The ESWC US qualifier was rumored to be held in May, but with no official confirmation from GGL and ESWC fast approaching lots of teams were getting anxious. Mark Dolven, manager of Pandemic, is upset at how the US qualification has turned out.

“All I know is that GGL is the partner assigned by the ESWC to select the final two teams to attend the ES World Cup,” said Dolven. “With the event almost a month away, they have not done a single thing. It's a joke and a tragedy that American teams won't be properly represented through a qualification process.”

With nary a word from GGL about the timing, format, or location of the US qualifier Dolven then emailed ESWC about the issues with the ESWC qualifier.

“On May 1st (after two months of zero communication back from GGL and the Grand Finals fast approaching), I took the initiative to email Gregorio Machadinho of the ESWC Executive Staff,” said Dolven. “He promptly responded saying they ‘understood perfectly’ the problems I was having with GGL. He was going to get me some more information soon, but hasn't been able to do so yet.”

On May 16th it was spotted that GGL was no longer listed as the US partner on ESWC’s webpage. Following this, GotFrag contacted Grégorio Machadinho, Overseas Business Manager of Game Services, and Jason Carlton, of GGL, about GGL and ESWC’s evolving relationship. According to Carlton's statement to GotFrag, GGL had been working hard to resolve its differences with ESWC.

Over the last few months, GGL has been working to resolve Game Services’ new business demands related to ESWC. As recently as yesterday, we made a new proposal to meet these demands, including GGL once again sponsoring the travel expenses of the U.S. team.

ESWC has a different take on the situation, responding to GGL's statement Matthieu Dallion, CEO of Games Services, had the following to say.

We agreed on new conditions on the 21st of April 2006 to resolve the issue and GGL has received a signed fax concerning the extension of the partnership to a studio and live broadcast rights to make possible the US preliminaries. But GGL changed again their request and asked for more options that we couldn’t afford.

Instead of finding a new partner on such short notice, ESWC has opted for an invitational process, which will be selected by Jury. Teams will be asked to submit a form to be considered and then a Jury will then look over the applicants and then select two teams.

American champions that wish to represent the USA during ESWC 2006 in Paris, France can complete the appropriate short candidate application form on the official website http://www.esworldcup.com from Friday May 19th to Sunday May 28th.

Craig “Torbull” Levine had a mixed reaction to ESWC’s announcement.

“I think that it is unfortunate that there won't be a US qualification process and that every team won't have a chance to compete for the honor of representing the United States in the E-Sports World Cup,” said Levine, ‘but at least the selection process will give some American teams the opportunity to compete in the grand finals event.”

However, Dolven had harsher words for GGL and the invitational process.

"As a team just outside the top three in the United States, we are/were looking forward to the qualification process for ESWC because we know we won't be invited if it goes that route,” said Dolven. “The ESWC prides themselves in giving a team in our position a shot at their event. If the GGL drops the ball any further, ESWC will just do invites and that will be dead wrong. GGL has a strong history of poor communication and poor planning. This is no different.”

ESWC’s press release is on the next page:

UPDATE: GGL has sent GotFrag its official statement on the matter

To The E-Sports Community:

The Global Gaming League was surprised and disappointed by the unilateral announcement from Games Services about Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2006 United States Qualification process.

GGL has partnered with ESWC last year and looked forward to doing so again this year. In the past, to support the gaming community, GGL has even voluntarily paid for the U.S. team’s travel expenses and was a sponsor of Team USA the year prior to our formal involvement with ESWC.

Over the last few months, GGL has been working to resolve Game Services’ new business demands related to ESWC. As recently as yesterday, we made a new proposal to meet these demands, including GGL once again sponsoring the travel expenses of the U.S. team.

Unfortunately, our desire to reach an amicable resolution to our business dispute apparently was not mutual. We wish the ESWC well and regret the inconvenience and cost that their decision has caused the players.

SECOND UPDATE: ESWC's response to GGL's Statement

Right of reply of ESWC concerning GGL publication.

“The Global Gaming League was surprised and disappointed by the unilateral announcement from Games Services about Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2006 United States Qualification process.”

GGL has been notified the 17th of May that they were no more in charge of the licence.

“Over the last few months, GGL has been working to resolve Game Services’ new business demands related to ESWC.”

After months of negotiations GGL signed a contract for the ESWC 2006 licence with obligations the 29th November 2005. ESWC has never changed its business demands towards GGL. Conversely GGL decide to call their engagement into questions. We agreed on new conditions on the 21st of April 2006 to resolve the issue and GGL has received a signed fax concerning the extension of the partnership to a studio and live broadcast rights to make possible the US preliminaries. But GGL changed again their request and asked for more options that we couldn’t afford. As we were middle of May and as nothing append to select players, we took the difficult resolution that you know.

“As recently as yesterday, we made a new proposal to meet these demands, including GGL once again sponsoring the travel expenses of the U.S. team.”

ESWC agreed 2 times on 2 different GGL proposals that met our demands. 2 times GGL did not respect their commitment.

The only thing we can say is that we are really sorry for the American community that deserve a real challenge and fair competitions for ESWC but time is short to do thing in a better way today.

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