 The 2006 CPL world tour will use Quake IV |
One of the UK's top gamers has proved he can beat the best in the world at a lucrative weekend tournament. David Treacy beat top Painkiller player Sander Kaasjager early on in the Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour event held in Singapore.
But Mr Treacy could not capitalise on this early success as computer trouble led to him forfeiting a later game.
Despite this, he finished sixth overall and walked away with a cash prize of $2,500 (�1,415).
Game over
The Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour is a globe-trotting tournament that gives top gamers the chance to take each other on for a share of a $1m prize pot.
Throughout 2005 tour stops are being held in nine nations and revolve around one-one-one shoot outs using the Painkiller game.
The competition prior to Singapore had been dominated by Sander Kaasjager, aka Vo0, who has topped the rankings in four events.
In a real upset, David Treacy, aka Zaccubus, of the UK pro-gaming clan Four-Kings Intel beat Mr Kaasjager comprehensively during the opening stages of the competition.
Problems with a tournament computer meant that Mr Treacy had to switch machines mid-match during a later clash with another player, which led to him losing that encounter.
 | FINAL STANDINGS 1) Johnathan Wendel aka Fatal1ty ($15,000) 2) Sander Kaasjager aka Vo0 ($10,000) 3) Alessandro Avallone aka Stermy ($7,000) 4) Andrew Ryder aka Gellehsak ($5,000) 5) Alexander Ingarv aka Ztrider ($3,500) 6) David Treacy aka Zaccubus ($2,500) 7) Benjamin Bohrmann aka Zyz ($1,750) 8) Stephan Lammert aka SteLam ($1,250) |
As he did not tell officials that he was switching machines, Mr Treacy was charged with breaking tournament rules and was made to forfeit his next match, leaving him in sixth place overall. Four-Kings Intel manager Philip Wride said it was a disappointing end to what had promised to be a great tournament for Mr Treacy.
"The upside is that he's beaten his seeding and had potentially made the top four," he said.
"He's now got the confidence from having beaten Vo0 and if he works on the positives going into the last two stops and takes two more fourth places into the grand finals he could net a lot of money," he told the BBC News website.
For finishing fourth overall Mr Treacy could win �50,000.
In Singapore the overall winner was Jonathan Wendel, aka Fatal1ty. Mr Kaasjager recovered from his early upset to come second.
The World Tour will be repeated in 2006 but the one-on-one game will be Quake IV.
Also this weekend top Warcraft 3 player Manuel Schenkhuizen, aka Grubby, took the top spot in the Digital Life Expo tournament and took home a $4,000 prize.
Another Warcraft 3 player and Four-Kings member Yoan Merlo, aka Tod, also won his national qualifier for the World Cyber Games. This means that four out the five Warcraft 3 players from Four-Kings' have secured places at the global event that takes place from 16-20 November in Singapore.
The Four-Kings clan recently expanded to take on its first console gamers. Tony Sorial, aka Dread, Harry Thomas, aka Lethal, Dean Ruffell, aka Ruffell, and Mark Thurston, aka La1, are Halo 2 players and will soon be competing for a chance to go to Singapore too.