Grand Final of ‘GNGWC 2011’ Held in G-Star, Busan, Amid Much Fanfare

Hosted by Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Kwang Shik Choi) and organized by Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA, President Jae Woong Lee), the Game & Game World Championship 2011 (GNGWC 2011), a festival of the world's gamers, finally selected the world's champions for three games.

In its sixth year this year, GNGWC 2011 held its grand final on November 13, the last day of G-Star 2011, in BEXCO, Busan. The official games this year were 'ShotOnline (OnNet)', ''WarRock (Dream Execution)', and 'AceOnline (Masang Soft)' for which final competitions were held by continent and the world's gamers fiercely competed for the title of world champion and a prize of US$ 27,000.

Fifty-four gamers from 19 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Russia, Austria, Vietnam and Japan, gathered from 10 a.m. for the final competition, enjoyed the festival and prepared for the games as protagonists.

The first game for which the final competition was held on stage was ShotOnline, a golf game. Selected for six consecutive years as an official game representing GNGWC, ShotOnline is a popular game and a competition for which many users prepare for every year. For the final competition, players '№1『10,000』?' who won the final competition in Korea, 'RinnaiTiger' who won the semi-final and 'tim16', a player who came all the way from Austria, competed. For the first game, they all recorded the same score and arduously fought to win the world championship.

Eventually Austria's 'tim16' dropped out first and '№1『10,000』?' and 'RinnaiTiger' played a tight match after which 'RinnaiTiger' won the title of World Championship. The second fight between '№1『10,000』?' and 'RinnaiTiger' after the first contest in the Korean final ended with 'RinnaiTiger' winning this time around.

WarRock is a FPS game with various guns and a large-scale war for equipment played with four people in a team. At the final contest, Korea's 'Clan Take' and the allied team of the United Kingdom and Canada 'Innovaelite' competed. Given the characteristics of a FPS game, the broadcasting of the players' position or behavior was restrained and the audience viewed the competition on a big screen tensely holding their breath.

During the first game, the Korean team 'Clan Take' won and seemed to lead the game, but during the second and third games, the allied team 'Innovaelite' led the games to eventually won the competition. As four people make up a team to play, the importance of teamplay was emphasized making everyone watching the game tense. In addition, "Aion Chuu" from Japan and "Cyberforce" from Germany each recorded the third and fourth place, respectively. WarRock proved once again its popularity as a game played by gamers in 40 countries worldwide.

Last, the competition for AceOnline was held on stage. As a game of air shooting where one chases and is chased by the counterpart, the winner was selected after winning two out of three games. AceOnline is the only game there was no Korean finalist and a Korean stalled at third place. The final competition between players from Portugal and Vietnam drew much attention.

Portugal's 'Ph0bi4' had won all games in the regional finals and played like a spear while Vietnam's '___PUCCA___' known to play like a shield strongly defended during the game. Commensurate to their reputation, the winner between the spear and shield was not easily discernible.

The two tied during the first game and the second game ended with Portugal's 'Ph0bi4' winning with much difficulty. During the last third game, both players were shot down simultaneously, making it difficult to tell who had won, but after decoding through a screen shot, Vietnam's '___PUCCA___' was deemed to have won. It was eventually declared that both were winners, an unusual outcome.

Through GNGWC 2011, game developers of different types achieved much including sales growth and the drawing of new members amidst high interest expressed by gamers. In the case of ShotOnline, the final game was broadcast live (web stream broadcasting) and over 2,000 people in Europe viewed it despite being in their early morning hours. In the case of WarRock, about 2,000 gamers from the Worldwide WarRock Clans participated in GNGWC and sales in each region increased by an average of 5 percent. Last, AceOnline recorded a 50 percent sales growth in Vietnam and achieved a 10 percent growth in the average monthly number of members in all countries of Europe where the service was provided during GNGWC.