The arrival
The whole event took place in Germany in a city of Alsfeld near Frankfurt. The first players to be there were Poles who came six hours before scheduled time. After setting of the bus in front of our eyes appeared a quite old hall. That was the place where the all tournaments meant to be played. The hall looked very inconspicuosly from the outside but after taking all the laguage and computers with monitors from the golden colored bus and walking inside all the bad feelings changed. While entering there were toilets on the right, a lot of posters advertising Battlefield 2142 and organizer's desks on the left. In the main hall the biggest effect was made by vast posters for 6 meters high and more than 10 m wide. When the very hot welcome ended the first group of players was ready to unpack and mount their computers. Just before one hour to start the hall was full in half. A few minutes before launch in the entry gate appeared frist Team Dignitas and DareDevils players. All of them were waiting in a very long queue becuase of the organisers who were giving BFCON06 T-shirts and different colored bends on your hand, so everybody could know that you were a player at BFCON06. At half past six p.m. all the incoming teams were ready to unpack and get started.

Getting prepared
All players had their places in four very long rows of desks and the teams which signed up earlier had their places in VIP areas. VIP areas consisted of something which looked like a long room without any doors. It was very quiet in there in comparison to the main hall. While playes were mounting their computers together it was also time to sign up to the tournaments, because each one had strange team limits. The Battlefield2 8vs8 Tournament was the biggest of them all because it counted 32 teams. After all the technical stuff was made it was time to meet each other in the real life. BFCON06 was a semi-international party, the foreign players were rather dominated by the German ones. While visiting all the corners of the huge hall except the German players we could meet an Austrian team named deFrag, Swiss team called .... and some French people including Electronic Arts France Manager, Shiekmann from Soldiers of Despair and PsychoFax from against All authority. At the end we could also meet three Polish teams - the winners of the Polish most prestigious event - Polish Championships 2006 like Fear Factory ATI, Voodoo Gaming which is playing in this edition od EuroCup and finally Team Wilda so called as "Polish Pride".

Battlefield2 8vs8 Tournament
The first Battlefield2 Tournament was planned only for 16 teams but when the BFCON06 organizers saw that more place is needed they leveled up the limit to 32 teams. A few days before on the BFCON06 website all the organizers posted all the rules for this tournament, so every team could prepare earlier. Due to the fact that there were too many teams they decided to change the rules and make the whole competition in a single-elimination system (before it was stated that there will be a double-elimination system). Even the protests of Team Dignitas and Team Wilda didn't make any effect on the Head Admin of BFCON06 saying that there will be no time to play all the matches. As it later ocuured everybody had plenty of time to play and organize the tournament in double-elimination. That is why Team Wilda's Leader named Maniac after the first tournament decided to make a tournament on his own. Back to the the first tournament the real kick-off started at 10 PM of the first day. The top teams were seeded so they could meet in the finals. After the first very tight matches it was time to face some real Battlefield 2 combats. In the second round of the tournament we had the first intense fight between Voodoo Gaming and DareDevils.

Voodoo Gaming versus DareDevils

The battles on Gulf of Oman were even all the time. Voodoo tried in various ways to cap out their opponent but well organized DD.DC players always ran out of dangerous situation thanks to their teamplay. Just before the end of each of the rounds DareDevils took the advantage other their opponent and consequently drained their tickets. After the first round they had only 30 tickets advantage and it inspired Voodoo Gaming for more tough battles in the second round. Hopefully to DareDevils they maintained the lead till the end of the round and after full time of 40 minutes we could say that DareDevils had been in the round number three of the single-elimination Battlefield2 8vs8 Tournament.

Team Dignitas versus Team Wilda

DiPlomat in one of the comments called this match the "real" final. Even that it was only the semi-final of the whole tournament played on Sharqi Peninsula the match was full of emotions and intense action between two very good teams. In the first round Team Dignitas started as the defenders (USMC) and Team Wilda was making the first push through the defending positions of the German team. The Poles succeeded in taking the Construction Site and the Office Buildings pushing Team Dignitas back to the TV Station. Few Team Wilda players conducted a sneak attack to the back of the last USMC flag which was a very good move. Waiting for other players to spawn the Poles quickly moved to the highest floor of the building and consequenlty forced Team Dignitas away from their own flag. After few minutes the flag was grayed and the tickets showed 120:0 for Team Wilda. A full cap-out win.
In the second round it was Team Dignitas which took the advantage. Their attack through the frist pass near the Construction Site was particulary destroyed except Kamikaze in the tank. He passed throught the first USMC flag and easily headed towards the Office Buildings. Team Dignitas managed to take the flag and afterwards their conducted and attack on Team Wilda's TV Station. Meanwhile when the Costrucion Site was left without any defenders Team Dignitas succeeded in taking all USMC flags. It was a short round and Team-Dignitas prooved that they are still very strong on this map. This time it was a full cap for Team Dignitas 189:0.

Team Wilda versus High FiDelity

The match for the third place in the tournament was rather one sided. Dalian Plant - the homemap of Team Wilda - was the only map played in this match. At the beggining Team Wilda started as USMC and made some mistakes (miscommunication between players) which costed them a ticket drain. Sadly for High FiDelity players Team Wilda managed to change the sitiuation and they finally seized the helicopter. When Maniac was airborn the first rounf ended quite quickly after the full cap made by Team Wilda. The second round when High FiDelity was on the USMC side was also played quickly. Team Wilda forced the US to their main base and after something around 10 minutes everything was other. High FiDelity lost this one 0:320 and took the fourth prized place in the tournament.

Team Dignitas versus DareDevils

The grand final was played on two maps Mashtuur City and Dalian Plant. To equal maps were chosen to decide which one of these big teams would occur to be better. Team Dignitas took the advantage over DareDevils and never let it go. Less emotions than in the match against Team Wilda, Team Dignitas won all the rounds without further problems with big ticket advantages.

The winners and prizes

The Battlefield2 8vs8 was finished and now we knew who the winners were and what prized did they win.
1st place:
Team Dignitas
Prize: 8 x LG 19cal. monitors

2nd place:
DareDevils
Prize: 8 x Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic

3rd place:
Team Wilda
Prize: 8 x Sennheiser PC160 HeadSet

4th place:
High FiDelity
Prize: 8 x

Team Wilda Infantry Tournament
Organization and the idea of the tournament

After the first tournament which ended up quicker than the organizers expected, some of us were just walking around bored with nothing to do (not mentioning playing on FFA). While sitting behind our computers Maniac suddenly made in his mind and idea to organize something new so we can compete again with other teams. Still we had 24 hours till the whole BFCON06 LAN Party would ended. He shouted out: "Lets make and infantry torunament!". Team Wilda had their server which they took with theirselves from Poland so all the matches could be played without begging the organizers for servers. Maniac invited all the best teams of the previous tournament and made some rules (double-elimination, no flag by flag, upon the rest you have to agree with your opponent, the final match just like in CAL). Afterwards he prepared the two playoff trees each for winner brackets and looserbrackets. Pop and Marcin - other Team Wilda members - organized a huge amount of prizes so everybody could have an aim for which they could play. When all of the organising issues when done, Maniac seeded the best teams and the fun could begin.

The first matches

The frist matches were ending quite quickly because of the good teams whcih were fighting against the weaker. The real fun began when Team Wilda#2 had to play against Bioxar. The very hard and intense battles started, but succesfuly for Team Wilda#2 they managed to win in this round. In the next rounds it was GamePoint Online who took the edge and beat all Polish teams except Team Wilda#1. In the match for the third place GamePoint Online won from Fear Factory ATI and they took the bronze medals. The fourth prized place was for FF.ATI

Team Dignitas#1 verus Team Wilda#1 match #1

Team Dignitas#1 players (Flo, Kami,...) faced Team Wilda#1 (Luki, Maniac, Mohammed, Mlody, st3f4n). In this almost semi-final match the two best infantry teams of this events were struggling for the ability to play in the winner brackets. This one was played on Mashtuur City. The first round was deffinetly by Team Dignitas side, they pushed Team Wilda to their main and capped out when the score was 162:0. The second round when Team Dignitas players were feeling confident was the most exciting round of all. Only a miracle could save Team Wilda#1 when the tickets were 170:180 for Team Dignitas. Suddenly Team Wilda#1 took the advantage and they were graying the only flag left in the earlier capped base of MEC. The round finished after Mohammed's four kill streak with AK-101. The tickets shown 164:0 for Team Wilda#1 and it were the Poles which were going to play in the final of tournament.

Team Wilda#1 verus Team Dignitas#1 match #2

Team Dignitas to win this one should win three rounds on Mashtuur City and Strike at Karkand. Team Wilda to win needed only two won rounds. The game started on Mashtuur City where Team Wilda won the first round. The second one was in favour of Team Dignitas. After Mashtuur City, Team Dignitas had to win the whole Strike at Karkand if they wanted to win the tournament. But after the first round on Karkand it was obvious that Team Wilda will win thanks to perfect defending as MEC 66:0.

The winners and prizes

The Team Wilda Infantry Tournament was finished and now we knew who the winners were and what prized did they win.
1st place:
Team Wida#1
Prize: 5 x Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic, 5 x Guided Airplane Model

2nd place:
Team Dignitas#1
Prize: 5 x Sennheiser PC160 HeadSet, 5 x Saitek JoyPad

3rd place:
GamePoint Online
Prize: 8 x Sennheiser HeadSet

4th place:
FF.ATI#1
Prize: 5 x gadgets

Spotlight: Lars Gustavsson
The Polish press had an occasion to interview the Product Manager of DICE Lars Gustavsson. Six of our press members in groups of three were entering the Speech Room to get some information on the upcoming patch 1.3, booster pack Armored Fury and Battlefield 2142. The whole interview conducted in English and was recorded so you can download it as a mp3 file here. We wanted to know also if DICE had taken into consideration the Community Petition regarding the issues (squad jumping) while developing the new patch named one point three. If you are curious about the answer just download the whole interview.

This will be available on Monday

The summary
BFCON06 surely was the biggest LAN Party for Battlefield2. The whole organisation of the LAN was on a high level even though there were some controversial issues. All the teams which came to struggle for the title of the best off-line team and prizes made a very nice familiar atmosphere which was emphasized by on going tournaments, big matches and meeting all of these people which you could meet only on Battlefield servers before. A great party once again, which will last in my memory for very long.