cybersportnnov.by.ru — the site of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the "Russian Cybersport Federation," hosted on by.ru. According to the site's own chronicle, it "was born" on December 3, 2002. The site prepared and supported Nizhny Novgorod's first computer sports championship of 2003: participant registration took place at the "IKS" club at 12a Lenin Avenue, and the final was scheduled for May 30, 2003, at the "Matritsa" cultural and entertainment complex[1]. The last archived snapshot of the address in the web archive is dated April 6, 2005, and contains not the site itself but a hosting notice about archiving[3].

Organization and launch

The site kept its own chronicle of its founding on the homepage. The earliest entry is dated November 25, 2002: "the founders signed Protocol No. 1 of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of the Russian Cybersport Federation, on the establishment of the organization"; on December 3, 2002, as the homepage reported, "the site was born," on December 15 the link structure was changed, on December 22 the "Media" section was updated, and on January 7, 2003, an FAQ was added. At the bottom was the signature "©opyright: NRB 'Russian Cybersport Federation' - 2003" and the disclaimer "The site is under development. Persons who provided information are responsible for its accuracy." Some of the branch's services lived at a different address: the site sent voting to cybersport.nnov.ru, and final-ticket orders to final@cybersport.nnov.ru[1].

What the site looked like

The top menu consisted of eleven items: "Home," "About the Federation," "Competitions," "For Gamers," "For Clubs," "Media," "For Sponsors," "Download," "Communication," "Links," "FAQ." Sections unfolded further: for clubs there was accreditation, an application form, lists and pages of Nizhny Novgorod's clubs, and a "Legislation" section; for players — a "Cybersportsman Questionnaire" and "Gamer Pages"; for the championship there were regulations, championship games, rules, a calendar, a draw, the prize fund, tournament tables, rankings, reports, and separate brackets for CS, WAR3, and Q3. The "Who We Are" block listed "History of Cybersport," "A Cyberathlete — That Has a Proud Ring to It," "Social Aspect," "Goals and Objectives," documents, and contact information[1].

Communication was provided by a forum and chat, added on March 12, 2003, and a guestbook, closed "for maintenance" the same day. From March 21, 2003, the site promised to answer questions in chat three days a week: on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 22:00 to 23:00. There was mail "on our server" and a "World of Computer Sport" mailing list via Subscribe.Ru (the mailing section launched on February 25, with a "proper" mailing added on March 13, 2003). The homepage carried a poll about which games readers would like to compete in — ten options, from WarCraft III and Quake3 to "Cossacks" and FIFA 2003 — and the header displayed the slogan "The First City Championship Is Coming — Gamers of Nizhny, Warm Up Your Mice"[1].

The First Nizhny Novgorod Championship

On February 21, 2003, the site announced the start of preparations for the First "Nizhny Novgorod Computer Sports Championship of 2003" and named tentative dates: qualifiers March 31 – April 13, final on April 18. The schedule slipped: on March 9 the editors apologized for a break "due to technical problems," moved registration to April 20, qualifiers to April 25 – May 7, the final to May 8, and stressed that "there are no quotas by club or district"[1].

Preparations proceeded at Nizhny Novgorod addresses: on April 19, from 12:00 to 19:00, the federation received club managers, administrators, and gamers at 12a Lenin Avenue (the "Novost" stop), "the door with the sign: photo in 5 minutes"; on April 22, from 14:00 to 18:00, at the same location, in the "IKS" club, participant registration closed; on April 24 at 16:00 judges were gathered, on April 25 at 17:00 the draw was held, and its results, along with the bracket and match schedule, were posted on April 26. The site named "NITs REFORMA" as the championship's official sponsor, which provided additional prizes for participants[1].

The news feed also preserved an internal conflict: on May 1, 2003, the team BoS was disqualified from the championship and all subsequent Federation competitions for six months "for improper conduct toward the Federation's leadership," and all its results were annulled; on May 4, following negotiations with the teams, the disqualification was lifted, with only one player punished — Dmitry Akopov ("Spokoyny") — the tournament bracket was ordered restored from the M. Attack vs. BoS match, and the team TT PP was offered an apology[1].

The last news item, from May 20, 2003, set the final date for good — Friday, May 30, from 18:00 to 6:00, at the "Matritsa" cultural and entertainment complex. Tickets at 75 rubles were sold at the following addresses: QWERTY (146 Gorky Street), "IKS" (12A Lenin Avenue), NEXT1 (3/1 Poltavskaya Street), NEXT2 (GAZ House of Culture), "Palladin"/SDK (Sormovich House of Culture); orders of more than ten tickets were taken by phone at 30-30-00 or by email at final@cybersport.nnov.ru. Minors were allotted the program until 22:00, while others were asked to bring identification. The program included an official part, championship finals (CS in the evening), an awards ceremony, contests, raffles, and screenings on projection screens. The site did not report how the championship ended[1].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the surviving final voting table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day (a snapshot from late December 2004), cybersportnnov.by.ru does not appear[4]. In the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, the address was listed in the directory of the Counter.nn.ru rating (on the rating itself, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating) with the description "Everything about computer sport, games, players, and competitions in Nizhny Novgorod and beyond..." The surviving pages show how, in 2002–2003, the city tried to put computer competitions on an organizational footing: club accreditation, the "Russian Cybersport Federation" competition regulations, a protocol form in Word, gathering judges, the draw, tournament brackets, and disqualifications[1].

How it closed

The news updates ended with the announcement of the final. The homepage snapshots from August 6, 2003[1] and from May 8, 2004[2] match word for word: even nine months later, the top news item remained the announcement of the May 30, 2003 final.

On April 6, 2005, the address returned a hosting service notice: the site, "which had not been updated for too long, was deemed outdated and moved to the archive," with the pages offered for temporary unpacking via a separate link. It also gave the last edit date — "303 days ago: June 7, 2004" — meaning the site's files had still been changed after the news had gone silent. The surviving snapshots end with this notice: the last one is dated April 6, 2005[3]. As of a check made while preparing this article, there is no live site at the address — it returns a placeholder page saying "This domain may be for sale."

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archived)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archived)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archived)
  4. web.archive.org — Results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet voting, 2004 (archived)