esl
ESWC bankruptcy; three in a row
At March 30th, a French courthouse declares Game-Services’ bankruptcy. Game-Services is the organiser of world-renowned Electronic Sports World Cup. Earlier I wrote about the demise of both CPL en CGS, and it seems the worst is not behind us.
ESL versus ESWC
Yesterday I reported on the ESL Masters prize purse of 280.000 euro, today it appears that the ESWC, another big e-sports organisation, has lost its main sponsor Nvidia. Even though they collaborated on last years finals in LA, the bad attendance and the nature of the on and off the partnership are speculated to be crucial in this final descision.
Nvidia appears to be reducing the amount of involvement in the e-sports scene, lets hope major investors like Intel are not thinking about doing the same. In terms of trends, not much to discover here, nobody knows what to expect from 2009, but it would be sad to see the 2009 season be the season to show a decline in what has been 12 years of growth in the market.
ESL Extreme Masters: Finals with €280.000 purse
The latest pressrelease by ESL states that the European Finals will be combined with the Global Finals. While this does not automatically merge the prize purses, this does mean that one event will give out a total of 280.000 euro in prizes. The final will be at the CeBit event in Hannover, not that far from Holland if you look at it that way, but perhaps a little further for you. The two games are World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike 1.6, teams like SK Gaming and mTw are already qualified, these two alone would ensure a fantastic tournament.
I have visited this event about 3 times, and I liked it every one of them. So, looking for a trip into gaming, or any of the other million disciplines available at the CeBit. Go check it out!