updates
one
two
three
four
five
predictions
bracket
week1
week2
week3
finals
the west is over!
>:(
over
NITE
score was 15-6. here is the update by rake:

Well now, it looks like defiance has just won the ISB Winter Invitational Tourney - defeating local rivals [NITE] in an entertaining series of rounds. We were warmed up and confident coming in, and decided on a starting lineup of atastypie, fate, phyzics, and myself.

After steamrolling them 5-1 on their map pick (map12) we decided on dm6 as ours - with the final map being dm6 as well. In a baffling move, NITE subbed out driver8, easily their best player, after the loss on map12. I honestly think that this was their undoing as our confidence level climbed after watching him leave the server. We stuck it to them on dm6, and made a comeback when down 4-2 to get the win. with the score 10-5, we had almost no chance of losing going into the third game as NITE had to sweep it to force it into OT. Unfortunately, they all gave up after losing the first round of the third game, and we trained them 5-1 (again).

Good games and well played... now we see if we get to play the East winner to determine TEH ULTIMATE GRANDE CHAMPEION WINNAR OF TEH INTARWEB GAEMING THINGS!!11


i was correct on 12 of 15 predictions. the teams that won in upsets no longer exist: crd went inactive with some of their starters moving to clearscreen, dixx did the same thing except their players migrated to axis west, and c4 has been touched upon in older posts.

isb was a great tournament, and i look forward to another. until then, you should pay attention to cal ra3.
 
update five
it appears that the finals are... oh my!
>:(
over
vr
NITE
over
dixx
to me this shows the current dominance of northwest ra3. defiance took out powerhouse southern clans (oz, team VR) and NITE took out the other non-northwest competition (pr) while getting by a close week3 game vs dixx. there is only one game left.

what is teh going to happen?
 
update four
what has happened? THE HORROR
>:(
over
xc
vr
over
nails
nite
over
pr
dixx
over
crd
there are 4 teams left and things look great. judging by the final teams, the only adjustment i would have made to the seedings would have been to exchange either defiance or oz with kt. the fact that two of the strongest teams (wtshit i said defiance is good but everyone says we sucks omg im going to go cry myself to sleep on my giant pink heart pillow) in westcoast ra3 had to face eachother off in the very first round is rather silly. the switch would have made these final 4 teams: oz, vr, nite and def -- who can contest with that?

it didn't work out that way, but there are still 3 games left in the first isb invitational. did i say first? is that a hint to the organizers? perhaps?

i have heard of an upcoming double elimination tournament, starting when the isb finals are finished. hopefully we can get more teams in, but keep the same 'informal/play it when you can' style. the xtgl seasonals were about as good as you can get for rocketarena, and now that the xtgl stopped running tournaments other people have started to step up. its a good time to be playing quakethreearena.

on a non-tournament note, lets talk about c4!. poor c4, they had a strong lineup when this tournament started, but all the starters left. last week they picked up a new player named phaser, who just so happened to add some real hardcore skill to the clan. unfortunatly phaser has a history real hardcore skill. one step forward, one step back. keep on pluggin away =)

do i have anything to say about the actual matches played this week? i saw the demos, they were just games. check out whats coming up.
 
update three
3 more west games have been finished:
>:(
over
oz
n^
over
mal
vr
over
wx
the only game left to be played is between HB and pr. quater final games have begun to be schedualed, and you can find my predictions for how things will turn out here. wtshit happened to oz after the defiance match?

two of my predictions for this week failed: one was because the clan i predicted to win didn't actually have the players i thought would be in at the time (that clan being c4: 3 players from the starting linup left -- syztem is still there) and the other was a game that probably won't have an outcome on the overall tournament.
 
update two
The following games have been played:
xc
over
tfa
dixx
over
kt
crd
over
c4
first things first: if you want me to post a write up of one of your matches that have already happened, pm me in irc. send me demos and i'll have something to say.

crd took down a less than stellar c4 lineup. c4 lost a lot of the players which had been recently recruited -- players that were talented but dont exactly contribute to clan stability. the team that played was not the one you would have expected to see play when looking at the original isb rosters. props for the win crd, c4 is going to be gunning for you :o

you can look at my entire bracket prediction if you wish. games that turned out as i thought they would are blue, games that turned out different are red. games that turn out different have the predictions for the weeks after them adjusted accordingly. the only predictions i will change are ones made that include a clan which was knocked out -- if my opinion of who is going to win a match changes before it happens, i won't adjust it. there are a couple of occurances of that right now.

the lower half of the bracket is getting more interesting now. i see pr, nite and crd all with great chances at going to the semis. this matches the upper bracket, where oz, vr and defiance all have good chances at reaching their semi. there should be some great games over the next few weeks!

check out the actual isb tourney bracket which is updated more often than what i do.
update one

Here are my predictions for the isb rocketarena tournament (west). Yes, I play for defiance. Yes, this makes my predictions biased. No, I don't think I am wrong. No, don't pm me on irc telling me how wrong I am. For now I have predicted this week's matches and created a bracket of the tournament to represent how i think things will go.

I will be updating as the weeks go by, highlighting my errors and all.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Teh Finals
 
Defiance vs NITE
here it is -- the final game. both clans have picked up local talent in the past little while (beholder for NITE, phyz for def) and have been scrimming a heck of a lot. the match will be played on a local, low pinging server since both clans are based out of the northwest. the map of this week is pro-q3dm6, definatly something that will affect the outcome of this game. why do i say that? because many clans think of defiance as all dm6. of course, this just means that the opposition is going to practice this map even more - but what if defiance doesnt call dm6 this week? we didn't call it against VR for the semis. could this be trickery? could this be chance? could this be much less than what im making it sound like? who cares, NITE is going down!

>:( over NITE
 
Week 3 Predictions
Defiance vs Team VR

please let us find a server in 10 minutes. please let VR act mature. please let teh face control their attitudes. please get this game played with no hassles.

>:( over VR

 
NITE vs Divine Invaders
driver8 is gone as a hot hot hpb, but NITE picked up hot hot beholder. dixx played a solid game last week vs crd, who played against their trend of climbing the ranks. its ra3, no clan can win forever. crd learned this lesson, and this week dixx is gets their turn to go to school.

NITE over dixx
 
Week 2 Predictions
Xtreme Crew vs Defiance
LOL DEFIANCE LOL

Team VR vs Nails
I made the mistake of not researching what nails has accomplished during my first week's predictions and got a lot of flack from a few players. OH WELL. no matter what team advanced from last week, VR will take this game. Personally I am rooting for the weaker team to win. why? defiance plays the winner -8)

vr over n^
 
NITE vs ???
I fully expect to see pr win their game vs HB (schedualed for last week sometime) to play NITE. This is definatly the highlight match of the week, where two close clans are going to play eachother. NITE with driver8 playing will be a shoo-in to win, and without their allstar player the game could be neck and neck. Demo this one up, suckers.

NITE over ???
 

Divine Invaders vs Critical Damage

6 months ago i would have said this would be a close, exciting game. but today i will definatly be siding with crd. if dixx crunches down and gets a few hours of scrims every night until this match, they might come off with a win. please play this game on the local bakery so that i can spec it -8)

crd over dixx

 
Week 1 Predictions

The Forbidden Art vs Xtreme Crew

TFA has been around since RA2, but never really picked up their level of play for RA3. XC is a clan that does very well in pubs due to their obscene aim, but have yet to really master their teamwork for matches and scrims. I predict XC taking out TFA with relative ease and quickness.

xc over tfa

Overkill Zone vs Defiance

Last time these two clans met the game was played with dual servers. It ended with oz camping outside ra3map7 like little hoebags to get the OT win by 2 frags. It isn't going into OT this time around.

>:( over oz

Team VR vs Westside ConneXion

I wasn't expecting VR to actually play in this tournament. They dropped from rocketarena.org a few weeks back and have since to my knowledge gone flat out inactive. However, even a rusty VR will take out WX like a dumptruck over a dyslexic kitten. Especially since they just dropped CRD 13-5 earlier this week.

vs over wx

Malevolence vs Nails

Malevolence is central and nails is west. Both teams are respectable, and I expect the winner of this game to be whoever ping fucks the other team the most. Or, n^broken will have to stop the match to get his diaper changed at which point Malevolence will just kill him as he is afk and take the win. Good Game!

Malevolence over Nails

Hellbenders vs Power Rangers

It'll be NITE or PR that reach the quarter finals against c4 or CRD.

Pr over HB

NITE vs Clearscreen Red

NITE has been around for a while, and a few weeks after dropping out of ra.org they have pulled their tails out from behind and are active again. Assuming NITE busts out their driver8 connection, CLS doesn't stand a chance. None whatsoever. Sorry guys!

NITE over CLS

Divine Invaders vs Kill the Trend

Both clans here are new and looking to prove themselves. What? DIXX is new? Well, yes. It's a new lineup in the clan, and it has yet to be proven. KT is a bunch of new guys that haven't made a mark in the RA3 scene yet. I don't think they ever will. I'm going to give the clan with more experienced players the win, but i expect the game to be close.

DiXX over kt

c4 Explosive vs Critical Damage

c4 Explosive has had some serious roster changes in the last month. Welcome the new starting lineup of syztem, nomadic, phyzics and cminuz. These guys are the definite underdogs who have a good to tear through the weaker bottom half of the bracket and maybe, just maybe, take a round or two from defiance in the finals. CRD has classically been a clan that goes nowhere in competition, but they haven't seemed to have left their homes for months now and are quickly improving. Whichever clan wins this game will have a quick win and move onto the quarter finals, with a solid shot at moving on past that.

update: phyzics left c4. doesnt change the outcome.

c4 over CRD




BLUE
RED
BLACK
Game went as predicted
Game went against prediction
Game has yet to be played

week1
week2
week3
week4
winnar!@!
                 

The Forbidden Art

Xtreme Crew

Xtreme Crew

LOL DEFIANCE LOL

Overkill Zone

LOL DEFIANCE LOL

Defiance

LOL DEFIANCE LOL

Team VR

Team VR

Westside ConneXion

Team VR

Malevolence

Nails

Nails

LOL DEFIANCE LOL

Hellbenders

Power Rangers

Power Rangers

NITE Clan

NITE Clan

NITE Clan

Clearscreen Red

NITE Clan

Divine Invaders

Divine Invaders

Kill the Trend

Divine Invaders

c4 Explosive

Critical Damage

Critical Damage