It aint over 'till it's over

OK, so the number two seed has forfeited out, the fourth seed is finishing with a backup and the third and sixth seeds are both hijacks, but the show must go on. Round one of the CEVO-P playoffs began Sunday night where we saw a revived Guardians team put away EG 13-8 on mp_strike. Guardians are definitely a team to look out for and I have a feeling we'll be seeing them in the finals. The other round one fight was between MoB Gaming and Frag Dominant. MoB took the game 13-9 and now advance to meet Pandemic this Thursday on mp_citystreets. Perhaps what is most interesting about the MoB versus frag`dom game is that Frag Dominant have benefited more by losing. Because Nexus has dropped out, the bracket works out such that frag`dom receive a forfeit win in lower round three and have ten days to prepare mp_backlot for lower round four. MoB, on the other hand, must match the top seeded Pandemic in round two and, if they lose, will have to play EG in lower round three.

The $4,250 prize pot is impressive for an online event and you can bet that there isn't a team left that wouldn't like to get their hands on some of that cash. What's unfortunate, though, is that what once was a battle between six very strong teams has descended, in my personal opinion, to a contest between Pandemic and Guardians exclusively. If this were the case, perhaps it might teach a lesson to the community's top competitive newcomers. Guardians (20id at the time) and Pandemic are winners of the two most recent CEVO-P championships dating back to April 2007, now that's stability.

LAN is in the air

As the weather improves and the days get longer, another season other than Summer is fast approaching, the LAN season. Just take a look at this list: NERV 2, Midwest Challenge, Antwerp eSports Festival, the-eXperience, i34. As it stands now, without additional sponsors or new tournaments announced, more than $100,000 is up for grabs over a seven week period. And this is only the beginning. The game shows no signs of slowing down as new leagues, organizations and players continue to pour into the community. NERV is planning on having 48 teams show up at their June event. This would more than double the number of North American teams that participated at the WSVG at the height of CoD2. 51 teams showed up at Multiplay's i33 and only six of them weren't local British teams! Slow but steady progress has been made in the universal ruleset effort and it goes without saying that the tournaments this Summer will expedite that process more so. The competition has never been fiercer on both continents and the prospect of seeing five or more North American teams represented in Denmark or in England is indescribably exciting. In closing, this Summer is shaping up to be the all-time biggest stage for Call of Duty bar none. The community and its organizers are to thank for making this all possible. Keep up the good work.