You still float my boat!

Excited? You bet I am! Right now there is something in the air, last night saw 1088 people turn out for the return of mystic and along with it they turned out to see the topsy turvey fashion that competitive ET (except idle) is taking.

I am ignoring Idle at the moment, and I'm sure they'll come along to disprove my theory and bore me to death in no time, but until then there’s an air of uncertainty about every game of ET right now that has given this seasons Eurocup a new lease of life.

Last nights decimation of sFx at the hands of noll8 was the first of a double header of games that you didnt want to end because you couldn’t get enough of the change. The amount of money lost on sFx last night was comical, yet beautiful! I could quite happily have sat and watched 4 maps rather than two just to be sure that noll8 were really beating sFx.

Likewise after that I was dumbfounded to predict NETR vs aMenti and the game itself, although a 4-0 raping was equally exciting for different reasons. I think Kot and company will still have a headache from that game last night, I mean what actually happened on Supply Depot? Netrunners set 9 minutes and 45 seconds roughly, which is just about right as allies. They hold the first stage for a little more than 5 minutes and the game is in the bag. I'm sitting on the microphone almost calling the map in the poles favour and yet in a little over 4 minutes they lost stage 1,2,3 and 4 (or however many stages there, I confuse myself). It was compelling viewing, even if Goldrush was rape.

This being the second time I've seen aMenti in a week, and it was last week against Helix where they again took the headlines. Having only just returned from a period of forced inactivity the side were just out to gain as much experience together as they could, but with some excellent solo efforts (aCozz at the truck, triple luger frag) the side fought valiantly to claim a famous victory over a team people were calling idle beaters.

Then theres Idle against Helix itself, which as any good game against Idle takes place on Radar. Helix pull something special out of the bag and suddenly its game on once again, despite idle dominance on the first map. At 2-2 and Supply to go, Helix made us believe and there were times when maybe just maybe they had us thinking Idle could be beaten.

Throw in favorites zeroPoint going down in 3rd place at PGA and the whole host of exciting games that went down in Poland, plus the PGA qualifiers themselves with Idle losing not once but twice and the air of uncertainty provides us with some phenomenal games and tournaments instore.

Competitive ET needed a change, it had become stagnant the Parodia and Idle winning Eurocups are nearly instantly forgettable for me and before Quakecon as an ET fan I was still clenching memories of u96d-Night and his panzer. However, since the depths of Dallas and the romance of Rotterdam, ET has put itself back as prime time viewing.

I put some of this down to a change in the mappool, Adlernest, Frostbite and Radar are not instantly winnable, Goldrush maybe somewhere in the middle (just verging on predictable) and the old warhorse Supply Depot proving to be either damned exciting or more often suicidally boring. However, Adlernest and Frostbite in one pool offers some guaranteed upsets and fast paced maps opposed to Oasis and co!

The decision to not run a summer cup, and the fact that we've not really seen all the big teams in one place since CPC and before then since the previous Eurocup, has grown a fog of war which really helped end the predictability of the previous year. I also think config changes are bit by bit are focusing the attention further on the skilled smg individual, which whether you like it or not is more RTCW like and in my opinion better.

Whatever it is, theres a resurgence in ET and its not just here on Crossfire. Many people are looking at ET in a different way than they used to, and all be it late for the Wolfenstein series attention is coming our way. In the coming week there are two positive pieces coming out, combined with exciting Eurocup games its time to come out of the closet and sit back and let the good times roll!