After years of anticipation, TF2 has finally been released on the Mac platform. To celebrate this, Valve is also offering a FREE weekend of TF2 for everyone. Valve had this to say about the release:

We’d originally planned to tease out today’s update over the course of 19 deviously brain-twisting blog posts, each containing a mercurially complex riddle hinting at the nature of the update. Unfortunately, everybody seems to have cracked the subtle rhyming codex embedded in our first blog post, which was actually supposed to be the most unsolvable of the 19.

So anyway. Team Fortress 2’s available on the Mac now.

Or is it?

No, it is. Sorry, that was Riddle #17. It seemed a shame to let it go to waste.

As part of the celebration, TF2 will be FREE to play all weekend, and 50% off to purchase. We’ve also got a little treat for anybody logging into the game from a Mac.

A trailer was also created for this occassion:

Note: This study or any variables involved can not be confirmed by CompLexity Gaming.

Dr Dominic Micklewright, from the University of Essex conducted numerous physical and psychological tests to see if playing computer games could be defined as a sport.

The tests came back that gamers had traits that are comparable to real athletes. They reacted to visual stimuli almost as fast as fighter jet pilots.  However, their fitness levels were very low and made them seem older than their actual ages.

Someone of this age should be much fitter, but perhaps this is the occupational hazard of the professional gamer who can spend around 10 hours a day in front of a screen. It is always difficult to say how these things will develop, but it could have long term health implications such as an increased risk of heart disease. Screen time with children has a very strong correlation with childhood obesity and risk factors with heart disease later in life. – Dr Micklewright, University of Essex

Dr. Micklewright was very surprised by how close these gamers compared to pro-athletes with reflexes, but shocked to discover the health results.

To read the rest of the report head on over to telegraph.co.uk

Fatal1ty, via his official website, has announced a new contest to win the latest in Intel Gear. The rules of the contest are simple. All you have to do is submit your video entry the reason that you should win the products.

Prizes

Intel® Core™ i7-875K Processor
DP55SB Extreme Mother Board
OCZ Fatal1ty Ram

Submit your entries by clicking here

Today, the ESL has announced that the Season 5 of the ESL Intel Extreme Masters tournament will be taking place with the innaugural tournament in Shanghai, China.

The Shanghai tournament will be hosted at the Shanghai New International Expo Center and will go on from July 29th to August 1st. Over $57,000 is up for grabs, with $40,000 of that prize money available in Counter-Strike 1.6 alone.

ESL has also stated that the winners of the Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament in Shanghai will automatically qualify for the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship that will take place in 2011.

The details for the ESEA Finals and Arbalet Cup Dallas have finally been released via ESEA’s site after much anticipation. The event’s will be working hand in hand, both taking place within a week of each other. Up for grabs is over $130,000 between the two events. Below is the official press release from ESEA:

E-Sports Entertainment (ESEA) and “Arbalet Cup World Series” are teaming up to bring the host the biggest week of Counter-Strike in North America since 2004. ESEA’s Season 6 LAN Playoffs will be held back to back and in conjunction with the Arbalet Cup Dallas in July.

The ESEA Season 6 LAN Playoffs are the culmination of a sixteen match regular season and will feature the top six CS 1.6 invite division, four CS 1.6 main division, four CS: Source invite division, and four TF2 invite division teams battling it out for their piece of the $50,000 cash prize purse.

Following the ESEA LAN Playoffs, the ten CS 1.6 teams from ESEA League will join 22 of the top teams from around the world to compete for in the $80,000 “Arbalet Cup Dallas”. The event will be the first Arbalet Cup in North America and will bring word class Counter-Strike competition back to the United States.

“We are excited to announce the next step in the Arbalet Cup World Series. This summer, together with ESEA, we will host Arbalet Cup Dallas, the first international championship using our new format,” said Alexy “LeX” Kolesnikov. “Arbalet Cup Dallas will bring the world’s top gamers to Dallas to compete with the American elite in an exciting and action packed 32 team invitational tournament. Together with ESEA, we will do our best to provide the most comfortable atmosphere for the competitors and provide a professional video and HLTV broadcasting experience to spectators around the world.”

The event also features a limited BYOC for fans to enjoy a week of gaming and get involved in the action. Fans unable to attend can enjoy SpecTVs, photos, video interviews, and live score updates.

“It is a great opportunity to combine the ESEA Season 6 LAN Playoffs and open BYOC with the Arbalet Cup Dallas,” said Craig “Torbull” Levine. “The Arbalet Cup will bring world class Counter-Strike competition back to the United States, and together with the ESEA LAN Playoffs, we will host an amazing week of gaming for competitors and fans.”

More information on the event and BYOC registration will be released in the coming days.

The details are as follows:

Location: Hella Shrine in Garland, TX

Schedule of Activities
July 14 – 15    ESEA Season 6 CS 1.6 invite and main LAN Playoffs
July 16 – 18    Arbalet Cup Dallas & open BYOC
July 17 – 18    ESEA Season 6 CS: Source and TF2 invite LAN Playoffs

Arbalet Cup Dallas Information
Structure:         32 team invitational tournament
Official Maps:  de_dust2, de_inferno, de_train, de_nuke, & de_tuscan
Prize Pool:       $80,000 total prize purse

More information can be found at ESEA.net

ESWC has just released the list of teams that they have personally selected for each individual game in the ESWC World Final 2010 to be hosted at Disneyland Paris. Teams were selected based on accomplishments and international competitions. ESWC has decided to invite these specific teams to make up for the lack of national qualfiiers for the specific region.

The list of teams are as follows:

Counter-Strike:

evil Geniuses (US)
Playing Zone (FI)
mTw (DK)
compLexity (US)
Wemade Fox (KR)
Alternate (DE)
OSLF (DK)
Kaos (NL)

CS:Women:

Fnatic (SE)
uNNFINISHED (SE)
Aurora Gaming (DK)
Thermaltake (DE)
blith gaming (US)
mibr (BR)
iNNERFIRE (BU)
Asus Ladies (CZ)
Delinquent Habits (GR)

Defense of The Ancients :

Blight Gaming DotA (SE)
Nirvana.International (US)
MCiTY DotA (AU)
Meet Your Makers (DK)
Local Area Network(DE)
Online Kingdom (DE)
Tribal Gaming International (RS)
The Elder Gods (RO)
CNB-Gaming (BR)

Warcraft 3 TFT:

Grubby (NL)
Thomas (DK)
HolyHuman (US)
Thorzan (SE)
VeryB1gman (KZ)
Satini (FI)
Xlord (DE)
SOKOL (DE)
p1nke (HR)
Vortix (ES)

Quake Live:

DaHanG (US)
K1llsen (DE)
Stermy (IT)
Noctis (AT)
Sl1p (ES)
Dem0n (BE)

Trackmania:

Bergie (NO)
gaLLo (DE)
Moriah (PT)
Tamarillo (NL)
PeZi (AT)
Fruit (AT)
HotSwat (IE)
Munkeholm (DK)

Street Fighter IV:

Jwong (US)
Marn (US)
infiltration (KR)
LAUGH (KR)
Zak (UK)
prodigal son (UK)
Chasin (NL)

Guitar Hero 5:

smokyprogg (US)
Boyke (NL)
lilirock (CA)
TestTeam (KR)
KD Cypher (DE)
Chaos Legend (SG)
Sestevez (MX)
PoPoX (AT)

Need For Speed:Shift:

HuSKy (DE)
Sliver (DE)
Speed (BR)
Steffan (NL)
Minus (CA)
GPX-CAR (TW)

According to the ESWC website:

Those selected teams and players will have to confirm their presence and provide to ESWC Organizing Committee their travel justification before

ESWC will provide complimentary accommodation (bed and breakfast) from June 30th (arrival) to July 5th (departure). All invited players and teams will have to set their journey and secure their travel before June 11th at [email protected].

More information regarding this announcement can be found at the ESWC Official Site