Team Pandemic - News - ESL Extreme Masters adds WoW, US Competition

Today the Electronic Sports League (ESL), the premiere gaming league of Europe, announced plans for the third edition of their Intel Extreme Masters competition. This time, ESL will expand into a few new arenas: World of Warcraft, and the world itself.

Last year's Dreamhack World of Warcraft tournament, featuring Pandemic as the winner, was only a warmup for ESL as this year they'll be heading into the new frontier full force.

Featuring $750,000 of prize money for Counter-Strike 1.6 and World of Warcraft, ESL looks to build on their ever-increasing influence in Europe by taking the world eSports scene by storm. Unlike previous years, where the competition was centered in Europe and only featured a few international competitors after some one-shot qualifiers, Extreme Masters will be in the US and Asia in full force.

Pandemic will compete in an “American continental league” climaxing in an individual country championship, with the top finalists earning berths for the world event at CeBIT in 2009.

More information is available on the ESL website and the Intel Extreme Masters site. Details on the continental seasons will be released soon.

One thing is for sure, though: Pandemic will have their hands full this year, and that's a good thing!