QuakeLive Showmatch (USA v Canada)

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A QuakeLive showmatch organised by GGL featuring a United States team (icel0re, DaHang, carnage, dkt, chance, wn, viju and perfuse) and a Canadian team (id_, Flysher, bentley, darko, dragoax, griffin, alterik, and everkill) is on! djWHEAT and Slasher will be on hand to provide a running commentary while the stream can be found here. The gametypes are; Clan Arena, Capture The Flag and finally Team Deathmatch.

Map lists for each game type are as follows:
CTF - qzctf2 / qzctf7 / qzctf3
CA - qzdm6 / qzca1 / qzca2
TDM - qzdm14 / qzdm7 / qzdm6

CTF is just finished. USA won map 1 (2-1), Canada took map 2 with a last minute cap (3-2) and Canada won map 3 after 15minutes of overtime (2-1)!


LIVE STREAM

Sabre0001

Wow wow wow! The match sums up why I love Quake, competitive gaming and gaming (let's face it...games and gamers are competitive whatever way you slice it). With nothing at stake (no prizes, the novelty!), both teams gave their all in over three hours.

Did a recap on eSports.ie and seems as I can't physically type it all again (though it by no means covers everything). The team are supposed to be uploading Videos soon too so you can catch up if you missed it.

A showmatch between Team USA and Team Canada, hosted by GGL, took place tonight with Capture The Flag, Clan Arena and Team Deathmatch all in the mix. Before the match, many tipped Team USA to take an easy win over the three gametype series. But it was not to be so straightforward. After over three hours of intense action, Team Canada emerged victorious. After all was said and done, nothing was decided until the last second.

The action kicked off with CTF. Defence decided who the winner of this gametype would be with a total of just 11 flag captures after 75 minutes of play! CTF2 was the scene of the first match and USA pulled out enough to claim a 2-1 win. Team USA defended very well and coordinated attacks using the "buddy" system while Team Canada focused on running individual capture attempts. The "buddy" system proved effective enough and Team USA were able to defend to the end to take the first map and throw down the gauntlet.
Canada took a dramatic win on CTF7. Defence was coming out on top once again and when Canada sealed a second flag capture, it looked like that would be enough. USA thought otherwise and pulled even but a capture in the last minute won the map for Canada. It was a frantic ending to a close game as most of the Canadian team touched the flag during the final capture. As each carrier was fragged, another took his place. A last gasp effort by Team USA to block the capture was not enough as the attacker ran into a wall of defenders.

The action then moved to CTF3 and may have hit a stalemate. USA took an early lead after both teams were running a capture attempt. Canada then struck back with a coordinated attack from three angles to tie it up. The match was locked at 1-1 for the remaining 9 minutes which pushed the map into overtime. Team USA tried to strike early but Team Canada were up to the challenge. Canada then applied the pressure and tightened thw screw. In spite of this increased pressure, it took 15 minutes for the deadlock to be broken and Canada finally captured the flag to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Clan Arena was up next and the action was fast and frantic. DM6 was the venue for the first map. The two teams traded rounds initially but then Team USA were able to go on a run which brought about a 7-2 lead. Canada were able to pip a few rounds here and there but Team USA wrapped up the first map 10-6.

CA2 was a closer affair and neither team could manage to win more than two rounds back-to-back. Canada wrapped up enough of these consecutive rounds to grind out a 10-8 win.

Finally, map 3 (CA1) would prove to be another one-sided affair with Team USA fully in control. Before Canada knew what was happening, Team USA were up 4-1. Team Canada took one round back but Team USA leaped out to a 9-2 lead. This was wrapped up two rounds later with a final score of 10-3.

Team Deathmatch would be the gametype to decide it all with the series tied 1-1 (and the scoreline in each gametype reading 2-1). Once again, there was nothing to seperate the two teams. DM6 was the first map and there was little to nothing between the teams at any point. Despite how close the map was, Canada did not take the lead until the 5th minute. But Team Canada could not pull out a lead either and with 3 minutes left, the score was tied 103:103. Both teams battled to the end but Canada were able to pull off a 129:120 win. It was certainly a map that could have gone either way.

DM14 started with the teams evenly matched but Canada were able to gain a seven frag lead early on. They could not build on this lead and Team USA kept themselves in it. A Quad Damage spawn with 10 minutes left changed the face of the matchup. Team Canada picked up the Battlesuit powerup but the player was knocked into the void while Team USA picked up Quad and jumped into the lead. Everything went downhill from there for Team Canada as alterik picked up the battlesuit and seemingly jumped into the void on his own accord. Team USA meanwhile picked up the Quad Damage and went on a run again. With 2 minutes left, the map was wrapped up with USA ahead by 30. The map finished up 112-79 in favour of Team USA.

That meant that a TDM match on DM7 would decide it all! The series was tied 1-1 and the map in the final gametype was tied 1-1. Team Canada were able to bounce back from the disappointment of the last map (which was the one blowout in the entire series). Control went back and forth between the teams but it all came down to the last 5 minutes. Just three frags seperated the teams at this point and that gap was fairly constant. With 2 minutes left, Team Canada took the lead but it was all tied up in the last 35 seconds! Everyone's nerves were on a knife-point by this time but nothing would test the nerves like the last ten seconds. Frags were traded within these 10 seconds and it looked like anybodys game. With a second on the clock a frag made it 93:93 and forced Overtime! There was to be another twist to the tale as it turned out that this was Sudden Death overtime. Canada claimed the vital frag and became the champions of the GGL QuakeLive Exhibition Match between Canada and USA.

VODs are to be uploaded by the shoutcasting crew shortly.