When the ESWC announced that it would move from France to the United States a lot of eyebrows were raised. The Electronic Sports World Cup events have given esports a certain style or sexiness if you will, through its different French venues in Paris and the surrounding provinces.

It has shown us that gaming events do not have to be sweat contests, hidden away in the basement. The ESWC became the first to employ traditional sporting characteristics to gaming where the emotional outbursts of the competitors are just as important to the experience as what goes on in the actual matches. Furthermore they chose to stay true to gaming when the other event organizers strayed over to the world of big conventions. ESWC’s realization made their events more exciting for everyone – because it was just about professional gaming – and nothing else.

The 2008 event changes that success formula dramatically.

Don’t change a winning team

The city of lights is substituted for San Jose, a switch most likely motivated by the desire to get closer to their head sponsors Nvidia and - alas – their yearly convention Nvision. The world famous sights of Paris were dropped for the capital of Silicon Valley and some would say it’s only fitting for what electronic sports are all about. They might be right about that but coming here I was afraid we would witness another event as a sideshow at a big convention – and I think the players were scared too. Especially considering ESWC’s status with the gamers – it has been considered the event for a couple of years now.

It would be terrible to see the most stacked 1.6 tournament on record downplayed and tucked away in a corner when the world is watching. Another problem associated with holding it at a convention is that it shaves time of the schedule. Where ESWC have had three to four day long tournaments in the past the two first group stages, which constitute the bulk of the action, will be played out on Monday – according to scheduling. This is 72 (!) matches of max rounds 15 in twelve hours.

The fans will suffer the downside of the excessive match load. It’ll be impossible to watch all their favorite teams and all the big matches. Naturally the demos can be downloaded later but the most intriguing thing about electronic sports is that we can follow the events from the comfort of our homes and watch our heroes perform live.

Upside walking in

Walking into the venue it’s easy to be struck by awe. The set up, both for the stage and the enormous tournament area looks terrific.

I saw more than one famous player foaming at the mouth and gazing at the stage where only the best get to play. It looks as if ESWC certainly knew what they were doing, and more importantly, that moving the tournament across the Atlantic would improve its quality. If the quality of the matches can warrant it, and with the teams in attendance I am almost sure it will, then we can look forward to audiences going wild with the action again.
The tournament is about to start with SK, Fnatic, MYM, MTW, wNv, eSTRO, Mousesports Alternate aTTaX, Evil Geniuses, MIBR, Roccat and Emulate fighting to be crowned champions of the world.

Please refer to our LIVE blog – or list of HLTV ip’s to get the most out of all the action.