What a match. This was one of UNR's toughest games for a while. The reason..The sAn tactics.

The match kicked off with UNR making a good start, going 17 - 9 up by the end of minute 4. Cool I thought, here we go...

End of minute 5 comes around and it's 16 - 13 to UNR...eek...where did our lead go ??(it's not just the frag difference, that lead increase usually means we have achieved map control)

I'll tell you where it went, sAn controlled the area from the GL to the RL very well, making a few easy frags against our guys attempting access to these areas...played guys.

The heat is on and we are stretched. Tas falls in love with the mega-health about here and controls it for UNR for most of the match.

Then it's pretty even scoring until 11-13 mins from the end. Here UNR gains control of the upper area. sAn struggle for a while as we get the RL and GL and pop some bods to go 31-22 up :)

By the half way point we are in the lead 39 - 26 and looking good again...not so :(

sAn take control of the upper area (again) with about 9 mins to go and by 8 mins to go have pulled back to within 5 frags (35 - 40).

With 7 to go sAn have gotten to within 4 of UNR. Here 2 cool things happen..

Luke chainguns the 2 sAn players controlling the upper area for 2 frags and control of the RL. Then, a San dood gets the quad and wastes it following Tas underwater with a quaded blaster which Tas easily avoids..

During the last 4 minutes UNR pull away steadily, finishing 76 to 53 ahead. Well played UNR and especially well played to sAn, whose tactics on this map are solid.

I can't big up the individual sAn members because they all played under aliases and i can't be bothered to look them up :-P

Yaku gets a mention for some cool play around the quad / yellow armour location.

Tas for keeping the Mega health under UNR control.

Luke for breaking the sAn hold on the upper area more than once.

Me for being a bit pants :-(

Excellent match...

After the good game sAn gave us on DM5 we expected no less on DM1 and were prepared for a hard slog....

UNR came out very fast, going 5 - 0 up in the first minute. We pulled away steadily, being 30 - 12 at the end of the first 5 minutes.

sAn were attempting to hold the top RL, mega health and Railer postions. They team worked good access to the railer from their control of the top RL. Extending this to the mega-health stretched them a little thin and they were unable to consolidate this location into their map control. UNR scored the mega health the majority of the time.

sAn used very similar tactics to those used by King on DM1 and as such we were able to counter the plays for control in most of the areas. Top RL though, as far as i can tell, belonged to sAn the majority of the game..played guys.

During the next 5 mninutes of play we steadily increased our lead, being 57 - 24 up at the half way mark.

During the next 5 minutes, whether they know it, planned it or what, sAn took control of the mega health location and scored some big kills there. This halted the UNR attack completely, the frag difference remaining roughly constant at 30 frags during this period.

The final 5 minutes saw more furious action around the mega-health location, UNR gaining the upper hand and once again increasing the lead.

Luke and Tas get mentions for UNR. You two really are fekking animals you know?? You don't have to shoot point blank with that RL EVERY time doods ;-)

Fragma and strudles led the sAn assault, Fragma all round weps, with Strudles scoring some phat rail shots off us..nice one mate :-)

I would like to finish by saying that UNR were impressed with the play shown by sAn, especially their DM5 map control. A very enjoyable final all round (except when they were still with us after 11 mins on DM5 hehe).

Here's my usual round up of moments to look for in the demo...

Right at the start, Fragma gets the lower RL spawn..I know how this one goes...'YES, got ma RL, got ma 15 rocks, lets go kick some UNR butt'. Unfortunately, just as he leaves the tunnel, Yaku strafe jumps across his path and is generous enough to give him both barrels of his SSG :-) Bumma Fragma..I really felt for you dood :((

Rude scores a cool double as sAn try to get their top RL control underway at the start of the match.

Yaku performs an amazing freefall chaingun frag...both doods in mid-air and Yaku never lets go of the trigger..cool

Strudles..nuff respect..after a bad start he gets of some cool rails in the latter half of the match.

Retribution. Revenge. Payback. Call it what you will, King Vs. UNR was always going to be an exciting UKCCL semi-final.

After being beaten by UNR on DM3 in the Q2CL league last week we knew King would be lusting for UNR blood. UNR, however, were keen to show their ability on two completely different maps which demand a wide range of skills to ensure victory.

The levels were chosen. King selected DM 1 (one of their favourites) and UNR selected DM3. UNR love DM1, but opted for DM3 for a number of reasons..

1) It's the level we beat King on in the Q2CL (Putting in the psych')
2) We play well as a team on DM3.
3) Our regular team didn't get to play King on DM3 the first time around.

The scene is set, the curtain goes up. Let battle commence...

DM1

After an initial false start (friendly fire was set incorrectly) the map got underway...

Is it a bird? is it a plane? No it's Tasan scoring 7 out of 10 of UNR's first frags. Tas went off at a tremendous fragrate. This gave us a good start and helped ensure we had control of the map from the start. Add to this Luke gaining the top RL, RG and first 2 mega health after his initial spawn and the map was ours.

Major action centred around the Lower RL / 'bowl' area. This area was very busy for most of the match. UNR had the best of the fighting in this area, with Tasan and Yaku contributing much to the control of the lower RL and SSG.

King controlled the top RL for long periods, using the approach corridor as a staging area for equipping / launching attacks. This area came under heavy assault once we had worked out the King tactics. Yakumo deserves a mention here - he team talked some excellent intelligence reports to the rest of us.

Another area frequently visited by King was the rail room. At times there were up to three King occupying this room. Due to respwans times and frequent visits by UNR they were unable to dominate possession of the RG.

Luke and Insomniak seemed to have set themselves the task of controlling the mega health room and the twin rocket packs just outside it. UNR held sway over this location for much of the match, scoring the mega health time after time. King did breach this hold on 2 or 3 occasions but UNR quickly re-captured the area each time.

After the very fast start the UNR frag rate dropped slightly, the frag difference increasing steadily until about the 15th minute. This was one of the occasions where King took the mega health room. This helped slow down the UNR fragging and King held the difference at 33 frags from minute 15 until the end of the match - well played King..nice counter.

Individual mentions.

Tasan for his chaingun assault on the upper RL position from below it !!
Yakumo for his superb information on King strongholds..which was then taken up by Tas.
Luke..in the demo you see Luke attempting to get to the areas identified by Yaku and Tas as soon as he can.
Rufus kills Luke twice in succession with two good rail shots. Luke's next two kills are against Rufus with - you guessed it - two good rail shots!!
Rufus again - right at the end of the match a triple killing with his handgrenade - Luke, Inso and himself.

This result gave us in a commanding position going into the second match.....DM3.

DM3

Going into the second leg of the semi's UNR had a commanding lead over King. Having played King on the same level the previous week we were expecting a very hard game on this level..King had a few score to settle.

The match starts and immediately 2 UNR players are stuck together causing one of them to suicide to release the other to play :(

Up to minute 1 and it's a slow start but King have the edge..4 to 1. By the end of minute 2 it's speeding up slightly as both teams start to get into their groove..UNR 10 , king 8.

UNR explode into life during minute 3 opening up a 14 frag to go 24 to 10 up. 5 minutes gone and UNR are away by 26 frags, the scores 40 to 14.

This was just the opening 5 minutes of the game and already it was far different from the