The gaming press from all over the world has voted for Players and Revelations of 2007 in Counter-Strike, Warcraft 3 and Quake 4. For the first time in the award’s history, two players will share an award.
The Player of the Year in Counter-Strike is Filip “NEO” Kubski from Meet Your Makers. He won two out of three of the most prestigious tournaments in 2007 with PGS Gaming and performed very well for the large part of the year. He received 37 points, 10 more than Patrick “cArn” Sattermon (27 points) and the 2006 Player of the Year Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg (17).
Mickael “mSx” Cassisi is the Revelation of 2007 in Counter-Strike. The award is traditionally given to the players that made the biggest breakthrough in one year, and mSx was the player that took emuLate to a gold medal in the World Cyber Games. The Frenchman got 29 points. Just four points behind him was mTw’s Christoffer Sunde, who was the ESWC and WCG runner up with his danish team, known in 2007 as NoA. Continued…
Every year, GGL invites several prominent e-Sports coverage sites to vote for the e-Sports Players of the Year. The categories cover three e-Sports games with long traditions and histories: Quake (in this case, Quake 4), Warcraft III and Counter-Strike 1.6.
Each voter (or site) selects three players from every category and assigns them a rank from 1-3. Rank 1 receives 5 points, Rank 2 receives 3 points, and Rank 3 receives 1 point. At the end of the voting process, the points are tallied and the winners are announced. You can see the 2006 winners at GGL.com in a legacy format.
Without further ado, let’s name the 2007 nominees: Continued…
The end of an era is upon us, and it’s safe to say the writing has been on the wall for over a year. 4Kings, one of UK’s foremost superteams, has disbanded its Warcraft III division, leaving Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen and Daniel “LiiLD.C” Claesson clanless.
The official reason given for disbanding was “a lack of players and other things.” The squad has been steadily losing star players since Nov. 2006, when Dae “FoV” Hui Cho left the team.
FoV’s departure to Beijing E-ports Team signaled an inability for 4K to compete on the free market for its own players. According to Warcraft III superfan/expert and former GGL contributor Jos “Zerter” Buyvoets, this was the true beginning of the end for 4K’s WC3 squad.
Despite FoV’s absence, 4K still had a bevy of stars on its roster until Olav “Creolophus” Undheim decided to retire after winning WCG 2007. Undheim’s decision was right for him, but wrong for the team.
“Creo going inactive probably ‘did it’ as it put a lot of pressure on Yoan ‘ToD’ Merlo and Grubby who failed to qualify for the WC3L finals without him,” said Zerter. Continued…
For the first time in history, the Four Kings WC3 team failed to qualify for the Warcraft 3 Champions Leauge LAN finals. The two teams have guaranteed themselves a spot inthe finals in Cologne in November are Meet Your Makers and World Elite.
This news is shocking, given the history of the Four Kings team in the WC3L. Up to this point point, 4K have won four titles, qualified for every LAN final and always ended first or second. The only on exception was one of the 2004 seasons, when the team was in Korea and did not attend the finals.
Now, not only do Four Kings not qualify, but they also have to play an additional game to avoid relegation and having to re-qualify to the league! Continued…
After his World Cyber Games win, the Warcraft 3 player Olav “Creolophus” Undheim said he would reconsider his decision about quitting professional gaming. One of the most successful RTS players this year has not changed his mind. All hope is lost.
In a blog on the Four Kings website, Creo has announced that he would not be going back to pro esports:
I’ve already tried a year going around the world at tournaments and playing non stop all day long I think a second year would end up being much like the first, only that I’m more experienced now than one year ago.
To be honest I’m more motivated to do something else than gaming which I’ve spent so much time on for multiple years. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some good placements at the latest events I attended, but that alone is not enough for me to change my decision.
The full blog covers Creolophus’ preparation for the WCG finals in Seattle and all his matches in detail. You can read it here.
The sensational winner of the World Cyber Games Warcraft 3 tournament, Olav “Creolophus” Undheim, talks to Wire’s Michal “Carmac” Blicharz right after his epic victory over Xiaofeng “Sky” Li. Enjoy the interview.
In an amazing turn of events, the unfancied Olav “Creolophus” Undheim stopped XiaoFeng “Sky” Li on his quest to win three World Cyber Games gold medals in a row. Just when Sky had beaten his most dangerous opponents and was one map away from gaining eternal fame, Creo took it all from him as the world watched on in amazement.
From the very beginning, few seriously considered that the Norwegian underdog a serious threat to Sky. Creolophus had retired from competitive Warcraft 3 after winning at Blizzcon and only had a week’s preparation for the event in Seattle. It showed, as he was lost two games in the group stage and was lucky to have made it to the playoffs. Lady Luck was with him all the way, sending Yoan “ToD” Merlo and Lee “SoJu” Seong Deok home before Creolophus could meet them. Continued…
The World Cyber Games grand finals event is underway in Seattle. With group play still going on, everyone is watiing for the playoffs. But before you have a savory meal in a fancy restaurant, you want to have a proper appetizer.
The WCG group phase in Warcraft 3 does exceptionally well to whet our appetites for the playoffs phase. Half of the elimination bracket is already filled with the names of the players. It goes (the names in square brackets are Wire’s predictions):
XyLigan vs. [player from E2]
ToD vs. [player from F2]
XlorD vs. [player from G2]
SoJu vs. [xiaOt or Grubby]
[SaSe] vs. HoT
[Fly100%] vs. Spirit Moon
[Creolophus] vs. HasuHasi
[xiaOt or Grubby] vs. Sky
Continued…
The Electronic Sports World Cup page has added over six hours of VOD content from this year’s grand finals in Paris. If haven’t seen a true esports competition before, then you had better start downloading the video of the Counter-Strike final. Continued…
We have predicted how things would turn out for Counter-Strike 1.6 at the World Cyber Games. Now it is time for Warcraft 3, where things are much more interesting and much less predictable.
The tournament will have fifty-seven participants and at least eight players for whom the title is a realistic goal. Given that every player has got a preferred or disliked match-up against a given race, the way the playoff bracket shapes up will be crucial to the outcome of the World Cyber Games. Continued…
GGL Wire got the opportunity to sit down with one of the most successful Warcraft 3 players in 2007, Olav “Creolophus” Undheim. The Four Kings Night Elf player has joined the ranks of the world’s elite players by finishing second in the Electronic Sports World Cup and winning the BattleNet Season V finals at Blizzcon, but is going into retirement in order to focus on college.
Is money, fame, traveling around the world not appealing to him? And if he does not have enough passion for gaming, then how did he get to the very top in the first place? How did he come to be the Creolophus that we know today? Those questions and many more will be answered in this week’s 1on1 with Olav “Creolophus” Undheim.
Continued…
