Another Swiss Tournament 2014

Another Swiss Tournament 2014 was a North American-based tournament hosted by Fig Newtons, with Rails Barlow serving as the assistant tournament director. The tournament was a five round swiss tournament played on the ProMod configuration. 32 teams from across the world entered the tournament, representing North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. The tournament was won in the fifth week by team Not Even Trying, who defeated team Serious Business in the "Grand Finals" of the tournament (see below). The tournament followed directly after the WatchL4D.com ProMod Tournament, and was followed soon after by the Really Big Summer ProMod Tournament 2014. The tournament gave many new teams and players a chance for valuable experience due to it's Swiss Formatting.

Top 8 Finishers:

1. Not Even Trying (Bravo, Purple, Remix, SiDEWAYSBOX, Asian, Dyl Dough)

2. Serious Business (Fig Newtons, Zeon, Tool, NF, Relap5e, Sygnus)

3. The Element of Surprise (Hib, Hann, Lust, Release, Speshul, BabyJesus)

4. Roadrunners (Simi, Grego, Sam, Cake, Chyna)

5. Pirates (Kekkeri, Crox, Razzor, Grin, Yosh)

6. Final Boss (Killerbeast, Evol, Acer, Ammo, Beast, Dynasty)

7. Team Dynasty (Dena, Brev, Zombieman, Eww, Innox)

8. Tim Vintage (Awake, Suavee, Eskay, Snoop, Atreyu, Sismo)

The Grand Finals were played between team Not Even Trying and defending champion Serious Business on the Parish, streamed on KissMe's stream and WatchL4D, and shoutcasted by Kissme and Rails Barlow. Not Even Trying had been seen throughout the tournament as living up to their name, but were noticeably more serious during the Grand Finals match; Serious Business put up a good fight, but ultimately ended up losing the match after missing what many saw as two crucial tank wipes in the second and third chapters of Parish, while being subsequently wiped on those tanks themselves. Not Even Trying was awarded the $450 cash prize as a result.

Controversies

Many were unhappy with the exclusion of a Finals Bracket in the tournament. The tournament was designed as a Swiss system, but due to the fact no finals bracket existed, once a team lost a game, they were effectively eliminated from contention for first place in the tournament. Much of the hype which had permeated the Grand Finals of the previous WatchL4D tournament did not exist in regards to the "Grand Finals" of the tournament which occurred in week five, because technically it just happened to be another game which concurrently decided first place in the tournament.

Team For Kyle Roberts lobbied to include the player Nate (ex-team Polarity) on their roster, requests for which were denied by the tournament administration due to Nate's prior suspicion of hacking in the L4D community. Soon after, FKR team captain Twisted was VAC banned during the duration of the tournament, and was subsequently given a 3-game suspension from tournament games by Barlow, a punishment which many thought was too lenient. Team For Kyle Roberts was eventually disqualified from the tournament due to their conduct in a match versus Plus Gaming, which included slurs directed at their opponents and various insults levied towards Barlow.

During a match between Serious Business (Fig Newton's team at the time) and team Apollyon, Serious Business were leading by approximately 1000 points going into the finale of Swamp Fever. However, during the readyup period, Sygnus from team Serious Business disconnected due to internet problems. NF came in to replace him, and both teams readied up. NF then disconnected due to his own internet issues. Finally, Fig connected to the server; however, during the time in which team Serious Business were having issues, the round started on it's own due to time elapsed, immediately spawning an early tank. Fig ended up being stuck in place due to a common glitch which occurs when a player takes over an NPC bot in ProMod, and Serious Business were subsequently wiped by Apollyon's tank as Fig was still stuck. Upon review, Barlow overturned the wipe and told the teams to restart the chapter due to the fact that the tank spawned via the game and not by Serious Business leaving the saferoom, causing a chain reaction of events, including the spawning of an NPC charger and Zeon from Serious Business moving to dodge said charger whilst Fig was still frozen. After the ruling was delivered, Team Apollyon left the server in protest, forfeited the match to Serious Business, were eliminated from championship contention due to the loss, and quit the tournament.

During a match between team Velvet Room and team Sienna E-Sports, Wrugb of team Sienna was pulled through an invisible wall on the finale of Dark Carnival whilst his team was attempting to mount a comeback; Sienna was allowed to replay their survivor round because of this. Velvet Room won the match.

Final Standings: https://s3.amazonaws.com/AST2014/standing.html