Gamearena Ladder Season 4 Grand Final
Imperial Guard vs Pirate Treasure


The last war review on Ausdod was the Asphyxiation semi-final between Imperial Guard and Pirate Treasure. Now, again, they come together in the Gamearena Ladder Grand Final. The map of choice was Anzio, and a huge crowd awaited to enter the HLTV server. Unfortunately, it failed to work, the final postponed half an hour before a less than adequate score bot was set up in irc. Commentary was relayed from rad, refereeing in the server, through ventrilo to Daza who typed it out. They did a great job but it wasn’t until afterwards when I downloaded some demos did I get to really understand what was happening in game. And what a game it was.

Pirate treasure started as axis, iG as allies, and at the first contact iG cap the plaza immediately but under stress, while pt take a few extra seconds to make sure its all clear to take the bridge. 2 minutes in, suddenly all of pt are dead and respawning. iG take the bridge easily and it doesn’t take long before they arrive at the hill and cap out. It’s the perfect start for iG after 4 minutes they are up 1-0.

The restart echoes the start, iG capture the plaza; pt the bridge. It stays this way for a while, iG defensively holding the plaza with matt sniping in the pizzeria or tower and Yuff hovering around. Arsenal tries to combat with some sniping of his own, but is easily accounted for, and he is forced to change class. Once iG form a small group in the plaza, they push up the hill, and Ranger takes 4 of iG’s 12 straight kills as he captures the hill. Within seconds they have the bridge and its 2-0 to iG after just 6 and a half minutes.

The next restart is crucial to the game. Pt are still accelerating compared to iG’s rolling start. This time it’s the pirates who take the plaza first, and the bridge follows soon. It’s an important capture for pt, as they build up momentum and iG struggle to have numbers back. Pt finally awaken as they dominate and cap to make it 2-1 after 9 minutes.

On restart, the flags fall predictably, bridge goes to pt, plaza to iG. The game slows down a bit, both teams defending and holding their flags well. The street switches back and forth, but doesn’t play a major part. Play generally settles down, but its pt who take advantage of the bridge to flank iG numerous times to take the laundry flag, but can never get the numbers to capture the plaza. At one stage, all of iG are dead, and give up possession of the plaza briefly, before swarming and recapturing less than a minute later. iG are desperate to hold on, stopping pt caps half way through, players from both teams sacrificing themselves to capture or hold the flag. Mental-x goes around the back route to capture the laundry and sets up a tent at the top of the beach, but iG still cling on the plaza and refusing to let go. Most of the play revolves around the plaza, while the bridge remains confidently a pt possession, Immortal and zehoo working well together to defend it and launch attacks from it.

Imperial Guard did a tremendous job pushing pt back and against the run of play, suddenly have the plaza and bridge. Quickly the have the hill, but not the street, and vice versa, they could’ve been 3-1 up and heading into half time with a healthy lead but the execution is just lacking. Signs point to an iG cap but out of nowhere pt simultaneously capture the bridge, plaza and street and thunder forward to the laundry. iG manage to quickly take the plaza back but they don’t have the numbers for long. As pt cap the plaza back, Dante jumps from the laundry window to cap out to make it 2-2 at half time, giving pt the momentum going into the second half, the points score 142-138 . Pt take the crucial 4 point advantage, which in case of a caps draw, will be what decides it. Yuff and mental-x top score with 26 kills each, while arsenal disappoints with a 9-22 score.

The second half starts well for pt, as allies, taking both flags, zehoo taking over the sniping duties from arsenal and iG are on the back foot straight away. This half its pt who cap out first after a few minutes, and lead 3-2. On restart, it’s the exact opposite, iG take both the plaza and bridge and the score quickly clicks on to 3-3. The game looks like its going to go down to the wire for sure.

As the teams come out of their spawns, surprisingly neither bridge nor plaza are capped on the first wave of exchanges. It takes a minute before pt cap the plaza, and soon iG cap the bridge and flank around, camping the allied spawn door. iG charge the plaza, but cannot get 2 guys in there for 3 seconds, pt clinging on, ceasing a cap twice with grenades. iG get the chance to cap out when wozza takes the laundry and covers the beach, but nobody is at the plaza for iG. When reinforcements arrive and take the plaza for iG, the pirates have recapped the laundry. Pt capture the plaza again, but 20 seconds later, iG have it again, charge and Yuff caps the laundry to take iG into the lead 4-3 with 7 minutes to go.

Pt can feel the trophy slipping away, and start to really put the throttle down, on restart they cap both bridge and plaza and choke iG at the hill from all sides. iG manage to push out and capture the bridge before being ambushed as pt capture it back. For a long period of time, pt possesses 4 flags, and Imperial Guard are defensively holding out on the hill, struggling to cover all the angles. Pt are on the verge of capping until arsenal takes out a few members of his own team, allowing iG to slip by and take the bridge with under 2 minutes to go. Pt couldn’t take the opportunity, and all seems lost. As arsenals team-kill count reaches 4, pt look like they are panicking, but with just over a minute left, they cap the bridge, sprint up the hill, and in poetic justice, its arsenal who caps the winning flag with 50 seconds to go. It’s an amazing finish, to an amazing match, the caps tied up at 4 all, pt win the second half 139-137 to add to the 142-138 first half score line. Both clans knew that pt had won, and the final 30 seconds of game play was unnecessary. The end score was 281 to 275 in favour of pt, but nobody really bothered posting that up, pt went wild, after so many years of frustrating podium positions, they had finally won the Gamearena Ladder, and in spectacular fashion.

My first 10 outta 10 match rating. Great game to both teams.
Lets Get Dangerous

only 4 tks? fkn i don't know what the deal is. =D

most people don't know i sported a nasty gash on my one of my index fingers. I lost a bit of movement and was in a bit of pain through out the match. It's funny because I didn't know how much of effect it would have...it's only a finger injury for fucks sake....but i recon it had it's effect.