LOS ANGELES -- What is often heralded as the Olympics of computer gaming, the World Cyber Games (WCG) 2010 wrapped up with the Grand Final last night at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California. The tenth edition of the WCG brought together 450 gamers from 58 countries, with 32,000 attendees at the convention center and millions watching a live stream over the Internet on the WCG website. The winners shared USD$250,000 in cash and prizes. When all was said and done, South Korea emerged as the country that had collected the most medals. Individuals and teams will bring home 3 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze medals. The UK, Germany and Brazil tied for second with 1 gold, and 1 silver each, while teams from the US, Ukraine, Sweden and Australia tied for third place with 1 gold medal each.
South Korean gold medallists were Young-Ho (Flash) Lee in StarCraft, Jae-Min (Knee) Bae for Tekken 6, Sung-Sik (ReMinD) Kim for Warcraft III and the three-man Sanarae team of Young-Ho Jeon, Hyun-Sub Kim and Tae-Kyung Park for Lost Saga.
The WCG is regarded as the world's largest computer and video game contest which attracts the best players from around the globe. Eight countries broadcast the final ceremony was in not the least of which were Russia, China and Germany. The event was covered by nearly 400 media staffers from outlets around the world.
Samsung is a key sponsor of the event and due to their efforts the closing ceremonies were deemed the 'greenest Grand Final ever.' Samsung consulted with Carbonfund.org, the leader in certified carbon offsets to reduce the WCG "carbon footprint" by managing the electricity that powered the tournament to monitoring the the airline emissions of the carriers that the players used to travel to LA. Samsung was honored at the closing ceremony and awarded the first Corporate Climate Leadership Award by Carbonfund.org for a broad range of contributions to saving the environmental.
The contestants weren't the only winners at at the WCG. The Los Angeles County Education Foundation receive a number of Samsung SyncMaster monitors valued in excess of $120,000, which was a donation from the World Cyber Games. The monitors will improve classrooms and after-school programs, as well as and encourage the use and development of technology in education around California.
