RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM The glow of screens provides the only light at PC Gamerz as teams battle it out in "Counter-Strike" at the World Cyber Games regional competition.

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Cyberchamps

A Hawaii gamers team readies to
wage war at the national finals
in September

Starting at noon, five teams of five players fought fatigue and each other for the chance to go to war in New York next month.

SPONSORS NEEDED Businesses interested in sponsoring the Hawaii team's trip to New York for the World Cyber Games may send checks made to PC Gamerz Inc. (write "WCG Hawaii Donation" in the memo line), 98-199 Kamehameha Highway, Aiea 96701. Call 485-0873.

Lives were lost in a matter of seconds to guns, knives or grenades. After hours of bloodshed, only Team Ethereal was left standing over the corpses.

Virtual corpses, that is.

The World Cyber Games, held last year in San Francisco, is in its fifth year as the largest "e-sports festival" on Earth.

"The World Cyber Games is the Olympics of video games," said Carol Bennett, of iGames.org's events team. "The objective of the games is to foster harmonious and friendly competition."

Ethereal won the Hawaii regional competition, a double-bracket elimination held Aug. 6 at PC Gamerz in Pearl Kai Shopping Center. Other qualifying events were held both online and on site in Kentucky, Texas, California, Florida, Indiana, Montana and Pennsylvania.

The team becomes the first from Hawaii to compete in the WCG U.S. National Finals, Sept. 8 to 10 in Manhattan Center. The prize pool totals more than $34,000.

Only 15 teams have qualified nationwide for the Counter-Strike portion of finals. Last year's winner, Team3D, was given an automatic invitation, bringing the total to 16.

Top teams from the finals will travel to Singapore for the Grand Finals from Nov. 16 to 20. Approximately 800 players from 70 countries will rumble on eight titles: StarCraft: Brood War, Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, Warhammer 4000: Dawn of War, Counter-Strike: Source, FIFA 2005, Need for Speed: Underground 2, Halo 2 and Dead or Alive Ultimate. More than $400,000 will be awarded in cash and prizes.

Ethereal team member Larry Martin says the amounts at stake have him treating the game with more solemnity. "I'm trying to focus on the future, trying to take it more seriously and get sponsorships. We still have fun, but we set practice times and stay on three hours at a time."

Martin has been playing Counter-Strike since its beta release. (Companies will often release rough-polished software, called betas, for the public to play-test, before commercial versions are sold.)

Counter-Strike is the most popular game in the competition, Bennett said, which is why it was chosen as Hawaii's proving ground. The first-person shooting game accounts for about 50 percent of playtime at PC Gamerz.

Jeff Furumura, PC Gamerz co-owner and host of the regional tournament, said teams took the part of terrorist or counterterrorist in each game. They play on "maps" that have different physical characteristics. "Often, teams work out intricate strategies and coordinated and timed movements specific to the map being played."

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RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Team Ethereal consists of, clockwise from bottom, Titus Yamamoto, Calvin Doan, Todd Yamada and Austin Tani. Fifth member Larry Martin is away at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif.

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The nature of online multiplayer gaming makes age, background and gender largely irrelevant. Players in the regional competition ranged in age from 13 to 23, from communities such as Pearl City, Kailua, Mililani, Kahala, Nuuanu, Makiki and McCully. Players' schools were split between public and private, and included University of Hawaii and Kapiolani and Leeward community colleges.

Josh Pelekai, 14, of Team Dire said his teammates met in virtual space on a public server called Etopia, run by the downtown Honolulu Internet Cafe. Eventually they met in person at the cafe. Pelekai says the cafe's management gave the team, ages 13 to 15, a sponsorship soon thereafter.

"The first few (Counter-Strike) tournaments were ultra-competitive," says Jeri Endo, co-owner of PC Gamerz, "but things have really mellowed since they (the regular players) got to know each other."

Todd Yamada, 19, leader of Team Ethereal, says his group officially came together four months ago, although the members had played together for more than a year.

Along with Martin, the team includes Calvin Doan, Austin Tani and Titus Yamamoto.

"(Calvin) has very quick reactions and is a very good sniper," Yamada said. "Titus is a consistent player and hits his shots when he needs to. Austin is a tricky player and likes to fool his opponents. Larry is a very smart player and very good at providing cover when needed. He also provides new ideas for strategies."

As team leader, "most of the time I call the strats or the plays to organize our ways of defending and attacking," he said.

"We each play a small role for the team to provide the best outcome. As for (individual) weaknesses ... we wouldn't like to expose that to our opponents."

He said a lack of playing time on local networks and in big mainland tournaments could work against them. PC Gamerz will provide free time on its network for the team to practice.

"We prepared for the Hawaii regionals by practicing online," Yamada said, "but we will need a better practice schedule if we want to be able to compete with some of the best teams in the U.S."

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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Team Ethereal gets in some practice at PC Gamerz in the Pearl Kai Shopping Center.

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