Writeup: Replay at ECL 3, by JoeMR2

The great thing about being a part of the Replay Crew is the wide range of gaming shows you get to go to. ECL 3 offered me an entirely different experience to the types of events I was used to attending ...

The simplest way to explain is it essentially a LAN event which is predominantly for consoles (with some SERIOUS cash on offer to the winners of the various contests!) though images of old - where you had to lug along your own gaming rig and monitor - don’t apply here: all you needed to bring was a controller and headset.

As the name suggests, ECL 3 was the third major tournament held by the European Console League (now European Gaming League) and once again Replay Events were on hand to add a little “retro” flavour, albeit in keeping with the nature of the event; in this case our Replay LAN configuration (comprising networked Halo: CE and Halo 2 rigs) as well as a couple of multiplayer stations … a setup we like to refer to as the Replay Lounge.

On Friday evening Dave M (aka Arcadian) made the trip to the Loughborough University campus to deliver and set up the kit we would be using over the weekend. On Saturday morning myself and Dicky T (aka UKRetroGameAddict) arrived at around 9.30am, with even more consoles and games. After making our way through the hundreds of people trying to sign in for the weekend, we arrived inside the huge campus gymnasium.

The Replay Zone was nicely situated in between two, huge tiered seating areas which had been arranged for the console tournament finals on one side and the PC-based, Starcraft 2 tournament on the other.

Saturday

For the first few hours of the Saturday morning we completed setup of the Replay area, configuring the networked Xbox’s, testing control pads and tidying up metres upon metres of cabling. When complete the setup consisted of:

• 8 networked Xbox’s for Halo 2 FFAs (Free for Alls)
• 8 networked Xbox’s for 2 x Halo: CE 2v2 setups
• 2 linked Xbox’s set up for Halo 2 ‘Head to Head’ action (this was later rotated to Capcom vs SNK then Bloody Roar Extreme … both of which proved to be very popular!)
• N64 running 4 player GoldenEye
• Gamecube running 4 player Mario Kart Double Dash

The main ECL area comprised numerous banks of 16 x 360/PS3’s allowing for 4v4 and FFA matches to take place. A full Rockband 3 setup was available to play on a big display and sound-system, courtesy of Steel Series. We particularly welcomed rijo 42’s free coffee machine all weekend, which complimented our consumption of energy drinks (as we do like to look after ourselves at these events)!

Throughout the Saturday there was a chilled, relaxed vibe throughout the Replay Zone; allowing us to chat and play with the steady stream of people making their way over to play Halo whilst waiting for group games in the main area. Mario Kart was popular all weekend and we hardly saw a time when it wasn’t being hammered.

Though I did find it a touch sad that the demand for Goldeneye wasn’t quite at the same level; however, if you consider that the average age of the players at one of these events is just 21, I suppose it’s understandable that its significance may be lost on some.

Having said that, a party of visiting Frenchmen (pictured below) appeared to collectively wet their underwear when they heard the familiar “Dum di-di dum dum, dum dum dum” theme emanating from the back of the hall. After competing against each other ferociously for over an hour, they went on to proclaim GoldenEye as being the best game on show at the event!

We also noticed that Halo: CE was slightly less popular than its sequel but then again, the original Halo was never available on Xbox Live, hence many players wouldn’t have experienced it in LAN form. Conversely, no end of Halo junkies will have played Halo 2 in an online environment.

I also brought along my Street Fighter fightpad, so Dicky and I journeyed into the main area and had a couple of games against the competitors in the SSF4 tournament. Suffice to say we both had our proverbial backsides handed to us in spectacular fashion!

Sunday

I arrived Sunday morning about 8.45am and was the first of the Replay Crew there – which didn’t surprise me as Arcadian would only have about 2 hours sleep (as per usual) and Dicky was hitting the car boots first thing. So after putting on some tunes in the Replay command center I set about tidying up and getting the equipment ready for the final day. Things kicked off quite early in the Replay Zone and as soon as I’d switched on the TVs and systems, the punters were all over them like a rash (perhaps because today we would be running the Replay Tournaments, some quick practice was needed!). By the time Arcadian and Dicky T appeared, the party was already in full swing.

We would be running two types of competitions: some ‘spot’ 2v2 contests on Halo: CE as well as an FFA tournament on Halo 2. The spot 2v2 competitions on Halo: CE kicked off first, which involved teams battling to be the first to forty kills.

In the first match Damage & Random Hobo defeated Macca God & Killer by 40 kills to 32. These guys were Halo veterans and the match was extremely competitive, not to mention LOUD!

In the second of the 2v2s, Mumbles & Sam Style reigned victorious over D C1R B & Vox in a match that was won by just one kill.

Both matches were filmed and are viewable below. All winners received weekend tickets to Replay Expo in Blackpool on 5/6 November this year.

Now, it was originally our intention to run a prize FFA tournament on Halo 2 however, on Sunday evening we were presented with an unexpected opportunity to stage a competitive Halo 2 4v4 match, on the main stage … which could also be streamed on the event’s live video feed (woot!).

There hadn’t been anything on stream for a while (we’d heard that Gears of War had missed its slot) and the Halo: Reach final still wasn’t ready to start. Appararently Black Ops was well behind schedule.

So if we could get the Hard Drives on the 360’s patched to run Halo 2, a 20 minute slot on the main stage beckoned ...

For a while it was touch and go whether we would get time to fit our match in the schedule, but thanks to some frantic jiggery-pokery from Meekel, SoBenJohnson and Maverick, retro prevailed and we had Halo 2 running on the huge nine-screen rig, with a live stream courtesy of ECL & TwitchTV (a brand new offshoot of JustIn.tv which focuses exclusively on the streaming of e-Sports and gaming).

The lineup for the exhibition match consisted of the Halo Admins (Meekel, SoBenJohnson, Maverick & Steinzy) challenging the “HRF Legends” (H3aVensWra7h, AdamsKi, Riddla and MillwallBoi).

The players taking part in this match were Halo 2 veterans and all knew the game inside out (in fact, many had been practising in the Replay Zone throughout the weekend). With Mike Bembenek, Julian 'Jools' Cottee & SkitzQ commentating, it was going to be a good one!

The HRF Legends ended up winning by some margin, and yours truly was asked to present the prizes, which included £100 worth of vouchers to spend at RetroGT.com.

Whilst the match was being played, we tuned into the live stream on Dave’s Laptop, and noticed some ‘colourful’ remarks being left by viewers! The Call of Duty fans had been eagerly awaiting the Black Ops final, so when they saw a pre-historic Xbox game appear in front of their eyes they were, perhaps understandably, rather bemused. In contrast, a good number of viewers embraced the coverage – welcoming the chance to witness this ‘blast from the past’. Anyway, it wasn’t long before it all descended into a series of arguments between the Halo and COD faithful, over which was the superior franchise!

Regardless, what we do know is that Replay and ECL brought the live stream a slice of FPS action from yesteryear (see below for a video of the entire presentation).

By this point it was getting late and it was time for me to leave. Dicky had left earlier in the day so it was up to Arcadian to finish off the event and eventually pack up the kit and take it home. He told me he arrived back home at around 2am in the morning, so it was an incredibly long day, and weekend, for all of us. What also warrants mentioning is just how tirelessly and hard the ECL Team work to put on events for the competitive gaming scene. On the Sunday evening, EGL 4 aka EGL London was confirmed for the Emirates on 29-30 October 2011.

From a Replay perspective, probably the highlight of the weekend was seeing our old Xbox setups and retro Nintendo consoles receive just as much attention as the various current-gen gaming setups available elsewhere in the hall. Virtually everyone that called by seemed to be extremely enthusiastic about the systems and games that we had brought with us.

We hope to see some of you at Replay Expo at the Norbreck Castle in Blackpool on 5/6 November, where once again the EGL team will be running our Halo, Fifa & COD tournaments.

Joe Shaw
http://twitter.com/JoeMR2