Among the 58 teams signed-up, there were the usual big teams from the UK participating, Crack Clan, Team Dignitas, Infused, The Imperial, the big teams from the rest of Europe, SK Gaming, Faculty, K1ck, Fair Frag.Degats, The Imperial, RAPTOR Gaming, and, of course, the team comprising most of the Halo3 admins who had the enivable task of refereeing the whole tournament, iTzu.

Tournament Bracket

There were few surprises in the early rounds with most of the top teams coming through unscathed. Despite playing Halo3 everyday, Infused had scheduling mix-ups and team changes which forced them to bow out early. Unfortunately The Imperial split-up as a team during the tournament, and the 2D French team were picked up by The Imperial, who knocked down K1ck to the loser's bracket but were upset by No Money No Honey; they met the Portuguese team again in the loser's bracket and were revenged upon as K1ck advanced to round 6. iTzu got knocked down to the loser's bracket and went out in round 3.

The quarter-finals of the winner's bracket saw the surprise team of the tournament, and who would ultimately reach the overall final via a succession of default wins, RAPTOR Gaming trounce Crack Clan by default by virtue of a fourth not turning up for Crack Clan; RAPTOR Gaming previously knocked down Fair Frag.Degats in the last round. The first high-profile match saw SK Gaming and Faculty compete against each other with SK Gaming winning convincingly 3-0.

K1ck and Fair Frag.Degats fell victims to Crack Clan in the loser's brackets and their tournament was at an end, as was No Money No Honey's journey who met and lost to Faculty in round 8 of the loser's bracket to finish a respectable 5th/6th.

Team Dignitas sailed as expected through the winner's bracket to the semi-finals until they were eventually sunk by SK Gaming to the loser's bracket. Down there, they put Crack Clan and Faculty out to set themselves up for a re-match versus SK Gaming, who lost to RAPTOR Gaming, in the loser's final to battle it out for a slot in the overall final of the tournament against RAPTOR Gaming. Team Dignitas were awarded the win as most of the players in SK Gaming went on holiday the weeks they were supposed to play.

The final had been finalized (click 'versus' for match link):

Team Dignitas
Adi | Gripz | H3aVensWra7h | Vardd
versus
RAPTOR Gaming
nighTmare | sTaTic N | KoKo | Whizkid

Best of luck to both teams and we will report who won as soon as the match is played and finished. Thank you to all players and teams who participated.

There is a €600 prize fund for the Halo 4v4 tournament, and all players of the top four teams for the tournament will additionally receive three months of Consoles.net Premium membership worth €40 each. It will be distributed as follows:

1st - €400 prize money - ?

2nd - €200 prize money - ?

3rd - Bigben Hardware (€100) SK Gaming [FragTaLe, MaZzAcRee, Lion, ZicKneX]

4th - Faculty [GriZz, Baller, ElemenT, Squall]

5th/6th - Crack Clan [Baxter, MVP, BUK 20, BUK 57]

5th/6th - No Money No Honey [Iso J, Procis, SloQwer, ZaoC]

7th/8th - Fair Frag.Degats [Chaman, Chineseeeeeee, KayaK, TiLou, Kiru4]

7th/8th - DKS [Flash, Hateeeeee, HeRo, QuAsTe, sEcOnD sHoT]

Gerard Comerford July 2009 ©