It is another day and with it comes another eSports event. As the weekend ends, so does the World Cyber Games (WCG) 2006 Canadian National Championships. eSportsTV's very own Jason Grocholski had the opportunity to check out the Quebec event, which was held at the La Ronde Six Flags on Saint Helen's Island, Montreal during September 1st to the 3rd. Professional gamers from 7 different games flocked to the Island for the 3-day event to achieve one thing: being Canada's best. Winners of the prestigious event will go on to compete under the Canadian flag at the WCG Grand Finals in Monza, Italy during October 18th-22nd, which will host over $400,000USD in prize money. ESportsTV provided video coverage, interviews, on-site interaction.

I caught up with Jason Grocholski to talk about the event he attended for eSportsTV. Here is what he had to say.

What did you think about the event as a whole?
I really enjoyed the event, the organizers Stephan and Chantal did an amazing job. The tech side also was very well organized, who can go wrong with the beautiful Samsung monitors that were supplied for the event. There was only one bug in this event and it was that spectators had to pay the admissions fee to get into La Ronda to come watch the favorite teams. The fee wasn't a lot considering everything you got with it. All and all it was an excellent event.

How was the Canadian competition in your opinion compared to the rest of the world?
Think this was the best event I have been to in Canada, it might have been because I had the press pass and was able to get more behind the scenes and up close and personal. We are still behind Korea by a lot because their community is in a very advanced stage compared to North America.

Now from what I understand, you spent a great deal of your time following Team EG (now four time WCG Canadian Champions). How was that experience, and what did you think about the team?
Knowing the history about Team EG and having the chance to watch them over their shoulders while they played on the main stage was great. I think there skill level is amazing and I see them being at the top for awhile, they just got game. The thing I learned was there like any other team they make mistakes, but I think the differences is that there able to adjust. Against team eMg for the finals was very close the first match. Team EG only had to win 16 coming from the upper bracket and Team eMg had to claim 32 coming from the lower bracket to claim gold. Team EG sometimes get into a slump and dig a hole but somehow they always pull themselves out either it is from a great clutch by someone or by the moral support of their manger Alex Garfield which I think is a strong force in this team. I think Alex was more nervous than the team itself as he paced back and forth on the stage behind his team. They pulled it off once again to become 4 time Canadian Champs and took first place. They're a bunch of amazing guys and hopefully I get the chance to spend some more time with them in Italy if I end up going.

As mentioned before, the event was hosted at the La Ronde Six Flags in Montreal, Canada. This must have been a great event for spectators. How was the turn-around for that?
The amount of spectators in my opinion was very small. I think the times we saw a lot of people were when three Montreal Alouettes football players had a challenge on PGR3. There was Shaun Diner, Uzooma Okeke and the winner of the races who won an mp3 player Scott Flory. Also when there were the finals majority of the competitors became spectators but the number of spectators was very small due to the admissions fee need to be paid to get into La Ronde (Six Flags) and come see the WCG.

The event was helped run by Samsung Electronics Canada, among other event organizers. How well did they cater to the competitive arena?
I think that you couldn't have asked for a better arena, there was a minor glitch in the 1.6 matches with the black box appearing when firing. Besides the CS 1.6 having some problems everything else went without a hitch.

Now, we have talked about the tournament. But I'm sure there were some great stories behind the tournament due to the fact that the event was at a Six Flags. Care to share?
I think the best moment was on Friday, there was a special event going on at La Ronde which was the all nighter. The park only opened at 9PM and closed at sunrise. At 8:55 I along with a bunch of the WCG participants headed over to the roller coaster Goliath. I was first in line and was pumping everyone up cracking jokes and stuff. When the gates opened it was a typical rush cat, there were a couple of the eMg guys behind me on the ride. On the ride up to the first drop I kept screaming console quit just for fun, on your way down the first drop there is an automatic camera with a flash. It was night time and it completely blinded me so I was screamed, "OMG flash bang! I'm blind, I'm blind!" I had a blast and the eMg guys got a kick out of me and my silly comments. The ride was intense and I ended up riding a couple of times during the weekend considering it was just in front of the exit of the building where the WCG was being held.

Thanks for the chat, Jason. Would you like to add anything else?
I just like to say congrats to all of team Canada who will be representing my home country and also to the people who didn't make it this year keep your head up cause you're at the top of the board of the Canadian teams and to get this far is already an achievement in itself. To everyone going to Italy I hope to see you there and everyone else I hope to see you at other major events and if not next year at the next WCG Canadian Championship. I also hoped everyone who saw the closing ceremonies enjoyed the movie I had put together for them. WCG wanted a recap video for the closing ceremonies, they had a tight time schedule and I gave the best I could in that time frame. So I hope everyone enjoy it :-D

With that being said, here are the winners of the 2006 WCG Canadian National Championships:

Counter-Strike 1.6:
1. Team Evil Geniuses
2. eMazing Gaming (DeadZone)
3. NAMELESS


Dead or Alive:
1. Offbeat Ninja
2. Kakita
3. HitomiOwnz


Dawn of War:
1. Fell
2. Stefan Haines
3. Klaiser


FIFA Soccer 2006:
1. H2k wizakor
2. Alyo
3. AMK


Project Gotham Racing:
1. Paul_Temps
2. Splertiki
3. BrownCow


Starcraft:
1. Perentesis
2. Lamoureux
3. Parton


Warcraft 3:
1. Taschuk
2. Garneau
3. Meliambro


The event is over and done with, but the media we will be releasing as the days progress will still be fresh. Expect video coverage, such as the WCG 2006 Canadian Championships Ceremony video (created by Jason himself), photographs from the event, and several interviews with Team Canada and a Samsung representative. We wish the best of luck to Team Canada as they go to the Grand Finals as well as the Pan-American Championships, which will be held in Mexico October 27th-29th. On a final note, I would like to personally thank Jason Grocholski for all the hard work he did at the event and the WCG organizers for helping us out throughout the event. Keep tuning into eSportsTV for more updates about media releases.

Update:
You can now watch the WCG Canada video in our VOD section.