The power has been placed in the ladies' hands for the upcoming Counter-Strike 1.6 2-on-2 tournament. 32 teams, comprised of one male and one female, will compete on March 28th. Signups open on March 28th at 15:30 GMT and close just hours later. The tournament will then get underway at 18:00 GMT.

Tournament Overview:
2on2 MR15 Ladies Choice Cup
32 Participants
Single Elimination
Female Gaming Counter-Strike 2on2 Ladder Rules
Overtime: MR 3 with startmoney 10.000
ESL Aequitas is obligated!
Voice check: Presence in Ventrilo during the Cup is mandatory!
Female Cup FAQ

Source: ESL

The ESL Female League Europe for Counter-Strike 1.6 teams gets underway today with 48 teams from 16 different countries set to take part. As a result of the interest, there will be two qualification rounds in prelude to the Main Round. 24 teams will be featured in the main round which will see the teams competing for a share of €6,500. 

Click 'Read More' to find out which teams will enter the running in the second qualification round and which teams have qualified automatically for the main round.

Qualification Round 1:
morbidPLAN vs. justgirls
FiveFacts Brilliant vs. Paranoids e-Sports
szczelamy f hed vs. Confis Female
Asus.ladies vs. We Will Never Die.ciuFcie
maniaX.eSports Girls vs. nOway
Get It Now vs. elle
Dark Passage Female vs. EYESPORTS
Qmatic4life vs. NesHow
SilentShoot.FemaLe vs. Valkyries
Universal Soldiers EU vs. LeiSuRe
1hp - ONE HEALTHPOINT gaming vs. Femina
FCUK vs. eternitY

Source: ESL

Arbalet has announced a new tournament for female Counter-Strike 1.6 teams; the PRO Girls in ACTION tournament (17-18 April 2010). This event will feature sixteen female teams from around the world competing for a share of $20,000. There are still three slots left to fill as thirteen teams have confirmed their participation. The new Kiev CyberSport Arena will host the event.

Prize Distribution:
1st: $10,000 + hardware prizes worth $5,000
2nd: $5,000 + hardware prizes worth $3,000
3rd: $3,000 + hardware prizes worth $2,000
4th: $2,000

Confirmed Teams:
SK Gaming
Pink Zinic
Millenium
Frankfurt 69ers Female
unFinished
Alternate
mousesports
EYESports
RoX.KIS.Ladies
inGame
Revenge.female
csc.Arena
Sky

Source: HLTV

Just four teams will take part in the 'Arbalet Cup Best Of Four' tournament but the quality certainly makes up for the quantity. The Arbalet Cup Best Of Four (9-11 April 2010) will take place in the  Kiev CyberSport Arena, Kiev. The tournament features  UNiTED Russia as one of Russia's top teams;  fnatic, the team to beat in 2009 and recent runners-up in the Intel Extreme Masters Global Finals;  SK-Gaming who finished third at the Intel Extreme Masters Global Finals; and the current Intel Extreme Masters World Champions,  Natus Vincere.

These four teams will compete in a league, with no playoff bracket, over three days. Each playday will feature two matches. Each match will be played as a best-of-five. The total prize pot up for grabs is an impressive $22,500. The team that can hold their nerve and perform to the best of their abilities over the three days, and extended matches, will be rewarded with $12,500.

Participating Teams:
 fnatic
 SK Gaming
 UNiTED Russia
 Natus Vincere

Prize Distribution:
1st: $12,500
2nd: $6,000
3rd: $3,000
4th: $1,500

Source: HLTV

The second Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament hosted by World Electronic Sports (WES) and sponsored by Arbalet has been announced. The WES Masters Euro Cup (15-16 May 2010) will feature 32 finalists with a prize pool of $3,500. In order to be in with a chance to compete for this prize fund, teams must claim one of eight invitational places or qualify through one of twenty four qualification events.

The first qualification event gets underway on April 6th with the first of the Open European Qualifiers. The Open European Qualifiers will take place between April 6th and May 6th. There are also a number of regional qualification events planned with more information expected in the coming days. Click 'Read More' for a breakdown of the qualification events and regions.

Source: WES

Tournament prize pool:
1st place = $2000
2nd place = $1000
3rd place = $500

Team Slots For Masters Euro Cup Finals:
1. INVITE from WES
2. INVITE from WES
3. INVITE from WES
4. INVITE from WES

Female Counter-Strike 1.6 teams are to be given their chance to shine as part of the fnatic PLAY series. The female Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament will take place on March 21st with twelve teams taking part. Already confirmed are three top female teams; Pink Zinic, Mousesports and Burning. These twelve teams will be competing for a top prize of $500 with hardware prizes for second and third. The MVP of the tournament will also receive a MSI Wind U160 laptop.

Schedule - March 21st:
13:00 GMT – 14:30 GMT: 1^st round, 8 teams, best of 3 mode. 
14:30 GMT – 16:30 CET: 2^nd round, 8 teams, best of 3 mode. 
16:30 GMT – 18:30 GMT: 3^rd round, 4 teams, best of 3 mode. 
19:00 GMT – 20:30 GMT: Grand Finals and 3^rd place decider, best of 3 mode  

Prizes:
1st: $500
2nd: 5x SteelSeries iron.lady Siberia Full-size Headset
3rd: 5x Steelseries Kinzu + 5x Steelseries iron.lady QcK mousemats (pink or white)

Source: fnatic

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

Sixteen teams took part in the World Electronic Sports Masters Cup (27-28 February 2010) with $3,500 on the line.  Evil Geniuses were bootcamping in Europe ahead of the Intel Extreme Masters Global Finals and will be glad that they competed after scooping the $2,000 first place prize.  H2K.Gaming and  cbtream topped Group A and B respectively which earned them a place in the semi finals.  PeopleInGame would face  Playzone.swe while  EGIPTYANE had the mammoth task of facing  Evil Geniuses for a place in the semi finals.

Evil Geniuses made light work of EGIPTYANE while Playzone.swe progressed with a 2:1 win over PeopleInGame. The dream of an all Swedish final was shattered in the semi finals but it was a hard fought battle. Evil Geniuses took a 2:1 win over H2K.Gaming but were pushed all the way while cbteam claimed a moderately easier 2:1 win against Playzone.se. Unfortunately, interested onlookers were also denied the prospect of an all Swedish 3rd-4th place playoff as H2K.Gaming defaulted the match. Evil Geniuses were awarded the opportunity to take revenge against cbteam after the earlier loss in the group stage and took it with both hands. cbteam couldn't keep with the Americans and fell to a 2:0 loss.

Final Standings:
1st:  Evil Geniuses - $2,000
2nd:  cbteam - $1,000
3rd:  Playzone.se - $500
4th:  H2K Gaming

Source: WES

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 final list of participants for the upcoming World Extreme Sports Masters finals have been revealed. The participants list features five invited teams along with eleven teams who earned their places through a qualification process. Some teams were unable to participate due to the Intel Extreme Masters Season IV Finals which take place next week. The event is mainly sponsored by   Murat 'Arbalet' Zhumashevich, the man behind Arbalet Cup, who will provide a $3,500 prize fund.

Complete participants list:
Invited teams:
1. Frag eXecutors (TaZ, pasha, kuben, Loord, Neo)
2. Evil Geniuses (Lurppis, fRod, storm, n0thing, goodfornothing)
3. Playzone (dRiim, VIDI, jigetus, bazic, danzer)
4. cbteam (REAL, prb, syrtekz, tacky, kalle)
5. Begrip Gaming (pronax, BARBARR, Xizt, pop, Zyppe)

Teams from Regional Qualifiers:
6. Playzone (hyvlarn, huggan, pinne, manne, dennis)
7. Alliance (Riko, Casper, immuNe, Tailer, Niko)
8. PeopleInGame (Lmbt, xaoc, angel, strike, weiss)
9. DTS.Chatrix (B1ad3, pops, emelik, kucher, valentinich)
10. vit-A-min.CosmosTV (gil, pil, dan, roman, nike)
11. LCSL (shame abnor kestylo smt phano)
12. EGIPT9NE (ed1k, h4cker, icegg, xek, Xoma)
13. gr2d by n2l (DruNK, gesNake, Lancher, tixonsville, Z10d3y)
14. 2easy4 (blizker, tiffy, dirty, XektoR, sixt, shuuk)
15.  LowLandLions (Apollo, DeKMaTcHeR, ferrid, luosrevo, xire)
16.  nOu (apoc, Foux, turbz, bitch-, osqari, sprat)

Source: WES