America’s 23 Best Gamers Will Defend Team USA’s World Championship Against Over 750 Players From 75 Countries In e-Sports’ Biggest and Most Prestigious Tournament - The 2008 WCG Grand Final - Taking Place In Cologne, Germany November 5-9.
(Los Angeles, October 5, 2008) - The World Cyber Games (WCG) USA 2008 National Final concluded today at the Los Angeles Convention Center with 23 of the finest video game players in the country earning a share of $100,000 in cash and prizes and spots on TEAM USA’s roster. The defending world champion American team will travel to Cologne, Germany from November 5-9 to compete on the biggest stage in competitive gaming — The World Cyber Games 2008 Grand Final. At the Grand Final, TEAM USA will face off against 750 top gamers from more than 75 countries for gold medals and a share of over $500,000 in cash and prizes.
Widely regarded as the “Olympics” of video game tournaments, this year’s WCG USA National Final showcased some of the most exciting and competitive gaming action in e-Sports. With an audience of well over 15,000 people packing the E For All Expo at the LA Convention Center, the setting was perfect for America’s elite gamers to battle it out over the course of the three day event. With more than 194 gamers competing, having outlasted more than 10,000 gamers through online qualifiers and live regional qualifiers, this year’s WCG USA National Final was by far the most competitive in the league’s eight year history.
“The high level of play at the WCG USA 2008 National Final not only exceeded our expectations, we saw how incredibly entertaining the WCG’s brand of competitive gaming can be as well as the power of the relationships and friendships that are developed at these events,” said Michael Arzt, General Manager, World Cyber Games USA. “TEAM USA showed the world that we are a force to be reckoned with last year in Seattle and this year we look forward to representing our nation in Germany just as America’s great athlete’s did earlier this summer in Beijing.”
Team USA 2008 shocked the world and the heavily favored Korean team by taking top honors at the WCG 2007 Grand Final in Seattle, Washington. The Americans captured six medals including three golds to bring home the world overall team trophy. Headlining the 2008 squad will be two returning members from that team — Command & Conquer: Kane’s WrathTM USA Champion David Lathrop (Fulton, NY) and Project Gotham Racing® 4 USA Champion Brian Boyle (Lincolnshire, IL).
Results of the WCG USA 2008 National Final (Players in red have earned spots on Team USA and will be traveling to Cologne, Germany to represent the U.S. in the WCG Grand Final):
PC
StarCraft®: Brood WarTM
Champion: Tyler Wasieleski (San Antonio, TX), 22
Runner Up: Eric Rothmuller (Healdsburg, CA), 20
Third Place: David Fells (Fort Neches, TX)
WarCraft® III: Frozen ThroneTM
Champion: Nik Cassidy (Norristown, PA)
Runner-up: Nick Whittier (Mountain View, CA)
Third Place: Andrew Toeniskoetter (Rochester Hills, MI)
CounterStrikeTM
Champion: Team x3o
Nick Fitzsimmons (Rockville, MD.) - Manager
Derrick Truong (San Jose, CA.), 21
Ben Hui (S. Pasadena, CA), 22
Ediz Basol (Manhattan Beach, CA), 23
Dan Mehler (Bogota, NJ), 22
Matt Iantosca (Calabas, CA), 23
Runner-Up: Team E.G.
Shaun Catron (Fountain Valley, CA)
Nazar Vynnytsky (Queens, NY)
Fadil Canoviz (Staten, Island, NY)
Jordan Gilbert (San Diego, CA)
Mizhail Guevara (Queens, NY)
FIFA Soccer 08TM
Champion: Juan Alvarado (Gainesville, VA), 24
Runner-Up: Michael LaBelle (Houston, TX), 19
Third Place: Felipe Stoyne (South Plainfield, NJ), 20
Need for SpeedTM: Carbon
Champion: Carlos Negron (Miami, Fl)
Runner-up: Kamran Siddiqui (Orlando, FL), 23
Third Place: Dan Otto
Command & Conquer: Kane’s WrathTM
Champion: David Lathrop (Fulton, NY), 21
Runner-Up: Rob Balzano (Poland, OH)
Third Place: Shawn Teeter (San Diego, CA), 20
Age of Empires® III: The Asian Dynasties
Champion: Ryan Mancl (Glencoe, IL), 18
Runner-up: Raghav Phadke (Ithaca, NY), 17
Third Place: Milo Philips-Brown (Portland, OR)
Xbox 360 Games
Project Gotham Racing® 4
Champion: Brian Boyle (Lincolnshire, IL),
Runner-up: Sean Heffelfinger (Nesquehoning, PA)
Virtua Fighter 5
Champion: Adam Rana (New York, NY), 30
Runner-up: Eddel Dioquino (Alexandria, VA), 26
Third Place: Akmaal Griffith (Brooklyn, NY), 27
Halo 3
Champion: MoB Deep
Vincent Pagliano - Coach
Leland Jones (Olathe, KS), 21
Joey Yamcharern (Indianapolis, ID), 20
Jordan Blackburn (Westchester, OH), 19
Ian Schult (Kansas, MI), 21
Runner Up: MoB Hot N Mild
Justin McNeillie (Bakersfield, CA) - Coach
Richard McCardle (Bakersfield, CA)
Aaron Rueda (Stockton, CA)
Codey Loftis (Stockton, CA)
Tomas Ornelas (Denver, CO)
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Champion: Thomas Burke (Moriches, NY), 20
Runner-up: Michael Holmes (Evansville, IN), 21
Third Place: Greg Gunter (Hampton, VA), 21
Carom3D
Champion: Zach Wolters (Genison, MI), 20
Runner-Up: Colin Fogle (Brunswick, OH), 19
Third Place: Calvin Walden (Pensacola, Fl)
RedStone
Champion: Zach Wolters (Genison, MI), 20/Jon Lunceford (Birmingham, AL), 21
Runner-up: Raghav Phadke (Ithaca, NY)/Milo Philips-Brown (Portland, OR)
Third Place: Geoff Robinson (Seattle, WA)/Greg Fields
Mobile
AsphaltTM 4: Elite Racing
Champion: Steven Anderson (Atlanta, GA), 25
Runner-up: Carlos Negron (Miami, FL.),
Third Place: John Vahary (Battle Creek, MI, 21
For more information on the World Cyber Games, please visit www.worldcybergames.com.
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[…] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWorld Cyber Games Announces Team USA America’s 23 Best Gamers Will Defend Team USA’s World Championship Against Over 750 Players From 75 Countries In e-Sports’ Biggest and Most Prestigious Tournament - The 2008 WCG Grand Final - Taking Place In Cologne, Germany November 5-9. (Los Angeles, October 5, 2008) - The World Cyber Games (WCG) USA 2008 … […]
Why do we even have a team? I mean, all we have to really worry about is the Koreans, Germans and Swedes, and when those matches go on it’s always like the Harlem Globetrotters beating the Washington Generals. They win-and look good doing it.
Then I suggest it’s time to get serious about our competitive gaming the way we did about competitive eating. Let’s stop eating, drinking, and exercising, and start training, staying up all night, and giving ourselves carpal tunnal syndrome and become winners in the pro-gamer circuit!
Does Fatal1ty ( http://www.Fatal1ty.com ) compete in any of these tournaments? If he is good enough to be sponsored by Creative Labs and other companies, then shouldn’t he be mopping the floor with these people?
Are any of the games above ones that Fatal1ty plays?
Fatal1ty played fast paced shooters like Quake, Doom, and Unreal Tournament. Nothing like that in the WCG this year. He did have a booth at the National Finals to pimp his products. I think he is officially retired as a professional gamer too, although he does commentary and promotions and things like that.
Not sure if you guys noticed, but I got 2nd in Carom3D (a PC billiards game) and will be going to Germany for Team USA since the first place guy also qualified in another game.
Was looking for news posts regarding it and found it funny that Dreamstation comes up as one of the first results since I wrote a couple reviews for the site awhile ago
Pretty cool.
@mascott106: Last year 14 different nations got medals (8 different nations got golds across 14 different games). The Xbox 360 games give the USA a significant edge, obviously, but it can be argued that the RTS games give Korea a significant edge as well.
@Redeema: Stopping eating, drinking, and exercising would all have a huge negative effect on our performance
I wouldn’t advise that. Another interesting tidbit, Team Germany (the host of the games this year), is holding a mini camp before the event where they are learning how professional sports teams go about discipline and preparing for events, along with other speeches/lectures (no actual gaming as far as I could tell).
@Skyllus zYn - Congratulations on making the team and it is cool that someone from Brunswick, Ohio will be representing the United States.
I have never heard of Carom3D. Why was it chosen as one of the games for this tournament? Is it really popular here or overseas and I just haven’t heard about it? How did you find it and how much time did you spend playing it to be able to win a spot on the US Team?
@cnc137 - Carom3D was chosen most likely because the developers paid to have it on the ciruit. It is a free to play game where you pay for stuff like cues, characters, etc. It has a large amount of players scattered around though, so that is also reason for it. Probably 70% of the players online are Brazilian, followed by Korean and middle eastern/eastern european counties.
There are not a lot of American players on it, and none of the guys who has played the game for a long time signed up for the WCG tournament. The National Finals consisted of 10 players who picked up the game soley to try and win this event and go to Germany.
I spent just around 30 hours of actual playtime, totaling about 200 games of pool. A lot less than I’d have spent for a shooting game where the competition is a lot stronger. We all practiced about the same amount, and pretty much everyone at the national finals was about the same skill.
I’ll be playing against guys with 10,000 games or more (one guy in the Grand Finals from Brazil has 25,000 games played), and they have a gametype I’ve never played (4-Ball…a pocketless gametype which no-one knows about in the USA but really huge in Korea), so I’m not expecting much. Just going to enjoy myself in Germany!