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ABIT ACON5 Coverage July 26, 2005 |
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Summary: We bring you the details of ABIT's second annual worldwide gaming competition, ACON5 - taking place in Xian, China. Check out tons of event photos and find out who won the $20,000 grand prize! The two games used for competition this year are Warcraft III and Counter Strike: Source.
 ACON5: Warriors and Warcraft | Page:: ( 1 / 6 ) |
This year’s edition of ACON4 carried on the proud tradition of last year’s tournament: a global gaming tournament open to all players, regardless of skill level from 16 countries, wherever there is a solid market for ABIT products. Held in historic Xian, Shaanxi (not to be confused with neighbouring Shanxi province), China, ACON5 took place on June 4th and 5th and saw 96 gamers from 16 countries compete for fame, cash and the opportunity to represent their countries. At the same time, they got a chance to see another country and learn a bit about it’s culture, plus makes some new friends and compete against old rivals.
Last year’s tournament was a huge success for ABIT, boosting motherboard sales in China and launching ABIT as a major player in the growing Chinese motherboard market. Beyond that, it brought ABIT a lot of good will amongst gamers around the world, who appreciated the chance to compete at a free tournament and hopefully win a trip to China. ACON4 was actually modest in scope compared to ACON5: whereas ACON4 was strictly a Warcraft III tournament, automatically limiting the players to one per country, for ACON5 ABIT thought they had to do something much bigger to create more buzz in the gaming community. Hence the idea of a CS and Warcraft III competition, again open to all players. All the extra players meant extra busses, bigger restaurants, bigger hotels and more staff to handle what was basically 100 teenage boys on their first transcontinental journey without their parents.
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Part of the reason for holding ACON5 in China, right after Computex is so ABIT could fly the attending media there without too much extra hassle involved. Indeed, in a perfect world, it should take only a few ours to fly from Taipei to Xian. However, the situation between China and Taiwan is anything but perfect: the two countries have remained in a state of war since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the losing KMT side, all 2+ million of them, fled the mainland and Mao Ze Dong’s Communists for Taiwan and continued what had been known on the mainland as the Republic of China. Along the way, they managed to take all of China’s gold reserves and National Palace treasures (the National Palace Museum in Taipei has the most extensive collection of Chinese art in the world) and from this turbulent history you can get a sense of the lingering bitterness between China and Taiwan.
SIDEBAR: A toothpick is the object most choked on by Americans.
| More on ACON5 | Page:: ( 2 / 6 ) |
Taiwan was to be the “official” China with the UN Security Council seat, until 1971 when it was stripped of its UN representation and recognition of its claim to all of China by most of the world in favour of the regime in Beijing. Now Taiwan boasts one of the most, if not most, vibrant democracies in the world. In less than 20 years, Taiwan has established free and fair elections, a free press and very liberal drinking laws, while their cousins on the mainland must be content with some progress in local village elections, but no free press of any sort. Today, only 15 countries recognize Taiwan, including such heavy weights as Malawi, Senegal and Haiti and Panama.
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So, with this extensive background in mind, to get to China from Taiwan requires flying through a third country, usually Hong Kong or Macau. To get to Xian, we had to stop in Guangzhou for a 5 hour (!!) layover; as if taking 3 planes in one day wasn’t bad enough, the flight from Taipei left at 730 am, which meant a 4:40 AM departure from Taipei. The flight from Taipei to Hong Kong turned out to be one of the most harrowing any of us had ever experienced; about half way, as soon as breakfast was served we hit major turbulence. I was already nervous enough about flying on China Airlines, which has the dubious distinction of having the worst safety record of any major airline: 9 fatal crashes since 1970 according to www.airsafe.com People screamed in panic several times and on the third, most severe drop, food flew everywhere and the stewardess was airborne for a few seconds. She was lucky, as hitting the ceilings during rough turbulence is a common cause of airline fatalities. Fortunately it was all over in a few minutes and the rest of the flight was smooth.
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The 5 hour layover in Guangzhou was a huge pain, although the airport is one of the newest in the world. Apparently it was built to compete with Hong Kong for flights in and out of China and you can tell by the grand style of architecture that they expect this to become one of the world’s major airports in the next few years. However, they have along way to go in terms of the level of amenities that travellers can expect in Hong Kong: where Hong Kong’s airport boasts fantastic food and shopping and is known by everyone who travels through Asia as a great place to transfer, Guangzhou’s airport has a few bland chain stores and some of the worst Chinese food to be found anywhere, in restaurants that don’t take credit cards. Who knew China could have such abominable Chinese food. Then there are the washrooms without the added luxury of toilet paper, which is an expected enough custom in much of Asia, but not to be expected in a major international airport-there aren’t even roll holders. Apparently the designers didn’t even consider that foreign air travellers might not be carrying an extra roll or two in their carry-on bag. Now don’t say you weren’t warned when you end up connecting in Guangzhou and have to improvise after a particularly spicy curry.
SIDEBAR: In China, people don’t refer to their food as ‘Chinese Food’.
| International contestants | Page:: ( 3 / 6 ) |
Despite the entire travel experience, or in spite of, we arrived in Xian to a hotly anticipated tournament. With almost 100 top players from around the world, the Chinese gaming audience was incredibly excited, and showed up in force to support their teams, and also to watch the rest of the action. Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel was also on hand, partly to play in a Painkiller showdown match with Chinese gaming champ Rocketboy. Rocketboy had beaten Fatality on a number of occasions over the past year, most notably at the Great Wall last year where he also won $125,000. Apparently after this win ABIT signed Rocketboy to a lucrative endorsement contract in China, with Rocketboy-endorsed motherboards (same as Fatal1ty motherboards in the rest of the world) soon following. However, the expected showdown between two of the best gamers in the world never materialized. As it stood, in the two matches they played, Fatal1ty handily won both matches 40-10, 40-8, which is one of the reasons why the real match never materialized. It wouldn’t have looked too good to have the local champ beaten on his home turf, but it sure would have been fun to watch for the rest of us.
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This year’s players from North America were without a doubt some of the top players to be found anywhere. Mathew Anderson of South Carolina, with his trademark 80’s keyboard with phat speakers and his lucky parachute pants was back to defend his ACON4 title from last year, while Team Complexity arrived ready to take on the rest of the world. Alas, it was not to be either of their tournaments and they were knocked out early on. In the end, the final match was between the Russians Vitrus.pro and Bizounours from France. Vitrus.pro walked away with the title after a hard fought match that saw them defeat the French side 16-13. Vitrus.pro really deserved this one, having gone undefeated in the entire final and becoming the favorites early on. On the Warcraft III tournament, the final match came down to home favorite WE.Sky against WE.Remind from Korea in another hard-fought battle that saw WE.Sky claim the title and the Chinese fans erupt into frenzy. Last year’s runner up, SK.apm70 from Russia took third place.
SIDEBAR: The only mammal that cannot jump is the elephant.
| Tournament Winners | Page:: ( 4 / 6 ) |
Final Warcraft III Standings
1. WE.Sky, China ($8,000)
2. WE.Remind, Korea ($5,000)
3. SK.apm70, Russia ($2,000)
Final Counter-Strike Standings
1. Virtus Pro, Russia ($20,000)
2. Bizonours, France ($10,000)
3. Defuse Kids, Belgium ($5,000)
Beyond the details of who won and lost the matches the real story from ACON5 is a much broader one: the rise of gaming as a spectator sport, particularly in China. Rocketboy is a bona fide celebrity now, and in a country of 1.4 billion people, this is no joke. US audiences may think their gamers are hot, but look at the competition for celebrity status in the US and you quickly realize that gamers are at the bottom of the totem pole for now. In China, the whole celebrity culture is really in it’s infancy and right from the beginning, guys like Rocketboy are drawing huge audiences and receiving huge (by Chinese standards…actually also by 99% of FS reader’s standards ) endorsement contracts to play games. The Chinese fans were asking for autographs from all the CS teams and WCIII players, which is part of the reason ABIT chose to have the finals in China two years in a row. The rise of gaming in China has also coincided with phenomenal growth for ABIT: apparently their sales have doubled since ACON4, a much higher rate of growth than the overall Chinese PC market. After two successful ACON events, ABIT is huge in China.
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Another story is how ABIT as a company has continued to distinguish itself in a tough motherboard market where they are still basically a tier 2 company who specializes in motherboards and video cards. While most other companies have either diversified their product lines, or slowly withered away, ABIT has continued to not only increase sales year after year, but has built a strong global brand in the motherboard business. Compared to any other Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer, ABIT has an identity that is tangible and recognizable. This is due to the huge effort of their marketing staff, which have made great effort to organize events on a global basis and connect with gamers, media and PC enthusiasts unlike anyone else. Most other companies, with a few exceptions, pay lip service to the concept of connecting with their customer base. Much credit must go to the type of people ABIT hires as it’s marketing staff, and a corporate culture that can be described as the most “fun” of the Taiwanese players.
SIDEBAR: Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not hide their head in the sand, ever.
| A little sightseeing | Page:: ( 5 / 6 ) |
Beyond the computer stuff, we were also treated to a tour of the Terracotta Warriors, apparently the 8th Wonder of the World, and believe me they are wonderful. Over 8000 of them were built to protect the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who ascended the throne at age 13 in 246 BC. He managed to defeat the other 6 kingdoms and unify China in 221 B.C. thus beginning the Qin Dynasty. He also introduced the common writing system of Chinese characters as well as a common system of weights and measures, plus a network of roads that connected the entire Empire and allowed him to maintain control. Another one of his achievements was to unify the Great Wall, which had been a series of fortifications to keep out the Mongolian tribes. Don’t tell the Chinese, but back then Taiwan was not part of any of this, but was home to 12 different aboriginal tribes, the descendants of who are still around today.
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The tomb and all the warriors were built as a defence in the afterlife, similar to many other cultures. The most amazing thing about these warriors is that each one has a unique face and pose, and they run the full gamut of an army from that time period: cavalry, archers, others with swords and other glorious instruments of mass murder. The Warriors have all been reconstructed by teams of patient archaeologists, as they were almost all destroyed in a peasant uprising soon after they were built. The whole ruined site was found by accident in 1974 by some local farmers digging a well. There are actually three different sites, the largest of which is probably the size of 4 football fields and 2 others which are not quite as big but where excavation is ongoing.
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With 1.4 billion people, the Chinese have no problems doing things on a grand scale, weather it’s Terracotta Warriors, Great Walls, 3 Gorges Dams or a huge event like ACON5. There is something in the Chinese spirit that drives them to accomplish these huge projects. Thanks also must to the city of Xian for being such gracious hosts. It’s probably one of the most laid back and friendly “tourist” cities I’ve been to. And of course, let’s not forget all the hard work of ABIT for another successful and fun ACON event, plus key sponsors Intel, ATI, LG and Corsair for making it all happen. Gamers everywhere will be looking forward to next year’s tournament, where the rumoured favourite is Taipei.
SIDEBAR: Baskin Robbins once released ketchup-flavored ice cream.
| Photo Gallery | Page:: ( 6 / 6 ) |