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The ESWC (Electronic Sports World Cup) every day now is looking like more and more of a joke.
First thing they fucked up is claiming that the event the Canadian qualifiers were held at didn't hold up to some agreement, mostly dealing with money, so for a month or two they debated whether or not the people who qualified at the event ( Team Evil Geniuses for Counter-Strike and Andrew "Gellesak" Ryder for Quake ) would actually get entry into the finals. (Link)
Second, ESWC chose a shit event to hold the Swedish qualifiers at, Pite Midnight. Because it was a shit event, the event itself was cancelled for low ticket sales. (Link) The big issue here is, they only NOW release the information about the new Swedish qualifiers, which will take place at two different events. (Link)
Finally, because of "contract" bullshit between ESWC and GGL, now the American qualifiers are fucking CANCELLED. It wouldn't be so bad if ESWC had simply chosen another event to hold the qualifiers at, but no. In fact, this time, the qualifying process this time has been replaced by what is effectively a paper application. The Counter-Strike applications will largely be reviewed by GotFrag.com, the WarCraft III applications will be reviewed largely by WCReplays.com, and Quake IV applications reviewed by ESReality.com, and each site will hold a public poll for their community to vote on. I've seen the WCReplays thread and it's becoming a huge joke. A lot of people there are not understanding the fact that a tournament will not be held unless you pay ESWC upwards of $25,000, and are just blabbing on, "OMG! HOLD AN ONLINE TOURNAMENT FOR IT! IT'S THAT SIMPLE!" and then you've got players coming in doing some sort of dog and pony show bragging about their accomplishments and why you should pick them (I'm beginning to dislike Shortround now, as awesome a player as he is). Finally the majority of people voting are treating this like a popularity contest. (Link To WCReplays Public Poll)
Conclusion, ESWC sucks, and I no longer plan to attend events sanctioned by them. (I planned to attend the American Quake IV Qualifiers for this year, but no longer.)
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Remember when I was talking about 4K^ToD and his new blog?
Yeah...well...remember when I said he was "doing pretty well, I suppose?" at the WEG Masters tournament?
Apparently he was doing much better than I thought.
This year's WEG Masters WarCraft III Champion has been crowned, his name is Yoan "ToD" Merlo.
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For whatever reason, I decided to look at 4K^ToD's subscribed blog list, and found out that JacziE, a shoutcaster from WCReplays also has a LiveJournal blog. She also started the blog while at the WEG Masters.
If I do say so myself, she is also quite the hottie.
To find JacziE's blog, click here.
To see JacziE's staff profile at WCReplays, click here.
"Too many banana... Too many banana..." - xiaOt
That has to be one of my new favorite quotes.
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I dunno whether I started a trend, or I unknowingly jumped on a bandwagon, but it seems that another competitive gamer has decided to make a blog, and this one is an actual pro, as opposed to me just being a poser!
The new guy is Yoan "ToD" Merlo, a French WarCraft III player. He is currently signed under the team 4Kings, and is arguably one of the best Human players in the world, top 3 at the VERY least. I also had the pleasure of meeting him at Summer CPL 2005, though I don't know him very well. I've got a picture of the both of us posing like we're bored out of our minds next to the Hitachi booth somewhere on my PC. If I can be bothered enough I'll dig it out.
Currently he's just talking about his experiences at the WEG Masters tournament. He's doing pretty well I would say, but I haven't really kept up with the WarCraft end of the tournament.
Check out 4K^ToD's blog here.
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Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
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I've just been informed that I'm being removed from the Team Uprising roster.
As upset (read: FUCKING PISSED) as I am right now, I really don't want there to be any love lost between myself and the remaining members of u|Rising. If any of the other guys happen to ever see this, good luck to all of you, and I hope you guys make it as far as possible in the community.
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To say the least, I have a rather "odd" choice in hobbies and aspirations. Ever wondered why I wanted to take up pro-gaming? Here's a chance to find out. For my English class today we were asked to write an Illustration Essay. To be brief, you need to "illustrate" a point or an event, such as three events where I was embarassed, honored, etc. I decided to do a bit of a biographical look into why I play games competitively. It was a very passionate essay for me, so I hope you enjoy it:
The History of a Competitive Gamer - By William Best
Anyone who knows me well enough will also know that I play video games. However, I am not just your average gamer. I am not the type who will spend a few hours with a controller in his hand a few days a week. I have taken up gaming to almost a professional level, not unlike sportsmen competing in the NFL, NBA, and the like. However, I didn’t one day simply decide I want to play video games competitively. It has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
The first game I really enjoyed playing was a title called Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, a game I played when I was around five years old. I loved fighting as Little Mac, boxing my way through the ranks. I would get to fight all sorts of colorful characters like Glass Joe, Soda Popinski, Bull Honda, and eventually reaching a match against a fictionalized version of Mike Tyson himself. It introduced me to the concept of competing, and winning.
At seven years old, I played a few games under the Mega Man series. These were games in which I never could truly enjoy simple victory. Playing Punch-Out, winning was enough for me. When I played Mega Man, however, each time I won had to be faster, more efficient, better than the last time. I was driven to hone my abilities and to think of strategies that would give me a better advantage over whatever I faced.
A few years later, I found a game called Perfect Dark. Now I had a new concept. I was good at video games before, but they had only let me compete against the game itself. Now I was able to use the game as a medium to compete against other people. I remember many a weekend I would spend at my friend’s house playing it. We loved to fight each other in that game, and loved each victory we gained against one another.
It wasn’t too long before I had found larger scale competition. By now I was playing a game called Pokémon. I had seen an ad in a magazine I read about a promotional tour that Nintendo was holding for the game. This included an actual competition for players all around their respective areas to come and show off the strategies they developed and the efficiency of the Pokémon they had trained. The closest tour stop to me was at a mall in Dallas, which my mother was glad to let me go to. Not only did I go, but I won, handily. I had gone completely undefeated for the entire event. I did not win any serious prizes, but I had gained a pride, that out of so many players in the Northern Texas area, not a single one that I faced was ever able to best me.
StarCraft was my next serious game. It became the next step that drove me forward. Now, with the power of the internet, I could play against not just my friend from down the street, or a few people from around Texas. I was pitting myself in battles against people from all over the world. Through StarCraft, I was introduced to two new concepts: online gaming and "clans", or groups of people who mostly played together and against other clans to better themselves at the game. I never did get very good at the game, or take it very seriously, but I still loved to play it. Not to mention it also led me to find the game that got me introduced to the true, global competition, or what I know as eSports.
Blizzard, the company that made StarCraft had released a new game, much like StarCraft, called WarCraft III. However, it wasn’t just the game itself that drove me into eSports, it was a website. This website, called WCReplays was dedicated to giving entertainment to players all around the world, and helping newer players make themselves better. They did all this through the use of replays, or recorded games, and commentary on the latest strategies that players could use. Eventually I went to do work for WCReplays, prepping commentary on replays that I had watched, getting them ready to publish. I even got to do media coverage for them in 2005 while attending one of the largest eSports events of the year: The Cyberathlete Professional League Summer Championship.
Eventually, I met up with the directors of an up-and-coming team in the community, known as Trademark Gamers. They had very prominent Halo and Dawn of War teams and were looking to build a team in WarCraft. I was brought on as lead team manager, and was given the task to recruit players and overlook most of the team’s activity. Once recruitment was done, the team that was brought was arguably one of the top five teams in the world. Regrettably, after a few seasons together, unforeseen circumstances caused us to be ejected from the competitions we played in. Because of this, Trademark Gamers was forced to dissolve the WarCraft team. I was kept on Trademark Gamers as a coverage staff member, but have since left the competitive WarCraft community.
Currently I am playing the game known as Quake, which I was introduced to through a friend who suggested I play a certain modification of it, called Promode. After playing Promode for a considerable amount of time, a few noticed I had a natural talent for it, and was developing my skills much faster than most new players would. It was not long before myself and three other people came together to become what is now known as Team Uprising. Team Uprising has already had a few minor successes in competitions such as a Cyberathlete Amateur League, the Cybersquare Alliance, and others.
Many people who would hear this story, will quickly say I am addicted, not unlike an alcoholic. To that, respond that unlike alcohol or some chemical drug, gaming has not been even come close to being a negative influence on my life. It has not hindered me in any way and not made my "normal" life any worse than what it would be without it. I do not secretly hate gaming, wishing I could quit under my breath. It is what I love to do. It has even become the inspiration for many of the things I have done with my life, especially my knowledge of electronics and computers.
So then, what would be the next step for William "Amp" Best? Honestly, I have no idea. Perhaps in the next few years or so, I will be seen on the stage of the World Cyber Games international finals facing off against people like Anton "Cooller" Singov and Karl "fooKi" Johansson. Maybe I will even go up on the podium to accept a gold medal and a check for twenty-thousand dollars for defeating them. Who knows? All I do know is that gaming is what I have done as long as I can remember, and I intend to keep going as long as I possibly can.
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So they finally have it out. 1.1 was apparently a failure that could break monitors...eh
Find it here.
Just know that I won't update my server to it until the accompanying Q4Max patch 0.74 is released as well. Anyone wanting to play 1.2, Team Uprising also has a server in Chicago running it on Base.
Now if you don't mind, I still have a demo to watch of Sandman vs. senso on Galang
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People who know me should know by now that I have massive amounts of respect for Team compLexity for two main reasons:
- Jason "socrates_" Sylka is the fucking American Quake IV hero
- Jason "1" Lake is one of the most dedicated men to this sport, and espescially to his team that I have ever seen, ranking up there with Angel Munoz.
However, my respect for them has increased tenfold after watching an old documentary of the compLexity Counter-Strike team as they were just starting out. The movie is compLexity: Redemption. It details what the coL team had to go through in their first major tournament, the CPL Winter Championship in 2004. The dedication and heart those guys had is amazing, and seeing Jason Lake start crying in his hotel room after his team beat the Finnish team DSky almost made me break down myself.
There is really nothing more I can say, other than a suggestion to watch it yourself.
Link: Click Here
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Got this game a week or two ago, and have shirked playing Quake for quite a bit because of it. I can't wait to get back into Quake, only to realize my Rail has dropped from a 38% average down to 10%.
The best feature so far that I've found in Oblivion, is that not only is brawling (bare-fisted hand-to-hand fighting) possible in the game, but one can actually have a weapon proficiency in it! Brawling characters were always my favorite type in most class-based RPG's. Brawlers that don't even look like they should be able to brawl (see: Monks) appeal to me even more. Sure, buddy, you come charge at me wearing your mithril armor, your Magical Steel Longsword of Death, and your Ultimate Guarding Shield of Protection. I'll still crush you with nothing more than my bare hands and only wearing a brown robe.
In an odd realization, after watching a bit of Naruto (I've only seen the first 50 eps), I've come to a conclusion that Rock Lee is, indeed, not a ninja, but rather, a monk. After this realization, Rock Lee is now my favorite character, which is influenced by both this, and the fact that he wears the best color in the world. I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with spleen.
In pro-gaming news, the CPL has just announced their newest international affiliate, the CPL Nordic. This also dispells the rumors that the CPL wanted to shy away from the European scene, after the annoucements of CPL China, Australia, Brazil, Chile, and Korea. We'll see some pretty good stuff coming out of the CPL Nordic organization, specifically from the Swedish players.
Alright, I guess I'll just close it up here, and a bit of a hello to Wyndham, my first subscriber. Have fun on your vacation.
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That's right, boys and girls! The first complete fragmovie for Quake IV has been finished and will be released soon! It features the members of Team Uprising (including me, but I only have one frag in the movie) making some of the most beatiful kills I've seen in Quake IV. The links should be up some time by the end of today at Team Uprising's Website.
To give a quickie explanation of what a fragmovie is. Think of "highlight reel" in your traditional sports such as football, only in gaming (specifically Quake for this reel).
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Thursday, April 6th, 2006
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Source: Click Here
The Global Gaming League(TM) (GGL), world largest video game entertainment operator, has set up its first subsidiary company in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The newly-built company, with the name of Sichuan Dianjing Tiandi Network Co, Ltd., is also the headquarter of the GGL in China.
According to Brett W. Hawkins, president of the GGL, the company in Chengdu will establish several departments, including training, R&D, technological support and marketing.
Hawkins said the first batch investment of 5 million US dollars has been in place and the total investment within 2006 will probably surpass 10 million US dollars.
Liu Minyu, head of the preparatory office of GGL China, said the reason that the GGL finally chose Chengdu instead of other metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou lies in the booming development of the city's digital entertainment industry and its millions of game players.
Latest statistics show that China has the largest number of video gaming players in the world, with 10 million plus players and more than a million subscribers.
According to a survey of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the global entertainment and media industry amounted to 1.2 trillion US dollars in 2005 and will increase by annual rate of 7.2 percent in following years.
So now we have the GGL (America) running the AmeriCup, ClanBase (Europe) running the EuroCup, so will we see the AsiaCup soon?
Thinking of it, man...coL and 3D representing NA, SK and NiP representing Europe, and Project_KR and Lunatic Hai representing Asia...It would be better than the CPL!
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Wednesday, April 5th, 2006
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To whom it may concern:
Greetings! My name is Will. I'm a competetive gamer 18 years of age hailing from northeast Texas. Currently my career aspiration is to be an Electrical Engineer. In classic LiveJournal fashion (because I can think of nothing else anyway) I'm going to reveal my "faves".
Music: Industrial Metal and Trance
Band: PitchShifter
Television: When I actually watch it? Mostly 24 and a small dose of anime.
Movie: Either Shawshank Redemption or The Man Who Would be King
Now, since that's over with, onto my competetive gamer info:
I started competetive gaming as a manager for Trademark Gamers running their WarCraft III division. We were doing exceptionally well and had extremely good players, including two of my top three favorite players, the Russian Igor "Caravaggio" Lyalin and the Korean Kyung Hyun "SeleCT" Ryoo and were a near shoe-in for the most prestegious of leagues, the WC3L, until an extreme miscommunication and negligence by one of our players caused us to be disqualified. Not long after, the WarCraft III team was dissolved, but I was kept on Trademark Gamers as Scene News staff, and I still work there today.
Besides working for Trademark Gamers, I now play for Team Uprising, a small band of four players looking to make something of ourselves in Quake IV the newest game to hit as an eSport, currently chosen as a game to be used in this year's ESWC, CPL, and many many online leagues. The four players are William "Amp" Best, Evan "Solarus" Wroblewski, Mike "Sandman" Hansknecht, and Randy "killat0n" Evans. Sandman is the "star" player, having the best achievements out of all of us, including a recent tournament at NetHeadz in which he not only went undefeated, but only ONE person was able to get a positive score against him. A few of us have plans to attend this year's CPL Summer Championship, which should be interesting to say the least, and, barring a major mistake, all of us plan to attend this year's Quake-Con.
I suppose that's all that needs to be said, welcome to my blog, and enjoy your stay!
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ecstatic.
apathetic.