B1G League is recruiting!
With a fantastic year in 2009 B1G League is publicly opening a rare opportunity to join the most experienced eSport tournament organisation in Australia.
With the core B1G League team hard at work on the countries first dedicated eSport broadcast studio here in Melbourne, Australia. The door is now open for national & statewide managers to officially join the team for an exciting year ahead in 2010.
B1G League prides its self on running the most professional & high profile eSport events in the region and successful applicants will have a hands on position coordinating local & national eSport tournaments as well as managing state representative teams & media.
Positions available:
State Manager - Queensland
Coordinating local LAN qualifiers & events, Managing local representative teams, Managing local media representation & networking.
State Manager - Western Australia
Coordinating local LAN qualifiers & events, Managing local representative teams, Managing local media representation & networking.
State Manager - New South Wales
Coordinating local LAN qualifiers & events, Managing local representative teams, Managing local media representation & networking.
State Manager - Tasmania
Coordinating local LAN qualifiers & events, Managing local representative teams, Managing local media representation & networking.
State Manager - Victoria
Coordinating local LAN qualifiers & events, Managing local representative teams, Managing local media representation & networking.
**State Manager - South Australia** Edit
Coordinating local LAN qualifiers & events, Managing local representative teams, Managing local media representation & networking.
National Manager - New Zealand
Coordinating local LAN qualifiers & events, Managing local representative teams, Managing local media representation & networking.
Regional Tournament Director - Australia / New Zealand
Coordinating national tournaments & events.
Key Selection Criteria
Applicants should provide information around key selection criteria below;
- Applicants should have strong knowledge across major eSport games & tournaments;
- Applicants should have good written & verbal communication skills;
- Applicants should have good project management skills;
- Applicants should have a good understanding of local eSport communities;
- Applicants should have a good technical understanding of computer networking and multiplayer game setup.
For further questions please contact Michael Woods on 0431 090 203 (+61431090203) or on Mike[at]b1gleague.com
Resume, cover letter & key selection criteria should be sent to mike[at]b1gleague.com
Applications close Midnight Friday Feb 5 2010.
Successful applicants will be announced Sunday Feb 13 2010.
Good Luck!
The B1G League Team
As well as a few guys from Quake, that go all right too
Vanguard's Pathe, Rayman, Maxxx, Beasty and Xujo
X2's Budz and Zealor
Sequential Gaming's Zenaku
New Zealand's R0B0K1LL, Grotesk, Roffo Chv
Premium Gamer founder and Quake Champion Nesreca's Noetix
Full list here: http://www.4seasonsgaming.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=288
Only a week after Blizzard celebrated the World of Warcraft 5 Year anniversary one player emerges victorious as the first player ever to have completed the game. ‘小灰’ from Taiwan completed all 986 feats! The player completed all 5,906 quests, killing 390,895 creatures and dealing over 7 billion damage!
For many years it was widely believed that completing WoW was a near impossible task. The game is updated so regularly that no player would be able to keep up with the vast achievements needed. Yet our friend from Taiwan sure did, completing on average 15 quests a day!
Now Blizzard are claiming that he is yet to complete one rear quest named 'BBKing' which he is unable to complete, yet a bug in the system which awarded him an extra achievement point for a PvP quest bringing him to to total 986/986 feats.
Now I wont lie, I dont play WoW anymore, though this guy has the sweetest gear ever..
Its been a long journey for Australia's very own Sequential Gaming who have traveled to the far reaches of the world to (Chengdu, China) to play in the World Cyber Games grand final.
The Sequential team comprises of a powerhouse lineup of strong Australian cs1.6 talent; apoc, diggiTy, pupajoN, Rumil, soren, have all won many national comps and were no surprise to take outover recent DiceVIP winners V300 (c0ke, jairs, kram, nameci, oxey).
As per usual Australia got lined up with their typical 'Group of Death'. The group consisted of:
mTw (Denmark) (12 points - 4 wins, 0 loss, 0 ties)
PowerGaming (Finland) (7 points – 2 wins, 1 loss, 1 tie)
Sequential (Australia) (4 points – 1 win, 2 loss, 1 tie)
VatosLosoc (Greece) (3 points – 1 win, 3 loss, 0 tie)
Virtus.Pro (Russia) (3 points – 1 win 3 loss, 0 tie)
At the end of the day it was teams mTw & PowerGaming that have made it out of groups.
What is unfortunate about this is Australias continually bad draws at international competitions, both mTw (2008 WCG Champions), PowerGaming & Virtus.Pro are hugely experienced international teams. These teams could easily be recognized top 12 in the world, yet out of a competition with nearly 40 teams, and 8 sets of groups, Australia always manages to land a group with at least two tier 1 teams.
mTw former WCG 2008 Champions
If you compare this to our friends in New Zealand who have dominated their way out of group stages.
Millenium (France) (9 points – 3 wins, 0 loss, 0 ties)
parallax (New Zealand) (6 points – 2 wins, 1 loss, 0 ties)
4glory (Serbia) (3 points – 1 win, 2 loss, 0 ties)
AEON.gamesense (Singapore) (0 points – 0 win, 3 loss, 0 ties)
If you compare these two groups, I know which team I would prefer to be playing in. Millenium, 4glory & AEON are all unheard of international teams. The French team Millenium are quite a descent lineup, though will face a rude awakening when the y have to play teams such as mTw & fnatic later in the competition.
Now im not writing this to bitch and moan about Australian eSports though this is one of the best examples of Australians drawing the short straw at an international competition. I really do believe if SQL swapped groups with Parallax they would have dominated Millenium, 4glory & AEON without too much struggle. Lets be honest, with players like Apoc, Soren & diggiTy they do have the lineup ready to take on a lot of the best of the best, though unfortunately for our Australian reps its Game Over and back to the sunny country.
Good luck to Parallax who are about to face fnatic, mTw, H2k, mousesports or some other crazy international superstars in the elimination stages!
Related Link : Woodz Interviews Simcore, Paralax Captian (April 2009 Kode5 Australia)
Great news for Aussy gamers as Valve push again at the dinosaurs on the Australian Classification Board for approval of Left 4 Dead 2!
Gabe Newelle CEO of Valve announced that the game has been changed (dummed down) to be allowed classification in Australia. The most prominent feature predicted to be removed is the decapitation abilities allowing players to carve off the head of a blood seeking zombie.
Valve & EA have appealed the original classification and an announcement is set for October 22!
Digital Distribution Summit Videos Online!
After 2 months of very hard work on the Digital Distribution Summit its a pleasure to be releasing HD Videos of all the presentations from this years Digital Distribution Summit.
These speakers are world class and I would highly recommend anybody with a passion for games to be watching these!
This event was such a pleasure to run, working with a fantastic team at Film Victoria, Brad Giblin, Tim Reid & the Film Vic. staff are seriously hardcore digital rockstars unlike any other.
Also thanks to all the great media that covered the event. The Age, Screenhub, Bloggers, Gamastura and many, many more.
Furthermore, working with such high calibure of speakers such as David Edery, Simon Carless, Jamil Moledina, Rob Murray, Kursten Leins & Rob Walsh was a real pleasure, All are global leaders in the games industry and I definatly learned alot from them.
Finally at the end of the day, my favorite quote was:
“It [The Digital Distribution Summit] was the best-run day long presentation I’ve ever witnessed, clearly augmented by Twitter, XDCAM Ccameras and other available technologies” – www.Screenhub.com.au
PS. im working on a short report called The Future of Interactive Media, Keep tuned, it wont be amazing, though it surely will be insightful!
Digital Distribution Summit - Sandra Sdraulig Opening & David Edery Keynote from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.
Digital Distribution Summit - Simon Carless from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.
Digital Distributon Summit - Rob Murray from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.
Digital Distribution Summit - Shainiel Deo from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.
Digital Distribution Summit - Future of Digital Distribution Panel from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.
Enjoy!
Michael Woods
Leading Australian Electronic Sports
So cant make it down to the Digital Distribution Summit?
Want to get an inside look at the lastest in Interactive Games?
We are broadcasting live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/digital-distribution-summit-live-broadcast
Feel free to ask questions to our fantastic speakers & chat live to attendee's via Twitter, www.twitter.com/ddsummit Search #dds09
Schedule
9.30AM : Opening Address by Film Victoria CEO – Sandra Sdraulig
9.40AM : Keynote – David Edery
David opens the day with an insightful presentation about the business of digital distribution. David is the Manager and Principal of Fuzbi, an independent consulting firm focused the business and design of digitally distributed games. His experience is second to none as a research affiliate at MIT and former Worldwide Portfolio Manager for Xbox Live Arcade. David will present an industry overview and key statistics, case studies of successful games designed for XBLA, pitching titles for XBLA and PSN, innovation in digitally distributed games and after market support.
10.45 : Break
11.00 : Simon Carless, Chairman Independent Games Festival
Simon has a wealth of knowledge to share with local independent and start up development companies. As Chairman of the Independent games festival and publisher of Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com Simon will give a hands on presentation of realistic revenue projections for downloadable games with case studies on IGF award winning titles. Beyond finance Simon will also take a look at the marketing and development prospects for local studios.
12.30 : Lunch
14.00 : Rob Murray, CEO Firemint
Rob Murray shot into fame early this year developing the world’s most popular iPhone application, Flight Control. Rob’s presentation will look into the importance of marketing for self distributed games including the ever popular social media marketing. Rob will offer an inside look into the success of Flight Control and the company’ss recent award winning game Real Racing.
14.30 : Shainiel Deo, CEO Halfbrick Studios
Shaniniel Deo leads local game development studio, Halfbrick, recently announced as one of two launch developers of the PSP Mini’s platform. Shainiel’s presentation will go inside the world of Halfbrick Studios and the opportunities ahead with one of the newest digital distribution networks.
15.00 : Break
15.30 : The Future of Digital Distribution Panel
Moderator :
Jamil Moledina – Outreach Director, EA Partners
Panelists :
Kursten Leins – Head of Multimedia Strategy, Ericsson
Rob Murray – CEO, Firemint
Rob Walsh – CEO, Krome Studios
The Future of Digital Distribution Panel will be a highlight for every digital media professional. With expert insight from Kursten Leins, Multimedia Solutions Expert with Ericsson, Rob Murray, Creator of the world’s longest running paid iPhone application and renowned mobile gaming expert, Rob Walsh, CEO of Australia’s largest game development company, Krome Studios. The panel will be moderated by one of the most influential people in the video games industry, Jamil Moledina, former Executive Director of the Game Developers Conference and current Outreach Director for EA Partners.
The future of Digital Distribution Panel is a discussion not to be missed, with a world class look at the opportunities for digital media and games development, behind the scenes look at Australia’s $43bn Fiber to the Home roll out and an insider’s look at what digital distribution will look like heading into the future.
16.30 : Closing Remarks
OMG! this cannot be true, How could they ban Left for Dead 2!
No this is not my latest b-boy rap, it’s a reality that all gamers are going to have to face now that the game has been refused classification due to its “Realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence”.
Left for Dead 2 is the sequel to one of last year’s most popular games. Battling your way out of zombie infested worlds L4D quickly boomed in popularity due to its fantastic multiplayer options, And lets be honest, what’s more fun then battling your way out of a city full of zombies with your closest friends? Not much really.
Left for Dead 2 is a classic case of Australians getting the short end of the stick due to our prehistoric classification system that doesn’t believe that video games are embraced by a mature audience. I don’t know how this is possible, PriceWaterhouseCoopers latest Media & Entertainment outlook reports that the average age of a ‘Gamer’ is currently 30 years old. This is people who play games regularly for 1 hour or more a week. PWC also reports this is on the rise, and expect the average age of a gamer to be 40 in the next four years.
Now everybody knows that Valve will be resubmitting an updated version of the game with some kind of tweaks to skim through the classification board though its a frustrating situation to be sitting in right now.
Seriously, I never use this blog to rant though about time that Australian classification board wakes up and accepts the fact that gamers are mature and we deserve an R18+ classification!
Cybergamer! Your invited!
If you have been wondering why I haven’t been updating you with the latest in gaming goodness its about time I told you all that I’ve been strapped into a corporate desk running Film Victorias 2009 Digital Distribution Summit.
The Digital Distribution Summit will is a world leading initiative by Film Victoria that will bring together the worlds greatest minds in the future of Digital Distribution of Video Games & Interactive Media.
The initial speaker lineup is a one of a kind team of global leaders
Now this event is all good and well though what does it mean for you? the gaming enthusiast?
Video Games in Australia grew by 41% last year to be the 9th largest consumer in the world (3rd largest per captia). With the Federal Governments $43bn. Fiber to the Home roll out will position Australia as one of the most connected countries in the world. So my tip is that the games industry is going to grow like wild fire and an event like this is a perfect opportunity for you to not only meet with the worlds best, though get an inside look at the future of gaming!
If you want anymore information, Flick me an email ( Michael(dot)woods(at)film.vic.gov.au ) or direct message me on CG.
I look forward to seeing you on the day! Oh ps. Its a government supported event which means tickets are free, though with limited capacity it will sell out fast.
RSVP now through Eventbrite!
Follow us on Twitter
Or visit our website www.ddsummit.com
Woodz
Leading Australian Electronic Sports
www.woodztown.com
www.b1gleague.com
www.twitter.com/woodz
www.facebook.com/woodztown
PS. Check out the sweet government temp desk!
Quick heads up that if your heading to JB Hifi to buy your home entertainment / monster games console commonly known as the PS3 to hold up! Playstation have just announced the update of the PS3, Its slimmer, better and sexier then the old models and I wont lie, I think im going to buy one.
- Here are some major updates;
- 120GB hard disk drive
- 2/3 of the original size, weight & power consumption
- Video Delivery Service; Rolling out in Europe next year, this system will allow the ps3 to work as a home entertainment unit with the ability to download new HD movies.
- Live access to ABC IView & potentially other digital vod tv platforms!
-
Price at €299, US $299, £249.99, ¥29,980, AUD $499.95, NZD $629.95 It’s a pretty good price for me!
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 5 years you would have heard of the famous Warcraft 3 mod, Defense of the Ancients or more commonly known as DoTa. The modification that spawned out of existence by the mysterious developer ‘IceFrog’ grew to global over the past 3 years and now ranked as one of the most popular games in the world. The only thing that held DoTa back was its prehistoric Wacraft 3 game engine and Blizzards push to World of Warcraft left the DoTa community forced to fend for themselves.
Though this my friends, is all about to change. Indy developers, S2 Games have unleashed their own replica of the epic mod and free’d the game of dota from its shackles. The game titled, Hero’s of Newerth is a near perfect upgrade, following gameplay & mechanics down to the finest detail, HoN breathes a breath of fresh graphics into the old modification. Much like how Counter Strike 1.6 was updated to Counter Strike : Source, HoN will drive Dota back into the mainstream gaming scene.
Now this isn’t the first time somebody has tried to replicate DoTa, DemiGod, League of Legends and many more all have attempted it, yet with the popularity of HoN’s beta and the thumbs up from the best of the best, HoN could be just what the doctor ordered for dota fans around the world. Get your hands on a beta key at http://heroesofnewerth.com/
Feel free to add me ingame, ill be in over the weekend! Account : woodz
Cheers
Woodz
www.woodztown.com
Leading Australian Electronic Sports
Today B1G League will be broadcast the DiceVIP.com CS1.6 National Competition.
Tune in live at www.b1gleague.com for all the live action!
Thanks to Gamestah commentary for calling all the shots & On Demand IT Solutions for all the broadcasting power!
2pm - Semi Final - GUTS V VHM
4pm - Semi Final KOA V V300
6pm - Final - TBC
- Woodz
Hey Guys!
Just wanted to let everybody know that the B1G League - Plan B1G broadcast videos are now comming online, Apologies about the delays, all the videos are making their way up slowly.
Plan B1G - Upper Bracket Final - Immunity V Sublime http://www.b1gleague.com/video/111/
Plan B1G -Grand Final - Immunity V Tension http://www.b1gleague.com/video/110/
Also check out the Dota Masters competition with Midcity, world #5 team battle it out with 4 players against melbournes best - http://www.b1gleague.com/video/112/
Comming in the next few days -
Plan B1G - Lower Bracket Final - Tension V Sublime
Plan B1G - Upper bracket Semi Final - ZR V Immunity
Dota Masters - Clan War V TGS
Dota Masters - Clan War V MidCity
Riff Wars - Guitar Hero Masters - Grand Final
Cheers
Woodz
As a journalist for the MX, I dont usually offer any exclusivity over B1G League promotion though do enjoy the freedom of promoting the greater good of eSports to the country, especiallyA B1G League & friends.
Though one thing i find very enjoyable is seeing other journalists having a crack at the games industry, Ive seen alot of terrible articles over my time, pigeon holing gamers and truth be told, one of the main reasons I moved into media was to help stop the stereotype of gaming.
This week we helped out on the Monash Gamers bootcamp, Myself and Camstar were the events opening speakers encouraging over 300 highschool students to peruse a path into video games, build an empire and love the lifestyle.
We were promptly interviewed by a Journalist from The AGE and here was the result. As usual, not perfect, though seriously props to the Journalist 'Miki Perkins' for actually portraying the other side of gaming.. The positive side.
Have a read!
http://www.theage.com.au/national/in-the-world-of-elite-eathletes-b1g-is-best-20090708-ddf7.html
B1G League eSports Zone
Matthew 'Dasbok' Asplin doing a presentation on professional Quake
Also Congrats to the team from monash for doing such a fantastic job with this event, Andrew & the team really pulled through with an event that I only wish was around when I was in high school. Will keep you up to date with next years event or have a look here.
http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/promotion/games-boot-camp/
Hey B1G League fans,
After the most insane week of broadcasting four seriously fantastic tournaments our production team is enjoying a days rest prior to our next event.
We would like to thank everybody who was involved in the tournaments and broadcasting over the week, their work has now put B1G League above and beyond many eSport tournaments in the region and we are excited to be bringing you stacks more gaming action throughout the year.
All videos will be going online this week on www.b1gleague.com with all the juicy action from the events.
Just to recap Season 2
Street Fighter 4 tournament (Already online)
Dota Masters (Coming up in the next 2 days)
Guitar Hero Riff Wars (Coming up by the end of the week)
Plan B1G CSS Nats (Up by the end of the week)
Thanks to all the crew and supporters including
Michael Shelton (Production Manager)
Brian Hughes (Director)
Kye Lewis (Tech Director)
Bench Studios (Graphics)
Liam Marcon (Camera Assistant)
Robert Wiggett (3 Man Camera pro)
Chris Lowe (Camera Assistant / Lighting)
Domenic & Dan (Commentators / SF4 Organisers)
Toxy (SF4 Organiser)
Couch Warriors (SF4)
All the SF4 Players
U238 (Dota tournament organiser)
Tobi Won Kanobi (Dota Commentator)
All the Dota Teams
Ash (Riff Wars Tournament Organiser)
All the Guitar Hero contestants
All the CSS admins (Vex, Defiler, Khooy, Cam ect ect ect)
All the CSS teams
Mid City for the fantastic venue
Team Immunity & Intel for supplying the gaming PCS
RMIT University for the fantastic Studio
CyberGamer for supporting us with all our online help
James Bertchick for setting up the webstream server with on demand it solutions
Finally, my girlfriend & friends, for being so sweet about being afk from life for the past week.
And ofcourse, all the people who are so dedicated to supporting B1G League and helping it grow,
The best thing anybody can do is sit back and enjoy the show, we need to prove to the rest of the world that there is a market for eSports, and the more times you visit the website, watch the videos and turn up to events, the more chance we have of running even bigger & better tournaments.
Cheers
Mike
B1G League - Plan B1G Nationals is doing its test broadcast in preperation for tomorrow's massive Plan B1G Finals.
Tune in live to the web broadcast by clicking through through to the live button on the B1G League site or visiting http://planb1g.vod.odits.com.au/
This broadcast is being simulcast in MidCity internet cafe to a live crowd!
-Woodz
Group 1 - 10am start
De_Dust2
iM vs bye
remedi [16:6] eurxo [server 1]
tsw [11:16] klaus [server 2]
De_Train
iM [16-11] tsw
klaus [13-16] remedi
eurxo vs bye
De_Inferno
iM [16:0] eurxo
bye vs klaus
remedi [8:16] tsw
De_Nuke
iM [16:4] klaus
eurxo [0-16] tsw
bye vs remedi
De_Dust2
iM [16-7] remedi
tsw vs bye
klaus [16-12] eurxo
Group 2 - 10am start
De_Dust2
sublime vs bye
twk [16:8] TeamExothermic [server 3]
ZR [16:6] 403 [server 4]
De_Train
sublime [16-0] exo
bye vs 403
twk [4:16] ZR
De_Inferno
sublime [16-1] 403
exo [3:16] ZR
bye vs twk
De_Nuke
sublime [16:9] ZR
403 [14-16] twk
exo vs bye
De_Dust2
sublime [16-1] twk
ZR vs bye
403 vs exo
Top 2 will proceed through groups to play in the finals on Sunday the 5th. DANIEL STOCKTON WASUPPPPPPPP and then I found 20 bucks
So if your competing this week and having a bit of trouble finding the lovely B1G League Studio here are some directions to help your journey easier.
So the studio address is;
RMIT University
Studio A
Building 12
Level 2
Swanston St, Melbourne CBD
This address is deceivingly difficult to find as, Level 2 is actually ground level. Its not really building 12, its actually between building 12 & 10.
So the best way is to walk up Swanston st from Melbourne central on the RMIT side. Keep looking until you see level 12 or 10 entry, go down the stairs and look for the signs that say TV studio.
Or buzz your tournament organizer on his mobile and get him to meet you on the corner of Swanston & Franklin St.
See you all this week,
Woodz
ITS HERE!
Get ready for the 2009 national event
Groups are as follows
Group One
Team Immunity: stv - spunj - digz - dewshu - emagine
Remedi.inc: foo_ - fluke - ssin - ihs - vex
Tsw Australia: OZi - dblstr - coffex - prof - tba
Klaus: garra - rensz - rami - pod - landa
Exuro: dave - everlast - yoyoo - semesa - nugo
Group Two
Sublime PC Gear: havoc - shadzke - shark - oxi - padz
Trainwreck: pinto - zam - tuska - dx - khepera
ZeroRemorse: mrt - dripske - zmn - devk - scar
403: plg - akro - gummerz - jemske - slyk
TeamExothermic: fitty yen - bnk_ - braydenk - snaf - dnar
Group Three
iCHOR: kermit - racs - todd - iz - snow
Qlimax: fry - commy - lock - tnk - element
Saucey140s: dave - jaytee - gamz - bl4nk - feldy
injected: imrdr - dragonx - ar3s - osprey - jovan
deagleDONGAZ: kotso - smite - longie - kruz - tba
Group Four
Tension: killr - hnk - ahi - kstrife - snyper
Synergy: giant - zoltan - meki - mcleod - stewy
RiceRockets: schmack - camstar - infzoran - khooy - flabboy
MiAU: suprez - unstable - sojwa - kyren - meth
supladz: mmmARK - naM - stush - vital - ranger
So what time do you play?
De_Dust2
iM vs bye
remedi vs eurxo
tsw vs klaus
De_Train
iM vs tsw
klaus vs remedi
eurxo vs bye
De_Inferno
iM vs eurxo
bye vs klaus
remedi vs tsw
De_Nuke
iM vs klaus
eurxo vs tsw
bye vs remedi
De_Dust2
iM vs remedi
tsw vs bye
klaus vs eurxo
Group 2
De_Dust2
sublime vs bye
twk vs TeamExothermic
ZR vs 403
De_Train
sublime vs exo
bye vs 403
twk vs ZR
De_Inferno
sublime vs 403
exo vs ZR
bye vs twk
De_Nuke
sublime vs ZR
403 vs twk
exo vs bye
De_Dust2
sublime vs twk
ZR vs bye
403 vs exo
Group 3
De_Dust2
iCHOR vs bye
qmx vs deagleDONAZ
Saucey140s vs injected
De_Train
iCHOR vs deagleDONAZ
bye vs injected
qmx vs Saucey140s
De_Inferno
iCHOR vs injected
deagleDONAZ vs Saucey140s
bye vs qmx
De_Nuke
iCHOR vs Saucey140s
injected vs qmx
deagleDONAZ vs bye
De_Dust2
iCHOR vs qmx
Saucey140s vs bye
injected vs deagleDONAZ
Group 4
De_Dust2
tension vs bye
synergy vs supladz
rR vs MiAU
De_Train
tension vs supladz
bye vs MiAU
synergy vs rR
De_Inferno
tension vs MiAU
supladz vs rR
bye vs synergy
De_Nuke
tension vs rR
MiAU vs synergy
supladz vs bye
De_Dust2
tension vs synergy
rR vs bye
MiAU vs supladz
Written by Michael "Vex" Afleck, CS:S National Tournament Director
B1G League Season 2 RIFF WARS UPDATE!!
Guitar Hero players be warned! The time has come to step up to the plate and compete in the B1GGEST Riff wars ever! Tektime in conjunction with B1G League Season 2 will be hosting Australias largest guitar hero tournament.
During qualifiers gamers will have the chance to be filmed live in the B1G League studio, putting you in the spotlight under the first multi-camera Guitar Hero tournament. These rock shows will the be uploaded to B1Gleague.com for two weeks of intense online voting with the top 6 will then have a chance to come back for the Riff Wars spectacular featuring a panel of special guest judges and big prizes up for grabs!
Qualifiers : June 19 – 21
Finals : July 2
Register now at : http://www.tektime.com.au/content/view/310/
Broadcast registrations per solo performance : $10
Broadcast registrations per band (2-4) : $20
Keep up to date with the latest news at www.tektime.com.au & www.b1gleague.com.au
B1G League Season 2 Update
B1G League is proud to announce that it will be expanding its Season 2 – B1GLeagueathon.
In light of Fridays cancellation of Anything Interactive National Cup (AINC) B1G League is excited to announce it will be running a consolation tournament for the national Counter Strike community.
After meeting with community leaders the national Counter Strike 1.6 will be coordinated by www.DiceVIP.com and Counter Strike Source by a selection of previous AINC Administrators (Camstar, Vex, Khooy & Defiler).
We are excited to be working on this project and will announce more details over the coming days.
For further Counter Strike 1.6 information please visit www.DiceVIP.com & for Counter Strike Source, Vex will taking questions via a ventrilo interview tonight at 6pm. http://www.gotgames.com.au/forums/counter-strike-series-155/nationals-information-49856/
- Woodz
B1G League Season 2 Announcement!
B1G League is proud to announce season 2 of its success Electronic Sport broadcast program.
Tag lined 'B1G Leagueathon' one week of hardcore gaming action including a range of professional and fun eSports for all.
Running in conjunction with Tektime Radio, Cybergamer.com.au, DiceVIP, Team Immunity, RMIT University & RMITV the week will showcase gamers from across the region competing for electronic sports glory.
Games include
Guitar Hero
Street Fighter 4
Quake Live
Call of Duty 4
Dates
Friday June 19 – July 2
Sign ups will be available soon throughB1GLeage.com & Cybergamer.com.au
More announcements will be made soon!
Woodz & B1G League team
Regional gaming center Guf has just announced $2,000 in prizes for its upcomming tournaments running in conjunction with the Ballarat Get into Games expo running on the 15th - 16th of May!
“With a prize pool of over $2000, the Guf / Get into Games Demigod and Call of Duty 4 tournaments are set to be one of the biggest eSports events of 2009. Spanning 2 massive days (Friday 15th May and Saturday 16th May)the competition will culminate with the top teams playing off on the main stage at the Ballarat Get Into Games Expo. Entry is $25 per person, with teams of 3 for Demigod and teams of 5 for Cod4.”
B1G League will be down rocking it hard at this event so register up at http://www.guf.com.au/register_gig.php
New title Demigod set to be a hot pick for 2009 pro gaming
I will lol at this for the rest of my life..
The internet has its own agenda and TIME magazine has now learnt this the hard way. The global magazines third annual online poll ranking the worlds most 100 most influential was been re assembled by a global team hackers with a mission to send 'moot' the founder of 4chan.org into the glossy magazine's record books and building of the worlds biggest online pranks.
4chan.org is widely regarded as one of the worlds most influential websites with a global community producing much of worlds internet humor, LOLcats, rick rolling if you have been emailed it, its probably come from 4chans.
Its not uncommon for internet stars to make it to the top 100 list with youtube sensation 'rain' becoming one of the leaders in last years poll, though moot is not just leading the poll, he is by far dominating it.
Need proof? Well if 17 million votes isnt enough, make sure you have a look at the initials of the top 21, which should spell out the sentence 'MARBLECAKE ALSO THE GAME,' something unfortunately has not come down to pure luck and with TIME magazine still defending the poll it looks like this years addition could be one to remember.
An online interview with one of proclaimed hackers explains that TIMES poll was left completely unprotected, though the website looked great, a simple autovote spammer was enough to send hundreds of votes a minute into the system and quickly shooting moot up the influential ladder.
By the time the poll had integrated any basic levels of security the dedicated fans of 4chan.org had the taste the victory in their minds, quickly decoding all security and building an online autovoter that with a few added servers is now pumping out thousands of votes per minute to this live poll. As for why you might ask? They did it for the lulz..
So you have been playing for years and would love more then anything to play for a living, well how does some body elevate from fragging noobs to raking in cooperate sponsorship and touring the gaming world?
1 ) Image is everything
The ability to shoot down virtual people in a virtual maze didn\'t put Fatal1ty to the top of food chain. Fatal1ty had an image, his personality and his look was enough to demystify the \'gamer\' stigma in American culture. You have to be willing to put your whole self out there, worts and all!
2) Shake the boat
Fragging and having an image is good, but if your not out on the front line getting your name out there, talking about issues, representing the life you live, then nobody is going to know who you are!
eSports Pannle - Egames & Entertainment Expo 2008 - (Left to Right) Myself, Alex Mottshaw (gotgames.com.au), Dan Chlebowczyk & Ben Thomas (Sydney Underground) Jason Hill (The Age, Modderator).
3) Keep it clean online & offline
The biggest mistake everybody makes in gaming is a 1am smack talk. Get into the habit, if you cant say something nice, don\'t say anything at all, your a leader, not a bully!
4) Do things your way and do them differently!
It doesn\'t matter that one gamer might have his own TV show. You must use your skills, and use them well, dont worry what other people are doing, just do what you do well :)
Like this guy self commentating his own starcraft games, not a lot of work though big exposure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGn3Ni_GeSw
5) Build up others!
Lets be honest, eSports is not mainstream yet, we are in economic hard times the last thing people need is bad competition! Work with fellow gamers and help build up their brands and this will build the whole industry.
With MX we feature gaming celebs Ash (Tektime.com.au), Matt & Yug (Australiangamer.com.au), Tegs & Boomser from former Sydney Underground in an attempt to build up their profiles.
Are you the kind of gamer that prefers Crown Larger over Caltron Draft? Or Eye fillet steak over gristly pork chops, then the Razer Carcharias gaming headphones have been built to perfection, geared toward your finer taste in life.
The top of the line headphones are perfect for any person looking for maximum quality and maximum comfort for long session of gameplay. The audio quality is through the roof, with fantastic clarity through all frequencies, perfect for fast action gameplay. Notable is also their ability to play music while still providing perfect quality game audio. The big new addition to these blistering headsets is the comfort they provide, the high quality padding is soft on the head while still providing all the room for our little ears to sit in comfort.
The Razer Carcharias also comes with a long durable noise filtering microphone, which should last a good few years of battling around the bedroom.
The only drawback to these bad boys are their solid price tag, at around $199 they are worth the money though might be something you would like Mr Rudd to buy for you.
Overnight it was released that global electronic sport giant Game Services filed for bankruptcy. Game services are famous for their powerhouse annual electronic sport event Electronic Sport World Cup or ESWC. The global tournament that was rated among gamers as the premier competitive tournament was unable to sustain itsself with another event due to drastic drop in sponsorship of its flagship event.
Next month Korea will be hosting the ESWC Masters tournament which will be showcasing a range of the top teams across the globe, this includes fnatic, mTw, SK, Titans & Ausralias own Immunity. Game services have promised this event will go ahead as planned and will be the last show of the ESWC might. Though fears are arising around the Masters tournament that potential prize monies could be claimed by liquidators.
That being said Game Services has been pioneers over the past 5 years, the organization put gamers first and refined most of the global standards and rule sets for electronic sport that are going to stand for a long time.
Its going to be a tough year for profesional gamers across the globe, with this the 3rd major victim of the global economic state after Championship Gamers Seriese was canceled last year by DirectTV and last months loss of global powerhouse team, Meet Your Markers.
GLHF Woodz
I think I have to clear something up for all gamers big and small, This week news appeared online and in magazines about the mysterious Xbox 720 and PS4. Pictures of the generation 8 consoles were apparently leaked and gamers across the globe have their eyes fixed on these amazing devices for days now.
Unfortunately I dont think we are all so lucky to get our hands on one of these babies for a while as most people were unaware that these were a classic april fools joke by Zoo weekly, Though unfortunately for Zoo, the nature of the internet is that this kind of information spreads fast and with all the glossy pictures to go with millions of gamers thinking they had stumbled upon the ultimate news story ever. I was getting calls left right and center from friends who couldn't believe their eyes when they heard the news! People even passing judgment that the new xbox will be better or the PS4 will rule all.
I think all our dreams of ultimate gaming love are going to have to be put on hold for a few more years, though we cant complain, we have it pretty good right now :D
http://www.zooweekly.com.au/members/viewPost.php?pid=0&aid=7320
GLHF! Woodz
So I origionally posted this in the Gotgames online forum, after seeing a few really great videos of different gaming setups. http://www.gotgames.com.au/forums/pc-gaming-discussion-158/post-video-your-setup-43886/ quite a funny little read.
So inspired by the masses of people videoing their setup, I thought that it should be my turn to show everybody the backbone of my working station :)
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrzUgr0jh4
Public transport gaming has recently become my favorite travel past time, weather its on the train, bus, tram (or in Sydney on that silly monorail system) abit of video game action is defiantly a great way to fill in the time between stops.
From observation the most popular public transport gaming seems to be done on the nintendo ds, PSP and most commonly, the classic mobile phone. Back in the day it was all about playing snake on the old vintage nokia's though with all the latest iphones and blackberries on the market, your standard portable mobile phone can instantly be converted into a gaming device of pure bliss.
Now I was confident that seeing as everybody else around me was playing games on their nice portable devices, I too could do this, with my not so portable Asus gaming laptop. A careful selection of game lead me to have a quick spin of the recently released Call of Duty 5. I put a pair of my chunky gaming headphones and loaded up to what I though would be possibly the most enjoyable experience of my life. Unfortunately I didnt have the forsight to realize I had no mouse, and was forced to use the laptops ever inaccurate touch pad. Fortunately, I battled through it, and after a solid month of playing an array of games on my public transport I believe my touchpad gaming lifestyle has now evolved and would encourage anybody to have a go at some public transport gaming, its probably one of the only reliable enjoyable about public transport.
Michael Woods
Want to create a very successful video game title? Easy! start by addressing the problem, the lack of mouse attached to the xbox 360 is probably one of the biggest. Then address the issues, how do you build an effective real time strategy game with a touch of first person shooter to be played with an Xbox controller flawlessly.
Recently we have seen the release of Halowars, an curious new game that personally I find to be abit too clunky with its game controls, making the game very hard for the average joe to become confidant at.
Now Sega has just announced that they will be releasing their own real time strategy game, called 'Stormrise' which has peaked my interest for one reason, the unique way they have gone about building the game controls. Their world first controller function tag named 'Whip Select' has dramatically increased the speed of the game. Spanning in and out their fully 3D battle field at the flick of a joystick would normally be extremely difficult with standard controller techniques, though this new addition players are able to interact with game characters and units at a speed unlike anything seen in any console game.
Now after having a peek at this cheeky new title, I wouldnt say it boasts the worlds most polished game ever produced, though if your like me, and still playing stacks of games from the late 90's purely because they have near flawless gameplay Stormrise should be on the top of your pics for 2009.
Give it a go, Gameplay over graphics anyday.
www.stormrisers.com
Ill be covering Kode 5 this weekend at iBisQ lan cafe with some quality interviews and highlights.
Pre Day 1 27/2/09-
Dave & Peki - Kode5 au organizers
http://www.b1gleague.com/video/28/
Simcore - NZ champion gamer catches before the big day
http://www.b1gleague.com/video/27/
It looks like 2009 will be the year of online gaming, After World of warcraft announces its 200k 3v3 competition it wasnt long for ID Software to follow releasing the beta version of its hugely anticipated re adaption of Quake 3; Quake Live.
Ive played my fair share of world of warcraft, diablo 2 and most role playing games out there, though nothing matches the intensity of a fast pased first person shooter game. With rockets flying everywhere, your bunnyhopping through a complicated maze only to reflex shoot your opponent with a rail gun. Wow really gets my blood pumping.
Quake live defiantly delivers on this action packed intensity, though does it in a way that will change the face of online gaming. Not only is Quake live free, though quake live doesnt require any install disks, hardcore graphics cards or subscriptions. Quakelive is a free version of Quake 3 played out of your internet browser putting you up against friends and foes across the globe.
Sign up for free at www.quakelive.com and get straight into the action asap, before your IT guy proxy blocks this from your work pc, and if your looking to somebody to play with, add me to your friends list : woodz ill be on a lot over the next few weeks!
Good luck have fun!
World of warcraft has just released its monstrous new competition putting gamers across the world in the hotseat in titles first full scale global tournament, and with $200,000 on the line, players are lining up to take their share of the booty.
World of warcraft typically has been limited in its tournament options as players are forced to build and develop charactors, gaining items ect. This places some players at an advantage a competition would not so much come down to the players skill, though the size of his sword.
Wow's new competition has eliminated this issue with cheeky new addition
"When you create a new character on a tournament realm, it will automatically be leveled to level 80, be fitted with a basic set of gear, be given a tidy sum of gold and appear in one of the designated starting areas."
There is a stack of seriously top items for players to pick from, giving you the ability to tweak out your character as you have always desired.
The tournament has also been well throughout with a strong lead time to this new structure and globalized tournament that will give players the most competitive action for their dollar.
"The first two weeks of the online qualifier are designated for practice - giving a chance for players to meet, form teams, gain experience playing as a team, and experiment with different lineups and strategies. During this time period, matches will not count, although your rating will change as normal."
"After the six-week online qualifier concludes, the top 1000 teams will be invited to play in a one-week invitational ladder. The top eight teams from the invitational ladder will advance to the regional finals. The top teams that emerge from each regional final will be invited to participate in the global finals."
This global and regional tournament structure should put it on the maps as one of the first full scale global online tournaments. Many have been attempted in the past, though im confident the world will have never seen anything like this competition before.
"At the global finals of the 2009 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament, the winning team will take home the impressive sum of $75,000. The second-place team will win $30,000, and the third-place team will be awarded $15,000. There will be cash prizes at each regional final as well, consisting of $15,000, $6,000, $3,000, and $1,500 for first, second, third, and fourth place respectively, while fifth- through eighth-place teams will each receive $600."
All in all this is going to make a very large impact in the global eSport scene and as long as blizzard can follow through with a large scale grand final and all the trimmings this will definatly secure World of Warcrafts spot in the global eSport scene.
Source http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/tournament/index.xml
10 - Find a gaming partner
If your going to get serious, especially for the first time, make sure your doing it with a friend or two. Im still playing with the same friends I started playing with almost 10 years ago and it does make the whole eSport
experience a ton more enjoyable.
Woodz & Cameron "Camstar" Rambert, playing together for 5 years (unfortunatly Cam still thinks hes a better fragger then me)
9 - Resolution and game tweaking
Different games have different optimal operating specs. Most of the time you have to judge this for yourself, sometimes the most blistering graphics will make your life a lot harder when it comes to gameplay.
Lag or spikes are the worst thing you want so pick a resolution that is going to run at 100% for hours on end.
Always downscale your graphic options to the lowest textures, lighting and anti alisaing chew through your card and dont make a difference end game.
Always turn your brightness up high so you can see those naught little campers
For RPGS and strategy games always turn your resolution to the max optimum running resolution so you can see more on the map.
For FPS games always turn your resolution down nice and low, this will let you 'pixel hunt' and give you the ability to see recoil at long distances and chase headshots over some game walls and in hard to see places.
Quake 3 CPMA can be reduced to its bare basic form to give players a very clear advantage over its over textured opponent
8 - Play harder competitors
Slaughtering randoms in public online games is really only going to get you so far in your gaming, if you really want to get to the top get involved in a ladder or free online tournament. Heres a few links to fun tournaments to play in with a team or solo.
Cyber Gamer ladders – http://www.cybergamer.com.au
Cyber Evolved – http://www.gotgames.com.au
Gamearena - http://www.gamearena.com.au/pc/ladders/
Live broadcast competetive action on B1G League
7 -Ventrilo
http://www.ventrilo.com/ Ventrilo makes a huge difference to your gameplay, espeically in team based games and RPG's. Great for competetive gameplay as you can still communicate while in dead time and great for raids in MMORPG's.
No matter how good you are at button bashing, binding or marcoing buttons to ingame commands will really improve your game by reducing the ammount of things you have to think about. Save these as a configuration so you can take it with you if your going to lan.
5 - Good quality mousepad, mouse & mouseskates
Ricky Ponting doesn't use a kanga cricket bat when smashing sixes against the west indies, and either should you use some poor quality mouse when your out fragging. A large good quality hard or cloth pad or hardpad as well as some hyperglide skates on your mouse and a good quality mouse will make the world of difference to your gameplay. I recommend Razer Deathadder and Func Pad.
Some top quality gaming mice mice from Razer
4 - Cpl mouse fix
Traditionally a computer comes with mouse acceleration, meaning as you speed up moving the mouse, it will accelerate how fast it tracks along your screen. CPL mouse fix takes a short while to get use to, though will dramatically improve your accuracy when you get your hands on it.
http://www.gotfrag.com/portal/files/82/
3 -Good quality headphones
In first person shooters, the most important skill is to pay attention to what your hearing, This will give you the advantage over your opponent any day of the week.
2 - CRT monitor & turn vsync off
Unless your spending $500+ on a 2ms LCD monitor, a 19” flatscreen crt is unbeatable for consoles and pc. Just remember on pc to turn vertical sync off to give you max, this can be found in your graphic card options.
1 - Watch demos of professionals
Www.gotfrag.com has a archive of most games and professional matches, after watching a few of these is like studying Rafael Nadals serve and will improve yours 10 fold, demos or replays will show you the tricks of the trade used by the worlds best and seriously eaccelerate your ability to get there fast.
Profesional Gamers - Stensgaming at Gamerthon 2008
Hope that helps!
Michael Woods
www.woodztown.com
The World Cyber Games, considered around the world to be the video game olympics has just announced its launch of a decathlon style TV show, WCG Ultimate Gamer.
Grab a dozen gamers and make them compete in a range of games from fighting games to racing games, to shooting games to strategy games and watch them eat each other alive like a bad series of survivor. Sounds kinda sweet to me.
The only twist to the show, is that gamers are not only tested by their gaming ability. Gamers are tested in their real life ability relating to the game they are playing. Guitar hero skills are also tested out on real guitars, racing skills are also tested out while racing real cars and fighting skills are tested out hopefully while they beat each other into the ground.
The idea in general sounds great, though in my opinion reality tv should be reserved to only the trivial of topics, like weight loss and voting each other of an island. While the stigma around video gamers are only just starting to be separated from 'overweight anti social nerds' WCG Ultimate Gamer just make gamers look like six foot blond bimbos who just want to get their mug on tv.
Anyway ill end my rant, check it out for yourself at www.wcgultimategamer.com
Strap on your jetpacks, and grab your power-swords as street violence is set to skyrocket after major fighting game distributor Red Ant hits rock bottom. The distributor for major developers Capcom, Kanomi, Midway & more was unable kick start its new year with the company being placed into receivership last week.
Even though console sales have grown by almost 50% last year that was not enough to save Redant, who could have cashed in hard with its power house upcomming title, Street Fighter IV. Im unsure if this will delay the launch of the game, though whats certain is that either THQ or Activision is about to cash in like uncle flin with an enormous amount of high profile game contracts up for grabs.
Now im not going to start justifying any potential psychological link between street violence and game violence, though Red Ant certinaly did like it share of violent games, distributing major titles like Mortal Combat, Devil may Cry and the hugely controversial and almost R18+ game, Fallout 3.
Now with a lineup like that potentially to be missing from our future gamestores, im not saying that panic is the best option, though next time im heading down the shops for a spot of milk and cheese im sure not going unprepared.
Michael Woods
www.woodztown.com
Gears of War 2, Alienware Reloaded LAN.
Wow what can I say, what a pleasure it was to head over to this years Reloaded LAN Festival. Now if your thinking, Lan, bring your own pc, smelly room & enormous amounts of leaching you would only be half right, with hundreds of adelaidians turning out to lan with some of the craziest boxes & modified computers around.
Though this year reloaded has was shifted into gear (excuse the pun) supported now by Gears of War 2 & Alienware, the event boasted almost 100 free play xbox's and a dozen top end Alienware PCS for tournament play making the event now a true cross platform gaming event.
The festival boasted an enormous amount of tournaments with over $20,000 in giveaways for competitive gamers. Some of my highlights was watching Jessie uNhoLee (possibly SA's best gamers) smashing up in nearly every comp. No surprises that Immunity took out the Counter Strike Source Ainc Quals / Reloaded comp though they were hit by abit of local talent being knocked into the loosers bracket in the upper bracket final.
All in all, it was a fantastic event would definatly recommend traveling down for this event next year!
My top ten highlights of Reloaded
* 10- My whole 8 hours of sleep
* 9 – Chief organizer Wookie's momentary explosion of emotion, running down the event hall.
* 8 – The insane guitar hero kids playing every song on world tour in a row, just to unlock an achievement.
* 7 – Getting beat into the ground by champion gamer Jessie 'unholee' in quake 3.. Last time we played, CPL 06 was kind of a similar experience!
* 6 – Gamestah - Deps shoutcasting the games in his classic NFL style.
* 5 – Aron Jackson dressing up as cosplay hitler.
* 4 – The human pyramid outside on the grass to blow time.
* 3 – The mother teaching her infant child how to frag it up.
* 2 – The fire alarm going off from the laser skirmish smoke machine pumping for too long
*DRUMROLLLLLL****
* 1 – teamWoodz (depz, woodz, khooy, mould, infedile) placing 2nd in the counter-strike 1.6 comp!!!
This is my 2008 cool stuff list, pretty much, its a list of the cool stuff ive done in 08! Couldnt fit all the projects in, though heres a few of the fun ones :)
Gamerthon was the spear head of 2 years of work with old business partners, Anything Interactive, great to have so support from ACMI, razer, yamaha & all the event partners. All I gotta do is top gamerthon solo in 09 :D
Wow! 3 days with the big guns of global media, YES PLEASE!! right after the split with AI, presenting my concept of live broadcast esports could not have come at a better time. Amazing to bounce concepts and get feedback from guys like Ken Rutkowski, Chris Adams, MMG & many many many more. Thanks to Cait & Per for coming with me.
MX has been a serious amount of fun every week, ranting and raving about everything from online cheating to sick new games. Its quite rewarding to pick up a paper on a monday and read my own vomit :)
I didnt do as much at eGames this year as I normally would, though did give my fair share on the Intel eSports stand & Main Stage eSports panel.. Was kinda too busy preparing for the next project.....
BIG LEAGUE!!! wow, my goal was to produce a tv show by the time I left uni and boy oh boy im happy I did it. 6 months of straight perp followed by 1 month of technical nightmares equals one, pretty nice, pretty sweeet, pilot show.
Got some massive plans for B1G league in 09 and thanks for everybody whos been onboard to help out.
------------
Big thanks to everybody who ive worked with over the year, its been an absolute pleasure, and im definatly looking forward to ripping up more in 2009. There we
The first episode of B1G League is out with two local melbourne teams going head to head in the classic counter strike 1.6
I wont spoil the show though it was great to finally get the big league concept rolling and many thanks to all those who have supported it.
Thanks to Dicevip.com for hosting the first shows. Download them here, Streaming shows will be avaliable soon!
http://www.dicevip.com/files/bigleague-pilot02-mm-v-mb-inferno.wmv
http://www.dicevip.com/files/bigleague-pilot01-mm-v-mb-nuke.wmv
Enjoy!
FAILTRAIN
What does the sub prime mortgage market and massive multiplayer online games have in common? FAIL
Last week we talked about the impact the financial crisis had on gaming giant Championship Gaming Series bringing the global event to its knees within almost a week. Now it seems, that CGS isnt our last victim of this ponderous era as the popular game Tabula Rasa announces its shutting down its servers for good in February.
Now Tabula Rasa didnt manage to become one of the international giants of the MMOG market, its not like big boys, World of Warcraft, Runescape or Linage staff are going to be flipping burgers anytime soon. Though it is rumored that Age of Conan staff are out the door as funcom shed an apparent 70% of their staff last week.
Now the question gamearena posed really well was, who is going to be next? EverQuest? Lord of the Rings? I dont know maybe even Final Fantasy XI could be.
Though as the sun sets on a few of our games, the sun does always rise again in the morning, this time in the shape of World of Warcrafts expansion, Wrath of the Lich King which hit shelfs last week.
I have no doubt that the expansion will be a monstrous success and a huge amount of fun to play. Though its still sad to see a few good soldiers go down in the battle.
With last months bonanza release of the Call of Duty: World at War, the weather could not be looking any better for our friends down at Activision as millions of gamers around the globe flock down to kmart over this Christmas break.
Well that was until last week, when Activision let slip at development conference that the Call of Duty chain has their next title in development, Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2!
If your unaware there has been 5 games developed in the Call of Duty chain, with the lastest game, World at War being a world war 2 based title and Modern Warfare being its present day war title.
So I guess the question from here is, what does this all mean for my online ownage campaigns? Well im not usually a punter, though id be pretty confident in guessing that Activision is moving to split the chains enormous success down the center and developing two successful games, one old school world war 2 blaster and one smash and grab new age killer, both under a sudo call of duty brand, though two completely different games in the end.
Though ultimately no matter which way you swing, its just going to end up being twice as much gaming action for us all in the end.
Gaming with girls
This weekend I had the pleasure of a casual night of beers, boys and video games, though much to my surprise was bombarded by a group of very attractive young ladies on their friday night mission.
Now normally I would just simply take this as a classic opportunity and work with it, kinda the way all my friends saw it, though I really, really wanted to play mario kart and wasnt going to let any intoxicated girls stand in the way of me doing so. Well so I thought.
I tell you what there must be something attractive about a man standing there shaking and wiggling a eight inch wiimote because it didnt take long for the girls to start to play the game, lets distract mike, with any means necessary.
Now these girls must have been playing a hell of a lot of wii fit because it didnt take long for my ripping mario kart lap times to slowly be diminished, I stuck to my guns as long as I could though the feeling of grinding bodies & smell of home made cocktails is not something many people can resist for too long.
Eventually I was forced to give up on my mairo kart ambitions and steered my energy in an attempt to make short work of the closest young lady. My only regret and thought for this column, is why Nintendo didnt make a rumble pack for the wii :(
Shooting dates for Big League CS 1.6 Pro Comp have moved to December 18 & 19!
Be sure to catch all the action with 4 of Melbournes top teams battling off over 2 days in the Big League CS1.6 Pro Comp.
Thursday 18 - Semi finals DRAW TBA - 6pm & 7.30 games
Friday 19 - Final 7pm game
Big thankyou's to
RMIT University
Team Immunity
Media Saints
& All Big League Crew, Volunteers & Players :)
- Woodz
The US financial crysis has taken its first victim of the video games industry, the Championship Gaming Series. This tournament that was based out of the US & produced by Direct TV had been a global success spreading through to Asia & Europe in the past year, well that is until they suddenly closed doors last Wednesday after failing to churn a profit after 2 years.
Now with this looming global recession, I believed it was expected that video games were going to become more popular then ever, this was backed up by a recent flood of great games & great events for my enjoyment, though the falling of such a major international like the CGS could trigger a chain reaction across this lovely industry.
Im starting to think that the next few months are going to determine a lot of whats going to happen in 2009. Games that are already out on the market are most probably going to make a grand killing in sales as most of their marketing is out and about. Though some gaming events and media on the other hand may start to hit struggle street with dropping marketing budgets.
Not to worry its not all doom and gloom, as long as we are still playing video games for copious amounts of time, im sure we will make it through right as rain.
QUOTE FROM CGS WEBSITE
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.
Our goal was to be ahead of the curve in the e-sports space, and conceived of CGS as a true sports league. We invested wholeheartedly in the venture and presented viewers with a top-notch production, but the economics just didn’t add up for us at this time.
Our only regret is that we will lose a team of creative and talented individuals who invested their hearts and souls into Championship Gaming Series. We recognize their achievements and thank them for their hard work and passion.
BSkyB, STAR and DIRECTV continue to be committed to the video games sector, which is an important part of many of our customers’ lives and a great source of entertainment.
So we are here at the Call of Duty : World At War game release at Swinburne University in Melbourne. Besides from the fact the event is a packed out success with a mile long cue, 100 PCs & 100 Xbox’s all ripping up the title 4 days before release I thought it would be good to chat to some of the COD community leaders & passionate gaming groupies to hear their thoughts on the new title.
Mark Libman – OZBOXLIVE RADIO www.ozboxlive.com.au : The game is great though I think in the xbox community it will struggle when compared to the new release of Gears of War 2.
Brad – Gaming Groupy : I came in with low expectations though was quite impressed when playing the game, single player was great though quite easy to get my head around. Im not convinced it will take over COD 4 long term though will be great for a few months.
Justin & Jessie – Team Immunity COD4 – www.team-immunity.com : We came in with really low expectations after playing the beta, though was really quite impressed when playing the full version today. The game will take of strong if Pam or Promod mod the game for a competitive environment.
Johnny Griffiths – Net Game Radio Commentator – www.netgameradio.com : The game isn’t for me, though it still is a seriously hot game. I think it will struggle with the hardcore COD4 fans and could split the community like what happened with Battlefield.
Jeremy & James (asterix & snap) Cybergamer Founders – www.cybergamer.com.au : We think the game is going alot more popular then COD4 & Cybergamer is going to be working with it. We are going to run 3 ladders this summer, and were pretty excited about having 100 preregistered teams before the game is even released.
Aron Jackson – Alienware Sales / Marketing manager www.alienware.com.au : We love to support the the Call of Duty community, running events like this is really enjoyable and its a privilege to run this world first. Its also a amazing to see the alienware pro team ‘exile5’ embracing the new title.
Im not sure weather this is the TAC (Transport Accident Commission)'s latest campaign to help raise awareness of road saftey or just a pleasant reminder to make more midnight milo's while we are up all night scrimming. Though what ever it is, the TAC is possibly the last person anybody ever expected to start putting up thousands of ingame advertisements saying 'If you doze, you die'.. lol keen knowledge of all gamers.
Now ingame advertising has been around for well over a decade now, and with a top selling game creating over a billion hours of gameplay amongst users across the world theres no doubt that when there are eyeballs there are marketing dollars being pushed there.
Though that being said, are we actually consuming this ingame advertising, or, like driving a car, are our minds focused on the task at hand and the billboards flying bye us are just shrugged off. Now creative ingame advertising like cokes partnership with the grand theft auto series is something im sure that pepsi would be kicking them selves about now, though slapping a billboard up in any old game aint exactly ingaging.
Barack Obama promoted his presidential campaign in burnout paradise, will Jemma be taking following suit with her next dvd release?
Michael Woods
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