Although the battle between East and West has been more highly advertised than the individual tournament, the Continental Cup only takes place on one of the three days of eStars 2009. The Continental Cup is a battle between three teams or players in the case of Warcraft3, who were picked via a combination of public poll, verdict of the eStars committee and on their record.

Both Counter-Strike and Warcraft3 will have two different tournaments at the Continental Cup; Threesome and Deathmatch, making there a total of four points up for grabs, which also allows for the possibility of a draw. Following the Continental Cup there will be an individual competition for all the teams to play against each other. The tournament spans over three days 24-26th July in Seoul, Korea.

Participating Teams

Team East

None of the Counter-strike teams who played last year (eStro, Lunatic Hai or Team Dragon) return for a second helping this year and instead Korean. The Warcraft3 team sees only one change with Weiliang 'Fly100%' Lu stepping for Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li who withdrew his participation after it clashed with cosplay and gaming festival ChinaLove scheduled for the same time.

Counter-Strike:
TyLoo
WeMade FOX
k23

Warcraft3:
June 'Lyn' Park
Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang
Weiliang 'Fly100%' Lu

Team West

fnatic is the only one of the Team West Counter-Strike teams to return in 2009, with WICKED eSports and emuLate settling for GameGune this year. In their stead comes SK Gaming and mTw , thus fielding probably the strongest possible European line-up.

In Warcraft3 Manuel 'GrubbY' Schenkhuizen stays eternal but the two elf players from last year, Mykhaylo 'HoT' Novopashyn and Kim 'SaSe' Hammar, find themselves replaced by Blizzard Regional Champion Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán and WC3L runner-up Dennis 'HasuObs' Schneider.

Team West pulled off a surprise win last year, but it will be interesting to see how Hasuobs can hold up given he does not participate in the NGL One Ladder like all other five competitors and his last EPS match was back in May.

Counter-Strike:
SK Gaming
fnatic
mTw

Warcraft3:
Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán
Manuel 'GrubbY' Schenkhuizen
Dennis 'HasuObs' Schneider



1.1 - Threesome
Scheduled time: Friday 14:30 - 15:30 Korean time [7:30am - 8:30am CET]

As attractive as the title of the tournament sounds, each of the three teams will play one match, with their coaches deciding which team to seed on which map.

The maps will be announced 24 hours before the match and the coach will then relay "his" seeding to the organisers. Therefore there are a total of three matches, with the first to two points winning.


1.2 - Deathmatch
Scheduled time: Friday 16:30 - 22:30 Korean time [9:30am - 15:30pm CET]

After the Threesome which has a scheduled time slot of one hour, there is a one hour break before the commencement of the so-called "Deathmatch" format, more commonly known as King of the Hill.

Both Team East and Team West will pick one team to start them off with the winner staying on until one side has lost all three teams.



Continental Cup Map Pool

Map pool for the Continental holds six maps as opposed to the four in the King of the Game individual tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

For Counter-Strike we see the interesting addition of aztec and cbble, which gives an opportunity for some upsets.

Counter-Strike:

de_nuke
de_cbble
de_dust2
de_inferno
de_train
de_aztec

Warcraft3:

Secret Valley
Twisted Meadows
Echo Isles
Turtle Rock
Terenas Stand

Rules - CS Overtime to decide winner if draw

The Rulebook is normally quite a bore to sift through but the eStars one is pretty short and to the point.

The most noteworthy rule is the fact that compared to last year where the tournament finished in a draw, this year an overtime in Counter-Strike will decide the winner.







2.1 First-Stage - Round-Robin
Scheduled Time: Saturday 13:00pm - 18:00pm [6:00 am - 11:00 am CET]

The full league is essentially the regular tournament where all six teams are thrown together to compete against each other regardless of which continent they come from.

Given their are six teams the "Full League" kicks off with round-robin, with all six teams playing each other, and in the end the top four with the most points progressing to the playoffs (which are single elimination).

Pretty straight forward, one win = three points, a draw = 1 point, a loss = 0 points. In the case of teams being drawn at the end of the round robin, the two teams will play against each other again.

[Click image to enlarge and see maps for each round-robin match]

2.2 Second-Stage - Playoffs [single elimination]
Scheduled Time: Saturday 13:00pm - 20:30pm [6:00 am - 13:30pm CET]

Once the top four teams of the round-robin have been determined they will progress to a typical playoff tree, but a single elimination one.



King of the Game Map Pool

Nothing noteworthy in the map selection for King of the Game, only four maps for CS and five for WC3, a pretty standard selection.

Counter-Strike

de_dust2
de_inferno
de_nuke
de_train

Warcraft3

Echo Isles
Twisted Meadows
Terenas Stand
Turtle Rock
Secret Valley

Rules

Warcraft3:

The most interesting rule for the King of the Game tournament is that the Warcraft3 players must inform the committee what race they will be playing via an official form, which they fill in three days before the event.



Furthermore, players are not allowed to pause the game themselves, instead they must type "P" for the admin to perform the command. In the case of their keyboard malfunctioning, the players still cannot pause and instead must raise their hand.



Counter-Strike:

Nothing shocking in the rules for the Counter-Strike tournament, silent planting makes the rulebook as well as the typical boosting.





Continental Cup Prizes

Although only a one-day event the Continental Cup has a larger prize purse than the individual tournament on the two following days.



Probably the most noteworthy point is the fact that the Coaches receive the same winnings as their Warcraft3 players, win or lose.

King of the Game Prizes





King of the Game - Round Robin



King of the Game - Playoffs