We will soon be entering the year of 2009, but once again we look back at what took place at HLTV.org in 2008.
The year 2008 is soon be to over, HLTV.org is yet again happy with the outcome, as 2008 comes to an end. The year has brought us several new records and proved everyone that our game, Counter Strike 1.6, is far from dying. 2008 also brought you guys, our beloved users, several new features and loads of other activities to attend. Looking back at 2008
Event-wise, 2008 has been a very busy year for us, the teams and the organizers. Looking back, at lot of events took place. With no doubt, many teams had their time during the year. The Swedes from fnatic continued their great play in the first quarter of the year as won NGL One Season 4 Finals and Samsung European Championship. The Germans had their hands up high as mousesports won Extreme Masters II, one of the most prestigious titles of the year, when defeating e-STRO in the grand final. In May fnatic could have secured their third title of the year, but a strong going mTw simply crushed the Swedes and set the scene for what should turn out to be an mTw year.
After the switch from PGS to MYM, the Polish team was able to secure their first title at DreamHack Summer by winning against roccat in the grand final. The event was the last strength test before ESWC Masters Paris, where several teams had a last-chance to qualify for the ESWC Grand Finals. The event should once again end up with a Scandinavian clash, when mTw and fnatic met in the final. The Danes once again eliminated the fnatic’s in the race to for the gold, and cashed in their second title of the year.
While most teams took a small summer break, several top teams had found their way to Bilbao to attend the 2008 edition of GameGune. The event saw great play from North America, but came short to grab the gold. Made in Brazil should take their first title of the year by defeating the Extreme Masters II champions from mousesports.
A month later, the European Nations Championship hosted its finals at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. Defending champions from Poland did not qualify for this year’s finals, which meant a new nation to be crown as champions. The trophy should go to Sweden as they won against Germany, with Denmark placing third and Spain as fourth.
August came and one of the events to win this year, ESWC Global Finals in San Jose, USA was upon us. Many pointed at mTw as possible winners, but the Danes went out to archrivals from fnatic. The title should however be defended as the Polish team of MYM won the grand final versus e-STRO. This meant ESWC history, as no other team had won the trophy two years in a row.
A period of one month saw no events, but as we hit the tenth month of the year, the October madness began, starting in Los Angeles with the Extreme Masters Global Challenge. SK Gaming had recently replaced SpawN with zet, which paid off as the team won against Made in Brazil in the grand final. Extreme Masters Global continued in Montreal, Canada. Mainly North American teams had found their way to Montreal, but also SK Gaming, fnatic and Made in Brazil was on spot. A Swedish team should once again be the winning team, but this time, fnatic secure another title by defeating the country-rivals from SK Gaming in the grand final.
Directly from Montreal to Dubai, Extreme Masters Global Challenge continued with the last event, located in the always growing city of Dubai, United Arabic Emirates. Winners of the tournament should be the Extreme Masters II champions from mousesports, with MYM placing second, GamePlay third and mTw placing fourth. Several teams flew directly from Dubai to Hangzhou in China, to participate in World e-Sports Masters. The event should start out with accusations of ghosting, when Dragon defeated MYM in the group stage. The winner of the event should be Danish mTw, taking yet another title.
Amongst ESWC, World Cyber Games was one of the events to win. Many nations and many great teams showed up in Cologne, Germany to participate in one of the most prestigious tournaments. The event saw a great series of upsets, already in the groupstage, but the real intensity began as the playoffs started. A return of the icon elemeNt saw his team going out in the semis to mTw, while SK Gaming secured their final spot, by defeating e-STRO. The grand final at World Cyber Games, will probably go down as one of the all-time best finals. An epic scout round by mTw and three maps to determine the winner really set the roof on fire. The Danish team could secure the World Cyber Games title after a much intense final, adding yet another title to the 2008 winnings list.
DreamHack Winter should be one of the last events of the year gathering the world elite. Everyone conquering a title was on spot in Jönköping, Sweden. The event once saw World Cyber Games champions from mTw taking on the silver-medalists from SK Gaming. This time the Swedes took revenge against the Danes, pocketing a fat check.
Rekrut.ru Championship 2008 taking place in Moscow, Russia was to be the last international event of the year. Not many of the top teams out there had found their way to the cold Motherland, but on the list we saw mTw, GamePlay, Alternate, Amazing Gaming and Virtus.pro. Nobody really came close at defeating the main-favorite mTw. The Danish team collected yet another title by defeating Virtus.pro in the grand final.
No doubt 2008 brought us a hell of a show, but are things looking as bright as we really think? GamePlay announced their team would have to find a new home with the end of this year, will we see more actions similar due to the financial crises? We can all keep guess, but no one will really know for sure what will go on in the 2009 season.
Statistics
Numbers define how we performed in 2008. Once again ESWC helped us break a record as we reach more than 1 million page impressions on one day, during ESWC Grand Final in San Jose, USA. To sum up 2008, here is a few interesting series of statistics:
1,310,161 unique visits 7,752,425 visits 70.094.156 page views 347.000 bookings or roughly 950 per day
How did we reach these statistics? Without our user base, these statistics would not exist. Our users have been showing great support throughout 2008 and we hope that 2009 will bring even more support from our users.
We are already now looking into how we can improve for 2009, we are always trying to improve ourselves, just to please the people keeping this site alive and kicking.
On behalf of the entire HLTV.org crew, I wish you a happy new year. Last but not least, I'd like to thank the sites/organizations/tournaments for their co-operation this year, without you, nothing this year would be possible.
Happy New Year folks!
THE BEST WISHES TO EVERYONE AND THEIR FAMILY.
I hope this year will be fortunate for every living creature on this planet!
loves to you all,
Amir "AK^" Khodaie
2009-01-01 00:29
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happy new year to everyone out there !
and: THANK YOU GUYS, for another year of top coverage, you're doing an awesome job!!
hope you can continue that way, or even better, this year :D
2009-01-01 02:50
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Happy New Year, guys! :) I wish you all the good; a lot of hot girls, successful career (on gaming or not), health to ur family... at last, amazing 2009. :D
2009-01-01 04:06
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