WCG 2009 (Competitor’s View)

Well, since Aaron and Nasyirah blogged about WCG 2009 as a spectator and worker respectively, I was thinking,”Maybe I should blog too, but with a competitor’s view?”. Since I did compete in WCG 2009 in FIFA 09…

Well, WCG has been a familar event with me. I’ve been to the WCG National Finals as a spectator since 2005, went to the Grand Finals at Singapore in 2005, which was held in 2005, but never once did I ever went there as a competitor. Well… until this year .

I reached Suntec at around 8, near to 9 plus in ther morning… and I had to wait for around 1 hour until I + the other FIFA 09/Blackshot players were allowed to register. Well… there’s always delays in WCG… something that I did not like. Another thing that I did not like is the downsizing of WCG. In 2005, when the whole world was still able to afford big events, there were like 3 (yes,3) convention halls that were used for the Grand Finals. For the National Finals in 2005, there was at least 1 convention hall. Now, let see…. 1 puny little exhibition hall… Well.. what a fall from glory that was…

I played a total of 4 matches. The organisation for the competition was totally screwed, with a total of 2 people playing in my group out of the 4, with another 1 being late. Add this on with the fact that the top 3 qualify and it meant that it was ridiculous… I lost the 2 matches, but still got 2nd in my group… Ridiculous.. but the controller I used then did not allow me to use tackling and through balls, so you could see what a futile waste of time it was. For the next round, I got a Windows Xbox 360 controller, which I was forced to buy, since I couldn’t find other controllers that can interface with the computer asap. I played another 2 matches with 1 guy. 1st match was a draw, 1:1. The second was very close…. me losing 3:4.

I stayed for quite a while, looking around the other exhibitions, which was boring in my sense. However, I did watched a really close DOTA match with the 1 team barely winning it as their frozen throne was also going to be down… I also watched Team Titans (the best CS clan in Singapore) owning another team 16:1, with the 1 a gift from Titans to the team…

I saw some of my course mates (though most of them were my classmates) working at WCG… They were there either slacking or playing the games there… Well, good for them… earning money doing almost nothing but play games and walking around + meals provided.

I had an okay experience with WCG 2009, though there’s much room for improvement compared to the last few years (not counting WCG 2005). I do hope that they can improve it, though I think it might be impossible due to the current recession.

ZX