Computer Times - Technology

By Chua Hian Hou
Sept 15, 2004

The Singapore finals of the World Cyber Games held over the weekend attracted competitive girl clans who gave new meaning to girl power

Girls-only CounterStrike clan Walking Without Fear didn't win any prizes, but proved that they can take on the predominately male teams in the World Cyber Games (WCG) 2004 Singapore Finals, which ended last Sunday after a gruelling four-day competition.

The clan fielded two teams of which four of the five-member group were female. WWF.Rascals. Nut, broke into the top 32 ratings, while the other team, Team Fatale reached the top 64 in the CounterStrike category.

The clan had wanted to field all-girl teams, but had to include the boys 'because some of our members couldn't make it,' explained Team Fatale's Denise Wong, 17, who drew interested glances from the predominantly teenage male crowd as she played in a killer outfit of a denim miniskirt and three-inch heels.

There were 125 five-player teams competing in the CounterStrike cate-gory. In the end, all-male team GrudgeBringers Grudg3, emerged as winners. They will represent Singapore in the finals in San Francisco next month.

But the loss did not dampen the spirits of the teams. Said 15-year-old Jalene Seah of team WWF.Rascals.Nut: 'We are happy to have gone as far as we did because our studies did not allow us to have more time to practice.'

Walking Without Fear has the biggest number of female CounterStrike gamers with 10 members. They came together for the love of the fast-paced shooting game and prac-tice once a week at LAN gaming centres, 'which was how we first met and became friends,' said Ms Peh Xinyi, 19.

According to Ms Peh, there are about 25 female CounterStrike players in Singapore. The remaining girls are in three other clans - GrudgeBringer Girls, SH and Seraphim. These teams did not participate in the WCG.

BUGGED BY FIGHTING PROBLEMS

The finals of the World Cyber Games was beset by problems from the first day of competition, with competitors lodging numerous complaints of which included poorly designed competition advancement rules that saw the original double-elimination round system being scrapped and game-breaking bugs in plays like Counter Strike that gave a team an unfair advantage.

Organiser Forde Media blamed these problems on the larger-than-expected turnout of nearly 1,400 players, when it had only expected 800. This resulted in delays due to insufficient computers, especially as systems broke down in the course of the competition. The double-elimination advancement system was designed to give unlucky competitors a second chance to advance, and this in turn contributed to the delays. When it realised that it was running out of time, the organiser reverted to last year's single-elimination system. The software bug was a new one discovered only during the competition. This was corrected with rematches.

To ensure that these problems are fixed, Forde will conduct a post-mortem and interact with the competitors over the next two weeks to discuss their concerns and find out how best they can resolve these issues.

A WINNER FROM MALAYSIA

Malaysian James Foo took a 10-hour train ride from his hometown of Kuala Lumpur to play StarCraft and emerged the game's champion at last Sunday's WCG 2004 Singapore Finals.

The 20-year-old undergraduate spent about $450 to come here and compete. But his winnings of $2,000 cash and another $2,000 worth of products more than made up for his time and effort.

There are no rules against foreign competitors taking part in the national qualifiers, although only Singapo-reans can represent Singapore in the WCG international finals in San Francisco next month.

'But I don't mind really because I got what I wanted - the money,' said Mr Foo who is studying in a British university and is on holiday. 'I would also have taken part in the UK WCG, but I was busy with my school work.'

And as for the games next year, Mr Foo said: 'As long as the rules and my schedule allow me to play, you'll see me here.'