SHOGO Shoot Out
by Gestalt.
With some of the top Shogo players from around Europe in attendance for a night of hot mecha action and 100,000 big ones up for grabs, what more incentive did Gestalt need to be there, reporting exclusively for PlanetShogo?
Free beer! WOOHOO!
A Fist Full Of Yen
Qualifiers for the Shogo Shoot Out had been going on across Europe for a couple of weeks, and at the end of the day just six players were chosen to fight it out for the grand prize of 100,000 big ones. That's Yen to you and me. About $800 then.
Somehow "100,000 big ones" sounds more impressive...
The finals took place at The Playing Fields, London's top computer games bar. Live DJs provided background music during the night, the bar kept the booze flowing, and there were even free fortune cookies scattered around the place for the competitors, journalists and spectators to snack on. Fortune cookie say "Soon you will be sitting on top of the world". Woman behind bar say "Soon you will be sitting on bathroom floor".
The Format
The format of the competition was a little unusual... Each of the six competitors chose their favourite map for the finals, and then played a twelve minute free for all on each of the selected maps. Each player's frags from the six matches were then added up to give a grand total. At the end of the night there would be a twelve minute duel between the two highest scorers to determine who went home with the big wad of devalued cash.
The six contenders were -
First Match
The first match was on MCA_Maritropa2, chosen by the French competitor, Duka. Joe Bailey and Sentinel took the early lead, with Joe putting down a gaggle of mechas with his spider mine gun early on in the game. Sentinel grappled his way around the streets, circling the small map fast enough to make you dizzy.
Meanwhile Wad was leading a fight back from the air, grappling up on to the roof tops and raining down destruction on the crowded streets below. As the rest of the players slugged it out in the streets, he managed to stay clear of most of the fighting, picking up the lead.
Things really weren't going well for Duka who, despite choosing this map, was running in last place! Javert was only just ahead, though he recovered a little towards the end to stay clear of the bullet-catching Frenchman. And Sentinel fought his way back to tie with the grapple-happy Wad for first place in the first round.
Second Match
The second game took place on OF_Lost_Cat - squeaky toy time! This one was chosen by Velcro, and unlike Duka he managed to make the most of his chosen map, racing to an early lead despite starting the game several seconds later than everyone else! Duka again seemed disappointed with his performance, but he climbed the field towards the middle of the game as Joe Bailey began to trail behind.
At this point Wad removed his headphones ("Use the force, Luke") and one of the staff went over to see what was wrong. We're still not entirely clear on what the problem was, but shortly afterwards Wad dropped out of the game entirely, despite being in second place at the time.
Sentinel began to drop off, giving Joe Bailey a chance to come back from last place in the dying moments of the game. Javert never really caught my attention in this match, but managed to rack up a respectable third place score. At the head of the field there was no doubt of the winner though - Velcro pulled out a commanding lead over Duka to take the win.
Third Match
The third map (chosen by Joe Bailey) was MCA_Maritropa1. Despite his hiding in the previous round, Sentinel took the early lead, with Joe Bailey joining him after a slow start. Joe eventually took the lead, but Velcro was closing up fast after going on a killing spree. Duka was taking up the rear, with Javert giving him company at the foot of the results table.
Joe continued to build up a lead, burning up several MCAs, though Velcro was still close behind. Wad also made a come back towards the end, dominating with his juggernaut. The action became frantic, with the top four players within a couple of frags of each other and the lead changing almost constantly all the way to the wire. In the end it was Velcro who took the win though, but only three frags covered the top four places!
Half-Time
Wad's departure from the second match left the judges having to award him an average score, giving him 20 frags. This left the results after three matches as follows -
Duka's performance was disappointing to say the least, and he and Javert seemed destined to come in last as the other four players were fairly evenly matched. Third place man Sentinel confirmed that the play had been very close during the first three matches.
"If someone has one good map, it could make all the difference."
And so as the second half kicked off we were looking forward to a spectacular show down between the top four players. But we were in for a big surprise...
Fourth Match
Wad's choice of map was MCA_12Floz, but he never really got to grips with the game, trailing in last place for most of the match. Javert also seemed lost, and Joe soon joined him. After picking up a couple of early kills, Joe seemed to spend most of the early minutes of the match cruising around in vehicle mode admiring the scenery...
In fact the game was rather quiet at first, with most of the players seeming to have difficulty finding anyone to kill. The action soon heated up though, and Duka finally found his form, taking the lead, with Velcro closing up on him.
During the mid-game Duka held his lead, but the rest of the field were finally beginning to catch up on the leaders. In the last seconds of the game Sentinel bagged a couple of useful kills to lift him up to second.
Fifth Match
Sentinel's chosen map was next up, OF_Underground. There were a lot of shots fired, but very few found their mark in the opening minutes of the match. Duka and Sentinel took the early lead, but Duka was caught in some heavy crossfire and Sentinel pulled ahead for a while.
The unfortunate Javert seemed to be cannon fodder, providing a number of frags for the other players as they struggled to reach double figures, let alone catch up with the leaders! Duka was obviously on a roll now, and pulled out a lead over Sentinel, who eventually succumbed to Wad's attentions.
Joe and Javert battled over last place as Velcro fought his way up the field to Sentinel, who seemed to have lost the plot somewhere in the mid-game. Wad tried his best to take the lead, but the flying Frenchman took the win.
Sixth Match
What a turnaround! After being totally routed in the first three matches, Duka had fought his way back to third place. However he would need a massive 12 frag advantage over second place man Velcro to reach the finals, and Wad was another couple of frags beyond them both.
Velcro was quietly confident of making it through to the grand final, but he told me "I don't want to say anything" to avoid tempting fate...
And so the final map, Javert's pick - OF_Comm2. After a fairly slow start Duka picked up the early advantage to take the lead, despite seeming to get lost at times. Wad soon fought back though, and took first place from the Frenchman as Velcro trailed in last place. Could Duka pull out enough points over Velcro to make it to the finals?
Joe Bailey dropped back towards the tail of the field in the mid-game, with Sentinel following close behind. Wad was heading the other way though, as he picked up a few quick kills with a batch of energy grenades to pull out a healthy seven frag lead!
Velcro began to fight back, rising up the field rapidly. It all seemed to be over for Duka, who quickly lost control over the map and plumetted towards the bottom of the frag chart once more. Joe Bailey did well towards the end of the match, as did Javert. By the end Duka had dropped to last place. Velcro and Joe Bailey picked up joint second, but Wad had commanded the end game to bring home a massive 17 (!) frag advantage at the final whistle.
Final Scores
And so with all six maps played, the final scores were -
So as expected, Wad and Velcro went through to the final after some impressive performances throughout the qualifiers.
Sentinel seemed to prefer the MCA maps, and his relatively poor showing in the on foot levels left him adrift in third, tantalisingly close to a place in the finals.
Duka had done well in the fourth and fifth maps, but his disastrous final map left him in fourth place. Still, an impressive fight back from trailing in last position at half-time.
Joe Bailey had seemed strong at half-time, but a total rout in the fifth match dropped him down to fifth place at the end of the day.
Javert never really seemed to find his pace, and Duka's remarkable recovery in the second half dropped him down to last place, trailing the rest of the players by over 20 frags.
The Prospects
The final was a twelve minute duel between Wad and Velcro. The map? MCA_Spires.
"No. Noo. Noooooooooo," cried out Velcro.
I don't think he was happy.
Wad didn't seem too impressed with the choice of map either though, so the final was wide open. Both players had done well during the qualifiers, and although Wad had pulled out an almost 20 frag advantage over Velcro, that didn't count for anything in the final.
Now it was just the two of them, head to head, with the winner taking those 100,000 big ones, and the loser getting a copy of Get Medieval. Oh dear...
The Final
The game was slow. God was it slow. And tedious. Very slow, and very tedious. Whoever chose MCA_Spires for the final map should have been taken out and shot with a very big gun.
The action was slow (oh, did I say that already?) and methodical, with every shot counting. The tension was enormous as every single frag was a victory of man over machine. With both players grappling around between buildings, hopping across the roof tops, and letting loose barrages of gunfire every time they caught so much as a whiff of their opponent, the game was a battle of nerves as much as it was a battle of MCAs.
Kills were few and far between. Very far between. As the game reached its midpoint, the score stood at .. 2 frags a piece! Yes, that's 2. Two. I told you it was slow...
Then suddenly it all seemed to be over. Wad blew himself up, giving Velcro the lead. But Velcro couldn't stay clear for long, and Wad came back at him with everything he had, hunting him down to claw back the lost frag with an incredible long-distance shot from his juggernaut.
And then as the game reached its final stages, Wad took down Velcro with a well-placed nuke. Velcro made a last ditch attempt to pull back, but couldn't find his target. After twelve minutes of cat and mouse, the final score was 3-2.
It's All Over
And so the evening drew to a close. A Samurai warrior presented the 100,000 Yen reward to Wad, who soon vanished with his booty as he made a dash for the nearby railway station to get his train home.
Although the last of the free beer had long since been drunk, I lingered behind to talk with Mat Bettinson (of PC Gaming World) and Billox (the UK Wireplay Quake II champion) who had dropped by to watch the tournament. Or maybe they were just there for the free beer?
Billox had been firmly thrashed in the free for all Shogo contest that was also going on in the background during the main tournament. His excuse before the match had been that this was his first time playing Shogo, adding "And I'm pissed"...
The event went remarkably smoothly, though the lack of any sort of tourney mod for Shogo made it all a little haphazard compared to the finely honed art of running a Quake II tournament. Players had to join the server and then stand still until given the word to "GOOOOOOOO!", and occasionally players were telefragged before the match even began, or didn't realise the game had started until their screen turned red.
It's doubtful that Shogo will become a serious tournament game, and certainly the lack of mods to allow this makes it that much more difficult to run a tournament for it. But at the end of the day everybody had a good time, and although the level of competition didn't seem as high as in similar QuakeWorld or Quake II tournaments, there was some impressive playing on display. And most importantly, it was fun.
All in all a great night out!
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