Mastering the art of WarCraft III

OCC student earns silver medal for the U.S. at the World Cyber Games Grand Final in Singapore.Dennis Chan is getting closer to capturing a world cyber title.

The 22-year-old Orange Coast College student won the silver medal last weekend in the WarCraft III competition at the World Cyber Games Grand Final in Singapore.

The World Cyber Games is the world’s largest video game tournament.

By finishing as runner-up, Chan, a resident of Sunset Beach and a 2001 graduate of Huntington Beach High School, earned a $10,000 check.

His second-place finish bettered his performance at last year’s world championships in San Francisco, where he finished fourth.

Chan, who has a strong international following, pulled off one of the biggest upsets at the Grand Finals. He drew a legendary WarCraft champion, Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen of the Netherlands, in a semifinal matchup.

Chan, known on the playing circuit as “Short Round,” defeated Schenkhuizen to move on to his first world final.

“I was very pleased to defeat Grubby,” said Chan, who went on to lose to another tough opponent, Xiaofeng Li of China, in Sunday’s WarCraft III final.

Chan beat out more than 40,000 other cyber gamers to qualify for Team USA and represent the country at the Grand Finals.

The finals attracted 800 of the world’s best video gamers from 70 countries.

Chan’s silver helped the U.S. win the overall medal count.

Before leaving for Singapore, Chan said he was looking forward to competing in another world final.

“I’m a competitive guy by nature, and the strategic part of playing, really using the mind, is what intrigues me most about cyber games,” he said.

Chan, who is studying biology at Orange Coast College and hoping to become a doctor, said he began to play cyber games a few years ago.

He first delved into competition when he saw an online advertisement.

He ended up taking second place in that contest and has entered local, regional and national competitions since then.

A world-class player for the last three years, Chan has become a sponsored professional player in a fairly short period of time. He won the WarCraft III competition at the U.S. finals of the World Cyber Games in September and was joined by 15 other Americans -- including one other Californian -- at the Grand Finals in Singapore.

The game WarCraft III is a “real-time” game in which a player gathers resources, builds a compound and then uses his army to destroy an opponent’s fortifications while protecting his own.

“It’s not like chess, where you stop, pause and think about your next move,” Chan said.

“In a game like WarCraft III, you have to think on the fly and adjust your strategy to what your opponent is doing at any given moment.

“The game is along the genre of real-time strategies. As commander, you watch what’s happening from an aerial overview of the battle. You have an army of soldiers who are trying to destroy an opponent’s base. It’s more of a fantasy battle than anything else.”

At 22, Chan, who has played tournaments in France, Taiwan, Denmark and South Korea, is the oldest member of Team USA.

More than 40,000 gamers attempted to qualify at 120 game centers and through online tournaments since May.

Regional competitions took place in July and August, and 184 surviving gamers moved on to the U.S. final held in New York City.

In addition to WarCraft III, other PC competitions held at the World Cyber Games included StarCraft, Counter-Strike, FIFA Soccer, Warhammer and Need For Speed.

In addition, two Xbox games, Halo 2 and Dead or Alive Ultimate, were played.

The winner in WarCraft III, Chan said, received a grand prize of $20,000. Chan’s second place $10,000 prize wasn’t too bad either, and third got $5,000.

“Cyber games are really catching on,” Chan said. “We’re all very competitive during a game, but afterward there’s a lot of camaraderie among us players.

“It’s really interesting to meet up with gamers from around the world. The competition should be fierce.” 20051125iq0wosknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Dennis Chan, 22, a student at Orange Coast College, earned a silver medal last weekend in the WarCraft III competition at the World Cyber Games Grand Final in Singapore.