It was three years ago that the Crossfire Prizefight Challenge moved to Enschede for the first time. On the wings of the fresh breeze that was Enemy Territory being played at shgOpen, the second Crossfire event reached higher numbers of attendees than ever before. Three years later, a lot of things seem very familiar. In fact, three players who came first at CPC2 now came second with their team at CIC7. If not for Night having had exams back then, the same would have been the case for recent weekend's winning team Dignitas. It seemed a little like Bill Murray waking up to the same old tune from his alarm clock every day - except that everybody loved the way in which it repeated itself roughly every six months. The one major difference though was that the number of players went down by one - after Quakecon and PGA, Crossfire decided to go for 5on5 this time.

Plenty of articles, columns and comments have been written about the 5on5 debate, ever since it all surfaced as a possible option to make ET more accessible to the public and event organizers. That was four years ago, and it doesn't require a very keen eye to see that the number of players did not have any effect at all. shgOpen picked it once and never again, but it could not have done so anyway because it did not take place anymore after 2007. Quakecon chose 5on5 for logistics and picked other games afterwards, which is not surprising for a trade show of the newest id software games. The only event that stuck has been and probably will always be a community event. Because it wants to cater to CoD as well and for simple reasons of space and logistics, CIC7 chose ET to be played by just 5 players.

Since leagues were considering themselves caught in the middle of a fight between two rivaling team sizes, ESL's and CB's highest admins decided to take a stand and make it 5on5 once and for all, so the community would not be split.

Arguments for and against 5on5 are countless in numbers, they range from necessary restrictions to the destruction of established tactics and teams. Some maps are deemed unplayable with only five players while more than a few praise the newfound quality of gameplay that comes with removing one player. Surely the most vocal of them will not hesitate to cite CIC7 situations and compare them to past events to show the failures or the success of the 5on5 model.

Essentially though, all arguments are pointless. Teams that existed for the LAN will split up because there is little that keeps them going. New teams will form, old players will return no matter what the team size may be. The whole debate is filled with an importance it doesn't posess. When players go to Enschede they want to have a good tournament, but it is about so much more than simple winnings and who gets most frags. The combined entrance fee is higher than the overall prize money, but noone cares because all they expect a weekend filled with Enemy Territory and its community, and that is exactly what they get.

Crossfire has good reasons to play 5on5 at its event, but there are also good reasons to play 6on6 when you're not on a LAN event. There is no reason to force a certain way of playing onto the community, to close ladders and restrict the ways in which ET is played competitively. Enemy Territory has not made its way to the center of electronic sports, but people are still having fun playing it. If some of them prefer 6on6, do not take that away from them. If 5on5 is the only option for your community event to still be held, swallow the pill even if it is a little bitter. The differences are not as big as they are made out to be. Be aware of how valuable it is to play a game that is not influenced by commercial interests in any way - don't screw that up by not being ready to compromise every once and again.