Moon and Grubby at CeBIT

Despite Warcraft 3 being omitted as an event from the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge Grand Final, it has been included in the proceedings in the form of a show-match, in a manner of speaking.

Alongside other unnamed professional gamers, EG's Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen and Wemade FOX's Jae Ho "Moon" Jang will be making the trip out to the CeBIT event in Hannover, Germany for a show-match featuring Avalon Heroes.

Check "[I'm] thinking about switching to SC2"

Korean night elf player Hyeong Ju "Check" Lee was the subject of a Starcraft II oriented interview recently, conducted by YGosu. Check seems to have thrown a lot of his weight behind Starcraft II and appears to be gearing up to make a permanent switch from Warcraft III. 

Check has long been a mainstay of Korean Warcraft events and just recently managed to qualify for the Stars War event in Shanghai, however, his interests seem to lie elsewhere as he very quickly rose to first place in his division in the Starcraft II BETA platinum league.

Korea's Stars War line-up complete

The Stars War Korean qualifier concluded today after MYM's Sung Sik "ReMinD" Kim defeated Wemade FOX's June "Lyn" Park for the fourth and final Korean berth at the grand final later this year.

Korean night elves Hyung Gyu "Check" Lee and Deok Man "SocceR" Youn claimed the second and third grand final placements via the upper bracket two weeks ago, while Jang "Moon" Jae Ho was admitted after finishing first in the public poll.

Wemade FOX adds RohJinWook

Reports emanating from NiceGameTV indicate human player Jin Wook "Rohjinwook" Roh has signed a deal with Korean team Wemade FOX, laying to rest a fortnight of speculation.

RohJinWook split from his previous team, GaB, two weeks ago, after being presented a more lucrative deal from a rival team. Speculation as to who made the offer was very much in sync. Given the current climate of the Warcraft 3 community, Wemade FOX was the most prevalent name on a very short list of candidates.

MeetYourMakers signs HoT

MeetYourMakers announced today that Ukranian night elf player Mykhalo "HoT" Novopashyn would be added to the roster as the fourth member of their Warcraft 3 squad.

For a long time now, HoT has been one of the most popular players to reside in Europe, making the invite lists for most international events. However, since his return and even before hiatus, HoT's enthusiasm to continue playing has been called into question. Julius "Teccy" Bernad, MYM's Warcraft 3 manager, said in his statement "I strongly believe in [HoT's] strength and his ambition," however, HoT himself had nothing to say on the subject in his own statement.

Interview with DeVo, WC3PL founder

Here's the interview I conducted with Warcraft 3 Pro League (WC3PL) founder Niklas "DeVo" Karoly, so fresh the ink is still wet. 

The WC3PL is a new competitive Warcraft 3 solo league, similar in style to the NGL ONE event. The league is comprised of two divisions, one featuring a majority of invited players and the other featuring players who will gain admittance via a qualifier. The event has a $750 prize pool, uses standard maps and will feature professional and amateur Warcraft players from all over the world.

Last week you announced details concerning the first season of your new league, the Warcraft 3 Pro League, what was your motivation for organising this event?

Well, I've been in esports now for four years and I'm definitely addicted. The thing is, the SCII beta starts soon and it's going to take a lot of effort to keep some of the focus on Warcraft 3. It's going to be difficult to do with such little prize money, but right now no one is catering to the demand for an international solo league. We were going back and forward for three months before deciding to settle on a solo league, though we do hope to expand to a team based league at some point in the future. Right now, we just want to work on creating a base for competitive Warcraft players, the WC3PL.

New event announced, the Warcraft 3 Pro League

New information has been released regarding the recently launched Warcraft 3 Pro League (WC3PL), a one on one Warcraft 3 league.

The initial announcement detailed the format of the league, a one versus one event consisting of two seperate divisions. Each division is to be comprised of 18 players total, 12 players have already been invited to compete in the first division, while the remaining six from division one and 18 from division two will have to qualify.

WC3 Nations Cup Season 3 starts tomorrow

The International Gaming League, organiser of the WC3 Nations Cup, released information yesterday regarding the third season of their international Warcraft 3 spectacle.

The event features competitors from 23 difference countries, 80 contestants in all. 64 players will be divided into 16 groups of four, only one player from each group will advance to the round of 32, 16 from the group stage and the 16 to have automatically qualified through placements in the previous season. The prize pool is only $100 for now, however, the adminstrators hope to increase the amount on offer as donations are received throughout the season. A few prizes sponsored by Steel Series will also be given away to winners.

XP League goes under

Administrators of XP League, Korea's one and only Warcraft 3 league, announced yesterday their decision to cease operations after a successful 6th season, which climaxed the day before with Kim "ViOlet" Dong Hwan taking first place.

Gosugamers.net is reporting that the reasons behind the abrupt closure stem from lack of funds and, in the administrators minds, a deviation from the original intent of the league.

DVD of Beyond the Game released with English subtitles

Beyond the Game, a production by acclaimed Dutch filmmaker Jos de Putter, is a documentary following Warcraft players Xiaofeng "Sky" Li, Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen and Fredrik "MaDFroG Johansson. 

The name comes from the World Cyber Games' motto, an event pivotal to the story within the documentary and long thought of as the most prestigious event in esports.

The documentary features several spoken languages and was initially distributed with Dutch subtitles, as of December the DVD was made available through the ESL shop with English subtitles, priced at €19.90. 

Also included in the DVD's are extras such as interviews with Warcraft players and even with Rob Pardo, Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard Entertainment. Rob Pardo was the lead designer on both Reign of Chaos and the expansion pack The Frozen Throne. 

You can purchase the DVD here

NGL-ONE season 6 finals confirmed

After months of waiting, the NGL ONE administration have at long last released details of the season six finals, the NGL's first season of one on one competition. 

The season started in February of 2009 with 24 players, the top eight of which went on to qualify for the finals. The event is scheduled to take place in Berlin, Germany on the 24th and 25th of April this year. The event will be a private function, no spectators beyond staff, players and press will be in attendance. The NGL will be offering a total of $17,500 in prizes, distributed as such:

WE.infi "[People stop me on the street] about once or twice a month"

Team-site mymym.com have published an interview with 2009 World Cyber Games Warcraft champion Xuwen "InFi" Wang discussing his first place victory in the Shadow League Warcraft event, a prolonged tournament pitting retired veterans against active talents.


The questioning is a little sporadic and the answers very concise, but there are some interesting tidbits.

Read the interview at mymym.com

Image from SK-Gaming.com

WeMade FOX duo meet China's best in $9,000 tournament

According to reports from replays.net, China will be playing host to yet another star studded tournament, organised by STG Gaming and boasting a prize pool of $9,000. 

The event is comprised predominantly of Chinese players, though the two giants of Korean Warcraft, We Made Fox's Jae Ho "Moon" Jang and June "Lyn" Park have managed to wrangle invitations.

The tournament is scheduled to begin Thursday February 18th at the Longtan Lake Park, in Beijing.

RohJinWook set to move on from GaB

Roh "MichaeL" Jin Wook, a human player from South Korea and brother to former star Noh "Lucifer" Jin Wook, is said to be leaving his current team GaB to accept a more lucrative offer with a rival team. 

German media page Fragster.de is reporting that MichaeL will be leaving the team to take an offer elsewhere, though the veracity of the story is still up in the air, given that neither GaB, MichaeL nor the team making the supposed offer have released any information concerning the event. 

Supposedly, the recent addition of Mihaylo "KaS" Hayda to GaB's roster was in fact a replacement for MichaeL. In spite of his departure, GaB are left with a large and very able roster.

More on this as information becomes available.

Image from GosuGamers.net

Et tu, RotterdaM?

Kevin "RotterdaM" van der Kooi's retirement from Warcraft was made the all the more real this afternoon when his super-duper top-secret mission aboard fnatic.MSI was revealed, why it's Heroes of Newerth of course.

RotterdaM's commitment to actually playing Warcraft had been slowly dissipating for quite some time, but he continued warming our hearts as the lovable colour commentator who pronounced it pie-on instead of peon. RotterdaM, seen above fondling Yoan "ToD" Merlo's bicep, brought WCG, ESL, NGL and GomTV events into our homes and made them fun and interesting, maybe now he can use his powers for evil, instead of good, to turn the Warcraft scene onto HoN.

All joking aside, here's hoping he does well in Heroes of Newerth.

Fnatic.MSI statements

Image from SK-Gaming

Podcast of Malystyx's appearance on Live on 3 now available

The podcast of Lawrence "Malystryx" Phillips' appearance on Live on Three Sunday night is now available for download. 

The LO3 crew aren't quite as enthusiastic about Warcraft as they are say Quake, however, it's nice to see them making the effort to get to know the game and the community a little better. Plus, Lawrence does have some valuable insight into the Chinese community, so give it a listen. 

Of his appearence on Live on Three, Mr. Phillips had the following good news to report, "I'm actually okay to listen to my voice!" 

You can listen to the interview at djwheat.tv, by streaming or downloading. 

Image from SK-gaming

ReMinD: "I want to [...] win [WCG] before I retire from this game"

The popular German media page Fragster.de has published an interview with Korean Warcraft player and MeetYourMakers star Sung Sik "ReMinD" Kim. The interview touches on several aspects of ReMinD's career, including his aspirations, routine and upcoming matches. 

You can read the interview here at http://www.fragster.de

Image from SK-Gaming.

Stars War: Reborn Euro qualifier day one results

The Stars War European qualifier kicked off today with a round of four matches, one from each of the four groups. 
 

In group A we saw Russian undead Dmitriy "Happy" Kostin take on Swedish human player Marcus "Thorzain" Eklöf. Things got off to a rough start with Happy disconnecting from the initial map, leaving behind his clear advantage, but unfortunately for the Swede, Happy's matinée performance was eclipsed by his encore. Game two fell in favour of Happy once again, a convincing two nil victory for the Russian.

WhO defeats Reignofdark to win ZOTAC #123, replay pack included

Du Seop "WhO" Chang managed to come out on top of this weeks ZOTAC Cup after a three to nil victory over German opponent Tobias "Reignofdark" Muth. ZOTAC regulars Sung Sik "ReMinD" Kim and Moonfans were also amongst WhO's opponents this week. 

This brings WhO's first place cup collection to a respectable grand total of five. A far cry from his crowning achievement at the ESWC 2008 Grand Finals, but a feather for his cap none the less.

SK Gaming has put together a replay pack which you can download here.

Malystryx on djwheat's LO3 tomorrow night

Replays.net contributor Lawrence "Malystryx" Phillips will be making a guest appearance on 'Live on Three' tomorrow night to discuss his recently published article, "Warcraft in Europe - Grim Reaper Calling."

In the article, Lawrence discusses the condition of the professional Warcraft 3 community in Europe and the inescapable truth that it's picking up significant speed in its descent. Big money tournaments are few and far between, the two staples of online competition, NGL and WC3L, have all but disappeared and teams rooted in Europe who have long supported Warcraft 3 players, have decided to drop their teams.

As sad as it is, it does make for interesting discussion, so be sure you tune Sunday night at 22:00 CET to listen in, or, if the opportunity presents itself, participate in the discussion yourself.

Djwheat.tv

Stars War European Qualifier Broadcast

As of about 10 minutes ago, I've signed on to broadcast the Stars War European qualifier. If you're interested in following the event, you can find the broadcast schedule on the right-hand side of the page. Those of you not keen on live streams can follow the matches through WTV or GTV, both of which should be available for each and every match.

VOD's of the matches should be available shortly after airing.

VOD section now up

I've decided to set up a VOD section for just about every Warcraft related video I can find. So far there's only an interview section up, but I will be adding sections for documentaries, informational pieces and broadcast matches, both esportglobal's and classic matches.

The interview section has just over 50 interviews posted so far, so have a flick through and see if there's any you missed.

There's also a useful links section at the bottom of the page which I'll continue adding to and I also hope to have a replays section up at some point in the near future.