No one would have predicted that Starcraft would survive till 2009 when the game was first played at WCG in 2001. The epic games are the ones that could stand the test of time and outlive the other pretenders out there.

Its great to see WCG 2009 still maintains the great core games in addition to a few controversial new games. But as someone posted above, if the addition of those games serves its purpose, whether its to introduce the WCG brand to a wider audience, satisfies their core sponsors or simply help Samsung sells more phones, it is still worth it to have those games around for this edition as long as the great games are still there with the possibility of even more great games added into the future.

Games like Asphalt 4 may seem like a joke to most of us now but who is to say Starcraft played competitively back in 2001 was not one of those jokes too? If the game proves itself to be great, the greatest compliment would be eternal memory of the game's past champions.
However, as things goes, 10 years from now, I would remember champions like Boxer winning 2 WCGs (2001 and 2002), our representative (Chobo if i remembered correctly) beaten a Korean SC rep (Midas I think) before, and even the nick of the player that won the WCG 2009 Starcraft gold medal rather than the winner of Asphalt 4 and Guitar Hero.

If WCG needs games like Asphalt 4 to keep great games Starcraft (or perhaps Dota in the future) in the game pool, then I have no qualms of them putting in 10 more Asphalt 4ish games in it to enable the organisers to reach their means. True E-Sports titles would only endure in the minds of gamers like the "10 years from now" example above. Yes, they might not place E-sports as their main priority, however like or not, they are still the main bearers of the E-Sport dream we all share. If E-Sport is meant to be, I am sure the great games will endure and others will just remain a sideshow regardless of how much money the creators throw into the organniser's pockets.

With ESWC gone, the event that truely represents "Esports" as far we Malaysians are concerned would be WCG. I sincerely hope this edition will be a success and the representatives of Malaysia will do our nation proud and help us take another step to make E-sports come true.

People still pay RM150 to join an SMM qualifier right now and get pwned in 30 mins facing a seeded team.

There must be hope !