Big Game Hunters?

Prolegomenon

[div class="article_iw tm"][div class="imgwrapper"][div class="border"][img src=";http://laughingaudience.typepad.com/.a/6a01053588190e970b011570ceea3b970b-500wi"][/div][/div][/div][p]The stage I choose – a subject fair and free,
'Tis yours – 'tis mine – 'tis public property.
All common exhibitions open be,
For praise or censure to the common eye.
- Charles Churchill, The Rosciad, 1761[/p]
[p]Yes what an absurd word. But it has PRO in it, so I thought it would be an (un)suitable title for this collection of statements, theories and assumptions about the Competitive Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare scene here at Cybergamer, and the CoD4 Draft Competition.
CoD4 2010 Has been pretty good has it not? It all started with that One Day Comp that Arseynimz (and perhaps ViroL) organized on January 31st. Man that was fun. I only got to participate in Shoutcasting a few games (the Frenetic Array vs Qlimax Crew was one of the best games I've watched in a while at the time). Sure it wasn't the highest caliber of play displayed from both teams but it was a close, close game.
Then we had the MSI Summer Cup. That was a great competition. Single Elim MR15 - really good idea Arsey! I thoroughly enjoyed the longer matches too, even if it was a strange sidestep from our usual mr12 format. The only unfortunate thing about that competition was the seeding (a bit jumbled from 4 downwards) and the amount of forfeits. Other than that it was a fantastic competition and probably the best online competition I have played in.
Then we had the Alienware Clan Challenge. The Online Qualifiers were heh, interesting. However CEVO/GotGames/iGames got us there in the end and the LAN was the best experience I've had yet in Call of Duty. I thought I'd never go to a LAN as good as the QLD LANSMASH 2 in 2008, but it happened!
The question is where are we now? MSI and Alienware are gone and off sponsoring other games. And here we are back at square 1, organizing our own comps with our own prize money. Personally I can't guarantee that there is a future in Call of Duty competitively, but I am trying my best as Head Admin of CoD here at CG to take it from where Asterix started it back in 2006, to a better place.
Hopefully you guys think I'm doing a good job. I know I do run things quite tyrannically but it is of my opinion that too many opinions cause too many problems.
The Draft Competition is basically a midway competition to sort out which teams are fit for competing in the upcoming CGi League and CGm League that will start up just after the mid-year. I have word down the ladder that there will be some sort of sponsorship for these ladders, so there will be some big money involved (rather than just playing for bragging rights or free copies of Activision's next dud of a game) as per the last three seasons of CoD4 CGi.
During the festive State of Origin season, we will consider running another CoD4 State of Origin. The first SoO back in 2008 was a a bit of a joke, the Victorians won but to be fair to WA, NSW, SA and NZ/TAS they didn't really have their best 5 playing ... the players chosen were a bit biased IMO. QLD and VIC probably had the most accurate representations. So if we run one this year, hopefully it will be very competitive
Anyway where was I ? Oh yes. Draft Comp. We're in Week 5 now. We've seen some fantastic OT games, some strange upsets, a few teams dying (and hastily replaced) but overall I think it's ran pretty smoothly. I'll post a feedback thread at the end of the competition to see what people thought of it (positives / negatives) once the finals are over.
We're edging towards the end of the competition and naturally some teams have cemented themselves a place in the finals. Archaic Esports, GGunit, auRa and Team Legacy will no doubt go ahead and win their respective groups and face off against a 2nd place from another group. No doubt we'll find Frenetic Array, Team Hostile, ezMODE, dEMiZE and Out of the Ordinary in there somewhere. But what of Team Immunity and Sequential Gaming? Absent from the scene/out of form at the moment, will they survive the coming months? Or will they fold and make room for some of these up and coming teams springing from the woodwork? That's kind of what this article is about - The teams with a certain but uncertain future. I have chosen a number of teams which I consider to be CGi or CGm contenders and have interviewed a player from each of these teams about the competition and their rivals to see where they think they stand going into the last few weeks.
Head over to the next page for a bit of an "Admin" perspective on these teams which I dub the "Big Game Hunters" after a popular Starcraft map of the same name and then follow on for the player interviews
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