Call of Duty 4 has caught the imagination of nearly all of Europes top gaming organisations since its release. Its size, its community and its exciting matches have seen many view this as the first real alternative to Counter Strike. So when the Clanbase Eurocup was announced it was expected to be the jewel in the crown should signups permit, however it was infact the jewel in the baseball cap and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by CB’s biggest player base.
Fnatic decided that after seeing the Prize offering of Game Vouchers for Gamestop, a company that do not operate in Europe they would boycott the competition in protest. Their stance was not followed but that has not softened their resolve.
Fnatic’s opinion have not gone unnoticed by the rest of the community. TeK-9 have also stated that the Eurocup is simply a better alternative to PCW’s rather than the ultimate competition it once was.
Clanbase have been losing the battle against ESL for prestigious tournaments for a long time, however certain games have always remained loyal against the German tournament organisation. Primarily those games have been Quake engine based, such as Call of Duty & ET however has their loyalty now been tested too far? For Call of Duty, many Eurocup players have questioned whether the ruleset was made for them for the Open Cup and are looking further a field for serious competition.
Clanbase’s neglect has been to benefit of organisations such as CoDQCup which if it was announced in a game such as Counter Strike 1.6 would struggle to gain attention and prestige, but through an earnest exterior and steady growth the competition is now the pinnacle of the online Call of Duty world even if its prize offerings are lower than CB’s voucher value and ESL’s cash offering.
And thats not surprising given the nature of the CoD community, they have traditionally been a very loyal and respecting pro-scene who are now getting rewards for that. However the mood when talking with several of the games leading stars is that they cannot sit by and watch the massive Clanbase site (1 million+ users a month) horde is advertising revenue and not share it with its biggest userbase and thus its biggest revenue source.
Whilst fnatic may be alone in their boycott, the adverse reaction to CB’s Eurocup offering to their biggest game will truly be felt next season should they not reward their community. In a game that is growing larger by the day in terms of LAN prize purses, weaker online competitions will be sacrificed. Not to mention that COD’s growth will not go unnoticed by ESL and should ESL finally move outside of their traditional box and offer CoD4 what they offer CS or Warcraft then Clanbase’s last line of defence against the Germans will well and truly be defeated.
Fnatic decided that after seeing the Prize offering of Game Vouchers for Gamestop, a company that do not operate in Europe they would boycott the competition in protest. Their stance was not followed but that has not softened their resolve.
Fnatic’s opinion have not gone unnoticed by the rest of the community. TeK-9 have also stated that the Eurocup is simply a better alternative to PCW’s rather than the ultimate competition it once was.
Clanbase have been losing the battle against ESL for prestigious tournaments for a long time, however certain games have always remained loyal against the German tournament organisation. Primarily those games have been Quake engine based, such as Call of Duty & ET however has their loyalty now been tested too far? For Call of Duty, many Eurocup players have questioned whether the ruleset was made for them for the Open Cup and are looking further a field for serious competition.
Clanbase’s neglect has been to benefit of organisations such as CoDQCup which if it was announced in a game such as Counter Strike 1.6 would struggle to gain attention and prestige, but through an earnest exterior and steady growth the competition is now the pinnacle of the online Call of Duty world even if its prize offerings are lower than CB’s voucher value and ESL’s cash offering.
And thats not surprising given the nature of the CoD community, they have traditionally been a very loyal and respecting pro-scene who are now getting rewards for that. However the mood when talking with several of the games leading stars is that they cannot sit by and watch the massive Clanbase site (1 million+ users a month) horde is advertising revenue and not share it with its biggest userbase and thus its biggest revenue source.
Whilst fnatic may be alone in their boycott, the adverse reaction to CB’s Eurocup offering to their biggest game will truly be felt next season should they not reward their community. In a game that is growing larger by the day in terms of LAN prize purses, weaker online competitions will be sacrificed. Not to mention that COD’s growth will not go unnoticed by ESL and should ESL finally move outside of their traditional box and offer CoD4 what they offer CS or Warcraft then Clanbase’s last line of defence against the Germans will well and truly be defeated.
ClanBase got a lot of user as well and if it would have been run better it should at least be able to match more than 00.1% of the ESL prize purse.. in vouchers.
Someone is doing something wrong and have been doing so for very long, time to learn from ESL.
i call eschaton :|
Would love to know why CB cant do the same.
Nice read tosspot
It's one of the few features I think CB does considerably better than ESL - the cup module as a whole, and especially the coordinated front page with the groups, brackets, etc all clearly visible.
http://gaso.1g.fi/pics/eslcup.jpg
CoD2 EuroCup XV Winners (With LAN finals)
TeK-9 Networks LTD. € 2700
H2k.Qpad € 1500
TEAM-SPEEDLINK € 1000
4th LowLandLions € 800
CoD2 EuroCup XVI was pathetic because all the good teams moved on to CoD4, it didn't deserve anything. CB probably has their reasons for holding back advertisement money, maybe they are even aiming for a bigger event than previous eurocups?
CB bashed the ESL pretty hard when the ESL Benelux announced the ESL Pro Series and CoD4 had a miserable 20 sign ups or something while now CB has over 40 teams from the Benelux in their season.
ESL has way more prize money, just look at the simple QUALIFIER for the Extreme Masters in Los Angeles. Over 65,000 Dollars for CS and WC3, a region which CB will never reach.
i loled
data from last CS EC season (spring 2007)
My guess why CB dropped EuroCups for CS is because of influence by the GGL, but my guesses are worth just as little as yours seeing we are both not head admins at CB.
Why should fnatic compete, and potentially lose their reputation as the best team in the world, for a few measily vouchers, which they probably won't get anyway. Completely understand what they're doing!
CFQCUP won by fnatic [h2k - oXmoze]
CODQCUP won by SK [Tek-9]
CDC4 won by fnatic [TLR]
i33 won by Dignitas [TLR]
fnatic > (L3 || serious)
That's just horrible logic. There's always a best, and irrespective of whoever is capable of beating who, fnatic have won 2/4 of the best events thus far, better than any other team!
fnatic also slammed EG 13-3 as well, so a rather redundant point. Maps and the format of the tournament decide the importance of the match, not the skills of the teams.
Both TLR and oXmoze achieved more than fnatic
TLR:
4th CoD-Gamer LAN
2nd CDC4
2nd i33
oXmoze:
2nd Crossfire Qpad Cup
3rd CODQCUP
2nd CoD-Gamer LAN
3/4th CDC4
CODQCUP was bigger and better than the crossfire qpad cup (no offense)
i33 had more room for competition than the crossfire devotii challenge 4 (double elimination bracket)
CFQC had more cash as a prize - so to dismiss it as you have is wrong, online cups carry only a limit on prestige and both CQC and CoDQCUP both achieved their goals.
i33 had BO1 which is a weak tournament format for any game, ESWC runs SE BO3 because its better and so do CDC. Fnatic vs EG two different results because of BO1 - CDC also had a far stronger lineup of teams
oXmoze have not achieved more than fnatic, and TLR have not won anything which is a rather important fact.
I don't think I've ever heard refer to a scrim/prac as a 'PCW' in the Aus/NZ scene.
If it's the latter then I don't see why anyone's bashing CB. ESL have very little support for any but the mainstream games while CB still have support for games like Warsow and ET. And if that's where their money are going instead of giving it to fnatic you won't hear me complaining.
which went to css, cod4, dota, fifa, pes, ut2004, ut3, etqw, et, dawn of war, cs female
plus some more for the ems predecessor, IPS
cod4 teams will be happy with ems3 too :)
I've already had more fun playing codQcups (the occasional problem aside) and the current EMS qualifiers than participating in most CB OCs.
For instance, the EMS qualifiers have a ruleset almost identical to CDC/CQC (no reddot) and I personally actually like the strict rules ESL has (pb_plist screenshots that have to be uploaded etc.).
If they keep up with what they're doing atm, I can see ESL attracting more mainstream teams, as they seem to have this image of an unpenetrable website, while in fact most ppl are too lazy to just figure 1 or 2 things out (of which I used to be guilty aswell, thx Longbow for saving me <3).
I like codqcup as well in general, however this time unacceptable mistakes have been made by the admins which was a huge disappointment.
As for ESL, i see they really do try hard but unfortunately most of the big teams dont take it seriously, which truly is a shame. If ESL works on their accessability, it has a bright future i think.
got another spot though in the end
Busy job for the qcup admins though, mistakes are bound to happen
Especially not since everything got sorted for you the very next day.
A bit more respect for those who sacrifice alot of freetime so we can have a good time might be in place. Or better yet, why dont you go admin there, show them how its done.
click tournament structure
Map pool and the prospects of useless maps really makes me not wanting to play it, certainly not when there are still so many other cups etc going on.
I really urge people to look at live2win-league for season two aswell.
Despite a less userfriendly website rules are clear, and enforced, people just need to get used to the challenging methodes.
Nice article, as you might have gathered, i agree :)