Prior to the opening ceremony was a rather tedious press ceremony but one which at least sparked a little bit of interest when the Q&A started.

HLTV's Luis "MIRAAA" Mira posed an interesting question to the assembled representatives when he asked what WCG plans to do to battle a recurring problem of companies using money they should be spending on national qualifiers in their own country for their own personal gains, making reference to Venezuela and Portugal as examples.

The representative who replied to his query claimed this was one of the reasons for a reduction in the number of countries represented at this years WCG, and that in the given environment this kind of event is unfortunately possible and could occur again.

However, whilst other esports organisers have died or suffered from the current economic situation - he did not mention any specifically - WCG has managed to carry on and will do their best to make better ties to countries wishing to seek representation in the future.

As for the opening ceremony the crowd was immense and the stage spacious, with the standard flag-bearing and waving took place and was then followed by a more traditional Chinese show. Young martial artists took the stage showcasing a variety of chinese weapons such as swords, spears and num-chucks.

Golden Dragons in opening ceremony



They were then followed by a rather questionable seven member boy band, who opened their scoring with a rendition of "Beyond the Game" and then insisted on wearing skirts in their second performance. The highlight was probably the two golden dragons held up and manipulated by seven youngsters darting around across the main stage.

Well-known players were dotted all around the seating area which a rough guess would estimate at perhaps able to seat over 1,200 people, with perhaps 50-100 seats vacant for the grand opening ceremony. Warcraft3 players remain the fan-magnets, with Grubby and Cassandra in particular pleasing the hordes with photographs and signatures. Likewise Yoan 'ToD' Merlo and of course Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang received the superstar treatment when they were caught out in the open.

As usual the German representatives remain the most closely knit, moving en masse in matching shirt and jackets, with the Poles and the Dutch also clustered together.

The Koreans who are also usually inseperable at the WCG in their white and green jackets were nowhere to be seen however, aside from a brief cameo by Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang on stage, the silver medalist at last year's WCG. One part of WCG's magic is the national pride it instills, but usually only a handful of nations truly send the message that they care, and that is usually Germany, Korea and China.

In regards to the opening ceremony it was well choreographed but nothing to draw breaths, having lived in China for half a year already I know "the land of heroes" could easily have brought more to the table, but still the crowds that amassed for the opening day are a good sign of things to come. The mainstage looks designed for 1on1 competition, with only 2 booths which means like EM Chengdu, Counter-strike might miss the main-stage treatment in front of the main seating area.

The skirt-lovers sing Beyond the Game