After several weeks of players dropping and replacements being found, the official list of invites for the ESWC Masters event has been revealed.

Among the original invites who will not be participating are ESWC 2005 champion Anton "Cooller" Singov who decided not to attend after qualifying for the grand finals in San Jose, and ESWC NL champion Lemmy "if-22" de Groot, who cannot get off work. Replacements include CPL World Tour superstar Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager and 4Kings' new pickup Richard "noctis" Gansterer.

John "ZeRo4" Hill
Magnus "fox" Olsson
Alexei "Cypher" Yanyshevsky
Fan "RazerJ" Zhibo
Paul "czm" Nelson
Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager
Chance "Chance" Lacina
Maciek "av3k" Krzykowski
Cyrus "proZaC" Malekani
Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
Jeffrey "Draven" Debipersad
Karl "fooKi" Johansson
Benjamin "Unity" Rovira
Thomas "griffin" Wall
Pierre-Emeric "link1n" Portier
Marcel "k1llsen" Paul
Richard "noctis" Gansterer
Grégory "falcuma" Ollivier
Mateusz "matr0x" Ozga
Andreas "ArrW" Ihrfors
Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
Arnaud "slx" Lanoe
Dongkin "Dongjin" Suh

ESWC Masters official website

The long lost ESReality Uncut 2 tapes from the 2004 ESWC have been found and with them, an interview with Anton "Cooller" Singov, the most fascinating individual to have ever played Quake 3.

At the time, Cooller was 17 years of age and at the peak of his career as a Quake 3 player. He had won the ESWC a year earlier and received the Quake Player of 2003 award from ESReality.

In the interview, the Russian player talks about his famous matches with John "ZeRo4" Hill, his style of play and how Quake 3 should be played. From today's perspective, the interview should be very interesting.

The entire thing can be found right here along with a gallery documenting Cooller's growth.

Karl "fooKi" Johansson qualified for the ESWC Grand Final after returning from a long sabbatical. The Swede has not played Quake at a competitive level for over a year, but got second place at DreamHack, losing to Magnus "fox" Olsson in the final.

SK Gaming has interviewed the player about his current shape, the ESWC Masters of Paris and Quake 3 in general. Here is a mandatory snippet:

Pro-gaming is a pipe dream, and the Quake scene is very far away from anything like that. I really doubt that Quake will ever become big. It just isn't dumbed down enough for mainstream, which to me is a good thing. I read a trip report from someone who went to a competition and spectated Quake. He wrote that he stood there for a few minutes, spectating Quake 4 before going elsewhere. It was just too fast and hard to keep up with what was going on. When there are other alternatives, Quake will have a tough time to compete for the spotlight.

The rest of the interview with this fascinating individual can be found right here.

Counter-Strike is not held in high regard on ESReality and the world's "leader" in esports, Sasha Tsapaev, now has the proof why it should not be supported. The man who acquired the CPL on April 1 shares the shocking findings of his scientists.

Thanks to this fascinating individual you now know exactly why you hate Counter-Strike.

We gladly announce the dates of the final matches of both Quake3 competitions you were able to watch during the spring.

First of them is the final match of European Duel League, in which we will see a battle between the Belorussian player Cypher and the Russian player Killmaster (Dark). Cypher's journey to the finals wasn't particularly hard; in the quarterfinals he beat Killmaster's teammate Question 3:0. In the semifinals he got a free win, because his opponent Guard wasn't able to play the match due to his unstable connection. Killmaster in the quarterfinals faced Polish Zik, whom he defeated after the five-map match 3:2. In the semifinals Killmaster maybe a little surprisingly defeated the German ace Killsen 3:1. The final match will be played on tuesday 24.6.2008 at 20:00 CET as usual - BO5

*update: killmaster cant play today coz hes moden is broken - they recheduled it to tuesday

Related links:
Groups: edl groups
Matches: group matches
Play-off: play-off bracket


The second final match will decide the winner of Q3 NC 2008. This event was a little delayed in the last weeks due to the problems with the time schedule. Eventually both teams agreed on the date and the final match will be played on Monday 23.6.2008 21:00 CET and against each other will stand teams of Sweden and Poland A. Poland A advanced to the finals after they defeated CZ-TA in the finals of the WB. Sweden's journey was more complicated because they had to fight their way through the LB. However they managed to win the last match of the LB against CZ-TA and the final match of the tournament is approaching. The match will be played BO5.

Expected lineups:
Poland A - inz4h, v3rb, zik, uksz
Sweden - fox, prozac, spartie, zyvve
Brackets: final brackets

For both matches applies:
Admin: Legie
IRC: #quakequickcup
shoutcast: http://relay.quadv.com:8000/listen.pls
GTV: orion.sh.cvut.cz:27970 GTV-Krytie TV ( camera eJo )

eSports weekly a new show from Wipido, Xleague and QuadV bringing you your weekly 'dabble' with all things competitive gaming has returned for episode 3.

On this weeks show we talk about all things Swedish as Dreamhack Summer concludes in style, we've action from SK's match against Fnatic, and Rocaat's match against MYM aswell as an indepth sit down with Warcraft 3 hero, Grubby!


As always I'm eager to hear your thoughts and feedback on this weeks show, so please keep them coming! You can watch this weeks show HERE

This Sunday, Excello will be hosting their fifth WarSow duel cup! This time around is special however - two years ago, the first ever Excello WarSow duel cup was held. The cup was a massive success, with the gaming superstar
Sander Vo0 Kaasjager claiming first place - fighting off a torrid amount of new players.

Signups are open to everyone!


If you’re a Warsow veteran or a player looking for a bit of fun, all you need is the latest version of Warsow (0.42 is available at official Warsow homepage), an account on teamexcello.com, and a finger to click and sign up!

The rules:
- The cup starts on Sunday 22 June, 18 CET, and it will be finished the same day
- Single elimination bracket system
- Best of three (BO3) format
- Timelimit of 10 minutes
- Players must check-in 10 minutes before the tournament starts

Map pool:
wdm3, wdm5, wdm6, wdm10a, wdm15

The best of the action from the cup will be shown on WarSowTV provided by the ever helpful dendrofil - and take your fingers out of your ears and cross them! We hope to get the voice of Warsow itself, QuadV A_Spec, to cast the later stages! Make sure you tune in!

The third season of the Intel Extreme Masters unlocks a new level of eSports and entertainment. The Intel Extreme Masters Season III features events on three continents: Asia, America and Europe. The world's best eSport clans will be playing on highest peforming Intel Extreme Processors on Alienware Systems from Dell's Gaming group competing for a prize money of 750,000USD. Counter-Strike 1.6 and World of Warcraft are the disciplines.


Further information about the play mode, the qualification system and of course the events will be announced on the new Intel Extreme Masters website soon!

One of the slots for the Gamegune Q3 Allstars is going to be decided by the ESReality users by poll. You, through ESR, will be the one to choose between the players included in the waiting list and you’ll also be able to make a proposal. We’ll do our very best to fulfill your petition and invite the player decided by you to join our tournament.


Besides, we've risen the prize pot to 7000€.


Check ESR and www.ekgamers.com for more news and information about the tournament. Thanks to ESReality for all the support and the help provided.

***UPDATE*** The Poll is now live and you can vote HERE.

The weekly series of 1on1 video interviews features one of the founders of SK Gaming and ESL's Managing Director, Ralf "Griff" Reichert. Older readers might remember him from his playing days in QW and Q3. Today, he is in charge of the largest event organiser in the world and has a lot to say about the esports industry.

In a video interview, he talks about the reasons why 1on1 deathmatch has withered, Angel Munoz the fall of the CPL, about the potential success of QuakeLive and power in esports. Quote:

"if the initial [QuakeLive] community doesn't do the same 'we go elite and don't really play in public unless there is a tournament where we get x amount of dollars.' If that's different, then it can have a future."

Packard Bell, one of the leading PC brand in Europe, official PC supplier of the Electronic Sport World Cup (ESWC) and ipowergames e-sports tournaments invites all gamers across Europe to take part in a short, 15 questions, gaming survey.

Packard Bell commitment towards gaming communities has been amply demonstrated by the numerous sponsoring of famous teams and e-sports events. (ESWC, 4Kings, Antwerp eSports Festival, ipowergames). Today, Packard Bell needs the community's voice.

The survey will help Packard Bell to determine what gamers want the most from their PC, and what would be the best possible configuration for the gaming community. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help Packard Bell to have a much better understanding of the gamers' expectations.

A random drawing will reward 14 participants with the Eclipse MP4 Player from Packard Bell and 14 others with ESWC Masters tickets. Your judgement matters to us!

Today it's the biggest day for quakers at DreamHack :

Quake 2 :
PURRI, sorax, pogo, spam and claw are the only one of this tournament. Groups are almost finished; results asap because admins are over-booked.

Quake 3 :


GTV: 213.114.43.251:27970

QuakeWorld :
quarter finals will be played at 11:30 CDT.
QTV - Stream - Match Overview and result

Links:
Q3 semi finals straming: http://www.rakaka.se/
DreamHack website - #DreamHack.Quake - #DreamHack.scores

Here the results from Jönköping (each players pick a map in group stage but will remove one on the final tree) :

QTV : http://87.76.61.94:28000/nowplaying/

Group A :
LocKtar, apoxic (replacement for Razor), Lornelin & Ajuri

Group B :
Riker, phil, molgrum & Dekras

Group C :
Nabbe (finally not there), Inferno, mooncommander & l1ndo

Group D :
ParadokS (finally not there), bps, Lusius, PzyX

Links:
Stream and qtv ip : quakeworld.nu
One of qtv client : nquake (pak1)
DreamHack website