Serious Gaming Explained

Serious Gaming
Location:Amsterdam, Netherlands
Founded:2004
Manager:Sebastiaan Peeperkorn
Partners:Razer USA
Sport Label:Divisions
Sport:Quake

Counter-Strike 1.6
Painkiller
Call of Duty 2
Defense of the Ancients

Serious Gaming is a professional gaming team based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Bas Peeperkorn.[1] Serious Gaming is known for their achievements in first-person shooter Deathmatch tournaments, most notably those by Quake series players Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski and Cypher.

History

2005Serious Gaming was founded in 2004 by Bas Peeperkorn, the team's first signing was Painkiller player Niels van Tilborg. Painkiller was the game used for the US$1,000,000 2005 CPL World Tour and following van Tilborg the following players were signed and represented Serious Gaming throughout the tour: Fredrik Edesater and Stefan Timmermans. Highlights for the team included a ninth-place finish at the Chile stop and two players being among the 32 players in the world tour finals.[2]

In 2005 Serious Gaming also competed in televised competition at the World eSport Games in Seoul, Korea, being represented at the second edition of the event by a Counter-Strike division consisting of Finnish players.[3] This division would disband shortly after their stay in Seoul.

2006–2007Following the 2005 World Tour the main focus of the first-person shooter Deatmatch scene switched from Painkiller to the newly released Quake IV and Serious Gaming followed. Contracts with van Tilborg and Edesater ended, Timmermans would take a management position and help guide two newly signed players in the professional gaming scene: Markus Andersen and Maciej Krzykowski. Andersen would develop into a champion player at the national level but never take the step to international competition. Kryzkowski quickly established himself as a major contender in international competition, being recognized as the newcomer of the year in all of eSports in 2006. Kryzkowski ended up winning the Quake competition at ESWC 2007 without losing a map, becoming the youngest Quake and ESWC world champion in history.[4]

2006 was also the year Serious Gaming established a division, originally signing Oskar Rudberg and Jos Buijvoets. Rudberg would retire shortly after joining and Buijvoets transitioned into a managerial role. The team signed and released a variety of players including (now) professional gamers Benjamin Baker[5] and Daniel Spenst.[6] Eventually a stable line-up of players would emerge that represented the team for several years including Kevin van der Kooi, Nikolaus Cassidy and Hjalmar Högberg.

Serious Gaming also signed two separate European champion Call of Duty 2 teams, the first of which disbanded several months after joining and the second of which disbanded after unsuccessfully trying to transition to .[7]

2008–2010Following the collapse of the World Series of Video Games the focus of the Deathmatch scene switched back to Quake III in 2008. Serious Gaming signed Alexey Yanushevsky[8] in July 2008. Yanushevsky would win the 2008 Electronic Sports World Cup with Kryzkowski being unable to defend his title due to his visa being rejected.[9] Yanushevsky would later also win the professional tournament at QuakeCon 2008 which was the first time QuakeLive was used at a major professional gaming event, this game would quickly become the standard for professional Deathmatch competition and remains to be until today. The two would compete in various Quake competitions throughout 2008, 2009 and 2010 and in Tek-9 Network's inaugural QuakeLive ranking (February 2010) Yanushevsky was ranked the world's number one QuakeLive player with Kryzkowski taking a third place.[10] Also signed 1 November 2009 was Adrien Denis "in full harmony with the teams philosophy of converting young talented players into tournament winners".[11]

Individual Serious Gaming players won tournaments at the national and continental level.[1] After signing Kim Dong Hwan the team also competed at the highest levels of team leagues, culminating in a third place at the Warcraft 3 Champions League season XVI. Kim was recognized as one of the most impressive newcomers in Warcraft III.[12] In 2010 Cassidy and Buijvoets would transition to form a StarCraft II squad competing in the newly released StarCraft II beta while both still filling a role in the WarCraft III division. This year van der Kooi would leave Serious Gaming to lead a Heroes of Newerth division for professional gaming team fnatic.[13] Added in 2010 would be Lennart Roest in order to ensure the team's viability in team competitions.[14] On 21 May 2010, van der Kooi re-joined the real-time strategy roster as part of the StarCraft II squad.[15] He would be joined by Dlovan van den Bosch on 14 June 2010 [16] and Alexander Hein on 11 August 2010.[17]

Serious Gaming also signed a French Defense of the Ancients division in 2008.[18] Several months after announcing the team the Electronic Sports World Cup announced the inclusion of Defense of the Ancients at their main event.[19] Serious Gaming Defense of the Ancients ended up winning the French championship and qualify for the 2008 Electronic Sports World Cup where they would take 7th place.[20] Following this tournament the Serious Gaming organisation and its Defense of the Ancients division parted amicably.

Current team structure

Management

Players

Notable former players and management

Tournament results

2022

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

Notes and References

  1. Web site: TEAM SUMMARY. 13 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100302131847/http://www.serious-gaming.com/articles/team_summary . 2 March 2010 .
  2. Web site: Painkiller Zone » Blog Archive » CPL World Tour Brackets . Pkzone.org . 15 August 2009 . 5 December 2013.
  3. Web site: Counter-Strike: Team Wings move to Serious Gaming . SK Gaming . 9 October 2005 . 5 December 2013.
  4. Web site: Liam "crow" Crowley recounts the ESWC 2007 Quake 4 final featuring av3k and Cooller.. 13 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081012225514/http://www.gotfrag.com/quake/story/38599/ . 12 October 2008 .
  5. http://yashsoftware.com/archives/68
  6. Web site: Interview with the XlorD. 13 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090414062929/http://www.mymym.com/en/article/105.html . 14 April 2009 .
  7. Web site: GBT – Call of Duty 2 Champs Join Serious Gaming . https://web.archive.org/web/20080323031637/http://gamingbucket.com/news.php/newsid=4174.php . dead . 23 March 2008 . Gamingbucket.com . 5 December 2013 .
  8. Web site: LOLCounters. December 2013.
  9. Web site: Serious.Razer at ESWC San Jose: Cypher wins Q3. 13 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110724114748/http://www.ugame.net/teams/serious/news/view/195/Serious-Razer-at-ESWC-San-Jose-Cypher-wins-Q3.html . 24 July 2011 .
  10. Web site: Esports Heaven . Tek-9.org . 5 December 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120220133213/http://www.tek-9.org/articles/tek9_quakelive_rankings_february-457/the_top_10-1.html . 20 February 2012 .
  11. Web site: Archived copy . play.google.com . 14 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170214104335/https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wweimmortals.wrestlingkingoffighter . 14 February 2017 . dead.
  12. http://www.gosugamers.net/warcraft/news/11131-gosugamers-wc3-awards-2009
  13. Web site: Sasquatch . Professional Gaming Organization . compLexity Gaming . 5 December 2013.
  14. Web site: Sushilicious to srs. 13 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100224083136/http://www.mymym.com/en/news/17983.html . 24 February 2010 .
  15. http://www.serious-gaming.com/articles/show/496
  16. Web site: srs mit Dlovan « Wer? Wohin? Warum? « . Readmore.de . 5 December 2013.
  17. http://www.serious-gaming.com/articles/show/506/
  18. Web site: SERIOUS GAMING WELCOMES DOTA SQUAD. 13 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20091207153928/http://www.serious-gaming.com/articles/show/105 . 7 December 2009 .
  19. Web site: DotA in the Official Games Titles for ESWC 2008. 13 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090914145928/http://www.mymym.com/en/news/11513.html . 14 September 2009 .
  20. Web site: Board Message . Forum.lowyat.net . 5 December 2013.
  21. Web site: Turtle Entertainment GmbH. ESL: srs.razer Serious.Razer – Team – WC3L – Europe – ESL – The eSports League. Esl.eu. 6 January 1990. 5 December 2013.
  22. Web site: Login. 16 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100322195112/http://www.gosugamers.net/warcraft/news/11559-dowaq-retires-my-love-for-the-game-is-dead . 22 March 2010 .
  23. Web site: Warcraft III: Four Kings add DeMusliM . SK Gaming . 9 May 2007 . 5 December 2013.

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