This weekends DICE 1.6 Open was a great success for all involved, from both a player's and admin's perspective. The competition ran smoothly and without major incident. Over the course of the weekend, one small delay blemished the otherwise smoothly run competition, when jimeh from team tf8 was caught using 16bit smoke. While this was reported as accidental, unfortunately for tf8; rules are rules and they were subsequently disqualified as a result. I'd also like to take this opportunity to offer my appreciation, on behalf of all players involved in the competition, towards George 'beedee', for his tiresome efforts in order to make this competition run smoothly. George went to great lengths to make sure that the competitors' needs were catered for and I'm sure that everyone involved in this weekend's play will agree that the competition did indeed run smoothly.

Final Placings

1. GN - $300, Hyperglide skates from GamerzStuff & Ticket^
2. XG.nsw - $150, Hyperglide skates from GamerzStuff
3. Parallax - $50, Hyperglide skates from GamerzStuff
4. PnPoo

Event support:

- GamerzStuff for providing Hyperglide skates
- Plasmo for the fantastic cheat-detection client
- ZYM for their excellent servers at late notice

A lot of the times, the behind-the-scenes details are left out, known only to the admins. So here I'll share my experiences with the teams that participated in making the DICE 1.6 Open a success. We hope to do it again sometime, but next time with more admins :)

Gameplex

Gameplex had a few unlucky gameturning rounds in their three match stint which saw them leave early on day two. Watching your games on HLSW and reading what goes on in team chat was interesting to say the least. I was in constant fear of you guys losing it in MM1 and me having to enforce a ruling against it.

Mercenary / VHM / TF8

These three Melbourne teams could beat eachother on any given day. I am dissappointed at TF8 Jimeh for switching to 16bit in the first place and then claiming he forgot to switch it back before the VHM game.

Mercenary's win over VHM showed everyone they are a forced to be reckoned with, but somehow ended up placing lower than VHM - but it wasn't VHM who got the last laugh, it was me, when I made a call to VHM to get back to MC Internet (where they were playing from) because their match against TF8 had been overturned, only for them to lose again and pay more for parking. 

TNA

Knowing quite well that they have a reputation of being online themselves, it must have been a little shocking for them to be beaten by PnPoo online. I expected it to be a close game but it seemed like they fell apart without their ingame leader CarN. Props to them for continuing the lower bracket match even though they knew their weaknesses without a caller.

XlayerLegion

Choked. No better way to put it. I've seen them play and win the majority of online competitions they attend but today (and yesterday) just wasn't their day.

PnPoo.DT

Coming back from a 4-11 deficit to win 16-14 against Parallax is something to be proud of. Their secret to defeating Parallax? Numpad binds. Here's a line from their de_train config: Bind "KP_LEFTARROW" "say_team k23 Distract Vines".

Their darkhorse status was overshadowed by GN's dream run through the competition later in the bracket. A special mention goes to PnPoo for being a friendly bunch of guys. It seemed like a lot was going wrong for them, like two of their players being capped, and even in the face of defeat they were being positive (hehe I read a lot of team chat).

Parallax

Many including myself tipped Parallax to win the competition fairly comfortably with the absence of Immunity and Encore. Unfortunately for them however one of their players had ping issues ranging into the 100's to the match servers. They demonstrated extremely great coordination and aim to show us why they're the best team in New Zealand. Their come-back victory was ended by the hands of XG in the Quarter Final, funnily enough on train as well - the same map they lost to PnPoo on.

A further praise goes to Parallax for showing honor and class within the game. They constantly reminded eachother of the rules (like mm2) whenever one of them stepped out of line and exhibited excellent sportsmanship throughout their wins and defeat. I hope you guys find a big sponsor because CS needs more teams like you.

XG.nsw

XG.nsw stayed true to their name by incorporating a mix of NSW players. Their lineup this weekend consisted of: Mike (apoc), Burke (rbke/diggity) from Encore, Kalgo from Ichor and Rumil from Exile-5. Oh and they had some original XG players too. They are still yet to message me with details on where I should send their second place prizes.

GN

Nothing needs to be said about GN that can't be seen from the bracket. They didn't drop a game the entire event and represented QLD's only team in this competition incredibly well. A handful of people had doubts about the legitimacy of some GN players but thanks to Plasmocap, they were laid to rest... At least for this comp :)

.sc

An awkward mix of players used to satisfy davestr1zl's weekend Counter-Strike fix. Destiny was apparently raging at redrum the entire war against Parallax where sc were demolished 16-2. I've been called bad by destiny too and I know it's dispiriting, chin up jase :D. Interesting: .sc were the team that took the most rounds off the eventual competition winners GN (16-10 to GN).

Eclipze

It was definitely hard for them coming into a competition knowing all eyes were on them to perform. To their credit they showed some convincing play and didn't shy away from a gunfight but were outmatched by the two higher seeds.

K9D

Another so-so performance by who I tipped to win the competition. Their lineup on paper looks incredible with a mix of players from the old Immunity/StensGaming team and Volatile - the consecutive first and second place finishers at AINC 2008. It was unlucky that they were forced to face the second seed Parallax, a match worthy of a national final, before reaching the consolation bracket.

MB

A victim of the Parallax vs PnPoo.DT de_train upset. The matches always seemed a little one way for them in this competition. They'd either win easily, or lose convincingly. One things for sure, they're still keen. I caught them scrimming only hours after the competition had ended.

SG-1 / 2easy

Without trying to sound like a total asshole on purpose, I really enjoyed what I saw of that game. I actually looked forward to it, in the same way you look forward to seeing a midget boxing match (16th seed vs 15th seed), so much so that I forgot to record the demo. Sorry about that :(. Watching your games was a nice reminder of the good old days.

* article by beedee, intro by shard