Last weekend, in the Moscow Central Children’s Store on Lubyanka, the LAN final of the last, anniversary 15th Open Cup on Warface was held. Cybersport.ru attended the event, talked with the players and found out why the developers decided to change the esports shooter format.
The first day of spring in Moscow turned out to be cold, but it was very hot in the Central House of Artists on Lubyanka, where the LAN-finals of the Warface Open Cup: Season XV were held. The last tournament of the series was held in Winstrike Arena, which, it seemed to me, was not very suitable for this – it is too compact. But in reality it turned out that the place was not chosen by chance.
The tournament reminded me of the Beyond the Summit championships, which take place at the studio in Los Angeles. The Winstrike Arena was just as comfortable: for example, the dashboard was literally a step away from the auditorium – during the analysis of matches behind the backs of the casters, the fans went around and around, actively discussing the cards.
The production of the tournament was very memorable: the action took place in dim light, due to which the atmosphere of some kind of bunker was created. Cosplayers added the entourage (although the language doesn’t call them that) – healthy men in military uniforms from Warface who took pictures with everyone.
In the decisive games of the LAN finals for the main prize in ₽2.1 million fought four teams – familiar to many No Pontov and Young, and Pogchamp and Boomerang. According to the forecasts of the casters, the main favorite was Young, with the captain of whom I talked a little after his team reached the final (read the full version of the interview here):
Trayz feared the individual skill of the PogChamp players. And not in vain: in the final, Young was defeated with a score of 0: 3, which surprised everyone a lot – PogChamp participants too:
However, honoring the winners was not the only important part of the event. Warface developers announced a “renovation” of the game, on this subject we talked in detail with franchise producer Ivan Pobyarzhin (read the full interview here):
In addition to the visual and technical update of Warface, the developers also announced a global change in the competitive system: now players will have more opportunities to try themselves in the eSports Warface: