The World e-Sports Masters (WEM) was an international

competitive gaming Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional sports, professional players, individually or as ...

event organized by the Hangzhou eSport Culture & Sport Communication Company, Ltd. Prize money are awarded to winning individuals and teams. It was first held in 2005 under the World e-Sports Games. The World eSports Games, Inc. was founded in 2004 by Paul Chong. Headquartered in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, the first three games were held in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in 2005. A year later, the event moved to

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

where it was renamed the World e-Sports Games Masters. In 2007, WEG again returned to Seoul to host the World e-Sports Games e-Stars, but moved back to China for the 2008 season of what is now the World e-Sports Masters. Since then, it has been held annually (except for 2011), instead of year-round.

OnGameNet OGN (formerly known as Ongamenet) is a South Korean pay television channel that specialized in broadcasting video game-related content and esports matches, particularly ''StarCraft'', ''Starcraft II'', ''League of Legends'', and Overwatch. OGN ran ...

is the current

rightsholder A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

to the World e-Sports Masters franchise.

History

World e-Sport Games

The inaugural World e-Sports Games took place in 2005 from January 30 through March 20. and featured ''

Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games in which teams of terrorists battle to perpetrate an act of terror (bombing, hostage-taking, assassination) while counter-terrorists try to preven ...

'' and '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' as main titles. Players resided in Seoul, South Korea throughout most of the tournament and matches were broadcast on Korean television. The finals took place in Beijing, China. Attendees were all invited based on past performances and included the likes of Jang "Moon" Jae Ho,

Team NoA MTw, formerly known as Team NoA, was a professional ''Counter-Strike'' team. Founded by Jonas "bsl" Alsaker, the team was regarded as the world's best several times, taking home many prestigious "trophies" (or at least victories). They were the ...

and

Li "Sky" Xiaofeng Li Xiaofeng (), who also goes by the pseudonym "Sky" or "WE.Sky", is a Chinese former professional gamer of the popular Blizzard Entertainment real-time strategy game '' Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne''. He played for the China-based World Elit ...

. The prize purse for both competitions totalled US$138,000. Eight Counter-Strike teams and sixteen WarCraft III players participated. The second edition took place from May 30 to July 1, 2005 and was in most aspects comparable to the first edition except that qualifiers to determine the attendees took place in South Korea. The third edition took place from October 19 to December 11, 2005. It was in most aspects comparable with the first two editions except that only the top three of the second edition was invited with the remainder of participants having to qualify. This edition also clashed with the

World Cyber Games The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an international esports competition with multi-game titles in which hundreds of esports athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions also known as Esports Olympics. WCG events attempt to e ...

, causing several notable players to decline participating including Gediminas "WinneR" Rimkus the third-place finisher in the WarCraft III competition of the second edition. The number of ''WarCraft III'' players attending was reduced from sixteen to twelve in the third edition.

WEG Masters and WEG e-Stars

A renewed version of the World e-Sports Games featuring Counter-Strike, ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance am ...

'' and ''WarCraft III'' was to take place in Seoul, South-Korea in August 2007.

World e-Sports Masters

Another edition of the World e-Sports Games titled 'World E-Sports Masters' was held in

Hangzhou, China Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also Chinese postal romanization, romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the prov ...

from October 26 till November 2 (2008) and will feature eight professional ''Counter-Strike'' teams as well as eight professional WarCraft III players competing for a US$100,000 prize pool. After three seasons, the tournament was renamed the World eSports Masters, and moved to

. As of 2012, the tournament hosts competitions for Starcraft 2 and League of Legends.

Results

''Counter-Strike''

''League of Legends''

''StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''

''WarCraft III''

References

{{Professional League of Legends competition World championships in esports Recurring sporting events established in 2004 Annual sporting events Esports competitions in China Esports competitions in South Korea Counter-Strike competitions StarCraft II competitions League of Legends competitions