The Playoffs are Coming › zeroPoint

zeroPoint

The winner of group A, zeroPoint! Gaming, is the first focus for our team spotlight this playoff season. With an allstar lineup made from both new and old talents and the reinvention of a playstyle lost almost eighteen months previously, zeroPoint hope to make a name for themselves in their first 6v6 competition as a team, and they're not setting their sights low.


Current Lineup:

Daniel "Keran" Brichet
Marcel "Hatred" Brichet
Gavin "Sqzz" Butler
Florian "Gifty" Gunzenhauser
Michael "Potter" Kantringer
Tobias "Rapture" König
Sebastian "Butchji" Kupke
Ramin "Darky" Tahbaz


Team History

The zeroPoint team - sponsored by steelseries and icemat - was formed in September 2006. Ramin "Darky" Tahbaz states that several factors led up to the formation of the side, all starting with QuakeCon 2006, saying, "after coming 2nd at Quakecon I found myself enjoying gaming again." Upon returning to Europe, Darky says, he "saw Idle the unchallenged number one, saw many new faces and strong players - and I started to talk to some of my old teammates and to some of the so called 'newschoolers' [about starting a team]." The next event was the Crossfire PrizeFight Challenge at Rotterdam, where the zeroPoint side was already beginning to take shape, with half the lineup in the shape of Potter, Darky and Gifty in competition under the Tosspot & Friends banner.

It was a short step to bring Darky and Potter's ex-saevus teammate Rapture into the fold, and from there they were two short of a full lineup. At this point, fate played into the hands of the Austrian trio - "Butchji and Hatred joined up after riZe gaming folded, which happened by coincidence. So after all you can say Dallas, Rotterdam and the folding of a clan were needed to create this new team," Darky finishes. The latest addition to the roster, Keran, also a former riZe gaming member, joined the side after his noll8 team were eliminated in the playoff stages.

If one looks merely at the results, it seems zeroPoint never had any real problems in the group stages, and indeed this is the case in many ways. They dispatched uQ.Gaming with ease, beat what many considered their strongest rivals The Netrunners in straight maps and only dropped one map - adlernest, which they had never played before - against Morrigu side on their first day of playing 6v6 ET. Looking deeper, however, and some concerns surface: Morrigu were seen by many as one of the weakest teams in the tournament, and lost both their other games 4-0, yet still took a map off the zeroPoint team; NETR played with a significantly sub-par roster and still held zeroPoint to a very close match. There are obviously some kinks left for zeroPoint to work out, but there is plenty of time still before the playoffs begin for them to put to good use.


Team Strengths

Darky believes that zeroPoint have several advantages over the competition. The first is the balance found in the team; "Our strength is that we fit together - we've got the aggressive players with aim like they're the devil himself. We've got the defensive players who back them up and we've got the supporters who jump in wherever they find a weakness to back our team up," he states. Also, he says, they have "the individual talent - the guys are really flexible and beside their gaming strength they are all really great people. They accept and respect each other which makes it easier and more fun to play than with any other team."

While acknowledging that the players most likely to garner the support of the fans are butchji and gifty, known for their signature multikills, Darky goes on to maintain that every member of the team is important. The team, he says, is well built, stating "if you look at the team from the inside you'd know that everyone does what is needed - hatred, potter, rapture - I wouldn't dare to give them any less credit then butchji or gifty. All of our players are on the top - otherwise they wouldn't be in this team."


Playoff Outlook

While the mood in the zeroPoint camp is decidedly confident, it has to be said that the team is yet to be truly tested. So far they have had what most would call relatively easy matches, and even in these they have, as previously stated, looked weak at times, losing a map to underdogs Morrigu and winning with a narrower margin than expected against an out of shape Netrunners team. Their first round match against rewind looks, on paper, like an easy victory for the zeroPoint side, but rewind have surprised everybody in the past and could do so again if zeroPoint haven't improved on their mediocre form.

The reinvention of the defensive medic position, in a time when most teams are favouring ultra-aggressive tactics with temporary, mobile crossfires and spawntime selfkills has to be a controversial move. It remains to be see whether this tactical decision pays off, or if it is merely a throwback to days gone by. Darky addresses these concerns, "Over all I think we are a team that plays pretty defensively. We try to take control over the game," he says, but adds, "Our defense lacks some teamplay in certain situations but our offense become better the more pressure we have."

Despite these problems, zeroPoint don't expect too many problems against the rewind side, not, Darky says, because they're underestimating them, but merely because they believe they have the "capability to bring home the victory." As for the bigger picture, zeroPoint make no excuses - they're aiming for the top and looking to take idle.ee's crown. "I don't play to become 2nd, 3rd or 4th," Darky says, "and you've got to believe in yourself and your team if you want to be successful."

Clearly a team brimming with confidence, but can they take the prize they're after? I'm not so sure. Certainly, I would predict a victory against their first challengers in the form of the rewind team. After that things become more interesting, however, as they will likely go on to face their sternest test so far, cdap pi. A victory there would pit them against the best of the teams in the bottom half of the draw, in all likelihood their chief rivals idle.ee. Only at this point, if indeed they get that far, will we see if Darky's confidence is even remotely justified. Of all the competing teams, zeroPoint are probably theoretically the most likely to cause idle.ee a problem, but can they turn theory into reality?


Future Plans

Ultimately, if they can't do it this time, zeroPoint will likely have many more bites at the cherry. They have every intention of continuing after EuroCup and competing at both the approaching shgOpen and Crossfire LAN events. zeroPoint, it seems, are here to stay.