UKTerrorist

PC Gamer LAN Arena CS Championship

Venom went to the PC Gamer LAN Arena CS Championships to report for UKTerrorist how the event turned out.

On Saturday 4th November 2000, LAN Arena (Nottingham), in conjunction with PC Gamer Magazine, held the first ever Counter-Strike Clan Tournament. With all machines provided by LAN Arena (no lugging around your own PC and Monitor!) and a 1st Prize of £2,500 to the winning team, this event attracted a large number of Counter-Strike fanatics from around the UK.

The pre-tournament favorites were any one of the three teams in attendance going by the name of H&SDBAM, which stands for Hidden & Spicerly Dangerous Bitches Armageddon Marines. These three teams were made up from members of clans B!TCH (now 4Kings), -CSA-, Spice Girls and Hidden & Dangerous - four of the top UK CS clans around, so the opposition were going to have to go some way to beat them. The draw was made before the event and the 1st round map was to be cs_militia. Matches saw varying tactics, from all out rushing to whole team camping in the toilets and everything in-between. Most clans that made it through to the second round did so quite convincingly. The only surprise of the first round was the loss of SAT, who I thought would go quite far in this tournament but instead fell at the first hurdle.

Onto the second round where the maps were picked at random for each individual match. H&SDBAM 1 & 2 qualified easily but after a scare with some PC problems, H&SDBAM 3 went into the second half of de_dust losing by two rounds. They managed to pull back the deficit but unfortunately had to face H&SDBAM 1 in the Quarter Finals.

The Quarter Finals produced some quality matches such as XTC vs. (AOAC), UTO vs. TSA, the obligatory pounding by H&SDBAM 2 and the best match of the Quarter Finals - H&SDBAM 1 vs. 3.

Luckily for them, H&SDBAM 1 & 2 managed to avoid each other in the semi-final
draw but unluckily for XTC and UTO the writing was on the wall for an inter-clan
final. Both H&SDBAM squads made it through their respective semi-finals in convincing style, neither team losing a round. The only sour moment was the needless comments made by XTC to H&SDBAM 1 during their match. Everyone enjoys some banter but resorting to name-calling is pretty low and maybe if you can't take a loss on the chin, you should stay away from the next event.

The Final

Okay let's see: Eight of the top UK players playing head-to-head for £2,500 are asked to agree on the map to play in the final. Would it be de_prodigy or de_nuke getting their first play at the tournament? How about cs_italy or cs_militia? Nah. When you are playing for this kind of money you need a nice even map. DE or CS?

"We want both!"
"You can't have both!"

You can when you both agree to play Jeepathon2K with agreed settings of Pistols and Grenades only! What resulted was probably the most entertaining match to watch of the whole day. The crowd cheered every grenade kill and some of the worst driving you are ever likely to see. Absolute madness with the eventual winners being H&SDBAM 1.

Overall a great day much respect to PC Gamer and Lan Arena for organising a great Tournament and ensuring everything ran as smoothy as it did. My only criticism was the noise and constant loud music. For Quake3 or UT DM, fine, but for CS you really need to be able to hear your opponents movements.

Other noteable mentions were the PC Gamer team taking on all comers and showing at least they can play, even if they cant write (Hark at the newboy! - PCGamer)

In conclusion, congrats to H&SDBAM 1 on your win and subsequent newfound wealth, well done Lan Arena and thankyou to PC Gamer and AMD for sponsoring the event.