard to establish a commercial basis, yet we should practically consider transforming the system to business-friendly, which would satisfy ROI of stakeholders or consumers‟ needs.
Whichever we take for a direction to transform, I think we need to listen earnestly to developers, publishers and sponsors‟ voices. Although we have to take hardship, transformation is essential. Secondly, it may take time, yet development of high skilled human resources must be resolved with answers. As the saying, „garbage in, garbage out‟ states, a field can sustain longer in the market when best products are derived by best manpower. This is truly not to denigrate current professions in the field, yet this industry should be led by more professionals who have studied deeply and dedicated to the field intensively. I believe that there is a way, for sure, where there is a will, with the best shot. Of course, it may be beyond one with a lone hand, yet, wouldn‟t it be possible if all the parties and colleagues in this field found a kindred spirit?
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In this Issue:
People of the month
Member Nations‟ News
edited by Alex Lim
2011 Retrospect
We are introducing Raveen Wijayatilake, the president
e-Sports Column
of “Sri Lanka e-Sports Association (SLESA)”. SLESA is
People of the Month
the sole and representative e-sports federation of Sri Lanka, which newly joined as one of the respectful IeSF
Notice
members. We would like to share his vision and passion toward e-sports with you all. 1. How long have you been working in e-sports field and what motivation brought you into this field? I have been following international e-Sports from 2004, but only took an active role in developing Sri Lankan e-Sports in 2007. I was passionate about both video games and sports from an early age – leading my school teams in Tennis, Football and Cricket and being very active in local gaming cafes at the same time. The overlapping of competition and video games came naturally to me. I used to watch events like WCG and ESWC and fantasize about the day that Sri Lanka would hold similar events. During the 2007 and 2008 period, I reached a point where I was in position to start setting the foundation for what e-Sports in Sri Lanka is today. 2. Please tell us briefly about beginning, history, and current status of esports market in Sri Lanka. The e-Sports phenomenon came very late to Sri Lanka, with a lot of barriers. There existed gaming cafes, where youngsters would get together and play Warcraft III and Counter-Strike 1.6 over LAN. At this point, e-Sports didn‟t exist in a proper format – but cafes used to hold mini-tournaments for their members with ad hoc rules and regulations. In 2007 we formed the online community “Gamer.LK”, which was the catalyst for bringing proper e-Sports to Sri Lanka. It
started with organized online weekend sessions called “Weekend Gaming” where about 15 – 30 members would login and connect to a home-hosted CounterStrike 1.6 server. This was at a time that dedicated gaming servers didn‟t exist in Sri Lanka. From there, with weekend gaming growing at a rapid pace, Gamer.LK introduced the first 32 slot dedicated Counter-Strike 1.6 server. This proved to be hugely popular, and with that came more interest in the game-server hosting business. The first official inter-clan online Counter-Strike 1.6 match was played in December 2007. This was the beginning of the clan scene in Sri Lanka.
Cont. on next page.
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In this Issue:
People of the Month (cont.)
Member Nations‟ News
Fast forward 4 years and we have several large and established clans with
2011 Retrospect
members exceeding 500+ with hundreds more smaller active clans. Frequent
e-Sports Column
gaming tournaments held to international standards, and one large scale regional tournament held annually. We have participated in WCG, IeSF and other national
People of the Month Notice
tournaments abroad (ICGC etc). We have made significant strides in getting e-
Sports noticed by Sri Lankas marketing industry and Governmental organizations. The Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2011 tournament was opened by Secretary to the Ministry of Sports of Sri Lanka, where he promised his full support for pushing e-Sports forward as the sport of the future. 3. Please give us introduction of “SLeSA” and major projects of it. The Sri Lanka Electronic Sports Association (SLeSA) is Sri Lanka‟s only association dedicated to the growth and development of e-Sports in the country. It
consists of a number of Sri Lankan organisations involved and contributing to the Sri Lankan e-Sports scene today. SLeSA oversees the organization and conduct of all major LAN and online tournaments in Sri Lanka, with plans to introduce a Gamer-ID for Sri Lankan gamers. It is also the sole association pushing for eSports to be recognized as an official sport in Sri Lanka. 4. What are the policies of Sri Lanka government towards e-sports in the country? And how do these policies effect on the e-sports in Sri Lanka?
The Sri Lanka e-Sports Association has been working closely with the Sri Lankan government in making it aware of e-Sports and the e-Sports situation in Sri Lanka. Previously, we made significant progress in educating the Sports Ministry as to what e-Sports is and what our plans for e-Sports is in Sri Lanka. The Sports Ministry was eager to learn more about this new sport and did extensive research into the subject of e-Sports world wide. SLeSA also produced a proposal which contained all information about e-Sports internationally and in Sri Lanka, along with the cognitive/social/economic benefits of supporting the sport. We took a large step forward this year by inviting the Secretary to Sports Ministry, Mr. Udaya Seneviratne to open the Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2011 championship. He pledged his support to push e-Sports forward as the sport of the future.
Cont. on next page.
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In this Issue: Member Nations‟ News 2011 Retrospect e-Sports Column
People of the Month (cont.) 5. what do you expect „SLeSA‟ can contribute to global e-sports? As the e-Sports scene in Sri Lanka grows, our capability to get involved in international e-Sports will increase greatly. Greater participation in international tournaments will be a first step for us. With more emphasis and exposure given to
People of the Month Notice
e-Sports, the quality and skill level of Sri Lankan cyber-athletes is expected to increase. We already have talented cyber-athletes today. That way, we can contribute in the form of increased participation and more competitive matches at international e-Sports events. On a more long-term basis, SLeSA along with the cooperation of other South Asian countries, plan on developing e-Sports in South Asia. e-Sports has a long way to go in South Asia, if compared to other continents such as Europe etc. SLeSA has spoken to several e-Sports leaders in South Asia and have made plans to get together and work towards improving eSports within the continent – a realistic and reachable goal. 6. What do you think should necessarily be taken to raise and develop esports in Asia or boarder countries of Sri Lanka?
Regional cooperation will play a key role in improving e-Sports in Asia. However, true improvement can only be seen when put against other countries in the region. A regional tournament that involved all South Asian countries is something that should be established and organized collectively by all South Asian countries. The geographical proximity and overlap in large company presence in some of the countries should be taken advantage of when considering funding of large-scale tournaments. This is something is lacking at the moment, but the first steps have been taken to create change. 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. The IeSF has taken great initiative in consolidating international e-Sports with the formation of a governing body. Once the countries that already support eSports have been registered as members and the IeSF membership is at a stable state, it is important to push forward to spreading the joy of e-Sports to countries. Introductory workshops and establishing local organizations with interested youth will go a long way in spreading the word. This is where the IeSF should step in – introduce and educate people about e-Sports. Enlighten them that the past-time they enjoy can be pushed forward and taken more seriously – that it can be more than just a waste of time as perceived by the general populous.
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In this Issue:
Notice
Member Nationsâ€&#x; News
1. 2012 Event Schedule of Member Nations
2011 Retrospect e-Sports Column
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 People of the Month Notice
for something to tie up your events with IeSF business plan to make better performances and effective synergy. We will collect them by end of January 2012, and the format was sent to you all by group notice e-mail. 2. Seasonâ€&#x;s Greetings!
[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
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