Three members of my clan MMC.eSports were at the Stauferland LAN 2009 in Salach: InsOp, PrOgAmEr, who left MMC.eSports clan in the meantime, and me. There were also some other excellent C&C players, for instance Wilko and Latex. The LAN took place in the Stauderland hall from 9th to 11th January.
This time I will write in the first-person perspective. I arrived on Friday afternoon. Progamer, InsOp and Latex, who drove together, already had been there. Wilko arrived later in the evening. At the first day weren’t many C&C tournaments. The Blobby Volley tournament began and the Red Alert 3 2vs2 tournament started. Unfortunately, very few teams participated. Most of the LAN guests were Counter Strike players. InsOp and Progamer played together and Latex and me formed another team. InsOp and Progamer made a good team and had no problem to come in first. Latex and me took the second place.
The LAN was well organized and there were many tournaments, also some fun tournaments as “Die Reise nach Grubingen” or bobby car race. Unfortunately, we had to see that Command and Conquer in particular and real time strategy games in general were not very popular. Sometimes it was really hot in the hall, although it was very cold outside. The pcs were heating very much. It was nice to meet InsOp, Progamer, Wilko, and Latex, who looked quite different from his player’s photo at the ESL homepage.
On Saturday began many C&C tournaments: Kanes Wrath 2vs2, Kanes Wrath 1vs1, and Red Alert 3 1vs1. The both 1vs1 tournaments were the most exciting tournaments.
The finals in Kanes Wrath 2vs2 were between InsOp and Latex and Progamer and me. I do not like 2vs2 matches and Progamer did not play much Kanes Wrath in the past months. Finally InsOp, EPS player, and Latex, first of the EAS, won against us. For instance, once I tried to rush my direct opponent, but he had a similar build order and so the attempt to rush him was not successful, because he had enough units and a better economy. But who cares for 2vs2?
I hoped to get a good place in the Kanes Wrath 1vs1 tournament. Latex, InsOp, and Progamer were good opponents. My first opponent was Progamer. I won the most matches against him in the warm up, although I tried to play not very good build orders to conceal my tactics.
Our first was Dustbowl. I think I had bad luck with Dustbowl as first map. I did not train much on this map (I trained at the end of December, did not play much Kanes Wrath in January). Unfrtunately, latex gave progamer some advices. He took Black hand and builded much infantry against my Reaper. I had bad experiences with infantry spam and played maybe a bit too defensive. It was no problem to counter the infantry spam, but later progamer builded purifiers. this was not really a problem, too, but I expanded too late. Before I had good chances, Progamer lost several times some units when he tried to attack me, but did not make much damage. Finally, my bad economy decided the result. Then I chose Barstow Badlands. He played a nod factor again, I played GDI. I built two war factories and sold my construction yard. His stealth tanks were mean, but I had not really a problem to win the match. Now he chose tournament Decision – oh I hate this map. He played quite defensive with a Nod faction, built Obelisks, spectres and the epic unit. I with Reaper knew it would be very difficult against him, even because of the tiberium detonation of Nod, a very overpowered ability. After he attacked and retired, I started a counter-attack, but unfortunately my forces were not strong enough. It would had been better to wait a bit. Well, Decision is a anti-scrin map.
Progamer (in the front) and InsOp are playing, Wilko is sitting between them and watching their matches
Latex won against Ins Op 0-2, so I had to face him. The first map was Small Town USA. I expanded to the east, he to the south. I t was funny that we destroyed each other the construction yard. But he as Nod was able to build a new one, if he wanted to do so, I could not because I played Reaper. So I built some tripods and many disintegrators and attacked him. he had no chance to defend against my attack. He chose Decision – bad for me. I played GDI against Nod. I lost, because his epic unit in combination with his spectres were too strong against my predator tanks. Now I had the map choice. I decided to play Barstow again. He played black hand and I had to see that Barstow is not good to play against a infantry spamming Black hand with the flame upgrade for the rocket troops. He used the buildings on Barstow for his rocket troops and I had no chance to expel him. It was not my best day, losing 1-2 two times. I think tournament Arena or something else had been a better choice against Nod. You know, I was the only non-nod player in the tournament L Another thing was that I am not used to play with little light. I used a laptop and did not have lamps at my keyboard.
Progamer had no chance against Latex in the finals of the winner bracket and I was very disappointed, even because I think I would have played better against Latex, who is known me because of the EAS. InsOp won against Progamer, who was a bit exhausted after all the games, and had to face his friend Latex. Latex was very angry on his headset after losing the overall finals 0-4. Well, the final matches were only nod mirrors and not really interesting.
In the afternoon the Red Alert 3 1vs1 tournament began. Progamer played Soviets against Wilko and won 1-2. Later Wilko lost against Latex and was out of the tournament.
I was not very experienced in red alert 3 and had a bad grid. My first opponent was progamer, my second Latex. Bad luck. InsOp had the best grid of all good players and reached the finals of the winner bracket. He won the tournament. Latex came in second, Progamer took the third place. It was interesting to watch the games. An Allie Mirror between Wilko and Latex on Battlebase Beta endured a long time. Wilko was moving his construction yard permanently and built very many peacekeepers, of course. And Progamer, who is used to play Allies, played Soviets against Wilko and built walls around his whole base to prevent dangerous ground offences. Finally, Wilko played Soviets, too, and had bad luck in the Soviet mirror on Cabana. Progamer built a crane, expanded, sold his construction yard using cash bounty, and sent a bullfrog full of rocket troops, which destroyed Wilko’s main base.
InsOp
You find the photos of the LAN with their original size under http://www.mmc4life.com /index.php?mod=gallery&action=list&folders_id=15 . The photos are mady either by the LAN team or me. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo with me, because the LAN team did not upload all photos.
With kind regards
Predatory fish