The Nations Cup – Team South Africa’s first match was against Russia, where they gave them a good run for their money, but unfortunately lost the game due to a ticket difference. Both teams won a map, but Russia managed to have the better score. The second match pitted our team against Spain, where the team proved why they deserve to be in the tournament with a very convincing victory. After Indonesia forfeited and dropped out of the cup, Team S.A had Bulgaria lined up next, not losing any momentum, they went on to dominate them, securing their second win in the cup. This win secured our team an already impressive third place spot in their group.
The next match was not going to be an easy one; S.A had to play Germany, the undefeated team in their group. Even though they gave it their all, they lost the match after a very intense battle. Picking themselves sup and dusting off the hard loss, they went into their game against Italy full throttle, even though they outcome would not prevent them from going through to the top eight stages, Team S.A was determined to stay right on the winning path. After beating Italy, S.A were to progress to the to eight on a high note, but not after some accusations from the Italian team captain, furious that his team had lost, he started accusing our team of hacking, and just about anything else he could think of. There was nothing to his accusations though, our team played completely by the book.
Team South Africa’s stay in the top eight
Just getting to the top eight of this cup is an incredible achievement in itself, being ranked higher than countries like the USA, France, the Netherlands, and Italy. 28 teams started out in this cup and only the best of the best got past the group stages. Our team was one of those “best of the best”.
Our first seed in the top eight was no joke; we were seeded against last year’s second place winners and current best ranked infantry squad in Europe: Finland. No matter what the odds were, Team S.A gave it their all, but couldn’t beat this incredibly skilled team. This is what Team S.A’s Captain Barry ‘Anthr4xZA’ Louzada had to say about the match:
“…We played a 50⁄50, which means we played one round per map on either server. We started with Damavand nice and strong and really played well to hold them back for a first round win. We then moved to the Finnish server where they managed to show us why they are the best infantry team in Europe and took a loss by tickets.
Moving onto Caspian, we started on the Finnish server where lessons of what it is like to compete with the cream of the crop followed.
We may have gotten raped on Caspian, but we played better on that map than we have against any of the other teams so we are improving amazingly. I am really proud of my team. In the words of the German,Finnish and Russian team captains ‘You have NOTHING to hide from, you have done your country proud’…”
And that they have. This team has come a long way and made a great name for themselves on the international scene.
