Crack Clan wins WCG Finland.

After cruising through group play in day 1 of WCG Finland, Crack Clan has now been crowned the champions of WCG Finland and secured themselves a spot at the WCG 2009 Global Finals in Chengdu, China.

The team was able to easily dispatch all opponents winning their group undefeated and taking out their first opponents 2-0 in bracket play. The finals for the event was as predicted, a match up between the former teammates in Crack Clan and Excello.

Losing the first map with a 16-10 scoreline on de_inferno, they won on de_train with a strong scoreline of 16-7. Being tied up the teams took it to de_nuke where Crack Clan was able to seal the victory of WCG Finland with a 16-8 victory. The victory for Crack Clan was good for the team as they had been experiencing disappointing results so far in 2009.
 

Crack Clan Roster
Joona "natu" Leppänen Matti "SPIKEONE" Järvinen Miikka "dRiim" Toroi Tino "tihOp" Puumala Niko "naSu" Kovanen

Lethal Gamers has been one of those Texas LANs that just will not go away. It is back again for another event and for the second Draft event.

For those of you that are not familiar with the Draft event, it is rather simple. We pick the top players that are attending and make them captains. We then take the captains and give them a list of people that they can choose and they try to put together the most successful team they can. The last event, most of the teams ended up being pretty even, but there were a few that just couldn't work together well enough to win.

We will be having scorebots and HLTV for this event. For scorebots please check #GotFrag, #lanmadness, and #RSgaming.
 

Blight adds another CS squad.

After finding themselves unhappy with eMazing Gaming, the CS roster which finished 4th in ESEA Invite Season 3 has signed with Blight Gaming.

Blight Gaming which is relatively new after having announced the pickup of former Dynasty only a few months ago has now picked up another CS team at the invite level in North American CS. Due to the pickup of the new team the organization will unfortunately have to let go of the former Dynasty roster, the team switch was motivated due to roster instability and clashing personalities within the team.

The team will be representing Blight online in ESEA Invite as well as in CEVO Professional. In addition to online play the team will be attending the WCG USA Finals in New York on September 25-27. After their strong performance on LAN at the ESEA Season 3 Finals the team is expecting to perform well at the tournament in hopes of qualifying for a trip to Chengdu, China and a spot in the 2009 WCG Global Finals.
 

Blight CS Roster
Dustin "dizzaman" Dilyerd Chris "truls" Navratil Sean "sgares" Gares Alex "millipede" Abbott David "Xp3" Garrido

Finnish team Astralis finds sponsorship with the Excello organization.

After a long time out of the Counter-Strike 1.6 scene, the Excello organization has announced the pick up of Finnish team Astralis.

Astralis which has been without sponsorship since its re-formation after some of its players removals from Crack Clan is excited about the new Organization and has already begun wearing their new tag at WCG Finland which is taking place over the next two days.

The new Excello roster features top Finnish players contE, plastE, and ruuit, who are all famous for their time with various organizations over the past few years as members of the top Finnish team. With the new members Jigetus and VIDI the team is hopeful to win WCG Finland and reserve a spot for themselves at the WCG Global Finals later this year in Chengdu, China.

When asked about the new organization player Jirka "Jigetus" Ryhti told www.TeamExcello.com the following:
 

"We are thrilled to be a part of Excello. Today marks the day of us getting better support which will help us improve our playing level in many ways. Hopefully we'll be able to help expand the Excello name in the seasons to come."

Excello CS Roster
Juuso "contE" Sajakoski Samu "plastE" Aalto Jirka "jigetus" Ryhti Atte "VIDI" Hyvakka Max "ruuit" Aspe

As Season 4 begins soon, the team list for ESEA Invite has been revealed.

After a thrilling Season 3 which culminated in an epic LAN playoffs, ESEA is back and bringing you Season 4 of Invite action. Once again North America's top teams will battle it out trying to qualify for the LAN playoffs where they will play for $12,250 and the ESEA Invite title.

Current two time champions Evil Geniuses will be back for Season 3 along with compLexity, Gravitas, Back 2 Back, Blight, Area 51, and Fujita 5. Noticeably absent are Grid05 and coL.ca who have been dropped from the league for failing to attend the LAN finals.

Taking the place of the teams which have fallen out of Invite are ESEA Main Season 3 champs d1versity, ESEA Open Season 3 champs Blight Canada, as well as top former main teams Exigent and 9Storm. These new teams should add some extra excitement to season 4 as the new teams try and prove their worth against the top teams North America has to offer.
 

ESEA:I Season 4
compLexity Evil Geniuses Gravitas Gaming eMazing Gaming Back 2 Back Blight Gaming Area 51 Fujita 5 Blight Canada d1versity Exigent 9Storm

After the success of Extreme Masters Season 3 in 2008-2009, ESL is back with Extreme Masters Season 4.

Despite rumors to the contrary, ESL is back with Intel Extreme Masters Season 4. According to Michal "Carmac" Blicharz from ESL, IEM4 will begin August 19-23 at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany.

IEM4 will begin with a Supercup for CS 1.6 at Gamescon. In addition to CS 1.6, IEM4 at Gamescom will feature World of Warcraft as well as a Pro-Am Tournament for Quake Live.

The Supercup which will take place at Gamescom will feature a prize pool of 10,000 dollars and will feature the top four European teams fnatic, Mousesports, mTw, and SK Gaming.

Following the Supercup, IEM4 will consist of two Global Challenges, Three Continental Championships, and one Global Championship. The qualification for the events will be similar to previous seasons where teams accumulate points through ESL events in order to qualify for the Continental and Global finals.

Between all of the events in IEM4, $500,000 in prizes will be given out. For those interested in participating in one of the IEM4 events visit the IEM4 site h ere.

Stay tuned to Cs-eXtreme.Ro for more CS Coverage.

Hot off their victory this past weekend at the Arbalet Cup Masters and after a trip to Korea for e-Stars, Kazakhstan's top CS team, k23, has lost a member.

Alexander "beAst" Yakovlev, the former team captain has decided to quit professional CS for the time being, whether or not this decision will be a permanent one remains to be seen, however k23 will likely suffer from the loss of a long time team mate and captain.

It is currently unclear who the team will pick up as their new fifth, due to the relatively poor internet and smaller CS scene in Kazakhstan, it is unlikely that there are too many candidates for the spot.

k23 Roster
Malik "N1ck3L" Sualirov
Anvar "Anv1k" Nassyrov
Dauren "Adrenaline" Kistaubaev
Mikhail "MihaO" Makashev

Stay tuned to Cs-eXtreme.Ro for more CS Coverage.

Further details on GameGune Mexico

As previously reported, GameGune Mexico will take place on September 10-12th in Mexico City, at La Aldea Digital Party. In addition, the GameGune organization released further information today on their upcoming tournament.

The GameGune officials have confirmed that GameGune Mexico will feature a €22,500 prize pool, the same as previous GameGune tournaments.

In contrast with GameGune 2009 however, the tournament will be 16 teams only and be a double elimination Best of Three bracket with no group play.

Teams seeking an invitation to the tournament must email the GameGune organization at gamegune@euskalencounter.org before the 21st of August, in order to have a chance at receiving a tournament invitation.

This event will hopefully feature many North American, South American teams such as MiBR and Firegamers, and hopefully top European teams such as fnatic and SK.

Stay tuned to Cs-eXtreme.Ro for more CS Coverage.