Tactics drawn on a pizza box have won Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski his first World Series of Video Games tournament for Quake 4. He was the strongest player of the weekend in Louisville and beat the WSVG 2006 champion Johan "Toxic" Quick to stop his amazing run of straight tournament wins at 9.

The Boy Wonder from Poland won the upper bracket final against Toxic after two very impressive performances on both his and the opponent's map. In the grand final, he met the Swede again and this time, Toxic got the upper hand, narrowly winning his map choice and the deciding Phrantic. The Scandinavian player did not seem like he was playing his very best Quake, but he showed glimmers of his enormous potential.

After the first set, the players were forced to wait for over two hours so that the World of Warcraft final could be streamed over the internet. This might have been very fortunate for the Polish player since after losing the first set of maps, Toxic might have had the psychological advantage. And if it was not for the WoW interlude, the pizza box would never have played its part in the final.

It was on the cardboard that the seasoned Quake champion Anton "Cooller" Singov drew the correct tactics for Phrantic. The Russian has been a long-time role model for av3k and gave his young padawan very valuable, as it turned out, tips on how to play Toxic.

It was around midnight in Europe when the players began trading frags again. The second and deciding set of games set started as a carbon copy of the first one, with Monsoon being the map choice for Toxic again. The Swede improved from the previous set of games and over long periods of the map, he was hitting his shots in his machine-like way. Av3k did a very good job managing to stay close throughout but did not manage to steal the victory from Toxic's hands, despite a late comeback.The final score was 17:14 in favor of the old champ.


Onto Placebo, which was av3k's choice. This did not look pretty at all for Toxic, as av3k had control from the very beginning of the game and did not allow his opponent any space. His map control, his speed and his weapon skill were dismayingly good. It was almost as if av3k was asking: "Who's the machine now?"

Suffice to say, Toxic's first frag came after almost 8 minutes of play when it was already 27:0 for av3k. It ended with a 44:16 score, quite possibly the heaviest defeat for Toxic in his illustrious Quake 4 career.

All was to be decided during the last 15 minutes of Phrantic, but it wouldn't be WSVG Lanwar if everything went smooth. After an embarrassing disconnection of the internet was resolved, the players proceeded to duke it out. One thing changed from the first set: av3k was one pizza box wiser. He controlled the pace of the game and won 32:15.

"You know why ownage? Cooller's school," said av3k in the dying minutes of the map and thus paid homage to Cooller who is world famous for taunting Toxic in game. In numerous interviews, av3k said that he was hardly a proponent of Toxic's style of play. This time, he got his chance to prove that Cooller's style is indeed better.

It was a dream debut in the WSVG for av3k. He won the tournament and finally found that nothing is impossible for him. $5,250 will go to Poland, but the World Series of Video Games circuit has only just begun. One thing's for certain - the pizza box might have worked wonders but we will not see Toxic this weak again.

av3k - Toxic 2:1
Monsoon 14:17 for Toxic
Placebo 44-16 for av3k
Phrantic 32-15 for av3k


PREVIOUS UPDATES

GRAND FINAL: First set
av3k - Toxic 1:2 (Monsoon Toxic, Placebo av3k, Phrantic Toxic)

The first set of maps started out with the Swede's pick, Monsoon. The young Pole started off with a 5-0 lead and that might have killed him. One of the weaknesses the Boy Wonder has is that he tends to underestimate opponents if things go well. Toxic took back control and got a lead which enabled him to take the first map victory home. Things looked good for Toxic in the beginning of Placebo but soon, av3k took control back and safely delivered the map home.

The decider was Phrantic and it was one of the better Phrantic games you would see. It had many nail-biting moments and was close until the end. The player that had control got series of frags on the opponent and control switched many times. Toxic came out strong and did more scoring than av3k. A late comeback from the kid did not stop that.

The players are now level.


TOWARDS THE GRAND FINAL
WSVG Lanwar has given us something we have not seen in almost a year, that is Johan "Toxic" Quick in the lower bracket of a tournament. The Polish sixteen-year-old Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski has defeated the Swede in the WSVG Lanwar Quake 4 upper bracket final and will be waiting for his opponent there.

Previously, those two met in the GGL DigitalLife upper bracket and grand finals, and at the World Cyber Games, and av3k was not able to take a map from the Toxic. This time around, he took two in a row, as he was in the lead the entire game on the Swede's map choice Monsoon (17:12) and had things under control on his own, Placebo (13:8).

Av3k had several lucky breaks in fights that could have gone either way on Monsoon and that gave him confidence to take on Toixc. On Placebo, he was in control of things all the time.

In the lower bracket, Toxic met Alexei "Cypher" Yanushevsky, like av3k, was too young to play in the WSVG last season. Cypher beat the dark horse of the event, Chance "chance" Lacina 2-0 to get to the last game of the lower bracket and was probably not expecting to meet up with Toxic.

Phrantic, the Belorussian's pick, ended with a 2-0 score for Toxic who seemed to have taken a page out of Fatal1ty's book. His style was almost a carbon copy of what the American has shown in the WSVG grand final against Toxic.

On Toxic's map choice Monsoon, Cypher did not get a frag until a server disconnect and an additional three minutes were left to be played. Toxic won the match but it was not the Swedish machine that we grew accustomed to see in 2006. Six months after the WSVG final it was the same person, but without the invincibility mode turned on.

Final Standings
1. av3k - $5,250 + $1,000 travel
2. Toxic - $3,000 + $1,000 travel
3. Cypher - $2,100 + $1,000 travel
4. chance - $1,200 + $1,000 travel
5. Dahang - $1,200
6. Cooller - $750
7-8. fox - $750
7-8. GaRpY - $750
9-12. clamp-ok
9-12. forever
9-12. griffin
9-12. LoSt-CaUzE
13-16. ERMAC
13-16. gellehsak
13-16. Jibo
13-16. Nomadic

Posted by Carmac on Jun 24 2007 10:38AM