I'll begin the overview of the second Challenge Smackdown season in Australia with a brief history lesson. Comparing the way the first season progressed with that of the second season shows a number of differences and also a few similarities.
It took a while for SD1 to get underway in Australia due to discussions about the rules and registrations being taken twice. Eventually group games commenced but not all of them were played as some teams played only once or twice while others didn't do anything at all. A similar theme was present during the playoffs as none of the quarter-finals were played and only one semi-final went ahead. Thankfully the final between FA and Dx did happen but it wasn't without it's own incidents.
One possible reason that was put forward as to why there weren't many matches played during SD1 was that there wasn't really anyone setting an example, in that teams were slack about organising games because just about everyone else was too. This brought about tighter scheduling rules for SD2 where teams had one week to play each game, with an extra week allowable if required. A few other little rule changes were made but overall it was basically the same system from SD1 (qizmo/qw2.3x...clean f_checks...etc.). We saw 12 teams showing interest in SD2 which was a good number considering the way the previous season had gone. FA returned to defend their title of Challenge Smackdown.AU Champions while a few other teams who took part in the first season were also prepared to give it another shot...these included Foad, Dx, List and Rb. The other teams (AoK, MU, PoC, Azul, iC, Lies and THDM) were all new to Challenge Smackdown but that didn't mean they were new to teamplay. The teams were split into 2 groups of 6 for the round-robin matches (also referred to as the group games) with both groups being fairly even. There was every chance that we would see a couple of close games during the course of the season and we weren't let down (I'll come back to this later).
Before the group games began I was concerned that teams might have a problem with the new 1 week deadline for matches. Looking back now I shouldn't have worried as the teams adjusted accordingly and didn't complain once. In the end only 2 out of the 30 group games didn't get played which was a fair improvement over SD1...though we'll be looking to get through the whole lot next season. This time around there were no delays to the start of the AU division as List and PoC got the ball rolling. During the early rounds it was encouraging to see that most of the new teams had qizmo setup and were familiar with the rules, the teams from last season knew the drill as well and this meant that games were played without having to mess around too much. The first close match came in the form of Azul vs Lies...luckily for Azul I wasn't playing. The third map of this game might have been one-sided but the maps leading up to it could have gone either way. Dx vs PoC was another hard fought encounter, a tiebreaker map wasn't needed but it wouldn't have taken much to change that. The first match featuring two of the favourites was Foad vs Rb and it didn't disappoint. The scores of the first 2 maps might not have been close but they left people guessing at who would win the all-important tiebreaker...a nice, close finish was an appropriate way to decide this match. At this point I should mention that only the top 3 teams in each group progressed to the playoffs and as the end of the group games got closer it became obvious that the third place in Group 2 would go to the winner of List and THDM. This turned out to be the last match before the playoffs so everything was set for a huge contest..the result was 3 maps of high tension qw that provided the perfect lead-in to the playoffs.
Due to 3 teams from each group progressing to the playoffs a round-robin format was used again...at the end of these games the top 2 teams would go into the final. The high standard of the teams that had made it this far (Foad, Rb, Azul, FA, iC and THDM) meant that there were a lot of big matches to look forward to, and for a month after the playoffs began things were going nicely. FA continued their unbeaten run by taking care of Azul, Foad and THDM in the opening 3 games and then we were treated to Foad vs THDM. This match saw THDM upset one of the favourites in Foad over 3 maps...this was the last game Foad played as they decided not to continue which was a shame as they still could have made it to the final. THDM also gave Rb a scare by beating them on dm2 before losing in 3 maps while FA were able to win in 2 when they faced Rb. It was around this point when things started to go bad in the playoffs...iC hadn't played a match yet though I felt we didn't need to rush teams just yet. After a few weeks they played a close match against THDM but then there was another break before their game with FA went ahead. I made a decision to end the playoffs since things were progressing slowly, this meant that Rb and FA went into the final due to being at the top of the rankings.
Unfortunately this wasn't the end of the delays as exams proved to be a time consuming task for a number of players in both FA and Rb. The exam period was then followed by the CPL 4 Year event which saw Harlsom from FA making the trip over (and winning the tournament) which caused the final to be pushed back a little longer until he returned. When it looked like we were in the clear and that there wouldn't be any more hold-ups we found out that is was difficult to come up with a date that was good for both teams. We finally got a night for the match set but that didn't work out...instead a second date was agreed on which proved to be more successful. On the day of the final both teams confirmed that they would be ready to go and the Wireplay server was agreed on which was both good and bad...it was good that an agreement was reached easily, but it was bad that it was the server we didn't have rcon access to. In the end this didn't have a negative effect on the match itself as the players were able to elect an admin and kick anyone who didn't belong in the server before play started. However the lack of rcon prevented us from increasing the number of spectators allowed in the server so we could only fit the 8 "cams" in whose job it was to follow each of the players for the duration of the match. The international "cams" had to connect to the Australian ones which decreased their quality but they were still able to watch the action live. There was one last delay before the final got underway, Harlsom's connection picked a great time to die but thankfully Spice was able to pick him up and they both played from his house. The final was a "best out of 5 maps" series but FA only needed 3 to wrap up another Challenge Smackdown.AU championship...congratulations to both teams for making it this far. A special mention goes to FA for not losing a single map all season.
Before I finish, here are a few awards for SD2. The "new team of the season" was THDM...being a team made up of TF (Team Fortress) players they weren't expected to get far but they definitely earned their spot in the playoffs by winning that crucial match against List. They weren't content with just making the playoffs either, a win over Foad and a good performance against Rb showed that they will be a tough opponent if they return for SD3. The "player of the season" was very hard to decide on as there were a number of high quality players in various teams. In the end we went with Blind from FA due to his consistently high standard of teamplay...you could say that being in a team of top players made his job easier but Blind would make a difference no matter who he was alongside. My pick for "most exciting game" was pretty straight-forward (especially after trying to narrow down the previous award) and that was THDM vs List. Knowing that this game would determine who made it into the playoffs from Group 2 just made this already close match even better, and I certainly recommend watching the demos from all 3 of the maps.
Thanks to my fellow Challenge Smackdown.AU admins Porto, Sparky and Uther (for making my life a lot easier during the season)...the people who gave their time up to be "cams" for the final - Havoc, Juz, Kwijibo, Chronos, Aircon, Sparky and Porto...and also to the other division admins for doing a great job in their areas and being most helpful. I'll see you all next season.
