Following on from a somewhat low key first season, the iPower Games have prompted significant changes within every aspect of the organisation. Alternating qualifying countries, the event location and even the games selected in a move which can be seen to target more competitive markets.

The consolidation see's the only non European country selected (South Africa) as well as the host of the first grand finals (Portugal) removed with only one replacement named, Italy. The selection of games have been marginalized from 2007's five to two. Call of Duty 4 and Race07, both of which are published by Activision, have been named as the competitive platforms for the second season.

The countries who've qualifiers are Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Having already played qualifiers in the United Kingdom and Switzerland for the CoD4 competitors, the remaining countries have a qualification system which starts today with registration.

The qualifiers will be played online with some countries such as Germany and the Netherlands imposing a limit of the size of the tournament (32 teams on a first come first serve basis), employing a waiting list as a compromise.

There's also an issue which potentially highlights an error in one of the invites, or at the very least an oversight in the rules presented. The contradiction comes with the qualified team from the UK. The UK qualifier was selected from the highest placed all UK team at the Multiplay i33. Dignitas beat Meet Your Makers (then The Last Resort) in the final, but were overlooked due to the fact they've two foreign players.



The specific rules in question suggest Dignitas earnt the UK qualifying spot since they've the nationality composition of 3/1/1 and won the i33 tournament. The 'difficulty' comes when classifying the nationality of team captain Michael 'Mick' Bradshaw, who despite living in Tralee in County Kerry, the Republic of Ireland, is in fact a UK national.

Mick confirmed to SK Gaming that he was born in the UK, has a UK driving license and passport, and has only lived in Ireland for six months. The guidelines published require no authoritative document such as a passport to prove nationality and the evidence seems to imply a mistake has been made in awarding MYM the UK spot, or that the rules have been subsequently changed since the UK qualifier was played.



The event takes place from the 4-6th of July and every national qualifier will have their expenses paid for with the opportunity of winning 'ultimate gaming machines from Packard Bell'.