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3D-Gaming.org News Feed http://www.3d-gaming.org Latest news from http://www.3d-gaming.org uk-uk Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:21:05 +0100 Mousesports goes LoL
The Team around teamcaptain

Yuri 'Flashy' Shilenkov, from now on, will be representing Mousesports in all possible online- and offline-tournaments. With this acquirement mouz now has two rosters in two different MMOBA-games (the second being a DotA 2 team).

Statement from Alexander 'Blazzka' Kovalevsky:

My team and me are extremely proud to join mousesports, one of the best and most respected esports organisations in the world throughout the past ten years. We are very thankful for the chance to to represent mouz in the league of legends sector. It's an unbelievable honor for us and we hope to fulfill the expectations placed on us. We are looking forward towards a long and most important succesful cooperation.

New lineup of mouz.LoL:

Yuri 'Flashy' Shilenkov

Dmitry 'Blorn' Lyubchich

Alexander 'Blazzka' Kovalevsky

Adam 'Nexiq' Galeb

Sergej 'PlagiaT' Kliukwin

Sources: mousesports.com | fragster.de]]> (Ivan Navdaev) Payment Delays in EPS Nordic
Today Cadred was sent correspondence from ESL responsibles that confirms that the payments are being delayed to finance other running events. The correspondence, sent to players awaiting the EPS Nordic pay out, is the latest in a long line of back-tracking and excuses from ESL. The league in question began 16 months ago and promises have been made for a pay out on several occasions. The main issue that there seems to be is that the lack of payment to CS:S competition winners seems to be delayed to fund bigger events that do not have the CS:S game on the ticket. Many disgruntled CS:S players have been coming together in private to discuss a potential boycott of ESL competitions on this basis.

The latest piece of correspondence read:

We are totally aware that there are still two season of EPS Nordic unpaid, and we really regret the long delay. So first of all please be reassured that we will send the money as soon as we can. ESL has always paid out all prizes, even though sometimes with a lot of delay.

Concerning the exact date, I cannot really give you one, yet. Because of the high running costs for our current events in Kiev, Sao Paulo and Hanover (all within less than 2 months) it is rather unlikely that accounting can free up enough liquidity to pay your money before CeBIT is over.

Again, we are really sorry for the delay and hope for your continued patience.

Previous e-mails to players from October, November and December also pointed to other events taking precedent over settling these debts.

The ESL have declined to give us any additional comment on the matter.
]]> aj_nguyen@hotmail.co.uk (AJ Nguyen) CLG.eu are Kings of Europe
The Kings of Europe tournament was a online tourney with the best 8 European Teams fighting for 3'250 USD in a Bo1 Groupstage with two groups and a single elimination playoff-tree.

Moscow 5 came trough Group A undefeated and have won their playoff game versus

Sypher 2:1.

CLG.eu on the other hand made it trough their Group B, as well undefeated, and won their match against

Mistral with 2:0 in the playoffs. The final itself featured three games. [M5] lost out on the first game then made a huge comeback on the 49th minute of game two in a epic battle over Baron, but despite that CLG.eu managed to keep their cool, win the fights and defend their base and take the third game from [M5] in the end.
They see their ability to disengage in the right time as one of the key-factors that allowed them to win, support player Krepo explains it like this: "Use all CC, kill one with it, reset fight".

Here is a lineup overview of the three games:

[toggle=Game I]

	CLG.eu				Moscow 5
Picks
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Bans
	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)			(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)

[/toggle]
[toggle=Game II]

	Moscow 5				CLG.eu
Picks
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Bans
	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)			(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)

[/toggle]
[toggle=Game III]

	CLG.eu				Moscow 5
Picks
(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)
Bans
	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)			(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)	(Auto resize: show original)

[/toggle]
VoD Game I | VoD Game II | VoD Game III

Sources: clgaming.net]]> (Ivan Navdaev) pita leaving Fnatic
Faruk also thinks that it's his fault that the team couldn't show their usual results at IEM Kiev and says in his official statement on fnatic.com, that he isn't "breathing" for CS like the rest of the team does. Faruk was a member of fnatic since December 2010 and attended several events together with the other members of fnatic.cs. However pita still isn't denying the possibility of a comeback at a later point in time.

It is not know who will replace pita in the current line up but the fnatic-management already announced that the new player in the team will be revealed soon so that the team can start preparations for the IEM World Championship taking place in March.

Current fnatic.cs lineup:

Patrik 'cArn' Sättermon

Rasmus 'Gux' Ståhl

Richard 'Xizt' Landström

Michael 'Friis' Jørgensen

Sources: fnatic.com | fragster.de]]> (Ivan Navdaev) Teams for IEM WC

Counter Logic Gaming (Ranked 1st in American-Region)

SK Gaming (Ranked 1st in European-Region)

World Elite (Ranked 1st in Asian-Region)

Team SoloMid (Top 2 IEM Cologne)

fnatic (Top 2 IEM New York)

Moscow Five (Top 2 IEM Kiev)

Team Dignitas

Sypher

Millenium

Curse

EHOME

iG

The 12 teams mentioned above are the ones one can find in the rankings over at esl-world.net. However the organizers of the IEM still have to announce the final participants-list and it is possible that some teams might drop out because of different reasons and be replaced with teams who missed the Top 12. We will try to inform you guys over possible changes in the participant-list.

Sources: clgaming.net | esl-world.net]]> (Ivan Navdaev) An Hour with Counter-Strike: GO On the eve of the public debut of its newest game, Valve Software let me into their ever-expanding offices in Bellevue, Washington to give me a sampling of four classic Counter-Strike maps as they've been remade for 2012's Counter-Strike: GO.
This was, I dare admit, the first time I've ever played Counter-Strike. Forget my shame, and let me tell you how terrific an experience it was. There is a lot to this game that will be interesting to veterans and newcomers.

Even I knew before I put my hand to mouse and keyboard in a Valve testing lab today that Counter-Strike is a classic team-based first-person shooter. One side plays terrorists; one are counter-terrorists. The most popular mode and the one I played today is Bomb/Defuse. One of five terrorist players randomly gets the bomb and can place it; any of the five counter-terrorists can try to defuse it. The match ends when one team is wiped out or the bomb goes off.

CS: GO will launch with five maps for Bomb/Defuse mode, and two for the other classic franchise mode, Hostage Rescue. Those combined seven maps are all based on classic Counter-Strike 1.6 and CS: Source maps, in other words, maps from the two most popular earlier incarnations of the game.

The maps will be recognizable to series fans. Valve's designers have kept the best of them nearly intact, applying a graphical upgrade but leaving most of the level layout intact. The classic Dust 2, for example, looks improved but plays the same.

Another map, Nuke, has had some of its dead space removed, Valve's project lead on CS: GO, Ido Magal, told me. Areas where players would get lost have been tightened. The classic map Aztec has been altered to give terrorist players more cover and quicker paths to bomb placement areas. Dust has had a "sniper alley" fixed so that players can now run through a trench in that map while trusting that some bridges that span it and other obstructions will give them some cover.

If you're like me and a Counter-Strike novice, you'll notice none of the subtle changes in the game's maps. Valve is partially making the game for us, but also vetting many of their big and little changes through pro players in the massive competitive Counter-Strike community.

Players like me can cheer for the game's new Casual mode. In it, money is no object and players can buy weapons for each round without worrying about cost. They will be playing with voice-chat open to all players, on both sides and the ability to spectate any player's actions, again, from either faction, should they die and be watching the rest of the round as it plays out. Casual is, Magal and Valve writer Chet Faliszek explained to me, part of their and partner studio Hidden Path's effort to "lower the skill floor" for new players.

Veteran players will ideally appreciate the game creators' efforts to also "raise the skill ceiling." The overall idea is that Counter-Strike is considered, at Valve, to be a game about skill, one that doesn't sand over differences in player ability and always lets the player feel like they know why they died. I sure understood why I died and also why I was able to achieve a surprising number of kills during our Casual sessions. Weapons recoil and headshots remain paramount. Character movement is swift and the pace is indeed fast. Maps are clean and easy to rush through. Valve clearly wants nothing to obstruct the clarity of the play of the game. To wit: Faliszek explained to me that smoke and dust effects, which are prominent in the starting area of Dust, appear less frequently and with less opacity, as the round gets underway.

Experienced CS players may gravitate toward the game's Competitive mode, which drops the cross-team chat and spectating and intensifies the rounds, dropping round time from three minutes to two. In Competitive, money earned for success in a round does count and can be spent on weapons and armor for the next round.

For the new game, Valve will host its own servers. Fans can still host theirs and tweak the game, but Valve wants all of the players to be able to rely on having access to a consistent experience. On the Valve servers. CS: Go will play the way described here. And only on the Valve servers for PC and Mac—or on the console versions for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3—will players be matchmade based on skill. Valve is using a system called ELO and will prioritize that skill ranking when matchmaking in the Competitive mode. It will prioritize your friends list when matchmaking for Casual.

On PC and Mac, Counter-Strike: GO players can expect the standard options you get with a Steam game and any of the control options you would have with a computer. On the Xbox 360, players will use a game pad. On the PS3, players can use the game controller, the PlayStation Move motion controller or even a mouse and keyboard. PS3, Mac and PC players will be match-made against each other, clumped by skill, regardless of input device or platform. (Valve didn't demonstrate the PS3-PC.Mac cross-play to me today, but they confirmed that that enticing bit of networking is something they are striving to include in the game.)

Counter Strike: Global Offensive will feature eight new weapons and seven classic maps.

Weapons:
Decoy Grenade
Molotov
IMI Negev
Taser
Tec-9
Mag-7
Sawed-Off
PP-Bizon

Classic Maps:
dust
dust2
aztec
nuke
inferno
italy
office

What Valve showed me and will be showing at both this week's Penny Arcade Expo and next month's Eurogamer Expo is a lot of CS:GO's nods to the past, through classic modes and tweaked and graphically improved classic maps. In the future we'll find out about new modes and maps associated with them, innovations to the formula about which the Valve guys dropped no hints, other than to mention that for some reason, on some undisclosed map, some players will be in the role of professional bank robbers.

But even in the content now being shown, fans will be able to spot differences all over the place. They will see that character models are dressed appropriately for their level's environment and, in time, Valve will ensure that all of the characters have small visual variations in their wardrobe to distinguish them from each other. Veterans will notice that in Casual or Competitive, bullets will now fire tracers, helping players learn and understand where the ammo from the game's various weapons is going and coming from. This will visualize the series' various realistic streams and arcs of bullets as guns fire, recoil and are subjected to simulated laws of physics.

Long time players will also spot new weapons and items. Among them is a taser gun, an expensive, one-shot, instant-elimination gun that Faliszek described as a weapon that is used to humiliate. Players on either side can use a decoy, a bundle of firecrackers, sort of, that looks like a player on the mini-map and lets off the sounds of guns being fired. But it doesn't look like a player and doesn't make the sound of footsteps. A third new item is the molotov cocktail which fills an area with fire and smoke, briefly, the first CS item, Magal explained to me, that is designed to slow another team down. There will be more new weapons, but those are the ones I spotted.

The game is set to go into beta this October. Attendees of PAX and the Eurogamer Expo will get Beta codes they can redeem later, and Valve will provide fans other means, not yet announced, to get into the game. Through the beta, which is PC only, and through dialogue with more players of all levels, they want to tweak and perfect this game. As Faliszek and Magal showed me CS:GO, they frequently referred to stats in the game that might change. That's the point of the beta and the continued dialogue, to determine, for example, if bombs should detonate in 45 seconds, as they did in the build I played, or if that time will be shortened to 35 in Competitive mode. Defusal is currently 10 seconds. Decoys last about five.

The process of give and take is constant for this game, the Valve guys told me. For example, Valve was going to eliminate the ability to get armor, but was talked out of it by Source players. So they added them in, made them cost money for Competitive mode, made them free for Casual and they think they've solved the problem. For now, Valve is confident that they've made the right decision to eliminate random spawn points on all maps, a trait of the old games they think the community agrees led to unfair advantages. Feedback and the reams of data Valve has collected from players of earlier incarnations of the game can still change and influence any of this.

Valve and Hidden Path are attempting to expand the Counter-Strike audience with CS:GO, roping in more console players while also creating something that is supremely refined for computer veterans. I was impressed with how streamlined everything felt and how pleasant a session of Casual was, leaving me without the feeling of shellshock I often get during my rare dalliances with competitive shooters and instead with the satisfaction of playing an efficiently-made game with an amiable crew.

Counter-Srike: Go is scheduled for a first quarter 2012 release on the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be download-only. Faliszek couldn't tell me what it'll cost. They're worrying about making a great game first, he told me. They'll sweat the other details later. (But! Magal added: they won't be selling in-game hats.)

Quelle : Kotaku]]> mackKnife@3d-gaming.org (Jens Marc Stürmer) Sypher Lose Out to Dragons
Team Sypher had been quite successful with the League of Legends team, and the team was only ever improving. However, just recently the team has been poached by new eSports project, tt.dragons. Apparently tt.dragons gave the Sypher line-up a better offer than they previously had, but Sypher were unwilling to provide a greater offer for the team. This means that Sypher are now without a LoL team, but the French organisation are by no means pulling out of the game. With a lot of fresh teams popping up, it gives Sypher free reign over what team they would like to pick up.

On the other hand this leaves the tt.dragons team with a very strong line-up, and lots of room for improvement. We will no doubt see this team competing at European events, and they certainly have the ability to do some damage.

Former Sypher, now TT.Dragons are:

Skyyart
Lounet
Pyri
ShLaYa
Moopz

With such a strong European showing this year, it'll be interesting to see where the tt.dragons side will fit into it all. To find out, stay tuned to cadred.org for plenty more League of Legends coverage.]]> mackKnife@3d-gaming.org (Jens Marc Stürmer) ESL Ruling Leaves CLG.eu Reeling
The team originally qualified for the tournament in October of last year,

under the Absolute Legends banner. It was at this point that according to the team, they began talks with mTw to form a partnership that would see them gaining funding, while giving mTw exposure, a mutually benefiting proposition. No official contract was signed, however the team states that “a mutual agreement that both organizations would work in partnership was made”.

In a move that would favour the famous german organization, ESL has concluded that the team license, and spot at IEM Kiev, shall remain with mTw. The decision was made by ESL due to claims “that Absolute Legends is not a legitimate organization and only a community”.

Something that CLG.eu heavily disagree with. The team has this to say about ESL's ruling:

The problem which arose is that ESL has concluded the team license will remain with mTw, claiming that Absolute Legends is not a legitimate organization and only a community. Despite numerous attempts made proving to ESL that Absolute Legends is and always was a legitimate organization, this was unsatisfactory. With considerable sums of money involved in prize funds, travel, accommodation and sponsorships (over $150,000) - ESL have chosen to base their decision on false statements made to them by mTw .

Because ESL was skeptical of the agreement which had been made between both organizations, we took it upon ourselves to provide extensive evidence of what both parties concluded during our discussions. For example mTw had agreed that points gained from events would remain with the players, rather than the organization. That would mean that had the AL/mTw conglomeration won, the IEM circuit points would be granted to AL (which is now called CLG.eu). As with the previous instance where we attempted to supply evidence to ESL, they claimed it to be insufficient and the license would remain with mTw.

The team say that they have attempted to reach an understanding with mTw, even offering to attend the event

under the mTw tag, giving all exposure, and prize money to the organisation as long as they were able to keep the points gained from the events so that they could have an opportunity to attend the IEM Grand Final in March of this year. It would appear that mTw have rejected their offer however.

The ironic benefiters of this ruling are CLG.eu's Mike 'Wickd' Petersen and Stephen 'Snoopeh' Ellis ex-Teammates, SK-Gaming, who came 4th place in the qualifiers and thus now take CLG.eu's place at the event.

Source.]]> mackKnife@3d-gaming.org (Jens Marc Stürmer) Running with the Wolves
The new team will see some familiar faces, a number of the members comprising the previous LowLandLions lineup. The primarily Dutch line-up will have to prove themselves to join the elite ranks, but the with the backing of Western Wolves they will have the full ability to do so. However with Season 2 just starting, now is the perfect time for Western Wolves to get themselves a team, and team itself to show they are worthy contenders.

Western Wolves are:
Tom "Metalx" Latour
Erik "Tabbz" Van Helvert
Nisjaat "LoordN" Sheik Joesoef
Tuan "Sologamer" Le
Jakob "YamatoCannon" Bambusa

We'll see in good time whether or not this team will be able to do the damage intended, but we wish them good luck in all their endeavours.]]> mackKnife@3d-gaming.org (Jens Marc Stürmer)