The Intel Extreme Masters for Quake Live European Championship has finished the group stage. 16 of the 32 groupstage players obtained a spot in the European Championship Finals. The top two of each group will advanced to the finals at the ESL TV studios from the 21st until the 24th of January.

These are the players that qualified for the offline finals:


There were no big upsets, except perhaps for Z4muZ taking 3rd spot behind cypher and qrebo.

Contestants are playing for a total prize purse of $13.200 with the finals having a staggering $8.000 at stake.

The Polish CoD4 team that came fourth at CC5, the previous CoD LAN in the Crossfire Challenge series, is back for CiC7.

Those who still remember CC5 will surely know this is a line up with potential. For all those who don't, hereCrossfire
Crash
Strike
are some end-of-round pictures from the semi-finals against FatGames who went on to win the LAN. Surely a force to be reckoned with!

The line up remains the same as it was back at CC5:

Rafal "crol" Duda
Marcin "doomciak" Jesiotr
Marcin "M4rko" Marczuk
Jakub "iVaneK" Prusak
Piotr "reaktiv" Przylubski

Reaktiv gave Crossfire the following statement:

Quote

Hello crossfire reader. After a year break of playing together, me and my friends decided to make a comeback to the scene. The main reason for that was the announcement of the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 back in December. We can say that CIC7 had an impact on our decision to start to play again. We would like to keep playing the game for a few months from now on, but it all depends on our current situation, as we are in need of an organisation that would help us in our trip to Holland, and later in both online and offline competitions. If any organisation would like to help us in our goal, please contact with doomciak via xfire: doompl or with me via e-mail: reaktiv[at]tlen.pl or IRC /msg reaktiv. Thanks, and wish us gl!

The team is looking for a new home and we wish them good luck in their search, and hopefully see them perform at CiC7 in early March.

More YoYoTech news this week, this time about the CoD4 team again. After we saw Lukz parting ways with the British MGC and leaving the team with only four players, the management decided it was more beneficial to them to drop the team altogether and look for a whole new line up.

That new line up turns out to be the old oXmoze team, five French top players who were searching for financial backing for CiC7 since their previous MGC didn't provide them with enough support.

The French side will attend the French Spirit LAN after which they will head over to Enschede for the CiC7 in early March.

The new YoYoTech lineup for CoD4 now becomes:

Kévin "FRENCHY" Héraudet
Antoine "JooKzZi" Dumontet
Léonard "RUKKAE" Alzeto
Antonin "OZWALD" Grenier
Marc "vazy" Berthold

Infinity Ward has started developing a massively multiplayer online game, possibly for the Call of Duty series.

Activision who partnered up with Blizzard two years ago are looking to replicate some of Blizzard's subscription profits with its other big series.

Destructoid reported that Infinity Ward will continue developing annual instalments of the Call of Duty franchise, while working on their first MMO title alongside of them. It's uncertain whether the MMO will be in the Call of Duty universe, but since Infinity Ward hasn't made any other game than the Call of Duties, one could assume this is the case.

The Modern Warfare developer is said to be calling in the help of ex-World of WarCraft and EverQuest II devs - including the latter's lead designer - to help get is first MMO game off the ground.

It became very clear with the release of Modern Warfare 2 that Infinity Ward does not support competitive gaming, and therefore the scene has lost faith in the developer. But could an MMO be of any use to the competitive community?

With CiC7 approaching a lot of teams start to straight out their lineup. After we saw a player drop from the CoD4 team, the ET team of Team YoYoTech replaced Xanah with twidi. This Finnish allstar who just came back from his army-duty, will return to activity and try to reach his previous level. The side will compete at CiC7, aiming at a top-3 position.

The line up will now consist of the following players:

toxic
Jere
Worm
twidi
R0SS

Read more for statements and an interview with Jere!

Throughout the past month the people of crossfire have decided upon the Heaven Media Award nominees and elected 10 winners across varying polls ranging from best Player and best Team of the Year, to Player you hope will Quit and Community Member of the Year.

There was quite a lot of controversy regarding the nominees, but even though some nominees might have been out of place, the ones that made a chance at the price did make it through. It's safe to say that all the winners are rightful winners.

These winners were chosen by you and represent the general opinion of the community. That's why the results of these awards are not merely Heaven Media awards, but awards given by the community to the best of us.

The Heaven Media Awards have been running on tek-9 and Cadred too simultaneously. Go check it out to see their results too!

http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=article&mode=item&id=208

YoYoTech, the Brittish mgc announced their German CoD4 AK player, Lukas "Lukz" Berens has had to depart from the team for personal reasons.
Lukz requested to be released from his contract, so he could concentrate his time away from gaming over the next few months.

The team is rather new, and since they were just settling down for the next season ahead, this line up change could potentially endanger their chances at success.

The lineup is now the following:

DeAtH-
BATZR
smithiE
Scorp

The team will still be in attendance in EPS season 3 and at CiC7 in March. The search for a replacement will begin in earnest in the next few days.

Dutch player DEKO, from The Last Resort has been banned by ClanBase.

Yesterday evening DEKO was banned by ClanBase for cheating in an official match, a 12 month playing penalty was received as a result.

Whilst the Call of Duty 4 scene is constantly filled with accusations of cheaters, onliners and such, it is very rare that a player will actually be banned. Yet this is the fate that DEKO has received from ClanBase. DEKO as many will know rose into the LAN scene with a 2nd place finish with YoYoTech at i36 back in April 2009, and since performed at LAN79 and many others.

The Intel Extreme Masters for Quake Live European Championship has almost finished the group stage. In eight groups of four, 32 of the best European QL players tried obtaining a spot in the European Championship Finals. The top two of each group will advance to the finals at the ESL TV studios from the 21st until the 24th of January.

These are the players that already qualified for the finals:

Group A
1st Cooller
2nd fooki

Group B
1st cypher
2nd qreboGroup C
1st k1llsen
2nd guard

Group E
1st Spart1e
2nd dravenGroup F
1st fox
2nd calipt

Group H
1st av3k
2nd noctis

Two groups have yet to be finished, group D and G. Group D will see its final duels tomorrow, the 3rd of January. Group G has an unscheduled match, but will most likely be played in the upcoming week.

Contestants are playing for a total prize purse of $13.200 with the finals having a staggering $8.000 at stake.

The following teams are the 16 invites:

• BB
  
• nOu
  
• YYT
  
• eCW
  
• aToon
  
• dnan
  
• team-aow
  
• desire
  
• dave
  
• nkNn
  
• FiF
  
• highbot
  
• validus
  
• n1ce.ee
  
• disposable
  
• pistoleros

That means that the qualifiers will be as follows:

• phantoms vs TBD
  
• muovail vs gamecloud
  
• target vs quickie
  
• excess vs w3st
  
• anticlimax vs rodcad
  
• angeldust vs Deathless
  
• canada vs independents
  
• herois do mar vs n-inv
  
• impressive.et vs lost soldiers
  
• turbot vs swat
  
• NL masters vs vae victis
  
• system6 vs bestwins
  
• ukraine vs nietykalni
  
• 6 angels vs pallot.et

Make sure you are in the private channel, if not, query krosan on irc.
These matches need to be played by 17:30, so get a move on it!
Maps for the qualifiers are: Supply, Radar (Adlernest)