n00b c0n - An Irish e-sports extravaganza

For as long as I can remember, the Irish gaming scene has been.. well let's just say that for as long as I have been around here, it's been somewhat lacking. I mean there are a lot of gamers here in Ireland.. I can name four big games studios off the top of my head that have offices here.. but even with all of that, there has been nothing going on here and it's all been very disappointing in that regard.

However! All that is set to change with the upcoming arrival of an eSports event based in Cork, Ireland. When I first heard someone mentioning that this start up called n00bgaming were planning to host an event, I will be the first to admit to being dubious to the nth degree.. but ever since I saw the "poster" on TeamLiquid a fever has been growing in my loins head err..heart?

One of the things that makes it easy to become hyped about this is that Nick "Axslav" Ranish and Alex "Axeltoss" Rodriguez have agreed take the trip over to Ireland from the states to cast the tournament side of this event. This is notable because the pair cast as a duo for Major League Gaming(which is kind of a big deal).

On top of that, there is the announced prize pool.. which is insanely high for a first time event, so I'm told! There will be four different game tournaments each with a different total prize pool. I'll go through them here and let you know what it is! So here goes!!

1. Fifa 13 - €1000
2. Halo 3 - €1000
3. League of Legends - €2000
4. Starcraft 2 - €10,000

Yep, you read that right.. €10,000 euro prize pool for SC2.. for a first time event. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has extremely high hopes that this does well.. and if it does I'm positive there will be many more and the more there are, all the better for the Irish gaming scene and I guess the economy or something like that. They also appear to have some solid backing though with sponsors like Ozone gaming gear, Microsoft and Happauge!.

They have also announced at least one pro sc2 player who is going to turn up and that is Elfi.. I hope some more turn up cause well, it'd be pretty easy money for him if no other pro players go! So come on guys, sign up! Ireland is great and we'd love to have you all over here!

The tournament is set to take place in Cork City itself, and the location is fantastic because it's only a few minutes away from a lot of pubs. It's happening on the 16th and 17th of November at O'Callaghan Properties, Half Moon St, Cork.

This is their post on TeamLiquid. You can also check out the Facebook page here, follow them on Twitter for regular updates.

That's me done, so as usual drop me a comment or three if you have any thoughts or want any more information and I'll do my best to dig it out for you!

Ciao for now!

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Dota 2: The International 3

Let's just start out by saying.. holee moley!!

G'wan, take a look.. ah you will now won't ye?

http://www.dota2.com/international/home/overview/

For me.. well, I'm impressed. The only other tournaments that I have watched have been Starcraft 2 ones and somehow they didn't seem to be so.. well, huge.

Valve has done a good job I think! The hall looks pretty darn cool and so does the booths the players sit in! The picture below was taken by someone on the DotA 2 team and looks pretty.

All this aside, I was watching the tournament at home. In the luxury of my own little space.. and by all accounts, so were around 1 million other people.

That's right, 1 million peak concurrent viewers.. I had heard quite a few numbers thrown around yesterday for peak concurrent viewers but this is the highest.. and well, I'm astounded. I was shocked by the Starcraft 2 viewer figures when I first started watching but this is on a whole other level.

It really does help that you can watch the tournament games on twitch.tv and in the game client itself!!!!

Then let's talk about the production; there was a small issue in the first match where one of the casters mic's was acting up.. and that was it.. that was the single problem I encountered during the first day of the main event.

Then, this morning while waiting for the games to start again.. the news broke that MLG have, for the moment dropped Starcraft 2 from their Columbus line-up... the current speculation is that it's being replaced.. most likely with World of Tanks.. since they already have League of Legends as their main show.. I think, anyway and I'm not so sure that Riot(who makes League) would take too kindly to DotA 2 being added in to the same show.

For the moment all we can do is sit and wonder.. after all, there still is WCS(The Blizzard run World Championship Series) running along and still pulling in around the same amount of viewer numbers.. though that is a lot smaller than that of The International. But then, the International is a annual event.

It helps that they aren't really in direct competition with each other.. unless you consider this weekend.. where all the WCS finals are on the same weekend as the International.. which I'm not even gonna go into...

Time to get some food, then watch a whole load of DotA 2!

If you've enjoyed reading this, then follow me on Bloglovin and on Twitter @McKnublet - You can also watch me playing games on Twitch.tv and even see some highlights at my YouTube - Click me and subscribe!

Ciao for now!

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