This past weekend, the ‘new-look’ Orena kicked off their 2016 series of tournaments with an invitational Counter-Strike LAN event featuring Bravado Gaming, Energy eSports, Carbon eSports and Aperture Gaming.
In case you have no clue why I refer to the organisation as ‘new-look’, they have seen personnel changes and a buy-in from Travis Coppin of the Coppin family (yes, they’re the family who founded Food Lover’s Market, but it’s not like Orena are being paid in groceries… at least I’m not aware of that). This investment has allowed for the organisation to purchase some much needed equipment, and an opportunity to host more tournaments, and things got started with the GWZA Century Cup, which boasted R30,000 cash in prizes sponsored by Gaming World ZA and headsets sponsored by Plantronics.
Day One
Day one saw the action kick off (late, but as shoutcaster Kyle ‘Congo’ Wolmarans said in light hearted jest: “what would a South African LAN be without a delay?”) with the team from Carbon up against Bravado Gaming. The match went 2-0 the way of Bravado in the best of three series.
The second match of the day saw the only non-DGL Masters team, Energy eSports, in action against Aperture Gaming. In a surprise result, it was Aperture Gaming that stayed in the winner’s bracket with a 2-1 victory.
Match three was a loser’s bracket match-up between Carbon eSports and Energy eSports, which went the way of Carbon eSports after three maps. Match four on day one was Bravado Gaming up against Aperture Gaming, which the team in blue (but white on the Saturday) took with a 2-0 win.
Day Two
Day two started with Energy eSports sitting on the sidelines, and Bravado Gaming waiting to see who they would be facing in the grand finals. The match to decide that spot saw Aperture up against Carbon, and it was Aperture who ensured their spot in the money with a 2-1 win over Carbon.
Bravado sat on a one map advantage in a best of five final, leaving them only needing to secure only two maps in the final, while Aperture needed to take three maps for the win. Aperture came out fighting and pushed their opponents the whole way, but it was the more experienced Bravado team that ended up taking the victory 3-0, and going the weekend without losing a map.
Standings
- Bravado Gaming (R20,000 cash + Plantronics Headsets)
- Aperture Gaming (R10,000 cash + Plantronics Headsets)
- Carbon eSports
- Energy eSports
The tournament bracket can be viewed here, while out photos from the event (day on only sadly) can be found here. Additional photos taken by Bravado Gaming can be found here.
To tie in with the event – and if you’re really quick – you can also enter a competition for a Plantronics RIG 500 Stereo PC Gaming Headset. The competition closes at the end of the day today (Monday 15 February 2016).
