Game developer, Splash Damage have today announced that they will be teaming up with the World Cyber Games executives and will be sending an American team to the event with their airtravel and hotel provided by the WCG organisation. As you may have read on Crossfire previously, Quakewars Online is one of this year's promotional games that is being featured at the WCG 2010 Finals in Los Angelos.

As the Asian and European slots have already been filled, this left Splash Damage with only to send an American team. So for those of you who used to play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars in America, then this is a great opportunity for you.

Basic Game Rules

• Teams take turns playing GDF and Strogg, once each on same map
  
• The team finishing all three objectives faster is selected the winner
  
• If the teams have the exact same time, then other methods are used to determine winner

As I'm sure a lot of you are aware after reading MerlinatoR's journal, our favourite Welshlad Owzo has entered a competition called "So you think you can shoutcast?" where he is in with the chance of winning an fully-paid trip to the World Cyber Games in Los Angeles, California to be featured as the commentator for the WCG TV at this year's event finals.



To win the competition, Owzo, real name Owain Howard, had to submit a video with him shoutcasting the match as if it was happening live. The choice was between Tekken or Counter Strike. An easy choice for Owzo then considering he mentioned last night how Tekken wasn't a game that tickled his fancy and that he had played Counter Strike a few times back in the day. So he downloaded the clip, shoutcasted over it in true Owzo style by "steamin' in" and then uploaded the video to YouTube as per the competition guidelines. This is where you guys come in...

With the Antwerp eSports Festival just around the corner the time has come to release a bit more information about the event schedule and some side activities on site.

First of all we would like to point out that the final tournament schedules, seedings and groups will be released shortly on the AEF website. The groups for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory have already been released and can be found here.

AEF Shop by SteelSeries

In cooperation with SteelSeries, we will be opening up a shop at the event that can be found near the entrance. At this shop we will be selling various gaming peripherals, many at discount price. The full list of the products and prices can be found here:



As you can see it also includes limited edition items and the new 7H headset which has just been released and can only be described as one of the best gaming headsets out there. Beware that some items only have a limited stock available so if you want one you need to be fast! You can reserve an item by sending an email to steven [ a-t ] gamevibes.be mentioning the item you would like to reserve, your name and when you will be picking it up.

Opening party

On Friday we will also be hosting an opening party for all the players, press and several VIP's. Starting from 18:00 CET, DJ Airforce will be playing his tunes, followed straight after that by DJ ESP (Resident DJ from one of the biggest clubs in Belgium, Versuz). The party will go on until 01:00 AM, which means that even the teams who need to play on Friday evening should fine some the time to enjoy the music and a couple of drinks at the party in between the matches or straight after.

We will be serving alcoholical beverages throughout the entire Antwerp eSports Festival and we will also have a special Belgian Beer corner in cooperation with Alken-Maes where you will be able to find a wide selection of specialty beers from Belgium.

Enjoy yourselves in Antwerp!

With the Antwerp Esports Festival kicking off next week, on Friday the 30th of July, it has come to our attention that several teams are still looking for accomodation during the event.

Similar to the guide to the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 and the SteelSeries Esport Challenge, below you can find a list of 12 possible hotel alternatives, that are within 30 minutes of walking distance from the event. More information regarding the travel to Antwerp and the event can be found at the EsportsFestival.com website (HERE). A few other accomodation alternatives can be found (HERE).

The address of the event is as follows:

Stuurboord / Hangar 26
Rijnkaai 96
2000 Antwerp
Belgium

Although this list gives you a good idea of the possibilities, I would advice everyone to have a look at sites such as Booking.com or Hotels.com for possibly better deals or locations closer to the event.

The criteria I've used: the hotels should be within 30 minutes walking distance from the event, preferably around 10 minutes. The rating of the hotel (over a decent sample) should be 6.9/7.0 out of 10, or higher.

Icon Legend


Free WiFi Available


No WiFi Available


Paid WiFi Available


Walking Distance To Event


Breakfast Included


No Breakfast Available


Paid Breakfast Available
[/b]

The alternatives are ordered (from low to high) based on price. All prizes are based on four nights, from Thursday the 29th of July until Monday the 2nd of August. I will add the total cost for a four night stay, using the cheapest double bedroom for each alternative as an example. In addition, I've included the price per person / per night. I will add the price of a family room (5 persons) when available.

Hotels

Hotel Antwerp Billard Palace
Koningin Astridplein 40, Antwerp
A 29 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).
Details: star
Booking.com rating: 6.9
Price (4 nights, two persons): €196 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €24,50
Link: HERE

= 29 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Condo Gardens Antwerp
De Pretstraat 11, Antwerp
A 15 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: stars
Booking.com rating: 7.5
Price (4 nights, two persons): €217 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €27,12
Link: HERE

= 15 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Agora Hotel
Koningin Astridplein 43, Antwerp
A 28 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: stars
Booking.com rating: 7.6
Price (4 nights, two persons): €244 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €30,50
Link: HERE

= 28 minutes (to the event location)
[/hide]
Sandton Empire Hotel
Appelmanstraat 31, Antwerp
A 30 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: stars
Booking.com rating: 7.2
Price (4 nights, two persons): €256 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €32
Link: HERE

= 30 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Leonardo Hotel Antwerpen
De Keyserlei 59, Antwerp
A 30 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: [img]http://www.tek-9.org/img/news/content/star_smallicon.jpg/img] stars
Booking.com rating: No Rating
Price (4 nights, two persons): €258 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €32,25
Link: HERE

= 30 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
City Apartments Antwerpen
Van Stralenstraat 49, Antwerp
A 23 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: stars
Booking.com rating: 7.3
Price (4 nights, two persons): €260 (From Thursday till Monday)
(4 person rooms available for €486 for 4 nights).
Per person / per night: €32,50
Link: HERE

= 23 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Hotel Keyserlei
van Ertbornstraat 10, Antwerp
A 27 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: stars
Booking.com rating: 7.1
Price (4 nights, two persons): €269 (From Thursday till Monday)
(3 person rooms available for €398 for 4 nights).
Per person / per night: €33,62
Link: HERE

= 27 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Scheldezicht
St. Jansvliet 10-12, Antwerp Centre, Antwerp
A 20 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: Unknown stars
Booking.com rating: 7.8
Price (4 nights, two persons): €280 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €35
Link: HERE

= 20 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Hotel Postiljon
Blauwmoezelstraat 6, Antwerp Centre, Antwerp
A 16 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: star
Booking.com rating: 7.7
Price (4 nights, two persons): €280 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €35
Link: HERE

(in public areas only) = 16 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Internationaal Zeemanshuis
Falconrui 21, Antwerp Centre, Antwerp
A 13 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: star
Booking.com rating: 7.1
Price (4 nights, two persons): €288 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €36
Link: HERE

= 13 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Hotel Antigone
Jordaenskaai 11-12, Antwerp Centre, Antwerp
A 11 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: stars
Booking.com rating: 7.7
Price (4 nights, two persons): €300 (From Thursday till Monday)
(4 person rooms available for €540 for 4 nights).
Per person / per night: €37,50
Link: HERE

= 11 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]
Park Inn by Radisson
Koningin Astridplein 14, Antwerp
A 29 minute walk to Hangar 26 (the location of the event).

Details: stars
Booking.com rating: 8.7
Price (4 nights, two persons): €320,40 (From Thursday till Monday)
Per person / per night: €40,05
Link: HERE

= 29 minutes (to the event location)

[/hide]

All rights reserved to jetset on TeK-9.org

- Original copy/paste by sweedy but I figured it'd be more suitable as a stickied newspost.

If anybody has any other info on other hotels/B&Bs/hostels then provide the info in your comments and include all the information in the same format as this news post. Thankyou!

The Alienware Backpacking Challenge is in week 3 and the time has come for the followers to give their ideas for a new challenge.

With a new challenge thrown at the participants every week they have been doing extremely well and we want to test them every single week to push their boundaries regardless of the country they are in. That is why we are now inviting everyone to give their ideas on what we need to challenge the contestants to next. The time has come to let us know what you would have the contestants do the next couple of weeks.

Leave your ideas in the comments and who knows, your idea might get picked and we might see the contestant live up to your challenge.

Don't forget to vote for Week 2 as well as the contestants will need your help!

When it became obvious that the current rockit Enemy Territory team would not attend the Antwerp eSports Festival or any other LAN to come we had several talks with teams to join us and become the successor of the team that played so well at Crossfire Intel Challenge 7. Before going into detail about the new Rockit lineup we would like to thank our team around Clown that already made it to the Play-offs of the ESL Major Series and ClanBase EuroCup, as well as wish them the best of luck for the future.

Rockit.ET was:

• rockit. Clown
  
• rockit. filuS
  
• rockit. Crmbs
  
• rockit. freeze
  
• rockit. joop
  
• rockit. Zak

Now we would like to present you the new team to wear the rockit shirt. It's a team anybody having a little knowledge of the ET scene should have heard of before. It's the team that surprised everyone at Crossfire Challenge 5 by winning a tournament with teams like mamut.si, ButtonBashers and YoYoTech in attendence. Known as Epsilon the team then joined famous eSports organisation H2k Gaming and attended the last Crossfire Challenge in may as Jungle Brothers where they came 5th. With a slightly renewed lineup featuring our CiC7 player Winghaven we say welcome to our new rockit.ET team and its players:

We're hosting our second Quake Live cup after the success of the previous one which saw k1llsen win 50€! Our "Quake Live Dude" Matthias "matze" Weh will be your host for Monday evening's cup, if you have any problems give him a shout (rockit`matze on IRC).

Some important infos:

• Cup format: Duel
  
• Timelimit: 10 minutes
  
• Maps: dm6, dm13, t7, t9 and ztn
  
• System: Best out of One 'til the Quater Finals, after then Best out of Three. The Grand Final will be played in a Best out of five.
  
• Each player must be present in #PlayRockit to get in contact with their opponent
  
• wins 50€
  
• If your opponent does not show up/is not responding query rockit`matze
  
• For information on how to sign up, read our news post

Good luck & have fun!
___________________________

Source: http://www.team-rockit.com/index.php?mod=news&action=view&id=229

[img|left]http://rockit.for-the-lolz.com/images/rockit_red_small.png[/img]
As I'm sure most of you know, a couple of weeks ago, we announced our Team Kill Competition for a €25 iTunes voucher. Well, the decision has been made, and we are proud to announce the winner is...

[center]DESTINY![/center]

Check out his awesome Panzerfaust TK on Radar:

To see the other videos, check out the newspost over on www.team-rockit.com

Once again congratulations to destiny, the voucher is on it's way to you!

Related:
Original Newspost
Destiny's Winner's Journal!

The runners-up of the Call of Duty 4 tournament at the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 which took place last weekend, Reason Gaming, have picked up Jason "lookzor" Perez O'Connor. Jason will play along side his brother Danny "SoCLoN" Perez O'Connor.

Whilst this is a good thing for the team, they will obviously be sad to see Tim "revoltz" Denton say goodbye to them due to him stepping down from competitive gaming.

SteelSeries have just announced a potentially massive LAN in Copenhagen, Denmark which will be run in conjunction with up & coming COD4 gaming association Vita Nova.

The tournament will cost €350 to enter a team (of 5 players) & the prizepot will be €10,000, providing 32 teams sign up. Prizes are as follows:

€5,000
€2,500
€1,250
4th €500
5-8th €250

The event will take place between 30th of April until 2nd of May this year at Cop3nhag3nRobot in Copenhagen, Denmark. If you want to go just to watch, it's free. Signups & ticket sales will be available from 17th March.



Useful Links:
eSports Challenge Homepage
Vita Nova Homepage
Tek-9 Newspost