Call Of Duty 4 DSRack LAN

Sunday (Travel)

My dad gave me a lift to Newcastle airport and as soon as I got there I went to the kiosk to print my tickets. This is where my bad day started, the first kiosk had a problem scanning my passport so I tried another one only for the touch screen not to work. I finally found a kiosk that worked and managed to print my ticket off however I later found out it should have printed off 2 tickets for my transfer flight. I went to the baggage drop off to enquire about my fnatic bag size as it was pretty big but he said it was fine as hand luggage. I then asked about my tickets and he told me the machine should have printed 2 tickets but it didn’t so he printed another one off for me.

On the way to my boarding gate I seen an old football friend so had a quick chat with him as he was going on holiday with his girlfriend. I got on my flight to Amsterdam and about 30minutes in my stomach started to feel really bad, I don’t get travel sickness. My flight arrived and I went to the toilet and the cubicle smelt so bad that I was actually sick. This made me feel so much better as my first flight was really uncomfortable. I thought I might have had food poisoning from the night before but I was feeling better so who cares.

I had to walk about 20 minutes and go through security again as my boarding gates were on complete opposite sides, this was quite disappointing because it was directly on the other side of the glass so it was teasing to be able to see it. I boarded my Copenhagen flight and loved the free cookies and drink. Never get a seat next to the emergency exit, you don’t get an arm rest.

I landed and played rockband to pass the time as I waited for Stevy. He recognised me easily as I was sporting the fnatic jacket. We both exchanged money at the airport as we had none to pay for the train tickets. We had to ask at the information desk as we didn’t know where we were going but the woman was really helpful. The hotel was only 2 stops way from the Airport. We ordered some pizza at the cabin metro hotel. I got Hawaii while Stevy got some massive beacon burger. It seemed like an eternity for it to come as Stevy even went downstairs to see what was happening with our food.

By now my stomach started to hurt again and I was thinking it might be due to hunger pains as I had nothing to eat all day but when it finally came I took a bite and was instantly sick. The delivery guy also forgot our bottle of coke so Stevy kindly went downstairs to get us some. I lay down in pain while Stevy was enjoying his food. I drank some coke and started to feel a little bit better. I was sick again and the pain had pretty much gone. I started eating some of my cold pizza and was feeling great again. We chilled in the hotel room watching a documentary about George foreman. This was the only decent thing to watch as Danish TV sucked. The delivery guy then came back with our coke out the blue lol.

Kyo and Raz came and give me hugs and ordered from the same delivery place. They got an even bigger burger than Stevy which was quite expensive but seemed to be worth it. We checked at the reception to see if our gear had been delivered but they had nothing to report. We then went to greet nreo at the train station and all chilled in our room as I wasn’t feeling good enough to go for a drink. We went to sleep watching band of brothers on the laptop

 

Monday (Lan day)

Kyo woke us up about 2 hours early telling us to get ready, he didn’t realise the time as I checked my phone and told him to go back to bed as it was about 5am. We all got showered with the usual, you go first I need 10minutes more sleep. This went on for about 10 minutes until Stevy decided to bite the bullet. We got the train to LAN only to be told there was only 1 working HD with cod4 so for 2 hours we went to get some food and chilled at the LAN. We got the vital supplies such as water and bananas. We got back to the LAN and had a team interview with Gonzo, we waited for another hour until we could finally setup.  We all had our gear setup but my PC had no network connection. The admins gave me a new pc but this was in Danish and the background was locked. After 10 minutes they finally give me one in English where I could actually install things.

Our 1st game was against 30p who we easily beat on crash and then smack who we beat 13-1. We packed up and called our hotel to see if our gear had been delivered as some of us were using borrowed gear so thank you everyone.  The gear had not been delivered so we got some nachos at the bar which was very reasonably priced for everything

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While chilling at the LAN me and nreo watched replan play while everyone else went asleep on the couches as we didn’t have very much sleep. We then sat behind pwr but there was also delays which made it even more boring. We then had some toasties and because of the delays pwr were told to play another game so we were told to wait longer. As usual everyone was either chilling or catching up on sleep.


We finally got to play some games the most intense game was against xaya who we were beating 9-3 on attack and then on defence we took the game to 12-6. We then got a little overconfident and too aggressive which they capitalised on while they sat in spawn picking us off.  This got really frustrating as some rounds they just baited their own team mates for frags but we didn’t think they would do this so they managed to get a few unexpected rounds. They kept doing this until the remaining 4 rounds where we decided to adopt some discipline and they managed to get a lucky round where we killed 2 of them fast but we all pushed at the same team meaning we all died as they camped. Stevy then won the map with an awesome 2v1 as they had to plant the bomb to win unlike the previous 6 rounds. The final score was 13-10 something that doesn’t really represent how the game went.

We played our final game against TCM. We won the knife round and they defended really well on crossfire. They stopped us from getting into the A house which is vital on crossfire. They also abused our lack of stop nades on b alley as they were inside the B bombsite before us and constantly abused our lack of solid stop nades or teamwork. We won a few awesome rounds with glimmers of brilliance and team play but our individual skill alone wasn’t enough. Whenever we tried to plant we would get picked off as we didn’t know who was covering what. They also came out on top of all the 1 on 1 situations and things just weren’t going our way. Defence was a nightmare, they didn’t even attempt to get into the A house they just abused the street and B bombsite which we were unable to do and got fast plants down. We retook the bomb about once but they did a good job at defending the bomb once they got it down. We finished 2nd in our group and proceeded into the playoffs where it was best of 3.

We had arrived at the LAN for 9 and didn’t leave until about 2. We missed the train and had to get a taxi back. It cost just as much as the train so it worked out fairly cheap.

Tuesday (Play offs)

We were specifically told to be there for 9 but as usual there were delays when we arrived. We finally got to set up. Our first playoff game was against Blight. We lost the first map backlot 13-8. They completely over run us on the A bombsite. They abused our lack of effective stop nades and were always in the A site before us. They were top A and mid house picking us off in their smoke while we were unable to do anything against them. They constantly got the bomb down quickly and we always lost a man at garage or A as we tried to get into the bombsite as quick as them. We tried going around through their spawn at B site but by the time we got there people were dead and they had the bomb down.

We then played them on citystreets and we were confident it was going to be a better map but we were destroyed yet again. We started off on defence and managed to get the opening kills but they used their smoke effectively and got into our spawn and raped us from behind and abused the holes and our lack of cover. We constantly had spots open like mid stairs where they could side rape 2 of us at a time. This continued but we managed to get a few really good rounds and took the lead. Things started going well when we were up 9-5 and then they called a timeout. We were on defence and everything seemed to go to pot from here. They rarely attacked my A site and when they finally did they managed to win a 3v5. I killed 2 of the attackers and sat in the house while I was expecting cover on the grass but it was our sniper so he was unable to and our guy inside A link was smoked out so they got 2 easy kills and the reg on them was dire despite us saying how good it was in our previous match. They managed to win this round and from then they always rushed the B site or middle which left it 3v5 as me and nreo were playing very static on the A site as their sniper would periodically peek A house so I had to be cautious. By the time I had to rotate they had mid and B site fully which meant it was impossible to retake with only 3 of us. We tried changing it up like putting our AK’s on B but the lack of comms and teamwork was evident as we were looking lost and had doubled up on specific spots which meant we were ineffective at covering the site. The round we finally got it right they decided to go A. I literally ran all the way to B bomb only to sprint all the way back to A for a 3v5 situation. They won city 13-11 despite some good clutches from us and some awesome play. Their teamwork paid off and it was clear we needed more than 2 days. Later on we were told that city and backlot was their stronger maps but I cant take anything away from them because they played well and abused our weak spots. I had even watched them play on city so it was no excuse.

We were now in the lower bracket and that meant we only got to play 1 map and if we lost this we were out. We had all been in this situation before and managed to get into the final so we were all determined to do it again. We played these games a lot tighter and more disciplined. Even our teamwork and communication was clearer. I think it had finally set in that this was our last chance and we needed to prove we were worthy. We beat Viborg Vipers 13-7. We then had to play Auric who we beat 13-9.
We then played dynamic which was a tough game as they had everyone from the Danish community rooting for them. They played really well but their lack of discipline was worse than ours. This let us shine with some amazing individual play and clutches. We won a few rounds we shouldn’t have as they were too eager for the frag and constantly peeked us. We also had some amazing teamwork at times but it still wasn’t consistent so we were constantly exchanging rounds. On defence they had some really good nades but it wasn’t enough as I was constantly holding down the A site while my team mates quickly pushed the back and we pincered them in. We won strike 13-9.

We now finally got to get revenge back on blight who knocked us into the lower bracket. We knew that we had to veto citystreets and backlot. We played Strike which was perfect for us as it was a nice open map and they couldn’t abuse our lack of stop nades. We practically had me alone on A while my team mates pushed them on the street while Stevy was getting plenty of picks on the street. On attack we had some awesome rushes as once we rushed café with an AK they seemed to be really scared on statue as they were always worried about an AK side raping them.  Lack of team play showed however as sometimes we would get to café and have no smoke which meant their sniper would pick us off. We nearly lost a silly 2v1 when we had the bomb down due to lack of discipline but nreo won the 1v1 so we were safe.

We were now due to play pwr in the lower bracket final which was great as it was our last game until the final. We all thought it was going to be bo1 but the game was bo3 which imo is ideal because it means a team doesn’t luckily win 1 map especially if you come from the upper bracket straight into the lower bracket.  We even got lucky in the map choice as pwr couldn’t choose the same map (crossfire) as they had just choose it. We got ideal maps like strike and crash. We started on strike and everything just seemed to go against us. We played way to slow on attack and when I tried to peek from café we never had any smoke and when we came in front A we went 1 by 1 so we always got picked. This meant we played even slower which didn’t suit us at all as we had limited team play as it was making it even harder to play slow. Defence was awful. I tried to take the A site by myself but because I was smoking street for our smgers it meant I was taking fire while crossing into statue. This meant their AK and scope were tagging me or picking me off with nades leaving our site completely open. The gap was huge and nothing was going our way. Even the first round where we retook the site and lost because raz had his shoot button bound to knife which meant he knifed the wall haha. I also tried to defuse as I thought raz had killed him so that was just 1 of the many sloppy rounds.

We now had to play crash and because it was best of 3 we knew it wasn’t over. We knew exactly what they did just like everyone as every team uses the phrase “king car” however knowing what they done didn’t really help us as we all got really crap reg on them. I remember one specific round where I tagged a player at b car and he proned and then went on small crash only to tag king at his car while he proned. I switched to deagle and sprinted into middle to finish him off. I then switched to AK and fired at mid a only to tag him while he ran away to stone stairs. I was so frustrated and that’s exactly how crash went. They had their solid spots with hardware b long car and mid car while they would periodically peek out on A getting frags. The map was really close until we got the first frag at A and rushed the site but it was 1 by 1 and we had no cover so they picked us off. We planted the bomb but it was 2v4 and they killed raz on the stairs and then finally Stevy which meant we lost the map 13-11. Power played better than us and their discipline was a lot better despite some good clutches. Our teamwork was unable to rival theirs and it was proving to be too difficult to beat them on skill alone.

We watched the final where TCM won easily on backlot. We attended the prize ceremony if you can call it that and got the train home. We spent some money on food and chilled for the night. We were slightly disappointed but glad at the same time. We had come top 3 from the lower bracket and realistically didn’t expect to win with a merc and 2 days practice yet we were still capable if things had gone our way on the day.

My flight also got delayed by 2 hours as the Pilots chair broke so we had to get another plane and go through security again. Overall I enjoyed it and look forward to our next lan.

Let me know anything you guys want me to cover in future blogs like more ingame detail or lan experience such as travel or any other topics.

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