| Former CLG EU League of Legends team officially joins Evil Geniuses Jan 26th 2013, 04:35 Former Counter Logic Gaming European League of Legends team joining new organization, confirming report from earlier this month. 
The international eSports organization Evil Geniuses has officially announced that the former Counter Logic Gaming European League of Legends team will be joining the organization. This confirms a GameSpot report on the situation from January 3. Both parties have come to an agreement on terms that will reportedly make them the highest paid League of Legends team in the world.  The full five-man roster of Stephen “Snoopeh“ Ellis, Henrik “Froggen“ Hansen, Peter “Yellowpete“ Wüppen, Mitch “Krepo“ Voorspoels and Mike “Wickd“ Petersen have signed a one-year contract with the team. The DreamHack Summer champions have been mulling over their future these last few months, having serious discussions with Evil Geniuses and Curse, and the thought of starting their own team. The finalization of the deal comes after many months of back-and-forth of meetings between Evil Geniuses Owner Alex Garfield and the team, with Ellis at the helm of the talks. It is said to be the longest contract negotiation Evil Geniuses have ever had with a player or team. Representatives from both sides told GameSpot that this was not the focal point of the deal, as several other factors such as security, longevity, team stability, streaming platform, and belief in each other were weighed with financials. Garfield met with Ellis over the course of six times throughout the past half-year, with an initial meeting shortly before Ellis and his team played in Korea“s OGN The Champions League. After narrowly losing to Azubu Frost in The Champions finals, Ellis and his team began to explore their options for 2013. Their contract with CLG was ending December 31, and the team knew of CLG“s plans to partner with Azubu for the future. While the partnership presented opportunities for the team, they saw it more as a hindrance that relied too much on venture capital investment, and a lot of moving parts. The players felt CLG was not at the same level professionally as other established organizations, so came to a decision that without a major change in development, they would not extend their contracts into the new year. Curse, with a European squad that has gone through a variety of roster changes lately, reportedly made a very strong offer to the former CLG team. The offer had the potential to yield more money through their own additional personal sponsorships, an opportunity not attainable through Evil Geniuses. Although Curse had on paper the better financial offer and a multiple large team houses to boot, Ellis felt there was too much of a reality TV atmosphere surrounding the team. There were also said to be obligations from Curse of roughly double the number of hours they would have to stream compared to Evil Geniuses. Not only was this a large factor to the team for both fatigue and practice reasons, the team was said to have much preferred streaming on Twitch.tv rather than Own3d.tv, Evil Geniuses and Curse“s streaming partners, respectively. As of a report two days ago, Own3d.tv may be shutting down in less than a week. Talks with Curse slowed down after this. Negotiations came down to Evil Geniuses and the teams“ personal aspirations of building an empire themselves. Worldwide fan favorites CLG and Team SoloMid were born this way, and just less than two weeks ago, their European rivals Alexey "Alex Ich" Ichetovkin and company left Moscow 5 to start their own journey in Gambit Gaming. Ellis was not fond of traditional eSports organizations, going through a rough four-month stint himself with SK Gaming under Captain Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez at the end of 2011, seeing himself and Peterson leave for CLG Europe for the start of 2012. [ Watch Video ] Ellis had his own reservations against Evil Geniuses as well, with the team“s StarCraft II players Greg “IdrA“ Fields and Geoff “iNcontroL“ Robinson having unkind things to say about League of Legends. Last December, Garfield spoke to PCGamesN at the fifth IGN ProLeague event in Las Vegas, unsure of what the future may hold for EG in League of Legends. “Obviously, the numbers are impressive, and the passion of the community is impressive,“ Garfield said. “I think the challenge for me is just to find the right brand representatives for EG. So I“ve been perfectly happy to wait and sit on the sidelines and let some of those guys grow up a little bit.“ Garfield said this, and at the same time knew this five-nation squad of five was the brand he was looking for. Garfield was said to have looked for two years for the right players to represent his brand in League of Legends, but was unsuccessful in his search until now. Even with Riot“s Season 3 of the League Championship Series on deck with multi-million dollar prize pools and worldwide exposure, this was not reason enough to sign a team before the season starts. It was this team or no team for Evil Geniuses. Garfield came to Ellis again at the MLG Winter Championships in Dallas, Texas, bringing a PowerPoint presentation with him for his whole team. Things went well, but both parties were still skeptical. Ellis and the team still wanted to try things out themselves, and Garfield was having last-minute reservations regarding Riot“s plans for Season 3. The two met for the final time at IPL5 in Las Vegas, with both parties coming out of talks with their concerns addressed. Looking two, three years ahead was very important to the team, albeit only signing a one-year deal. The meeting helped Ellis realize it would be too difficult to run things themselves, and they would have a better opportunity to fulfill their goals with the organization. Talks finalized the following two weeks after IPL5, with a verbal agreement set in mid-December. Riot VP of eSports Dustin Beck helped alleviate concerns for Garfield moving into Season 3. Ellis and the team are proud to be Evil Geniuses“ first League of Legends team, and hope to bridge the gap between the other professional gaming communities. The new Evil Geniuses League of Legends roster will play their first games under EG blue at the start of the Season 3 League Championships in Europe. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
|  | StarCraft II player MorroW signs to Western Wolves Jan 25th 2013, 21:00 20-year-old Swedish player Stefan Andersson signs one-year contract, officials tell GameSpot. 
Swedish StarCraft II player Stefan "MorroW" Andersson has signed a new one-year contract with the competitive gaming team Western Wolves, officials from the organization told GameSpot. The 20-year-old Swedish Terran and Zerg player has been searching for a new home since parting ways with Mousesports on June 27. While in Mousesports, Andersson was approached by several teams with offers, which he was to consider when becoming a free agent. Initially after leaving Mousesports, though, those plans did not pan out and left him to start from scratch. Andersson, along with several other players from South Korea, took a leap of faith with the ApeX eSports organization, who had wanted to open up a StarCraft II division. The experience was quite rough, and not more than two months later, the organization shut down due to owing payments to players and staff. Andersson and Western Wolves have been speaking with each other over the past two months and were able to agree on terms in the last few weeks. Andersson has developed a trust with Western Wolves, something that he is not able to have with many organizations. His trust for the business of eSports is quite low due to teams and tournaments not paying out or fulfilling promises. He feels things will be different his time. "We believe that MorroW will be able to bring in more stability in our roster as well as a lot of experience," a Western Wolves representative told GameSpot. "All of our current players are unexperienced when it comes to offline events. When it comes to the skill level, we believe that they have a good practice routine and are all making progress, but we've seen them having a problem with nerves at events." Andersson joins a Western Wolves roster with several Swedish countrymates, including Rickard "SortOf" Bergman, Daniel "StarNaN" Ohlsson, and Viktor "Mini" Malmberg. These players are friends to Andersson, and their recommendation to him was one of the biggest reasons he has decided to join the team. Western Wolves had been in negotiations with Swedish superstar Johan "Naniwa" Luchessi to join the team as well, but talks broke down last week with issues for accommodation of Luchessi while in South Korea. Western Wolves say that not signing Luchessi is unrelated to the signing of Andersson. Andersson will play his first event under the Western Wolves banner at the Esport SM qualifier event in Umeå, Sweden. An interview with Andersson will be conducted on GameSpot in the following days. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | CT senator says games influenced Sandy Hook shooter Jan 25th 2013, 20:11 Democratic senator Chris Murphy says massacre may not have happened if games did not glorify guns and violence. 
Democratic Connecticut senator Chris Murphy is the latest politician to call out the gaming industry in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Speaking during Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) press conference yesterday (via GamePolitics) introducing a bill that would ban assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines, Murphy said the massacre may not have occurred if games did not glorify guns and violence. "I think there's a question as to whether he would have driven in his mother's car in the first place if he didn't have access to a weapon that he saw in video games that gave him a false sense of courage about what he could do that day," Murphy said. Previously, republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie said violent games must be examined in the wake of the shooting. Before that, and just a week after the December 14 shooting, the National Rifle Association condemned violent games, saying they were partially to blame for the mass shooting. Murphy's entire speech is available below. [ Watch Video ] Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Half-Life now on Mac, Linux Jan 25th 2013, 19:41 Landmark 1998 first-person shooter ported to Mac OS X and Linux 15 years after its original release. 
Valve's iconic first-person shooter Half-Life is now available on Mac OS X and Linux, 15 years after the game originally launched in 1998. Valve has not made an official announcement, but Polygon reports that the game is available and runs without a hiccup. The game is currently priced at $9.99 through Steam. Half-Life 2 and its subsequent episodes were previously made available for Mac, but not the original. The original Half-Life has sold millions of copies and was adored by critics upon launch. It stars Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the Black Mesa Research Facility. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Web-based PlayStation Store now live Jan 25th 2013, 19:11 Sony launches new online store allowing users to purchase PS3 and PS Vita games, as well as movies and TV shows. 
As promised, Sony has launched a Web-based PlayStation Store in North America. The virtual marketplace allows users to purchase PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita games, as well as television shows and movies. A "PSP" tab is visible on the website, though it, alongside various other pages, does not appear to be functional. The Web-based PlayStation Store allows users to sort content through a number of filters, including demos, betas, add-ons, full games, and more. In addition, some listings include PlayStation Plus prices listed alongside the standard rate. The platform launched in Europe and 15 other countries last month. Competitor Microsoft has offered a similar service through Xbox.com since November 2008. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Resident Evil 6 PC gets exclusive game mode Jan 25th 2013, 18:40 Capcom confirms PC version of zombie shooter will receive The Mercenaries: No Mercy game type; Siege mode coming to PS3, Xbox 360 in March. 
Capcom today announced that the PC version of Resident Evil 6 will receive an exclusive game mode called The Mercenaries: No Mercy. A spin on the classic Mercenaries mode from previous games, the new version includes "more enemies on screen than ever before." Capcom also today solidified release plans for the PC version of Resident Evil 6. The game will launch physically and digitally March 22 in North America and Europe and will include features that were patched in to the console versions. These include access to Ada Wong's campaign from the outset and the camera-adjustment update. In addition, PC players will be able to tap into ResidentEvil.net to view and track their statistics. Additionally, Capcom announced today that the notably absent Siege mode for Resident Evil 6 will arrive in March for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be a $4 download for both platforms. What's more, Capcom said the Survivors, Predator, and Onslaught game add-ons will launch for the PS3 in February priced at $4 each. These were previously available only for the Xbox 360. Lastly, Capcom said all Resident Evil 6 expansions--Survivors, Predator, Onslaught, and Siege--will be available for PC players to purchase "shortly after" March 22. All future title updates for the console versions of the game will be available free for PC players, the company said. For more on Resident Evil 6--which Capcom believes has been "successful to some degree"--check out GameSpot's review. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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