Description
In 2007, I started working as a program author for Ukraine’s first gaming TV channel, Kiberzona. Back then, only a handful of people knew what esports really was, and one of our main goals was to help popularize it — to show that video games had already grown far beyond simple entertainment and were becoming a true competitive discipline.
When Oleg Krot organized a StarCraft tournament in Kyiv, it felt like a major event for the entire community. Together with our film crew, we went there to create a report about the tournament, its atmosphere, and the people who stood at the origins of Ukrainian esports.
But staying only behind the camera was impossible for me. The WCG 2007 qualifiers were just ahead, and I wanted to test not only the level of my future opponents, but also my own form. So between filming segments, I sat down at a computer and joined the tournament myself.
At that time, large competitions were extremely rare, and stable internet access was considered a luxury. For many players, LAN tournaments like this were a real celebration — a place where friends, rivals, and people united by the same passion for gaming could finally meet in person.
And perhaps that’s exactly why old-school esports still feels so special to me to this day.
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