The next e -sports year is leaving, in which we together rejoiced in loud victories and empathized with the bitter defeats of athletes. But before saying goodbye from 2011, let's recall the brightest events that occurred in it.

[[Bullet]] STARSRAFT II from BLIZZARD of competitors is not observed.

Veterans games are losing ground. Once successful Quake Live We may still meet once or two in tournaments in 2012, but … this is in question. Perhaps discipline does not attract a new generation of e -sportsmen, since it seems to them "too complicated".

The chances of megapopular in the past Warcraft III They are at all to light up in large competitions to zero, he was predictably finished off by the "senior brother" – Starcraft II.

We note a decrease in the popularity of competitive Counter-Strike 1.6. In many CS tournaments in 2011, the prizes were much less expected, which is indicative. The reasons for the fall of interest are that the “counter” is very outdated graphically, and it was already firmly blessed by many. "Donor of fresh blood" can become CS: GO from Valve, but the profiles it evaluated it coolly, and this puts forward Promod , which is created by people who played in CS at a professional level. Read more about the project In our recent article.

[[Bullet]] League of Legends some prophesied the ambulance, but contrary to all, it gained serious popularity and is on equal terms with Dota 2.

But the popularity of the Moba genre continues to grow. In the struggle between League of Legends And Heroes of Newerth, leading since 2010, wedged Dota 2, Preserving the spirit of the original game – the one that became the ancestor of all Moba. Its continuation, first presented by the public at a large tournament Dota 2 The International , instantly fascinated the players, and fantastic prizes of $ 1.6 million were beaten by all e -sports records.

Second Starcraft In the near future, neither harsh competition nor a fall in popularity threaten. The Cyberdiscipline appeared in the summer of 2010 in a matter of months dealt with its “fantasy” rival and by the beginning of 2011 it became the only and unique strategies in the genre of strategies. And on WCG , and in North American leagues NASL And MLG the battles of terraons, protosss and Zergs always collected full halls.

Now it seems that other strategies in world -class tournaments never played. Interest to Starcraft II In the past year, he was so high that Forbes magazine, specializing in various kinds of ratings, turned on Sean Plott ( Day9 ), the commentator of this discipline, on the list of thirty most influential people younger than thirty years in the field of entertainment.

The outgoing e-sports year can rightly be called the year of Moba IGR and Starcraft II. And the year of the change of priorities – new disciplines are being replaced by new.

And now let's refresh the most important events that took place on different continents and at different times.

WINTER

In winter, e -sports, as a rule, hibernate. During the New Year and Christmas holidays, there are no significant events, and only by the end of the first month in the "Berlogs" of the players the move begins.

IEM European Finals. "Swedish Victoria" in Kyiv

[[Bullet]] fnaticmsi. After an unexpected victory on IEM European finals in Kyiv, the Swedes for a long time could not win anything this year.

The first "snowdrop" of computer sports was Intel Extreme Masters European Finals , which was held in Kyiv from 20 to 23 January. The tournament program consisted of qualifying games and finals in three game disciplines: Quake Live, Counter-Strike 1.6 and Starsraft II.

And immediately a sensation broke out: the cs 1 championship.6 unexpectedly won the new composition fnatic (Carn, DSN, Pita, Xizt, Delpan). True, the victory in this tournament remained for the team the most significant throughout the year. Another gold in the discipline of Starsraft II brought Sweden "Terran" Sjow , But after this success, he dissolved in the slender ranks of e -sportsmen who lack stars from the sky.

The legendary Muscovite won in Quake Live Cooller (Anton Singov), which today almost does not train due to the futility of the game itself. I am glad that European finals interested the channel Eurosport , which showed the most interesting points in decisive fights.

Transfer record in China!

[[Bullet]] South Korean Pusan, the second city of the republic, took this year the Grand Final World Cyber ​​Games.

In mid -January, in China (perhaps the last country, where Warcraft III was still popular) World Gamemaster Tournament 2010/2011. At home, as they say, the walls help. And even one wall, especially if it is a great Chinese. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the victory of the Chinese Infi , who confidently broke up with his main rivals Sky And Remind.

Only a week later, the same Celestial Empire was noted by the most expensive transfer in the history of e-sports: two players of the Ehome Dota team- Burning And Kingj – For the record five hundred thousand dollars, the Tropical Wins sister sites United States suddenly moved to DK. And there is nothing to be surprised-the “bunker” of China is very solvent, and a number of professional teams have good sponsorship support.

The first days of February, the name of the city, which was supposed to accept the World Cyber ​​Games 2011, was opened – it became South Korean Busan. The previous tournament in Los Angeles did not arouse much interest among local. In this regard, as well as with the fact that Samsung In every possible way, he tries to reduce the budget of the tournament, constantly cutting the prize, returning to his homeland looked also logical and justified. But in the end, the 2011 cyberlympiades passed, how to say it … neither Shatko nor Valkko and in general was not remembered.

ASUS Winter 2011. Victory Moscow Five and MTW.Dimaga

The main "local" event of winter 2011 has traditionally became the tournament Asus , having rich history and with enviable constancy passing four times a year. Within its framework, Counter-Strike 1 championships were held.6, Quake Live, Dota and Starsraft II.

The most interesting composition of the participants was in Starsraft II: White – Ra , Dimaga , KAS , Brat _ OK , Abver , Livezerg and other high -level pro. Gold took Dimaga Zhoga, Strelok became the second. Russians The Retry won the Dota tournament, and Agent I defeated Cooller’a in the final on Quake Live.

Although on Asus Mostly representatives of the post -Soviet space gather, this time in the CS tournament “Our” was compiled by famous Germans from Alternate (Chef-Koch, Crisby, Chrrrrp, Kenan, Chrizzo). They took only fifth place, but this composition is more and did not shine. Victory for Moscowfive (Edik, Fox, Xek, Dosia, Romjke).

SPRING

In the middle of spring, we witnessed a loud return Virtus.Pro. The most titled in the past of the Russian CS team appeared before fans as a serious e-sports project with several compositions in different disciplines. But the main spring event should still be considered world finals Intel Extreme Masters In Hanover.

IEM: Newell is crazy about na’vi

The Ukrainian team Na’vi in ​​the usual style defeated the Poles Frag Executors in the final of the Intel Extreme Masters Global Finals.

Tournament Intel Extreme Masters , which took place from March 1 to 5, with the support of Intel Corporation, has long been distinguished among others (ESWC, WCG) with spectator interest and an excellent organization. The same French ESWC, for example, greatly spoiled the mood of the athletes-they were settled in a terrible hotel in the Getto-Rianon of Paris. And the Korean WCG once again significantly reduced the prize. Therefore, according to the author, this championship compared to others in 2011 was the best.

Single disciplines of high -profile sensations did not give. Sheinhendrickson ( Rapha ) I defeated our Anton Singov in the final on Quake Live, and Koreans occupied the most popular strategy: Ace , Moon And Squirtle.

The next title in CS 1.6 won Ukrainians Natusvincere. In the semifinals, they plunged the Danes MTW , And those in 2010 have repeatedly met with Ukrainians and were always inferior. Founder and managing director Valve, Gabnywell , He was so impressed by the decisive games in CS that he said approximately the following: “It is amazing to observe how these guys play. They are so good – we could not even imagine this! "

Cypher vomit, nerchio mosque

[[Bullet]] White-Ra this year signed sponsorship contracts and delighted fans with his “Special Tactics”.

At the end of March, the fifth player of the Moscow Five team in CS 1 became known.6. After farewell to Alexander Zobkov ( XEK ) Alexander Sharipov was adopted ( Twist ), "Dark Horse", earlier he did not perform at such a high level. A little more time will pass, and after a failure in Denmark, the leadership, realizing that it gave a swing, will return the zobkov backward.

From March 31 to April 3 in Italy, The Ultimate Gaming Championship , Quake Live Championship. Belorus Aleksey Yanushevsky won ( Cypher ) who in the superfinal simply erased Rapha powder with a score of 16: 2 and 16: 1.

Lovers of Starcraft II did not have to miss the spring either – half of April was online tournament Dailymotion Cup. Polish Zerg Nerchio , which Harry Potter was nicknamed for the outward resemblance to this hero, successfully overcame the group stage first, and then the entire playoff grid. In the finale, he dried the Swede Morrow -And he, in turn, reminds something … Ron Weasley.

Ukrainian Alexey Krupnik ( White-ra in the meantime, he was enlisted by the sponsorship of a well -known company Thermaltake. Soon, Taiwanese launched for sale new gaming products from the father of all protosss (so fans and even rivals respectfully calling Krupnika) – “mice” and rugs.

Virtus.Pro lived. Virtus.Pro is alive. Virtus.Pro will live?

Not only nature comes to life in the spring. Under the slogan "Legend is Back" on April 18 in Moscow, the project was officially revived Virtus.Pro , whose banners were convened by many strong players. Including the IRON Will team (CS 1.6) in full force. But the loud name, as it turned out, does not guarantee victories.

Throughout the year Virtus.Pro more than once had to radically change the composition in the pursuit of the best results. But Counter-Strike 1.6 First of all, the team game, which means the interaction and mutual understanding of the players should be at a high level. Simply put, people need to give time to play and only then demand something from them. So, for example, entered the Moscow Five.

But the leadership of the "Legends of the domestic CS" chose a different way. At the height of the season, one of the best players, Roman Abramov (Hacker), replaced by Alexei Kolesnikov (Lex), was removed from the team. At the end of the year, Alexei himself admits that the novel was in vain expelled from the team. In general, it seems that the leadership of Virtus.Pro emphasized working with spectators, holding contests and streams, communication with fans and the like “media” events, but forgot about the main thing – sports results.

Interview with Alexei Kolesnikov, captain Virtus.Pro, after the next failure, this time on ASUS Winter Final Battle of the Year.

At the end of May, with the organizational support of GamesWorld.ru between three tops of Russia-USSR, Virtus.Pro and Moscow Five-a mini-championship "Battle of the best" was held. Won that it is expected, the last. But if in the spring there was still a certain appearance of competition for the title of the best Russian team, then in the second half of the year leadership in Russia firmly captured M5.

The last significant cybers of spring was Asus Spring. Triumph on it was celebrated by Ukrainians: Dimaga and Na’vi. It is noteworthy that before, despite the many world titles, it was this tournament that the Ukrainian five did not submit for a long time

SUMMER

In early June Vodafone , One of the world's largest mobile operators announced the desire to create his own league on Starsraft II. It is noteworthy that the launch of the league was planned only in those countries where the company is represented (and there are no less than 67 pieces). We do not know what their venture will result in, but the interest of such large companies in this game is already worthy of our attention.

MTW. The tragedy of the Danish princes

[[Bullet]] 2011 was a successful year for Alexei Yanushevsky, who was in almost every Cypher tournament in the prize three.

From 19 to 20 June, a large -scale computer festival was held in Swedish Yyoncheping Dreamhack Summer 2011. About a similar, but winter tournament, we recently They told in detail.

In the QL finals, our old acquaintance "Kwiker" Cypher Once again I defeated the American Rapha, who plays for SK.

And the winners in the CS 1 discipline.6 Swedes became SK Gaming (Robban, F0rest, Get_right, Delpan, Face), which in the summer were trained to the stop and won the tournament tournament. The Swedish "All-STARS" team, until the very end of 2011, claimed the title of the best team of the year.

The Danes finished the second MTW (Trace, Arcadion, Zonic, Minet, Ave). It would seem that since Ukrainians Na’vi There were no in the finale, nothing should have prevented the Danish prince’s compatriots, but this time did not work out this time. Each played finale greatly beaten the pride of experienced players. Having run ahead for six months, we allow ourselves to assume that these painful lesions ultimately led to the decay of the team. Napoleonic plans to attract Friis failed (he chose fnatic), and soon the captain of the Danes Alexander Holdt ( Ave ) announced the end of his career. Only one more or less strong team remained in Denmark – Anexis (Berry, Nuggi, Ze, Beeck, Snappi).

On June 24-26, Fnaticmsi and Natus Vincere teams were thrown into the capital of Bosnia, where he took place Adepto BH Open. The tournament, which, in addition to the two world's grads, was also visited by all the best teams of the Balkan region, turned out to be extremely boring and predicted. In the final Na’vi quite easily dealt with the Swedes (16:13 and 16: 0).

Activision takes money

[[Bullet]] Fantastic tournament in Dota 2 in the German Cologne was held at the highest level.

At the end of the first summer month on the official page Electronic Sports League The section appeared CIS (CIS). This meant that another league should appear on the territory of the post -Soviet space. However, today, despite the efforts attached by the creators, our players for the most part bypass the league attention. Perhaps this is due to the fact that domestic athletes more likely just play “mixes” than to seriously do something.

In July, Activision announced the tournament in Call of Duty: Black Ops, received the name " One Epic Event ". We remembered us not by the Akyn name, but according to the declared prize fund – one million dollars. Even after the total number of prizes in the discipline of Starsraft II, this amount may seem fantastic. It's funny that the tournament was planned not on the usual RS, but on Xbox 360.

In the capital of Finland Helsinki on August 4-5, a SC II tournament was held, Assembly Summer2011. Russian Brat_ok took the honorable fourth place, and the Ukrainian MTW again became the champion.Dimaga.

V means valve: na’vi takes a million, cs: go disappointing

The final confrontation of Na’vi and Ehome.

From 17 to 21 August Valve held the first championship in the second "Dota" – DOTA 2 The International Within Gamescom. In our opinion, this tournament is the main e -sports event of 2011. The first demonstration of the long-awaited game, the performance of the best world teams and a prize fund of $ 1.6 million-what else is needed for the event of the year? All success recipes are competently and clearly observed.

Best prepared for the tournament Na ’ VI , which subsequently won the final from the Chinese from Ehome , Having become the happy owners of a million US dollars. After some time " Gambling.ru " interviewed one of the team players. You can read it Here.

Summer ASUS Summer 2011 , Masted at Kiev Cybersport Arena also collected a good composition. Fate favored the Poles: Fragexecutors (Pasha, Loord, Neo, Kuben, TAZ) became champions in CS, and AV3K won the Quake Live Championship. What do you think, who excited in the discipline of Starsraft? That's right, all the same Dimaga, which seems to collect victories on ASUS. Dmitry Filipchuk can definitely record 2011 to his plus.

[[Bullet]] Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. We hope the best is still ahead.

At the very end of summer, the first information about the new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Most of the pros did not appeal to their liking – hardcore players were waiting for much more. But because of the dampness of the game, it is still difficult to draw unequivocal conclusions.

AUTUMN

Autumn is the most “productive” time of the year, it accounts for many large tournaments. Among them you can distinguish Parisian ESWC and Swedish Dreamhack. It is in the fall that the teams begin to summarize the preliminary results and pretend what needs to be changed in order to achieve the best results next year.

DSN tied with e -sports

[[Bullet]] This year completed a professional career one of the most stable players in the world.

At the very beginning of September, we watched the Russian finals of World Cyber ​​Games, which gave a lot of exciting games. The right to defend the honor of Russia in South Korea won Moscowfive (CS), Happy , Aristeo , Titan (SC), Bydlo , Lacoste , Park (FIFA 2012) Hawk , Cash (Warcraft 3).

Sad news after a few days came from the camp of the Fnaticmsi team. The unsuccessful results of recent months forced the Swedish team to make a replacement. Their player Harley Orwall ( DSN ), who for six years, faithfully served the team, completed his professional career. The new sniper of the team was the Danish Friis.

Intel Extreme Masters stops in China and USA

October and November were the most intense months of this year in terms of large tournaments. In October passed Intel Extreme Masters Guanzhou (1-4th), where Fnatic and American Zerg defeated Idra , and Warsaw Samsung Euro Championship (7-9th) – We talked about him in detail Here. This tournament is called “European WCG”, and it serves as a good rehearsal before world finals. Eastern European organizers rarely delight with events of this scale, so almost all Warsaw fights collected full halls.

From October 13 to 16 the next stop Intel Extreme Masters became New York. In the discipline of Starsraft II, Europeans could not climb into the prize four, the Korean won Dongraegu. But in the Counter-Strike, the Scandinavians set the tone: SK – Champion, Finns Winfakt The second. Danes MTW just got bronze.

ESWC 2011: yellow-blue battles

[[Bullet]] ESWC 2011. Another world championship, traditionally held in the capital of France

From October 21 to 25, a large -scale festival was held in Paris Electronic Sports World Cup 2011, which many top players have honored with their attention. This tournament is getting better and better every year, which is certainly pleasing. True, without linings, it does not do.

The French, who excited in the disciplines, won in the team standings FIFA , Starsraft II And Counter – Strike: Source. Swedish five Robert Dalstrem ( Robban ), who overcome Natus Vincere, won the next gold in Counter-Strike 1.6, but the Ukrainian delegation without a gold medal from France still did not leave – "Dotra" became champions. Despite a number of shortcomings, the tournament as a whole was a success. According to the personal impressions of the author, 2011 ESWC was much better than the December WCG 2011.

November was remembered primarily in Kyiv MSI Beat it! (November 19-20), which your humble servant visited personally, and by Dreamhackwinter2011 , about which we too They told in more detail. These two tournaments, although not the level of WCG and ESWC, were well organized and gave us a lot of unforgettable impressions and excellent games.

And again winter

Exactly WCG closes every e -sports year and determines the best in a particular game. We will not depart from this tradition and now.

If in CS 1.6, according to the majority, the Poles became the best team of the year ESC Gaming (Loord, Neo, Pasha, Kuben, TAZ), which obeyed Sec , XperiaPlay , E-STARSSEUL And WorldCybergames , then in other games everything is not so definite. It seems that the Koreans are a little regained leadership in Starcraft, the line for the Chinese in Mova.

And next year we are waiting for a tough struggle for the title of the best team of the world in Counter-Strike 1.6. Most likely, the main applicants will be SK , Na’vi , ESC , fnatic And mousesports. We will also write down our Moscowfive , who spent a great year and visited many tournaments in different parts of the world.

Who will break forward in Dota 2 , It is difficult to say: Na’vi is firmly sitting on the European stage, and here few can squeeze them. True, it is not yet known how the Chinese teams, which are traditionally strong in the first Dota, will perform in this discipline, but so far they are limping on both legs in the second.

New Units Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

In 2012, a new part was released Starcraft II – Heart of the Swarm , And this means the next innovations. It is unlikely that they will lead to the fact that one of the races will become new, as they say, “imboe” (that is, the strongest), in Blizzard always knew how to maintain interracial balance. But, judging by the gameplay rollers, the grains there are very impressive. We were especially impressed by the ultralis (a kind of “elephants”, heavy fighters of Zerg): they will be able to dig into the ground in front of the opponent’s army and jump out in the thick of the battle, “opening” the protective constructions thus.

* * *

A few days later the year of the dragon will come. We believe that he will give us even more interesting fights, high -profile sensations and new names in various disciplines.

And in conclusion – a big request to Santa Claus on behalf of professional players. Grandfather, please make it so that in the next, 2012, some tournament organizers do not forget to pay prize, we ask very much!