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| Where the Hell Are the Tournaments? by Russ "megablaz0r" Grimm,GamingJunky.com March is rapidly approaching and for the realm of eSports, that can only mean one thing: events galore! Around this time of year, the announcements start rolling in and the hype begins to build for what is typically a blistering summer full of tournaments. Gaming Junky has taken a look at the upcoming major events in 2007, both confirmed and unconfirmed. With the CPL only announcing one stop thus far and none by the WSVG, we were left to speculate on what events they might have. Despite their lack of information, '07 is shaping up to be a promising year for eSports and everyone involved. We'll be reviewing the confirmed events first. Our first look is at next weekend's ASUS Winter Cup, the first such event this year with significant cash prizes spread between two games. Confirmed Events The ASUS Winter Cup for this year will sport a total prize fund of over $25,000 and feature Counter-Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3 tournaments. Most notable about the event is the lack of a Quake discipline, which is the first time in the history of the cup that Quake has been omitted, spanning fifteen cups and four years. However, the event organizers have already confirmed that Quake will be at the ASUS Spring Cup, which is yet to be scheduled. Following Moscow's biggest series will be the Extreme Masters at CEBit in Hannover, Germany. This event will be the grand finals of the first Extreme Masters season, which started late last year. The top eight qualified European teams and players will fight for 160,000 Euro ($205,000 USD) in prize money, graciously put up by Intel. Yet again, Quake is noticeably absent from the lineup, which features WC3 and CS 1.6. Held at roughly the same time as the Extreme Masters will be qualifiers for the DirecTV Championship Gaming Series. Games included are Counter-Strike: Source, Project Gotham Racing and Dead or Alive 4. After the event qualifiers, the North America Regional Tournament will be held, as well as a player draft for the remainder of the series. In mid-April, the MLG Boost Mobile Pro Circuit will kick off in Charlotte. For the third consecutive year, the circuit will feature Halo2 with both FFA and 4v4 formats for this year's events. The stop in Charlotte, North Carolina will be the first of five stops before the playoffs and grand finals. After the conclusion of the event, nearly two months will pass before the next Boost Mobile Pro Circuit event, which will be held June 8-10 at the Meadowlands (New Jersey). Things start to really heat up in mid-June, when Dreamhack Summer will attempt another world record by using yet another hall for their monstrous LAN. No games have been confirmed for the event, but we can expect to see Quake 4 and Counter-Strike 1.6 in some shape or form. Last year's Dreamhack Summer was an official WSVG event, but no announcements of the sort have been made about the Swedish LAN this year. Next on the list of confirmed events are the ESWC Finals. Held July 5-8 in lovely Paris, France, all competitors will have to qualify through ESWC national selections from January to June. The preliminaries will involve more than 500,000 gamers worldwide in Counter-Strike (including CS: Women), Quake, Pro Evolution Soccer, and Trackmania Nations. The Electronic Sports World Cup is one of the most prestigious events in all of eSports and should turn out to be a blast for both competitors and spectators alike. Two weeks after the conclusion of ESWC, the third stop in the MLG Boost Mobile Pro Circuit takes place in Dallas, at the same venue as QuakeCon. The MLG has twice visited Dallas before, a city that several consider to be the birthplace of eSports. In August we have the daddy of 'em all - QuakeCon! Unlike last year, this year's QuakeCon was announced very early. After all the rumors of 2006's event being cancelled, id Software got the details out to the public very early for the 12th year of QuakeCon (something the WSVG and CPL could learn from). This incarnation will prove to be bigger, better, and badder as the exhibit area will be five times larger than 2006, and 2,700 BYOC spots will surely mean for a large party. After QuakeCon, there are more stops in the MLG circuit. Chicago and Orlando will round out the list of regular season events, taking place in mid-August and September, respectively. However, the PC slate for most of August, all of September, and part of October is bone dry. QuakeCon is being held August 2-5, and there isn't another confirmed PC event until CPL Australia, held October 12-14 at the Sydney Olympic Park. Games featured at CPL Australia will be Counter-Strike: 1.6, Quake 3 and Warcraft 3. Taking place just two days after CPL Australia are the World Cyber Games finals, to be held in Seattle, Washington. Not too many specifics have been announced, but hopefully Quake will make an official tournament appearance and not be relegated to another All-Stars show. Last but not least in the list of confirmed events is the conclusion of the MLG Boost Mobile Pro Circuit. While no dates or venue have been announced, the playoffs will be held sometime in October, with the grand finals in November. Last year's grand finals saw $234,000 of prize money distributed, and all signs point to that figure being slightly increased for this year. There are many real-time strategy (WC3 and SC) events out there so here's some info about the largest leagues: Southeast Asia Starcraft League V224 competitors qualified for the second Southeast Asia Starleague and are duking it out. The first SSL ended in late September last year and was a huge success. ESL Season XI Warcraft 3 Playday 3The 11th installation of the Electronic Sports League pits the defending champion 4Kings against runner-up MeetYourMakers (mYm) and returning squads from last season. As with the SSL V2, this league has only three weeks under its belt. Just like last season, TV coverage can be expected once the season has wrapped up. Other RTS LeaguesThree other prominent RTS leagues are taking place outside of Asia, and their schedules are posted here. These leagues include the ESL Extreme Masters Relegation, NGL-One Playday 9, NGL-Two Playday 9 and the aforementioned WC3L Season 11 Playday 3. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Game News :: home page |