ESR - Latest News

dkt To Retire After QuakeCon (166 comments)

( Major News: CS Q3)

Posted by nineX @ 18:11 CDT, 23 April 2010 - iMsg

Two weeks ago in a blog post on the coL website, the Quake player

Brian "dkt" Flander has announced that he will retire from professional gaming after the QuakeCon 2010 even. Citing the need to concentrate on his personal life and working on his career, Flander assures fans that this does not mean he will completely disconnect with gaming.

"I can consistently say I was one of the top 5-16 players in the world, at any game I played, at any time. I think that is something to hold your head up high about considering the tens of thousands of people I've competed against. But now I have a career, which I've been pursuing since CGS died, and there are lots of great opportunities for me to expand myself."

Link: Blog post

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ESWC 2010 Invited Participants (53 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by Mav_ @ 13:30 CDT, 23 April 2010 - iMsg

Event: ESWC'10

The Electronic Sports World Cup has recently announced the invited players to participate in its global finals event that will be held from June 30 to July 4, 2010 in Paris, France.

Quake fans may be particularly interested that, among others, four well-known Quake Live players were invited, as well. The list consists of:

Shane "rapha" Hendrixson (Master of Greece winner)
Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira (Master of Greece runner-up)
Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski (Master of Greece 3rd place finisher)
Alexei "Cypher" Yanushevsky (ESWC 2008 Defending Champion)

It is worth adding that all of the players listed above accepted their invitations, which means that we will most definitely see at least two Swedish, American, and Polish participants at the ESWC Finals - one from the qualifier and the other one invited directly to the event.

Link: Announcement

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ESWC Slovenia (28 comments)

( Major News: Gaming QL)

Posted by CAREEM @ 08:00 CDT, 23 April 2010 - iMsg

Event: ESWC'10

Slovenia will also have ESWC qualifiers for Grand Final in Paris. There will be qualifiers for Quake Live, Trackmania Nations Forever, Warcraft III Frozen Throne and Fifa 2010. The sign-ups for ESWC Slovenia are already open. Qualifiers will be held on the 8th of May in

Ljubljana. The winner will travel to France and represent Slovenia in the world finals at Disneyland, Paris.

Games:
Fifa 2010 (PS3)
Warcraft III Frozen Throne (PC)
Tracmania Nations Forever (PC)
Quake Live (PC)

Links: Facebook, eswc.si

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Go4SC2 Cup #9 (8 comments)

( Major News: SC2)

Posted by xou @ 07:03 CDT, 23 April 2010 - iMsg

Event: Go4SC2

Scheduled: 07:00 CDT, 24 April 2010 to 12:00 CDT, 24 April 2010
Schedule: Passed

The 9th Cup of the

Go4SC2 Series will take place today starting at 07:00 CDT and will feature 100€ for its winner. Rankings points will also be given to the top16 players in order to get qualified for the Go4SC2 Final April 2010 on the Thursday 29th (See the current rankings). The sign up for the cup will be open until 06:40 CDT and then the check-ins will begin.

Quick Facts

Go4SC2 April schedule

Winners of Go4SC2 so far

Streams:

phipstv,

esl-radio,

starcraftcast,

homerj,

Millenium
Links: Brackets, Playerlist, Current rankings, Replays

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New patch for StarCraft II Beta (54 comments)

( Major News: SC2)

Posted by xou @ 01:36 CDT, 23 April 2010 - iMsg

This morning Blizzard released the 9th patch of the StarCraft II Beta. This new version includes the map editor, but the maps created won't be available for online games until a later patch. Still on the map field, a few removals and additions were made to the ladder rotation. A lot more changes and improvements were made including matches history, in-game voice, friends list, achievements and game interface. See the complete changelog for all the detailed additions and tweaks made to the game.

General

The StarCraft II Editor is now available!
- Players will now be able to begin creating trigger maps in preparation for map publishing which will be made available in an upcoming beta patch.

Achievements & Decals are now live!
- Players will now be able to earn achievements, browse the list of available achievements, and view achievements earned by friends.
- Players will be able to highlight favorite achievements in their Showcase.
- Earning certain achievements will unlock portrait and decal rewards.

The updated Homepage now includes a Recent Broadcasts panel and a News & Community panel.

A new Match History page is now available which will allow players to browse and filter their last 1,000 games played.

A new Community page is now available which features an in-game version of RSS news feeds.

A new Friends-of-Friends feature has been added, which allows players to easily find and connect with more real life friends on Battle.net through existing friends.

Additional friends' presence details are now available from the Friends' list.

Improvements have been made on the Voice Chat system in game.
- Please use the new voice chat and provide feedback via the StarCraft II beta forums.

The score screen now features a new graph tab.

The art for many parts of the user interface has been updated.

Hotkey templates have been added.
- In the gameplay options menu select from standard name based hotkeys for right and left-handed players, grid based hotkeys for right, and left-handed players, and classic StarCraft keys.

Several hotkeys have been changed to avoid conflicts with the "Select All Warpgates" UI button:
- The Set Worker Rally Point has been changed from W to R.
- Build Sensor Tower has been changed from W to N.
- Terran Infantry Weapons have been changed from W to E.
- Terran Vehicle Weapons have been changed from W to E.
- Weapon Refit has been changed from W to R.
- Burrow has been changed from W to R.
- Spawn Larva has been changed from R to V.
- Neural Parasite has been changed from R to E.

Balance Changes

Maps

Note that the update is planned at 12:00 CDT, 23 April 2010 for the European accounts while its already live for the American one.

Update: The Bnet 2.0 login screen now says there will be further info on the update at around 16:00 CDT - battle.net EU has been down or at least unusable for over a day now. Also there appears to be a major problem with larva spawn in the update.

Larva bug

Update 2: Everything is now back to normal and Blizzard even released a 10th patch to fix a few bugs from the 9th patch.

Quick changelog

Links: Changelog, SC2 beta Forum

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One Night Wonder #3 (32 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by PerpetualWar @ 17:57 CDT, 22 April 2010 - iMsg

Scheduled: 12:00 CDT, 22 April 2010 to 17:00 CDT, 22 April 2010
Schedule: Passed

Update #2: QL ESH ONW #3 2v2 cup is over. Although after the announcement it wasn't promising at all, cup turned out to be quite a successful one. There were a few no-shows at the beginning but overall cup went smooth and by the schedule. Please leave us your feedback about the cup. Thanks to all teams for participating, as well as holysh1t.tv for streaming and supporting cup, and hoping to see more teams apply in the future.

Final standings are:

1st: SKZI
2nd: METSU
3rd/4th: opla!/UEE

Update: Only one more day to signup, so make sure to register on time. (Esports Heaven have in mind cash or hardware prizes for Quake Live in the future if these ONW cups proves to be success. Attending these cups will definitely help it's cause and ensure better support of QL scene in general.)

Esports Heaven is organizing a 3rd One Night Wonders cup. This time TDM 2v2 will be used unlike the first two that were actually duel cups. This quick cup will start at 12:00 CDT, 22 April 2010 and should last only one day with 16 teams. Format of the cup will be Single elimination - Bo3. Of course if there are a lot of sign-ups the cup can be expanded, but then it will probably take more than one day to finish. Check out the announcement for more info about the cup.

For those who are not familiar with ESH or ONW at all, should be said that ONW cups are an idea of regular QL quick cups with possible prizes in the future with various modes of play (Duel, 2v2, TDM, CTF,..). Although named ONW #3, it's actually the first in the new series of ESH ONW cups, that are planned for Quake Live.

Links: Cup page, Brackets,

Cup updates

Carmac: "when it comes it comes" (26 comments)

( Major News: ESR)

Posted by Thorin @ 16:08 CDT, 22 April 2010 - iMsg

In the last part of his 1on1 interview

Michal "Carmac" Blicharz talks about his support group, some of the tougher times in his life and his thoughts on a number of gaming's most famous event organisers.

Addressing whether or not there are plans for a "Carmac Jr" anytime soon he says "when it comes it comes". What scenario prompted Carmac to say "I messed up my entire life"? What expensive present did he give to his father for his birthday? What does Carmac think is the best Esports title?

The interview can be viewed at SK Gaming, along with parts one and two.

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[AVA]-CA-Trophy: Nationscup 2010 (7 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by Sordo @ 03:06 CDT, 22 April 2010 - iMsg

The Avalon-Clan, organizer of the [AVA]-CA-Trophy, asked the users of its website at the latest poll about a Nationscup for Clan Arena. A big majority voted for yes and the Trophyteam is now planning on how to organize this competition and they published a list of possible nations.

At the moment the Adminteam is looking for supporters to organize the Nationscup, and as well for possible team captains for the different countries:

List of possible participants

Cup format

Links: Avalon-Clan

Ready Up Radio Episode 15 (17 comments)

( Major News: Q3 QL SC2)

Posted by nineX @ 23:42 CDT, 21 April 2010 - iMsg

Apheleon's away this week so I bring in the ~~big~~ stoned guns;

Rod "Slasher" Breslau is here to talk about the major happenings in Quake, including the upcoming summer list of major LANs across the world.

I also get to talk to one of the Team EG Starcraft players,

Kelby "iNkA" Williams about the soaring popularity of Starcraft 2 and his recent win in the Team EG/Team Liquid Show Match. We get his thoughts on his match against European player Jinro, and a breakdown of his of the game. We close with some of his thoughts on North America's stance in the global competitive SC community and the recent betting scandal in South Korea.

Rod's sister also decides to pay the show a visit and give us some of her thoughts on her favorite sandwich toppings.

Check out GosuCoaching.com where you can find iNkA and other veteran North American Starcraft players giving daily lessons for players of all skill levels. Check'em out.

Head on over to Ready Up Radio to download the podcast.

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EMS6 QL TDM: Groups (10 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by xou @ 15:59 CDT, 21 April 2010 - iMsg

Event: EMS6

The groups for the ESL Major Series VI Quakelive TDM has just been published after being announced on ESL TV tonight. The 4 groups of 4 teams were made by using the following seed pools:

Top seeds (top4 from last season): Fnatic, 4Kings, LowLandLions, SKZI
High seeds: Frontline, beton, notexec, xentorium
Medium seeds: Excello, deluxe, FAT, iMmune
Low seeds: idk, Druidz, refuse 2 Lose, Metsu

The matches will be starting new week, and the default day/date for them will be Thursday 14:00 CDT. See below to discover the groups after their drawings!

Groups

Links: EMS6 Quakelive TDM

The Great Starcraft Betting Scandal (51 comments)

( Major News: SC2)

Posted by ReDeYe @ 14:00 CDT, 21 April 2010 - iMsg

Over at Cadred, Richard Lewis reviews the South Korean Starcraft betting scandal that has rocked e-sports. The article is a highly researched and brilliantly written piece for those of us in the West who know a little about Starcraft, but may not be aware of the betting scandal which has hit Korean esports recently.

Obligatory excerpt:

"At a little before two o’clock in the afternoon the site news.naver.com broke a story that would send shockwaves not only round the country, but around the world. It alleged that it had uncovered details of an illegal gambling ring that was fixing the outcome of high profile Starcraft matches to buck the odds and earn significant profits. It also alleged that unnamed notable players had been involved with the scam, as well as key members of their organisations."

You can read the entire in-depth article on cadred.org.

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European Quake League Playoffs (7 comments)

( Major Article: Q1)

Posted by Zalon @ 11:49 CDT, 21 April 2010 - iMsg

It's Playoff time in the European Quake League, after 7 weeks of group games, the 8 playoff teams from each division have been found. With 3 divisions we can look forward to 12 quality matches during the next 3 weeks.

To compliment the teams on a successful season with a great amount of activity, we felt the only decent thing to do was to write a preview for all of the upcoming playoff matches. We've included some info about each team, their way to the playoffs, and a prediction on the result.

Thanks to

Rikoll and

Hooraytio for their Division 1 and Division 2 reviews.

Everyone else is free to throw in their own predictions in the comments.

Fixtures

Source: QuakeWorld.nu

Article Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 || next page >>

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ESWC Sweden - Details and Registration (25 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by Dronar @ 10:51 CDT, 21 April 2010 - iMsg

Event: ESWC'10

The

Swedish

ESWC Qualifiers for

Counter Strike 1.6 finished last weekend with

H2k winning the ticket to Paris. H2k will be joined by

SK Gaming and

fnatic who received direct invites by the ESWC.

Details for

Quake Live,

Street Fighter 4 and

Guitar Hero 5 has now been released. As previously stated the qualifiers will be held June 5th at Game City in Jönköping. Registrations for Quake Live is now open.

Quake Live details

Other Games

How to register

Links: eswcsweden.se,

#eswcsweden

German EPS 16 Quakelive PD8 on ESL TV (40 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by xou @ 04:49 CDT, 21 April 2010 - iMsg

Scheduled: 15:00 CDT, 21 April 2010 to 16:00 CDT, 21 April 2010
Schedule: Passed

Tonight the ESL TV Quakelive show will cover the German EPS 16 with one match from the Playday 8. The game will see

k1llsen taking on

PURRI (Details). With both 7 wins in a row, the German player still is quite the favorite in this match-up!

The show will once again start around 15:00 CDT and be hosted by our British friends Joe and 2GD!

Update: The groups of the coming EMS6 Quakelive TDM will get announced during the show! And the group stage will then start next week.

Update 2: The VOD is up!

Links: ESL TV, Last week's VOD
Stream: Free (Alternative) / Premium / linux: -url:ESL.oph350 (Octoshape)

StarCraft 2 beta: Map Editor and Mac (7 comments)

( Major News: SC2)

Posted by xou @ 03:32 CDT, 21 April 2010 - iMsg

According to Kotaku, the next couple weeks will see the release of the Map Editor and the Mac support for the current StarCraft 2 multiplayer beta.

"StarCraft II lead Chris Sigaty says that the developer is planning to release the game's map and mod editor for those already enjoying the PC version of the game's beta sometime this week, letting players add their own creations and game mode customizations. Expect that alongside a substantial patch to the game very soon."

For those of you will still don't have a StarCraft 2 beta key, the guys from Team Liquid are giving away 500 more keys at the rate of 50 keys per day!

Links: Kotaku.com, Team Liquid