WCG 2004 Day 3: Four Gold Medals Won, Four Still Up for Grabs
by Kit

Saturday, October 9 2004

Halo champion retains crown.

A gate of ten thousand descended on the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium today to watch the Grand Final matches and participate in the world’s largest festival of digital culture and e-sports during Day 3 of the World Cyber Games Grand Final.

World Champions were crowned in Halo, Matt Leto (USA), Need for Speed: Underground Niklas Timmerman (Germany), Project Gotham Racing 2 Arthur Vankan (Netherlands) and Unreal Tournament 2004 Laurens Pluymaekers (Netherlands) grabbed gold medals and $25,000 in prize money.

The Halo Final pit reigning gold medalist Matt Leto against Canadian Nelson Triana in a “winner take all” championship battle. American Leto fell behind early in Game One before taking a commanding lead that even a late comeback by the Canadian in the Second Game couldn’t overcome.

Lightning reflexes and amazing hand-eye coordination sped Arthur Vankan (KingTuur) of the Netherlands ahead of Austrian Juergen Unger in the Final for Project Gotham Racing 2. Vankan was thrilled to bring gold home to the Netherlands.

Niklas Timmermann’s expert driving spelled trouble for MyungChun Yoo from Korea. After careening corners at breakneck speed, these two commanders of the consoles brought down the house with a wild final round.

Laurens Pluymaekers of the Netherlands combined hot skills with a cool head to prevail over German Maurice Engelhardt after a second place finish in 2003, making his country the current leaders in the medal count. The four-time WCG veteran was thrilled to win his first medal. “It feels great,” he said. “Great to be first finally.”

Tomorrow will see finals decided in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, StarCraft: Brood War, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and FIFA Soccer 2004.

All winners will be crowned tomorrow in an official medal ceremony at the Civic Center Plaza at 5:00 PM. The ceremony will mark the closing of the largest World Cyber Games Grand Final event in history.

Team 3D Upsets SKGaming in Counter Strike Semifinal

It was standing room only as CounterStrike fanatics flocked to the WCG Cyberspace for a shoutcast of a semifinal between Swedish powerhouse SKGaming and Team USA’s Team 3D, a rematch of the 2003 CounterStrike final. To the delight of 3,200 fans cheered on site and online. Team 3D squeaked through to the final where they will face the Titans from Denmark.

Cyberspace was also the scene of some real live military action as soldiers Joe King and Chris Haigh of the US Army emerged as champions of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines in a special Halo Military Challenge.

--- Kit