UK Giants Dignitas take on Reason Gaming in an i30 final that is not as conclusive as some may have thought at the start of the tournament. Dignitas have looked impressive as expected, however Reason have matched them almost round for round in the early stages.

Reason have infact looked brilliant in each and every game, whilst Dignitas have had one wobble on trainstation against Infused. For Dignitas they will be looking for their third successive crown. They've won the iseries and taken down all comers up to this point, last time out against c4u.

Reason vs Dignitas
Maps: Burgundy, Toujane - Decider Dawnville
Time: 14:00 GMT
Stream: Live Stream from Multiplay
VODs: VODs from the event

It would be almost an understatement to say that the opening week of the CoD2 EuroCup XIV has been packed with surprises and of the three top teams in Europe (as voted in the Gotfrag Rankings), not one has come out of Week 1 as expected. The news that Serious-Gaming, the defending champions, would not be competing this season was met with disappointment and now both Logitech.fi and Dignitas have suffered first round defeats.

Logitech went up against the unknown Entropy side, constructed mainly of players from Serious-Gaming, who formed temporarily after the news that their team would not be taking part this season. After a strong performance in Sweden at the WonderBase LAN event, Logitech were one of the favourites going into this EuroCup but were left reeling after a 13-11 loss against Entropy. Despite a valiant effort from the ever-reliable Sec, Logitech were made to work for every round on Dawnville and the score is a fair reflection of the way the match played out.



The next upset was to feature two teams that have recently undergone lineup changes, the European heavyweights digitalMind and Dignitas. Dignitas had just picked up Palmz from Reason while digitalMind had managed to secure the services of Solz from H2k. Both teams went into the match knowing defeat would put them in a difficult position in Group C but it was the Dutch team of digitalMind that rose to the occasion, winning in convincing fashion. Troubling times lie ahead for Dignitas and they will look to get back on track against a struggling dSlash side in Week 2. DigitalMind on the other hand have sent a message to the top teams of Europe that they are not to be underestimated and their new lineup seems to have worked a treat.




In other results, Reason seemed to have suffered no ill effects from the loss of Palmz as they took down TooEasy in convincing fashion. Tek-9 overcame the potential hiccup that was inteRaction, the Czech team that everybody is talking about right now. The Multiplay i29 finalists CSA also got off to a good start, taking down a troubled H2k.steelseries side 13 to 10 while Speedlink shut down TmG to show that they mean business

We now go into Week 2 with an altogether different perspective with big names such as H2k, Dignitas and Logitech all under pressure to perform. H2k in particular will have a hard time going up against a determined Speedlink side. Other exciting match ups include Entropy versus Copenhagen-Esports and Reason versus the up and coming suXus.

Team Dignitas, recently voted the number one CoD2 team in Europe, have today announced another lineup change. Team captain Mick's brother, Dales, has taken up a new job that will require a lot more travelling and so has stepped back from active play and will be replaced with another ex-Digntias star, Phill "palmz" Palmer. Joining from UK rivals Reason-Gaming, Palmer brings a wealth of experience and an agressive play style that should sit well with his new team mates. Having played for Dignitas earlier this year, Palmer was the obvious choice to replace Dales and despite considering other players such as TmG's Niggle and vCoD superstar mo_Ose, Dignitas opted for the Birmingham-born Palmz.

While this is good news for Dignitas, it has left Reason in a spot of bother but it didn't seem to affect them today as they took down the Italian TooEasy in the EuroCup, bringing back phonic9 to take the spot of Palmz. The team remains motivated and after getting their EuroCup XIV campaign off to a good start who knows how far they will go. All eyes now are set on the Week 5 match up between Reason and Dignitas on mp_carentan in what is sure to be an emotion-filled battle.

Mick gave a brief statement on www.team-dignitas.org.

Quote

Last week dale told me he had applied for a new job which required alot of traveling around the UK thus making it impossible for him to be activly playing in team-dignitas, therefore he has stepped down and become a backup player. We needed a player and Phill asked to join. Having played with him before I know he is a great addition to our team, and I hope he stays for a long time!

Palmz himself added a few words.

Quote

I'm glad to be rejoining Team Dignitas after my six months break from the team! Mick asked me if I would like to rejoin and the offer was just too good like before.

After these changed the new-look Dignitas lineup will be as follows...

Mick
beNN
Raz
Trainee
Palmz

Dales (backup)
Yekoms (team coach)

ClanBase last night announced the 24 teams taking part in this season's CoD2 EuroCup. With record signups of 559 again, CoD2 attracted a lot of attention and even though this Fall season will feature no LAN finals or prize money the big names of European CoD2 are taking part anyway. Last season's winners Serious are included as well as their fellow finalists Dignitas, Tek-9 and Speedlink. The competition is sure to be intense and as usual the invites went hand in hand with controversy. Reason Gaming were announced as the 3rd team invited from the UK but apparently there was a mix-up with CB accounts and the invite was intended for Team-c4u. This was quickly remedied but not without leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of some, not least the Reason players.

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the 24 teams taking part in the CoD2 EuroCup XIV...

Serious-Gaming
Stheno
Temporg
Tek-9
Copenhage-Esports
eSuba
inteRaction
Logitech.fi
Venatio
Emulate
Webone
dSlash
Team Cooltronik
Team Speedlink
TooEasy
H2k.Steelseries
digitalMind
suXus
Fear Factory
Logic
Fukyuu
Team-c4u
Trademark Gamers
Team Dignitas

For more info on the CoD2 EuroCup, check out www.clanbase.com.

After a rollercoaster LAN schedule over the last few months the CoD2 scene has finally slowed down and with that comes the inevitable slew of player changes. The initial moves were to involve digitalMind, infamous for changing their roster after events. Coming off a win at Netgamez, a poor performance at the Milk LAN and a much better one at WonderBase, the Dutch side decided to remove Breazi and cut roEl from the starting 5. They did this safe in the knowledge that they could replace them with the talented duo of Zem and Rapz who were to move from H2k.

This would leave the digitalMind lineup as follows...

Rikk
Roy
Nutec
Zem
Rapz

With the 2006 LAN season coming to an end, Gotfrag have announced their highly anticipated top 10 rankings for European Call of Duty 2 once more. This month has seen a number of surprises including the success of Serious and Tek-9, both with new lineups, as well as the emergence of Logitech.fi, the former Idle.ee side, as serious European contenders. Alongside all this though it is Digntias who have obviously been impressing the most and it is the UK side that takes first place in the rankings. Speedlink drop 4 places to 5th after a string of weak performances and alongside last month's high achievers H2k and Doubleslash, are under pressure to step up their game. Below you can view the full rankings.



You can read the full article here.

A night of intense gaming ended in victory for Tek-9 who came right through the Lower Bracket and managed to take down home favourites Webone on two maps. Sporting an all-new lineup, Tek-9 were touted by many to make the top 3 but the likes of digital Mind and Speedlink were supposed to be in better form. Tek-9 silenced their doubters though, taking down both these teams in convincing fashion and despite losing to Webone in the Upper Bracket Final they kept their cool to take their revenge on Toujane and then Matmata.

Full credit to Webone though, nobody could have predicted they would do so well and the partisan crowd in the Milk Internet Hall in Paris must have spurred them on. They knocked down both Speedlink and originally Tek-9 to the Lower Bracket and maybe with a bit more experience have sealed the deal. It was not to be however but they can be proud to take second place while others below them appear to be in freefall. Speedlink in particular had yet another disappointing event, the sole high point of which was taking down a distinctly lacklustre digitalMind side in the Lower Bracket.

Final Standings:

1st Place: Tek-9 (€1,200 + €1,500 hardware)
2nd Place: Webone (€700+ €1,000 hardware)
3rd Place: Team Speedlink (€200 + €500 hardware)
4th Place: DigitalMind (€100 + €400 hardware)
5th Place: eSuba (€300)
6th Place: emuLate (€200)
7th Place: Takecare (€100)

The city of romance, Paris, will this weekend play host to the much-anticipated Milk Lan, featuring the likes of Speedlink, digitalMind and Tek-9 battling it out for the top prize. With Netgamez and the EuroCup already behind us there are not too many major events left in 2006, but Milk Lan is certainly one of them. Featuring a host of talented teams and situated in an internet gaming cafe in the centre of Paris, this Lan promises to be one to remember. While the likes of Dignitas and Check Six were unable to attend, there still remains a surplus of top teams, many of which go into the event with a little more on their mind than normal. The pressure mounts on Speedlink to show they can still dominate at the top level, Tek-9 are going to have to finish at least in the top three to show their new players still have the drive to succeed in CoD2 and teams such as digitalMind and suXus come into this event needing to prove that their respective successes at Netgamez were no fluke.

Prepare yourselves for a night of drama, action and excitement as the top teams in Europe battle it out. With nearly €3,000 in cash up for grabs the competition is sure to be fierce and a lot is likely to rest on who can stay focussed the longest and not let the tiredness and the nerves kick in. Kicking off at 8pm CET on the Saturday night, Milk Lan will run throughout the night and aims to finish up just in time for breakfast. Below you can find all the info relating to this event and more...

We have seen Yekoms and Mick alongside each other numerous times before, for example in TAG, Supermen and more recently Dignitas, but this time it will be with a twist. Instead of playing, Yekoms will instead be coaching Mick and his team mates in Dignitas. While this is common in games such as Quake 4 and Counter Strike it will be one of the first instances of this in Call of Duty 2. Yekoms will be helping the team with tactics and general issues in and out of game and will step in as a 5th player when needed. Dignitas manager ODEE will be hoping this will help his team step up and fulfill their potential to dominate European CoD2 in a way that only Speedlink have done before.

It is an interesting move by Dignitas and if it works out this could start a new trend in Call of Duty 2. The benefits of having a coach has already been proven in other main stream games and having an experienced player like Yekoms around to help out can hopefully do no harm. The team has a number of events coming up and a top performance is expected from the team that took 2nd place at the EuroCup Lan Finals.

Yekoms gave the following statement on team-dignitas.org...

"First of all id like to say its wonderful to be back in dignitas even if its only at the capacity of team coach/6th man, the reason I left c4u was mainly down to the reason I couldnt really play as a 5th as i wasnt online enough, so i was letting them down. I'd like to wish them the very best of luck however in the future. I am looking forward to helping dignitas in every way i can and hopefully they will reproduce the form that saw when winning top lans. A big thanks to mick aswell for being a sorted mate."

This leaves the full Team Digntias lineup as follows...

Mick
Dales
Raz
Trainee
beNN

Yekoms (team coach)

After winning the Danish eXperience Lan it appears that some major names have taken an interest in the promising Aeon.eSports side and they have now merged with Copenhagen-Esports.

This moves might come as a surprise to many after the team lost juL and Frijec played at the EuroCup Lan for rivals Tek-9 but it appears Aeon have come through this difficult patch and reforged a new, very promising lineup. The addition of Qwerty from Digntias was an inspired pickup and although Maxxur has left for pastures new, xerno easily replaces him.