In an interview with ESFI World, Danny “zonic” Sorensen of Danish Counter-Strike team mTw speaks on his anticipation for the IEM V European Championship Finals, whichl takes place later this month in Kiev, Ukraine. Europe’s best teams will be in attendance, including Natus Vincere, who will be playing with a home field advantage.

I hope we and NaVi will play in the final [of IEM European Finals],” he said. “We want to win against NaVi, and to beat them in their own country would mean a lot to me.

Other topics include Sorensen’s thoughts on the string of roster changes that occurred within powerhouse teams Fnatic, SK Gaming and Lions last month, and how he thinks his team will hold up to them.

The complete interview can be read at ESFI World.

Late yesterday, the CSProMod development team announced via their website that CSProMod 1.05 is scheduled to be released January 31st, barring any setbacks during the internal beta. The newest version, which is quoted to include “100% more models,” in reference to the new, resized models developed for the game, is expected to be released exactly 1 year to the day from when 1.04 was released to an eager fanbase. Unfortunately for CSProMod, the once eager community has dwindled to only a handful as no official announcements, updates or development logs have been released in an extended period of time. With a successful release, this can change in a heartbeat, however.

Below is an excerpt from the official announcement:

Hey hey now, we hear you guys. We’ve heard you for quite a while now and I guess it’s now my turn to be on the disappointing side but I’m at least here to tell you two things.

First, we’ve been working on the next beta for a while now and we’re really close to where we want to be and yet not just quite there. That’s the bad news, CSPromod will not be released in 2010 unfortunately.

Second and that’s the good part, we’ve got a release date (again) for you guys. It’s quite fitting in a sense that it’ll be the same as last time, just in another year. There’s one little catch with this release date though. I know you guys have been patient and waiting for this new version for a long time and you might be a bit angry you’re not getting it just yet, well have no fear!

The thing with this release date is, if we’re done before the release date, we’ll release the beta earlier and announce it on the website. If we find ourselve with the beta finished and polished by the 15th, we’ll just tell you all about it and release it as soon as the files are up on our servers. That’s how it’s going to go.

Again, I’d like to say thank you to all of you for the support you’ve given us over the last few months and the kind words.

All of us here at the CSP Team would like to wish you a happy new year and all the best for the next year. Take care of yourselves and have fun, cheers!

The official announcement and more on CSProMod can be found by clicking here.

In an interview with ESFI World, Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen has revealed that he will continue to play WarCraft 3 tournaments alongside beginning his StarCraft 2 career in 2011.

So long as there are good WarCraft 3 tournaments around for me to participate in, I will play them with vigor and enthusiasm.

The interview comes a little more than a month before he makes his first major LAN tournament debut for StarCraft 2, when he competes in the Assembly Winter 2010 event in Finland.” For the first time in a while, Grubby won’t be a favorite heading into this tournament, as he has only recently started to play StarCraft 2 competitively.

Read the rest of the interview at ESFI World.

Two weeks ago, Mousesports announced the acquisition of Manuel “approx” Zeitz. With one spot left to fill, the organization today announced the signing of Thanh Vinh “ninja” Bui, formerly of TBH.ASUS.

Ninja will take on the roll of team leader as mousesports prepare for the IEM5 European Finals in Kiev on January 20th.

Mousesports 2011

Manuel “Tixo” Makohl
Roman “roman” Ausserdorfer
Manuel “approx” Zeitz
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
Thanh Vinh “ninja” Bu

ESFI World have interviewed John “alien” Clark, the tournament director for the National ESL. Launched in July of 2010, the new league is the Electronic Sports League’s first major venture into the North American competitive gaming world. Clark speaks on a number of topics, including the goals and expectations the ESL has set out for the North American branch, his working relationship with Trevor Schmidt (original founder of GotFrag), plans for entry into the competitive console space and more.

The National ESL is a major step for the organization towards expansion outside of Europe and into North America. As the tournament director, what are the goals or milestones that have been set for you and the league

ESL is a business and the bottom line is always numbers and revenue, but when I was asked to be a part of the National ESL, one of the reasons they liked my approach was that it was about the ‘base’ and building a community of e-sport minded gamers from the ground up. The heads of ESL had even made it clear that their approach with North American expansion was about the “from the bottom up” approach. The goals set forth are a mix of creating numbers and revenue along with building a true e-sports presence in North American through building a solid base.

Read the complete interview at ESFI World.

Today on PCGamer UK, 2010’s Gamer of the Year was announced, with Sean ‘Day [9]‘ Plott taking home this year’s honors. Sean is known by gamers for his amazing Scarcraft II comentary and video tutorials, but at one time he was also a professional Starcraft: Brood Wars player.

Below is an excerpt from the announcement on PCGamer UK:

But there’s a business sense behind the webcam dancing. StarCraft II’s rise has shoved e-sports back to the top of the PC agenda, with organisations such as Major League Gaming in the West setting a course for development. Sean’s life has been intrinsically tied to competitive gaming, and he’s got plans. “I definitely think that StarCraft II is going to be long remembered as the game that made an e-sports dent in people’s minds. I see e-sports having a position between sports as seen on television and chess. Ten years ago, when e-sports first rose to public consciousness, virtually all the content that was produced had an executive producer at the head, hired to just bark orders at people. But executive producers don’t get gaming. Gaming is not an activity, it’s a lifestyle. What do I do on a Friday night? If I’m a party hound, I’m going to get trashed. If I’m a gamer, I’m gonna be gaming. No one really got that ten years ago, but the people that grew up with it are starting to get these jobs.”

Even if he’s the man to lead the charge, I can’t see Sean dropping his daily duties. Nowhere else in gaming can you find a personality so welcoming, patient, and selfeffacing. I get the impression that even with a fraction of the monumental audience he has with each entry, Sean would still be in his room, talking to his computer about the game he adores. “The absolute best part about doing the dailies is when someone says something like, ‘Dude, I’ve been in the silver league since the start of StarCraft, and now I’m a diamond, and I give you credit for that.’” That genuine desire to help his fellow nerds makes him our gamer of the year.

The full article can be found by clicking here.

ESEA has released the list of teams that have been invited to compete in the ESEA Season 8 Counter-Strike Invite league. The list of teams includes, as usual, North American powerhouse Evil Geniuses. Frag Dominant, Season 7’s second place finisher, is also . Other notable teams include The Dons, Damage, Inc. and Area 51. ESEA is allowing the fans to vote on which team will make the 12th slot.

The three teams up for voting are: Damn We Are Good (ESEA-Main S7 2nd Place) Revolution Sports (ESEA-Main S7 3rd Place) FURY Gaming (ESEA-Main S7 4th Place).

Area51
mL Gaming
Damage Inc_
Hausen eSports
The Dons
Evil Geniuses
TAU
Frag Dominant CS
Ruins
8ball
Backfire

More information about the new season can be found at ESFI and ESEA.

In an announcement via MyEG.net, the organization has officially announced that Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen will be parting ways with the organization and will be replaced by Andrew “Irukandji” Timmerman.

According to Lurppis, he will be moving back to Finland after 1 and a half years in the states. In a statement given to hltv.org, he states:

I’m going to stay in Oregon until early February, when my current visa expires, and will then fly back home and continue school, work out, hang out with friends etc, the normal life, if you will,” he told HLTV.org.

“I’ve had a couple of conversations with the guys back home but I can’t really get more into it until I’m back in Finland.

With the acquisition of Andrew “Irukandji” Timmerman, he joins his former teamate in Derick “dboorN” Boorn, both formerly of CompLexity. Derek “dboorN” Boorn was picked up to replace Ediz “goodfornothing” Basol several months ago.

Timmerman had this to say about his new team:

It’s a big honor for me to finally get a shot at playing for the top organization and best team in the United States. I’ve always wanted to play with Jordan, Danny, and Tyler so I’m really looking forward to learning as much as I can from those guys as well as bringing my own unique viewpoint to help the team reach new heights.

EG 2011

Danny “fRoD” Montaner
Tyler “Storm” Wood
Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert
Derek “dboorN” Boorn
Andrew “Irukandji” Timmerman

Yesterday, Battle.net released their list of the top 200 players in the Starcraft II: Wings of Libery in the new ladder system.

One question is often asked by the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty community regarding our new leagues and ladder system: “Who are the best players on the ladder?” We have plans to one day have the best players, based on their current rankings, compete against each other. In the meantime, we can pull some internal numbers, do a little math, and come up with a list of the best players in each region. Here are the top 200 players in North America. We’ll update this list approximately every week until it’s time to have them compete.

ESFI World have interviewed SK Gaming’s Robert ‘RobbaN’ Dahlström, captain of the Counter-Strike squad.

Dahlstrom speaks about the team’s new additions (f0rest and GeT_RiGhT) heading into the new year. He goes on to talk about the upcoming IEM V European Championship Finals which will take place January 20-23 of 2011 and will be the stage on which SK Gaming’s new team makes its first competitive appearance.

Below is an excerpt from the interview:

Dahlström and the team will begin practising for the competition in January. “We will practice from 17:00-00:00 with the team everyday except Fridays and Saturdays, but we will play a lot more when we will have our bootcamp.”

“We will bootcamp for seven days before Intel Extreme Masters; a few days at Inferno-Online and then at GeT_RiGhT’s place. During our bootcamp it’s gonna be eat, sleep and Counter-Strike.”

Although the squad is newly formed, the community still have high hopes for their performance in Kiev. The squad is keeping a lid on their expectations. Dahlström just expects “everyone to do their best” and will “see all our opponents as the biggest threat in the tournament.”

Visit ESFI World for the complete interview.