With the generous sponsorship of ATI, we are proud to announce the first Official International Natural Selection Tournament! ATI has generously donated thousands of dollars in prizes, in the form of six new ATI 9800 Pros, one for each member of the best clan. We asked ATI if they were interested in sponsoring an NS tournament, and a couple weeks later, these six cards showed up, with an extra for our own use. One thing's for sure, we're going to make sure NS always runs great on ATI hardware.

The tournament will start right after the release of NS v2.1 (coming soon). To assure that all teams have a fair chance, we are opening up the Veteran program to any and all active clans interested in participating in the tournament. Yes, you read that correctly. Any and every active NS clan interested in participating in the tournament will be given Veteran status and allowed to playtest the beta builds, regardless of your location or experience. All that matters is that your clan is active, which means you play at least four scrims a week on NS beta servers. Inactive or disruptive clans will lose access.

With plenty of bug-fixes, maps, and new features in v2.1 (more news on this soon), it's a fresh new game, and the most balanced and varied NS yet. With hundreds of Constellation Members already giving their valuable input on the public side of the game, we need plenty of active clans to scrim regularly and help us balance the clan aspect of the game.

No application will be refused. Your team will be judged on only one factor: activity. Teams that prove themselves to be inactive will be removed from the program immediately.

Tournament Details and Format The tournament will kick off with the public release of 2.1. Prizes include the Radeon 9800s, custom icons, and other unannounced goodies.

Don't worry about the competition, either. Clans will be separated into two divisions based on skill, with prizes available in every division. Separate tournaments will also be held in America, Europe, and Australia (no clans will be refused on location). The winners from each country will go on to face each other in a round-robin finals series that will blow you away. The finals will be internationally broadcast on HLTV.

Sign-up Instructions To sign up, send an email with the following information to compete@natural-selection.org Clan Name and tag Country A list of six to ten players for your roster, including:

Handle Forum Name SteamID

Registration is now open, and clans can expect to start playing soon after their registration is received and approved. Registration won't close until the tournament starts, but for the best edge, your clan will want to start practicing as soon as possible. Unless otherwise specified, all CAL rules, regulations and practices are in full effect. More information on exact tournament details will be coming soon.

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to donate HLTV servers for the final matches, send e-mail to: compete@natural-selection.org, or contact HAMBONE on Gamesnet (#findnsscrim), Quakenet (#ns.search), or EnterTheGame (#ausns).

We hope you're excited as we are, so prepare those battle plans, print out those map overviews, check your headsets, and most importantly, get those applications in! Good luck!