ICCG 2007 : Past, Present, & Future

Quickie: One of MYM members, TaZz has gone missing in Tasmania, Australia. Read about it here.

I was informed that last year's ICCG was quite interesting. Last year's ICCG, the public can see what's going on in big projected screens on spectator mode and a lot of 'gosu' (pro/master) gamers participate in the event. There are few problems during the event but not that catastrophic. One of the main concern is the timetables/schedules. Gamers/participants usually want to know a bit earlier whose their opponent is, what time the games are and such so that they can prepare themself accordingly. Another thing is, the updates, results and also the replays (for the games competition) were slowly updated eventhough they have their own blog/site for it. Well, nothing is perfect in this world even WCG (World Cyber Games) also have some problems. So how did ICCG fare this year ? Keep on reading to know more.

"During registration, Fatal the only one that posed for the camera"

We went there with MTH and Kenny's car. We woke up around 8-9 in the morning and since its kinda late, we took a quick bath, pack our stuffs and leave. Kenny waited outside (LMAO) for Fatal and Zed while me, Din, and Shuji followed Mth. To avoid the traffic jam, Kenny used a short-cut and we followed from behind. The short-cut that we used were actually some lanes in between the houses. Because we are in a hurry, I didn't manage to snap a picture. The roads there are so weird, we keep turning right, left, left, right, left etc etc. The surroundings are weird too and Shuji said that we must be in Shanghai or something, We arrived there (APIIT Bukit Jalil) around 10 and they quickly register themself (pay the fees) to the committees. In the middle of the building, you can see some booth and stalls (takoyaki, drinks etc etc) and one of it is the Gamer's Hideout where they display some XBOX 360 for the people to experience it. The owner of the booth is friendly and kept smiling all the way. By the way, the promoters (chics) for the booth, Granado Espada and Pc Gamer, is hot.

"Gamer's Hideout Booth where you can play XBox 360!"

"The hawt 'Granado Espada' promoters (chics). Note that I was nervous while taking this picture"

After registering and breakfast, we went to the notice board to check tDs.NT position and schedules. The first round is against the team FAITH and if they win it, they will meet TiTaNz (k3v's team provided that they win the first round). This is bad news. K3v's team obviously are among the best in the country (k3v is Malaysia's no1 QOP (self-proclaimed) and its hard to win against them. The battle grounds is at level 3 where the computer labs are situated at. Later the committees inform me that non-participants cannot stay in the battle grounds but they can spectate it downstairs. This is a big turn down for me and Din. We cant spectate or root for them (and I cant take some pictures boohoo). Nevertheless me and Din stayed there and try to avoid the committees. Somehow the committees didn't ask us to leave.

"The GodFather"

The first match for tDs.NT was quite a fight but FAITH did some mistakes here and there for tDs.NT to exploit and couple up with some teamwork, tDs.NT managed to get the upper hand and won the match. The next game, yeah you bet, is against k3v. Such a bad luck to meet them on the second round. tDs.NT ban QOP because they don't want k3v to use it (LMAO). Anyway, it was a tough fight, with tinker kept killing them early in the match (I couldnt elaborate more because I cant spectate the match and the replays is not uploaded yet). In the end, the more experienced team, TiTaNz won the match. They proceed on with the tourney and managed to get no 3. Another clan, Fitri dan rakan-rakan (Fitri and Frens) which happen to be one of our frens also joined the tourney. They also got knocked out by a more experienced team, IMU. Rumours that they are two Cybertime (Malaysia's current Dota top clan) members in that team. There are two groups for the dota tourney. Group A is the toughest group with clan such as Rev.G, TiTaNz (3rd place), say Thanks (1st place) and also tDs.NT (O'RLY ?). The top team of each group will battle for 1st and 2nd placing while the second of each group will battle for 3rd and 4th group. About the counter-strike tourney, I didn't get a chance to meet any of them. Anyway, below is the results for ICCG 2007.

Dota All-Stars (Ver 1.20c, I know, you can't view the replays. Need to revert back to 1.20c first)
1. say Thanks
2. IMU
3. TiTaNz

Counter-Strike 1.6
1. JAGZ
2. ACTIVATE
3. TOUFU

"tDs.NT during banning and drafting heroes ('pecah kepala' MTH)"

"ShibuyaD playing Sarlock (pun intended)"

"tDs.NT during the first match againts FAITH"

"k3v's team (TiTaNz) during their banning and drafting heroes againts tDs.NT"

"MTH: Damn k3v !! (DIN: Hot Takoyaki !!)"

"Zed: No sweat !"

Overall, ICCG this year is considered more than average (almost perfect) for an event (hey, it's an event organized by students, don't expect stuffs like WCG or something). The only letdown is the ability to spectate the games live. Last year they even have big projector screen(s) but they dont have it this year. Another thing they can improve is that, since everything is in 1 building and quite open, they can inform any event thats currently happening such as 'tDs.Nt defeated FAITH' or 'Team Fitri and rakan-rakan. Please prepare yourself. Your game is in a couple of minutes from now". Oh yeah, it could be handy to the participants if they could release the schedules earlier (same like last year) but I don't think the other tourneys practice this also so its not a big problem anyway. Just handy. Lastly, congrats to all winning teams and the losers, try hard next time ok ? This goes to tDs also. By the way, I would like to state again that the Granado Espada and Pc Gamer's promoter (chics) is hawt.

"From left, Zed, DIN, Kenny, Antabax, MTH, ShibuyaD (Shuji), and Fatal"

ps: Wondering when the replays are going to be released to the public.