Intel Extreme European Championship to test best StarCraft 2, Counterstrike 1.6 and Quake players

Intel World Masters Championships 2

The European leg of the Intel Extreme World Championships is set to kick off tomorrow in Kiev. Three tournaments will pit the best Starcraft 2, Counterstrike 1.6 and Quake players against each other. The winners will gain a place in the Intel Masters V World Championship in Hanover in March, as well as a mighty wad of cash. Read on for details.

Players are competing for a slice of a $79,000 prize pot. Qualifiers for the three tournaments have been sorted into two six-man groups. After a league phase the top three from each group will be entered into the play-offs. Counterstrike players stand to win the most, with a $50,000 top prize. The winners of the Starcraft 2 and Quake will take home $18,000 and $11,000 respectively.

The winners of each competition will go on to the World Championships in Hanover at CeBIT in March. For more information on the competition, check out the Intel Extreme Masters Championship Facebook page . The matches will all be broadcast on ESL TV .

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.