Return of the Kings: US Gamers Sweep World Cyber Games

    NEW YORK, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The US contingent to the 2005 World
 Cyber Games' Grand Final in Singapore returned as overall champions after
 winning two gold medals and one silver. Capturing the world champion title for
 the first time, medals for the US team came in Counter-Strike, Halo 2 and
 WarCraft III: Frozen Throne against a field of 700 of the world's best gamers
 representing 67 countries.
     The Grand Final culminated eight months of competition that saw 1.25
 million gamers attempt to qualify for the right to represent their country in
 one of eight games (six PC, two Xbox) and a share of the more than $2.5
 million in prizes. As the Samsung sponsored World Cyber Games is an open
 tournament, it has always featured a mix of amateur competitors and the
 world's top pros; it's widely held that if you want to go pro, you have to win
 here first.
     With hosts Singapore giving a warm and enthusiastic welcome, the 2005
 World Cyber Games will go down as one of the greatest e-Sports events in
 history. More than 55,000 gaming fans witnessed 1,000 matches officiated by 47
 referees during the course of 5 days. Highlight matches held on the main stage
 regularly drew crowds of 2,500. 530,000 spectators followed the action via the
 online broadcast.
     "This has been the most successful Grand Final to date," said Hank Jeong,
 CEO of International Cyber Marketing, global organizers of the World Cyber
 Games. "The crowds voted with their feet, and we earned the right to say we
 are the biggest competition of its kind in the world. As we continue to
 pioneer the e-Sports category, we are seeing a great variety of nations
 becoming more competitive. The World Cyber Games has truly evolved to become
 the gaming equivalent of the Olympics."
     Kyle Miller (Washington DC), Ronald Kim (Dallas, TX), Sal Garozzo (New
 York, NY), Josh Sievers (Des Moines, IA), and Mike So (Los Angeles, CA)
 comprise Team 3D, who repeated as gold medalists in Counter-Strike for the
 second year. Now candidates for the World Cyber Games' Hall of Fame, Team 3D
 upended an upstart Kazakhstan in the final after an exciting run on both sides
 of the bracket. The fierce competition from North American, European and Asian
 teams signals the rise in popularity globally of Counter-Strike within the
 world of e-Sports.
     Dan and Tom Ryan, a set of 19 year-old twin brothers from Pickerington,
 Ohio, who play under the gaming alias Ogre Twins, dominated the Halo 2 event
 making easy work of Canada in the final. Also playing under the Team 3D
 banner, the Ogre Twins are poised for a long and prosperous professional
 career.
     Dennis Chan of Sunset Beach, CA took the silver in WarCraft III. A
 seasoned veteran, Chan made waves in the gaming community by upsetting
 reigning WarCraft champion Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen of the Netherlands in
 the semifinal. Chan couldn't carry that dominance through the final however,
 when faced with a fierce Xiaofeng Li of China and boisterous partisan crowd.
     There were rock-star moments a plenty for the winners and local favorites
 as they were held on stage for extended applause, autograph signings and photo
 ops following matches. The press corps tallied close 400 globally and the
 multi-lingual press conferences that followed the gold medal matches were
 conducted with great spirit and sportsmanship despite language and political
 barriers.
     Next year's Grand Final will be held in Europe -- Monza, Italy, home of
 the Italian Grand Prix -- for the first time ever, and so the refrain began as
 the final curtain came down in Singapore, "See you in Monza."
     Full results for all matches, as well as highlights, photos, medalists'
 info are available online at http://www.worldcybergames.com
 
      ***Images and B-roll footage available upon request***
 
     About The World Cyber Games
     International Cyber Marketing (http://www.worldcybergames.com) is the
 global organizer of the World Cyber Games, the world's largest computer and
 video game festival, and is the licenser for all World Cyber Games interactive
 game tournaments to be held in about 67 countries in 2005. Now in its fifth
 official year, the World Cyber Games has ushered in a new dimension of
 e-Sports where game enthusiasts can look forward to some of the most intense
 and dynamic video game action by the best players on the planet.
 
 

SOURCE  World Cyber Games