Recapping the World Series of Video Games finals

A few days ago, I sat in on a "Counter-Strike" match at the World Series of Video Games at the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex in New York City, where I watched the Polish team Pentagram G-Shock win in a real nail-biter over the Chinese Wisdom Nerve Victory team. But, as Monday's "Counter-Strike" final round showed, it was the tournament's lone German squad that came out on top. The Alternate Attax team beat the American Team 3D to capture the grand prize--$50,000 to split amongst the team, plus PCs and Rolex watches for every player.

"Counter-Strike," with ten teams of five competing, was the biggest event of the WSVG finals. But there were other events contested, too: in Halo 2, a tournament mired in controversy due to disputes between the WSVG and pro gaming league Major League Gaming, the MLG team Str8 Rippin' beat MoB Deep.net (also MLG-affiliated) for the title. All entrants in the Halo 2 tournament were from the U.S.

In the PC game "Quake 4," Swedish gamer Johan "Toxic" Quick beat the much-hyped American player Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel for the title. In "Project Gotham Racing 3," a U.S.-dominated event, Sean "TTR Maximus" Heffelfinger won over Wesley "TTR Ch0mpr" Cwiklo. In "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter," only two teams were entered, both from the U.S.: a team with the moniker of "Hammer and Anvil 1" bested "The Untouchables" for the grand prize.

"Warcraft III" was the only WSVG event to have no American players or teams place first or second. Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen, from the Netherlands, triumphed over two Korean players, Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun and Dae Hee "FoV" Cho.