Clubic Trophy 09

Over the weekend of 18 and 19 April 2009, to mark the tenth anniversary of the Gamers Assembly, Clubic and Electronic Arts joined forces to organise a Red Alert 3 tournament at the Futuroscope theme park in Poitiers.

The tournament was organised by TimeofWar, Xp3rt.com and CnCSaga. The competition began online with a qualifying round in which thirty-five players competed to select the top sixteen to take part in the Clubic.09 Trophy. Despite a few delays and withdrawals, these qualifiers went smoothly thanks to the organisation of the three venues.

Over the GA weekend, the sixteen qualifiers gathered at Futuroscope. Some of them had to travel over 700 kilometres; to spare them any inconvenience, LDLC lent PCs to the participants, who were free to bring their own keyboards and mice if they wished.

Furthermore, to prevent a participant from travelling hundreds of kilometres only to be eliminated in their very first match, the organisers adopted a double-bracket system.

Here’s a brief overview: a participant who loses their first match enters the ‘losers’ bracket’, where they must then face the other unlucky players. Next, the winner of the ‘loser bracket’ goes on to face the winner of the ‘winner bracket’. Each player therefore has the chance to lose one match without being eliminated.

Here is the draw for a double-bracket tournament

Thanks to the excellent organisation and the fact that most of the players knew each other, the tournament took place in a fun and friendly atmosphere. But that didn’t make the competition any less exciting; throughout Saturday and Sunday, the 16 players battled it out.

On Sunday at around 6.30 pm, the final between LeOwNzAll and RoMe took place in the auditorium of the Palais des Congrès. LeOwNzAll emerged victorious after a match characterised by defensive play from both sides.