South Korea dominates World Cyber Games
Four gold medals were awarded to South Korean gamers Sunday at the 10th annual World Cyber Games Grand Final, a four-day contest in Los Angeles with more than 400 competitors from 58 countries.
South Korea previously dominated at the grand finals in Chengdu, China, and Cologne, Germany. This year's winning 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.
Gamers from the United States weren't far behind South Korea, with three gold medals. Earning the accolade was the five-member CounterLogic team for League of Legends, the six-man AmeriMiX team for Quake Wars Online and Alec (Acai28) Castillo for Guitar Hero 5. Castillo bested a player from the United Kingdom on Rush's The Spirit of Radio in the final round.
"It's a really fun song," he said after Sunday's closing ceremonies. "I beat him at the last second."
Players who previously qualified at regional competitions held across the globe faced off for tournament-style matches in 13 games for more than $250,000 US in prize money, as well as televisions, netbooks and other gear.
The five-member NaVi team from Ukraine toppled a team from Denmark to take $25,000 US for dominating in the first-person shooter Counter-Strike.
Other gold medallists were Fernando (Pantaneiro) Rogoski of Brazil for Carom3D, Charlie (Tenshii) Elliott of Australia for Asphalt 5, Kevin (daimonde) Santner of Germany for FIFA 10, David (d.Daveyskills) Kelly of the United Kingdom for Forza Motorsport 3 and Kalle (Frostbeule) Moertlund Videkull of Sweden for TrackMania Nations Forever.