In the next few hours the grand final of the Antwerp eSports Festival will be taking place and then we will finally get to know which team can name themselves the champions of one of the most competitive events for W:ET this year.

Still in the run are Dignitas and Impact Gaming who will face each other in the upper bracket final, while Team Rockit will be facing Belgian Fraternity in a match from which the loser will end fourth at the AEF.

AEF Upper Bracket Final

Team Dignitas versus Impact Gaming
Maps: supply, frostbite

AEF Lower Bracket round three

Team Rockit versus Belgian Fraternity
Maps: frostbite, radar

Also taking place today is the Consolation Tournament for the remaining teams who ended third and fourth. We will not be allowing any mercs in the tournament so teams not fielding their complete and official lineup either play with a man down or drop out of the tournament by forfeit.

Richard Lewis brings you one of the first ever reviews of the hugely anticipated Starcraft 2.
The sequel to one of the most populated games in the worldhas finally arrived on the shelves, after a huge amount of publicity leading up to its release.

Gamingheaven have been one of the first sites to get out a review of the game, taking a detailed look at this game. The reviewer is none other than the Editor-in-Chief of Cadred, Richard Lewis, who has given the game plenty of praise.

You can read the entire review over at GamingHeaven.net, but here is a small snippet of part of it:

Quote

Hell, it's about time" growls Tychus Findlay in the opening cinematic. The poster-boy for bad-ass pretty much echoes the sentiments of every real time strategy fan the world over.

Finally, the sequel to 1998's game of the year has arrived and promises to bring all the glory and all the horror but it is fair to say it has a huge weight of expectation resting on it. Competitive players seem to worry about the game mechanics changing, a dumbing down of the metagame that they have spent years perfecting. Equally newcomers who may have found the old game inaccessible and the community too demanding have their hopes pinned on this incarnation being more forgiving. In addition to all this, any developer of a real time strategy title faces the reality that base building and troop stacking is considered "old hat" by the new-school, and previous attempts by other franchise's to reinvigorate the genre have been met with mixed reactions at best.

Read the entire review here and find out what Richard has rated the game.

Meet the Antwerp eSports Festival playoff bracket. The first two rounds for both the upper and the lower bracket are scheduled to be played tonight.



Stream

Gallery's
AEF day 1, part 4
AEF day 1, part 3
AEF day 1, part 2
AEF day 1, part 1
Building up
Match previews
Impact vs Zero Empathy
Dignitas vs Belgian Fraternity
Overload vs Acsi-eSports
Impact vs TAG.AEF


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15:28Overload and SPEEDLINK are now eliminated from the tournament respectively after losing against Belgian Fraternity and Rockit.

Impact were on fire against Rockit and secured a position in the upper bracket final. Rockit will be facing SPEEDLINK later tonight.

The AEF says goodbye to TAG.AEF and Acsi-eSports dNan who respectively lost against Team SPEEDLINK and the Belgian Fraternity in the lower bracket.

TAG.AEF, Acsi-eSports dNan, Belgian Fraternity and Team SPEEDLINK are fighting for their life in the Antwerp eSports Lower Bracket, as two teams are about to meet elimination.

For comforts sake, TeK-9 will be hosting the brackets. Click here to visit them.

We're steamrolling towards the AEF playoffs with four matches remaining to be played. Remember that the playoffs will be starting very soon after all group matches have finished.

TAG.AEF and gZcon are currently battling it out for the second position in group B in one of the final deciding matches of the group stage here at the Antwerp eSports Festival.

Scheduling update: We're gonna try to get more matches played so the playoffs can commence sooner. We hope to play both the first two rounds of the upper bracket tonight and are aiming for a final on the big stage starting at 12:00 tomorrow.
Links
Brackets
Groups
Schedule (excel sheet)
Upcoming / live matches

Day one of the Antwerp eSports Festival is commencing.



Gallery's
AEF day 1, part 4
AEF day 1, part 3
AEF day 1, part 2
AEF day 1, part 1
Building up
Match previews
Dignitas vs Belgian Fraternity
Overload vs Acsi-eSports
Impact vs TAG.AEF


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19:32The first day of the Antwerp eSports Festival is nearing it's end with the few remaining matches starting soon. For any late night match watchers I recommend the match for the second place in group D between Acsi-eSports dNan and Almighty.

Overload versus Acsi-eSports dNan was a match between the fourth and the fifth seed, and it showed with sparks flying off as the match evolved into a double fullhold on radar and a very close match on adlernest in which Overload ended up victorious. The next major match is coming up with Dignitas facing the Belgian Fraternity.

With a new batch of teams starting their AEF adventure the first match here at the AEF between two top eight seeds is about to commence: Overload versus Acsi-eSports dNan. Read the preview here.
Links
Groups
Upcoming / live matches






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08:53Impact didn't seem to have much issues putting TAG.AEF down, even though Impact started of with pansy replacing hayaa.

Soon starting is a creator versus creation match with Team Genuine starring Impact manager eVo facing the team he himself manages.

A promising match between Impact Gaming and TAG.AEF is about to start. Read the preview.

aestas are currently absent from the event and it looks like they're sadly our third dropout from the tournament.

We seem to be on schedule once again with the second batch of teams starting their first matches. One of those to look forward to is the match between Impact Gaming and the Dutch TAG.AEF, scheduled to start at 16:00.

Results are being added to the group pages.

TAG and unpatched unit will not be starting at the tournament, respectively because of a car accident and lineup issues. Meanwhile the first results are in and should be updated on the site shortly.

karnaj is playing for CbZ against Dignitas?

Several matches are now underway.

There seems to be a short delay, but teams are setting up and the first matches should commence shortly.

The MSI EG Masters Cup top 8 starts today, with Live On Three bringing you all the action, as Marcus "djWHEAT Graham and Scott "SirScoots" Smith will be broadcasting live from Phoenix, Arizona while Rod "Slasher" Breslau will be Skyping in.

Live On Three will be streaming the quarterfinals matches today, and the semifinals, consolation, finals, and showmatch tomorrow. Pregame and postgame interviews will be conducted with players when time permits. The order of matches may change.

Saturday, June 12th:
23:00 CEST, 12 June 2010 Shane "rapha" Hendrixson 3:1 Andy "gellehsak" Ryder
01:00 CEST, 13 June 2010 Chance "chance" Lacina 2:3 Brian "destrukt" Flander
02:00 CEST, 13 June 2010 Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty 3:0 Christopher "tehnewbz" Messer

Sunday, June 13th:
John "ZeRo4" Hill vs Tom "griffin" Wall (moved from saturday)
23:00 CEST, 13 June 2010 Semifinal 1
00:00 CEST, 14 June 2010 Semifinal 2
01:00 CEST, 14 June 2010 Consolation Final
02:00 CEST, 14 June 2010 Grand Final
04:00 CEST, 14 June 2010 Showmatch (DaHanG vs. Winner)

Tune in at www.djWHEAT.tv. VOD's can be found after the event over at www.djWHEAT.blip.tv

Copied from ESR with consent of Lo3`Slasher

For all of you who don't enjoy to the point gameplay movies, developer Splash Damage and their publisher Bethesda Softworks have now released a cinematic trailer for their upcoming first person shooter BRINK, set to be released in fall this year.

GameTrailers HD
GameTrailers SD

Will the next big game by the British studio be a hit like Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or a miss like Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars? Judge for yourself.

The official BRINK website also got a makeover and now sports a lot of new interesting information. Check it out at brinkthegame.com

Latest News

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Dignitas are the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 Enemy Territory Champions!
After three days of intense gaming we finally have a winner for the Enemy Territory tournament here at the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7. Team Dignitas have played an impressive tournament and has closed it off with an even more impressive double grand final against Team Rockit. Congratulations and thanks go out to Dignitas for being such amazing sports.


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Fnatic.MSI are Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 Call of Duty 4 Champions!
The ET tournament wasn't the only one which gave us three days of intense gaming. The Swedish COD4 giants beat Reason Gaming in a 3 map nail biter.

Closing statement:

Another fantastic weekend spent at Wzzrd Gaming Café, Enschede. We've certainly had our fair share of technical glitches and delays but we pulled through as strong as ever to bring you possibly the best Crossfire Challenge yet during it's five year history.

Thankyou once again Crossfire, see you soon?


Videos
As we did on the previous event we did it this time: starzi is running around with our cam to make most of the players attending unforgettable.
Check out our YouTube-Channel


Gallery
The master of our official photos will be Baggiez. He'll save you the drunken and forgotten souls from our online nerds into the gallery.
Visit our Gallery


Sponsored by

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Good morning sunshine
We're spearheading towards the final showdowns here in Enschede, The Netherlands, with some amazing matches to be brought to you later today! First major matches are starting at 10:30, including the lower bracket final between Team Dignitas and Team YoYoTech.

Will Dignitas make the odds even?
With Team Dignitas being the fresh victors in their match versus Team YoYoTech we're looking into a lower bracket final with Dignitas to face to Make odds even once again. Last time the Polish team was able to beat Dignitas four to nil in the upper bracket.

CIC7 grand finals
With Team Dignitas just beating to Make odds even they will be joining Team Rockit in the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory grand final. As Dignitas are coming from the lower bracket, they will need to beat Rockit twice in order to win the tournament.

(Potentially first) CIC7 grand final going into decider
Team Rockit and Team Dignitas are shaking things up here at the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 Grand finals in Enschede, The Netherlands, taking the match into a decider after a breathtaking performance by Dignitas on supply. The decider will be Frostbite.

We're gonna have a grand, grand final
Just like at the last Crossfire Challenge, the team behind Night is putting up a great show. After losing Braundorf from Rockit Dignitas took massive steps by fullholding Rockit on supply, and then setting a very good three minute time on Frostbite. Meez makes a last attempt to run the docs to the transmitter but gets shot by some amazing sniping by Matias. Now, Dignitas and Rockit are finally at equal grounds again.

Dignitas are the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 Enemy Territory Champions!
After three days of intense gaming we finally have a winner for the Enemy Territory tournament here at the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7. Team Dignitas have played an impressive tournament and has closed it off with an even more impressive double grand final against Team Rockit. Congratulations and thanks go out to Dignitas for being such amazing sports.

Latest News

00.23 CET


The Fail.INC incoming?
The German team Highbot didn't do well in the past weeks - line up changes, flame, hate and a disappointing performance in the seeding tournament. Their glory days have past [have they ever been there?] Anyway, their first match is coming up next against Team Rockit who just lost one map to energy-wave, the team that can send eprox to the looser's tournament [where they belong?]. Wtih Hummel being addicted to CoD4, Scatman to as many clans as possible or at least he tried to and criatura more addicted to girls than the game. Now the team can show us what they are made of. Tune into ETTV to find out their success or their failure in their 2 deciding group games, right now starting with Team rockit.

There is also an update in the gallery: http://www.crossfire.nu/cic7/thumbnails.php?album=3 - try to find your stars!



Videos
As we did on the previous event we did it this time: starzi is running around with our cam to make most of the players attending unforgettable.
Check out our YouTube-Channel


Gallery
The master of our official photos will be Baggiez. He'll save you the drunken and forgotten souls from our online nerds into the gallery.
Visit our Gallery


Sponsored by

Previous news teaser
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Ready, Steady - Wait!
Players are slowly dripping in, with the first matches set to start at 9 o' clock. The admin team worked all night to set up over a hundred PC's, let's see how they cope with the first big stress test!

First matches live
The first matches are underway for both W:ET and CoD4. Right now QuadV is setting up as well so we hope to bring you some live footage soon.

First results
First upset - Perception got infused - the polish side gets beaten two to nill by the promising mix of British and Dutch players. Perception might have themselves to blame however, as one of their players did not arrive on time, meaning they forfeited the first map and had to play the second map (frostbite) with a merc. QuadV is still setting up. Meanwhile we're starting to use our Twitter account for CIC7 coverage, so follow Crossfire_nu on Twitter.

On a streak
With about an hour delay this morning there is a massive amount of matches played at the moment. One of them is Jungle Brothers - as CC5 winners and a late addition to the event they might be the only team left with the potential to surprise Team Rockit and Blight Gaming with their performance.
Other than that, twitter is our admin log replacement, so make sure you follow us!

Say Cheeeeeese
Yawohl! Baggiez did it! - The first pictures from Thursday have been added to the Crossfire Gallery. Shots including the incredible twidi and the much more incredible admin room! Anyway, take a look on this.

Soon to come
QuadV is still preparing their stuff to get things done within any minute. As announced on their website this delayed was expected and their announced start time might bring some further 'tosspot minutes' into the game. Prepare your QuadV account to tune in!

Jungle Brothers vs. Perception
With a disappointing start on LAN and without wssquad perception struggles to fight their way out of the consolidation tournament. Up any minute it is the final match in group D with the last and quite small chance to get a spot in the play offs for the polish team. Only if they beat JB with a straight 4-0 there might be able to still make it otherwise JB will be on top of the group. Let's see who is able to prove his online condition. ETTV.

No idle.ee, no mamut.si, no blight gaming
If you know ET you heard about every of these clans above for more than once. According to an onsite source the blight gaming team moved to dignitas to compete at the LAN. While this is not completely confirmed yet it is save to say that Dignitas was involved to back the team to attend this event and that makes it no big surprise if they would change their quaters now.
It's Sup3r they are about to face now - The player who attended with phantoms at the previous edition surprising everyone with an incredible performance. Now setting up their first match it won't be more than a minute to see whether it is dignitas or not - and who will win, ofcourse. ETTV.
PS: QuadV is still setting up and will start casting CoD as soon as possible!

Updated: It's still blight gaming, though they are representing dignitas as well according to the official statement from Sui on the Dignitas homepage: "Also the Enemy Territory team Blight will represent us at this event. The team is led by our good friend Estonia Hendrik 'RELOAd' Kinks. Wish them all the best!"

myRevenge / FiF capitalize on top position in second seed group
The team rated second in group B took home victory over the team rated first with myRevenge FiF taking down nOu way in a straight two mapper.Meanwhile JB versus Perception is well underway and we're slowly compensating for the delays of this morning.

Some group stages reach their end, others soon to start
We've been like for almost twelve hours now, but the day is long from finished, unless you were playing in group B or D (minus nOu way, who will be playing the ESL Major Series final against DH tonight). Group A and C still have some matches left, group E went live an hour ago and group F is going live about now.There are still some exciting matches to be played tonight tonight, so grab some popcorn and stick with us.

Teams presenting themselves. Just for Baggiez !
Like every team has arrived in Enschede by now. Some teams already finished their groupstage, but we got also some teams which will start just in the evening. If you always wanted to see feruS and Night posing on a photo together, check our very own CIC7 Gallery. We've divided the CoD4 teams and ET teams into 2 folders. Baggiez is busy updating the photobase, so have a look and see if you can find some familiar faces.

EMS Lanfinal!
At the same time the LAN finals for the EMS tournament will be played. Read further details here and watch out for ETTV and TosspoT on QuadV's audio steam .

Update: EMS Final about to start. According to krosan its in 5 minutes max.
Tune in @ QuadV or check gamestv.org for ETTV!

Group A - E are finished. Rockit is next!
Jungle Brothers and Blight Gaming took their chances already and didn't disappoint their fans on ETTV. Next up it will be Team Rockit in their first match against energy-Wave. energy-Wave with some taleted new faces will try their damnest to prove their online performance with the best they can. ETTV

Update: Match going into decider as e-Wave won frostbite. Will rockit fail versus e-Wave on LAN ? Don't miss it !

The situation of Group A - E are summarized in this column. Check out what you missed today!

The Fail.INC incoming?
The German team Highbot didn't do well in the past weeks - line up changes, flame, hate and a disappointing performance in the seeding tournament. Their glory days have past [have they ever been there?] Anyway, their first match is coming up next against Team Rockit who just lost one map to energy-wave, the team that can send eprox to the looser's tournament [where they belong?]. Wtih Hummel being addicted to CoD4, Scatman to as many clans as possible or at least he tried to and criatura more addicted to girls than the game. Now the team can show us what they are made of. Tune into ETTV to find out their success or their failure in their 2 deciding group games, right now starting with Team rockit.

There is also an update in the gallery: http://www.crossfire.nu/cic7/thumbnails.php?album=3 - try to find your stars!

The pioneers of CTF in first person shooters, Threewave Software, today announced they will be cutting staff members as they move into a reorganization phase. Threewave were responsible for the Return to Castle Wolfenstein ports on the Xbox and the PS2, worked on the Jedi Knight and Soldier of Fortune franchises, and did some early work on the MP mode of the critically panned latest entry in the Wolfenstein franchise.

Not long after the release of Wolfenstein, a list of the features Threewave apparently implemented in the Wolfenstein MP was posted by Wolf1337. Many Crossfire users have expressed their preference towards the Wolfenstein release Threewave had in mind, while disliking the version released by Endrant.

Read more over at Gamesutra

Today the very first official BRINK footage has hit the Internet, along with a new release date: Fall 2010.

In the footage BRINK's game director and Splash Damage CEO Paul "Locki" Wedgwood walks you through the airport map and shows some of BRINK's "smart" movement.

G4TV HD

The game is currently pre-alpha, and features three different body types: muscled; smart, not very agile, can carry heavy guns and eat a lot of bullets; regular; and acrobatic, faster, limited to lighter guns, can't catch too many bullets. It is as of yet unknown with what body type the video was recorded.