Ireland's Counter-Strike 1.6 European Nations Championship challenge is over before it even began. The opening qualification match against Croatia was scheduled for Sunday, 7th March. The Irish team did not appear on the server and three penalty points have been applied against the team. Two of the Irish team were unable to play the match as they were at wiredout2.

The match has not been closed as yet and there are hopes, from the Irish side, that the match will be played. However, as it stands, it appears as though Ireland will not be progressing further in the European Nations Championship.

Source: ESL

The fixtures have been posted for the upcoming ESL Pro Series which will feature Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike Source, Quake Live and Trackmania Nations. This online tournament from the Electronic Sports League gives UK and Irish teams and players the opportunity to shine. These players will be competing for a share of €22,500. The Pro Series kicks off on Monday (March 8th) with Counter-Strike 1.6. Counter-Strike Source takes up the mantle on Tuesday (March 9th) while Quake Live begins on Wednesday (March 10th). The startdate for Trackmania Nations has not been announced as yet.

vitalsigns (Counter-Strike 1.6) get their campaign underway with a first round matchup against cLip (March 11th). Onlookers will get their first chance to see AMDERS playing under the Team Dignitas tag on March 8th as they take on eMpathy. kRoNic will fly the Irish flag in the Pro Series once again but will not start his challenge for the title until March 17th as he was awarded the free week in Round 1. On March 17th, kRoNic will face BRUNS. Finally, HotSwat will represent Ireland and Team Dignitas but as stated, fixtures have not been posted for the Trackmania Nations series.

Links:
Tournament Site: ESL Pro Series
Counter-Strike 1.6 Fixtures
Counter-Strike Source Fixtures
Quake Live Fixtures
Trackmania Nations Players
 

Ireland took on Estonia in the first Qualifying Round of the Counter-Strike Source European Nations Cup. The first map was de_dust2 and it proved impossible to seperate the teams. Ireland started off on the Counter-Terrorist side and took an 11:4 lead at the half time break. Estonia rallied and were able to reply in kind by picking up eleven rounds which forced the map to overtime. Ireland began the overtime period as they finished the match; on the Terrorist side. In a close fought contest, Ireland took the lead 3:2 before switching to the Counter-Terrorist side. Ireland bagged the required rounds on the Counter-Terrorist side with a 3:2 half which ended the map 21:19 in Ireland's favour.

While Estonia put up a fight on de_dust2, it appeared to take it out of the team as they were unable to put together the same performance on de_tuscan. A 14:1 half time lead in favour of the Irish looked ominous for the Estonian side. It proved to be the writing on the wall as Estonia picked up just one more round before the match was concluded at 16:2. Ireland now progress to the second Qualification Round.

Team Lineups:
Estonia
MPZ
SlateR
psx
synxie
wohvelsson

Ireland
Tenshi
Tumbot
jordy
menengroth
shane

Source: ESL

The Irish Counter-Strike Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 squads get their European Nations Championship underway tomorrow. To celebrate this, ESL are raffling off a one week, high quality ESL TV key. All you need to do to be in with a chance to win is predict the winner of each of the Irish matches. Both matches are scheduled for March 4th at 21:00 CET. Ireland will take on Croatia in Counter-Strike 1.6 while the Counter-Strike Source team will play Estonia.

Source: ESL

Quake Live players from Ireland and UK are being given three more opportunities to qualify for the ESL Pro Series. The Quake Live Pro Series has a prize pot of £760 in addition to win bonuses. There are currently thirteen players including kRoNic, GaRpY, zsx and VIZARI in the Pro Series. The winner of each cup will join them. Each qualifier will take the format of a single elimination, best of three bracket.

Qualification Cups:
Wednesday 3rd March (Sign up) - Cup begins at 20:00 GMT
Thursday 4th March (Sign up) - Cup begins at 20:00 GMT
Sunday 7th March (Sign up) - Cup begins at 20:00 GMT

Interested participants are advised that confirmation of participation is required by using the sign up link after 19:00 GMT. Players who qualify for the ESL Pro Series must have an ESL Premium account and must include their full name, age, city and photo in their ESL Profile.

Source: ESL

On the 4th of March, 14 Irish players from the Fighting Game Forum on boards.ie and the Irish Fighting Game Community will head over to Cannes to participate in the World Game Cup, arguably the largest Fighting Game tournament in Europe.

The World Game Cup's goal is to bring together the best fighting game players in the world for 5 days of intense competition. It is held in the world renowned Palais des Festivals in Cannes, during the "Festival International des Jeux" (The International Games Festival). This international event will feature solo tournaments, team tournaments and exhibition matches.There will be a number of tournaments over the course of the event including BlazBlue, Capcom vs SNK 2, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +, Hokuto no Ken, The King Of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match, The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, The King Of Fighters XI, The King Of Fighters XII, Soulcalibur IV, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6.

Our players will mostly be competing in the Street Fighter IV Solo & 2v2 category's but we also have players who will be fighting in Street Fighter III: Third Strike and Blazblue. Competition at the tournment will be extremely high with some of the best players from Europe, America and even Japan coming to fight, including the famous Diago "The Beast" Umehara (Jpn) and Justin Wong (US).

Despite the tough competition we have some very high level fighters heading over so we should be able to cause some trouble for even these well established international players, with what is (to our knowledge) the first significant Irish presence at an international fighting game tournament.

Links:
Source: boards.ie
Tournament Site: World Game Cup
Irish Community: YouTube

The draw has now been made for the opening Qualification Round of the Counter-Strike: Source European Nations Cup. Six teams have been automatically placed in the Main Round of the European Nations Cup with six more to join after a process of qualification. There will be four qualification rounds with teams joining as the rounds progress based on their previous performances. Ireland, along with eleven other teams, compete in the first round.

 Irish Squad:
menengroth (Captain)
ArchEnemy
jordy
shane
Tenshi
Tumbot
Whindanski

Qualifying Round 1 Fixtures:
 Ukraine vs. Free Win
 Israel vs.  Lithuania
 Romania vs.  Luxembourg
 Ireland vs.  Estonia
 Latvia vs.  Bulgaria
 Serbia vs.  Belarus

Source: ESL

The Joypad Gaming Centre (Maynooth) has announced a FIFA 10 tournament scheduled for March 6th 2010. The tournament will get underway at 15:00 GMT. The format for the tournament is a knock-out bracket with matches played as a best-of-three series. Entry costs €15. Attendees are required to pick a team at the start and may not switch throughout the day. Prizes will include GAME vouchers, Joypad Gaming Centre memberships and Gaming Hours at the centre.

For more information, contact the Joypad Gaming Centre. Contact details can be found below.

Links:
Source: boards.ie
Joypad Gaming Centre Site
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: +35316106851

The draw has been made for the first qualification round of the European Nations Cup from the Electronic Sports League. Twelve teams, including Ireland, will participate in the first round. Ireland is set to face Croatia in the opening fixture with matches starting on March 1st 2010. Both teams have struggled in recent years with Croatia ranked 28th while Ireland lie 36th.

There are four qualification rounds in total. Teams have been placed into various qualification rounds to start based on their performances in previous years. The six teams that can navigate their way through this gauntlet will earn the right to enter the main round. Six teams lie in wait. The automatic qualifiers are Sweden, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Norway and France.

Irish Squad:
IRISH (Captain)
NeiL_M
warren--
wingie
ZAK7

Qualifying Round 1 Fixtures:
Romania vs Serbia
Belarus vs Macedonia
Czech Republic vs Latvia
Croatia vs Ireland
Greece vs Slovenia
Lithuania vs Liechtenstein

Source: ESL

The first round of the Street Fighter 4 Winter Cup from the Consoles Sports League on XBox 360 and Playstation 3 got underway last night. Five Irish represenatitves feature in the XBox 360 bracket.  Sairus,  mrmasters and  A-Trak have booked their places in the second round with wins over  nogstar,  BumBumRolle and  JoKeR respectively.  Araforn could still be in the running as no result has been posted for his match against  mobby while  KingDoubleR was awarded a default win over  Jimeatsmenu. The lone Irishman,  FenderMaster, progressed in the Playstation 3 bracket after a 3-0 win over  Mike Lowman.

The second round is scheduled for March 2nd.  FenderMaster (PS3) will take on  KillaHSidECRO who was placed as the second seed.  A-Trak must wait to see who he will face as the game between  suarage and  siLas is unplayed.  mrmasters will face either  brillojoe or  LIL Gangsta91 while  Sairus will face second seed,  KD Alpha.

Links:
Playstation 3 Bracket: CSL
XBox 360 Bracket: CSL
   

The third season of the Electronic Sports League Pro Series (UK) has been announced with a prize fund of approximately €22,500. Dell and Intel are to sponsor the upcoming season which will see the best players competing at a LAN event The season will feature Counter-Strike Source, Counter-Strike 1.6, Quake Live and Trackmania.

So far, the list of teams competing in Counter-Strike Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 has been released. It is expected that the confirmed list of Quake Live and Trackmania participants will be revealed in the coming days. Further details regarding the schedule of events are also due to be released in the coming days. For a breakdown of the details released so far, click 'Read More'.

Links:
Season 3 Announcement: ESL
Counter-Strike Source Teams
Counter-Strike 1.6 Teams
Possible Quake Live Participants
Prize Breakdown