Home Gaming So what went wrong at ESWC?

So what went wrong at ESWC?

3 min read
19

ESWC

On Friday evening Bravado Gaming began their group stage matches at ESWC. The South African team took on the French top seeded EnvyUS in their first matchup. All spectators knew this was going to be a tough match from the get go, but there was a glimpse of hope as Bravado Gaming took the first round. They managed too grab two more rounds vs. EnvyUS ending 16-3, where they seemed clearly outmatched by the French. Bravado Gaming failed to make it out of the group stages as they lost 16-7 to Counter Logic Gaming (US) and 16-5 to Renegades (Aus).

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What went wrong?

Unfortunately we were only able to spectate one match of the three played by Bravado Gaming.  After losing the knife round (for sides) they were awarded the Terrorist side on Inferno. Being the less favorable side on this map, fans got a breath of fresh air when Bravado Gaming took the pistol round. We all hoped this slight bump in momentum would be enough to give them a good start, but we were wrong. Although winning an impressive eco-round (buying pistols and light grenades), the French soon began to run away with the game. They gave Bravado Gaming little to no information, round after round as they themselves pushed to gather info.

Team EvnyUS were giving Bravado Gaming very little respect as they pushed round after round bringing the fight to them, and you could slowly see the frustration in the movement of Bravado. In my opinion Bravado Gaming, although being out-matched, didn’t perform to their usual standard. Two weekends in a row we’ve seen a completely different team to the ones who won the qualifiers.

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Bravado Gaming take a round while Orena’s Luca ‘Robohobo’ Tucconi reaches his final form

The rest of their matches were not streamed, but by the score it seems they had a slightly better game against both Counter Logic Gaming and Renegades, but again struggled to come out with a win. It’s still evident that South African Counter-Strike has a long way to go before reaching the level of that in Europe. The issue here seemed to be tactics and control. Bravado Gaming weren’t struggling on aim duels, but rather adapting to the pace, strategies and playstyle of their opponents. We still have a lot of work to do.

The community response

All throughout the evening posts were popping up with rather positive responses as members of the community discussed the matches.  One thread in particular aimed at discussions on how to improve the level of play in South Africa, with the premise of creating an all-star team piquing my interest. This is a terrible idea for any eSport in this country, and the reason is simple: Growth in an eSport at grassroots level is not achieved by making a team of the best players and sending them overseas.

Sure, those five players are improving their game, but the rest of us back here are struggling against mediocre competition. Growth is achieved by creating an extremely competitive environment with tournaments that push these top teams against each other, where they can never stop challenging themselves and each other. This happened in Dota 2 where Bravado Gaming Emotion created a team of the best players in the country and were unbeaten, and probably still are. That was one of the reasons I quit shoutcasting Dota 2 in South Africa because the scene became stagnant with them winning every single tournament. Competitive growth of Dota 2 in South Africa has come to a halt, with CS:GO booming at the moment because of the more balanced competitive environment.

On the plus side, Bravado received positive feedback throughout the weekend and the community were 100% behind them. Although they did not make it out of the group stages, they played against the world’s best and learnt a thing or two. Each year that we attend international events the results get better.

Our time will come.

Last Updated: July 13, 2015

19 Comments

  1. HairyEwok

    July 13, 2015 at 15:57

    Through loss can one learn your weaknesses. But this is as Congo says. The scene is always the same with the same teams always dominating in the SA grounds. Instead of making a super badass team, why not break those top players into other teams and let them teach the ropes to other people in their teams. Get the talent up more. I can think of one reason why this hasn’t happened yet and it’s a SA gene we all have…. The need to win and screw the rest.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief's Adventure

      July 13, 2015 at 15:58

      ^This

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      July 13, 2015 at 16:07

      Like driving in traffic.

      Reply

    • Aries

      July 13, 2015 at 17:34

      That’s why my clan is called The Academy, we teach others wanting to play competitive but cant get into a team or dont want to start a clan, though we only in BF4 so far, got quite a few who play CS:GO though not yet competitive

      Reply

  2. jGLZA

    July 13, 2015 at 15:59

    Why are there so many rounds?

    Reply

    • CongoKyle

      July 15, 2015 at 14:07

      CS:GO has 30 rounds in total. One team will start on the Counter-Terrorist side, other on the Terrorist. The first half is 15 rounds, and the first team to get 16 rounds wins. So scores can end 16-1, or 16-14.

      Reply

  3. Julius

    July 13, 2015 at 16:04

    A picture with a black man in it and the question, what went wrong? That’s racist.

    Reply

  4. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 13, 2015 at 16:07

    So they were like a Vodacom Cup team trying to play Super Rugby?

    Reply

  5. Gian-Paolo Buffo

    July 13, 2015 at 19:20

    Such proof.
    Much read.

    Reply

  6. MakeItLegal

    July 13, 2015 at 21:46

    u never judge those who try , so well done , this is cs : go right >

    Reply

  7. Lothy

    July 14, 2015 at 06:30

    the irony is this problem has been here for nearly 15 years, since the days of the 1st worfaire at The dome… The irony is its mainly been the 1v1 competitive games where we have done well. Iv played competitive gaming and hosted many a tournament and in my opinion, the CoD and CS:GO teams are way to arrogant. Bravado since inception have always been known as arrogant, and I think they are more than happy to dominate the local scene over the international.

    Reply

    • CongoKyle

      July 15, 2015 at 14:10

      Naturally 1v1 games will see better results. This relies on one person’s skill and he has to be concerned with nobody but himself. If there’s an issue, he has to fix it. In team games it’s a bit harder because some players cannot be as dedicated as the others, if there’s an issue it’s a bit more complex to handle.

      It’s not arrogance at all, saying that seems ignorant. Remember, when PandaTank went pro he was being paid to play games pretty much all day. If these teams had the same opportunities we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.

      Reply

      • Lothy

        July 15, 2015 at 14:26

        I do get what you saying, managing 5 people over 1 comes across as easier, but 1 or 5, surely the habits are the same?
        When I was involved in the scene there was a lot of arrogance and like I stated that was my personal experience. Also history has shown our CS and CoD has always lacked in international play, especially when compared to games like Quake and StarCraft and nothing has changed for the last 15 years.

        Reply

  8. NickTheEagle

    July 14, 2015 at 09:55

    Theres a much bigger player pool overseas, meaning there are more ”top” players and you can’t blame anyone for that. Maybe they did clinch up when they played…I don’t blame them since Envy is one of the top tier teams in the world. None the less they picked up some rounds and probably had fun being overseas an all. Better luck next time.

    Reply

  9. BEEMERSTEIN

    July 14, 2015 at 15:10

    “Growth in an eSport at grassroots level is not achieved by making a team of the best players and sending them overseas.” I 100% agree with this. Team leaders has become greedy to win. Hence, players clan hopping. No one is really willing to learn from the mistakes and shortfalls.

    Reply

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