This morning, Games Media Properties announced that the WSVG Series is now done, and that they will be discontinuing the scheduled LAN events in Los Angeles, London and Sweden.
After talking to a couple of professional Quake players, this really seems like the worst possible event that could happen to the competitive Quake 4 community right now. For players, this means almost three months of time they had planned to practice for and attend the events in the series is now wasted.

"Looking at quake in general in '07, with smaller ESWC prizes, ESWC and WSVG Dallas happening at the same time, WSCG/KODE5 not hosting Quake 4, it looks like it took a step backwards. With WSVG's strange game picks for displaying skill in videogames as well as still pretty small cash prizes, a cancellation of the circuit is very bad for pro gaming" Tim "EG|DaHanG" Fogarty told GotFrag shortly after the news came down.

DaHanG is just one of the many players across the world that have already spoken out in response to the announcement with extreme disappointment. With many professionals not only practicing for the past months in preparation for the rest of the series, but relying on the series as the only major Quake 4 tournament happening at the moment and a major source of income, this announcement has been devastating for quite a few.

I was able to talk to a couple of the professional players shortly after the news broke and most were just simply too stunned to even believe the news.

"Holy (explitive)! I can't believe this is happening" tournament competitor, Dave "x3o.icel0re" Ritson told GotFrag in simple disbelief.

Tom "griffin" Wall seemed to be fairly disappointed over missed opportunities by attending the series when he told us his thoughts on today's events. "This sucks really bad. I took this whole year off to attend WSVG, and now I really don't have anything going on. I guess I'm going to Los Angeles now for fun since I already bought the ticket. I felt like my game was getting better as the series went on and I was excited about going to London and Sweden since I've never been there, but I guess not anymore. I didn't see my family for two months because I was practicing in Dallas for this series. Plus, I haven't seen a dime of my winning for any of the events and kinda worried now since this came up."

GotFrag was able to reach Magnus "fojji" Olsson shortly after the announcement and his response was "I just think its very unfortunate that it fell apart. It's a setback for the sport but I'm sure it will rebound. I understand that it was a business decision and these things happen."

Though many expected to see Quake 4 slowly fade into the depths and follow the way of Painkiller, nobody could predict that it would be happening this fast. Also, talking with some of the lower and medium skilled players, this announcement really seems to be disastrous for them as well. "I'm really pretty kinda pissed now. I started learning this game a few months ago and loved watching the competition from the professional players, and now theres really no more competitions to watch" said amateur Quaker Joey "sh1ver" Sandoval in a candid conversation. This decision to end the series really seems to effect the whole spectrum of players in the competitive scene, from professional to beginner.

It will be interesting to see how the community continues in the following weeks after this announcement, but it's extremely unlikely that it will affect it positively and it's safe to say many are already looking for a new game to feed their appetite for competition. One thing is certain though; this definitely takes eSports back a few steps, it can hopefully recover from soon.