Guillaume Patry (L),18, from Quebec, and

Guillaume Patry (L),18, from Quebec, and his challenger and teammate Victor Martyn (C), both StarCraft pro players World champions, compete 21 August 2001 in Seoul's giant PC BANG room. The so-called cyber warrior, Patry, nicknamed "Grrrrr....." and Martyn, nicknamed "(9)eVERKAST" signed in February 2001 contracts with the Swedish developer "03 Games" to cooperate in designing a professional strategy game entitled The Epsilon Conflict, scheduled to be launched in 2002. The cyber warriors have to beat each other at Quake III, a computer action game, or FIFA 2000, soccer on a screen, Ages of Empire II, a Microsoft-designed strategy simulation that takes place in the Middle Ages, and StarCraft, a space war and strategy contest. South Korea become at the end 1998 the world's second largest market for StarCraft, in which players across the globe battle each other to dominate the galaxy. In addition to swallowing a third of global sales, the game has also spawned a proliferation of so-called PC-rooms to accommodate the hoards of StarCraft fans, generating billions of dollars in revenue. StraCraft has also transformed the Internet market, with providers saying the game helped boost the number of on-line service clients. AFP PHOTO KIM-JAE HWAN (Photo credit should read KIM JAE-HWAN/AFP via Getty Images)