Over the past couple of months Sennheiser Communications has been one of the important main sponsors behind SK Gaming. For a successfull year 2005 both sides have been working on a big project over the past few weeks: Equipping every single player of SK Gaming with new state-of-the-art headphones or headsets from Sennheiser and Sennheiser Communications to match all their needs.

Today we are happy to say that this project is completed and we would like to thank Sennheiser Communications aswell as their mother company Sennheiser a lot for the time, effort and of course products they have invested into this.

Ingamesound is as you all know a vital part of gaming whether it is for the athmosphere as in FIFA 2005 or an important part of the game like in Painkiller where hearing your opponent can decide if you win or lose. Click on read more to see all the fantastic products the various teams received to improve their skills and pleasure.

WarCraft III

We start with the WarCraft III team. The players of this squad which is partly residing in Korea at the moment for the WEG has been equipped either with the Sennheiser HD 650 or the Sennheiser HD 595. These two models are open headphones, that allow the players to stay 100% focused on the game but still get something of the atmosphere around. It is the perfect solution for a game where sound is a vital but not a deciding factor. The phones are very comfortable to wear which is important since the matches sometimes can last very long.

Statement from SK|Heman:
As you know, for WC3 it is always most important to know whats going on, but when we play a two on two match, we also have to hear what our partner says. Therefore the HD series is pretty much the best choice we could possibly have, as it has the perfect sound and is an open headphone.
To be honest, now I enjoy listening to music on my PC while practising lots more!

Counter-Strike Germany

For a team game like Counter-Strike communication is a key factor to success but hearing your enemy ingame is also vital. The perfect solution for this is the Sennheiser PC 155 USB. It is one of the most popular headsets on the gaming market and with it Sennheiser Communications aims directly at gamers. The new International and the German Counter-Strike team use this set and make the immediate switch when the next generation comes out.

Painkiller

Painkiller, the newest and fastest game to be played since the days of Quakeworld. There is no game where sound plays a more vital role than here and this means the only thing the player has to hear during the game is the game. To gurantee this the team will be using the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro. This professional headphone which primary aims for DJ and professional musicians is 100% closed and won't let any disturbing noises from the outside into the ears. It is perfect to be used at high noise environments such as a big CPL World Tour stop.

FIFA 2005

For a sports game like FIFA 2005 sounds is not a vital part gamewise. You don't need to hear who kicked the ball but without the sound something big is missing: the athmosphere. The sound of a stadium with the fans and the sound of the game is an important factor the make the game enjoyable. As a perfect solution we found the Sennheiser PMX 60. This lightweight headphone comes from the Streetwear series of Sennheiser . Don't take size for quality as the PMX 60 is a real featherweight compared to all the other headphones above. It is the technique inside and there you will find just 100% high quality, as in every product from Sennheiser.

You might think thats it now, but wrong. Sennheiser equipped parts of our players with 3 more products. The players within SK Gaming that travel a lot during the year received the Sennheiser PXC 250, the Sennheiser PX 200 and the Sennheiser MX 500. The PXC 250 is a lightweight headset with NoiseGard(tm) active noise compensation that has an outstanding isolation. It is ideal for the use within an airplane because you won't hear the turbine anymore. Just pure sound. For enjoying their music or anything else at the ground the players can switch to the PX200 and the MX 500. This headphones are very comfortable and have a superb sound. They will fit everywhere and you won't want to miss them after you tried them once.

In the end, the whole SK Gaming team would like to thank Sennheiser Communications and Sennheiser again for being such a reliable and trustworthy partner. May this be a successfull year for us.

With Razer supporting SK with their quality gamer mice I decided it was a good time to conduct an interview with the man in charge, Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, about how his company started and why he got into the eSports bussiness. He voices his opinion about the eSport scene but he also gives us some world exclusive news about upcoming Razer products.

Why did you decide to aim your products at the gamers ?

We looked at the demand that games was having on video and audio cards, processors and monitor size and resolution and then looked at how the mouse and keyboard hadn’t changed much in 30 years. We was a place where our technology could make an impact. We were right.

eLated|mw- : Will Razer make more mouses in different sizes ?

We are working on a several new concept mice. One for release at E3 and two other unique body styles by the end of this year.

The interview is very long and contains a lot of interesting information about Razer, SK, eSports and even has tips on how to obtain a sponsorship.

Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson has decided to retire from Warcraft. The 20-year-old Swede has been one of the best players in the world, but lately he has lost motivation. Now he has decided to call it quits.

"All the things got more and more pointless in the game. After you have achieved some big things, it is hard to get the motivation back. I really felt that it was over when I left the Korean team FrienZ, but I thought I might get the motivation back. It never came back for real," says Fredrik.

SK's European Undead player is currently in Korea where he participates in the World eSports Games. WEG was supposed to be one last shot for MaDFroG, a last attempt to see if he could find any kind of motivation to continue playing. Though even before the tournament, he realised it was a wrong choice.

"I couldn't see any fun at all in playing, and the last week before leaving I wanted to withdraw. But I felt it was too late, and WEG had spent a lot of money on me," Fredrik explains.

MaDFroG's match against the Chinese player Magicyang will be the last in his active career. Though he hasn't practiced for it, and he expects to lose. "I have no feelings whatsoever to win. It has been really bad for me here, I have been homesick since day one. I am missing my girlfriend like crazy, and it just feels totally wrong to be here when I don't feel like playing."

Some people may wonder if MaDFroG having a girlfriend may be part of the reason why he is retiring - that he has found something other than gaming. Fredrik admits that is part of it. "It is pretty much like that. Also, I feel like I need to move on with my life. Warcraft 3 took too much time."

Several players have announced their retirements lately. Swain quit, but he later made a comeback, Star.WeRRa announced that he would leave and now MaDFroG, all in their early twenties. "I think you lose the power of playing eight hours a day when you get older than 19, I never had a problem with playing a lot before. But I guess we get too old for putting so much energy into a game," MaDFroG thinks.

MaDFroG believes that he will miss his friends in the gaming scene, but right now he wants to get away from all of that. "I don't think I will follow the scene, not right now at least. I need some time to get on with my life, I just want to be away from the computer. So I don't think I will play any games for a long time."

Then how will Fredrik spend the first period of his retirement? "I will spend lots and lots of time with my girlfriend, just taking it easy. I don't feel like doing something else right now, and I don't feel like I need to work either, so I am going to take some time off from most of those things."

MaDFroG has been in SK Gaming for several years, and he will be sorely missed by all his teammates and of course by his fans. "Overall it has been really cool being in SK. I would like to thank the whole SK for a great time, and also I want to thank my fans who never stopped believing in me."

Fredrik brings a lot of good memories with him into his retirement, the best of them when he won the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. He doesn't at all regret choosing pro gaming as his field. "Gaming has given me many good moments and I have so many good memories that will never go away. I would never change that for anything."

SK Gaming is very sad to see Fredrik leave, but wishes him the best of luck for his future, whatever it may bring.

This guy was a legend in Warcraft 3 Gaming over the past years. Lots of people have admired him and have started playing warcraft 3 competetively because of him. Good luck in the real world.