The first major eSports tournament of the year, the Intel Extreme Masters VI, held in Kiev, Ukraine, got underway today. The event is live from the CyberSport Arena from January 19th - 22nd. After a hugely successful tournament calender last year, the ESL competition returns in again 2012 to bring us more intense gaming in the most popular games, casted by the most popular shoutcasters and with plenty of high quality live-streams to follow all of the action on. The event is holding three top competitions:

An amazing game will happen tonight in the ESL Winter Leagues. Both teams are fighting for their chance to qualify in the Winter Leagues Playoffs. The standings show only one team that might be qualified so far in the Playoffs from this Group C, so all teams are doing their best to be the 2nd team to qualify!

This match is between Splendid-Encrypt and a.Toon.et. Looking at the stats, I'd say the new a.Toon team has all the chances to qualify since they already won against S.I.C.K. On the other side, mental & co still without a win in this edition of the Winter Leagues. Maybe their luck will change tonight, who knows?

As you may remembered, the match between Splendid-Encrypt and S.I.C.K. had some problems and after many talks, we have decided to replay this match on 30th of January. We all agreed that this match should be for the viewers, after all, two good teams will battle for a spot in the Winter Leagues, so it's a shame to see it decided by an admin. So keep that in mind while you read the statements from below!

Quote by spLd.hvK

Our performance has been a little shaky lately and we haven't really settled down since messing around with the lineup, from all the unnecessary drama in the last game we'll be wanting to put things straight, I expect to... view more

Quote by aToOn|kiwi

We did quite well in the last praccs even if we haven't played any single match the last week. This match should be izi even if they may have good teamplay but that shouldn't be a problem for us. I guess it will be...view more

Splendid-Encrypt

mental
hvK
Ajit
m1ke
danL
diablos


a.Toon.et

Kiwi
Kevji
Elviss
stexx
Kartez
Statti


Date: Today
Time: 21:00 CET
Maps: Bremen, Supply
League: ESL Winter Leagues 2011

• Thursday's Amazing Game
  
• Matchweek 2 Favorites
  
• Time for Matchweek 2
  
• Bloody Sunday in WL Matchweek 1
  
• Match reviews
  
• ESL Winter Rules & Schedule

Each week I plan to cover the past week's latest news surrounding the world of gaming, including major tournament results, headline gaming news & headlines and notable games releases and updates. The past month has seen the Christmas & New Year period which is notoriously quiet for gaming news or major competitions - combine that with the Community Awards, CF 4 Beta Launch and the ET Guide - and we have a months worth of news to look back on!

Gaming News

The last time I wrote this newspost was one month ago and the leading story was that of SOPA, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. I've posted a column which you can read here, summarising the ongoing SOPA-saga, but the upshot is that SOPA is a bill which is making all the headlines as it jeopardises the internet as we know it. Today, January 16th it was announced that SOPA is set to be shelved after American President Barack Obama publicly stated that he would not support it. The trick here is that SOPA has a sister bill, known as PIPA, which is slightly less radical and has flown under the radar thanks to the public awareness of SOPA. So the saga doesn't end here. Check the column.

MouseCon have won the third JeeSports Qualifier after they beat HighBot in a close final game. kReSti and FLoPJEHZ gave a lot for the German side, especially Flop with a sneaky secure that helped hB win radar but MouseCon turned it around on Goldrush and with the help of xPERiA finished off the job on supply where the Dutchman was all guns blazing on defence.

MouseCon join ONEMOVE.ESO, winners of the second qualifier tournament, and Anexis eSports, winner of the first, in the Main JeeET tournament to be held in February. The other team will be decided in the final JeeSports Qualification tournament to be held in late January, more news and information on that to come.

ESL Winter Leagues Matchweek 2 is here with a lot of matches been played tonight from all divisions, from all formats. We have decided to call this matchweek, the Week of the Favorites because after all the matches from this matchweek are played, we'll be able to see who are the teams that have the first chance of qualifying in the Winter Leagues Playoffs!

After we've seen almost 40 matches on Sunday in the 1st Matchweek, a week with a lot of surprises, it's time for the 2nd matchweek to start with a 6on6 match between a super polish team that has many players participating in the current NC edition, and with a team that has to win today, otherwise it's all over for them! Our admins will be spectating this match so expect a quality match and also a full match review in the next news!

Today we have the last section, Class-specific Awards, with a special mention to aimers, medics, engies and rifles! Read on to discover the results.

Today we have the Enemy Territory Awards, definitely the most anticipated awards. Read more to discover the results!

With a total of 30 teams - with the late sign up of SPAIN - we can happily call this a successful amount of signups, these 30 teams will be separated into 7 groups : 5 groups with 4 teams and 2 others with 5 teams.

Since some captains are still forming teams, and some players aren't added yet in National teams : matches will start according to that. This means that teams can challenge each other for their GroupStage matches using the Challenge System on the CB Page via the roster.

The community has cast its vote upon the nominees, and the winners are known. Today we have the Esports Awards, containing Game, Event, Moment and Movie of the Year 2011. Read more to discover the results!