In our day and age, eSports is quickly becoming a major form of entertainment. As such, we've seen hundreds if not thousands of tournaments spring up throughout the world, but there simply aren't many that measure up to televised events. The Grand Finals are one of those events. With professional hosts and commentators, a beautifully put together stage, professional camera operators and production values second to none, the event would not have been out of place on prime time TV. The other eSport events in this category can easily be counted on one hand and most amazing is the fact that this was only the second year of the league. Besides technical issues stopping a few rounds prematurely, everything went off without a snag.

The only aspect holding the event back from catching the eye of the general public were the persistently long waiting time between rounds. On Day 1, these could easily last upwards of five minutes and although they improved to less than two on the second day, this amount of wait time is hard to swallow for Americans used to fast-paced, non-stop entertainment. The hosts should be commended for filling this space with a non-stop stream of commentary, but staring at highlights or the stage resetting quickly grows tiresome.

If the in-between round time could be reduced to under a minute and we could get a sample of the lobby chat of both teams during that time, it would speed things up to the point that you could easily broadcast the entire Grand Finals spread out over several prime time broadcasts. Unfortunately, due to the nature of having custom games needing to be repeatedly set up, it's unclear if this is even possible. If it eventually does become possible, The Grand Finals could become a major event in entertainment. If not, it still fits the online streaming bill just fine where watchers can easily multitask in-between rounds.

Don't think World of Tanks' world domination is stopping there, though. CEO Victor Kislyi told us that they are currently making a heavy push into Brazil with large marketing campaigns and multiple events with a plans for a Middle Eastern push not ruled out.

"We're witnessing the birth of the new media industry; eSports, streaming, this kind of competitiveness," said Kislyi. "It wasn't long ago that competitive gaming seemed like a purely exotic thing which would never get out of Korea, but guess what? Look at stadiums around the world; the future is here. I seriously believe in the fact that every success of ours is good for Riot and Valve and we can use their success as a concept. We still have a long way to go, but what's nice is the pace. You probably didn't hear of a company called "Twitch" four years ago, now everybody has. It's a good indication of how fast this can be. This is new, this is fresh, this is cool -- if done right. There are heroes, champions, fighting, competition; it works well in short bursts -- you can watch a match in a five minute taxi ride, but you can't even watch a TV episode in that time. It's a whole industry we are witnessing the birth of, so it's going to be good and we are trying to build it."

And building it they are. Not only is World of Tanks growing on a global scale in the competitive gaming world, but its younger sibling World of Warships is also making waves (pun intended). And if there's hope of World of Warships getting to the level of World of Tanks in the eSports world--

"Hope is always there, but we have to be realistic" said Kislyi. "eSports does not happen because you want it to, but because you've designed it to. There has to be an enjoyable game with millions of players playing it for fun and then statistically a certain critical mass emerges as being competitive, being ambitious, complete with red carpet, prizes, TV, etc. So that's how eSports is grounded"

Of course, Warsaw is a long way to travel to participate in an event of this scale, but that doesn't mean it'll remain so far from us forever. "It was a very nice experience here in Warsaw and this is not my patriarchal decision," said Kislyi. It comes from specially trained people who analyze elements such as how many World of Tanks players and the community, the infrastructure for eSports and the proximity to the teams. There's a number of factors we consider. It doesn't mean we are obliged to repeat a third time."

And the only snag from a logistical standpoint? "The fact that the space wasn't big enough for everybody to come."

As a bonus, check out extra pictures from the event as well as the final battle between EL Gaming and HellRaisers below:

[gallery columns="2" link="file" size="medium" ids="146556,146557,146558,146559,146560,146561,146562,146563,146564,146565"]