The game, which our parents’ generation used to hugger-mugger, has been settled as one significant industry, repelling all these negative perceptions, with the name of ‘e-sports’. The proof of the power of ‘e-sports’ had arranged at Suwon, Korea on last 29th of Oct. The Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hosted the 2011 Korea e-Sports Games (KeG) from 29th to 30th with Suwon City. Having 3rd anniversary in this year, KeG has become the most prestigious amateur e-sports tournament in Korea, and is aiming expansion of s-sports infrastructure for amateurs, promotion of domestic e-sports titles, and activation of local e-sports.
600 players from 16 local cities have participated and compete on 4 official titles (FIFA ONLINE2, Special Force, Slugger, and A.V.A) and 1 demonstration title (Karma). Also, for opening ceremony on 29th, many of VIPs have participated and encouraged all the players with high praise. Especially, the minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr. Kwang Sik, Choi, caught people’s attention by personally playing ‘Slugger’, a baseball game.
The Minister said, “Although e-sports have been recessed by recent negative perceptions on games, as befits to the name of e-sports suzerain, we will spare no effort to upraise the e-sports as general sports.”
In the main tournaments, all the skilled players, who have been through cutthroat local preliminaries of 6months, showed up incredible matches in every bit as good as professional gamers do. The championship in general fell upon team Busan, who won the 1st place on FIFA Online2 and did well in general. The team Busan also won the award of minister and 5milion KRW of prize money at the same time.
Experiential events at the online game promotion booths also caught attention of people as well as the tournament. First of all, at the promotion zone of Drangonfly Co. Ltd., experience zone for ‘Special Force’ and ‘Karma’ was arranged, as well as shooting zone and convenience store. Also, at the booth for Neowiz Games, various giveaways were provided to participants in promotional events for ‘A.V.A’, ‘FIFA Online2’, and ‘Slugger’. At the com2us booth, homerun derby event was conducted with popular mobile game, ‘Homerun battle 3D’. Besides, a product sponsor of this event, Razer provided promotional booth where people can try Razer’s gaming devices.
The industry of e-sports is being settled as one of the most important growth engine for next generation. Hope the KeG may provide opportunity to develop e-sports as sound industry, and to improve negative perceptions on games and e-sports.
Menu
Menu
