Quito, Ecuador - After the last year’s event, the organizers promised a better tournament, a higher prize purse and of course, better computers. Apparently all those promises have come true.

The South American Sprite GameCup will be held in the auditorium “La Liga” located in Quito, Ecuador from May 17th to May 19th. Quito is a beautiful city located at an elevation of 9000ft over the sea level. Surrounded by mountains, Quito provides an awesome mix between an old colonial city and a very modern urban landscape. The historic center of Quito, known as the "Old City" is replete with narrow and winding cobblestone streets, magnificent churches and open squares. The buildings that line the streets reflect Spanish colonial influence with their balconies, red-tile roofs, thick columns and central patios. The importance of the colonial remnants found in the Old City prompted UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) to declare Quito a Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1979.

This year the event has decided to expand its limits from only two games in the last year (FIFA and Counter Strike 1.6) to many fields: Counter Strike 1.6, DotA, and console games like Winning Eleven, Need for Speed : Most Wanted or Mortal Kombat : Deception. FIFA was originally announced as a main game of the competition but in the last minutes the organizers announced that the FIFA event is delayed due to a new sponsorship.

The current prize purse for all the games is the following :

Counter-Strike 1.6
1st Prize: 2,000 USD Cash + 800 USD in Sponsor Products
2nd Prize: 500 USD Cash + 300 USD in Sponsor Products
3rd Prize: 200 USD Cash + 200 USD in Sponsor Products
4th-7th Prize: 100 USD in Sponsor Products

DotA All Stars
1st Prize: 500 USD Cash + 500 USD in Sponsor Products
2nd Prize: 300 USD Cash + 180 USD in Sponsor Products
3rd Prize: 100 USD Cash + 100 USD in Sponsor Products
4th–6th Prize: 50 USD in Sponsor Products

The mapcycle will be : de_Dust2, de_inferno, de_train and de_nuke . de_cbble was retired from the event because it’s a very uncommon map in Ecuador.

Team Previews on the next page