Occupying the entire top floor of the Optics Valley Plaza, WSVG China has the atmosphere similar to a trade show and a skateboard competition. The major attraction is the World of Warcraft event. Fans are packed wall to wall in the WoW tournament area and a sea of bodies threatens to swallow up the entire tournament. The event has garnered such excitement that the building has reached its capacity.

The buzz is due to the fact that these Chinese WoW fans will have the chance to play and see the Burning Crusade expansion for the first time. That’s right; these players who have signed up for this event in droves have yet to play the game they’re competing in. Not only that; unlike CS or Warcraft III there is a liberal sprinkling of female gamers in the WoW competition.

With 191 teams signed up but only space for 64, the World of Warcraft tournament far surpasses the CS sign up list that wound up in the 40’s. Assembled and watching from the spectator area are the two American teams, Pandemic and MoB. As they watch the insanity around them growing by the moment, Jared “Vhell” Coulston was giving pointers to Chinese players explaining how to buy gems for their slotted armor, how to return to the "old" cities to train up their skills, and drawing maps to make their exploration easier.

I discussed the situation with the guys from Pandemic and Coulston explained it was a lot like playing Counter-Strike with the MP5 being the best gun and then showing up on the day of the tournament to discover the AWP, AK, and Colt have all been added to the game. Clearly these teams and players while maybe talented have a lot to learn in a short period of time if they want to knock off the three foreign teams.

Aside from the WoW tournament the Warcraft 3 event is a huge draw for the assembled spectators. With players like Moon, Lucifer, Grubby, ToD, and Sky all in attendance the spectators and even some of the volunteers were excited and anticipating seeing their idols in action. When a popular player would enter the event hall, the Chinese fans would cheer and a crowd would follow them to the tournament area. With the CS event starting tomorrow, the action and excitement level should triple in the coming days.