Welcome to the newest program in our lineup of gaming entertainment shows: THE MIND OF THE GAMER. 

MotG is a series hosted by Daniel “Sheekthief” Coreano of Ragequit.tv.  The premise of the series is to watch replays and demos of pro players while they describe why they did what they did and what they were thinking at the time.  Learn new thought trains and ways of approaching your game from the best out there!  Get into the Mind of the Gamer.

For our first episode Sheekthief sits down with our very own Ryan “Ryan” Rushia of compLexity’s StarCraft 2 squad.  Ryan discusses some Protoss game play and explains the different things he was thinking during the match. 

Enjoy!

The tenth TeamSpeak Team Liquid SC2 Open has been announced. This is another qualifier tournament for the upcoming TSL3 tournament. The event will feature several professional StarCraft 2 players including all of coL.SC2. This tournament is also an open tournament, so if you want to give it a shot, sign up as long as you have a North American BattleNet account. The maplist is Shakuras Plateau, Metalopolis, Xel’Naga Caverns, Lost Temple, and Scrap Station. The tournament begins January 22, 2011 at 12PM EST.

Prizes

1st:    $100 + Qualify for TSL3
2nd:    $50 + 100 TSL3 qualifier points
3rd-4th:  $25 + 51 TSL3 qualifier points
5th-8th:  26 TSL3 qualifier points
9th-16th: 14 TSL3 qualifier points

For more information on the event, or is you wish to sign up, click here.

Starting today, 12 teams will decend upon Kiev, Ukraine for the IEM5 European Championship. The teams will be competing for one of the 7 spots in the Global Finals that will be held in Hannover, Germany next month.

Teams will begin the tournament in two groups of six, with half of each group moving on to the bracket stage. Fortunately for the 4th team in each group, they will have the opportunity to battle it out for the 7th position.

Group A	Group B
frag eXecutors SK Gaming mTw Mousesports MYM esahara	Fnatic Lions Na`Vi Alternate forZe Copenhagen Wolves

The matches are set to begin on Thursday, January 19th. Stay tuned for the latest information and results from the event.

In this tutorial video, Dylan from Starcraft Connection introduces viewers to the Zerg class. She breaks down unit production, which is a bit different with the Zerg class, and shows how defend harrassment effectively.

Source: Starcraft Connection

German World Cyber Games officials have released two games that will be featured in WCG 2011. The two games are Counter-Strike 1.6 and FIFA 11. The host city and the official games list will be released sometime during February. Please note that these are only two of of the games that will be featured, there will be more to come.

Here is an excerpt (translated):

In the coming periods, we will decide which titles are selected for further official disciplines. As soon as there is news, they will be at WCG Europe immediately as they are known. The games that will be ultimately on a national level will be known once all information is in place.

Full German Release

ESFI World have interviewed Australian StarCraft 2 player Andrew ‘mOOnGLaDe’ Pender. Available in audio format, Pender speaks on a number of topics, focusing around his upcoming trip to South Korea to try and qualify for Code A in the next GSL season.

Topics covered include:

* WarCraft 3 career
* The switch to StarCraft 2
* Living arrangements in Korea
* Goals and expectations
* Showmatch with Ret on January 23rd
* FXOpen
* Australian e-sports scene

Listen to the interview at ESFIWorld.com