This news post will serve as one for announcing / confirming a few things. Firstly the small stuff.

For all those who dont know this from the journals already i'm afraid to say that Xionn will no longer be participating in the CPC2 cup with Impact due to some real life issues. Replacing him in the team is the Finnish player mystic. Having played with the likes of Xpaz, Raveneye and Tiigeri before in Parodia and A-Monkeys he fits straight into the team.

I'd also like to announce that the Impact Gaming[/u] website is now online and whilst not only providing you with the latest information on the team and the players it will also play host to the ET masters tournament that myself, mthd and the rest of the staff at Impact are organising.

Now on to the ET Masters[/u] tournament. What is it?

Its an invite only tournament consisting of 16 of the highest skilled teams competing for glory and prize money totalling 250 Euros. The design of the cup is to help prepare the teams for the forthcoming CPC2 tournament whilst also providing some top level ETTV matches for the spectators.

Tournament Format

The tournament will consist of 16 teams. Initially starting with a group stage and 4 teams per group. Each team will play each other once and the top 2 teams from each group will then proceed into a double elimination knockout stage.
The tournament although identical to Eurocup in format will be designed to hopefully run at a much faster pace with 2 games per week. Schedules permitting for the teams there will be a Sunday game and a midweek (Wednesday) game.
Map List

Supply Depot
sw_goldrush_te
radar
braundorf
frostbite
frost final (Latest TE Version)

These maps have been chosen because apart from braundorf they are all maps that will be used in the forthcoming CPC2

Prize Money

#1 - 125 Euros
#2 - 75 Euros
#3 - 50 Euros


Rules

Rules will be identical to Eurocup rules and will use the latest Clanbase 6v6 config.
For game disputes demos must be provided.
You may be asked to move your game for coverage purposes schedules permitting.

Teams and Groups

Group A

ZeroPoint
Pingwins
elite
Kno i Horn

Group B

NetRunners
141
sFx Beaver
Defining Stars

Group C

Amenti
Impact Gaming
cZar
Auxilia

Group D

Polar eSports
dTekt
Violence is Bad
Negative Image

Schedule

Group Game 1 - Date March 4th
Group Game 2 - Date March 7th
Group Game 3 - Date March 11th

Elimination Round 1 - Date March 14th
Elimination Round 2 - Date March 18th
Elimination Round 3 - Date March 21st

BracketFinals - Date March 25th
Grand Final - Date March 28th

We are looking for experienced admins to manage some of the games and to post some coverage for the tournament otherwise i'm never gonna get anything done.

Big thanks to all those who helped to make the cup / website happen.

Unisol for all his hard work coding
Brzy for the hours of rendering on the million banners we tested.
Antz for the hours hes spent configuring our linux servers
Stilez for his artwork he has done on the site and of course Impact co manager mthd for helping me with absolutely loads of organising and configuring with the site, forums, servers etc

Good luck to all the teams competing. Hopefully we will be able to provide a fun and spectator friendly cup

#Impact.Gaming
Impact Gaming[/u]

During last weekend the yearly event shgOpen, hosted by shg.dk, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. A grand total of 13.000 people visited the exposition and LAN area during the weekend, people from 22 different countries participated in the event and 20 companies displayed thier products at the expo.

These are all great numbers and would make you think that it has been a good deal for shg.dk, however the CEO of the company, Thomas Falborg, was interviewed this monday by the Danish IT-newspaper Comon. During this interview he came up with some other numbers that put everything in perspective.

- The prize pool was 500.000 DKr. (67.064 Euro)
- The rent of the Bella Center was 3 million DKr. (402.387 Euro)
- The income from the gamers was estimated at 500.000 DKr.
- The income from the expo-companies was estimated to 1 million DKr.

By this you can already see that there are more money going out from the company, than there is coming in. I do not know how shg.dk came up with the number but they have estimated that they need to sell products of the value 40-50 million DKr. (5.365.166 - 6.706.458 Euro) before they will have all thier expenses covered from this event. It puts everything a bit into a perspective of how much money it takes to host an event as big as shgOpen.

Source:
- Comon.dk (in Danish)

After receiving massive interest in the ET competition at CPC2 I've been long looking at how to expand the tournament structure to include more teams and with an all be it unorthodox solution, we're glad to announce that the ET tournament will now be 16 teams big, instead of 12.

Our initial schedule has been changed and at the event, we're running games later, however the most crucial fact is that we will run 4 matches from the tournament online. The tournament is set out with 4 teams in each group, each team is seeded and the highest seed will play the lowest seed from each group online. This was chosen as it is the match most unlikely to be effected by online or offline conditions.

Whilst this is not the most ideal setup for a LAN event, its a simple question to those players who want to come and sit in the 12-16 team bracket. Would you rather play 1 game online and still 2 more on LAN, or simply not come to the LAN at all?

At the end of this week a lot more information will be released on a variety of aspects for the event, schedules, groups, seeds and of course invites and qualifiers.

Serious Gaming, who didnt play at this weekends shgOpen have made another roster change. The side has been plagued by changes and problems since joining the side from check6, however have still been able to made an impressive signing.

They have picked up flow from danish side Copenhagen eSports who leaves the side after a long stint with the danes. This maintains their current all swedish lineup, but has come at the cost Stoffey's place in the starting lineup, and he drops to number 6 in the roster.

Serious' lineup is as follows:

mint
zEm
Stolpskott
wnkr
flow
Stoffey

The side have signed up for CPC2 and it will be the first big test for serious who have been somewhat anonymous in recent months.

Danish LAN organizers SLAP.dk have announced their inaugural 11th LAN for the weekend of April 5th. Including Call of Duty, Counter Strike 1.6, Counter Strike Source, Battlefield 2, Day of Defeat Source, FIFA & Quake 3 with a prize purse of just over 168.000 dkk (22.600~ €)

They will be hosting a Call of Duty 2 BYOC LAN with a prize purse of 26000 dkk. (Liable to change dependant on signups)

Prize Distribution

15.000 dkk (2,011 €)
8.000 dkk (1,073 €)
3.000 dkk (402 €)

Date: April 5-8 2007
Place: Ballerup Super Arena (Just outside Copenhagen)
BYOC: Yes
Directions & Hotels: http://www.slap.dk/live/uk_content.asp?pageid=uk_hoteller

Tickets are currently on sale and are priced at 56€ before 19th March and 69 € after 19th March. With the deadline for team signups on March 19'th.

Signup on the slap.dk site.

The dust has settled on a fantastic tournament in Copenhagen this weekend. With all the tournaments now closed and teams on their way home, its time to reflect on the final placings in the ET and CoD tournaments.

CoD2

digitalMind - €2,667
Tek-9 Networks - €1,333
suXus-esports - €667
4th Team-coolTronik - €267
5-6. Copenhagen-Esport - €66
5-6. Team Dignitas - €66
7-8. Logitech.fi
7-8. Roskilde eSports

ET

Dignitas - €2,667
zeroPoint! - €1,333
BlackMagic - €667
4th Defining Stars - €267
5th dtekt eSports - €66

Clanbase Eurocup Finals

CoD2

digitalMind vs Dignitas - Postponed

ET

dignitas 4-0 zeroPoint

Watch the matches here

CS Winners
CS 1.6
Made in Brazil - €16.000
Pentagram - €10.000
Team NoA - €6.667
4th Begrip - €4.000
5-6 fnatic - €2.350
5-6 MeetYourMakers - €2.350
7-8 69N-28E - €1.140
7-8 Logitech - €1.140

CS:Source

Volt Gaming - €2,667
Logitech - €1,333
aTTaX - €667

TeK-9 have just made their way into the grand final of shgOpen 2007. A defiant
suXus took them to overtime where the alstar TeK-9 put in a solid performance to advance to the grand final where they take on a digitalMind side who are undefeated in the tournament, having already beaten TeK-9.

digitalMind 13-8 TeK-9
Time 12:00 CET
Map Burgundy
Shoutcast Inside the Game

TeK-9 are on burgundy for the second time in an hour, having changed their strats mid game against suXus they have to feel a little more confident. The impact of solz with the sniper will determine whether digitalMind walk all over this tie as expected or whether the Real Madrid like TeK-9 team can hit the form their reputation demands.

After much wrangling and rescheduling, ClanBase have confirmed the ClanBase Enemy Territory EuroCup XIV Grand Final will be played today (Sunday, 18th February) at 13:00* CET.

Meeting for the 4th time in the past two weeks, zP must once again try to overcome unsurpasable odds in facing an inform dignitas team. Though steadily improving, zeroPoint have yet to take a map from dignitas (in 6on6).

Prior to this sHg weekend many considered the loss of Butchji as a massive hinderance for zP, with their online game relying heavily on his aim. But in keran they've drafted in a more than capable replacement with many commenting on the apparant improved teamwork - with less reliance on their two big players. That isn't the only positive from the weekend for zP, rapture has finally found his form and gifty is playing a more disciplined game.

But for all their improvement, if yesterdays play is anything to go by they' fall well short of dignitas. Dignitas walked through the competition, easing their way to a third successive LAN title - continuing their run of not dropping a map in 2007. One to watch on Frostbite is Night, who seems to have mastered every trick shot possible.

Could it be fourth time lucky for zeroPoint?



Time: 13:00* CET
Maps: Radar & Frostbite
ETTV: http://www.gamestv.org/war.php?wid=2112
Shoutcast: iTG`TosspoT (Unconfirmed)

Dignitas

Night
Reload
r3vers
senji
urtier
JaKaZc

zeroPoint!

potter
Darky
rapture
keran
hatred
gifty

Should zeroPoint! win, a second BO3 match will be played immediatly afterwards to decide the Champion.

* The scheduled time is liable to change at anytime.

Comming up in just some minutes, the first really important match of the two unbeaten teams:


It will be the first of properbly 3 clashes of the current ET top teams while the bets are one sided for the former idle.ee squad and with the current perfomance of zeroPoint! without Butchji they struggled in the groupstage but got better from match to match and didn't loose any single map - as dignitas. Just a week ago they met each other in the Winner's Bracket Final of the EuroCup XIV - a clear win for dignitas - but tonight can be everything different and their first match will be a way to decide the attention for the LAN: Is it going to be the unexpected thing ever?

I've caught up with Lightning for a short prediction:
Dignitas will win this, last time they already won with ease and especially with the best player of zeroPoint named butchji played, without him it will be easier for idle, also LAN makes no difference in this case - unless they made a deal - so a clear 4-0 for Dignitas.

Also the one and only - zP manager and iTG caster - TosspoT had some words left about the upcoming match: zP! are confident, I've never seen them this confident.

Quote by live coverage

Time: Today, 18.00 CET
Maps: TBA
Shoutcast: not confirmed
ETTV: GamesTV.org

The ET-Playoffs are coming up within the next hour. From now on, we'll try to keep you up to date with the bracket and result live in the article and the current live matches here in the post!

:: The Bracket

The winner will pass to the next round, the team eliminated will go into the loser's bracket. Please check this article for details![/hide]

Overall Final

After an intense match in the consolation final, it's as unexpected as nothing else: zeroPoint! will come out of the Loser's Bracket to face the Dignitas at 23.00 CET. As always, the maps will be announced right at the start and as the whole ET event, we got the most possible coverage and ettv slots available by GamesTV.org. Also, GIGA2 will cast the match live with FlyingDJ and also, there is a shoutcast available from iTG's TosspoT.



Time: Saturday, 23:00 CET
Maps: Frostbite & sw_goldrush_te
ETTV: GamesTV.org
Shoutcast: iTG's TosspoT
Livestream: GIGA2


Consolation Final


Time: Saturday, 21:30 CET
Maps: TBA
ETTV: GamesTV.org

Video on Demand Live!
GGL has just published the VoDs for the match zeroPoint! vs. BlackMagic on their page. And the records from yesterday are live in their archive.

:: GGL.com Website

Loser's bracket outdated
Due to a small lack of information the team, already losing two matches: Defining Stars, will continue their road in the playoffs and are going to face dtekt in the upcoming match. Therefor, the LB Bracket is totally outdated and won't be updated again:

The next round: Loser's Bracker Round Unknown

Time: Saturday, 20:30 CET
Maps: TBA
ETTV: GamesTV.org


Matches upcoming // Matches played
Sat 17 Feb 20:15 - Black Magic 4 - 0 defining stars (GamesTV.org)
Sat 17 Feb 21:30 - zeroPoint! 4 - 0 Black Magic (GamesTV.org)
Sat 17 Feb 23:00 - Dignitas 4-0 zeroPoint!