R@pe Takes the 16Bit X-Mas Invitational

The 16Bit X-Mas Invitational finals were held on Sunday the 11th of December from which R@pe walked away  as the ultimate victors. After what seemed to be an action packed competition, there were many signs of progress and growth in the local teams. The 16Bit X-Mas Invitational had many surprises and saw teams really pushing the bar and upping their game. Join Lola as she takes a look at the highlights and walks through the matches played in the finals.

Group Stages Highlights

pcZ surprised everyone by almost beating R@pe with a 3/3 draw on Granary. R@pe barely managed to win Gullywash with a final score of 2/1. pcZ scout Phenix caused havoc in the R@pe ranks as he delivered meatshot upon meatshot.

The PRIME vs R@pe group stages match ended in a draw as surprisingly R@pe took Badlands 3/2 and PRIME took Granary 2/1. These two teams ended in the finals, playing the same two maps but with very different results.

The playoff game was between UFO and PRIME. This was an extremely exciting match to spectate.  I saw some of the most brilliant demoman play in a TF2CSA competition, Goldfox can surely sing: ‘I’ve got the moves like Enemy’ ;).  UFO however proved to be more than able to stand their ground against PRIME and both maps ended in draws. Badlands 2/2 and Gullywash 1/1.

This competition has had the most draws that we’ve ever seen in a TF2CSA tournament. It was exciting to spectate so many matches where the winner wasn’t a foregone conclusion.

The Finals: PRIME vs. R@pe

PRIME’s choice of map:  Badlands

Goldfox on demoman gets an airshot on a solly jumping him

Goldfox and Acidman dominated Badlands. Goldi would damage players with his pipes and Acid would rush in to finish them off. On all the previous matches I spectated Acid, he was running around like a loose canon. He would carelessly jump into a bunch of players to try and pick of the medic, sometimes succeeding, but mostly dying. On Badlands the PRIME scouts and demoman combo proved to be devastating. This combo dominated the map with the 2 soldiers and medic providing back up cover and capping points. Goldfox’s game awareness was an extraordinary thing to watch. Most players were just aware of the hectic battle happening around them, but I saw Goldfox instantly reacting,  be it to scouts flanking him, his teamies calling for assistance or an opponent being on low health running away. He would just sticky jump and pipe everyone to oblivion. Badlands ended with PRIME taking the map 4/2. R@pe had to come up with a counter strategy to the demo scout combo, or it was game over for them.

R@pe’s map of choice: Granary

R@pe, well, raped on Granary. We saw a complete turn around on this map. Granary has less room for the demoman to do jumps on, so PRIME was more dependent on the rest of the team to step up and deliver. We saw good strategic moves from R@pe on backcaps and waiting for more advantage when pushing up to caps. PRIME focused more on a 1on1 deathmatch style. Whisp really stepped up his demoman performance and at times pushed the PRIME players back on a solo rampage of pipes. The R@pe team work was astounding, it was as if they were attacking PRIME from all sides all the time. They  kept on throwing PRIME into a frantic state of trying to cover to many sides and therefore dividing their attention and causing weak defense lines. Both the team’s medics gave really good performances, most of the times the ubers were equally popped. With a display of good teamwork R@pe took Granary 5/0 and we were on our way to play map 3.

PRIME won melee and chose Gullywash

This is not a favourite map for R@pe, it also has more room for the demoman and scouts to cause havoc. Whisp  needed to come up with a strategy to counter the strong demoman, scout combo, and boy, did he not deliver. He again changed his team strategy, this time he didn’t focus on flanking as much but rather on ‘focus attacks’ on the medic and demoman. On both Badlands and Granary xMattx who is the R@pe roam soldier played roam like a pocket. On Gullywash we saw once again how in TF2 proper strategy plays perhaps a bigger role than skill. From the get go all that xMattx did was change his style and he played like a real roam soldier. He jumped Xombie with barely enough health to survive the jump, taking out PRIME’s medic a couple of times. R@pe’s focus on Gully was on taking out the medic and the demoman, thereby crippling PRIME so much that the rest of the team could do nothing but try and defend. Yang also did very well on keeping his teamies buffed and using well timed ubers to ensure his team’s advantage on pushes. R@pe took Gullywash with 5/1.

xMattx jumping Xombie with no regard for his own health

Congratulations R@pe!

A big congratulations to the players of R@pe from the competition organisers. The team has won themselves a cash prize of R2100  (R350 per player) courtesy of 16Bit TF, Razerfox, Zephon and Geno.