[Mayo]

Cadred has laid its hands on a leaked letter to partners of the World Cyber Games that has confirmed the organisation will no longer be running traditional games tournaments and only supporting mobile phone games.

The news will come as a major shock to e-sports fans the world over and will also be a massive blow to games such as Counter-Strike 1.6 who have been supported continually by the event, which in its heyday was seen as the biggest e-sports event on the globe.

The motivation for it seems to be financial and it was clear that the games that were generating the most money in recent years were mobile phone titles, given their increasing presence on the ticket.
The letter, signed by Brad Lee, the CEO of WCG, read:

In recent years, the gaming and IT trends have been moving so fast. In the current status of gaming and IT industry, one of the most remarkable information to us was the mobile shipments have exceeded the PC shipments.

As wide spread mobile devices, mobile gamer would rapidly increase as well. In this situation, the major PC game publishers have been expanding their investment and business in the mobile game development & publishing.

This information was very cruel to us since we had been committed to the PC-Based gaming event for long time. We have witnessed that there have been many companies and organizations who went out of business because they didn't put effort to change. Therefore we concluded that we should create WCG's new identity.

Under this circumstance, we made a hard decision that we should bring the mobile, new key sector in the game industry, in our event concept. Hence, WCG decided to start the Mobile Game-Based Festival.

To create the Mobile Game-Based Festival, WCG is under the discussion with the sponsors and game publishers regarding new event structure and the countries for new festival. Therefore, there will be no longer present event module, such as Pan Championship, and PC-Based National Finals. And, the official game titles of WCG will consist of mobile games.


We'll be bringing you more in way of reaction to this massive story as we have it.

Original thread: http://www.cadred.org/News/Article/172081/

Quick Comments

ROOTPetraeus:

test

[neon]

I read that, surely can't be legit.

Must be some kinda april fools or something?

Whatever makes money I guess is their motto but still... mobile games.. ? IPAD gaming convetion ?

[Asrathiel]

Whaaaaaaaaaaa? Come off it, if that's real it's completely stupid

[Mayo]

imo WCG was an old, out of date concept.

With most games having teams in the top rankings living in the same country, not allowing them to attend means that you don't get the best competiton.

China: DoTA, Korea: SC2, CS 1.6: Sweden.
The prize money wasn't that amazing in recent years either compared to other competitions.

Bring on ACL, MLG, IEM and ESWC Aus!

[iM tgun]

Originally Posted by Mayo

imo WCG was an old, out of date concept.

With most games having teams in the top rankings living in the same country, not allowing them to attend means that you don't get the best competiton.

China: DoTA, Korea: SC2, CS 1.6: Sweden.
The prize money wasn't that amazing in recent years either compared to other competitions.

Bring on ACL, MLG, IEM and ESWC Aus!

Iunno, there were (and are) some beast USA CS1.6 teams. 3D comes to mind (although I think it's now defunct )

[neon]

It serves a purpose though, like the Olympics of gaming, get behind your country!

but yeah.

[Mayo]

Originally Posted by tgun

Iunno, there were (and are) some beast USA CS1.6 teams. 3D comes to mind (although I think it's now defunct )

3D and EG weren't bad, but they still didn't really win anything afaik.

It's hard when you have LIONS, fnatic and SK all living in the same country (Sweden) when they are all top 6. So cutting out two of those...

Originally Posted by neon

It serves a purpose though, like the Olympics of gaming, get behind your country!

but yeah.

It also gives the smaller countries a chance of competing, but there are other things like.
Do you know how much it costs to buy the rights to run a WCG?

[iM tgun]

Originally Posted by Mayo

3D and EG weren't bad, but they still didn't really win anything afaik.

It's hard when you have LIONS, fnatic and SK all living in the same country (Sweden) when they are all top 6. So cutting out two of those...



It also gives the smaller countries a chance of competing, but there are other things like.
Do you know how much it costs to buy the rights to run a WCG?

Umm.. 3D Won WCG. Twice, if I remember correctly.. let me go check the wiki.

Yup. 04 and 05. I remember watching them, a freaking beastly story to follow.

In fact, 05 had 3D first and EG third.

[Eddie]

Wcg is one of my favourite SC2 events. Repping your country on the global stage is an awesome thing.

Would be a shame if this news is true.

Phone games? That's like downgrading to Tic-Tac-Toe or Rock-Paper-Scissors from Chess

Good for casual 'gamers' and phone companies i guess.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	so true!
	Mayo:

[TAhackdZ]

Wow....Is this a joke?

I can't believe it, srsly how competitive can a mobile phone game be anyway?

Makes little-to-no sense if you ask me, serious gamers (with serious skill) will play serious games...

I think they may find it difficult to attract the same numbers for their events if mobile games are gonna be the staple...Who wants to sit around watching some dud play Animal Farm anyway...

[NvPinder]

I'm taking absolutely nothing till an official WCG announcement, because I find this incredibly stupid and very hard to believe, lol.

Quick Comments

	neon:	Indeed.
	inFeZa:	agreed.

[Mayo]

Apparently they can't get PC funding or something.

I do know Samsung (their major sponsor) pulled out extremely close to the competition commencement before.

[NOM]

WCG is just becoming more retarded every year

[mOOnGLaDe]

Considering this is one of the only gateways for us to get to international tournaments i think this is terribly sad. I feel WCG was very important for us.

As for the concept, i think it's an awesome concept as it gives gamers a chance to cheer for their country, and I'm fairly sure parts of a team can be from else where if they band together to qualify at the same event.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

[SLCN.Kez]

In terms of multiple good teams from the same country, in cs in particular they usually had 2 sweden teams anyway, and for sc2 there was 2 korean players as well werent there? But yeh this is completely retarded even for WCG lol

Quick Comments

NvPinder:

yep, 3 korean players infact

[nirvAnA]

im skeptical the letter is true but not THAT skeptical.

wcg loses money every year, as do ESCW, MLG, etc they are all funded by venture capital or other support. the only reason why WCG still runs is due to financial backing from samsung. if you remember a step in this direction last year was when the asphalt (made by samsung) mobile game had a 50k prize pool, i believe sc2 was only at 30k.

A switch would make "business sense" as well as promote their samsung phones heavily since they have monopoly and can choose what games they want to have in WCG and people who want to play will be forced to buy samsung phones. or if apple wants their games in wcg i imagine they have to pay heaps of $$$ rights to have their games in as official WCG titles. with the explosion of the iphone / android market this just seems like a calculated business strategy, and as you know, the #1 goal for businesses is to make money.

So yea imo 65% this letter might be BS and the other 35% of me is open to the possibility of it being real also partly because the site which posted it is huge so theres no need to make up a story to get hits and its decision for samsung that makes business sense, but sadly at the expense of the gaming world.

i certainty hope theres no "dont support samsung anymore" threads like what happen with grubby when steelseries pulled out. samsung's wcg was an amazing event for many years, especially in the earlier ones.

Quick Comments

	neon:	good insight.
	NOM:	100% agree

[Mayo]

Originally Posted by kez

In terms of multiple good teams from the same country, in cs in particular they usually had 2 sweden teams anyway, and for sc2 there was 2 korean players as well werent there? But yeh this is completely retarded even for WCG lol

http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/358...roups_released

Only SK Gaming from Sweden.

Screenshot from the cadred.org article if anyone went to it:

[neon]

Originally Posted by Mayo

http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/358...roups_released

Only SK Gaming from Sweden.

Screenshot from the cadred.org article if anyone went to it:

your breaking my heart


edit: not you personally. wcg!

[SLCN.Kez]

I ARE NEVER WRONG: 2010: http://www.k1ck.com/09/news/270
2009: http://www.dicevip.com/item/6509-WCG...roups-Released

[Mayo]

Originally Posted by kez

I ARE NEVER WRONG: 2010: http://www.k1ck.com/09/news/270
2009: http://www.dicevip.com/item/6509-WCG...roups-Released

That's just 2 events though and also not the most recent

[Mayo]

"he's only got one bird left, can he do it? ...he loads at takes aim... and we see the red bird flying toward his destination, hitting the pig head on! amazing play!"

Quick Comments

	Asrathiel:	That is exactly what I'm imagining... *shudder*
	mGGSouth:	lol

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Mayo

"he's only got one bird left, can he do it? ...he loads at takes aim... and we see the red bird flying toward his destination, hitting the pig head on! amazing play!"

Can you -please- make Artosis cast this. I just want to see how depressed he will get after the third hour of casting something without being able to analyse any kind of strategy in the game.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	LOL the thought of that happening is hilarious
	Mayo:

[Xeen]

Originally Posted by |Erasmus|

Can you -please- make Artosis cast this. I just want to see how depressed he will get after the third hour of casting something without being able to analyse any kind of strategy in the game.

What are you talking about, it's a game that's entirely designed around knocking down Artosis pylons.

He'll love it.

Quick Comments

	TAEdgE:
	Rageboredguy:
	ToRSmotPokingFish:

[Maynarde]

I can't help but thing this is some elaborate April Fools troll that got leaked a few days too early...

[QEDMazaire]

I hope that this is a april fools day joke. Wouldn't SC2 be too much of an advertising/stream cash cow for them? i mean who the hell actually watches competitive mobile phone gaming o.0

[deL]

What the **** is this I thought it was a joke

Quick Comments

	neon:	you find the best clips, do you have a list or something ?
	TAhackdZ:	+ rep for Incredible Hulk clip...Baus!
	ToRSmotPokingFish:

[Mayo]

Quick Comments

xGKingdelete:

[Reere]

I was depressed to read this last night. For me personally WCG was the first event to bring light & hope to the globalization of E-sports.

They have been up and running for over 10 years now even though there are reports of falling quality lately, so I guess it's been a good run.

RIP WCG Will not forget.

[Peleus]

Let's look on the bright side - sc2sea angry birds guild?

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	hahahaha
	Mayo:
	Bash:	i'll be the ace.
	NOM:

[Pandan]

Just to clear up a few of the suggestions being made in here. Samsung isn't a sponsor of WCG; Samsung OWNS WCG.

I hope this helps you see how big of a deal the whole "we aren't paying your country" and other Samsung issues are. This was only a matter of time; and frankly it's a surprise to me that they are event trying mobile. I honestly thought WCG only had few years left in it regardless.

[Daboo]

Still not believing it, this just seems way too much like a joke.
But if it is true....

+ Show +

Quick Comments

	asdfSchnitzel:	LOL
	mGGSouth:

[Mayo]

Updated OP with this article:

http://www.cadred.org/News/Article/172103/

The full letter read:

Today an old friend of ours, World Cyber Games, has all but died a somewhat expected death. There are people refusing to believe the story, and many others saying "good riddance", and these people could not be more wrong.

For years WCG was criticised by people who felt that the inclusion of lesser titles made the entire organisation a joke - what they did not realise was that these titles brought in the funding required for games such as Counter Strike 1.6, the games we love to see at events.

There are two facts that have failed to make it into the public eye, which perhaps help shed some light on this latest development - I do not have letters of the sort published earlier to back them up, but I am certainly in a position to know about them from multiple sources.

Samsung have been WCG's biggest sponsor since the very first event thanks to some family links, however recently (a year or two ago) this relationship changed. WCG is now owned by Samsung. You can see why this was not something they would want getting out, as it instantly changes the dynamic of their events from global professional tournaments with great sponsors to little more than in-house exhibitions with a focus on Samsung phones and a little gaming.

However, too much money was being lost, and the WCG organisation has never really known what direction to take. For example when the Championship Gaming Series appeared they were terrified, and hastily put together WCG Ultimate Gamer, a show to bring them equality in terms of airtime on real TV. This did little good in itself, and with the demise of the CGS, was all but worthless. Needless to say it was a financial sink-hole and with the global recession round the corner, it was a poorly timed one.

After budget problems in 2010, the final in Los Angeles was expected by some to be the last WCG event to be seen. A large number of staff either left of their own choice, or were made redundant in the first quarter of 2011 - I have heard this transition described as their getting rid of up to 80% of their full-time employees, however I do not have exact numbers so I cannot say whether this was exaggerated.

The 2011 Grand Finals event, which was originally planned to take place in one of two Chinese cities left in the bidding, was moved to WCG's homeland, South Korea, in a bid to save money - running an event abroad has a way of adding greatly to the cost. Meanwhile, national partners around the world were being given dramatically reduced budgets, and many were having to send less players to the finals than ever before.

All this leads us to 2012. Clearly the attempt at making 2011, if not profitable, at least revenue-neutral, was not a success, and there went the last chance for those within the WCG organisation who wanted to keep the brand going strong for years to come. The requirement to be revenue-neutral at best was strongly expressed internally but it was always going to be a tall order even at such a reduced scale.

Here comes a new era of WCG, a new era in which Samsung phones take centre stage, and national partners in the form of LAN events are replaced by qualifications in shopping centres and music festivals. This will not be a long era - without authentic competitive gaming, WCG will be little better than the cheapest and smallest of consumer exhibitions.

Today is a sad day for the news that broke. Thankfully there are people already replacing what WCG left behind. However, those who want to gloat should spare a thought to what WCG meant to a lot of e-sports fans and the tragedy of their recent failure.

It's a tragedy because they helped build e-sports and strengthen it as a serious pursuit, one that could match the grandeur of other sporting events. We all have our own WCG memories. Yet, just when it seems that e-sports is in a position to finally become a global phenomenon, one that can be profitable, they have to effectively close and walk away from something they helped build.

[ThatGuyDoMo]

This is crazy, it has to be an early April fools :S come onnnn

I wanted to see a WCG finals

[ToR.Arnor]

I have it on good authority that this isnt a joke

[Mayo]

Yeah, been talking to Rocky from TLS (The guys who run WCG in Aus) and they have confirmed this.

[ToR.Arnor]

Originally Posted by Mayo

Yeah, been talking to Rocky from TLS (The guys who run WCG in Aus) and they have confirmed this.

lol I was trying to keep names out of this :P

[nirvAnA]

Originally Posted by Mayo

Yeah, been talking to Rocky from TLS (The guys who run WCG in Aus) and they have confirmed this.

Yea I think this quote by mayo needs more prominence.

[inFeZa]

I knew angry birds was the better eSport to Starcraft for those 12 years.

[Bash]

As lame as this might be, i now legitimately have a chance of winning myself a holiday & some cash.
Wooooooooooo

[vill]

April fools? Too early for that.

[Hydroid]

Oh well atleast now I don't need to co-ordinate a trip to Korea that will cover a GSL finals AND a WCG finals as I had dreamed. ^^

[Bloodmyst]

Wow, that'll be the day when I see WCG running Mobile Game comps. I'm kinda laughing atm, who in the world would actually takes this seriously?

Well, at least if you wanted to become a Mobile-Professional gamer you can practice outside in the sun. :P Or even in the toilet!

EDIT: I have a Samsung Galaxy II, so I've got ma Pro-gear ready to start pwning noobs! Come at me! haha

[Cordance]

All of you are thinking about this the wrong way. This means Starcraft2 on your phone!!!!!!oneoneoneeleven

[NOM]

the only way i see this being competitive is something like ddr or tap tap revolution

Quick Comments

neon:

we need dance mats to plug into our phones!

[syfChadMann]

This is legit an April Fools joke leaked early..
If anyone actually believes it.. well.. gg

[Akilos]

well atleast some of us fell for it for laughs right? lol

[Mayo]

What's going to happen when this is uncovered as a non-April fools joke?

[Mayo]

You guys do know that WCG is actually owned by Samsung and it's the son of Samsung's CEO that owns/runs WCG.

It was a 'play thing' given to him by daddy.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

oh wow.. lol!!!!! man i want my own play thing too!!!!!

[iMSystem]

They talked about this on Lo3, even if it is a April Fools Joke, it has hurt them as a business already so it seems like a real dumb move to do so...

I don't expect this to be false at all

[nirvAnA]

slightly out of topic but i heard bugis iluma in singapore was a shopping centre built for someones son. could be a total nonsense rumor but would make total sense if its true since 70% of that building is entertainment stuff

[ToRSmotPokingFish]

Originally Posted by nirvAnA

oh wow.. lol!!!!! man i want my own play thing too!!!!!

offtopic: Nirvana doesnt have his own play thing? haha

[Mayo]

So this has been confirmed yet again, how many hats are going to be eaten?

[Daboo]

^^ No hats will be eaten!!!

The World Cyber Games has today emailed its partners to inform them about the decision to not go through with the mobile all-in, but continue with PC games instead as in the past 11 years.

According to rakaka, WCG today emailed its partners to apologize and inform about the decision to stay with PC games.

In late March, leaked letters from WCG CEO Brad Lee surfaced, stating that the South Korean organization would shift focus and focus on mobile phone gaming in their upcoming events.

Today's letter informs WCG partners about the decision to continue with focus on PC games. A snippet of the letter, which has been posted on rakaka reads:

"I would like to share information regarding WCG 2012. Previously, we mentioned that we had considered adapting Mobile games into the WCG. After careful consideration about all circumstances, WCG decided to focus on PC games same as we did for the past 11 years.

We apologize for the delay and the confusion."

There has been no official announcement from WCG since the conclusion of the 2011 grand finals in Busan, South Korea, which saw Polish team ESC Gaming enter the history books as the only team to win the event three times.

The WCG grand finals will for the next two events take place in the Chinese city Kunshan, at the International Convention & Exhibition Center.

http://www.hltv.org/n/8516

Apparently it was quite old (like 2 weeks), kinda missed it I guess, so it brings the whole drama to a close.

Quick Comments

PiG:

[dippa]

Originally Posted by Daboo

Apparently it was quite old (like 2 weeks), kinda missed it I guess, so it brings the whole drama to a close.

Rakaka as a source = drama is not over quite yet

Let's wait until we see a screen-cap of the email in question or double confirmation from notable figures before we get excited again.

Also keep in mind this still doesn't clear up what might be happening in Australia re. WCG. Things still not looking good on that front.

[jaeyoong92]

Hi guys, this is pretty much my first legit post in this forum. And this might be irrelevant but meh. I was just hanging around mytoilet checking facebook and shit, then I saw this thread. I'm about to start a pretty long boring story about how wcg and starcraft 2 inspired me and changed my life, or something like that.

I'm Jason 'zFxJYoong' Yoong from Malaysia. I was a professional gamer for the game league of legends, it has always been my dream to be a progamer and to play in wcg. Last year, after stopping from being a professional poker player, I took a break and was introduced by my good friends to play league of legends, then we started playing competitively after awhile. Coincidently, I fell in love with Kim Taeyeon, a member of k-pop group Girls Generation, and the wcg grand finals coincidently happened to be held in Korea. I was super hyped up and determined to win wcg and go to Korea as I am crazy and, crazy to even think of marrying Taeyeon. So yeah, we tried and shit and came really close to winning Malaysia's national finals, then shit happened, we did not win it. I was so devastated as I was told that Girls Generation might be performing at the opening ceremony of wcg grand finals. Then I waited till the day wcg grand finals stated. I was supposed to watch all the games for league of legends, but I accidentally clicked into the stream for Starcraft 2, and then it all started...

The first game I watched was between MVP and some random guy I can't recall. I fell in love with the game ever since, the crowd, the community for starcraft 2. I started googling about the game, watching streams ( but still not playing it ). I can't play Starcraft 2 as in Malaysia, it's pretty hard to play games ar home as connection in Malaysia is a joke. So I was 'forced' to play in the cyber cafe, if that's what you call it in you country. And this cyber cafe I always play in, has no starcraft 2, what a joke right? So after awhile, I cant take it anymore and I actually took two pendrives to another cyber cafe to store the file and brought it back to my cyber cafe to play. For a good two months, until they decided to duplicate my file and fix it in the cyber cafe's system. I started out being a shitty piece of shit in sc2 (although I still am). I was bronze back then when starcraft 2 just released, played my way up to diamond just building mutas and was mainly playing troll 2v2s with a poker mate during free time. And then we stopped playing. Then I started playing again around 5 months ago, being in diamond, lost 95% of my games (games I won are games where my opponents disconnected). Had no idea how to play, and did not know how to search for builds and shit. Played for about one month not knowing the basics and started inventing my own stupid build orders, I got slightly better. Then the more streams I watched k-pop I listened to, my determination and motivation increased. I got into masters! With a very very bad ratio, and I mean very very bad. This is when my good old friend from Starcraft 2, my clanmate in clan Onslaught, started guiding me and giving me directions in the game. I finally got into GrandMaster after a week or so, that was one of the greatest thing happened to me, ever. Then day by day I kept playing and kept trying to get better. Wanting to become one of the best, and represent my country in wcg 2012. That is the day I've made up my mind and determined to be a full-time progamer in starcraft 2, I've yet to do so but I will keep fighting! It was pretty devastating when I saw articles and news saying there's no more 'wcg' for gamers as it's going to be mobile only, because wcg is pretty much why I'm playing starcraft 2! Till an hour ago, I saw the post saying wcg is gonna continue having the game titles as what they used to have, this, is a news that enlightened my shitty life, for a little bit. I smiled, and saw hope, even the slightest hope. My dream of being a full-time sc2 progamer, my faith has been restored.

Does not matter if there will still be wcg, or any other events. We gamers must always support and believe in e-sports. Starcraft 2 will never die, with us, it'll keep growing, it will! No matter what, we must always show our support and contribute any part of us to the community. It's also time to show the world that we, SEA-ians are not weak, we are the boss! We will win the next coming GSL! and we will win WCG 2012! It's a big dream, but with dedication and handwork, I believe we can do it!

Last but not least, E-SPORTS FOR LIFE! LONG LIVE E-SPORTS!

I hope my post isn't too lame and boring, sorry for the Waste of your time reading this if it is. (:
Good night people, good night.

GLHF, GGWP.

Quick Comments

	dippa:	knew there was a reason i always liked you. reading your story wasn't a waste of time at all; it was a pleasure.
	nirvAnA:
	ToR.Arnor:	awesome story :) keep shooting for the stars ^_^
	SoloZ:
	Satu:
	Pretz:	good read.
	calcifer19:	always support u yoong
	YiDaToT:	yoongggggggggggggggggggggg
	AusBox:	Brilliant.

[Mayo]

Well it was confirmed no PC games and then they turned back on it.

You like your hats sunny side up?

[Pretz]

Even them considering only going mobile and cutting ties with PC pro-gaming, they've already lost respect from me.

I actually kind of wish they'd go all-in on mobile games so I could watch them crash and burn and realize how stupid of a decision they made.

[calcifer19]

what game do they have on mobile ???

[Sc2Clare]

angry birds would be a good guess...