The Crossfire Prizefight Challenge 2 is over and the EuroCup has just begun, but both events show a significant lack of German teams. At that point, the Electronic Sports League has come to the rescue with a Winter Premiership that offers qualifier spots for the upcoming second edition of the International Premiership and features mainly lineups from Germany.

The group phase has finished and what we're going to see tonight is the start of the playoffs. Out of 21 teams that competed in the beginning, eight have made it to the double elimination bracket that is going to conclude this premiership.



While minus gaming have lost one match out of four, the one against aGu that was shown on GIGA as well, teamoxid go into the match with a clean slate and four victories in the group stage.


The maps are undoubtedly in for some surprise. frostbite has shown unexpected results many times while bremen is still quite new and therefore a factor that might lead to the success of the seemingly weaker team.

The match will not only be shown on ETTV but will be aired on GIGA 2 in German as well. For those of you who do not have an account yet, we offer 5 free keys that will be raffled among all those who have written a comment under this news post until 22 CET - good luck to all participants!

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GIGA 2

The GIGA 2 CPC 2 documentary Under Fire is now available for download. It reviews a whole weekend of Enemy Territory and Call Of Duty 2 in Enschede, The Netherlands.

Length: 09:43 min

Editing: Peer "Mogli" Häuser
Camera: Ulrich "FlyingDJ" Schulze / Michal "Carmac" Blicharz
Voiceover: Ulrich "FlyingDJ" Schulze

Interviews with:

Steve "toxic" Micallef
ET Player polar esports

Florian "gifty" Gunzenhauser
ET Player zeropoint

Michael "potter" Kantringer
ET Player zeropoint

David "dAv1d" Philippaerts
ET Player The Last Resort

Paul "eVo" Sexton
Manager Impact Gaming

Sebastian "butchji" Kupke
ET Player zeropoint

Stuart "TosspoT" Saw
Owner of crossfire.nu

All copyrights courtesy of GIGA Digital Television GmbH. You may not redistribute or sell this video without permission.

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A memorable weekend has gone by. We've seen upsets, we've seen accused players clear their name. 6000 Euros in prize money have been distributed and countless hours have been spent playing ET and CoD2, drinking and hanging out.

What better way could there be to recap this weekend than to look at the photos and matches again? Moving pictures are a perfect tool. And while you might want to see the video on demand with commentary, you are surely interested in what has happened throughout the entire tournament, what players and managers had to say.

Tonight at 23 CET, GIGA 2 is going to air a one hour show reviewing the Crossfire Prizefight Challenge 2. A part of that show will be the CPC 2 documentary Under Fire. Featuring interviews with Steve "toxic" Micallef, Paul "eVo" Sexton, David "dAv1d" Philippaerts, Michael "potter" Kantringer, Sebastian "butchji" Kupke and Florian "gifty" Gunzenhauser, it offers you a view behind the scenes of CPC 2 that you might not have seen so far.

The history of mankind is a history of battles. While there have always been winners and losers, nobody was able to stay a winner forever. The huge Persian Empire, as powerful as it might have been, got defeated by Alexander the Great. The Roman Empire, after being nearly invincible for several centuries, eventually fell prey to the revolting Germanic people.

In 2007, an Enemy Territory team is on top of its success. Victorious at Quakecon and CPC#1, with no official 6on6 match lost in a year and one EuroCup title already in their bag they have set out to win the second one. The team is, as you should have figured out by now, the almighty idle.ee.

Facing them is a team that without a doubt can boast quite a lot of experience - Quakecon, CPC, EuroCup - most of them have been there, done that. Their steady road to this winner bracket final was not as flawless as the one of their opponents - zeropoint have actually dropped three maps on their way.

Tonight at 21:30 CET the first participant of the grand final will be decided. Currently 1170 ETTV slots and shoutcasts in four different languages should provide the necessary entertainment for a Thursday evening full of frags, grenades and selfkills.

[img|left]http://static1.giga.de/media/news/1149520808news.jpg[/img]









Starting today, GIGA 2 is providing an English stream for most of its live shows. GIGA 2 is an IPTV station which shows esports 24/7. There are more than 30 hours of live program every week live from the studio in Cologne of which more than 20 are available in English as well.

The kick-off event will be the Extreme Masters Intel Friday Night Game which is taking place tonight in Hamburg and will feature Miou vs. Insomnia in WarCraft III and mousesports vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas in Counter-Strike.
The event will start at 20 CET and is going to last until midnight.

Here's what GIGA 2 will offer you in English next week:

Oh, the scandal. When the mix team of böse quietscheentchen revealed their tag in the recent ET-Cup #15, where they placed second behind a lineup that was powered by some old parodia heroes, our very own Arachon quickly demanded in a journal that the tag stealing had to stop. With legal measures still under discussion, we will see this team on GIGA tonight nevertheless.
As their opponent we have the Italians of n1ce.it who are a very ambitious team and are currently trying to reach first spots in several leagues and cups. Having some national players of Italy in their roster, they are perfectly fit for this match which will show German national players on the böse side.

Read on for lineups, maps and statements:

A big LAN event seems like second nature to most Counter-Strike and WarCraft 3 teams. Managers take care of all the arrangements, sponsors pay for the trip and t-shirts are standard equipment anyway. No big deal, one might say.
When it comes to Enemy Territory, everything is different. Most managers hardly manage to plan online cup matches, sponsors only pay for servers and web space (if they do at all) and t-shirts are something you have to pay for yourself. With the upcoming Crossfire Prizefight Challenge, we have seen how difficult it can be for teams to attend these events, even with €3000 of prize money to be won.

Let's take the example of the vicious and evil team. When they won the qualifier, they started to count their money and had a look at the costs that they'd have to bear. With 30 Euros of entrance fee, 30 Euros for a hotel room, about 100 Euros to get there and a still uncertain amount to be spent on drugs and prostitutes in Rotterdam, this is a lot of money for a standard high school student. When an offer to cover some of these costs comes your way, who would say no?

We are less than two weeks away from the Crossfire LAN, Quakecon starts to seem like a distant memory and ET players are anxiously awaiting the next chapter in the history of their game.

While the summer ends, the ESL International Premiership for ET is just about to begin. Giving out 1500 Euros in prize money, it is one of the most profitable events at the moment. Teams are knee deep in the qualifiers at the moment and tonight we'll see a match flavoured with the spice of high skill.




On the one hand we have Northern Darkness. EuroCup XIII silver medalist and Crossfire LAN attendee who recently lost to riZe in a thrilling Warleagues semi final.
On the other hand we have dtekt, who were called Warriors Of Wolfenstein until some weeks ago, up-and-coming winners of the last OpenCup and Crossfire LAN qualifiers participant.
The match tonight is kind of a grudge match, since both teams faced in the qualifiers for EC XIII with the result of one of them dropping to the OpenCup and the other one going to the EC finals.

Teams have gathered, maps have been uploaded and configs have been edited. Finally it is there, the Hot Cup Of E-Tea is starting!

We have made five divisons, the Premier League consisting of 16 teams in four groups and the other four divisions with 32 teams in 8 groups. There will be no league switching because of time restraints.

There are some impressive names taking part in that cup, among them Crossfire LAN participant sFx EVIL, Crossfire LAN qualifier finalist dtekt and the oldschoolers of one4one.

The map list looks like that:

Week 1 (August 21st): braundorf_b4 / radar
Week 2 (August 28th): supplydepot2 / frostbite
Week 3 (September 4th): sw_goldrush_te / sw_fueldump_b3

We decided to remove Warbell since it still needs some changes before it can be used in competitive situations.

Config:
The config is the Euro Spring config with one change - there is no mortar. Everything else has remained untouched. Download the config here.

As announced, there will be small prices for those who reach high ranks in the playoffs.
ETTV and TV broadcasts for important matches will be shown on GamesTV and GIGA II.Start scheduling your matches now and have fun with the 6on6 Hot Cup Of E-Tea!

Thanks to i<3aNus for the banner.
Cup Page
#hotcup

While the ET community is preparing for the Crossfire LAN, another major league which has almost been forgotten among all the huge events in recent weeks heads on to its grand finals: The Warleagues Season VI is about to come to an end.

The teams today are anything but unknown to the ET community, in fact their current lineup holds two Quakecon participants, one on each side. Both have participated in EuroCup XIII and both have managed to score a medal there. Their last encounter provided a close match, now let's see what the second battle is going to show.

Northern Darkness

aCoZz
dav1d
JaKaZc
asd.
Winghaven
emoReJ

riZe Gaming

hatred
keran
maxx
pumu
mAus
licid

With feruS no longer a part of ND and butchji on holidays, fanboys might be disappointed, but the skill of the two other players is only slightly inferior and riZe will surely want revenge while ND want to show off their skill to heat it up for their performance at the Crossfire LAN.

I have asked one member of each team for a statement:

Quote

nd`JaKaZc
I think it will be hard game for both teams. This we be rematch for EC semifinal , we will do our best to win one more time.
We had some lineup problems , changed some players but i think we will win this 4-2.

Quote

rZ^pumu
We weren't able to practice for more than two months. On Thursday we played for an hour with the lineup that you'll see today. Our aim is rather the Crossfire LAN than some online cups.

pumu might say that this match is not so important, but there is something special for you tonight which will leave us with thousands of spectators methaporically looking over the shoulders of both teams. Next to the usual gamestv coverage, GIGA has decided to show ET once again. With the impressive feedback they've received for every match shown so far, ET might become an institution on German TV very soon.

GamesTV war page
GIGA Livestream
stewie @ iTG