The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an international eSports competition that has been held annually since 2000. The competition involves hundreds of athletes competing in many games types.
The event is considered the Esports Olympics, and they even try to emulate the Olympic Games by including an official opening ceremony, with players competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals.
The World Cyber Games concept was created in 2000 by International Cyber Marketing CEO Yooseop Oh and backed financially by Samsung. The first event in 2000, was called the World Cyber Games Challenge. Events since then have been called the World Cyber Games.
From 2000 until 2013, the event was held annually. In 2014, it was announced the closing of WCG. Years later the concept was revived, and a World Cyber Games was planned for 2018 in Bangkok. That event was canceled, but since then there have been events in 2019, 2020 and 2023.
The first event in 2000 included the games Age of Empires II, FIFA 2000, Quake III Arena and StarCraft: Brood War. The World Cyber Games 2008 had a record number of game (14 games), including Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, Asphalt 4, Carom3D, Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, Counter-Strike 1.6, FIFA 08, Guitar Hero 3, Halo 3, Need for Speed: ProStreet, Project Gotham Racing, Red Stone, StarCraft: Brood War, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and Virtua Fighter 5. The 2020 event was back to just four games: CrossFire, Warcraft III: Reforged, Honor of Kings, FIFA ONLINE 4
The competition has been growing in popularity. The event in 2020, held online due to the COVID pandemic, received nearly 650 million views worldwide. The last event was held in Busan, South Korea in 2023, included: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Clash Royale, Hearthstone, Valorant, and Genshin Impact.
Related Pages
- More esports tournaments
- Protecting Your Sensitive Information While Playing eSports
- All about esports
- About the sport of Gaming (eSports)
- ESports at the Olympic Games
- Do you think esports should be added to the Olympic Games program [poll]