In all the hustle and bustle of the PROMOD release, it’s a good point to remind everyone that there’s still a good deal of 1.6 to be played! The Cybergamer ladder has been reopened, coinciding with the site’s re-launch, but more importantly there’s also the DICE 1.6 Open taking place next month.

The last DICE online event, taken out by Sponny and Goomba (under the name Dirt Gaming, or something similar) was a resounding success. Teams took the event quite seriously and there were some entertaining matches on display, namely PnPoo’s comeback against Parallax.

Thanks to the addition of a group stage for this tournament, there’s the added fun of those group-deciding rubbers most of you will have had the chance to watch or play in at one stage or another. Let’s take a look at the groups one by one, and try and work out where those tight games might be.

Group A

Parallax (evolution, infidel, simcore, toonz, n1ck) VHM (evo, nrd, tidus, redrum, unknown 5th) ThePlayMakers (fbz, anh, rdd, ignite, ece, nasa) Paperboyz (dekz, robles, lagster, represx, amuse, inspire) teamtNa (bailed, bnz, bish, gstar, damo)

This is almost your typical first group for any standard nationals or big online tournament. It’s not a group of death, but it’s not one of those sleeper groups either. VHM and Parallax are good teams, but not the best. The lower seeds aren’t the worst in the tournament, but they’re not good enough to cause any real upsets either. ThePlayMakers, representing Western Australia, are easily the dark horse (with tNa being a shadow of their former iBisQ selves) but the split-second disadvantage will always cause problems for them.

At the time of writing, VHM are still sorting out their 5th. That 5th won’t change much, but VHM’s performance will be the hinge that the group pivots on. VHM face off against TPM first up, and should they lose that game then Parallax might have a real dogfight on their hands. I still think Parallax will top the group – either outright, or on rounds since they’ll probably grind the rest of the group into submission – but a little upset here isn’t entirely off the cards.

I’m also going to pick out two players to watch for each group, one from the two teams likely to progress and one from the losers. For the winners, evolution is an obvious pick. He’s infuriatingly accurate online, more so than simcore is on LAN, and it’s always fun to spectate togglers.

On the other side of the coin, the player most likely to waste their effort (that is, carry their team to defeat) is probably beniz. You could always watch amuse if you want a laugh though.

Winner: Parallax
Qualifier: VHM
Player to watch: evolution
Most effort wasted: beniz (bnz)

Group B

Immunity (gazr, apoc, pupajon, rize, ferg) Halcyon (rapture1e, imetik, tr1pp1, hellscraper, vanadium) MB (chiz, unleash, ang, dreamR, unknown 5th) EMC (eggman, andyz0r, flark, giggity, e-chill) Teamexope (kambo416, muggiette, speedkill, xlim, stryker, raliant)

Usually, when you have four groups there’ll be a pattern. One group will be like Group A above, there’ll be your group of death, there’ll be the real group of death with the evenly matched mid-tier teams, and then there’ll be a group of rubbish.

Welcome to the tip: the group of crap. If Halcyon and Immunity don’t qualify from this group, I’ll eat salad for a week. I can’t even possibly fathom a scenario where Halcyon could play so badly (because Immunity obviously won’t) that MB could even come near a win. At one point, you might have been able to joke that rapture might get nervous and cost his team rounds. But even rapture won’t find fragging Immunity overly nerve-wracking after an appearance in the single-elimination at the WCG World Finals last year (I’m not joking). I’m not saying Halcyon are going to beat Immunity, but if rapture can handle fragging teams at an international tournament, how do you think he’s going to cope against EMC, MB and Teamexope – and he’s not even the best player on his team.

Do the dishes. Wash the gimp. Turn gay – but for god’s sake, don’t watch this group. Watching grass grow would be more stimulating.

Winner: Immunity
Qualifier: Halcyon
Player to watch: Does it matter? They’ll all be using shotguns by half-time. apoc will probably knife the most people, though.
Most effort wasted: chiz, but you’d be wasting more effort by watching.

Group C

Nordland (dave, funboy, benoR, bl4nk, gamz, lukeft) Evil Monkeys (snake, padz, sai, t-crane, digz) Exeye (nosk, Hannibal, pay8ack, j1, kavu) M4d (samizzle, fluke, lock, odin, xsv, fakeh) Hardcase (flx, ttt, gagginator, evilnun, animal)

One of the severe problems with doing just two seeding groups is that groups can sometimes get stacked. If the seeds aren’t done right, then there’s always a chance that some hellish group comes out of the hat. Anyone who’s been around for a few years might remember the debacle around ACNC 2007 where everyone debated the problems if Redux and Pure were drawn into the same group – which they eventually were. Redux ended up losing to Abyss from Canberra anyway, but it was entertaining to watch from the sidelines.

I’d originally written this including concerns that there might be a potential upset, but I don’t have the heart to publish it. It’s just not going to happen, especially when you consider this group has all the excitement of a nursing home. Evil Monkeys, no matter how much source digz and sai play, are just too sharp to be seriously troubled. Nordland could probably bait each other with glocks and still qualify.

I don’t have a doubt that Exeye and M4D are on the same level. Hardcase have an unknown quality to them, but in my experience the tier under Halcyon/Parallax in New Zealand is very unstable. Could Hardcase beat sai online? It’s a pretty ... hard ... case ... to make. How they fare against the other two teams could be insightful, but not as insightful as how Nordland will fare against Evil Monkeys.

Speaking of which, there’s a boatful of players that could go nuts in this group. Benor is the obvious candidate, as is sai for Evil Monkeys. Digz, a champion from the Source scene, has put in some good 1.6 performances lately and bl4nk has been at a consistently high level. As for the rest, fakeh jumps off the page – but that’s because of his infamy, and not his talent. His awp might cause some damage, although I’ll hedge my bets and say xsv will do just as well. Keep an eye out for Hardcase though.

Winner: Nordland
Qualifier: Evil Monkeys
Player to watch: There’ll be quite a few, but Bl4nk has been hitting monster shots for fun lately.
Most effort wasted: Fakeh might pull off some shots, but xsv will probably do more of the ground work.

Group D

v300 (kram, oxey, iceman, c0ke, jairs) Wuxia (PeetyG, knyz, peekay, fizz-e, gonzo, Sponny) zk Gaming (fuLLi, Danish, XREY, plex, nixske, Dippa) k2p (veo, t0rm, jenuwin, neophyte, villorosso) Invidious (justin, shunkz, biculeh, mest, crs, George)

The obvious group of death also serves as a little roll-call for a lineup of some of the most online names in Australian Counter-Strike. Just about every team has had a current or past online grandmaster, and even k2p has been noted to have played particularly dirty (read: running one bullet AK headshots through miniscule gaps, you filthy bastards).

The problems here are twofold. If this was LAN, v300 could take this group to the bank. But online isn’t quite that simple, especially when you consider that Sponny’s team defeated v300 on the way to winning the first DICE 1.6 Open. They’ve also been well prepared, with a very similar team to Wuxia showing up regularly for EPGL.

Wuxia won’t have it all their own way though. zk Gaming, the old deathbyclick team, met Wuxia when they were called Romulus at the recent WCG.au finals in a dead rubber which neither team won. They also managed a narrow 16-14 loss to Qlimax at the DICE Nationals last year, despite the fact that they were 14-11 up. zk aren’t likely to trouble v300, but they could very easily push Wuxia over the edge.

Another team unlikely to lay down and die is k2p from New Zealand, who have a penchant for being hideously disgusting. Thankfully, evolution won’t be masquerading as a legitimate player for them, but jenuwin – who surprised a lot of people in iPGN – is capable of breaking down walls on his own. Veo isn’t too much of a slouch either, although it’d take a good deal of mediocrity from Wuxia or zk Gaming to bring about an upset.

That’s the fun of this group though – besides v300, no team can really bank a victory. Even Invidious (HR-Gaming renamed) will be showcasing shunkz’s occasional quality, although I suspect the presence of an anti-cheat might limit his flair somewhat. Mest will cope just fine with EAC, however, and George has enough experience to close a round out if he gets the opportunity. Invidious won’t beat k2p, and I suspect Wuxia are well beyond their reach as well. zk Gaming might not be so safe, however, and k2p certainly aren’t.

This group could come down to some large individual performances. Jairs has a reputation for being the “god of the internet”, but his performance in the last DICE 1.6 Open was a little underwhelming. So was Sponny’s for that matter, and how Wuxia will cope this time around without the fragging weight of Goomba to blindly headbutt teams head-on will be interesting. Danish and fuLLi will probably be the headliners for zk, and jenuwin is a very reliable player for k2p. Even justin might get a frag or two.

Well, maybe not.

Winner: v300
Qualifier: Between Wuxia and zk Gaming – but Wuxia are less likely to lose games to the rest of the group.
Player to watch: jairs 180 one-bullet AK shots, c0ke’s AWP, PeetyG’s slow-aiming pistols, Fizz-e’s high sensitivity running M4A1 sprays, Danish’s clean frags – take your pick.
Most effort wasted: Mest for Invidious, or shunkz if you want to see what a toggle looks like with anti-cheat on.

Well that's it from me

Hopefully the teams don’t change radically – it’d be a kick in the groin if the seeds got mixed up! But no matter what happens, it’s going to be a fun event. Make sure you get some practice in (especially since Immunity are going overseas soon – give them some practice you selfish tossers!) and I’ll see you all on the 20th of February.