Intel® Extreme Masters is the biggest event in the Electronic Sports League (ESL). This year, a record $750,000 in prize money has attracted the usual pro gamer suspects, all aiming to be at the grand final. That will be held at Hanover’s CeBIT technology fair in March 2009.
Meanwhile, the first in a series of Global Challenges, designed to separate the big guns from the cannon fodder, took place at the Leipzig Games Convention in August. The challenge was World of Warcraft. German team Nihilum took first place, hauling $15,000, while UK team SK Gaming came second, pocketing a meagre $6,000. The top six teams won $30,000 between them. Nearly 40,000 gamers turned up to support their favourite teams and to enjoy the free gaming areas stacked with high-end desktop PCs and laptops equipped with Intel® Core™2 Extreme processors, courtesy of Intel, Dell and Alienware.
Victory or bust
The tournament comprises four stages: national qualification, main round, continental finals and the global final.
The best national teams in the ESL Pro Series automatically qualify for the main round of Counter-Strike* 1.6. In countries that have no ESL Pro Series, teams enter the national qualification round. The top thirty-one teams in the WoW ladder qualify for the main round, to be joined by Excello, winners of CampusParty in Spain.
Thirty-two teams in four groups compete in the main round, playing for places in the continental finals. Group winners and runners up go through automatically. Teams in third and fourth position play each other for the remaining places.
The continental finals see twelve teams from the main round compete in two groups, only half of which will survive. Those that do will form Europe’s contingent in the global final.
Continents can win additional places in the global finals through finishing first or second in global challenges. Global final entrants play group and knockout stages to determine the tournament’s overall winners.
