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Major League Gaming Dallas 2011 – “The Aftermath” Coverage

April 3, 2011 /

The first pro circuit of the Major League Gaming 2011 season has concluded in Dallas, Texas and a lot has transpired. I wanted to go over some of the random articles, websites, pictures, and videos floating out of this event so you can find them all in one spot! Update will be continually added this week as I discover more and more content.

Stream Issues

The first thing I think we should address and something I’m sure a lot of people are sensitive about is the streams. Both Friday and Saturday were plagued with problematic streaming issues and lag at the venue. Our promised online eSports extravaganza took a turn for the worse as MLG was unprepared to handle all the traffic pouring into their website. Too bad really, I think a lot of people were extremely excited for this weekend and ended up somewhat disappointed. So what can we do? Well here are the important links so you can follow up on what MLG is doing to rectify the situation:

MLG News: MLG Addresses Site Stability Issues | Update #1 from MLG | Update #2 from MLG

MLG Forums: MLG Addresses Site Stability Issues

SK-Gaming News: MLG Dallas has chronic issues, MLG responds

I also want to make note that on Sunday, MLG’s Sundance DiGiovanni, the current CEO, made a live apology to the MLG audience, fans, players, and everyone else. It was heartwarming and I believe that the vast majority of MLG supporters are still behind him. The rational minds know that sometimes, shit happens, and I believe MLG and their staff did everything possible to fix the situation. So thanks for the effort, it was still a great weekend and I look forward to future MLG events!

I also want to throw in my appreciation for djWheat, day9, JP McDaniel and the rest of the commentators. You guys are amazing! Good job all weekend.

Brackets & Results

For those of you wanting to follow up on brackets and results, here is a list of resources for you to check out:

MLG: Championship/Pool Brackets – Starcraft 2 | Halo: Reach

MLG: Open Brackets – Starcraft 2 | Halo: Reach | Call of Duty: Black Ops

Team Liquid: Event Coverage

Match Coverage

Here are some match coverage links and resources so you can find all the games you missed, or want to rewatch:

MLG should be uploading VOD’s of the matches to their MLG TV section.

From what I was able to watch this weekend I thought these SC2 games were of notable importance:

Ret vs seleCT (SC2)

INcontroL vs TLO (SC2): Game 1 | Game 2 | GIANT QUESADILLA

NEW: EGidrA vs HuK – idrA’s infamous BM after HuK hallucination win, then the rematch later:

idrA vs HuK

I think this video starring Hitler sums it up well.

NEW: Here’s another awesome idrA interview where he calls HuK “retarded”.

The finals between Naniwa and Kiwikaki we’re awesome! Had a lot of funny rooting for Kiwi to get to the 3-3 game and make Nani nervous, but awesome job anyways.

Obviously there are tons of great games that happened this weekend and unfortunately I will not be going over each and every one, because that’s not what I do on this website. But I will be providing as many helpful links and resources as possible so you can find and watch the best matches.

GosuGamers has uploaded some replays from the event in case you can’t find them elsewhere or the VODs aren’t available.

NEW: An interview with Naniwa.

Images & Galleries

Next let’s cover some of the great pictures coming out of the event:

Evil Geniuses: EG on yfrog

compLexity Gaming: Image Gallery

Team FNATIC: Image Gallery

Team Dignitas: Image Gallery

Sixjax Gaming: Article

Astro Gaming: Astro on Twitpic

WellPlayed.org: WellPlayed on yfrog

Root Gaming: A few uploads from Root Gaming on Zannel

Cyber-Sports Network – CSN on Twitgoo

ESFI World: Image Gallery

Nani's Interview

NEW: HuK getting frisky.

NEW: A victorious INcontroL.

NEW: AskJoshy’s Twitpic account.

NEW: JGrindal’s flickr

NEW: Joshtacular’s MLG Dallas collection

NEW: vVv’s Image Gallery

NEW: Viral Design’s flickr

Videos & Channels

The last section I want to cover is the videos and channels coming out of MLG. There’s undoubtedly going to be millions of them, so this list will just contain the ones I keep seeing on Twitter (which are probably the best ones anyway). As always, I’ll throw up that fancy bolded “NEW:” text as I find more over this week.

Team compLexity: compLexityINSIDER on YouTube

AskJoshy: AskJoshy’s MLG Coverage on YouTube

SK-Gaming: SK-Gaming’s MLG Dallas Channel

EdwardStarcraft: EdwardStarcraft’s Channel on YouTube

Cyber-Sports Network – CSN on Youtube

Houie Louy – You won’t find these by searching on YouTube, or these: Root Gaming Forums

If there’s anything I missed, as always contact me on Twitter (@SpawnRoom), in the comments, or on Facebook. Also, if you have some favorite matches from this weekend, let me know which ones and I’ll add them to the post! Thanks.

day9 is surprised

day9 is surprised by JP McDaniel’s news.

Other Tags: COD BLOPS, MLG, Pro Circuit, StarCraft II, SC2

Weekly eSports Forecast April 4 – 10

April 3, 2011 /

Here is the weekly eSports Forecast for the week of April 4th, 2011. Updates will be added as I find them.

North American Star League (SC2) – The NASL was supposed to unveil their new massive Starcraft league this week, but decided to change their schedule to help players get back and situated from MLG Dallas. Instead the NASL will begin next week, April 12th. Tune in then!

IGN Pro League (SC2) – The biggest announcement of the week will be from IGN, telling the world about their newly formed Pro League! Rumor has it it’s for this little game you may have heard called Starcraft 2. ;)

The Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Online Pro-am Gaming Tournament (SC2) – Yeah it’s quite a mouthful. This week registration opens for this $10k Starcraft 2 tournament supported by compLexity Gaming! Additional information here and here.

TheKGL Pro-League (CS:S) – The KGL has announced their season 1 pro-league for Counter-Strike: Source which will begin this week, with the first matches beginning Wednesday, April 6th.

FNATIC Play with the Pros (CS 1.6) – This Wednesday the 6th of April, Team FNATIC will be hosting a “Play with the Pros” event for Counter-Strike 1.6 players! Not only will you get to play but there’s an opportunity to win some great prizes as well. Check it out.

ESL Major Series Season VIII – More ESL Major Series games are going on this week. Check out the link to find replays of the games.

World Cyber Games Call of Duty: Black Ops Tournament (CoD) – This April 9th and 10th in New York City, there will be an Xbox 360 Black Ops tournament hosted by the WCG! Fun fun. And be sure to follow the WCG USA Twitter account for more information.

CSN GET PRO QuakeLive Series (QL) – The GET PRO Series hosted by the Cyber Sports Network begins tonight and will continue on until an undisclosed time.

QQninja Officially Launches – Technically QQ launched this weekend, but it’s so new I thought I’d mention it here. As quoted on their website, QQninja will help players “find practice partners, get strategy advice & learn the ways of the QQ ninja.” As of now this appears to apply only to Starcraft 2 and Heroes of Newerth, but I’m sure with your help, they’ll expand into a brighter and broader future! Show them your support and check out their Twitter and Facebook. GL you guys!

NEW: Team Dignitas Alienware Cup #3 (TF2) – This Sunday, the 10th of April, Team Dignitas and Alienware are hosting a 64 man, 6-on-6 Team Fortress 2 tournament! Find all the match info and how to sign up at the link.

NEW: Intel LANFest Sacramento Spring 2011 – This weekend Intel is hosting the “biggest LAN in the Sacramento” area.

NEW: Bionic-Gaming presents Bionic-LAN – This weekend Bionic-Gaming is hosting a lan in Fitchburg, Wisconsin (Madison-area).

NEW: Twin Cites Open Starcraft 2 1v1 Tournament – This Saturday in White Bear Lake, Minnesota (Minneapolis-area), there will be a Starcraft II tournament.

As always, if I’m missing anything let me know by replying @SpawnRoom on Twitter, on the Spawn Room Facebook, or on the site here! Muchas Gracias!

day[9] and itmeJP at MLG

Day9 is surprised by JP McDaniel’s news

April 3, 2011 /

JP “itmeJP” McDaniel tells Sean “Day[9]” Plott about the HuK vs IdrA match and Day9 reacts in surprise. From the Major League Gaming Dallas Championship in 2011.

I couldn’t help but upload this video because I laughed super hard after it happened. Such a weird thing to happen randomly during a broadcast. Also, amazing job this weekend to all the casters, especially after having to deal with some serious technical difficulties.

Major League Gaming: Dallas (2011) is LIVE…well kind of!

April 1, 2011 /

I wasn’t going to write something while the event was happening because I wanted to have all my attention focused on the games, but what with the streams going down, the site going down, and the noisy commercials. I decided to step away, give them some time and write a little ditty. First off, if you’re like me and resized your windows so you could have multiple streams open, then you may have also spent more time than necessary looking for the brackets. I feel stupid now because they were right there in front of me, but what are you going to do? So to help you out and anyone else still looking for them, here are the links:

Championship/Pool Brackets

Starcraft 2 | Halo: Reach

Open Brackets

Starcraft 2 | Halo: Reach | Call of Duty: Black Ops

I think a big topic of discussion tonight, tomorrow, and post-MLG Dallas will be the streaming issues (obviously). Both the free stream and the HQ stream have been failing miserably. Up one minute down the other. This is disappointing because from what I’m told, MLG has a lot of money! I would think Sundance and the boys over there would have expected a potential mass of viewers trying to get all this eSports goodness. So that means they either didn’t plan appropriately or there’s just that many viewers that it was unpredictable. Even still, people like myself have a right to be pissed, we spend the money to support the organization and then can’t access any of the features. Hey Sundance, how about some free t-shirts or something?

But I won’t be too harsh. In fact I can totally understand what it must be like over there. Technology is unpredictable, you can only do so much before an event this large to test it and even then the numbers it brings back are only theoretical. And don’t forget, there’s not much else like this going on in the United States. It’s not like eSports has been around for nearly as long as other sports that got to test, retest, and perfect their mediums of distribution over time. MLG is more or less “shooting in the dark” and hoping that it will work. Give em’ time. I’m sure they’ll be up late tonight fixing these issues and getting the streams all stable for tomorrow and Sunday. At least they better be!

Oh and I try not to “shamelessly promote myself,” but if you have a minute and want to support an aspiring eSports…whatever I am, check out our Twitter and Facebook page and show us some love! Thanks a lot!

Other Tags: COD BLOPS, MLG, Pro Circuit, StarCraft II, SC2

Shout Out: Team Liquid StarLeague 3 – EG.IdrA vs coL.CrunCher

April 1, 2011 /

Got another exciting Feature Friday post with three videos from this past weekend. If you missed it, you definitely need to check these out! If you haven’t heard of the TSL3 (long name: the [PokerStrategy] TeamLiquid StarLeague 3), then you need to head over to Team Liquid’s home page and get caught up! These three games between Evil Geniuses’ infamous idrA and the relatively unknown Complexity Cruncher are sure to go down in history. The Korean curse effects everyone, and these games are no exception. I won’t spoil it, but instead end this post with :)

Other Tags: TSL3, TeamLiquid, StarCraft II, SC2, coL, EG, TL

Shout Out: cArn´s Theory of Counter-Strike

April 1, 2011 /

It’s Friday which means it’s time to post some awesome videos of games, gamers, and eSports! We’re going to start off today with two videos entitled cArn´s Theory of Counter-Strike. These two feature cArn from Team FNATIC talking about the fine details of competitive Counter-Strike. They’re great videos and each are about 30 minutes long so you’ll get a large helping of raw CS information. It’ll leave a good taste in your mouth. Enjoy!

Other Tags: CS 1.6

Preparing for Major League Gaming Dallas 2011

March 31, 2011 /

Tomorrow begins another action packed MLG weekend and I wanted to give you a nice pre-MLG warm-up package to begin with tonight and tomorrow before the fun begins. Especially for us poor nubs who are stuck behind and can’t attend the event live (a tear is trickling down my cheek as I write this). First off let’s cover all the event details to make sure we’re all on the same page.

What: MLG Dallas 2011, the first pro circuit of the 2011 season.

When: April 1-3, starting Friday at 5:15 PM CST

Where: Dallas Convention Center, Dallas, Texas, United States.

Spectating: In-person with spectator pass or Live streams on MLG.

MLG Dallas will be kicking off this 2011 season with exciting matches in Starcraft 2, Halo: Reach, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. All three games are scheduled to be played everyday of the tournament, with the finals falling on Sunday the 3rd. Commentating the matches all weekend will be some bright and shining faces you’ll recognize from other eSport events. For Starcraft 2, there’ll be day9, djWheat, and JP McDaniel. Halo will have Chris Puckett, Gandhi and Shockwave. And Black ops will be commentated by Corey Dunn, Derek Drake, and Sean Bellafiore.

So you’re probably eager to find out who is showing up this weekend, well look no further, here are the player lists published by MLG:

Halo: Reach

Starcraft 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops

If you’re like me and in love with Twitter, Facebook, and the social networking craze, here are some key MLG accounts you can look into following:

Twitter

Major League Gaming (MLG) – Official MLG Twitter

Sundance DiGiovanni (MLG_Sundance) – CEO of Major League Gaming

Chris Puckett (MLGPuckett) – Producer and On Air Talent for MLG

Andreas Pierson (NexyMLG) – Video Director/Producer for MLG

Luis Carrillo (MLG_Scoreboard) – Not officially connected to MLG, but useful for following MLG

Spawn Room Twitter Lists – You can find all kinds of people, leagues, and organizations to follow by checking out our Twitter lists. Updated constantly!

Facebook

Major League Gaming – Official MLG Facebook

YouTube, uStream, and Justin.tv Features

MLG / Astro Gaming Dallas 2011 Promo

MLG Sundance’s Pre-Event Tour #1

MLG Sundance’s Pre-Event Tour #2

Hotel Room Tour by Complexity Gaming

Finally I wanted to mention something minor that will help the people at home keep up with everything going on this weekend. First off, Twitter is your friend. You can get all kinds of news and inside information the moment it’s happening by following the right people. Check out Spawn Room’s Twitter lists to find some great people and organizations to follow. You can also use applications like TweetDeck to keep constantly updated all day long, or if you don’t feel like installing anything, Google has a nifty feature called “Realtime Search“. Navigate over there and type in “MLG Dallas” to see what’s happening!

Finally I want to say: have an awesome weekend! It’s going to be a blast start to finish, don’t miss out!

And remember, as always, if I’m missing anything, simply reply @SpawnRoom on Twitter, post in the comments here, or shout out on Facebook and I’ll be sure to investigate! Thanks.

Other Tags: COD BLOPS, MLG, Pro Circuit, StarCraft II, SC2

Shout Out: QuadV and the UGC

March 30, 2011 /

This Wednesday I wanted to bring up a website that’s in the process of returning from a hiatus to broadcast the exciting events happening in Italy. Starting tomorrow, the folks of QuadV will be traveling to the Ultimate Gaming Championship in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy and broadcasting the matches. If you happen to be attending or watching the UGC matches, you’ll get a chance to see QuadV commentators Stuart “TosspoT” Saw and Leight “Deman” Smith.

QuadV Logo

QuadV is an eSports broadcasting website that’s been featured prominently within the industry hosting live matches and supplying video-on-demand. They’ve covered various tournaments, some as large as WCG. In 2010 the site went quiet as it covered less and less content, and it wasn’t until very recently they announced their return with the UGC as a headline. It’s very exciting times here, and QuadV returning in the midst of it is the topping on this giant eSports cake we’ve been enjoying lately.

So go show your support by checking out the site and watching the great broadcasts starting tomorrow!

Other Tags: UGC, QL, QuadV

Weekly eSports Forecast March 28 – April 3

March 27, 2011 /

Here is the weekly eSports Forecast for the week of March 28th, 2011. Updates will be added as I find them.

MLG Dallas: The first MLG competition of 2011 is here starting Friday the 1st and running through the weekend. There will surely be some amazing matches as some of the best players in North America begin battling it out for a chance in the MLG Grand Finals. Should be a very exciting weekend as always.

GOMtv (SC2): The 2011 LG Cinema 3D World Championship in Seoul starts Monday the 28th and will run till April 9th with some of the best SC2 players in the world battling for the title “world’s best SC2 player.”

ClanBase EuroCup XXIII – This week also starts the beginning of the EuroCup over at the ClanBase website. Additional information here.

Ultimate Gaming Championship – The Italian Ultimate Gaming Championship starts this Thursday and runs steady till Sunday the 3rd. This large LAN will feature some exciting tournaments with a respectable prize pool. Additional information here.

ESEA: Early this week ESEA has some exciting TF2 matches for both the Open and Intermediate divisions. They’ll also have one or two Counter-Strike matches for their Main division. Otherwise looks kind of quiet over there. Check the schedule here.

Esports Heaven (CoD4) – This week starts the Sapphire Challenge, a Call of Duty 4 tournament hosted over at Esports Heaven. It runs from tomorrow till April 6th ending with a grand finals.

iCCup Legendary Tournament (SC2) – The iCCup Legendary Tournament continues this weekend April 3rd and 4th with the finals approaching April 9th.

ETF2L (TF2) – This is the second week of the ETF2L Season 9 league.

NEW: Xperia PLAY 2011 Prelude – This Danish event/tournament starts this week, I believe the dates are the 30th and 31st, then continuing on next week and concluding April 10th. Hope that’s right. More information from HLTV.

NEW: FNATIC PLAY / MSI HoN 5-on-5 Tournament – The FNATIC MSI HoN tournament began yesterday and will continue on this week until Saturday the 2nd. Additional information here.

NEW: iCCup Defiler Tournament n15 – Sunday the 3rd starts the iCCup Defiler Tournament.

North American Star League (NASL) Announcement

March 14, 2011 /

This is big news, so big I came out of hibernation, just to post this. If you’ve followed competitive Starcraft 2 at all, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the GSL. You know, that massive Korean tournament that everyone’s always talking about? Well some bright minds and motivated individuals decided the states needs their own SC2 league of that caliber and created the NASL, or North American Star League! This tournament is huge, the prize pot is $400,000 split between 3, roughly 13-week seasons. It starts April 5th, and will feature games 5 nights a week, for three hours. You know what that means, tons and tons of live SC2 matches to get your fill of!

Now the details are still being hashed out at this point, but you can head over to their main site here and watch an epic video about it. You can also cast 10 votes for the 50 players lucky enough to be drafted into this league. So do your research and pick your favorite guys!

Finally I wanted to offer a link to a comprehensive interview about this league, courtesy of G4 and Geoff ‘iNcontrol’ Robinson: G4 exclusive interview

Other Tags: StarCraft II, SC2, NASL

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