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CUSTOM MAPS; CAN THEY MAKE THE CUT?
[ 2 comments | Write Comment ] May 01, 2013, 10:17:49 AM by Gumpster
I had a chance to play a few custom maps which seemed to really play well recently. One of the guys from HG.Fuse recently did a video on all of the 10 maps from the CEVO Mapping Competition (the largest of it's kind by the way).
It is one of the issues Counter Strike has suffered with for the last few years, both sides of the pond in 1.6 and in Source were lacking real maps that added a good competitive balance to the scene, and something that Valve have specifically left up to the community to handle for a very long time. Ever since the first iteration of Counter Strike, dust2, dust, aztec have been maps that have been included in the game, over time, the game has had new official maps introduced, with nuke, inferno, train all making the grade. Even custom maps such as cpl_fire, cpl_mill were used in events across the globe.
Eventually cpl_mill got replaced in CS:S due to CGS needing a map that was similar but wasn't branded by CPL banners, that answer came in the form of tuscan. Over in America they also preferred maps such as de_cache which was used regularly in CEVO and ESEA.
However since the switch to Counter Strike's latest version, Global Offensive, there has been a lack of any real competitive maps. mill is still in beta, whilst Brute has hit issues with his re imagining of de_tuscan which was a success in CS:S, he didn't want to alter it, but in fact update it with the new textures of the latest hybrid version of the Source engine.
Ted "cashed" McIlwain was still working on de_season, and we found ourselves relying on the standard four maps of train, nuke, dust2, and inferno, whilst having to re-introduce the renamed de_strike from Source, which was known as mirage to long standing members of the 1.6 community.
Read the full news post: Click Here
To Watch Hatton's Video: Click Here |
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ESEA VIEWERS GUIDE - TONIGHT
[ 1 comment | Write Comment ] April 19, 2013, 07:08:04 PM by Gumpster
Ok so tonight begins the last of the "Big Spring Season" of LANs. Hosted in Dallas, Texas, two sides of the Atlantic will be meeting, the North American's and the Europeans.
Teams from Europe are as follows:
 Ninjas in Pyjamas (f0rest, Fifflaren, friberg, GeT_RiGhT, Xizt) Team VeryGames (Ex6TenZ, kennyS, NBK, ScreaM, SmithZz) n!faculty (asmo, disruptor, Kirby, qk-Mantis, smn) ESC Gaming (kuben, Loord, Neo, pasha, TaZ)
Teams from America are as follows:
 Quantic Gaming (DaZeD, frozt, hiko, semphis, tck) Curse (anger, ezpk, Michael3D, Skadoodle, stan) Team Dynamic (AdreN, AZK, n0thing, swag, Volcano) Denial eSports (FLAMING) (arya, flowsicK, jmitchell, kiko, sobo)
Games are:
Don't forget to also play the HLTV.org's DreamTeam as well for this event, you can find that here |
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AROUND THE WORLD FOR CS:GO
[ 2 comments | Write Comment ] April 17, 2013, 08:39:06 AM by Gumpster
It's been a while since I did a news post which focused on what was happening outside of the United Kingdom in terms of Counter Strike Global Offensive.
Since insomnia48 back in March, there has been back to back events which have contained a rather large amount of money dished out. First it was Copenhagen Games, which once again delivered on some quality games over the weekend where several British sides made the trip, and there were a lot of questions being asked, would NiP drop their first map at LAN, would Anexis manage to defend their title from last year, would VeryGames finally find some form and play well, would the NA sides have much of an impact? All those questions were suitably answered, with NiP still dominating and still running over anyone who faced them. Anexis slumped to a terrible defeat at the hands of two rather average sides they should have beaten. VeryGames did well, but still managed to finish outside the Top 3 for a second event in a row, whilst the American sides did do reasonably well, but still found EU sides hard to play against.
Ninjas in Pyjamas - €16,500  Western Wolves - €8,000  Virtus.pro - €4,000
After Copenhagen Games, there were two major events on at the same time, which included Heaven Media's third LAN event which was held in the middle of Gadget Show Live at the NEC in Birmingham, where £10,000 would be dished out, whilst over in Kiev in Ukraine, the StarLadder StarSeries Season V LAN Finals for $15,000 took place between the Top 4 teams in the ladder which included NiP, Virtus.Pro, Na'Vi & ESC Gaming. NiP faced off against ESC Gaming, with that being a comfortable victory, whilst Virtus.Pro & Na'Vi squared up to each other in what was a contest between the two CIS sides. It was a fantastic weekend of pulsating Counter Strike action where just over 45,000 concurrent viewers watched the fantastic Russian/Ukrainan outfit of Virtus.Pro finally topple the Gods in Counter Strike GO, over two maps on de_mirage & de_nuke_se in the Upper Bracket final, which finally ended an unbeaten 87 maps to 0 streak, the longest streak in Counter Strike ever. A feat that will most likely never be repeated again.
NiP then had to pull themselves together and go against a rather resilient Na'Vi side who were looking for blood, but they themselves found out they were on the back of a "Fergie backlash" when NiP smashed them in the lower bracket. This meant the final was between Virtus.Pro a side who had literally outdone themselves and NiP a side who had finally succumbed to a rather unusual defeat. The stage was set and this time, it was a Best of 5 final, which meant NiP had to win 3 maps, and Virtus.Pro only had to win 2 (as they had the map advantage). It was however not going to script for GeT_RiGhT and co as they once again found themselves on de_inferno_se on the back of a rather unusual scoreline. Virtus.Pro were on the literal brink of defeating a side who had been so dominant in CS:GO up until this point, a side who in the finals seemed to reach a gear that was not even reachable for any other team that faced them. In front of a crowd of around 3,000 in Kiev, and 55,000 concurrent spectators on the Russian and English streams, it was a moment in history that CS fanatics will never forget as Virtus.Pro won the $6k 1st place prize.
1. Virtus.pro - $6,000 2. NiP Gaming - $3,000 3.  Natus Vincere - $2,500 4. ESC Gaming - $2,000
Meanwhile in Birmingham, 5 British sides, 3 Danish sides, 1 French side, 1 Portugese side all were quietly fighting it out between them to see who could win the title without NiP in attendance. British hopes rested with the once again talented side of Sam "RattlesnK" Gawn's side Anexis, whilst VeryGames were looking for a big lift after dominating Counter Strike Source for so long, and now being on the other side of the fence in the new game, they were looking for their first major title in CS:GO. Both fnatic and the sensational Western Wolves (the Number 1 Danish side) were also in attendance looking for their first trophies, whilst k1ck from Portugal made up a rather healthy list of teams at the NEC duking it out for a share of £10,000.
After some slip ups from Anexis as they lost to k1ck in the opening round of group games, they managed to make their way through to the double elim, with VeryGames topping the group. The real surprise was fm-eSports TOXiC who had managed to nearly top their group by beating fnatic and the rest. This was surprising due to the fact that they had kicked their awper and drafted in a Dane in the run up to the event after their insomnia48 showing as they failed to impress there and lost a map to MINISTRY at said LAN. All British sides aside from Anexis were knocked out in the Group stages, whilst Anexis finished outside of the Podium. Finally fnatic managed to live up to their longstanding CS history and finish second at the event behind a rather ecstatic VeryGames (oh those Frenchies).
VeryGames - £6,000 + Mad Catz Hardware fnatic - £3,000 + Mad Catz Hardware Western Wolves - £1,000 + Mad Catz Hardware
Last weekend, saw the ESL EMS RaidCall One come to a rather brilliant close with some really top notch production values from ESL. At the start of the year ESL had announced that they would be giving CS:GO a whopping $156,000 broken down over four seasons this year. They have revamped EAS to become the ESL A-Series, and revamped EMS (their second tier competition behind IEM) to help both CS:GO and DotA2 with some fantastic prize money.
Just over 100 teams competed each week in ESL A-Series, and the top 32 would make 4 cups each week. Those Top 32 would be broken down to 16 teams spread across 4 different groups, and then played online over a series of nights. The 16 teams became 8 which would then be sent packing to ESL's studios in Cologne, Germany, where they had a chance to grab a share of the $35k on offer. The 8 teams, were VeryGames, Anexis, NiP, n!faculty, k1ck, fnatic, Absolute Legends & Imaginary Gaming. A rather strange event as it was single elimination Best of 3. However it was a rather brilliant event to spectate as the ESL showed why they are one of the best in the business with some really good quality production of their stream, and the content they pumped out. Finally we saw Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner cast CS again in a way we know best.
The surprise package was Absolute Legends who were a Swedish Mix team for the event, but they showed that the Swedish scene isn't all about NiP. Anexis had a tough draw as they squared up against VeryGames, and got smashed on de_nuke_se 16 - 1, then took dust2_se 16 - 9, but lost in a rather close encounter on inferno_se 16 - 14. The Frenchies then had the task of taking on NiP, a side that were coming into this event finally losing an event before, and looking shaken. However NiP dispatched k1ck in the early round 16 - 7 & 16 - 7 on nuke_se & inferno_se respectively and looked like a team determined to reclaim their crown. Many people were hoping the Frenchies could finally overcome their mental block and defeat the Swedish Gods, however that wasn't to be as they were simply outclassed on inferno_se 16 - 3, and only lost to some f0rest magic on dust2_se 16 - 14.
NiP met fnatic in the final and outclassed the Danes quite comfortably over the two maps, and took $12k first prize home with them.
1. NiP - $12,000 2. fnatic - $7,000 3-4. VeryGames - $4,000 3-4. Absolute Legends - $4,000
The final event of the "Big 5 weekends in a row" concludes this weekend with ESEA's Global Season 13 finals for $36,000. For the first time ever, the Top 4 sides in ESEA's invite divisions from both North America, and Europe, will meet in Dallas this weekend for a share of the prize money. The four sides from America are Quantic-Gaming, Curse, Team Dynamic & FLAMING. Meanwhile for Europe, it is NiP, VeryGames, n!faculty & ESC Gaming. Virtus Pro were supposed to go instead of ESC Gaming, however the American authorities for whatever reason rejected the visas that the Russians had given.
Also the first of it's kind in a serious manner, will be the North American All-Stars against the European All Stars Match, which will pit some of the two scenes best players against each other to see who can get the higher seeds for the tournament. It should be a rather intriguing match.
North American All Stars Line Up: anger DaZed kiko n0thing Skadoodle European All Stars Line Up: asmo f0rest GeT_RiGhT Neo  ScreaM
You can tune in on Friday Night at 11pm here to the Click Here
Meanwhile the ESEA League have put up this Promotional Video in prep for this big match: YouTube Video |
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All Stars - 23:00 
