WCG 2004 San Francisco

San Francisco matters because it sits far away from the version of life adults had imagined for us when they said gaming would lead nowhere.

Being there did not turn the story into a simple victory speech. The important part is quieter. Gaming had carried us into another country. It put us beside one another in a place we would not have reached in the same way without it.

The city is less important than the feeling of being away together. Travel made the friendships more visible. It showed that GBR was becoming something that could leave the room where it started and still remain intact.

WCG San Francisco remains as a marker of distance: from Singapore, from doubt, and from the idea that the things young people love cannot become serious.