Art by Phil "AZTK" Therien

Brook's Final Thoughts on WEG

When I arrived in Seoul a month ago I wasn't quite sure what to expect with the upcoming season of WEG2005. Sure, they have some of the best teams in the world, but a tournament isn't made great just by the teams that are in attendance. The way all the planning is executed is what really makes a tournament great. It turns out that WEG is probably the best tournament I have been to and I have been to too many to count on just my own hands.

No tournament is perfect, but WEG came very close to perfection this season. Every tournament has its issues with a few problems here and there, but no other tournament has the kind of model that WEG is trying to accomplish. The entire culture in Korea loves gaming, and it shows when a few million viewers tuned in to watch the Counter-Strike finals. I'd like to see CPL or ESWC get anywhere near those numbers. For some reason or another, people are not putting WEG in the same light as CPL or ESWC or WCG for that matter. I find it really hard to compare WEG with tournaments like ESWC, WCG, or CPL, but I’m going to try anyway.

What other tournament pays for their competitors to attend their event? ESWC and WCG both do, but it’s for an extended weekend at the most. While it is great that 3 out of the 4 major tournaments shell out some dough for the teams competing, no other tournament does what WEG does, paying for airfare, lodging and food costs.

Are there large cash prizes? All 4 have considerable cash prizes for their tournaments, which is needed to really push forward eSports in general. Without money going to support the players, the backbone of professional gaming, it will not succeed. However, cash prizes are only a small portion of elevating eSports' professionalism.

One of the things that really impressed me about WEG is their willingness to correct mistakes. If they had a problem that some of the players didn't like, they made sure it was to never happen again. WEG is working very hard to make sure each and every gamer is happy with their experience when competing in WEG. It's nice to see that kind of commitment.

What most people have been complaining about for both this and the previous seasons of WEG, is the lack of HLTV and/or score bots for the matches. One thing you readers have to understand is that they are bound by contracts not to allow any live broadcasting by the TV station they are working with. TV is far greater than anything CPL or ESWC can achieve by mere HLTV/score bots. Having 30,000 live viewers for the CPL finals and similar numbers for ESWC is great, but WEG have accomplished far greater numbers just in Korea. Just wait until they move on to Europe or North America with their business model and we will see gaming really become a mainstream powerhouse. We need to support and understand WEG to help them progress eSports further than any of us have thought possible. I certainly wouldn't have thought a few million viewers watching a final match for Counter-Strike would be possible at all for at least 2-3 more years.

The living situation for every player at WEG is exceptional. Each team was given 3 rooms for themselves, 2 were for sleeping and the other room was the practice room, complete with 5 computers to play on. The players only had to bring their own keyboard and mouse to WEG. At other tournaments, players have to bring their own computers to be able to practice at the tournament and pay for their own rooms (or their sponsors do).

The competition at WEG now and for future seasons is going to be top-notch. The only problem for teams is being gone from school or jobs for over a month, but when you want gaming to be your profession, WEG is the only thing right now. This season, WEG had 12 of the best teams in the world competing for the 50,000 dollar first prize. Next season it will be a full 16 teams battling it out for prizes. WEG really allows 'lesser' teams to practice a lot, and I do mean a lot. Look at Catch-Gamer this season. Sure they were already a good team but they took it seriously and practiced almost as much as anyone there, and they placed 2nd. The same is to be said about Begrip, they did the same thing and ended up taking the shebang. WEG allows teams to really put forth an effort and shows who is most willing to win. Teams can still have a bad game and advance on into the next round. CPL doesn't have that ability with their straight double-elimination style tournament. ESWC also has group stages in their tournament, which I think is the only way to run a proper tournament.

There isn't a single thing I can think of that is bad about WEG or their staff. When I had problems with my computer, they offered me a computer to use at their own office. WEG goes out of their way to make sure the people in attendance are happy. It's going to be exciting to see how season 3 turns out when it starts in the beginning of September.