KODE5

The KODE5 is an international gaming circuit that will take place in more than 20 countries worldwide and a grand final in Moscow, Russia. Every year winners of regional events event around the world will earn the right to represent their country in the Grand Final event. The idea of the competition format is to bring the gamers the best experience by setting standards proposed by an advisory board that represent the global community, this is known as The Revolutionary Council. The official games of the 2006 KODE5 are Counter-Strike, Quake 4 and Warcraft 3. The event is sponsored by Foxconn and Corsair. Other attractions include concerts, parties, conferences at regional events and final with mainstream media TV coverage at the grand final and more than $100,000 U.S. Dollars.

KODE5 Launch

This year the event launched itself during the 2006 CeBIT show at Hannover, Germany in the Foxconn booth. The event was broadcast by Team Sportscast Network and GIGA Television and had exhibitions matches of Counter-Strike and Quake 4 with teams like MouseSports, Dignitas, a-Losers, Pentagram, mTw and Good-Game, also 1v1 players like James “TooGoood” Harding and Paul “astz!” McGarrity. In the event the launch featured also shootouts with public, KODE5 staff and TsN staff. KODE5 went on to hold many successful qualifying events and finals throughout 2006. In Summer of 2006, the KODE5 USA Grand Finals were held on the G4TV soundstage for Attack of the Show in Los Angeles, CA. Quake 4, Warcraft 3, and Counter-Strike 1.6 were the games played, and Foxconn, Corsair, and Vigor Gaming were the hardware manufacturers present.

KODE5 Revolutionary Council

The revolutionary council is a group of individuals that will help shape KODE5 and that will represent the gaming community, and the very foundations of e-sports event management. The council members are:

* Kenny Fu, graduated from Tsinghua University, and is now the External Cooperation Director and Vice-Managing Editor of China Electronic Athletics Magazine. Kenny has a good understanding of e-sports and always reports on all kinds of e-sports media in China. He also frequently consults with many e-sports tournaments, and hopes to help KODE5 in any way that he can.

* Hui-Chul “Garfield” Jung was born in 1985 in Germany. Since 2005, Hui-Chul has been the Head Manager of Korean gaming team Lunatic-Hai. Since joining the e-sports community in 2001, Hui-Chul has witnessed e-sports become more professional, more interesting, and more prestigious. He sees the development of e-sports as a very positive and valuable experience. By joining the Revolutionary Council and helping to develop and improve the structures in e-sport, he hopes that everyone else is able to enjoy the same great experiences he did.

* Hunter Luisi acts as both the Chief Operating Officer and head of technical development for the Team Sportscast Network. From providing key strategic vision, to spending countless hours refining TsN's website, servers and front end interfaces, Hunter has helped shape and define TsN into what it is today. Hunter's career started as a producer in the gaming industry. Hunter's broad and far-reaching experience in the video game industry gives TsN a level of knowledge and expertise unparalleled by most media organizations.

* Sam Mathews, the founder and creator of Fnatic Pty Ltd, has been involved within the competitive gaming community since 1999. He first started as a gamer himself in Quake 3, but for the last few years he has been heavily involved with the management and business side of the scene. Creating Fnatic in July 2004, he has been the primary driving force behind Fnatic’s growth to a fully fledged Multi-gaming powerhouse. Sam is representing G7 within the Council and therefore will speak not only for Fnatic, but also NiP-Gaming, 4Kings, Made in Brasil, Team 3D and Mousesports.

* Alexander T. Mueller-Rodic has been able to collect an immense range of expertise in the section of eSports due to his former position as Marketing and Sales Director with one of the most successful service providers in eSports, Turtle Entertainment GmbH. The company is provider of one of the biggest and most successful computer gaming leagues in Europe. Furthermore, Alexander T. Mueller-Rodic is the Managing Director with the most successful eSports clan worldwide, SK-Gaming. Alex is also representing G7 on the Council.

* Michael “ODEE” O’Dell comes from England and has been gaming for 20+ years. After suffering a serious sporting injury in 1999, Michael started with PC Gaming, and was eventually selected for the UK National team. Currently Michael is the Managing Director of the Multi-gaming organisation, Team Dignitas which he helped to form in 2003. Team Dignitas has players in over 15 countries and they compete at the highest level attending gaming events around the world. Michael is delighted to be a part of the KODE5 Revolutionary Council.

* Jordan “Blaze” Rodness hails from Toronto, Canada, and is the News and Coverage Director at the popular Warcraft III fansite WCReplays.com. Jordan is also a member of the WC3L administrator team, and has been for just over a year. Jordan looks forward to helping KODE5 become one of the best tournaments this year, and is very excited to be a member of the Revolutionary Council.

* As one of the oldest members of the Counter-Strike community, Trevor “Midway” Schmidt has been a part of GotFrag.com since the beginning helping to build the sites content. From the creation of Midway's Melee to the Playbook series, Trevor has continued to push the horizon of eSports coverage. Like many others his first exposure to First-Person Shooters was the console game Goldeneye, which led to the initial beta of Counter-Strike that he has been playing ever since. Trevor is now the Strategic Brand Director for GotFrag.com.

* As the fearless leader of FiringSquad.com for the last 5 years, Dan Turner has led the charge to continue the fine tradition of bringing the most important news and reviews to the hardcore gamer. As an early gamer, Dan started with the classics, like the FPS classics Doom and Quake. Dan has been intimately involved in organizing, promoting and running gaming tournaments for over 3 years, including International tournaments for Warcraft 3, Counterstrike, Medal of Honor and Battlefield 1942 to name a few.

* Meng “RocketBoy” Yang was born in ChengDu, China, and is one of the top first-person shooter (FPS) gamers in China. In his 7-year professional gaming career, he has attended numerous international tournaments, and has taken no less than six 1st place finishes. One of his most notable accomplishments was defeating Fatal1ty on the Great Wall of China in 2004 and taking home RMB 1,000,000.

KODE5 2006 Regional Circuit

The KODE5 has announced that the regional circuit will have a total of 16 main regional events with a total of more than 20 countries participating at the event and a finals event held in an undisclosed location. The regional qualifiers will be operated in co-operation with a series of local operators.

Germany

The first KODE5 regional event is the KODE5 Germany qualifiers that are going to take place in a season of seven weeks that will consist of a series of on- and off-line tournaments. The finalists from each of the KODE5 German qualifiers will meet at the KODE5 German Finals, which are taking place July 14 to 16 at the Potsdamer Place Cinestar in Berlin. With partner Freaks4U, KODE5 Germany will bring the excitement of competitive gaming to the silver screen.

* Strategic Partner: [http://www.freaks4u.org/ Freaks4U]

Online Qualifier 1

* Dates: May 19 – May 21
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4
* Counter-Strike: 32 teams maximum
* Warcraft III: 64 players maximum
* Quake 4: 64 players maximum
* First place advances to KODE5 Germany Finals (one slot per game)

Online Qualifier 2

* Dates: June 9 - June 11
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4
* Counter-Strike: 32 teams maximum
* Warcraft III: 64 players maximum
* Quake 4: 64 players maximum
* First place advances to KODE5 Germany Finals (one slot per game)

Online Qualifier 3

* June 16 – June 18
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4
* Counter-Strike: 32 teams maximum
* Warcraft III: 64 players maximum
* Quake 4: 64 players maximum
* First place advances to KODE5 Germany Finals (one slot per game)

Online Qualifier 4

* June 23 – June 25
* Tournaments: Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4
* Warcraft III: 64 players maximum
* Quake 4: 64 players maximum
* First place advances to KODE5 Germany Finals (one slot per game)

Offline Qualifier 1

* May 26 – May 28
* Event: Leaving the Reality XI
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4
* Website: www.npffo.de
* Location: Frankfurt (Oder)
* Maximum Participants: 600
* First and Second place advances to KODE5 Germany Finals (two slots per game)

Offline Qualifier 2

* June 2 – June 4
* Event: BK(XX)L 3
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4
* Website: www.bk-xxl.de
* Location: Bad Kreuznach
* Maximum Participants: 500
* First and Second place advance to KODE5 Germany Finals (two slots per game)

Taiwan

The second announced KODE5 regional event is the show, one of the biggest IT trade shows of the planet that will take place from June 6 to June 10.

* Strategic Partner: [http://www.aztec.com.tw/ Aztec Internet Café]

Offline Qualifier 1

* Dates: May 27 – May 28
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4
* Location: Aztec Internet Café, ChungShiao YenJi Branch, Taipei
* Top 4 teams/players advance to KODE5 Taiwan Finals (four slots per game)

Latin America

The third KODE5 regional event launched is the . In addition to the official KODE5 Latin American tournaments, the event will feature music concerts, conferences, shootouts, PC clinics, PC DIY contests, and a 500-seat BYOC with space for up to 200 onsite spectators.

* Strategic Partner: [http://www.tarreo.cl/ SouthFrag/LanParty]

Offline/Online Qualifier 1

* Country: Chile
* Dates to be announced
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4

Offline/Online Qualifier 2

* Country: Paraguay
* Dates to be announced
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6

Offline/Online Qualifier 3

* Country: Venezuela
* Dates to be announced
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Quake 4

Offline/Online Qualifier 4

* Country: Brazil
* Dates to be announced
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT

Offline/Online Qualifier 5

* Country: Peru
* Dates to be announced
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6, Warcraft III: TFT, Quake 4

Offline/Online Qualifier 6

* Country: Argentina
* Dates to be announced
* Tournaments: Counter-Strike 1.6

See also

* Electronic sports

External links

* [http://www.kode5.com/ KODE5 Official site]