December is upon us and what better way to spend the Christmas period than with some festive Enemy Territory! Last month we had the conclusion of the Battle For Berlin and while it might not have reached the finale that many of you were expecting, I would like to think that the tournament on the whole was a success, not only for those involved, but for the community as well. If the community would be interested in further tournaments then hopefully the New Year will bring us renewed activity in our beloved game and the potential for more competitions to compete in - online and offline.

This Sunday 4th hosts the Grand Final of this seasons EuroCup as you can watch Gaming2Perfection vs. Queens. Hopefully we can score a huge viewer-peak for the final of this prestigious tournament and prove that while this game is not as popular as it once was, it is a long way from being 'dead'. While nothing has been formally organised, consider this a call-to-arms for one-day-cups for all of those Crossfire members who will be taking time off work or school and have all those free hours in-front of their computers!

Each Monday I plan to cover the past week's latest news surrounding the world of gaming, including major tournament results, headline gaming news & headlines and notable games releases and updates.

The third and final day of DreamHack Winter 2011 is well under-way and all of the major tournaments are approaching the final stages, with the Heroes of Newerth tournament already reaching a conclusion. Below is a summary of the competitions, including the latest gaming news from the best games.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein celebrated it's 10th year anniversary a few days ago on November 19th, 2011. The first-person-shooter, published by Activision, was released to the North American market on November 19th, 2001. Splash Damage, an independently-owned game developer in London, created some of the maps for the GOTY edition and recently published the birthday news about the game in which they had their first ever official involvement in gaming.

Each Monday I plan to cover the past week's latest news surrounding the world of gaming, including major tournament results, headline gaming news & headlines and notable games releases and updates. (I'm aware that there was no TWiG last week as I was bogged down trying to finalise BFB)

The first two days of MLG Providence are over and this afternoon we will have Championship Sunday!

However, before the official MLG tournament got under-way we saw the finals of the MLG Global Invitational. The results were as follows:

Semi-Finals:
NesTea 2-1 IdrA
MVP 1-2 NaNiwa

Final:
NesTea 1-2 NaNiwa

NaNiwa has long been recognised as a top-level player but nobody can have forseen the outcome of these matches as he stunned the world in beating the best 2 players on the planet. Not only did he win, but he won in convincing fashion, displaying excellent decision making, mechanics and composure under pressure. Even in victory the Swede maintained his calm, asserting his confidence in the post-match interviews and even trash talking NesTea.

Good Old Games have announced their intention to take on Valve's Steam and EA's Origin as they aim to became the second largest independent digital games seller on the internet. They are currently best known as a marketplace for 'classic games', traditionally seeking classics that are three years or older, however they are now intending to pursue newer releases. Earlier this year the service sold the new release: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and it was the success that the service needed in order to potentially propel itself into the next stage of their business model. With EA's Origin receiving so much bad press which will haunt the ears of exactly the type of customer that GOG.com will look to attract, there might be no better time to attempt to leapfrog their rivals and become a #2 to Steam.

Managing director, Guillaume Rambourg said:

Queens win by forfeit.

Due to time constraints the final had to be played by this Wednesday and all the involved teams were aware of this. Despite being frequently informed of the schedule Anexis were unable to field a line-up either tonight or tomorrow. Queens have reluctantly agreed to take the forfeit and are willing to play against Anexis on another date for the GTV audience.

As someone who has put so many hours into Battle For Berlin, I find this outcome very disappointing on a personal level, but myself and the rest of the admin team were left with no other choice.

Quote by Original BFB newspost

The schedule for matches that was announced in the initial newspost will stay, we will be very strict with the scheduling system as we intend to build coverage around that schedule. If you cannot make the dates below then this isn't the cup for you! We will only allow rescheduling for exceptional circumstances.

source

Original newspost
The Grand Final of the Battle For Berlin is tonight! After 29 great games, we are left with only one. The first and third seeds respectively will do battle to determine who takes home the prestigious Place and who is Runner-up. Anexis vs. Queens starts at the slightly later time of 22.00 CET. The game will be covered here on Crossfire.nu and being shoutcast live by TosspoT & QuadV. As Queens are coming from the Loser Bracket, they will need to beat Anexis twice to take the overall victory.

Grand Final

Seed 1 vs. Seed 3

Anexis

R0SS
Night
Squall
sqzz
mAus
XyLoS


Queens

razz
Clown
kot
miNd
perfo
NuggaN

The #1 seed will meet the #3 seed in the Battle For Berlin Grand Final. Anexis stuttered against MouseControl but recovered superbly to come through a tough test against an impressive G2P side. Aside from on missile, Anexis were dominant in their victory - making supply look easy and holding radar quite comfortably. Will we see the un-organised Anexis from the semi-final, or the well-oiled machine from last night?

Queens upped their game last night and surprised many (myself included) when they brushed passed G2P in the Loser Bracket Final. They come into the Grand Final as underdogs but that won't bother them one bit. They undoubtedly have the potential to take the Gold and how competitive this game is rests solely on their shoulders. If miNd, razz and perfo show the same form that they were in last night then we could be set for a very long game.

There isn't a bad player in this final with all 12 players boasting a top pedigree and an ET career full of pocals. So where will this game be won and lost? In my opinion a lot will come down to the map choices - Queens will have to be shrewd with their picks as I feel that when Anexis are on form they are near unstoppable on supply and who in their right miNd would pick goldrush against Night? With the potential for all 6 maps tonight there is no doubt in my mind that the best team will win the Battle For Berlin - the cream always rises to the top!

Players to watch:

Night from Anexis - The Estonian legend's performances have been sub-par so far this tournament but how can you watch anyone else going into a match of this magnitude? No-one else has decided so many important games as he has, and if you're too busy watching mAus shoot headshots, you might well miss Night winning the game.

miNd from Queens - The Finnish rifle was in outstanding form against G2P last night, totalling 93 kills while nobody else on his team had more than 53. That tells you all you need to know, doesn't it?

Predictions:[/u]

Baggiez
My prediction for last night couldn't have been more wrong, so I'll make up for it tonight by correctly predicting the outcome. Queens will take the first map, then come close to winning the second, but will lose it. Anexis will dominate the deciding map and win BFB.

TosspoT
Anexis had an important win last night, the confidence that will bring should be enough to see them through. Queens played well against G2P last night and have improved as the tournament has gone on, but I don't feel it'll be enough to beat the #1 Seeds

Sample
Anexis looks stronger on the paper but their last performance didn't impress me. If they have a bad day they could lose. Hope it will be a really tight 3 maps game. Final score 4-2 to Anexis if they don't fuck up everything.

stRay
Should be an 4-0 or 4-2 for Anexis on paper. But at all I'm sure Queens wont give an easy win away! They will try to win it. If razz & nuggan pwn it could be a 4-2 in the first game, but Anexis will definitely win the 2nd game then! GL-HF both!

owzo
Queens to win 4-2 unless Anexis prac a bit. It seems like Queens have finally gotten their act together by smashing g2p to Brazil and back and now with perfo finally playing well they should have a chance of winning. Queens' victory rests largely on NuggaN playing well.

Gifted
Amazing names, amazing teams. Looking at the gtv odds Anexis is clear favourite, but Queens had an impressive performance yesterday & this could go either way. Personally I hope squall & co will be able to win this one, but no matter what it will be a great game.

Thomm
Apparently Queens have been training seriously lately, so they could surprise and beat the name-strong Anexis group, but they will need a new trick or two to do that. I will say that Queens will take it, just for kicks -unless Night can rise up to his top-level, haven't seen so much epicness lately!

SimonKinsler
It's going to be 6-4 for Anexis. Queens are going to win the first round with 4-2 - this will be a really close game but the next match Anexis is going to comeback on them with 4-0 win.

*more to come*

For tonight's game, each team will pick a map with the decider being selected via traditional elimination rules - with the winner of the coin-toss choosing which team eliminates first. If both teams pick the same map before the game starts then there will be a cointoss - with the winner of the coin-toss picking the second map. To repeat - there are no forced maps.

Tournament Bracket[/url]

Current standings:[/u]

- x
- x
- G2P
4th - k1ck
5th - disQonnect, MouseControl
7th - b2k, oxid
9th - TAG, Turboapinat, Splendid, Zero-Empathy
13th - bSTURZ, Epic, glitz, Lost Soldiers

Full Maplist:[/u]
supply
sw_goldrush_te
radar
adlernest
bremen_b3
missile

Tonight we saw the Winner Bracket Final followed by the Loser Bracket Final in the Battle For Berlin. The winner of he winner of the WB final advanced to the Grand Final - for which the date has not yet been decided. The loser of tonight's first game dropped to the Loser Bracket Final to play against Queens. The loser of the LB final will be out of the competition and will finish in place. Below are the full results from tonight's action, including match reports and statements from each of the competing teams.

Tonight we have an epic double-header in the Battle For Berlin, with the Winner Bracket Final followed by the Loser Bracket Final - both games being covered here on Crossfire.nu and being shoutcast live by TosspoT.

Anexis vs. G2P starts at the slightly earlier time of 20.30 CET. The winner of the WB final will advance to the Grand Final - for which the date has not yet been decided. The loser of tonight's game will drop to the Loser Bracket Final to play against Queens. This game will also be played tonight and will start after the WB final has been played. Depending on how long the WB final takes, the LB final will hopefully start between 21.30-22.00 CET. The loser of the LB final will be out of the competition and will finish in place.