ZTK's Oceania Duel Cup II Preview

Preface: I wanted to do a write up for the ZTK CPMA Oceania Duel Cup II (this weekend) but quickly realized I didn't really know much about the scene. So I hit up the homie ZTK and had him give me his thoughts, and grilled him on a few issues. The format of this piece is more of that of an article, but we tried to take his ideas, and see what narratives we could explore. Please see the Tournament Page for details of the cup. Enjoy!

Introduction

In the last event QHAT dropped cpm24 to Ultra, by one frag, and that would be the only map he would lose throughout the tournament. It’s uncertain that he will actually show up to play, but if he does, he would enter as the heavy favorite.

Okay so I’ve never been quite as hyped for an event as this one, neither as an organizer nor as a player. We’ve managed to get a good number of players from various skill backgrounds to register, and I’m really excited about the format we’re using. The group stages will be BO1s which setups the opportunity for upset to occur across the board. I think this event will give all the players a chance to see where they sit and rank among one another in Oceania scene, and see who they can make the jump on moving ahead.

Finally, we’ve gotten a lot of donations (thank you to all the donators!) which is sick and adds another element. I know Ultra is playing primarily because of this.

Dark Horses

If I have to breakdown all the registrants into relative skill groups, I would have to say that my expectation of the any top four would include the following players: Profanum, Stral, and Ultra. The fourth spot in this group is where things get really loopy. To keep it honest, I don’t think anyone from the mid-range group of skill players (such as myself), can actually compete for this spot. The likely candidates for this spot are going to be: Cerno, JS3, Bobbicals, and Cameron. Cerno, and JS3 are the grizzled veterans that can play a heavy game. What’s really going to be the important question here is whether they will come ready and in game shape, as both players have been on a bit of hiatus recently. If the situations get tight their experience might enough to tide either one of them into a top four placing, however, if they start to trade punch for punch, they might end up getting curbed quite quickly.

With the exception of Cameron and Bobbicals, who both come from Quake Live, I don't think the rest of the players in pool have skill yet to compete for the fourth spot. Both of these guys have the prerequisite mechanical skills to be, if not excellent, at least competent players in the arena. If they can get enough practice on the maps then they should be quite formidable opponents for the vast majority of the playing field. In Quake Live Cameron just doesn’t do dumb things... that’s his thing, and he’s quite good at it. The question will be if higher pace of CPMA forces him into uncomfortable positions where he makes uncharacteristic plays. Bobbicals played in the QuakeWorld event we had earlier in the year and did okay. He’s a decent up-and-comer, and is dedicated to work his way up through the ranks.

Top Three

When it comes down to the top three players it’s really important to note their stylistic differences.

Profanum's style is much more unique and based around movement. He combines this with surprising ways of utilizing the weapons, giving him a spectator-friendly flair. His use of the rocket launcher and his rocket to shaft combos are fantastic. In general, he's very good at employing combos. Don’t get me started on his gimmicky nades! In comparison to the other players though his hit-scan aim is weaker but when he does hit his shots its impressive stuff. When it comes to his maps, his game knowledge of the older maps is strong and it’s where he shines even against mechanically stronger players. His ability to play cpm3a is excellent, most recently displaying his tenacity on the map by coming in as the runner up at the ZTKFPS CPMA Japan Cup. Let’s be honest, everyone at this point knows how to play cpm22, and they can all play it at the highest level with different styles, you need to have another map you can do the same thing on. The thing with Profanum is that he’s known to be forever second in the scene, always narrowly losing, and question will be if he can break that meme?

With Stral, he’s a very fun player to watch and play against. I think the perception of him is that he’s still weaker than Ultra and QHAT. He has admitted that he does have difficulty when it comes to wrestling control from both of them, and yet, when you can see him play maps like cpm22 (a map he can steal from anyone) or cpm24, you know he's good.

Ultra is a lot like QHAT in that his shaft is something he has worked on for a long time. His hit-scan weapons are just jarring to be honest, like his good mate Stral (we’re all good mates to be honest). Shortly, his shaft and railgun dominance leads them to do well on maps like cpm22, and cpm24.

When it comes to the highest level of player in the Oceania scene there is definitely a hit-scan dominance, and the players that do the best are able to employ the shaft and railgun to devastating effect. If you’re not a top player, stay away from the brawling single atrium maps!

Oceania v. The World

We were talking about this back in the day, I think around the time that Challenges-EU took place, and I was watching a demo of Lunokhod-2 on cpm22 thinking to myself “HOLY SHIT this guy plays CPMA so differently to how we play it.” I think it’s true that as our scene is isolated we have fostered stylistic differences between us and the Western scene, and think being aim heavy is one of them. The level of aim that the some of the players exhibit in the community is defiantly top tier. Do I think that a couple of these guys can take on the world? I think QHAT could generally beat anyone in Europe or North America.

Random Thoughts