Clanbase. EuroCup. NationsCup. OpenCup. Hosted Cups. CBooky. LAN Finals. GGL. Clanbase is without question a powerful body with a rich heritage and reputation to savour, but the question still prevails, and never more so in terms of ET: is the magic still there?

We all owe something to Clanbase. You won't find a single player today who won't remember his or her first Clanbase match, the rush that came with the first time you ever locked horns with another team officially. On from such youthful days to loftier heights, from watching the great teams down the years play the game from the pinnacle of the EuroCup, the pages upon pages of coverage written tirelessly by an army of dedicated admins, the nights spent glued to the radio as minute after minute of heart pounding action was commentated on with intensity and passion, perhaps even being fortunate to play in the big cups yourself. Whatever your history, everyone has a background, neigh an affinity with Clanbase, and that is something that can never be taken away.

Yet through all this, the Clanbase we see in ET is certainly nothing compared to its past credentials. Irrespective of which teams compete in the seasonly EuroCups and NationsCups, the emphasis has slowly but surely been moved away into other games which the organisation-on-high regard as 'more important', however loose that phrase sounds. The organisation which used to designate a portion of its prize purse towards this community now splits its 20,000 euro prizepurse and lan-finals between only 3 games: CoD2 S&D, Warcraft 3 and CS 1.6. However more significant Clanbase and more importantly the sponsors see these games, it cannot be denied that the period in which ET received its money was one when the game was doing notably less well than it is today - again you can point to the number of lans as an easy comparison.

However, my feelings on the current situation on ET's prize distribution is not about what was not given, but more in terms of what was. Take the time to click around the CB EuroCup general section and on the various newspages for the different games, you will see top Clanbase brass Killerman's newsposts detailing the prize distributions. On reading these posts, one of several thoughts struck me.

The first was the amount of repetition. Essentially only two posts were ever created, one for games with lan finals, and one for those without. These were then posted on the associated game's page with the name of the game altered to fit as required. "The (insert game name here) EuroCup XV has been awarded with a significant part of the product prizes". Well, no it hasn't, especially not significant, only the same as all the rest. Perhaps for some this would probably not even matter, but the impression I got was one of a lack of any real interest from those at the top. Instead of a community issued post of excitement or animation, all that stood was one generic entry.

Perhaps excitement is what Clanbase is lacking at the moment. Having lost Intel as a chief partner, the organisation is looking to others such as Steelseries and the website Pokerstrategy.cc to provide the support. As a result, the non-lan finals games of 'other importance' are to be provided with prizes from Steel, such as headphones and mousemats, but which are essentially just repeated each time.

Even then, as much of the community has already commented, why these prizes considering the competition they are provided for? Some such as Ronner argue the point in terms of metaphor, citing the fact that the players who will win the prizes are arguably the least in need, "It's like Tiger Woods winning a golfball". Others such as FlyingDJ use irony to point to the fact that players already have all the equipment they need and often religiously stick to it, "...players can win things they desperately need, I mean, who already has a mousepad or a headset?".

As one-sided as I often am, it has to be said that this is a step up from what Overdrive coined as the "diet light version" of the EuroCup we had last season. It must be said that credit is deserved by Clanbase for maintaining support for the games that fall under its vast radar, especially in light of the no-frills EuroCups in ET we have begun to see appearing.

But my point is this. The EuroCup used to be ET's biggest and most prestigious competition. The teams loved it, the players loved it, the fans loved it and the sponsors loved it. But more recently, the EC has significantly diminished in stature. Without a doubt it is no longer the great notch on the bedpost it used to be. Clanbase do well to show it continued support, but, with the size of the support mirrored in the weight of the announced prizes, isn't the EuroCup becoming more of a token event rather than one which justifies its place at the top?