There was a vocal crowd of locals, which not only added to the atmosphere, but went some way to compensate for the lack of commentary - those of us more familiar with first-person shooters than with Warcraft 3 simply joined in the shouts of "Get him! Get him!" whenever there was a major skirmish.
The field was quickly reduced to four semi-finalists - disappointingly, the UKís Alex Bond was knocked out in his first-round match.
The first Semi Final saw 15 year-old Russian Andrey 'DeaDman' Sobolev take on one of the tournament favourites, Chun Jung 'SK Sweet' Hee from Korea. Though many had expected the Korean to take out the match, presumably due to the insane popularity of Warcraft 3 in his home country, DeaDman won 2-0 - the efforts of SK Sweet not reflected in the eventual scoreline. He will have to settle for US$2,000 and third place overall.
With the local Hao 'Yoliny.suhO' Su from China relegated to overall fourth, following his semi-final and consolation final defeats, the two former Cold War adversaries, USA and Russia, faced off in the final; DeaDman vs mTw-Wizard. It was a battle that might never have been: mTw-Wizard actually placed second in the North American Qualifier, but the original winner, Jeff 'Aether' Zhang was unable to travel to China for the Final due to the competition's age restrictions.
Wizard's flame-print trousers should have been an indicator of his form, as the kid from Lexington, South Carolina was red-hot, sweeping aside the Russian 2-0. The 18 year-old can look forward to taking delivery of his new KIA car through a local dealership, while the runner up can drown his sorrows using the US$3,500 in cash he won - I dare say that would buy a rather large amount of vodka back home!
As we left the hall to sample the colourful nightlife of Shanghai, it was hard not to be impressed by what had been achieved in the previous 8 hours. In pretty much a first for any LAN Tournament I've been to, the event ran barely an hour behind schedule, and the screams & shouts were limited to the enthusiastic crowd - there was great sportsmanship displayed by all the competitors.
I'm not alone in hoping that next time they choose a game that is easier to follow - First Person Shooters arguably put on a great spectacle, but with a bigger public gallery, the atmosphere would represent that of any genuine sporting arena around the world.
Credit goes out to the organisers and sponsors of ACON4 ñ hereís hoping that ACON5 is even better!
The field was quickly reduced to four semi-finalists - disappointingly, the UKís Alex Bond was knocked out in his first-round match.
The first Semi Final saw 15 year-old Russian Andrey 'DeaDman' Sobolev take on one of the tournament favourites, Chun Jung 'SK Sweet' Hee from Korea. Though many had expected the Korean to take out the match, presumably due to the insane popularity of Warcraft 3 in his home country, DeaDman won 2-0 - the efforts of SK Sweet not reflected in the eventual scoreline. He will have to settle for US$2,000 and third place overall.
With the local Hao 'Yoliny.suhO' Su from China relegated to overall fourth, following his semi-final and consolation final defeats, the two former Cold War adversaries, USA and Russia, faced off in the final; DeaDman vs mTw-Wizard. It was a battle that might never have been: mTw-Wizard actually placed second in the North American Qualifier, but the original winner, Jeff 'Aether' Zhang was unable to travel to China for the Final due to the competition's age restrictions.
Wizard's flame-print trousers should have been an indicator of his form, as the kid from Lexington, South Carolina was red-hot, sweeping aside the Russian 2-0. The 18 year-old can look forward to taking delivery of his new KIA car through a local dealership, while the runner up can drown his sorrows using the US$3,500 in cash he won - I dare say that would buy a rather large amount of vodka back home!
As we left the hall to sample the colourful nightlife of Shanghai, it was hard not to be impressed by what had been achieved in the previous 8 hours. In pretty much a first for any LAN Tournament I've been to, the event ran barely an hour behind schedule, and the screams & shouts were limited to the enthusiastic crowd - there was great sportsmanship displayed by all the competitors.
I'm not alone in hoping that next time they choose a game that is easier to follow - First Person Shooters arguably put on a great spectacle, but with a bigger public gallery, the atmosphere would represent that of any genuine sporting arena around the world.
Credit goes out to the organisers and sponsors of ACON4 ñ hereís hoping that ACON5 is even better!
MSI MPG Velox 100R Chassis Review
October 14 2021 | 15:04
Want to comment? Please log in.