17
May
AXOM Travels
Meet us at SiGMA – World’s Gaming Festival
June 06, 2024, by Axom
17
May
The Electronic Sports World Convention (ESWC) (formerly known as Electronic Sports World Cup) was an international professional gaming championship. Every year, winners of national qualifier events around the world earned the right to represent their country in the ESWC Finals.
The ESWC was originally created by a French company, Ligarena, that had previously hosted smaller local area network (LAN) events in France under the name of LAN Arena. In 2003, Ligarena decided to do something on a larger scale and the ESWC was born. In 2005, Ligarena became Games-Services.
In 2009, ESWC was bought by another French company, Games-Solution, which became the owner of the brand.
In 2012, Oxent, an agency specialising in electronic sports, acquired the ESWC.[1]
The grand finals and masters of ESWC have had a total prize purse of €1,721,000 between 2003 and 2010.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
In October 2023, the ESWC brand was acquired by the Esports World Cup Foundation.[11]
Overview
The first Electronic Sports World Cup was held in 2003 with a total of 358 participants from 37 countries and a prize purse of €150,000.[12] To participate in the tournament, competitors had to place in their country’s national qualifier.[13] By 2006, the event had grown to 547 qualified participants from 53 countries and had a prize purse of $400,000 US.[14] The event also featured the first competition with a game specifically made for it: TrackMania Nations.
Table view
SK Gaming representing Sweden in the Counter-Strike competition
| 2003 | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counter-Strike | team9 | zEx | SK Gaming |
| Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | Alborz "HeMaN" Haidarian | Björn "zulg" Sunesson | Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendell |
| Quake 3 | Anton "Cooller" Singov | John "ZeRo4" Hill | Alexey "LeXeR" Nesterov |
List view
This event marked the transitional replacement and additions of several cornerstone tournament titles. This included the replacement of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne with StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty,[46] as well as the replacement of Defense of the Ancients with Dota 2.[47] Additionally, this event marked the first and only year in which Counter-Strike: Source was present. It was also the last year that would include Counter-Strike 1.6, which was the main attraction of the tournament for many years, and the last remaining game that had been featured in the inaugural ESWC event.[48]