Upsets galore at WCG Australian finals

Upsets reigned at the Australian finals of the World Cyber Games (WCG) held on the Gold Coast this weekend, with two major favourites pipped in Counter Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3.

Andrew Pender (GLaDe) beat red-hot favourite Phil Miraldo (PhiBoT) in the finals for Warcraft 3, while the recently-formed team of No Remorse (nR) triumphed over the more fancied Team Style in CS 1.6. Both Miraldo and Team Style were listed as favourites after impressive showings at the recently held Asian WCG. At the Asian games, Miraldo finished first in Warcraft 3 while Team Style came second in CS.

The winners of the Australian finals of the WCGs will now represent Australia at the world finals being held in Monza, Italy, in October later this year.

The finals of Counter-Strike couldn't have been more enthralling with the favourites to win, Team Style, taken out by No Remorse (nR). nR won the first heat 16 games to 11 on the classic de_train map. Style came back strong to win on the de_nuke map 16 to 7, but in the end it was nR that triumphed -- and clinched the trip to the finals -- with a 16 to 14 win on de_dust2.

Incredibly, nR has only been together for just over a month.  Whilst their members have been playing CS for anywhere between two to five years in various teams, this final combination proved a winner. nR member Somus said it was a mixture of skill and luck, and whilst they love playing Counter-Strike, it doesn't take priority over their other commitments such as work and study.

Dale Baker won the Project Gaming Racing 3 competition and Ayden Polat the Dead or Alive 4 championships on Xbox 360.

Players came from across Australia to compete in six competitions -- Dead or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing 3 for Xbox 360, on Saturday; and Warcraft 3, Starcraft, FIFA 2006 and the ever popular Counter-Strike 1.6 for PC on Sunday. The organisers of the Australian finals -- Pro Gamer, together with major sponsor Samsung (who provided 931C LCD 2ms response time monitors for all the finals) -- certainly delivered their end of the bargain: producing an event that offered free entry for spectators, good talent, huge screens, and even a chance to bring along your own PC to a free LAN. Crowd numbers, however, weren't outstanding, with the maximum being roughly 200 people who viewed the CS finals.

Luke Anderson visited the World Cyber Games Australian finals as a guest of Samsung.