MLG 4v4 Tournament, Saturday, June 3, 2006

I participated in my first MLG 4v4 Tournament on Saturday, June 3rd. This was my first 4v4 with nearly everyone in the room, which isn’t good when you’re playing against an experienced team. I didn’t practice the game types with my team, which also isn’t good.

The first game was slayer on Lockout, which we lost 50-36 or something. I went 5-11-12...it was just one of those games where no one would drop. This was exacerbated by some very poor decisions on my part. It seemed like our team was never able to set up, and when we did, we were down significantly and lacking the SR and sword. After it was apparent that we were in an insurmountable hole, communication all but died and we started going Rambo to our predictable deaths. I think one person on our team broke even on the kills and deaths...everyone else was in the hole. That game is here. I felt like I let everyone down coming in 8th place and all. I know I’m better than that, but some games just go down that way.

The second game was crazy king on Warlock, which we also lost handily. This was basically more of the same. They got an early lead that became a huge lead. Communication died. I felt like I had to hit someone with 10 bursts before they’d die. We did a poor job of doubling up on people and getting to the hill. Unfortunately, they did an excellent job of doubling up, placing their guardians in advantageous locations, and protecting the hill occupier. That game can be found here. You can watch this game here (~85MB, right-click save as). Warning: it may not be worth watching since I played poorly.

After that game ended, Caesar sort of went off about how badly he played especially since he had host. Then he just left....[uncomfortable silence]...the rest of us said our GG stuff and departed.

When I left, I started my own room and tried sending messages to the rest of the team, but XBL told me I couldn’t send any messages. Then I backed all the way out and tried to sign on again. No go. I have digital phone service, so I checked for a dial tone but there wasn’t one, so I knew I had a router/modem problem. I went upstairs and reset everything and raced down to sign back on XBL. By the time I got back on, my team picked up a fourth, Face Humper I believe, and continued on with the tournament. I sent Caesar and Royal messages saying I was back on. After receiving no reply, I sent Royal another message saying something like, “I guess you found a fourth and are continuing with the tournament. Catch you another time.” He later replied with, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Pretty much.  We thought you logged off and were gone.”

That was it. I was done with my first 4v4 tournament. I had looked forward to this all week and sucked it up in two games, had Caesar leave the second game pissed off, and got replaced because of a very rarely occurring router problem. Swell.