Granado Espada PvP tourney finals: the tale of the day

And, hot on the heels of the pictures that I uploaded late last night, comes the tale of the day itself, which I now weave for you.

June 16 was the opening day of the 6th Philippine Toys and Collectibles Convention [see their blog here; includes a sponsored, live Webcast]. Held this year at the Megatrade Hall of SM Megamall, it promised to be a venue for fun, finds, Transformers [the people who were releasing the movie were among the sponsors], and of course Granado Espada!

The gate was to open at 10 in the morning, and when I got there around that time, there were long lines for both the tickets and for actual entrance into the venue.

Whenever I go to cons, my usual habit is to do a fairly complete walkabout of the area - because I like finding out about where to eat, where the big booths are, where the stage is, where the cosplayers' holding area will be [whenever applicable] - before zeroing in on the booths that I feel are important.

I finally found the Granado Espada booth being set up near the exit doors of the venue. Sporting about 15 computers, several large posters, a lighted sign, and an area where various merchandise could be obtained, it was a compact set-up that was already drawing some interest at that hour of the morning.



Part of the interest, I'm sure, was because of the guys and girls wearing jackets with the words "Granado Espada TEAM PHILIPPINES" embroidered on the back. These were the fourteen other members of the team that would represent in the finals of the PvP Tournament, playing remotely with the other contestants at the Zouk Raid Party in Singapore.


Granado Espada Team Philippines being introduced on stage during the GE segment.

The segment, hosted by Anne / DeSanggria, also included a brief AV presentation, as well as a triva segement where Granado Espada caps were given away to audience members who could answer a few easy trivia questions.

The fourteen members were: Street, Arcleaumont, Hush, Amelia™, Grandee, micamania, oGTo, DeathAngel, TressPassing, wattz, snapshot, Crixca, Stormgeist, and Crowe.

While the e-Games and IP-Interactive people got set up for their booth, I was able to chat for a bit with Anne, the elementalist cosplayer, known in-game as DeSanggria; as well as with the Mena family, whom I got to meet for the first time at the con.


DeSanggria and NineMoons.


Mena and NineMoons.

At about 2pm the action got started, with the country qualifiers. These matches were fought on a private IAH server, and as per the rules, the players were allowed only the use of the following characters: male fighter, male scout, female wizard, female musketeer, female elementalist, and Emilia the Sage [misnamed onscreen as "Amelia, the Wise Man"]. All characters were at level 100, with Veteran status attained. All stances were maxed out, including the Veteran stances. All characters were provided with a choice of high-level weapons and armor.

Each player was provided with a budget of 20,000 Vis, replenished after each round, with which to purchase the allowed consumables: Healing Potions, Health-fillers, Soul-fillers, Rifle Bullets, Pistol Bullets, Magical Orbs, and Elemental Orbs.

The objective being to find the other Philippine representative to join Ino and Overseer, and Maztermel and Iami, these country finals were divided into three rounds.

The first round was played as a knockout stage, and the teams of Street and Arcleaumont, Crowe and Stormgeist, oGTo and DeathAngel, and TressPassing and wattz, emerged triumphant.

The second round was then fought using the best of three format; and advancing to the country finals were Street and Arcleaumont, and Crowe and Stormgeist.

The country finals were then held between these two teams and after another three fierce rounds of action, Street and Arcleaumont emerged as the other Philippines team to go into the Singapore semifinal round.

During the brief lull that followed as coordinations were made between the Philippines and Singapore, a wave of shock rippled among both the audience and the other Team Philippines members when it was announced that Ino and Overseer had been knocked out of the running in Singapore, making Street and Arcleaumont the country's only representatives.

The second shock was provided after we were also informed that the Singapore teams as well were no longer in competition, having lost their earlier matches.

When the time came for the lone Philippine team to fight it out, the excitement around the booth rose to a fever pitch. Onscreen, we watched as GM Thokas provided the final instructions to all teams.

This round was to be fought in the round-robin format, and the team that won two matches would advance to the final round and fight to be declared the champion of the first Granado Espada PvP Tournament.

Our Philippine representative's families, consisting of two fighters, two wizards, an elementalist and a scout, fought bravely, but finally the other two teams proved to be too much, and Street and Arcleaumont lost both of their matches.

However, the matches they fought were featured at Zouk, and were watched by all over the big screens set up there!

First place went to cara and nuub; while second place went to RavaNa and Voyage.

The Philippines also won two special awards:

Most Valuable Player
Philippine Team - Mark Anthony Sta. Ana of NCR [Overseer]

Most Supporting Team
WildCard Team - Rommel Reyes [Maztermel] and Shun Chun Leam [Iami]


Team Philippines at the close of the tournament.

While a time of brief in-person socializing and camaraderie, here's hoping that this event, and future other tourneys, serve to knit the Philippine Granado Espada community closer together~!

Kudos to the organizers and, especially, to Team Philippines for the success of our Philippines-side event!

***

Edited 23 June: I also did a write-up on this tourney for the online edition of Game! Magazine, and that article was posted today.