PARIS, France – Video gaming contests used to be about LAN parties in dingy basements or rented halls in places like Kansas or Ohio.
But with 750 participants from 53 countries hoping for a shot at $400,000 in prize money, the fourth annual Electronic Sports World Cup, or ESWC, shows how the culture of fragging and getting fragged has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Held at the Palais Omnisports de Bercy over the weekend, the event attracted more than 5,000 gaming fans who applauded and hooted when a Belarusian player's character lay dead in pieces on the giant screen during the Quake 4 individual finals.
Meanwhile, teams from Croatia and South Korea sat hunched in front of their computers during the Warcraft III finals taking place next to the Quake battle on center stage.
Unlike years past, the countries represented at ESWC are no longer limited to just rich nations. Gamers at this year's tournament came from such far-flung places as Iran, Vietnam or Algeria.
Teams and players from South Korea and China fared particularly well, with three teams in the top 10. Only two from the United States made it.
"About two and a half years ago the Asian teams were nothing," said Alex Conroy, manager of the U.S. team Jaxmoneycrew, which got knocked out early in the tournament. "Now the Chinese players are considered to be the best in the world."
Teams and players from Vietnam to Bahrain and Russia have very different training regiments and resources.
South-Korea's Lunatic-Hai, which made it to the quarter finals in 2005, practices online for six to seven hours a day, six days a week, said team manager Beun-Joon Cho.
The team benefits from one of the world's best broadband infrastructures, which allows members to practice with each other no matter where they are located in the country.
Like Lunatic-Hai, a French team that won $13,000 in the woman's Counter-Strike tournament, also benefits from a world class broadband network. Team members said they practice online a few hours a day, three days a week, all year around.
In Bahrain on the other hand, broadband access for online gaming can be spotty.
"A company called Orbit offers satellite connections, but they are bad because there is a lot (of) wind," said Hasan Hamdan, who represented Bahrain in the Pro Evolution Soccer tournament.
But poor internet connections and older gear didn't stop 16-year-old Aliaksei Yanusheusk, aka Cypher, from placing second in the Quake 4 final.
Equipped with an Athlon XP 3000 PC, which has an ATI 9600 graphics card and 1 GB of RAM (not much better than the minimum required to play Quake 4 and other new first-person shooters), Cypher practices gaming just a couple of hours a day, he said, and finds it hard to practice online.
"I only have access to one online server, which is in Germany, and it doesn't work very well," Cypher said, who hopes to major in something computer-related at college after he graduates from high school.
The ESWC was spawned when the popularity of large-scale LANs exploded.
"It just got too big, and when there are thousands attendees, it becomes less of a fun event and more like a business," said Adrien Vincent, managing director of LAN organizer Games-Services. "There were more than 20,000 gamers who wanted to participate in the last LANs we held in France."
Holding an international world gaming tournament served to limit the number of participants and increase the number of international participants, Vincent said.
"The idea of a World Cup was to qualify people by holding tournaments in different countries around the world and letting the best teams and members participate," he said.
