Neither of the finalists from MLG Chicago made a showing in today’s Grand Final of the Shadowrun MLG Orlando event. StK (or Final Boss) couldn’t muster a top four spot while Pure was left at fourth after losing to surprise No. 11 seed Infinite Potential. In the end the finals squared off the two teams who defeated the Chicago's championship pair in the Upper Bracket.

TsK proved they might be the new Final Boss of Shadowrun. The team as a whole played extremely well but their teamwork was their biggest weakness. The newly formed team after MLG Chicago showed the most individual talent but still lacked a lot of the teamwork displayed by some of the more established teams.

StK will be a main focus on topic for more players. They seem to fall flat on their face when they finally faced the top teams. eXt, Walsh and Oneeye didn’t seem to be the same players that we saw at the last tour stop. The usually amazing play from eXt; finding ways to flank and disrupt the opposing team just seem to be rogue mistakes that lead to difficult situations for his team. At many points it felt like the team was trying too hard.

The only player who didn’t seem to have a problem was Ogre2 who was on his game almost all weekend. He hit his shots consistently and didn’t seem to be phased by the lesser play of his teammates.

The other stories were Secret Weapon and Infinite Potential. Secret Weapon, behind the usual strong play of Final Mirage, really continued to step up their game. Final Mirage is the best player in Shadowrun right now. He’s such a complete player who can play offense or stay back and heal with rez and trees. On top of that he also can play both troll and elf extremely well.

The big questions heading into the future of competitive Shadowrun is basically two fold. Who will be left after Halo 3 comes out and will StK still care about Shadowrun in the future? If Shadowrun provides the reprieve from Halo 3 it could continue as a strong title in the future. The other option is if the gamers decide Halo 3 will be the future of eSports on the console, Shadowrun will be left as an afterthought, remembered as something MLG tired at the end of the 2007 season.

Awards from MLG Orlando


MVP: Final Mirage (Secret Weapon) – He was the best player in the tournament and really did more then anyone else to single handily carry his team to their final placement.

Best pure Fragger: Reflex (IP) – His team would get him enough money to get enhanced vision and a rifle in the first round. From there he was a frag machine leading his team nearly every map and helping them surprise almost everyone on Saturday.

Best Troll: Check out my full article on Shadowrun's Best Troll.

Best Elf: Final Mirage (SW) – Few play the position as well and so consistently. This is a no brainier.

Best Human: GAWDLIKE (TsK) – He was inconsistent at times but his play was really big reason they advanced and won the finals.

Biggest Mistake: IP – They won the first two rounds of the sixth tiebreaker map in the Loser’s Bracket final against SW. The following round they stopped playing and pulled back with the artifact thinking they had won the round on frags/points. Instead it was SW who won. The mistake was HUGE as IP had controlled momentum up to that point winning 20 of the first 28 rounds of the match up, after that they would lose the map and match which included six round losses in eight final rounds.

Stock Falling: StK – Walshy and Ogre2 have Halo 3 to worry about and there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to play three games competitively.

Stock Rising: TsK – They won the last two tournaments (EGL and MLG Orlando), now its just a matter of refining their teamwork and keeping enough focus on Shadowrun over other games.

 Related: Shadowrun Scoreboard | Full MLG Coverage