News World First Algalon 10 man

http://www.ensidia.com/media/upload/news/2009/05/18/alg10.jpg

So my 10 man group just downed Algalon the Observer. It's a pretty intense fight but not quite as hard as Blizzard made it out to be. The 1 hour timer is the real challenge since you must do a perfect attempt within it ;)

Anyway, still a great achievement and a really good job by everyone involved. We got some previously unseen loots which are in the screenshot below.


He drops a quest item which is how you get all the different rewards from him. We'll be uploading screenshots and fraps of the RP event and quest stages probably tomorrow.

As a side note Mackzter and Kungen's group killed Yogg-Saron with 0 watchers in 10 man. I believe this was also a World First.

25man versions to go!

*update*

Added 3 screenshots of the quest line: Screen 1 Screen 2 Screen 3 //mek

Kr0ne qualifies for Munich Gaming Challenge

Last night the second qualifier was held for the Munich Gaming Challenge to determine the last two participants for the finals. Four players will now fight for the 2.000€ prize money being given out at the Munich Gaming Challenge on April 3rd.

The event features a four players FIFA 1on1 tournament where everyone was able to qualify for through two online qualifiers. Last night Joshua 'Kr0ne' Begehr managed to beat all of his opponents as well as André 'AndResoN' Richter in the Grand Final but both players will attend the final event. The Munich Gaming Challenge will take place on April 3rd with a prize money of 1.000€ for the first placed player but also the other three attending players will get a money reward.

In an earlier qualifier former SK and now mousesports player Jannik 'Era' Huber also qualified as well as hoorai player Kai 'deto' Wollin. Make sure to check the coverage on April 3rd to get more information about the event and bracket as well as the winners.

Munich Gaming Challenge
Joshua 'Kr0ne' Begehr
André 'AndResoN' Richter
Jannik 'Era' Huber
Kai 'deto' Wollin

Prize Money Distribution
1st - 1.000€
2nd - 500€
3rd - 300€
4th - 200€

Blizzard: "arenas are an E-sport side game"

In a blue post about battlegrounds, Blizzard's Zarhym let the world know just where arenas stand in the WoW food chain.

This might have slipped under the radar for some players, given that it was posted in a discussion about a new battleground. But community poster, Zarhym stated that "arenas really are meant to be an E-sport side game, not the end all, be all of World of Warcraft PvP."

The context of this comment was a new battleground which is in the works, but the meaning is clear. Blizzard's new battleground will be aimed at measuring the skill of players - something which is near impossible in Warsong Gulch and its ilk.

Whether this means a shift away from arena as the competitive standard remains to be seen. But in such a short post, Zarhym released another exciting piece of news for PvP-ers in general: "We'd also like to provide the means for player to level up via PvP should that be their preference." Maybe the days of power-levelling alts just to counter-comp people are soon over.

G7 Ranking system altered for 2009

The rules for which events will get included in the G7 Rankings have been altered with pure invite tournaments only counting for 20%.

The major change is that invite tournaments will not be counted in the G7 Rankings, that is unless the invite-only event is "co-ordinated with the G7 and demonstrates acknowledgement of our ranking system by inviting the top 5 teams in our rankings (at least), then the event will be eligible."

"Invite-only events may now constitute no more than 20% of annual points"

Furthermore invite-only events may now constitute no more than 20% of annual points, this is to "ensure that the G7’s top 5 teams are not given an advantage over the rest of the teams in the ranking via the eligibility criteria suggested above."

The reason for invite tournaments not organised along with the G7 is that it is "a safeguard for teams that do not receive invitations to invite-only events, because they should not be punished for situations out of their control."

Also for an event to be included in the ranking (that is not invite-only) previously only one top team needed to be in attendance but now at least two top 10 teams must be present for the event to be counted towards the rankings.

Furthermore G7 teams must announce their participation in an event at least one month prior to the event itself, to allow other teams a chance to make arrangements to attend if they so wish. Therefore "everybody will have the opportunity to participate and nobody can say the event was snuck in."

Summary of main alterations
- Invite tournaments only included if the Top 5 G7 Ranking teams are invited
- Invite tournaments may only constitute 20% of annual points
- For an non invite-only event to be eligible for rankings, at least two top G7 10 teams must be in attendance.
- G7 teams must announce their attendance at an event one month prior to it taking place to the other G7 members.

Read the entire section regarding event eligibility on the G7 website.

Need For Speed: Shift, a true racing game

Electronic Arts Europe has released a teaser for their upcoming racing game, Need For Speed: Shift, the newest game of the franchise, but on a different level.

Unlike previous games the new Need For Speed will be a true racing game that brings resemblance to the Project Gotham Racing series and could become a favourite amongst esport tournaments. And the reason for that is simple.

Like Patrick Soderlund, Senior Vice President of EA Games Europe spoke in his interview with Gametrailers, the game will end its free roaming around the world and return to race tracks from Monza, Italy to a made up F1 racetrack in London, UK.

And that’s not the only change as Car tuning will be decreased to engines and performance only, leaving unnecessary neon lights out of the game.

The game is scheduled for autumn 2009 on PS3, 360, PSP and PC.

ID Software reveals Wolfenstein Occult Trailer

ID Software and Raven have paired up for the next installment of the Wolfenstein series, Wolfenstein:Occult, a World War II FPS with some zombies thrown in. The game is due for release in July 2009 on PC, 360 and PS3.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/46995.html?r=1&type=wmv