Alienware Tournament
9th Jan saw the opening round and infact opening ladder match for the brand new title BF3. Alienware were our hosts and this tight 8v8 comp was a great introduction into what BF3 was going to be competitively in a smaller format. With a total of 16 matches in January *AUS* was super busy in what is generally a holiday season. Matches scheduled on Metro, Bazaar, Damavand, Siene and Canals was enough to wet our appetites to keep the ball rolling into February. The Alienware comp was full of super competitive teams, being the first tournament on offer and unfortunately *AUS* did not make it to the finals. With a very even W/L record we held our own and this comp held us in good stead for the various other formats which would follow.
Season 1
16v16 Battlefield is an iconic battleground for Australian Universal Soldiers. It holds a dear spot in the memory for many past and present clan members. When GameArena kicked off its Season 1 of Battlefield 3 16v16 Conquest format, the excitement was through the roof. Sychoshreder took the reigns of the team. Our first opposition was Strength in numbers on a map we all love; Strike at Karkand. A lot of work went in to this match as we did not plan on starting with a loss. The work paid off as we triumphed 349-0. From here our attention turned to Carnage on Karky once again. Unfortunately Carnage were too strong on the day beating us 0-198. We knew we had a long way to go after this match as we didn't have the team unity at this stage to be able to take it to the big teams. From here we built strong momentum beating MAG, AIM, CnB & TzU with relative ease from a lot of training and well executed strategies. Also during this time, Sychoshreder stepped down as Captain, with Dward replacing him. Spook was still 2IC and remained 2IC till the end of the season.
With a 5-1 Win/Loss ratio the team had a lot of confidence going in to our next match against exile5. We always knew it was going to be tough and we weren't wrong! We went down bravely 0-364. The score doesn't show it but our boys did put in a solid effort. We won our next two games against TOG and WP Platoon fairly comfortably. Sitting just outside the top 8 (the finals being top 8), our next match against Team Tarrare was very important. It was on Operation Firestorm. We put in countless hours of practice and came up with a unique strategy that worked very well. This was a grueling match that was hard fought by both teams from the start of round 1 to the end of round 2. We won 88-39. (A full write up can be found here: http://www.gamearena.com.au/forums/Battlefield-3/viewtopic.php?t=157887)
Two more matches were played before finals, a tough loss against unKnown 0-120 and a convincing win against AvA 364-0. This brought us in to the finals to face again, Team unKnown on Operation Firestorm. We knew this map very well. Every AUS soldier went in to the match with the confidence and the belief that we could win. Unfortunately our roll out in Round 1 did not go according to plan! To our boys credit they turned it around in the 1st round to re-cap the flags we wanted off roll out. unKnown however already got a fair few tickets off us in the process. unKnown won the 1st round 97-0. This was a huge margin to lose a round by, especially to a strong team like unKnown. In what was the best round played by the AUS boys this season I had seen, we turned it around to win the 2nd round 59-0. This is a huge credit to the boys in how far they have come since the start of the season. Unfortunately it wasn't enough with Team unKnown winning the match 97-59. (Write up: http://www.gamearena.com.au/forums/Battlefield-3/viewtopic.php?t=158082)
Thanks to uK, AvA, Carnage and all the other teams we scrimmed during the season. We wouldn't of been able to reach the finals with out all the practice.
Season 2
With a month break between seasons, 16v16 Captain Dward and 2IC Spooky stepped down from their roles allowing for Gusrulz and Carebear to take on the now vacant leadership positions. With change in the air, the 16v16 team started regular training sessions which drew regular numbers of between 8 and 16 players which helped us to compete in such a small ladder of very professional and skilled teams.
Our first match of the season was against Carnage on Strike at Karkand, with Carebear taking the role as Captain in Gusrulz's absence. A very close and intense game, it went down to the wire with a 28 - 4 win to Carnage.
Our next match was against AIM Recon on Caspian Border, with yet another close match ending with a 88 - 0 win to AIM, a great achievement by *AUS* to be so competitive against one of the league's best teams.
2 weeks later, we were struck a pretty severe blow to Armed Assassins losing 294 - 0 after being dominated by their air assets. With Interest dropping for BF3, the GA ladder dropped to 8 teams, with our next match played against a mixture of clans in Team Shallow Profanity. The combined skill was too much for *AUS*, with Shallow Profanity winning 309 - 0.
With the BF team losing morale with 4 losses in a row since the start of season 2, a win was in dire need. *AUS* battled TOG|Ravens on Strike at Karkand, a classic match for the BF clan, and *AUS* gave it their all. With a solid team of veterans and newcomers, we toughed it out and clenched a 67 point win, with the score of 186 - 119.
For personal reasons, Gusrulz was unable to captain for the next few weeks which were a time of inactivity for a lot of the BF3 community. *AUS* lost 0 - 238 on Grand Bazaar to FpsCorner, 0 - 309 to Shallow Profanity on Kharg Island and to TOG|Ravens on Strike at Karkand at 119 - 294, where we couldn't repeat our valiant effort in our previous match.
With the season then ended and only 7 teams in the ladder by the end, *AUS* was automatically through to the finals. Gusrulz returned to captain the side in the elimination final against AIM Recon, but a drop in motivation and lack of training brought about a 468 - 0 loss in the last 16v16 match of 2012 and possibly for GA BF3.
Thanks to all members of *AUS* for giving me the opportunity and patience to be 16v16 captain, as well to Carebear and Dward who stepped in to help out during my absence. Thanks to Team uK, Team Tarrare and Carnage for scrimming with us during the start of the season, and to the GA team.
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