Today the ESL announced that in April they will be holding the fourth installment of the EMS. The tournament will feature all of the games from EMS III with the exception of Guild Wars. The ESL announced that they have also added a few games such as America’s Army, Day of Defeat: Source, Quake 3 and Enemy’s Territory.

The prize money for this tournament has been dropped to €17,250 from the €25,000 it was just a year ago. The money has also been spread out among more of the games as Call of Duty 4 and CounterStrike:Source lose €500 and Team Fortress 2 stays the same.

The prize money and format for each game is as follows.
                                

Game – Prize Money
Counter-Strike: Source (5on5) – €3,000
Call of Duty 4 (5on5) – €3,000
Counter-Strike Female (5on5) – €1,500
DotA (5on5) – €1,500
Dawn of War 2 (Clanwar) – €1,000
FIFA 09 (5on5) – €1,750
Team Fortress 2 (6on6) – €1,500
America’s Army (4on4) – €500
Day of Defeat: Source (6on6) – €500
Enemy’s Territory (6on6) – €500
Quake 3 – €750
StarCraft: Brood War – €750
PES 2009 – €500
Trackmania – €500

While the EMS has been plagued with inactivity and the inevitability of slow-moving tournaments the staff hopes that they can definately put on a strong tournament.

There is no date yet for the start of the signups but stay tuned as they will be announcing the details in a matter of weeks.

Source: Cadred

On March 6, 2009 Quake players will have to wait no longer for the signups of QuakeCon. Online registration for the BYOC LAN Party will begin at 9:30 PM EST. Entry to this event will be free of charge for all wishing to attend thanks to id Software, QuakeCon Volunteers, and of course the Sponsors and Exhibitors. The event begins on August 13, 2009 and comes to a finish on August 16, 2009 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. With room for 3,000 gamers this is definitely the biggest North American LAN Event of the year. Competitors can book there rooms at the hotel by contacting their Toll-Free reservations number 1-800-HILTONS or through the custom QuakeCon Reservations Page. Be sure to book your rooms and register online to ensure your participation in this years event! You will not want to miss it as the event will be packed with contests, entertainment and of course parties. You also won’t want to miss id Software displaying the free-to-play, web-based miltiplayer game QUAKE LIVE at the event. For more on this years event be sure to read QuakeCon 2009.

Source: Kotaku

Carmac has sat down with SK|zet at the ESL Extreme Master III European Finals for a chat. The interview is in video form and can be found below.

Source: SK Gaming

It’s true that I came up with the title for this Gaming Extra News. That aside it was interesting to read (and discover for the first time) that Gillette released a razor targeted at the people most likely to shave – gamers. That being said, it’s pretty cool to see that the multi-billion dollar industry that is disposable razors have targeted the multi-billion dollar market that is gaming. In all honesty, the only adverts I saw on TV had Thiery Henry, that bloke who’s good at tennis and Tiger Woods hitting some razors at a random bunch of guys. For more info on this bizzare snipet of news, check it out here.

Electronic Arts will be releasing their latest basketball game NCAA Basketball 09: March Madness exclusively for download on xbox 360. The game will be replicating the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship bracket.

The game will be available for download March 11th and will only cost $15. The game will feature the teams from last years tournament but then updating to the new brackets once they are released by the NCAA.

Source: WIRED

Today SK Gaming released its new version of SK-gaming.com. They now have over 1 million unique users. The layout of the site stayed the same but you can now change between a dark layout or a light layout by simply clicking the button in the header.

Many new features have been added to the site and some old ones changed. The forums have been rewritten from scratch, you now have game filters so you can set what results you want from your favorite games. The new site also contains a new E-Sports Index which is a database of winnings, matches, and other information, compiled all in one area.

SK Gaming

With the first few days of launch, Killzone 2 has become the third fastest selling PS3 title behind Grand Theft Auto 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4. The release of the game only increased the sales of the actual PS3 hardware slightly, but the full effect on the sales will be felt over the next few weeks.

Source & Image from: VGChartz