Some stories and reports have popped up listing that the roster under the wNv organization is no more.

After attending the World eSports Masters, wNv.cn’s contracts had expired. Many believe that their winless performance at WEM, as well as their lackluster results before that might be cause for the organization to seek new talent elsewhere and avoid renewing the former roster.

While it’s been noted elsewhere that nothing has been made official by wNv just yet, there are a few sources that have suggested that the situation is still murky at best, and that the roster has indeed left the organization.

Stay tuned for more information on this story as it develops.

The wNv.cn roster is/was as follows:

Jiang “Virgo” Qian
Bin “Savage” Liu
Yi “zy” Zhou
Biaohong “rita” Huang
Yunlong “BB” Wang

With Christmas less than one week away, I decided to take a look around the internet, on some forums and IRC to see what some gamers are hoping to score via Santa’s big red bag. From games, to gear and to some novelty items, there are a few things to look at in this series.

Samsung 2233RZ

Making waves as one of the first 120hz LCDs on the market, many gamers have already embraced this monitor before the gift-giving season. The common theme among reviews of the monitor, is that any detractions from this monitor are more than made up for with having the performance that those of us still sporting CRTs are used to.

The other more interesting aspect to this monitor that accompanies the 120hz, is the potential for 3D-gaming. Already compatible with a lot of games, many users have been surprised just how well it has worked early in its life. At last count that I heard of, they were up to 350 compatible games.

If the 3D capabilities aren’t to your liking, or you’re just not interested in the extra cash that it takes, the 120hz performance of this monitor should be more than enough for the veteran gamer to want it.

Ultimate Gaming Chair

With this California-based company, the folks at Ultimate Gaming Chair Inc. have a few products for gamers to give them an immersive experience.

The first is the Free Play Game Pad, which acts as a portable option, for use with your existing PC chair or wherever you happen to place it. It features two headrest-mounted stereo speakers for your gaming and movie-watching pleasure. It also includes give “Game Sync’d” vibration motors that react to the action.

The other popular option is the v3 Recliners that they offer. As with the Free Play, this leather chair includes the headrest mounted speakers, but instead of five, includes 12 vibration motors. As guessed from the name, it also acts as a recliner, which makes it perfect for tossing in your living room or dorm room to utilize.

Both chairs are compatible with the Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PC, Mac, Wii, iPod and your home theater system.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Having already made a record-breaking release, Modern Warfare 2 still tops many gamers list across the platforms it is available on. The Infinity Ward-developed game is the sixth installment in the series and has received plenty of excellent reviews.

While one highly-contested issue with the game is the lack of dedicated servers for multi-player play, that hasn’t stopped it from being immensely popular, and a gripping visual and tactical experience in gaming.

Most gift givers would do well to add this title to any gamer’s growing collection.

Tony Hawk Ride

In the current age of motion-sensing devices in the portable and gaming world, it probably comes as little surprise with this latest release in Tony Hawk’s branding arsenal.

Available on all console gaming platforms, Ride takes the skateboarding genre to a new level with a full-size skateboard-like controller, complete with sensors for a completely new gaming experience. Being able to perform ollies, grinds, manuals and the variety of flip tricks in a fairly intuitive manner has given new life to the skateboarding series.

For fans of the extreme sporting world, as well as current and past skateboarders, this makes an excellent and sought after gift.

The countdown is on with essentially six days until Christmas, and I might release more parts. Don’t see one of your wishlist items in here? Or know something that would make a great gift for your fellow gamers? Send me a message!

Having already gone through a week of action in Hangzhou, China, some of the top teams in the world have completed the group stages and have now moved on to the bracket stage.

As with starting out with two groups, WEM has gone with a crossover, whereby the higher seed of the first group faces off against the lower seed in the second group.

Final Standings

---

   1. Fnatic – $22,500
   2.  Power Gaming – $7,500
3-4.  AGAiN – $5,000
3-4.  TyLoo – $5,000
5-8. TitaNs – $1,500
5-8. MeetYourMakers – $1,500
5-8. wNv – $1,500
5-8. WeMade FOX – $1,500

Grand Finals

Score	1	2	3	F
Fnatic	16	16	–	2
Power Gaming	7	10	–	–

Semi-Finals

Score	1	2	3	F
Fnatic	16	16	–	2
AGAiN	12	8	–	–

Score	1	2	3	F
TyLoo	6	11	–	–
Power Gaming	16	16	–	2

Yiska’s Day 2 WoW Breakdown

I would love to tell you that the WoW matches in Edmonton have been amazing and they probably were, but unfortunately the viewers have been able to watch a grand total of two games so far this event. The reason for this is the new patch that also rendered the spectator client useless and thus a work around was found after the games on late Friday. On Saturday, the hosts over at ESL TV accidently opened a file with the account name of their spectator accounts given to them by Blizzard and of course the trolls of the internet were quick on logging in. Fortunately one nice guy was pretty quick as well, as he logged into the account changed the password and gave it to James and so we were able to see at least the second match of the double elimination bracket. Let’s pick up on a few results of the group play, shall we?

The tournament started out with already a jaw dropping first result. The just formed SK.US consisting of the veterans Realz, Glick and Kollektiv managed to Check6 and their notorious Beast Cleave by thinking outside the box. The team decided to go as Metamorphosis Warlock to avoid having their Warlock trained the entire game. It worked out quite well and SK.US took the series 3-1.

SK.US overall didn’t have such an easy ride though as not only they lost one game against the local team of „From Quitters to winners“ but also were down 0-2 against Loaded.WoW while playing Shadowcomp (ShadowPriest/AfflictionWarlock/Shaman). With a score of 0-3 or 1-3 the team would’ve not made it into the top 4 which also means missing out on a safe qualifying spot for the World Finals at Cebit in Hannover. They decided to go back to their bread and butter comp RLS and managed to win two more games placing them on top of the group.

The other team that managed to qualify for the final four in Group A was as expected Check6 by winning against both Loaded and „From quitters to winners.“ Loaded did fairly well for their first offline appearance and almost qualified for the World finals.

Group B only had three teams and one of them was our very own team . With two out of three teams qualifying for the World Finals in this group the challenged sounded easy on paper. Unfortunately the RMP wasn’t able to attend with their Priest Sodah and so Vrty had to step in. What else to say than shit hit the fan and they lost both games 0-3 to Evil Geniuses and Fnatic. RMP is a very training intensive line up and you it’s almost impossible to create synergy with little practice before the tournament.

The group had been delayed because EG Tenderloin’s plane had to emergency land which resulted in the following problem.  As both Evil Geniuses and Fnatic were up 1-0 the face off between those should determine who’s going to face the team of Check6 which placed 2nd in their group. Both teams weren’t too excited about meeting them up to a point that EG wanted to forfeit so they wouldn’t have to face Check6 in the first round of the double elimination bracket. ESL admins decided that who ever wins the match of these two teams can choose who they are going to play against and Fnatic took the series 3-0.

In the first match of the double elim. SK.US managed to beat Fnatic in a mirror match, a result that not many predicted. Fnatic has been the epitome of a skilled RLS for some time now and for a team that many people called washed up has beens to beat this monster of an RLS is indeed quite impressive.

The first match being broadcasted from Edmonton, EG was correct in their prediction that they would have a hard time against the Beast Cleave of Check6.  The matches weren’t too one-sided though and at least once a game one member of Check6 went quite low and it could’ve gone either way. EG lost the series 3-1 and will have to face off Fnatic in the loser bracket finals today.

SK.US already proved that they can beat Check6 and one can only hope that Check6 talked it over and can improve their play against SK.US to make it an exciting upper bracket final. This tournament should better have an intense final stage as it’s already undeniably a disaster.

Yiska’s WoW Predictions – Day One

by Sascha “Yiska” Heinisch

The first day of the WoW tournament at the Edmonton hall, the biggest hall in North America and the 4th biggest in the World, is about to kick off. As temperatures are said to be freezing cold outside, we hope to see some hot action inside. This tournament is not only incredibly hard to predict because of recent team changes or the lack of knowledge about the two unknown teams, but also because 3.3 hit the servers just a couple of days ago. While some comps surely are better now than they used to (RLS comes to my mind) it’s still questionable if teams are able to compitalize on their new gained advantage. Let’s take a look at the teams:

SK.US – Realz, , Glick, Kollektive (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman)

This newly formed team is really unpredictable. Looking at the names, you have probably got the most veteran players there are in North America. Glick had great times with his WLD in TBC, so did Kollektiv have with his RLS and Realz with his RMP. The question for me is, can Realz really compete with the top Rogues in the North American community at the moment? If he can, we got a team here that can win it all. With the recent changes to RLS the comp might be able to beat the comp that has always held them back: RMP.

Prediction: They will qualify for the world finals and will most likely land between 2-4.

Evil Geniuses – Pookz, Tenderloin, Azael (Mage/Shaman/Warlock)

EG and SK exhanged players and the well known Mage Pookz is now among the ranks of EG. They are playing a never to be seen comp at a tournament level  MLS  also known as Wizard cleave.  If they are happy about 3.3? They probably don’t know themselves. Destruction Warlocks took a serious hit but at the same time Will of the Forsaken got nerfed which should be pretty huge for that team. Also it remains to be seen how well they can do against Beast cleave in Season 5 gear.

Prediction: Probably in the top 4 but I don’t see the comp going all the way.

Fnatic – Woundman, Yog, Douja (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman)

The former epitome of a skilled RLS didn’t really impress in Anaheim and they even lost a mirror to Azael who played RLS with Smatin back then as well. Some people argued that Douja is just not on the level of Kollektiv or Tenderloin.  They were also rumored to lack drive up to a point where they would even break up. Maybe with the new strength of RLS, they can trust in their ability again. Many pros argue that RLS might become the new RMP (a tournament winning comp) and these guys are among the best in the world with this comp. If they are able to motivate themselves and trained enough they can definitely make it to the ESL World Finals at Cebit, Hannover

Prediction: They seem pretty comfortable with the 4th place as they got it in Dallas which would also be enough to qualify for the next round.

Check6 – Twixz, Flexx, Toes (Hunter/Enhancement Shaman/Holypaladin)

This team is a living legend and as they invented their own comp which they are notorious for: Beast Cleave. This is not going to change in Edmonton as I fully expect the team to stick to their guns.  The comp only changed slightly with 3.3 with Paladins new Divine Sacrifice but I doubt this will be a big of a deal. As they didn’t have a class being able to run Undead, the WotF nerf doesn’t concern them as well. One thing that could become scary for them though is RLS. On live servers most top RLS teams were already a threat to Beast Cleave and they came pretty close to beating them at MLG Anaheim. Now with the increased damage output of Warlocks with Haste Corruption which of course benefits  from Heroism/Bloodlust and the changes to Rogues who can now run Evenom specc or even Hunger for Blood, RLS could be a real threat for this team. At the same time, I think that Check6 is fully aware of this weekness and might already have something up their sleeve.

Prediction: Top 4, everything between 1-4 is possible.

Loaded. WoW –  Ayume, Lipstick, Rgostic (Rogue/Mage/Priest) 

This team will be fighting their first offline tournament. Rgostic was the priest of Tenderloin at Regionals who decided to not show up despite all expenses being covered without telling his team anything. Therefore we can assume that there is still some bad mojo flowing between the two and their Game against EG will be exciting to watch and to listen to. RMP took a hit in 3.3, there is no question about it but I doubt it is up to a point where it’s not competitive anymore.  Infact, the comp is still able to go all the way if played correctly. With Lan jitters and the psychological disadvantage of playing a nerfed comp it should be hard for these guys to get into the top 4. That said, they have really nothing to lose as nobody expects anything from them.

Prediction:  Most likely directly behind the top teams 5th or 6th.

CompLexity – Rec kful, Venruki, Verty 

Unfortunately Sodah wasn’t able to attend the tournament because of finals coming up for him this weekend. As RMP is probably one of the comps most in need of practice, this is not a good situation to be in. Verty is said to be an outstanding Priest, but forcing the synergy in a couple of days of practice seems a tough challenge.  The other two have played a ton on live servers and they should be prepared though. The appearance of Button Bashers at MLG Anaheim really seemed to motivate those guys and we can only hope for the best. It would be a disappointement to see the ESL World Finals with our very own team, but at the same time we understand that Sodah has to priortize school  over the game.  It would be scary if it was the other way around.

Prediction: Hopefully top 4 and if they can beat at least one of the RLS consistently it’s entirely possible.

ESL has announced the World Of Warcraft groups for the American Championship, which will get under way tomorrow. The tournament will consist of two groups of four with the top two teams from each group advancing to the playoffs.

If you are in the area make sure to get over to the West Edmonton Mall and if you can not make it, you can watch live on ESL TV.

Group A	W	L	T	P
CheckSix Gaming	0	0	0	0
SK.USA	0	0	0	0
Loaded.WoW	0	0	0	0
TBD	0	0	0	0

Group B	W	L	T	P
coL.WoW	0	0	0	0
Fnatic.WoW	0	0	0	0
Evil Geniuses	0	0	0	0
TBD	0	0	0	0

The ESL American Championship are being held this weekend in Edmonton, Canada. So far there are six confirmed teams, with two additonal spots still up for grabs.

Both SK-Gaming.USA and EG.WoW have made changes to their lineup’s. Tim ‘kollektiv’ Yen was traded to SK for Marc ‘Pookz” Rendon. This is the second roster change for EG in the last two events; in Anaheim they used Smatin.

SK.USA got off to an amazing start in 2009. They were able to win MLG Columbus and then the American Regional Finals. After not making top 4 in Dallas the team chemistery quickly went down hill. At MLG Anaheim, they finished in last place, going 1-6.

SK.USA is also welcoming Alexander ‘Glickz’ Hloderwski, who is known for his days with fnatic.

We’re extremely pleased to be able to welcome Pookz into the EG family. He has proven himself extensively with SK US in the past months, and we feel he’ll bring the same skill and desire to win here to EG. Although we haven’t had much time to practice, we’re meshing extremely well and are definitely looking forward to competing at ESL Edmonton.” Azael, myeg.net

First of all I must say that it is quite sad to see our old team disband. Pookz, Realz and Enforcer landed a great comeback in 2009 by winning their first MLG event and also managed to take home gold at the Blizzard Regional Finals of North America. Sadly their streak came to an end which slowly led to the circumstance that the chemistry within the team started to rumble. SK Gaming wants to thank the old team for the awesome time and wishes Pookz and Enforcer good luck for their future teams. Simultaneously SK Gaming can welcome two new faces to the team. Realz will be continuing as the team captain with former EG kollektiv and fnatic Glickz completing the lineup of three. Their first appearance will be this weekend in Edmonton. Timothy Elleresiek, SK Manager; SK-gaming.com

SK.USA WoW is now:

Ryan ‘Realz’ Masterso
Alexander ‘Glickz’ Hloderwski
Tim ‘Kollektiv’ Yen

EG.WoW is now:

Isaac ‘Azael’ Cummings-Bentley
Mark ‘Pookz’ Rendon
Charles ‘Tenderloin’ Dewland

Sources:
SK-Gaming
myEG

With the new year rolling around, many CS teams have decided to make changes in their roster, including Loaded.  The team has announced that both Matt “Lim” Beahan, and Michael “chE” Guevara are no longer a part of their Counter-Strike 1.6 lineup.  chE has decided to focus more on work and is now retired from Counter-Strike, while Lim on the other hand may be looking for a future team.  Also David “Zid” Chin has decided to go inactive and focus solely on attending school.

With the loss of three players, brings the addition of three new players to the Loaded.CS Lineup, including Scott “Evolution” Cavallero, David “Savior” Park, and Liridon “Quas” Ademaj.  These players are seasoned veterans to the 1.6 scene, as recently, Evolution was realeased from Team Turmoil, and both Savior and Quas have played for many well known teams.

Loaded.CS Roster: 

Scott “Evolution” Cavallerro
David “Savior” Park
Liridon “Quas” Ademaj
Nazar “nAZ_Lg” Vynnytsky
Ric “iNERTiA” Bundy

David “Zid” Chin (Inactive)

Pandemic has been without a Counter-Strike 1.6 team for some time, essentially since the fall of the CGS. As other players made their returns to the game, and other organizations materialized, many wondered when and if a Pandemic team would ever grace an HLTV again.

Now, team Pandemic has returned to the Counter-Strike 1.6 scene, by picking up some very well known players. They have the following roster:

Mason “mason” Dickens
Mikey “Method” So
Travis “tuBBy” Bechtol
Alex “millipede” Abbott
Dustin “dizzaman” Dilyerd

An excerpt from the Pandemic news release:

Pandemic.CS will be competing in ESEA-I and CEVO-P, the country’s two most prominent online leagues, and plans to attend all major American LANs and world championship qualifiers. Their season begins tomorrow night, December 9th, against MoB Gaming.

Early this morning ESL announced the six confirmed World Of Warcraft teams for the American Championship. Eight teams will be competing in two groups of four. ESL will not be drawing the groups until all eight slots are filled.

ESL is allowing two teams to apply for the final two spots. If you are accepted you will receive $750 travel-support and will win at least $350 in prize money. If you would like to apply, head on over to the ESL website.

Participants:

coL.WoW
SK.USA
Evil Geniuses
Loaded.WoW
Fnatic.WoW
CheckSix Gaming
TBD
TBD