On Sunday 7 December 2014, we were privileged to host around 80 players in a FIFA 15 tournament at Trenchtown in Cape Town. With R10,000 cash up for grabs for the first place finisher, the competition was always going to be intense, but there was always a concern that the real sore loser of the day would be Eskom. Here’s what went down.
Thankfully in the end, it wasn’t the electricity. For some (pretty bizarre) reason, load shedding didn’t hit Trenchtown’s suburb as scheduled, and even with generators on site, the tournament went on almost unscathed by load shedding.
The tournament was played as a single elimination with home and away legs. Aggregate score was the decider and away goals counted in the event of a tie. Legs were split over Xbox 360 and Xbox One, allowing for the insanity of around 16 matches happening at once.
Round 1 (or the round of 128) saw a number of players ease through via a bye, but for some, the competition started hard and fast, with games being tight affairs. The second round (featuring 64 players) was equally entertaining and to a large degree the real meat of the day. Most of the favourites made it through to the third round unscathed, with the (to some) surprise of the round coming when Cristiano dos Ramos beat Shuaib Hassen 3-1. Shuaib represented South Africa in this year’s ESWC event in Paris and had flown in from Gauteng to participate in Sunday’s event, and was definitely one of the players to watch on the day.
With 32 players left by round 3, the players needed to bring their best game to the table. The round saw many of the tournament’s potential winners make their way through, while round 4 saw the second of the Gauteng attendees taken out. In a close match that went 3-2 on aggregate, Joshua Morgan edged out Abu Akhalwaya, leaving the tournament filled with eight Capetonians going into the Quarter Finals.
In the list of eight players in the Quarter Finals were three Morgans (Joshua, Jayson and Grant -all related), two Dollies (Yazeed and Mikaeel – not related), Masoom Fakie, Romario da Silva and Mubeen Gaffoor. The match between Mikaeel Dollie and Joshua Morgan was a goal fest featuring ten goals which Mikaeel took 6-4. On the other extreme, the match between Mubeen Gaffoor and Romario da Silva was a war of attrition that Mubeen edged 1-0. Jayson Morgan took his game against Masoom Fakie 4-1, and Yazeed Dollie grabbed his semi-final spot with a 3-1 win over Grant Morgan.
The two semi final games were two very different affairs. Mubeen and Yazeed slugged it out, and Yazeed secured a money spot by the narrowest of margins – an away goal. Jayson and Mikaeel had a few more goals in their face-off. The first leg went to Jayson by a single goal, but the second leg was a more open affair which ended 4-3 to Jayson, who also went through to the finals.
The third and fourth place playoff saw Mubeen take a 3-1 advantage into the second (and his away) leg against Mikaeel, who hit back with three goals, but Mubeen held his nerve and slotted in two goals to secure third spot with a 5-4 aggregate win.
The finals played out in front of a decent number of spectators and with R10,000 up for grabs, it was obviously serious business. Yazeed and Jayson were virtually neck and neck in the first leg, which was Yazeed’s home leg, but Jayson was the player with the advantage going into the second leg at 3-2 up. Jayson then closed ranks at the back and shut out Yazeed while bagging two goals to take the win and the R10,000 with a 5-2 aggregate win. Yazeed bagged R1,000 for his efforts.
For more photos from the tournament, head here.
Our thanks goes out to everyone that attended and supported the event – it was great to see so many new and familiar faces.
A thanks to MWEB GameZone for the equipment assist, as well as Trenchtown Obs for getting in an extra generator.
The biggest thanks is sent to Dylan Rosser, Francois Fraansman van Schalkwyk and Anele for their assistance. It would not have happened without their help. And Fraansman gets a special mention for backing the prize money in the event of a shortfall.
Thanks again to everyone involved. We hope to see you at the next one…
