Here a small recap of the IeSF

It’s been a few days now that our WC3 player Julien “KOPITZ” Dumoulin returned to Belgium. Let’s remember that he participated in the International Esports festival at the O² Resort in Taebaek city, KOREA.

Date: December 10th 2009 – December 14th 2009
Games: Warcraft III, Fifa Online 2, AVA (demonstration)
Countries participating: 20
9 Founding members
Korea, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Denmark and Vietnam
6 New members
Bulgaria, Romania, UK, South Africa, Spain, Singapore
5 Invited countries
Malaysia, India, China, Japan, USA

To start off with the review here picture of the Belgian delegation

from left to right: Lost_cauze, Michiel, KOPITZ, Geenens, dfb, Necrow. source: tek-9.org

To read a full professional report of the event you can have a look at here. The Belgian representative for this IeSF meeting was no other then Steven ‘dfb’ Leunens, a key figure in Belgian and International Esports. In order of BESF he made this nice column/blog.

What’s more interesting for us is Kopitz’s words on his trip and some comments on that. Here a small interview and a pre-statement.

SR: Julien, now that you’ve returned, how do you feel 6 days later? Back in a normal or should we say a different world?

Well I feel pretty good! Thanks for asking!

Now to go on your question I won’t say you’re wrong. It’s a whole different world…. you come back from a country where people cry o for pictures and autographs and 1 day later you need to get used to the normal world you’re in. But I have to say that I’m pretty satisfies to be here since living at their rythm is exhausting!

What I mean by “a different world”;  should be that people have more respect over there… They take you serious when you’re talking about games and eSports… Here when you mention it you’re being called a NO-LIFER :-O. And of course the culture was so different, going from a different attitude to weird food

SR:  To talk about food, was it good? Aren’t you famished now?^^

Hehe, no it was pretty ok… Lovely breakfasts and all other meals were doable. Now it’s so that the FIFA players warned me that in China the food @ the WCG wasn’t that good so I was a bit scared.  But I couldn’t confirm on those comments since I ate well during my whole trip

SR: When you look back on the event, what marked you? How was the organisation of the event?

So let me sum up my trip from a to z in short. I’ll tell about the travelling and the event itself .

So when we arrived at Seoul and got out of the plane there was a lot of press, billboards everywhere…. We were received as real professional players!! After that we left the airport with some IESF bus to go to the hotel, once arrived there we were received once more as stars . Following to that we received our hotel keys and the rooms were spacious and we had internet and television etc…. everything I could have asked for.

Later on that evening the opening ceremony began and it was a huge thing! Some famous Korean bands did some music shows etc. I think it was some Tokyo hotel kinda group cuz the people were really shouting!

After the opening show there was the looting ceremony where I have to say i was happy with it so far since I was put as one of the favourites together with Sushi. Nevertheless the tournament didn’t went as I hoped. The seeds were really bad and so I came in this strong group where others had really easy ones. So that would be a negative point on the event itself.
Anyway after we knew who we should play we went to the “gaming room” where there was 1 pc for each player!!

Next day is there and there we heard that we’re not choosing maps -_-. Again all luck turned against me and the one being chosen was one of my worst maps  and probably one of the better ones of Sushilicious, my friend but also my opponent. That game resulted in a loss and even if I won to the other guy it wasn’t enough to go to the next round .

But I made the best of it and I met many other WC3 players and I also learned a lot about the BESF and IESF from Steven, <3 steven. After a long day of gaming I went to see the semi-finals on stage.

Remarking enough that no matter the game it was (fifa or wc3) there was always a big audience! Even some national television channel was there the follow everything! It was impressive!

Now the last evening we did a good party with my friends rotterdam, sushi, hasu etc. It was a short sleep as we took the plane afterwards back to Frankfurt and from there back to Brussels to go back home! A going-back flight that seemed being shorter

SR: Ok, thanks for the long text! Now next question: What did you expect before and how can you comment on your results after the event?

Well I hoped to pass the groupstages but when I saw the amount of good players being there my moral went down a bit but that didn’t last so long! Unfortunately bad luck once more on the maps which really made it terrible in this groupstage.

Now if I have to comment on my defeat, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous! The map didn’t help me at all and that really screwed up everything, and it’s not to search for excuses!

SR: Did you expect the level to be so high, and certainly more important: Can you  handle that level?

Well of course I expected a certain professional level there but a bit lower since the WEM were held at the same time and many pro’s would be there. but the level there was rather egal for all, everyone could have beaten each other I think. Including me!

but besides that I only ask to train! I’ll soon have my new pc and that will be for me a huge motivational boost to reach a higher level so I’m really ready for it!
SR: Would you do it again? why? what is the experience you got from it?

I really hope having the chance to go back next year but that time better prepared and attending it to win! But I really enjoyed it this year and I held good friends of it. I’ll now use those new relations and contacts I made to train with them and compete at this higher level.

SR: What are your plans for 2010, and how do you look back on 2009?

My plans for 2010 are pretty simple. I hope to participate in the next WC3L seasons and why not with a full Sypher squad, who knows!?! . but besides that I hope to win many online and offline events and who knows I’ll go on to Starcraft 2 when it releases.

2009 was a great year for me and getting in sypher was probably the best thing happening to my eSports career! And so I thank them for that as I’ll never be able to thank them enough! KISS KISS LOVE LOVE (K) (K) (L)(L)

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A few weeks ago, the sypher management was invited to participate in a radio-interview about gaming in all aspects, eSports and a few other topics. The interview would be for the Belgian-French national radio called La Première.

La Première is one of the radio stations in hands of the government. The station offers besides music some interesting programs, going from culture to politic debates.

One of the weekly shows on La Première is “Quand les Jeunes” (When the young…).
This show is hosted by the lovely lady called Marie-Laure STEISEL who was also our host at the interview

Going in on the invitation we could talk a bit about Esports, sypher and Kopitz could mention some things regarding his upcoming week in Korea and the professional gaming world he was soon going to get into.. In the end conversations lasted for many hours and the result is a 2-hour long radio show.

Besides us there were other people present talking about games in general. Sadly enough and as always on media some negative parts of gaming were mentioned, heavy wow-addicts talked about their life turning out in a real mess, social activities going down and family problems going to very far situations… there was even a guy who sued his parents and now gets a fee of their monthly salary… He spends all his days in the Lan center where the interview was held.

But hearing such testimonials was quite interesting and some professionals also said what they think about games and what studies show. Luckily we managed to bring to people the better part of games being eSports in the second part of the interview!

For those who are interested you can tune in on the show here. Note that the show is in French! If you want more info regarding this press activity feel free to contact us.

Tune in HERE! =>>>> Radio <<<<=

Coverage

General	Counter-strike Source	Counter-strike1.6	Call of Duty 4
Information & prizes	Groupstage	Groupstage	Groupstage
Team list	Play off’s	Play off’s	Play off’s
Final Standings	Grand Final	Grand Final	Grand Final

General information

Date: 11-13 September 2009

Location: Wieze, Belgium

Attendees: 500

More information: website

Prizes

Call of Duty 4 (2250 EURO)

• 1st place: 1500 EURO
• 2nd place: 500 EURO
• 3rd place: 250 EURO

Counter-strike Source (1500 EURO)

• 1st place: 1000 EURO
• 2nd place: 350 EURO
• 3rd place: 150 EURO

Counter-strike 1.6 (1250 EURO)

• 1st place: 850 EURO
• 2nd place: 250 EURO
• 3rd place: 150 EURO

Last weekend our Counter-Strike: Source squad attended the Opale Arena 2009, a LAN in Oye-Plage, in northern France. About 400 Attendees overall and 20 teams were competing in the CSS compo with a cash prize of 1400 euros and a classic map list : de_tuscan, de_dust2, de_train, de_nuke, de_inferno.

The favourites were the mixteam Meet The Wall, consisting of 4 members of the French national team (Shox & SmithZz from VERYGAMES, Shokkk from redLine and bistouflyy from essentiaL), who take part last week to the ENC final in Cologne against the German team. Their 5^th was Shox’s girlfriend, Amandine, member of the female CSS squad of essentiaL.

Groupstage

After a huge delay (the reason will be explained later), the tournament began on Saturday evening around 22:30. The 18 remaining teams, 2 teams whom actually left the LAN after the multiple network problems, were divided into 4 groups. As High Seed, we inherited a single block, with the following teams: Mixtape, EOS and Sodalis.
Our first game is played against Mixtape on de_dust2, a map that we generally do not really play. The match quickly folded in our favor with 16-04  . Other scores for the group stage were also score quickly made with a 16-01 on de_train versus Sodalis and 16-01 versus EOS on de_inferno.

Results:

• Team Sypher 16:04 Mixtape
• Team Sypher 16:01 Eos
• Team Sypher 16:01 Sodalis

Play-offs

Coming into the final stages, the tree was a double elimination bo1. The quarterfinals and half finals were also played the night from Saturday to Sunday, around 4:00 in the morning. As for maps, they were decided through a system of veto.
In the quarter finals, we confront Now4ll on de_nuke, a map on which we are usually comfortable. The score is dry, the game folded in a minimum time: 16-00.
In the semifinals of the winner bracket, we are opposed to the team NITROSE another team claiming a place in the top3 and playing currently EAS.fr. We expected a real first test. The map is de_nuke, and after a knife round well negotiated, we begin T and are winning the pistol round, and … all other rounds. Score a passage to terrorists: 15-00. The second side starts with a pistol round little lost and by two eco rounds. Armed in the first round, we put the round we wanted to win the match. Final score: 16-03.

After those first games that were rather easy, we went to bed around 6:30 in the morning to get up at … 9:30. After a light breakfast and some Deathmatch, the much anticipated match in the winner bracket final versus Meet The Wall was started, and this on de_inferno. We once again win the knife round and have the privilege of beginning CT. The pistol round is won after the bomb was planted in B. Shox is found in 3vs1, eliminates 2 CT before being killed by the last SYPHER living who defused the bomb. The first round was won eco and it quickly leads 2-0. Our opponents got back quickly, mostly due to mistakes on our part. Wewon nevertheless the first side, on the lowest scores of 8-7.
We turn T and again we win the pistol round and the majority of rounds that follow to conduct 7-1. Having more than 1 round to put for the win, we release the pressure, committing multiple errors and the opponent gains the attacks easier. 15-8, 15-9 … 15-15! The overtime following is a reflection of our end of T-side: bad. We no longer find our game and are destabilized by their meteoric rise. OT: 0-5 and 1-1. Final score: 16-21.

Results:

• Team Sypher 16:00 Now4ll
• Team Sypher 16:03 Nitrose
• Team Sypher 16:21 Meet the wall

Consolation Final

So we are propelled into the lower bracket final. But again big problems arrive, the games have in fact taken long delays after our match, followed by the players. We must therefore wait until 5 games are played! The wait lasted several hours, and everything being closed around the  LAN for beverages and food, we had to eat leftovers biscuits from the night before at dinner … 5 hours after our match winner bracket finals, we finally play the lower bracket final, hungry and tired…
We replay the NITROSE who just won their 2 games of the lower bracket, the map is de_dust2. First sign of fatigue, we lose our first round of the tournament knife and begin T. Starting of with the first rounds, the opposing players were motivated due to their last games, from our side communication problems were causing a bad start. The side has won in a close9-6 . Going into CT, it went a little better, and rounds are made easier: 7-3 and this making the final score 16-09.

Results:

• Team Sypher 16:09 Nitrose

Grand Final

After a ten minute break and we played the first map of the grand final once again versus Meet The Wall on de_nuke, which is our map. The French begin CT (they choose the side on our map, played in 1st). We lost the pistol round, and in the same state of fatigue we had in the previous match,  rounds were taken against us … Not much to say except that they played better on this map then we did. The match was nothing like the winner’s bracket, unable to find our game it ended with a tough 03-12. Changing to CT side hope wass gone, we are only able to get a round and resulting in a 16-04 final score.

Results:

• Team Sypher 04:16 Meet the wall

Final standings

• Meet The Wall – 700EURO
• Team Sypher – 420 EURO
• Nitrose – 280 EURO

Our Conclusion

Following this brief summary of our journey throughout the tournament, I’ll finish this review by a small explanatory note on the problems the LAN had.

We arrived on Friday evening and only receive our screens on Saturday morning-early afternoon, the switch connecting us to the main network was only in the late afternoon. Following this, the network was crashing, the tables were disconnected one after the other and admins unable to find a solution … It was a player who took things in hand, with the help of another person, also a player, after re-connecting everything, changing cables and switches, they managed to restore the network. Afterwards, with the servers still not configured correctly,they had to call RegnaM which, by telephone, told the admins how to set their servers. After the servers were resolved properly, SmithZz took the tournament in his hands and made the seeds, groups and led the tournament with his teammates as well as ours.
Basically, the LAN-admins were absent and most incompetent, if this wasen’t already enough several power cuts took place, leading to some power-switches and screens burned …
A LAN that was worth a visit for the cashprize and … that’s all