“Isolation is a dream killer” - Barbara Sher

Australia, a sought after tourist destination and one of the most isolated gaming nations in the world. Lying southeast of Asia, between the Pacific and Indian oceans, Australia, the world's smallest continent and is almost completely surrounded by ocean expanses. Spanning 7,686,850 square kilometers (2,967,909 sq miles), with its vast climates and large amounts inhabitable land, it is slightly smaller than the United States. With the size of the nation reviling that of the US, our population (20,434,176 -July 2007 est.) is approximately 15 times less than theirs (301,139,947 -July 2007 est.). Thus our gaming community is a lot smaller, and spread across the nation to each of the major states capital cities.

The Australia Counter-Strike: Source community is majorly contained within the eastern states, consisting of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. We experience very few national events (or even basic LAN events) in Australia due to the fact that an event costs so much money to organize and get the best teams from all across the country to the one place. To put this into figures, from Perth to Sydney its 4144 km (2575 mi), From Perth to Brisbane its 4384 km (2724 mi), so to travel between states it is a costly and lengthy experience.

Not only is our country somewhat disconnected from each other but we also seem disconnected from western world in a gaming perspective. Other countries around the world are able to game between one another with low ping, and are able to make LAN events in their country via train or a car ride. A prime example of this is the European scene – they don’t have to travel far(in comparison) between LAN events(countries/cities) to play each other, they also get low latency from country to country, making online practice that much easier for all involved. Australian’s who attempt to play with teams from other countries, are immediately exposed to latency in the ranges of, 170+ (Asian region) to 300+ (Europe/America).

So you may be asking yourself why I am comparing everything to Perth, well that’s where I am from! Perth, Western Australia, is one of the most isolated cities in the world. Geographically, Perth is 3901 km (2424 mi) to Singapore, putting Western Australia closer to the Asian region then the majority of main cities throughout the rest of our country. Sydney Underground has been practicing against the Singaporean team, Sword, on a Western Australian server for the past few weeks. Interestingly enough the Singaporean player’s latency is lower than my eastern state team mates, pinging 60ms compared to my team mates 90ms+. I receive the same ping playing from W.A. to the eastern states, and am constantly practicing on that. It isn’t an ideal situation. Living a world away from my team mates also makes it hard to do any LAN practice, it is a few days via car from Perth to Sydney, and via flight a $500 plus return flight. Money, like anything in today’s society, is a must for the events and other ventures of Australian gaming to take steps forward and pull itself on par with the world competitive scene.

Over the years, there have been numerous attempts at sponsors and corporations pouring money into hard working gamers, who double as some great organizers, who put together and run LAN and Online competitions for the Australian gaming public. Sadly, due to a few factors, one of them being something Ben ‘Racs’ outlined in a previous article. - A Step in the Right Direction - Another is that of the countries isolation, since the first gaming competitions commenced around Australia has always been playing catch up in some way or another, this is most easily noticed within the field of Counter-Strike 1.6. Thus we have always been playing catch up with the rest of the world, doing our best, but not well enough to inspire big name companies to sponsor teams in Australia and follow through with it. With new games and consoles being constantly released they are some what forced into the limelight as eSports is becoming a widely excepted in today’s technology craving world. If the current strides forward in technology and the way the world is being networked continues I believe it is only a matter of time before everyone will be able to play everyone no matter where you live.

There is a positive out look in the near future for the Australian gaming scene, with our 26th prime minister, Kevin Rudd, implementing a $5 billion plan to build a national fiber-to-the-node network. Also, over the last few years Australia has been broadening its gaming base with console leagues along with PC leagues becoming more available for the average player. The Counter-Strike: Source GotGames CEVO league in Australia has been expanding with this years sign ups for amateur alone being 60 plus! Even though I live in the most beautiful country in the world, I sometimes wish we where more connected to the gaming world as a whole.