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From The Gathering 2010!
GNi to host Quake Live services
id Software has partnered with tech solutions company GNi to host all services for Quake Live including the game servers themselves.
In the past, GNi also teamed up with Flagship Studios to cover hosting services for the now-defunct MMO HellGate: London. 
As Quake Live is said to include many of the same features as many MMOs (stat tracking, social features, profiles and more) on top of the traditional client-server architecture, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that id chose an all-inclusive hosting company.
In addition, the news may be a hint that major Quake Live announcements are in the works. More as we get it…
Source: GNi to Host New id Software QUAKE LIVE Title
Evil Geniuses recruit ex-compLexity Counter-Strike players
With the demise of the Championship Gaming Series and subsequent layoffs (for lack of a better word) of the players in the league, freelance gaming organizations have been stepping up their recruitment game. This weekend, while most of North America tried to sleep in, Evil Geniuses snaked nearly the entire compLexity Counter-Strike roster.
Danny “fRoD” Montaner, Tyler “Storm” Wood, Matt “Warden” Dickens and Corey “hanes” Hanes will join Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert as the new lineup of EG 2009. It’s notable that Ron “Rambo” Kim, who left 3D to play with compLexity many moons ago, will not be part of the new lineup.
As EG is sponsored by Intel and has the financial means to send its players to tournaments, the news shouldn’t have been a complete surprise, though messageboards worldwide are on fire.
coL manager Jason Lake was appreciably disgusted by the turn of events, however, and in a public statement called Alex Garfield, the owner and manager of EG, a traitor.
Human drama notwithstanding, it’s unclear where coL as a brand would fit into the post-CGS e-Sports world, if at all. The team brand was sold to CGS prior to the launch of the league and its ownership status is murky at best.
coL may just be another e-Sports dream wrecked by the death of the CGS, which won’t fly for the players who still hold out hope of making a living from gaming, even in a poor economy.
GotFrag has a couple of interviews up with fRoD and n0thing now.
Black Mamba wins GGL SoulCalibur IV tournament!
Jeremy “Black Mamba” Florence took home gold last night in the SoulCalibur IV Xbox 360 tournament grand final, beating tournament favorite AlexJ in two matches. The match was broadcast on G4’s X-Play.
AlexJ previously blew through the semi-final phase of the tournament, while Black Mamba barely made it to the final–the end result is a huge upset. Watch the finals below.
In the first match of the final, Black Mamba’s Sophitia came from behind to take out Alex J’s Voldo. Mamba took the first round, only to be beaten in the second and third rounds. Not to be put out of the fight so easily, Black Mamba stormed back in the final two rounds to take the first match.
Now, AlexJ’s back was up against the wall. But Black Mamba gave no quarter; he 3-0′d the final match and AlexJ was helpless to stop him.
Congrats to Black Mamba for winning the tournaments, and congrats to all participants!
G2_Wolf speaks on Virtual Racing Season victory
GGL had a chance to speak with Dakota “G2_Wolf” Watterson, winner of the Virtual Racing Season, about his practice and gaming habits, and views on the VRS. Wolf has been racing in Trackmania Nations Forever for quite some time and readily shared some details. Let’s get into it.
GGL: First, can you introduce yourself to our readers?
Dakota Watterson: Hi, I’m Dakota, 16, and a student.
GGL: How does it feel to have won the GGL Virtual Racing Season?
Watterson: I’m quite surprised considering who my opponent was for the finals. Seeing an ingame rank in the single digits is pretty intimidating, even for me.
GGL: Will you be able to make it to the Daytona 500 using the trip that you won?
Watterson: I’ll probably be going. I mean, why not? It’s a free trip.
GGL: How often did you practice Trackmania Nations Forever to secure your win?
Watterson: For the qualifying ladders, I didn’t really practice at all. During the finals brackets, I spent maybe 30 minutes practicing the maps for each match, and spent a couple hours practicing for the Finals match.
MLG pro Tsquared featured in ESPN the Magazine
Last week we covered the news that Tom “TSquared” Taylor, MLG Halo 3 pro, had inked a deal with Dr. Pepper. The aforementioned deal has nothing to do with the one where Dr. Pepper owes all of us free soda, no sir. He gets his mug plastered all over bottles of Dr. Pepper in a true-blue endorsement deal. After tackling the crazy world of endorsements, he did what any professional athlete would do: he tells the world how to become just like him via a popular sports magazine. Now, said article reads more like an “Everyone can do it! Yes, even you!” inspirational piece, but he does bring up some of the finer points of it, including just what sponsorship entails.
Read on for an excerpt from ESPN the Magazine’s article. Read more »
Postmortem: Why the CGS is dead
The final Championship Gaming Series press release, heralding the death of the company, is entitled “An Idea Whose Time Came Too Early.” Digest that.
This statement really does disservice to the gaming community that CGS purported to serve. Did anyone honestly think that CGS would reach an audience of 100 million people? 100,000?
CGS aimed high, but way off the mark, and in many respects, its death was inevitable. While this is regrettable because a good number of people I know are out of a job, I think it’s time we looked at the reality of the situation.
Welcome to the microculture
*giggle* We're so popular, millions of people love us!
I’ve said before and I’ll say again that we are in a microculture age. People go searching for what interests them in broad terms, and no longer rely on networks to deliver content that is deemed appropriate. The best example of this is the rising popularity of serial shows like Heroes, Lost, and other dramas, irrespective of the networks they’re on.
The shows are financed by the networks but also available on iTunes. The consumer wins, because he doesn’t have to sit through commercials. Networks win because they get a cut of the price. But this model only works due to the critical mass of fans available to watch or download the show.
At its core, the CGS was not a league. It was a reality TV show with a small audience, because the target audience won’t allow iteself to be forcefed content, and it doesn’t really like watching other people play games. Gamers would generally rather be playing, instead of watching. And males 18-35 don’t watch as much TV as they used to, even if video games are on the tube.
REVIEW: Roccat Kone gaming mouse
Seeking to throw off the reins of oppression brought on by Microsoft, Logitech and Razer, German company Roccat has entered the gaming market with its new Kone mouse. Roccat already has roots in gaming due to its sponsorship of the Team Roccat (formerly 69°N-28°E) Counter-Strike squad, and the Kone has been in production/testing for quite a while.
With any new company come a ton of questions, like: Do they know what they’re doing? How many actual gamers work at the company? Why am I going bald? (Actually, that’s a personal question to make sure you’re paying attention.)
Featuring four interchangeable weights, a max of 3200 DPI with its laser sensor, a Tracking Control Unit to improve tracking on all surfaces, user profiles and macros, the Kone brings a lot to the table. However, to find out if the Kone is a decent mouse, Roccat sent GGL a sample Kone to put through the paces. Is it worth the €69.99 price? Here’s what we found.
Shape and Design
The Kone features the now-standard right-handed design, leaving Southpaws out in the cold. Its shape is highly reminiscent of certain Logitech mice, like the MX 620 and MX 610. When holding the Kone, your thumb will fit nicely into the left side of the mouse, and you have the option to put either your ring finger or pinky into the depression on the right side.
CGS shuts down
The Championship Gaming Series has officially shut down and all employees have been laid off.
A statement on the CGS site reads:
Today BSkyB, STAR and DIRECTV ended their Championship Gaming Series® (CGS) joint venture.
While the concept was ahead of its time and we are extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished, it became increasingly clear as this ambitious project evolved, that profitability was too far in the future for us to sustain operations in the interim.
A rough estimate of housing costs for the 2007 World Final is $216,000 spent over a five week period (arrived at by attempting to book a one bedroom apartment at the Oakwood Marina Del Rey complex for that period–not counting volume discounts). This pales in comparison to player and GM salaries for one season–estimated at $2.1 million, not counting bonuses (each player estimated at $10,000 per season and GMs at $50,000).
An additional $500,000 payout to the winners of the World Final, $150,000 to the runner up, $70,000 each to the third and fourth place teams and $30,000 each to 5th-8th place would put salaries at $3.17 million for the 2007 season.
Additional video production and staff costs will likely never be known.
In any event, the shutdown of CGS is a blow to the world of professional gaming (but maybe not competitive gaming or e-sports), as a large number of pros who were banking on having some guaranteed income this year are now out of a paycheck.
The news follows the shutdown of the CPL earlier this year, though it has now allegedly been resurrected.
Read the full statement after the jump.
G2_Wolf wins Virtual Racing Season!
After a long and grueling competition, G2_Wolf has come out on top of GGL’s Virtual Racing Season, beating NFSxMaster in the finals.
Neither player is a slouch in the game, and NFSxMaster made G2_Wolf earn his 2-1 win.
Thanks to his efforts, G2_Wolf wins a trip to the 2009 Daytona 500! Meanwhile, NFSxMaster wins a trip to one of the 2009 Sprint Cup events. The same goes for the third through tenth place finishers.
Congrats to all competitors for a well-played season!
Suspected Battle.net cheaters disposed of…en masse
Not pictured: cheaters!
The old adage ‘cheaters never prosper’ took on a rather personal meaning today for over 350,000 Battle.net users as their accounts were closed for good. Both Starcraft and Diablo II were specifically named titles covered in the massive banning; however, it is reasonable to assume any account found cheating on Battle.net is at risk of a suspension. At present, the majority of the users affected have had their accounts closed and their CD-Keys have been suspended for 30 days, with repeat offenders risking a permanent ban from the service. Citing the use of “third-party hacks” for the suspensions, Blizzard seems on the right track to ensuring the future home of Starcraft II and Diablo III is a safe and cheater-free service.
Hit the jump for more: Read more »
StarCraft 2: The e-sports perspective
The guys over at TeamLiquid have posted an absolutely massive overview of the current build of StarCraft 2 from BlizzCon, featuring general mechanics, race matchups, and individual unit analysis.
Of particular note is the Nydus Worm unit/ability, which lets Zerg units tunnel to anywhere on a map there is another Nydus Worm. Chill writes:
For a cost, Overlords can be upgraded to Overseers, which gives them detection and the ability to spread creep and plant Nydus Worms. Simply fly an Overseer anywhere, click “Plant Nydus Worm”, and about two seconds later you have planted a Nydus Canal that can connect with multiple exits and doesn’t die unless every exit is killed (and since you inevitably already have one in your base, this will never happen). I believe I saw an Overseer plant a Nydus Worm while three Turrets were firing at it and it still completed. How are you supposed to stop this?
Plexa had this to say:
Some miscellaneous things: it’s interesting how big of an effect there is when medivacs cannot heal each other. There are no longer medic blocks or infinitely lasting m&m groups because of such a simple change.
All in all, the game is shaping up to be interesting, if a bit less hardcore than its predecessor.
Hit TeamLiquid for the full read.