Well, this is it! We have finally made it to the finish of the BF2 World Tournament! More then 500 clans and 4000 players battled it out over more then 6 months to grab a place in the play-offs and to reach the finals. In the end, 3 teams were left. It were the American superstars HOT and the European hotshots Code7 that would decide on Karkand which team would face-off upper bracket winner EXiT11, that earlier revised Code7 on Oman to the lower brackets.

The lower bracket finals were decided yesterday and man were they awesome! In a very close game, Code7 did the job and qualified for the overall final. Team HOT now is certain of a very nice and well deserved third spot in the World Tournament. This means they get the following prizes:

1 - Aurora™ 5500 Personal Computer for Team Captain provided by Alienware
$400 Gift Certificate to Branzone provided by Branzone
8 - EA Games of Winners choice provided by EA Games*
8 - Corsair Mousepads, Screwdrivers, and Stickers provided by Corsair*
8 - Battlefield 2 Lanyards provided by EA Games*
8 - Battlefield 2 Keychains provided by EA Games*
8 - Battlefield 2 Hats provided by EA Games*
7 - Spades (Entrenching Tools) and Handle Compass provided by EA Games*
1 - Battlefield 2 Fanny Pack provided by EA Games
8 - T-Shirts provided by EA Games*
8 - AMD T-Shirts provided by AMD*

The very exciting lower bracket final lacked however proper coverage. Indeed, the World Tournament has sworn to co-operate with TSN, while the BF2 community largely prefers BFTV of BFGeeks.com. Not only TSN has officialy declared to retreat from BF2 Coverage some months ago, the shoutcasting quality of BFGeeks.com is just better. Yesterday evening, once again this became painfully clear. Not only TSN failed to shoutcast round 1 and only offered 1 frame/10 sec for round 2... BFTV, providing an hour long pre-show of the match and wanting to cast the awesome match itselve got this message of the BF2 World Tournament head admin:

As you ignored my previous request. I find it that you are disrespecting this tournament and me.
When we first decided to let you guys shoutcast our matches we agreed upon that you will shoutcast second to TSN. When it comes to playoffs TSN will be the only shoutcast station providing coverage for this tournament.
But instead you decided to go behind our backs and attempt to shoutcast this match. This shows you that do not care for this tournament and have no respect for our decision.
With that being said if you go ahead and shoutcast this match or future matches for this tournament. We will revoke the teams prizes as they have violated our Rules and Terms and Conditions. Both teams have been made aware of this, I would suggest that you wise up and forget about casting the remainder of this tournament as you are jeopardizing their prizes.

Indeed, even if both teams would have agreed to have BFTV cast the match, the World Tournament would have stepped in and - if necessary - have revoked the prizes of the very best teams that have been practicing and fighting for months to get where they are now. This is of course unbelievable. We contacted the World Tournament administration and they claim to have a verbal agreement with TSN that they receive exclusivity for shoutcasting coverage. Well, let me tell you this. How much is a verbal agreement really worth when A) TSN has officialy declared not to shoutcast BF2 anymore (and actually never took BF2 serious enough like they did in BFV and BF42), B) TSN didn't deliver their part of the deal and cast matches as it should (on time, good quality etc - exceptio non adimpleti contractus) and C) the whole Battlefield 2 community is yelling for BFTV to cast the matches. Of course, we are not questioning the shoutcasting qualities of TSN. They have the experience and know how to shoutcast a match, but the quality of their streams and the fact they didn't shoutcast round 1 of the lower bracket final properly is just not admissable. Also, the voice of the community should be heared!

As the World Tournament administration is convinced to go ahead with TSN for the overall finals, despite the wish of the Battlefield 2 Community, there is only one solution for this one. It would include TSN|DirtyHarry to book a class act and grant the wishes of the BF2 community himselve and co-cast the match with BFTV. After all, the final of the World Tournament deserves the most broad coverage possible. Everyone is of course welcome to discuss this matter in our BF2 forum.