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The history of modern UO • SnuRk walks you down memory lane of each major cup since 2020

History and nostalgia is incredibly powerful. I mean would we even be playing this game if it wasn’t for those two factors? And how much doesn’t we all desire to have those memories back from Clanbase or Xfire? There is not much point dwelling in the past, but what we can do is make sure the present will stick with us for a long time.

It’s now been two years since the rebirth of CoD UO and it feels like forever. Honestly so many cups have been played since then that it’s hard to keep track of which cup involved what teams, winners and stand out-performances. What happened two years ago is already becoming, modern, history for us.

I decided to go through the cups, one by one, and see what I could remember from them.

It ended up in this article.

Hop onboard the time machine. We are travelling to 2020.

Reborn Cup #1

Date: 15-17 may 2020.

Participating teams: 15.

Participating players: No stats logged.

Allstar team: Not announced, no stats logged.

MVP: Not announced, no stats logged. Pretty much everyone in abearth had incredible scores during the cup, with marchello perhaps being the best of them all.

Top 4:
1: Abearth.
2: Overide.
3: fRAGMKRS.
4: wesearchClan.

Background:

The heed was called when supervisor pEti arranged the first ever big UO cup since 2012. Quite remarkable 15 teams managed to scrape a team together for this weekend cup that was played during three days with a tight schedule, first to 21 in all games except the Grand final. Most maps were also allowed to be picked in the deep map pool. The top 8 teams from the groupstage played a double elimination bracket. From the teams participating in this cup there is only one teamname that we still see around. Czech fraggedby that finished 7-8th with a lineup that still to this day see some of the core members playing. 

Winners:

Winner of the cup was unsurprisingly abearth. When UO died in 2012 they were the top team together with FRS. Being able to keep the core of meti-o, marchello and rvrsd, and adding ”new guys” norberto and mateo prooved to be the by far strongest lineup in the tournament. They steamrolled pretty much any team and faced most resistance when playing rifle heavy Codmaistah consisting of players like opfii1e, Anglhz, Masi and reazon. The game however ended 21-14 to abearth. In the Grand final the hungarians played Overide in a bo3 that they won fairly easily with a 3-0 score (all three maps were played for the stream). For example they once again prooved to be the masters of peaks with a dominant performance.

That cup was just about rushing, a bit of smokes and nades but after that just jump on opponents and win majority of the fights because we were more in the rhythm.

norberto remember abearth were miles ahead of everyone since they had played for 1-2 months and most of the other teams just installed the game.

Team worth remembering:

Overides runner-up finish should however also be remembered from this cup. They got immediately beaten down to the lower bracket where they went all the way to the Grand final by wins over Codmaistah, Pimp, wsC and fRGMKRS. It’s easy to forget what a good team Overide was, despite never again reaching a top 3 finish. Consider this team barely played UO and therefor could get easily abused with map picks like peaks and cassino, they still gave all the top teams a run for their money. In later cups they managed to win uo_carentan vs FRS, railyard vs iMMORTALiS, sent eGz and Pokerfaces home with a 2-0 despite playing the latter on peaks, stole a map from the strongest lOwzZ lineup, lead by prm, we have seen. With individually skilled players like YeyE, skz, kraz and nrvn – and adding experience in form of ArnO and octo – it had been interesting to know how far this lineup could have gone with more hours in the game.

Talking points:

So that was a little french detour. If we return to Reborn #1 it might be worth mentioning its the only cup where L1mewax team didnt reach playoff. Cfg Factory just narrowly missed out on a tiebreaker in groups and the squad, that also consisted of Camel, Lays, Dave and Exe$, didn’t make it on round difference.

Three more things are worth mentioning from the cup.

  • Sadly it’s the only cup that polish wsC played together, and they finished 4th. At the time they looked very good together and up and coming. Now we see guys like Nestle play very strong in unique, and some occasional games from pandowicz in eGz but the rest like Music, Davy, L3oN, M3n3l and Owen are lost.
  • In the LB final a hungarian mix with kOcka and SLy, to name a few, faced Overide. They managed to get STVNO in the lineup, playing on a crappy laptop and chose to play uo_carentan. Little did they know then that the french team would be famous as perhaps the best team there is on that map.
  • A lot of pov’s where streamed giving a good foundation for viewers to watch and get tempted to play themselves. Kudos to kOcka, Gee and opfii1e among others.

Reborn Cup #2

Date: 27 june-23 july 2020.

Participating teams: 15.

Participating players: No stats logged.

Allstar team: Not announced, no stats logged.

MVP: Not announced. But in the winning team Jsons was the best performer statistically – especially in the Grand final.

Top 4:
1: FRS.
2: Pokerfaces.
3: iMMORTALiS.
4: abearth.

Background: 

After a succesful first cup the demand for another one was high. It took only a month before Reborn #2 was announced. This time with a bigger admin team and a more professional ruleset and map pool. With more teams sharpening their lineup, seeding was made to ensure evenly balanced groups. A problem the admin team ran into was however that seedings were decided to be mainly based upon last cup results, meaning that ’newcomer’ FRS and Pokerfaces, who had an early exit in Reborn #1, ended up in the same group – despite being the two teams that had the best results and biggest activity between cups. The two teams ended up playing each other three times this cup.

Winners:

This was the start of a long FRS era of cup titles. The european team hadn’t lost a single map in pcw’s, and kept that trend during the cup. However Pokerfaces was ever so close to break that trend with two ties. First on uo_depot and later in the Grand final on peaks. FRS lineup was one of the stronger so far with old faces like TjEEEBi and Jsons together with nanaaa, xratEd and dietchi. Railyard was carved out as a homemap and it was efficient in the matchups with Pokerfaces. The peaks pick in the Grand final could however have backfired and FRS had to win six consecutive axis rounds in the end to tie the map. Everyone remembers Jsons ninja defuse (see video below) in a 1v1 with Gerlo as one of the vital rounds to mount a comeback. Eventually the title was secured on uo_dawnville, another staple pick for FRS.

NOOOOOO! And the defuse goes down! JSONS!

im_a_star not believing his eyes in the Grand final

Team worth remembering:

Again we must be looking at the runner up. Pokerfaces silver medal is yet the best the organisation have mustered (counting Dreamteam as Pokerfaces aswell). The team was lead by Gerlo both in frags and leadership. The former TBS and H2k-player often took the team on his shoulders and was one of the big carries in the scene. But it must also be mentioned that Don started moving up in the ranks and making a name for himself, even though he at this time wasn’t considered the big star he is today. Overall PF showed big strength in this cup and quite easily waved off Vitaride, previous cup winner abearth and iMMORTALiS. It was just FRS standing between them and a trophy. Since this cup Gerlo has never represented the team in a major again. A coincidence they also never reached a Grand final again? And a coincidence they with Gerlo reached the Grand final of the minicup that was recently played?

Talking points:

  • Legendary team Polscy Wymiatacze made a comeback with old school players like Haakon and m$a in the lineup. Not having played the game since 2007 or so prooved difficult though and they crashed hard in the groupstage.
  • Classic teams e9 and eGz merged to create e9.GaoZ. An interesting lineup consisting mainly of King, LUCKii, imastar, Pe@r and primeevil became very popular to follow since star streamed his POV every game. The dynamic between him and Pe@r gave some smiles on everyones face.
  • Sweet steel was disqualified after demo reviewing showed that scaR and Hans was cheating. This did lead to KF getting through to playoff instead, a big achievement for that team. Known moviemaker atheist played with them, but sadly it was the last cup he ever played after being found dead months later.

Reborn Cup #3

Date: 7 september-29 october 2020.

Participating teams: 15.

Participating players: 108.

Allstar team:
dietchi, TjEEEBi, L1mewax, prm, Bassie.
Allstar team was solely based on the stats and represented the 5 highest ranked players.

MVP:
dietchi. Probably the toughest cup to name an MVP. Dietchi was the top performer overall in the cup. He crushed the groups and were a top 5 performer in playoffs. Problem? He missed out on the Grand final due to illness and is therefor the first ever MVP to not play the final. Other alternatives for the MVP was playoff king TjEEEBi, best player in Grand final – nanaaa, or L1mewax and prm that carried their respective teams.

Top 4:
1: FRS.
2: iMMORTALiS.
3: lOwzZ.
4: VITARIDE.

Background:
Some intense months after the rebirth of UO meant it took a bit longer to announce cup #3. It did however bring the same interest as the two previous tournaments. Teams started sharpening their lineups even more and the competition took another step. Two huge 8-team groups lead to a massive amount of games played, which was then followed by an A- and B-playoff. The maps were prerolled in groups which gave a lot of practise for the coming playoff where teams could choose their own map. Generally this cup offered one of the widest range of good teams. As an example e9, with players like Ace, rapidzjeh and King, ended up playing and winning the B-playoff and placing 9th, a proof of an insanely sharp competition.

Winners:
FRS managed to snatch its second title. This time having to sweat a bit more and losing it’s first map in official games when Overide did an upset on uo_carentan in the first playoff round. A map was also lost to lOwzZ after a dispute. In both UB final and Grand final they faced iMMORTALiS and beat the hungarians 2-0 at both occasions. Once again railyard was deadly for FRS, but most notable was the 13-1 victory on uo_harbor (a map historically being very favored for the TcfC core). Being a man on the inside of the team I can reveal that FRS never before, nor after, have put such an amount of time and effort on finetuning nades and timings as this cup on uo_harbor.

Team worth remembering:

lOwzZ did an interesting preseason with three major signings in form of prm, opfii1e and coldiii. Together with fronti, buMMsyyy and hottex they reached a bronze medal after losing two really close maps (germantown and neuville) in the lower bracket final to iMMORTALiS. It was still the best finish the german organisation have made so far. Much of it thanks to prm topfragging more or less every map for his team. But also opfii1e and coldiii prooved their worth, where the first fired on all cylinders in the beginning of the cup, and the latter improved into the real secondary carry in the later part.

Talking points:

  • Never did I think we would see a fully swedish team again, but Swe-Force made a comeback – lead by kottbulle and old FRS-player fUNZE. However the other players had never touched the game before so it’s needless to say how that worked out…
  • Hall of famer cartz did a comeback with iMMORTALiS and got everyone hyped up remembering what a skilled player he was. 
  • A new hungarian team named bringtheheat signed up for the cup. And except for norberto the other players are yet to this day completely unknown. One of the great mysteries of UO…
  • Boeren Power have always been a special team with everyone living in the same village. When they announced their participation all eyes were ofcourse on Gerlo who was supposed to again do a big carrying role in a team that looked sort of beneath his skill level. However it was Bassie who was the top performer in the team. A bit unexpected since he had never put such a mark in all weapons-cups back in the days. But ever since then Bassie have been a starplayer putting up top shelf numbers consistently.

Reborn Cup #4

Date: 18 january-16 march 2021.

Participating teams: 14.

Participating players: 105.

Allstar team:
Hatcheriii, marchello, L1mewax, Epixor, Ace.
Once again based purely on stats.

MVP:
Hatcheriii. The MVP of MVP’s so far. Noone has had the same insane stats as Hatcheriii had this cup (402 kills-209 deaths in 393 rounds). Pretty much every map he was topfragging for FRS, and put on a quite remarkable show.

Noone has had the same insane stats as Hatcheriii had this cup.

SnuRk

Top 4:
1: FRS.
2: Darkfall
3: Pokerfaces.
4: iMMORTALiS.

Background:
Due to christmas messing a bit with the schedule this cup came 2,5 months after the previous one, marking the longest break between cups so far. Again the competition got even sharper, especially with a newly formed team in the name of Darkfall entering the cup.

Winners:

Darkfalls ambition was to dethrone FRS finally, and the team beat FRS in the groupstage (first team to defeat FRS) after winning both the prerolled maps (uo_depot and uo_powcamp). The two teams faced in the Grand final but FRS experience from earlier cups was vital this time when they revenged the groupstage loss. Darkfall quite unexpected went for a peaks pick, a map they themself hadn’t looked especially strong at (also a map that FRS to this day haven’t lost yet since the reborn). FRS in turn answered with cassino, which was flavor of the month this cup since they also beat Pokerfaces in UB final on that map convincingly. Both maps in the Grand final went FRS way without being pressured to much on either. Other then Hatcheriii’s sick performance it’s also worth mentioning it was the first, and only cup, that TjEEEBi didnt play for the team. And also that banksy did his first cup as a main lineup player.

FRS are so dominant as a team. They are just so good and so experienced.

Ace shoutcasting the Grand final

Team worth remembering:

Despite not reaching gold it’s still worth talking a bit more about this Darkfall lineup. prm formed the team and signed nanaaa, from FRS, to bring his old teammates down. He also had old allstar team player archiMedes do a comeback, got Gerlo to once again compete in a high level team, and brought in vcod star majkiiEh to round out the lineup. All in all a very competent group of players that especially were lead by prm and nanaaa in terms of frags. The lineup will always be remembered as one of the modern alltime greats, but it was never enough to go all the way.

Talking points:

  • Another hungarian legend joined iMMORTALiS. This time around it was KRADZZjE being back in business. However his activity didn’t last very long and the results weren’t as good as other returning old TcfC players. In stiff competition the hungarian team for the first, and so far only, time missed out on top 3. What can be remembered though is some insane carrying by both STVNO and L1mewax that it sometimes felt like they played 2v5 on certain maps.
  • Klanmor and vrb played their first cups after missing out on the start of the reborn. Something we are all very happy about today since the core of those teams are still active and ensured we can still arrange tournaments.
  • Somewhere around this cup the streams probably peaked in terms of quantity and quality. xratEd and dietchi streamed pretty much everything, especially in the playoffs, added new elements to the show and just developed an unbeatable dynamic that we will always cherish considering how valuable it has been for our cups.
  • With additions of Bassie and Fr1tuuR from BRN, Pokerfaces once again rised as a true contender for the title. After a splendid groupstage they however had to settle for a bronze medal.

Summer Cup 2021

Date: 1 may-8 july 2021.

Participating teams: 14.

Participating players: 102.

Allstar team:
TjEEEBi, dietchi, L1mewax, archiMedes, Don.
For the first time the allstar team was voted by the admins rather then translating the stats sheet into a top 5 team. Everyone was in agreement about four of the players, and in the end it was all about either voting for dietchi or KarmA in the last spot – which went to the belgian.

MVP:
TjEEEBi. Also a very close call where it was either the finnish FRS player or L1mewax that would win it. In the end seeing TjEEEBi’s impact, and it leading to the team winning the cup, won him most votes.

Background:

A year after the first Reborn Cup it was decided to move on and take a new step in organisation. The cup was rebranded to follow the old Clanbase seasonal cups, this one being Summer Cup. For the first time a sponsor, UVI, also chimed in with prizes to the MVP and to people that contributed in a big way for the community. The winners of that were Anglhz for fixing everything with the new PAM, and xratEd and dietchi for their streams.

Top 4:
1: FRS.
2: TcfC.
3: Darkfall.
4: e9 Enigma.

Winners:

Looking back at this cup it’s safe to say it’s the toughest that has ever been played since the glory days of UO. Never have there been so many strong contenders for the title. Pokerfaces rebranded to Dreamteam, e9 had their sharpest lineup yet, Darkfall continued with same guys as last cup and TcfC was back in business with norberto and rvrsd as recruits from the disbanding abearth. But … once again it was FRS standing on top when the smoke dissolved. The lineup this time consisted of dietchi, xratEd, Banksy, TjEEEBi and invi – and from the outside was probably not viewed upon as a favorite – despite three consecutive titles.

However the lineup practised a lot together and had the luxury of playing with the exact same five players in both pcws and cupgames, thus improving quite a lot for every week. FRS took some hits this cup. Got completely wrecked by TcfC on uo_carentan in the groupstage, and struggled somewhat vs e9 where a couple of nasty clutches from invi sealed the dealed. Not getting a top seed for the playoff did however proove valuable this time around since klanmor much surprisingly beat Dreamteam, making FRS way in the bracket somewhat easier.

SnuRk can prevent it! No, YES! WHOOOA, SnuRk with the double! What a shot by SnuRk! First missing everything and then hitting last two bullets.

im_a_star and Ace shoutcasting

In the UB final they also faced a decimated TcfC since L1mewax had a one match suspension for missing Moss. That game went really tight though and an ever so rusty SnuRk had to sub an outpinged banksy during the last rounds on railyard. After being an absolute bot for three rounds SnuRk in the end secured the map win with a double kill through smoke (video above). The Grand final however saw two full teams battle it out. Once again railyard was played by FRS and TjEEEBi’s performance, involving two ninja defuses, will be memorable from that map. But the most remembered round, perhaps from all of FRS history, will be the 2v5 clutch from banksy and xratEd in an afterplant situation, trapped behind smoke in tank hall. banksy’s finishing kill with the mg will forever live on in history (video below).

Team worth remembering:

This cup we must talk about two teams:

First the e9 juggernaut that manager King tried to build by recruiting RnDll and qT to the already talented core of Ace, KarmA and rapidzjeh. Today we might be looking at a cupwinner if the team had stayed together and worked out some of the issues. But for this cup it was a bit to early for the squad to reach such heights and they finished on a very respectable 4th place (remember it was the strongest cup ever and that for example Dreamteam finished below them).

Secondly we must also talk about klanmor that stood for the biggest upset in UO history (at least the modern one) by defeating Dreamteam with a clean 2-0 in the playoff. Klanmor, consisting of players such as skz, windje, Explode, davy, koen and floppy was by no means expected to do much more then perhaps reach playoff and go home early. Instead they performed better then any other team have ever done considering the expectations. It’s also worth mentioning they followed that upset with pressuring FRS and winning uo_harbor, only to later lose on both peaks and railyard. This was the first time Davy managed to defeat his old teammates in Dreamteam, after a bit of a dramatic exit from that team. And it would happen again.

Talking points:

  • Vcod team Hasacze played their first and only cup in UO, doing more then alright considering the lack of knowledge of the game. Nikczemne Gumisie also signed up with a starstudded polish lineup consisting of Nestle, jtGz, crosk, Music, goRn and h3lioS. A team that on paper looked really promising, but different factors had them sort of not reaching the potential. These days we don’t have a single fully polish team, which is a bit sad considering it’s always been one of the most active nations in UO.
  • addicted2cod formed a fun mix of people that perhaps otherwise don’t play much competively, adding another team to the cup. Something that was much appreciated.
  • qT was one of the strongest rookies to pick up the game. Especially considering he played most games with 100ish ping. His stats put him around top 10-15 in the cup, which is very rare to see from someone that never played before.
  • Long lost TcfC member Messy was back in business, making it appropriate for the hungarians to once again put on the classic tag. 
  • Rifle meta was very strong in this cup and the ones before it. I would now say that the latest cups have seen a faster approach with a lot more rushes. But during this Summer Cup guys like Anglhz and FLAAASH got acknowledged in this article I wrote. https://www.unitedbase.eu/snurks-column-the-riflers-are-dominating-how-the-gun-made-it-back-into-the-meta/

The rifle is here. And its deadly.

SnuRk commenting the meta.

Fall Cup 2021

Date: 11 october-12 december 2021.

Participating teams: 12.

Participating players: 87.

Allstar team:
L1mewax, STVNO, TjEEEBi, Ace, Don.
Voted by the admins, and kind of straight forward this time around. Ace had a good first cup statistically for FRS. STVNO was perhaps the joker in the team, but his impact was bigger then the stats showed at times. Especially in the playoff.

MVP:
L1mewax. A longawaited MVP title for the hungarian, and this time there was no need for any discussion about it. Lime was the best player in the best team. 

Top 4:
1: TcfC.
2: FRS.
3: MiS.
4: eGz.

Background:
Inactivity hit quite hard on the scene during summer of 2021. It also took a break of more then three months to arrange the Fall Cup. The cup saw fewer teams sign up but it still kept a really high competition in the top tier. The juggernaut King tried to build in e9 got shattered when newly formed MiS picked up both KarmA and rapidzjeh, Ace joined up with former DH-teammates in FRS and RnDll went back to fraggedby.

Winners:
Everything was set up for a 5th consecutive title for FRS who went unbeaten through the upper bracket. But this time TcfC had enough and broke the charm. It was a strong showing by the hungarians. After getting beaten down to the lower bracket by FRS they fought a long road to reach the Grand final. In LB they had to go through both Dreamteam and MiS. But during that process they also got stronger for each game. And especially on uo_harbor they turned into a scary monster. Sure, the map invites for fast plays, but never have we seen a team pretty much rush either A or garage EVERY round on allies. And make it work! The coordination of nades, timings and brute force was something that no opponent managed to stop. Dreamteam, MiS, and later FRS had to taste the same sour medicine on uo_harbor.

Never have we seen a team pretty much rush either A or garage EVERY round on allies. 

SnuRk on TcfC’s approach on uo_harbor

In the Grand final FRS reached a very respectable 6-6 on allies, and was ready to bring the map home when TcfC put the pedal to the metal and just steamed their allies side to not only win uo_harbor, but also doing it comfortable! The victory train continued on railyard, a classic pick for FRS. But this time TcfC had learned their lesson and shocked the reigning champion with some well balanced aggression on axis, giving trouble both from office and crossing to logs. But more importantly they showed an equally practised allied side where the executes with a wall of smoke kept FRS locked in defensive positions when the bomb went down, round after round. In the end it all came down to the last round where norberto in a 1v2 cleverly hid inside tank hall and sprayed down the two last remaining FRS’ers to finally give TcfC the longawaited trophy.

Team worth remembering:

eGz put up a very interesting lineup when they announced some unexpected signings. First they pulled old abearth-star marchello back from retirement, and later Gerlo also joined the team giving a dangerous lineup with LUCKii, Anglhz and cubzyae also onboard. The team reached it’s best placement ever when they finished 4th. They beat Dreamteam during the cup and also pressured MiS. Knowing eGz always can surprise, and have some very high calibre players in the lineup, it will be interesting to see if they can challenge for the top 4 again.

Talking points:

  • fraggedby finished on a respectable 5-6th spot and had their best cup in terms of results. They beat TcfC on uo_dawnville, MiS on uo_carentan and pressured FRS on both uo_dawnville and tigertown in the playoff (although losing both maps in the end). The core have played together many cups now and we hope to see more results of that sort.
  • In the lower tier we saw skz bring back aNimus and also some new faces in the team, together with the old klanmor crew. just4HUN was another cool mix of people like Bavari, COBR4CSKA, SLy and the rest of the hungarians that didn’t play with TcfC

Winter Cup 2022

Date: 7 february-13 april 2022.

Participating teams: 12.

Participating players: 88.

Allstar team:
L1mewax, Messy, TjEEEBi, Hatcheriii, xratEd.
With many players performing quite equal in the top of the sheet, the admins also had to take team performance and impact in the team into account. A guy like Messy didnt boast the best stats, but performed a lot better then previous cups and had big impact in the team defending their title. It was also the first allstar team for xratEd who in newly formed sugoii6 bloomed into a monster who put up some really nasty maps.

MVP:
L1mewax once again won the title, and even though it was an easy choice, the road to get there wasn’t quite as easy. In the playoffs he was actually TcfC’s worst performing player until the Grand finals, where he performed extremely well and took a big leap to become their best performing playoff player instead. Screenshot below is first map in regular time in Grand final on uo_harbor.

Top 4:
1: TcfC.
2: FRS.2010.
3: sugoii6.
4: fatality.

Background:
Winter Cup 2022 took place two months after Fall Cup and saw the same kind of interest from the teams and players. For the first time in UO history fog was also turned off, bringing a lot better vision – to (most) players happiness. It was also the first time FRS split their core into two teams. A nostalgic 2010 lineup and a Devilheroes-alike core in form of sugoii6. lOwzZ/Darkfall/MiS also did another name change when the same kind of core lineup decided to go under their vcod name, fatality.

Winners:
TcfC went in as the favorites to defend their title and also did just that in a quite convincing style. In the UB final they mocked FRS with a railyard pick that was an easy win for them, gave up a tigertown loss, before tying the bag on uo_carentan after a nice comeback on axis. In the Grand final FRS decided to give them the chance to pick uo_harbor, just to avoid railyard, and it went to an overtime that TcfC in the end was stronger on. FRS once again put their hope to tigertown but just like other maps recently, TcfC had done their homework and found an efficient way to attack that completely shut FRS out from the bombsite. In the end it was a safe 2-0 victory.

Team worth remembering:

5 times the charm? At least for Fast Evolution. 5 cups in a row had the czech team finished dead last, barely winning any games. This time it was different. Epixor had always been a leading star and this time we also saw YantaR and Jacob step up to another level. With atom!cs also being a strong addition to the main lineup we could see Fast Evolution winning the B-playoff and therefor placing 9th. In the groupstage they also took one map from unique.

Talking points:

  • The obvious would be the split in FRS where SnuRk, Jsons, TjEEEBi and Hatcheriii tried to revive the most succesful lineup in UO together with Ace – while xratEd, dietchi, banksy, nanaaa and Gerlo formed the challenger sugoii6. The two teams played each other twice during the cup, both times saw the oldies win 2-0. The LB final was extremely intense where sugoii6 looked like the winner, but two crucial allies rounds on uo_dawnville for FRS.2010 won them the map and also a lot of momentum to take the series home on uo_harbor. In the bottom you can find Ace POV (with teamspeak from FRS.2010) from the first game between the two teams on uo_carentan and germantown.
  • Many strong vcod players came to play their first UO cup. MAXX and Ambiik helped unique to a 5-6th placement and r3ziner had some very impressive, although a bit inconsistent, performances for fatality. The finnish player showed that given some time in the game he could be a top player.
  • The klanmor core, going under the name alcohol!cs, had a sad farewell to the UO scene playing their last cup together. Fortunately we have seen guys like koen, floppy and windje join eGz to keep going in this game. The team who was notorious for not liking to play peaks, faced a bit of a nightmare this cup when all the teams could pick their own maps in the groupstage, meaning alcohol!cs had to play the map more times then ever before.

Fall Cup 2022

Date: 12 september-11 december 2022.

Participating teams: 15.

Participating players: 117.

Allstar team:

L1mewax, STVNO, xratEd, kikiii, kARMa.

The allstar team saw some new faces this time around. kikiii lead his team both as a captain and fragger and made a great impact in his first ever UO cup. kARMa had been just outside the allstar team a couple of cups but this time around he did just enough to earn himself a spot. xratEd also bagged his second allstar team-spot, in front of teammate TjEEEBi that for the first time so far didn’t reach all the way.

MVP:

L1mewax. The hungarian won it for the third time in a row, something no other player have been close to do. This cup he was in a league of his own and there was not any contender at all for the title.

Top 4:
1: TcfC
2: FRS.
3: Dreamteam.
4: TMO.

Background:

The cup took place after the minicup that was played during summer. The minicup saw FRS (again reunited in one team) beat Dreamteam in the final, and therefor it looked like a three-horse-race with double champion TcfC aswell being a favorite to win. In total 15 teams signed up making it the most crowded cup since may 2020 (2,5 years).

Winners:

TcfC. Once again TcfC found themself climbing the toughest of mountains. Without L1mewax in the lineup they got stomped early in the upper bracket by Dreamteam that steamrolled the hungarians with a 13-5 uo_harbor followed by a 13-6 neuville. The loser bracket climb started with a dominant win over abearth, followed by a three mapper vs TMO after losing tigertown. Eventually TcfC had to face Dreamteam again, this time in the lower bracket. An overtime win on uo_carentan gave TcfC the chance to play uo_harbor as the decider. This time around, with L1mewax onboard, they didn’t mess around. 13-2 was an impressive win when everything was at stake to secure a spot in the Grand final. For the fourth time in a row we saw the major final be played between TcfC and FRS, and for the third time in a row TcfC came out victorious. FRS went for a somewhat unorthodox uo_powcamp pick that didnt quite reach all the way. A strong axis hold saw TcfC take the map 13-11. The same score was also the story of railyard where COBR4CSKA was the last man alive in the last round of the cup ensuring him his first title. In FRS it was more or less dietchi carrying the whole team on his shoulders on railyard, posting more kills on his own then SnuRk, TjEEEBi and xratEd combined, and making the map tighter then it perhaps was in reality.

Team worth remembering:

TMO. There has already been a full article on TMO and their sensational first UO cup. But their debut certainly make them the team worth remembering. They secured a 4th spot even though they were seeded in tier 2. They also stole two maps from TcfC during the cup, winning tigertown twice. Their entrance to UO marked a new chapter of the game.

Talking points:

  • Fantasy league was introduced for the first tim to add a little extra on the side for everyone. The first season winner was cartz who for example picked himself for the playoff, which prooved to be a wise choice. L1mewax was the individual player earning most points.
  • In the B-playoff Epixor was named the MVP after leading Fast Evolution to the B-playoff title. They beat lOwzZ in the final with 2-0 in maps, but what everyone will remember is Epixor going absolutely bonkers with 55 kills and only 19 deaths over 2 maps in the final. A performance that just shouldn’t be possible.
  • A good addition of vcod players was one of the secrets behind the record-breaking amount of players joining the cup. But also the new tier system giving more balanced matchups was welcome by the community and gave a better experience for everyone involved. 

Spring Cup 2023

Date: 13 february-22 may 2023.

Participating teams: 15.

Participating players: 109.

Allstar team:

Don, Gerlo, archiMedes, TjEEEBi, r3ziner.

For the first time ever there was three players from the same team. Dreamteam had a great journey in the playoff and all their players had high stats. That combined with winning quite convincingly, and also impactful, made it the right choice to go for that solution. TjEEEBi was once again back in the allstar team, but L1mewax with three MVP coins in a row missed out for the first time. The last spot was taken by r3ziner that played extremely well throughout the whole cup and was the shining star of TMO this time around.

MVP:

Don. The dutch rifle star had often had best stats in his team, but this time around he also showed that he could lead them to a major trophy. 2.45 rating (2.85 in playoff) was L1mewax-alike stats from former tournaments, and it was no question about who was the MVP. In the Grand final he had a memorable germantown posting 20-7 and being unstoppable.

Top 4:
1: Dreamteam.
2: FRS.
3: TMO.
4: fatality.

Background: 

Going into the tournament the question was whether TcfC would be able to repeat FRS historical four-titles-in-a-row. But competition looked tougher then ever before, not least with a new mod in place removing shellshock for the first time and reducing bullet spread on many guns, not least the BAR which made it more vcod-alike with laser precision. The same tier system was used that was introduced in the previous cup, making an incredible competition already from the groupstage. What was also new this cup was that uo_stanjel and uo_depot once again was in the map pool and xp_hanoi also debuted, while for example railyard was voted out for the first time since 2006.

Winners:

Dreamteam. Not an expected winner, but at the same time not an unexpected one. The dutch team had steadily been improving for every cup and previously beaten both TcfC and FRS at certain occasions. Often starting at full speed in groupstage, to later slow down in playoff – this time it was the other way around. Groupstage was by no means bad, but they didnt shine. 4 games gave 3 draws and 1 loss. But in playoff they prooved to be a different kind of beast. Abearth and e9 was waved of without a map loss and an average score of 13-7. A TMO without skz didn’t stand a chance against DT that cruised to the Grand final with a 13-4 uo_harbor and a 13-7 neuville. Having that spot secured they had to rest for a long while since the scheduling was delayed. FRS stood as opponent, reaching their 8th consecutive Grand final. And it started according to plans for First Recon Squad winning their own pick uo_dawnville 13-10. A few cups ago this had been the nail in the coffin for Dreamteam that rarely showed their best performances under pressure. But this was a different story. With their backs against the walls they did not only complete the reverse sweep, they also did it while whooping FRS asses. Both germantown and uo_carentan ended with humiliating 13-5 victories where MVP Don and last minute-backup Windje topped the scoreboards. But it was truly a team effort where all five players fired on all cylinders and not least was it a loooong-awaiting UO-title for Gerlo. Very few, if anyone, have played on top level from as early days as him in UO. But despite being part of great teams like H2k, Darkfall and now Dreamteam he has never lifted a trophy. 22 may 2023, almost 19 years after the game was released marked an end of that.

Team worth remembering:

DOTS. A newly formed vcod/UO-team that showed good resilience versus many teams and went into B-final as somewhat of an underdog versus Pokerfaces. It became a big battle where DOTS in the end was the better team of the day. During the cup players like octo, sntax and coldiii had outstanding performances and the first two earned a spot in the B-allstar team. Guys like kOVIS, Explode and s1ck also put up good shows and this is a team that could have a bright future. 

Talking points:

  • e9 Enigma, with a newborn King fragging his mind out, could have also been the team we remembered from this cup. The slovenian based organisation specialised on the newly added map hanoi and saw great success on it. Their greatest victory was beating FRS 2-1 in the upper bracket quarterfinal to pull off one of the biggest upsets in UO history. Not only did they win hanoi, but they were also the first team since Reborn to defeat FRS on uo_dawnville. Other then King also joo_zus had a great tournament. Worth mentioning also is that both h2o-legends keveemooses and choobie did a comeback playing a couple of games for e9 this cup together with vcod veteran AssasiN and CoD-franchise super-legend zEm. Who would have thought that would ever happen?
  • Shellshock gone meant prm was back afte resting one major cup. The german profile was a part of the fatality team finishing fourth, having kARMa as the bright shining star. prm now got 1x silver, 3x bronze and 2x 4th places in 6 cups. Consistent as few others, but still lacking the trophy. In the future perhaps?
  • After winning three cups in a row, TcfC fell flat this time around finishing 5-6th, their worst cup since Reborn. Groupstage was shakier then expected, but still enough for a decent seed. But the problems arised after losing 1-2 to TMO (for the third time dropping tigertown to the vcod beast) and then ending up against FRS in lower bracket. One of the titans was bound to go home and miss out on top4. In a weird three map-thriller, where both teams made some mistakes in the map veto, FRS found their ground again on uo_dawnville to send TcfC home after a 13-10 victory.