Paddy Power (http://www.paddypower.com/esports) have recently started offering odds on Esports, and this time it's the turn of Enemy Territory as you're able to bet on the winner of SAGE LAN! Anexis and Dignitas are both close together at the top of the market but there's value to be had all around, so click here to see the odds in full. If the uptake is good then Paddy Power will look to provide odds on more Enemy Territory events in future!

Paddy Power are also offering a free bet of up to £/€25 for new customers who register through the above link to bet on Esports. When you go to register, above "personal details" it should say "You are entitled to a €/£25 free bet." This means that you will get a free bet to the same stake as your first bet on PaddyPower credited to your account within 24 hours (sometimes instantly). To use the free bet, just add a selection to your betslip and it will come up in a dropdown menu. If you do not get this message when registering, then clear your cookies and revisit www.paddypower.com/esports before registering as this is a special offer to people who are signing up because of esports.

The Global Gaming League (GGL) announced earlier today that they have purchased the rights to make eSports an official welcome event of this summer's Beijing Olympics, in yet another huge step for eSports.

Currently recognized as an official sport in China; the GGL have been given the rights to use the Olympic Rings in their logos for advertising The Digital Games. Whilst this will not be part of the Olympics, it will coincide with the first four days of the event. The venues for the final of the event, which will have a series of national qualifiers to determine the final participants, have not yet been confirmed, but are likely to be football stadia in Shanghai. It is not yet known whether the games which will be used will be played on the PC or on consoles, nor their genres or titles.Ted Owen, CEO of the GGL, expects not only heavy media coverage but crowds to exceed those of the official Olympic events. Owen also stated that he hoped that The Digital Games could create "the ultimate elevation of gaming and the culture of gaming to the world stage", with Fong Hong, General Secretary of the China Internet Gaming Organizing Committee stating that "In the long run, we hope that video gaming becomes a formal sport throughout the world. That is the long-term vision."

Source:
CNN

The British multigaming organization Four Kings announced earlier the creation of their academy section with the addition of Pro Evolution Soccer player Gordon "Wallace" Hislop, and the French Team Fortress 2 team Cursed Gaming. The current CoD4 team has also been moved to the academy. This evening, they were able to reveal another addition, in the form of the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars side formally known as Point-Blank.
Whilst Point-Blank haven't picked up any major acheivements thus far, they're currently undefeated in the Clanbase OpenCup, and have qualified for the ESL Major Series. It's expected that with their new support that they'll be attending both Multiplay i33 and Crossfire Devotii Challenge 4 in early 2008.

Adam "Hazz" Nicholls, ETQW manager gave the following statement
We are all very pleased to be given the opportunity of representing 4K in ETQW. Our team aims to play at the highest level and place well in as many tournaments as the scene has to offer.
It is a great privilege to be representing a team with such a reputation and we look forward to doing well with their support.
New TF2 player, Michael 'Mick' Fernandez had the following to say about joining 4Kings:
We are really proud to be the first Team Fortress 2 clan to wear the colors of one of the biggest multi-gaming team ever, and we hope that it's going to help to promote the game in the European fps scene, that's a big opportunity to us and we will do our best to help our new team by winning the more titles we can. I would like to thanks Ben for the trust he gave to us.
Here's what Gordon 'Wallace' Hislop had to say about joining up with 4Kings:
I'm very happy to be joining 4Kings, I hope to achieve and score many goals and win every tournament I participate in. The reason why I chose 4Kings over other teams is their history and the reputation they have in gaming, In football terms I always thought they were the Manchester United of esports so it was a simple descision to make.

4Kings.ETQW is
Rahul 'hentai' Nahar
Mike 'Dranzer' Busing
Joe 'Fenda' Fender
Mark 'Imentiu' Tyson
Carsten 'rglaf' Ekholt
Peter 'nkm' Newcombe
Matthew 'Antipop' Lowe
Adam 'Hazz' Nicholls
4Kings.TF2 is
Alexandre 'Aior' Helies
Romain 'Darkprayor' Bienne
Jean Baptiste 'EpsyLon' Champlong
Guillaume 'Gegon' Brunel
Romain "Jex' Dralet
Mickael 'Mick' Fernandez
Alexandre 'Teoch' Shalit
Aurélien 'Winny' Thevenet
Thibault 'Zyx' Davan Weber
4Kings.PES is Gordon 'Wallace' Hislop

4 kings manager, Ben Woodward gave the following statement:
Finally, we've opened our academy and i honestly cannot think of four better games to be part of it. On one hand you have PES which is actually very popular but it hasn't seen overwhelming support from eSports teams, we hope it'll continue to grow with our involvement. TF2 on the other hand is only recently released and already has a pro circuit in the USA with CEVO putting up $5000 prize money for it. We're hoping something similar will happen in Europe and if it does, i feel we have the best players possible. I've played with or against every one of members of 4K.TF2 in TFC and i know their ability.

Cod4 will obviously become pretty big very quickly, as was proved with CoD2, ETQW is fairly new and has only really had one major tournament thus far, that being Quakecon.

The ultimate goal of the 4Kings academy is to further promote these titles and others, hopefully over time we'll see each of these games become very popular and we'd like to say we've been part of it's development.

www.four-kings.com
#4kings

This Saturday 17th November, 18 teams descend on Paris, France, in order to participate in the finals of the Fnac Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Trophy sponsored by Asus! With the event being held in the Fnac Ternes store in Paris, both gamers and members of the public alike have the opportunity to witness some of the top teams in France go head to head for the chance of walking away with 5 ASUS gaming laptops!
However there has been some controversy over the structure and rules of the event, which will be played solely on the demo version of ET:QW with no restrictions and in 5v5. Also, we see a 10 minute timelimit in the group stage, increasing to 15 minutes for the knockout. Objective count is irrelevant, and in the case of a tie, the team with the most XP will take the victory.
With the teams being split up into 6 groups of 3, with the winners then advancing into 2 more poules of 3 teams. The top team from each group will then contest the final, with the 2nd placed teams playing for 3rd place.

Whilst Greek Operation Forces must go into this event as the favourites, it would be unwise to underestimate any of their French opponents who will look to cause an upset on home soil, with CoRe, ScaraB and Against This Brigade looking like the strongest of their opponents. However none of the other teams should be disappointed, as Fnac have paid the full expenses of all the teams competing in the event, as part of the prize for winning the qualification rounds during October, where each participant also earned an ASUS (G5) Gaming Mouse.

With the finals having been completed the results are as follows:

1st place: NoFrag
2nd place: ATB
3rd place: grof

Congratulations to NoFrag, who now win 5 ASUS G1 Gaming laptops!

The Teams Are Competing For The Following Prizes
1st - 5 ASUS G1 Gaming Laptops
2nd - 5 ASUS PG221 LCD Screens
3rd - 5 ASUS PG191 LCD Screens

Multiplay's i32 LAN is well underway, with just the final of the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars tournament remaining to be played. With only 4 teams entering the competition it took place in a double elimination format, with Dignitas defeating Greek Operation Forces in the Upper Bracket final on Refinery. With GROF then defeating {SAS} with easy to secure their place in the grand final, and a guarentee of £750 for 2nd place.
The final will see the 2 teams battling it out for £2000 & 6 Saphire graphics cards, courtesy of Activision and Sapphire, and will be shoutcast live at 19.30 CET by TosspoT and Deman, and can be accessed through either the QuadV or Multiplay website. Packard Bell have provided computers for both teams to use for the final.

Due to the double elimination format, GROF must win both Salvage and Sewer in order to take victory, whilst Dignitas only needs to win 1 map.

Update - The Match has been delayed until Sunday morning now

Lineups
Dignitas
Bjorn
Huggo
Reload
senji
SonDac
utr

GROF
2easy
athex
hentai
Quark
RuFiO
Waste

Update - Postponed until 11.00 Sunday
Dignitas won 2-0 on Salvage to win the Contamination Cup

Back in August, Junk52 announced the edition of an Enemy Territory: Quake Wars squad, and now the team can announce that they are latest in a number of teams who have failed to progress from the demo to the fullgame.

With the departure of Murre earlier this week for the reformed One2, citing his reasons as wishing to play with an all Swedish lineup, Point-Blank went international and added former Junk52 captain and tanker Dranzer in order to complete their lineup. With Guru also due to go inactive soon, the remaining 3 members of Junk52 decided to call it a day, and are understood to be looking for new teams.

The former Junk52.etqw lineup was:
Mike 'Dranzer' Büsing (Team Captain)
Bart 'Jaede' Van Remortele
Martin 'dohfOs' Lundén
Erik 'Guru' Staffans
Johan 'Snejk' Svensson
Tobias 'Murre' Balenius

Multiplay have announced that they will no longer be running a Call of Duty 2 tournament at their i32 LAN event, however will be replacing it by the first ever tournament for Call of Duty 4!
With the game being released on Friday November 9th, the first day of the LAN, it's also possible to order the game from Multiplay and pick it up when you arrive at the event. Currently the prize's are structured depending on the number of teams attending the event, and more information can be found here

This evening Multiplay have announced the structure of the online qualifiers for their upcoming Insomnia 32 LAN event, held in Newbury, England, from November 9th-12th. With 9 teams signed up for the online qualifiers, of which the top 2 teams will advance to the LAN Finals, meeting the top 2 teams from the LAN qualifiers. Also receiving 6 free tickets to the event, worth £480, the competition sees some promising European teams competing, as well as UK teams hoping to gain some valuable experience before the event.

The Cup will run with the rules which are being used by both ESL and Clanbase, which can only be as a good thing for the ETQW Community, as the 5 biggest current competitions are now operating with the same restrictions and maplist.

Signups
Team Dignitas
Greek Operation Forces
wArning!
Team Speed-Link
Betsson Voodoo Gaming
Point-Blank
=DB4D=
Perfect Target (Edit - Dropped Out)
The 13th Legion

Whilst Team Dignitas and Greek Operation Forces appear to be the favourites, wArning!, Team Speed-Link and Betsson Voodoo Gaming will all be looking to subsidise their possible attendance, whilst Point-Blank will be flying the UK flag and hoping to keep the Contamination Cup on home soil.

Some of the most important matches include
Team Dignitas vs Team Speed-Link - Ark/Area 22
Greek Operation Forces vs Team Speed-Link - Island / Volcano
wArning! vs Point-Blank - Island / Volcano
Team Dignitas vs Greek Operation Forces - Ark / Salvage
wArning! vs Betsson Voodoo Gaming - Ark / Salvage
Greek Operation Forces vs Betsson Voodoo Gaming - Refinery / Sewer
wArning! vs Team Speed-Link - Refinery / Sewer
Team Dignitas vs Point-Blank - Salvage / Volcano
Greek Operation Forces vs Point-Blank - Island / Refinery
Team Speed-Link vs Betsson Voodoo Gaming - Island / Refinery
Team Dignitas vs wArning! - Area 22 / Ark
Greek Operation Forces vs wArning! - Refinery / Salvage
Betsson Voodoo Gaming vs Point-Blank - Refinery / Salvage
Team Speed-Link vs Point-Blank - Sewer / Volcano
Team Dignitas vs Betsson Voodoo Gaming - Sewer / Volcano

You can see the full information here

Update - There is a poll on these rules at http://www.esl.eu/eu/etqw/poll/16974/

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has been released today throughout Europe, and ESL can announce the ruleset which we will be using for our upcoming tournaments and ladders. The ladders will be open this weekend and the first matches of our Opening Cup will start next Sunday (7th October)!

With one of the first tournaments in European ET:QW being the ESL Major Series with a 2000 € prizefund, we have been working with a number of teams in order to develop the following ruleset. We can also announce that the EMS will have a number of national qualifiers, with the winners being invited to the EMS.

The ruleset is subject to change, however for now it is as follows:

1) No aircraft
The tormentor, anansi and bumblebee are not allowed to be used.

2) Maximum 1 heavy vehicle
If both vehicles exist at the same spawn a team must decide which vehicle to use and stick with that vehicle until you reach another spawn. Choosing Cyclops over Desecrator means you can't use Desecrator at all until you reach a spawn which has one or both vehicles and then you choose again. You must choose one and must NOT swap between the 2.

3) It is only allowed to use heavy and medium vehicles from the frontline or nearest possible spawnpoint.
The heavy vehicle must be taken from the frontline spawn location which can be selected via the limbo menu. If the front line spawn has no heavy vehicles, you are allowed to take 1 heavy vehicle from the forward most spawn point which contains a heavy vehicle

4) Maximum 1 medium vehicle.
Only 1 hog or apc may be used. If there are multiple of these vehicles, you must choose which one you use, and you may NOT swap between the 2. The second vehicle should not be used.

5) No vehicles allowed indoors.
Unless the indoor area clearly has a path made for vehicles, such as a road, vehicles are not allowed to be taken indoors. This includes icarus'.

6) No heavy vehicles during the last objective
Once the penultimate objective has been completed, it is not allowed to continue to use heavy vehicles. If you are in a heavy vehicle, you must leave it immediately.

7) Maximum of 1 sniper rifle / railgun per team.
It is only allowed to have 1 covert ops using the sniper rifle or infiltrator using the railgun. The number of players playing this class (Covert Ops / Infiltrator) is however unlimited.

8) Maximum of 1 deployable per class and team.
Only 1 of each class may place a deployable on each team. This means that there may only be 1 radar, 1 field ops / opressor deployable, 1 engineer turret at any one time on each team. This means that if you place an Anti-Vehicle Turret, you are not allowed to place an Anti-Artillery turret.

Heavy vehicles include: Cyclops, Desecrator and Titan.
Medium vehicles include: Hog and APC.[/hide]

[bMaplist:[/b]]
Area22
Island
Refinery
Salvage
Sewer
Volcano

ESL Announcement

Over 2 months of matches, starting on Sewer and then advancing across Valley, the Premier Division of the i3D.net Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Beta Cup has drawn to a close. The biggest beta competition, with 40 teams in the Premier Division, and another 40 teams in the Second Division, there was some stiff competition throughout. In an interesting occurance, out of the big 5 teams, it seemed to be the underdogs who came out on top after what many thought should have been the final occuring in the quarters, where Copenhagen eSport were defeated by Team Dignitas, leaving them to advance to the semi-finals alongside OCRANA, Greek Operation Forces and Team Delta. However all those that claimed that the quarter finals saw the true final were proved wrong, as OCRANA dispatched Dignitas in the decider via objectivecount in order to set up a final encounter with Greek Operation Forces, who took 3 halves to set a time of 17.51 which Delta couldn't match.
Dignitas had no trouble in annihilating Delta 4-0 to take home 3rd place, but whether they will be satisfied with that is another matter.