LONDON MINT vs. BIRMINGHAM SALVO

FINAL

CS:S

FZA

FIFA

DOAF

DOAM

SCORE

London Mint

4

4

1

0

5

14

Birmingham Salvo

14

3

2

5

3

27

Dead or Alive 4 (FEMALE)

The first match of the night featured some sister on sister crime, with the younger sister SarahLou taking on Strobe, as Kasumi and Kokoro respectively on the DWA Coliseum stage. SarahLou dominated the first round rather quickly, following it up with the only thing better than a fast win, a flawless victory, picking up the Greatest and the 2-0. SarahLou was able to win the remaining three rounds, topping it off with another Greatest, absolutely destroying her nervous sister. BIRMINGHAM SALVO begins the match with a hearty 5-0 lead, despite the game being played on sketchy settings.

FIFA 08

Rolling into the second match of the night, the feature was the National FIFA Champion and LONDON MINT MVP, ChrisyB as France against his rival, the SALVO’s Bazza as England. Bazza nearly drew the first blood when ChrisyB’s keeper charged out, which somehow resulted with the ball behind the keeper, but his defenders kept it outside of the net. A moment later, at the 2:08 mark, ChrisyB dribbled the ball into his own net, resulting in a goal for Bazza, confusing nearly the entire building in the process. Bazza, not a man to accept a freebie, moved up with a 2 on 1 advantage against the keeper and fired one in, making it 2-0 for the SALVO going into the second half. After the half time, ChrisyB found himself with many opportunities, but had trouble closing. Finally, at the 2:58 mark, ChrisyB was able to beat out the keeper and put himself on the board, making the score 2-1. The match moved into injury time, but ChrisyB was unable to turn a profit, with Bazza walking away 2-1 final.

Counter-Strike Source

BIRMINGHAM SALVO continued dominating into Counter-Strike Source on de_dust2 as Counter-Terrorist when Rattlesnk picked up four frags in the first round to let the MINT know why he received so much fan mail. In the second round, London sent four men up catwalk, and nearly fell immediately when a SALVO member had the drop on the rush, but he was too slow and fell to AK47 fire. MINT was then able to plant the bomb and defend the A bomb site long enough for it to explode. LONDON MINT nearly had the third round, but Rattlesnk decimated their bomb defense from the Long A crossing, with the SALVO moving in to defuse. From that point on, the teams began trading rounds back and forth, mostly highlighted by clutch play from the SALVO’s Wilzoo. Overall, the strong play from BIRMINGHAM SALVO didn’t leave many options open for LONDON MINT, who struggled in both A and B, without being able to protect either site from a defuse. The SALVO won the half, 7-2.

Rattlesnk decided to start the second half similar to the first, picking up three quick frags after his team stumbled on the rush. He fell, leaving his lone teammate in a 1vs1 with the bomb planted in B, only to be taken down by rifle fire from the CT spawn. LONDON MINT then found themselves on the board for the second half. The SALVO decided to make a hefty push towards finishing the match early, first taking A and planting and then following it up by hitting B. Both attempts were successful, pitting the match into a 9-3 game point situation. BIRMINGHAM continued to use their loose set up, sending one towards B for a pick or confusion, two towards lower B to combat a push from catwalk, and then two players at the back of the catwalk near the long A entrance, allowing them full control on de_dust2 as offense. They decided to take it into A, which fell apart from a brilliant play by the MINT’s HudzG. The SALVO then began strolling into the B site almost effortlessly, winning two straight rounds, placing the score at 11-4. BIRMINGHAM SALVO’s on the fly plays kept the MINT constantly on the rotation and out of position, giving the SALVO a massive 14-4 win.

Dead or Alive 4 (MALE)

After the brutal Counter-Strike: Source match, it was time to see the UK’s bitter rivals, Messy and Paddaman, taking each other on in a Hayabusa mirror match on Kyoto in Bloom. Paddaman looked fired up, staring at Messy and taunting him, charging straight into the first round with an Izuna Drop only a few seconds in. The two battled back and forth, trading a round each and taking turns showing off with Izuna Drops. By the time Paddaman was up 3-1, he was vocal about his lead, taunting Messy across the stage. After Messy won the fifth round, he began the next with a huge Izuna drop off of the bridge into the water, where he was able to edge Paddaman out, tying the match 3-3. The following round, Messy worked Paddaman down to a single hit, but Paddaman baited him in for a whiffed throw, which was punished, sending us to a 4-3, game point situation. Paddaman quickly finished Messy off, being the first of the MINT players to get a W, 5-3.

FORZA Motorsport 2

The race began with Picaso hitting the breaks to watch the battle fly past him, which seemed like a smart move until the huge smash up at the first turn. His teammate, Daveyskills, found himself in first place, with Stune and NT 101 not far behind. Finally, at the corkscrew, Stune slammed into Daveyskills, making it look as if the race was done for the SALVO, but even after NT 101 got a piece of him, Daveyskills still somehow stayed in front for a few moments. After the confusion and collisions, Stune and Picaso came out ahead, with Daveyskills in tow. Stune then made a brilliant move to counter Picaso and Daveyskills, and managed to fight them off until the bitter end, with Stune in first, Daveyskills in second, Picaso in third, and NT 101 bringing up the tail of the pack.

BERLIN ALLIANZ vs. STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK

FINAL

CS:S

FZA

FIFA

DOAF

DOAM

SCORE

Berlin Allianz

8

3

2

5

3

21

Stockholm Magnetik

10

4

1

0

5

20

Dead or Alive 4 (FEMALE)

Opening up the European Final, we saw the rematch between STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK’s Miss playing as La Mariposa, and BERLIN ALLIANZ’s Liefje playing as Kokoro on Temple on the Mountain. Liefje started the match off strong, sending Miss down both flights of stairs, before dispatching of Miss at the bottom. For the next three rounds, Miss seemed to be entirely unaware of her environment, being tossed all the way down the stairs repeatedly. Miss put up the biggest fight at the 4-0 game point, but Liefje was still able to play a tight and smart round, abusing the lows on Miss, to add another 5-0 opener to the UK/EU Final.

FIFA 08

The second match up of the STOCKHOLM and BERLIN match, FIFA, featured Istvan as England taking on returning player manyna, as Brazil. Before the fans even noticed the match started, Istvan charged straight down the field firing one off into the left side of the goal, 1-0 for the MAGNETIK at the 0:27 mark. The score wasn’t set in stone however; as manyna tied it up off of a play made from a corner kick. After some back and forth play, we rolled into half time with a score of 1-1. Late in the second half, Istvan had what had to have been the attempt of the night, firing one into the keeper, catching the rebound, and barely missing the shot on goal. It almost looked guaranteed. More back and forth play continued well past the regulation time, and then somehow, at the bottom of an unusually long Injury time that nearly gave heart attacks to the fans and the players alike, manyna scored a miraculous goal from a cross right infront of Istvan’s net. The game ends 2-1 for BERLIN ALLIANZ after narrowly dodging a shootout.

Counter-Strike Source

With a 7-1 lead headed into the Counter-Strike Source portion of the match, BERLIN ALLIANZ found themselves taking the defensive Counter-Terrorist side of de_inferno. STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK delayed the first two rounds before finally taking it up banana into the A bomb site, and despite close play by the MAGNETIK, the ALLIANZ was still able to retake the site and defuse the bomb both rounds. By the third round, it was clear that STOCKHOLM’s strategies revolved around feeling out the map before falling back to hit banana hard, regardless, STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK was able to pick up the third round in a 2vs2 in the A site. For the fourth round, BERLIN ALLIANZ adjusted accordingly, cutting the MAGNETIK down as they moved up the banana alley way. STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK continued their strategy of ‘Test B, retreat, Hit A’ repeatedly well into the half, until the 9th round, when they finally, and successfully hit B, giving BERLIN ALLIANZ the half with a score of 6-3.

Opening up the first round of the second half, STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK began absolutely destroying the BERLIN ALLIANZ. The domination continued until the third round, w hen the ALLIANZ moved a delayed push through the banana, taking over the A bomb site. The round looked nearly lost after STOCKHOLM’s FERUS almost cleared the back halls by himself, but BERLIN ALLIANZ was able to control the round, making it 7-5. From this point on, BERLIN ALLIANZ looked unable to make their minds up, bouncing between the two sites without much luck. After seven straight rounds of STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK stomping down the comeback path, the ALLIANZ finally tied it back up, 8-8. The ALLIANZ then made a sloppy run into the A bomb site, allowing the MAGNETIK to move into game point with a 9-8 score. A team kill on the BERLIN ALLIANZ side of the game helped decide the round, which STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK won to take the match, 10-8.

Dead or Alive 4 (MALE)

For the second to last battle of the night, rookie player SkatanMilla battled as Kokoro against seasoned veteran THE TACTICAL as Hayabusa on Crash Club. THE TACTICAL seemed back in World Final form, smashing through SkatanMilla for the first round rather easily. SkatanMilla looked uninterested in losing however, spending the next three rounds on a punishing spree, slamming THE TACTICAL repeatedly into the explosive walls. At 3-1 in SkatanMilla’s favor, THE TACTICAL nearly had a second round, but was put back in his place against the wall, allowing the score to reach an uncomfortable 4-1 in STOCKHOLM MAGNETIK’s favor. THE TACTICAL then went on a spree as well, winning two straight rounds, the second of which almost seemed hopeless until THE TACTICAL unleashed a relentless string of smashing hits into the wall, moving the score to 4-3. SkatanMilla made short work of his opponent in following round, drilling THE TACTICAL repeatedly into the wall for a Greatest as well as a 5-3 victory.

FORZA Motorsport 2

The start of the race saw FinPro immediately making an aggressive move off of the grid, but after jockeying for position, MadneSS and iBrYce moved into first and second. FinPro managed to slam passed iBrYce, sending him to fourth place, putting the BERLIN ALLIANZ in position to win the entire match with a second and third place finish. MadneSS still held on to the first place position for dear life, with the ALLIANZ rapidly gaining on him. At this point, iBrYce was entire out of the race. Coming across the finish line, MadneSS skidded to a stop, knowing full well that BERLIN ALLIANZ had just won the European Final by a single point. The final order was MadneSS in first, FinPro in second, Yggdrasil in third, with iBrYce coming in last.