ViOlet wins ZOTAC Warcraft III Cup #145

Last night SeriousRazer's Korean orc-player Dong Hwan 'viOlet' Kim for the 11th time in his career won the ZOTAC Warcraft III Cup. In the final viOlet's opponent was Eom 'FoCuS' Hyo Sub, who was victorious over Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen in his semi final. Violet proved himself too strong for his fellow Korean orc-player, and defeated FoCuS with 3-0 in maps.

On his way into the final viOlet eliminated players such as Veryb1gman, Majestic but his most eyecatching opponent was Sung Sik 'Remind' Kim in the quarter final. Going down 0-1 in maps on Echo Isles, viOlet managed to turn things around in the second game on Twisted Meadows leading to a 1-1 score. The third and deciding map (Turtle Rock), after a regame in which things looked better for Remind, went to viOlet to finish the game with a 2-1 win.

Final result:
1. Dong Hwan 'srsRAZER.viOlet' Kim
2. Eom 'FoCuS' Hyo Sub
3/4 Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen
3/4 Valentin 'Majestic' Kosorovcev

Razer Orca™ headset announced: Sound Never Looked so Good

Razer™, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, today announced the release of a new Gaming and Music headset: the Razer Orca™.

Too often we are forced to choose between what’s comfortable and what looks good. Chances are if you want to avoid flashbang sized headaches, you are going to find your dome lodged in some pretty dumb looking cans because, let’s face it; style doesn’t always roll shotgun when comfort is at the wheel.

The Razer Orca is made to represent both. It keeps your style on lock while still giving you that 2pm Sunday morning pants optional type of comfort. Whether you are taunting your gaming opponent across the virtual battle fields or just tuning out on the subway with your music, the Razer Orca provides extended comfort while keeping your sound pristine and precise.

Technical specifications:
* Frequency Response: 15 - 21,000 Hz
* Impedance: 32 O at 1kHz
* Input Power: 200 mW
* Drivers: 40 mm, with neodymium magnets
* Cable: 1.2m braided fiber + 2 meter braided extension cable
* Connector: 3.5 mm headphone jack

Offical product link: Razer Orca™

About the Razer Group:
Razer™ is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming products and peripherals that are designed "For Gamers. By Gamers™". Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Razer’s award-winning lineup of products includes desktop speakers, headsets, keyboards, mice, software, and gaming surfaces. Since 1998, Razer has collaborated with leading professional gamers to develop, manufacture and market cutting-edge gaming peripherals using proprietary technologies that give gamers the competitive edge. Razer products offer the best in precision, sensitivity, usability and distinctive product design and have a reputation for being leaders in gaming peripheral technology.

Av3k takes second place at ESWC 2010

This afternoon in his second ESWC final Maciej 'Av3k' Krzykowski was not able to to repeat what he did in 2007. SK Gaming player Shane 'rapha' Hendrixson beat the Polish former ESWC champion in two straight maps to seal his first ESWC championship.

All tournament long things looked very good for Av3k. He won all his first stage group matches and two out of three second stage group matches, only to lose 2-1 versus rapha in this second group stage. Despite this loss, rapha also lost a match versus Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone, Av3k went as group first into the semi finals. The semi final versus Anton 'Cooller' Singov only confirmed the good shape of Av3k. In two maps Av3k sealed the deal and send Cooller into the match for third place.

After rapha won versus fellow American Tim 'DaHanG' Fogarty in the other semi final, the conclusion was a rapha - Av3k final. On the first map, dm13, Av3k from the start couldn't do a thing. Rapha spawned and picked up all items and guns leaving Av3k with some shards and no weapons to attack. A player like rapha doesn't let such a chance slip out of his hands and won with 7-2 frags. The second map was played on qztourney7, one of rapha's best maps, and became a very close match. Av3k took the first lead, going 3-0, but rapha responded with some solid frags and a few bad spawns for Av3k to go 6-3 up. nearing the end of the map Av3k was back into control and closing the gap to a 1 frag game: 6-5. The time was just too short to make a frag and tie the game.

Final standings ESWC 2010 QuakeLive

1. Shane 'rapha' Hendrixson
2. Maciej 'Av3k' Krzykowski
3. Anton 'Cooller' Singov
4. Tim 'DaHanG' Fogarty

Groups drawn ESWC 2010 QuakeLive tournament

Coming weekend one of the big names in esports returns. After an absence of a year, the Electronic Sports World Cup reopens its doors with the 2010 edition to be held in Disneyland, Paris (France). Already some time ago two of our QuakeLive stars already received a direct invitation to the main event. Alexey 'Cypher' Yanusheuski was invited as the last ESWC winner (2008), and Maciej 'Av3k' Krzykowski got invited based on his third place during the ESWC Athens event.

Last night the draw of the groups took place. The 16 competitors will play in 4 groups of 4 players. Each group will hold a top, high, middle and a low seeder. Both Av3k and Cypher were amongst the top seeds, which made it impossible to draw in the same group. Av3k was drawn into Group D and Cypher into Group C. Please find below the full first round group draw.

The tournament will start thursday July 1st in the morning with Groups A/B, in the afternoon Groups C/D will play their matches. After a one day break, QuakeLive is back on Saturday the 3rd on which in the morning the second group stage will be played, and in the afternoon we can see all playoff matches except the final, this last match of the tournament will be played on sunday.

Group A
Shane 'Rapha' Hendrixson
Richard 'noctis' Gangsterer
Marcel 'k1llsen' Paul
CAREEM

Group B
Anton 'Cooller' Singov
Kevin 'strenx' Baeza
Bogdan 'bodzo' Mazur
Ismael 'Sl1p' Rivera

Group C
Alexey 'Cypher' Yanusheuski
Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone
Gareth 'GaRpY' Marshall
Pierre-Emeric 'l1nkje' Portier

Group D
Maciej 'Av3k' Krzykowski
Tim 'DaHanG' Fogarty
Pär 'fazz' Söderman

Av3k takes down Cypher to win his third DreamHack title

After three days of top Quake during the DreamHack Summer 2010 event, held in the Elmia Centre in Jönköping (Sweden), it were both SeriousRazer stars Maciej 'Av3k' Krzykowski and Alexey 'Cypher' Yanusheuski who met eachother in the grand final. In a very intense match, going all the way over 5 maps, Av3k managed to claim his third DreamHack title beating his friend and team mate Cypher with the smallest margin possible: 3-2.

In the groupstages, Av3k in group C and Cypher in group D, both players did what was expected: pass their groups. Cypher won all three matches to top his group, although Pär 'fazz' Söderman gave him a tough fight on the main stage, leading to Cypher's only map loss in the group.

Av3k was convincing versus Marcel 'k1llsen' Paul and qualifier Hokky, and even better versus French online star Kevin 'strenx' Baeza. Still he lost this match versus strenx when a stacked Av3k got telefragged after showing great sportmanship not fragging strenx after a time-out. This meant a second place finish in group C for Av3k and a quarter final match versus the winner of group B Alexander 'Z4muZ' Ihrfors from Sweden.

In the play-offs Cypher first won in the quarter final versus Swede Sebastian 'Spart1e' Siira with 3-1, to follow this victory up with another good win in the semi finals versus another Swede, Magnus 'fox' Olsson. Av3k showed his growing shape with a clean 3-0 win over Z4muZ leading to a spot in the semi final versus again strenx. With the group match between the two in mind, this match promised to become a mental battle. Av3k likes to play under pressure, and it showed. With great play he outclassed the French ZOTAC star and won the match with 3-1 in maps.

The final was for Cypher the first time at Dreamhack. Av3k already won two finals at the Elmia centre in the 2008 and 2009 winter events. In a very close final, only game 4 on qztourney9 was a one sided win for Cypher, Av3k managed to turn around a 0-1 (dm13) mapscore into a 2-1 (ztn, qztourney7) lead before getting a lesson from Cypher on qztourney9 how to play this map. With the score tied at 2-2 in maps, dm6 would decide who would take home first place. cypher started well getting control but Av3k with several great attacks on the items managed to regain the control and the final map with a 7-4 score.

Final standing:

1. Maciej 'raZer Av3k' Krzykowski
2. Alexey 'raZer Cypher' Yanusheuski
3. Kevin 'strenx' Baeza
4. Magnus 'fox' Olsson

You can watch all Av3k and Cypher pov demos on our Youtube Channel: SeriousQuakeLive