An audience of 12,000 gathered to watch the final stretch of a three-day game tournament that closed the London Games Festival this weekend.
The World Series of Video Games (WSVG) UK Gaming Championship was held at the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus and featured 200 professional gamers from around the world battling it out for bragging rights and cash prizes. Contestants played Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III, and Quake 4, all on the PC. Well-known professional gamers including Fatal1ty, Stermy, Toxic, Team Fnatic, and homegrown UK entrants 4 Kings were in attendance.
The Counter-Strike winners were Pentagram G-Shock in first place and Hoorai in second. Johan "Toxic" Quick won the Quake 4 tournament, with Alessandro "Stermy" Avallone coming in second. Manuel "4k^Grubby" Shenkhuizen was the Warcraft III champion, and Michael "mouz. Glacomo" Hladik grabbed runner-up. The first and second place winners for each game will be invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to the finals later in the year, when the overall winners will be crowned.
Although the action at the UK event was confined to PCs, the WSVG is a multiple-platform video game competition circuit and has previously held competitions for console offerings like Halo 2 and Project Gotham Racing 3. The group is aiming to "develop a set of unified rules and regulations, and to elevate competitive gaming as a sport and a profession."
Other highlights of the event included an appearance by Steve-O from Jackass, a Miss World of Video Games contest, and a working three-metre-high joystick.
News source: Gamespot UK
