NBC Germany to Cover World Tour

From www.thecpl.com:

Yesterday, DreamCatcher Europe and the CPL gave final approval to NBC Germany for the broadcast of a Painkiller Tournament on GIGA-TV. With one million daily viewers its one of the most watched shows in Germany.

The show will include several broadcasts and repeated follow-up of the $1,000,000 CPL World Tour. To commence the ongoing coverage GIGA-TV will air interviews with CPL Painkiller Champions Sander Kaasjager (Vo0) and Andrew Ryder (Gellehsak).

Vo0 and Gellehsak on GIGA

From www.fnatic.com:

Tonight on GIGA TV in Germany Vo0, and gellehsak will be making an appearance. GIGA TV is a show dedicated to Esports which runs on the NBC Europe channel.

The entire show will be broadcast between 22:00 and 00:00 CET, on NBC Europe, or for those that aren’t in Germany will be available by a live broadcast stream here: http://broadcast.giga.de/listen.pls. The stream is run on a first come first serve basis, and has a 1000 slot limit. Because of Painkiller’s +18 rating, it will only be shown after 23:00, so if your just tuning in for the Vo0 and gellehsak show, make sure your there between 23:00 and 00:00!

Firstly they will be starting the show with an interview with the both of them, talking about Painkiller in general, as well as some more personal questions about the World Tour amongst other things. This will be followed up by a show match between the both of them for 15 min, on a map of their choosing. And finally the show will finish up with “Esports Nanny” a regular feature on the Giga show, to find out more tune in later!

So make sure you stay awake, stay tuned, and either jump onto a TV or join the stream, for some Painkiller fun with the worlds’ best players!

Video Stream | fnatic | GIGA.DE

Photos of Istanbul Qualifier

From www.thecpl.com:

photo French photographer Sandrine Camus-Durand has published forty black and white photos of the World Tour Qualifier, that took place in Istanbul, Turkey. Sandrine will also be covering other selected World Tour Stops, including the Barcelona Stop.

View the photos at:
Gamers: Black & White Vision Part #3 – Istanbul 05
Gamers: Black & White Vision Part #4 – Istanbul 05

Other photoalbums by Sandrine Camus-Durand:

Vo0 wins CPL Turkey Qualifier!

Again Vo0 has proven that he is the best Painkiller player of the world. He has just won the grandfinal versus Fatal1ty in two rounds!

fnatic/Vo0 > Fatal1ty
sacred: 24-12
absinthe: 19-14

Other coverage:

CPL Turkey Qualifier: Day 2

So far day two has had his share of upsets, bugs and overtimes. But dont worry, because Vo0 still hasnt lost a match, and is playing in the grand final.

Currently the tournament has been moved to another location due to problems with the venue. TsN cannot cast live from that location and will record the matches locally and upload them asap.

Semifinals:
fnatic/Vo0 > fnatic/Gellehsak

A match everybody was waiting for. It turned out to be an incredible tense first map, which needed four overtimes to decide the winner.

sacred: 18-16
absinthe: 22-15

stermyplay.uts > Fatal1ty

Both players playing pretty defensive, and no frags were made the first few minutes. Fatal1ty took the first round on psycho. After that stermy came back to win two maps and the match.

psycho: 4-8
sacred: 22-17
psycho: 17-14

Winner bracket final:
fnatic/Vo0 > stermyplay.uts

A match with a lot of problems, stermy and the server crashed six minutes into the game. At that point the score was 8-3 in favour of stermy. It was decided that the map would be continued with a 9 minuted timelimit. In these 9 minutes Vo0 managed to even up the score to 15-15 (8-3 + 7-12). Because the server score at that point was 12-7 the game did not go into overtime.
Instead of restarting the server with a 2 minute timelimit, they replayed the map with a 15 minuted timelimit. Vo0 took the map with 26 to 15.

psycho: 26-15
sacred: 14 – 21
sacred: 24 – 1

Lower bracket round 4:
estar*Ztrider > SK|SteLam

This match was quite an upset, Ztrider beating SteLam in two maps. The first map was incredibly exciting, going into double overtime, after which Ztrider won the map with 19 to 18.

psycho: 19-18
absinthe: 20-15

Lower bracket round 6:
Fatal1ty > estar*Ztrider

Painkiller showed us once again why we love it so much. After Ztrider lost the first map versus Fatal1ty with just 1 frag, he ran into the FPS bug in dm_psycho. With a very close score near the end of the map, the bug denied ztrider a couple of spawnfrags that wouldve won him the map, and wouldve given him the chance to play a third map.

CPL Turkey Qualifier: Day 1

Day 1:

The players that made it too the semi finals are: fnatic/Vo0, fnatic/Gellehsak, PlayIt.stermy and Fatal1ty.

The matches for the semi’s are:

  • fnatic/Vo0 versus fnatic/Gellehsak
  • PlayIt.stermy versus Fatal1ty

The players left in the lower bracket are: checksix\deatz, checksix\destrukt, checksix\LeXeR, estar*Ztrider, Zen , EYE]sakh, SK|Stelam and [3D]Daler.

From what ive heard the lower bracket matches for tomorrow are:

  • checksix\destrukt versus [EYE]sakh
  • checksix\deatz versus Zen
  • checksix\LeXeR versus estar*Ztrider
  • SK|Stelam versus checksix\LeXeR or estar*Ztrider

CPL kicked out of Turkey

For everybody not listening to TsN: The CPL Qualifier in turkey has been kicked out of the venue. Apparantly the contract does not allow the tournament to stay any longer. Just a few matches are remaining in the Painkiller tournament, and they will be continued when a new location has been found.

update: the matches are being played now in an other conference room in the venue.

CPL Turkey Qualifier Scores

Winner Bracket First Round:

SK|SteLam > d.reptile
psycho: 13-12
sacred: 22-10

checksix\destrukt > booms`play.uts
2-0

fnatic/Gopher > checksix\deatz.de
2-0

checksix\LeXeR > Phillinley
2-0

Fatal1ty > first-C_Lains
2-0

[3D]wombat > Forrest`play.uts
2-1

Winner Bracket Second Round:

SK|SteLam > checksix\destrukt
2-1

fnatic/Vo0 > [EYE]sakh
2-1

Fatal1ty > [3D]wombat
2-0

Winner Bracket Quarters:

fnatic/Vo0 > SK|SteLam
sacred: 11-10
absinthe: 15-13

fnatic/Gellehsak > Zen
sacred: 17-12
sacred: 14-17
sacred: 17-16

Fatal1ty > u5|cha0ticz
2-0

Winner Bracket Semi Finals:

stermyplay.uts > Fatal1ty
psycho: 4-8
sacred: 22-17
psycho: 17-14

fnatic/Vo0 > fnatic/Gellehsak
sacred: 18-16 (4x overtime!)
absinthe: 22-15

Winner Bracket Final:

fnatic/Vo0 > stermy`play.uts
psycho: 26-15
sacred: 14 – 21
sacred: 29 – 1

Loser Bracket First Round:

d.reptile > booms`play.uts
absinthe: 38-20
sacred: 39-10

Loser Bracket Second Round:

checksix\LeXeR > dreptile
sacred: 20-10
abinthe: 20-5

Loser Bracket Round 4:

[EYE]sakh > u5|cha0ticz
2-1

checksix\deatz > Zen
sacred: 10-12
sacred: 20-5
sacred: 20-5

estar*Ztrider > SK|SteLam
psycho: 19-18 (2x overtime)
absinthe: 20-15

Grand Final:

fnatic/Vo0 > Fatal1ty
sacred: 24-12
absinthe: 19-14

CPL Turkey Qualifier Coverage

The coverage of the CPL qualifier in Istanbul is pretty poor, but ill try to get as much information sorted as possible.

Due to the framerate problems while recording demos with the 1.61 version, no demos are being recorded.

Furthermore the tournament PCs seem to be pretty bad. Running bad framerates and bad graphics on Geforce 5500 cards. Apparantly the shuttles normally used at the CPL got stopped by customs.

CPL Turkey Qualifier Seedings

The seedings for the CPL Qualifier in turkey:

1. fnatic/Vo0
2. Fatal1ty
3. PlayIt.Stermy
4. Zen
5. fnatic/gellehsak
6. [3D]-daler
7. checksix\LeXeR
8. SK|Stelam
9. checksix\destrukt
10. u5|cha0ticz
11. 4K-AphexTwin
12. checksix\deatz.de
13. 4K-Zaccubus
14. rS-ZuluOmegaDelta
15. PlayIt.Forrest
16. [EYE]sakh
17. eStar.Ztrider
18. [3D]-wombat
19. 4K-KuuLa
20. first-Appz
21. fnatic/gopher
22. rS-Mojo
23. Dunpeal
24. PlayIt.booms
25. Dignitas.reptile
26. Phillenly
27. KillNod
28. akira
29. serious|Zhrance
30. Bonan
31. first-C_Lains
32. Simuga

first-gaming picks up 3

The First-Gaming e-Sports team picks up three more players for their Painkiller squad. Rezah was the only player left after MaddoG transferred to Serious Gaming (#serious.team), and will now be reinforced by Appz, sev1 and C_Lains. All three players were formally members of #gmex.

“We switched to First-Gaming due to their more stable management and mature approach to players and sponsors.”
– first-sev1

Complete first Painkiller squad:

  • Ricardo “Rezah” Kloth
  • Christian “CLains” Lains
  • Jesse “sev1” Groenendaal
  • Kirk “Appz” Preston

First-Gaming | #first-gaming @ irc.quakenet.org

GGL interviews Vo0

Carmac interviewed Vo0 for the Global Gaming League. Vo0 answers questions about the evolution of PK, the World Tour and Fatal1ty.

snipet:

Do you feel the pressure of the absolute #1 favourite? How do you handle that?

Of course there is pressure. Lots of pressure actually, but it doesn’t seem to affect me in game. Before I went to all these events I thought it would affect me loads, but it didn’t. So there is pressure, but I know I will not be affected by it, which relieves it a bit.

Complete interview

INQ7 interviews Angel Munoz

Slightly old news, but for the ignorant: The president of the CPL has been interviewed by INQ7.net.

snipet:

“Our competitors seem to have great disregard for the CPL. While these feelings prevail, it will be difficult to bridge the gap between the organizations and do any joint events. Our organization is so focused on its goals, that we just simply don’t have any peripheral perception of what other organizations are doing. Unfortunately, this laser focus is characterized with so many different adjectives in public forums, that I’m sure it makes people wonder if the rumors about us are true. The reality though is very different and CPL is truly a very goal-oriented company; as a matter of fact I’m already working on the 2006 World Tour,” Muñoz said.

Complete interview

PKEURO 3 Finals

Just 3 from the original 64 contenders are still in the game, and they will be battling it out this afternoon for the much desired Vo0 cup.

The second semi-final match will start at 15:00 GMT (16:00 CET). The players that reached the semifinals are:

  • knizzle, who had a suprising run, winning from both Jabb0r and CLains.
  • worre, who beat knizzle, mashles and Dread to get to the finals.
  • Gellehsak, probably the best player in the tourney, but had a relatively easy run to the semis.
  • Xhep, beat maniax and Bluefoot and should give us a nice match in the semifinals versus Gellehsak.

Worre beat knizzle in the first semi-final match yesterday evening, so at 15:00 GMT the remaining semi-final match will be played between gellehsak and xhep, the winner will meet worre in the finals.

TsN will be with us again to provide commentary, so make sure your listening to www.tsncentral.com

GL & HF!

UPDATE: Gellehsak beat worre in the finals after an intense match spanning 3 maps. Scores:

  • dm_sacred: Gellehsak 16 – 14 worre
  • dm_absinthe: Gellehsak 11 – 15 worre
  • dm_sacred: Gellehsak 23 – 13 worre

Updated brackets (press F5 to refresh and get the latest version)

PKEURO 3

The third Painkiller.euro 1on1 tournament is about to begin. At 2pm (3pm CET) the first 64 duelers will battle it out in dm_psycho to decide who proceeds to round 2.

Make sure that your available in #pkeuro @ quakenet.org so your opponent and/or the admins can get in contact with you. And dont forget to report the outcome of your match to maniax!

GL & HF!

Brackets

NVIDIA to sponsor the WT

From The CPL:

NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, and the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), today announced that NVIDIA has signed on as a presenting sponsor of the $1,000,000 CPL World Tour™. The landmark tour, which boasts the largest cash purse ever offered by a game tournament, will travel to ten international cities and is expected to bring together the world’s best competitive PC game players and computing enthusiasts at every stop.

The $1,000,000 CPL World Tour will commence on February 10th in Istanbul, Turkey, and will travel to major cities in Europe, Asia, South America and North America throughout the year.

“This sponsorship is a great fit for both CPL and NVIDIA as it allows NVIDIA to publicly show its support for the PC gaming community and those gamers that demonstrate excellence in play,” said David Roman, vice president of corporate marketing at NVIDIA. “Participating in the CPL World Tour complements NVIDIA’s ongoing grass roots marketing efforts and gives us an opportunity to reach out to a large and diverse global audience of gamers who seek the highest performance technologies. We applaud the CPL’s endeavors to promote the sport of competitive gaming in an entertaining and high-profile way.”

As a presenting sponsor, NVIDIA will host on-site exhibits at each of the ten tour stops, as well as equip the tournament PCs deployed at each tour stop with its award-winning GeForce™ 6800 model graphics processing units (GPUs). The selection of NVIDIA® GPUs will deliver to players competing in the headline Painkiller competition the distinct technology advantage of blazing fast frame rates and crisp visuals necessary for extreme levels of play.

NVIDIA is also contributing funds to the “unofficial” competitions based on other popular PC games, including Day of Defeat and Warcraft 3, at select tour stops.

Gamers across the globe will have an opportunity to follow the action via radio broadcasts hosted by the Team Sportscast Network (TSN). Also sponsored by NVIDIA for the CPL World Tour, TSN plans to broadcast live, play-by-play coverage of all the major competitions from each stop on the CPL World Tour from the Website, located at worldtour.tsncentral.com.

“NVIDIA has been a wonderful partner of the CPL and its continued support has elevated game tournaments to a new level,” said Angel Munoz, founder and president of the CPL. “CPL competitors demand the highest performing hardware and NVIDIA has consistently delivered. We look forward to building on this relationship with the commencement of the World Tour.”

For more information about the $1,000,000 CPL World Tour, including a complete list of tour stops, please visit www.cplworldtour.com.

ESR interviews Angel Munoz

ESReality has interviewed the founder and president of the CPL, Angel Munoz.

snipet:

What are the reasons behind the CPL yet again picking TsN for the World Tour notwithstanding the immense amount of criticism after their ‘performance’ at CPL Winter?

TsN has been reporting live at CPL events for years and have done a great job. I think they are very aware that their Painkiller coverage needs a ‘brush up’ to become equitable with their CS coverage. I like the iTG staff very much and they do a super job because of their one-versus-one experience. In fact they are welcome to attend any of the World Tour Stops as our agreement with TsN is not exclusive.

Read the complete interview at esreality.