Today, via their website, SK-Gaming has announced the acquisition of both Jimmy “jimpo” Wölfinger and Hun “inuh” Park to their StarCraft 2 roster. Inuh, from Germany, comes to SK from Tera Gaming, a German based organization, while Wölfinger has been making a name for himself in various tournaments.

Both players were interviewed by SK-Gaming:

SK Gaming: As a member of the SK.SC2 squad, you are joining forces with the Swedes MaDFroG and jimpo. How do you feel about your teammates’ composition, having a Terran and a Zerg to practice with? And most importantly, how do you think you can benefit one another?

Inuh: First of all, it’s I’m honored to get together in a team with a former Warcraft III Pro and one of the favorite terrans I know. At first blush, it may seems like a very weird composition of players, but I think we are all very talented and strong players with a lot of potential. I absolutely think we all can benefit from each other. Especially with jimpo, I can exchange strategies and talk about some builds, because he is the same race as me. In addition, I also know jimpo from a few custom games when I was preparing for my EPS match against Cloud. Jimpo is a very nice and mannered guy! I cant wait to play (more) games with my teammates!

SK Gaming: Now that you will be playing for SK Gaming, bearing the respectable tag and representing a whole front in eSports, how do you see yourself evolving as a player?

Jimpo: People have heard of me before, but I want to make them fear me; they should be afraid of me in all tournaments. Online or offline, I want to show them that I’m a player that is strong and always a threat to them. Being in SK gives a lot as a player, with a good organization and team members, I can focus 110% on my game to grow stronger to represent SK.

This brings the SK SC2 roster to:

Hun ‘inuh’ Park
Jimmy ‘jimpo’ Wölfinger
Fredrik ‘MaDFroG’ Johansson

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

This Tuesday, team Evil Geniuses’ Greg “IdrA” Fields will play his Round of 32 matches in the group stage of the GSL 2011 Sponsorship League. He will be competing against Ensnare, Check and fellow foreigner Jinro. Earlier today, ESFI World posted an interview with IdrA about his preparation and participation in the 2011 GSL. He talks about what he thinks his chances of advancing through his group are and describes the play-styles of his three opponents in the group.

The one map format is pretty big – there’s a huge difference between playing someone on Steppes of War versus playing them on Scrap Station, and with one map, that plays an even bigger role than in a normal match. Jinro generally plays for macro games, but he’s capable of aggressive or at least harass-based openings. Ensnare isn’t much of a macro player…only way me versus him is likely to go long is if we play on Jungle Basin. Check prefers low econ games as well but Zerg vs. Zerg is really unpredictable and any two openings can cancel each other out so anything could happen in that match. I like my chances overall, but the maps will play a huge role. I have Jinro on Jungle Basin, then I could end up with Ensnare on Lost Temple and Check on Jungle Basin, a map with a lot of build order variance in ZvZ, and in that situation it’ll be really tough to advance.

Read the rest of the interview at ESFI World.

Starting today, January 8th, the PokerIdol.com European Championship StarCraft 2 tournament will begin. The tournament features several of Europes best players including EG’s DeMusliM and TheLittleOne from Germany. Players will be competing for a $7,775 USD prize pool.

The tournament will consist of a 32 player double-elimination bracket with each match scheduled to be a best of three scenario. The semi-finals will feature best of five matches, which should result in very intense play from both sides.

 Featured Players

TheLittleOne	Gandi
HayprO	Daut
SjoW	elfittaja
SeleCT	GoOdy
Zion	merz
Lau	RunA
Jimpo	ZAiN
iNSoLeNCE	MorroW
ActionJesuz	kAra
ParanOid	Mana
SarenS	DeMusliM

Richard “Xizt” Landstrom was the final piece added to Fnatic’s new 2011 roster after the departure of three of the team’s staple players (f0rest, GeT_RiGhT and GuX). In an interview with ESFI World, the rising Counter-Strike player from Sweden speaks about the upcoming IEM V European Finals event in Ukraine this month, including preparations and the expectations for himself and his new team.

Yes we have played against SK Gaming, Lions and Mousesports. We have been playing most of the teams that [are] going to Kiev, but I don’t think we’re going to play them so much anymore. We don’t want to give away too much of our tactics until Kiev. It’s really hard to say something [about my initial impressions] from practice matches, sometimes you can win with 14-1 and the next day you meet the team you lose 1-14 instead. Every team have shown great skill and it’s gonna be a really tough tournament.

Read the interview at ESFI World.

In a statement by the ESWC organizers via their website, the organization has announced that all prize money from the 2010 event has been paid to the respective teams.

ESWC had this to say:

In 2010, ESWC made e-sport history, by holding cash prizes under a bank guarantee for the very first time. The ESWC Organizing Committee made all prize payment orders to players & teams within 60 days of the Grand Final at Disneyland Paris.

To ensure prize money for the 2010 event would be paid, ESWC took out a $213,500 bank note from Société Générale Bank. The bank note guarenteed that money for prizes existed and was reserved for that very reason.

Prize money from the 2008 event that has remained unpaid. The G7 organization has threatened to boycott the event if the amount was not paid within the 90 day grace period, but 3 months after the grace period expired, there has been no word from either party regarding the situation.

More information about the ESWC and the upcoming 2011 event in France can be found by clicking here.

As of January 8th, 2011, the contracts of WeMadeFox Counter-Strike will expire and the team will be officially homeless. The team has stated that they will remain together even after the expiration, however they are looking for a new organization, possibly one located in Europe.

The World Esports Masters 2010 Champions should have no trouble finding a new organization to support them, with their recent accomplishments and improving game play.

The former WMF lineup is:

Kun-chul ‘solo’ Kang
Sun Ho ‘termi’ Pyun
Sung Jae ‘bail’ Lee
Min-Soo ‘glow’ Kim
Bum Gi ‘peri’ Jung

Organisations or individuals who are interested in providing a new home for the team should email [email protected].

Next month, Assembly Winter will be taking place in Helsinki, Finland. Sponsored by Steelseries, the event will feature 64 of the world’s top SC2 talents as they compete for a prize purse of $6,000 and numerous hardware prizes.

Today, 63 players were announced, with the 64th and final spot being granted at the LanTrek SC2 tournament in Ylöjärvi, Finland.

ST_Rainbow
Liquid`Ret
Liquid`TLO
Liquid`HuK
mouz.Naama
mouz.Strelok
mouz.MorroW
mouz.HasuObs
EG.DeMusliM
ROOT.qxc
Empire.Naniwa
Empire.Kas
Empire.DieStar
aTn.Socke
aTn.DarKFoRcE
dignitas.SjoW
dignitas.merz
dignitas.Bischu
M.Tarson
M.LaLuSh
M.Adelscott
RoX.KIS.BRAT_OK
RoX.KIS.Pomi
RoX.KIS.Abver
RoX.KIS.LiveZerg
coL.Stalife
coL.Antimage
PwR.elfi
EG.Grubby
myR.eNvious
myR.ReYoN
Virus.Satiini
Virus.Magik
Virus.Wibang
Playzone.FuRy
Playzone.Cytoplasm
inF.RunA
srs.iNSoLeNCE
Lions.Skruffy
Lions.Metalon
OK.jimpo
OK.Naugrim
Menace.Fuzer
h4u.Seinis
h4u.Drafter
RAGE.Seala
RAGE.Welmu
RAGE.ActionJesuz
dwish.cast
Forsen
Pitro
Gruang
ArtVandelay
Ouga
imakki
torecito
Protosser
Konna
RiceRiceMaybe
Multani
ZhuGeLiang
Kurafeissi
TrueRandom

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

Chris Schetter’s latest column argues why professional gaming leagues should stop adopting the Olympic model. It’s the same model that we’ve all gotten used to after major event organizers such as the World Cyber Games, ESWC, the CPL and more have implemented it into their brands.

While Olympic model competitions within gaming have served to get the ball rolling to this point, the scene at this point is full of entities competing with each other to establish themselves as the ‘Olympics of e-sports’ while there’s a dearth of activity along an axis that actually looks and operates like professional sports. What we’re left with is a disjointed scene where gamers can’t make ends meet and are far too susceptible to abuse from the large Olympic-style entities, and the gamers end up subsidizing the revenues and profits of these entities by footing the bill for everything necessary to participate in such systems, such as travel and accomodations, with no assurances that they’ll ever break even.

Read the entire column at ESFI World.

ESL has released the third teaser trailer for their newest show on ESL TV, called RotterdaM University. The show will feature professional StarCraft 2 competitive player Kevin “RotterdaM” Van Der Kooi. He will be joined by ESL’s Michael “Carmac” Blicharz.

Carmac will be trailed by RotterdaM as he looks to improve his Starcraft 2 game, transitioning from bronze to silver. The viewers will be given tips, tricks and tid-bits to improve their own gameplay.

Earlier today, the Evil Genius organization have announced the acquisition of Benjamin ‘DeMusliM’ Baker, formerly of mTw. According to the EG press release, DeMusliM was bought out of his mTw contract, however the amount was not made available to the public.

Baker had the following to say to myEG.net via their press release:

I am thrilled to announce that henceforth I shall be playing under the prestigious Evil Geniuses banner. I would like to thank the mTw management team for all their support, encouragement, and their professional cooperation during my transfer. Also, I would like to wish my friends (ex-teammates) a very successful year unless of course they face me in upcoming tournaments!

DeMusliM will remain in Germany as he continues to compete in the ESL Pro Series. This signing brings the EG SC2 roster to:

Jacob ‘LzGaMeR’ Winstead
Kelby ‘iNkA’ Williams
Geoff ‘iNcontroL’ Robinson
Nick ‘Axslav’ Ranish
Bryce ‘Machine’ Bates
Chong ‘Strifecro’ Chu
Gregory ‘IdrA’ Fields
Manuel ‘Grubby’ Schenkhuizen
Benjamin ‘DeMusliM’ Baker