As the world of competitive gaming grows, professional cyber athletes have started to see more and more opportunities to earn money through gaming. The World Cyber Games (WCG) is one of the leading venues for cyber athletes in the PC category, but they have had a rough start with console gamers. This has been especially true when the WCG added Dead or Alive Ultimate to its 2005 event year. With the addition of Dead or Alive 4 for WCG 2006, we sat down with Michael Arzt, International Cyber Marketing's (the global organizer of the WCG) GM for the United States, to discuss what went wrong in previous years and how the WCG is working to improve every step of the way.

What changes have been made to improve the tournament this year?

To begin with, we have made every effort to improve communications with the DOA community in the US. You will see that we are making a concentrated effort to reach this community through its various sites. In addition, since last year we have brought on several people internally at the US level that are avid fighting game enthusiasts and who have been following the scene since 2000, and they are helping us keep focus on the importance here.

In addition, since DOA is an Xbox 360 title, with amazing high res graphics, I am confident that it will get ample stage time. It promises to be a real crowd pleaser as well since fighting games have a big following.

Last year was the first time the WCG ran an Xbox Live tournament in partnership with Microsoft. We learned a lot from the experience, and this year we will work closer with Microsoft to produce even better results and have enlisted appropriate experts to support and advance our offering.

This year's tournament will be even better, as the WCG will use the new console (Xbox 360), new game title (DOA 4) and a new sponsorship agreement with Microsoft.

There were numerous issues surrounding last year's tournament, including: the rules were not set by normal tournament setting or setting players use, top DOA players didn't know about the tournament, online registration didn't work and players weren't able to practice. How are thing going to be different this year?

First, after each year's Grand Final all participants are given a chance to offer feedback on the tournament, its rules and structure. We are well known for listening and implementing what we learn based on player feedback and this is also true for the DOA participants. We also encourage players to visit the US WCG website and share any feedback so that we can continue to meet the needs of the gaming community. The WCG has always worked to provide the best tournament experience, from the mix of game titles to the quality of the overall event. Unlike other gaming events, we try to ensure that participants at every skill level have a legitimate shot at advancing to the US National Final and competing for the honor of representing their country at the Grand Final. Now let me address your specific concerns one at a time.

RULES:
The rules for DOA during last year's tournament were the same as those adopted by many DOA communities, including DOA Central. The only difference was that for the WCG tournament, we used single elimination instead of double elimination. This was a decision made by the World Cyber Games Committee for all games, not just DOA. For 2006, the online tournament will run a single elimination bracket until the final four, which will be double elimination. All offline tournaments (both Regional and US Open) will run a double elimination tournament.

You can view the rules here.

TOP DOA PLAYERS DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT:
As I said above, we're making extra efforts to stay in touch with the DOA community. We encourage DOA enthusiasts to help us spread the word.

ONLINE REGISTRATION DIDN'T WORK:
While I can't directly address any individual concerns from last year, I can tell you that this year's registration is up and running. You can register today via our website.

Furthermore, registration is free up until midnight (U.S. Pacific Time) on Friday, May 12. After that, there will be a nominal $5.00 registration fee to cover administrative costs. So sign up today!

PLAYERS WEREN'T ABLE TO PRACTICE:
We have included a significant amount of time between matches at all of our offline tournaments in order for players to have more practice time. We reduced the amount of participants at each stage in order to ensure that players will get more time and be more spectator friendly. We would want all of our spectators be able to watch any game they choose so all games will be more accessible.

We did not provide any practice areas for any games last year at the US Final, but there was ample practice space and time at the Grand Final in Singapore. While the tournament itself was fair, many gamers indicated they would have welcomed the opportunity to prepare with practice rounds at the national final level too. With that in mind, we hope to provide as numerous practice opportunities for each game at the US Final, and as always at the Grand Final, which in 2006 will be held in Monza, Italy.

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