In the ever growing world of multi-gaming organizations and the general expansion of the eSports market, the internet seems to have become inundated with people moving into the management side of things for numerous reasons and motives. Sure, intentions can be good and for most of the time, they contribute heavily in some way into helping players get to LAN destinations in relative comfort and safety but really, when it comes down to it, are they really worth it?

Well, I put the question to you. What is in fact worse than a cheater? If you’re pedantic and take the question out of context, there are a lot of things worse than a cheater. Rapists, arsonists, murderers all in my mind are worse than cheaters and I’m pretty sure most of you would agree. So let’s reel this in a bit.

As I write this column, I sit on a train headed for Enschende. I can't help remark on how comfy these seats are, seriously, trains are horrifically uncomfortable and are usually looked after by burly men who look like they wan tot rape you. D:

We’re drawing ever closer to CDC4 and from my point of view, I’m really excited. Not only because it will be my first CDC event but the shear anticipation encompassing the ET side of the proceedings is quite frankly, immense. True, we’ve had competition for the title before and true, the event has been over-hyped massively but come on, the only thing we need at the event now is a powerhouse such as MPG.

Well, what can we really say about Dignitas’ Quake Wars team? So far in the short time we’ve had a competitive Quake Wars scene, Dignitas has been the driving force in the community and the one team to beat above all others. Some have come close, yet have never really had the capabilities of achieving what this outfit has done. Quakecon, the Crossfire QCUP, the Clanbase OpenCup and more recently the Packard Bell EU Open, you name it and these guys have won it.

A few months ago, I interviewed mintR after fnatic (at the time known as EYEballers) had won the Crossfire QCUP with an impressive performance. If you had asked me back then how CDC4 would play out in relation to the CoD4 tournament, I would have laughed and said “You’re kidding me, right?” That was then and unsurprisingly enough, this is now. After a fairly recent and shocking exit from the CoDQCUP, was my early faith somewhat misplaced in these Swedish giants?

With New Project dominating the ET LAN scene for a succession of events, it’s hard to see anyone being able to topple these giants from the top spot. With the perfect balance of natural talent, graft and team play, there’s a reason the reigning CDC champions have done so well. These facts make it have made it increasingly hard to see a serious contender stepping up to the plate and giving New Project a real run for their money.

It’s the final countdown! Not only a great line in a song, it’s also a great way to describe the little time we have left until our XF NC Grand Finale!

With the match only a day and a bit away, we just have enough time to take a last minute glimpse over the players involved, along with some views from the people who will be entertaining you on Sunday night via the marvelous invention that is ETTV.

Semi-final time in our Crossfire NC and boy, what amazing games to look forward to! Clearly, most would have predicted these teams getting to this point (Cough!) but still, that doesn't take anything away from the quality we have on show!

So we’ve gone past our group stages and finally, we have our last-sixteen games to look forward to! There has been a wide variety of great match-ups so far, with some teams stepping up to the plate when it really mattered.