FXO, the organization behind the FXOpen Tournament series, has made several announcement via a post on TeamLiquid.net, showcasing their plans for the future which include an e-Sports TV platform, the FXOpen e-Sports tournament Ladder, which will feature a prize purse greater to that of the GSL, as well as the announcement that they have found the FXOpen e-Sports tournament Ladder where their players will live and practice.

Below is an excerpt from the original post:

After the success of our past events and the establishment of the FXOpen Invitational Series we are proud to make the following announcements.

• FXOpen e-Sports has begun programming for an e-Sports TV platform. The platform will feature all FXOpen events, as well as various talk shows and other productions. It will also enable other tournament organisers to stream via a stable, high technology, platform without the hassle of web based streaming.

   

• FXOpen e-Sports tournament Ladder is now released. The ladder will be used for us to gauge which players will get an invite to our tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We have not released the prize money as yet, but it will be that of GSL or higher (sponsorships are already incoming so we will make a further announcement). We are looking at hosting this tournament around October-November. See an explanation of how the ladder will work in the spoiler below.

   

• FXOpen e-Sports new events. Weekly KOTH (including Korean players), the KOTH events allow players to gain points towards the FXOpen e-Sports tournament ladder as well as other prizes.

   

• FXOpen Invitational, Destination Korea Tournaments. In order to get some of the best names outside of Korea, to Korea, we will be hosting tournaments in which the first prize is a plane ticket to Korea. These tournaments will NOT have Korean players involved. *NOTE* This prize will only be a plane ticket, players with no intention on making it to korea will be requested to refuse their invitation. We will be taking PM’s for people who are interested in these tournaments soon when we announce the first one.

   

• FXOpen e-Sports TEAM HOUSE. We have found a property, its already owned by our company. It’s a large house just outside of Kuala Lumpur. It is the complete opposite of a Korean team house and is a more comfortable environment. We are now waiting for the occupants to move to their new place in the next 12 months (FXOMonarch is currently occupying it). If something changes in the company, this may change.

   

• FXOpen e-Sports studio, Kuala Lumpur. We are currently in the process of creating a gaming studio. We will test this with our technology and smaller local events before we run our larger globally broadcast event. We expect to have this completed by June.

   

The complete post and further details can be found by clicking here.

MLG announced the StarCraft 2 competition format changes for the 2011 season. The format is roughly the same as the format MLG released for Halo: Reach. The only major difference is that in Starcraft 2, best of three matchups will be played throughout the entire season, where in Halo: Reach, the format changes to best of five in the championship bracket. Because of the new format, placement rounds are no longer needed for StarCraft 2.

Pool Play

The Top 16 ranked teams in Halo: Reach and the Top 16 ranked players in StarCraft 2 heading into each Live Competition will be divided into four pools of five teams/players each. The fifth team/player in each pool will be derived from the four teams/players that emerge from the Open Bracket undefeated. The Open Bracket format has not changed from the 2010 Season. It is still a double-elimination, best-of-three bracket.

Pool Play will begin on the Friday of each Pro Circuit Live Competition weekend, with the Top 16 teams/players playing every other team/player in their pool in a best-of-five series. After Open Bracket play is complete and the undefeated competitors become the fifth team/player in each pool, they will then run the gauntlet, playing each team/player in the pool based on the current pool standings, beginning with the 4th Place team/player and ending with the 1st Place team/player.

The results of Pool Play will dictate where each team/player is placed in the Championship Bracket.

Pool Play Results

• 1st Place – Winners Bracket Semi-Finals
• 2nd Place – Losers Bracket Round 6
• 3rd Place – Losers Bracket Round 5
• 4th Place – Losers Bracket Round 4
• 5th Place – Losers Bracket Round 3

MLG Pro Circuit

To check out a sample bracket using this format click here

To check out the full article about the changes, click here

In a post on Team Liquid’s forums, user Milkis brings up several issues, originating from an article on ThisIsGame, which may lead to Blizzard games being excluded from the World Cyber Games for the 2011 events in Korea. Growing problems between Samsung Electronics and Blizzard have led to Samsung calling for the exclusion of any Blizzard game by WCG. WCG is now torn between its primary sponsor in Samsung Electronics and the competition and success of Blizzard’s games.

Below is the post on TeamLiquid.net:

The possibilities of Starcraft and Warcraft 3 being excluded from WCG 2011 has been brought up recently.

Although four months has passed since the Grand Finals of WCG 2010 that took place in LA, there hasn’t been any official statements regarding the place it will be held on[T/N: It’s to be held in Korea, according to Fomos, but city hasn’t been decided] nor the official events.

During all of this, there has been strong possibilities of Blizzard games being excluded as an official event. The source of the problem has to do with the Starcraft Brood War IP rights conflict.

This is because Samsung Electronics, a member on KeSPA and WCG’s official partner, is strongly against Blizzard games being recognized as official events in the WCG. According to an industry insider, Samsung Electronics has explicitly ordered WCG to exclude Blizzard games from official events.

But WCG disagreed, claiming that it will have trouble promoting the event and getting other partners if Blizzard games are excluded. To this, Samsung Electronics responded by saying “Go and get money from Blizzard, and all other game companies, the fees needed to run the events and fees for choosing their game [T/N: or “fees associated with choosing their game”].

Thus, WCG has been conflicted whether to include Starcraft, Warcraft 3, and even Starcraft 2 as an official event.

There is also another obstacle WCG needs to handle before being able to choose Blizzard games as official events. This is because WCG’s main broadcasting station, OnGameNet, is currently being sued by Blizzard for issues related to Intellectual Property.

There are many perspectives that note that even if WCG includes Starcraft, Starcraft 2, and Warcraft 3 as official events, as long as the intellectual property rights conflict is not resolved, it will be impossible for OGN to broadcast these games.

An insider familiar with the situation has noted that “WCG does not wish to exclude Blizzard games as official events. But because broadcasting it will be impossible and cooperation with networked organizations is very difficult, it will be difficult to even send out Korean representatives”

Continuing, he added that “They are currently considering including Blizzard Games as an official event under the condition that they do not broadcast the games within Korea and Korean representatives are not playing in the WCG”.

WCG will soon release information regarding the official events of the WCG 2011 Grand Final

TeamLiquid.net

More information about the situation can be found by clicking here. For the original article on ThisIsGame in Korean, click here.

Earlier today, the CSProMod team released version 1.06’s changelog. The official build release will happen later in the week, however the changelog will provide users with the information they need to know before they continue to play-test the game.

General

• Cheat-flagged mat_diffuse, mat_crosshair_explorer, mat_showlowresimage, mat_drawtexture and mat_showlightmappage
• Made the T player model as thick as the CT one
• Lowered grenade throwing height by 7 units
• Tweaked the T player model head to be more square-like

Mapping

csp_dust2

• Added 1.6-style arches
• Added the missing spam spot at the B bombsite
• Added a playerclip on top of the catwalk double crates
• Added playerclips in front of the mid windows
• Fixed a few graphical glitches
• Fixed the T spawn wall height to allow middle peek to match 1.6
• Fixed the T spawn displacement that allowed you to jump on top of the crates and peek cat from this spot
• Fixed the long A displacement that allowed you to jump directly on top of the crate without any boost
• Fixed the A bombsite crate size (the one in the corner) to match 1.6
• Fixed not being able to plant on top of the A bombsite crates
• Fixed the B displacement that allowed you to jump directly on top of the small wall
• Tweaked the B window to only have a partial view of the B tunnels entry
• Tweaked long A door and added a player clip in front of it so it doesn’t get in the way of players anymore
• Tweaked B tunnels lighting to make them a bit brighter

csp_lite

• Added 20 spawns on each team for public servers

de_train

• Added 20 spawns on each team for public servers

Bug Fixes

• Fixed in-air multi-ducking prohibition kicking in on ladders
• Fixed issue where players would spawn in the middle of a map
• Fixed possible net settings related crashes
• Fixed out-of-the-box VALVe SDK physics crashes
• Fixed player occupying the last slot in the server not showing up on the scoreboard
• Fixed some typos in the main localization template (English)

Tweaks/Minor Changes

• Added cl_aternate_flash for testing with ATI and Nvidia cards
• Fixed in-game name being reset to Steam Friend name (and added “setname” ConCommand)
• Optimized a small portion of the net_graph code
• Improved some proportionality handling with screen panels

More information regarding the changelog and the upcoming release can be found by clicking here.

Several weeks ago, We Made Fox announced that they would no longer be supporting their CS 1.6 team, formerly project_kr. The announcement left project_kr without a home and it was undetermined where they would end up, thoguh several European organizations showed possible interest in the team.

Today, the team has announced that they would be partnering with redCode, a Spanish based organization. With this partnership, project_kr will now be able to attend the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship which begins on Tuesday.

redCode Counter-Strike 1.6 is now:

Geun Chul “solo” Kang
Min Soo “glow” Kim
Young Mo “enemy” Ahn
Sung Jae “bail” Lee
Bum Gi “peri” Jung

redCode.kr will take on SK-Gaming in their first match for IEM5 on Tuesday, March 1st.

The Electronics Sports World Cup has announced the first set of games for ESWC 2011, with both Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source making the list. CS 1.6 will be available in both male and female tournaments, as usual, however this year the event has decided to support Counter-Strike: Source in a single tournament as well.

The official ESWC 2011 First Person Shooter games per team are the following:

• Counter-Strike 1.6 – 5v5 (Valve)
• Counter-Strike 1.6 Women – 5v5 (Valve)
• Counter-Strike: Source – 5v5 (Valve)

In addition to the traditional 1.6 version, ESWC has decided this year to open its doors to the most recent version, Counter-Strike: Source. Since Source has an increasingly active community, Games-Solution aims to satisfy the expectations of both players and spectators and maintain its level of excellence in the world of competitive gaming.

More games on PC and console – played individually and in teams – will be announced soon.

The ESWC 2011 Grand Final will take place in France this autumn. A total of $220.000 will be awarded in prizes.

ESWC.com

The ESWC 2011 Grand Final will take place in France during the fall with $220,000 up for grabs. More information about the event can be found by clicking here.

In April of last year, MYM (Meet Your Makers) picked up a Starcraft2 division including names like Ben “DeMusliM” Baker and Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski. Over time, Artosis made a name for himself in the GSL (Global Starcraft2 League) in Seoul.

Artosis is known primarily for his casting abilities, however he is also a very active player in the SC2 servers, playing many ladder games when he is not found at the GSL studios. However, Artosis has parted ways with MYM, saying this on his Twitter:

There aren’t many details regarding this departure at this time, however as soon as more are learned, the details will be provided.

Spanish SC2 player Pedro “LucifroN” Moreno Duran has left Fnatic for a Spanish team named Aprender. Lucifron joins two other Spanish players, MikoeL and Nara. Departing a team with strong financial backing and marketing power, he leaves behind Fnatic’s roster with names like SEn, Fenix, TT1, KawaiiRice, Gretorp and lefnaij.

LucifroN made his name in Warcraft3, with a fast rise to the top level. As a Human player, he was very successful in major tournaments including BlizzCon 2008, ESWC Cheonan and World Cyber Games Finals in 2008, and much more.

LucifroN was quoted saying:

Today I join the best national StarCraft 2 team. I’ll represent the club in online tournaments and LANS, especially at the national level, which for me, is what really matters.

I will work in everything we can to make this club even bigger and a standard for StarCraft 2 in our country. Thank you for trusting me APSC2.

Source: Aprender via ESFI

The official schedule for CS 1.6 at the IEM5 World Championship has been released and close to one week has been devoted to match completion, which is a far cry from the tournaments that were played out in one or two days over a weekend.

Scheduled to play on the second day of action is CompLexity Brazil who will take on the likes of mTw, TCM-Gaming, UMX, Frag eX and the Moscow Five. Matches on Tuesday are set to begin at 09:10 CET, which would be an early morning, or late night, for American fans (3:30AM EST).

The official schedule was released by HLTV.org via their website. All times are in CET.

Tuesday March 1

09:10 – Na´Vi vs Evil Geniuses (ESL TV)
09:10 – fnatic vs Lions
09:10 – SK Gaming vs project_kr

11:10 – Na´Vi vs Lions
11:10 – fnatic vs SK Gaming
11:10 – Evil Geniuses vs project_kr

12:20 – Na´Vi vs project_kr
12:20 – fnatic vs Evil Geniuses
12:20 – Lions vs SK Gaming

13:30 – Na´Vi vs SK Gaming
13:30 – fnatic vs project_kr
13:30 – Lions vs Evil Geniuses

16:05 – Na´Vi vs fnatic (ESL TV)
16:05 – project_kr vs Lions
16:05 – Evil Geniuses vs SK Gaming

Wednesday March 2

09:10 – TCM-Gaming vs UMX-Gaming
09:10 – Frag eXecutors vs Moscow Five
09:10 – mTw vs compLexity

10:20 – UMX-Gaming vs Moscow Five
10:20 – compLexity vs TCM-Gaming

11:40 – Frag eXecutors vs mTw (ESL TV)

14:15 – UMX-Gaming vs compLexity
14:15 – Frag eXecutors vs TCM-Gaming
14:15 – Moscow Five vs mTw

15:25 – UMX-Gaming vs mTw
15:25 – Frag eXecutors vs compLexity
15:25 – Moscow Five vs TCM-Gaming

16:35 – UMX-Gaming vs Frag eXecutors
16:35 – compLexity vs Moscow Five
16:35 – TCM-Gaming vs mTw

Thursday March 3

09:10 – Quarter-final #1 A2 vs B3 (ESL TV)
11:50 – Quarter-final #2 A3 vs B2

Friday March 4

09:10 – Semi-final #1
11:45 – Semi-final #2 (ESL TV)

Saturday March 5

12:35 – Third place match
14:55 – Grand Final (ESL TV)

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

In the Heroes of Newearth newsletter, it was announced that Aluna, one of the heroes in HoN would be voiced by The Shield’s Paula Garces. Garces has also played roles in Warehouse 13 and Harold and Kumar 1-3.

Aluna is set to be released on Friday. Bearing the voice, personna and looks of the sexy Latina actress, Aluna looks to be one of the most beloved heroes in the game.

The powers of a modern day Latina superhero will come to life in Newerth this Friday as our newest hero is unleashed.

Acclaimed TV and movie actress Paula Garcés, is the persona and voice behind the new Legion hero Aluna. Seen in Clockstoppers, Harold and Kumar, and Warehouse 13, Garcés lends her beauty and talent to HoN. Aluna, of the Legion, is skillful in battle and sure to become a celebrity amongst the heroes of Newerth.

Visit the HoN Facebook page for updates on Paula Garcés and Aluna all week!

HoN Newsletter

More information about Paula Garces and HoN can be found by clicking here.