Gaming's winter wonderland

With e-sports jostling for Olympic admission, competitive gaming is poised to align itself closer than ever to the Games.

As part of Intel's role in "The Olympic Partner" (TOP) sponsorship program, the IT giant will stage the Intel Extreme Masters Pyeongchang tournament, featuring the world's best players of hit real-time strategy title StarCraft II, in the lead-up to the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.

A global search for 16 finalists for the showcase has been taking place across six continents, with two hopefuls set to battle it out in a Beijing qualifying event later this month for the right to represent China in Pyeongchang.