Spelunky News!

 All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament 2017: Group stage round-up

Posted by hb on September 17th, 2017 @06:35AM

40 runners. 10 groups. 60 matches.

 

Only 16 could make it to the knockout stage.

 

 

Here's how it all went down.

 

Group A

Group A was dictated by two key races. ix (Pot B) had an incredible race against krille71 (Pot A), on pace for sub-19, but an untimely death meant that Krille fought back to win -- with a 19:20.88, the best in the entire group stage. If krille71 was rusty, he did not show it as he emerged from the group stage undefeated and as a favourite to win the whole tournament.

 

patchesfaces (Pot C) then managed a shock win over ix, producing a brilliant personal best time of 21:19.36. patchesfaces sealed runner-up status and qualified for the Round of 16 with victory over BisleyT (Pot D).

 

 

1. krille71 (3 wins)

2. patchesfaces (2 wins)

3. ix (1 win)

4. BisleyT (0 wins)

 

Group B

Many tipped Group B to be competitive, and indeed it was. Buddy7heElf came out of a tough group undefeated, which included solid wins against JakeYoshimitsu (Pot B) and Linkruler (Pot C) and a time of 21:12.62 against Eddiesaurus87 (Pot D).

 

Linkruler finished runner-up with victory over JakeYoshimitsu, a time of 22:32.99 enough to qualify for the next stage.

 

1. Buddy7heElf (3 wins)

2. Linkruler (2 wins)

3. Eddiesaurus87 (1 win)

4. JakeYoshimitsu (0 wins)

 

Group C

The return of dtea (Pot A) got many people excited, and the anticipation was justified as he rattled off three wins to top the group. His best time was 22:19.21 against TicTacFoe (Pot D), a late replacement for The Mad Murf who pulled out at the last minute.

 

The rest of the group turned out to be relatively even-matched, with a three-way tie for second. TNF (Pot B) took the runner-up spot by virtue of superior time after beating TicTacFoe. TicTacFoe bested LF (Pot C) in a solid performance, but LF’s win over TNF meant that TNF could not progress to the next round.

 

 

1. dtea (3 wins)

2. TNF (1 win)

3. TicTacFoe (1 win)

4. LF (1 win)

 

Group D

Out of the ten groups, Group D turned out to be the most brutally fought. Stuoid (Pot B) produced an upset against Curticus (Pot A), and appeared to be on his way to topping the group. Pot D runner Kirby703, however, pulled off an even bigger shock against Stuoid, with an excellent five-minute personal best.

 

At one stage, with two races remaining, Stuoid, Curticus, and Kirby703 all had a chance to become group winner. In the end, Kirby703’s defeats to Twyn (Pot C) and then Curticus (who smashed it with a stunning 19:38.47) ensured that Stuoid and Curticus finished with two wins each, Stuoid ahead due to their head-to-head record. They both qualify but will be unseeded in the knockouts.

 

1. Stuoid (2 wins)

2. Curticus (2 wins)

3. Twyn (1 win)

4. Kirby703 (1 win)

 

Group E

Moliman (Pot C) showed he was no pushover, causing two upsets against the powerhouses Grooomp (Pot A) and Saibot (Pot B) on his way to topping the group. He managed a 24:01.78 time against Saibot, which proved just enough to nab seeding status for the Round of 16 draw.

 

Grooomp beat Saibot and then achieved an insanely fast 19:31.40 against Elad Difficult (Pot D), the second-fastest time in the entire group stage, to confirm a runner-up spot and a place in the knockout stage.

 

 

1. Moliman (3 wins)

2. Grooomp (2 wins)

3. Saibot (1 win)

4. Elad Difficult (0 wins)

 

Group F

Mazerak (Pot A) comfortably won the group with three impressive runs, his best one coming against Deviltifa (Pot C) -- a time of 19:39.27.

 

Berumondo (Pot B) finished second, beating Deviltifa and Cloiss (Pot D), but his best time of 24:42.89 (against Mazerak) was not fast enough to rank him as one of the top six runners-up. 

 

1. Mazerak (3 wins)

2. Berumondo (2 wins)

3. Deviltifa (1 win)

4. Cloiss (0 wins)

 

Group G

Group G turned out to be unpredictable, but hbix (Pot B) topped the standings, firstly upsetting meowmixmix (Pot A) and then winning their remaining matches. hbix’s best time was 23:07.07 against Zigouigoui (Pot D).

 

It was rock-papers-scissors with the other three runners: meowmeowmix beat the much-fancied Khold (Pot C), Khold beat Zigouigoui, and Zigouigoui beat meowmixmix. Khold had the best time of the three, and so finished second in the group -- but his record wasn’t good enough to qualify.

 

 

1. hbix (3 wins)

2. Khold (1 win)

3. meowmixmix (1 win)

4. Zigouigoui (1 win)

 

Group H

falafel_raptor (Pot A), a fair few people’s pick to win the tournament, surprisingly failed to qualify, finishing third after defeats to Vlad (Pot B) and GreatStriker (Pot C). GreatStriker summoned an impressive 20:05.50 personal best to beat the group favourite before winning against AlphaChannel (Pot D) to secure passage to the Round of 16 via a runner-up place.

 

There was no stopping Vlad, who won three out of three races. Against AlphaChannel, he achieved a 24:19.04.

 

1. Vlad (3 wins)

2. GreatStriker (2 wins)

3. falafel_raptor (1 win)

4. Alpha Channel (0 wins)

 

Group I

The ‘Group of Death’ lived up to its name, with a number of unpredictable results. denis1080 (Pot D) became the underdog nearly everybody was rooting for. He beat MikeIsMyIke (Pot B) and put himself in contention to qualify, almost pulling off the impossible. Alas, a defeat against the reliable ShinGraywords (Pot C) ended his tournament.

 

twiggle showed his class and weaved his way through the intense group with three comfortable wins (including a 21:09.71 against denis1080), while ShinGraywords’ time of 21:51.53 against denis1080 was enough to qualify.

 

 

1. twiggle (3 wins)

2. ShinGraywords (2 wins)

3. denis1080 (1 win)

4. MikeIsMyIke (0 wins)

 

Group J

Spef (Pot A) stormed ahead without looking back to take the group with three convincing wins, and will no doubt be one of the favourites going into the bracket stage. The highlight? A 19:37.14 over saturnin55 (Pot B).

 

With both winning over armantis (Group D), saturnin55 and Pojopoopoohead (Pot C) ended up in a winner-takes-all match to determine who would finish runner-up. saturnin55 emerged victorious but his best race time of 23:39.07 meant that he just missed out on a place in the Round of 16. Heartbreaking.

 

1. Spef (3 wins)

2. saturnin55 (2 wins)

3. Pojopoopoohead (1 win)

4. armantis (0 wins)

 

 

Related Links

Challonge Tournament Page

Results Page

Confirmation of Qualifiers