A GameRadar Exclusive!

Some days, it's tough to be a video game industry journalist, and other days... it's really tough.

Founded in 2000, the World Cyber Games is an olympic-styled global video game tournament in which nearly one million players compete against each other for the title of "Champion." Throughout this year, there will be national preliminaries in 70 countries, followed by national finals in each of those countries, all leading up to a Grand Final. And just outside of Seattle, Washington last night, WCG announced that their 2007 Grand Final would be held right here in Seattle from October 4th - 7th.

At last night's press event, Michael Arzt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the WGC, announced that Project Gotham 3 and Gears of War would both be among the titles on which the cyber-athletes would compete at the finals. So to spice up the party with a motorsports theme, the WCG invited a few members of the Northwest Ferrari Owner's Club to showcase their cars at the event.

I also spoke with Ralph Morton, Executive Director of the Seattle Sports Commission, the organization responsible for bringing the WCG to Seattle. Ralph told me that the SSC normally works to attract more traditional types of sporting events to the area (such as the Boeing Classic, the T-Mobile Invitational, NCAA championships, and they're still working on hosting a NASCAR race up here), but that "E-Sports is every bit as exciting, competitive, and entertaining to particpate in and to watch as any offline sport," which is why they were "thrilled to have the World Cyber Games Grand Finals take place in Seattle." 

The WCG announcement event was held at a private residence, with multiple big-screen Xbox 360 stations throughout the house to entertain the guests. After chatting with a few of the attendees, I was challenged to a friendly game of Project Gotham Racing 3 by fellow Ferrari Owner's Club member Paul Bunn.

As we chatted our way through the setup menus, Paul and I discovered something we had in common: Microsoft had borrowed cars from each of us during the production of a number of Xbox and Xbox 360 racing titles, including Project Gotham Racing 2 & 3, and Forza Motorsport. Paul previously owned a Ferrari 360 Modena, which the sound team recorded for in-game effects (Paul now rolls in a Ferrari 430 Spider, pictured above). I had also loaned a few of my cars during development of these games, and so when Paul chose the track (a street race around of London - Paul's home town), I got to pick the cars. The choice was clear: the Ferrari F40, since the one in the game is based on my F40 which Microsoft recorded for audio and photographed for graphics in the game.

Also in attendance at the party was former Microsoft Vice President Ed Fries (pronounced "Freeze") who oversaw development of the Xbox Division at Microsoft since its inception. Ed was kind enough to chat for a while with me outside the party.

There were plenty of prizes at the party (I won a decorative glass bowl, somebody else won the Xbox 360), as well as plenty of opportunities to learn more about the WCG. My main question was - how do GameRadar readers qualify to compete?

For those of you who really want to prove you're the best, you can register for the WCG National Tournament (which is featuring Gears of War) by clicking here. The top 4 overall ranked players in each of the participating countries of the Gears of War Global Xbox LIVE Tournament will win automatic entrance and a 3 day/2 night trip to their country´s World Cyber Games 2007 National Championship. The trip includes round trip transportation for the winner, 2-nights standard hotel accommodations, and a $300 Visa gift card. The top 4 overall ranked players in each of the participating countries of the Gears of War Global Xbox LIVE Tournament will win an auto berth to the WCG 2007 National Final Gears of War tournament.

The WCG has already assured VIP access to GameRadar to cover the World Cyber Games Grand Finals here in Seattle, so you know we'll be in attendance to bring you all the action. Rumor has it that they are working on a similar car display at the finals to the one they had at this party (but this time including both exotics and import tuners, like the ones showcased in Need for Speed: Carbon), so I may be working double-duty at the event once again!