Like I mentioned earlier, Korean competitive gamers are as famous as our own professional sports athletes. During Blizzard's presentation (and prior to the StarCraft 2 announcement and demo), they introduced some of the top players for each of the tournaments: StarCraft, WarCraft III, and new this year, World of Warcraft. (Blizzard president Mike Morhaime stated that this was the most Blizzard tournaments they've ever held in one place). Many of the players were South Korean, but there were several representatives from Sweden, France, China, Japan, the United States and Canada as well. And when they came on stage, one-by-one like a basketball line-up, the crowd screamed wildly.
Next, a Korean player and an English-speaking player both took an oath of fairness for all of
the players, which read: "As a competitor of 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, I shall play fair and square for my country and the races of each title. I thus take oath in front of all witnesses."
The tournaments will take place all day and the finals are tomorrow night.
Did I mention the fireworks? Yeah, there were fireworks.
The Warcraft III players take the stage.
The only American player I noticed.
Under oath... in English.
The oath in Korean.