Final Prediction of the EU 2008 Tournament
Two teams reached the top of this competition: Epsilon eSports and Bez Strachu. Both teams fought their way up after an exciting 6 weeks of playing! Below is a short summary of what they have accomplished and who they faced.
Week
Map
Epsilon eSport
Bez Stachu
1
Swamp Raid
(forfeit) Dutch Elite Army Troops
(8-6) KsHogun
2
SF Hospital
(8-4) Greek Operation Forces
(8-4) Portuguese Warriors
3
Border
(10-2) Bear Force CT Unit
(8-6) -116th-
4
Bridge Crossing SE
(10-2) High FiDelity AA
(9-3) .=]Easy-Company[=.
5
SF Village
(8-6) zirkumflex
(7-4) Hyphen Concept
6
Mout McKenna
(9-3) - ShowTime -
(forfeit) IceNine.eu
Total:
45-17
40-23
First of all, you can see that neither [BSTR] nor Epsilon arrived at the finals using a shortcut or loophole; all of the previous matches were against teams as eager to win as themselves. Both teams had one forfeit win, which means we can take a look at rounds won versus rounds lost. What we see straight away is that the difference is very small on the amount of won rounds: Epsilon eSports won 5 rounds more than Bez Strachu, but what is 5 rounds in a total of 5 matches? The same thing goes for the rounds lost; only a total of 17 rounds were lost for Epsilon, an average of 3.4 rounds given away per match...Wow! is all that comes to my mind. The Polish clan had a higher amount of lost rounds with an average of 4.6 per match, but it is still a very decent score.
To cool the hot tongues lashing out against TeamWarfare League admins and giving Bez Strachu a hard time legitimatizing their spot in the final due to the forfeit win against IceNine.eu, I can reveal that the match got played nonetheless, and Bez Strachu took the victory with a score of 7-5!
Concerning the match between –ShowTime– and Epsilon eSport, after reading the match report on ShowTime's website, I can easily say that Epsilon eSports earned its spot in the final. Apparently, the Portuguese were having a bad day and had to give away the keys to SF Sandstorm with a score of 3-9 to the Europeans.
Bez StrachuEpsilon eSports
For the last match of this tournament we have two great teams! A lot of people expected somebody else to be up there but the gods of gaming (if there are any) have decided otherwise.
From the final prediction thread, a lot of people are giving Epsilon the win over Bez Strachu, but what are their sources for this prediction? Based on the statistics above, the difference is so close, giving a clear winner is a tough call. Many people say that Epsilon is the rising European team and expect them to dominate the European America's Army gaming scene - maybe they are right. Epsilon eSports, which is a multi-gaming community/clan, just "hired" a European team whose old name was Extraordinary Gaming. This happened in the middle of the tournament. It is a great thing for the old -xTra; members, since they now have sponsors and a very nice website with lots of activity. Therefore, all the technical issues are gone and they can concentrate fully on their gaming! They are players from all over Europe and all of them are of top notch quality, that's for sure.
However, I think there is a little something missing and that's where I think Bez Strachu is beating them by miles. Bez Strachu consists of players that have been together for a very long time. They have fought their way up step by step. The Polish players have known each other for a long time; not all of them were on the same team, but thanks to the huge America's Army Polish community, they are very well-known to each other. For example, this weekend they all met at a very big LAN event in Poland (check out last year's picture) where the main game was America's Army. So the bonds in the Polish team are stronger than ever and, where they might lack skill against Epsilon, they instead have very good knowledge of each other's gameplay and reactions in given situations.
All this was just to describe the environment in which the teams and players are evolving. Now let's take a closer look at what they can actually show us skill wise...
As we all know, the map SF Sandstorm has always been a very "Polish" map. If we look at the public servers on this map, there is usually one if not two Polish-based servers being close to full. Of course, that doesn't mean Epsilon has no chance - being Polish doesn't mean you are a born Sandstormer, just like other nationalities don't mean you suck on this map. I would definitely consider this map a close quarter combat battle map; in other words: lock and load the RPK! It will be interesting what line up both teams will bring, and I have my two favorites already. I think that it will be a blood battle between BSTR.montrey and Epsilon.cloud to claim the "most kills" title. Of course, we cannot forget that there are three objectives that can play a role in the match's outcome. One team could win a round by completing the objectives rather than feeding the enemies with impatience. To be frank, I doubt we will see one round without having one team exterminated...
What's left to say? What's left to predict? As for the lonely players of long gone eliminated teams...
If you want to one day reach the top spots in the European America's Army Competition, you will have to sharpen your skills and strategies. Unless you want to learn the hard way by practicing and scrimming a lot, you can decide to tune in to E-Rev.tv Tuesday, 22nd of April, 2008 at 20:00 CET (GMT +1) where shout casters will try to explain gun fights and strategies that bypass the normal player's knowledge of gaming.
At last, I wish the best of luck to both teams! May you not go completely deaf so you can enjoy your headsets, may you not smash your computers too hard so you still can use it when you run around on your gaming servers, and, of course, may you not be unsportsmanlike, as this remains a game, a game that will be watched by envious players throughout Europe...
GOOD LUCK!
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Post edited by Philippovich at 4/22/2008 8:57:53 AM
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