CPL Winter Quake IV Grand Finals
So I've been sick since Thursday, which generally throws off any chance of mine to be in the zone for any sort of research or writing - which is my lame, trying-to-justify whining to explain the lack of posts (not to mention work). So I'll cut it short and just apologize, and hope you guys forgive me for it. In the meantime, I did get to catch one major event (albeit via postmatch match demos) - the culmination of the CPL Winter Championships 2005. This tournament puts together the best Quake IV and Counter-Strike 1.6 players to build up the 2006 CPL season. But this post is about the Quake side of the tourney, in particular the final Winners Bracket best-of-three match between Q3A champion "cooller" and fellow Euro "toxic."
You really do learn a lot from watching how other people play and determining differences in your styles to find and improve on your own weaknesses. The three matches were un-fricking-believable. I've never seen a player more adept at the rail than toxic (his ability to hit from any angle and from anywhere on a map is mind-boggling), and cooller's control over a map's resources is top-notch (can't wait to see a match between him and Fatal1ty). The grand final, which is a rematch between the two players, and actually in a few hours will certainly be unbelievably interesting, and I'll be right on the demos as soon as they go online. Yeesh. Just watching the demos is pumping adrenaline through my veins - off to play now!
[edit: cooller wins 2:1!]
Weenus Previews the Quake4 Finals [GotFrag]
Official site [CPL]
Demo gallery [CPL]
Official tourney maps [ESReality]
Instructions on how to play demos (see Comment #20) [ESReality]