It seemed like a standard saturday, but nay, it was the day of the TC BBall Cup. 8 daring teams stood and fought to have the honour of being called “TC BBall Champions”! The teams gathered slowly into mumble and the ground rules were set, followed by some pre-game shit-talking, because, let’s be fair, no competition would have its place without pre-game shit-talking.

In the first round we saw the first major upset of the tournament with a surprising loss for W1nco and Sidestep; showing true potential for a dark horse in the competition in the team of Cnozzz and Mr. Guy. They continued their dominance in the top bracket with a quick 25-6 win over newly made TC members Derotzka and Marten; would this be the making of a pair of unlikely champions? We also saw the first glimpse of Oxy and Raptor00X as they also made good progress through the 2nd round against Tyrone and Aubriac.

As the lower bracket fought for their survival we had the first major clash of the titans in the upper bracket final; Cnozzz and Mr. Guy versus Oxy and Raptor00X, however there were to be more twists in this fateful night. Mr. Guy revealed a dark secret; he had a social life *gasp*!

Having revealed such shocking news, Mr. Guy was replaced by Useless as they faced their hardest foes yet. Maybe it was never to be, but this sudden roster change had a devastating effect on the play-style and skill of the dark horses of the tournament. Oxy and Raptor00X came out in full force and after a very even start to the game managed to capture 5 intel in a row to give them enough breathing space to comfortably lead for the rest of the game and win 25-12.

So one of the finalist teams had been decided and now all eyes turned to the losers bracket final, as Oxy and Raptor00X awaited to see who their opponents would be in the Grand Final. Having been knocked into the losers bracket from the first round, one of the favourites, W1nco and Sidestep, had lived up to this reputation and showed devastating form, making it all the way through the losers’ bracket to the final where they would meet Cnozzz and newly found partner Den. This newly formed team seemed to be more upbeat despite having lost the winners’ bracket final, and took an early 4 cap lead during the match. W1nco and Sidestep, however, proved to why they were considered one of the favourites showing their experience as high division players and quickly made up this lost ground and created a lead of their own. Despite Den getting a massive 56 kills during this match, W1nco and Sidestep pulled through and joined Oxy and Raptor00X in the Grand Final!

The stage was set, the teams joined the server and the spectators took their seats as the Grand Final was about to begin! Both teams began showing controlled aggression, both cautious to give the other team an upper hand by throwing away their lives; but it was Oxy and Raptor00X that took an early lead 8-4 in the first 4 minutes. By this time it was no shock for the spectators to see that experience showed dividends and W1nco and Sidestep quickly came back to tie up the game at 12-all with 10 minutes to go!
The tides changed with one cap each traded, Oxy and Raptor00X seemed to have enabled sv_cheats for themselves as they captured 8 unanswered intel caps; giving them a 22-13 lead in the game and surely the match. Despite 2 late caps from W1nco and Sidestep top-damaging during the game, Oxy closed out the game with over 6 minutes left!

The Grand Final had finished and the champions revealed. Congratulations to Oxy and Raptor00X for a truly dominant display throughout the tournament, with Raptor00X getting a whopping 64 intel captures for the whole tournament!

Thank you for all of those that took part and Oxy for helping me a lot with organising the event. I look forward to more TC events in the future where less dominant displays may make a closer finale!