At the end of November, the much-anticipated ESCL World Finals kicked off in Seattle, USA, and the eyes of esports fans around the world focused on the Pacific coast of the northwest of the United States.

Known as the "Esports Olympics", ESCL has been in its eighth year since 2000, and the event is hosted by South Korea's Internation Cyber Marketing (ICM) and sponsored by Samsang.

In the past eight years, countless shining IDs and amazing talented players have emerged one by one, becoming e-sports idols and being remembered by players all over the world.

And the booming development of the tournament has also allowed people around the world to know, get in touch with and understand esports, bringing this industry that before seemed like a plaything to the level of sports, and although it may never be able to escape the fate of being demonized, it has gone to the ground where the sun shines.

In China, if there is an enlightenment in this field, it must be since 1996 that some battle games such as "Red Alert 95" have entered China. At that time, Chinese gamers had no concept of the term e-sports, and these games attracted the first batch of competitive game enthusiasts through their built-in LAN battle function, which let us know that the original game was not just about beating the level and fighting the boss through the maze, but also the fun of fair competition like sports competitions.

In '97, players began to organize some competitions spontaneously, like a gang, and the concept of "clan" began to be known among the people.

The real new life came in 1998, when Star Wars was released, and its birth took the field of esports to a whole new level, and then in 1999, "Heroes of Terrorism", and in 2002, "Warcraft War 3" and other classic competitive games appeared, the industry really began to sprout. Countless fans of these games are crazy and obsessed with it, and they are seen in tens of thousands of Internet cafes across the country.

In 2001, ESCL entered China, and the majority of Chinese players realized through ESCL that there are so many people all over the world who enjoy the fun of competitive games like them, and they have transcended the barriers of language, culture and ethnicity to discover a new world together.

The influence of e-sports is also increasing day by day, and it is gradually accepted by the society, and it is recognized as another sunrise industry in the field of video games.

On November 18, 2003, e-sports officially became the 99th official sport recognized by the state, touching the hearts of countless players.

On April 17, 2004, sponsored by the National Sports Federation and undertaken by Huaxing Jingcheng Information Technology Co., Ltd., the national e-sports event - AOpen Jianji Cup 2004 National E-sports Games opened, which was the first e-sports competition hosted by a state organization in China, and was a milestone in the history of e-sports.

On June 13, 2004, this day will forever be recorded in the history of China's e-sports development, the national team selection is over, "Anti-Terrorist Heroes", "Star War", "Warcraft 3", "World Football League 2004" four projects a total of 18 players were selected into the first Chinese e-sports national team, becoming a new national team under the General Administration of Sports.

By now, the national team has changed players, but they also represent the honor of the country and the expectations of esports fans across the country, and came to Seattle to compete in the 2007 ESCL World Offline Finals.

In this national team, the youngest is still the youngest, the only female player Tracy Lin Xinran, including among all the more than 700 participants in the world this time, and even among all the finalists in ESCL in the past eight years, she is also the only woman.

The competition lasted for four days, and the number of competition items was increased to 12, and due to the sponsorship of the giant hard, it also included 4 XBOX projects.

The four-day game was broadcast live by three media in China, including CCTV network channels.

Ye Shenxi and Xia Qingyu were sitting on the sofa at this time, watching the first day of ESCL.

Seattle daylight saving time has ended at this time, and there is a 16-hour time difference between it and China, and the grand opening ceremony officially began at 09:30 a.m. local time and 1:30 a.m. Beijing time.

The captains from 67 countries around the world slowly walked onto the stage holding their national flags, while the captain of the Chinese team was Odin, the world champion of the last two Warcraft 3 events, waving the national flags in their hands with the players from other countries.

Then there is the athlete's oath of fair competition, as well as the speeches of various leaders, these foreigners don't know each other, it is estimated that it should be Sansang or a giant tough senior leader or something.

Because it was the first time that a woman appeared on this stage, the local host in the United States also spent half a minute to introduce this girl from China. At least from the broadcast screen, it seems that this girl looks relaxed, and there is no nervousness before the competition.

E-sports fans all over the world know that the rumors on the Internet are not deceiving, and there are really female players who have entered the world finals, and they are still such cute and charming girls.

"This opening ceremony is very good." Xia Qingyu is actually very sleepy, but she still wants to see how other people's games are done, the very formal and grand opening ceremony is really a bit of a large-scale sports event.

"After all, people have been doing it for so many years." Ye Shenxi replied.

"Do you estimate how much it will cost to run a competition of this size?" Xia Qingyu was also thinking in his heart.

"From each competition area to the finals, the bonuses, venues, hardware, publicity and promotion, and the players' accommodation must be tens of millions. But it's not just about money, it's the most influential event in the world, and if we spend so much money to run a competition, we won't be able to lose money in the end. ”

“……”

Ye Shenxi didn't hear the answer, turned his head to look, and the girl was already asleep on his shoulder.

Ye Shenxi patted Xia Qingyu: "Go upstairs and sleep, be careful of catching a cold." ”

"Hmm......" couldn't bear it anymore, Xia Qingyu struggled to sit up, rubbing his eyes: "What time is it?" ”

"It's two o'clock."

"Oh...... You should go to bed early, too. Xia Qingyu climbed upstairs with difficulty and went to sleep, kissing goodbye was a fixed link, and Ye Shenxi continued to watch the game.

It's also a competitive sport, and his designs for heroes and combat may be inspired by these competitions as well.

After the short opening ceremony, the competition officially began, and the first project was Warcraft 3.

This time, a total of 56 Warcraft 3 players from various countries around the world entered the finals, divided into 8 groups, a single round-robin format, and the top two entered the round of 16 knockout rounds.

Three players from China, Me.Odin, SW.Tracy and Tt.Cool, were placed in Group A, Group F and Group H respectively, and the opening match was the defending champion ME.Odin against 17-year-old Night Elf player sRs.Lose from Lithuania.

The match map is one of the most balanced 1v1 maps, Echo Isles, and the process is not stale, it only took less than ten minutes for Odin to erect an arrow tower directly next to Lose's base, and then cooperate with the 44-population Terran infantry to directly overwhelm Lose in a wave, so that Lose had to play GG.

The expected relaxed, powerful and experienced Odin won the opening bout, then walked across to shake hands with his opponent and enjoyed the cheers of the crowd.

CCTV's commentary also expressed high praise for Odin's technical and tactical level and game status, and it seems that he is very optimistic about Odin's prospects for three consecutive championships in the ESCL "Warcraft War 3" project, after all, the word "poisoned milk" did not appear at that time.

Ye Shenxi thought that there would be a Tracy game next, and after checking the schedule on the Internet, he found that the games in Group E~H were all at the same time tomorrow, and he made a mistake in judgment, so he also went back to his room to sleep.