Article by Samuel "oPlaiD" Lingle


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ST. LOUIS, Missouri -- Berlin Allianz GM Jonas Vikan had to be impressed by Chicago Chimera’s Brian Flander and his draft strategy when he analyzed the outcome of the North American draft to prepare for his own.

Looking back at North America’s first CGS season, the most memorable feature of any team had to be Chimera’s Project Gotham Racing 3 domination. Thanks to a bit of early genius by Flander in the uncharted territory presented by the CGS draft, an clever coup – using his first two picks to take the two fastest racers, before anyone else even touched PGR3 – paid off with the first ever CGS World Final championship.

Vikan must have been salivating when Stockholm Magnetik GM Emil “HeatoN” Christensen used his first pick on Counter-Strike: Source, leaving two amazing racers on the table for his two picks – a nearly identical position to Flander’s months earlier.

The stage was set for another triumph of epic proportion as Vikan moved in for the kill, hoping to follow in the footsteps of the North American champion.

In some regions of the world, it wouldn’t make sense to take PGR3 so highly, but in Europe, who better to mimic Chimera’s brilliant draft with than Phillipe “YggdrasiL” Vaillant, the speeding French bullet and possibly fastest racer on Earth, and Erno “FinPro” Kuronen, the seasoned Finnish veteran? Both have experience racing on the grand stage at World Cyber Games, both placed in the top four at WCG in 2006, and both have time trials that best anyone in the CGS save the mighty Wesley “Ch0mpr” Cwiklo himself.

Three games into their CGS careers though, YggdrasiL and FinPro’s results have hardly been Ch0mpr and JasonX-esque. The pair has a 1-2 record, but even their lone win, a 5-4 victory over Carolina Core in the World Final, was a bit bittersweet as it was a single point short of landing Allianz in the final game of the year.

“On paper they were our shining stars,” said Allianz GM Jonas Vikan, “in reality they performed adequately -- to our combined efforts as a team that was not good enough, unfortunately, but no one are more aware and disappointed at that than them.”

“In my opinion, [our World Final] was a complete failure because those results were not at all those our teammates expected us to bring to the team, especially when your victory in the semi-final is unfortunately the worst win of your gaming career,” said Vaillant. “We were the first two picks of the team and were not able to push it in the finals, like a real strength in a team should have done.”

“I know our PGR team has been a huge disappointment for the Berlin Allianz,” confirmed Kuronen, “but there is no one else to blame for than ourselves.”

The rocky road for YggdrasiL and FinPro started in their very first official match when a collision from Magnetik’s Mark “Kinetic” Kenny allowed teammate Tomas “MadneSS” Thorsell to win the race. Their second bout, against Mexico City Furia in the World Final, was a disaster as they lost the race despite the fact that the Furia were playing minus speedster Felipe “DeLpiro” Cruz because of a visa issue. Juan Pablo “ElEcTrOfLoW” Garcia and replacement player Mauricio “UFO-79ERN” Sierra pulled off a 6-3 victory thanks to some aggressive racing by Garcia early, and a strong defense to hold a lead, setting the momentum for a surge that was only derailed by an astonishing performance from Berlin’s CS:S squad.

“We had a discussion after the Mexico match. It was the second time in a row that they lost to a racing them they should be able to soundly beat and we had to do something,” said Vikan, whose own experience as a professional gamer in Counter-Strike has been an asset to his team. “However, that sort of micromanagement is difficult. We talked about what went wrong and how they intended to fix it. From my perspective they did during the Carolina match -- to win a very close match like that you will need some luck and fortune favored Dolven's boys after a fantastic race. So for that there was no blame -- no body.”

Improvement is the key for guys in YggdrasiL and FinPro’s position, but getting better means you have to diagnose what’s holding you back in the first place. The lights and stage may be a burden for many players new to the CGS environment, but both the Finn and the Frenchman say they were surprisingly immune to the on-stage pressure, an assertion their times seem to affirm: while the results may not be there, it’s obvious it’s not because of lack of pace.

So, what’s the culprit?

“We have the speed but we are missing luck and team work,” stated Kuronen. “At the CGS teamwork is the key to victory.”

The pair “practiced countless hours,” according to Kuronen, but has yet to truly hone their team tactics and work together on the track.

“You need practice and experience to be able to play your best with this new style of play,” explained Vaillant. “We got the practice, but definitely not the experience.”

As Vikan stated, the Core race shows they’ve definitely improved in that respect, after getting a few matches under their belts, but it also shows another reason why the world might want to take Allianz’s results with a grain of salt.

“I can't stop myself from stating the bad luck we had with collisions,” said Vaillant. “It could be an excuse, but starting twice in a row first and second at the beginning, knowing they are the worst positions with these rules, you do imagine how frustrating it can be.”

The starts certainly have not favored Berlin, as despite having early leads their foes used the pole position to knock them off course very early in their World Final races. FinPro says they’d benefit from racing a bit more safely at the beginning of the race, but sometimes there isn’t much you can do in the CGS format.

Even Ch0mpr and JasonX, the kings of PGR3 consistency, admit luck plays a huge role in what happens during a race. It stands to reason that, after only three races, Berlin’s PGR3 results may just be a simple fluke, and one that’s bound to change, especially considering they won their toughest match on paper.

That doesn’t mean the pair are content to leave it that way though; both are working hard to make sure they don’t have a repeat of their disappointing performances.

After spending some time with their families over the holidays, they’re back in action getting ready for 2008.

“FinPro and I started to practice PGR4 a bit together for ‘fun’ since we do not know the rules for CGS 2008 yet (and not even the games for sure),” explained Vaillant. “But as soon as we all know how CGS works for the 2008 season, we are going to put a lot of practice together, in order to know every single possible aspect of the rules. PGR4 is -- by the way -- a great game and suits the 2v2 collisions-on format a lot better than PGR3 in my opinion!”

Their CGS careers may not be everything they had hoped for, so far, but if Phillipe “YggdrasiL” Vaillant and Erno “FinPro” Kuronen continue their path of improvement, the world better watch out.



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