The World Cyber Games is making a comeback in 2019 after a long six-year hiatus. This year's competitions will be held in Xi'an, China, from July 18 to July 21.
WCG was the brainchild of International Cyber Marketing CEO Yooseop Oh, and was backed financially by Samsung. Considered then as the esports Olympics, teams from different countries competed for gold, silver, and bronze medals. The first WCG was held in South Korea back in 2000. Five games were offered during the original tournament, including Age of Empires II, FIFA 2000, Quake III Arena, StarCraft: Brood War, and Unreal Tournament. A total of 17 countries with an aggregate of 174 participants competed. By 2001, Counter-Strike was added and the participating countries ballooned to 37.
The last time WCG was held was in 2013, with 38 countries participating and 10 games offered. By 2014 WCG was closed with some partners alleging the difficulty of working with the organization.
WCG Hall of Famers include the Counter-Strike Poland players Filip 'neo' Kubski, Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyński, Mariusz 'Loord' Cybulski, and Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas, with three golds and one bronze. Notable Warcraft Hall of Famers are China's Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li and Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen of the Netherlands.
This year, the new organizers are more than serious in reviving the tournament. For the WCG 2019, the seven games to be played are Clash Royale, CrossFire, Dota 2, Hearthstone, Honor of Kings, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
WCG has also released the prizes for this year's tournaments. First place finishers for Dota 2, Crossfire, and Honor of Kings get $80,000, with Clash Royale champion getting $50,000 and Hearthstone and Warcraft receiving $25,000.
The WCG Committee also announced that it was removing the clause in the General Regulation that pertained to the requirement for minimum number of participants per nation to enter tournament. It was ruled that countries having less than 4 teams/players for respective games can now participate in WCG National Qualifier. This decision was made in order "to provide all players participating in WCG, with opportunity to represent their country and region."
