Warcraft III professional competition

The expansion to the computer game , has an active professional competition scene, particularly in China, Germany and South Korea. The game is featured at electronic gaming festivals including the World Cyber Games, the Electronic Sports World Cup, the World e-Sports Games and the World Series of Video Games. Outside of the professional circuit, the game has many active competitive circuits, with users at Battle.net ranging between the 70,000 and 100,000 at any given moment. In China, in which Warcraft III is very popular, fans and users often use an alternative client due to the country's poor internet connections to the outside world. Around 3,000,000 copies of the game were sold in the country [http://www.sk-gaming.com/feature/691/] . 500,000 Chinese competed in the Chinese qualifiers for the 2006 World Cyber Games. Recently the amount of prize money to be won monthly in various competitions averages 64,642 USD [ [http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=News&method=article&id=5018 GGL - The Warcraft III Money Report: January - May 2007 ] ] . Income for players flows from various sources. most professionals earn a salary from professional gaming teams. The Danish gaming organization known as Meet Your Makers reportedly pays their players 300,000 USD on an annual basis [zh icon [http://war3.replays.net/bbs/htm_data/147/0702/1106087.html [热点 Moon,首位年薪1亿韩元War3选手 Replays.Net For Fun,For Game ] ] .

Professional Warcraft III players

Wikipedia has various articles dedicated to Warcraft III world champions.

*Cho Dae Hui - FoV:Cho became the first Korean player to win a major international tournament because of his victory at the 2004 Electronic Sports World Cup. For years following his victory he was a key player of the 2005 eSport Team of the Year the British based Four Kings and one of the most active Asian players in international competition. He currently plays for the Chinese based BeT Gaming and resides in China.

*Chun Jung Hee - Sweet:Chun has been recognized among the top Warcraft III players since the beginning of the professional competitive scene and has won two world championships as well as several professional events in South Korea. Sweet's lengthy career includes being recognized as the Warcraft III Player of 2004, winning the 3rd edition of the World e-Sports Games and the 2nd edition of the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. Sweet was the first Korean to move to China to compete as a member of the Chinese based Beijing eSport Team [BeT] .

*Jang Jae Ho - Spirit Moon:Jang is known for his domination of televised competition in South Korea since Reign of Chaos, he won six televised leagues and the last five seasons of the on-going MBCGame World War series. He has won over 200,000 USD in prize money since 2005 and reportedly earns 9,000 USD in monthly salary [ [http://www.berlingske.dk/kultur/artikel:aid=850142 Danskere bag verdens største elektroniske sportsklub - Kultur ] ] . He currently plays for the Danish based Meet Your Makers and resides in South Korea. Widely considered the world's best Night Elf players Moon has been a top contender in the professional circuit for many years. Known for his inventive playstyle and popularizing of many Night Elf strategies, Moon has been nicknamed "The Fifth Race"

*Fredrik Johansson - MaDFroG:Johansson was a dominating Warcraft III player from 2003 till 2004 and is regarded an icon of professional gaming. He was the runner-up of the 2003 Electronic Sports World Cup representing Sweden and following this tournament travelled to Seoul, South Korea to compete in the country's televised leagues. He stayed there eleven months in which he won the first Blizzard Worldwide Invitational and joined a Korean based professional gaming team. Upon his return to Europe he became the runner-up of the 2004 Electronic Sports World Cup and was recognized as the eSports Player of 2004. MaDFrog is no longer active as a professional gamer, but announced that he would return to professional gaming upon the release of StarCraft 2 [ [http://sc.gosugamers.net/news.php?id=6343 GosuGamers - News: MaDFroG looks Forward to more days of Glory ] ] .

*Li Xiaofeng - Sky:Xiaofeng won the 2005 and 2006 World Cyber Games representing China, regarded as Warcraft III's premier individual competition, his victories earned him a massive fanbase and turned him into an icon of China's professional gaming scene on a national and international level. He was recognized as the Warcraft III player of 2006 by competitive gaming media [ [http://www.ggl.com/news.php?NewsId=4476 GGL - Sky, Lucifer, Toxic, av3k, archi, f0rest Players of 2006 ] ] and is a member of the World Cyber Games hall of fame [ [http://www.worldcybergames.com/6th/history/Halloffame/Hall_main.asp WCG Official Website ] ] . He is known for revolutionizing the way the Human race is played in Warcraft III and has been considered the top player of the race alongside Frenchman Yoan Merlo since 2005. He has been considered China's number one player since the country's emergence as a major supporter of professional Warcraft III. He has been signed with Chinese based World Elite throughout his professional career.

*Manuel Schenkhuizen - Grubby:Schenkhuizen won the 2004 World Cyber Games representing The Netherlands and has been considered the western world's premier Warcraft III player ever since. He is known for his strength in international competition winning such tournaments as the 2005 Electronic Sports World Cup and the 2006 World Series of Video Games. He was signed with British based Four Kings, until the team's 2008 dissolution. Schenkhuizen has been a key player throughout his professional career. The Four Kings Warcraft III team was recognized as the 2005 eSport Team of the Year. Individually he has been recognized as Warcraft III player of 2005, 2006 and the eSports Player of 2006. Known as the "Orc Emperor" in televised leagues, he has been considered one of the world's best players.

Warcraft III World Championships

There have been various Warcraft III world championships, see Warcraft III World Championships for an overview.

Korean Warcraft III Championships

Due to the intense competitive nature of Korean televised competition the top tier tournaments are often considered on the same level as world championships, see Korean Warcraft III Championships for an overview of prominent Korean competitions.=Professional Warcraft III squads=Various gaming teams have a professional Warcraft III squad. These squads represent their team in such leagues as the Warcraft 3 Champions League and the NGL One professional league. Players also represent their team in various individual leagues.

*Four Kings - United Kingdom:Four Kings won four of the Warcraft III Champions League offline finals and were recognized as the eSports Team of 2005. In 2004 the team spent several months competing in televised leagues taking place in Seoul, South-Korea, a period which also saw them rise as the team to beat in the leagues. Unfortunately, due to financial problems, Four Kings dissolved in January of 2008 scattering then team members across the globe. Four Kings reunite in late February with all members excluding Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen.

*Meet Your Makers - Denmark:Meet Your Makers rose to prominence as one of Warcraft III strongest's teams after moving to an all Korean line-up in 2005 signing several players that lead the team until today such as JaeWook Noh, Jung-Ki Oh and Jang Jae Ho. They stopped a long era of Four Kings domination by winning Warcraft III Champions League IX in 2006 as well as the first season of the NGL One Professional League, becoming the only team to ever hold two major titles at the same time. Following the dissolution of Four Kings in 2008, they added long time rival Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen.

Current roster:flagicon|KOR Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
flagicon|KOR Park Chul "Shy" Woo
flagicon|KOR Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom
flagicon|KOR JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
flagicon|KOR Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
flagicon|KOR Jae Shin "EVE" Park
flagicon|KOR Kim "Storm" JaeWoong flagicon|NED Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
flagicon|DEN Renee "Ciara" Krag
flagicon|FIN Joona "Konna" Parikka (Inactive)
.

*SK Gaming - Germany:SK Gaming has competed in high level Warcraft III since 2002 and was considered the dominant western team of 2002-2003 (there was no offline competition between teams in those days nor international clashes between European and Asian teams). In 2007 SK Gaming defeated MeetYourMakers 3-1 in the WC3L offline championship after acquiring Kim Sung "Remind" Sik, Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk, and June "Lyn" Park.

Current roster:flagicon|GER Daniel "Miou" Holthuis
flagicon|KOR Kim Sung "Remind" Sik
flagicon|KOR June "Lyn" Park
flagicon|KOR Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
flagicon|KOR Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang

*World Elite - China:Upon its conception in 2005 World Elite signed a number of prominent Warcraft III players including Jung Chee Chun and Xiaofeng Li and the team was considered one of the world's absolute best right away. They have competed in various offline finals ever since and won the second season of the NGL-One Professional League 2007, making them the only team to win a major league next to Four Kings and Meet Your Makers since 2004. Nowadays the team is led by Xiaofeng Li.

Current roster:flagicon|CHN Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
flagicon|CHN Zhuo "TeD" Zeng
flagicon|CHN Shu "suhO" Hao
flagicon|CHN Yuwen "Infi" Wang
flagicon|CHN "Keda"
flagicon|CHN "Qeki"
flagicon|CHN Kejing "Like" Li

Notes