It's not only about fun anymore

ClanBase is not doing so well these days, at least for all the Call of Duty fanbase they have worked so hard in the past to build, something they took years to achieve is about to being thrown away in a couple of months.

The recent scandals on EuroCup XVII have been hitting hard on ClanBase's reputation and the future never looked darker to the once Call of Duty king. ESL must be laughing at them and with reason to do so.

It all started with the prizes ClanBase arranged for this season's EuroCup, shop vouchers. A lot of teams complained about it and some like Fnatic even took time to officially start a boycott on the league's tournaments due to the "lack of respect" shown by ClanBase superiors in offering shop vouchers to a game that has done so much for them throughout these years while ESL with a serious lack of Call of Duty history is going high these days with 1,500€ up for the grabs on Major Series Season 2 and a confirmed 3,000€ prize purse for the third season. And this is online.

Several lan events through Europe have been kind enough to give a shot at Call of Duty 4 and they seriously don't regret such bet. Multiplay i32 was the first one to ever host a competition just a couple of days after release in UK, i33 was a huge success and i34 is full for a few months, last two with a guaranteed prize purse of 12,000€. Activision did the job while spending a few thousand bucks to boost the competitive scene and are now enjoying a great summer season this year.

Acer Challenge was a sucess, iPowergames will be hosted during ESWC Masters of Paris 2008 and Call of Duty 4 is in their plans, Antwerp Esports Festival and The eXperience bring another 47,500€ cash up for the graps this summer, the CGS Kick-off tournament could have been better if it wasn't for the age restrictions and dates, yet it was a great event for those attending. With such a busy and gr€at schedule, are teams really interesting to spend their time practicing for gameshop vouchers?

The Fnatic boycott got bigger the last couple of weeks with Meet Your Makers and Team Dignitas joining them. The H2k/Dignitas scandal had a really negative impact on ClanBase, although they were only following the rules and it's clear that players must play with the registered GUID, the enormous lack of sportsmanship from H2k ended up affecting not only them but also ClanBase, really bad. SpoX handling the case while being a member of H2k caused an ever bigger uproar against him and the league, though whoever would be there, the decision had to be the same.

Yesterday's happenings were another critical hit on them. SPEED-LINK was announced by ClanBase itself as the winner of EuroCup XVII after beating H2k Gaming by 25-15 in a great match followed by dozens of fans through QuadV. It was a community member who remembered ClanBase their EuroCup playoffs was played on double elimination and therefore, SL would have to win two matches as they come from the lower bracket. That's a huge lack of organization and responsibility.

ClanBase lacks of funds to properly run their tournaments and attract the best of Counter-Strike 1.6 or Warcraft 3 playing in their leagues, to organize LAN events or even reward their dedicated and hard working admins for the several hours they put into it day after day. Admins become less and less interested in properly running the league, teams start to move away for other well organized tournaments and the reputation of ClanBase that took so many years to build is being destroyed in a couple of months.

Call of Duty 4 has reached a level where playing for medals or a EuroCup title in their awards page is something from the past. It's not only about fun anymore.