The 7th World Championship 2015 started, the Group preliminary has been finished

The 7th e-Sports World Championship Seoul 2015, which is the sole international e-Sports event where players compete as representing their countries was held at NEXON ARENA in Seoul, South Korea from 2^nd to 5^th in December 2015. The World Championship is hosted by International e-Sports Federation(IeSF) and officially sponsored by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), SK Telecom and LONGZHU TV.

The opening ceremony was held at Nexon Arena on December 2^nd at 11pm with about 200 national players who have been recognized by their governments and national federations. In the ceremony, officials from international sport society such as International Olympic Committee, Olympic Council of Asia attended the opening ceremony.

Byunghun Jun, the president of IeSF, emphasized that the status of e-Sports is growing as a recognized sport and expressed his intention to enlarge the national competition model through the opening address. After the opening ceremony, all players started their group preliminary, and countries on quarterfinal for each game title have been announced.For League of Legends and StarCraft® II: Legacy of the Void™, the first place country for each group advanced to the quarterfinals with complete victory. Serbia, China, Korea, Switzerland for League of Legends and Chinese Taipei, Philippines, Serbia, and Finland for Starcraft II advanced without any lost. By the way, for Hearthstone, all matches were highly competitive at each group. Finland, Serbia, Chinese Taipei and Sweden recorded the first place and advanced to the quarterfinals. Korean female Starcraft player, Gayoung ‘Aphrodite’ Kim, who had firstly tried for open-for-all event advanced to quarterfinals with the second place of her group.

Quarterfinal matches will be played on December 3^rd. Also, from 6pm, ‘e-sports summit 2015’ will be held with officials from international sport and e-Sports society. After the Summit, StarCraft® II: Legacy of the Void™ invitational event will be held at 7:30pm.

The main matches of the quarterfinals, e-Sports Summit 2015 and Starcraft II Invitational event will be broadcasted in English through IeSF channel on Twitch TV (http://www.twitch.tv/iesf_tv) and Youtube e-Sports global channel (http://www.youtube.com/eSportsTV_global) and in Chinese through LONGZHU TV (http://v.longzhu.com). The following is the schedules of broadcasting for the 3^rd of December, and the schedule is based on Korea Standard Time (GMT+9)

<Broadcasting Events>

Time	Match
10:00 ~ 13:00	LOL – China vs Russia
13:00 ~ 16:00	LOL – Israel vs Switzerland
16:00 ~ 17:00	Hearthstone – Korea vs Serbia
17:00 ~ 18:00	StarcraftII - Finland vs Korea
18:00 ~ 19:30	e-Sports Summit 2015
19:30 ~ 21:00	StarcraftII invitational event

IeSF's 7th World Championships trailer

■ Outline of the 7th e-Sports World Championship
1. Period : 2nd ~ 5th Dec. 2015
- Arrival Date : 1st Dec. 2015
- Departure Date : 6th Dec. 2015
2. Venue : NEXON Arena, Seoul
3. Host : International e-Sports Federation / Korea e-Sports Association
4. Sponsor : Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism / Longzhu
6. Official Game Titles
- League of Legends (Riot Games)
- Starcraft II (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Hearthstone (Blizzard Entertainment)
7. PAX : 160 players from 28 IeSF member nations

The 7th e-Sports World Championship

■ Outline of the 7th e-Sports World Championship

1. Period : 2^nd ~ 5^th Dec. 2015

- Arrival Date : 1^st Dec. 2015

- Departure Date : 6^th Dec. 2015

2. Venue : NEXON Arena, Seoul

3. Host : International e-Sports Federation / Korea e-Sports Association

4. Sponsor : Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism / Longzhu

6. Official Game Titles

- League of Legends (Riot Games)

- Starcraft II (Blizzard Entertainment)

- Hearthstone (Blizzard Entertainment)

7. PAX : 160 players from 28 IeSF member nations

■ e-Sports World Championship Time Line

Date	Time	Program	Remark
1st of Dec	19:00 ~ 21:00	Orientation	NEXON Arena
2nd of Dec	11:00 ~ 12:00	Opening Ceremony	Main Stage
	12:00 ~ 21:00	Group Preliminary	Tournament Zone/Stage
3rd of Dec	10:00 ~ 18:00	Quarterfinal (8)	Tournament Zone/Stage
	18:00~19:30	e-Sports Summit 2015 (Panel Discussion)	Main Stage
4th of Dec	14:00 ~ 17:00	IeSF General Meeting	OCloud Hotel
	10:00 ~ 20:00	Semifinal (4)	Main Stage
5th of Dec	10:00 ~ 20:00	Final	Main Stage
	20:00 ~ 20:30	Closing Ceremony	Main Stage

■ e-Sports Summit 2015

1. Name of the event : e-Sports Summit 2015

2. Date : 3rd, December 2015 (Thu) 18:00 ~ 19:30

- Open Discussion : 18:00 ~ 19:00

- Q&A Session : 19:00 ~ 19:30

3. Venue : NEXON Arena Main stage

4. Potential Attendees (One person per each department)

Organization	Participants
IeSF	Silviu Stroie, Vice President
OCA / IOC	Rita Subowoo, Chairwoman of OCA Standing Committees / IOC member
West Nally / IFP	Patrick Nally, President of West Nally, and IFP
University of West Scotland	Andy Mia, Professor University of West of Scotland / IOC social media mentor
e-Sports Player	Sun Woon Lee / SC2 World Champion
Game Developer	Blizzard Entertainment

5. Observer : Kit McConnell (Sport Director of IOC)

6. Main Topic

- Possibility of e-Sports’ recognition from International Sport Society

7. Method

- MC brings up a sub topics, and panels have free discussion.

- Sub Topics and questions will be shared in advance.

- The discussion will be produced to broadcasting contents and will be distributed through online streaming.

- Media will be observing and may give questions to panels.

The 7th e-Sports World Championship will be held at NexonArena, Seoul on December 2nd~5th

The International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) has announced that the 7th e-Sports World Championship Seoul 2015, which is the sole international e-Sports event where players compete as representing their countries will be held in at NEXON ARENA in Seoul, South Korea from 2^nd to 5^th in December 2015. The World Championship is officially sponsored by LONGZHU TV.

Maryke Kennard

The official game titles are ‘League of Legends’, ‘StarCraft® II : Legacy of the Void’ and ‘Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™. IeSF’s member national federations conducted their national qualifiers for the World Championship, and 170 players from 28 member nations who are approved to represent their own countries are participating in the World Championship. As the competition method is ‘Open for All’, which has no limitation for both male and female players to compete, 2 female players are selected to participate in the event. One is Korean female StarCraft® II player, Ga Young Kim, who won the champion for StarCraft® II female division at 2012 World Championship, and the other is Maryke Kennard proudly leading the MWEB Protea League of Legends team from South Africa.

Also, in the 7th e-Sports World Championship Seoul 2015, it has been decided that representatives from International Sports Organizations such as International Olympic Committee and Olympic Council of Asia, who have been cooperating with IeSF are visiting the event. Through the 7th e-Sports World Championship, possibility of e-Sports’ recognition from International Sports Society will be examined by such representatives.

The World Championship is officially sponsored by LONGZHU TV, one of Chinese major streaming companies. LONGZHU TV will keep their support for the sole model of International competition of e-Sports through this World Championship.

Mr. Byunghun Jun, the president of IeSF said “The official international competition event is a significant model to enlarge the grassroots and have international competitiveness in all sports scenes. In addition, this will contribute greatly to the growth of the international e-Sport world. Since the e-Sports World Championship is attracting attention of International Sports Society as the sole international competition of e-Sports where national players can compete, this event will be the huge opportunity for e-Sport to approach International sports society.

• Appendix. Participating Country List

Country	LOL	SC2	HS
Korea	○	○	○
Australia	○
Austria			○
Azerbaijan		○	○
Belgium		○	○
China	○	○	○
Chinese Taipei	○	○
Finland		○	○
Georgia		○	○
Indonesia	○		○
Iran	○
Israel	○	○	○
Mongolia	○	○	○
Philippines	○	○	○
Romania	○	○	○
Russia	○	○
Serbia	○	○	○
South Africa	○	○	○
Sweden		○	○
Switzerland	○	○	○
Thailand	○		○
Tunisia	○		○
Vietnam			○