This past week at ESWC 2010, Harley “dsn” Orwall from Fnatic was interviewed by non other than Alex “Jax” Conroy. In the interview, dsn talks about what the team did to prepare for the event as well as how the team manages to consistently play at the top of their game event after event.

On Friday we announced that the ESL would be releasing a new league that would be used as a qualifier for the ESL IEM North American National Finals. This league was called ESL National and as we announced, Trevor “Midway” Schmidt would be heading it up. Trevor’s successful run with Gotfrag made him the prime candidate for this job and has created expectations for this league beyond any other.

Today, the ESL has released the official website for the league which also means that registration has opened. The league has also announced that they are seeking admins.

Visit the official website by clicking here

The Electronic Sports League has just announced their plans for a new gaming league in the United States. ESL National, as it will be titled, is a qualifier for the North American ESL Extreme Masters season.

Leading the league will be non other than Trevor “Midway” Schmidt, an American legend in the world of gaming. Midway was the founder and owner of Gotfrag.com, America’s competitive gaming source in its time.

Midway had this to say:

I have been looking for an opportunity to make an impact on eSports in the USA in a way that can be meaningful and help push eSports forward,” said Schmidt.

“This is a real opportunity to take advantage of ESL’s success and expand the company into North American eSports and help improve one of the biggest events in the eSports calendar in Intel Extreme Masters for North America.

The website is expected to open its doors on July 5th. More information will be available at that time.

Yesterday we posted that K1ck had filed a dispute with ESWC in regards to their removal from Group D and their placement into Group F along with Na`Vi and CompLexity. The dispute came once it was announced that TyLoo.raw would be unable to attend, leaving Group F with 2 teams.

After consideration from the ESWC tournament officials, it was been announced that K1ck will be moved back to Group D, where they will join their original three opponents.

With Group F only consisting of Na`Vi and coL, the two teams would technically not even need to play each other in order to advance. It is undetermined as to what will happen in this case. We will update you as soon as more information is provided.

Group D

mTw
Alternate
eu4ia
k1ck

Source: K1ck Esports Club

For the past few months, many have speculated as to what the next move by G7 would be in regards to the new ESWC. With new events and promises from the new ESWC management coming to fruition, G7 has decided to support the new ESWC, but still hold them accountable for the owed prize money. To accomplish this, the G7 teams have offered to put aside 10% of any prize money won at this year’s ESWC in order to begin paying off the 2008 winners.

The official G7 press release is below:

Less than a day remains before the eSports World Cup brand holds its first event in almost two years. As such, it is now the appropriate time for the G7 Federation of Teams to publicly state its position on the ESWC and its corresponding action plan going forward.

The G7 has been in direct communication with the ESWC and its owners for a significant period of time since the brand was acquired and announced an upcoming event. After our correspondence with the brand’s owners about the ESWC’s unresolved prize money debts initially showed promise, with the ESWC stating its intention to pay back (at the very least) its 2008 winners, the subject quickly fell off of the table. While the ESWC did provide the G7 Teams and the eSports community with some tangible proof that 2010’s prize money would be paid out quickly after the event, the ESWC has not sufficiently addressed the subject of unresolved debts from past events, including 2008.

We all want to see ESWC make a successful resurgence into the eSports scene – but not at the expense of past ESWC champions (most notably, those from 2008) who have still neither received their winnings, nor received any sufficient statement of intent from ESWC regarding how their winnings will be paid back. Therefore, the G7 Teams will attend ESWC 2010, but with the following additional group actions and stipulations:

1) Since the ESWC is yet to address prize money owed to past winners, including those from 2008, the G7 Teams will allocate 10% of prize money won at ESWC 2010 to the ESWC 2008 winners. All none G7 teams are more than welcome to follow and make it public on their websites.

2) The G7 Teams will allow ESWC a 90-day grace period, beginning from the end of the ESWC 2010 event. During this grace period, the ESWC must both pay 2010’s prize money in full and publicly address the issue of prize money owed from 2008. If both of these requirements are not met within 90 days after ESWC 2010, the G7 Teams will immediately place ESWC on boycott status.

3) Within the month following ESWC 2010, the G7 Teams will also make public our action plans for other event brands with outstanding prize money debts.

The G7 Federation of Teams is committed to exhausting all available resources in pursuit of the prize money owed to gamers around the world. We will continue to provide the global eSports community with updates on our progress and correspondence with event brands currently owing outstanding prize money.

For more information regarding this information, click here.

Early today we announced that K1ck was being transferred to Group F to replace TyLoo.raw who dropped out due to financial reasons. With K1ck joining Na`Vi and coL, the team felt it was unfair for their group to be changed so close to the event, limiting their practice and preperation.

K1ck had the following to say to HLTV.org:

We have filed an official complaint to the ESWC organization for this arbitrary decision, as we think that this is not the way to conduct a major event such as this one.

It has also been determined that K1ck will be playing with a replacement in Joel “gax” Meira.

Source: HLTV.org

Unfortunately for TyLoo.raw, the team has determined that they are unable to cover the expenses to attend ESWC in Paris, France. This comes as no shock after it was announced that TyLoo would have to pay their way to the event. TyLoo originally confirmed that they were unable to attend due to this.

However, with a recent announcement from ESWC that TyLoo would be getting their visas and attending the event, most figured the issues were behind them. Today, however, it was announced that the team would be unable to make the event.

This leaves only 2 teams in Group F, coL and Na`Vi. As a result of this, K1ck has been moved from Group D to Group F, bringing the group back to 3 teams. Group D will also consist of 3 teams now.

Group D

mTw
Alternate
eu4ia

Group F

Natus Vincere
compLexity
k1ck eSports Club

After a month of voting, e-Stars has selected the 6 teams that will represent the East and West in the Continental Cup, as well as the King of the Hill tournament.

Many will notice that the teams selected were not all teams that won the vote, but instead teams that were chosen by the commitee after voting. e-Stars 2010 will run from 13-15th of August at Seoul’s COEX D Hall.

Team East	Team West
fnatic	WeMade FOX
Na´Vi	TyLoo
Frag eXecutors	TitaNs