I Will Never Forget This Weekend
The words of alCalDe sum up the Natural Selection 2 World Championship for countless others. A superlative event, consisting of amazing players, tireless volunteers, memorable moments and transcending even the considerable the sum of those parts.
The Legendary Snails walked home to France with $5,000 prize money, Titus Gaming to North America with $2,500. Godar and Saunamen departed with honour and the respect of their opponents and every spectator. But these prizes were secondary, as the greatest rewards of the the Championship were undoubtedly the sense of comraderie and community that the event instilled in everyone that came close to it.
The Natural Selection 2 World Championship was a ballet of intricate components: Players, casters, video creators, producers, camera operators, hosts, live audience, developers, animators, graphics designers, referees, logistics managers, sponsors, broadcasters, and more. Every piece came together perfectly, to create an event that surpassed all expectation.
Over 7.5 hours, 82,260 unique viewers tuned in to see some part of the Championship Finals. A maximum of 5,095 unique viewers watched play at any one time, and collectively 22,808 hours were watched.
The World Championship brought together people from all over the world - Mod creators like Loki, playtest stalwarts like Explosif and MGS-3, UWE developers like Trac and Obraxis, competitive figures like WasabiOne, Reddog, and Blind.
Now that the event is finished, there is much still to be done. Over the coming days, every single match will be uploaded to YouTube.com/UnknownWorlds. Photo albums will be released. Post-event interviews will be aired. And a question will be discussed: Should there be and NS2WC 2015, and if so, how can it be even better?
