ZOWIE GEAR has sent in 2 more products for review. One is based on their innovative cloth surface, the G-RF mousepad, and the other is the ZOWIE Swift which is a hard plastic mousepad designed by the infamous Counter-Strike player SpawN.

Click the links to read the reviews:

• ZOWIE G-RF Mousepad
• ZOWIE Swift Mousepad
  

Warrior.AA Network is hosting one of their weekly Counter-Strike 1.6 tournaments in Al Ain, UAE today, Friday, April 2nd. Winners will be announced when we know more.

Update: Tournament is over! Only 4 teams showed up (wtf?). Winners listed below:

- ELite$ [ Breaker, AmazingLion, ww2, walele, SpawnZ ]
- DxB Mix [ whmzy, add1ct, Kurt, HZ, TARIQ ]
- revival.aa [ Pitt Bull, bruce_lee, Bland, w4rlock, K@en ]

LioN has kindly put up HLTV demos for the tournament. Grab them here.

The Malaysian qualifiers for the World Cyber Games 2010 have been confirmed. There will be regional qualifiers across the country, leading up to the national finals later.

Regional qualifiers:
Johor Bharu, Johor = 2nd-4th April 2010
Penang = 8th-10th April 2010
Kuala Lampur = 16th-18th April 2010
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah = 7th-9th May 2010

National Qualifier:
Mid Valley Convention Center = 16th-18th July 2010

More details will be available very soon.

source

Heroes of Newerth is now in open beta according to this email from s2games. You can sign up at http://beta.heroesofnewerth.com

Countdown to open beta

» Massive textwall of pwning

Quote:Hey everyone,

I wanted to send out an email and let you guys know that we recently patched HoN to include a brand new front end interface, match making, a tutorial, optimizations, and quite a bit of polish.

To coincide with this new patch we have also announced the beginning of our Open Beta. On Wednesday, March 31 @ 4:00 PM PST (-8 GST) we will begin accepting beta registration which require no key. When Open Beta begins the pre purchase incentives of the Golden Shield, Golden Name, and Taunting (SMACKDOWN!) will no longer be given to accounts. I'd like to take this opportunity to give you guys an FAQ about what is happening. I hope this covers many of your questions.

1.) If I pre purchased prior to Open Beta will I still be able to taunt in game and have the golden shield and golden name?

Yes, those account options will remain with your account (and all subsequently purchased sub accounts) for their lifetime.

2.) What exactly are these incentives you are giving to pre purchase before the beginning of Open Beta?

Your nickname will show up as a golden color in chat & game lobbies. You will also have a special golden shield next to your name. Finally, during a match, you may taunt a player (your hero says a funny statement to the enemy) and if you kill them within a short time period of taunting them a global sound and arcade text "SMACKDOWN" is announced game wide.

3.) I want to pre purchase but the nickname I want is not available. Can I ever change my name?

Yes, all pre purchased accounts will have 1 nickname change (all existing pre purchases will also be given 1 additional nickname change). 7 days prior to the end of Open Beta and the game going retail (requiring payment to play) we will allow all pre purchased accounts to take the nickname of non pre purchased accounts. In order to successfully secure your name we suggest you pre purchase now!

4.) Will stats reset for Open Beta? Will there be a stats reset prior to the game going retail?

We will not be resetting stats during Open Beta but when we end Open Beta and go to retail all stats will be deleted from the game.

5.) Will I be able to rest my stats after retail launch of the game?

Yes, we have a reset stats option available on the website and in the game client. This stats reset will cost $20. It is priced to be a deterrent from people intentionally griefing and then just paying to reset their "sins". We priced it $10 short of a new account so that someone can keep their current name but start with a fresh slate.

6.) If I don't pre purchase the game prior to launch, what happens to my account?

When Open Beta ends all accounts that did not pre purchase will be purged from the database, this includes your banlist and your friends lists. All pre purchased accounts will keep those lists intact when we go retail.

7.) Do you feel that your system will be able to support the potential demand of the HoN Open Beta?

In an effort to control concurrent players during Open Beta due to the tremendous excitement and demand for Heroes of Newerth, we *may* have to throttle new sign ups. In the event that this action is required, when we hit our daily limit, players will have the option to pre purchase the game to have guaranteed access to the Open Beta.

8.) Will new heroes be added to the game during Open Beta?

Yes, we have many new heroes (and other content) to add to the game. In fact, look forward to seeing a new hero shortly after the start of Open Beta and a consistent flow of new content thereafter.

We hope you are as excited about this next step in HoN development as we are and I look forward to seeing you all online.

http://beta.heroesofnewerth.com

Thanks,
Maliken

The Counter-Strike tournament held at University Of Wollongong Dubai finished this past Monday (29th March). The results:

» CS-MAIN

Team LOL
Green Movement
JUGS
» CS-FEMALE

VF
BLAH!
Congrats to everyone!

Links: ESC - Tahadi

The results of the Defense Of The Ancients inter-university competition held at Canadian University of Dubai are out. The final was played between teams from BITS Pilani and Emirates Aviation College.

Emirates Aviation College
BITS Pilani

Among the teams, BITS Pilani were considered to be one of the better teams, while Emirates Aviation College were considered the opposite. Regardless, EAC worked their way through the tournament and reached the finals, and eventually came out victorious 2-1.

Thanks to my brother for the info

Future Cafe will host one of their weekly Counter-Strike 1.6 tournaments in Al Ain, UAE on Friday, March 26th 2010. Winners will be announced when we know more.

Update: ELite$ wins the tournament. Congratulations to them.

ELite$ [ Breaker / $paWnZ / WALELE / ww2 / AMAZINGLioN[K]` ]
Future.AA [ Pirlo / Mafia / Rock / Avenger / Ky0 ]
Revival.AA [ Bruce_lee / w4rlock / Pitbull / K@eN / BLAND ]
A.list [ danger / U43.KB / zTara / DaLa3 / Blanka ]

The Arena v3, held at University of Wollongong Dubai, has started with the first event being Counter-Strike 1.6 tournaments. It will take place on the 28-29th of March, with a CS-Main division and a CS-Female division. Since this is an intra-university event, only students/staff from UOWD are allowed.

The main division is open for everyone, and will have spots for up to 8 teams at most and a double elimination format. It will take place on the full 2 days of the event. Winners and runners-up will receive trophies and some prize packs sponsored by Tahadi Games.

Extra: Tahadi are currently hiring whoever they feel will be productive to their team, so if you feel you have some skills they could use, feel free to contact them.

Links: ESC - Tahadi

E-Net Cafe in Al Ain, UAE hosted a weekend Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament on Friday. This tournament has now concluded and winners can be seen below:

ELite$ [ Breaker / $paWnZ / WALELE / ww2 / AMAZINGLioN[K]` ]
Future.AA [ Pirlo / Mafia / Rock / Avenger / Ky0 ]
Revival.AA [ Bruce_lee / w4rlock / Pitbull / K@eN / BLAND ]

AsiaFortress.com kicks off their Season 2 tournament for Team Fortress 2, slated to begin on April 3rd. Participating teams will be seen from a variety of countries such as Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Korea, India and UAE. More info and registration details can be found in the site.

Links: AsiaFortress Season 2 - Season 2 Registration