MPLD before the invasion

MPLD, (Monthly Pretoria LAN Day) is a LAN Party hosted once a month at the Kiepersol Community Centre in Centurion. This 150 man LAN is a staple in the Joburg LAN Party scene. Each and every month there are people fighting for seats at this LAN and in June this was no exception.
June 5 – 7, MPLD hosted a Call of Duty 4 competition which saw 11 teams of 5 competing for R3500 first place prize. R2000 worth of Incredible Connection gift vouchers and R1500 cash!  Second place also received a R1000 in cash. With a large prize pool for a local event it drew gamers from all around Joburg along with Stephen “Vitrolic” White, team captain for Vitro’s Gimps in fact coming up from Durban to compete.

With 11 teams facing off against one another, Double Elimination format was elected to best run this competition. When a team has been defeated once they are dropped to the lower bracket, facing off against teams that have also lost one game. Should a team in the lower bracket loose a second game they will be removed from the competition. The stakes are high in Double Elimination and every single game counts.

Andrew "xiR" Harper and Trevor "qu1k_sh0t" Henry

While this competition did not have many of the higher ranked online teams competing several other well known teams made appearances, DRK having two teams, Delta Squadron putting a team forward, the all girl team Feisty Females as well as two teams from UBS all playing in the mix. The favourites however were one of these three teams, Element Aqua , xiR’s Pimps and Vitro’s Gimps. Element have some strong players and while they are not high up in the AGASA league games, have competed and won previous MPLD COD4 events. xP and VG are both mix teams with xP comprising of three =BFB= laRd players, the =BFB= team currently sitting 4^th in the AGASA Premier League. VG on the other hand is a complete mixture of players with 4 different clans being represented. So VG had the uphill challenge of learning to play with new players for the duration of the competition.

The Competition

With the favourites being any of those 3 teams, double elimination format selected and battle lines being drawn on Saturday morning the 6^th of June. The MPLD COD4 comp was going to be full of shocks and surprises. After the first round of games xP had its first challenge of the day in the second round slot. xP had a bye in the first round and with no warm up games and no practise our first game of the day was against VG on a map called Crash.

Stressed out during the comp

xP and VG were favoured by the online community to take the competition while the LAN goer’s felt that Element had the edge, so the first big game of the competition was about to get underway. Without getting too far ahead, the winner of this game would face off against Element in the third round. This meant that the big names would be playing against one another very early on, with the losers having the uphill task of trying to make the grand final from lower bracket.

The xP vs VG game kicked off with xP defending first. As the game began, the xP players pushed aggressively towards the attackers and the lack of co-ordination from VG meant the aggression from the defending side was able to tear through the VG lines time and time again. With the overwhelming aggression on defence they managed to take a lead of 9 – 3 at half time and drive home the win on attack finishing up 13 – 4. With Vitro’s Gimps being decimated by xiR’s Pimps the next game was against Element, the previous winners of the MPLD COD4 competition.

Following the defeat of Vitro’s Gimps the LAN favourite had changed drastically and now xiR’s Pimps was looking to be the strongest of the 3 teams. However one good win was not enough to secure the first prize they need to defeat LAN favourite Element in the next game. As the time to play drew closer, the map was selected to be Crossfire, could Element surprise the online community and defeat xP?

As the game kicked off, xP was forced to defend first. This map favours the attacking team and this meant xP was on the back foot before the game had even begun. Once again the players of xP decide to use aggression and saw some heavy pushes on the defensive side. The key difference during this game however saw Element attacking very slowly and almost timidly. This allowed the xP players to get into position and lock down the defense. A half time score of 8 – 4 on the weaker side of the map meant xP was looking good for the win, on attack managing to pick up rounds extremely quickly and winning 13 – 5. With two of the strongest teams already defeated xP was looking likely to take the event.

After two convincing wins over the other LAN favourites, xP was almost in the grand final. xiR’s Pimps won their last upper bracket game against the all girl team Feisty Females, 13 – 1 and was now in the Grand Final. All that remained was to watch the remainder of the lower bracket games and determine who would get a chance to face xP in the final.

As the games played out FF managed to beat DRK 13 – 11 in a very close game, following that VG defeated FF easily and confidently before facing off against Element in the lower bracket finals. With FF defeated they took the 4^th place finish, and the battle for 3^rd was now on. The loser of the two would take home bronze with the winner facing off against what seemed to be an unstoppable xP.

As the game started the map was crossfire, and the lower bracket final took place. VG and Element had selected Crossfire to be the map of choice for this game and it was shaping up to be a cracker. Winner would be in the grand final, loser would walk home with nothing. The game was played and not once was a team more than 2 rounds ahead. A half time score of 7 – 5 to VG meant that Element had to work hard for a win. The last few rounds played out going back and forth before VG drove home the victory and a final score of 13 – 10.

With Element being dispatched 13 – 10 this meant that Vitro and his boys had earned themselves another shot at the so far undefeated xP. With xP not having lost a game just yet they would need to be defeated twice in order to loose the competition. As VG was coming up from the lower bracket they had the benefit of selecting what map they wanted to play first. And to everyone’s surprise they selected Crash, this was the map that xP had demolished them on earlier in the day.

VG Strategising before the final

The first map of the final began and xP had to defend first, this time round however VG was prepared. They had fixed up the lack of cover and team work and had found some aggression that was lacking earlier in the day. This invigorated squad took round after round from xP and managed to defeat them 13 – 9. This meant the playing field was almost level as both teams had one loss to their name and the winner of the final map would take home to prize.

With xP being allowed to choose a map, it was decided that Crossfire would be the decider, xP had bested Element earlier and VG had only marginally defeated them on the same map. So xP felt that they would have the advantage, the game kicked off and xP managed to attack first with an impressive halftime score of 8 – 4. This is expected on Crossfire as it is an attacker’s map. Going into defence, xP got a little bit nervous and after a few rounds being exchanged one for one, the score was now 10 – 6 still in favour of xP. From here however, xP had the confidence to carry them through and they won the final map 13 – 6.

Final Standings:

1^st: xiR’s Pimps
2^nd: Vitro’s Gimps
3^rd: Element Aqua

With xP taking the win this is the second time this line-up has appeared and both times they have emerged victorious. As they won the Africon Championships hosted by the MSSA in early December of last year they now add MPLD June to the list of achievements. Winning the Incredible Connection gift vouchers and the cash xP took home the first prize and are looking forward to the next LAN competition.

Winners of the COD4 Competition at MPLD June - xP

This was Incredible Connections first forray into LAN Competitions outside of sponsoring the =BFB= team, and it was a great success. We look forward to more LAN events throughout South Africa in the coming months.