Today, the E-Sports World Cup (ESWC) announced their candidates list for the 2008 ESWC Masters of Paris event to be held on July 4th-6th, 2008. This invitational event will feature the best players from around the world in Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike 1.6 Female, Quake III Arena, WarCraft III TFT, Dota, and TrackMania Nations. Team x3o was announced as the only potential representative from the United States. Read on for more info and the complete release.

We are proud to have the opportunity to represent the United States in the upcoming ESWC 2008 Masters of Paris event. We will update you, the community, as new information develops.

Below are excerpts from the official press release located at ESWC.com:

ESWC Masters of Paris: attendees and ticketing - Published: May 5, 2008
The ESWC revealed the prelist of candidate teams for Counter-Strike tournaments of ESWC Masters of Paris and the availability of ticketing for spectators at Mondial du Gaming.

The ESWC Masters of Paris will be staged inside the «Mondial du Gaming», international gaming show organized from 4 to 6 of July 2008 in Paris Bercy, France by Games-Services, owner of the ESWC. The event will be open to spectators and is already expected as the biggest electronic sports event produced in Europe this year.

The ESWC Masters of Paris will gather French champions and selected international champions in thrilling showcased tournaments that will reward their winners with prize money of US$65,000 and autoberths for the ESWC Grand Final 2008 of San Jose, USA. A selection of matches will be played on the Main Stage of Paris-Bercy.

International candidate applications will open until May 13th at http://www.eswc.com/masters/paris2008 (date has been updated). The ESWC Organizing Committee publishes today a prelist of selected candidates for Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike Women. The Final list will be published on May 20th, 2008.

Counter-Strike 1.6 © Valve Software

The tournament will gather 20 teams:
* 4 French teams (TOP 4 from ESWC France ranking on June 4th)
* 16 International teams that will be selected among this pre-list of selected candidates:

ARTLEZ.org ( CRI, melk, d444y, COW-tz, ENSO )
mousesports ( Kapio, gore, cyx, Tixo, gob )
nEophyte.AVG ( DeathoN, johan, Monty, oskar!, Rasan )
x3o ( PaTyoJoN, benzo, goodfornothing, mehLer, Impulsive )
The Last Resort ( AlesKi, 101, Suffz, spike, Kurt1s )
SKILL-TECH ( STCH ) ( Phobos, meloNNN, aerw, rvT, ag- )
Team Roccat ( lurppis, NASU, ruuit, contE, plastE )
SK Gaming ( SpawN, Tentpole, allen, RobbaN, walle )
UnitedSports ( Fantomas, iceW, arsas, zigurat, wOLF )
eSuba ( jckl, krueger, jRi, PlayHARD, genius )
wNv.CN ( wnvalex, wnvsavage, wnvforever, wnvkingz, wnvsakula1984 )
LowLandLions ( Roy_G, L3 * Apollo, Ofkeli, Deci, Duncan )
Nextlevel e-Sports Club ( MusambaN1, GuMmY, neptuno, FeldmaN, furby )
Challenge Gaming Centre ( -X-, Natashka, JAguAR, INviSibLE, Zordak )
Gravitas Gaming ( KK-, Telli, woodi, FaagaN, KarrigaN )
team-coolermaster ( zaK, sLy, taLz, JungleboY, faken )
Team ALTERNATE ( mooN, approx, CHEF-KOCH, paN, ROMAN R. )
ngL ( MaldiNatOr, kaholic, Luciano, dex-, guderian )
MORBIDITY ( tiger, ns1, rcz, k3rn3l, morph )
Made in Brazil ( fnx, bit, nak, bruno, cogu )

Thank you for your continued support! Check back for more updates.