Review International Championship: Grand Final

[Jaaames 1,622]

 

Greetings Tankers! As you all know, the English eSports team has just held the International Championship, a prestigious tournament for the best clans of the top two English leagues. After finally being able to make a tournament with fantastic prizes to compete with the top Russian community eSports events, this one, without doubt, grabbed a lot of attention from eSports fanatics everywhere. 

 

In the Grand Final, of 24.04.2018, the real fight was for the ultimate prize of 800 000 crystals, 20 containers and 15 gold boxes. Not only these (as if the prizes weren't big enough), but particular members of the winning clan would also receive the newly-announced eSports paint "Prism" and the Spectrum M-B module, offering 20% protection from all in-game turrets. What makes this paint so special is the fact that the English eSports administration fought so hard to obtain a unique paint for such a tournament, and finally it paid off, giving what the English community fairly deserved, considering both the Russian and German communities have their own paints.

 

Now to the participants, we slowly saw the strongest teams of the championship emerge after the end of the group stage, and by the time we reached the finals, the heat was really turned up. Many underdogs such as Jokers, Bad Intentions and Death Squad made it very far which is a plus for the English eSports community, showing that it's growing and that we have real competitors for the most dominant in the English community. Eventually, two successful teams arose, which were Bad Intentions, who won the Losers bracket final against Jokers, 5-3, and Penguins, who stormed their way straight through to the Grand Finals as strong favourites to win. But as we know in these tournaments, it's often hard to predict the outcome. Would the experience of Penguins be able to overcome the good run of form picked up by Bad Intentions?

 

Well, let's find out what happened...

 

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The Grand Final

 

For the Grand Final, the setup of the rounds was slightly different to what we saw in previous games of this tournament. There were five different battles all in different formats consisting of two rounds each (in other words, a total of ten games if necessary). All of the five formats which could be played, should all five be needed to decide the outcome, for the Grand Final were XP/BP, Light, Medium, Hard and Plasma. You can read more on these formats here. Some may already be familiar with the duration of each round, but for those who are unaware, there are twelve minutes in each round, with two of those minutes being for preparation, and then the teams get underway on the ten minute mark.

 

Below, you can find the stream by the eSports team of the Grand Final, to watch for yourself how the game panned out. 

 

 

 

The full Bad Intentions squad consisted of: @Tepo, @Mr.Qwin, @Who_Is_NexT, @D_R_A_M_A, @IMRI, @marq666, [member=Inimaniminimanimo], @My_Life_My_Darkness, @rafal1305, @Diamante, @HaIF-DeaD, @macman00, @Dumbledore6969,  (O.U.F.I.X) and @Y.i.n.Y.a.n.g

 

All the players included in the Penguins squad were: @I3oris, @Daydreams, @SecretDream, @Sherlock, [member=I_N-V_I-N_C-I_B-L_E], @Advice,  (Governor), @Assertive, @GG_reg (Aimbot), , @MIKI3, @I.z.I, @DR.TWINS, @Ne_T, @CriminaL_LyF and @Lankbouv 

 

 

First and Second Rounds

 

For the opening two rounds, it was decided by cross-out method that the first format played would be the Medium format, a dynamic format which can be very fast paced, and really ignites any eSports tournament. The map played for this round was Molotov, Penguins starting on the blue side, and Bad Intentions on the red. The match started pretty edgy, with both teams appearing to play a little safe at the beginning. Some impressive bits of play to note was the use of @Sherlock's Vulcan on Viking for Penguins, where he camped in his own base focusing on incoming enemies, with the aid of @GG_reg on the Isida to ensure there was so self-destruct. They made a good pairing in defence. For Bad intentions, they made use of Twins in defence with @Who_Is_NexT also helped by an Isida the majority of the time. After a slow start to the match, Bad Intentions made the first breakthrough, with a late capture in the remaining two and a half minutes. It was a nice move which saw @Who_Is_NexT move from his initial place in defence to attack with the double armour, with finishing the move with a nice capture, after some nice tactical dropping of the flag by his team to prevent Penguins from advancing. With under a minute remaining of the first round @HaIF-DeaD got the second capture for Bad Intentions, a nice move which saw him easily travel back to base across the bridge, helped on his way by an Isida, therefore securing the first round for Bad Intentions, 2-0. 

 

 

The teams switched sides, so Penguins on the red side, and Bad Intentions on the blue. This round started with Bad Intentions trying to make a push from the word go, but unsuccessful. Smart idea though, as it could've caught Penguins off-guard. The defence for Penguins was changed from Vulcan to Twins, with @Sherlock controlling the defence nicely. Penguins came close to the first capture with seven minutes remaining, as @CriminaL_LyF pulled the flag, although driving into the wall did not do him too many favours, the flag was then picked up by the XP combo of @SecretDream, unfortunately, outnumbered and an eventual return for Bad Intentions. Late in this round again, with four and a half minutes left, Penguins made a breakthrough, capturing with some top-notch communication - exactly what we'd expect from a clan of this calibre. The move was started by @I3oris taking the flag with his fast fire-wasp combination with a nitro. When he was taken out, the flag was picked up by @Lankbouv with the Viking-Ricochet, who pulled it closer to base. In the meantime Bad Intentions made an effort to counter-attack, but didn't get too far, @CriminaL_LyF returning for Penguins and ensuring the capture for @Lankbouv. A minute later, Penguins captured again to make the score 2-0 with @SecretDream starting this move off, supported well by his team, especially @I3oris who picked up the flag afterwards, and was patient to capture while his teammates cleared the base.

 

Third and Fourth Rounds

 

The score at this point was now 1-1 in rounds, both teams looked promising in the Medium format. The format decided for the third and fourth rounds was the Plasma format, a very interesting, and uncommon format only specially trained for eSports purposes. The map for these two rounds again was Molotov. This round would not come down to control of the drops like the previous rounds, but the focus would be more upon how efficiently supplies could be used since, in Plasma format, supplies are on. This round saw Penguins back to the blue side, and Bad Intentions take up the red side. The first capture in this third round came very rapidly from Penguins, in the opening two minutes and saw @GG_reg take the Bad Intentions flag with his Hornet and Ricochet. At the same time, his own team's flag was being pulled by who didn't get too far and was quickly outnumbered, seeing the return for Penguins and allowing @GG_reg to go all the way to his own base and capture very smoothly. Immediately after, @DR.TWINS almost quickly got away with another flag after poaching on the other side, but Bad Intentions were alert enough to recover and attend to the danger. With just under six minutes remaining of the round, Penguins doubled their lead with another smooth capture which started off with @DR.TWINS pulling the Bad Intentions flag back to base, and then @Lankbouv continuing with the flag, while his base was fully defended by the rest of the guys from Penguins to capture easily. Penguins then obtained a third flag capture in quick succession from the capture prior and happened extremely fast.  advanced to distract the Bad Intentions defenders and again, @DR.TWINS made away with the flag, and sped back to base to capture, where he narrowly avoided a massive cluster of opposing players all trying to counter-attack. The cluster was not cleared after that capture and allowed Bad Intentions to exploit. @Mr.Qwin took the flag after some nice blocking by his teammate @Tepo and captured nicely, as Penguins were still respawning. Another two flags were captured, the first of these two by Penguins making it 4-1 after a short standoff. The Bad Intentions base was overwhelmed by Penguins returners and eventually allowed @Sherlock to capture. Similar to earlier, the next capture by Bad Intentions was while the defence of Penguins was distracted and allowed @Who_Is_NexT to claw back another capture making it 4-2 in this round. A lengthy standoff in the closing minute saw no outcome and gifted Penguins with this third round.

 

 

The teams switched sides yet again, and the fourth round commenced. The first capture of this round was by Bad Intentions, a very impressive capture which occurred two minutes in and saw @Mr.Qwin sneak into the Penguins base amazingly unnoticed, and managed to take the flag without suffering any damage. He sped straight through the middle, catching Penguins unaware and used a perfectly timed repair kit supply as he saw some incoming Penguins attackers, but evaded them brilliantly and completed the capture. Bad Intentions captured again a couple of minutes later by after a nice team move, which involved a few flag drops, and camping behind the large building in the blue base until the base was clear. He then advanced, to then add to the lead of Bad Intentions. Although at this point Bad Intentions were leading 2-0 in this round with five minutes remaining, Penguins managed to pull off one almighty comeback. It started with @I3oris and @GG_reg taking the Bad Intentions flag, later supporter by @DR.TWINS who easily captured. Immediately after, @GG_reg again with an effective attack pulls the Bad Intentions flag and gets all the way to his own base, before @Lankbouv takes the flag as @GG_reg is destroyed and captures comfortably. Bad Intentions made attempts to push and steal the lead back, but all efforts were broken and uncoordinated. With under three minutes left of the fourth round @GG_reg yet again made an attack and successfully took the flag back to his own base across the bridge. He was able to capture very easily, completing the comeback to 3-2 in this round as his whole base was empty with the Bad Intentions team still respawning after an earlier failed attack.

 

Fifth and Sixth Rounds

 

It was decided that these rounds would be played in the Light format on the Kungur map. A large map that brings a lot of action, and common for the occasional standoff, especially in the Light format which makes for a very entertaining watch. With the score in rounds 3-1 to Penguins at this stage, it was all up to Bad Intentions to try and turn things around, which would be tough since Penguins really excel in the Light format. Penguins were back on the blue side for the fifth round in Kungur, and Bad Intentions red. Penguins took the early advantage in the fifth round with eight minutes remaining, a somewhat scrappy capture, but a capture nonetheless which saw the flag initially taken by @Sherlock and picked up again on the bridge by various Penguins players and eventually falling into the hands of @Lankbouv and finally captured by @SecretDream. A fairly comfortable capture in the end with no real effort to push from Bad Intentions. The next capture from Penguins to make it 2-0 came immediately after, with a beautiful double shot from @Sherlock, preventing Bad Intentions from returning, and allowing @SecretDream to run away with the flag, with @Lankbouv nicely finishing the move. One highlight to pick out, four minutes in, was a sublime flip shot from  to flip the Bad Intentions flagholder, @Tepo, to prevent him escaping the Penguins base. After an extremely long, but intense flag standoff, which was to be expected in Kungur, Penguins returned and were able to capture again late-on to make the score 3-0 and give Bad Intentions no chance of coming back into the round.

 

 

For round six, the sides switched yet again, and would give everyone a chance to see whether being on the blue side gave an advantage to whichever team was playing there, and possibly a chance for Bad Intentions to claw back on a game that was evidently slipping from their grasp with the score in rounds 4-1 against their favour. Penguins started to kill many of Bad Intentions hopes, as they managed an early capture again with @Lankbouv and his Viking making use of its may hitpoints, three minutes in on the ride showing their skill, expelling all doubt that the blue side poses a significant advantage. The second capture of this round again was by Penguins, now in full control, started with @SecretDream taking the flag, and then later finishing his own move by capturing on low health after he respawned and his teammates helped bring the flag back to base. A third capture soon followed, with @Sherlock bringing the flag far, whilst the defence of the Bad Intentions was distracted. Eventually, @SecretDream, who was constantly at the forefront of the Penguins attacks, picked the flag up from him and captured nicely after controlling the Double Armour and Nitro in his base successfully. @Lankbouv then picked up a Double Armour and Nitro for his Viking and advanced into the Bad Intentions base whilst the defence was empty. He was quickly focused upon by the respawning Bad Intentions players and taken out by @HaIF-DeaD. @Lankbouv was gifted with a lucky spawn and picked up the flag in a spot where he could keep it moving towards base, especially aided by his 35% Railgun protection module giving his team a fourth capture and really putting the game to bed. The round ended leaving the overall score in rounds 5-1 to Penguins.

 

 

Seventh and Eighth Rounds

 

The next format played for the seventh and eighth rounds was the Hard format, in the Rio map. Penguins starting on the blue side, a lot more exposed on the edges of the map, compared to the red side which Bad Intentions would start on. This round was being leader 3-2 by Penguins, but in the middle of the round free win was given to Bad Intentions, due to Penguins found playingwith illegal equipment (three short range-turrets) and violating the format rules for the Hard format. That made it 5-2 in rounds, still an absolute mountain to climb for Bad Intentions if they were to get anything out of this game.

 

 

For Penguins, winning the eighth round would secure the overall championship title, leaving Bad Intentions with not enough rounds to fight back. Right from the start of this round, it was easy to tell Penguins (now on the red side) wanted to get this game secured as the first capture for them came very early on. It came two minutes in, and @Lankbouv found himself in acres of space with his Firebird and Viking combination, helped along the way with @GG_reg, the Isida. In this round @I3oris was doing a nice job of camping above with his Vulcan and doing plenty of damage on Bad Intentions defenders, allowing the rest of his teammates to easily push and steal the flag. We saw this happen straight after the first capture, with @GG_reg capturing moving very quickly across the map having a Nitro activated on his Hornet, giving Bad Intentions no chance of catching him up. Bad Intentions eventually started to crumble as the round progressed with  adding his name to the list of captures, after @I3oris again, was blocking incoming Bad Intentions players from escaping their own base, with his Viking and Vulcan. There was a tiny hint of promise for Bad Intentions, after a standoff, @Y.i.n.Y.a.n.g returned the flag and allowed @Mr.Qwin to capture, making the score 3-1. All of the slight hopes for Bad Intentions were immediately shattered by a capture from @Lankbouv made it 4-1 with a minute to go, making it virtually impossible for Bad Intentions to do anything about the deficit. Gold box sirens started to wail as Penguins started dropping boxes in celebration as they knew this round was won, regardless of the last second capture by @Y.i.n.Y.a.n.g for Bad Intentions, as it was 4-2 with less than a minute of game time left.

 

 

No final round was required, since Penguins had already made it 6-2 from the previous rounds, and it was mathematically impossible for Bad Intentions to make a comeback. After clinching a 6-2 win in rounds, Penguins secured the overall victory and their players were rewarded with the juicy grand prize, mentioned above. The players who played the most throughout the tournament for Penguins were also awarded the new prize paint: "Prism", and with it the 20% Spectrum M-B protection module. Those players include: @I3oris, @Sherlock, , @DR.TWINS, @Lankbouv, @SecretDream, @GG_reg and @CriminaL_LyF.

 

 

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After the match, I caught up with @GG_reg (formerly known as Aimbot), an experienced member of Penguins, for his thoughts on the tournament. Here's what he had to say:

 

Hello @GG_reg! First and foremost, congratulations on winning the first International Championship with Penguins. Give us an insight as to how the game went in your opinion? 

 

Thanks! I feel the game went quite well, there were a few nerves at first which is pretty natural for any tournament which was partly why we lost the first round. After that, our communication got better and we were more relaxed which enabled us to improve our focus and pull more flags. I think we could have improved on some of our call-outs earlier on in the match, especially in Medium format where we lost a flag or two because no one gave early information.

 

 

What ensured you the win? Did you have a particular strategy in each of the formats, if so explain? 

 

The thing that ensured us the win was good team work. You maybe saw on stream a few players sometimes going into attack alone just to weaken the defence and camp a little bit, so when the main attack was ready we could pull flags a lot easier and more efficiently. As well as this, drop control was especially important so we had to make sure at the start of the game the drops were timed accurately meaning we could die, ready to respawn at the next drop times.

 

 

How was the team attitude throughout? Did everyone remain focused? Is it easy to lose focus in a game like that?

 

The team attitude was very good throughout the match, despite a bit of frustration at times. Everyone however, maintained focus well which really comes from having previous experience in tournaments. Playing under pressure is quite different from playing random battles with your friends, knowing that a few mistakes could cost you an epic prize makes focusing even more difficult. With that said, it's important to maintain confidence and not be hesitant, going for some risky shots is better than playing too paranoid and defensive. A lot of new players when they come under pressure may feel more nervous than someone with experience so it's really having the ability to control your nerves, relax and focus on the game.

 

 

Did you enjoy being a part of the first international championship? Was it a good idea, and would you want to see more tournaments like this? What benefits would it bring to the community?

 

I really enjoyed the first International Championship. It's a great way to encourage more players in the English community to get more competitive in eSports and participate in those bigger tournaments which require more training and dedication. I feel the tournament was a great idea, especially as it had a paint prize which is always a better incentive than crystals as it's something money can't buy!

 

 

Thank you, and well played!

 

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So, congratulations to Penguins on winning the first International Championship, and commiserations to all those who participated but did not get as far as they hoped. For sure there will be future tournaments for all players to showcase their skills. So, let that be you, keep training hard. Until the next time, see you!

 

[KillerGnat 3,135]

The fact that it's been like a couple days since the finals and you've already written this up is pretty demoralising ;__;  :lol:

 

One of the best reviews I've read. Makes me wanna actually watch some of the live streams.

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Very well done!

[Lankbouv 6,347]

GG_REG has made it

 

Nice article bruv

[Spy 14,736]

Enjoyable review! and congratulations once again ;)

[GG_reg 1,521]

Amazing dedication to get the article out so fast especially as it's very thorough! Great job mate!

 

 

shame about the forced nickname change ;/

 

 

[A_Villain 1,220]

amount of dedication tho...  :o

[loginci 877]

nice :) keep it up