Written by Trevor "Midway" Schmidt on location in Xian, China

With all of the major favorites sitting around me, the randomly selected 16 team double elimination tournament was a fun filled peanut gallery but nervous tension surrounded every pick. A growing fear strengthened in two waves. The first wave was the obvious overwhelming skill present in the lower bracket.

The selection process went with one team from each first round being paired, then back through from top to bottom for the second team that would meet them. So the first four teams in the upper bracket consisted of mostly Asian teams which felt weaker when compared to f`zero, aTTax, Quash and SSV Lehnitz of the lower bracket. It was only more confirmed when the second team was announced for the top four matches.

Adding the French, Italians with only Defusekits, Belgians, and Lunatic, Koreans, as the stand outs the top bracket really was disappointment. By process of elimination everyone in the crowd knew that Complexity was left along with Virtus.Pro. Just down from me the f`zero guys had a sinking suspicions that they’d get matched up against Complexity who sat right behind them - nervous laughs were all exchanged. Landed was pulled and the Aussies breathed a sigh of relief, their hearts still pounding.

All of that added to the pressure of a possible match with SSV Lehintz, as everyone saw the possibility looming. At first it was only a joke, as people wondered at the chance but as Virtus.Pro was called next to face aTTax in what should be a very good match as well, nerves got tighter. Then when the Malaysian team NBTD-50 was called a gasp from the crowd could be heard.

“Was it really possible, SSV Lehnitz against coL in the first round?” whispered the crowd. Even the tournament admins looked at each other as the gamble to do random seeding may not have paid off. Complexity wasn’t complaining, beyond the lack of warm up matches they knew a match between the top two teams coming in was inevitable.

Personally it’s sad to see such a loaded lower half of the bracket. Beyond the obvious SSV Lehnitz against Complexity, at least 5 of the top 7 teams are in the lower eight matches. The losers are obviously teams like Landed, f`zero, Quash and NBTD-50 who all would have a decent chance of winning the upper bracket.