It was an epic struggle that nobody could have foreseen, but at last we are able to present the information that the DoD community has longed to see. Many will remember the turn of the year when the DoD community truly came together in pursuit of another tournament spot in the Summer 2006 CPL. It wasn't easy by any means, but ultimately, the efforts of the community were met by the capabilities of The Office Games, an organization currently based in San Diego, California. This summer, DoD will see its third visit to the CPL event, the first two being in December of 2004 and the next, and most recent, being the Summer 2005 tournament. Most will agree that DoD was truly at its peak at that point, with activity at an all-time high and the skill level having grown significantly. Check Six emerged victorious, undisputedly becoming the best team in DoD. They reached a level of admiration and accomplishment that DoD hadn't really seen since the legendary days of teams such as ve and 101st.

The Office Games looks to bring DoD back to its peak, or at least up from the doldrums that the game saw following the Summer 2005 event and the subsequent release of Day of Defeat: Source. This summer, they will be presenting us with a $10,000 BYOC at the Intel Summer Championships stop of the World Series of Videogames, known to most of us, albeit incorrectly, simply as the CPL. Only two of last year's top 6 teams will be returning, CompLexity and Pandemic, but even those two teams have seen significant changes in the past year. What this event will give us is a variety of new talent to realize and give credit to. Check Six won't be here to dominate, and it's up to everyone else to show what they've got.

With all of that behind us, it's time to look at what we have in store for this upcoming event. The doors will open for registration at 12 PM (noon) on Wednesday, July 5th, and will close at 7 PM that same day. At 9 PM, there will be a captain's meeting in which all rules, guidelines, procedures, and general information will be clarified. The following day, Thursday, July 6th, is when the actual play will begin, with a round robin stage involving 22 teams spread across six groups. The doors will open for everyone to set up at 10 AM and it's very important that everyone gets there on time, as matches will begin at 11 AM sharp. We've all heard stories about players' computers not being set up correctly, so don't leave that to chance.

The round robin will be the framework for the double elimination stage, which will begin that Friday, the 7th, with seeds being determined based on the teams' records and then, in the common event of a tie, total points scored. Groups five and six only have three teams, but each team will play a match with a team from the other of the two groups in order to be on the same page as every other group.

The heavily anticipated official GUI has also been released and can be downloaded here. Within this zip file, you will find a special screen saver made specifically for the Intel Summer Championships event, config and userconfig files, a variety of crosshairs to choose from, and more. Players will not be allowed to access their console during this event to ensure each player's legitimacy, so it's important to get used to these settings because it's all you'll have.


The map list has not yet been announced or completed, but the community should have a good sense for what to expect at this point. In the past, such maps as harrington, railroad2, donner, and anzio have each occupied two, or even three, weeks per season, but with newer maps like lennon and muhle being modified and becoming increasingly popular, it will be interesting to see what TOG decides.


Within this article, you will find the official group listings, the announced prize distribution, the basic event schedule, and the official round robin matchups to be played on Thursday.

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Day of Defeat Summer Championships Prize Distribution
1st: $5100
2nd: $2700
3rd: $1600
4th: $900

Total Prize: $10,300

Schedule
Wednesday: 12:00 Noon - 7:00PM Tournament Check-in
Thursday: 10:00AM - 11:00PM Matches
Friday: 10:00AM - 11:00PM Matches
Saturday: 10:00AM - 10:00PM Matches
Saturday: Finals at 10:00PM (**Tentative**)

The following page contains information on the events, groups, and match ups.