Another Cup, another Christmas, the same winner! 118 were able to defend their title last wednesday securing a 3-1 win over Chaos in a close match on beach and assault. This news item combines a recap of second edition of the Late Xmas RTCW-Cup and an announcement for comming RTCW-Cups.

Final Standings:

Chaos
Rewind / No Pressure

5-8th: Fixed, Cave, KiH, JeanRoucasFans9-12th: Indomitus, Highbot, skk!, Fallanx13-16th: Estonia, Liquids, iAm, PMCG17-20th: Normality, Element aR, Sexy Lovers, MAD

After RTCW-Cup III finished the game was dieing out slowly again. So when I decided to organize a cup I was hoping to get together eight teams for a small tourney like a year ago. Two weeks later I was racking my brain about how to manage the 26 signups.

Needless to say the cup is and was a great success. Now, after about 50 matches, some amazing moments, many clutch plays and great kills it is finally coming to an end. Tomorrow at 21:30 the Grand Final between 118 and Chaos will be played.

The last semifinal of the Late Xmas Cup is between 118 and No Pressure. The winner goes on to the final against chaos, the loser is up against Rewind for the 3rd place.

As in every match 118 are going into this as huge favorite. However their last match against KiH was as close as never before. Additionally crumbs and merlinator are heading to cc7 and play et most of their time so No Pressure could be in a better shape.

After the Xmas and New Year break the (now) Late Xmas Cup is about to pick up again as the first semi final game between Chaos and Rewind is getting played this tuesday. Rewind will be hungry for revenge as both teams already met in the groupstage in a rather onesided game where rewind barely stood a chance on ice and frostbite. Map elimination should speak in their favor however as they have eliminated both maps ever since and looked strong in their games against indomitus and cave.

The Groupstage of the Early Xmas RTCW-Cup finally ended yesterday with the last match in which Chaos have beaten Fallanx 4-0.

Concluding the passed three weeks, three of the groups ended the way everyone would have expected them to be. 118, Chaos and No Pressure all went through undefeated and deservedly took the BYE to the Quarterfinals.

Only KiH could not live up to the expectations. It was Cave who out of nowhere first defeated fixed, then KiH and finally also iAm to top group A.

This loss for KiH will be something they will be hauted with for some time. Not only they don't recieve a BYE for the single elimination brackets but also their oponent in the quarter finals - should they get past Fallanx - is none other than 118.

The full randomely generated brackets can be found here
The final standings in the groups can be seen here

Rules and Schedule for the PlayoffsThe maps in for the playoffs will be determined by mapelimination with the team who placed worse in the groupstage starting to eliminate first. If a decider is needed the maps are eliminated from the remaining 4, the lower placed team starting to eliminate first again.
As reminder - the mappool for the cup is: ice, base, assault, beach, frostbite, village

The timelimits for the games are:
1/8 finals - 09.12-13.12
1/4 finals - 14.12-16.12
1/2 finals - 17.12-20.12
finals asap
Matches can also be played earlier[/hide]

[center]Groups - Brackets - Demos - #rtcw-cup[/center]

During this fourth matchweek I have decided to make a breakdown of the games so far. Additionally I would like to remind all teams that all groupmatches need to be played by the 8th of december.


[centerGroup A[/center]]

#
1
2
3
4
5
Participant
KiH
Cave
Fixed
Sexy Lovers
iAm
Won
2
1
1
0
0
Lost
0
0
1
1
2
Played
2
1
2
1
2
Score
8:0
2:1
4:3
0:4
1:7

Leading and probably untouchable are KiH with two wins out of their two games. The return of arne and the potential comeback of refuse might be what KiH were missing during the last cups to finally end up on top again.

The battle for the second and third place however is still underway and everything is possible.
The biggest surprise of the cup so far is definitely caves victory over fixed. After their disapointing performance in RTCW-Cup III the hungarians have improved a lot and currently hold the second place in group A.

iAm disapointed so far but the team has already proven in previous cups that they can beat everyone and they can still move on to the playoffs by beating cave and Sexy Lovers.

Also the underdogs Sexy Lovers are surely capable of causing an upset. The team lead by FF-legend Frag'Stealer! around the former diversus players kot, buzka and robol has only played KiH until now so that it is hard to estimate their skill at the moment.

[centerGroup B[/center]]

#
1
2
3
4
5
Participant
Highbot
=118=
Element aR
skk!
Liquids
Won
3
2
0
0
0
Lost
0
0
1
2
2
Played
3
2
1
2
2
Score
10:2
7:1
0:4
2:6
1:7

Both Highbot and 118 are undefeated so far and both teams already qualified for the playoffs. What might appear to have been a walkover for both in reality involved some really close and challenging games.

It was skk! consisting of current Enemy Territory Eurocup-finalists perfo, meez and wiaderko who first pinched a round from Highbot and then almost went to a decider against 118 in a very close game. But it was crumbs with some great individual actions who saved the game:

Even liquids impressed taking a round on base in their match against Highbot and they can still challenge skk! for the third place.

The fifth team in the group is Element aR who at the most have a outside chance. Still if slajdan, nordan and the others can convey their Enemy Territory experiance to RTCW we could see some good games.

[centerGroup C[/center]]

#
1
2
3
4
5
Participant
Chaos
Fallanx
Rewind
[MAD]
Circle of Haste
Won
2
2
1
0
0
Lost
0
1
1
1
2
Played
2
3
2
1
2
Score
8:0
8:4
4:0
0:4
0:8

Chaos the former raw team have proven themselves and have shown they are still strong even with the recent lineupchanges by destroying Rewind on frostbite and ice. Most notably urtier did a great job showing some nice aim and well placed strikes.
On the other side only night played up to full potential. Chaos clearly exposed Rewinds lack of practise and preparation which they will certainly need more of if they want to do well in the playoffs.
Although they have to get past the estonians first. This should be a doable task however since Circle of Haste have failed to impress so far losing both their matches against Chaos and Fallanx.

[MAD] - a shrubteam making their first steps into osp-competition are unlikely to influence the outcome of the group but they can hopefully get some experiance for the following cups :)

[centerGroup D[/center]]

#
1
2
3
4
5
Participant
No Pressure
JeanRoucasFans
Indomitus
PMCG
Normality
Won
3
3
1
1
0
Lost
0
0
2
2
4
Played
3
3
3
3
4
Score
9:0
8:0
1:7
1:8
0:4

The first two spots in group D will be played out between No Pressure and JeanRoucasFans.
Replacing syL who left for Rewind Mystic only recently made his comeback into RTCW. Having him kris, mirage and jauhis No Pressure combine some of the best aiming players in the game.
On the contrary we have former svperfrogs aRno, maxuh, mote and momo who surely won't be intimidated by those names. They have not had much practise though so No Pressure look to be the favorites going into the match.

The other decisive game in the group will be played between indomitus and PMCG. The winner of the match will move to the playoffs while the loser is out.
Both teams have not performed at their best yet so it is likely going to to be a close game.

[center]Groups - Schedule - Demos - #rtcw-cup[/center]

The Early Xmas RTCW-Cup so far is a great success. The first matchweek has passed with 0 dropouts and all matches were played on time. With no big surprises happening all higher seeded teams have won their matches with the exception of Fallanx who lost to Rewind 4-0. This Monday rewind look to extend their winning streak as they meet Chaos in a match that will most likely decide who is going to take first and second place in group C.

The first week of the Early Xmas Cup has passed, the seeding matches have been played and the real deal is about to begin. Not many surprises happened. The most impressive team was without any doubt 118 proving that they are still more than capable of destroying any oponent even with the recent lineupchanges. With lightning fast offences on both beach and assault KiH were simply overrun and could not find an answer.

In another match rewind have played their first official rtcwmatch in 5 years against fixed. Before the game many expected rewind would not have any chance however they started off with an impressive beach round setting a 3minutes time and held fixed on the beach during their defence. Although fixed then managed to turn the tide and win the remaining 3 rounds, rewind have shown potential and maybe with some more practise can aim for the top again.

The next stage of the cup we will have 4 groups of 5 teams playing for the first three spots in their group. The first will directly move on to the quarter finals while the second and third placed will play against each other for the right to be their oponent.
The playoffs will be played in single elimination mode.



[bShedule:[/b]]
Matchweek 1: (15.11-17.11) - ice, assault + decider beach

KiH vs sexxy
fixed vs xeimos     
118 vs liquids       
highbot vs skk!
raw vs Estonia    
falx vs rewind
nP vs pmcg
jrf vs indomitus

Qualifier 1: halabarda vs aR
Qualifier 2: mad vs #truppenküche

Matchweek 2: (18.11-22.11) - frostbite, ice + decider assault

KiH vs xeimos         
fixed vs cave
118 vs skk!          
highbot vs aR
raw vs rewind     
falx vs mad
nP vs indomitus
jrf vs normality

Matchweek 3: (23.11-25.11) - base, frostbite + decider ice

fixed vs sexxy
xeimos vs cave      
highbot vs liquids  
skk! vs aR
rewind vs mad
falx vs estonia    
jrf vs pmcg
ind vs normality

Matchweek 4: (26.11-30.11) - village, base + decider frostbite

KiH vs cave
xeimos vs sexxy    
118 vs aR
skk! vs liquids       
raw vs mad
rewind vs estonia
nP vs normality
pmcg vs ind

Matchweek 5: (01.12-07.12) beach, village + decider base

KiH vs fixed
sexxy vs cave      
118 vs highbot    
liquids vs aR
raw vs falx          
estonia vs mad
nP vs jrf
pmcg vs norm

Matches are supposed to be played in the given period - if a match for some reason cant happen during that time it is possible to play it earlier/later (thus the longer 5th matchweek).

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Demos from the seeding games can be found here (newer games will be added aswell): http://demos.palacewolfenstein.de/

The Early Xmas RTCW Cup is about to start - with so far 24 signups it is the biggest RTCWCup this year. Officially the signups are now closed but exceptions are possible so feel free to pm me on irc. The teams are the following:

No I'm not Tosspot and this isn't the 1st of April either.
But they are back and ready for the upcoming RTCW Cup. Rewind won Eurocup VII right during RTCWs prime time and were considered the best team during that time by many. Darkie, zenon, intact and sancity also went on to win the first ET Eurocup under the dignitas tag.
Without any further words I present you:

Night
Rene
Darkie
Intact
Sanctity
syL
/myst'x

Statement from Sanctity:

Quote

I don't know whos idea was to make this small comeback. My bet is it was mystxs or syls idea. This is more like a reunion for us, refresh some memories and get old guys more active again. About our performance in the cup is hard to predict. Depends whats the current skill level in scene, how much we pracc etc. If there is a groupstage i bet we manage to get through that anyway =)