David “dchozN” Cho has recentely released a series of highlight videos from the recent ESL IEM Global Finals in Hannover, Germany as well as ESEA Season 5 and Season 5 LAN Finals in Dallas, TX. The videos feature the best plays from the most recent tournaments.

ESL IEM IV Global Finals

Download: http://www.eseanews.com/cs/index.php?s=downloads&d=view&id=18236

ESL IEM IV Global Finals (Episode #2)

Download: http://www.eseanews.com/cs/index.php?s=downloads&d=view&id=18080

ESEA LAN Season 5

Download: http://www.eseanews.com/cs/index.php?s=downloads&d=view&id=18236

The second ESEA video is expected to be released shortly at which time we will update this post. More information about the videos can be found at the ESEA News Website.

It is time for season 2 of the video game reality show, WCG Ultimate Gamer. You can audition in four cities the week of April 5th. The cities are: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

For more information on season 2 and to see what happened in season one, head on over to the WCGULTIMATEGAMER site.

The Times They Are A-Changin

by Liam “loki” Belcher

This is more of a reflection on times gone by and what has changed since back then *points at the old times*.

Since I was a little kid, I was always told that my “disadvantage” would hinder me from doing most things that other kids my age were doing. I was even told that later in life, I would not be able to get the jobs that normal folk get or blend in socially like everyone else. It was disheartening, but a sad truth, and to this day approximately 1% to 2% of the human population is affected by it. Oh the woes of being a ginger headed child. For anyone who is thinking “Ginger hair isn’t a ‘disease’!” I hate to tell you but it actually is. For the sake of comedy and science I have to tell all the strawberry blonde people in denial that “Most red hair is caused by the MC1R gene and is non-pathological. However, in rare cases red hair can be associated with disease or genetic disorder”. Ok so I may have bent the truth a little but lets be honest, you can use the disease story to your advantage. Think about it! When there’s people taking the piss out of your hair in front of a girl you like you can say “did you know that it’s actually a defect in my genetics and that I couldn’t help being born this way? *sad face*”. GUILT them into liking your hair/you.

Anywho, I think I’ve gone somewhat off the point in trying to illustrate the past. In the past, gaming was something simple. You pick up the controller and you’re away. Apart from the odd text-based geeks of gaming like my brother and his friends (friends, hahahahaha) that was all we had to rely on. This was before you kids got your hands on them virtual reality toys and started playing around in flying cars. I honestly feel quite like Marty McFly in Back to the Future 2 sometimes. Here’s what I mean (thanks to disabled embedding, you must work for this video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTR1L_B93Rg

“You mean you have to use your hands?!” – says a bewildered and pre-Froddo Elijah Woods. Yes! Yes you do, strange future child!!! I feel like this is probably what will happen when we’re showing our kids games like Call of Duty or Bioshock in the future. “Oh lame. You couldn’t plug games into your brain back then? Pffffffft!”. One thing keeps me from imploding with frustration though and that is the fact that we did the exact same things to our parents or bigger brothers about other things. I’m sure everyone has had the conversation with their grandparents that goes something like “Well, back in my day we didn’t have oxygen. From the moment we got out of the womb we had full time jobs and had to physically make O2 all on our lonesome. You kids have everything these days!”. And as frustrating as that sounds, you’ll most likely have to have that conversation with your children or grandchildren some day.

Gaming has given me a lot in the past. It’s given me loads of friends that I can rely on, skills I can use in the workplace (I have a lot of splicers in my place of work) and a feeling of accomplishment when I look at the many thousands of hours I’ve spent playing games instead of working on educational agendas or looking for a better job. But, that’s not me being bitter, because in thruth I’ve loved almost every minute of it. Recently, I’ve just completed and passed the Football Association Level 1 1st4sport Qualification in football (soccer), meaning I can now coach kids in football anywhere in the country up to the age of 12. Now, I know what you’re thinking “How did you get from gaming being useful in real life, to you doing a football coaching course?” and the simple answer is that for many years, I was the team caller. Being confident enough to make loud, clear and courageous calls gave me the skills to go out on my final practical test and come out with “flying colours” and a “loud and confident, clear voice that kids would respond well to”. I’m not saying all of that JUST to inflate my ego, but also to demonstrate a point. If ever anyone says that “gaming gets you nothing but wasted time and wankers cramp in your wrist”  then tell them to shove it where the sun don’t shine.

Gaming has not only given me experiences I’ll never forget and a reputation as an emo blogger (really do wish I could go back in time and pull the plug on that one), it’s also given me some completely practical and useful skills that I was able to apply to something I can now use as the stepping stone of my hopeful new career. So do me…no do yourself a favour and look at what gaming has done for you and what it may or may not have given you over the years that you can actually use in “real life,” whatever the hell that is anyway…

Take us away Mr. Dylan!!!  

The focus of our next Syndicate Interview Series installment is none other than the famous American gamer Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel.  Fatal1ty has won over $500,000 in prize money during his eSports career and has been one of the pioneers of branded gaming products and licensing deals.  Most recently Wendel tested the broadcasting waters with the Championship Gaming Series.

Thanks for sitting down with us.  Let’s start at the beginning.  When did you first start playing video games?  What drew you to FPS games versus other genres? 

I started when I was about 4 years old, playing Nintendo and some Atari/PC/Apple games.  The fascinating thing about playing FPS games was mainly being able to compete in a high caliber game against other people on the internet.  I really looked at it as a sport in another world, playing a game where you had to have some of the same skill sets you needed to compete at a high level playing sports. 

You have been quoted as saying that your third place finish in the 1999 CPL Quake event prompted you to pursue a fulltime career as a professional gamer.  In the beginning, did you expect your career to last as long as it did?  How did your family and friends react to you being one of the first professional gamers in the world? 

Yah, that event was really great for me.  It was truly when I was just a college kid trying to play games for fun, but also win some money while doing a hobby. I expected after that tournament to just keep playing in the games I love and keep up my hobby as long as I could win some small money on the side. I was expecting to make $10k/year after that as a hobby. It just so happened that it turned into $110k my first year in 2000.  My friends thought it was cool for sure!  It’s a kids dream to turn their hobby into a living, as it was for me. My parents weren’t too fond of it until I started bringing checks home.  My dad was supportive, though, with my competitive nature as he also is extremely competitive.

Looking back, what were some of the factors that resulted in your early success?  If you could go back to 1999, what, if anything, would you change about your approach? 

I wouldn’t change a thing! I loved every minute of my beginning career. I approached it very relaxed and just running around in my socks at the very first tournament.  Even in Sweden I was just so happy to be there and just wanted to play my best game.  Hanging with the guys was definitely the most fun part!  We were all very young, roaming around Stockholm and enjoying everything Sweden had to offer.  I think being relaxed and having fun was definitely a huge part of my success, and even today, I always try to make things fun and have good times with friends.

Over the years you specialized in several games including Quake, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament and Painkiller.  What is your favorite all-time game and why?

Quake III Arena and PainkilleR!

Quake III started my career and offered great gameplay, and tons of talent to really shine in it, but I later fell in love with PainkilleR.  It was sooo fast and sooo skilled in every category.  If you sucked at just one category there was no way you could be in the top 3.  If you were bad at two categories, back up to top 16…  It was truly an amazing game that always had action.  You never really ever saw a low scoring game. It was always exciting and great fights!  I think the reason for great fighting in that game was because of the fast movement, but also no rail gun. It intrigued people to fight close fights which is what spectators want to see. 

In 2005 you defeated Sander “Voo” Kaasjager to win the CPL World Tour Painkiller Championship.  Some observers and FPS purists criticized your game play as evasive but at the end your tactics won the title.  Talk about the event and how you were able to defeat the seemingly unstoppable Voo.

Some observers don’t know what they’re talking about.  vo0 is extremely evasive, and I decided to use the same tactics I saw him use countless times, but I turned it up a notch.  I told myself, after every kill I got, I would go agro aggressive.  Watch game 1 and you’ll see what I’m talking about.  As for my map choice, Meatless, there was no evasiveness. I won by 20 frags or more in game 2.  As for game 3, we both played super evasive, but if you see, when it went to overtime, I thought I would throw a wrench into the game flow. I was thinking I would catch him by surprise, and I did.  I landed 7 shots in a row at gold armor while he hit me 0 times.  That eventually played to me winning game 3 and then taking it back to game 4 on Meatless, which I clinched somewhere around the 7 to 9 min mark when I hit a clutch stakegun shot mid-air at gold armor.  Meatless is one of my favorite maps, and I feel when I get control on that map and certain items timed up, I’m impossible to kill.

Speaking of the CPL, around this time period allegations arose from around the world that the organization was not honoring its prize payments.  Rumors arose that you had not been paid the massive $150,000 prize from the New York finals.  Have you ever received full payment for the event?  What are your thoughts on the controversy?  How do you think gamers should react to groups that don’t honor their financial obligations to gamers?

I got paid.  But other companies that are still around today that associated with CPL and supposedly loyal to gamers never honored money owed to me and others.  I’m sure you’ve heard of a company called Razer?  When I won RazerCPL, I won $40,000, but actually only got $30,000 and was told from Razer that they would pay me the other $10K soon… Never happened.  Other issues came up with that association with other contracts that also fell through for me and many other pros that were playing Counter Strike at the time. This is why I quit being sponsored and started Fatal1ty Gaming Gear.  I wanted to make sure when you sign a deal with me you get paid no matter what. 

Over the years you have managed to license the Fatal1ty brand on several different kinds of products including mouse pads, headsets, sound cards, RAM chips and video cards.  What lessons have you learned that you can share with other gamers and organizations looking to monetize the brands they have built?  What worked well and what mistakes, if any, did you make?

I’ve always been very passionate about what products I make and take a lot of pride with it.  If it’s true in my heart then I can speak with a lot of emotion and feelings.  When I got the chance to work with CREATIVE, and actually go to their Advance Technology Center and test out the new X-Fi, I was blown away!  It was real, I felt like I was really immersed into a different world more than ever before.  Even when the test started out, in the headphones while using the CMSS 3D, it said “hey”…  I swore to God it was someone standing over the cubicle behind me to my right saying “hey” to me from about 5 feet away.  And they told me, “No, we didn’t say anything, that’s part of the test.”  Instantly I was super hooked and realized where they were going to go with this…  They just needed to get the gamers to understand it, and that’s where I came in.  I’ve been using Sound Blaster cards since I was 17; I even have a picture of me with it on X-mas.  So when I work with a product like the X-Fi card, I get more attached than just hey I’m sponsoring this.  I actually live and breathe it and actually need it in my game.

Similar to individuals of stature in other industries, you have had your critics.  Some observers have accused you of exaggerating your success while others have suggested that you have dodged certain game titles and/or events.  From a controversial interview where you were called a “douchebag” to the flap with the Penny Arcade Expo in 2008, you’ve arguably endured more scrutiny than any gamer in history.  What are your thoughts on this?  Is it part of the territory?  How do you respond to your critics?

They have never met me.  I’m actually a very modest guy, but don’t mind joking around with friends of course.  If you see me on 60 minutes, MTV or something, you see me as a real person.  Even when Steve Kroft asked me if I was the best, I said, “you tell me”.  I didn’t go ramping on that I’m the best, but inside I definitely believe I’m the best.  I need that for confidence when I go to battle.  If I don’t think I’m the best, what am I doing playing in the tournament?   As for Penny Arcade, I was involved with EforAll at the time, which was competing with their show.  I thought it was a tongue-in-cheek, humorous promotion on their part. But I think there’s a big disconnect on the internet and not knowing someone for who they really are.  PR, publicists, ads, etc. write some crazy stuff about me.  It’s not me saying it, it’s Business Week, Time Magazine, etc etc etc saying it.  I’m just playing my game and winning.  As for not playing the right events, are you kidding me?  I played all the biggest prize tournaments and won. 

On a final note though, I really do try to be a nice guy, and like I said, you have to meet me to really know who I am and what I’m about…  I throw parties for gamers as much as possible.  I’ve been throwing parties at QuakeCon every year for the gamers that come there, and even at CeBIT this year, I hosted a good 15-20 gamers/workers out in Hannover.  I’ve sponsored over 20 gamers personally, so I’m really trying to help this thing grow.  It’s what I love to do, and giving back is just one of the things I enjoy doing in gaming.

Many of your fans are wondering if we’re going to see you competing professionally again.  Do you have any plans to return to gaming or have you officially retired from the highest levels of competition?

I’ve never retired.  I went to Championship Gaming Series to help grow the sport, and was advised this was a good move to help grow the sport, which I was mostly interested in…  So I did it for the two years.  After that, I’ve been looking for competitions I want to play in.  I don’t want to invest 12-18 months, 8 hours a day to train to win small tournaments right now.  As the economy gets better, I imagine the prize money will get better and will spark my attention to play for big tournaments with a lot on the line.  So definitely look for me to play again, it’s just a matter of what new game will come out and what’s on the line. 

What are your thoughts on the state of professional gaming today?  Is the industry growing or has it already seen its peak?

It’ll continue to grow.  The economy is hurting some of the teams, etc. because they aren’t getting sponsorships, but the player base is still growing, which is great.  We will continue to get back the sponsors as the economy rebounds and, more than likely, be in a much more powerful position in the future for gaming and sponsors.

Currently you’re associated with Full Tilt Poker and word has it that you’re devoting a great deal of time to your game.  What initially drew you to competitive poker?  What similarities do you see to competitive gaming?  What are your long term goals in poker?  Are you planning to make a career of it?

I’ve been playing a good amount.  I really like the competition and the mind games of poker at the higher level.  There is definitely a pattern to different players like gaming, where some players are defensive, some are aggressive and some have no clue what they’re doing sometimes but make it work, or not. J  My long term goal with poker is to have fun with it, travel the world playing it and win.  As for making a career out of it, I’m not thinking so much.  I still prefer gaming over poker as it’s always evolving and always new and interesting!  I love technology and everything about it.  So, for now, I’ll just keep doing poker as a competitive hobby I enjoy playing.

If you had a relative or good friend just starting out in eSports, what advice would you give him?  What are the championship qualities you would share with him and what are the pitfalls you would warn him about?

Go to LAN parties and play in online tournaments and join the scene.  As for championship qualities, I think being sports oriented before gaming is a huge plus.  Also, I believe being good at math is important and if you’re really good at trial and error, you can go really far.  As for pitfalls, you can’t do it half-way.  You can’t expect to be top pro gamer in the world unless it’s your life.  Make sure you play against other players who are better than you and try to scale yourself.  You need to find out if you’re getting better or not.  Other than that, watch demos and videos of pros playing the game you want to be the best at, and try to take some tricks from them.  Try them out for yourself and adapt to your own style.

In closing, what was your single favorite event or memory from professional gaming?  What event or memory would you like to forget?

Definitely the 2005 World Tour Finals was my most exciting moment so far. Best memories from the guys like LeXeR, booms, ZeN, stermy and friends.  LeXeR was telling everyone in Singapore about 2 months before the final tournament that I would show up to the finals and use no hands and win…  He was hilarious to have on tour and everyone loved hanging with him.   As a joke, he looked over to me before I went up on stage, and I did a little pose for him pretending I was playing with no hands.  We both laughed and then it was time to be serious…  Was great to laugh with friends and always know when to joke around a little bit, but also know when to turn it on and be focused.

As for a bad event or memory, I think Cyber X Games was a big downfall for all of us.  Tons of gamers traveled the world to Las Vegas to play Counter-Strike in 2003, I believe.  This is when I just formed my CS team “inevitable Fate”.  The tournament turned up to be a complete flop, and just didn’t work out.  So basically all us gamers ended up stranded in Las Vegas with no gaming tournament.  So it actually turned out to be a killer time!  We all went out and partied it up in Las Vegas.  It was my first time being of age in Vegas as well, so it really was an epic few nights with all my euro friends like Potti, Aurora, and my team(destrukt, icesalmon, amic, & pointblank).  I Can’t wait for QuakeCon this year and other major tournaments!

Thanks again for your time.  Any final comments or shoutouts?

I can’t wait to see what iD software does with RAGE and future games that might push the envelope for more competition and bigger tournaments for all of us.  Even DooM IV would be sick I’m sure.  So just have to wait and see what is next!  For now, it’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for me till the next big game releases.

Latez

Fatal1ty

What WoW Can Learn From Other Games

By Sascha “Yiska” Heinisch

Let’s face it, even though WoW is dominating the MMO market, it’s not perfect. Generally speaking, Blizzard didn’t invent MMOs or defined them with their revolutionary concept. They took a universe which they already established with their Warcraft saga and improved on things where other developers failed. To date, arguably no MMO is so fluid, so user friendly, so sound.

There are, however, things where WoW could improve on. I took a look at the biggest titles in esports and this is what I came up with:

1) Game Modes 

The part of WoW that is actively played as an e-sport at offline events, Arena, is simply too complex for strangers to understand. What does Halo, CS, BF, TF2 or sports games have in common? They are team games. Because of the interaction of several players on the battlefield, the action becomes very complex and hard for the untrained eye to spot. They need something to simplify the action. Every game listed above has an objective, one single thing the audience can hold on to that grabs them by the hand and walks them through the games. WoW Arena is essentially a death match and therefore the objectives are basically 6 healthbars (or more with pets) which are scattered across the screen. While observing these health bars is not particulary hard, it is however pretty boring. The excitement comes from a combination of abilities that cause these health bars to drop. The problem? It’s honestly really hard to catch how this kill just happened even if you do play WoW and you have knowledge of the abilities, what they do and what they look like.

I spoke with SK’s Realz about this and we both agree that Blizzard has a big opportunity with their upcoming expansion. For those readers who aren’t familiar with WoW: Those objective based competitive environments do exist in WoW. We have all those Capture the Flag, Conquest & Rush maps. The problem is, that currently no measurement of skill exists in those and that they are played with too many players. The so called “battle grounds” range from 10 vs10 to 40 vs 40 players and every e-sports fan instantly understands that this is not attractive for our kind. With more players not only comes more complexity, but also the inability to ship players to tournaments.

The solution Realz suggested and I instantly agreed with was simple. Blizzard already announced that they will support battle grounds again with the introduction of “rated battle grounds” which will surely bring the competitive mindset back into the Bgs. On top of that, we believed that 5 vs 5 objective based battle grounds would be the best option as in most competitive games, this proved to be the sweet spot. It’s fitting because the current WoW group structure also evolves around 5 players and a 5 vs 5 Arena bracket already exists. CTF probably would be the best game mode, with a relatively small map that would ensure action. The best part of this is, that the idea of implementing this doesn’t even look that far fetched. While people often have great ideas and share them on the official Blizzard forums, they rarely have a feeling for what is actually reasonable. That’s not to say that their ideas wouldn’t be great fun though.

2) Visibility of Contribution

Most WoW players know the problem. You are playing the currently implemented battle grounds and there are those who aren’t really participating in the team play and just do their thing or if they do help, they are doing it wrong. As many gamers have, I tried out Battlefield Bad Company 2 lately and there is one thing that stood out for me which was the visibility of my contribution to the action. Almost every single positive influence I have on the game for my team is rewarded with points. Let’s say I spot an enemy which my squad mate kills. He gets 50 points while I get whopping 30. When I heal a team mate that is injured, I score 20 points per tick of health (4-5 ticks to 100%).

That’s not to say that this system would exactly be fitting for WoW as it’s easily exploitable and we do see that in Battlefield as well (Medic spam much?). In fact, there are rewards for good play in WoW and players get rewarded in some shape or form when playing in a way that contributes their team. The problem is that those aren’t very visible at all.

If I frag someone in Battlefield, then resurrect a mate, heal another, rescue a third before he gets shot, the points are stacked in the lower part of my vision and when I pulled a clutch play, I can see the rewards instantly. In WoW however, these points of contribution which are rewarded in “honor points” float by without anyone really taking notice.

The solution again is simple: WoW does have an award animation when you score an achievement. What if we had a similar frame like those? It would maybe look like this:

Imagine this with a golden flickering frame every time you go out of combat and maybe a “wuussshhh” sound to it. WoW just got more competitive in Bgs.

3) Fixing the Vehicle Boredom

Honestly, I don’t know a single person that enjoys riding vehicles in WoW more than the first 5 times. Blizzard introduced these with WotLK in Wintergrasp and even in their PvE instances. The system however, feels really boring. You have everything between 1-4 different abilities which are fun for the first couple of drives, but after that they are boring because they honestly aren’t very deep. They are, in fact, so straight forward that my mom could use them just as well as I would or as better players would.

Again, I look at the game that revolutionized the gaming world and brought vehicles into shooters. The reason why vehicles are so much more enjoyable to drive in Battlefield isn’t because they have so much more abilities, but because they reward the better player. In BF, you have hit zones which help the player with the better movement and aim to deal more damage and win the 1 vs 1. There is nothing like this in WoW.

Moreover, I always found it odd that vehicles weren’t considered objects which could break the line of sight. As line of sight is such a big deal in WoW, it seems like they robbed themselves of a big portion of depth with this decision.

Also there is no way to repair those vehicles in player vs. player environments. What if I could equip an engineering kit on my shirt slot which would decrease the efficiency I have on my class, let’s say by lowering my damage and healing by 30% but gives me the ability to repair my vehicles? This should of course also award honor points.

What if we had flying vehicles which also have hitboxes. The technology for “flak” like anti air is already in the game and was presented in Ulduar. The step they have to make to implement something that created such great fun in another game is honestly not too big.

What would you change in WoW and what game where you inspired by? Leave a comment and let me know. Even if you aren’t a WoW player, but you have already tuned in a WoW stream and thought “this would be good” from your games perspective, your opinion is more than welcome!

It’s Sunday again and that of course means another edition of the Live on Three series returning after a brief hiatus. Tune in to catch post-game interviews with Patrick ‘cArn’ Sattermon from Fnatic and Marek ‘.PhP’ Kadek from Reason Gaming.

Other topics on the show include the new CAL and CPL websites and what the timer could mean, ESWC’s prize money guarantee, ESEA’s sixth season, Arbalet’s continued contribution to Counter-Strike, ESL TV’s StarCraft 2 invitational won by Pedro ‘LucifroN’ Moreno Durán and other StarCraft 2 related material. The recent TEK-9 Quake rankings will also be discussed.

The show is due to air at 22:00CET / 4 PM EST, you can tune in over at djWHEAT.tv where you may even get a chance to win a StarCraft 2 beta key thanks to Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau.