ESR - Coverage

( Major News: QL)

Posted by Rondrian @ 03:38 CST, 7 February 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

Scheduled: 20:30 CST, 4 February 2010 to 22:30 CST, 6 February 2010
Schedule: Passed

The Intel Extreme Masters Season 4 will see it's Asian Championship Finals played at the 2010 Taipei Game Show in Taipei, Taiwan. The Quake Live tournament will start at 20:30 CST, 4 February 2010 with first group matches. The first day of group matches will be broadcasted by Quake Live.tv, from day two on the games will be casted on ESL TV with

2GD and

Joe.

Quake Live Groups

Group Results

Playoffs

Tournaments & Prizemoney

Final Standings

Streaming: ESL TV Free (Alternative host) - ESL TV Premium - Quake-Live.tv
Coverage: ESL,

Fragster.de (with live scores: groups, playoffs)
Links: Group stage, Brackets,

#masters.live
Galleries / Videos: ESL pics, IEM on YouTube, Fragster: Friday gallery, Saturday gallery, Return of the p1mp
Interviews: proZaC: "There can only be one true p1mp"

Edited by xou at 01:05 CST, 14 February 2010 - 198519 Hits

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Improve ESL TV (272 comments)

( Major Column: QL)

Posted by cYmoZz @ 15:15 CST, 1 February 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

Although I did enjoy ESL TV a lot at the IEM European Finals, I think that there is still lot of room for improvement.

The weakest point of ESL TV is in my oppinion the Free Stream:
Its quality is an offense to any viewer. The Video Quality of all those free streaming services like ustream, livestream is much better and they dont even use their viewers upload bandwidth. It makes ESL look very unprofessional when every little league runs better streams.
Secondly, the requirement of an additional plugin is completely the wrong way to go. When you want to have as much viewers as possible, then you don't ask them to install additional, suspicious programs, that dont even work in some cases. Joe Average doesn't understand why he can watch videos on youtube but needs to install a new program to watch ESL TV, so he will suspect that something fishy is going on.

I really feel ashamed to give my friends the link to ESL TV because of these reasons, and the effect is that I rarely do that. If you want to spread the idea of "esports", you need a stream that is easy accessible and doesn't look like complete shit.

I suggest to offer 3 different streams:

Free Stream: runs without any plugins and offers a quality that is comparable to ustream, etc (maybe cooperate with one of those services?) - new viewers and people at work etc will use this stream

Enhanced Free Stream: Provides slightly better quality but uses a p2p plugin - this stream is for regular viewers that are too greedy to get premium

Premium Stream: Provides the best quality (like "very high quality beta premium" stream). Should not use p2p plugins imo, though this doesn't matter much here, since this stream is for true fans, who arent discouraged by little hurdles.

The other main point that needs improvement is that the moderators give way to few information about the player's person. There are a lot of things to talk about and it would make a player like draven look a lot more interesting for the casual viewers if the moderators told them that he is/was in the dutch national team for Taekwondo.
This needs a little journalistic work, but I think it really would be worth it. Viewers want to get to know the person behind the monitor and for every player there is more then enough to talk about him (little anecdotes, former achievements, what is he doing other than playing quake, where is he from (city/heritage), etc)

Edited by iNkind at 07:04 CST, 4 February 2010 - 131408 Hits

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IEM World Championships (352 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by Rondrian @ 13:13 CST, 1 February 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

Only four weeks left until the ESL Intel Extreme Masters World Championships will take place in

Hannover, Germany. Twelve Quake Live players from all over the world (6 from Europe, 4(1) from Americas, 2 from Asia) will fight over $20,000 prize money. The World Championships will be played in two groups of six players each, the top three of each group will advance to the playoffs. In the playoffs the second placed will face off against the third placed, while the first placed players will get a bye into the semi finals.

The Groups

The World Championship Finals will take place from 2. March until 6. March and a detailed schedule about the event will be released soon. Next Friday the Asian Championships will start in Taipei with players like proZaC, Jibo and uNleashed. Full coverage will be posted later this week.

Source: ESL Announcement

Edited by xou at 01:10 CST, 14 February 2010 - 107468 Hits

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IEM EU Championship Round Up on TEK9 (19 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by crow- @ 13:20 CST, 25 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

TEK-9.org rounds up all the action from a top quality weekend of QuakeLive action at the IEM EU finals in Cologne, Germany. We look back on the highs, the lows, the upsets and the controversies from a great start for Quake in 2010. Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky emerged as the continent's eventual champion after a nail-biting finale but find out who we thought was the MVP, the Biggest Upset and much more...

You can read the full round up here on TEK-9.org.

Edited by crow- at 13:46 CST, 25 January 2010 - 14255 Hits

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IEM4 European Championship by Liefje (2 comments)

( Gallery: ESR)

Posted by Liefje @ 12:06 CST, 25 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

Just some pictures from outside the studio where we had a little bit of fun. Also a small video of some epic karaoke :D

First Image >>

Edited by Liefje at 13:01 CST, 25 January 2010 - 8837 Hits

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Post-IEM Wrapup with QLTV's QuadCast (1 comment)

( Major Coverage: QL)

Posted by QuakeLiveTV @ 14:32 CST, 24 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

The QuakeLive.TV team (FishStix, Jehar) will host a special edition of the QuadCast, today @ 15:00 CST, featuring host Slasher and special guests IEM NA Champ DaHanG, IEM EU Champ Cypher, Cooller, and Carmac.

Topics will include the StarCraft MSL drama and, of course, an in-depth look at the recently completed Intel Extreme Masters Cologne tournament!

Tune in at 4 EST - http://www.quake-live.tv/live.php

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CARMAC'S TRUE IDENTITY (5 comments)

( Gallery: OT)

Posted by axema @ 06:41 CST, 24 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

THE TRUTH IS OUT

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IEM4 European Championship Finals (1 comment)

( Gallery: QL)

Posted by Nukm @ 13:44 CST, 23 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

My "best of" Intel Extreme Masters 4 European Championship Finals gallery, enjoy and check out the full galleries at

ESL (Thursday - Friday - Saturday) and

fragster (Thursday - Friday - Saturday) for all pics and better resolution.

Pictures taken by:

Julia "diejule" Christophers (ESL Community Manager)

Konstantin "swine" B�s (Fragster)

First Image >>

Edited by Nukm at 13:44 CST, 23 January 2010 - 7631 Hits

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IEM4 European Championship Finals QL (1460 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by xou @ 14:29 CST, 20 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

Scheduled: 07:00 CST, 21 January 2010 to 10:00 CST, 24 January 2010
Schedule: Passed

The Intel Extreme Masters 4 will see its European Championship Finals played at the ESL TV Studio in

Cologne between the 21st and the 24 of January. The Quakelive tournament will start on 07:00 CST, 21 January 2010 with the first group matches. ESL TV will cover most of the games with their two commentators

2GD and

Joe.

Final standings and prizes

Grand Final

3rd place match

Semi finals

5th/6th/7th/8th place matches

Quarter finals

Group standings

Group stage results - Thursday

Group stage results - Friday

Schedule

Groups

Streaming: ESL TV Free (Alternative host) - ESL TV Premium
Streaming for linux users: /OctoshapeClient -url:ESL.oph350 (mplayer required)
Links: Group stage, Brackets,

#masters.live
Coverage: IEM4 Cologne, Fnatic, TEK9, DerQuaker,

Fragster (with live scores: groups, playoffs)
Twitters: IEMtv, Carmac, Fragster, TEK9
Interviews: TEK9 :: l1nkje@fragster :: fox on his Quarter final draw :: Community predictions
Galleries / Videos: IEM on YouTube - Fragster: Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday, ESR

Edited by xou at 03:51 CST, 22 December 2022 - 700599 Hits

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IEM4 EC Finals - Groups (318 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by xou @ 11:30 CST, 19 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

Tonight the ESL finally announced the Quakelive groups for the European Championship Finals! Also,

Marius "BVG|GUard" Ivanauskas confirmed that he won't be able to attend the event. He will be replaced by

Romain "LLL*dem0n" Leclercq.

As you may already have noticed,

Carmac is secretly wishing for the sprayed cum to reach the ceiling and already made a column with plenty of infos.

Groups

Source: Group page

Edited by xou at 15:36 CST, 19 January 2010 - 100073 Hits

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TEK9 interviews IEM EU finalists (43 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by crow- @ 09:47 CST, 19 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

TEK9's

Liam "crow" Crowley talks to a selection of Europe's top stars ahead of the biggest LAN event of 2010 so far, the IEM European Championship finals. From

av3k to

Z4muZ, nine potential favourites share their thoughts on the weekend ahead - how they've prepared, what they're aiming for and who they're afraid of...

Click here for a quick taster...

You can read the full article here on TEK-9.org.

Edited by crow- at 09:48 CST, 19 January 2010 - 10979 Hits

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IEM European Championship - sprayworthy? (230 comments)

( Major Column: QL)

Posted by Carmac @ 08:39 CST, 19 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

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?

Edited by Carmac at 10:02 CST, 19 January 2010 - 88563 Hits

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Interview with GUard (31 comments)

( Article: QL)

Posted by Hell5pawn @ 09:25 CST, 14 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

You live in a lithuanian city �iauliai . Do you like it there? Is it an interesting place?

Yes, I live in Lithuania, a 3rd word country :)
My city isn't big, the population is approximately 200.000. We have like 5 nice, big clubs, where I usually spend weekends, there's also a couple of decent pubs. I was born here, that's why I like this city, but I'd really like to live in Vilnius, or even better in some european city!

You were nominated to the Player of the year award by eSports.lt. Do you think that you could win if QuakeLive would be more popular on Lithuania? (the award was given to dARKIe, a CS player)

Yeah, I was nominated, but Lithuania, like most of european countires, is focused on Counter-Strike. They don't write about me too often, we all know what they're interesed in :) Yet, I have a lot of fans! They never forget about me, they watch live streams etc. I'm really happy about it. I don't really care about eSports.lt awards.

How do you feel few days before the european Intel Extreme Masters finals?

I study at the university from the 4th to the 21st of January, for 12 hours 6 days a week. Apart from that, I have small problems at work so I don't have much time for training. When I find the time, I'm trying to play a few games against Spart1e and it seems that I'm in shape. I don't feel any pression before the tourney because I do not aim for top positions. I'm worried about the LCD monitors we'll be playing on there, I have to admit, I don't know how to play on low refresh rates. Getting there might also be troublesome, I don't like to travel on my own.

How do you prepare for the finals? Do you have a special training program?

I don't take the training too serious, it's even hard to call it a training in my case. The best I can do is to play against the top players, recently, as I already mentioned, I'm playing mostly with Spart1e, but the more I play, the worse my aim is and I stop to try, and start to base my aim on reflex, which results in missing a lot :D I could train harder, I know what should I do to make it more efficient, but for the time being, I can't practise like that.

Do you think you could reach the podium?

No, I don't think so. If playing on the PC's there won't be a problem and I won't be tired because of the trip, I might pass the group stage. Of course, I can steal a map from the best player of the tourney, but since it'll be BO3 I don't think I could win more than that. At the moment my skill is too low and I haven't put enough work into QuakeLive.

Latelly, you had almost over 9000 2nd places in online one day tournaments such as Zotac or G-Data. Was there always this one player that was better than you? Maybe it's some kind of a curse, or maybe the pression of playing in the final is still too big and you can't play "your game"?

Too be more precise, I've finished second about 10 times in the last 3-4 months :D My biggest problem is the fact that playing non-stop makes me tired fast. I don't like to sit in front of the PC for 3-4 hours without a break. I don't feel any pression when playing versus top players, well, maybe except the times when the frag difference is really slim or when the match goes into overtime, my hand shakes slightly and my heart beats faster only in those kind of situations :) Then the problem are my abilities, I'm not a top world-class player after all.

You represent your country in the QuakeLive TDM Nations Cup 2010. Lithuania was placed in a group C along with France, Austria, Germany, Serbia and Norway. Do you think you have a chance to advance? Which country seems to be the favourite, and against which countries do you have a chance to win?

We're attending this tourney only for the QL TDM community and for fun. We don't have any chance to advance, we're awfully weak and I as I said, we're playing just for the competition. The favourites of our group are the French and Germans. The best we can do is to win a single map, that's all we can do.

You're playing in Betsson Voodoo Gaming for almost 5 months. The QuakeLive division was shrank to merely two players: you and tox1c. Do you like each other with Robert? Do you think the team should have more players? If so, do you have any players on mind that could aid the squad?

It's better to have a team with 2 players than with 22 :) tox1c is a great person, additionally he's from Poland, and I like poles. We don't talk to much, but our relations are OK :) At the moment there aren't many good, free players. The only one that comes to my mind is Reaper from Ukraine.

Thanks for the short talk. Good luck in IEM Finals!

No problem, I'd also like to thank you. I wish good luck to all other participants!

Translated from polish. Original interview can be found here
http://voodoo.at.desk.pl/index.php?mod=articl...amp;id=89#

Edited by Nukm at 19:45 CST, 14 January 2010 - 13156 Hits

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European Championship Finals - Seeds (150 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by xou @ 16:24 CST, 13 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

With the recent ending of the European Championship last Monday, the 16 participants of the Finals are now known. Unfortunately, two players already confirmed that they won't be able to attend the finals.

fooKi and

qrebo will be replaced by the 3rd player of their group:

zsx and

Z4muZ.

Also, the seeding pools are now ready and the groups drawings will be made during the CS and WoW Finals on ESL TV, probably Saturday. Here are the 4 seedings pools to be used for the drawings of the 4 groups of 4 players, as well as the planned schedule of the competition:

Seeding pools

Schedule

Finally, the ESL Staff announced the result of the vote amongst the players about the use of cg_drawItemPickups, which allow to display the timestamps when a player picks up items and weapons. This setting will not be allowed during the finals and should remain to 0.

Source: Announcement

Edited by xou at 05:06 CST, 15 January 2010 - 34300 Hits

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IEM4 EC Missing Games Final Part (91 comments)

( Major News: QL)

Posted by xou @ 00:13 CST, 11 January 2010 - iMsg

Event: IEM4

Scheduled: 14:00 CST, 11 January 2010 to 15:00 CST, 11 January 2010
Schedule: Passed

Tonight will see the end of the online part of the European Championship with the two very last games before the European Finals to be played in Cologne from 21st to 24th January. With 2 late matches, Stermy will need to qualify himself tonight by beating kRoNic first, then he'll face l1nkje to hypothetically take the lead in Group G. The stream will be provided by Own3d.tv starting at 14:00 CST.

Results

Previous games

Links: European Championship,

#esl.quakelive
Streaming: Own3d.tv,

IEMtv

Edited by xou at 15:14 CST, 11 January 2010 - 27658 Hits

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