The Underground’s dominance of the second CGS Pan Asian Finals event has been well publicized. A stronger overall team and some standout divisions helped the team to a perfect 6-0 record, however last year Pan Asia proved they were a long way behind the rest of the world with not one Asian team advancing beyond their first game at the World Finals. The Underground team is undoubtedly stronger this year, but a quick glance would also expose that many of their opposition arrived in Wuhan with a weaker or unchanged lineup. There is no doubt in my mind that the North American teams are still the pinnacle of the CGS competition and the rest of the world has a lot of work before they can hope to defeat these teams on the CGS stage. North America has a longer season, a pre-season, a greater talent pool, more exposure and overall a higher standard of competition. However this is no excuse, no matter the circumstances there will always be advantages and disadvantages and being on top has one major disadvantage, everyone else is gunning for your spot!

I’ve decided to break down the Pan Asian results for each game and have a look at which teams and players were firing in Wuhan, China. Some of these statistics are quite surprising as some of the weaker teams have bright starts within their ranks. Unlike some other sports CGS is all about team contribution and not wins and losses, for this reason I have decided to rank the teams based on their overall contribution.

NB: I/M = Impact per Match and is a measure of the average point differential posted by each team per match.

Counter-Strike Source
Without a doubt the standout team in Wuhan was the Underground boys, winning all their matches by a convincing margin and never really being troubled by the opposition. However it’s the only other team that finished with a positive contribution that is a surprise. As a franchise Dubai Mirage finished dead last however a solid performance by their Counter-Strike Source team sees them taking 2nd spot in the rankings.

Counter-Strike Source

Pan Asia Group Play 08

Team

Win

Loss

For

Against

Dif

I/M

Sydney Underground

5

0

64

26

38

7.6

Dubai Mirage

4

1

46

44

2

0.4

Singapore Sword

2

3

42

48

-6

-1.2

KL Taufan

1

4

40

50

-10

-2

Seoul Jinwha

2

3

39

51

-12

-2.4

Wuhan Dragon

1

4

39

51

-12

-2.4

Forza 2
The Wuhan Dragon duo took out top spot in Forza 2, only 1 point of the perfect score Lumi and Lewis proved they could back up their board times with some smart thinking and perfect use of the collision driven rule set. After a somewhat shaky start on the first day Cam and Morpo also managed to win the remainder of their games with the perfect 6-1 score line. The Wuhan racers managed to bag an astonishing 92% of points on offer to them at the Pan Asia event.

Forza 2

Pan Asia Group Play 08

Team

Win

Loss

For

Against

Dif

I/M

Wuhan Dragon

5

0

29

6

23

4.6

Sydney Underground

4

1

23

12

11

2.2

Singapore Sword

3

2

19

16

3

0.6

KL Taufan

2

3

14

21

-7

-1.4

Seoul Jinwha

2

3

12

23

-11

-2.2

Dubai Mirage

0

5

8

27

-19

-3.8

DOA-M
Seoul Jinwha’s DOA superstar Sarafan walks away as the only undefeated DOA-M player during the Pan Asia group stages. The Dragon’s Mindfox also put up some nice number after a very slow start to the tournament, while Berzerk managed to keep it in the positives for the Underground team. Sarafan’s dominant performance saw him only giving up 4 rounds across the 5 matches and being a key factor in Seoul’s performance during round robin play. The loss of star player Tetra left the sword trailing in a category they normally excel in and making franchise matches that much harder to win for the Singapore team.

DOA - Male

Pan Asia Group Play 08

Team

Win

Loss

For

Against

Dif

I/M

Seoul Jinwha

5

0

25

4

21

4.2

Wuhan Dragon

4

1

20

13

7

1.4

Sydney Underground

2

3

16

15

1

0.2

Singapore Sword

2

3

12

20

-8

-1.6

KL Taufan

1

4

10

22

-12

-2.4

Dubai Mirage

1

4

10

24

-14

-2.8

DOA-F
DOA Female was a stir fry of mixed results, with most of the women beating each other in what were totally unpredicted results the 2 front runners are a mile ahead of the pack. Sydney once again takes the crown in the DOA-F division with Seoul not far behind.

DOA - Female

Pan Asia Group Play 08

Team

Win

Loss

For

Against

Dif

I/M

Sydney Underground

5

0

25

5

20

4

Seoul Jinwha

4

1

21

7

14

2.8

KL Taufan

3

2

17

13

4

0.8

Wuhan Dragon

2

3

14

21

-7

-1.4

Singapore Sword

1

4

9

20

-11

-2.2

Dubai Mirage

0

5

5

25

-20

-4

FIFA 08
With the goalie locked on world class it was always going to be a tough ask for Fifa players to score high numbers of goals, compared to the other games the difference between the top and the bottom is a very small spread. However once again Seoul led the way in the Fifa department with Dubai and Sydney trailing behind and Singapore uncharacteristically having a tough tournament.

Fifa 08

Pan Asia Group Play 08

Team

Win

Loss

For

Against

Dif

I/M

Seoul Jinwha

5

0

10

2

8

1.6

Wuhan Dragon

3

2

12

7

5

1

Singapore Sword

3

2

12

9

3

0.6

KL Taufan

3

2

13

12

1

0.2

Sydney Underground

0

5

11

17

-6

-1.2

Dubai mirage

1

4

8

19

-11

-2.2

Seoul Jinwha V Wuhan Dragon
Seoul Jinwha were clear favorites heading into the match against Wuhan Dragon on the final day after beating them comfortably in the group stage, however a DOA meltdown saw the game quite quickly slip out of reach for the Koreans. After a 5 to 0 whitewash in their first game Kindfox had shown great improvement throughout the tournament and managed to restrict Sarafan’s winning margin to just 1 point. However it was in DOA-Female that the biggest surprise would come with Wuhan’s Catpower defeating her Korean counterpart by 5-2 completing what was a massive turnaround from the team’s earlier match. The first time these teams met Korea walked away with a +9 point swing in their favor from DOA M&F, however in the semi final Wuhan managed to grab a +2 points differential at the end of the DOA matchups securing them the semi final win.