Uncovering the TitaNs

extreme - randy - strykerx - syck - techduck

Foreigners have been "invading" Australian CS for a number of years. A lot of our less informed readers will have already forgotten SK's mangled exhibition match in 2005, while some will have ignored the presence of the best Indonesian players in the Sydney and national scene since 2003 under teams like banana, iCHOR and more recently XcN. But these teams came with less a sense of invasion and more a taste of Asian flavour. This time Titans are bringing the full banquet.

Almost universally, Australians are now experiencing what it's like to play Counter-Strike on a world stage: the feeling of the unknown. We haven't played Titans in any recognised match worldwide. But given the Singaporean's high seed, the fear isn't reciprocal - it's the medium and low seed teams that need to worry. And given that that makes up 12 out of the 16 teams attending, it's time Australia did some homework. Who are Team Titans?

A quick search on HLTV.org brought home the bacon - demos existing from 2009, and 2006, but nothing in between. I found the KODE5 South-East Asian demos from 2006 on Gotfrag (as well as 2007 double-map game where Titans lost 16-0), but with those suppositories dead and no semblance of activity on Mygozone since the death of CGS, it raised a major question mark: just how active in 1.6 have Titans been? 

Thanks to CGS, not very. In an interview with SK-Gaming, StrykerX said that Titans skipped WCG on purpose; they wanted a holiday, a break after competing in Los Angeles for last year’s CGS season. While that might have been the right course of action, it also means their team is relatively new. At Chengdu, Titans’ team had only been around in its current existence for a week. By the time IBisQ comes around, they’ll have been around for two months. Now while that in itself isn’t a particular detriment – other teams have been alive for the same period – it means Titans are lacking the pre-existing chemistry that Encore or Team Immunity might have.

Thankfully, the Extreme Masters III Continental Asian Finals took place last month giving us a peek at the Singaporeans. Despite being an eight team competition, the groups were tough. Titans were grouped with South Korean qualifier champions Wemade FOX (formerly eStro), a4u from China and k23 from Kazakhstan. Even with that, Titans got lucky: the other group featured wNv, Lunatic-Hai and xqR.

That's how things were meant to go, anyway. As time rolled on, K23's visas hit a bureaucratic hurdle and Lunatic-Hai decided the event wasn’t worth their time. Chinese team SYUnited (formerly Team Dragon) and FTK from Korea took their place, weakening the competition and raising questions as to why an Australian representative (or two) weren’t at the event.

Titans progressed through the group stages and finished 3rd, which brings them to Australia. 3rd place wasn't enough for an invite, but it did win them $US6000, which equals quite a bit in Australian dollars thanks to the global recession. It also means Titans think they can win.

Naturally, you wouldn't blow such a great wad of money if you didn't think you had a chance. It provides a stark contrast to the public facade though, with Titans stalwart StrykerX commenting that they "We're pleasantly surprised to be one of the Top Seeds actually". Oh really. Of course, he then went on to add that "the seeding does not change how we feel about this tournament". I bet.

There are a couple of points for concern here though. Titans were gifted a spot on the courtesy of the KODE5 admins, which makes me wonder: would Titans have come if they weren't guaranteed a top seeding? Furthermore, if Titans would have refused to come, wouldn't it have been a smarter option to hold a LCC with the extra invite to raise funds for the finals itself?

That aside, we still have an international team attending. More importantly, they think there's a solid chance of them winning - and their friends in other top Asian teams will certainly have helped. After all, if there's one thing about CS - all the top teams talk to each other. Imothed featured in the top 4 placings at both AINC 2007 and 2008, so they'll have been briefed about Encore and Immunity (and possibly iCHOR). Spitty played alongside Rumil and Davio in Stensgaming and probably provided some tips to his Singaporean friends. And it's not a stretch to imagine that someone from Titans had a little conversation with Jackal, who originally came from FMJ before beginning Immunity's reign of dominance in Victoria.

Titans know what they're up against. Now we need to know what we're facing.

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