It is Sunday the 21st of March and the day of the first ever fnatic Female Counter-Strike tournament hosted by their PLAY micro-site. As we reported yesterday, the tournament was to have 28 teams competing, in a 32 team bracket, meaning 4 teams would receive a BYE into the next round. The Play staff earlier released the brackets for the tournament, revealing that Pink Zinic along with Burning, aTTaX and mousesports would receive those next round BYE’s.

Bracket:

Quater-Finals	Semi-Finals	Finals	Winner
Zinic
[2:0]	Zinic
unFinished
	[2:1]	Zinic
Millenium
[2:0]	Millenium
Burning!
		[2:0]	Zinic
aTTax
[1:2]	69ers
69ers
	[0:2]	mouz
we are
[1:2]	mouz
mouz

Stay tuned to myZINIC.com for further updates on the Fnatic Cup and of course to see how the mighty Pink Zinic do.

It is with great discomfort that today we are announcing the departure of long term player Mayra ‘IpSa’ Perez. Over the past few weeks, Mayra has sadly been losing the motivation to play Counter-Strike. With the sudden change of heart, it has lead to the the announcement that she will no longer be playing with the team.

Since the fall of MeetYourMakers, it lead to the rise of Pink Zinic, where Mayra lead the team as the captain. She has lifted many trophies with her team mates, showing great sportsmanship throughout her career, making her a true ambassador to girl gamers.

Statement from Mayra:

“I am very happy to quit the team, although I will miss spending time with the girls and hanging out like we used too. Its time to start a new era! Without CS! I enjoyed my time here and thanks for all the fine memories!”

Pink Zinic Now Stands As:

Julia ‘Julie’ Strunkowski
Zainab ‘zAAz’ Turkie
Sophie ‘inzane’ Regner
Irene ‘iReNuKa’ Sanchez

Since Fnatic introduced their tournament system named Play, they have mainly focussed on the male side of competitive gaming. That however has now changed, as they just after their new website release have announced they will support the female gaming side of eSports with a Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament.

The tournament will take place in two weeks, on Sunday the 21st of March, where Female counter-strike teams from all countries will battle it out in a Single-Elimination style bracket. The online event will cater for 12 of the best teams the tournament can find, with 3 of them already found, including your very own Pink Zinic!

Confirmed Teams:

Pink Zinic
Mousesports
Burning

Time Schedule for the 21st March 2010:

14:00 CET – 15:30 CET: 1^st round, 8 teams, best of 3 mode
15:30 CET – 17:30 CET: 2^nd round, 8 teams, best of 3 mode.
17:30 CET – 19:30 CET: 3^rd round, 4 teams, best of 3 mode
20:00 CET – 21:30 CET: Grand Finals and 3^rd place decider, best of 3 mode

Prizes:

1st Place: $500
2nd Place: 5x SteelSeries iron.lady Siberia Full-size Headset
3rd Place: 5x Steelseries Kinzu + 5x Steelseries iron.lady QcK (pink or white)
Most Valuable Player: MSI Wind U160 Laptop

As you know, the Electronic Sports League revealed they will be dedicating a section of their website especially for Female gaming. This came after the news that their Major Series would not be supporting a Female Counter-Strike tournament. Following the news of the new section, ESL have today announced that Dell and Intel that will support the female section, and have also revealed a 25,000 euro prize pot.

The prize pot will be split over the two upcoming seasons, with both seasons receiving 6,500 euros in prize money. Along with the prize pots, using the remaining money from the 25k, ESL will be flying teams out to play Group stage offline matches in front of an audience.

Prize Money Distribution:

Season 1 & 2

1st - 3,500€
2nd - 1,750 €
3rd - 750€
4th - 500

Travel Expenses - 12,000€

As you well know, the ladies here at Pink Zinic regained their title of Major Series Champions, they will now also keep that title after ESL announced the end of the Female Competitions in their Major Series. However, female gamers are urged to not despair as the end of Female Gaming in the Major Series has opened a new door, which contains the new ESL Female Section. This section will contain all female gaming action, from Counter-Strike to CS:Source, the tournament structures will remain the same and of course will include some cash prizes!

So to kick of the section, the Electronic Sports League staff have put together a European League, which will feature the best teams battling it for the title. While other teams have to go through various qualification stages, our girls have earned themselves a place in the league, bypassing the qualification stages. Joining them will be the remaining teams who finished in top four of the last Major Series, they are;  German teams we are … and Frankfurt 69ers, and finally the French team of Burning!.

When asked what she thinks about the new ESL Female Section, Captain Mayra ‘IpSa’ Perez had the following to say:

“We are looking forward to it!!!“

Stay tuned to myZINIC.com for updates on upcoming tournaments and of course news on the new ESL Female Section!

The final game of the Electronic Sports Leagues Female Counter-Strike Major Series has  just concluded, with Pink Zinic reclaiming their titles of Major Series Champions!

They managed to beat the German team we are in the finals 2-0, ending their unbeaten run. The first map the teams were to play on was de_dust2, a map which was chosen by the Germans. Although they put up a tough fight, it ended up going in Zinics favour. The second map of de_nuke proved the key to the girls success, captain IpSa chose correctly yet again leading to the map and game win.

Map 1 - de_dust2
Zinic  CT [8:7] T we are
Zinic T [8:2] CT we are
Final Score: Zinic [16:09] we are

Map 2 - de_nuke
Zinic  CT [13:02] T we are
Zinic T [03:00] CT we are
Final Score: Zinic [16:02] we are

Overall Score: [2:0]

Your Major Series Season Five Champions:

- Julia ‘Julie’ Strunkowski
- Zainab ‘zAAz’ Turkie
- Sophie ‘inzane’ Regner
- Mayra ‘IpSa’ Perez
- Irene ‘iReNuKa’ Sanchez

Join me in saying well done to the girls, lets hope they continue their success in the upcoming tournaments, Keep it up!

Tonight, after many reschedules, the girls will undergo their final challenge in the ESL Major Series. They will be defending their title against the German team of we are, who throughout the tournament have not lost a map. Similarly, the Pink Zinic ladies have also not dropped a map, so the game will definitely decide the better team and also, champions.

Like before, the game will be played in a best of three format, the three maps to be played will be de_dust2 (we are choice), de_nuke (Pink Zinic choice) and the deciding map will be de_train.

Pre-Match Statement from Pink Zinic:

“Woah, we made it pretty far and put a lot of effort so far in this Major Series season. Coming so far, you get of course even more hungry for the victory then you are already and we really went to take the victory in this match - it shall be exciting!”

The game will be played at 20:00CET, the HLTV IP is hltv4.verygames.net:27084, be sure to stay tuned for updates and of course to support your favourite team!

Fresh from resurrection, the Electronic Sports World Cup have announced a $213,500 prize pot for their 2010 event which will be held in Paris, France. The new management behind ESWC have also unveiled their new website, which reveals not only the prize pot for their next event, but also a huge list of supporters. The brand has already announced they have the backing from the huge Car Manufacture Peugeot. Now it seems they have French radio station Virgin Radio, Music TV station MCM, online payment service and consultancy firm All-Pass and the popular video website Dailymotion on the supporting list.

The event will host several games, ranging from the ever so popular Counter-Strike 1.6 which has two tournaments for both genders, to Virtua Tennis. There is a big list of games to cater for, but not enough room for popular games such as Call of Duty 4 and Heroes of Newerth.

Prize Distribution
Counter Strike 1.6
1. $ 36,000
2. $ 18,000
3. $ 9,000
Counter Strike 1.6 Female
1. $ 14,000
2. $ 7,000
3. $ 3,500
Warcraft 3 TFT
1. $ 8,000
2. $ 4,000
3. $ 2,000
Quake Live
1. $ 8,000
2. $ 4,000
3. $ 2,000
Trackmania Nations Forever ESWC
1. $ 8,000
2. $ 4,000
3. $ 2,000
Defence of the Ancients
1. $ 14,000
2. $ 7,000
3. $ 3,500
Fifa 2010
1. $ 8,000
2. $ 4,000
3. $ 2,000
Street Fighter 4
1. $ 8,000
2. $ 4,000
3. $ 2,000
Virtua Tennis
1. $ 6,000
2. $ 3,000
3. $ 1,500
Guitar Hero
1. $ 6,000
2. $ 3,000
3. $ 1,500
Need For Speed Shift
1. $ 6,000
2. $ 3,000
3. $ 1,500

The Semi-Final of ESLs Major Series has concluded, with Pink Zinic once again coming out of top with a straight 2-0 victory. The game was against the French team Burning!, who last week also managed a straight 2-0 win. However, on a high, ours girls managed to carry the momentum from the mousesport revenge to this game.

After the two maps of train and tuscan were eliminated, the French side chose to start with inferno. A map which proved challenging for both teams as it went into overtime. With the pressure on, it was the mighty Pinc Zinic to come out on top and win the map 21-16. It was then time for the second map, nuke, which was chosen by Zinic. The map selection by captain ipSa proved invaluable as they took the map in a straight 16-01 victory.

Pink Zinic		Burning!
	-vs- [21:16] inf [16:01] nuke
iReNuKa inzane zAAz IpSa Julie	Matchlink	Juuuuuuu Leeya SaAku aKaSha tOrkA

The next match will come in the form of German team we are, who have had an impressive run in the playoff bracket as they have not lost a map yet. The final will be played on the 4th of February (Next Thursday!) at 21:00CET, be sure you are around to support your favourite Counter-Strike team.

Tonight the girls here at Pink Zinic will be participating in the Semi-Final of the ESL Major Series. The game will be against the French team Burning!, who last week defeated Be-The-Best in a straight 2-0 victory. Like all the other Playoff games, the game will be in a best of three format, with inferno, nuke and dust2 being used.

Pre-Match Statement from Pink Zinic:

“Last week we played mouz in the playoffs and could knock them out on two maps which was a very important game for us and we were glad to be able to show our good game. In the next step to the EMS finals we have to manage to win over b! which actually eliminated BTB from the tournament last week. That shows that we have to play yet another time a good match in order to be able to win. We are convinced to be able to so!”

Pink Zinic		Burning!
	-vs- inferno nuke dust2
iReNuKa inzane zAAz IpSa Julie	MatchlinkPlayoff Bracket	Juuuuuuu Leeya SaAku aKaSha tOrkA

If you want to support the girls, you can watch via HLTV (hltv4.verygames.net:27084). The match is scheduled to start at 21:00CET, be sure your on time to support the mighty Pink Zinic!