July 26th and 27th saw the second Doesplay live event of 2015 held on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. With a prize pool of $10,000, the ‘Doesplay 10k’ event set a new precedent for Australia & New Zealand’s competitive Call of Duty scene. Seventeen teams made their way to the Gold Coast from all over the ANZ region to compete for first place and their share of the prize money.
Teams were split into three brackets for pool play: Alpha Pool, Bravo Pool and the Pro Pool. Each team would play a best-of-5 series against every other team in a round-robin fashion, before advancing to the double elimination bracket for the second-day playoffs. The competition was stacked: almost every team in attendance contained at least one player with a previous top 4 LAN placement under their belt.
True to ANZCoD tradition, most established teams had made roster changes in the four weeks between the Doesplay 10k and the previous event, ACL Sydney. The Trident.T1Dotters team of ACL Sydney reacquired previous member Iskatu, before leaving the Trident eSports organisation to play under Avant-Garde. The squad formerly known as Incept made changes too: trading Jake for Rival, as well as defecting from the Incept organisation to become the new Skyfire roster. Several new teams were also born from combinations of various well-known and high-ranking players: Integral, Incept (the new roster), and Eat Sleep Game Repeat being just some.
Over in the Pro Pool, old teams and new were battling for first seed. New Zealand team Uproar.iGnitionZ had a solid run through the bracket, winning every series until their round five match against Integral Nation which was lost 3-2. Uproar.iG, since ACL Sydney, have picked up long-time player Hysteria, a choice which appears to be working well for them. Uproar.iG finished up the day with the second seed.
First seed went to Integral Nation. This roster is full of individually experienced players, but marks their first live event playing together as a team. Integral Nation played well in their bracket, finishing the day without losing a single series. Of particular note is the round 4 match against Avant-Garde, which to general surprise (given Avant’s reputation as a formidable team) ended in a 5-0 sweep Integral’s way. Avant-Garde, despite being an experienced team of skilled players, did not perform to their usual excellent standard. The end of the first day saw them rounding out the bottom of the Pro Pool without a single series win to their name. Skyfire and Incept both fared reasonably well, taking third and fourth seed respectively for the day two playoffs.
Over in the Alpha Pool, Eat Sleep Game Repeat (ESGR) were on a roll. The team smashed through their first three pool play matches 5-0, putting their team on a 15-map winning streak. Round 4 saw ESGR matched up against PLT.Mindfreak, from whom they were able to take a map but ultimately lost the series to, 1-4. Their final series was against F7.Awafi, and went 4-1 to ESGR. Meanwhile, things were business as usual for PLT.Mindfreak, who smashed through every series without breaking a sweat – only dropping a single map to ESGR over the course of the day.
Bravo Pool’s standout team was Citadel Gaming, who (in similar fashion to Mindfreak) finished their pool play run without losing a series. ESGR Academy – sister team to the ESGR squad of Alpha Pool – ranked in second place within Bravo with a tidy 17 points, having only lost one single series. Team Sky Faction was close behind ESGR Academy, with 16 points, putting them in Bravo pool’s third spot.
On day two of the competition, all teams advanced to the double elimination bracket to compete for the $10,000 prize pool. Integral Nation, in first seed thanks to their outstanding first-day performance in the Pro Pool, made swift work of their first round, defeating Aspire eSports 3-0. In their second round, though, Integral were matched with ESGR, and the match was not in their favour. ESGR won the series convincingly in a 3-0 sweep against Integral, putting the first-seeded team into the loser’s bracket early in the day.
Eat Sleep Game Repeat would need the momentum from their victory over Integral in their next series against Avant-Garde. Avant, who for most of the 2015 season played under the name “Trident.T1Dotters”, have repeatedly demonstrated their formidable talent at Advanced Warfare. Despite their multiple top-2 placements at every other event of the 2015 season, Avant-Garde were no match for the young ESGR squad. After a gripping series, ESGR walked away with the win: 3-1 to ESGR, with Avant-Garde now facing a long run through the losers’ bracket to claw their way back to a chance at #1st place.
Integral Nation, finding themselves in the losers’ bracket following their earlier loss against ESGR, went on to defeat Sky Faction 3-0. The next series Integral fought was against Incept: Integral claimed a hard-won victory here, 3-2, before going on to face Uproar.iGnitionZ in round 5. Uproar.iG had earlier been knocked into the losers’ bracket after a 3-0 loss to Mindfreak. Here in the losers’ bracket, iG proved to be no match for Integral Nation. Uproar.iG lost the series 1-3, ending their aspirations to the prize money and putting them in #5th/#6th place overall.
What of Team Skyfire? This roster, who played (with minor changes) at previous live events this year under the name Incept, are in no danger of being underrated. After an early 3-1 loss to Mindfreak in the winners’ bracket round 3, Team Skyfire had a cruisy run through the losers’ bracket. Sweeps were the order of the day, with Skyfire eliminating established teams Plantronics.Nv, Citadel Gaming and then Avant-Garde one after the other, all 3-0. In the losers’ bracket round 6 though, Skyfire were matched up with Integral Nation. Skyfire were able to take a map from Integral but ultimately lost the series; the score being 1-3 Integral’s way. Skyfire placed #4th place overall.
In the semifinal game, Integral Nation went head to head with Eat Sleep Game Repeat for the second time that day. The first team to win 6 maps would earn victory in this continuation series, and ESGR were up 3 maps to nil. Integral fought tooth and nail to stay in the competition, taking three maps from the ESGR squad. In the end though it was ESGR who came out on top, winning the series 6-3 over Integral and guaranteeing themselves a spot in the grand final against PLT.Mindfreak. Integral Nation placed #3rd overall.
Fresh from their win over Integral, the Eat Sleep Game Repeat team remained on mainstage, readying themselves for the final battle against PLT.Mindfreak. The team were eager to make up for their earlier 1-3 loss to Mindfreak in the quarterfinal game. It was not to be, though: despite their best efforts, ESGR were simply not able to withstand the onslaught of the ANZ region’s most accomplished team, Plantronics.Mindfreak. The series ended 6-1 Mindfreak’s way, putting Mindfreak in #1st place overall and earning them the $5,500 first place prize money.
Congratulations to Plantronics.Mindfreak, your Doesplay 10k winners, and to all teams for an event well played!
First place: Plantronics.Mindfreak – $5,500
Second place: Eat Sleep Game Repeat – $2,500
Third place: Integral Nation – $1,200
Fourth place: Team Skyfire – $800
