The Rise and Fall of the World Cyber Games
In 2000, the World Cyber Games (WCG) was founded with the goal of becoming the Olympics of video gaming and esports. The inaugural WCG Challenge took place in Yongin, South Korea, featuring players from 17 countries competing in popular games like Age Of Empires II, FIFA 2000, Quake III Arena, StarCraft: Brood War, and Unreal Tournament.
The following year, the WCG 2001 Games became the main event, attracting participants from 37 countries and adding Half-Life era Counter-Strike and FIFA 2001 to the competition. The Canadian national team emerged victorious in the Counter-Strike division.
From 2002 to 2010, the WCG continued to evolve, switching between different iterations of Counter-Strike. In 2006, Counter-Strike was replaced with (Counter-Strike) 1.6, and the tournament saw the Polish Golden Five take the title. The Golden Five included players like Taz and Neo, who have since transitioned to playing CS:GO professionally.
WCG 2007 took place in Seattle, Washington, with the French team eMulate emerging as the champions. In 2008, the event moved to Cologne, Germany, resembling the contemporary ESL One Cologne. The winning team mTw featured Astralis coach zonic, while SK-Gaming claimed second place.
WCG 2009 in Chengdu, China showcased modern-day players like Taz, Neo, GeT_RiGhT, zonic, and f0rest. The Golden Five once again clinched the victory, with AGAiN defeating Fnatic in the finals.
Na’Vi triumphed in WCG 2010, beating mTw to secure the championship. The last occurrence of WCG with Counter-Strike 1.6 took place in Busan, South Korea in 2011, with the Golden Five emerging victorious.
In 2012, the World Cyber Games dropped Counter-Strike 1.6 and briefly replaced it with Counter-Strike: Online. However, due to internal issues, the organization folded in 2013.
While the WCG was successful in other sectors, it didn’t truly suit Counter-Strike as a national team-based tournament. Today, esports lacks such massive events that bring together multiple games and provide exciting matchups.
Looking ahead, the hope is to see the emergence of a major esports event that can fulfill the vision of an esports Olympics. The current fragmented nature of esports makes it unlikely for esports to become a part of the Olympics.
What impact do you think the World Cyber Games had on the last 15 years of esports? And how do you believe a similar event would shape the next 15 years of esports? Share your thoughts in the comments or tweet us @GAMURScom.