Bootman's World Finals '08 Preview

Posted by: bootman

CGS World Final Season 2

Birmingham Salvo

22

San Francisco OPTX

15

CSS:

Salvo

(8)

OPTX

(4)

Forza:

Picaso

(1)

miximup

(0)

Forza:

DaverySkills

(4)

SACKAMO

(2)

DOA M:

Messy

(5)

NinjaCW

(3)

DOA F:

SarahLou

(2)

Vanessa

(5)

FIFA:

Bazza

(2)

Stermy

(1)

Match Overview

I don't think I'm giving anyone breaking news here, but yes, the Birmingham Salvo and San Francisco OPTX are in the World Finals. One thing that I'm going to rant about real quick is all the hype around the Salvo being in the World Finals. Everyone is going on and on about how they're the first European team to make it to the World Finals, I'm not impressed. This is only the second season of the CGS, so excuse me if I don't think that's an amazing stat. The Salvo are a solid team pretty much all the way around, but a little inconsistent in some divisions. If the CGS was around for a few more seasons and then it was the first time, I wouldn't mind hearing this stat over and over again from commentators and writers in the community.

Back to these teams though, I'll start off with the OPTX. The OPTX have really impressed me at the end of this season, much in the way that the Core did. They took a golden opportunity, and put in all of their heart and then some to show the world that they're much better than their regular season record showed. Most of their divisions have been solid all season long (DoA 4 squad and FIFA), but it's really the consistency and heart from their racing and Source team that have given them the edge in the World Final bracket. I hate to say it because they knocked our team out of the World Finals, but the OPTX Source team made a huge statement with that first round win over the Venom right after they came off of winning the individual finals.

Their opponents, the Salvo are no pushovers either. After I saw the draft picks from the European combine, I figured if any team outside of North America was going to make it all the way to the finals it was going to be Birmingham or Berlin. This is going to be sort of a mirror match tonight in almost all divisions, because ODEE is the kind of General Manager that made most of his picks off of raw skill, and it has gotten them to where they are today. The only problem that the Salvo has is inconsistency. From the EU/UK Finals to the World Finals we've seen most of their divisions suffer a very bad offday which lets them get a very narrow win, and if they show that sort of weakness tonight, the OPTX will definitely capitalize on it.

Dead or Alive 4

Male: Chris “NinjaCW” Harris vs. Mingzhi “Messy” Deng

Both of the DoA matches are going to have one of two outcomes. Either we're going to see some 5-4's or we're going to see some 5-0/5-1's in both the Male and Female divisions. If the blowouts happen, expect them to be from the OPTX doing work on Birmingham's DoA squad. NinjaCW gets my consistency stamp of approval for the season. No matter what match you look at of his from this season, he's never looked out of form. If he lost, he was simply out played, but he's the only player all season long that didn't get completely shut down in a match to hurt his team's chances. He will be going head to head tonight with Messy, and unfortunately I can't give Salvo's DoA star the same approval. Messy is a phenomenal player when he's on, but we all saw how bad things can go after his match with NinjaCW. I don't care what anyone says, Messy got lucky to win that round over OffbeatNinja in overtime. Offbeat simply dominated Messy. If you checked out my article Too Consistent, you'll see my views on top DoA players getting beaten that badly. Messy's too good of a player to get 5-0'ed, and it really almost cost his team a match that every other division dominated in.

This match is going to be hard to predict, because it all depends on which Messy we'll see today. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt to put up a few rounds against NinjaCW.

bootman: 5-3 NinjaCW

Female: Vanessa “Vanessa” Arteaga vs. Sarah “SarahLou” Harrison

There's not much to say about Vanessa that anyone doesn't know. Vanessa's a beast...well a good looking kind of beast. She has only two career losses and both were from Phoenix, but many of said she's returned to form. Vanessa always plays amazing, but if anyone watched her matches after her first loss to Phoenix, she was playing extremely scared against the other women in the league, but she's back. Then there is her opponent SarahLou, the rookie. These two actually met up in the individual finals just weeks ago where Vanessa pulled off a 5-3 win.

Let me take this time to give my thoughts on SarahLou. When SarahLou was drafted there was a lot of hype around her being drafted from the European scene, and I kept telling myself that there was no way this girl could be THAT good. Boy was I wrong. I've watched a few of SarahLou's matches, and the girl is amazing, and I really don't believe that Mystik is the better player even though she was able to pull off the 5-4 win. SarahLou is amazing for the short amount of time she's been playing. She really reminds me of a female version of Master with her play style. She's very aggressive and has amazing intuition in game that gets her out of a lot of situations that I've only seen Master do with how fast he plays. I would honestly go as far as saying I think SarahLou is in fact the #2 Dead or Alive 4 female in the world right now. If anyone is going to give Vanessa another loss, expect it to be this girl. Remember, when Phoenix beat Vanessa for the first time it was possibly her last opportunity to do it for the season, SarahLou is now in the same situation. On the other hand though, I do think SarahLou gets nervous under pressure, and that could cause for an ugly score in OPTX's favor. She definitely needs to bring her “A” game tonight.

bootman: 5-4 Vanessa

FIFA 08

Alessandro “Stermy” Avallone vs. Michael “Bazza” Barrett


I've been waiting all season to boast about this but, told you so. During the pre-coverage of the draft myself and weenus predicted Stermy to be a protected player even though he had a terrible season 1 due to the fact that he is a proven multi-gamer and no matter what game it is, he can catch on and eventually be a top competitor, and that's exactly what he did this year by finishing second overall in region 1. Now let's talk about the match up.

This match is going to be extremely close and can go either way. Stermy's last match was nothing short of ugly against Manyna. I'm no FIFA expert, but the fact that in one point in the match Manyna was up 3-0 in the first half, and that's definitely not good for Stermy. It really seemed as though Stermy was having an off day, and Manyna is just too good of a player to give that sort of opportunity, but don't expect Stermy to have a similar bad performance tonight. His opponent, Bazza, is solid. He may not be the best in the world, but you can count on him to keep the points close if he does lose with his extremely strong defense. I'm going to have to go with Stermy tonight though, due to Stermy having a little stronger offense and a well rounded defense.

bootman: 1-0 Stermy

Counter-Strike: Source

This could be the deal breaker right here folks. Don't quote me on this, but the rumor going around is that the map being played tonight is de_inferno, and that's the Salvo's map. I personally watched their match on the map during the individual finals and they did dominate both sides, but I really think it was more because Sydney couldn't figure out that they ran the same strat 8 out of 9 rounds, and not because the Salvo did anything that impressive. One thing I will say though is that their timing and execution is almost flawless on the map, and if the OPTX can't adjust to their play style, they're going to be in big trouble.


Unfortunately, the OPTX aren't the always the tactical masterminds that they could be while playing. The OPTX is one of those teams that just tries to find something that sort of works, and then run it repeatedly, and that may not work against a team like the Salvo tonight. If the OPTX was watching the individual finals, they may have a chance, but if not they are going to have to rely on EXTREMELY strong communication to relay to the in-game leader so that he may adjust their tactics accordingly. As mentioned before, the Salvo is a great team, but not diverse. If the OPTX can catch on to their tricks early on, they might be able to pull off a big upset much like the Furia did when they played the Salvo, if they don't we might see a 12-6 victory or worse for the OPTX and the Salvo may be able to redeem themselves after some potentially big losses in Dead or Alive.

Oh, and if you're going to be watching this match live or just reading the live blog on TheCGS.com , expect to hear a lot of screaming going back and forth between Moe and RattleSnk about who the better AWPer is. Here, I'll spoil it for you...RattleSnk is.

bootman: 11-7 Salvo

Forza Motorsport 2

I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to toss a coin on predicting this one, it's almost impossible. Since the Salvo has arrived in the United States, the OPTX and Salvo have been racing buddies and practice constantly against one another. It has been said in interviews with both the OPTX and Salvo that they're going to have to redo their in-game tactics, because they know each other too well. They know who each other like to take out, as well as when they like to take players out on the track. With both teams having to play so cautiously and also using these new tactics that they didn't have much time to practice, it can go either way. Picaso is said to be one of the fastest racers in the world, but we've seen how quickly that can change this season if someone makes him do 5 360's into the dirt at the right time in the race. Speed means little to nothing in this game unless you're a smart racer and know when to break away with your opportunity at the exact right time. Good luck to both teams though, it should be close.

bootman: 4-3 Salvo
1st: Picaso
2nd: miximup
3rd: SACKAMO
4th: DaveySkills

bootman's overall prediction: 22-21 Salvo