Irish cyber athletes gear up for world games
Members of Team Ireland, all men aged between 18 and 24, beat off competition from more than 100 gamers. The seven face a fortnight of intense practice before flying to Seattle for the games, which run over five days from October 3.
Last year was the first time Ireland competed in the games. There was only one woman entrant in the national finals then and none this year. Both national finals were hosted by the Digital Hub, the Government agency charged with developing Ireland’s digital media.
Ireland’s cyber gamers are Gavin Devine and Eugene O’Beirne from Leixlip, Co Kildare; Patrick Lucy from Cork; Paul Madigan from Letterkenny, Co Donegal; Stephen Walsh and Mark Kenny from Dublin and Mike Traynor from Bray, Co Wicklow.
Among the 700-plus people from 70 countries taking part are full-time gamers who earn their living competing on the cyber gaming circuit.
However, Team Ireland captain Richard Smith, who does not compete but will manage the team, believes Ireland will do well: “We did not get out of our group stage last year but we are quietly confident we can improve on that this year.”
The youngest team member is Mike Traynor, a sixth-year student at St Gerard’s School in Bray, who will play FIFA on a PC against another player.
He fancies his chances against the Jamaican and the Austrian in his group, but is not so sure about the German, who won the tournament in 2005 and 2006.
Patrick Lucy, 21, a music student at University College Cork, will be a team player in Counter Strike, an action game where terrorist and counter-terrorists are pitted against each other.
Team Ireland will have five players competing in Counter Strike while one will play in the Project Gotham Racing competition — an individual game on Xbox.
Patrick said the world games showed people like him were not sitting in their darkened rooms all day: “Computer gamers are actually quite a social bunch. We meet each other, we catch up on the news and go for a pint. It is the same as guys watching a football game and then discussing it in the pub afterwards.”
