United5
Road to QuakeCon 2005 and Beyond
Written by Ceres October 9, 2021.
QuakeCon Announcement
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For the first time ever, QuakeCon announces that Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (ET) will be present during the organizer’s 2005 competition running from 08/11/2005 to 08/14/2005 in Dallas, Texas, USA. Not only that, but the prize money for the top 3 spots will be $50,000! $25,000 for 1st place, $15,000 for 2nd place and $10,000 for 3rd place. Keeping in mind that up until that point, everything is done by the ET community for the ET community, QuakeCon comes as a huge boost for ET and the competitiveness of all major regions.
The map pool is all too familiar with the most played maps, Battery, Ice, Siwa Oasis, SupplyDepot 2, SW_Goldrush, and Radar being included while Reactor is also added to the list as it is being played in the North American region.
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Pre QuakeCon
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With the March 22nd 2005 QuakeCon announcement that there will be a $50,000 RTCW:ET nVidia Championship, the formation of many teams flying out to Dallas begins while others hone their strats to pull ahead of the curve. Many teams disband, others temporally lose players and some players straight up leave their teams to create new ones that can attend QuakeCon.
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Immediately, one of the favorites to take it all is team iNfensus (iN-) from Sweden. Taking 2nd place during 2002 RTCW QuakeCon and 1st place during 2003 RTCW QuakeCon, iNfensus is right on track to challenge for the number 1 spot in this Enemy Territory QuakeCon as well. With a set lineup of ‘spear – civ – APE – FeTTx – Ferus – ozz’ iNfensus also gets picked up by a gaming org called Team9 thus securing their appearance and stay in the United States. Sadly, only 15 days later, team leader ‘spear’ leaves Team9 and ET due to a real life accident involving his best friend. 10 days later, ‘civ’ announces that iNfensus, even with a paid trip to QuakeCon by their sponsor Team9, will not attend because:
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“We´re very sad to announce team9 will not attend Quakecon this year. After spear told us he would stop playing ET due a tragic occurrence of his best friend we had to find a replacement for him. Including spear, we been practicing with the same lineup for several weeks in order to be able to compete in the biggest ET tournament so far. I sadly felt after spear`s departure the motivation of the whole team went drmatically down and playing ET became harder and harder.
We tried several very good players but having 5 players speaking swedish and 1 guy speaking english we never felt beeing really prepared to go to the United States especially in close situations.”
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Another favorite is team Saevus (sae .:). With a roster of “Sanctity – potter – darky – DeadMeat – rapture – syL” Saevus has plenty of experience and a championship mentality coming from the old teams they were part of, e-star (e*) and Rewind [<<]. Having previously won EuroCup 10 against Israeli powerhouse team Insanity (ins dm!) in extremely close games, Saevus also dispatch Polish nVidia sponsored team Fear Factory (FF-) on Battery and Supply and qualify for QuakeCon 2005! Luck, however, is not on their side. As TosspoT puts it
“Despite having contracts signed the team was unable to get the funds to travel and there was a lot of disappointment”
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To add to the list, team junk52 (/52’) also struggle to secure funds to travel mostly from Germany to the United States. With a roster of “anubis – mico – pk – mirro – urtier – guardian” junk52 is always challenging the European powerhouses for the top spots. With almost beating u96d on Dubrovnik junk52 prove they can challenge for QuakeCon but unfortunately they never secure the expected funding.
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Estonia’s Idle.ee (idle^), however, is in full attendance even securing ‘gazeta’ previously of EU champs u96d. With a roster of ‘galahad – HK – l6ng – gazeta – Holz – SpY’ they are one of the clear favorites to win QuakeCon 2005. Interesting fact is that Idle.ee has just come out of winning ClanBase’s Nationscup tournament which further boosts their morale and pushes them even higher than before. Still in the shadow of u96d, Idle.ee is paving the road ahead of them clearly setting their sights on QuakeCon.
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The famous RTCW, TWL Alpha and CAL Invite powerhouse name, DarkSide (D|S) is also a top team contending for the number 1 spot. With a lineup of ‘Dator – stiegl – MadnesS – Inferno – Plush – illshot’ DarkSide has a strong deathTouch championship core of 4 players that have played together for years. Rounding up the roster are their old Rotators buddy and Syndrom player Inferno while star rifle nader Plush completes the roster. DarkSide has a strong champion’s mentality having won absolutely everything in NA between most of their players. Coming off a fast formation for QuakeCon, DarkSide is preparing hard where everyone can finally see Dator dominate on LAN.
After weeks of practicing, DarkSide changes lineups multiple times trying to find the right 6 that can attend QuakeCon. There are also rumors going around of players getting into conflicts after scrim losses which results in the team always switching out players. As Tosspot writes
“unlike Darkside who couldn't get a stable starting six for love nor money”
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DarkSide finally sets QuakeCon lineup that consists of ‘WhiteFire – illshot – stiegl – nothx – slay – red’ which is obviously seen by the North American community as a massive disappointment from the roster that included Dator, Inferno, Plush and MadnesS. The previously considered powerhouse and best chance of NA to win QuakeCon with Dator in attendance, now travel behind newly formed United5 and even Kinetic.
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Last but not least is the clear favorite to win it all, another Estonian powerhouse, team u96 Das Boot (u96d). With a roster of ‘Night – intact – d0zer – Elps – r3vers – JaKaZc’ u96d is not to be messed with. U96d is dominating the European scene after they finally overcame, what seemed like their kryptonite, team Parodia. After months of domination, the team has been laying low practicing for QuakeCon. They also get sponsored by the American org Check6 (x6') under which they will compete at QuakeCon 2005!
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UNITED5
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United5 at that time does not exist. We go back to TWL Season 3 and CAL Season 3 where Spartan – Nomad – Special – conflict – NewdeaL – ridley – billegal – LUDA – Def – Undead are playing under team Euphoric (euph. or just e). Although the team does not win any titles, it’s a strong competitor ramping up rather quickly through the tiers of competition. Euphoric then becomes Splash My Nuts or sMn-. The roster is a little more defined, Special – Spartan – cyanide – billegal – conflict – Def – conor. They also talk massive amounts of trash which quickly inflates their egos. It all gets shut down when sMn- has to face Cyno and Friends (c&f-) who destroy sMn- on Oasis after which nothx, in his style, tells sMn- players to uninstall. Whether it’s that game or not, sMn- quickly change course and start drastically improving. The team eventually renames to Ghostbusters (wygc?) and they enter TWL Alpha Season 4 with the roster Special – Spartan – billegal – conflict – Def – LUDA – cyanide – jibba - NewdeaL. During the regular season, wygc are surprisingly out shun in the trash talking department by Fatal Attraction (.fa.). Things get heated when both trash talking crews go at each other and a grudge match in the future is inevitable.
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We are now in the playoffs of the season just when Fatal Attraction has eliminated Warped Sanity (wS^). Wygc, on the other hand, has just eliminated Uprise. The long awaited game between massive trash talkers Fatal Attraction and Ghostbusters is about to happen in just one week as .fa. and wygc are in the same bracket of the playoff. That’s when Fatal Attraction gets disqualified from the playoffs due to smurfing in ‘common’ in their win against Warped Sanity. Whether wrong or not, ‘common’ is not on their playoff roster at the time so even though he is part of Fatal Attraction, them playing with him while he is using the name of one of the .fa. playoff players gets them suspended. Furthermore, with the actions of their players, Fatal Attraction manages to be disqualified from TWL Season 4 as well as CAL Season 3 which means the team is out for the playoffs of Season 4 for TWL and Season 3 for CAL. The suspension is also extended a little bit later so .fa. gets disqualified even from the whole of TWL Season 5. The grudge match is interrupted and Ghostbusters now face Warped Sanity who advance instead of Fatal Attraction. After a fast win, wygc are in the final of TWL Alpha Season 4 where they play Cyno and Friends who have gone back to their old name, Syndrom, and have already beaten team Concept to get to the finals. Having won the regular season game, Syndrom are a little too comfortable during the final. Ghostbusters have improved drastically and dethrone the powerhouse Syndrom and win TWL Alpha Season 4.
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Ghostbusters, now at the top of the TWL chain, rename to Sinister6 (s6) and enter TWL Alpha Season 5. Sinister6 has dropped LUDA and cyanide and picked up battleAxe, nomak and PaleH0rse for TWL. After swift victories over Sedition, Reanimation and Warped Sanity, Sinister6 starts trailing behind as Pandemic, (previously Fatal Attraction) were allowed to play in the season, Kinetic and Commie Bastards have formed a really strong competitive teams for Season 5. Without the powerhouse names such as Rotators, Suave, deathTouch, Eclipse and Syndrom from previous season, competition for a new powerhouse is a foot and titles are up for grabs now. Fast forward 2 months and we have Pandemic, also sponsored by Subway, set to win TWL Alpha as Kinetic and Commie Bastards are strong contenders. Pandemic surprisingly loses to Kinetic on Radar and later Kinetic loses in the finals to Commie Bastards who become TWL Alpha Season 5 champs as well as CAL Invite Season 4 champs.
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With Sinister6 and Fatal Attraction/Pandemic both unhappy with the situation, they create a little merger between the teams. A team is formed not only to compete and win TWL Alpha Season 6, CAL Invite Season 5 but to also attend QuakeCon 2005. The team is filed down to alea – bob – Radea from Fatal Attraction, Axe - Special – Spartan – conflict from Sinister6, Silver from Immortals and additionally Nomad – mmX – Def from Splash My Nuts and Euphoric. With many teams forming and reforming, this new powerhouse forming with the intention to compete against the European giants at QuakeCon, gets a sponsor in the face of the famous Counter Strike American org, United5 (u5*). Additionally, United5 secure team leader ‘saintt’ from European giants and ClanBase EuroCup Champs [parodia] as their coach for practices and strategical improvement before QuakeCon.
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Round 1
United5 starts off QuakeCon 2005 with a BYE in the first round just like some of the other attending teams due to many teams and players unable to attend QuakeCon. While some of the European teams failed to attend due to visa issues, others couldn’t secure sponsors in time to be flown out to Dallas. Some of the North American teams, on the other hand, simply decided not to attend, were scared to attend or were baited by players deciding to pull out of attending last minute.
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Round 2
In Round 2, u5* meets Warped Sanity who dispatched team #virus with a quick 6:0. Despite wS^ having good teamwork and cohesive strategy, u5* easily advances forward with superior aiming and discipline inspired by their European coach saintt.
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Round 3
The surprise comes in Round 3 where u5* is supposed to face D|S and form the old North American rivalry between both teams. Having talked a lot of shit, nothx failed to help his team qualify for the 3rd round of the Winner Bracket and D|S lost to the Australian powerhouse Modus Operandi (mo*). Not only that, D|S also lost Siwa Oasis in an annihilating fashion by getting beat in 5 minutes and 35 seconds.
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United5 pushes for the tank as the Modus Operandi team seems to have a pretty good setup even with an MG holding off the side push. Nevertheless, u5* swoops in through main and gets the build on the tank. What follows is probably one of the fastest pushes to the gold in QuakeCon history. U5* pushes fast and hard, destroying mo*. U5* wins in exactly 4 minutes! Holding off on defense proves extremely easy as mo* don’t even touch the tank.
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Mo* attacks first and manages to get the flag in about 2 minutes. Another 2 minutes and heroics by mo*demanufacturer, and Modus Operandi get ahead and build the CP. U5* are slowly suffocating mo* by slowing them down on every push and barely letting them gain ground. Finally, the game gets to the crane phase where u5*Axe and u5*bob start to shine by going in alone in many firefights and taking out multiple enemies. Mo* manage to build the crane but u5* full holds mo* on Supply and wins the game.
End Score: u5* 4:0 mo*
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Based on the tournament so far, Idle.ee, United5 and Check6 are the clear favorites and are stronger than the rest of the teams. U5* and x6’ finally get to meet in Round 4 (Winner Bracket Final) after x6’ successfully dispatched both Idle^ and Kinetic.
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The long awaited match starts and x6’ already come up with an amazing main push after which they even blow the main gate within the first minute of the map. The Estonian captain, x6’Night, manages to pick up the West Radar parts and secures them right away as u5* are still dealing with x6’s CP push. As West goes down first, the u5* team is stuck awkwardly defending the East Radar parts. They only manage to hold it for a minute before x6’intact picks up the parts and Check6 sets a 5:27 Allies time on Radar.
Unfortunately for u5* on Allies, x6’r3vers is locked on target this map and completely destroys every single push u5* makes. Where r3vers is not present, x6’elps seems to shut down most of the push all by himself. U5* are unable to break through this solid defense by x6. X6’elps and x6’r3vers both drop over 20 kills and elps even drops 4.2k damage whereas u5* players average 1.7k damage. United5 seem completely outshot and outstratted. X6’ players manage to rotate in great affect and always have the right setup for where and when u5* pushes.
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U5* starts off on attack and right off the bat they are being held around the CP area by insane x6’ crossfire. Check6 are using r3vers’ rifle nade and team crossfire to keep u5* in the CP. United5 are also struggling running around with med packs out or get mowed down trying to get fast revives. Check6 has full control of the map and is straight up dominate on Oasis. Gaining any ground against x6’ proves almost impossible. The tempo x6’ dictates is too fast for u5* to keep up with. United5 finally manage to get both plants at North and South at the same time with 1 minute left on the clock but South gets defused. Heroics by u5*Spartan and u5*bob allow u5* to plant South once again with 3 seconds left on the clock but x6’ come out strong and manage a defuse with 10 seconds left on the clock!
Check6 wins the game with a 4:0 score. Overall, the United5 team plays disorganized and kind of pubbish at times against the very structured and well prepared Check6 team. It doesn’t help u5* that x6’elps and x6’r3vers seem to be on another level entirely in the fragging and damage department with x6’intact following very close behind them.
End Score: x6’ 4:0 u5*
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Having been in the Winner Bracket Finals, United5 places right in the Lower Bracket Finals against no other than the other Estonian powerhouse, Idle.ee who dispatched team Kinetic earlier. Whoever wins, gets to play Check6 in the Finals. United5 still has a chance to win QuakeCon and avenge their rather lackluster play against Check6 in the Winner Bracket.
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United5 are slowly pushing through objectives. They finally manage to push fast and even almost build the crane controls but heroic panzer by idle^l6ng stops them for another 6 minutes. The must see on this map is at 4 minutes and 30 seconds to go where u5*SpeciaL plays off a well-practiced panzer shot push killing 3 players of Idle.ee at the controls. Idle.ee almost recovers but u5*bob goes beast mode, kills 2 with his Thompson then manages to pistol the 3rd and u5* get the gold onto the truck. What follows are exciting 3 minutes of amazing plays by the idle^ team. U5* is stopped multiple times by well-placed arties by idle^Holz or well hidden airstrikes by idle^gazeta. With just 35 seconds left on the clock, u5* are sure to end the map when an amazing mortar shot by idle^l6ng kills 3 players and another well placed airstrike by idle^Holz gets a 4th. The truck is quite literally sitting at the secure point with 30 seconds left on the clock when u5*alea jumps on it and secures an important cap time for his team.
On offense, Idle.ee keep gaining ground and push through phases every 2 to 3 minutes. In just a few of their swift pushes, idle^ manage to get the truck and escort it all the way with just 1 pause at the main gate. U5* loses Supply with an almost 6 minute difference.
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Idle.ee have a flying attack just pushing through objectives. What is unusual for u5* are the support fires and especially artillery strikes idle^ players keep using on attack. They displace the defensive players of u5* and force them to play spots they don’t necessarily like. Saves by u5*SpeciaL and u5*alea prolong the map but idle^gazeta is unstoppable with his support fires and aim picking up a penta kill near the end of the round.
United5 on attack are surprisingly just as fast and with 8 minutes left on the clock are already pushing the gold. With 7 minutes left on the clock, u5*Axe pulls a surprising panzer 2 man kill in the axis spawn while u5*Spartan gets 2 kills with grenades while pushing for the gold. United5 are way faster than idle^ at this point and not only win the round and effectively the map but also gain important momentum for the next map.
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Despite u5* capping flag in under a minute on Allies, idle^ proves too strong at defending Oasis. Idle.ee seems to rotate between a standard defense and an u96d defense where they push out far to hold off the Allied pushes. Some solid aim and well executed pushes but u5* are unable to destroy both guns.
The u5* Finnish coach, saint [parodia], has obviously worked his magic on the defense of u5* on Oasis. The crossfire is insane while their last phase defense is as aggressive as aggressive gets. They are surprisingly playing a full outside defense with 2 players behind spawn, 3 mines right outside the main entrance, rifle shooting rifle nades across from North, 1 player at North entrance and 2 players pushed right outside of main… until they are eventually pushed into a standard defense. United5 are in their groove and start completely fragging out. U5*alea finishes the map with 61 frags. The only weakness for u5* on defense seemed to be idle^gazeta who not only dropped 10k damage but also managed to continue finding 3 and 4 man airstrikes. United5 full holds as well and the score is tied at 3:3.
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Final map of this LB Final and u5* decide to replace u5*Spartan with u5*Nomad. United5 look unstoppable on offense. The individual skill of the u5* team shines bright as they succeed in every push they make. U5* caps on Radar in just under 7 minutes.
On Allies, u5* play smart and push out for information after which they set up a defense around the push by idle^. U5* have a firm grasp on the map and u5*bob is styling on idle^ with his iconic prone. The map ends with idle^ not being able to make a coherent push for the West Radar parts. United5 advance to the Finals to face Check6 yet again!
End Score: Idle^ 3:5 u5*
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QuakeCon 2005 Final Check6 VS United5
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The expectations in this final are that Check6 will have another swift victory over United5 and take home $25,000.
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Surprising for many, United5 are holding their own on defense. Push after push, Check6 can’t rack up kills let alone repair the tank. U5* seem like they want to prove how wrong people were to dismiss them after their Winner Bracket loss to x6’. Tank finally gets repaired, game goes back and forth with multiple 3 man airstrikes by both u5* and x6’. One of the airstrikes actually catches x6’d0zer who is running the docs and u5* secure themselves more time on Goldrush. Check6 caps the map in 9 minutes and 31 seconds which is considered very slow for them.
Amazing push by u5* on Allies secures them the tank in under 1 minute. Surprising enough, x6’Night has taken over rifle nade duties from x6’r3vers which proved completely wrong as x6’Night even goes out full first spawn causing his team to miss his spam against the u5* push. The Americans are pushing extremely fast and x6’ finally manage to setup and start racking up kills at the tank defense. They are once again playing a pushed out defense with 3 of their players playing outside in the courtyard. U5* secure the gold with 1 minute and 8 seconds left to go and the dynamite is planted at the truck barrier. All they have to do is defend the dynamite in order to have a chance of winning Goldrush. Swift 3 man push by x6’ clears out the plant and x6’r3vers manages to defuse and a millisecond later gets killed by his own team’s Artillery support. Extremely unlucky for u5* is also the fact x6’d0zer manages to blow up the Allied CP and u5* are forced to spawn all the way back in their 2nd spawn. The map is over at this point.
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United5 once again switch in Nomad for Spartan before the map starts. Interesting fact is that Check6 picked Ice and as x6’r3vers put it
“we picked Ice because you wanted a show Tosspot”
u5*’s attack is fast and manages to catch Check6 off-guard as they kill out in hopes to run back to flag only to respawn back in their old spawn as United5 cap the flag under their noses. U5*Nomad is on a pistol whipping rampage and even gets a knife kill as u5* are running the docs. At 2:33 x6’Night almost manages to single handedly turn the game around with a great panzer shot hiding at CP and killing the doc runner of u5*. Once again, u5*Nomad is there and shuts x6’Night down right as he is about to secure the docs. U5*Nomad runs the docs straight away and secures a stunning 2:58 time for his team.
United5 on defense are a thing a beauty. U5*SpeciaL leads the defense with an amazing 4 man Panzerfaust shot completely shutting down the offense of x6’. On the next spawn, he manages to find 3 more kills to add to his stats. Iconic display of teamwork and communication comes at 1:20 on the clock where u5*bob pushes service, prones and u5*alea shoots a rifle nade shot right above his head slowing down the x6’ hard 5 man push. U5* beat x6’ on Ice and take a map off the powerhouse team for the first time since x6’ was still playing under u96d in the Eurocup playoffs where they dropped Supply to idle^.
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Check6 on offense once again switch the rifle grenades and x6’Night picks it up as x6’r3vers is using the Thompson. TosspoT actually shares that u5*Nomad told him they lost Radar against x6’ in the Winner Bracket because they never practiced it and he didn’t even know why they picked it. This time around, u5* seem way better organized and hold off quite a few pushes by x6’. U5*SpeciaL manages to lock down the West Radar parts with a 3 man MP40 kill and a landmine kill helping his team stay in the game. This time around, United5’s aiming stars are shining on Radar as both u5*bob and u5*Axe are racking it up in the frags department. U5* also set up an interesting 2 East, 2 West, 2 in front of old spawn defense that provides insane amount of crossfire against the x6’ pushes. Clearly u5* has anti-stratted against x6’ and managed to find how to hold their pushes down this time around on Radar. Despite the clear u5* improvement over just a day, x6’ caps in under 7 minutes and now it’s all on the line for u5*.
United5 makes a solid side push and blows it before Check6 can even build the CP. U5* have the East Radar parts but, once again, heroics by x6’Night manage to secure the parts as he catches u5*SpeciaL all the way in the Allied spawn. With 30 seconds left on the clock, u5* secures East and have very little time to secure West. The final u5* side push is completely destroyed by amazing crossfire by x6’. X6’elps and x6’r3vers once again dominate on Radar as elps gets 29 kills and drops 4.6k damage, whereas r3vers gets 21 and 3.7k damage.
Since u5* comes from the Lower Bracket, they needed to win Radar in order for the game to continue for another map. Check6 wins QuakeCon as United5 gets second and Idle^ secures 3rd.
End Score: x6’ 4:2 u5*
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POST QUAKECON
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Now hailed as the best NA ET team ever created, United5 have a relatively easy time in NA ET. After QuakeCon, DarkSide does not exist anymore, Kinetic has changed up their roster from the roster that took 2nd in TWL Alpha Season 5 and surprisingly, the emerging team is Raiders Coven (RC).
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Starting with CAL Invite, United5 sticks with the same roster that got them 2nd place at QuakeCon. The team sprints through the playoffs eliminating Warped Sanity in the Quarter-Finals and Raiders Coven in the Semi-Finals. Both of those matches are quick 3:0 wins where u5* is clearly levels ahead of the opposition. In the Final, u5* faces a restructured Kinetic side and also dispatch them with a swift 3:0 to win CAL Invite Season 5. Almost 2 weeks later, United5 win TWL Alpha Season 6 as well. This time around, they beat Raiders Coven in the Finals, again, without dropping a map.
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After Season 5, CAL admins decide to stop their support for ET and completely kill their leagues after the regular season which means there are no playoffs for CAL Season 6. What follows is a community organized playoffs format for CAL Invite Season 6. United5 run through Team RAS on Dubrovnik, then through Bus Drivers on Braundorf and beat team Unfaithful in the Finals to win what would have been CAL Invite Season 6.
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For the following TWL season, United5 suffer changes due to real life issues and players quitting the game. SpeciaL and alea aren’t as active anymore so the team uses conflict and Radea in some of the games including the finals. U5* are still too much for other teams to handle and they win TWL Alpha Season 7 against a strong Warped Sanity team.
TWL Alpha Season 8 runs the same as the previous season for United5. The team is unstoppable and they even play and beat some of the TWL Alpha teams 5 against 6. In one instance, u5* manage to beat oN-Point in a 5v6 game on Frostbite with their long time team member and ‘cheerleader’ Mousie playing.
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What puts an end to the seemingly unstoppable United5 era is… the players themselves. In one of their playoff games, they get caught smurfing in a player probably due to being unable to get anyone to show up. United5 gets disqualified from TWL Alpha Season 8 and that allows Gameface to get to the Finals and win against team oN-Point.
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After the TWL Season 8 disqualification and years of dominating ET, United5 disband their ET team and their ruling dynasty is over.
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UNITED FIVE THE MOVIE
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