The Global Challenge Sao Paulo has finished. The StarCraft II Grand Final between viOLet and SuperNoVa was the last game of a Global Challenge in season 6. The crowd at Campus Party was just amazing and so were you, all the people who followed our first South-American event from their homes. Thank you and cu at the World Championship at CeBIT from March 6th to 10th!

1. viOLet 2. SuperNoVa 3. ret
SICK NERD BALLER Slivko

[20:15] The Global Challenge Sao Paulo is over. In a great final viOLet took down SuperNoVa with 3-1. Both players have won direct qualification for the World Championships at the CeBIT in March 2012. The SICK NERD BALLER title went to sLivko.

1. viOLet
2. SuperNoVa
3. ret

SICK NERD BALLER sLivko

[18:15] And we have the first person in the Top 3. ret wins the third place match clearly against ReaL with 3-0. The first 3-0 in the entire play-offs here in Sao Paulo. A great recovery from the Dutch Zerg after his loss in the Semi Final just moments before. Now only one match remains, the Grand Final between SuperNoVa and viOLet.

Grand Final - SuperNoVa 1-3 viOLet

Taldarim Altar
Antiga Shipyard
Shakuras Plateau
Metalopolis (if needed)
The Shattered Temple (if needed)

[17:15] The third place match will go live now between ReaL and ret. Can the Dutchman be fully focused again after his Semi Final loss not long ago? Find out on ESL TV with MrBitter and RotterdaM.

3rd Place Match - ret 3-0 ReaL

Antiga Shipyard
Terminus SE
The Shattered Temple
Shakuras Plateau
Dual Sight

[16:45] And we have a final. viOLet managed to win the second Semi Final against ret with 3-1 and will now face SuperNoVa in the final while ret will play for the third place against ReaL.

Grand Final - SuperNoVa 1-3 viOLet
3rd Place Match - ret 3-0 ReaL

[15:35] The first Semi Final is over. After being down 0-2 SuperNoVa managed to stage a comeback and win the entire series with 3-2 against ReaL. The next match will be the second Semi Final between ret and viOLet, the last ZvZ of the tournament.

Semi Final #2 - ret 1-3 viOLet

Metalopolis
Taldarim Altar
Antiga Shipyard
Dual Sight (if needed)
The Shattered Temple (if needed)

[14:00] Who would have guess that: The young Illusion, who came into the Free For Allstars to replace yesterdays winner DeMusliM, wins the second match and a brand new Intel Core i7 CPU. Now we will start with the first Semi Final of the tournament. Koreans SuperNoVa and ReaL will meet in a Best-of-Five TvP.

Semi Final #1 - SuperNoVa 3-2 ReaL

Antiga Shipyard
Taldarim Altar
The Shattered Temple
Shakuras Plateau (if needed)
Dual Sight (if needed)

[13:30] The Free For All is currently live but the serious games will start right after. We begin with the first Semi Final between SuperNoVa and ReaL followed by ret against viOLet.

Semi Final #1 - SuperNoVa - ReaL
Semi Final #2 - ret - viOLet

[12:30] In 30 minutes we will start with the Free For Allstars match, live on ESL TV. In the meantime everyone should go and vote for the SICK NERD BALLER. Six players are nominated and the winner will receive the meanest and greenest hoodie in eSports and hardware from Intel, BenQ and Razer.

reaL
ret
SuperNoVa
viOLet
sLivko
DeMusliM

[12:00] Welcome to the 4th and last day of the StarCraft II tournament in Sao Paulo. Today the Semi Finals, 3rd Place match and the Grand Final will take place. But before we start with the official business we have another Free For Allstars for you. Two hosts and six players will go against each other. Yesterdays winner DeMusliM has been replaced by the young American Terran Illusion. The game starts in one hour.

Sao Paulo Free For Allstars #2 Line-Up

TaKe
RotterdaM
KiLLeR
ReaL
Feast
DeMusliM replaced by Illusion Winner
viOLet
sLivko

Tomorrow not only the winner of the Global Challenge Sao Paulo will be crowned but also the MVP aka Sick Nerd Baller will be handed out. These title will be determined by one source: YOU!

The community can now vote for the SICK NERD BALLER (StarCraft II) of the so far sunniest Global Challenge of season 6. Six players up for vote and it will run until the grand final has ended. Now it is time to present the nominees:

VOTE NOW
reaL
ret
SuperNoVa
viOLet
sLivko Winner
DeMusliM

Prize Package
Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition CPU
BenQ XL2410T Display
Razer Bundle
Exclusive, unique MVP Hoodie

The SICK NERD BALLER will be announced together with the tournament winners after the final. Now it is your turn to decide.

The second Free For Allstars will take place tomorrow at around 13:00 local Sao Paulo time and will feature two casters and six players.

Sao Paulo Free For Allstars #2 Line-Up

TaKe
RotterdaM
KiLLeR
ReaL
Feast
DeMusliM replaced by Illusion Winner
viOLet
sLivko

Don't miss the opportunity to watch this epic match before the semi-finals begin in the afternoon.

Update: DeMusliM had to be replaced by Illusion and the young Terran from America filled the footsteps well by winning the second Free For Allstars and a brand new Intel Core i7 CPU.

[19:38] The last Quarter Final is over. viOLet goes to the Semi Finals after an incredibly close 3-2 over DeMusliM. On the fifth and deciding map it looked like DeMusliM had the win secured early on but it turned around in seconds when viOLet managed to get into his base and kill off all the workers.

Tomorrow we will have the Semi Finals, 3rd Place match and the Grand Final. There will also be another Free For Allstars match and you can vote for the SICK NERD BALLER now:

Semi Final #1 - SuperNoVa - ReaL
Semi Final #2 - ret - viOLet

VOTE for the SICK NERD BALLER
Free For Allstars #2

[18:05] The third Quarter Final is over. ret won in a close series with 3-2 against DarK.FoRcE. The Dutch Zerg was leading 2-0 before the series got tied with 2-2 but he fought back in the last match and won his spot in the Top 4. For DarK.FoRcE it means that he will not go to the World Championship at CeBIT. ret has 35 ranking points guaranteed now but that might not be enough to make it. If he goes Top 3, he will be at CeBIT. The next and last Quarter Final will be between DeMusliM and viOLet.

Quarter-Final #4 - DeMusliM 2-3 viOLet

Terminus SE
Dual Sight
Antiga Shipyard
The Shattered Temple (if needed)
Taldarim Altar (if needed)

[16:52] The PvP mirror match between ReaL and Feast went in favor of the Korean with 3-1. He now has to win the entire tournament to fulfill the agreement that the Bro-tosses made on stage before the match. Next up is a ZvZ between ret and DarK.FoRcE.

Quarter-Final #3 - ret 3-2 DarK.FoRcE

Metalopolis
Antiga Shipyard
The Shattered Temple
Taldarim Altar (if needed)
Shakuras Plateau (if needed)

[14:54] The first Best-of-Five Quarter Final turned out to be an amazing series between SuperNoVa and sLivko, ending 3-2 in the favor of the Korean Terran. Next up is the Protoss mirror match between ReaL and Feast.

Quarter-Final #2 - Feast 1-3 ReaL

Antiga Shipyard
Dual Sight
The Shattered Temple
Shakuras Plateau (if needed)
Taldarim Altar (if needed)


[13:07] After the Free For Allstars match it is time to focus on todays Quarter-Finals. The first match will start at 14:00 local time.

Quarter-Final #1 - SuperNoVa 3-2 sLivko

Metalopolis
Antiga Shipyard
Terminus SE
Shakuras Plateau (if needed)
The Shattered Temple (if needed)


[12:55] The Free For Allstars is over and DeMusliM came out victorious in the end with a massive mech army that just destroyed everything. The replay of the game is online.

[12:07] Hello and welcome to Day 3 of the Global Challenge Sao Paulo StarCraft II tournament. In around 10 minutes the first match of the day will start and it will be unlike any other.

Eight players and casters will go against each other in a Free For All until one remains. The line-up will be:

Due to the huge time difference not all of you will be able to watch the show live. And with this news there is no need to! You will get all replays of all matches in this news without any spoilers! As soon as a match has ended, we will upload the replays to the respective match and link all replays here.

You don't have to click on each match trying to ignore the score screen. Each match has five map links. If a match didn't need all five maps, the remaining map links are empty. Download and watch them one by one, if you want to avoid any spoilers. Furthermore we will link all available VoDs. We will not add the names of the semi final and final participants to avoid this spoilers, too. The respective semi final consists of the two quarter finals winners under it. All replays of the groupstage are available in this news.

Download all at once:
Playoff Replay Package & Groupstage Replay Package

Grand Final - vs. - Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD Semi Final #1 - vs. - Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD Quarter Final #1 SuperNoVa vs. Slivko Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD Quarter Final #2 reaL vs. Feast Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD

Match for 3rd Place - vs. - Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD Semi Final #2 - vs. - Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD Quarter Final #3 DarKFoRcE vs. ret Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD Quarter Final #4 DemusliM vs. viOLet Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 / Map 4 / Map 5 VoD

The StarCraft II match will take place at around 12:30 local Sao Paulo time and will feature at least seven casters and players who will fight until the last man is standing. Currently confirmed are:

Sao Paulo Free For Allstars Line-Up

Rob Simpson
RotterdaM
KiLLeR replaced by Snute
XlorD
Illusion
DeMusliM
viOLet
ret replaced by real

Don't miss the opportunity to watch this epic match before the quarter-finals begin in the afternoon.

Update: The Free For Allstars is over and DeMusliM came out victorious in the end with a massive mech army that just destroyed everything. The replay of the game is available here. We will let you know as soon as a VoD is available.

BarCrafts For all BarCraft enthusiasts, there are currently three events set for Saturday the 11th of February.

Paris - Information
Belo Horizonte - Information
Vienna - Information

[20:00] The Play-Offs have been drawn:

Play-Off Bracket

sLivko - SuperNoVa
ReaL - Feast
DarK.FoRcE - ret
DeMusliM - viOLet

[19:45] Group D has been finished with sLivko following ret into the play-offs.

Group D
1st ret
2nd sLivko
3rd Snute
4th DakkoN

[19:30] ret wins Group D after a clear 2-0 win over Snute. sLivko is currently still playing his last match against DakkoN, which is at 1-1 right now.

[18:01] Snute collected his first win after he won convincingly with 2-0 over DakkoN. Now ret is facing sLivko. The winner will stand at 2 wins and 0 losses on top of the group for the moment.

[17:23] Right now group D is underway with four Zergs fighting for the last two spots in the round of 8. Russian sLivko and Dutch ret both won their opening matches. Next up will be the two losers, Snute and DakkoN.

StarCraft II Groupstage

[17:18] The first group has been finished earlier and the two exile Koreans viOLet and ReaL qualified for the play-offs a head of biGs and Potiguar who are now in spectator-mode only.

Group C
1st viOLet
2nd ReaL
3rd biGs
4th Potiguar

Many of todays top players and commentators are on Twitter in order to communicate fast and efficient with each other and their fans. Here is a list of all accounts for the Global Challenge Sao Paulo.

Casters
Gruntar
Julien De Lucca
RotterdaM
MrBitter
Rob Simpson

Group A
Supernova
DarK.FoRcE
KiLLeR
Illusion

Group B
Feast
DeMuslim

Group C
viOLet
ReaL

Group D
DakkoN
ret
Snute

Official
Intel Extreme Masters
Carmac
ESL TV


As you can see the list is not complete. If there are more accounts we will add them. In the meantime, watch the Global Challenge live on ESL TV.

Day two of the Global Challenge Sao Paulo StarCraft II tournament has arrived. Today Groups C and D will be played out and they feature a lot of players who are making the Intel Extreme Masters debut.

Group Stage
The ranking after Sao Paulo
Season Ranking
Spoiler Free Replay Thread

Group C - biGs, Potiguar, ReaL, viOLet

Two Koreans who currently do not live in Korea, a Brazilian Protoss and the first Swiss in Intel Extreme Masters history - a very interesting group. viOLet is probably the favorite but behind him it will be most likely a fight between ReaL and biGs. If Potiguar would be a serious contender it would surprise many since the level of play between the local and the international players seems to be too big. This group marks the first time appearances of biGs and Potiguar in a Global Challenge. ReaL has to advance if he wants to qualify for the World Championship at the CeBIT. He is currently at 20 points and would gain 20 more if he advances. viOLet has 35 and would only require the minimum 5 points he will receive after all.

Interview with biGs
Interview with viOLet

Group D - DakkoN, ret, sLivko, Snute

The letter D now stands for Zerg with Group D being an all ZvZ situation. ret is the most established and known player in the line-up but sLivko and Snute have turned some heads recently. The Russian beat Stephano in the qualifier for Sao Paulo and Snute was named one of the players to watch in 2012 by TeamLiquid. DakkoN is going to have a hard time. He came in as a last minute replacement for Fenix and will now have to prove himself against three hungry creep spreading fellow Zergs. None of the players is currently ranked and whoever advances makes a first step towards a possible CeBIT qualification. Top 4 required though!

Interview with ret

[21:00] The first four play-off participants are after day one are SuperNoVa, DarK.FoRcE, Feast and DeMusliM. Tomorrow Group C and D will be played. Group C will see Swiss Zerg biGs being the first of his country to ever participate in a Global Challenge. Brazilian players Potiguar and DakkoN will try to make Brazil proud. Group D with DakkoN will be an all Zerg group where he will face ret, sLivko and Snute.

Group C biGs, Potiguar, ReaL and viOLet

Group D DakkoN, ret, sLivko and Snute

[20:07] After XlorD won over Tunico with 2-0, he is now facing DeMusliM for the deciding match in Group B. Feast has officially advanced into the play-offs and also can't drop out of the Top 24 ranking for the World Championship anymore. An impressive feat for the young Belgian Protoss.



[19:10] A great second map from DeMusliM and Feast. After a bug, that would have meant an advantage for Feast, the game was paused and both players went on to tell each other their strategies and units in order to keep a fair game. The remaining match was very intense and in the end Feast came out victorious. His chances to go to the play-offs and qualify for the World Championships are looking quite good at the moment.

[18:41] Feast is currently leading 1-0 against DeMusliM in his second match of Group B. Possible group win for the Protoss?

[17:30] DeMusliM has won the first match of Group B against Tunico. Next up is Feast against XlorD. The young Belgian will be the first out of three Protoss players in this event and he can qualify for the World Championship if he makes it out of the group stage.

[16:58] The first match of Group B between DeMusliM and Tunico is live on ESL TV with MrBitter and RotterdaM behind the mics. How strong is the Brazilian Zerg in his first major event.

[16:15] DarK.FoRcE has done it. He wins the deciding Group A match against KiLLeR with 2-1 and advances to the play-offs. His small chance to still qualify for CeBIT is alive.

In around 30 minutes Group B with DeMusliM, Feast, Tunico and Feast will start. The first ever performance of a Brazilian StarCraft II player at the Intel Extreme Masters and a Belgian Protoss who also fights for his chance to go to the World Championships.

[15:57] SuperNova has just won his last match against Illusion and wins Group A with 3-0. Meanwhile the deciding match between KiLLeR and DarK.FoRcE is tied at 1-1. Third match will decide who advances to the play-offs. So far SuperNova was right with his bold interview statement:



[15:42] DarK.FoRcE just won the first map and is leading 1-0. He will have to make it into the Top 4 if he wants to advance to the World Championships in March 2012. KiLLeR already has enough points to have secured his spot for the final event.

Video interview with DarK.FoRcE
Video interview with KiLLeR

[15:40] The deciding match of the first group in StarCraft II is currently live. KiLLeR from Chile faces DarK.FoRcE from Germany in a ZvZ mirror match. The winner will advance next to SuperNoVa, who is currently playing American newcomer Illusion.

The first day of the Global Challenge Sao Paulo is over and with it the local League of Legends tournament has been finished. NooB da Net came from the winner bracket into the final and thus had a 1-0 lead over World Wide Wipers after they had already defeated in the Winner Bracket final. The Wipers then went on and took the first round of the final, equalizing the score to 1-1. The third and final map was NooB territory again and they took the final with 2-1, securing the first place.

1st Noob da Net - $3,400 + 5 Intel Core i7 CPUs
2nd Amigos do Kalec - $1,600
3rd paiN.Gaming - $1,200
4th CNB e-Sports Club - $800



Tomorrow the StarCraft II tournament will start with Group A and B, casted by MrBitter, RotterdaM and Rob Simpson. This is the last Global Challenge before the World Championship at the CeBIT in March. The current ranking order will be see several changes after the event has finished and for some players it is the first and last chance to qualify.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

Tunico is one of three Brazilian players to participate at the Global Challenge Sao Paulo. He qualified by winning the national championship and will be in Group B against DeMuslim, Feast and XlorD. We sat down with the young Zerg to get to know him, his ambitions and the StarCraft II scene in Brazil a little bit better.

Note: The questions were asked prior to the group drawing.

Interview with KT.Tunico

Hi and welcome Tunico. A lot of people outside of South America might not have heard of you so far. Please introduce yourself.

Hi, my name is Renan Guilhem da Sila. I am 19 years old and i live in Jundiai, Sao Paulo. I play Zerg.

You qualified for your first ever Global Challenge by winning the Brazilian national qualification. How does it feel to be the national champion?

I am very happy that I qualified for the Global Challenge Sao Paulo by winning the national championship. I hope to show some great matches at the tournament.

The qualifier in Brazil had 49 players attending. How confident were you that you could win it?

I was not very confident that it could win the championship. I was hoping to reach the final, but once I got there I never thought I could win and qualify for the Global Challenge. The final was a ZvZ and that was not my best match-up at the time.

You will now participate in your first big international tournament ever. Are you excited or nervous?

I am very excited about the Global Challenge. it will be my first offline tournament on a global level and I hope that I can count on my experience. I am not nervous now but I will probably be nervous once I have to play.

A lot of popular names from North America, Europe and Asia will attend the event. How do you see your chances for the tournament?

I hope to pass through the group stage and perhaps make it to the top four, but the level of the other players is really high, superior to mine probably. It will depend a little bit on luck to play a good tournament.

The Brazilian StarCraft II scene is quite unknown to most people. Tell us a little bit about its size and how developed and competitive it is.

Is there a player at the event that you would really like to face and compete against and why?

No specific player because I still do not know all the players that will go, but it would be really interesting to play against a Korean to see the difference in playing level between him and my game.

The Intel Extreme Masters comes to Brazil for the first time. Do you think it is important that big tournaments start to show up in Brazil / South America?

Tournaments are extremely important for Brazil because it shows that we are growing in the eSports world and that we can attract big events such as Intel Extreme Masters. We can also show the level of Brazilian players which are unknown to the rest of the world.

Your team mate and fellow Brazilian Potiguar is also in the tournament, how do you rate his chances?

I hope and think that he can play a good tournament. We practice a little bit together and I believe that he can surprise at the tournament.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

Due to the time difference and workdays not all of you will be able to watch the show live. And with this news there is no need to! You will get all replays of all matches in this news without any spoilers! We will upload the replays to the respective match and link all replays here.

You don't have to click on each match trying to ignore the score screen. Each match has three map links. If a match didn't need all three (or five at playoffs) maps, the remaining map links are empty. Download and watch them one by one, if you want to avoid any spoilers. Furthermore we will link all available VoDs. Please notice that some matches won't be streamed and therefore won't have a VoD. Have fun!

Download all at once:
Playoff Replay Package & Groupstage Replay Package

Group A DarKFoRcE vs. Illusion Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD KiLLeR vs. SuperNoVa Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD DarKFoRcE vs. SuperNoVa Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD KiLLeR vs. Illusion Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD DarKFoRcE vs. KiLLeR Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Illusion vs. SuperNoVa Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Group C real vs. viOLet Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Potiguar vs. biGs Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD real vs. biGs Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Potiguar vs. viOLet Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD viOLet vs. biGs Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD real vs. Potiguar Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD

Group B DemusliM vs. Tunico Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD XlorD vs. Feast Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD DemusliM vs. Feast Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD XlorD vs. Tunico Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD DemusliM vs. XlorD Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Tunico vs. Feast Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Group D Snute vs. Slivko Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD ret vs. DakkoN Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Snute vs. DakkoN Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD ret vs. Slivko Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Slivko vs. DakkoN Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD Snute vs. ret Map 1 / Map 2 / Map 3 VoD

The last chance

For the last time this season the StarCraft II players will be able to gather direct qualifications and points before the World Championships in March. Only a hand-full of players at the Global Challenge Sao Paulo has already been to other Intel Extreme Masters events this season and this leaves a lot of room for newcomers to join the Top 24, which will go to CeBIT.

Season Ranking

1st Place - Direct Qualification + 110 Points
2nd Place - Direct Qualification + 80 Points
3rd Place - 55 Points
4th Place - 35 Points
5-8th Place - 20 Points
9-12th Place - 10 Points
13-16th Place - 5 Points

KiLLeR and viOLet are on the safe side

Two players who participate in Sao Paulo already have enough points to go to CeBIT, KiLLeR and viOLet. The Chilean Zerg from Dignitas has 60 points at the moment and will gather at least 5 more in Brazil. That gives him a secured spot for the World Championship because he can't drop out of the Top 24 anymore. Korean player viOLet, who is currently living in the USA, has 35 points at the moment and with the guaranteed 5 points, he will receive, he also will be safe for the World Championship.

13th Place KiLLeR - 60 Pts + 5 Pts minimum from Sao Paulo - Qualified for CeBIT
18th Place viOLet - 35 Pts + 5 Pts minimum from Sao Paulo - Qualified for CeBIT

Who will drop out at the bottom

Right now three players with 20 points each sit at the bottom of the Top 24 ranking. Those are Korean Killer, mOOnGLaDe and ReaL. The latter is participating in Sao Paulo and will collect at least five more points. If he makes it into the play-offs, he would have 40 points total and would be safe for the World Championship. Killer and mOOnGLaDe will be out of the Top 24 after this event, since they are unable to receive any more points. SeleCT has 30 points at the moment but chances are high that those might not be enough to qualify for CeBIT.

21st Place Killer - 30 Pts - will most likely drop out of the Top 24
22nd Place SeleCT - 20 Pts - will drop out of the Top 24
23rd Place mOOnGLaDe - 20 Pts - will drop out of the Top 24
24th Place ReaL - 20 Pts + 5 Pts minimum from Sao Paulo - needs 20 Pts (Top 8) to qualify for CeBIT

Feast and DarK.FoRcE could still enter the Top 24

Two of the players in Sao Paulo are currently in the ranking but outside of the Top 24, Feast and DarK.FoRcE. The Belgian Protoss Feast, who showed a great performance at the Global Challenge Kiev, has 20 points at the moment. If he would make it out of the Group Stage again, he would have 40 total and that should be enough for a spot at CeBIT. DarK.FoRcE will have to place at least 4th in order to add 35 points to his current five, which would also give him 40.

29th Place Feast - 20 Pts + 5 Pts minimum from Sao Paulo - needs 20 Pts (Top 8) to qualify for CeBIT
52nd Place DarK.FoRcE - 5 Pts + 5 Pts minimum from Sao Paulo - needs 35 Pts (Top 4) to qualify for CeBIT

Five players might be out after Sao Paulo

Like on any other Global Challenge, the Top 2 in Sao Paulo will qualify directly for the World Championship. Furthermore the 3rd place will receive 55 points, which is enough to have a secured spot for the CeBIT as well. The 4th place will receive 35, which will be at the bottom of the ranking but should be enough to advance. If four currently unranked players would place in the Top 4 and Feast would place Top 8, a total of 5 players could drop out of the current Top 24 Ranking and loose their spot to the World Championship.

We will find out tomorrow what will happen when the first day of the StarCraft II tournament starts with Group A and B casted by MrBitter, Rotterdam and special guest Rob Simpson on ESL TV.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The well-known Peruvian Terran player Fenix had to cancel his participation in Sao Paulo on short notice. Due to the travel distance to Brazil the replacement will be local Zerg player Vitor 'DakkoN' Ferreira. He will be placed in Group D together with ret, sLivko and Snute, making this an All-Zerg group.

He will be the third Brazilian player at the event besides national champion Tunico and South American 3rd place finisher Potiguar. DakkoN had also participated in the qualifier but lost to Fenix in the quarter-final.

The StarCraft II tournament will start tomorrow, 8th of February, with Groups A and B. The games will be casted live on ESL TV by MrBitter, RotterdaM and Rob Simpson from Blizzard.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The Terran from oGs will be at the Global Challenge Sao Paulo, the last event before the Global Championship. The two other Korean spots were not filled and thus went to sLivko and Snute, who were both next in line from the second European qualifier. Furthermore DeMusliM will replace qxc who had to cancel his participation.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo Groupstage

Group A DarK.FoRcE Illusion KiLLeR SuperNoVa

Group B DeMusliM Feast Tunico XlorD

Group C biGs Potiguar viOLet ReaL

Group D Fenix ret sLivko Snute

Make sure you tune in from Wednesday, the 8th of February, and watch the final Global Challenge before the World Championships. It will be all live on ESL TV with MrBitter, RotterdaM and a special guest commentator.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The tournament is a gesture of appreciation to the League of Legends community in Brazil which is very active on the North American servers. A double elimination qualifier with 19 teams was held and the top four qualified for the event.

League of Legends Brazil (Tournament Bracket)

paiN.Gaming
Amigos do Kalec
Noob da Net
CNB e-Sports Club

They will face each other in a small double elimination tournament that will take place on the 7th of February and which will be commentated live at the venue in Portugese by Diego 'Toboco' Pereira and Guilherme 'Necrosed' Henrique da Silva. The total prize purse is $7,000 for the 1st to 4th place.

1st $3,400
2nd $1,600
3rd $1,200
4th $800

On Wednesday, the 8th of February, the Global Challenge Sao Paulo will start with the StarCraft II tournament. Stay tuned for the announcement of the final players and the groups tomorrow and make sure you watch the event on ESL TV.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

After his fourth place in the recent HomeStoryCup IV where he collected his first ranking points, Korean ex-pad viOLet secured his spot for Sao Paulo last night. He qualified for the last Global Challenge of the season with a win over another foreigner currently living in North America, DeMuslim from England.

Championship Bracket

viOLet

qxc

ret

Illusion

American Terran player qxc won over Axslav in the second winnerbracket semi-final to secure his spot. It will be his second consecutive Intel Extreme Masters event in 2012. Next week he will be at the Global Challenge Kiev where he replaces DDE.

In the loserbracket Dutch Macro Zerg ret battled his way through every round after he had dropped down after a first round winnerbracket loss. He faced Axslav in the deciding match and won, making him the second ex-pad besides viOLet to qualify via the North American qualifier.

The last spot went to the upcoming Terran player Illusion who defeated DeMuslim and will now attend his first ever Global Challenge.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The European representatives for the Global Challenge Sao Paulo have been determined. After DarK.FoRcE and Feast qualified at the end of 2011, the second and last qualifier took place Tuesday evening. Several Europan big names like Stephano, White-Ra or Socke, among others, were on the hunt for the last two European slots to Brazil.

European Qualifier #2 (Brackets)

In the end it came down to two Zerg mirror match-ups between Russian Slivko and German XlorD in the first semi-final and Swiss biGs and Norwegian Snute. XlorD, who had already kicked out Sjow and HasuObs out of the qualifier, was victorious once more and secured his spot to Sao Paulo. Slivko still showed an impressive performance with wins over DieStar and Stephano in the previous rounds.

Snute, whom TeamLiquid recently named one of the "Players to Watch in 2012", was not able to stop mousesports player biGs, who will be the first ever player from Switzerland to participate in a Global Challenge.

North American Final Qualifier (Brackets)

Meanwhile the North American Final Qualifier saw its first day of matches and at the moment viOlet and Axslav are the first two players to advance to the semis. Each of them is still waiting for an opponent and there will be plenty of action in the Winner- and Loserbracket when the qualifier continues on Thursday. The top four of this qualifier will advance to Sao Paulo.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The new year has started, the HomeStoryCup IV is over and it is time for the players to think about Sao Paulo again. Tuesday night the Final Qualifiers in Europe and North America will start for the StarCraft II tournament at the Global Challenge Sao Paulo.

In Europe the second and last Qualifier will take place with the two finalists winning their spot at the tournament. With the HSC IV being finished a well stacked field should be expected. Currently on the sign-up sheet are players like Adelscott, HasuObs, Delphi, merz, KroLu, Socke and real. Some of them had a really bad performance over the weekend in Krefeld and might want to lighten their spirit with a visit to Sao Paulo.

The Qualifier will be broadcasted live on ESL TV with MrBitter and RotterdaM and the tournament tree will be online later tonight.

Meanwhile North America will launch its Final Qualifier also tonight and it will continue on the 12th of January. After three Pre-Qualifiers where the Top 4 advance and four invited players the roster of 16, that will battle it out for four tournament spots, is set.

North American Final for GC Sao Paulo (Winner & Loser-Bracket)

Invited viOLet SLush Illusion KawaiiRice

Qualifier #1 DeMusliM qxc Axslav Tri

Qualifier #2 EchoOfDream Mass SynRhythm Agh

Qualifier #3 Suppy ret Ryze DDoRo

The first two rounds of the Winner and the first two round of the Loserbracket will be played out today, Tuesday night and the final and deciding games will take place on Thursday the 12th.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The first out of three North American pre-qualifiers was played Wednesday night. 24 players from the USA and Canada participated with the goal to reach the top four and advance to the final qualifier next week.

Top 4 - North American Pre-Qualifier #1 (Bracket)

DeMusliM
qxc
Axslav
Tri

The next two pre-qualifiers will take place this weekend, the 7th and 8th of January, followed by the final qualifier next week. The 12 players who advance and four invited players will make the field of 16 that participates for four spots in Sao Paulo.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The second European qualifier for the Global Challenge Sao Paulo has been moved to the upcoming week, 10th of January.

It will be the final and last chance for the European StarCraft II elite to qualify for the first ever Intel Extreme Masters event in South America. It will take place at the Campus Party in Sao Paulo from the 7-11th of February 2012.

#2 EU Qualifier Tuesday - 10th of January 2012

This second and last qualifier will also serve as a replacement cup, so the players ranked 3rd, 4th and following will be the next ones in line in case of any European cancellations for Sao Paulo.

During the weekend all eyes will be on the fourth edition of TaKe's HomeStoryCup and the finalists will qualify directly for the World Championships in March 2012 at the CeBit in Hanover, Germany. Be sure to tune in to ESL TV and see some of the best players in the world in action.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 7th-11th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The North American qualification process for the Global Challenge Sao Paulo is starting this week. Tomorrow, on the 4th of January, the first out of three pre-qualifiers will be held. The next will take place on the 7th and 8th of January.

The top four players of each pre-qualifier and four invited players will then go against each other in a double elimination final qualifier next week to determine the top four, who will go to Sao Paulo in February.

#1 NA Qualifier Wednesday - 4th of January 2012

#2 NA Qualifier Saturday - 7th of January 2012

#3 NA Qualifier Sunday - 8th of January 2012

The Global Challenge Sao Paulo will take place from the 7-11th of February at the CampusParty. The StarCraft II tournament comes with $21,000 in prize money and the top 2 players will qualify directly for the World Championships in March.

Tonight, Thursday the 29th of December, the first out of two qualifiers for the Global Challenge Sao Paulo is played out. The top two players will qualify for the tournament which will take place from the 7-11th of February 2012.

Among the notable sign-ups so far are a lot of high class German players like Socke, GoOdy, HasuObs, Delphi and DarK.FoRcE. Furthermore the qualification sensation from Kiev, Feast, will try to win a spot for his second straight Global Challenge. Find out more about this very talented young Belgian player in our recent interview. Swedish pro merz and Polish player KroLu, who showed a strong performance in the recent Kiev qualification, will also take a shot for a place in the sun.

Qualifier Brackets (will be made available later tonight)

#1 EU Qualifier Thursday - 29th of December 2011

Players can still sign-up at the qualifier website and try to qualify for the first ever Intel Extreme Masters event in South America. The second qualifier will be held at the 5th of January 2012. Again, the top two players will qualify for Sao Paulo.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 6th-12th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The European qualification for the StarCraft II tournament at the Global Challenge Sao Paulo will consist of 2 qualifiers. The first will take place on Thursday the 29th of December and is now open for sign-up. The top 2 will win a spot to Sao Paulo. The second qualifier will take place on Thursday the 5th of January 2012. Again the top 2 will win a spot to the tournament.

#1 EU Qualifier Thursday - 29th of December 2011

#2 EU Qualifier Thursday - 5th of January 2012

It will be the first time that the Intel Extreme Masters will have a tournament in South America and it will be exciting to see how the local players are going to perform when going head to head against the best from North America, Europe and Asia.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 6th-12th of February 2012 - Campus Party

The South American StarCraft II community will be busy in the next days with two qualifications running for the Global Challenge Sao Paulo. Brazil seeks its national champion in a two day online tournament that will start on Thursday the 15th. The winner will have the honour of representing his country in Sao Paulo.

Starting on Saturday the 17th, the rest of South America will fight for three spots for the $21,000 tournament in a two day online qualifier. The eligible countries are:

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Columbia
Ecuador
Guiana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela

Players who are interested in signing up can find all the details online for Brazil and for South America.

It will be the first time that the Intel Extreme Masters will have a tournament in South America and it will be exciting to see how the local players are going to perform when going head to head against the best from North America, Europe and Asia.

Global Challenge Sao Paulo 6th-12th of February 2012 - Campus Party

For the first time in its six years history Intel Extreme Masters will move to South America. With Fenix from Peru and compLexity from Brasil being reigning American Champions in StarCraft II and Counter-Strike 1.6, South America has proven a distinctive and competetive eSports culture.

The Campus Party Brasil will be the host of the Global Challenge Sao Paulo in early 2012. From 6th to 12th of February 16 of the world's best StarCraft II players will compete for $21,000 and two World Championship slots.

Intel Extreme Masters Season 6 Events

Aug 17th-21st 2011 - Global Challenge Cologne at gamescom, Germany
Oct 1st-5th 2011 - Global Challenge Guangzhou at Ani-Com & Games, China
Oct 13th-16th 2011 - Global Challenge New York at Comic Con, USA
Feb 6th-12th 2012 - Global Challenge Sao Paulo at Campus Party, Brazil
2012 - Global Challenge in Europe
2012 - World Championship

Campus Party is recognized as the biggest electronic entertainment event on-line in the world. An annual event that brings together thousands of participants with their computers from all over the world in order to share their concerns and experiences and carry out a whole range of different activities related to computers, communications and new technologies. In 2008, Campus Party went international and at the moment, has annual editions in Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), Valencia (Spain) and Mexico City (Mexico).

Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge Sao Paulo
Dates: February 6th - 12th 2012
Prize Pool: $21,000
Games: StarCraft II
Venue: Campus Party Brasil, Anhembi Parque
City: Sao Paulo, Brazil

Stay tuned, as we will announce the first qualifiers very soon.