Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge Season IV – Dubai

br/br The Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge made its way to the middle east this October, putting $31,500 up at stake in the country of Dubai. Dell was all too eager to show off the power of its new Alienware M17x as gamers duked it out in Counterstrike and Quake for the prize money, and of course, gamer fame. br/br br/br p class=img-middle a href=http://media.laptoplogic.com/upload-images/10192/10192_44357831.jpg img src=http://media.laptoplogic.com/upload-images/10192/large/10192_44357831.jpg alt= //a/p br/br In the world of eSports there is nary a superior gaming circuit to the Intel Extreme Masters, which truly does span the globe â€" the previous stop before Dubai was Chengdu, and the location before that was in Cologne â€" and brings the world’s finest together to compete. The tournament is co-sponsored by Intel and Dell, who consider the event (at least in part) a showcasing of the power of their products. Intel certainly was excited to see the Core-i7 CPUs tearing up the framerates, as was Dell to see it do so on their Alienware M17x laptops. br/br br/br The tournament ran from October 17th-21st and consisted of two parts. From October 17th-19th, the first Quake-Live event ever to take place outside of the U.S took place, with a total prize pool of $6,500. Following this from the 19th-21st was the main event â€" an intense Counterstrike 1.6 battle with a total prize pool of $25,000. Also at stake was an auto-berth to the world final, which besides the prize pool helped to draw the world’s best gamers to Dubai. br/br br/br 16 gamers participated in the Quake-Live tournament, and they were broken up into 4 groups as follows: br/br h3 Group A: /h3 Magnus strongfox/strong Olsson (Sweden), Shane strongrapha/strong Hendrixson (USA), Zhibo strongJibo/strong Fan (China), and Pierre-Emeric strongl1nkje/strong Portier (France) h3Group B:/h3 Richard strongnoctis/strong Gansterer (Austria), Alessandro strongstermy/strong Avallone (Italy), Felix strongsmoke/strong Pafel (Germany), and Pelle strongfazz/strong Soderman (Sweden) h3Group C: /h3 Sebastian strongSpartie/strong Siira (Sweden), Tim strongDaHanG/strong Fogarty (USA), Anton strongCooller/strong Singov (Russia), and Anas strongspammah/strong Ilyas (UAE) h3Group D: /h3 Alexey strongcypher/strong Yanushevsky (Belarus), Kevin strongstrenx/strong Baeza (France), Chance strongChance/strong Lacina (USA), and Michael strongmadix/strong Hindersson (Sweden) br/br br/br object width=425 height=344param name=movie value=http://www.youtube.com/v/_pL6PLI6DNMrel=0color1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_profilepagefs=1/paramparam name=allowFullScreen value=true/paramparam name=allowScriptAccess value=always/paramembed src=http://www.youtube.com/v/_pL6PLI6DNMrel=0color1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_profilepagefs=1 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowfullscreen=true allowScriptAccess=always width=425 height=344/embed/object br/br br/br When the dust settled, the top two competitors from each Group would make it to the quarterfinals, with each #1 seed facing a #2 seed. After rapha defeated madix, fox beat stermy, noctis ended Cooller’s day and cypher finished off DaHang, it was time for the semis. Here rapha handed it to noctis and cypher beat back fox, setting up an epic showdown for $3000 â€" the bulk of the $6500 prize pool. br/br br/br object width=425 height=344param name=movie value=http://www.youtube.com/v/-lyMXcxmTBYrel=0color1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_profilepagefs=1/paramparam name=allowFullScreen value=true/paramparam name=allowScriptAccess value=always/paramembed src=http://www.youtube.com/v/-lyMXcxmTBYrel=0color1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_profilepagefs=1 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowfullscreen=true allowScriptAccess=always width=425 height=344/embed/object br/br br/br In the finals, rapha outdueled cypher to take home the crown. If you’ve got the time, check out the full 62:38 long fully moderated (in English) video a href=http://tv.esl.eu/de/vod/view/21647here/a. Rapha, from the U.S., took home $3000, while cypher in 2nd place still netted $1500. In 3rd place noctis gained $800, and fox got $400 for finishing in 4th. The remaining players in 5-8th places garnered $200 each. br/br br/br object width=425 height=344param name=movie value=http://www.youtube.com/v/ZZJywqtnR_4rel=0color1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_profilepagefs=1/paramparam name=allowFullScreen value=true/paramparam name=allowScriptAccess value=always/paramembed src=http://www.youtube.com/v/ZZJywqtnR_4rel=0color1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_profilepagefs=1 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowfullscreen=true allowScriptAccess=always width=425 height=344/embed/object br/br br/br With the Quake-Live tourney in the rear view mirror, it was time to start the Counterstrike 1.6 tourney. This tournament ran from October 20th to the 22nd and, as we’ve said, had a large prize pool at $25,000. 12 players were divided into 2 pools as follows: br/br h3Group A:/h3 strongMeetYourMakers/strong(Sweden), strongTeam ALTERNATE/strong (Germany), strongfnaticMSI/strong(Sweden), strongKerchNET/strong(Ukraine), Assassins List (UAE), and strongWemade Fox/strong (South Korea) h3Group B: /h3 strongSK Gaming/strong (Sweden), strongVirtus.pro/strong (Russia), strongk23/strong (Kazakhstan), strongVitriolic/strong (Poland), strongmousesports/strong (Germany), and strongIMPULSE/strong (UAE) br/br br/br This list of players included some of the world’s best CS gamers, including mousesports, who won the World Championship in 2008, fnaticMSI, who won it in 2009, and SK Gaming, who won the last Global challenge back in Chengdu. One of the interesting things about the way this pool was drawn up was that merely a few days before the tournament was set to start, there were only ten names up there â€" everyone but Assassins List and IMPULSE. Shortly before the tournament began a local qualifier was held and IMPULSE and Assassins made it to the top of the heap. br/br br/br p class=img-middle a href=http://media.laptoplogic.com/upload-images/10192/10192_fnatic and friends.jpg img src=http://media.laptoplogic.com/upload-images/10192/large/10192_fnatic and friends.jpg alt= //a/p br/br Unfortunately for the local heroes, when tournament play ended they were the only two contestants to be held without a point after playing five matches â€" but considering who they were going up against, you can hardly hold it against them. The top three winners in the tournament went to all three of the Swedish gamers â€" fnaticMSI came in first, followed by MeetYourMakers and SK Gaming. They were awarded prizes of $10,000, $5,000 and $3,000 respectively â€" that’s $18,000 out of the $25,000 prize pool all going to one country! Rounding out the top winners was Vitriol coming in 4th and earning $2,000, and Team ALTERNATE and k23 coming in 5th and 6th respectively, winning $1,000 each. The two local participants as well as all the other players did not go away empty-handed though, as 7th-12th place were each given $500 for their participation. And with that, an exciting week of gaming concluded in Dubai. br/br br/br The Intel Extreme Masters is a computer gaming tournament that is now in its fourth season. Players from around the globe compete for individual prizes and a berth in the world championship, with a total prize pool this season of over half a million dollars at $530,000. There are six events in the season, the first three being the Global Challenges (of which Dubai was the last), and the last three being regional championships, which take place in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. In addition to these six events there is the ultimate battle, the World Championships, where the best of the best fight for the biggest prize pool of all. Although this Global Challenge didn’t offer all of them, players generally compete in three games: Counterstrike, QuakeLive, and World of Warcraft. br/br br/br p class=img-middle a href=http://media.laptoplogic.com/upload-images/10192/10192_fnatic.jpg img src=http://media.laptoplogic.com/upload-images/10192/large/10192_fnatic.jpg alt= //a/p br/br This year’s season began this past August and continues until March. The Global Challenges have concluded, and the regional championships are set to begin, starting with the American Championship Finals taking place in Edmonton, Canada from December 11-13. Following that, the Asian Championship Finals will take place in Taipei, Taiwan from February 5-9, and the European Championship Final will overlap with the World Championships at the CeBIT expo in Hannover, Germany from March 2-6. br/br br/br h5Related Links:/h5 The official website for the Extreme Masters is a href=http://www.esl-world.net/mastershere/a. A large gallery of pictures from Dubai can be found a href=http://www.esl-world.net/masters/season4/dubai/gallery/?event=502here/a, and a complete list of all videos recorded in 2009 can be found a href=http://tv.esl.eu/de/vod/list/2009here/a. br/br