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Tournament XIX After Action Report

By DanielD - 16th June 2011 - 10:14 AM

Relic blessed us with a fresh patch, and the GameReplays.org staff followed it up with a tournament that brought many a player out from the rocks they were hiding under. Everyone was pleased to see some familiar names in the sign-ups thread, and there were plenty of uknowns to round out the 128-man competition.

Day One - Trial by Fire!


The round of 128 was on Wrecked Train, which received some minor changes in 2.602. While some players were not pleased with this choice of venue for the first round, some variety is always nice, and the first round games tend to be roll-overs anyway. As expected, most of the match ups ended 2-0, with only three sets going to a third game.

Some were disappointed by Contador's failure to play, as many were curious to see how the Tournament XVI winner would fare in the new patch, especially considering the strafe changes. Our famed SNF caster AmiPolizeiFunk was sadly matched against Jim Morrison’s favorite CoH player, BaoLiang, and got knocked out early. Lead Editor Schmieds suffered a similar fate, meeting Kolaris in the first round. To all the players that got knocked out early, GameReplays.org salutes you for your valiant effort! Practice hard and sign up for the next tourney.

Round 2 saw 64 players battle it out on Sturzdorf, another map that got some excellent changes in the most recent patch. North Sturz no longer swims in munitions, and it was a pleasure to see some competitive games on the new version. Again, most of the series were 2-0 shutouts, with some notable exceptions; Kolaris and PontificalSwissGaurd (PonTi) had a hard fought three game series that saw Ponti the victor, and Wu299, a player who many predicted could win the entire tourney, was knocked out 2-1 by Symbiosis.



The following round was on the classic map of Semois, with its twin rivers and infamous center church. A highlight of the third round was the series between Sandland and Audemed. Despite being decided in two games, their series was action-packed and broadcasted by both players, so the viewers got to see the action from both perspectives.


Audemed's POV - Sandland's POV


The town of Semois also held witness to the defeat of Darealrocky at the hands of Freed0m, who at the time of writing holds the #1 Wehrmacht position on the leaderboard. Rocky said in-game that he had lost the first game to make the series "competitive". If true, it was his downfall, as his BAR start was shut down handily by Freed0m’s Wehr. Check out some of Day 1's shoutcasts:

Day Two - Who's the Boss?


Round 4 was on Angoville where, predictably, OF factions abounded. Top seeds defeated lower ranked players consistently with the exception of SemInt, who despite being 27th seed defeated the 11th seed Sandland 2-0. Seb played an excellent set of games against Oasis, which Krebs has casted for your viewing pleasure. Round 4 was aswell the end station for CoH legend Cann0nball after match series against another legendary player, Sepha.



Langres was the locale for the quarter-finals of Tournament XIX. With only 8 players remaining, that grand prize was in sight for all contendors; of course, there could only be four to make it out of the round. Nimitz, playing under the cheeky ID sc2isbetter, saw his first loss of the tournament closely followed by a second as kot utilized Opposing Fronts factions to secure his victory. DrHorse, a player that excited many when he appeared on the sign-ups list, had his strong run ended by top-seeded Aimstrong. Seb and SemInt played all three games of their series, with Seb coming out ahead in an interesting set of matches which had Airborne was chosen each game by the American player. Sepha vs Tortuga (Fir3ball) also went to three games, with Sepha's OF play eventually overcoming the vanilla faction play of Tortuga.



The semi-finals maps were decided through elimination, and both series ended up on Langres. Since all four players had just won on that map, perhaps they felt comfortable playing it again. kot fought valiantly as both OF factions, killing all the pios and rifles he could, but Aimstrong showed us why 5 pio to t2 is still the meanest thing you can ever do to a Brit and earned himself a spot in the finals. Seb busted out some old-school US play against Sepha's PE, and some classic T1-T3 Blitz against Commando Brits, and despite everyone's expectations about OF dominance Seb's vanilla skills put him through to the finals as well. Note that Sepha had a crash in the middle of game 1 that could have gone either way. Watch the Sunday Night Fights semi-finals casts here.

Day Three - Hail to the King, Baby!


The audience was treated to a classic vanilla matchup on Semois for the finals. The church was garrisoned many times, the three bridges felt the footsteps of scores of soldiers, and the graveyard was demolished more than once. Once again Sunday Night Fights crew brings you the action with a fantastic shoutcast of the finals. Alternatively, watch the replays yourself.





Results are inside for the impatient.
Spoiler

Aimstrong 3 - 1 Seb
The matches were awesome and exciting, and you ought to go and check them yourself!

Sepha declined to play the third place match against kot, but expect to see them playing each other soon!

Credits


The first thanks goes to the players; from the casual players to the pros, none of this would be possible without their support for the game and our community. Thanks to the referees, as no one knows what they go through during the chaos that is Day 1. Thanks to all the Sunday Night Fights crew: casters, camera guys and artists. Their hard work was evidenced by the high viewership of the live broadcasts. In the same vein, thanks also to the viewers! Lastly, thanks to the writing staff for portal support throughout the tourney process.