A Trip Down Memory Lane - Outpost on Fire 3 - OOF3

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Following the Great Summer of 2008, we had the 2009 Summer of Greats awaiting us. While 2008 was the year wherein Call of Duty 4 hit the limelight and became one of the strongest non-traditional eSports titles with plenty of cash. It was also the year of establishing the names, the teams and the players that would become the core of our renewed and expanded scene. Turn the clock about 700 times and we would find ourselves awaiting Outpost on Fire 3 and its Call of Duty 4 tournament in the heat-stroke basements of the Outpost centre in Antwerp, Belgium.

With only 26 teams making the trip to the warm, however rare it was, and sunny Belgium we were headed for an intimate, atmospheric and typically community-driven event that is the base of all Outpost on Fire events. It was never meant as a bold statement about the grandeur and grandness of Call of Duty, less of a show and more of a reward. Whereas the Antwerp Esports Festivals can very well be seen as something to better the state of eSports in general, the Outpost on Fire events are deliberately smaller and more concise to remind everyone where we started and that aiming for big American-like shows need not necessarily be.

Well hello there, trusted Outpost Centre...

All meta-eSports aside, OOF3 was in all its essence still a competitive event and all competition is driven by the teams it features. And boy, we had some amazing teams on display. In hindsight, you could call it a sort of  turning point, a changing of the guard as you will. There was no LowLandLions, no Evil Geniuses, no, none of them. The Summer was up for grabs and was more than ever a Summer of mixed teams. Fnatic had recently acquired their by now legendary choice to pick up Belgian Stevy Verheyen, ButtonBashers was a bee's knees of who's whos in Call of Duty history, Reason-Gaming sought to combine Finnish cool with British willpower. Although you had your traditionally British cliché of Team-Dignitas, the team was still a mix, as Chris Kinnair had to step in at the last possible moment to replace Michael Bradshaw, a decision they would not regret.

Coincidentally, these four were the teams you had to look out for the most. Rightfully so, they received the top billing in the seed list and were at the time beyond the rest, they exerted both their commanding experience as lethal individual skill in order stick out head over shoulders. However, in what has become standard practise in Call of Duty, the top teams tend to struggle in the first days of the tournaments and the greats of Fnatic, H2k Gaming, TBH.MSI and mTw were unable to play on full form and dropped points. mTw never won a match, TBH.MSI had to concede a loss against NoProfile, H2k Gaming even lost both of its matches and luckily for the big name Fnatic, they only drew once. These were abysmal results, but bar the Frenchmen, all of them made it to Day 2.

The first rounds were all about separating the wheat from the chaff, but none of that really mattered when looking back and seeing as to what was about to happen in the Winner Bracket Final. Fnatic against Reason-Gaming can always be considered a must-see, but this time it was really something spectacular. The Greek tragedy seemed imminent when the Brits had walked all over the Swedish attack and only needed to win two more rounds in order to give them the win and a foot up in the eventual Grand Final. As was to be expected, the normal barrage of trash talking had ensued between both teams and it grew to such an extent that Fnatic suddenly hit the pedal and went from zero to quickest-possible hero in no time. Especially Stevy Verheyen and Johan Lindqvist were on fire and managed to double and triple in each round. From the point of 07-12, it seemed as if each round was a do-or-die, a clutch that in its own would hit the highlight reel. Round after round the Swedes clawed back and each point on their board gave them more confidence, more energy and made them louder. By the 24th round, the basement was filled with followers-on, studying all the players' moves and ticks, trying to live near it, to feel so connected with the round and the match itself, as if they were in the servers themselves.

Stevy fighting on...

As an added bonus, the what's what of eSports was needed to tie the game and push us into overtime: Stevy had to take down the entire Reason-Gaming team in succession and defuse the bomb as well. The silence during those 30 odd seconds was deadening and the amazement afterwards was deafening. The sudden change of tone, the realisation on Reason-Gaming's faces, knowing that they threw away what was probably the biggest half time lead they'd ever get over Fnatic, the expression of joy and beating hearts of the Swedes. You would almost forget that an overtime was still needed at this point. That anticlimactic overtime seemed to keep everyone on tippy toes at first, when Reason snatched up round 1 but was quickly decided by Fnatic after taking the remaining rounds straight. Christopher Lightburn's aggravated attempts to wake up his own team and push them to life again seemed futile and the disappointment of the Reason-Gaming group must have been shattering.

Relive the last round through Stevy's eyes here

Meanwhile, the invigorated and wide-awake Team-Dignitas crew had been fighting in the Lower Bracket ever since the second round, after a crushing 02-13 blow in the Upper Bracket. Imperial eSports, NCS Gaming, cubesports all had to concede losses to the British supremists and then their arguably closest match of the tournament against ButtonBashers was about to happen. Both teams sat down and were angrily trying to best the other, but the fast-paced rhythm of mp_crash suited the former MeetYourMaker stars better and eventually they could close out another top team. The streak seemed uncharacteristically long and a dream story was in the making for the Brits. However, they had to take on one of the star teams of the moment, Reason-Gaming, first.

Luckily for Team-Dignitas, the British-Finnish mix had just come off a nerve-wrecking match against Fnatic and could not muster the energy, nor the will to fight on. The tournament was done in their eyes, they had Fnatic by the throat but still managed to let them wiggle long enough to break loose and beat them. Mark Horner and Chris Kinnair were the Team-Dignitas men who wanted to stick it to Reason-Gaming, not taking no for an answer and trying to find their way back to the top stile of the podium, a shot at revenge and a shot of redemption for a plagued Team-Dignitas Call of Duty 4 team. A similar 10-02 halftime score in favour of Team-Dignitas seemed ironic, but there would be nothing spectacular about this game's ending, Team-Dignitas continued and only let one round slip before taking the win and a shot at Fnatic, again.

With the traditional Double Elimination system in play, Fnatic needed to win merely one and Team-Dignitas both. As if lightning had struck, both teams went into mp_crash with a simply ludicrously aggressive playstyle. Fnatic seemed a bit nervous at this point, not dealing with the quick pace as well as Team-Dignitas' SMG players who handled the pressure better and could take out Fnatic, especially in the second half, as they had to pick Fnatic's attacks apart. The middle and A remained safely within Jonathan Barker and Mark Horner's reaches and only two more rounds were picked up by the Swedes before they had to call quits and move on to their own map, mp_crossfire. A by now controversial Grand Final map choice, but at the time, Fnatic were confident they had what it takes to win and dominate the Brits on it.

Davy and ButtonBashers could not do it

However, the constant barrage of trash talking by Team-Dignitas, as is the habit of most British teams, had played a role in the already seemingly nerve-affected Fnatic house. The map was going to go close, Fnatic eager to replicate their Round 2 win and Team-Dignitas ever so close to creating the perfect ending for a once nearly hopeless case. The focus fire outside of the game was now completely on Stevy Verheyen, who the British had hoped to rattle and throw off his game, which seemed to work throughout most of the game, as he had one of his rare off-games at probably the most ill timing. Not hitting his shots and not hindering Team-Dignitas on getting to the bomb sites made it a blow-out game for most of the map, them taking a considerable lead at halftime. The traditional fighting spirit of Fnatic had not yet waned away and they were not going to forfeit the Grand Final with such an embarrassing score, taking back rounds. Being aided by a short lag period, which halted the game's momentum and had a round replayed in full, Fnatic crawled back into the game and even took the lead for the first time, going up 09-08. The clutching of Johan Lindqvist, the calls of Conney Sjöberg, the stability of Marcus Nilsson and talent of Robin Holmén were not enough to counteract the fragless Stevy Verheyen and even though the rounds were close, an on-form Stevy would have swung the pendulum in their favour without a doubt and made the map less of a free-for-all.

The Moirae had decided otherwise, though, and everything seemed to piece itself in one of those nice 500-piece puzzles. Team-Dignitas took seven straight map wins, without any overtimes, to claim their first victory in a long time and their emotions showed it throughout the tournament: shouting, cheering and motivating at the right moments and clinching together as a single unit, something that has often lacked in the star-studded Team-Dignitas line-ups. Fnatic disappointed in the Grand Final after a strong Upper Bracket showing, but they would have their revenge at both The-eXperience '10 and i37 in the weeks following.

Jonathan Baker was somewhat happy

That mp_crossfire thriller concluded another fine and dandy Outpost on Fire event, taking and mixing the unique abilities and quirks that made Call of Duty 4 such an exciting game to follow at events and showing us what it was all about. We witnessed ups and downs, with only one singular regret, as with all previous Outpost on Fire events, there was no live video stream to keep everyone at home informed and aware of what was going on. So many of you would have spammed the channels or websites, had you been able to see what everyone there could have seen. But to the small, yet inspired, Call of Duty 4 live audience, it was an event to not quickly forget, lingering with enjoyment in the memories of many fans for months to come.