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.

Quote by Fnatic mint I think the way Clanbase has decided to treat their biggest game is far from acceptable. They used to be, the biggest online cup and even sometimes with offline finals in europe. The Eurocup on Clanbase has been degraded to a level where those who remember cod1 can recall better prizes. This is a blow to CoD4 that only can considered as one I can not stand by and watch. Unfortunately other teams have signed up and I guess the cup will have a big attendance anyway but it's a shame EC has sold out and manage to let down it's fans in the process.


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.