Intel Extreme Masters - Dubai

posted by Michael Brito on November 05, 2009

The plane ride to Dubai was interesting. I got to the airport about two and a half hours early, and had a connecting flight to Atlanta. The thing was, it was storming in Atlanta, and in order for me to make my flight in time to Dubai, I would need to get on an earlier flight. I was lucky because there was one departing shortly and I had come early enough to grab that one. Chance, my Quake Live teammate on EG, was supposed to go from Omaha to Atlanta and go to Dubai with me on that same flight. The stormy situation in Atlanta was much worse for him, he would only have a window of about 15 minutes to get off the plane and take the train to the proper terminal to board. I was there telling him what gate and everything on the phone, and he raced over. He showed up out of breath but happy, it was actually pretty funny. The plane ended up not departing until like 30 minutes after it was scheduled to, even though the boarding was on time.

After the long trip over we showed up to the Hotel Ibis (just about everyone - the cab in this case - took American dollars which made things easy ). We saw most Quake players and the ESL/Extreme Masters staff at the lobby. So Chance and I just hung out for a bit with everyone and then went to bed. I had learned that Cooller, a Russian Quake player (and one of the most famous of all time) was undergoing another one of his classic Visa travel issues.  No matter how much lead time he has going into tournaments outside of Russia, he always manages to *almost* miss the tournament due to Visa issues.  This time was no exception, and I wondered how likely it was that he would show up. He was, after all, in my group. I didn’t have to play until Day 2, however, so it really wasn’t urgent that I know at that moment.

As we showed up to the event, we were told that we could all set up early and practice. We all got there around noonish, and the Quake games were to start at about 4 pm local time. Unfortunately, we didn’t even get to play practice games until about 4 pm, so we all just waited around - explored the exhibits, listened to music, read, browsed the internet, etc. It didn’t bother me so much because, as I said, I did not have to play until Day 2 of the tournament. My plans were to get some practice games, get the feel for LAN ping, check out some good matches, and root for Chance, who played his group matches on Day 1.

When things were going, Chance, on paper, had a pretty tough group. The first match casted was between Strenx from France and Madix from Sweden, so seeing them play would allow me to judge how skilled his opponents were. They really did not appear to be in great shape, and I assured Chance he should beat them both. Cypher, a young player from Belarus who was 2008’s best player overall, on the other hand, was the top seeded player in Chance’s group. I told Chance before he even played any matches that, no matter how his game vs. Cypher went, he should not get intimidated or worried about the rest of his group.

As I watched Chance’s games against Cypher soon after, I was pretty disappointed. The maps were ztntourney1 and qztourney7, and Chance kept both games fairly close, but could not capitalize on the crucial moments. There were a couple times where Cypher would be completely cornered or at least vulnerable, and so little damage was done. Against an opponent like Cypher, those opportunities must be taken advantage of. Chance ended up losing 0-2.

Then he played madix and strenx. I don’t remember a whole lot about these games specifically, but Chance just was not playing to his potential. I had just been playing Strenx and Madix in practice games on LAN too throughout the day, and I determined first hand that chance should beat them. In the matches, Chance’s aim was just not punishing enough, and although Chance beat Madix, Madix 2-0’ed Strenx and Strenx lost 0-2 to cypher. This meant that Madix would advance in his group along with cypher, leaving my practice partner behind.  Also, a note for the day: Jibo assured me that Cooller would show up for sure. So at least I didn’t have to wonder anymore.

The next day came and it was time for me to compete. My group was Spammah (a local United Arab Emirates hero), Spartie from Sweden, and Cooller. The last two don’t need an introduction, as they are pretty huge names in the Quake scene. As I said before, Cooller is a Russian, one of the most famous players in history, and Spartie is arguably the best Swedish player at the moment, viewed by most people as a top 3 player in the world.  Luckily, I was scheduled to play Spammah first, while I could watch Cooller vs. Spartie. Spammah was an easy win, and then I got to see Cooller’s game. I could tell Cooller was definitely in shape. Maybe not at his 100% best, but he clearly had been practicing a lot. His timing and control was like it used to be, and he ended up defeating Spartie 2-1.

Spartie was my next game. I knew that If I would defeat him, then that’d mean I would advance, because Spartie would have lost to both me and Cooller, while I only would have lost to Cooller (potentially). The maps chosen were qzdm13, qztourney7, and ztntourney1. What’s interesting is that I actually hung out with Spartie at the mall in Dubai a few days before, and he had told me that when we played, he would probably drop tourney7 against me (in the group stage, each player can choose a map to eliminate from the map list for a particular opponent). I said I’d drop qzdm6 vs. Him. I kept my word, and then he decided to drop qztourney9 vs me instead of what he had promised. I guess he saw me practicing qztourney9 a lot in practice games.

I was feeling pretty good because of the practice games I was able to have before the match. But the first map, qzdm13, turned out to be pretty bad. I don’t really know where my head was, it was like my hands were operating without my mind’s consent. I was knowingly making bad decisions, but they were happening against my will. It was very strange. Then I decided to take some big risks about halfway through since it was either get lucky or go home. Nothing went my way and he won by like 13 frags or something. Then the next map was qztourney7. I wondered how well I would bounce back after such a big defeat on map 1. I put on quite a show. I hit everything and controlled
everything, not giving an inch. I ended up winning like 24-0. Then came the 3rd map, ztntourney1. I hit a lot of good shots on this one, and caughtg Spartie at strange spots. I went through the motions, not doing anything risky. I controlled the items and positioned myself properly, as is the essential strategy for that map, and took another convincing win.

Having secured a playoff birth, I still had to play Cooller, and it was a pretty highly anticipated match. The maps were: ztn/t9/dm6. On ztn I had a good start, and then I made a mistake or two. Control ended up going to Cooller, and I couldn’t regain it. He had the entire map on lockdown basically, and I didn’t pull any sick shots or miracle moments, so he took a fairly convincing win on map 1. On tourney9, the game was fairly close, and he had a lead for the first half of the game or so. It was extremely frustrating near the megahealth area. He would go for mega no matter what, even if I purposely baited him to go there and take tons of damage. I almost killed him like 3 times right before the mega would spawn, but I could never finish the job. Then as time went by, I got control and basically ran him over for the last few minutes. It would now go to dm6 for the tiebreaker. I don’t know what to really say, I feel like I missed a LOT of shots, which you simply can’t afford to do on this map. Cooller had timings on mega and RA perfectly, and played extremely well overall. He ended up taking the match.

Having secured a playoff spot, I wondered who my first opponent would be. The drawing went down, and I had to play Cypher. I was hoping for a lesser opponent, but I didn’t really sweat it. I figured if I were to win the whole thing, I’d have to beat him anyway potentially down the road. So the next day gets going and I am in the last of the first round of playoff matches. In the playoff bracket, the map selection format was different than for the group stage.  Whereas in the group stage, matches were played best of 3 maps, with each player eliminating a map, in the bracket stage, matches were played best of 5 maps, with players’ map preferences determining the order in which maps would be played. 

The map order ended up being t7/ztn/t9/dm13/dm6. I had stated that if I won my map picks (t7/t9), that I should walk away with a victory. T7 started and it was closer than I was comfortable with. I felt like I should have beat him really bad and not even have to worry about the last few minutes. But the game was pretty intense and I didn’t capitalize the way I should have,  but narrowly won 6-4. A win’s a win, right? Then came ztn. This was probably the map I look back on most that I should have done better on. I had another good start, like I did vs. Cooller, but I couldn’t maintain control and secure a win. I knew that 3-0ing Cypher in this particular map order was my best shot at advancing, so I was disappointed. Then came t9, and this felt like a pretty easy win. I don’t think he’s that great on this map yet, as it’s one of the new ones in the pool. But I played well and took the map lead 2-1. Dm13 would be yet another bad performance on my part. Cypher just walked away with dm13, and he didn’t really earn it the way he did on ztn. I played bad. Then the tiebreaker was dm6. He had a decent lead about halfway through, and then I regained control, I was like 310 total health heading for YA where I spotted him - and he was weak. I missed two rails and ate two midair rockets. If that moment does not happen, or I at least hit him with 1 of the rails, I feel I could have came back and won. Unfortunately, Cypher secured the win and he advanced.

I was really mad at myself right after the match, mainly because I thought dm6 came down to a bit of luck. I figured I wasn’t in shape just yet to win the event most likely (I’m still newer to this version of Quake than any other of the top players), so I shouldn’t be too upset for what took place. A top 5 finish against the best players in the world is nothing to be ashamed of, I suppose.  But I won’t be completely satisfied until I walk away with a tournament victory.

The last day of Dubai we went siteseeing - me, Chance, and Stripy. We saw the largest building in the world, and went to the mall where there’s a skiing area with artifical snow. The city has tons and tons of skyscrapers and office buildings. A lot of it is still under construction too. I told myself I would practice hard for the next few events, so let’s see what happens!

This post was written by Tim “DaHanG” Fogarty, Executive Director of Team EG; you can follow them on Twitter to keep up with the latest.  

Past Accomplishments:

• Best Quake 2 Player in the World
• 2nd Place, World Series of Video Games Quake 4
• 3rd Place, QuakeCon 2008 Quad Damage Tournament
• 4th Place, QuakeCon 2009 Quake Live 1v1
• 1st Place, QuakeCon 2009 Capture the Flag

 

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tagged: extrememasters, gaming