I am pleased to be recapping our very first installment of FACTIONS. First and foremost, congratulations to AlphaQ. I'll start the official recap by showing a picture of the final bracket.
Woke up early and met with Nobert on TeamSpeak. He had been working on some cool stuff with the and we were talking about some of the cool tourneys that we will be running at OwnedWell in the near future. Shortly after that, m3ss hops on (<3 m3ss) and we go over some of the stream stuff and prepare for the days. The biggest operator behind the scenes was ulo and he was ready to go in the early morning. As most of the players who played know, he was head adminning all of the matches. This guy is amazing and I love his work ethic.
The stream kicked off around 2pm and me and m3ss started the show with some pre-game banter. We went channel hopping and visited some teams to get some insight into their HYPE and expectations. I specifically shouted out every team except for whitechoc since he shortened the team size from 8 to 7 and intentionally cut me.. nonetheless, choc would get some love later in the tournament.
Originally, there was going to be only 5 first round matches and 3 BYEs. This changed when edge was able to put together a squad at the last minute and had rain politely agree to play his team. The first game that started off the tournament was a matchup with the Vicious ManBabies vs MEN. SunnY's gamble of three tier 2 players looked shaky early on as Hatchet was absolutely trouncing the MEN on Adonis. After that performance, he earned the name: The Human Tsunami. The pain persisted for the MEN as the tantrum throwers pulled out their brooms and swept them out of the tournament. GGs Sunny, Finalz, MP5, holdr, rasta-man, NakedMan.
Other sweeps included HAE BAE over rmk, AlphaQ over Mysterious Man and PIZZA over Morning Star. Despite that fact that edge assembled rmk from scraps, his team put up a very scrappy performance and gave rain a scare. The first map NIX was very close for the whole game and guys like RAVONIX stepped up big but even more surprisingly.. a player like nIcc was able to raise his gameplay and make an impact vs one of the best players in the league. Props are in needed for Feisar who also played like a boss. The Pizza Men ran up a 17-1 scoreline over Morning Star and it was unfortunate that one of their stars ran into some technical difficulties. AlphaQ also turned into a route of a team that I thought had a lot of potential to make a deep run in this tournament. It was great to see spydee and KA back but it was also a shame to see them leave so early.
BAN vs FEBREZE was one of the closest matchups in the first round but it ended with BAN down a man and becoming intoxicated by that sweet smell of FEBREZE. Gauntlet went in favor of BAN (as blackout was frantically freaking out at being locked out of his teams chan) and Elsinore flip flopped in favor of FEBREZE. Apparently there was a show boat cap that I missed from IR (rip.. maybe fraps and upload it?) but we will never know until the Apocalyptic Horseman confirms or denies these claims. The game was decided on CampLinfort and unfortunately the BAN guys took an early exit. This was probably the toughest bracket to qualify out of but in a single elimination tournament.. it's win or go home.
Somewhere in all of this, mrgrins turned up and relieved me from my casting duties. The crowd went wild..
The final matchup in the first round was a battle between the NimbleMinds and team CHILE JAJAJA wuajajeje. The first map was super close but unfortunately Kanzi ran into some technical difficulties and I did not have the timeout mutator on the new servers. This was a mistake on my part and I would like to extend an apology to nM. There was lots going on and it was difficult to keep up with everything. The blip on my end doesn't discount the effort from the Chilean team though and they put up some fairly impressive numbers in round one and carried the momentum to round two. It was cool seeing Hertz and Spriggan play together and it was a pleasure to have diptie/Faminka/Beastz/Kanzi and Max turn up for the event. maDd on the other hand might need to brush up on his manners.
Around the end of the first round, we started getting some hiccups. I would like to give a special shout out to raxxy who was working behind the scenes with me to address any of the blips as they were arising. Some dweeb tried to put a damper on the event but the show went on despite their best efforts.
The first game that I'll talk about was TEAM CHILE WUAJEJE vs AlphaQ. I was actually buzzing in and out of the server and I could not believe how close this game was. Chile was going toe to toe with the tournament favorites and managed to keep the games fairly close. Nuance finished with a 4-1 scoreline and despite the fact that NIX was a 6-2, it was only a 2-1 deep into the game. You guys did your country and scene proud and I'm happy that you turned up.
[choc] vs Vicious ManBabies was the next game and it was an extremely even first two maps. The harbourers drew first blood with a win on Nuance and then screwed the pooch on NIX. This meant that the match was going to overtime and the decider would be Adonis. With Hatchet dropping a 140 bomb earlier in the day against SunnY, I was thinking that his team would have the advantage. Unfortunately he was unable to recreate the magic and the man of the map was kcus aka Eloy who dropped 105 frags and powered his team to victory. Honorable mentions go out to Nobert and Rummy did real well keeping up the offensive pressure by accumulating 24 grabs while shooting 44acc.
The next game also went to three maps and it was a battle between PIZZA and SMASH aka The HuMPtY Haters. This one was destined to be a heated match after risus erupted on teamspeak against HuMPtY and chastised him with words like "retard" and "i hate you", earlier in the month. Map one was NIX and the HatAhz were able to put together a convincing win and a 5-1 scoreline. It wasn't looking good for my Pizza Boyz but they were able to respond with a 4-3 on the newly renovated Command. The decider was Nuance and my teams lack of familiarity came back and bit them on the buttocks. I wanted to thank HuMPtY, bbz, Palak, toadies, bug and PanterA for coming together and making a fun team. There is always next time..
The final match in round two was a complete route. I wasn't there to spec it and I'm not exactly sure what happened but it was ugly. Hae Bae racked up a 16-0 tally over two maps and the fans were prevented from watching an epic JYB/rain showdown and instead were presented with this lemon. snky was supposed to be our rock of gibraltar but he faltered.. rain, Monk and Tyrannasaurus Rofl went big but csn and co had no answer. Despite the humiliating loss, I want to give csn, snky, massie, blackout, nordog and my newly anointed boy flynne for coming together and making a dope team.
With four teams left in the tournament, the level of competition was getting tougher and tougher. AlphaQ went up against [choc] and all of the pep left white's step as the SiN sisters laid a smackdown. Ramdrop had a respectable tournament but was unable to keep up with countrymen. Nuance was decently close at 6-2 but CampLinfort was a 10-1 blowout. Apparently AlphaQ played mass defense on the map but I find it a touch surprising that it was so effective on a map where more pressure looks like it would pay dividends. The dream was officially dead and white, ramdrop, rummy, nob, KNOCKOUTDAD, kcus and crux were permanently laid to rest. RIP choc.
The other matchup was a lot closer as the BAEs took on The Gorillas. Team BAE went up 1-0 in the series as they continued their CollarDream dominance but they were unable to channel the magic in the upcoming maps. Elsinore was a 5-1 trouncing and Gauntlet got real ugly, real fast as Sonic ran the solo O choo choo train. Both teams played pretty dirty but SMASH helped to highlight why the new Gauntlet could be fun in pugs but easily turtleable in matches. I have to give props to Sonic for his performance on this map because he went HARD in the paint. This man was swinging from the stop of the Empire State Building while getting Multi Kills, cutting corners and breaking hearts. Malt Liquor was poured for rain/Monk/tyler/biz/HULKSMASH.
After 12 teams bit the bullet in 3 rounds, we were left with two teams standing. The team qualifying from the upper bracket was Serenity's AlphaQ and the team qualifying from the bottom bracket was SMASH. After some great matches earlier in the day, people were hyped for an epic showdown but alas, we hit some stumbling blocks along the way.
Some idiot put the new Duku in the eligible list of maps for elimination. Not going to point fingers but that guy is a real dumby. The first map played in this BO3 ended up being Duku and it was nothing short of a borefest for the players and the viewers. SMASH came up with the bright idea of playing 4 D and after 20mins, Sonic had a whopping 10 grabs. 1 grab for every 2 minutes and none of them made it more than a dodge off of the stand. I toned down the dictator shtick in the past few years but at this point, I decided to take matters into my own hands. At the end of regulation, each player would have to select one player to be kicked. After 5 more mins of OT, another player would be kicked. Luckily we didn't need to do a second wave and having n0mer/WNDG drop from the game was enough to force the action. In the minutes after the kick, the grabs started flowing and so did the pace. AlphaQ had a nice run and put a bow in their Duku win as SMASH was left steaming.
I don't regret my decision to remove players survival style. Xan Kriegor was out for blood and he devoured the souls of n0mer and Windigo. The decision I do regret is adding the New Duku to the maplist and being blinded by the fact that an extra hole doesn't make a map any less turtley. On the bright side, a lesson has been learned and Duku will not be on the maplist of any future iCTF season that I run (unless there are tweaks done to the gametype itself).
The second map played was NIX and it was relief for the casters and people who decided to tune in for the event. Unlike Duku that moved at a snails pace, NIX was full of action and highlight reel moments. AlphaQ drew first blood with the first cap but SMASH answered shortly after. The roles were reversed as SMASH then went up 2-1 but it was short lived once again as AlphaQ responded within 3mins. After this, there was a drought in scoring but there was no shortage of action. Both teams choked flags on their flagstand that could have sealed the game but after the Duku debacle, they obviously wanted to put on a show. Red lost one in their base, while blue lost two.. this proved to be costly as the game was iced by AlphaQ 7.5mins into overtime.
Dewsick gets the game ball for putting up monstrous performances throughout the event. Obviously he had a great supporting cast with Serenity, reflex and Jinn but this teams success hinged on his godlike performances.
Overall, I was quite happy with how the tournament went. I really enjoyed seeing the new maps played and I think that they will add some flavor to pugs/upcoming competitions. The FACTIONS format was very interesting and I liked watching the community come together and form teams. Drafts are great but some more control of your own destiny is also a nice option from time to time.
Once again, I want to thank the admins, casters, players and viewers for turning up and contributing to this event. I'm currently planning some more events for UT99/UT4 and some other fun community nights for my OwnedWellians. Expect details in the near future.
PACO
