Well, that was that. Challenges Europe 2016 started and ended yesterday. It was a fun event which we had no expectations for when we started mumbling about it over a month ago, but we had those expectations forcefully change when the big names started to register. I've quickly organized some thoughts about the event the below, as well as providing the Final Standings, including a Prize breakdown, of-course all available VODs, and shout-outs!

 
The Run Down
  • This tournament was conceived by naper around five to six weeks ago, and the admin group really started working towards organizing the event some four-and-a-half weeks ago.

  • The tournament was a success by every measure as I had initially expected around ten players to register, and was looking for a way to make it a 16 player bracket. Luckily we were able to generate much more interest than that, and by tournament day 25 players actually checked-in with quite a few high profile players.

  • The intention of the tournament was really to gauge what sort of interest lingered in the Quake scene for CPMA and to our great surprise, we had arguably one of the of the most stacked Promode duel events ever!

  • We anticipated some donations, and were happy with a prize pool of 100.00 CAD, however, we did not in anyway expect the incredible outpouring of generosity from the Promode community, and we received 628.75 CAD in total.

  • The event also blew our expectations in terms of viewer count on streams, again we had hoped for 50-100 players continuously, however, that number was way off, as some 350 players watched the entirety of the event, with combined player across the four streams counts exceeding 500 for periods.

  • There was plenty of #drama during the event. The bad-blood was already apparent, and well document, and that boiled over into a three map stunner between DEZ vs Lunokhod-2. With cpm3a hitting double OT.

  • With the brackets and seedings set, HAL_9000 vs memphis dueled it out in a three mapper in the Quarter Finals. Most people expected memphis to win but unfortunately his shape was just not up to par with HAL's crazy aim.

  • We knew once the big names started colliding we'd some special moments, and when gaiia, and HAL_9000 met on eizdm4-b15, it ended up being a barn burner with a crazy ending that caught everyone off guard.

  • We can't go without mention in the drama that surrounded the Grand Finals between gaiia vs Vo0. Is the Dutchman really that far ahead of everyone else? Was gaiia that drunk? Would it have even made a difference? Will we see these two players, these two eras colliding again?

  • "fox was ez" (c) Vo0. Is fox ez? :)

  • Who was Pyth3r? He didn't register. He didn't show up.
 
Final Standings
  1. Vo0 -- 282.93 CAD & DOOM (2016) + Demon MP Pack
  2. gaiia -- 188.62 CAD
  3. Terifire -- 110.03 CAD
  4. HAL_9000 -- 47.15 CAD
  5. DEZ -- One copy of Wand Wars.
  6. eThaD -- One copy of Wand Wars.
  7. memphis -- One copy of Wand Wars.
  8. santile -- One copy of Wand Wars.

Final Challonge Brackets.

Total donations received for this tournament was: 628.75 CAD, one copy of DOOM (2016) + Demon MP Pack, and four copies of Wand Wars.[/q]
 
VODs

Also thank you the the following people who helped before, during, and after the event:

 
Shout-Outs
  • To all the people who donated.
  • To all the people who watched.
  • To all the players who particiated!
  • Pk & Clan eX -- for hosting the German servers.
  • myT -- For the awesome map pans, and seedings.
  • Anhjee & Maverick -- For helping with ESR posts.
  • DEZ -- For getting in touch with Team 102, and various other things.
  • Leshaka -- For *Duel Bot* used in #cpmduel on CPMA Discord.
  • Ryan_H -- For the two great promotional videos.
  • snapcase -- For setting up the official private servers.
  • hyp3r & #Bosstour -- For letting us use the #BOSSTOUR servers.
  • entik -- For the awesome high-screen images used for the posters.
  • naper -- For the initial concept & idea.
 
Referees
  • Benroads
  • lisk
  • nifwl
  • xou
 
Streamers

Thank you once again to everyone who helped with, donated to, participated in, or watched this event. Thank you!

Links: icon_q3a Playmorepromode.org, icon_discord CPMA Discord