Korea - World Cyber Games (WCG), the premier international video game competition, has announced the first five Official Game Titles for the WCG 2009 season. The lineup includes Counter-Strike™ 1.6 (PC), Starcraft®: Brood War™ (PC), WarCraft® III: The Frozen Throne™ (PC), and Guitar Hero®: World Tour (Xbox 360), and Virtua Fighter® 5 (Xbox 360).

All five games have been a staple at past WCG competitions. Counter-Strike 1.6™ and Starcraft®: Brood War™ have been Official Tournament Games since 2001 while WarCraft® III: The Frozen Throne™ has been part of the WCG since 2003. Guitar Hero®, which marked WCG’s first foray into music games, and Virtua Fighter® 5 Online will be in their second consecutive year as Official Game Titles.

”As interest in WCG continues to grow around the world, we have become much more discerning in selecting the official games for this year,” said Hyeong Seok Kim, president and CEO of World Cyber Games, Inc., organizer of WCG. ”This year we decided to unveil the games in two separate announcements to pique the interest and anticipation for the official game lineup. These first five titles constitute the best and most popular games in a wide variety of genres including real-time strategy, first-person shooter, fighting, and music. In March, fans can look forward to another group of elite titles that will certainly satisfy every type of gamer around the world.”

Over the next few days (or weeks, depending on how things pan out and how much coffee I injest), our current forum will be wiped clean and started fresh for 2009.

What does this mean?

Well, for starters, I finally decided that it was time to bring the user databases together into a single login format.  So, starting now, you’ll all be able to log into the site right from the main page.

The downside?  The password hashes that are stored in our old forum (phpBB) does not allow for clean and seamless importing over to our main user database (Wordpress).  So, you’ll all have to reset your passwords.

But, on a plus side, this is my way of showing you that Digital Storm LAN is still alive and kicking and already starting to look towards next years event!

So, feel free to fire up a conversation on our new forum, and watch this space closely.  Amazing things are coming in 2009, and we want you all to be a part of it.

The photos from Digital Storm 2008 have been posted in the Gallery.

There are two separate albums - one for gaming and one for Mendella’s performance. If anyone else has any photos that they would like to share, please send them on over and we’ll add them to the albums.

Tournament Winners:

Counter Strike 1.6 - Sponsored By Steel Series

First Place: Motus - previously qualified for WCG
Second Place: No Luck - qualified for WCG

Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne - Sponsored by VisionTek

First Place: Colin Hamilton
Second Place: Toby Svelnis

Starcraft: Broodwar - Sponsored by TRENDnet

First Place: Simon Park
Second Place: Colin Hamilton

Halo 3 2v2 - Sponsored by Argus Camera

First Place: Nico Sagmaquen & Farrel Sagmaquen
Second Place: James Simpson & Gordon Earwaker

Halo 3 4v4 - Sponsored by Steel Series

First Place: Nico Sagmaquen, Farrel Sagmaquen, James Simpson & Gordon Earwaker
Second Place: Alex Neville, Shayn Bennett, Harlin Brandvold, Michael Walker

Guitar Hero 3 - Sponsored by Steel Series

First Place: Rachel Kuta - qualified for WCG
Second Place: Darnell Hochstein

Combat Arms - Sponsored by Nexon

First Place: Brennan Webster
Second Place: Kory Cross
Third Place: Darnell Hochstein

First, I would like to thank all of our sponsors:

Shaw Cablesystems, Nexon, Red Beard, Argus Camera, VisionTek, TRENDnet, G4 TechTV Canada, SteelSeries, CapLAN Crew, Ctoan LAN, CPU Magazine, author Michael Kane and Viking Books, VS Gaming Arena, Blade Radio, Orpheus Sounds & Mendella, Long and McQuade, and of course, Village Gamer

And our Suppliers:

Rocky Mountain Sound, Sudden Impact Clothing, Abbotsford Printing and PS Productions

While Digital Storm wasn’t as well attended as we’d planned for, we had many good reports from those did attend - they appreciated all of the swag - especially those who stayed right until the Counter Strike tournament wound down and we handed out all of the draw prizes. It’s unfortunate that there weren’t more gamers in attendance, and that so many WCG qualifiers required gamers to be 18 years of age or older in order to move on to the Nationals and then the Grand Finals in Cologne, Germany but I guess that is the nature of the beast.

I know that several of you are waiting to see the photos from Digital Storm, and we apologize for their lateness - we had a few other events over the past week and a bit which took up a fair amount of our time - but we will get them posted as soon as we’re finished picking, choosing and editing them.

Mendella’s performance rocked the house, and in our opinion they gave one of their best performances ever. We know they made several new friends and fans at Digital Storm, which is exactly what we hoped would happen, and we hope that all of those are able will come and see them on Wednesday, August 13th, 8:30pm at the Roxy on Granville. This will be their final Vancouver appearance until 2009, when they will be returning as recording artists with an album on store shelves.

It was very disappointing and frustrating for us that there were thieves in attendance at Digital Storm, making off with not only our personal Xbox Elite 120gb hard drive and controller, but also those belonging to one of our volunteers. It is happenings like this which mar events and cast a poor light on the gamer community as a whole. If any of you know the identity of the person (or people) who stole our equipment, please get in contact with us via the contact us form on our site - we would appreciate its return.

Over the next month or so, we will be removing most of the 2008 information and gearing up for 2009. Digital Storm 2009 will be held in October (of 2009), and will have several changes to the format - including new and secure measures to protect our equipment. For those who are concerned about qualifying for WCG 2009, you can rest assured that we will be involved with a local qualifying event, along with our friends from CapLAN and Ctoan LAN. Our three groups have formed a new alliance to bring you, the gamer community, a 2009 full of exciting LAN events.

See you in 2009, and thank you again to our sponsors and suppliers - we couldn’t hold fun events without the support you all contribute.

We are very pleased to announce that Nexon, the makers of games such as Maple Story, Mabinogi and their brand new game Combat Arms, are sponsoring a Last Man Standing Tournament for Combat Arms. We will be running preliminary ladder qualifiers on Friday night, with 16 open tournament spots available for the final battle, which will take place at 1:00pm on Saturday afternoon. All 16 finalists will receive a Special Press Edition DVD of Combat Arms, tournament winners will receive Nexon Cash which can be used for micro-transactions in any Nexon game. Please see the Last Man Standing thread on the forum for further details about the game and to sign up for the tournament.

Digital Storm will also be welcoming members of the game development team from Nexon’s Vancouver studio, Humanature who will be present to watch tournament play and discuss the local game development industry with DSL attendees.

Congratulations to Rachel for being the first girl gamer to sign up and pay for her ticket in advance - she will be receiving a very nice G4 TechTV Canada jacket - in fashionable gamer black of course! See you this weekend, Rachel - glad you had a great time at the Pemberton Festival and got some GH3 practice time in while you were there. Congrats!

We have added a Counter Strike: Source 5v5 tournament. Play will begin at 10:00a.m. on Saturday August 2, rules TBA - I think that we should come up with a rule set actually called TBA, because it seems to be all over the forum. Please sign up on the forum in the Tournaments area to register.

As of today, the Sunday events have been canceled. This is because we do not know how many people will be showing up at the door for the event - which is partly why we’d asked for pre-registration and advance ticket purchases. Those of you who have already paid your $45.00, you have a choice of a $15.00 refund or a Digital Storm event shirt. That said, these are the new fees:

Friday 4pm to Saturday Midnight: $35.00, still allows for unlimited tournament play, random draws and concert

Saturday 8am - Midnight only: $25.00, still allows for unlimited tournament play, random draws and concert

Concert Only: $7.50 at the door

Spectators: $5.00 at the door for Saturday Only or $7.50 if you are staying for the concert (Media and VIP guests free)

Online Payments are now closed, all payments must be made at the door, cash only.

Thank you, and see you at Digital Storm 2008

Okay - here goes. This schedule is based on a 24 hour tournament, as we do not know how many people will be showing up at the door. If we get a huge influx of players, then we will run until Sunday afternoon if need-be. These schedule changes are reflected in our new entry fee schedule, which I will be posting shortly.

All times approximate due to tournament length and number of entries.

Friday August 1

Doors open at 4pm to begin seating

We will be running some informal tournaments as well as scrims for CS1.6 - CS:S - and Halo 3. We would like to use the scrims for ladder placing for the Saturday tournaments.

The Wii tournaments will be ongoing over the course of the weekend for Smash Bros Brawl and possibly Cel Damage

PC Tournaments - Friday August 1 - may run the course of the weekend, depending on entries

World In Conflict
Company of Heroes
Quake Wars: Enemy Territory
Call of Duty 4
Battlefield 2
Midnight Madness 2

Xbox Tournaments - Friday August 1

7:00pm - Guitar Hero 3 rounds begin, and will run through Saturday
Rainbow 6 Vegas 2
Call of Duty 4
Quake Wars: Enemy Territory
10pm: Grand Theft Auto IV Death Matches begin

PC Tournaments - Saturday August 2

10:00am - Counter Strike: Source 5v5
12 noon - Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne - WCG
2:00pm - Dawn of War: Soulstorm
3:00pm - Counter Strike 5v5 begins - WCG

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BAND WILL BE IN AT 4pm FOR A SOUND CHECK - if necessary, we will suspend tournament play until they are done, if players find they cannot concentrate on the game well enough.

4:00pm - Starcraft: Broodwar

Xbox Tournaments - Saturday August 2

9:00am - Virtua Fighter 5 - WCG
10:30am - Guitar Hero 3 rounds begin for the day - WCG
12 noon - Halo 3 2v2
1:30pm - Project Gotham Racing 4 - WCG
3:00pm - Gears of War
5:00pm - Halo 3 4v4 - WCG

All tournament play will stop at 7:30pm until 9:30pm for the Mendella concert. The band will be playing for about 1 hour, beginning at 8pm. There will be concert-only spectators in the hall, and we will have security on-hand to keep them out of the gaming area.

9:30pm - Counter Strike 1.6 and Halo 3 Tournament finals, along with any other tournaments not yet completed.

All tournament play will be concluded by midnight on Saturday night. As per our new rate structure, the Sunday events have been canceled, unless we get a sudden and huge influx of gamers.

There is a Tournament Schedule thread on the forum, where you can ask any questions or voice concerns.

We have added two late-night Grand Theft Auto IV tournaments for the 360. There will be a double elimination 1 v 1 tournament and a Death Match Free For All tournament. The last gamer standing in each tournament will win a Cyber Acoustics Speaker System. The only rules are - latest game version with all updates, and no cheat code unlocks.  These tournaments are sponsored by Village Gamer.