CEVO Round-Up

Well, we are down to the final two teams, mine being one of them, and I can honestly say that the CEVO: Finish the Fight Tournament has been an incredible experience. Ian has done a great job in organizing a competitive event that showcased over 200 teams - an incredible achievement.

What excited me the most was the great number of upsets; End-effect losing to coalition was a big mystery to me, yet the question remains, is coalition legit? e2 is an amazing team and I look for them to bounce back in other leagues and show their true talent in the CEVO-P placement tournament. Also, I have to give respect to nXs: Team Gruffalo. Before this tournament, not too many teams thought of nXs: team G as a respectable team, but that all changed when they defeated their sister team in a barn burner on mp_crash. Even though they eventually lost to my team (50|cal), it's good to see an unknown team make a splash against a heavy favorite.

With the tournament winding down and the finals this Monday (1/21), it is safe to say that the two teams facing each other have the utmost respect for one another. Personally, I look forward to facing Brett, Ray and the Nerdians. They are good friends of the 50cal team and it should be fun facing them for the first CEVO: CoD4 championship.


Perks..

Where do I begin on this interesting subject? I feel as though the whole perk issue is just getting too ridiculous; from “Steady aim is terrible, Take it out!” to “well, steady aim is actually good, put it back in”. Rubbish like this is all that I read on the forums as of late.

It is getting absurd. I swear every time I enter a server I have to download a new ruleset or a new mod that had something limited or nerfed. The subject matter is completely insane. A unified ruleset should have been decided ages ago, yet because of the majority of the community changing their minds, a ruleset has not been officially declared. The admins of these leagues need to come together to make this game work out.

In my opinion I feel as though perks should go. Our friends across the pond have been using hardly any perks and I do not hear as much complaining from them as I do in the North American community. By taking out perks, the bickering may stop and this game might actually progress into a competitive contender.

However, people do reference a downside to removing perks. IW may frown upon the matter and look away from the competitive community thinking "We really can’t please these kids so let's just not try in the future". Without IW's support, this game could turn into CoD2 all over again. Personally I fell as though if we use perks or not IW has to show some support with new maps and mod tools. Taking out and/or modifying various perks like bandolier can make this community much more competitive.


Johnny Drama

One thing I enjoy doing every day at work is logging on to my computer and reading the various Call of Duty 4 eSports news bytes. It really makes my boring morning a tad more interesting to see internet personalities clashing on subject matter. However, this is eSports and you really can't take things too seriously.

Team Nexus, for example, has been in the news more often than not as of late. Who can blame them though; when you cut a player like NightFaLL you are bound to have attention stamped on you. However, the nXs team seems to have come to a roster conclusion and I wish them the best of luck in the future.

Drama will always be hovering around this community, and I am sure that you will see more top tier teams break up and then reform within the next few months.


LAN's on the Horizon

My favorite part of playing a competitive video game is the LAN atmosphere. Nothing beats sitting next to fellow nerds and annihilating opposing teams in an internet cafe. It really gets your juices going!

Already the North American community has had a somewhat successful LAN in Detroit. 14 teams showed up, which was impressive considering the prize pot offered. Now, we have the NERV LAN upcoming and with 28 teams possibly attending, it will be interesting to see what happens.

With Pandemic already signed up you know the tournament will be a tough one to all that enter. The WSVG silver medalists are looking to redeem themselves after a disappointing exit from the CEVO tournament, and you know Nabore will have his crew ready. Hopefully more teams will prepay in the upcoming weeks!


Final Words

In the midst of all the drama, rulesets, perks, roster changes, etc, Call of Duty 4 really has emerged as a great game. At first I was skeptical about how this game would last. However, more and more teams from Battlefield, CS 1.6, CS:S, TF2, and AA are making the switch over to the CoD arena. It really is great to see all these fresh faces and bold new talent surfacing.

While the game is growing we still have to be aware of disaster that can happen. The Call of Duty franchise is notorious for big named teams losing interest early on. However, with the amount of people that I see enter CoD4, it is safe to say that the future looks bright. Staying the path will be the ultimate goal for the Call of Duty community. Can we unite? Can we last? Can we compete? These are the ultimate questions on everyone's minds. Let's hope for our sake, we can and we will!