The past weekend of 5 to 7 April saw Los Angeles play host to 32 teams from around the world for the biggest Call of Duty tournament of the year – and possibly ever.
Included in the 32 teams was South Africa’s own Team XtaZ, who went to the tournament as the unknown entity for most teams. While they were sadly knocked out in the pool section of the tournament on Friday night, there are many positives to be culled from their attendance at the event.
The team did get off to a shaky start against Unite – a team that many had as a tournament favourite but for the fact that three quarters of their team was replaced after qualifiers due to age restrictions. XtaZ struggled to find their feet in Hardpoint and went down 250-5. In SnD, the team tried to regroup but found Unite too strong and went down to lose their first match 2-0.
Next up for XtaZ was Inferno BYL – the Italian qualifier – and XtaZ appeared to come out with more fight. However, it was clear that the international teams’ better experience of playing in a LAN setup was a real decider, and after a spirited challenge, XtaZ lost the match 2-0.
The third match for XtaZ was American team Quantic. In their best performance of the night, XtaZ always had a chance of causing an upset and battled hard, especially in SnD. Sadly, their valiant attempts were not enough, and they saw their competition end with a 2-0 defeat to the eventual winners of the group.
Day 1 of the tournament ended with the teams finishing as follows, with the top two heading in to the double elimination knock-outs:
| Group 1: | Group 2: | Group 3: | Group 4: |
| *Fariko Impact: 3-0 | *Quantic: 3-0 | *vVv Gaming: 3-0 | *EnVyUs: 3-0 |
| *Pain: 1-2 | *inFerno: 2-1 | *eNigma Sweden: 2-1 | *KILLERFISH: 2-1 |
| Phoenix: 1-2 | UNiTE: 1-2 | Awe Sports: 1-2 | TVA: 1-2 |
| Immunity: 1-2 | Xtaz 0-3 | Raven: 0-3 | Team Rising: 0-3 |
| Group 5: | Group 6: | Group 7: | Group 8: |
| *OpTic Gaming: 3-0 | *compLexity: 3-0 | *Fear: 3-0 | *Donut Shop: 2-1 |
| *Fariko Allstars: 2-1 | *SoaR: 2-1 | *The Stand: 2-1 | *Epsilon: 2-1 |
| Rage: 1-2 | Millenium: 1-2 | Curse: 1-2 | Vintage: 2-1 |
| Mindfreak eSports: 0-3 | InFiDream: 0-3 | Fariko Dragons: 0-3 | SSOF: 0-3 |
Day 2 kicked off with the top 16 teams facing off for the ‘Upper Bracket’ route to the finals or the slightly tougher (and longer) route of the ‘Lower Bracket’. EnVyUs maintained their unbeaten run to make it to the finals and awaited the game between Fariko Impact and OpTic Gaming on Day 3 of the tournament to see who they would face in the Grand Final. The North American teams continued to dominate the tournament with eight teams making round two of the ‘Upper Bracket’.
Day 3 saw OpTic Gaming bundled out of the tournament by Fariko Impact, who then went on to continue their rivalry with EnVyUs in the grand final. Due to the fact that the two teams had played previously in the Upper Bracket final, their Championship match was a best of 11 match, continuing on from the 3-2 lead by EnVyUs. However, the momentum appeared to jump between the two teams with the teams ending 5-5 going in to the decider – Search and Destroy on Meltdown. In a real nail biter, Fariko grabbed the match and the tournament, and the $400 000 winner’s cheque. The match ended what was a real showpiece of the real thrill of eSports. We should be seeing more of this in the future. We need to see more of this in the future.
The top eight in the Call of Duty Championship:
1st: Fariko Impact – $400,000
2nd: EnVyUs – $200,000
3rd: OpTic Gaming – $120,000
4th: compLexity – $100,000
5th: FeaR – $70,000
6th: Epsilon – $50,000
7th: vVv Gaming – $35,000
8th: InFerno – $25,000
For a full Championship game round up, check out this Call of Duty Elite article. As soon as the recorded footage is available, we will post it for your enjoyment in case you missed it. **UPDATE** The majority of the recorded videos are available of the CoD Twitch Channel.
The final decider between Fariko Impacy and EnVyUS – SnD on Meltdown. [Uploaded by PrismGamingUK]
http://youtu.be/zo14dTKE7Mw
In Closing:
So where were the positives for South Africa in all this, you ask? Well, that came from the shoutcaster, the supporters and Team XtaZ themselves.
The supporters proved that they are always South African and we will always support their team. Meanwhile, shoutcaster Alex ‘GoldenBoyFTW’ Mendez had many positives to say, pointing out that this is a first for South Africa, and the more opportunities we get to participate (and he insinuated more opportunities were coming), the better our chances of improving would be. Team XtaZ echoed the sentiment and their comment on Twitter has already caused chatter among the gaming community. They said the competition they faced was on a “whole other level” and that it was time to get “SA LANs going”. It all bodes well, but now it is time for SA to support the initiatives coming.
