Singapore to be the Host City for the World Cyber Games 2005 - Singapore is to be the international country to hold the WCG in 2005 - It is selected as the host city-state for the WCG 2005 after a stiff competition with other international cities (Singapore, July 29, 2004) The committee (WCGC, co-chairmen: Chung Dong-chea, Yun Jong-yong) for World Cyber Games, a world festival for games culture, announced Singapore as the host city for the WCG in 2005. The WCG expects the selection of Singapore, an international business city and a hub of culture and education, will help attract around 800 players to the world’s largest game festival. The Singapore Economic Development Board's Chairman, Teo Ming Kian said, "We are excited and honored to be the host country for the world's largest e-sports event next year. The World Cyber Games 2005 Grand Final is a boost to our efforts to position Singapore as the Asia Pacific hub in the rapidly growing games market. This will help us build a vibrant world-class games development sector and we are already working with numerous international studios to train our best creative talent to develop games for the global market." In the process of choosing the host city of the WCG 2005 Grand Final, The WCGC screened candidate cities such as Taipei, Milan and Hanover which demonstrated a strong will to host the event in accordance with strict criteria. Singapore was selected as it received the highest score in terms of venue, accessibility, and etc. While other nominee cities were comparable to Singapore to hold the event in their abilities to host the event, Singapore offered its SICEC (Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre), an international conference & exhibition hall which can admit large-scale events and a huge quantity of spectators. Other factors such as accessibility from the athletes’ village to the SICEC, cultural and shopping facilities, and security also have positive impact on its selection. Another score winner was its vast and advanced IT infrastructure as a business hub in the Asian region. Finally, Singapore was chosen thanks to the fact that, since it’s an international education city, it can be used as a point of strategic importance to highlight positive effects of games and to position the WCG as an educational and culture games event with youths. WCGC President Chang Il-hyung, acting for Yun Jong-yong, WCGC co-chairman and CEO & Vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, noted that Singapore, an international hub of business, culture and education best suits the sprits of WCG for achieving world harmony and implementing digital entertainment. The WCGC is planning to continue to enhance the global image of the WCG by holding the event overseas in San Francisco this year and Singapore next year. The WCG, which started as the World Cyber Challenge in 2000, was first officially held in 2001 as the World Cyber Games and will mark its fourth year this year. It has grown to be a “dream festival” of gamers around the world with its ever-increasing no. of participating countries of 64. While this year the Grand Final is to be held in a foreign city, San Francisco, it has been held in local cites of Korea such as Seoul and Daejun up to the 3rd WCG last year, About 700 national representatives from 64 nations from all over the world will be competing for the honor of their countries in the WCG 2004 Grand Final to be held in Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, U.S.A. for five days from October, 6th to 10th. The Singapore National finals will be held over 4 days from September 8 to 11 at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center hall 603, where the top national gamers will be selected to represent Singapore in the WCG 2004 grand final. About the World Cyber Games The World Cyber Games (Co-Chairmen Chung Dong-chea & Yun Jong-yong, www.worldcybergames.com is a global game culture festival that was founded in 2000 to promote global harmony through e-sports. The event started in 2001, and has been running annually ever since (this will be the fourth year). With the slogan "Beyond the Game" and with contestants from 64 countries expected to participate in this year's event, the World Cyber Games has truly developed into a global game phenomenon with arguably the largest prize amount at stake. The World Cyber Games prides itself on leading the "Digital Entertainment Culture." The 2004 Games in San Francisco will run for 5 days from October 6 through October 10.