Next month, Assembly Winter will be taking place in Helsinki, Finland. Sponsored by Steelseries, the event will feature 64 of the world’s top SC2 talents as they compete for a prize purse of $6,000 and numerous hardware prizes.

Today, 63 players were announced, with the 64th and final spot being granted at the LanTrek SC2 tournament in Ylöjärvi, Finland.

ST_Rainbow
Liquid`Ret
Liquid`TLO
Liquid`HuK
mouz.Naama
mouz.Strelok
mouz.MorroW
mouz.HasuObs
EG.DeMusliM
ROOT.qxc
Empire.Naniwa
Empire.Kas
Empire.DieStar
aTn.Socke
aTn.DarKFoRcE
dignitas.SjoW
dignitas.merz
dignitas.Bischu
M.Tarson
M.LaLuSh
M.Adelscott
RoX.KIS.BRAT_OK
RoX.KIS.Pomi
RoX.KIS.Abver
RoX.KIS.LiveZerg
coL.Stalife
coL.Antimage
PwR.elfi
EG.Grubby
myR.eNvious
myR.ReYoN
Virus.Satiini
Virus.Magik
Virus.Wibang
Playzone.FuRy
Playzone.Cytoplasm
inF.RunA
srs.iNSoLeNCE
Lions.Skruffy
Lions.Metalon
OK.jimpo
OK.Naugrim
Menace.Fuzer
h4u.Seinis
h4u.Drafter
RAGE.Seala
RAGE.Welmu
RAGE.ActionJesuz
dwish.cast
Forsen
Pitro
Gruang
ArtVandelay
Ouga
imakki
torecito
Protosser
Konna
RiceRiceMaybe
Multani
ZhuGeLiang
Kurafeissi
TrueRandom

More information about the event can be found by clicking here.

Chris Schetter’s latest column argues why professional gaming leagues should stop adopting the Olympic model. It’s the same model that we’ve all gotten used to after major event organizers such as the World Cyber Games, ESWC, the CPL and more have implemented it into their brands.

While Olympic model competitions within gaming have served to get the ball rolling to this point, the scene at this point is full of entities competing with each other to establish themselves as the ‘Olympics of e-sports’ while there’s a dearth of activity along an axis that actually looks and operates like professional sports. What we’re left with is a disjointed scene where gamers can’t make ends meet and are far too susceptible to abuse from the large Olympic-style entities, and the gamers end up subsidizing the revenues and profits of these entities by footing the bill for everything necessary to participate in such systems, such as travel and accomodations, with no assurances that they’ll ever break even.

Read the entire column at ESFI World.

ESL has released the third teaser trailer for their newest show on ESL TV, called RotterdaM University. The show will feature professional StarCraft 2 competitive player Kevin “RotterdaM” Van Der Kooi. He will be joined by ESL’s Michael “Carmac” Blicharz.

Carmac will be trailed by RotterdaM as he looks to improve his Starcraft 2 game, transitioning from bronze to silver. The viewers will be given tips, tricks and tid-bits to improve their own gameplay.

Earlier today, the Evil Genius organization have announced the acquisition of Benjamin ‘DeMusliM’ Baker, formerly of mTw. According to the EG press release, DeMusliM was bought out of his mTw contract, however the amount was not made available to the public.

Baker had the following to say to myEG.net via their press release:

I am thrilled to announce that henceforth I shall be playing under the prestigious Evil Geniuses banner. I would like to thank the mTw management team for all their support, encouragement, and their professional cooperation during my transfer. Also, I would like to wish my friends (ex-teammates) a very successful year unless of course they face me in upcoming tournaments!

DeMusliM will remain in Germany as he continues to compete in the ESL Pro Series. This signing brings the EG SC2 roster to:

Jacob ‘LzGaMeR’ Winstead
Kelby ‘iNkA’ Williams
Geoff ‘iNcontroL’ Robinson
Nick ‘Axslav’ Ranish
Bryce ‘Machine’ Bates
Chong ‘Strifecro’ Chu
Gregory ‘IdrA’ Fields
Manuel ‘Grubby’ Schenkhuizen
Benjamin ‘DeMusliM’ Baker

In an interview with ESFI World, Danny “zonic” Sorensen of Danish Counter-Strike team mTw speaks on his anticipation for the IEM V European Championship Finals, whichl takes place later this month in Kiev, Ukraine. Europe’s best teams will be in attendance, including Natus Vincere, who will be playing with a home field advantage.

I hope we and NaVi will play in the final [of IEM European Finals],” he said. “We want to win against NaVi, and to beat them in their own country would mean a lot to me.

Other topics include Sorensen’s thoughts on the string of roster changes that occurred within powerhouse teams Fnatic, SK Gaming and Lions last month, and how he thinks his team will hold up to them.

The complete interview can be read at ESFI World.

Late yesterday, the CSProMod development team announced via their website that CSProMod 1.05 is scheduled to be released January 31st, barring any setbacks during the internal beta. The newest version, which is quoted to include “100% more models,” in reference to the new, resized models developed for the game, is expected to be released exactly 1 year to the day from when 1.04 was released to an eager fanbase. Unfortunately for CSProMod, the once eager community has dwindled to only a handful as no official announcements, updates or development logs have been released in an extended period of time. With a successful release, this can change in a heartbeat, however.

Below is an excerpt from the official announcement:

Hey hey now, we hear you guys. We’ve heard you for quite a while now and I guess it’s now my turn to be on the disappointing side but I’m at least here to tell you two things.

First, we’ve been working on the next beta for a while now and we’re really close to where we want to be and yet not just quite there. That’s the bad news, CSPromod will not be released in 2010 unfortunately.

Second and that’s the good part, we’ve got a release date (again) for you guys. It’s quite fitting in a sense that it’ll be the same as last time, just in another year. There’s one little catch with this release date though. I know you guys have been patient and waiting for this new version for a long time and you might be a bit angry you’re not getting it just yet, well have no fear!

The thing with this release date is, if we’re done before the release date, we’ll release the beta earlier and announce it on the website. If we find ourselve with the beta finished and polished by the 15th, we’ll just tell you all about it and release it as soon as the files are up on our servers. That’s how it’s going to go.

Again, I’d like to say thank you to all of you for the support you’ve given us over the last few months and the kind words.

All of us here at the CSP Team would like to wish you a happy new year and all the best for the next year. Take care of yourselves and have fun, cheers!

The official announcement and more on CSProMod can be found by clicking here.

In an interview with ESFI World, Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen has revealed that he will continue to play WarCraft 3 tournaments alongside beginning his StarCraft 2 career in 2011.

So long as there are good WarCraft 3 tournaments around for me to participate in, I will play them with vigor and enthusiasm.

The interview comes a little more than a month before he makes his first major LAN tournament debut for StarCraft 2, when he competes in the Assembly Winter 2010 event in Finland.” For the first time in a while, Grubby won’t be a favorite heading into this tournament, as he has only recently started to play StarCraft 2 competitively.

Read the rest of the interview at ESFI World.

Two weeks ago, Mousesports announced the acquisition of Manuel “approx” Zeitz. With one spot left to fill, the organization today announced the signing of Thanh Vinh “ninja” Bui, formerly of TBH.ASUS.

Ninja will take on the roll of team leader as mousesports prepare for the IEM5 European Finals in Kiev on January 20th.

Mousesports 2011

Manuel “Tixo” Makohl
Roman “roman” Ausserdorfer
Manuel “approx” Zeitz
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
Thanh Vinh “ninja” Bu