Month in Review: April

Take HLTV.org's hand and journey with us back to last month to look at some of the hottest happenings that took place.

Marcus "Delpan" Larsson returning to SK Gaming, the India Gaming Carnival scandal, Copenhagen Games and fnatic's victory over Natus Vincere were among the hottest topics in April.

SK Gaming dropped trace for Delpan return

The announcement came as lightning from a clear blue sky. After serving less than three months in SK, Martin "trace" Heldt was removed in order to make way for Marcus "Delpan" Larsson's return.

Denmark's fan favorite was obviously not removed based on his performance; Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg were having a hard time understanding Danish.

After leaving the Swedish powerhouse in January, Larsson reasoned his departure with lack of motivation. When he got a call saying the team wanted him back however, so did his motivation.

Delpan reunited with SK Gaming 

SK Gaming did enjoy much more success with Larsson on board, coming out on top of events such as GameGune, IEM6 GC New York, DreamHack and Electronic Sports World Cup.

With Heldt donning SK's colors the team placed fourth at the Intel Extreme Masters 6 World Cup, 5-6th at Copenhagen Games and managed to get them to the TECHLABS final.

Original story: Delpan returns to SK; trace removed

India Gaming Carnival scandal

Offering a boatload of money and hardware, India Gaming Carnival sought to attract the world elite and the spotlight to India by hosting what could have been the happening of the year.

The organizers, who had never organized anything in the past, turned out to be complete amateurs and have probably participated in disgracing India as a country in terms of electronic sports. 

Instead of traveling to Denmark to attend Copenhagen Games, Moscow Five made the risky call to go to India, presumably appealed to by the staggering prize purse the event boasted.

Ultimately, the team's expectations were far from met. They were scammed, robbed, had to cash out thousands of euros and the Moscow Five owner even feared for his players' lives.

IGC board: Kushagra, Ankush Tripathi, Saurabh Khurana  

To top it all off, the India Gaming Carnival organizers later excused themselves in a public statement and threatened to sue both Moscow Five and several former employees.

The icing on the cake came in a later report. The organizers of India Gaming Carnival had offered $100,000 to buy out Copenhagen Games – through the Danish event's support system.

Related stories: Moscow Five scammed and robbed in India, IGC speak of suing Moscow Five, IGC offered $100,000 for Copenhagen Games

Copenhagen Games 2012

Copenhagen Games has in the matter of a few years become a fan-favorite event, managing to attract several of the world's top teams and offering an impressive prize purse. 

This year's edition took place with no exception to the rule. The former WinFakt team and fnatic, with newly-appointed in-game leader Richard "Xizt" Landström and the team's newest addition Finn "karrigan" Andersen, put on a remarkable show.

WinFakt, then represented by their Finnish team, surprised quite a few when they were able to overcome Natus Vincere with a scoreline of 2-0. They then disregarded their win as a stroke of luck when they reached the upper-final after beating SK Gaming.

With all eyes on WinFakt, the team proceeded to take on fnatic for a spot in the final. The latter established themselves the strongest, and a 2-0 victory granted them access into the final stage.

fnatic were joined by Natus Vincere, who had made the final after a close 16-14 revenge over WinFakt in the consolidation final. After an intense match and four overtimes, fnatic took home the victory.

Related stories: fnatic triumph after Na´Vi thriller, WinFakt upset Natus Vincere, WinFakt overcome SK Gaming, Na´Vi in revenging win against WinFakt, Copenhagen Games wrap-up

$10,000 Inferno Online tournament

With Intel promoting their new third generation Intel Core processors, the chip maker corporation teamed up with Inferno Online to host a $10,000 winner-takes-all tournament.

Making sure to create some craze, the organizers invited SK Gaming, ESC Gaming, fnatic and WinFakt's former team in addition to staging two online and two local qualifiers.

Original story: IOS announces $10,000 tournament

fnatic's online league

fnatic continues to support Counter-Strike's place in the competitive gaming world and teamed up with MSI, RaidCall, SteelSeries, Eizo and XSplit to host a league with top teams.

Inviting teams such as SK Gaming, Natus Vincere, ESC Gaming and Moscow Five and providing streams with English and Russian casters, the league is providing hours of entertaining action. 

To make matters even better, Eizo, SteelSeries and XSplit chipped in with additional great prizes for users participating in HLTV.org's Dreamteam game, making it one very interesting league.

Original story: fnatic announce online league

What do you consider the highlight of last month? Let us know by letting your voice be heard in the comments.