World eSports Championship Games 2014 announces first games for its lineup

The inaugural World eSports Championship Games (WEGC) will be held this December in China. These December finals will follow preliminary rounds that will be be held throughout east Asia, and we’ve just got our first peek at what we’ll be watching when it hits our screens.

(See: Singapore may be a host city for 2015’s World eSports Championship Games)

Rising from the ashes of the World Cyber Games (following its cancellation earlier this year), the WEGC represents a uniting of Korean and Chinese eSports clout. The Korean Aegis Gaming Networks (AGN) and the Beijing-based Global Mobile Game Confederation (GMGC) have come together to present the competition.

The four main games announced today belong to separate genres. The selections should come as no surprise: Dota 2 for MOBAs, Starcraft 2 for RTS games, Hearthstone for digital card games, and Ultra Street Fighter IV for fighting games. League of Legends is missing in action for now, perhaps to cash in on the positive Dota 2 buzz that has come out of The International 4, especially in China.

Given that the event is jointly run by companies from Korea and China, Starcraft 2 and Dota 2’s inclusions are only to be expected. It’s good news for fans, and probably better news for Blizzard that Hearthstone made the cut, as the fairly-new game continues to surge in popularity across the globe.

Perhaps the most surprising of the four is Ultra Street Fighter IV, a game most would traditionally associate with Japan and the US. However, with strong players like Gamerbee in Taiwan, Singapore’s Xian and Gackt (who won first and fifth places at 2013 and 2014’s respective Evolution Championship Series), Korea’s Poongko and Infiltration, and even China’s own Xiaohai and Dakou, it actually does seem about time that the Middle Kingdom recognized the region’s latent talent.

(See: EVO 2014: Asia still best at what it does)

In addition to those titles, Counter-strike: Global Offensive has been announced as a “promotional game title”, while FPS Crisis Action and rhythm game Dance Everyday fill out the mobile game roster.

In all, it looks like the tournament will attract some of the fiercest competitors across the most popular games of our time, especially if League of Legends does join the other four, as most expect. Are they any other titles you expect—or hope—will make the cut? Let us know in the comments below.

Update 30-07-14:We apologize unreservedly for the factual error made in the article. Singapore’s Xian took first place at EVO 2013. The article has been rectified to reflect this.

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