Association of Gaming Professionals (in short: AGP) revealed its very own Quake Live duel ranking last night. Similar to the G7 ranking players are ranked on their performances in different tournaments, online cups as well as ladders.

Beginning with the 2009 QuakeCon Masters and Open tourneys and the recent ESL Extreme Masters Dubai international LAN tournaments, the AGP Rankings awarded points based on progression to all participants. QuakeCon, having the most prize money and tournament spots this year, awards more points between the two. In the future, online tournaments will be awarded the third most, following last by Ladders.

Expect complete point breakdown of competitions involved in the next few weeks as well as regional and national rankings based on this same point system.

This is the AGP QL Duel Ranking:

• Shane "rapha" Hendrixson (SK Gaming) - 3.000 Points
  
• Alexej "Cypher" Yanushevsky (serious-gaming) - 1.400 Points
  
• Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira (fnatic) - 1.290 Points
  
• Tim "DaHang" Fogarty (Evil Geniuses) - 820 Points
  
• Magnus "fox" Olsson (mousesports) - 680 Points
  
• Alessandro "stermy" Avallone - 580 Points
  
• Brian "dkt" Flander (compLexity) - 400 Points
  
• Richard "noctis" Gansterer (Vitriolic) - 360 Points
  
• Michael "madix" Hindersson (excello) - 330 Points
  
• Tom "griffin" Wall - 320 Points
  
• Chance "chance" Lacina (Evil Geniuses) - 300 Points
  
• Pär "fazz" Söderman - 300 Points
  
• Pierre-Emeric "l1nkje" Portier (fnatic) - 240 Points
  
• Maciej "av3k" Krzykowksy (serious-gaming) - 210 Points
  
• Marcel "k1llsen" Paul - 210 Points
  
• Anton "Cooller" Singov (mousesports) - 180 Points

Related: http://www.agptour.com/

A few teams have already saved their spot in this seasons ESL Major Series Groupstage to play for the 500€ prizepot, but there are still qualifiers to go and only a few spots left!
The first of the four thrilling matches I wanna preview for you is pstarZ Rise & Shine vs Zero Empathy turpoApinat, who face each other in the loserbracket of EMS Qualifier #2.

ESL HoN Opening Cup
Tournament details
- Participants: 59 (visit)
- Official news
- Rules
--- Sign UpWith sign ups increased to 64 teams the Heroes of Newerth ESL Opening Cup seems to be receive a great audience and a great success for the start of the game in Europes biggest league. Bot not the amount of teams is the most interesting there are also a few players worth your attention to watch and to listen to. To make the game interesting for readers and those who'd like to follow it over here on crossfire I've added a few statements and expectations on the game and on the cup itself.

This Sunday is no ordinary Sunday - instead, there is a slight twist. It's a Sunday with another round of sensational and epic games courtesy of ClanBase's fine EuroCup XX season. We can expect 7 spectacular games across the night - all broadcast live on ETTV.

Infinity Ward has released the PC specs for Modern Warfare 2. We can see a slight increase in requirements compared to CoD4.
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 2800+ processor or any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
Memory: 512MB RAM (768MB for Windows Vista)
Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce 6600 or better or ATI Radeon 9800Pro or better
Harddrive: 8GB of free hard drive space

With "Internet Connection required for activation" Activision probably wants to lower the amount of pirated copies but this type of activation never has been any problem for people who intend to crack the game.

System Requirements:

OS: Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor or better supported
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or better or ATI Radeon 1600XT or better
DirectX: Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c
Hard Drive: 12GB of free hard drive space
Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Internet: Broadband connection required for Multiplayer Connectivity. Internet Connection required for activation.
Co-op/Multiplayer Hosting: To host Co-op or MP matches, a 2Ghz dual-core or better processor is recommended.

Infinity Ward didn't mention recommended requirements though.

Recently, we saw GLITZ take on invitium in the ESL Major Series V Qualifiers in a pretty much one-sided match, that saw GLITZ bulldoze the poland pals.
Today, we switch from ESL MS V Qualifiers to the Clanbase Eurocup XX, where we will see two skilled clans go head to head with threatning players on each opposition. Im sure the names crumbs & filuS come into peoples heads when mentioning sublime vs GLITZ.





Final Score
sublime 4 - 0 GLITZ



sublime
Hype
crumbs
OV!E
reaz
anim
mAv

GLITZ
LavOd
EURUZ
zMk
filuS
Leonneke
razZ


Time: 21:00 CET
Maps: Supply & Sw_Goldrush_te
League: CB ET Eurocup XX
Hosting: ClanBase
Shoutcaster: madi & owzO

After a few lineup hiccups, Glitz-eSports are back to ET with...well, a rather familiar lineup. After a few discussions, it seems they finally got their act together and stuck together - kind of. saKen is out and the rest remain put. Polish rager Templar has been added to the lineup, along with the well known Dutch player Leonneke.

Tonight, however, we will see Glitz-eSports play with a rather familiar lineup, except Templar with replace saKen. Last month, we saw invitium take on Glitz-eSports in the EuroCup XX Qualifiers. As expected, invitium were thrashed 4-0 in a one sided match. Can they repeat history without their ex-clan leader, saKen? The odds are in their favour again with 1.15 - 7.59, but we all know too well a simple lineup change can turn the tables. Result? Expect the unexpected!

Final Score:
Glitz-eSports 4
invitium 0



Glitz-eSports

zMk
Templar
LavOd
joshua
filuS
EURUZ

invitium

voiler
Rodia
saqu
riseye
Turki
hillas


Time: 21:00 WEST
Maps: Not announced
League: ESL Major Series V Qualifiers
Hosting: Electronic Sports League

Call of Duty community manager Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling has just posted a link to an article on his Twitter account

Read the articleI recently broke news on a PC community member';s podcast that Modern Warfare 2 would be introducing a completely new backend infastructure called IWNET that would allow matchmaking for multiplayer games on PC. The news, by default, means no more browsing through a Server List for a server with the settings / ping you want among other things, and sent shockwaves through the hardcore PC community, leading to many more questions than answers as to 'HOW' this would work, and if it would really be better for the PC community as a whole.

Questions, assumptions, and speculation I intend to dispel.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games. It's also the most feature-rich PC version we've ever made. IWNET takes the benefits of dedicated servers and allows them to be utilized and accessed by every player, out of the box, while removing the barrier to entry for players unaware of how to maintain a server on their own.

How does it do this?

Matchmaking & Smoother Gameplay:
When you want to player a multiplayer game on PC, in the past. You'd have to scroll through a Server Browser which listed every available server which was hosted by individual server admins. Each had their own private rules, mods, or ways of playing the game. Most players would also use the server browser to find just the best quality game (based on PING). With IWNET matchmaking, it takes all that into account for you. All you have to do is select the playlist (pre-set gametypes with custom rules) that fits the style of play you are in the mood for. When you do, it will automatically find you a game with the best performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same SKILL. So you're always guaranteed the best game performance for where you are and what connection you're playing on as well as an equal game with other players of your same skill level, not rank, but skill level. It doesn't mean you'll just be thrown into a random game! It will put you in the game that will give you the smoothest gameplay possible without you having to manually find a server with the best ping.

Playlists and Private Matches:
As I described above, Playlists are pre-set game modes and gametypes for public games. If you just want to jump into a public game of Search and Destroy or Hardcore Search and Destroy and you don't care about fully customizing it, then you can utilize playlists to do that quickly for you. However, say you're in a clan and you want to play a Clan match with another team, or you want to practice for an upcoming tournament that has specific rules in a private game. Then you can start a Private Match (which is essentially like running your own private server) where you have complete control over the rules, who can join, boot players you don't want, and essentially control the entire game or tweak it to your liking. Once the rules are set, you can invite the other team in or just start it up with your clan to practice with the custom rules before the match. This now allows you to play custom games out of the box without the need to install mods, find a modded server with the rules you like, or worry about not being in control of the match.

Party System and Friendslist:
Modern Warfare 2 on PC also makes it much easier if you want to party up with your friends, or again, with your clan for a match. You can utilize the friendslist to see when your friends are online, and invite them to your Party. A Party allows you to move from game to game as a group. It’s great for clan matches, because you can party of with your clan and move from public game to public game together. Or if you're doing a scrim, party up and invite the other clan (who is in a party) and they'll all join at once. Set up a private match together and play. It makes setting up scrims or games with friends easier and hassle free.

Cheat / Hack Free Games:
The biggest benefit of using IWnet by far is the fact that you don't have to worry about joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters. Or relying on the server admin of the server to constantly be monitoring, banning, and policing it. Modern Warfare 2 on PC allows us to control the quality of the game much more than ever before as well as utilizing the VAC (Valve-Anti-Cheat) system to keep games clean of hackers and cheaters.

All in all, IWNET adds a load of new features that the PC version of our games have never had before and allows us an infrastructure to continue to update and improve on the game post-launch.

The bit that we're most likely to be interested in:

Quote

As I described above, Playlists are pre-set game modes and gametypes for public games. If you just want to jump into a public game of Search and Destroy or Hardcore Search and Destroy and you don't care about fully customizing it, then you can utilize playlists to do that quickly for you. However, say you're in a clan and you want to play a Clan match with another team, or you want to practice for an upcoming tournament that has specific rules in a private game. Then you can start a Private Match (which is essentially like running your own private server) where you have complete control over the rules, who can join, boot players you don’t want, and essentially control the entire game or tweak it to your liking. Once the rules are set, you can invite the other team in or just start it up with your clan to practice with the custom rules before the match. This now allows you to play custom games out of the box without the need to install mods, find a modded server with the rules you like, or worry about not being in control of the match.

Source: http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=745

We ( ET Cup Supervisors) are facing several problems, receiving many private messages, emails written by people who have some issues regarding their participation in the Cup but they don't know what to do. Here's a little "tutorial".

We are currently experiencing some problems with ClanBase mail server, this will affect all the various emails that are sent out from the ClanBase system.Certain Email providers are currently bouncing back any emails that they receive from us, this includes all emails relating to password changes, email address verification, etc. We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing and we are working on fixing the problem as soon as possible.

Only two days ago a petition hit the net to have Infinity Ward reconsider their decision on no dedicated servers in Modern Warfare 2 and has already reached over 100,000 signatures. Infinity Ward has now responded, promising fans that their outcry "won't be ignored".

The petition states this:


"Get Infinity Ward to review their decision not to allow fully dedicated servers for their forthcoming game release CoD:MW2. Remember that this Call of Duty was made popular by PC Gamers who have supported the series throughout."

Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist of Infinity Ward via Twitter:


"[It] definitely made a big wave, and the response will not be ignored. I'll ensure everyone at IW sees the petitions and responses to it."