We are down to eight players in the UT2003 tournament and we have had one major upset so far! R0X, the ESo champion and the Arene qualifier winner is out of the tournament. I am not quite sure how it happened, I have been hearing that Frank was playing bad but I did not know it was that serious... He's been losing maps to players he should not lose to normally and lost vs Lotus finishing last in his group!!!

We have seen some good games in this tournament so far but it is only beginning to heat up. If you haven't had a look at Fred's article, here are the pairs and my predictions.

fatal1ty - pMcc

The American has not been overly impressive in this tournament, I was actually surprised to see him being smacked around in close range fire fights in his game versus Lauke. He has got very good map control, though and he stays calm all the time. fatal1ty will have a very strong Compressed but he is significantly weaker on the other maps - Antalus and Ironic. I have not seem much of pMcc but I think that the best Frenchman in the tournament will not even be able to steal a map from the superstar. Not enough skill, not enogh experience, not the same caliber.

zulg - frag^m

The winner of this game should meet fatal1ty in the semi final. So far zulg has been very impressive - he's beaten the German favourite Solo in his first group stage in the threatre so he's past the big pressure stage. Bjoern looks very strong in this event, he is the only player who has not lost a map in this tournament so far. I cannot say he is aggressive but certainly he's dynamic and he is hitting good percentages from the lightning gun... (wtf?!). On the other hand Klaus has been really dissapointing, he lost to CrUsH on Antalus 1-0 (CrUsH is not the most highly rated player here...) and he had to be awarded a map from GitzZz to be able to progress... The German is really struggling. With frag^m's "ok" aim I pick zulg as the winner here.

Lotus - lauke

Lotus has surprisingly lost a game earlier in this tournament but he managed to pick himself up and stormed thought the group having beaten the favourised R0X. I haven't seen him play but I expect to be very very strong here. Lauke on the other hand has had his baptism of fire against fatal1ty and was not the lesser player in that game, having performed really solid on Ironic. This map's winner is a hard pick but I will say it Lauke will be victorious after a really interesting and close match. That is only a hunch though.

GitzZz - thor

No doubt about it, the double WCG champion will beat the French underdog. GitzZz really thrashed frag^m when he was trying and from what I have seen he has learned something new in UT2003 and overall he is a better player. This does not mean he is better in UT2003 than in UT - I haven't seen him perform under real pressure here but perhaps this guy just hasn't got any weaknesses... 2-0 to GitzZz here, not a word about thor's game.


If my picks are correct, the semis should both be awesome games - both rematches for really painful games for the players. fatal1ty v zulg would be a good occasion for the Swede to avenge himself for the 14 to -1 loss on Insidious at the CPL Winter. The other semi, if it comes true, would be the war between two of the best duelists at the WCG 2002 (I have talked to those who have been there...) and a rematch for the Unreal Tournament game of all time. I know Lauke is really bitter about that overtime loss to GitzZz and he would be really looking forward to take revenge for it... Boy, it is going to be one hell of a Saturday!