Beta? what beta?

It seems that all these jokes about reric's "early july" patch were misplaced, and that this time, they've gone to the other extreme, and released the early july beta REALLY early!

to quote the official site:

The massive update that is 'There is Only War' will first be available as an open Beta to all owners of Dawn of War II. Players can participate in the Beta WEDNESDAY, JULY 1ST 2009 at 2:00 PM PST through their Steam client.
Why Participate?

By participating in the Beta, you'll get to play 'There is Only War' early, where you can play with new balance changes, new updates, and new features, all before the update is officially released. Steam will update your copy of Dawn of War II when you decide to participate.

Tonight's Cup

1on1 Beta Night Cup

When: 2nd July System: Starts 00:00 CET technically tomorrow, tonight in reality Best of one Max. players: 16 spots only Your game might be livecasted

Sign up

The Other Cups

1on1 Beta Night Cup

When: Monday 6th July System: Starts 19:00 CET Best of 3 Max. players: no limit Your game might be livecasted

Sign up

2on2 Beta Night Cup

When: Thursday 9th July System: Starts 19:00 CET Best of 3 Max. teams: no limit Your game might be livecasted

Sign up

3on3 Beta Night Cup

When: Saturday 11th July System: Starts 19:00 CET Best of 3 Max. teams: no limit Your game might be livecasted

Sign up

Join Restrictions

To take part in the 1on1 beta cup, all you need are a DoW2 Windows Live ID and your steam name added to the ESL site.
For the team cups, you need to upload a logo for your team too, but that's not that hard. This is all explained below.

These cups are open to everyone from around the globe. So from Ireland to New Zealand, anyone who might be awake for the cup is free to sign up.

How To Register on the ESL

A guide on how to register with the ESL has kindly already been written

!! Check it out here!!

Matches may be LiveCasted

One of Patch 1.4's big triumphs is that observer mode has finally been added. This gives us an oppurtunity to get games livecasted!

With this in mind, we've set up a livestreaming channel called dow2live. Popular shoutcasters, such as ITSEXYTIME and Lord Lokgar have already declared an interest in this, but we need more! If you want to get recognition/practice/flamed as a caster, drop us a line.

We haven't started yet, though, so it's just blank

Prizes

In all beta cups, the prizes are:

2nd Place 2 Months

1st Place 3 Months

3rd Place 1 Month

As for what premium is:

ESL Premium
No advertisements
Awards become visible
Access to Special leagues
unlimited gather system use

The Spring League and June Night cup playoffs start

GameReplays Night Cup Series Playoffs

When: 5th July - 12th July Following 8 close night cups, the top 8 are gathered With good prizes, these teams will fight for top spot these games will definitely be casted!

See the Rankings

DowSanctuary Spring League Playoffs

When: 4th July - 12th July After 370 games, by 160 players, the final 32 are chosen At stake is a coveted DowS expert badge We're aware it's not spring any more

See the Rankings

Your ESL Admin team

This is as good a time as any to introduce your ESL admin team to you!

Gearóid "bogger" Ó Fearghíl
Lars "Tokuro-Chan" Sowa
Bartosz "Sendil" Rychlewski
Niklas "LinaiL" Frerichs
Nils "Gaddy" Gatberg
Marc "cerb" Bergenthal
Aziz "AZ" Mametov

Update

Because of the delay of the beta, the night cup will be moved to 3rd July, 00:00 CET. (That means technically tomorrow night)


These cups are brought to you by your waaghboss gretchin