Asian Indoor Games 2009 for E-sports: Does it even matter?
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Asian Indoor Games 2009 for E-sports: Does it even matter? »
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Written by: bender 07/11/2009 19:28:42
Disclaimer: This post means no offense to any of the players, organizations, or countries mentioned below. All the views and critics are only limited to the authors own point of view. The Asian Indoor Games 2009, held in Hanoi, Vietnam a few days ago has just ended with a semi-grand closing ceremony. I was there personally to give coverage on the whole event, as well as meet up and to support our very own player,  DuskBin.F91. However, a few days before my flight, I was only then informed about China will not be sending F91 to take part in the event, the reason being there was some kind of “limitation”. I was of course, very confused, but I was off to Vietnam anyway. Prior to the event, AIG didn’t even have much news promoting it – to be honest, no one knows about it at all. It was very poor exposure to the E-sports scene. So.... What title did they play again? The day before the opening ceremony of the event, everything in the stadium seemed to be prepared pretty well. 6 huge LCD televisions facing the audience rows, one main projector at the center of the stadium, a stage on the middle, and a whole lot of computers – everything seemed very fine to me, or even exceeded some of my initial expectations, not that I had high expectations. However, the list of competing so called “E-sports” titles include Fifa08, Starcraft, DotA, Counterstrike, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and NBA Live 08. How can they even make NBA Live 08 an E-sports title? Yes, basketball is a sport, but it doesn’t automatically make the title an E-sports. Some sense here please? Also, when I got hold of the list of players attending the event, everything seemed to have crumbled into pieces. For Starcraft, Flash and Fantasy, arguably the 2 best Terrans in the world right now, are attending the event. Along with 2 players from China, 2 from Qatar, and 1 from India. The problem is, the 2 players who was representing China was their NBA and NFS players, the same goes for the guys from Qatar and India. Apparently it was the organizers’ idea, which most of them probably have no knowledge on E-sports at all, and not willing to listen to committee members’ ideas, didn’t want to include the rule that one player can only participate in one title during the AIG. This has caused the countries to send a limited number of players whom they have confidence on winning one of the titles, and give it a go on the other titles anyway – since it minimizes the “unnecessary” budget to pit their own players against players like Flash, or WeMadeFOX. The dates of the event clashing with IEF held in Suwon, Korea, was a disadvantage, but not to the extent of these happening. There was like, 3 teams participating in the DotA tournament? And not to mention one of them was the CounterStrike team from Uzbekistan. During the tournament stages, only CounterStrike and DotA games were broadcasted in ALL 6 LCD TVs, while the main projector showing the same frag video clip over and over for the whole duration of the Asian Indoor Games Esports (4 days), not including the Starcraft games of Flash and Fantasy – guess someone knocked the sense into them. The games like NBA Live, Fifa08, NFS, Starcraft – all aren’t shown anywhere and no one could watch them anywhere. Hell, no one even knows the games were played. All of them were executed very poorly. It was pure boredom being in the stadium, with the exception of some close CS games.  Organizers looking important As I walked by the alley, I noticed one of the Qatar players was competing in a Fifa08 match. He looked like he was in a very bad mood. While I was guessing, the coach/leader of Qatar came to talk to him in a language that I didn’t understand, and then the coach told the referee that their player would forfeit because “he was exhausted, playing too many games in a day”. Is this a joke? Played too many games in a day and forfeit because he was tired, can we not call this an E-sports event for cyber athletes? It was very funny and disheartening at the same time. During the ending ceremony, medals were given to the “E-sports athletes”. Guess what – they have actually TWO bronze medals. And there was only 3 teams taking part in the DotA tournament – which results in an empty slot for one of the bronze medals, while the Uzbekistan CounterStrike team won the bronze medal for DotA. As for Starcraft, 2 China NBA and NFS players won the bronze medals – which any random 1v1 Starcraft player could’ve owned them completely. They seem so happy winning something they did not deserve, so what did they win again? Honoring the flag raising and song of the winner’s country after every medal giving ceremony, I think it’s ridiculous. What’s even funnier was Iran won this E-sports category with a total of 2 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze. 2 golds from NBA live and Fifa08, while Korea is 2nd with 2 gold and 1 silver. Hooray, now Iran’s the top E-sports country in Asia, over Korea!  Hey look, we won BOTH Counterstrike and DotA medals!  Not bad exposure, for an NBA live player playing Starcraft.  Wait, two 3rd places? I’m really ashamed to see this named as an E-sports event. Even the smallest E-sports event I’ve been to was done much better than this. Let’s just say it’s the E-sports joke of the year – I wonder what else could top this though. |
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Comments
It looks so sad...
yes~ f91 cant go ~ sad case ><;
sad...sad
every year's AIG that held in vietnam also so bad ?
last 2 years was held in Macau and Bangkok if I'm not mistaken
I totally agree it's the eSports joke of the year :-c
i think Duskbin are the only coverage so far for this event... great coverage but funniest eSports event... thumbs up for them.. lol
shame on malaysia they didn't even bother to send e-sports team over there..
It's a joke of a year ... bad organized ...
I feel so sad and sorry for foreigner players come to Vn.:-<... It's hard to imagine that our gov might organize this event like this sh!t
-_-
ok. Sounds horrible. I was looking at what seem to be the SPONSOR logo at the backdrop, no reputable computer / gaming related brands?
And my goodness, NFS:MW - don't they have PRO-STREET or something?
I am really sad for international friends to attend a prize AIG,but over all sad because ignorance of the organizers of the subjects esprot at AIG
Sadly that The Vietnamese government doesn't give a shit about Esport... I mean they don't even know what it is?? And on Tv, they don't even update news about Esport.. Video games don't get much attention by the Gov, but the gamers care much more... So as a gamer, I feel angry and so embarrassed because of this event
And my goodness, NFS:MW - don't they have PRO-STREET or something?
It's based on NFP in wcg 2008 :D:D.
real joke lol such a disgraced
Let's just say, you guys are TOTALLY right. At first, I am TOTALLY REALLY ANGRILY mad; how the heck can this be an asian e-sports gaming league?
Now, I have found out why: nobody, especially the grown-ups and except the real gamers of VN, really cares. You guys know why? Because: In our country, E-sports is very new to these guys; they might not get a clue between SC and DOTA ( living proof: VTV - this channel's website used to say that VN won the Gold Medal in SC @@ - but it is actually DOTA ). And, in our country, there are many fights and troublemaking situations made by crazy gamers and had been posted on newspapers, so grown-ups judge these sports only by its downside. They don't know what e-sports like. I heard my Grandpa say this and I felt VERY sad ( he spoke VNmese but I'll translate it simply like this ): " Oh! Big deal. They are just some young guys who skip school and play games to satisfy themselves. Not so important that they won this medal about this..... this..... gaming thing "......
This is sad :(
Perhaps the future will be better...provided if it's not run by those know-absolutely-about-games authorities.
Guessing by the infrastructure as seen in the pictures its mostly an event being addressed so bad is due to a poor or an illiterate(in gaming sense) management.
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