Shashi “DetonatoR” Singh, the Esports Community Manager for S2, the creator of Heroes of Newerth, a science fantasy, action real-time strategy game, has been interviewed by Cadred.org. Shashi is the former Head of Staff at compLexity Gaming and has now made his way through the ranks at S2 to manage their competitive HoN scene.

An excerpt from the interview can be found below:

The game itself has one of the steepest learning curves of any title and its depth and complexity make it both suited for e-sports and casual play alike. S2 Games are aware of this and look to cater not only to the thousands of players who play the game simply for enjoyment but also look to make sure that those who wish to play the game at the highest level, with both prestige and prizes on the line, have a platform to do so. It’s a balancing act at times but anyone who has used the Heroes of Newerth interface and seen S2’s commitment to putting up prize money for tournaments around the world will be able to testify that they have delivered what both factions of the community want.

Tasked with care for the e-sports side of things is Shashi Singh, a name that probably won’t be immediately familiar to anyone but the most hardcore of e-sports historians. He currently operates as the e-sports community manager for S2 Games. This is no idle appointment either. Shashi has been involved with e-sports for years, starting as far back as twelve years old where he looked to cut his teeth as a staff writer with one of the biggest American brands in the industry, compLexity.

The full interview can be found by clicking here.

Yesterday, Dreamhack Summer 2011 concluded, with hundreds of matches being played over eight events. This year’s Dreamhack proved to be one of the most intense and exciting events in all of eSports.

Below is a breakdown of each game, with the winners for each.

Starcraft 2

1. HuK – $16,000
2. Moon – $8,000
3. Bomber – $4,000
4. July – $2,100

More Information

Counter-Strike 1.6

1. SK Gaming – €6,715 + hardware
2. mTw – €3,350 + hardware
3. Natus Vincere – €1,120
4. ESC Gaming
5/6. fnatic
5/6. Moscow Five

More Information

League of Legends

1. FnaticMsi
2. Against All Authority
3. Team Solomid (US)
4. Epik Gaming (US)
5. GameDe (German)

More Information

Quake Live

1. Cypher
2. Rapha
3. Cooler

More Information

Heroes of Newerth

1. Fnatic – $8800
2. Reason Gaming – $4800
3. TS Gaming – $2400

More Information

Blood Line Champions

1. orz – $6000
2. Pubic Transportation – $3000
3. SK Gaming – $1000

More Information

Street Fighter

1. Ryan Hart – $1900 + Products from Energizer and Madcatz
2. Chokolo – $800 + Products from Energizer and Madcatz
3. Yagami – $470 + Products from Energizer and Madcatz

More Information

compLexity Gaming:  YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!

This past weekend saw DreamHack Summer 2011, Sweden’s largest StarCraft II Tournament and LAN party. Progamers from around the globe gathered in Jönköping to try their luck at the 100000.0 SEK (~$15600 USD) prize pool. Almost everyone was betting on the Koreans to win, and with names like July, MC, Moon and Bomber there who could blame them. Shattering everyone’s predictions, it was Team Liquid’s Chris “HuK” Loranger who took home the prize money after beating Moon in the finals with a score of 3-2.

CompLexity’s own Darthozzan (on site working for DreamHack) was able to get a few minutes with the champion.

Congratulations to HuK who had a phenomenal run taking down players like PredY, Socke, July and ultimately Moon.

After yesterday’s post about the Top 10 SC2 Plays at MLG Columbus, the good folks over at MLG posted a nice little write up entitled “MLG Columbus StarCraft 2: The 10 Most Epic Games You Didn’t See.”

Counting down ten of the most ridiculous and creative plays at MLG Columbus that weren’t broadcasted on either of the two streams, the article features three of compLexity’s players. When checking out the article keep your eyes peeled for coL.FireZerg, coL.CrunCher, and coL.Destiny (ROOTDestiny at the time).

To give you an idea of what I mean when I say ridiculous and creative plays, here’s an excerpt describing FireZerg’s game vs. DREAM.Attero:

If someone had told Attero that his first game in Columbus was going to be a battle against mass Infestors and a grand total of 416 Infested Terrans (this is not a typo), he probably would have laughed—or run away. But that’s exactly what Complexity’s FireZerg brought to the table.

To read the full article click here.

Yesterday Major League Gaming released a StarCraft II highlight video from MLG Columbus. This top 10 countdown video features some absolutely mind boggling strategy and execution from players like MMA, IdrA, and Moon. If you missed out on MLG Columbus or are just feeling nostalgic for such an amazing event, do yourself a favor and check it out below.

Today IGN eSports announced that it will be broadcasting StarCraft II related content every weeknight. Dubbed IPL TV, the nightly show will include “never before seen games from the IGN Pro League Season 2 qualifiers, interviews with players and casters that are participating in the IPL, as well as video blogs from around the IGN eSports offices!”

Split into four categories, the content shown on IPL TV will include:

Match Videos

We will be opening each day with a brand new match from our qualifiers, cast by our in-house casters – CatsPajamas, HDStarCraft and/or PainUser!  We will also be closing out each day with a match that has already been uploaded to our site but we feel is really exciting and interesting.  All of these games feature players who are some of the top players in the world as they fought to qualify for IPL 2.

Inside IGN Vlogs

These are short pieces about the experiences of the cast and crew of IGN.  We focus on a different person each time and follow them around the office, checking out how they do what they do, and do a quick interview with them.  It’s basically a short glimpse into IGN eSports through different people.

Ask IGN eSports Anything

This is a show where we take any questions from users from facebook, twitter and email for the staff of IGN eSports.  We then do a show with our casters who will be responding to the questions and talking about things related to the discussion.

IPL Interviews

We recently had the opportunity to do a bunch of high production quality interviews with players and managers who participated in IPL 1 and who will be participating in IPL 2.  The interviews were conducted by our casters and they revolve around the player’s and manager’s impressions of the IPL, their reactions to IPL 1 and their hopes for IPL 2.

IPL TV kicks off tomorrow (June 15th) at 5:00 PM PDT, 7:00 PM CDT and 8:00 PM EDT. To check out the action, click here.

Today, Shawn “Sheth” Simon from FXOpen e-Sports will be streaming live to the community as he supports Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization who continues to actively provides health care and medical training to populations in about 70 countries world-wide.

Any funds raised from Sheth’s day of streaming will be donated to Doctor’s Without Borders, after the Team-Liquid community voted earlier today.

Baneling BBQ: Scanner Sweep

by Emil Erlandsson

Visit Baneling BBQ for more cartoons from Emil Erlandsson

The MLG-GSL partnership is turning out to be quite the success with Major League Gaming’s Columbus event absolutely destroying viewership records. Now let’s see how it will affect GOMTV’s Global StarCraft II League (GSL).

MLG has announced that Team Dignitas’ Johan “NaNiWa” Lucchesi and Mousesports’ Marcus “ThorZaIN” Eklöf will be heading to Korea via the League Exchange Program to compete in the GSL Code A August tournament. In addition to being there to participate in the individual event, they will also be participating in the August version of the GSTL. They will be teaming up with Korean pro team WeMadeFOX, which houses names such as former Warcraft III legends, Jang “Moon” Jae Ho and Park “Lyn” Joon to form “Team F.United”. There is also a third player heading to Korea, who will be announced soon. All three players will have all of their expenses covered by GOMTV / GSL.

Team F.United will be placed in the Thursday group of the GSTL August called the Jupiter League with top Korean teams: BoxeR’s SlayerS, GSTL May runner-up team MVP, MarineKing-led PRIME, Old Generations (oGs) – which houses players such as MC and NaDa – and Team SCV Life (TSL) – the team with the most GSL Code S players such as Trickster, Killer, Clide and FruitDealer. F.United’s first match is scheduled for Week 6 where they will face off against TSL.

GSTL August Format

• 12 teams participating in the league will be divided into two groups.
• The names of the groups are:
  • For the Thursday Group – Jupiter League
  • For the Friday Group – Venus League

  * In Korea, Thursday is called the day of Jupiter and Friday is called the day of Venus.

• Team F.United = WeMadeFOX + dignitas.NaNiwa + mouz.ThorZaIN
• Pennant Race: Bo7
• Play-offs : Bo9

MLG’s announcement can be seen HERE and GOMTV’s HERE.

This morning Major League Gaming announced that its MLG Columbus event “shattered previous MLG records” with more than 22.5 million stream viewers. To put this statistic in perspective, that is “nearly double the reported 11.4 million NFL.com video streams consumed during the weekend of the 2011 NFL Draft.”

In addition to the 22.5 million who watched the event from home, more than 16,000 eSports fans showed up in person to watch the event live. Out of those 16,000, 1,300 were actual competitors.

What’s exciting is that MLG Columbus was only the second stop on this year’s Pro Circuit season. There is still the events at Anaheim, CA (July 29-31), Raleigh, NC (August 26-28), Orlando, FL (October 14-16) and the national championship in Providence, RI (November 18-20) to look forward to. Hopefully this view count will continue to grow making 2011 the biggest year for North American eSports.

Source: MLG