Exile5 Take Bad Company 2 Crown
Exile5 has caused an upset in the online gaming world by winning the Battlefield: Bad Company Online Tournament this week. Reigning champs Team Sidewinder are renowned for being the favorites in online tournaments in New Zealand – but this week they have to take a backseat to the newly formed Exile5 who took the tournament in a hugely exciting and extremely close finals game where only 26 tickets (from 240) across two rounds separated the best in the country – in Bad Company terms, a good match up of teams! The first half saw a quick push out from Exile5, which from Team Sidewinder’s perspective was not good news, as it had them on the back foot for the half. Never giving up though, some big pushes, and the first half ended 20-0 in favour of Exile5. The second half began and quickly it was seen this half would be more a firefight than strategic attempts to capture points – in the end only 6 tickets separated the two teams with Exile5 winning the second half also – final score 26-0. Electronic Arts New Zealand in association with ON3Network announced the Battlefield: Bad Company Online Tournament (The EA Cup) on PC, three months ago – and since then teams have been training hard and clocking up the hours taking part in what has been tipped as New Zealand’s biggest ever online tournament. With 24 teams starting out in the 8 vs. 8 round robin tournament, the elite were soon sorted out from the rest. After 2 months of upsets and a lot of game-time, it was down to the final 4. BlackWatch and Imperium played a nail biting game for 3rd and 4th place, with Imperium taking enough tickets to take 3rd Place. Thanks to sponsors HP and Puma, each member of the ultimate winning team (including subs) will receive an HP 320G Pocket Media Drive (valued at $249), a Limited Edition Battlefield Bad Company 2 t-shirt and a Puma Cap. Plus the captain will win an HP High Performance Elite Desktop Computer (valued at $3699). The captain can risk his life by keeping it or raffle it off amongst team members if desired. With a total prize pool for the winning team valued at $8000 – this was THE Online Tournament of the year to be a part of. “This has been a fiercely contested battle. Exile5 are obviously serious gamers and we hope that the HP kit they receive will be enjoyed by them in the future,†says Jess Rangi, Personal Systems Group Marketing Communications Manager, HP New Zealand.
