This Saturday at 9.30am, everything was set to go. The two great foes of sFx Evil and Team Delta were set to meet yet again at TGS, Rotterdam, to settle once and for all just who is the greater power. But as news broke of Team Delta's 11th hour withdrawal from the competition, action stations were called to yet again fill all available slots and keep the Crossfire Prizefight Challenge steady and on course for a weekend of explosive and terrific action. Step forward cZar Gaming, a team who had previously lost at the hands of Rewind in the earlier Rotterdam Qualifing stage.
cZar will not meet their Swedish foes in the flesh after Rewind themselves confirmed their inability to travel, and will therefore be able to put the past to one side as they play sFx for the right to face the winner of the
Idle vs 
T&M (TosspoT & Minions), a self-driven motivation if ever there was one. So how are these two teams looking forward to the prospect of their first round encounter? Remember, the ET competition employs a double-elimination system, so that no teams will need to book their plane tickets should they fall at the first hurdle. Yet they are here to win, and desire is only too evident.
deNzl and his team of Belgians cZars now see themselves in the running for the prizes thanks to the last-minute dropout of Team Delta, and I asked him what made the team think they will fare better this time around, having been knocked out once already before TGS sees it's first match.
dNzl: After delta lost their spot, lio talked to me about rebuilding the old cZar lineup, and I liked the idea. And since we played together for quite a while, I'm pretty sure we can still perform!
Confidence seems to be in the air in camp cZar. That said, their weakness is all too evident in the form of such a late callup to the LAN. I decided to discover the grass on the other side, and see what frame of mind mAx and his fellow bunch of evil-doing sFx clanmates were in. cZar have their weaknesses yes, but it'd be suicide to take them for granted, correct? The reply was defiant:
mAx: Why should we even estimate them? We'll just play our game like against any other opponents.
Slightly taken aback by the equal if not greater confidence, I felt intruiged to understand better just how the sFx Rotterdam lineup had come to be. The roster is an eclectic mix of stars past and present, consisting of lettu, tiigeri, twidi, mAx, Xionn and reload, which looks nice yes, but does carry a certain air of unprobability about it, a thought which mAx then confirmed when I asked him about his eventual role in the six.
mAx: Basically Tiigeri was playing with sFx, and Tiigeri is Xionn's friend, and I'm Xionn's friend, that's it. But this sFx line up has nothing to do with the old one I guess...
Nevertheless I have since been assured that the roster has been playing with each other solidly for several weeks now, and by mAx's own exceedingly high standards, things are progressing pleasingly. So what about cZar? With the event starting a mere 3 days away, has the momentum been left too little time to get going? Not so, apparently.
dNzl The other teams had more time to practice, although in the EC we practiced very hard ourselves. And after seeing the maplist, there would only be a bit of trouble on oasis, but this goes almost for every team I guess. We are relying on our comms and teamplay where we always felt that it was one of the stronger points of our team. For the aim, I don't think anyone has worse!
Clearly something is going to need to seperate these two teams. However sFx are already talking about winning the competition (overconfidence?), whilst cZar have a vastly different outlook on matters with idle/T&F awaiting the winner... would they or sFx prove the first stumbling block:
M: That's not being confident, I just think it would be stupid to rank the team we are playing against. We are here to enjoy the event, mostly, but I want to win it, or to place well, yes.
D: (Beating idle?) With ease! If we win vs sFx, our tournament will already be a succes. So, no I will not dream of beating idle :D
So then, two teams with differing views but certainly no clear winner. Yet the competition wasn't the only incentive that mAx had on his mind as he told me of his enthusiasm of the social side of the event:
M: I'm mostly there for that reason, there wouldn't be so much people attending if it was only about the competition. There's a lot of people I wanna meet :)
Be sure to not miss the outcome of this intruiging battle, coming live this Saturday at 10.30 CET from the TGS, Rotterdam. All the details are listed and updated in real-time on GamesTV.org, as well as a full list of all the other games to be played over the weekend. Miss it, and you're missing out!
cZar will not meet their Swedish foes in the flesh after Rewind themselves confirmed their inability to travel, and will therefore be able to put the past to one side as they play sFx for the right to face the winner of the
Idle vs T&M (TosspoT & Minions), a self-driven motivation if ever there was one. So how are these two teams looking forward to the prospect of their first round encounter? Remember, the ET competition employs a double-elimination system, so that no teams will need to book their plane tickets should they fall at the first hurdle. Yet they are here to win, and desire is only too evident. deNzl and his team of Belgians cZars now see themselves in the running for the prizes thanks to the last-minute dropout of Team Delta, and I asked him what made the team think they will fare better this time around, having been knocked out once already before TGS sees it's first match.dNzl: After delta lost their spot, lio talked to me about rebuilding the old cZar lineup, and I liked the idea. And since we played together for quite a while, I'm pretty sure we can still perform!
Confidence seems to be in the air in camp cZar. That said, their weakness is all too evident in the form of such a late callup to the LAN. I decided to discover the grass on the other side, and see what frame of mind
mAx and his fellow bunch of evil-doing sFx clanmates were in. cZar have their weaknesses yes, but it'd be suicide to take them for granted, correct? The reply was defiant:mAx: Why should we even estimate them? We'll just play our game like against any other opponents.
Slightly taken aback by the equal if not greater confidence, I felt intruiged to understand better just how the sFx Rotterdam lineup had come to be. The roster is an eclectic mix of stars past and present, consisting of lettu, tiigeri, twidi, mAx, Xionn and reload, which looks nice yes, but does carry a certain air of unprobability about it, a thought which mAx then confirmed when I asked him about his eventual role in the six.
mAx: Basically Tiigeri was playing with sFx, and Tiigeri is Xionn's friend, and I'm Xionn's friend, that's it. But this sFx line up has nothing to do with the old one I guess...
Nevertheless I have since been assured that the roster has been playing with each other solidly for several weeks now, and by mAx's own exceedingly high standards, things are progressing pleasingly. So what about cZar? With the event starting a mere 3 days away, has the momentum been left too little time to get going? Not so, apparently.
dNzl The other teams had more time to practice, although in the EC we practiced very hard ourselves. And after seeing the maplist, there would only be a bit of trouble on oasis, but this goes almost for every team I guess. We are relying on our comms and teamplay where we always felt that it was one of the stronger points of our team. For the aim, I don't think anyone has worse!
Clearly something is going to need to seperate these two teams. However sFx are already talking about winning the competition (overconfidence?), whilst cZar have a vastly different outlook on matters with idle/T&F awaiting the winner... would they or sFx prove the first stumbling block:
M: That's not being confident, I just think it would be stupid to rank the team we are playing against. We are here to enjoy the event, mostly, but I want to win it, or to place well, yes.
D: (Beating idle?) With ease! If we win vs sFx, our tournament will already be a succes. So, no I will not dream of beating idle :D
So then, two teams with differing views but certainly no clear winner. Yet the competition wasn't the only incentive that mAx had on his mind as he told me of his enthusiasm of the social side of the event:
M: I'm mostly there for that reason, there wouldn't be so much people attending if it was only about the competition. There's a lot of people I wanna meet :)
Be sure to not miss the outcome of this intruiging battle, coming live this Saturday at 10.30 CET from the TGS, Rotterdam. All the details are listed and updated in real-time on GamesTV.org, as well as a full list of all the other games to be played over the weekend. Miss it, and you're missing out!
