With ESReality being the best website for photo captions, it might be interesting to some of the users here. The Intel Extreme Masters Facebook page has got a caption contest with a Razer Carcharias headset and three Razer Goliathus mousepads up for grabs.

All you need to do is pick out any photo from the ESL's gallery of the IEM European Championship finals in Kiev (all four days), add your caption and post it on the wall of the IEM Facebook page. The best entries will be awarded prizes.

The photos in the gallery were taken by Pawel Bownik, an artist photographer renowned for his series "Gamers". The gallery is worth browsing through even if you are not interested in the contest itself.

You've got time until Monday 23:59.

The second pilot of the ESL Classics has been uploaded to YouTube. This time Anton "Cooller" Singov is the player to analyse the action. The match chosen was the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship final against Shane "rapha" Hendrixson.

The map in question is DM13, the third map of the final when rapha is 2-0 ahead in maps. Next to tactical analysis, Cooller deliveres a few "Cooller quotes" making the show quite entertaining.

The episode is available on ESL, kids!

P.S. This episode was shot in the same session as rapha's, bear that in mind when posting comments below. Also, if he spoke in Russian and it was subtitled, there amount of reading would make it unwatchable.

There will be another season of QUAKE LIVE in the Intel Extreme Masters. I thought I should point that out before going on to other things, since no one really bothered to post about it on ESReality for almost a week.

What does that mean? It means that the game you guys love to follow so much is back in one of the world's coolest PC gaming leagues. And that your favourite porn star or your girlfriend, for that matter, won't be the only reason you'll be spraying in the following months. Hopefully at more content than just the live matches themselves.

QUAKE LIVE has stayed in the Intel Extreme Masters because it delivers fun that's very universal in the hardcore esports world and beyond. The World Championship final between rapha and Cooller has really managed to captivate a capacity crowd at CeBIT (see this VOD to get an idea, of here on YouTube). It produced one of those feelings where you could say that you've experienced something special.

All along my plan in the Intel Extreme Masters was to make the show more enjoyable for you, for the fans of other games and for the people that just happened to stumble upon QUAKE LIVE in the depths of the Internet or at a trade show hall somewhere. The game is very easy to follow and it's not difficult to convince people that the depths of skill needed to master it make winning at it very manly.

In order to help explain the manliness of QL, I revisited the idea which today I call the ESL Classics (around 2006 actually). We sit down with a top gamer in the ESL TV studio, we show one of the great matches that he has played in the ESL and we find out from him what went on through his head during that match.

Seeing as rapha happened to be practicing in Cologne for the ESWC, we've managed to make him our first target - he was kind enough to oblige. We grabbed him and the demo of the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship grand final and boom! We've got a pilot:



Pardon the config and all the other imperfections, but this was really only a sput-of-the moment thing. Please test it on your friends, ask them what they didn't really understand and what they liked particularly. Drop a few hints on how to properly configure the game to display good information (scoreplums in player demos?) as well, and none of the ugly stuff (like "connection interrupted").

Off the top of my head, we need a short introduction of the rules, of the map layout and the basic map strategy on how to control it. This needs to be enjoyable for you, but for players of all other games as well.

What's good, what's great, where can we improve? In short: WE NEED YOUR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM!

If you guys enjoyed this show, then make sure to support it by "liking it" on Facebook (Facebook.com/IEMtv). Oh, and one more thing. The "second pilot" of this show will feature Cooller explaining the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship DM13 game from the final against rapha.

Sweet?

[1] = Best
[5] = Worst

Dear Quake Fans,

The Intel Extreme Masters World Championship has experienced delays in the schedule due to technical difficulties with the Quake Live LAN server. The remaining Group A matches are moved to Thursday and will be finished after the Group B matches.

The players have been experiencing high pings (50+) on the LAN servers. The ESL IT staff have found no problems with the network (the server was also connected directly into the switch the Quake Live section was on, which did not help). There also seems to be nothing wrong with the server software that would cause this problem.

Twenty thousand dollars. Thirty-six matches. Twelve players. Four days. That's what the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship will be in a nutshell.

The final event of the six-months-long season - you better have some spray left in you because in many ways the event will be better than anything we have produced this season. The venue for the event will be an enormous trade show hall with a grand stage and the faces of Cypher, DaHanG and Jibo on the walls. Never before has a Quake Live player played at such a grand stage.

There will be a prize pot with $20,000 and a very large and heavy trophy. There will be three streams to make sure you can watch the matches you want to. There will be four days of action with the final on Saturday. Most importantly, there will five players whose victory in the World Championship will not raise any eyebrows. We do not know who will win. Could we ask for more?

Naturally, we could, but considering a not infinite budget and the fact that Quake Live finds itself in the same space with a World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike 1.6 World Championship as well. Because of scheduling and the tournament structure, we will be playing all group play rounds concurrently, so five rounds of three matches at the same time.

This is why we have got three streams: the games that won't make it to the stage will be provided by the ESL TV B (no commentary) and ESL Radio streams. All the stage matches will be shown on ESL TV A stream, showing what should be ESL TV's best production ever (fingers crossed). The stage looks very sexy and having a camera crane will make it look even sexier.

You will still be able to watch any game you want to (bar three) but not every single game. (I hope we won't have difficulties in other games that will force schedule changes on us.) You can find the full match schedule on the Intel Extreme Masters website.

Take time off work, skip school and send your girlfriend away for four days... The event starts on Tuesday for WoW and CS and Wednesday for Quake Live with Group A. Group B follows on Thursday. The winners of each group will go directly into the semi final while the second and third places will be in the two quarterfinals. The two quarterfinals will be played on Friday.

Set your alarm clocks for 9:50 CET on Saturday. The first semi final is at 10:00 CET and Quake Live reigns on the Intel Extreme Masters stage until the final at 13:40 CET. This means no sex on Friday night.

Traditionally, closing off with questions:

1) Will all of the "big three" make out of Group A. ?
2) WIll we see any three-way-ties?
3) Is Cypher a guaranteed winner of Group B?
4) Who will produce the largest amounts of controversy?
5) Will ESReality die?
6) Who do you hope to win the event?
7) Who do you hope not to win the event?
8) Who do you honestly think will win it?
9) Whose eyes are those in the picture above?

The season for Quake Live started off in Dubai with a great event. We will do everything in our power to make the World Championship greater!


P.S. Please take a minute of your time and do some FaceBook / Twitter spamming. Tell your friends about the event, give them the URL where they can watch it. Intel loves Quake Live. Give them more reasons to support it for Season V.

The Intel Extreme Masters Asian Championship is over and all that's left of it are Jibo's face is all over the Quake Live website, VODs of the matches and videos.

Three galleries from the event can be found right here. Moreover, This news item has got all the VODs rounded up. The most interesting matches are directly linked here:

proZaC vs. uNleashed
Jibo vs. uNleashed
proZaC vs. Jibo

We have interviewed proZaC and uNleashed at the event - those can be found right here. Most importantly, we have shot a booth babe video with the p1mp - you won't regret watching:


photo: ESL

The Intel Extreme Masters Asian Championship for Quake Live takes place on February 5 to 7 (if anyone is interested, the Counter-Strike event ends on the 9th).

Mark your calendars, kids, because we're back. Time to show your girlfriend the Intel Extreme Masters European Championship schedule and tell her you're not available for her between January 21 and 24.

The European Championship will be almost identical in structure to the Global Challenge in Dubai - so 16 players in four groups of four (best of 3 format), weeded out to 8 players in a single elimination bracket (best of 5 format).

But barring the absence of American players in Cologne, I think we will have a more sprayworthy tournament than the one in Dubai:

1) Dubai had three tournament days - the European Championship will have four, portioning the action in more healthy helpings and allowing more of the enjoyable "in between" discussion and analysis.

2) We will be showing every match of the event. That goes with the exception that the last round of play in every group will be played concurrently - in such a case we will run a "conference" and try to bring you the action from both games.

3) We will have more matches than in Dubai - we will need placement matches for 5th and 7th place because the top 6 players from Europe will be winning berths to the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship ( rapha, DaHanG, chance and Vo0 are already qualified.)

4) Cologne will have a prize purse increase from Dubai's $6,500 to $9,000. The Intel Extreme Masters World Championship will have $20,000. (We do concede that in the historical context the prize purse may be seen as modest.)

5) The winner of the event will receive a platter very much like this one:


Photo: Julia Christophers, ESL

6) We have done some genetical engineering and altered the DNAs of 2GD and Joe making them even better shoutcasters than they were in Dubai.

7) Cooller.

For all the above reasons, I think that it's in your best interest to spend four days of your life enjoying the tournament on ESL TV. Here is the schedule:

Thursday:
14:00 CET to 17:20 CET - Group A matches
18:20 CET to 21:40 CET - Group B matches

Friday:
14:00 CET to 17:20 CET - Group C matches
18:20 CET to 21:40 CET - Group D matches

Saturday:
13:00 CET - quarterfinal
14:00 CET - quarterfinal
15:00 CET - quarterfinal
16:00 CET - quarterfinal
17:00 CET - placement / World Championship qualification match
18:00 CET - placement / World Championship qualification match
19:00 CET - placement / World Championship qualification match

Sunday:
12:00 CET - semi final
12:40 CET - semi final
13:50 CET - bronze medal match
14:50 CET - final

Where do you find us?

ESL TV has all the streams (incl. the high quality Premiun stream) and will have VODs later on.
IEMtv on Twitter will remind you about all the broadcasts and schedule changes.
The Intel Extreme Masters website has got all the news, galleries, brackets and demos.
Carmac on Twitter will give you short updates and interesting bits of info.

What can you do for us?

We want to and will be able to keep supporting Quake Live as long as we are supported back by the community. Regardless of what you do and what your agenda is - if you love the game, then please help us.

Please spread the word about the stream and the event to your friends on FaceBook, retweet IEMtv and Carmac on Twitter and make sure that anyone you think might enjoy it watches! MAKE IT BIG!

Questions:
1) Will strenx choke again?
2) Will Cooller win a major title after three years?
3) Which of the players in the event have a fighting chance to win the platter?
4) Who will be the biggest choke?
5) Who will be the dark horse?
6) Will you be spreading the word?
7) Will you be spraying cum everywhere?

Pick your final standings of the IEM American Championship. The groups are:

A: rapha, DaHanG, gellehsak, sparks
B: dkt, chance, griffin, Vo0

The top 4 will have two players from each group (obviously). So what will be the top 4?

The time of fascinating individuals has come back, as the Intel Extreme Masters site has got an interview with Andrew "gellehsak" Ryder. The former PainKiller professional is one of the eight players qualified for the American Championship finals in Edmonton, Canada this coming weekend.

In the interview, gellehsak talks about his preparation for the event, where he has been and what he's done since 2005 and the PainKiller times, but most importantly, on why Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty will become the player to beat on his continent:

"I truly feel, putting aside any bias, that DaHanG will eventually be the player to beat on the continent. The way I see it is that it is inevitable for the game to retain maps like DM6 and DM13 forever, assuming id Software is in development or at least has plans for new maps.

DaHanG is the type of player that can adjust to a situation or scenario without breaking a sweat, whether it be a new map or a new gameplay change. He has probably the least QL duel experience as opposed to players like rapha, Cooller, Cypher, and other top players, yet is able to compete with them on their terms. I feel that his biggest downfall is just the vast experience that players have vs his inexperience on the older maps and unfortunately that trumps his ability to adapt to a situation quickly."

Read the full interview on the Intel Extreme Masters website.

It is time to share thoughts as the first non-id Software QuakeLive LAN is getting closer.

Here's your mission for October 17-19. Get rid of your woman! Get your girl to visit her parents or get her some Ikea vouchers. Start hoarding snacks and beverages. Cancel all appointments, get a day off on Monday (Oct 19 - sorry for that, but we couldn't do anything about it.) Get yourselves acquainted with the schedule and make sure you convert the time.


Because you'll be watching the Global Challenge in Dubai.



I'm excited. Our friends at id Software have put everything aside for the Intel Extreme Masters Dubai Global Challenge event to make it possible for us to run the first ever non-id LAN. We will see sixteen of the world's best players compete at a game we all love.

What really gets me hard, though, is how we will be able to package the event and deliver to you. [Fingers crossed.] Unless we get unforeseen technical difficulties, we will see a competition close to the way it should be shown:

1) Every single match will be played on stage.
2) Every single match will be shown on ESL TV.
3) Unless you want to, you will not miss a single frag in the entire competition.

Just enough cake
As a spectator I always hated it how events had a million matches crammed up in one weekend. You were forced to miss a ton of action and even in key stages you were often forced to pick which match you wanted to watch.

I never saw the point. Why give people more cake than they can possibly eat?

The idea for Dubai is to give you an absolute feast. We planned the schedule such that every match will be played on stage and every match will be on stream. The only overlap you will get is for the last "playday" in each group - the games have to be played at the same time to ensure there's no match fixing.

We'll have 16 players in four groups played over the first two days. The third day will bring an eight-man single elimination playoff bracket. And that will be in a best of FIVE format. I expect the playoffs to be a battle of epic proportions.

24 best of 3's and 8 best of 5's. No overlap. Have as much of this cake as you like.

All 32 matches will be brought to you on a good (but not Premium) quality ESL TV stream which you will not have to pay for. The voices of the event will be James "2GD" Harding, Joe Milller and, most likely, some of the pro gamers who would be free to do it. Or maybe even me, if they have me.

See you in Dubai
I have no doubt that the lineup of players gathered in Dubai could not be improved (maybe except for k1llsen's absence). Unless you force Av3k to practice and bitchslap the oldschoolers out of retirement.

Thanks to the hard work of the guys over at id Software (thanks SyncError and TTimo!!!) and ESL we will be able to deliver one of the best spectator experiences in recent years. We're doing this for you.

And if that's enough to ask for something in return...
Follow the event.
Spread the word.
Play QuakeLive.
Get your friends to try it!


It's important. Go, now!

----



Seven important questions!!!
1) Will it be four in a row for rapha?
2) Cooller is practicing like crazy. How well will he do?
3) Will anyone dare play strenx on DM6?
4) Will he have a 100% win percentage on it?
5) Who will be the dark horse?
6) Who's going to be the most talked-about ragequit?
7) Will you spray cum all over the place?

oh yeah and follow me on Twitter

Pick your top 5 best maps for competitive QuakeLive duel. Order matters!

With days until the end of 2008, the time has come for various rundowns that sum up the year somehow. Over on SK Gamng's site Carmac has picked out nine players: three that will want to forget 2008 ever happened, three that have succeeded and three that will have mixed feelings about the last 12 months.

The list of players that would want to forget about 2008 is particularly interesting because no one would have predicted that the year would turn out sour for them. Mandatory snippet:

It would be simpler to weigh all of Cooller's trophies than to count them. This is the shortest possible way to sum up the Russian's career, although mentioning two ESWC championships, a silver and a bronze would do him justice as well. And if this man's best in all of 2008 was a fifth place, including domestic tourneys, then there is no other way than to label the year as one to forget.

The article also offers a selection of video interviews with Quake 3 stars and the demos of the best matches in 2008. SK's roundup can be found here.

Those of you who want to complain about Counter-Strike can stop reading now. Those of you who know Andreas "bds" Thorstensson, the coder of the good old "biohazard" XSReality site, may be find the interview below interesting.

The Swede became an influential figure in CS after he brought in his team to SK Gaming and went on to build the most successful lineup in the game's history. Today he runs SK together with Alex "TheSlash" Mueller. In the interview, he talks about this, the '08 team and esports in general.


original link

The most fascinating individual of this summer is hands down the ESWC Quake 3 champion Alexei "Cypher" Yanushevksy. This week he got featured in SK Gaming's weekly 1on1 video where he talks about becoming a good player, winning the ESWC, his dreams for the future and why Jibo will never be number one. Enjoy.

The most fascinating individual in North American Quake 3 since the ESWC 2008 Grand Final, Shane "SK.rapha" Hendrixson, was featured in a video interview by SK.

In it, he tells his story from the moment he became fascinated with Quake while watching ZeRo4 play Fatal1ty at QuakeCon 2002 until the moment where he ended up representing the same team as he. He also addresses the "five steps ahead" comment, talks about his gameplay and the ESWC.

Due to technical limitations watching the embed below is not recommended because it is stretched. Find the proper widescreen version right here.

SK Gaming has added its share of pre-ESWC hype with a 15-minute video interview with John "ZeRo4" Hill, one of the most accomplished players in the history of Quake 3.

The interview was conducted at the ESWC Masters of Paris, ZeRo4's first event after a four-year sabbatical from competitive gaming. During the conversation the SK player shares his views on the current state of Quake 3, how it changed and evolved and on how he finds himself in it.

The video with the most fascinating of individuals is definitely a must-see for every Quake fan. View it below:

SK Gaming's Christine "potter" Chi was the lucky cat to be the only one to get an interview from Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel at QuakeCon 2008. A fairly relaxed conversation stays away from conversations about esports, corporate products but focuses on the superstar himself.

Potter talks to Fatal1ty about his favourite movies, his heroes, things he cannot do and funny stories from his childhood. To watch the interview with this fascinating individual, click below:

QuakeCon 2008 was not just an opportunity to see how QuakeLive plays in competition or to have a shot at winning a car. It was also a very good place to find out more about id's games.

John Carmack's keynote revealed a lot of stuff. You can find out more from SK Gaming's interview with the QuakeLive producer Marty Stratton. Among other things he talks about the QLive match-making system, broadening the audience for the game and what it would take for id to make another Quake Arena game.

Watch it below:

It is been over a week since QuakeCon's final was played but not everything about it has been written. The story of the closing show of QuakeCon did not quite make it to the esports press until today.

A new video and a column by Carmac show an interesting perspective on an event where they encourage people to leave before the QuakeLive final starts and players have to wait three hours to start playing.


Here is a mandatory quotation from the article:

Then we sat through over an hour of Guitar Hero 3, a Quake tattoo show, a quick draw match, a Bawls drinking contest, about an hour or more of t-shirt throwing and contests for the first people to bring a bra / a pokemon item / whatever else to Marty Stratton for a Corvette lottery ticket. The list is longer but I would rather forget than remember the items on it.

The finalists sat tired and hungry, and jetlagged in the case of Cypher, as this dragged on for three hours while Hollenshead and Stratton took their sweet time entertaining the public.

You can read the entire thing right here.

The ESWC Masters event in Paris was the first big test on how well he could do in Quake 3 for Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager. It did not bring a definite answer, as the hero of the PainKiller era lost to k1llsen and lnk1n but took maps from czm and ZeRo4 who topped the group.

Where is this fascinating individual's place among the elite of Quake 3 players, how he handles the new experience of losing in practice all the time and why he is not affected by the shutdown of Amsterdam's Red Light District? The answers can be found in the video interview below:

The icon of the CPL World Tour in 2005, Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager is back in action after a very long break from competitive gaming. Although Q3 is not his game of choice, the Dutchman qualified for the ESWC and got invited to the ESWC Masters of Paris.

In an interview with SK Gaming, Vo0 talks about his reasons to come back, his feelings about playing a game he does not necessarily love to play and shares a great deal of thoughts about his gaming history and competitive gaming. Mandatory quote:

I love to prove people wrong. I think I can be a great competitor in Q3 if I put my mind into it. I need a whole lot of playing hours for it, yes, but that is just because I have to catch up to other players. I will be going up against people who were playing professional Q3 tournaments in 2001, and for me that is very exciting. I feel like an underdog, and it feels cool.

Furthermore, I love competition. Q4 wasn't my first game choice either but I never played any tournament in that game. That was merely because I just had a crazy tour finished and I wanted to take a break and realized that Q4 wasn't really my cup of tea. When I think back of that choice now, it might have been a wrong one. Q4 was very different from PK and I had to start all over. My pride got in the way. Being a natural talent in one game that didn't automatically transfer to the next kinda hurt it. I felt like I was never going to be as good as the top players. Which was a dumb, though, as I beat [Magnus] “fox” Olsson and [Michael] “winz” [Bignet] in Eurocup matches, but I still wasn't happy enough about the overall performances. That combined with the fact that I didn't really enjoy the game made me quit the game entirely.

All in all , it's mostly the competition that has lead me to start Q3 again.

The entire interview with this fascinating individual is to be found right here. By the way, he's clanless! ;-)

The long lost ESReality Uncut 2 tapes from the 2004 ESWC have been found and with them, an interview with Anton "Cooller" Singov, the most fascinating individual to have ever played Quake 3.

At the time, Cooller was 17 years of age and at the peak of his career as a Quake 3 player. He had won the ESWC a year earlier and received the Quake Player of 2003 award from ESReality.

In the interview, the Russian player talks about his famous matches with John "ZeRo4" Hill, his style of play and how Quake 3 should be played. From today's perspective, the interview should be very interesting.

The entire thing can be found right here along with a gallery documenting Cooller's growth.

Karl "fooKi" Johansson qualified for the ESWC Grand Final after returning from a long sabbatical. The Swede has not played Quake at a competitive level for over a year, but got second place at DreamHack, losing to Magnus "fox" Olsson in the final.

SK Gaming has interviewed the player about his current shape, the ESWC Masters of Paris and Quake 3 in general. Here is a mandatory snippet:

Pro-gaming is a pipe dream, and the Quake scene is very far away from anything like that. I really doubt that Quake will ever become big. It just isn't dumbed down enough for mainstream, which to me is a good thing. I read a trip report from someone who went to a competition and spectated Quake. He wrote that he stood there for a few minutes, spectating Quake 4 before going elsewhere. It was just too fast and hard to keep up with what was going on. When there are other alternatives, Quake will have a tough time to compete for the spotlight.

The rest of the interview with this fascinating individual can be found right here.

Counter-Strike is not held in high regard on ESReality and the world's "leader" in esports, Sasha Tsapaev, now has the proof why it should not be supported. The man who acquired the CPL on April 1 shares the shocking findings of his scientists.

Thanks to this fascinating individual you now know exactly why you hate Counter-Strike.

The weekly series of 1on1 video interviews features one of the founders of SK Gaming and ESL's Managing Director, Ralf "Griff" Reichert. Older readers might remember him from his playing days in QW and Q3. Today, he is in charge of the largest event organiser in the world and has a lot to say about the esports industry.

In a video interview, he talks about the reasons why 1on1 deathmatch has withered, Angel Munoz the fall of the CPL, about the potential success of QuakeLive and power in esports. Quote:

"if the initial [QuakeLive] community doesn't do the same 'we go elite and don't really play in public unless there is a tournament where we get x amount of dollars.' If that's different, then it can have a future."

The second installment of the interview with Jarod Reisin, the president of the AGP, is here. This fascinating individual talked about the state of DM games and how they lost their position in competitive gaming.

In the second part of the interview, he talks about how he plans to put them back on the map. He also explains why he thinks the tour needs four different games and why he chose Quake 4 and UT3 in particular. Snippet below:

We will forever have the fighting about everyone's preferred game and how it is better or more skilled. Well, now it will be put on a pedestal and the fans will have a lot to talk about and watch. This in some ways will unite the communities. FPS 1v1 has some great communities, positive and negative. They all will now finally have a place to really see the encompassing of the entire FPS 1v1 sport in itself. Unity is everything. This format should allow a good percentage of each games fan base to unite. Yes, I know the QW fans and Q2 fans, and all of the UT's prior to 3 among the tons of other potential games will not be satisfied. But we cannot have a tour of 20 games.

Read the entire interview right here.

The man behind the 240+ comment enthusiasm on ESReality regarding a new deathmatch circuit that will launch in 2009 is called Jarod "Streetrunner" Reisin. This fascinating individual has a strong belief in 1v1 DM games and plans to bring the community a tour of a dozen events for UT3, Q4, Q3 and WSW next year.

Such an announcement sparks curiosity and invites questions. The questions regarding the AGP were enough to get SK Gaming a very solid, two-part interview with Streetrunner. In the first part, he talks about the general state of deathmatch in esports, why it failed with the CPL and the WSVG and how it should be presented. Here's the mandatory teaser:

I don't believe FPS 1v1 has died. I just believe that these poor decisions and lack of focus on the game and players has created such seperation, that fans really have nowhere to turn. And the players cannot stick around and put in the amazing amount of time it takes to be top with no hope of actually being able to play consistently or make enough money to even survive on. And the fans have ended up just giving up.

The entire interview can be found right here. Part 2 will come Sunday evening and will cover the specifics of the AGP, including the game choices in detail.

Sasha Tsapaev.

Last night rakaka.se and readmore.de reported the purchase of the CPL by Sasha Tsapaev, a Belarussian investor. Later on, the CPL itself confirmed the news.

At the AFI Film Festival in Dallas, SK Gaming's Michal "Carmac" Blicharz has managed to interview Sasha Tsapaev about his views on gaming and his plans regarding "the new CPL." View the interview below:

Well, he did not, but he did review the most fascinating new gaming mouse by Logitech. The new model does up to 3200 DPI and it is packaged to be as customisable as possible, with a bunch of weights and two shells that change the shape of the mouse. Moreover, once you have set up your mouse drivers on your PC, it will keep the setup on another PC you plug it into.

Here is a short quotation of the review:

You’ll have to download SetPoint 5.0 to set up the G9 and any profiles you may want, but after it’s set up the way you like, you can take the mouse to any PC and just plug it in and go.

The drivers let you change everything from X-Y sensitivity and DPI to the actual colour of the running man LED. There are a lot of different colours/shades to choose from, including pink (you guys who use the pink rail trail in Quake 3 might be interested)!

I’ve confirmed that you can set up the DPI levels on a driver-equipped PC and then take the mouse to a random PC and switch through them.

If you are interested in finding out about the pros and cons of the G9, head on over to GGL Wire.

Gametype: N/A
Map: Various Maps
Mod: N/A
Viewpoint: dignitas`HELL
Version info: 1.4.1
How to play back Q4 demos


i30 upper bracket round 2 match on Phrantic, Placebo and Galang.

Gametype: Duel
Map: Various Maps
Mod: N/A
Viewpoint: serious`av3k
Version info: 1.4.1
How to play back Q4 demos


i30 upper bracket quarterfinal between av3k and HELL on Monsoon and Placebo.

He was surprisingly light!

Clamp was invited to the set of Jurassic Park for his birthday a long ass time ago!

A shot of coL during the CS final.

Team 3D's player. Yes, CS players pick do nicknames like that.

3D's star player moto. One of my favourite CS persons. In a non-homosexual way!

I'm not sure, actually... :D

coL's most important member in the tournament. He put more time into practice than anyone else in coL before this tournament.

Another one of coL's players.

compLexity's number one star and 3D's number one target - Danny Montaner.

3D's hottest player - Mikey So.

This is what it looked like when they played the grand final of the tournament.

A view from behind the players during the grand final.

Touched for the very first time!

Mister WSVG came to the event to see how it's done!

Supposedly, this is stermy's hat. I borrowed it from Liefje.

Mahmood in the hat this time.

Well what do you know? They made me wear the jacket as well.

Unaware of what is about to happen!

"I think yer kewl!"

FINAL PHOTO.

djWHEAT says hi to all his fans.

djRoMe on the first day. The tie thing grew on him, though!

This man, for a change, loves his tie and jacket.

Can you handle the shot?!

No one escapes me!

WHEAT was actually playing World of Walking between broadcasts while Ed was checking out photos of Grace Park.

"The more contact I have with humans, the more I learn."

T to the G himself!

no caption yet.

It ain't a joke when people say things are bigger in America.

Someone Polish please translate. No, he didn't know.

After missing a connecting flight in Paris he arrived one day later than planned, without any sleep because he's afraid of flying and still kicked ass in the tournament.

Spirit Moon was late and an hour's stream of people read the sigh. The reactions were... interesting.

Moon and SyN at JFK.

West Side, baby!

The American patriot had a very unexpected exit out of the tournament.

SyN had a bet that this kid wouldn't make it into the top 4. Guess he lost.

The Dutchman also took part in the tournament but did not quite leave a mark.

GGL's Quake 4 tournament admin. Did a very good job running the competition.

Is the ideogram on his sweatshirt a sentient choice?

Go back to CPMA, Andy!!! ;p

2GD with a Cooller-signed mousepad.

This guy beat LoSt CaUsE in the lower bracket but did not make it to the final like LC wished he would.

Fatal1ty tries very hard to win Quake 4 tournaments and improves with every one of them.

The Polish Boy Wonder still has a lot to learn but if he improves his game enough, he should be a kickass competitor.

Those ladies were kind enough to smile for the photo as they were watching the kid play. Even though LC was being beaten.

Those two casted Quake 4 at DigitalLife. I think they did a good job.

Last year we had Jessica Alba, this year the big-assed ex-actress, poor singer was here.

Big, big rivals in game, "friends" outside of it!

Fat has Smu, sunman has a teddy bear.

He's one of those managers that plays the game and understands it...

This guy always shows up at NYC tournaments. This time he's wearing something quite stylish at that.

Gameplay HD are filming. Let's hope they don't use this bit of footage in their coverage of DL.

"Did you call me a schmuck?"

Yes, I kinda did...

The energy drinks they were promoting vanished very, very rapidly...

As you can see, they were quite popular.

I interviewed the guy and I have to say that I expect him to get a lot of flaming...

The blonde NJ Nets dancers were hotter but oh well...

Rumour has it it will soon be av3k519...

What do you do if you can't win money in Quake 4? You play FEAR!

You'll have to repeat this to me, motherfucker...

Guy needs a tan. Badly.


TO BE CONTINUED

Her name's Debra.

ASDASDASDASDASDASDASDASDASDASDFSDGSDFGAS

Made by Bjorn "zulg" Sunesson, the second ESWC 2005 film released by the GGL captures a little bit of the special atmosphere of the event for those that were not there.

Two movies were made out of this and for a reason. If you want to see a World Cyber Games champion stealing mouse pads or how an good interview go horribly wrong, you have come to the right place.

"The Failed djWHEAT Interview" by zulg takes seriousness and professionality to the next level from the first second of the movie to the last.

The GGL has released its movie from the 2005 ESWC. In a style somewhat similar to the ESReality Uncut movie (much more roughly edited, though), it presents three interviews with gaming legends done by Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, a special guest interview conducted by Prince of Persia himself, Cyrus "proZaC" Malekani and a very, very special clip towards the end of the film.

The interviews are with:

* Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham (featuring his Gabriel "Warwitch" David impression)
* Tommy "Potti" Ingemarsson (featuring Potti doing a Fiskerface)
* Anton "Cooller" Singov (after winning the Quake 3 event)

The bonus material is where it's at, though. Do not miss.