xLAN News: ON3 Network presents xLAN 2010 - Book it in!!!!
Arseynimz writes:
As we formally bid farewell and hurl a mass of praise to both Deezilla and tmdude for the massive event they have created, and the massive boots they have left for us to fill, we still look to the 2010 xLAN event, and 2010 National WCG Qualifier. The show must go on, and indeed it shall, as the ON3 Network sets itself up to bring you this year's xLAN and what is sure to be a big WCG event.
The ON3 Network was set up as a venture to push forward gaming in New Zealand, and we intend to do that even more so than before with the continued hosting of GamerHub, xLAN, and more events both online and offline.
You might notice some new branding, and maybe a few new features around the place over the coming months. But you can rest, post, and play assured that this playground is here to stay. We're here for the long haul!
So you probably want to know who is behind ON3. I'm Arseynimz, and for those who don't know me, I've been involved with competitive gaming for over 3 years now, and prior to that, much like many of you, gaming in general since I was allowed to touch the family computer (Apple IIe playing Eagles and Wizadry I - lol). I'm now a clan captain for =[GD]=, Online Manager for Gamestah (eSports commentary and shoutcasting organisation), and used to own and run GameVault.
I founded ON3 with prolax, who has been gaming since he left the crib, and competitively so for the last 3 years also. He is currently a member of Team Sidewinder, but has run his own clans, as well as being involved in GameVault and CyberGamer on administrative levels also.
We will be making sure this place continues to grow, and make sure the events you have come to know improve on the already solid foundation and performance that tmdude and Deezilla have set. We are in the process of concluding arrangements with supporting parties, and the benefits of that support will of course come through to xLAN and WCG for 2010!
So without further ado..... The date has been set!!!!! Mark it off in your calendars boys and girls - Friday the 9th of July will be when it all happens again, and Sunday the 11th of July when it all finishes. A big year is planned, and already we are starting to see the makings of what will be yet another event to remember.
We welcome your feedback in the lead up to xLAN, and will have more updates very soon for all the important details, some lead up competitions, and of course where it will be held, the tournaments proposed, and the other important details!
Posted by arseynimz on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 @ 02:49:54 NZDT
Wow another year has passed and we wish you all a Happy New Year.
Last year was another successful year with a great xLAN and World Cyber Games Qualifier, eblacks getting results beyond expectations with a Gold Medal at the Asian championship and CounterStrike and TrackMania both progressing out of pool play at the World Cyber Games Grand final and the saving of ICONZArena(now Gamerhub).
This year plans is bigger than ever with two events the primary event in July and a second event held at Armageddon Auckland in October. Signups and further details for the July event will be available very soon.
Personally we have had some excitement, we are going to be having our first child mid this year. This has made us rethink our commitment to e-sports/gaming and with allot of sadness have decided to retire and no longer be an active part of the community to allow us to focus on our family. We of course do not want our legacy to be lost so have negotiated for another group to purchase xLAN and Gamerhub and they will continue to deliver events, game servers and World Cyber Game Qualifiers to the level that you have grown to expect.
The highlights of the years are many but I would like to remind you all of some of the greatest to us; Getting New Zealand official recognised as a separate region for the World Cyber Games, eBlacks winning the Asian Championship, five years continuous years of sell out events and running the biggest and most professional gaming event in Australasia.
We would like to thank the staff of our events without their support over the six years the events would not have been a reality. Additionally thanks to the select group of people who attended all our events coupled with the gratitude’s from many of attendees, this gave a purpose to what we did.
This is an extremely sad day for myself and Susan as it is an end of an era and can only hope what we have started will grow beyond our expectations.
It has been a great journey.
Tmdude & Dee-Zilla
Posted by Dee-Zilla on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 @ 22:18:28 NZDT
Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, The World's Premiere Global e-Sports Tournament And Festival Comes Stateside For The Third Time
World Cyber Games (WCG), the organizer of the premier international video game competition and festival, today announced Los Angeles, CA as the WCG 2010 Grand Final host city. As the official host city for the WCG 2010 Grand Final, elite gamers from around the world will flock to the Los Angeles Convention Center next year to compete for the title of world's best gamer.
In bringing the Grand Final to the United States for the third time, the WCG will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in the world's largest video game market. L.A. is one of the major hubs for the video game industry as it is home to some of the largest developers and studios in the world and the home to some of the most influential gaming media. A hit WCG Ultimate Gamer, a reality TV program (NBCU Network) was also shot on location in Los Angeles. This show takes a dozen top-notch video game players, drops them into an L.A. loft where they live together and compete for the title of ''Best All-Around Gamer,'' along with other prizes like $100,000 cash, and the ''Ultimate Samsung Electronics package.''
''This event will bring an economic impact of millions of dollars to the city of Los Angeles,'' said Michael Krouse, senior vice president of sales and client services for LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. ''L.A. is the perfect destination for this event and we look forward to welcoming the international delegates.''
''After taking into careful consideration the many factors involved with selecting the host city, the World Cyber Games Committee came to a clear decision with Los Angeles,'' said Hyoung-Seok Kim, CEO of World Cyber Games, Inc., organizer of the World Cyber Games. ''San Francisco and Seattle were extremely successful events and we look forward to returning to the United States for our 10-year anniversary.''
''Samsung Electronics has been the World Wide partner of World Cyber Games since its inception 10 years ago and we are thrilled to continue playing an integral role in supporting its growth and popularity,'' said David Steel, Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Samsung Electronics America Inc. ''Hosting the games in Los Angeles should be an exciting opportunity for the gaming community and our North American team as we continue to provide the latest technology for the competitions.''
Posted by Dee-Zilla on Friday, October 30, 2009 @ 14:29:51 NZDT
WORLD CYBER GAMES ANNOUNCES ALL-NEW TRACKMANIA ONLINE COMPETITION PROVIDING GAMERS WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND THE 2009 GRAND FINAL IN CHENGDU, CHINA
Gamers Compete in Online Tournaments to Win, Cash, Prizes and an
All-Expense-Paid Trip to the WCG Grand Final
The National Finals may be over, but there is still one more opportunity to participate in the World Cyber Games 2009 Grand Final in Chengdu, China. The recognized leader for global video game competitions, WCG is running a supplementary competition for the international smash hit TrackMania Nations Forever at this year’s Grand Final. From now thru October 14, gamers will battle online in TrackMania Nations Forever to determine two Global Preliminary Champions. Each champion will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Chengdu, China this November to partake in the largest and most prestigious eSports tournament in the world – the WCG Grand Finals. Once there, they will take center stage to race each other for World Championship title, as well as cash and other prizes.
Open to players from all WCG participating countries, the online competition will have two one-week rounds consisting of two tracks per round. For a complete list of participating countries and rules please visit the TrackMania page of the WCGZone (http://tm.WCGZone.com).
“Through competitions like this, WCG will continue to explore the vast possibilities that are provided through the internet.”, said Hyoung-Seok Kim, CEO of World Cyber Games, Inc. “WCG will continue to strengthen its online channel WCGzone so that even more people from more countries can enjoy the competiton.”
Those fans who are less racing inclined can show off their design skills in the WCG TrackMania Global Track Design Contest, which is open to participants worldwide. Held at the same time as the WCG TrackMania Global Preliminaries, artists who wish to join the contest should go to www.WCG.com or WCGZone (http://tm.WCGZone.com) and TrackMania Exchange (http://tm-exchange.com) for more information.
About World Cyber Games
World Cyber Games (www.wcg.com) is the premiere global eSports tournament and festival, with around 800 players from 78 countries participating at the WCG 2008 Grand Final. Founded in 2000 and credited with launching the professional careers of many of the planet's top competitive video game players, World Cyber Games uses a yearlong tournament format, which begins with online, regional and national competitions in each country. National finalists then convene to compete in the ultimate international tournament in eSports, the World Cyber Games Grand Final, where each country's best players battle for the largest and most prestigious prizes in competitive gaming. The WCG 2008 Grand Final was held in Cologne, Germany. This year's WCG Grand Final will be held in Chengdu, China from November 11 to 15.
Posted by Dee-Zilla on Monday, October 05, 2009 @ 11:30:28 NZDT
Another year finished and another successful event, we achieved most of our goals even with the struggles faced with the economic downturn.
Our goal of focusing on the larger tournaments and trying to give as many attendees as possible stage matches was achieved. The schedule was a little optimistic with a couple of stage matches being moved back to the BYOC but overall a large number of very successful stage matches. Generally tournaments were exciting this year with some major upsets creating some great matches.
We also provided more information and visibility for people who could not attend the event with fantastic live video streams from the Gamestah team and the live draws/results available on xLAN site. This meant no one missed the action with good feedback received from all over the world.
Some of the new inclusions for this year’s event were extremely successful with the first female only tournament and the comedy event getting good feedback and would surely make a return in any future events.
We have started to upload the photo’s and game demos be sure to keep checking out over the next few days while we complete them. While you’re waiting the tournament results are available at www.xlan.co.nz/results and some basic statistics for the counter strike tournaments are available at www.xlan.co.nz/cssstats and www.xlan.co.nz/16stats .
The hard work does not stop, we are working on the funding for the eblacks team to the grand final in Chengdu, China and hope to have announcement of what attendees from this year’s event will be attending very soon.
Lastly we would like to thank our sponsors who make this event happen, without the support we could not achieve such a event and this extendeds to our fantastic event crew who put many hours of effort to help deliver Australasia’s best gaming event.
Thanks,
Tmdude & Dee-Zilla.
Posted by tmdude on Friday, July 17, 2009 @ 13:01:36 NZST
Over the past few days the xLAN crew have been hard at work setting up for the big day, laying 16.8km of cable and setting up a power network able to power a small suberb. This all in preperation for tomorrow where 800 gamers are showing for the big event. Today we had over 200 preregistrations in preperation for tomorrow. Doors open at 10am tomorrow allowing the flood of PC's to begin so ready your rigs and prepare for a weekend to remember.
The venue ready to go
Posted by dee-zilla on Thursday, July 09, 2009 @ 20:46:51 NZST
The 2009 WCG Asian Championship is at an end for the eblacks as they prepare to return to New Zealand. They return with their heads held high with one Gold medal and a silver placing for New Zealand retaining a position in the ranks of esports greatest nations. The eblacks all thank you for your support over the past few days. This isn't the end however, xLAN begins next weekend for a full weekend long esports experiance right in New Zealand where the next eblacks squad will be chosen and possibly compete at the WCG Grand Final in Chengdu, China. Our coverage of this event isn't quite over either check out the photo gallery as more photos have been uploaded and Mason's matches will be uploaded over the next couple of days. Thank you again for all your support, we at xLAN all look forward to seeing you at the national finals next weekend.
The eblacks
Posted by MordenNZ on Monday, July 06, 2009 @ 02:08:27 NZST
The closing ceremony of the WCG Asian Championship is done closing with it the last day of competition here in Singapore. Mason "Massi4h" Maddox received his Gold medal for Guitar Hero and with it a placing for New Zealand in the second position in the medal tally just behind Vietnam. An awesome result for New Zealand. Mason has defended his title of Asian Guitar Hero champion and the eblacks have maintained a position for New Zealand along side the greatest Asian nations in esports, a proud achievement. Following the prizes a few speeches gave us a sneak peek at the WCG Grand Final that will be held later this year in Chengdu, China. Check out some pictures of the Closing Ceremony below.
One of the closing ceremony speeches
Mason receives his medal
Mason celebrates victory
Posted by MordenNZ on Monday, July 06, 2009 @ 01:31:51 NZST
Mason has once again done it and Come out on top, winning Gold for his nation for the second year in a row, a first for New Zealand and a feat that we are all proud of him for. Masons last match up was intense, Singapore picked "Hot for teacher" as his choice of song and at the last moment pulled out the win for that first song. Mason then came back at him with "Scream, Aim, Fire", Mason's favourite song scoring a win on the second song. So it came down to the tie breaker song, "". The last song was so intense, the whole crowd was holding their breath with mason pulling out a better strategic Star Power placement than his rival, securing Gold in The Asian Championship.
Mason competes while the crowd gathers
Mason takes a few questions after his win
Posted by MordenNZ on Monday, July 06, 2009 @ 01:17:15 NZST
The match against Korea proved to be one of Masons toughest Matches with the two songs played being far closer than any previously. Video to follow. This victory however puts Mason one step closer to a Gold medal here at the WCG Asian Championship. Masons final challenger will be Singapore whom Mason has already faced but comes at him with renewed vigor, hoping to claim the title.
The Korean fails to knock mason out
Mason's fellow eblacks show him support
Posted by MordenNZ on Sunday, July 05, 2009 @ 22:43:03 NZST
It is the morning of Day three here in Singapore, the final day with one goal in mind, Gold. Mason is still in the running for a gold medal at this years WCG Asian Championship. his first match is against Malaysia at 1:15pm local time, 5:15pm for the folks back home, we will keep you updated on his progress through the tournament ladder as the day goes on. Meanwhile this morning Mason took a short break from his practice to calm his nerves by competing in a Virtua Fighter mini-comp, Taking all-comers and winning a free Samsung T-shirt.
Mason and his Samsung T-shirt
Posted by MordenNZ on Sunday, July 05, 2009 @ 15:51:24 NZST
The end of day two is here and two of our three tournament teams have been knocked out. Fobski our FIFA player is now out of the tournament as are our DOTA team with Mason 'Massi4h' Maddox left standing. So give him all your best wishes and keep tuned as he enters the final rounds of guitar hero tomorrow. Meanwhile i have uploaded more photos from today's activities to the gallery so be sure to take a look.
Mario does raise a few questions
Posted by MordenNZ on Saturday, July 04, 2009 @ 23:23:13 NZST
At the end of the night FIFA has wrapped up with Fobski being knocked out of the tournament in favor of the Indian and Malaysian players who will go on to play in the single elimination tomorrow. Fobski however is very positive vowing to practice now that he has some contacts and friends overseas who are also FIFA players and come back next year and wipe the field clean.
FIFA Wrap-up
New Zealand vs. Chinese Taipei - WIN
New Zealand vs. India - LOSS
New Zealand vs. Malaysia - LOSS
FIFA winds up for the day
Posted by MordenNZ on Saturday, July 04, 2009 @ 23:13:46 NZST
The end is nigh for the DOTA team sadly with two losses and a win bumping them out of the competition here at the WCG Asian Championship. The team has done remarkably well in a very tough pool, with all of their opponants comprised of great players stitched together with some great teamwork. we at xLAN are all very proud of their progress this year in Singapore.
New Zealand vs. Korea - LOSS
New Zealand vs. India - WIN
New Zealand vs. Singapore - LOSS
KNOCKED OUT
Minhae moving furiously to defend
Posted by MordenNZ on Saturday, July 04, 2009 @ 19:13:09 NZST
With mason winning all threee of his pool play matches it means that he makes it through at the top of his pool and faces another few opponants tomorrow on his climb to the top of the single elimination ladder which begins tomorrow morning here in Singapore. Just to recap today's results.
New Zealand vs. Philippines - WIN
New Zealand vs. Australia - WIN
New Zealand vs. Singapore - WIN
This is an amazing result once again from Mason, so keep tuned and show your support for him tomorrow as he fights his way to gold for New Zealand. In the meantime keep tuned for more results from the DOTA team and Fobski in the FIFA tournament later tonight.
One of Mason's impressive scores (left)
Posted by MordenNZ on Saturday, July 04, 2009 @ 16:58:53 NZST
We are pleased to announced that we have secured sponsorship with Microsoft and will be utilising the latest operating system Windows 7 on selected stage matches.
This will be a chance for you to have hands on experience with this fantastic new operating system.
Posted by Dee-Zilla on Monday, June 29, 2009 @ 18:26:39 NZST
We are pleased to announce New Zealand has been selected as one of the stops for the WCG torch relay 2009.
This year's torch relay begins in Singapore, where the WCG 2009 Asian Championship is held, and travels around 11 countries in 80 days to finally end up in Chengdu, China, the host city of WCG 2009 Grand Final.
Torch Relay Schedule
Jun 26 ~ Jul 5 - Singapore
Jul 6 ~ Jul 12 - New Zealand
Jul 13 ~ Jul 19 - South Korea
Jul 20 ~ Jul 26 - Italy
Jul 27 ~ Aug 2 - Germany
Aug 3 ~ Aug 9 - France
Aug 10 ~ Aug 16 - Colombia
Aug 17 ~ Aug 23 - Mexico
Aug 24 ~ Aug 30 - USA
Aug 31 ~ Sep 6 - Canada
Sep 7 ~ Sep 13 - China
Mason "Massi4h" Maddox was selected as our representative for the torch relay, this was not a hard choice for us, as he is the first gamer in New Zealand to receive a gold medal on the WCG world stage.
Posted by Dee-Zilla on Monday, June 29, 2009 @ 15:53:36 NZST
Samsung's T220 PC monitor will be featured at New Zealand’s most prestigious gaming event, in two weeks time in Auckland.
The T220 adds one-of-a-kind style to your gaming room. SAMSUNG has created a design unlike anything you’ve ever seen called Touch of Color. The T220 not only has beauty, it also has brains. An amazing 20,000:1 contrast ratio and 2ms response rate deliver sharp contrast and virtually no blurring when watching movies or playing video games. You’ll be inspired to create your best work with the SAMSUNG T220. It looks more like a beautiful piece of art than a monitor.
Posted by Dee-Zilla on Friday, June 26, 2009 @ 09:11:38 NZST
With the WCG Asian Championships only two weeks away, WCG has announced the groups each country's participant will compete in. The groups are as follows:
PB Technologies have provided the details of the 30 official gaming computers for the New Zealand World Cyber Games. These are some of the best computers we have had for our stage machines and can’t wait to see the intense gaming action on them.
These computers are available for purchase after the event at some absolutely awesome pricing if you pre-order, If you are considering buying a new computer don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity!
System Specifications:
Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz 8M
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R X58 MBD
G.Skill 6GB DDR3-1600 Tri-channel Kit (2GB x3)
Cooler Master Silent Pro 500W Modular PSU
Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler
LG Dvd Writer 22x Sata Internal
Samsung 1TB Hard Drive 7200RPM Sata II
We have now removed all non paid players and incomplete teams from all the tournaments. With our largest lineup of tournaments most exceeded our expectations.
With confirmed numbers we have adjusted the tournament format and are changing four of the tournaments to Round Robin(Pool Play) progressing to single elimination finals.
Details of the tournaments and format:
TF2 - Round Robin with two pools, top two from each pool progressing to semi finals then final. (Best of 3 maps for semi finals and final)
L4D - Round Robin with two pools, top two from each pool progressing to semi finals then final.
COD4 - Round Robin with four pools, top two from each pool progressing to qtr finals, semi finals then final (Best of 3 maps for qtr finals, semi finals and final)
CS1.6 - Round Robin with two pools, top two from each pool progressing to semi finals then final (Best of 3 maps for semi finals and final)
Posted by dee-zilla on Sunday, June 14, 2009 @ 19:43:31 NZST
The New Zealand Online Asian Championship Qualifier is over and here are the results.
The eblacks will be competing in Singapore from 3rd - 5th July.
Guitar Hero World Tour winner is massi4h aka Mason Maddox......can New Zealands golden boy bring home the gold again..
FIFA 09 winner is Fobskiaka
Shahn Harris after competing in this tournament at the New Zealand World Cyber Games Qualifier in 2008 Fobski finally managed to take first place and earn a place on the eblacks team.
DOTA All Stars winners are Tickle Me Elmo aka escobar, sam.la, shazZ, minhae, ShymoN who steam rolled the competition. We are excited to have the first female to be an eblack and to be competing at the World Cyber Games Asian Championship for New Zealand.
Remember to look at the eblacks blog for updates for the eblacks when they are in Singapore.
Posted by dee-zilla on Sunday, June 14, 2009 @ 12:04:13 NZST
xLAN is pleased to announce that PB Technologies is the official PC Supplier for xLAN 2009. PB Technologies will have a massive store at this year’s event where you can purchase PC components and gaming peripherals.
They have 4 stores nationwide and they are the largest computer store in New Zealand. They have dedicated themselves to providing 'one-stop computer solutions' to a wide range of customers - from private and home users, small businesses, educations sectors, right up to high-end corporate clienteles. They have over 10 years operation in New Zealand's highly competitive and extremely demanding IT industry.
With signing on PB Technologies this has opened up sponsorship opportunities with CoolerMaser, SteelSeries, Logitech and Sennheiser, products from these companies and others will be available for purchase with some awesome specials for xLAN attendees over the weekend. These companies are also supplying the prizes for most of our tournaments.
Posted by dee-zilla on Friday, June 12, 2009 @ 16:58:03 NZST
Looking at the payments currently processing in to our bank account I can see that xLAN 2009 and the New Zealand World Cyber Games has sold out for the 5th year in a row, demand for tickets was high this year with many people missing out who left purchasing a ticket till the last moment.
Preparations for the event are continuing and we will be leaking information to everyone over the coming weeks.
We hope to announce what tournaments will be World Cyber Games Qualifiers and also more sponsors, including our new PC Retailer.
Please remember to keep checking our main page and forums leading up to the event as we will be posting important information for all attendees.
(I will be processing the payments in the morning)
Posted by dee-zilla on Monday, June 08, 2009 @ 22:12:56 NZST
Payments made from 10pm Friday through to Monday 8pm will not show in the account till Tuesday Morning . So please take this in to consideration when emailing, posting, private messaging or messaging on MSN the event organisers.
If you are not marked as paid and you paid before Friday please look in the administration forum for payments that have been made with no references or read this FAQ.
Posted by dee-zilla on Saturday, June 06, 2009 @ 20:47:33 NZST
We will be holding online qualifiers for this year’s Asian Championship Qualifiers on the 13th and 14th June.
All attendees/teams that are paid and signed up for the DOTA All Stars, FIFA 09 and Guitar Hero World Tour xLAN 2009 tournaments and meet citizenship requirements will be automatically entered into the online qualifier.
The online qualifier is no additional cost so we will not be providing prizes other than the winners inclusion to be part of this year’s eblacks team that will represent New Zealand in Singapore.
The draw and rules can be found here (the draw will not be finalised till 11th June).
Terms and Conditions
You must be able to travel out of New Zealand the first week of July.
Return flights from Auckland, Accommodation and transportation to venue are included and all other costs are your responsibly.
You must be a New Zealand Citizen with a valid New Zealand Passport or be able to obtain a valid passport at the completion of the tournament.
You must be at least 16 years old.
You will be part of the eblacks with your photo/bio published on the eblacks website and be available for marketing opportunities as defined in eblacks contract.
An individual contract with the winning player must be signed to be able to travel with the eblacks team.
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