Red’s Corner is a bi-weekly column by Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner released every other Thursday exclusively at Cadred.

Paul's last three columns can be read by clicking the following links:

Independence Day	2nd July
It's The FANS, Stupid	18th June
Update My Lada Riva	4th June

I know, you didn’t think it was possible, but yes, just for a change, I am going to be positive. It seems I have spent the last few corners moaning, complaining and ranting about all and sundry and its time for a change. The sun is shining and there are three huge events to look forward to over the next few weeks.

It is times like these that I take a step back and try to appreciate how lucky we are in the source scene that we have so many great events throughout the year. We need to appreciate them more too, but I am not here to complain about the lack of support they sometimes get, lets just take a look at the good stuff about to head our way.

ReDeYe prepared long and hard before writing this column

First up, the Cadred team will head off to Belgium this weekend in preparation for coverage from Outpost On Fire. It’s a little unusual in comparison to other events in that its split in to two parts and yes I know the eXperience does the same thing, but its still unusual! Counter Strike Source gets under way on Monday morning, which may well be the first time I have been at an event that starts on a Monday. It will certainly keep the players on their toes with an early start (both in terms of the day and the time). We certainly have a feast of action to look forward to and although many are calling this the dress rehearsal for TEX, it has enough good teams involved to give us a competitive and highly interesting tournament.

Whilst the heavy hitters at the sharp end of the Cadred Top Ten are not in attendance, the eclectic mix of teams from all corners of Europe is bound to throw up some fascinating matches. The top 4 will get the money between them with first place grabbing 2,250euros, not bad for a couple of days work. When you look at the attendee’s, there are 4 Belgian teams, 3 Dutch, 3 French, 1 Italian, 1 Brit, 1 Danish, 1 Czech and 1 mixed European. That’s an impressive array of nationalities for an event seems to have been snubbed by many top teams.

With that said, the race for the Top 4 will still intriguing, however starting out as favourites have to be 4Kings and RedLine. Outside of those two, the others who should be in the mix include Fnatic.MSI and Mod (if they attend as planned) and the Brits will be hoping Vitriolic (as a British team, if not in players) can compete for the top four too. Beyond that, there are one or two who could surprise but outside those 5 it would be a shock if any other took overall victory. If there is a tie I’d like to see work its way in to the brackets at some point, its to see 4K go head to head with Fnatic. The old versus the new would certainly settle a few of the arguments.

The old fnatic squad, now at 4kings, could potentially play the new fnatic squad at LAN

There is also the Call of Duty tournament which starts later in the week, hosted by the same good people at Gamevibes and featuring a ton of great teams, even more so than CSS. I am not going to whine about how badly supported the CSS tournament has been however, why spoil a good thing when I am doing so well at not ranting this week?

Moving on, next stop Denmark. The eXperience, firmly regarded as the single best event of 2008 and not just here on Cadred. Widely regarded as a perfect example of how to run a tournament, 2009’s version has a lot to live up to and not just in an organisational sense either. There are far more top teams attending TEX, but still it doesn’t have the number one team in Europe. It remains to be seen if taking a couple of months off from tournament play and avoiding the big events will see them drop down from the number 1 perch on the Cadred Top Ten. I guess it will depend on one team dominating this event or a number of them over the summer. Attending the event and in considerably good form will be Reason Gaming. With the undisputed current kings of CSS missing, it’s a great opportunity to confirm not only Reason's great form, but their legitimate claim for that number one spot.

Standing in their way however are high quality teams including former number one team in the world, dignitas (due a good tournament any time soon) and those moving on from OOF in the form of RedLine and Fnatic who will surely be nicely warmed up. There are also a mini invasion from UK based squads and the highly anticipated return to international LAN tournaments for mTw. Whilst there are, as expected for a Scandinavian tournament, plenty of home grown talent in attendance, there will be a very international feeling to the event, with even a team from Greece planning to attend.

If picking a winner for OOF was tricky, it’s possibly even harder for TEX. RedLine could be a surprise package, especially coming in to the event hot after OOF and although to win it might be considered a step too far, don’t underestimate how much passion can do for a team and they have that in bundles. The likely lads are, as I have already pointed out going to be Reason and dignitas, but its much more open than we could have hoped for a few months ago and that makes its very interesting right through the bracket.

RedLine turned heads at LAN79 and will be looking to build on that at OOF

Then we have a short gap until the start of i37. This time of year usually has WCG UK Finals at the Multiplay events and this year is no different, so whilst the focus will be rightly on this section of tournaments, Multiplay once again offer the community a £5,000 (plus £450 worth of free entry tickets) tournament for CS:S. Even at this stage however it is difficult to see 100% who will be attending, but expect the usual array of UK based organisations and a smattering of Europeans to be there. With such a busy schedule of CS:S events in a short period of time however, it wouldn’t surprise if some are missing in action.

There are other events going on too, but these are the three that Cadred will focus on in the coming weeks. Sure we don’t always get it right with covering events, but its not through a lack of hard work or dedication. Usually all manner of things go wrong and make it much harder than it should be to report the results and action back to you. I am not asking you to understand, it’s impossible unless you have done the job and been to numerous events and seen it first hand, but I would ask you to be patient when things are done instantaneously.

We have a great set of people both at the events and back home to support the entire coverage and fully expect to deliver you results, demos, reports, news updates and interviews as well as a new gallery system for all of the photos that we plan to take. We have also worked hard with OOF to develop a system which allows us to get hold of Demos and srctv much faster than normal and whilst it’s a trial of sorts, our hope is, it will improve your experience of the event from home or wherever you choose to follow it from.

There should be plenty of streaming footage to keep you enthralled during the Summer events

Finally, for the many people who have been asking in the last few days, there may be video coverage remotely from QuadV for OOF, but we will not have a team on-site, it will just be done from here in the UK if at all. However for TEX, we will have a full streaming schedule throughout, including CS:S matches. For i37, we will once again be providing the stage matches on video and possibly a dedicated CSS stream, but that still needs to be worked out with those involved.

I personally can’t wait for the next few weeks and seeing if one of the teams that has been in the shadow of Verygames for most of the year can step out and make that number one spot their own. It will also be interesting how all of the changes in the last 3 months have shaken out and for some this will be a few weeks of reckoning.

Exciting times ahead.