As many of you are aware, X3O Professional Gaming did acquire a new Counter-Strike team shortly after the departure of our former squad to Gravitas Gaming. The new roster, formerly known as Paragon of Virtue, is now proudly playing under the X3O name.

This current X3O roster, minus former MoB Gaming player in thoMz, most recently competed at the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge in Los Angeles, California. In my opinion, as well as many others, this event was truly a breakout event for the core crew of the team.

For those who aren’t familiar with the ESL and how it works, here’s a quick rundown on the format of the circuit.

ESL Circuit Breakdown

Back in August, the ESL had their first international Global Challenge in Leipzig, Germany. This event was the beginning of a circuit of “Global Challenges,” all of which would prove as qualifying events for the Global Finals, which will take part in Hannover, Germany in March 2009. All of the Global Challenges occurred on an “invite-only” basis, with the top CS teams from around the world attending the events. The top finishers from these events are granted automatic births to the Global Finals. Now, ESL is also hosting Continental Finals (not to be confused with the Global Challenges or the Global Finals), that serve a different purpose than the Global Challenges. These four events, taking part in Asia, the Americas, Asia and Europe are not invite-only, and teams must qualify through online matches in order to compete. This gives teams the opportunity to prove themselves and battle for a qualification spot in the Global Finals, when most likely they would not have been invited to a Global Challenge.

In regards to the EM LA Global Challenge that occurred back in October, here's a recap of what went down.

EM LA Global Challenge

POV opened up the group stage with a 24-6 team over their fellow countrymen in Team vio. Next up was the Finnish competitors GamePlay (formerly Roccat), where they absolutely got handled 27-3. Many spectators began to shift their focus back towards X3O (again, our former team), MoB and EG to step it up for the homeland. It all came down to whether they could beat mTw.AMD, a top contender throughout 2008 but also a squad which had left California just a month before with poor results at the ESWC Grand Finals. In the eyes of most following the event, this group was basically a given, with GamePlay and mTw advancing from the group and the American teams going home. To the surprise of many, POV was able to beat mTw 21-9, and eliminate the eSports Award winner Sunde (Best Counter-Strike player) & and teammates from the tournament.

This now meant that POV would be advancing to playoffs. Their first opponent was MiBR, a team that has shared in some of the greatest success in professional CS for numerous years. The momentum from the mTw win wasn’t enough for the team, and they fell to the Brazilian’s 16-9 in a formidable match on de_inferno. Next they would play our former team, at the time, dealing a devastating blow to the organization by beating them 16-7 and further solidifying themselves as a top competitor in the American CS scene. Their success was brought to a halt when they met up with the 2x ESWC champions MeetYourMakers. Having some inconsistent results themselves, this match was not a throw-away, but MYM was able to triumph (16-11) and eliminated POV from the tournament.

hero & savi0r at ESL LA

Now, the Continental Finals for the Americas is less than a month away, and as explained above, X3O has been competing in the online qualifying Main Round, vying for a spot against the countries finest. The Main Round consists of two groups of 8 teams, with the top two teams qualifying to play in Philadelphia and two other teams being given a wild card spot.

X3O is within Group B, along with MoB, EG.usa & Guardians (among others). The results from the Main Round qualification matches are below.

Main Round Scores

Main Round 1:
X3O > Green Berets (2-0)

Main Round 2:
X3O > Guardians (16-7)
X3O > Guardians (36-34)

Main Round 3:
X3O > Dynasty Gaming (16-11)
X3O > Dynasty Gaming (16-5)

Main Round 4:
X3O > vio (16-6)
X3O < vio (12-16)
X3O > vio (16-5)

Main Round 5:
X3O > MoB Gaming (16-1)
X3O > MoB Gaming (16-4)

Main Round 6:
X3O > Team EG (16-8)
X3O < Team EG (11-16)
X3O > Team EG (16-14)

As you can see, X3O has won all 6 of their sets and has only lost two maps thus far, one against vio and the other against EG.usa last night.

The Continental Finals will be held in Philadelphia at the Video Game Expo (VGXpo) from November 21-23rd. X3O has guaranteed them selves a qualification spot as last night they defeated Team EG 2 games to 1 in a very close series. They are currently sitting at (6-0) in Group B.

Be sure to check back here for more information on X3O.CS and the ESL Continental Finals.