Championship Gaming Series 6-27-08: UK and European Regional Finals

Birmingham Salvo vs. London Mint

The night’s opening Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) female match featured a bout between two real-life sisters, Birmingham’s Sarah Lou and London’s Strobe. Sarah Lou’s liberal use of Kasumi’s agility prevented Strobe from landing many hits. As a result Sarah Lou decimated her older sister, 5-0.

London needed to score some serious points in FIFA 08 to catch up with is rival. Unfortunately for London, its player ChrisyB embarrassingly shot the ball into his own goal. This gave Birmingham’s Bazza the first point of the match. Bazza followed this by earning a point of his own making late in the first half. London finally got on the board with a goal late in he second. However ChrisyB was unable to score the tying point, resulting in a 2-1 win for Bazza.

Birmingham now held a sizable 7-1 point advantage going into Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S). London’s CS:S team needed to perform remarkably well for the franchise to remain competitive. This did not come to pass as Birmingham’s counter-terrorists annihilated London the first half, 7-2. Birmingham then replicated their 7-2 score in the second, bringing the final CS:S score to 14-4.

This brought the overall score to a whopping 21-5 in Birmingham’s favor. Even with perfect scores in the remaining two games, there was no way London could make up its huge point deficit. Ironically enough it was at this point that London really began to shine. The intense DOA4 male match pitted London’s Padaman against Birmingham’s Messy on the Kyoto in Bloom Stage. The match was close, as both rivals were tied 3-3 going into the seventh round. Padaman won the next two rounds, winning the match, 5-3.

The final Forza 2 match was even more frantic. Birmingham’s Daveyskills acquired an early lead over the other three racers. London’s Stune and NT 101 knocked Daveyskills into third. However Daveyskills managed to make it to second by the end of the race. Stune finished first, Daveyskills second, and Birmingham’s second racer Picaso brought up third. London won the race 4-3, but lost the overall match by a devastating 27-14.

Berlin Allianz vs. Stockholm Magnetik

Berlin rocketed ahead of the competition in the opening DOA4 female match when its player Liefje defeated Stockholm’s Miss, 5-0. The German franchise expanded upon this lead in FIFA 08. Berlin’s Manyna and Stockolm’s Istvan emerged from the first half tied 1-1. It looked like the game might go into overtime, but Manyna scored the final goal of the match late in the second half. This won the match for Berlin, 2-1.

Berlin now led Stockholm, 7-1, going into CS:S. As the counter-terrorists, Berlin won the first half, 6-3. Stockholm finally had their day in the sun with the second half. As the counter-terrorists they fared even better than their rivals, ending with a score of 7-2. This gave Stockholm a narrow win in CS:S, 10-8.

Stockholm still trailed by four points, 11-15 by the time DOA4 male rolled around. By the fifth round Stockholm’s SkatanMilla led Berlin’s THE TACTICAL, 4-1. THE TACTICAL won the subsequent two rounds, but could not prevent SkatanMilla from winning, 5-3, in the eighth.

With only Forza 2 to go, Berlin lead by a narrow two-point margin, 18-16. Stockholm needed one of their racers to place first and the other second or third to beat Berlin. Stockholm’s racers MadneSS and iBrYce wasted no time flooring it into first and second respectively. If they could maintain this then Stockholm was insured victory. However Berlin’s FinPro suddenly knocked iBrYce off the track. As a result MadneSS finished first, with Berlin’s racers FinPro and Yggdrasil finishing second and third. Although Stockholm won the Forza 2 race, 4-3, this outcome cost the franchise the overall match. Berlin won by a single point, 21-20.