World Cyber Games shut down

Business

February 6, 2014

The World Cyber Games has shut down, apparently due to increasing competition in eSports – and a break down of relationships between the event’s partners.

It is not clear at this stage if the shut down is temporary for 2014 or permanent, or if this marks the exit of the organisation’s founding CEO Brad Lee, with plans to resurrect the event later.

The event was one of the earliest eSport tournaments; founded in 2000, it helped to showcase pro-gaming on a large-scale never before seen, securing sponsorships from the South Korean government and Samsung.

Styled as the Olympic Games of video gaming, nations from around the globe would play a variety of games ranging from staples such as WarCraft 3, StarCraft, and Counter-Strike, to those of fleeting popularity such as Guitar Hero and Gears of War.

At its height in 2008 and 2009 the total prize purse reached $470,000 and $500,000 respectively, with up to 78 countries competing.

eSport has seen increasing competition with many leagues and organisations popping up to deliver their own tournaments, and following a rough few years, WCG CEO Brad Lee has decided to call it quits.

Below is an e-mail obtained by OnGamers, sent by the CEO to WCG partners. It must be noted that a WCG clarified that the brand cannot be freely used by partners.

This year, World Cyber Games Inc. will not organize tournaments and events, including the World Cyber Games finals world.

Accordingly, each partner can use brand WCG in your country from this point. This decision was made by the WCG committee after considering the current global trend as well as the business environment.

This is a shocking news to you, we know, the entire staff of the WCG was surprised.

In 14 years, all you have to do what makes the best WCG become the greatest events in the world.

There are many great moments based on your dedication. Although the brand has disappeared but WCG spirit will remain forever in the hearts of each player and fans.

This moment is very difficult and painful for me. However, I must say goodbye to the WCG.

I appreciate the passion and enthusiasm of you in 14 years.

I hope your company will grow, prosper, and we will soon meet again.

Brad Lee

World Cyber Games Inc. CEO.

World Cyber Games 2004 – San Francisco, California

While Lee and WCG representatives are blaming increased competition and the loss of partnerships with game publishers, there is also much criticism for the CEO from outside of the WCG camp.

Speaking to DailyDot, Silviu Stroie, the CEO of ComputerGames.ro, Romanian national partner for WCG from 1999 to 2011, blamed Lee for the failure of the WCG, saying he was impossible to work with and that WCG “stopped to be an eSport event years ago and became just a marketing tool. The CEO … never understood what gaming is and what esport actually is,” said Stroie.

For example, Stroie said that LEE increased WCG national licensing fees by 300% from 2011 to 2012, causing many partners to abandon the event resulting in the degraded quality of the competition.

One of the worst decisions made by Lee was to drop Counter-Strike 1.6 in 2012, one of the most popular squad FPS games around the world, in favour of a niche knock-off version only played in some parts of Asia, Counter-Strike Online.

Following this move, WCG reportedly even considered turning into a fully mobile gaming tournament to please sponsor Samsung, but did not do this after community backlash.