CIG and GGL come up with a new concept, equal to the Olympic Games to promote eSports development. An International tournament will be held with televised finals in Shangai.
UST.Y with other players at CIG 2008 provincial qualifiers
It could be the big break trough for eSport. In the same year as the Olympic Games will be held in China, the China Internet Gaming (CIG) organization in association with the Global Gaming League (GGL) announced an eSport tournament on the same basis as the Olympic Games.
The CIG is a committee under the Chinese government's Ministry of Information Industry. According to the CIG website this tournament will start a new chapter in the history of the Olympic Games. The CIG 2008 tournament symbolizes the breakthrough of the digital technology platform to compete together with the other sports in the Olympic Games culture.
The tournament will be international and online qualifiers will be held by the GGL to decide which player can represent their country. Despite the date is not announced yet the on-line registration will be opened soon on china.ggl.com. After the qualifiers, the top players from various countries will meet in Shanghai. GGL selected Shanghai as the host city of eSports game final. Shangai is also the host city of the Olympic Soccer tournament and other tournaments, which attracts a wide amount of media and lots of audience.
CIG 2007 attracted hundreds of thousands of gamers as well as the concerns of the community, devotion to the tens of thousands of people participate in this in the event worldwide. This year the committee announced that CIG2008 season is not only a continuation of CIG2007 season, but because a special Olympic year, CIG race will be bigger than ever. This means a total range of 29 Chinese provinces, collaboration with big partner sites, much media and eight television stations to build up a strong core of marketing. All with the mission to promote the eSports development.
It takes some time to load but here you can find a nice movie about the 2007 edition of CIG. It seems like a tournament which will shoot eSport in the right direction. If any updates will come out about the CIG Tournament, GosuGamers will be the one to tell you.
Links
CIG.org.cn - Source (Chinese)
