Staggering amount of E-Sports news crits reader for OVER 9000!!! It’s time for another [E-sports dail-E]!
CounterStrike: Global Offensive Competitive details
As we here at Gamezone reported earlier, Valve has officially announced Counterstrike: Global Offensive for release on PSN, XBLA and Steam in 2012. I’ve done some digging and have turned up the first hints of what’s to come in Global Offensive:
• Global Offensive plays more like Counterstrike Source than the original Counterstrike.
• It will feature automated matchmaking
• 2 game modes: One for casuals, and one for competitive gamers.
• Competitive mode will be 5v5 and will focus on bomb defusing, a integral part of competitive CSS
• New guns, body armor, updated maps etc.
This is where the fact ends and speculation begins, so don’t hold me to these.
• Climbing and Descending ladders feels like it did in CounterStrike Source.
• Air movement, jumping, feels identical to Counterstrike Source
• 1 shot kills with any weapon other than Desert Eagle feel too hard to achieve, testers feel this needs tweaking.
• Flash Grenades similar to CS 1.6, Smoke grenades similar to their Counterstrike Source rendition.
Will certainly be interesting to see how the game turns out competitively, as well as if Valve will follow their $1 million DotA 2 Tournament with a Counterstrike: Global Operation tournament with a similar prize pool.
More MLG News: League of Legends to be featured at Raleigh, New Season Format
Major League Gaming has announced a fourth game to be featured at MLG Raleigh 2011 – League of Legends. As they are adding a game midseason, this tournament, and subsequent tournaments for the rest of the season are by invitation only – full details from the Major League Gaming press release are below.
“The Details
Because we’re adding LoL midway through the 2011 Season, we’ll be starting small, but in style. We’re inviting four of the best teams in North America, and, with the support of Riot Games, we’ll be covering their travel costs. Matches will be played during the Saturday and Sunday of MLG Raleigh, and we will be streaming them live.
• The teams: Epik Gaming, Curse Gaming, Team Solo Mid, and Counter Logic Gaming
• The format: 5v5, Bo3 Pool Play. The Top 2 teams will play an extended series Bo7 for the Championship
• • The prizes: $20,000 is on the line
o $12,500 for the 1st Place team
o $7,500 for 2nd Place
• The schedule (in ET):
• Saturday 10:00AM – 8:00PM Streamed Pool Play Matches
• Sunday 10:00AM – 1:45PM Streamed Championship Finals”
Next year should be interesting as they will have open qualifiers for the first time – MLG seems to be expanding even more as of late, and that can only be a good thing.
In other MLG related news, on the most recent episode of vVv Gaming’s the Loser’s Bracket, which I reported on a few days ago, Sundance DiGiovanni went into detail on next year’s pro circuit. The current plan calls for four seasons of play, Fall, Winter, Summer and Spring with stops in major cities during each. There was also some talk of having other content played to be viewed in a studio-format (a la Sportscenter) in between these events. Exciting stuff – what games do you hope to see added to the Pro Circuit next year? Maybe MLG can make up with Capcom and feature Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition? Or will it be the new Counterstrike game from Valve? Only time will tell.
Starcraft 2 News: MC to replace MarineKing at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne
Recently, I reported on the groups that were announced by the ESL for the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne – turns out MarineKing.Prime will not be able to attend, as he is having travel complications with getting to Germany. So, the ESL has invited “God Protoss” oGsMC, two time Global Star League champion to the IEM. MC will not be taking MarineKing’s spot in Group D as to prevent an overabundance of Protoss players in one group. So as a result, the groups now stand as follows:
Group A
Kas
Beastyqt
IdrA
MC
Group B
Socke
DieStar
SeleCT
Killer
Group C
Tarson
Nerchio
mOOnGLaDe
HuK
Group D
Stephano
SaSe
MaNa
Puma
In light of the groups, it looks like there will be a IdrA vs MC match to start things off with a bang – a rivalry that many fans have grown to love.
Note: For those of you wondering where my Battle.net Invitational coverage is, don’t worry, it’s coming in tomorrow’s dail-e. As of this writing, play is still taking place today.
Hype worthy moment
Today’s hype worthy moment comes from a bit closer to home than usual for me – Community Effort Orlando, or CEO 2011. A pretty good Ryu vs Akuma matchup, Wade County vs DMG Perfect Legend.
That’s it for today’s daily folks! Stay gold, E-Sports fans!
Dustin Steiner is Gamezone’s E-Sports Correspondent! Follow Dustin on Twitter @SteinerDustin
