The World Cyber Games is one of those events that Indian gamers wait for the same way all cricket fans wait for the World Cup. But there was one more reason, why gamers were waiting for WCG 2007 India finals that were held yesterday at the World Trade Center at Cuffe Parade in downtown Mumbai.
That reason was the much hyped Counter-Strike match between the Indian winners and the visiting Pakistani clan. However, before that the Indian finalists had to be crowned. The WCG 2007 India finals saw the winners from the city preliminaries go head on in games such as Counter Strike 1.6, Warcraft III Frozen Throne, FIFA Soccer 2007, Need for Speed – Carbon, Age of Empires III and Project Gotham Racing.
Here is the list of winners of WCG 2007 India Winners:
Counter Strike 1.6: ATE
Warcraft III Frozen Throne: Sagar Vaishnav
FIFA Soccer 2007: Reuben Pereira
NFS Carbon: Arun Ravi Singh
Age of Empires III – Chotu Vohra
Project Gotham Racing: Yash Mayekar
Prizes for the winners and the runners-up included cash as well as goodies such as USB Drives, 1 GB RAM memory card from Kingston and Adidas T Shirts. Samsung also gave T Shirts, jackets and is also paying for the trip to World Finals of WCG 2007 at Seattle for the National winning team.
Just like every other gaming event, this one too had a presence of a celebrity. World Cup Winner Kapil Dev made an appearance along with a couple of Samsung execs. He spoke on the rivalries that have always been there and the tensed atmosphere that is a part of any Indo-Pak sports event.
Mr R Zutshi, Dy. Managing Director, Samsung India commented, “Gaming is emerging as a very strong entertainment platform across the world, especially amongst the youth and the World Cyber Games, with its Slogan of ‘Beyond the Game’ seeks to promote a healthy cyber culture. In keeping with the spirit of the Game, we have invited the Pakistani ‘Counterstrike’ team to come and play a Friendly match with our Indian Winners This friendly match between India and Pakistan for ‘Counterstrike’, we expect, will further fuel the interest in gaming in both the countries.”
Before the event, we spoke to the Captain of the Pakistan ‘Counterstrike’ team, Syed Zain. We asked him as to what according to him is the main difference between the gaming scene in India and in Pakistan. He replied that the numbers are very less over there. He said that if in India there are 1000 people into gaming, there are only 300 over there.
The first Indo-Pak e-sports event began with a bang with the spectators cheering aloud. One side you had the Pakistani CS clan Havok in their fluorescent jerseys and on the other side, we had the Indian CS team wearing the traditional blue T-shirts, but I suspect they were Chelsea FC’s home kit, just turned inside out! However, the matches were nearly one sided as the Indians beat the Pakistanis 3-0. They first battled it out on the Nuke map, where the Indians won 16-2. Then they fought on the Inferno map where they won 16-6 and then finished it of in Dust2 16-7.
The WCG 2007 India winners will now head to Seattle, Washington USA where the WCG World Finals will be held from October 3 to October 7, 2007. Let’s hope our e-sportspersons do India proud and get some medals at the WCG World Finals 2007. Here’s wishing them all the best. We will also be uploading an exclusive video of WCG India 2007 finals, keep watching this space for further updates!