The first pool of games was announced last week with CS 1.6 (male and female), Warcraft 3, Trackmania and Quake 3. This list will be further expanded and SK Gaming's interview with Matthieu Dallon sheds more light on it.

Games Services want a virtual football game back in the ESWC and are still negotiating with the publishers of PES 2009 and FIFA 09. A console game is also an option that Dallon wants: "[It] could be Street Fighter 4 but the release date seems to be again delayed."

Not all hope is lost for the DotA community. The game was given a chance in the 2008 season but did not make the cut in the first list. It turns out that the game still has a chance: "The line-up is open to games like DotA or WoW and COD4 – we work on those possibilities. Starcraft II will probably be selected when released, next year, next season..."

In the interview, Dallon also talks about ESWC's general policy of game choices: "I really understand the disappointment of some communities, but we cannot work with all the good games. We have to represent families of games, we have to make choices valuable worldwide, we have to favour the most popular titles and we also have personal affinities."

The entire interview can be read here.