HLTV.org is in the Basque Country, more specific in Bilbao. Bilbao is once again host for the Euskal Encounter, housing the GameGune invite tournament. HLTV.org looks into what is going on the first hours of GameGune 2008.

Do you want to know what is going on at GameGune 2008? HLTV.org is here to fill you in what is going on, these first hours of the GameGune 2008 event. HLTV.org digs in.

Tournament area setup

GameGune have setup the tournament area almost exactly like the previous year. The setup is clearly aimed towards for filling all the critical demands these gamers have. Wide tables and CRT monitors and you are close to pleasing any Counter-Strike pro gamer on the planet.




GameGune have also made sure that nobody but crew, players and press can enter the GameGune tournament area. As mentioned, the tournament area is located inside Euskal Encounter 16, the one of the biggest LAN parties in Spain. Bigger at the time is Campus Party with more than 6000 open seats, but Euskal Encounter have a lot of other values; better network (HP ProCurve) and faster internet (10Gbit, hence Euskaltel is main-sponsor of the event) There are more than 4000 open seats this year, meaning a lot of potential people could want to enter the tournament area. Not going to happen though.

Attending teams

The dominating forces in Counter-Strike 1.6 is for sure missing, but also many top 10 teams are missing. It is sad to see teams bailing out on the organizers so short before tournament start. The teams put the organizers in a difficult position when they need replacements. Looking at the teams actually here, you might even sense that a few upsets could be on their way. There is a bunch of teams that nobody has heard of. The Extreme Masters II champions from mousesports must be counted as the main favourite to take the biggest check at GameGune 2008. But will there be a team or two, to beat them in the race for it?

Problems

No event without problems. The first problems have occurred at GameGune 2008. First of all the wide tables have uneven surface levels, which makes the mousepads go up and down, as you move your mouse across it, the GameGune crew have however managed to fix the problem with cardboard.

Even thought GameGune have fixed CRT monitors, then there’s still a few complains. The 17 inch monitors can run 100hz in 800x600 and that’s it. Some players normally play in 1024x768 and they cannot get 100hz, but that’s just how it is, players will have to deal with it.

As we setup the settings for the livebot to work, it occurred that it could not work out. The Counter-Strike LAN servers are without internet and therefore cannot send the needed data to our servers, meaning (unfortunately) there will not be any livebots on our page from GameGune 2008.

Positive

The crew is very kind and helpful to everyone, making the atmosphere at GameGune splendid. Compared to other events located inside a major LAN event (like DreamHack), there’s really not much noise here (yet?). It makes you calm down and relax and won’t kill you with a killer headache.



Obviously the climate in Bilbao is worth mentioning. Compared to Denmark (where I took off in 5*C), its warm here, even when it’s windy outside. The sky is not clear yet, but as we get to the other side of midday, it should change. Sad this is that Denmark currently has hit a heat-wave and have more than 20*C.

Negative

So far so good, there is nothing negative really to complain about. Worst of all so far is me being attacked by mosquitoes during the night.

HLTV.org continues to follow GameGune 2008 up close.

(责任编辑：keydrop cs)