Serious Gaming at ESWC San Jose: Cypher wins Q3

This year's edition of the Electronic Sports World Cup is going on in San Jose, California right now. This annual tournament gathers the best of the best in various of gaming's top disciplines.

Serious Gaming/Team Razer is represented strongly at the 200.000$ event with players in Defense of the Ancients, Quake III and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Unfortunately reigning Quake world champion Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski was denied a visa to enter the USA and will therefore be unable to prolong his title.

The players representing Serious Gaming are:

Alexey 'Cypher' Yanusheuski (Q3) - 1st
Clement 'Soycd' Rodmacq (DotA) - 7/8th
Loic 'Kiram' Renoullin (DotA) - 7/8th
Kovacevic 'SilentCat' Marko (DotA) - 7/8th
Olivier 'darkarax4' Barriere (DotA) - 7/8th
Thomas 'Jester' Wolff (DotA) - 7/8th
Kevin 'RotterdaM' van der Kooi (WC3) - 17/24th
Nikolaus 'SonKiE' Cassidy (WC3) - 17/24th
Hjalmar 'DowaQ' Högberg (WC3) - 17/24th

Alexey 'Cypher' Yanusheuski (Quake III)
2nd place ESWC 2006
1st place ESWC Masters 2008
1st place QuakeCon 2008

Considered one of the favorites for the event, Cypher will be the sole defender of our Quake world title. Reaching the ESWC 2006 finals was the kick-off of his professional gaming career and he will be looking to reach his second one but with a different result.

Cypher vs. ESWC
0-2 SK.Rapha - August 25 21:00 CET
2-0 4K^Noctis - August 25 23:30 CET
2-0 Impulse*LLL - August 26 0:30 CET
2-0 Toxter - August 26 1:30 CET
2-1 aAa*Linkin - August 26 2:30 CET
2-0 EG.czm - August 26 6:30 CET
2-1 EG.Chance - August 26 19:00 CET
2-1 K1llsen - August 26 20:00 CET
2-0 SK.Rapha - August 26 22:00 CET
2-0 K1llsen

Serious Gaming Defense of the Ancients (DotA)
1st place ESWC France
2nd Miage Lan
5th place ESWC Masters

- Clement 'Soycd' Rodmacq
- Loic 'Kiram' Renoullin
- Kovacevic 'SilentCat' Marko
- Olivier 'darkarax4' Barriere
- Thomas 'Jester' Wolff

The French champions have been preparing for this event for a long time. Among the best DotA teams in the world, they will be finding out exactly where they stand in the world rankings. Their latest online results have been extremely encouraging, including a win vs. Masters vice-champion TeG.

Serious[Razer]DotA vs. ESWC
0-1 Evil Geniuses - August 25 19:00 CET
1-0 SK Gaming - August 25 20:30 CET
0-1 KingSurf - August 25 23:30 CET
1-0 S3X - August 26 1:00 CET
0-1 NAFU- August 26 2:30 CET

Kevin 'RotterdaM' van der Kooi (Warcraft III)
1st EuroCup 2006
5th ACON 5
9th ESWC 2007

One of Europe's leading Orc players, RotterdaM will be competing at his third ESWC event. He has had time to prepare for the event but will face a tough group.

1-2 WE.Sky - August 25 19:00 CET
0-2 SK.ReiGn - August 25 20:00 CET
2-0 Darkdancer - August 25 23:30 CET

Nikolaus 'SonKiE' Cassidy (Warcraft III)
1st WCG Pan-America 2008
1st WCG USA Open 2008
1st ESWC USA 2008

The American champion player will be entering his first ESWC with a homeground advantage. He has been training a lot and is eager to leave a mark at the event.

1-2 Bonecracker - August 25 19:00 CET
2-1 aAa*Wolf - August 25 20:00 CET
2-0 Firestrike - August 25 21:00 CET
0-2 mTw-WhO - August 25 23:30 CET

Hjalmar 'DowaQ' Högberg (Warcraft III)
2nd Dreamhack Winter 2007
2nd ESWC Sweden 2008
2nd KODE5 Sweden

The Swedish talent will be making his international debute. In the past year he has beaten a host of experienced professional gamers in tournaments taking place in Sweden and he will now be learning how he himself stacks up internationally.

forfeit win HasuElf - August 25 19:00 CET
1-2 FiX - August 25 20:00 CET
0-0 PaulYan - August 25 21:00 CET
0-2 SK.Soju - August 25 23:30 CET

Selection of Serious Gaming in media (links)

SK Gaming - Cypher crowned as ESWC 2008 champion
MeetYourMakers - videointerview: srs.RotterdaM
SK Gaming - Pre-ESWC interviews: RotterdaM, SonkiE
ESreality - ESWC 2008 Interviews with Cypher & av3k
SK Gaming - Cypher's real challenge comes in America
Fragster - Alle gegen Cypher
ESreality - No av3k at ESWC finals
SK Gaming - US embassy denies av3k ESWC title hopes

Kowi and NightWolf qualify for World Cyber Games

Some time ago Hamish 'Kowi' Parker represented us in the New Zealand qualifier for the World Cyber Games. The reigning WCG Pan-Asia vice-champion succesfully won the event and will now represent us in Cologne.

WCG New Zealand
1st - Hamish ‘kowi’ Parker
2nd - Chase ‘FiZiX’ Barnes
3rd - Jason ‘Snoop’ McCartney

source: scoop.co.nz

Last weekend Yaraslau 'NightWolf' Kavetski played his national Belarusian World Cyber Games as one of four players that qualified for the finals. He beat Vladislav 'Frozen' Baranov in round one and proceeded to face and beat Aliaksandr 'Dragod' Dramkou in the upper- and winner-bracket finals, also succesfully qualifying for the event.

All our Warcraft III players will be attempting to qualify for this prestigious tournament, some of the qualifiers are already on-going: Kevin 'RotterdaM' van der Kooi is one of two finalists remaining in the Dutch qualifier and WCG Pan-American & WCG USA Open champion Nikolaus 'SonKiE' Cassidy has qualified for the national USA finals.

DotA groups released ESWC 2008

The tournament that has to suffer the most from visa issues is without a doubt the Warcraft III DotA competition. With teams such as fnatic, Rush3d and KS International (former Virtus Pro) having to cancel on their trip, the tournament has lost some of their top contenders. As a result of this the groups were only released today. The tournament will be played in 2 groups, with the top 2 finishers of the respective groups advancing into a single elimination bracket.

For Serious[Razer] the draw resulted in a spot in group A together with German ESWC Masters winners SK Gaming, ESWC Masters runner-up TeG, Kingsurf, s3x and Canadian team NAFU. In our last matches Serious[Razer] has shown good shape, beating both fnatic and TeG in the PDL League. Let's hope the team can continue their recent form and snatch a top 2 spot in their group.

Group A:
SK-Gaming
Evil Geniuses
Kingsurf
Serious Gaming
NAFU
s3x

Group B:
MeetYourMakers
The elder Gods
Team Pandemic
Zenith
Fearz

New Groups ESWC 2008 Quake 3 tournament released

Over the last days the ESWC 2008 Quake tournament has been struck with players not being able to compete in this years finals. We already informed you about our own Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski who saw his attempt to obtain a visa denied. Together with him 11 other players had to cancel which according to the ESWC rules means a rescheduling of the groups. There will be 4 groups, each containing 6 players. The top 2 finishers of the different groups will advance into a second group stage with two groups of 4 players. After this second group stage we will enter a single elimination bracket.

This morning the new groups were released. Alexey 'Cypher' Yanushevsky has been drawn into group B together with the likes of Richard 'Noctis' Gangsterer, Shane 'rapha' Hendrixson, Pierre-Emeric 'link1n' Portier, Yannick 'Impulse' Bovy and German Tassilo 'toxter' Teppert.

Here you will find an overview of all groups:

Group A:
Zhibo 'RazerJ' Fan
Paul 'czm' Nelson
Mateusz 'Matr0x' Ozga
Igor 'Hunter'Sambolskyi
Daniel 'ddk' Kapadia
Ryan 'Bono' Hardie
Lemmy 'if-22' de Groot

Group B:
Alexey 'Cypher' Yanushevsky
Richard 'Noctis' Gangsterer
Shane 'rapha' Hendrixson
Pierre-Emeric 'link1n' Portier
Yannick 'Impulse' Bovy
Tassilo 'toxter' Teppert

Group C:
Anton 'Cooller' Singov
John 'ZeRo4' Hill
Sander 'Vo0' Kaasjager
ALI I N.A.B
Kevin 'STRENX' BAEZA
Chance 'Chance' Lucinda

Group D:
Magnus 'fox' Olsson
Marcel 'k1llsen' Paul
Thomas 'griffin' Wall
Kryštof 'krysa' Černý
Dušan 'XGO'
Bran 'Destrukt' Flander

No ESWC for defending Quake World Champion Av3k

The ESWC Grand Finals, to be held next week in San Jose USA, has been deprived of one of its favorits in the Quake 3 tournament. Today became clear defending world champion Maciej 'Av3k' Krzykowski will not be able to attend ESWC 2008. After several attempts to get a visa to the United States and be able to participate in ESWC 2008, his final desperate try failed today.

For Av3k this decision is an extra blow since he was determined to prolongue his title, and become the third player in history to do so after French Quake and UT champion Winz and French Gran Turismo player Snake.

After a build towards ESWC in which Av3k secured a third place at ESWC Masters in Paris and a victory at Gamegune in Bilbao a few weeks ago, things looked very good for the young Polish star. Missing out due to a administrative decision makes it extra bitter. Or as Av3k said himself: "Life is brutal sometimes."