The qualifiers for the EsportSM event in Norrköping was concluded yesterday and we've had mixed results throughout the tournaments. Several players under the Playing with Fire banner competed for a spot in the event. In the first qualifier both Pluffs was taken down in the second round and Tails was unable to continue playing thus giving default win, while Bubbas was taken out in the third. Our last player in the bracket, Lunar, was playing really well taking down notable Swedish players and went all the way to the final round of qualifying, beating Timestamp, HoBbe from Team prOperty and myrmonden. In the final round Lunar was up against Snuffe from Team prOperty and unfortunately lost after taking it to the third and final game.

In the second and final qualifier for the event we also had an uphill run and with HiTeD being knocked out in the first round, Pluffs once again falling in the second along with Tails it looked pretty grim for us.

The last player to stand was Bubbas who had an impressive run beating FOX, Humfluxx, Gladiator and Iridum, all 2-0, through out the bracket. After a close series against Oink, Bubbas managed to pull through with a 2-1 victory thus qualifying for the offline event in Norrköping. Bubbas moves on to compete in Norrköping for a spot in the Swedish Championship played at Dreamhack Summer, but he has to work his way through a very tough set of opponents. Other players that have qualified for the Norrköping event are RunA, SjoW, Snuffe, Jrayc, Buffy all from Team prOperty, StarNaN from Western Wolves and hOpe from Mousesports.

We wish Bubbas the best of luck and we hope you will cheer him on as much as we will!

Several members of our team competed in the online qualifiers for this season of WCS and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately we didn't have very good coverage of how well we did or when we played. To make up for this error we will give you a short summary of what went down during those qualifiers. Unfortunately we didn't participate in the first two qualifiers, but in the final two.


Qualifier #3We only had one participant during the third qualifier, PwFTails. Tails played very well and wasn't knocked out until the round 64 which, in our eyes, is a win in itself and he beat some notable players in the process. His first opponent was a master Zerg, AsAr, whom he brought down 2-0. Next up was DeathAngel which ended in Tails' favor after a close 2-1 series. Tails went on and beat MeteoRain, who currently was in the top 50 GM protoss 2-0. Tails was finally knocked out by AcerHydra, 2-0, whom qualified for the event.


Overall Tails stated that he played fairly well and was happy to have beaten MeteoRain, but felt that he didn't really stand a chance against AcerHydra, but seeing as Hydra made it out of the qualifiers taking a loss from him is more than acceptable. Nevertheless, we are more than pleased with his results!


Qualifier #4
This time around the bracket was filled with more players from Playing with Fire. Among the participants were PwFBubbas, PwFGroet and, once again, PwFTails. Each of our player went all the way to the round of 64 before being knocked out and, just like the previous qualifier, took down some impressing names in the process.


Groet had a great run beating UnknownArt from teamYAO, 2-0, Illias from team Tdg, 2-0 and got a default win against Minato from FXO. The default win was because Minatos internet went down during the first game, where Groet had a notably good position. In the next round Groet was finally taken down, after taking it to the final game, by the top 50 GM Terran KauP from NrS. Groet himself says that the happiest win was against Illias since he had him on ignore due to bm and the wins against people who bm are the best kind of wins.


Tails was able to take down souL, who is a gm terran, 2-1 and NathanGS, master terran, 2-0 before falling to WWMorroW 2-0. Tails had a tough run seeing as TvT is his worst match up at the moment, but he still went on to take down souL. Tails states that souL is a very solid Terran and it was a really close series that could have ended either way. He further states that MorroW was just too strong of an opponent since Tails' TvT is in such a bad shape.


The player who really shined this qualifier was Bubbas. He had a default win in the first run and later went on to beat maTTzouR, master terran, 2-0. The most notable of wins was his next opponent, the korean GM Daisy from Western Wolves. The series went into the final game where Bubbas came out on top. This was a huge upset for us, not because Bubbas is a bad player, but because Bubbas win % in PvP is less than 35% on the ladder. According to himself he played the best PvP's in his StarCraft II career. Even if Daisy was playing in Korea with notable delay, this win was huge and we are really happy for him.

We congratulate our players  on their success in the WCS which has brought better self confidence and more motivation to continue pursuing their dream of being in the top of the StarCraft food chain. Support our players by following them on twitter; @PwFBubbas, @PwFTails and @PwFGroet!

If you want the latest news regarding Playing with Fire in general, be sure to follow @TeamPwF!

Today we have both good and bad news. Actually When I think about it it's not really news since it's been public for a while, but no official statement has been made on our side and it's way over due. Let's start with the bad news.

A few weeks ago Joakim "Sluskis" Gunnarsson left our organization to join a new team, Downfall e-Sports. Joakim officially joined our team mid summer 2012 and has become a very good friend of ours. Even though we are sad that we'll be parting ways Playing with Fire is supportive of his decision and we left on good terms. We wish him the best of luck in the future!

However, we also have some good news. We lost a great Zerg, but we have gained a great old one. Playing with Fire are happy to announce that our former member Emil "Megashira" Eklund has rejoined our ranks! Emil was a member of Playing with Fire for quite some time, but decided to retire for the time being about a year ago. He decided to return with Heart of The Swarm and we are happy he wanted back in with Playing with Fire. During Dreamhack Summer 2012 Emil took first place in Fragbite StarCraft II Challange, securing gaming gear worth 10 000 SEK. Needless to say, Emil will be a great addition to our already strong roster.

We wrap this up by saying good luck in your new team, Joakim "Sluskis" Gunnarsson, and welcome back Emil "Megashira" Eklund!

Playing with Fire has been around for quite some time. We are constantly showing up in Online tournaments, both international and national, and we have been quite known in the national scene for a while now. However as a team we haven't expanded in a pace that we are satisfied with and the reason for this is that we are currently lacking management to do so. This is going to change.

We will be recruiting staff for our team and right now we are mainly looking for skilled designers to help us with everything from banners on the homepage to images for news articles, blogs and streams. Are you a skilled designer? Do you want to join Playing with Fire in their conquest for glory? Fill out the form on the Contact-Us-page in the upper right menu. We are, of course, looking for management in any kind of area that would benefit us as a team so even if you aren't a skilled designer you can still apply to us in your particular area of expertise. It's up to you what kind of information you feel is necessary for your particular application.

Hopefully we will see some new members to our team in form of organization to stir things up!

Gothenburgs final online qualifier for the EsportSM stop was played tonight and had 116 competitors. Among the competitors were three from Playing with Fire; Bubbas, Groet and Tails.

All the players survived the first round, but unfortunately a team kill had to occur in the second. Bubbas played with the honor of Aiur, but Tails pulled the dudes and beat Bubbas 2-0, thus knocking Bubbas out of the tournament and advancing into the next round. Tails continued to plow his way through the bracket, but was pinned against Lalush from Millenium in round 16. After two intense games Tails was, unfortunately, beaten by the aggressive zerg player. Tails was, however, not the only one reaching into the round of 16, but Groet as well. Groet was up against Mekar from Team prOperty and after the series going into the final game, Groet was taken down 1-2.

The run ended at round 16 for us, but we will be back and hopefully we won't be pinned against each other early on. Don't forget to follow us on twitter and tune in to our streams!