This round is over - see detailed results at www.CyberLeagues.org

razor (1) vs Spoink (16) [Razor won 2-1]
[hide=Match preview by xhrl]I think spoink is going to have big trouble against razor on both aerowalk and dm4. Another thing is that dm6, which is thought to be spoink's best map, is also a decent map for razor. I predict that razor will move on to the second round.

This is a match up of the dm4 hater and the dm4 specialist. It is really a battle of one map in my opinion: however dm4 is not the map in question. Dm4 will go to avenger, as long as he doesn't fall asleep while playing it. I suggest that fifi just sleep through dm4 and then wake up in time to play dm2 against avenger; I don't think avenger will beat fifi on dm2 unless fifi goes back to snoozing. The most interesting map is aerowalk; both of these guys can play it quite well and they both play it in a similar speedy fashion. Fifi is one of the few guys who will regularly use a circle jump to make the lg to ra jump; in a tight game I find that move to be very useful and difficult enough to be impressive. I predict fifi will have to win dm2 and aerowalk to win; but I think fifi would be wise to study ave's game against razor on aerowalk during duelmania3, for the avenger played well against the brutual razor_total_ownage shaft. Fifi will have to be on his guard against the avenger's ability to avoid prediction rocket shots by almost out running the flying projectiles. I think if this game gets decided on ztndm3, then avenger will have an advantage over fifi because fifi doesn't excel on tight dm4-like maps.

It is the dark horse versus the wily, skilled veteran who may or may not have been on a server in the last week. Mrlame is deadly when he has been practising with his buddy, the well-known nemesis of pietro, griffin. When mrlame has such a skilled friend to warm up against, who'd not think that he'd take out the_interceptor in two games straight? Well the dark horse comes in unseen, bringing woe to those that doubt he is what he is. I predict the interceptor to surprise mrlame and to defeat him. I saw the interceptor in a recent series of games and he does look like a contender. Again, the fact that he is a dark horse is probably much to his advantage: he will make a few surprise attacks before this tourney is over.

Both of these guys are all-round qw players. They are known as great tdm players. But fix in particular is very much an all-round player who will duel, play qw ctf besides regualrly indulging in qw tdm 4v4 or 2v2. Gamer is ranked very high in this seeding and this I expect is because of his recent success in duelmania. He plays a tempo control type of game; if fix doesn't break the game's tempo and try to speed gamer up at times while he suspects him waiting at items, then gamer will be very happy to play his patient style right through to fix's bitter end. Fix is smart and I think he will force gamer to play outside of his tempo enough to make this go to three games. If the decider is on ztndm3, then I predict fix will be going to the next round. Dm6 will be gamer's map to must_win.

xalibur has been duelling for a long time. I expect him to win this match against ser from the UK. That said I predicted xalibur to come from the loser's bracket to win duelmania3 as well: and, it just didn't materialize. So ser can take some hope from the fact that I sometimes don't get the games right. Xalibur has a solid dm2 game; he has impressed me in years past on dm4 as well. On either map will be tough for ser to get a win against xali. I do wonder about xali and ser on ztndm3 or aerowalk, though. Perhaps if ser tries his skills out on these maps he will find that they bear him some frags against xalibur.

Well reppie is my prediction to win this tourney, so he has to win in this first round! I think his clanmate Blixem will give him a run for his money, but reppie is so bloody good on dm4 and aerowalk that I don't think blixem will win 2 maps against the flying_dutchman. That said, blixem is always underestimated and he seems to thrive on being the under_dog; perhaps it will be to his benefit against the deadly reppie?

I think jogi is going to pull a major upset here if he is on his game. Hib is really good on both dm2 and dm6; most of his fans will expect him to bowl jogi out of the tourney on just those two maps. This not without some wisdom either. Jogi is known primarily as a good dm4 player; he is not considered to be a large threat on dm6 by many, still less on dm2. It is this fact which I dispute; jogi has the most amazing luck of any player on dm6 that I have ever seen (and luck is a skill, isn't it?). When his shaft aim is tight he can a tough nut to crack on dm6. I think hib and jogi will go three games before a victor is decided; and I think hib would be silly to underestimate jogi's luck on dm6.

If you want to see fireworks, then watch this match. Insane has a good dm4 game; miLTon went through a recent qw duel tournament without losing a game on dm4. Milton has ice running through his veins; he appears to me to be a man of ice_blood, whose nerves do rack up against him before or during games. Insane has been playing qw for quite a while; his dm2 game is one of the most entertaining qw spectacles a manly man can enjoy; well, next to Estella Warren, perhaps. I predict Milton will take dm4 and insane will take dm2. If they play aerowalk as a decider, this match up will get too close to call. I just hope that insane has been practising, for I know MiLTon is going to on top of his game; he'll be wanting to show that his duelmania3 championship can be duplicated.

[hide=introduction by xhrl]
Well I should start out this overview of the second round with a bit of a disclaimer: my first round thoughts were not perfect, far from that indeed. I present my thoughts as I should: in humility. For though I was right about some aspects of the first round, I still think I overlooked certain specifics about some players. In this regard, I mention Serox. He took xalibur to task and he proved to me just how smart a player he is. But I overlooked ser. Though I was quite correct about mrl being upset by the_interceptor, I still feel many are too quick to discount my dark_horse as just lucky. Do not think hib will do this; I believe he will be ready to face this up and coming force in qw duelling. The biggest question for me in this next round is whether the number one seed will remain into the third round? At any rate, this will suffice for my preliminary remarks; before you believe what I have to say in my previews, make a point of trying to find any faults by pointing to evidence in the demos from the first round.

I think Ser surprised me the most: a big set of congratulations and digital applause go out to serox from me! Taking out xalibur was something I think may have even surprised ser a bit; but if you look at the match up of skills and the games, you can see just how clever a player ser is in terms of his tactics. Ser took full advantage of his skills and really made xalibur to play in a way he didn’t want to. The ping issues aside, serox played a brilliant game. Against reppie, the man_who_can_fly, serox is going to have to duplicate his game; I still think reppie will take ser out in this second round: he better win, as I have my money on him taking the tourney! Seriously, though, ser will push reppie, and I do think he can take a map off reppie for sure. I know some people are predicting serox to upset the flying_dutchman; but listen to none of that: reppie is solid on all five of the maps and two in particular: dm4 and aerowalk. But I don’t think the maps matter much in this match up to reppie; he will just play well on the map that happens to load: reppie’s worst enemy is his own nerves. Socrates, the great Greek thinker, has been attributed the saying: ‘Know thy self.’ If reppie can know himself and learn of a way to stay calm, then I think serox will find himself up against a qw zen master _dueller who is going all the way. But if reppie blows a fuse, ser could do the unthinkable and make me lose some of my hard-earned cash!

I thought jogihoogi would upset hib but I was very wrong in assuming this; I still do think in another time and in another tourney jogi will get his revenge on the versatile Finn! Hib is favoured to win this eso2 by others who follow qw duelling quite closely, so putting money on hib to beat the_interceptor in the second round makes some sense. But I would take the risk and put my money on the lower ranked dark_horse. It is just that inter is playing well even when he isn’t really on his game; and sad to say, even though he played fairly well against mrlame, I don’t think mrlame put up enough of a fight to really test the dark_horse in this race. Had mrlame played well and if inter had been as sharp with his aim as I have seen it recently, then you might agree with me that my dark_horse still has yet another pace he run at. I had expected mrlame to take dm4 from inter or at least play him closer on that map. We will see how inter’s nerves get to him, for hib will in all liklihood take a map from him.

Insane is just plain sexy; enough said! In beating MiLTon insane has earned tons of respect from me in terms of his tactics; for I regard Milton as one mean tactical master. In beating fix, Gamer surprised me in a way; I thought fix would take out the higher ranked Finn; but I am a schmuck and frequently make crappy predictions: so be it. Fix’s speedy moves did not put gamer off of his patient tactics. I have also seen fix play better; but no excuses, I was just wrong. Against Insane, Gamer will have to try to hit a very blurry series of fullbright pixels; for insane is one quick fellow, especially considering that he uses no movement scripts: for insane is not only sexc; he is a manly_man who uses no rj_scripts.

I took it as a given that the firingsquad’s razor would make his German opponent bleed; and spoink did find the razor to be sharp! However I think we can infer that razor is beatable on dm6 after seeing spoink’s performance there. If razor is to fall, the avenger could be the man to take him down in this second round. Ave is strong on dm2 and 4. However fifi did expose his weakness on aerowalk. That map should go to razor unless gravity fails. And sometimes it does in qw physics! But I do expect razor to own avenger on aero; and for avenger to take dm4. If it goes to dm2, then I predict an upset. On dm6 razor gets the upper hand from me if only because he is so cruel with the shaft. On ztndm3, unfortunately, the match would be a toss up. I don’t think avenger or razor has much of an advantage on it. I would expect this match to go three games for sure; it will also be closely watched by anyone who placed a lot of faith in razor’s number one ranking.

[hide=introduction by xhrl]Well if you read these previews, you are probably aware that this time I wasn’t perfect…but I still was close on some. For razor versus avenger I was bang on. But the truth is even a mental midget could’ve guessed that avenger would get his ass owned on aerowalk and that avenger would pay the favour back to razor on dm4. No genius like insight there; just a couple of sore anal sphincters! Yet I was solid in my reasoning about the gamer vs Insane match; I mean who can now deny that Insane isn’t becoming a very sound tactical player? He has always been one of the most entertaining player to spectate; his backwards bunnying through the dm2 hallways are the stuff of ‘wow’ experiences. Clearly Insane is starting to be regarded as a serious contender because of the tactics he utilizes; he is not only the ‘sexc’ man’s player now, he is also the thinking man’s player. Playing against the patience of Gamer is a solid test for anyone. But I think hib will be a slightly tougher test for Insane simply because of his style; enough for now, more on this in the game preview. Hib took out the dark_horse; and this surprised me! I was wrong about the hib; he took out the rising star of duelling in my opinion. Interceptor will have other days: I am sure now that he is known as a serious contender in any duel. On dm4 there are only a couple of guys who I think can play with him who are currently active; I think we can all be glad to have gotten a better look at his strengths and, I hope, we will see more of this dark_horse in other races. I think he will learn from some of his shortcomings against hib; most importantly learning to manage the nerves like a qw_zen master! Ser really took reppie for a ride on dm4; for a while at the beginning and in the middle of that game I thought he was going to cause me to lose my bet. I have learned through this tourney that serox is to be reckoned with and I utterly underestimated him. Serox’s defeat of the formidable xalibur is quite interesting and there is an inside story to it that I don’t really know; but without any excuses for xalibur, serox played a very clever game against him. He leaves this tourney with more respect than when he entered; and he leaves having played a tough match on dm4 against one of the best on it.

Hib has surprised me in this duel tourney. Not that I have ever disrespected the manly hib. I have followed his qw tdm career going back to zetor and then with tvs. He has always been one of my favourite tdm players; it has been so interesting to watch this guys development from the times prior to bunnying to now watching him play on arguably the toughest qw tdm clan ever assembled. I think this season in qw tdm we will see some colossal disorder vs slacker games on e1m2 and dm2; that is if mrl and his crew get practising. Hib will be a huge part of how well the slackers do in those match ups; of course no one wants to hear about this qw tdm tangent: back to the business of duelling! That hib has surprised me has mostly to do with the fact that, despite being my favourite quad runner in tdm since pietro stopped running quads, he has never really been a prominent dueller to my mind. Accordingly hib has had to take out two very skilled duellers in jogi and the_interceptor to really gain my attention and respect as a dueller. Well now he has won it in spades! I think hib is going to try to make Insane chase him and to trap him into a compromised position. But I think if Insane is to take out the wily experience of the hib and move on, he’ll have to play a bit of a risky game. Under no circumstances would I recommend Insane to slow down and try to play a ‘cs’ style against hib. Hib would be happy to face Insane on those terms. I think Insane will take dm4; Hib will try even up on dm6: and I think he will win dm6 unless insane gets some incredible streak of RA spawns (some would call it SR spawnage :P). Seriously, though, if we see this match go to a third map; I think both players will agree to play dm2. And all I will predict is that it is going to be one of best dm2 games this year. Both of these guys play dm2 like it is meant to be played: don’t trust me just watch the tension grow as dm2 loads for the third game. I wish both players well in the match tomorrow: keep cool and relaxed prior to the games.

These guys are friends who fight together in the same qw tdm clan, firingsquad. I have long been a fan of fs; and so it follows that this match up has a particular interest for me. Razor has been ranked higher by his peers, mostly for his skill on aerowalk and his speedy surprise attacks which tend to wear away armour and cause woe. But reppie can call dm4 his home away from home; so I predict this match to go to a third map. However I am going to make a really bold guess that reppie will actually turn razor inside out on aerowalk by using the teles defensively to preserve armour and to position himself to snag the odd RA from razor. After taking razor on his own home map, I think he will take razor to school on dm4, teaching him the woes that can occur on the manly man’s map. That means I suggesting a sweep. Of course if reppie can’t bring his broom tomorrow, then things get more complicated. If they both win their respective home maps, as most will agree is least risky proposition, then I say that reppie will still make razor suffer untold woes on dm6 or ztndm3. Now how can I make such a strong and bold comment as this about reppie on an unbalanced map like ztndm3? Well it has to do with blind faith: reppie has to win or I might lose my hard-earned dollars; thus I have placed my hope on reppie. The sad thing for reppie fans is that he doesn’t feel he will win unless I split my profits with him…..I might just have to learn to share my profits :P I wish both of these very fine players a competitive and fun match tomorrow!

[hide=Round overview by xhrl]This finals preview is being prepared prior to the set up being official. We only had a few minutes to do it, so please be aware that it was done in an over hasty fashion, making one huge assumption: reppie would beat razor. If that doesn’t happen, then razor can just sit back and laugh at my preview below.

The final will be Insane versus reppie. Reppie has done everything I had expected of him in this tourney so far. Now he will have put the blocks to the man_of_sexc_moves: Insane. Insane impressed the hell out of me on dm6 against hib in the way he used the teles at the beginning to shed off hib’s prediction shot rockects and the shaft burns. On dm4, well what can I say? It was a classic game and a match to go down as one of the best ever on that map. Insane will not be surprised to learn that reppie is very tough on dm4 and is, perhaps, the best dm4 player active right now. Accordingly I think reppie should hold dm4 in this final. If Insane can win dm4, then I think he will take reppie down and steal my money away from me! But on dm2 I would expect Insane to win. The decider should be played on either dm6 or aero. If it is ztndm3, then I can’t say anything other than that he who wins will have made it to the mh room/ra first; the map is just that unbalanced for my taste. But if they do play on dm6 or aero, then it will be much interesting and tactics will play a bigger part. On aerowalk I give the edge to reppie, but on dm6 I think it be a 50/50 draw. I do expect this match to go three games unless nerves pulls one of them down. I do think the flying_dutchman will will this, as I have stated from the beginning. But after seeing hib versus ins on dm6, I have my doubts about that, if a decider is played out on dm6. That said reppie is the man_who_can_fly: he will not fail me in my bet! Hehe, well we shall see. (despite xhrl's great preview the finals is a BEST OF 5 ! should be no confusion ther :)

Well the fly_dutchman has landed! Insane put up a great fight on dm2 as I thought he would in my preview: however that preview assumed it was a best of 3 final, not a best of 5. Accordingly it was close to useless; I apologize to those of you who were making the bets. Yet surely the outcome of dm4 didn’t surprise anyone too much? The commentators dj_wheat and scheme have never seen the likes of the lakerman, grffn or dag, ptr, sod or reload, etc., on dm4, but they are quite correct in saying reppie is one of the top dm4 players right now. If you haven’t seen the suffering reppie inflicted on his buddy razor in the semis yet; check it out, it best summarized by the comment razor makes in the middle of the game: “reppie, this map [dm4] has been rebuilt, there is some new interesting item in the mh room. Go there and see it!” I was chuckling when that comment popped up, for it is not only a humorous wisecrack, it points to the futility of facing reppie on the manly man’s map when he gets the clamps on you. Insane chose dm4 against reppie, as reppie wisely chose aerowalk to start the finals. Reppie is not quite as good as razor on aerowalk, but he is not far off; accordingly he took insane to school on aerowalk. Insane has improved somewhat on aerowalk since the duelmania3 tourney, though I do think he can still improve on it quite a bit; in fact I think insane, like paradoks, could easily become a force on aerowalk. That said the aerowalk game between reppie and Insane showed that reppie just knows the sublties of the map much better right now. The use of the teles and the prediction shots to flush out the opponent to the center area; presently razor and reppie do these things so well. Insane chose dm4; and it was a good game, but reppie just plays the map so well when he doesn’t have the RA. That is the pivotal point; playing dm4 without the RA is hard to do, especially if you are trying to maintain center area control. But I am sure the flying_dutchman even knew the approximate ammo count Insane could have, as his knowledge of dm4 is so meticulate and detailed. On dm2, which I thought Insane should have taken as his first choice, Insane played a great game. He is one of my all time favourite dm2 duellers. The fact that we are getting away from sloer more tactical maps in qw concerns me a little. Dm2 has a storied history and this is for a good reason: it produces tactical games and, above all, some very intense close games. As an aside, both dj_wheat and scheme were enthralled with the speed of the games on aerowalk and dm4; and that is how qw duelling should first come to mind: as an extremely fast, quick-thinking game. However, the truth is we need to also emphasize that there are serious tactical aspects to qw duelling as well. Anyone recall the ptr vs effie game on dm4 or sod vs grffn on dm4 or janne vs grffn on dm2? All those games are characterized by both speed and astounding tactical maneuvers; something no one should overlook or want to get rid off. Therefore I am sceptical of reasons to abandon dm2; in fact I recommend looking at other slower and tactical maps for qw duelling e.g., the q2dm1.bsp that zalon has. But of enough of this, I am beginning to read like a Link column :p The dm2 game had an interesting development in that reppie actually started to come back for a bit; then Insane experienced some pl or some connection hassles. It was at this time that reppie seemed to give up on his aggressive play while he had been fighting back. So it was then we switched to the last map of this final: dm6. I was glad to see the final not decided on the ztndm3; it just being too unbalanced as it is. On dm6 I thought reppie would give Insane a good battle; I actually thought if what insane had been able to do against hib on dm6 in semis could be duplicated against reppie, then reppie may not win dm6. But reppie played some very risky tactics, often just barely escaping with enough health to avoid falling damage if that. If I were Insane it would have had me wondering just how damage can this guy take. In the end, Insane had the strength and honour to admit reppie had played better than he had. And over the course of this tourney I must say that reppie was the man_who_could_fly! I wish strength and all honour to this flying_dutchman and to all those who came to do battle and fell.