Another season of QuakeLive Team Deathmatch ends when the Grand Finals for both Clanbase Eurocup XXV and the new Champions League will be played this week. The first one to finish is the Clanbase Eurocup XXV which for the first time will get a champion other than 4Kings. The team that has won the last 3 Eurocups couldn't even make it to top 4 this time after they lost to sitto.

Today we will see the end of the first series in the Esports Heaven Full Tilt Poker Challenge as the Quake Live Team Deathmatch finals will be played. In the past month and a half we've seen some amazing matches as the TDM scene is slowly awakening from the years of hibernation.

Last night the 68th episode of Live on Three aired with the ESL Intel Extreme Masters Season 5: European Championship Finals being the main topic. All three champions,    Anton "Cooller" Singov,   Jeffrey "SjoW" Brusi   and     Patrik "cArn" Sättermon from fnatic's Counter-Strike 1.6 team join Slasher and djWheat to discuss the event, the future and other stuff related to their respective games. Click here to watch the show.

Also VODs have started to appear for those who missed the live action. All Grand Finals are already up, I personally recommend everyone to watch the epic battles between Cooller and av3k and fnatic and mTw. More VODs can be found at ESL TV's VOD Archive. As usual, Level Up TV did an awesome job covering some of the Quake matches, including the the Bronze Final between Cypher and strenx. All other VODs from Level Up TV can be found here.

It is time to determine the next set of champions in the ESL Intel Extreme Masters: Season 5. The best European players head to a new destination as the European Championship Finals will be played at Cybersport Arena in Kiev. Someone has the honor to become the first European champion in Star Craft II while mousesports and Cypher return to defend their titles in Counter-Strike 1.6 and Quake Live respectively.




In addition to the prize money, the top 6 of Quake Live, the top 7 of Counter-Strike 1.6 and the top 4 of Star Craft II will qualify for the ESL Intel Extreme Masters Season 5 World Championship Finals to be held at ceBIT 2011, Hannover in the beginning of March.

Links: Article, ESL IEM5 EC
Coverage: Tek-9, SK Gaming, fnatic, Team Liquid, ESFI World, Fragster
Interviews:
with Cypher (by SK)
with spart1e (by SK)
with fazz (by ESFI)
with GoHLinK (by ESFI)
with Na'Vi Zeus (by SK)

All good things must come to an end and so does this Dreamhack, the tournament featuring players from the very top and the upcoming challengers, the tournament filled with drama and upsets, and most importantly the greatest Quake action we've seen in a while. Av3k's time as the Dreamhack champion is now over as he among the three members of the elite four went down in the first round of the playoffs and Cypher being the only one to advance further and eventually reaching the final. In the final Cypher had to face DaHanG, an American underestimated by many. Cypher in three maps became the new king of Dreamhack although DaHanG certainly put up a good fight. For the third place we had two online rivals battling it out in a thrilling 5-mapper. K1llsen came out on top and strenx had to settle for the 4th place which in tournament with this level of competition is a great achievement.

Today is Wednesday which means it's another playday of the ESL Intel Extreme Master Season 5: European Championship. Today we will see the the match to decide the group leader in Group A, k1llsen vs av3k. The match will of course be casted by ESL TV with Joe, starting at 22:00 CET. After that the ESL TV will also show madix vs calipt.

The online groupstage of the Intel Extreme Masters Season 5: European Championship kicks off tonight with five matches. All the matches are played as bo3 and the maplist is as following: Aerowalk, Blood Run, Dismemberment, Furious Heights, Hektik, Lost World, Vertical Vengeance. The winner of each match earns $50.


27/10/10
27/10/10
27/10/10
27/10/10
27/10/10
27/10/10

21:30 CEST
22:15 CEST
22:15 CEST
22:15 CEST
22:45 CEST
22:45 CEST

strenx vs spartaz0rd @ Level Up TV
noctis vs daxio
k1llsen vs GaRpY @ Level Up TV
fazz vs Nitrino @ ESL TV
guard vs UwU @ ESL TV
calipt vs serak

The following matches from round one will be played later.

31/10/10
2/11/10
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???
???
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21:00 CEST
22:45 CEST
???
???
???
???

Spart1e vs plaZmaa
winz vs av3k
fox vs zsx
Cypher vs dem0n
draven vs stermy
Cooller vs GoHLinK


The groups have changed a bit, as Balk and Cny are unable to play they are replaced by plaZmaa and zsx.

Source: IEM 5 European Championship

The qualification rounds have come to an end and finally the groups for the ESL Intel Extreme Masters Season 5: European Championship were drawn for Quake Live and StarCraft II. Next week the online groupstage will begin, all matches are played in Best of 3 format, the winner of each match picks a $50 bonus and the top 2 of each group will advance to the European Championship Finals where the main part of $114,400 prize money is at stake. For participating the Finals each player also gets another bonus of $150.

The first regional champions of the ESL Intel Extreme Masters Season 5 are about to be determined as the Americans have arrived at Comic Con 2010 in New York City. The games for the weekend are Counter-Strike 1.6, StarCraft II and QuakeLive. The QuakeLive tournament seems particularly intersting as we see the reigning American Champion EG.DaHang, the reigning World Champion SK-rapha, the Painkiller legend coL.Vo0 and czm, a mastermind from the past.

The ESL Intel Extreme Masters V: Global Challenge Gamescom 2010 is now finished with some awesome games during throughout the whole five days. The Quakelive tournament ended with a huge surprise as k1llsen unleashed his fearsome railgun and took down rapha, the reigning ESL Intel Extreme Masters champion. In the StarCraft II tournament, MorroW, who wasn't even supposed to be at the event, beat IdrA three maps to one.