Bravado Gaming dominate Cape Town’s biggest CoD4 tournament

It’s been one hell of a year for the Call of Duty 4 community. Teams shuffled around like a game of musical chairs, players retired and favourites were toppled from their once sturdy thrones.

As the tough competitive season came to a close, we thought it only fitting to give these teams one last challenge before year end.

As expected, Cape Town’s best showcased their talents at our biggest event ever, 10 years of Chaos. What wasn’t expected was the sheer volume of teams willing to prove themselves. While 17 teams entered, there were a few clear favourites to take the top three spots in the tournament.

Immersion brought two teams, doubling their chances. Vitriolic had a strong team made up of some CoD4 vets. However, the clear frontrunners for the tournament were the Bravado Gaming, with some of the best players in South Africa stacking their line-up.

Bravado was out for blood after a poor performance at this year’s Do Gaming Championship, managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against their rivals, BFB Lard, in the finals. This time they made no mistakes and took no prisoners.

From the onset it was clear which teams had what it took to make it to the knockout round. Teams that led the four groups were Bravado, who lost a single round. Vitriolic, with three convincing wins in their group. Immersion’s first team didn’t break a sweat in their three match ups. The group to watch for this round was definitely Group 4, which was made up 5 ‘random’ teams. It was important to be seeded first in your group, as it made your first game in the knockout round more likely to be won against a ‘lesser’ team. Crap@LAN made it into first place over Pro Khumalu Gaming.

Teams were split into four groups

The knockout matches of the tournament were brutal. With no double elimination, there was no second chance. Teams needed to execute their strategies perfectly or be sent home.

Bravado showed no sign of slowing down. Devils, runners-up in Group 3 were first to fall victim to Bravado’s brutality and HPX Energy soon followed. Bravado had secured their place in the final in no time at all.

In the lower half of the bracket, things panned out a little differently. Vitriolic almost lost their game against Pro Khumalu, eventually beating them out 13 – 11. And fate, it seemed, had pitted the two Immersion teams against one another. But Immersion’s first team quickly showed that they were made of stronger stuff, snuffing out their second team 13 – 2. No-one could have predicted which team would win between Vitriolic and Immersion, but in the end, it wasn’t even close. Vitriolic came out top with a convincing 13 – 7 win.

With first two teams decided for the final (Bravado and Vitriolic), 3^rd place still needed to be won. Immersion wanted to redeem themselves after a lacklustre performance in their previous match but HPX Energy weren’t going down without a fight. HPX Energy, who had won the toss, decided to choose sides. They found themselves attacking on Crossfire. The decision seemed to have paid off, giving them a 7 – 5 advantage going into the second half. But Immersion had other plans. After two quick rounds, the scores were tied at 7 – 7. HPX Energy responded by taking another 2 rounds leaving the score 9 – 7, needing only 4 rounds for victory. Immersion then did what needed to be done. Realising they couldn’t lose any more rounds, they took the bull by the horns and ran circles around HPX Energy winning the next 6 rounds consecutively, ending the game with 13 – 9 and taking the 3^rd place prize of R750.

It was now turn for Bravado and Vitriolic. It was a best of 3 final, with a knife round deciding which sides/maps would be chosen. Each side was allowed to eliminate one map. Bravado took out the least played map of the tournament, Citystreets.  After some deliberation, Vitriolic decided that Crash needed to be eliminated, leaving Crossfire, Strike and Backlot in the map pool. The knifing round took place on Crash with Bravado taking the round due to some excellent knife skills from RoboHobo. They selected their most favoured map out of the pool, Crossfire and after another short knife round and win, elected to attack.

It was a slaughter.

Bravado Gaming. Left-to-right: Blackout, Roadrunner, Takbok, Vindicator and Robohobo

Bravado had no intention of giving ANYTHING away. Blackout, Bravado’s leading SMG made sure that the way was made clear for Vindicator to plant the bomb. Sniping was dominated by Robohobo who had some close calls against Vitriolic’s sniper, Kontraban. Roadrunner and Takbok showed solid defensive teamwork once the bomb was down, never letting Vitriolic get close to disarming it. In what seemed like only minutes, Bravado had won the game 13 – 1 with some well executed strategies on attack, including some rushes towards the defending team’s spawn. They had taken Vitriolic by surprise.

Vitriolic’s next move was crucial. They decided to defend on Strike, which would prove to be their downfall.

Bravado’s surging victory had left them with a massive advantage and boost in moral. In the second game, it showed. Their attack was even more brutal, displaying perfect synergy when entering bomb sites, often leaving Vitriolic in 1v4 situations. At half time, the score was 10 – 2. Vitriolic seemed to have lost all hope and Bravado quickly claimed the last three rounds needed for victory.

Both teams had come out top, with Bravado taking 1^st place and R3550 in prize money followed by Vitriolic’s 2^nd place and R1750 in cash.

Final ladder positions: 1st - Bravado Gaming, 2nd - Vitriolic Gaming, 3rd - Immersion Gaming

A huge thank you goes out to everyone that particpated in the tournament and our shoutcaster (Mr. Situation himself ^^) Edge.