Australian Gamer Feature :: The World Cyber Games 2007

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The World Cyber Games 2007

Starks delivers a full report on the World Cyber Games 2007 at Sydney�s Luna Park on August 25 & 26.

Gears of War & Dead or Alive | Counterstrike 1.6 & Warcraft 3 | The Event Itself & Final Word

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The premier competitive gaming event of the year has come and past. And in its wake, I�m left to sort out the millions of thoughts, impressions, and a huge buzz. WCG, a yearly event, is classed as the �Olympics� of competitive gaming, where the best Australia has to offer comes together and plays off for the illustrious trip overseas and test their mettle against the cyber might of the rest of the world.

This being the first WCG I�ve ever attended, I was blown away by just what presented me during the course of the weekend. As I organised the Gears ofWar tournament, there is an emphasis on it however I did my best to get around and watch all the tournaments for a good while and I�ve thankfully been able to report on all of them. So here goes!

* Cue James Bond theme*

Gears of War and Dead or Alive 4 Tournaments

The X-Box 360 Tournament for Gears of War was a personal highlight for myself as it was a competition not only organised under the banner of SPE6TRE but with fellow Drop Bear and close mate Jooney. We believe we organized an event that we could be proud of.

Previous WCG�s had been plagued by poor game choice for the X-Box and the 360. However, this year was not the case. With Gears of War 4v4 as the main feature and Dead or Alive 4 as the supporting tournament, both Jooney and I organized what we believed to be one of the best Gears of War tournaments in Australia.

Featuring some of the best teams that had competed in an online tournament to gain the right to compete in the Sydney Nationals, the talent on display for the weekend was quite incredible. High levels of individual skill and unparalleled teamwork greeted those who looked on.

See, I can play with no hands!

The tournament was run in two parts, with the first day being a Round Robin in order to give the teams a good chance to not only sus out each others playing styles, but afford them some good game time in appreciation of their efforts to attend.

Below are the teams who entered, as well as the Round Robin system we used:

Round Robin Number	Team Name

1	FBI Best BR
2	Malice
3	Nyghtbreed
4	DEATH BY SUS
5	Shinobi
6	APC

Round Robin Structure

1 v 5 2 v 4 3 v 6

1 v 2 3 v 5 4 v 6

1 v 6 2 v 5 3 v 4

1 v 3 2 v 6 4 v 5

1 v 4 2 v 3 5 v 6

Lunch Break

1 v 5 2 v 4 3 v 6

1 v 2 3 v 5 4 v 6

1 v 6 2 v 5 3 v 4

1 v 3 2 v 6 4 v 5

1 v 4 2 v 3 5 v 6

Teams played each other twice, with host alternating to give everyone a fair opportunity. Outside of the usual technical hiccups that precede almost every tournament, we had the unfortunate disability of having no internet connection, which resulted in our inability to update any of the 360�s to the latest Gears of War patch. This, however, was only discovered after the tournament had begun.

Nevertheless, every team was on a level playing ground, and although it took a few rounds for teams to adjust, most seemed to do so fairly well.

As part of the challenge, Jooney made DEATH BY SUS play some of their games chairless.

The quality of games played was outstanding. Each team had brought their �A Game�, and understandably so. With 1st prize seeing the team flown all the way to Seattle to compete in the World Finals, this was not a competition one enters for shits and giggles. The games were tense, emotions ran high, the intensity of the games grew and it wasn�t long before mid afternoon had swung by and we broke for lunch. At the interval, the break down looked like this:

Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
	Canals	Gridlock	Clocktower	Mansion	Fuel Depot
1	5 - 0 Win	5 - 1 Win	5 - 2 Win	5 - 2 Win	3 - 5 Lost
2	5 - 1 Win	1 - 5 Lost	5 - 1 Win	5 - 0 Win	5 - 1 Win
3	5 - 4 Win	5 - 0 Win	1 - 5 Lost	2 - 5 Lost	1 - 5 Lost
4	1 - 5 Lost	5 - 3 Win	5 - 1 Win	5 - 2 Win	5 - 3 Win
5	0 - 5 Lost	4 - 5 Lost	1 - 5 Lost	2 - 5 Lost	2 - 5 Lost
6	4 - 5 Lost	3 - 5 Lost	2 - 5 Lost	0 - 5 Lost	5 - 2 Win

With the tournament area empty, we set up for the Dead or Alive 4 players.

With 14 entrants to the competition, Jooney and I had previously discussed that we�d like all finals to be played on the Sunday. Using a double elimination bracket play (Where each player needs to lose twice before they are knocked out) we narrowed the 14 entrants down to 4; Chris, and Anthony, who tied for 1st, and Dean and Anthony, who finished 3rd and 4th respectively.

With a prize pool of $400 up for grabs, Dead or Alive was over and the finalists eager to come back the next day to compete for cash and glory.

Gears of War continued into the early evening, and although the games were played at a much faster pace, the frenetic speed only seemed to add to the excitement and drama as each win was greeted with screams of victory, and each loss as bitter as any one would taste.

With the final rounds played, the breakdown on the 2nd round of games was as follows:

Team	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Round 10
	Clocktower	Fuel Depot	Mansion	Gridlock	Canals
1	5 - 3 Win	4 - 5 Lost	5 - 2 Win	5 - 0 Win	5 - 3 Win
2	5 - 4 Win	5 - 4 Win	5 - 2 Win	5 - 4 Win	5 - 0 Win
3	3 - 5 Lost	5 - 1 Win	4 - 5 Lost	0 - 5 Lost	0 - 5 Lost
4	4 - 5 Lost	0 - 5 Lost	5 - 4 Win	5 - 1 Win	3 - 5 Lost
5	3 - 5 Lost	1 - 5 Lost	2 - 5 Lost	1 - 5 Lost	0 - 5 Lost
6	5 - 3 Win	5 - 0 Win	2 - 5 Lost	4 - 5 Lost	5 - 0 Win

With all games played, I drew up the points table and it stood as the following:

Team	Won	Lost	F / A
1	8	2	47 / 23
2	9	1	46 / 22
3	3	7	27 / 44
4	6	4	38 / 34
5	0	10	16 / 50
6	4	6	35 / 35

The Final Series would see the following set up:

Semi Final 1	Team Ranked 1 v Team Ranked 4
Semi Final 2	Team Ranked 2 v Team Ranked 3

Quarter Finals 1	Winner of Semi Final 1 v Winner of Semi Final 2
Quarter Finals 2	Loser of Semi Final 1 v Loser of Semi Final 2

Preliminary Final	Loser of QF 1 v Winner of QF 2
	Loser of QF 2 is eliminated
	Winner of QF 1 through to the Grand Final

Grand Final	Winner of QF 1 v Winner of Preliminary Final
	Loser of Preliminary Final eliminated

Result	Winner of GF is 1st and WCG Champions
	Loser is 2nd and Runner Up

Let me start off by saying that no team in the final series played badly. Each game was frenetic, and was amazingly close. The break down was as follows:

Semi Final 1	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Maice	Canals	Clocktower	Mansion
v	5 - 1 Malice Win	5 - 3 Malice Win	5 - 3 Malice Win
APC		Malice Win Semi Final 1

Semi Final 2	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
FBI Best BR	Canals	Clocktower	Mansion
v	5 -4 Best BR Win	5 -4 Best BR Win	5 - 1 Best BR Win
DEATH BY SUS		FBI Best BR Win Semi Final 1

Quarter Finals 1	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Malice	Fuel Depot	Gridlock	Canals
v	5 - 3 Malice Win	5 -4 Malice Win	3 - 5 Malice Win
FBI Best BR		Malice Win Quarter Final 1
		Malice Win Series
Quarter Finals 2	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
DEATH BY SUS	Fuel Depot	Gridlock	Canals
v	5 - 3 SUS Win	5 - 2 SUS Win	5 - 3 SUS Win
APC		DEATH BY SUS Win Quarter Final 2
		APC knocked out; Finish 4th
Preliminary Final	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4
FBI Best BR	Clocktower	Mansion	Fuel Depot	Gridlock
v	5 -1 SUS Win	5 - 4 Best BR Win	5 - 1 SUS Win	5 - 3 SUS Win
DEATH BY SUS		DEATH BY SUS Win Preliminary Final
		FBI Best BR knocked out; Finish 3rd
Grand Final	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
Malice	Gridlock	Mansion	Canals	Clocktower	Fuel Depot
v	5 - 2 Malice Win	5 - 0 SUS Win	5 -4 SUS Win	5 - 4 Malice Win	5 - 1 Malice Win
DEATH BY SUS		Malice Win Grand Final - WCG Champions
		DEATH BY SUS are Runners Up

After winning the Grand Final, Malice�s captain Tweaka, along with teammates Sycho Smurf, Grunt Rebellion and EggRuns took the stage to accept their prize; An incredible trip to Seattle to play in the International Finals.

The trip of a life time, and I�d like to say congratulations to Malice for not only being victorious, but a great bunch of blokes as well. Best of luck in the States!

�Mate, are you sure QANTAS will accept this?�

Commiserations go to DEATH BY SUS who played brilliantly and came from the losers bracket and 3rd seed to snatch 2nd from FBI Best BR. Headshot, Space Trippa, Budz and Goodz were also top blokes, and regular Game On Competition entrants so it was great to see some familiar faces up on the podium

3rd place, FBI Best BR, traveled from all the way around the country to compete. Haxz0r, from Perth, Smatt Man and Aba from Adelaide, and OMEGA ADZ from Brisbane. Since I�ve been mates with these guys for a number of years, I was disappointed that they didn�t take the big one, but they played well and did themselves proud. It was great to see them again and I�m sure they�ll be back for more tournaments.

FBI Best BR trying to work out where the Battle Rifle was in Gears� AHAHA! *Sigh*

�Haaaaaiii Ya! Fear my 45kg Karate Chop!�

The Dead or Alive 4 tournament came down to Daniel and Chris, two Melbournites, facing off on centre stage in the Boxing Ring. Showing some incredible talent, they both put on a good show for the spectators, but it was eventually Daniel who took home 1st place, with Chris coming 2nd, Anthony 3rd and Dean 4th. Well done to the 4 of you on a great display.

Anthony, Daniel and Chris

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