Scheduled: 15:30 CST, 14 December 2008 to 19:00 CST, 14 December 2008
Schedule: Passed

14:00 CST, 14 December 2008 live on TeamLiquid.net

In addition to our regular StarCraft sundaymornings of TG Sambo Intel Classic matches and to shorten the waiting time for the Razer TSL Season 2 TeamLiquid brings us the Liquibition #24 - Nostalgia which will feature

Jianfei 'IefNaij' Wang -vs- Pavel 'BRAT_OK' Kuznetsov

IefNaij won the first season of the Razer TSL and has picked Andromeda, Troy and Othello as his maps. The contender Brat_OK was pretty much unknown before he managed to beat the infamous NonY and finish 3rd in the first season of the TSL - only losing to JF (IefNaij) in a close 2-3. He has chosen Othello, Destination and Lost Temple. The 7th map will be picked by the users on TeamLiquid.net - so head on over here and vote for your favourite map on the lower right side.

*UPDATE 14.12.08 12:30 CET*
Looks like the 7th map will be Rush Hour III

*UPDATE 15.12.08 01:15 CET*
JF takes it 4:2

VODs will be available at http://www.teamliquid.net/tracker/ after the matches

Scheduled: 03:00 CST, 14 December 2008 to 06:00 CST, 14 December 2008
Schedule: Passed

GOM TV presents the second quarter of the "Round of 16" in the Averatec Intel Classic 2008 Season 2 on NeoRequiem, Medusa & NewChupungryong:

Tournament Tree (New, selfmade, horizontal version)

Flash (#2) -vs- TheROCK (#26) Map 1 Map 2 Map 3
HoeJJa (#184) -vs- Bisu (#3) Map 1 Map 2 Map 3

Hi everybody,

I am proud to present you a movie about the Defrag World Cup 2008. You can see some of the best runs made by some of the best player.

Featuring:
DeX
DYPO4KA
Dyxxx
Lags
Snip3r
w3sp

I hope you like it!

Stream HQ:
own3d streaming

Downloading:
quakeunity (xvid 720p 566mb)

Additional links and Informations:
own-age(x264 version and others)

The Crossfire Challenge 5 is now live from the home of Steve McLaren, Enschede, Holland. Twenty three Enemy Territory and twelve Call of Duty teams will battle it out over the weekend for a share of 12500 Euros.

The first match has already completed with tournament favourites Impact earning an easy 4 0 victory over the French muse gaming. A post match interview with ET’s answer to toxic, toxic can be found on Crossfire.

Currently live on ETTV you can take your pick of three matches, v&e vs charism, Impact vs TR or muse vs (C). There'll be a plethora of matches broadcast live via ETTV thanks to the excellent GamesTV.org and on location we’ve the enigmatic QuadV crew, consisting of TosspoT, ReDeYe and deman hosting a live video feed of all the tournaments best matches.


Extensive coverage including previews, player interviews, match reports and a rolling admin log can be found on Crossfire.

Sit back, tune in, enjoy. Live from Enschede.

Related Links:
Crossfire.nu
QuadV
Admin Log
Gallery
GamesTV.org
Tournament Brackets

Stermy is a well-known name within Quake, Painkiller and even FIFA at this stage. His career has just taken another turn with the closure of the CGS and the launch of his own website. eSports.ie took the opportunity to grill him about his past, present and future.

Do you see yourself being competitive in the deathmatch scene once again; especially with the arrival of new blood such as Cypher and rapha who have taken the Quake world by storm in 2008?

Of course. I have only left the scene for a year and half but I still played some from time to time. My game is still really good and I have a big learning curve I can work on if tournaments are going to pick up this game. My experience has definitely improved as I have still competed under pressure on live tv in a scenario that the other fps players haven’t played on, which is a good advantage come tournament time .

These players have also improved their skill and their game. There`s so much new talent and new ways to play the game, anyway I have competed already with most of them in Quake4 and I'm sure it will still be a good match when the time will come.

Read the full interview at esports.ie to find out what his background is, his plans for his site, his thoughts of QuakeLive and what is in store in the future.

German eSport site www.fragster.de talked with Kevin "strenx" Baeza after his last Dreamhack attendance, where he surprisingly placed second behind the polish power house Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski after defeating team mate Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira with a solid RG of about 45 % and his uproar with a devastating shaft of 40,75 % on Magnus "Fox" Olsson.

But who is this young 17 year old guy who comes from Angers in France? fragster was asking:

Are you pursuing a certain goal, which you want to achieve? Have you got an idol? (Maybe St_Germain?)

strenx: I’m just playing for fun *laughs*, but of course I'm trying my best. My idol was fox when I was younger and I can't say he isn't it anymore. Actually I really played with St_Germain from time to time when I was very very young *laughs*.

Read the full interview ( version) and get an insight of his stats on how he played Dreamhack.

Today we're announcing that the deadline of the mapping tournament will be 2nd of January. At that date a poll will be on ESReality where you will be able to vote who you think should win the tournament.
In the days between xmas and new years we will have intensive map testing of the new maps so the mappers can make their final touches.

If you haven't started or didn't see the old post you can click here for more info.

Happy mapping!
#cpmpickup admin team

When deciding what the next TourneyCPM tournament was going to be, CTF was at the top of the list. But since the CTF teams still need some time to rally up, we decided to run a 1v1 tournament meanwhile. And the sign-ups are already open to both North Americans and Europeans players. This will be a DMM4 Tournament in preparation for the CTF tournament in January.


The maplist is not final and suggestions can be made on IRC @ #tourneycpm.

We want to open 2009 with a big 4v4 CPM CTF tournament, held in the name of all the people who started and evolved the CPM CTF community. This tournament will be held in North America and Europe simultaneously but separately. If you would like to admin this tournament for your respective continent, or if you can help us finding sponsors for prizes: message me on ESR or on IRC #tourneycpm. The sign-ups date will be announced in the future.

TourneyCPM '08 DMM4 1v1 (Rules, Maps & Details) - TourneyCPM '09 Opener 4v4 CTF (Rules, Maps & Details)

Scheduled: 08:00 CST, 7 December 2008 to 16:00 CST, 7 December 2008
Schedule: Passed

As promised, I'm holding a vq3 Duel cup with a completely fresh map pool next sunday. The goal of this cup is to make more players familiar with maps that aren't played in usual tournaments.

The first edition of this cup will be held on the next Sunday (7th December), starting at 09:00 CDT and finishing in the evening. If you want to participate, just signup at the website now, and don't forget to check in shortly before the start. This cup is mostly for the European community, but every player can participate if he is willing to play on European servers.

Map pool:
megadm4-09 <-- new version! screen
pukka3tourney2 screen
pukka3tourney5 screen
cpm29 screen
cht3 screen

Note: For each round until the semi finals, maps are forced, which means that players can not choose maps themselves, but have to play the maps that are given for the specific round. Check the website for further rules and details.

GTV: games1.olympus.ru:27970

If you are a server admin and want to support this cup with a server, please contact me.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask them in the irc-channel: #q3revoluzzers
Website: http://q3revoluzzers.tourney.cc/

Results:
1. Quetz
2. moonsh1ne
3./4. psyrex, hypno

Demos of Final

Scheduled: 03:00 CST, 7 December 2008 to 06:00 CST, 7 December 2008
Schedule: Passed

Next Matches on 03:00 CST, 7 December 2008

GOM TV presents the first quarter of the "Round of 16" in the Averatec Intel Classic 2008 Season 2 on NeoRequiem, Medusa & NewChupungryong:

Tournament Tree

sOo (#60) -vs- Skyhigh (#115) Map 1 Map 2 Map 3
BeSt (#4) -vs- EffOrt (#46) Map 1 Map 2 Map 3

Magnus "fox" Olsson was one of the most famous quakers attending this DreamHack Winter 2008. He managed to achieve the biggest combined prize money in the Quake Forever tournaments with the 3rd rank in VQ3 and the 1st in CPM, earning him a total of 1 050€ and 575€ worth of products.

After his games, he found some minutes to answer my questions.

(Thanks to xou who made this article "readable")

TosspoT is the face of Crossfire and Cash the brain, but what role does the third part of this unlikely trio, Adam "Adacore" Oddy fulfill?

Adacore initially joined the administrative side of gaming in the Fall of 2005, gradually working his way through the hierarchy of ClanBase. He has since coordinated LAN events across the globe, hosted several EuroCups and attained the title of Crossfire Challenge Tournament Director. Adacore sits down to talk the past, the present and the future with Crossfire.

But first what does his associate Cash make of the man himself?

"Adacore is by far the best colleague I have had in running gaming tournaments. I know that running gaming tournaments, especially LANs always results in troubles, but for 4 editions in a row I have never seen him slip up. He is a person that is so well-composed, stress-resistant, polite yet tough and fair that he remains on top of his game.

He is one of the few admins that anticipates on what will come rather than what will happen. I am sure that TosspoT will agree with me on this that Adacore has been one of the key success factors of the Crossfire Challenges just because of his sheer intelligence, work ethic and dedication to succeed."

Crossfire Challenge 5
Date: 12th-14th December, 2008
Location: Enschede, Netherlands
Games: Enemy Territory 6v6, Call of Duty 5v5
Prize: ET €5000, CoD €7500
Coverage: www.crossfire.nu
Video: QuadV

Over at Cadred.org, Corin Cole has written an article titled "The Fall of CGS", exposing many figures, both financial and of the TV viewing numbers, writing about what really caused the death of the world's biggest league.

According to Corin, the CGS spent 25 million dollars in season one with a 50 million dollar budget for 5 years, as well as an alleged $300,000 per season deal for esports legend Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. The article explains that the over-spending of the budget was down to, in part, the original plans being to create the CGS has a North American league only, which also explains the European feelings of being neglected during the two seasons.

You can read the entire article over at Cadred.

SteelSeries is well-known and somewhat undeservingly maligned for its gaming products, which it claims are tested by pro gamers. Its latest release, the Siberia Neckband, is a smaller, more stylish version of the original Siberia headset.

To find out if it's any good, SteelSeries sent us along a sample to test. Here's an excerpt:

It’s really quite simple, but this is overlooking the fact that there’s no set width to the headset; instead, the Siberia Neckband gradually constricts around your head.

After a while, this grows to be uncomfortable; not to mention if the constricting device in the headband (neckband?) becomes loose over time, the headphones won’t stay on. Additionally, if you’re a glasses-wearing nerd like me, the constant pressure on the arms of your glasses will press them against your head, leading to some painful situations after extended play.

Is it all doom and gloom, or is there some salvation for these headphones? To read the full review, head over to GGL Wire.