Team USA has won the overall championship in the recently-concluded World Cyber Games (WCG) 2007 held in Seattle, Washington this weekend. The champs bagged a total of 6 medals, just one medal shy of a deadlock with South Korea's seven-medal record.

The Americans dominated in various platforms and came out on top in Gears of War, Dead or Alive 4, Project Gotham Racing, Tony Hawk's Project 8, and Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs

This year also saw the emergence of Germany in the RTS genre with 4 medals, topping powerhouse South Korea's three-medal performance. The United Kingdom also put on a stunner as they swept Starcraft with an unbeaten streak in the Singles game courtesy of star player Apollo.

When all was said and done, more than 700 players from 74 nations expressed their fulfillment in their participation throughout the event. Victory may not have been for everyone, but there was much happiness to be shared.

The World Cyber Games is the biggest e-sports gathering in the planet. It was founded in 2001 and has been one of the industry's most celebrated shindigs ever since, attracting fans and media from all over the world.

With the arrival of Sword of the New World: Granado Espada, K2 has revealed their lineup of events for the Leipzig Games Convention which will be held on the 22nd. If you plan to join the pilgrimage to the Convention, you'll be able to find K2's booth at Exhibit Hall 4, stand B46.

K2 will be displaying a number of their current games in their booth including, of course, Sword of the New World. Aside from that there will be contests and a photo shoot with your favorite K2 character. They'll be using blue screen though, so wear something... not blue.

There will also be a photo shoot with, as K2 describes, a "a sexy female character from Sword of the New World: Granado Espada." Of course there's also the complementary goodies where visitors will walk away with t-shirts, necklaces, mouse pads, and other nice freebies.

A live War Rock tournament will also be held at the KIPA booth on August 23 in the World Cyber Games Booth in Hall 2. Winners will get prizes.

Multiplay is encouraging all LAN game enthusiasts to come and participate in i31 event which is now one of the biggest game gathering of the sort in Europe.

Spanning 1,500 square meters of space, players can bring along their own computers and hook it up on the LAN. Once underway, the gamers can compete in multiplayer skirmishes on titles currently on the World Cyber Games (WCG) lineup, on both PCs and Xbox 360s open to the public use.

Samsung is one of the main sponsors of the event along with other industry heavyweights like Asus, Packard Bell, Intel, Scan, Philips, Crucial and Antec. All of the firms have come to participate to show their support for the popularity of gaming on the PC.

Software giants are also there to add spice to the shindig. EA will be giving a demo of Crysis, THQ will show off Frontlines: Fuel of War and Activision will let players get their hands on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The winners will then be flown to Seattle where the best of the best are poised to prove once more who the king of the PC gaming hill is.

Multiplay Managing director Craig Fletcher was proud to comment "this is the largest and most interactive exhibition we have ever organised".

An interview by 1UP with Community Manager Aaron Kaufman had revealed that Electronic Arts and the Command & Conquer online community were still waging a constant battle revolving around the three things: the 1 vs. 1 ladder system, the disconnect issues, and gameplay balances.

 

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is currently the most played RTS over the PC platform. Xfire's Xstatics placed C&C3 on top of the RTS gaming list, even while contested by more the strategic and unfortunately overlooked Supreme Commander from Gas Powered Games and THQ.

In fact, the game has become so popular that the World Cyber Games has listed this game as one of their flagship titles for the RTS competitive leg, along with Blizzard's Warcraft III: Frozen Throne and original Starcraft. This is where all the troubles began.

Because of the World Cyber Games U.S. Open invitational announcement and the apparent influence it has had on the American Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars online community, there has been a flurry of "did toos" and "did nots" over at the official forums that certain gamers listed on top of the 1 vs. 1 Ladder list are actually cheating.

Gamers who disconnect from a game in order to avert tagging a loss to their stats are now considered as cheaters. Kaufman, better known around the forums as Apoc, explained fixes going to be introduced with patch 1.05 will not only change the current lineup of top performers, but will also establish serious consequences for disconnectors.

But more often than not, gamers have complained that they wouldn't need to disconnect early from a game if the balance issues were addressed in the first place. Instead, they reasoned out that their disconnects are often morale-based, because of one-sided tank rushing power that instantly lop-sides any competition.

Apparently, balance changes will be introduced in the coming 1.05 patch, where Apoc believes that should completely stir up the top 100 players in the ladder rankings. Although it gives aspiring competitors little time to straighten out the rankings and weed out the real top RTS players in the list, Apoc believes the best ones can easily adapt to balance changes and still win in competitive matches.

Microsoft Game Studios, together with Ensemble Studios, has officially announced that their latest award winning Age of Empires title will be getting the "Asian touch" with a second expansion pack, loaded with content of the East. Entitled Age of Empires III: Asian Dynasties, the expansion pack will arrive on Windows XP and Vista by Fall of 2007 as stated by the press release.

Developed by Big Huge Games, makers of Rise of Nations and who are also teamed up with THQ for an as of yet unannounced RPG title, Asian Dynasties will be delivering authentic Asian civilizations present in other genre mimics, such as Sierra's Empire Earth series, while delivering new ways of gameplay plus additional content to Age of Empires III.

For Vista users, the game will be shipping as a Games for Windows title, so expect this content pack to reflect on your Games Explorer, with all the ease of installation and operating system compatibility. Brian Reynolds, CEO and creative director of Big Huge Games commented:

We're honored to have the opportunity to develop Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties with Ensemble Studios and confident that the innovation of both teams will deliver an exciting experience for fans of this franchise. We feel that the in-depth experience of Big Huge Games in the real-time strategy genre, combined with the solid reputation of the Age of Empires franchise, will result in something fresh and unique for gamers.

As of press time, it is unclear if the new expansion pack will affect the 2007 World Cyber Games current game line-up for the PC competitive bracket, running this October.

With several new games added to the list, World Cyber Games 2007 for the U.S. may prove to be more exciting than ever. The U.S. Open will take place in New York City come June 2 - 3 at the Samsung Experience.

Those who can prove themselves will get automatic berths and top seeds for the WCG USA National Championship in September.  But before that, they'll get US$ 20,000 while players for eight certain games will be flying to Mexico for the WCG Pan-American championships; round trip and hotel accommodations all free of charge. The competitors will come from 10 different countries in North and South America, battling it out from June 22 - 24.

 

During the U.S. Open, both spectators and pro gamers alike are invited. WCG encourages it as an "Open", where everyone can play and stars are born. For gamers in the know, this is the chance for spotlight and professional gaming contracts. If you think you've got the competitive skills for the PC and Xbox 360 games they're offering, it's the perfect time to prove yourself.

The tournament will play in a "double elimination" format during the Open, while the individual finals will happen during the 2nd day. After that, champions from all over the world will fly to the last stop of their road to glory. The WCG Grand Final will be held in Seattle, Washington with more than 70 countries vying for gold.

WCG 2006 had 1.3 million competitors in its roster, while 24 million swarmed Monza, Italy to watch the action live. Don't forget, it might be very difficult to win the championships but it's always more important to have fun.

Let us go far as to say that an article like this had to be written, and we're glad that someone actually did. While blogger and PC geek dp was as avid a gamer as any of those who remain of the multi-genre gaming enthusiasts, it's not hard to see where his sentiments are stemming from.

As part of the social subculture in the world, LAN parties used to be the pinnacle of community gatherings and social structuring that allowed gamers to connect on a real inter-personal level. But now, as broadband weaved its way to the mass market, the number of LAN party attendees soon dwindled to nothing.

It was pretty fine at first, of course, as most FPS or RTS gamers who couldn't win a match (even if their lives depended on it) were noticeably the first to go. But then even the mainstream LAN gamers suddenly opted out, seeking out human flesh player pwnage glory in the likes of MMORPG PvP games. The end of the LAN party was at hand.

While broadband's 2Mbps and even 4Mbps is nothing close to the mainstream LAN party's 100Mbps (or if you've got the bucks to blow - 1Gbps), gamers opted for the laggy, increasingly unimaginative but virtual worlds that MMO games had to offer. Players didn't mind not knowing the person that they were playing with, as long as they could be played with. And then players were able to hide behind masks of alter-egos, even if it confused some of the more practical players.

So now the once-mainstream, now-brainwashed gamers spend around eight hours a day crawling around dungeons with pixelized versions of themselves, hacking away at other pixelized versions of monsters with a sorry excuse for AI. Soon, those gamers couldn't pay for their own Internet connections that they soon returned to LAN parties, only to connect their PC to the high-speed network and fire up World of Warcraft. The nerve!

Thanks to some charitable PC enthusiasts who have the audacity to shell out their money for a great LAN gaming session, or even well known game developer companies such as id Software, LAN parties still have a fighting chance to be epic milestones in the gaming community. The upcoming QuakeCon is one of the world's most awaited and celebrated LAN parties, and it's probably the only last refuge of the LAN party culture. Competitive games such as the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Cyber Games need this mechanic, and so it's not a big deal on their part.

So for game enthusiasts that are still out there, here's our calling to revive the gaming culture's biggest social achievement in world history. Let's return it to it's former glory and even seek out to bring the FPS-heads from consoles into our fold. After all, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are all capable of wired and wireless networking. And if it's not hard to ask, can we get more cross-multiplayer titles? Please?

Philips is continuing its bid to form close relationships with the videogame industry. The company has just signed a three-year deal with the World Cyber Games that will see the integration of Philips' immersive amBX gaming peripherals into gaming tourneys as well as the birth of a new competition: the WCG Philips amBX Cup Challenge.

The announcement was made by Michael Arzt, senior vice president and general manager of WCG organizer International Cyber Marketing USA. According to Arzt, as an "Official Global Partner," Philips' exclusive hardware sponsorship designates Philips amBX accessories as the official Ambient Gaming Environment Systems at select WCG events.

"Working with the World Cyber Games is a great opportunity for Philips to showcase the power of amBX and further immerse gamers into the competition," said Engelbert van Pelt, the general manager of peripheral accessories of Philips Electronics.

"Both Philips' and the World Cyber Games' goal is to create an amazing experience for the gamers. We believe the amBX peripherals and the amBX Cup adds a new level of immersive playing never before experienced in the World Cyber Game events."

This year's World Cyber Games will be held on October 4 through 7 in Seattle. Epic Games' hit TPS Gears of War will be one of the many games where gamers will compete in.

 

CMP - the folks responsible for organizing the Game Developers Conference has recently confirmed that they will host a Korean GDC come September this year.

Ah, Korea, land of awesome kimchi, mass-produced MMOs - no offense to the really good ones that came out, cyber athletes/celebrities, the World Cyber Games, and female MMO gamers who sell their virginity for uber in-game items. (A Ragnarok Online myth that's yet to be confirmed, quick, call Jamie and Adam!)

Anyhow, GDC Korea is set to take place from September 13th to 5th at the Bexco Convention Hall in Busan, South Korea. The event is said to capitalize on the country's "fast growing" games community. (What? It's still growing?)

The event is said to consist of a two-day conference on the 13th and the 14th, and an Expo that will run for the full three days. The event is said to also be organized in part by Busan Metropolitan City. For more details on the event, feel free to click our read-link below. It should lead to the official site.

Aspiring pro gamers have another reason to be happy - electronics retail giant Circuit City has announced that it has forged a partnership with the World Cyber Games USA.

The deal involves sponsorship from Circuit City and advertising opportunities from the WCG organization. The cooperation hopes to establish e-sports as a major entertainment platform in the US, similar to what is currently happening in South Korea and Japan.

WCG general manager Michael Arzt has expressed happiness in the development and said that as e-sports begin to burst in the scene, companies like Circuit City are recognizing that there's no better way to reach out to the tech-savvy male crowd. He said that the WCG hopes that the alliance with a top notch partner like this one will bear good results in the years to come.

Local game play-offs are in the works to discover top gaming talents who will qualify for the WCG USA Championships. Circuit City will be the event's official retailer as well.