Match Reports

[DM_Kev]

Match Report: CiC vs YO, Final result: CiC 17 - YO 13, Devil of the Day: [CiC]Byte, Match Demo: (http://cs.wireplay.co.uk/cup/CiC-vs-YO.zip)


Tonight we have had an explosive start to the Wireplay CS:S Mini Tournament with YO and CiC facing off on de_dust2.

With this being the first cs:s competition Wireplay has run for a long time, there is really no telling which clans are the favourites.

So onto the match itself… CiC won the knife round quickly and elected to begin as the terrorists. CiC wasted no time and secured the first two rounds with ease with some notable efforts from Sc who claimed five frags. YO struck back in the third round, blunting a CiC rush and killing over half their team. This surge was stopped by Yoshiarms of CiC with some well placed shots. CiC changed to a delayed rush strategy in round four but this did not work out as intended due to a well timed counter attack from Vlad and scary_jeff making the score three one to CiC.

Rounds five and six belonged to CiC with two rushes on Bombsite A along with a good demonstration of strategy switching mid-round. With YO ready for one of the rushes and killing three of CiC’s team, Sc held up YO at range whilst Kop took the bomb to B. Good defending from Kop ensured the bomb detonated.

YO claimed the following four rounds with some excellent defensive and pre-emptive tactics. Notable performances came from CiC’s Ned, who got the bomb planted despite being the last standing and YO’s illusion with his sharp shooting. The scores were now level with this YO resurgence and all thoughts of a CiC domination quickly died out.

Or so it was thought…CiC won the remaining five rounds of the half with another selection of strategies from feigns to mass smokes that kept YO on their toes. YO made CiC work for their victories, bringing an AWP into play in the very capable hands of illusion though this was later liberated by byte and used to support CiC’s surge. The thrilling first half came to a close at 10-5 to CiC.

YO knew they had some work to do this round, knowing CiC only needed six wins to secure the game. This realisation became all the more stark after CiC claimed the first two rounds of the half after some bitterly close fighting with CiC winning one round by Bytes bomb defusal

YO quickly responded with two wins, rushing CiC and overwhelming them with weight of numbers and well timed flashes. CiC could do nothing to clear YO away from the ticking bomb resulting in some easy but well fought wins for YO.

CiC anticipated repeat rushes from YO and blunted one of their attacks reducing YO to one man, Vlad, who was promptly chased down before he could retrieve the bomb. CiC’s following two wins were largely thanks to Sc who on one round single-handedly stopped a YO rush on bombsite A and pinned them down long enough for the remainder of CiC to arrive and wipe them out. The following round CiC cunningly boosted Sc above the CT spawn where he used a borrowed AK-47 to take out four of YO rushing bombsite A, proving he is a real threat to them.

YO won the following round after what was an uncertain start where they were all pinned down in the tunnels by the well positioned Ned in bombsite B. Scary Jeff took his chances and planted a headshot on Ned just when it was needed. Taken by surprise, CiC were unable to stop YO this time.

Knowing that they only needed to win one more round to win the game, CiC purchased an AWP to help them in their cause. This round saw some very close-up fighting, but it all came to a close when Kop killed the last YO player, securing the round and putting CiC into the semi finals! Riding on this success, CiC also won the following round.

Although the game was lost, YO fought on doggedly, eager to secure enough round wins to re-enter the contest in the semi finals and they may have just managed it, winning all the remaining rounds making the score for this half 8 – 7 to YO and a final match result of 17 – 13 to CiC

The game ended in the high spirited and sporting attitude that it began with. A real cracker of a start to the competition. We tracked down two of the players at the end of the match and asked a few questions.

[CiC]Ned

Q. How would you sum up the game for CiC?
A. Our terrorists half was well organised (for once) with Byte giving most of the commands and although YO pulled back to 5-5 we kind of got it going well enough to pull a win. Our CT half started well and the practiced tactics worked and we were leading right until Byte pointed out we had just won the match. Then it all went a little pair shaped, and they destroyed us on a couple of rounds after that. Our man of the match was either Byte or Sc, though the whole team performed well. YO had some good round wins on both maps but I think we pushed the Terrorist victory enough to pretty much guarantee the win by the end of the first half

Q. CiC used quite a range of strategies during the match including switching, was this something you have rehearsed much or a spur of the moment thing?
A. Some of them were practiced for CT, but most were a called move by Byte during our terrorists half. We had strict positions with CT but good communication in the team to move where we needed to be.

Q. We noticed that Sc was boosted over the CT spawn during one of your CT rounds. He did well during this match. Is he one of your more able players?
A. The boost is a good save of 7 seconds, he and Byte are the main experienced players in CiC which has always been predominantly a TFC clan. We still only have about 4 proper CSS players in CiC, the rest are all TFC players.

Q. So, closing thoughts on the match and your victory and how the competition may pan out?
A. I think CiC will need some decent luck in the next round and some proper practice to become a better CSS squad, we do have a couple of CSS people in the wings ready to replace a couple of the TFC people but we have tried to keep it to the core people who want fun. Would be nice to progress through another round if we can keep Yoshiarms Sober and maybe swearing a bit less then maybe we will! A big thanks to YO for being good sports and keeping it all on a fun level, and a huge thanks must go to DM Kev and the Wireplay team for press-ganging CiC into playing more CSS and hosting a really good starting tourney for us to test the waters in

[YO]Vlad

Q. How would you sum up the game for YO?
A. It was a pleasure to take part in such a fun and well organised game and a pleasant change to play against such a friendly bunch of players.

Q. Illusion was a rather sharp shooter. Is this typical form?
A. I would say so, illusion has always been a formidable opponent to play against at long range.

Q. Who from CiC proved to be the biggest threat today?
A. Byte. I told the rest of YO before the game he'd be the one to be wary of and he showed us all why.

Q. Any closing thoughts on how the competition may pan out and what do you think of your chances of re-entry?
A. I wouldn't like to say how the rest of the competition will pan out, but I will be following CiC's progress and hope they do well. We're hopeful of our chances of re-entry as we're happy with how we performed tonight and hope we can really prove ourselves given the chance.

[DM_Kev]

Match Report: WCUK vs =58th=, Final Result: WCUK 23 - =58th= 7, Devil Of The Day:[WCUK]Only-One, Match Demo (http://cs.wireplay.co.uk/cup/58th-vs-WCUK.zip)

After the stunning first match of the Wireplay CS:S Mini Tournament, expectations are running high of the second first round match: WCUK vs =58th=

The game began in the traditional fashion with the knife round. A fast and furious round it was, with some particularly frenzied knifings from Death Jester, marking up three frags. WCUK won the round and elected to start the game as Counter Terrorists.

The first three rounds were claimed by WCUK, repelling 58th’s rush in the opening two rounds and defeating the Terrorists and defusing the bomb in the third. If anyone thought WCUK were having it easy, they were sorely mistaken. 58th fought straight back with four successful bomb plantings and detonations, putting them in the lead. Some fine luck or superior tactics were on 58ths side, as they consistently managed to rush undefended bomb sites.

WCUK responded with a further two wins to reclaim their lead, largely thanks to the employment of the game changing AWP and some fast bomb defusal from WCUK. These two rounds ended very quickly, with the second over in just under a minute after 58th’s rush down the middle was halted by three frags from WCUK’s Only-one wielding the AWP. The remaining 58th players were promptly hunted down.

The following rounds were very closely fought with no real sign of a stronger side as both clans traded round wins. Round 10 saw a very hesitant rush towards bombsite A via the tunnels by 58th. However they cleared the bombsite quickly and efficiently, planting the bomb and defending it well from WCUK. Last minute heroics from teamkill_tom nearly caught 58th out, but they managed to hold on with the bomb detonating. 58th maintained the consistent bomb planting in round 11, rushing straight to bombsite B. WCUK were on good form this round, with a well executed assault on the bombsite, quickly routing 58th and defusing the bomb. 58th rushed bombsite A long the following round, but WCUK were prepared, holding 58th back and wiping them out in a flank attack.

In round 13, 58th employed decoy tactics in the middle, drawing out WCUK. The bomb was planted at bombsite B and successfully defended long enough for it to detonate by Chillpill, using a mixture of defensive and delaying tactics. In round 14 Only-one once again demonstrated his formidability with the AWP, single-handedly foiling 58ths rush through the middle, resulting in an easy win for WCUK. The final round of the half saw 58th rush and plant the bomb at the undefended bombsite B. WCUK aggressively assaulted the site, killing and driving off 58th. Teamkill_tom defused the bomb to bring the score to 9-6 to WCUK at half time.

The second half was a very different story, with WCUK clearly more comfortable as terrorists; they won 14 of the 15 rounds of the half. 58th made WCUK work hard to take so many victories, nearly stopping them on several occasions. WCUK seemed to have a strategy in place for every round, with one of the team acting as a spotter from T Spawn at the start of each round to determine where the CTs were heading. WCUK seemed to favour bombsite A, rushing to it each round and consistently getting the bomb planted. Defense of the bomb was usually efficient, with 58th often wiped out before it could detonate.

58th caught WCUK out a few times through good counter-attacks and skilful play, particularly from Pontusneo who proved troublesome for WCUK with his M3. This all made life harder for WCUK who managed to persevere and employ some strategies to deal with 58th’s counter attacks, notably placing Only-One and his AWP in high-risk flanking positions which worked to great effect.

With the game theirs at the end of round 7, WCUK continued to rack up the round wins, not giving any quarter to 58th. 58th’s only round win of the half came on round 14 where they were able to defeat WCUK’s initial rush and pin the survivors just outside of their spawn where they were gradually picked off one by one. The match drew to a close at Bombsite A with the bomb ticking away. Death Jester finished the game at 23-7 to WCUK with a well placed AWP kill.

Eventually an easy win for WCUK, but a thrilling match nonetheless. We grabbed a player from each side after the match to answer a few questions.

[WCUK]borak

Q. Your half as terrorists went very well with a 14-1 result. Did you anticipate having an easier half as terrorists?
A. Terrorists are generally easier to play on dust_2, or at least you hope that they are! There have been times when my team have done worse as the terrorist and so it was a concern. I never like to think we are going to win easily because otherwise we will just get sloppy.

Q. We saw that you delayed many of your rushes by having a spotter look down the middle of the map. What sort of advantage, if any, did this offer you?
A. Delaying provides you with a clear advantage of knowing the oppositions initial defence strategy. Though this does not guarantee success it gives you a good idea of how many people you are going to come across and lets you decide the best course of action. It also gives the AWP’er an opportunity to take a player or two down for that extra advantage.

Q. What were your initial thoughts of this fixture? Did you have any key concerns about 58th?
A. I have seen quite a few of their members on the Wireplay Servers and some of the members show great skill and potential. My initial concern was to make it past the first round of the tournament as we do regular training and PCW's, especially on dust2 which was the map we played today.

Q. So you’re now through to the semi finals. Fancy your chances? And any other closing thoughts?
A. We will, as we did tonight, play to our best and will train like crazy for the next rounds map as we have now played on our home turf on dust2. If we can keep our focus like we did today, then I'm hoping to punch through to the Finals but it obviously depends who we end up playing. I'd also like to say thanks to the58th for participating and hope that when the next tournament comes around they'll play again.

=58th=Endzone

Q. The first half looked very close at times. Were you expecting a close match?
A. The fist eight rounds were great. We had a cracking game on our hands and both teams got some good digs in. I supposed I wanted a close game, and I know from talking to Borak that he wanted one too, but the absence of our match Captain really dented our chances because that left us with only one real CS player.

Q. Wildcards played a pretty tactical game. Did you anticipate this, did you have any countermeasures?
A. Tactics and regular practise is what won it for Wildcards. It takes time to learn a new game, and it takes even more to be good at it. Anyone can aim however, so we tried to force them into situations where we'd be on even grounds. After the 8th round Wildcards had to change strategy and engage us at range with snipers. I don't think they expected this to work as well as it did however.

Q. During your half as terrorists, you were able to plant at an empty bombsite many times. Was this down to tactics or some good luck?
A. A bit of both I think. We tossed a few grenades here and there as diversions which may have created some chances. This is the thing with multiple objectives: if the teams are balanced then the defending team is often at a disadvantage for being spread so thin. It takes good suppressive ability to hold back an attacking team until reinforcements arrive. This is where we failed.

Q. We are sorry to see the58th leave the competition at such an early stage (our fault for only inviting 8 clans!). We would like to thank you for your involvement and sporting attitude. How do you expect the competition to pan out and do you have any other closing remarks?
A. Thank you for having us. Being knocked out was a foregone conclusion given that we're inexperienced as a team, and only found out about the Tourney 3 days before signups closed. My only regret is that we weren't more of a challenge for Wildcards who are a great bunch of lads. I hope our dismissal has fired them up for the next round.

I can't say how I think things will pan out because I'm quite unfamiliar with the teams. I have seen some great things from the BoD players when on the Wireplay servers so I expect them to go through to the second round.

We wish all the remaining teams the best of luck. Thank you for hosting this Tournament, and thanks in particular to Taymar who has been a regular guest on our forums to keep us updated.

[DM_Kev]

Match Report: Blackiron vs Snots, Final Result: Blackiron 17 : 13 Snots, Devil Of The Day:[Blackiron]ichigo


The third match of the first round was kindly hosted by Snots due to a tiny technical hitch with the match server (all fixed now!). This was going to be another game which would be difficult to predict, with two relatively unknown clans facing off.

Blackiron won the knife round and elected to remain as terrorists. Snots took the first five rounds by storm, winning all of them with some excellent defensive play along with some sharply executed counter-attacks to defuse the bomb. Blackiron struck back, claiming the following four rounds with successive bomb plantings and strong defence, particularly from ichigo, racking up scores of kills.

Snots raised their game in the following four rounds with some superb defending, holding Blackiron off from the bombsites. During one round they were successful in repelling a Blackiron rush despite two team kills! Blackiron claimed their final win of the half on round 14, bringing their score to five. Snots claimed the final round, finishing the half on ten.

In the second half, Blackiron won rounds 1 to 9 with some very aggressive tactics, making it very hard for Snots to reach the bombsites. Ichigo continued to be a major threat to Snots, stopping them at almost every turn. With the score now completely turned around at 14-10 to Blackiron, Snots really needed to pull something out of the bag.

There was a moment of hope on round 10 when Snots rushed bombsite A and then won a close AWP battle. Hopes then raised even higher on round 11 when Snots rushed bombsite A again and successfully detonated the bomb, holding off the Blackiron counter attacks with ease. The score was now 14-12 to Blackiron.

The game went down to the wire on round 12 as Blackiron claimed the round to bring their score to 15 – just one more win needed to claim the match. Snots fought back well, winning round 13, thanks to the ever skilful Db wielding the Desert Eagle. Hopes of a tiebreak ended however, when Blackiron won round 14. Ichigo was well inserted into the fighting and ensured that this round was the winner for Blackiron. Round 15 was also won by Blackiron, finishing the game at 17-13 to Blackiron.


We caught up with Blackiron|zed after the match and here’s what he had to say.

Q. What were your expectations for this match?
A. Well to be honest we didn’t really know much about [snots] in the build up and we tried to find out as much as we could so we would be prepared but as there website was down the was not much to find out so we went in just trying to do our best and play the best way we know how!

After the round as Terrorists I really thought we had blown it as Terrorists are known to win most rounds on dust_2 so we were buzzing when we pulled it back and held our nerve to take victory! I know they finished on 13 as did the other (YO) clan so it will be interesting to see how they get on against each other after seeing snots in action they are a very good team and wouldn’t put it past them to proceed all the way to the final! (Edit: YO re-entered the competition based on the secondary measure of total kills)

Q. Ichigo proved very effective throughout the match. Is he one of your stronger players?
A. Yeah ichigo is ace with all weapons from pistol right the way through to awp and without him we would have struggled but I think the whole team did really well to not let their heads drop after that awful first half so I would put it down to a team performance rather than an individual one!

Q. This game saw the highest use of AWPs yet. Were AWPs part of your game plan?
A. Well without giving too much away, AWPs are a 1 shot kill weapon as we all know, so we felt we had to use this weapon to its best potential.

Q. You’re into round 2. Thoughts and expectations for the remainder of the competition?
A. Well I hope now after that victory we have proved that even when you are down you can still win and we are hopeful of going all the way to the end and it would be nice to meet [snots] again as they were a very nice bunch of guys who played well and were gracious in defeat.

[DM_Kev]

Match Report: BoD vs YO, Final Result: BoD 26 : 4 YO, Devil Of The Day: [BoD]BADAIM!!Match Demo (http://cs.wireplay.co.uk/cup/BoD-vs-YO.zip)

This, the fourth and final match of the first round saw BoD face re-entrants YO. YO were invited back into the contest as they were the highest scoring clan amongst the losing clans. BoD are well known by a number of public server users as a well organised clan with some formidable players. YO were certainly in for a challenge, but hopes remained high for both clans.

As usual, it began with the knives. BoD won this round and elected to remain as the counter terrorists. They then proceeded to win the first five rounds with some excellent defending, often stopping YO well short of their intended bombsite. YO pinched a round back in round 6 with a plant at bombsite A. YO held out well until Echo3s finished the last two of YO off but didn’t have enough time to defuse the bomb.

BoD took the following five rounds to make the score 10 -1 to them. Again, it was an impressive demonstration of defensive tactics – holding YO back, picking them off and hunting the survivors down. YO’s final victory of the half came on round 13 with a bomb planting and successful defence of the bombsite. BoD ended the half by claiming the final three rounds making the score 13-2 to BoD.

YO needed to pull something out of the bag in round 2 and made a great start with two straight wins. The bomb was defused in the first round and YO successfully held off a BoD rush in the second round. Tragically for YO, these were to be their only wins of the half. BoD proved that they were not taking a lie down with a dazzling display of skills and superior tactics. More often than not, BoD were able to wipe YO out before the bomb could be planted, never mind detonate. Although the round was dominated by BoD, there was still plenty of very close, entertaining fighting. The game ended at 26-4 to BoD.

We were lucky enough to speak to two of the players representing each clan after the match.


HypeY

[B]Q. Your first match and a 26-4 win. Can't be bad can it…Did your clan do much preparation for this match?
A. No, I was very pleased with the performance, we didn’t do a lot of tactics but we were able to conjure something for the game. It started off slow but we got there in the end.

Q. YO made a good start to the second half but you fought back well. Did you learn much about YO, did you have any strategies to overcome them?
A. We knew the first round on each side was important. When we lost the 1st round terror side I wanted to have a good economy round and we did 2 rounds later which gave us the edge and then went on to take the remaining rounds.

Q. So you’re off to the semis and de_cbble - any clan you'd like to avoid?
A. We don’t mind anyone to be honest. cbble is a very good map for us. We have good teamplay for it so I just hope we turn up for the game


[YO]princess

Q. Its sad to see YO go. You've come in 5th place. Have you enjoyed the contest?
A. Oh definitely! It was a great bit of fun for us. We rarely play together as a clan so this was a nice change. We'd all like to say a big thank you to the Wireplay guys for organising it and the clans we played against for putting up excellent fights!

Q. What were your clans thoughts at half time?
A. During the half time break we were treated to a bit of music by Obraxis (Queen - We are the champions) which gave us all a lot of laughs. We knew we weren't a strong team by any means; just in it for a bit of fun - but our main thoughts were singing along to the song! We didn't think we'd win, BoD seemed very good so we decided to enjoy the game.

Q. The start of the second half saw YO take a 2-0 lead. Did you have a plan to get some wins back or was this good fortune?
A. During the second half we thought that maybe we'd do a bit better and winning the rounds at the start put us in high spirits - but BoD quickly put us back in our place! We had hoped for a few more winning rounds but what will be, will be!

Q. So now all the clans have played, who do you think we will see in the grand final?
A. Everyone seems to be doing well. I think BoD will do well - they certainly showed us that they are organised and are good at the game. WCUK appear to be a good bunch too but I wouldn't rule out our other opponents - CiC and Blackiron. Both could pick up a fair few wins. Speaking from my experience of the contest, I think BoD will come out either on top or second. Good luck to the remaining teams!

[Smock]

Match Report: BoD vs WCUK, Final Result: BoD 12 : 18 WCUK, Devil Of The Day: [BoD]Echo3s!!Match Demo (http://cs.wireplay.co.uk/cup/BoD-vs-WCUK.zip)

Ok folks, just a quick update this one. My internet connection kept dying last night when this was all fresh in my head, so here goes:

What an exciting match! Even the knife round was hotly contested! BoD got the early kills on this, but WCUK managed to pull off the win, opting to stay as Terrorists.

BoD got off to a quick start, getting 2 - 0 ahead. WCUK quickly remedied this and cam back to 2 - 1. BoD responded again the next round, managing to keep WCUK from even planting. WCUK returned the favour by effectively trapping BoD on the ramp between bombsites, while they planted. The rest of the first half was like this, trading rounds all the way up to 6 - 6 ! WCUK then managed to finish off with a three round succession, to end the first half WCUK 9 - 6 BoD.

After ending the first half with a deficit, BoD certainly looked out to change their fortune, winning 5 rounds straight off the bat! WCUK started a come back then, to set the 2nd half score at BoD 5 - 2 WCUK making the overall score now 11 - 11. WCUK then continued their streak of round wins right up to 7 - 5 making even the draw now impossible for BoD. BoD managed to snipe a round back, before WCUK finished out the second half 9 - 6.

Final score: WCUK 18 : 12 BoD

I have to say this was an absolutely thrilling match to watch, with the round wins going back and forth between both teams so often, I entertained the notion it may end up as a draw!

Congratulations to WCUK who now go through to the final to meet Blackiron.

Comiserations to BoD, who fought valiantly (not to mention one of their regulars going on his hols :P). Hope to see you around the servers, and look out for our next wpcs cup :)


Smock