Gravitas, MoB Gaming and Evil Geniuses' two squads will all meet in the group stage of Extreme Masters Philadelphia.
The American continental finals, due to take place at VG Expo in Philadelphia from November 21st-23rd, will reward the top-placed teams with cash prizes and three spots in the season's finals.
Group A looks like a tough one to call as Gravitas Gaming, MoB Gaming and the two Evil Geniuses' squad will all battle it out to determine the two teams that will progress to the next stage.
Made in Brazil will be confident of reaching the Semi-finals after being drawn against x3o, The realisT projecT and Team Guardians in Group B.
Made in Brazil x3o The realisT projecT Team Guardians
The tournament is scheduled to begin on Friday at 19.00 CET. Stay tuned to IGG-GAMING as we will bring you all the action from the American continental finals.
AndThenSome lands anizz
20.11.2008 09:38 Uhr
AndThenSome has snapped up former wooSai member Daniel "anizz" Aniff.
The Danish team was keen on bringing a new player following the removal of Martin "trace" Heldt earlier this week, having played x6tence for the Extreme Masters league with Thomas "MoRf4r" Holm as a stand-in.
Aniff, who left wooSai on Wednesday, has now joined the ranks of AndThenSome, where he will again link-up with Timm ”ArcadioN” Henriksen and Michael ”Friis” Jørgensen.
"We believe that with Daniel we can finish what we started in Extreme Masters III, sustaining the 1. place and qualify for the LAN finals," a statement on AndThenSome's page reads.
"Furthermore we believe Daniel to be a person who will act in a professional way and carry our name with pride."
Aniff will have his official debut for AndThenSome on Thursday against SK Gaming for the EPS league.
AndThenSome has now the following line-up:
Timm "ArcadioN" Henriksen Jack "wazorN" Henriksen Michael "Friis" Jørgensen Rasmus "FaagaN" Thomsen Daniel "anizz" Aniff
mouz,Alternate win in EPS PD 14
20.11.2008 09:26 Uhr
Week fourteen of EPS Germany XIII gets underway with six matches being played.
The EPS league is now just two weeks away from the end of the regular season and mousesports is so far the only team to have already booked a place in the play-offs. The German giant has a relatively easy task this week as it takes on Team Nordisch e.V., who is still looking for its first points in the league.
Team Alternate, who currently sits third in the table, was recently held to a draw by mousesports in last week's Intel Friday Night Game. The team will now clash a-Losers, who is desperate for the points to escape the relegation zone.
A very interesting match this week puts face-to-face n!faculty and Team GAMED.DE. The former comes off of an impressive 2-0 win over wooSai for the Extreme Masters league and has high chances of securing qualification for the LAN Finals in case of a win here. GAMED.DE, on the other hand, has nothing to fight for other than pride but will surely not want to finish the season in a better position.
mTw is very much in the run for a place in the season's finals but will have to win this game to keep its hopes alive. However, mTw won't find the three points gift-wrapped as snook wants to avoid the relegation stage and a win here would allow it to move up to 10th in the standings' table.
GotFrag will be your home of full coverage of the EPS League so make sure you stay locked to us for up-to-date scores, HLTV coverage and demos, as well as Gamesense match statistics. Also, do not forget to set your Personal Timezone to find out exactly when the matches will be played in your area so you do not miss any of the action.
k1ck foxj rullet out of WGT
20.11.2008 09:21 Uhr
K1ck eSports Club star Ricardo "foxj" Pacheco has been ruled out of DreamHack WGT, GotFrag.com understands.
The Portuguese veteran teamed up with the former Defining Stars roster earlier this month and played a leading role in his side's debut at LG Master Cup, where k1ck placed first.
However, Pacheco will have to watch DreamHack WGT action from home as he was not part of the line-up that won the local qualifier in September.
He will be replaced by Joaquim "axoN" Pinto, who sat out the team's LG Master Cup campaign, in k1ck's starting line-up.
This said, K1ck eSports Club will play DreamHack WGT with the following line-up:
Stay tuned to GotFrag.com as we will bring you all the action from the DreamHack WGT event, taking place from November 27th-30th in Jönköping, Sweden.
e-STRO win in Seoul
16.11.2008 17:36 Uhr
Seoul hosted late last night the playoffs at the Continental Finals Korea – e-STRO swept everything in their way to win.
Many might not even have noticed the Korea top Counter-Strike teams being in action late last night. Extreme Masters III had found its way to Seoul, Korea, to host the Continental Finals Korea. Cash and spots for the Continental Finals Asia were up for grabs, with e-STRO being the main favorite. We should be witnessing an interesting comeback as Lunatic-hai had found their way to Seoul. Also Seoul’s CGS team SEOULJINHWA had made it to the playoffs, promising for entertaining matches.
Nobody could however touch e-STRO, Lunatic-hai and SEOULJINHWA did however have a close one to face e-STRO in the grand final. The match ended 26:20 to Lunatic-hai, but after the match, players from SEOULJINHWA complained about Lunatic-hai using 16bit. Using 16bit is of course strictly forbidden in Extreme Masters. Lunatic-hai received one major penalty point, resulting in deduction 10% of their prize winnings.
The grand final should be played on nuke, third time for e-STRO in the playoffs. Lunatic-hai never looked as a threat to e-STRO, but managed to win some clutch rounds, leaving a good impression. The Korea wonder-team e-STRO won the grand final with 16:9 securing 5.000$ and a spot at the Continental Finals Asia.
Lunatic-hai received 3.000$ but with 10% off, it came down to 2.700$ and a slot at the Continental Finals Asia, coming early 2009. SEOULJINHWA also secured a spot to the Continental Finals Asia by placing third, plus 2.000$.
The three teams will be playing at Continental Finals Asia, being played early 2009, along with the best Chinese teams.
mTw,lanklan,more in,EM III
16.11.2008 10:16 Uhr
Week three of the Extreme Masters league is underway with two matches being played.Fnatic is still looking for its first win this season after two weeks of play. The Swedish giant has suffered defeats against Playzone and lanklan, which leaves it in a very difficult situation to secure a spot in the finals. Another defeat here will most likely see fnatic waving goodbye to the playoffs.
As for GamePlay, the Finnish side placed 5th-8th at WCG 2008, being eliminated by SK Gaming in the Quarter-finals. The ex-roccat squad did not disappoint in Cologne but was not impressive either but will probably not even have to step up its game to emerge as winner here.
Group D will start on Thursday with Blank hoping to inflict more misery on emuLate. The French side has been anything but impressive lately but has shown some signs of recovery after winning the local KODE5 stop. Blank surprisingly underwent roster changes last week, replacing Emil "striker" Westerberg with Anders "Rwa" Svensson. The former EYE member has been out of action for more than a year so it will be quite interesting to see how he performs.
GotFrag will be your home of full coverage of Extreme Masters III so make sure you stay locked to us for up-to-date scores, HLTV coverage and demos, as well as Gamesense match statistics. Also, do not forget to set your Personal Timezone to find out exactly when the matches will be played in your area so you do not miss any of the action.
The LG Master Cup takes place this Saturday with four teams playing for a first prize of €10,000.
16.11.2008 10:14 Uhr
Held at Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon, the LG Master Cup will gather the four best teams in Portugal, who will battle it out for 10,000€. The tournament will be played in single elimination, with every match using a best-of-three system.
The former Defining Stars squad, now known as K1ck eSports Club, comes into this event boosted by the addition of veteran Ricardo "foxj" Pacheco. The team placed fifth of its group at the WCG event and is now hoping for a first-place finish ahead of its participation in DreamHack WGT.
Defining Stars welcomed earlier this week the kiyoshi team, composed of very experienced players and some of the most talented young names in the country, so it will be quite interesting to see how this team will perform if it comes up against k1ck in the Grand Final.
The Polish MYM team has lately not been delivering the results they should have – Today LUq has been removed from the team.
MYM has not been close to successful during this fall. The team has one of the most successful teams and stable teams for a long time now, but today the team part ways Lukas LUq Wnek.
The departure of LUq leaves a huge gab, who will fill it? The Polish team won the ESWC 2008 Grand Final versus e-STRO, re-defending their title from last year, but following tournaments, the team just did not perform. MYM states that no replacement has been found yet, but as DreamHack is just around the corner, a substitute.
The team states following:
"This year was very hard for our team, we had some ups and downs, but always felt that we should do better. During the few past events, we have had the feeling that we needed some change, to get our team back in the game.
Sometimes changes are needed to give a team a fresh kick of positive energy to work and evolve. This was one of the hardest decisions in our gaming history, but we felt that it's the right direction - and the direction in which we have to go.
LUq was always a very important player on our team, and a good friend, which made the decision even harder. We hope that he will find another great team so he can still play on competitive level."
MYM is now left with following four players:
Mariusz "loord" Cybulski
Jakub "kuben" Gurczyñski
Filip "Neo" Kubski
Wiktor "Taz" Wojtas
Who will MYM pick up? Fingers are pointed at Frag eXecutors and DELTA as the teams, where the new MYM member will come from. Who will be the new guy in MYM?
DreamHack without fnatic
14.11.2008 06:37 Uhr
The scene is set for the last major event of the season, when DreamHack Winter kicks off in Jönköping on the 27th of November – But without fnatic.
The last major event of the season will take place in Sweden, when several of the top teams from around the world, attend DreamHack Winter. DreamHack announced several teams already confirmed to be attending. As of today, the tournament is one team less, as fnatic cancels their participation at DreamHack Winter. The reason for fnatic not attending DreamHack is not stated, but the Swedish team is supposedly to be attending another tournament, which has not been announced yet.
Following teams are still participating (Wildcarded teams):
GamePlay mousesports MYM SK Gaming mTw Made in Brazil k1ck Begrip
The Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament at DreamHack will have a total prize purse of 400.000 SEK (39.533€) with 200.000 (19.766€) of them in cash. HLTV.org will be at DreamHack providing you live coverage.
Mickael "mSx" Cassisi has surprisingly abandoned the ranks of emuLate, leaving the 2007 WCG champion with just four players, team-aAa.com reports.
14.11.2008 06:30 Uhr
The French star had been an ever-present figure in emuLate, having played a leading role in the squad in 2007, when the team captured the WCG gold in Seattle.
Cassisi has now decided to create his own team with two members of aAa - Gaetan "Shq" Varlotta and Kyle "noth1ng" Saadi - and two other local players, Yannick "POMy" Analoro and Benoit "pressy" Garcia.
The departures of Varlotta and Saadi leave Against All Authority with a three-man roster, a decision that came as a shock to the management, who was hoping for big things from this roster following the latest results.
"We were really surprised when we learned about SHq's decision," aAa manager Matthias "zazie" Jégou told the team's website. "At first, we thought it was a joke but then we realized it was nothing but the truth.
"To be honest, I do not understand this choice, the results were encouraging, the environment surrounding the team was far from bad and the aAa structure was really helping the team."
Mickael CassisiCassisi's departure from emuLate has turned the French giant, who has qualified for the KODE5 Finals, into a four-man roster.
Contacted by IGG-GAMING, Mathieu "R!Go" Bridet stated that the team will continue playing and will soon announce its new member.
Gravitas Gaming
Evil Geniuses
Made in Brazil
Timm "ArcadioN" Henriksen
Germany XIII gets underway with six matches being played.
Tiago "QUICK" Silva
in the playoffs. Lunatic-hai never looked as a threat to e-STRO, but managed to win some clutch rounds, leaving a good impression. The Korea wonder-team e-STRO won the grand final with 16:9 securing 5.000$ and a spot at the Continental Finals Asia.
GamePlay
MYM
SK Gaming
