In a great show of skill IMMvp comes out on top with a stunning 4-0 play vs MarineKingPrime.WE. IMmvp is the first champion of the regular GSL session, and first Terran champion.

When asked how he feels IMMvp was silent, holding back tears. IMMvp’s parents where there watching and the host asked if he had anything to say to them. IMMvp responded with “I love you”.

MarineKingPrime on the losing end was also interviewed. He apologized to his fans and family that were there to support him. He promised to come back to the finals and win the next time This is MarineKings second trip as a runner-up in the GSL.

MAP 1: Scrap Station
MAP 2: Metalopolis
MAP 3: Xel’Naga Caverns
MAP 4: Blistering Sands

The developers for CSPromod have released a changelog for their upcoming release of CSPromod BETA 1.05. The update mainly consists of new models and animations that the game lacked in the previous version. There are also several bug and map fixes, an enhanced GUI, and added weapons.

A quick excerpt:

* Ported CSPromod to the Orange Box Engine
* Added 1.6-style Orange Box blood goosh particles
* Added localization files to help translate the game
* Added functionality to allow all players including the planter to stand on the bomb
* Added the ability to open a door with the bomb or a weapon (even on CS:S maps)
* Added a “The bomb is already being defused.” notification
* Added mp_limitteams
* Added a more optimized version of Valve’s bullet/water shots effects
* Added directional awareness to death animations
* Added a big csp icon for the Steam 2010 update
* Added custom JPEG library for spraypaint importing
* Added transition from animation to ragdoll upon death
* Defaulted tickrate to 100
* Removed planting the bomb making the player crouch
* Reverted event log to Valve’s default
* Reworked network settings
* Rewrote the bullet penetration code and improved upon it (Post Orange Box)
* Tweaked the area of picking up weapons to match CS 1.6

For the full changelog, click here

The groups for Assembly Winter 2011 have been announced via their website earlier today. The event is set to take place on February 11-13 in Kaapelitehdas, Finland. With 64 players competing in this event, it has proven to be one of Starcraft 2’s premier events for the year.

Players have been divided into 16 groups of 4, with the top 2 finishers in each group moving on to the group of 32.

Group A

TLO

LiveZerg

Fuzer

Mayhemi

Group B

Kas

DarKFoRcE

StyGGeN

mudis

 

Group C

Naama

jimpo

Forsen

Konna

 

Group D

Tarson

eNvious

Welmu

Multani

 

Group E

HuK

Abver

SaSe

kiljardi

 

Group F

qxc

merz

Ouga

torecito

 

Group G

Socke

pomi

ActionJesus

Tuomio

 

Group H

Strelok

LaLuSh

cast

Protosser

 

Group I

SjoW

Seinis

RunA

Which

 

Group J

MorroW

AdelScott

Seala

TrueRandom

 

Group K

BRAT_OK

DieStar

imakki

ZhuGeLiang

 

Group L

Satiini

elfittaja

Gruang

Skruffy

 

Group M

Ret

iNSoLeNCE

Naugrim

Aktivisti

 

Group N

Naniwa

HasuObs

ArtVandelay

Drafter

 

Group O

DeMusliM

Bischu

ToD

barian

 

Group P

Tyler

SarenS

Grubby

Magik

More information about Assembly Winter 2011 can be found by clicking here.

Today, The Evolution Championship Series announced the games that will be played at this year’s event:

• Super Street Fighter 4
• Marvel vs Capcom 3
• Mortal Kombat 9
• Tekken 6
• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

The event will take place at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 29-31. EVO is a competition that is open to all challengers, and also will have exclusive game demos.

For more information, click here

Three new maps have been released for the GSTL.

Jung-Won Chae, the director of Gretech E-Sports Operations and GSL commentator has made a reference to the map pool during a GSL match.

“We will change map pool for GSTL* next month. Three new custom maps will be added to map pool; Terminus RE, Tal’Darim Altar, Crossfire SE”

There are no mentions of the GSL map pool.

Race Balance Information (Winning Rate on Gisado Star-Challenge)

Terminus RE P 40% T 50% Z 57%
Tal’Darim Altar P 57% T 42% Z 54%
Crossfire SE P 54% T 53% Z 40%

The official groups have been drawn for the IEM5 World Championship to be held at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany from March 1st to the 5th.

Counter-Strike 1.6

With the drawings, all 3 Swedish teams find themselves in Group B, while both teams from Denmark will compete against each other in Group A. CompLexity Gaming finds themselves in Group A, while EG will be competing against the mass of European teams in Group B.

Group A	Group B
TyLoo	TBD
compLexity	Evil Geniuses
TCM-Gaming	SK Gaming
Meet Your Makers	Lions
Frag eXecutors	Na´Vi
mTw	fnatic

Quake Live

Group A	Group B
k1llsen	czm
strenx	Cooller
Vo0	Cypher
DaHang	Spart1e
fazz	rapha
av3k	Dandaking

The winners of each group will automatically move on to the playoffs, while the second and third place teams for each group will battle it out to determine the final two playoff spots.

The GSL Team League’s (GSTL) tournament kicks off February 7th to the 10th with a first prize of $10,000, and $5,000 to the runner-up.

Eight teams have been selected to play in the GSTL, the selected teams are based on how many Code A and Code S players each team has competing in the GSL. More details on the selection process,  GOMtv participating team selection method.

The GSTL format is a classic clan war, each team will annouce their players to each other (eight players for GSTL) before the match. The first two players will play each other. The loser gets knocked out, the winner countinues by playing the next player from the opposing team’s lineup. First team to get 4 wins (5 wins in the finals) advances to the next round.

These are the first teams playing in the GSTL.

Ro8 Match 1: ST vs fOu

Ro8 Match 2: Prime vs TSL

Ro8 Match 3: oGs vs IM

Ro8 Match 4: ZeNEX vs SlayerS

GSTL first round will be played February 7 and 8th, semifinals on the 9th and the grand finals on the 10th.

Source: GOMtv

Artosis and John the translator give us a 10 minute tour of the new GSL Foreigner House. In the video Artosis and John talk about how you can apply to be in the house and what you get if you are accepted.

The DreamHack organization has announced the official dates of 2011 and 2012 events. After signing an agreement with Elmia, whose venues DreamHack has been using for the past ten years.

“Last event we broke all earlier records and we can easily conclude that the customer demand is bigger then ever”, an official statement reads

The 2010 winter edition for DreamHack was a record breaker. Never before has any of there past events accommodated so many people, and regaining another Guinness World Record under there belts.

The potential of having DreamHack at Elmia is still huge and with an amazing track record the last years we now continue on the same path and get a closer co-operation. DreamHack is attracting an huge audience to the region and we are now planning to offer a even better festival experience and exciting news for our visitors and partners the upcoming events”, DreamHack CEO Robert Ohlén said.

With the new deal in effect, these dates have been released:

DreamHack Summer 2011: 18-21 June
DreamHack Winter 2011: 24-27 November
DreamHack Summer 2012: 16-19 June
DreamHack Winter 2012: 22-25 November

Kimmo “BASiC” Fagerholm, stated earlier in the week that Power Gaming was officially revamping their roster for 2011, hopefully in an attempt to bring them back towards international prominence. This new roster did not involve Fagerholm and he was cut in order to make space, soon after that Niko “naSu” Kovanen annouced that he has quit Counter Strike, in order to focus on “personal commitments”.

After the recent shake up however, Power Gaming has annouced that they have changed their roster, and have added Tomi “Lurppis” Kovanen and Juuso “contE” Sajakoski. The added experience from Kovanen’s time spent at American organization Team Evil Geniuses, could possibly be very beneficial to the Finnish team after a rather dismal performance at World E Sport Masters, where they placed 7-8 overall.

I didn’t originally plan on playing CS anymore post-EG but after talking to the guys I decided to team up with them once again, this time under Power Gaming. I believe we will have a lot of fun competing together this year! We will obviously still do our best to practice hard and do well at tournaments, as Finland is definitely due some top placings again in CS 1.6.

Power Gaming 2011

Joona “natu” Leppanen
Samu “plastE” Aalto
Tino “tihOp” Puumala
Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen
Juuso “contE” Sajakoski