GGL Wire

Dallas Venom vs. Carolina Core

Yesterday’s set of franchise matches continued with the pattern of surprises that began with Sunday’s competitions.  Notably, OffbeatNinja beat Master, 5-2, in the opening Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) male match.  OffbeatNinja’s win brings an end to Master’s undefeated second season record (now at 11-1).

Next up was a FIFA 08 match between Dallas’s Barmoa and Carolina’s Anomaly.  The score held at 0-0 until Anomaly made a goal in the second half.  Barmoa responded by again tying the game with a goal of his own.  Neither player could break this 1-1 tie.  As a result the match went to a shoot-out with Barmoa emerging victorious, 3-2.

Carolina still lead Dallas, 7-5, going into DOA4 female.  Phoenix and Mystik played out a furious battle on Gambler’s Paraside.  A few car hits and bruised knuckles later and both players were tied, 3-3.  The score remained close for the rest of the game with Phoenix eventually winning by one point, 5-4.  Her victory brought Dallas within two points of overtaking Carolina’s 11-10 lead.

Dallas absolutely dominated as counter-terrorists during the first half of Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S). As a result, the Texas team scored a decisive 8-1 victory.  However Carolina came back during its turn as the counter-terrorists and nearly matched Dallas’s score, achieving 7-2, in the second half.  Nevertheless Dallas still won the CS:S match, 10-8.

For the first time Dallas held the lead, 20-19.  However a strong showing in Forza 2 could still put Carolina over the top.  The race featured a notable number of collisions and pile-ups. Eventually Dallas’s Muffinman managed to limp into first place, followed by Carolina’s General E Live and Phantom in second and third.  This 4-3 win for Dallas led the franchise to victory with a slim 24-22 margin.

San Francisco Optx vs. Chicago Chimera

DOA4 male also began the day’s second franchise match.  Chicago’s fighter Black Mamba won the first and second round with some well-placed throws.  NinjaCW and he traded rounds until both were tied 3-3 going into the seventh.  Black Mamba then finished NinjaCW with wins in the seventh and eighth, giving Chicago an early 5-3 lead.  This victory was followed by FIFA 08, which ended 0-0 despite some close shots by both players.  During the shoot-out, San Francisco’s Stermy pulled out a 2-1 win over Eafra after some efficient blocking by his goalie.

In Forza 2, Ch0mpr managed to block both of San Francisco’s players, allowing Jason X to speed ahead into first.  Jason X would maintain this lead the rest of the race.  In the meantime, things began to really heat up in the competition for second place.  Ch0mpr and Miximup remained incredibly close in third and fourth respectively.  Sackamonjaro, who was in second, spun out of the control in the third lap.  This closed the gap between the three remaining players.  San Francisco’s racers teamed up to prevent Ch0mpr from scoring.  The final score was 4-3 with Jason X in first, Miximup in second, and Sackamonjaro in third.

DOA4 female featured Vanessa going up against Kasumi Chan.  Vanessa won the first round, but Kasumi Chan took the second.  Vanessa won the remaining rounds, and ended the game 5-1.  This was despite Kasumi Chan making Vanessa’s character Hitomi into a human slinky with multiple tumbles down the stairs as provided by the Temple on the Mountain stage.

San Francisco lead 13-11 going CS:S.  San Francisco was first up at the counter-terrorists on the map de_season.  It looked like Chicago would dominate during the first half, but San Francisco eventually found their footing.  Nevertheless Chicago held a small 5-4 lead going into the second half.  San Francisco then seized their opportunity as the counter-terrorists, and brought their franchise victory with six points.  The overall Counter-Strike score was 10-8 in San Francisco’s favor.  As a result San Francisco won, 23-19.  As a result of this loss, 2007 champions Chicago will not continue on to the North American play-offs.

3D.NY vs. Los Angeles CompLexity

The final match opened with DOA4 female on the Kyoto in Bloom stage. Could Belle follow up her single win from Sunday win another over Coolsvilla?  As it turned out, no.  Despite a win in the second round, Belle lost, 1-5.  The DOA4 male match played out almost the exact same way.  While Chepple won rounds in the first and fifth, he could not prevent a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Los Angeles’s Perfect Legend.

Going into FIFA 08, the score was 7-6 with New York in the lead.  The first half came and went with neither KreeganBG or WiZaKor scoring a goal.  With no points in the second, the match defaulted to a shoot-out.  KreeganBG gave Los Angeles another victory, 3-2.  This tied the overall score 9-9 going into Forza 2.

New York’s Dark Storm quickly sped into first at the beginning of the Forza 2 race.  Chavisan drove into some dirt in the first lap and fell back to fourth.  Meanwhile, GTO managed to knock Dark Storm out of second.  However, New York’s other racer, ComeBackDan, zoomed past both of them to claim first.  Dark Storm eventually got in front of GTO and finished second.  This won the race for New York, 6-1.

Going into Counter-Strike the score was 15-10 with New York in the lead.  New York emerged from the first half with a slight 5-4 lead over Los Angeles.  However, Los Angeles came back during its turn as the counter-terrorirsts, and puled the rug out from under New York, by winning 8-1.  In perhaps the biggest upset of the season, this score allowed the last place team to defeat the first place franchise, 22-21.  Even though Complexity is not going to the playoffs, there is no doubt that the franchise is happy about this bright spot in an otherwise dismal second season.