Recently on ESFI, popular eSports journalist Chris Schetter released an editorial piece about the boom/bust of gaming. Schetter discusses the influx of tournaments and prizes being awarded for Starcraft II, as well as the need for an internal organization in gaming, similar to that of the PGA in golf.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

The notion that e-sports is a cyclical beast – that periods of rapid inflation and deflation are a given – seems to be one that’s widely held. Even the most starry-eyed optimist would have to admit that the pace of the current uptick in activity and attention around the scene can’t be sustained indefinitely.  In just three years time, the American scene went from its post-collapse emptiness to one that’s arguably too full; nearly a million dollars will be distributed to StarCraft players alone through a handful of different invitationals and prize circuits this year.

It’s too soon to address questions of whether the audiences around these competitions will grow in proportion to the money being dumped into them, or whether the return-on-investment can’t keep pace, and a contraction is in store for us in a year or two.  If the latter proves true, just as it had in 2008, it would seem to lend credence to gaming being cyclical.  However, an analysis that stops there would be incomplete, and would let gamers as a whole off the hook for allowing that to be the status quo.

Read the entire article on ESFI by clicking here.

Photos: MLG

This weekend the TeamLiquid StarLeague 3 is moving into its round of 16. In a recent poll on TeamLiquid.net, it was revealed that, for a large majority of the StarCraft II community, the TSL 3 is their first experience with the TSL. In hopes of educating the community and helping build some hype for the TSL3, long time community figure and shoutcaster Chill made a little video recapping the history of the TSL.

If you have some free time you should definitely check it out. When you’re done watching that, be sure to tune into the TSL3 round of 16 which starts at 2:00 PM EST today.

The team at WellPlayed.org has announced that it has partnered with the upcoming North American Star League as the League’s official online community.

As the North American Star League’s official community, WellPlayed.org will provide upcoming match information for the NASL on the community webpage (www.wellplayed.org) and maintain discussion forums regarding matches, players and all things related to the NASL.

According to NASL President Russell Pfister, “Partnering with WellPlayed.org was an easy decision for us. The team has an unmatched passion for eSports and what they have put together will be a great asset to the North American Star League Community.”

Derrick Asiedu (screen name “FearGorm”), CEO of WellPlayed.org, added “This is only the start of a promising partnership, and together we will grow and help bring StarCraft II into the mainstream.”

Be sure to check out WellPlayed.org to discuss the fast approaching (April 12) start to the NASL. While you’re there, be sure to show your support for coL.Stalife and coL.CunCher, as both will be playing in the NASL.

Today the Electronic Sports World Cup announced that it will be holding its yearly event in Paris for the eighth time. Unlike last year, which was held in Disney Land Paris, this ESWC will be held in Porte de Versailles. The reasoning behind the ESWC switching locations is so that they can be closer to the public, hence being held during Paris’ Games Week, a French show dedicated to the video game industry in France.

ESWC this year offers 6.000 m² of show space, qualification areas that have been optimized for the audience, an area dedicated to partners, and a stage with an amphitheatre that can hold up to 1.500 spectators.

Running from October 21st through the 25th, the ESWC will feature a total prize pool of $220,000, a massive increase from last year’s $6,500 purse. The main games featured this time around will include both Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source.

View Larger Map

Tonight marks the start of the “IG Faction Wars,” put on by the team at itsgosu.com. Featuring six StarCraft II teams personally invited by the IG crew, the Faction Wars will run from April 7th through June 9th, with the final championship tournament being played on June 18th for a grand prize of $500.

The format for each weekly event will require three players from three teams, which will then be split into three round-robin groups featuring one player from each team. Each team will participate in five of these events throughout the ten week “regular season,” and will play each other team at least once. Players in these groups will play each other once or, in the event of a tie, multiple times until a clear winner is determined. The winner of each group will then advance to a single elimination bracket. The player with the best overall record in the group stage will receive a “bye” to the finals, with the other two advancing players playing a best-of-five series. In the event that two or more players have identical group stage records, the points they have scored in previous events will be used as a tie-breaker, or, in the first week, ladder ranking will be used as a tie-breaker. The finals will be a best-of-seven series.

In tonight’s debut match, Antimage, rsvp and Cruncher will be carrying the compLexity flag into battle. It hasn’t been announced which team compLexity will be going up against, but as soon as we get word expect an update to this post.

The map pool will consists of:

Metalopolis
Xel’Naga Caverns
Shakuras Plateau
Tal’Darim Altar
Terminus RE
Crevasse
Crossfire SE

To check out tonight’s matches, head over to www.justin.tv/its_gosu at 7:00 PM EST.

For the full rules and scoring system, click here.

Tonight at 8:00 PM EST compLexity’s Ryze will be taking on NrGDde in a best of 7 showmatch hosted by RageQuitTV and Justin.TV. The prize pool consists of $50.

Ryze’s opponent, Dde is a solid Terran player from Sixjax_Gaming, the team that Artosis is now the captain of. Formally known as Tidy back in the Brood War days, Dde has shifted gears to StarCraft II and has established himself as a consistent player.

Ryze is no push over either. He’s a solid Zerg player who makes great decision in-game and knows how to fight back when he’s up against the ropes.

The map pool for tonight’s show match will consist of:

MLG Metalopolis
MLG Scrap Station
MLG Shakuras Plateau
MLG Shattered Temple
MLG Xel’Naga Caverns
MLG ICup Testbug
MLG GSL Crossfire SE
Tal’Darim Alter
Terminus Re

The format and rules:

Best of 7 series, map pool as seen below. Prior to the tournament each player will get the ability to veto a map. The starting map will be on MLG Metalopolis and if that gets veto’d it will move to Shattered Temple. If a disconnect occurs admins will make a decision if it is a regame or replay. If multiple disconnects occur or obvious ISP/B.Net issues arise both admins and players will be consulted to decide on how it will be handled. The winner will recieve $50 via paypal immediately after the event. The Map Pool is below and subject to change if there are any valid complaints; from either players or viewers.

To check out the action, tune into http://justin.tv/RageQuitTV.

FXOpen e-Sports announced the FXOpen Invitational Series #3 with $1500 on the line.  The tournament will be a three-day, 64 player invitational/qualification event with a $1500 prizepool, distributed 900/400/200. The 64 players will compete in a best-of-three double elimination competition.

The Invited Players

dignitas.SeleCT
FXOpTiKzErO
EGAxslav
fnaticMSI.Fenix
VTPokebunny
WE.GIGABYTE.SuperPrime
WE.GIGABYTE.LonerPrime
WE.GIGABYTE.LoveTT
WE.GIGABYTE.LuffyPrime
coL.CrunCher
REQDarkCell
ROOTKitty
sixjax_dde
ONEKyhol
dignitas.KiLLeR
CN!MoMaN
iM`YoonYJ

List will be updated with the rest of players when they’re announced

Schedule

Day 1
Saturday, Apr 23 7:00pm CDT (GMT-05:00)
UB Rounds 1-3
LB Rounds 1-4

Day 2
Friday, Apr 29 7:00pm CDT (GMT-05:00)
UB Round 4 and 5
LB Rounds 5-8

Day 3
Saturday, Apr 30 7:00pm CDT (GMT-05:00)
UB Final
LB Round 9 and LB Final
Grand Final

Streams

English Cast

German Cast

Russian Cast

Chinese Cast

Prizes

1st – $900
2nd – $400
3rd – $200

Prizes are in Australian Dollars ($AUD) which are roughly equivalent to US$

In addition to cash prizes, players who participate in our invitational series will accrue ladder points directly towards invites for future LAN events with much bigger prizepools.

FXOpen is a forex trading company seeking to get more involved in the game they are passionate about – StarCraft 2. FXOpen currently sponsors MMA, drift car series and various other sporting events.

FXOpen

Despite being April, The Electronic Sports League is holding it’s March Monthly Finals tonight at 7:00 PM EST.

For those of you who may not know what the ESL Monthly Finals are, each month the top 8 players (determined by cup points earned in the Go4SC2 cups) get a chance to duke it out in a single elimination tournament for $200 in prize money. They’re not alone, however. Anyone who is a Premium member of the ESL is allowed to register and participate.

The top 8 players participating in this the March Finals are:
1. MoMaN
2. LaCuS
3. Rookie
4. Future
5. Pheo
6. coL.Ryze
7. Attero
8. LoWJimRiSiNg

The map pool consists of: CrossFire, GSL Crevasse, GSL Terminus, RE Metalopolis, Scrap Station, Shakuras Plateau, Shattered Temple and Xel Naga Caverns.

Coverage of the games will be provided by Hakumei.TV.

Round 3

Score	1	2	3	F
coL.Ryze	0	0	–	0
Attero	0	0	–	2

Round 2

Score	1	2	3	F
coL.Ryze	0	0	–	2
ccJroy	0	0	–	1

Round 1

Score	1	2	3	F
coL.Ryze	1	1	–	2
coL.Stalife	0	0	–	0

A few days ago I made a post about how the team behind Reddit’s SCReddit tournaments was moving on to bigger and better things. Last night that team finally announced what they’ve been up to. Working under the new name of “WellPlayed,” the former SCReddit crew has designed a new website with the mission statement of “To be the world’s most foremost producers of eSports coverage and events, and through our passion expand the presence of eSports into every household in the world.”

With that said, as friendly and welcoming as the StarCraft community is, for an outsider it can be quite daunting to get into. There are many, many great casters and tournaments that do not get noticed – not because their content isn’t as good, but because the discovery process is undeveloped. This worked fine when the community was small and more streamlined, as during the Brood War days. Now with hundreds (and soon thousands) of tournaments, showmatches, episodic content, live streams, podcasts and more, the barrier to entry for a new fan has to be non-existent. Right now there is a wall that you have to bust through. We’re here to put up a welcome mat.

In the future, there is no question that we will be partnering with other organizations to bring you great tournaments, leagues, and showmatches, and we will also be doing the same independently, just as we did with the SCRI. But before we did that, we wanted to put our talent and skills into helping grow this community, for the benefit of everyone. The goal of WellPlayed is not to take traffic from one place or another – it is to build a giant bridge to the island of passion and excitement we all live on so a lot more people can come join us.

Basically combining Reddit.com with TeamLiquid.net, eSports fans are able to find news, strategies, live streams, etc. all in one place and have the power to “up vote” or “down vote” each post so that only the best information is at the top.

Along with the announcement of the WellPlayed.org site launching, it was also noted that WellPlayed will be providing the coverage for the newly announced IGN Pro League.

Today, after a long series of hints and clues, games industry giant IGN officially announced its StarCraft II Pro League Tournament.

According to the website:

IGN Entertainment and its eSports division is excited to announce the IGN Pro League! The first season of the IPL is an invitational tournament to showcase what we can provide to you, the viewer, as well as serving as a test run for us for all of our new production and operations mechanisms. 16 players representing 9 different North American based clans will be competing for a prize pool of $5,000 and 4 automatic qualifier spots for IPL Season 2!

The goal of the IPL is to bring a professional, polished viewing experience to fans of eSports, as well as supporting the development of eSports both nationally and internationally through a sustainable tournament system that rewards those who play in it.

The players who are participating include: ROOTCatZ, FnaticMSITTI, SeleCT, FXOSheth, ROOTKiwikaki, VTSpades, EGIdrA, ROOTMinigun, ROOTdrewbie, EGMachine, LGAgh, FnaticFenix, sixjaxViBE, EGiNcontroL, EGAxslav and CompLexity’s own stalife.

Commentary will be provided by DJ Wheat, Total Biscuit HDStarcraft and LGPainUser.

Be sure to checkout http://www.ign.com/ipl/ on April 21st when the tournament kicks off.

To check out the format, complete schedule, bracket seeding and FAQ click here.