Singapore CS:S 2007 review

This article was originally written by Michael “Xtremist” Phee.

With Counter-Strike 1.6 instead of Source being announced for World Cyber Games 2007 yet again, did this mean the decline of CS: Source in Singapore? Not for a fact, actually. There were still some minor competitions going on, and with the rise of the Championship Gaming Series, the local scene has gotten itself a little hyped up.

Asian Counter-Strike: Source League

The first season of the Asian Counter-Strike: Source League (ACSL), an online tournament for the whole of Asia, took place in the first months of the year. Since it was the first season, all teams were randomly placed in Divisions 1, 2 and 3, which meant that all the divisions’ standards were equal. The top two teams from each division will be promoted to the higher division in the next season, and the top team from each division will qualify for the playoffs to fight for the ACSL season 1 championship crown. Conversely, the bottom two teams in each division would get relegated to the next lower division.

Singapore teams did well during the league season, and here are the final standings:

Division 1

• 1st: X3G

Division 2

• 1st: Red Line
• 2nd: [X]tC

Division 3

• 1st: Attitude.Gaming
• 2nd: TMG

During the playoffs, it was X3G, Red Line and Attitude.Gaming playing for the championship spots in a round robin format. The results were as follows:

• 1st: Attitude.Gaming
• 2nd: Red Line
• 3rd: X3G

After that was the ACSL Nations Cup, featuring all-star teams from each country to play for their country’s glory. For Singapore, we had XtReM!St and Rarus from [X]tC, Marvz and HellJumper from X3G, and finally DrakaN and Joaquin from Attitude.Gaming. Singapore won their group stage match against Malaysia but lost to Taiwan, only qualifying for the 3rd/4th placing match against Hong Kong, which Singapore won. Here are the final results:

• 1st: Taiwan
• 2nd: Korea
• 3rd: Singapore

The next ACSL season began right after the CGS Shanghai event (more on that below). In Season 2, Team X3G finished 3rd in Division 1 while Team Synergy topped Division 2. Lastly, Team Xt[C] topped Division 3 in their debut season.

Championship Gaming Series

In July 2007, teams X3G and Xt[C] flew over to Shanghai for the CGS Shanghai live qualifiers. Team Xt[C] lost in the first round to wNv.gm, but team X3G did well, clinching third. It was the first international LAN tournament for both teams. The final results are as follows:

• 1st: wNv.gm
• 2nd: United [BJ]
• 3rd: X3G
• 4th: XGX

In September 2007, the CGS announced the Singapore live qualifier and the Singapore team franchise. Eight teams took part in the double elimination held alongside the inaugural Games Convention Asia at Suntec City. Here are the results of the CGS Singapore qualifiers:

• 1st: TitaNs
• 2nd: Xt[C]
• 3rd: [X]tC

Xt[C] were initially picked to be the CS:S team for the CGS Singapore team, but controversy soon erupted over the General Manager’s, Chris Soh, choices. In the end, Chris Soh was replaced by Steven Yong, and Team TitaNs were drafted into the Singaporean franchise, dubbed the Singapore Sword.

Singapore Sword went on to emerge champions of the CGS Pan-Asia Championship, and were seeded into the top 8 of the World Championship. Unfortunately, Singapore was defeated by Birmingham Salvo and did not progress further at the World Championships.

Pan-Asia Championship

• Singapore Sword 10 – 8 Kuala Lumpur Taufan (FMJ)
• Singapore Sword 7 – 11 Wuhan Dragon (wNv)
• Singapore Sword 12 – 6 Sydney Underground (iMMinent)

World Championship

• Singapore Sword 8 – 10 Birmingham Salvo

Other Competitions

In September, there was a mini LAN competition event organized by the Singapore Gamers Association at the Headquarters Chinatown cybercafé. Adopting the CGS rules and with double elimination, the placing is as shown:

• 1st: X3G
• 2nd: PandemoniuM!
• 3rd: Xt[C]

In December, the last CS:S competition was held at the Singapore National Museum, overnight. However, it was a single elimination format. The results are as shown:

• 1st: PandemoniuM [X]
• 2nd: X3G
• 3rd/4th: [X]eN / PandemoniuM [YT]

This sums up the CS:S activities in Singapore for the year 2007.

Update: We previously reported that PdM! won the mini-LAN event in September. It should have been X3G. PdM! placed 2nd.