San Francisco Tops Bids from Seoul, Singapore, and Milan to Become First WCG Host City Outside of Korea.

(September 3, 2003)  The World Cyber Games officially announced today that San Francisco will be the WCG Grand Final host city for the year 2004, taking the world’s largest e-sports event to a new level of global excitement and interest.

The announcement was made at a press conference in San Francisco City Hall on September 3.  Mr. Il-hyung Chang attended the conference on behalf of Mr. Jong-yong Yun, co-chairman of the World Cyber Games Committee (WCGC), along with Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr., of San Francisco and Mr. Heung-seop Jeong, president of International Cyber Marketing, the worldwide organizer of WCG.

The WCG 2004 Grand Final in San Francisco will mark the first time the ultimate WCG event has been held outside of Korea, its birthplace, and will solidify WCG’s standing as the largest and most truly international e-sports competition in the world.

The WCG Committee indicated selected San Francisco after the city’s bid gained the highest score during the rigorous evaluation process, beating out excellent bids from several other candidate cities that also expressed a strong desire to hold the event.   San Francisco’s bid included the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and historic Civic Center Plaza as outstanding event venues. In the end, San Francisco was selected for the city’s international character as the “Gateway to the Pacific,” outstanding tourism infrastructure, unique position as the world’s center of technology and digital entertainment, and because of the location’s strategic importance in strengthening the WCG as a world-class e-sports event.

“San Francisco, a center of technology, business, trade, and cultural exchange, perfectly suits the goals of the WCG: global harmony and digital entertainment,” said Mr. Il-hyung Chang, Senior Vice President of Samsung Electronics, on behalf of Mr. Jong-yong Yun, the co-chairman of the WCGC. “The WCG Committee is confident that holding the WCG 2004 Grand Final in San Francisco will greatly enhance the global image of the World Cyber Games.”

The WCG launched in 2000 with a preliminary event called the World Cyber Challenge, and was first held officially in 2001 as the World Cyber Games. Since then, the WCG has grown to be the greatest global festival for gamers and digital entertainment culture throughout the world, with 55 countries now participating. Over the last three years, the WCG Grand Final has been held in the Korean cities of Seoul and Daejeon. However, starting with San Francisco in 2004, the WCG Grand Final will continue to be held in different cities across the globe.

The World Cyber Games 2003 Grand Final, scheduled to be held in the Seoul Olympic Park from Oct. 12 through Oct. 18, will showcase world-class competition between top gamers from around the world in seven official games including: Age of Mythology, FIFA Soccer 2003, Halo, Half-Life: Counter-Strike, StarCraft: Brood War, Unreal Tournament 2003, and WarCraft III. A week-long festival of entertainment, exhibitions, music, and cultural exchange surrounds the competition, truly bringing the WCG Grand Final “Beyond the Game.”