Fresh off the launch of the QPAD product line into the United States, the team headed down to support the Kode 5 US Finals. As a global sponsor of Kode 5, QPAD decided to also hold a 1v1 tournament at the event with $200 cash to the winner as well as a QPAD of their choice.
The main event of the weekend was the Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament however. With not only a spot to the Kode 5 Grand Finals in Moscow on the line, but also bragging rights as the best team in the country, the action was extremely intense. The top eight teams in the United States were all invited to the event and they all made the trip to Dallas, Texas. Some early upsets took place when Pandemic sent the second seed, x3o gaming, to the lower bracket in the first round and then in the second round when Frag Dominant was able to upset the heavily favored Evil Geniuses. These two teams eventually met up in the lower bracket with x3o Gaming defeating and thus eliminating the number one seed of the entire tournament, Evil Geniuses. The team of the tournament though was Gravitas Gaming. They steamrolled the entire Upper Bracket to earn their spot in the finals. X3o Gaming was able to fight all the way through the lower bracket to complete the finals.
Because Gravitas Gaming was the upper bracket champion, x3o had to defeat them twice to win the entire tournament. In the first map, de_inferno, x3o look like they had what it took to do just this when they simply dominated Gravitas 16-2. When the map changed to de_nuke though, Gravitas re-found their groove and it was another blowout, this time at the hands of GG. With the win, Gravitas won the entire tournament and earned their spot in the Kode 5 Global Finals in Moscow later this year.
Final Results
1st - Gravitas - Flight and accommodations at KODE5 Global Finals + Cases + Five KODE5 Edition QPAD CTs
2nd - X3O - $750 + Five KODE5 Edition QPAD CTs
3rd - Frag Dominant - $500 + Five KODE5 Edition QPAD CTs
4th - CompLexity - $250
As the main tournament took place, QPAD also held a 1v1 tournament in its booth where 32 of the top Counter-Strike players participated. The first prize was not only $200 in cash, but also a QPAD of the winner’s choice. After lots of headshots and many close matches, it was down to Tubby from iDemise and da bears from Complexity. In this best of three shootout, it would go down to the wire. In the first map, Tubby was early to jump out to an early lead with a convincing map victory. Da bears quickly found his rhythm and answered back to tie it up at 1-1. In the third and final deciding map, da bears continued his strong play and was at championship point at 10-6. With his back against the wall and needing to play perfect, Tubby did just that. He was able to win the final four rounds of the match to force a 1 round overtime. In the sudden death round, both players exchanged a variety of leg shots before Tubby was finally able to headshot da bears to take it home.
The local Texas boy Tubby was definitely the fan favorite at the event, but da bears really had the match in the bag until the very end. Ultimately though, Tubby won the $200 dollars cash for first prize and chose to take home a QPAD CT Large Black. For his efforts da bears also received a QPAD, but he instead chose a QPAD CT DoTA Limited Edition pad. Congrats to both of the winners, you gave the crowd a great show in the finals.
Below you will find our photo gallery from the event. It was a lot of fun to there for the competition and congratulations again to the winners, Gravitas Gaming and Tubby!
