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…
The echoe of the World Cyber Games scandal with teams winning crucial matches due to calls made by referees are still resounding. Anton “Cyclone” Lapshenkov, a WCG finals referee has posted a blog where he talks about the insider’s perspective on the controversy in the WCG Counter-Strike competition.
Lapshenkov was one of the referees of the eSTRO vs. MYM match. In the blog, he claims that he was excluded from the discussion between the Koreans and the referees and clearly takes the side of the Norwegians. The result of the game was changed, even though the match documents were signed. Towards the end of the event, the Russian decided to resign as a WCG referee. Continued…
Korea leads the World Cyber Games nations ranking, ahead of Germany and USA. Sweden, traditionally viewed as one of the strongest nations in gaming, is 14th.
The WCG ranking is determined by the results from the Grand Finals and WCG continental championships from the last six years, with the most recent results having the greatest influence on the ranking.
Korea leads by a safe margin of 54 points over Germany thanks to its consistency over the years and their StarCraft professionals. USA is still third (the same as last year) despite winning the WCG medal tally this year.
Brazil the U.K. have made the biggest climbs in the top 10. Having won three medals each at the finals in Seattle, both advanced four spots up after this year’s event.
The ranking and its rules can be found here.
Uszat’s explorations of the StarCraft world at the World Cyber Games finals in Seattle ended with an Mondragon interview. The bronze medalist from Germany turned out to be a very adorable interviewee. Enjoy:
Continued…
Uszat’s adventure at the World Cyber Games finals did not end with a Draco interview. Our hero has also managed to talk to Canada’s top StarCraft player, Nick “Testie” Perentesis about his dirty pants, Koreans owning White Dudes and a couple other topics. Enjoy!
Next Tuesday you will see Episode 9 with the StarCraft WCG bronze medalist, Mondragon.
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.
This Tuesday brings you an interview with Norway’s Counter-Strike star, Øyvind “KF3″ Magnestad. For once, Uszat decides to act like a true professional and does his homework on the man, to interrogate KF3 about him being removed from Ninjas in Pyjamas and him being removed from his girlfriend’s life (allegedly). Enjoy.
Next Tuesday you will see Episode 9 with the StarCraft star Nick “Testie” Perentesis. Continued…
The World Cyber Games is the greatest and most respected videogames event in the world. But under all of its gloss hides a decaying structure with problems that have not been fixed for years.
This is not about the digraceful behavior of the players at the finals in Seattle last week. The disputes, throwing games to fix the playoffs and most of the controversy during the event are just the surface of an underlying problem – the very poor rules and regulations structure and the bad execution of the competitions.
The complete lack of seeding and a very bad schedule are to blame for players throwing games in group play to get a better playoff bracket. Bad tournament regulations turned the Counter-Strike competition into a circus, where teams did their very best to win matches by disputing rather than planting bombs. Continued…
After a long break caused by event travel and vacations, the LANtics series comes back with new episodes from the World Cyber Games finals. The first one to be interrogated was one of the best European StarCraft players, Krzysztof “Draco” Nalepka, the big game nerd.
Check back for the 8th LANtics Season 3 episode with KF3 next Tuesday! (This one was delayed one day by technical difficulties.) Continued…
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…
GGL Wire isn’t just here in Seattle for the World Cyber Games 2007 Grand Final to post funny videos of our crew going nuts on planes and buses. Our actual function is to capture every stage match on three separate stages at the event.
With that in mind, here’s a link to the popup player that will let you watch every game we’ve captured so far: GGL Wire’s WCG 2007 Grand Final player
If you don’t prefer to use a popup link, you can head to GGL Wire’s video page to see list upon list of videos.
