Top Gaming Moment # 44: September 12th, 2007

Source: Wikipedia & GameSpot

Tournaments have always been a big part of my gaming life, not only for the cash and prizes, but also for the thrill of competing against the “Top Guns” of the gaming circuit. Unfortunately, I live in Canada, so getting to many of the tournaments (without a sponsor) is exceptionally hard since we are almost totally excluded when it comes to event locations by all the major competitions. Which is why news that the WSVG’s (The World Series of Video Games) had died hit me like a ton of bricks.

Find out what happened and why it is such a tragedy to gamers everywhere (and not just sad Canadians) after the jump!

The WSVG’s held its first season in 2006 as the de facto continuation of the 2005 CPL World Tour with a total prize purse of US$750,000. The world wide tournament took place in four different countries ( the USA, China, England and Sweden) and featured 6 games (3 PC titles and 3 Xbox) played over the course of 6 events. With Intel as a backer it did a great job of bringing in some of the top players in the world (like Fatal1ty, Toxic, Team 3D and Grubby).

Unfortunately, the 2007 season did not fair half so well. The total purse was lowered to US$574,000, but included one new country on the circuit, Canada (Toronto). Half way through the season, on September 12th, organizers announced that the remainder of the tournament would not take place, and that the WSVG’s was being terminated. Gamers in the USA (California), England and Sweden never got their chance to play, though prizes were still given out to those who did compete before the tournament ended.

Organizers cited the lack of revenue from previous events, the high cost of the large scale events and extensive televising campaign as the main reasons why the WSVG’s died. What they failed to mention was the rising success of their peers, like the WCG’s (World Cyber Games), ESWC (Electronic Sports World Cup) and the CPL (CyberAthlete Professional League).

Now, we still have some big competitions and events going on, but I really liked the WSVG’s, not only because they had a Canadian location, but because in my opinion they really were trying to bring eSports to the mainstream with their valiant attempts at television (CBS for example) and general media coverage. At most, we still only see a one paragraph article in mainstream newspapers and a 2 minute spot on the nightly news about “those crazy nerds who play games and win money,” most often delivered with a condescending chuckle and a quick segue to the “real news.”

So, I guess it’s back to prostituting myself (and the newly formed Team Smoking Devil) to any sponsor who will take us in, and playing within the tight nit LAN circuit here in North America. Hopefully the WCG’s (the only event I think has a real chance of truly bringing eSports into the mainstream) will continue to shine and give rise to a whole new generation of Tiger Woods-ish gaming savants who game for a living.

That’s why the death of one of the biggest eSports events ever (the WSVG’s) and yet another hurdle in the quest to make eSports a recognized mainstream reality, checks in at number 44 on Sarcastic Gamer’s top 100 Gaming moments of 2007!

Click here for the rest of Sarcastic Gamer’s Top 100 Gaming Moments from 2007 all in one place!

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