Core vs Salvo Tonight In World Semi-Final at 11:30 PM EST

Posted by: MarkDolven

The home stretch of the 2008 World Final is here and the Core are looking to continue their strong offseason play tonight when they take on the European Champion Birmingham Salvo. The winner of this match will move on to the 2008 Grand Final versus the winner of the Berlin and San Francisco game. This will be the toughest match yet for the Core and if they want to make their second straight championship match appearance, they will have to bring everything they have. The Core may be the North American Champions, but that matters none tonight as they take on the champions of the competitive European region. The two key matches of the night will be Counter-Strike Source and Dead or Alive Female. If either of the two teams can win both of those disciplines, they will find themselves in the final match next Monday night.

The action begins right at 11:30 PM EST, the match will NOT be broadcast live on DirecTV. It will be shown on tape delay on Wednesday.

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The most anticipated match of tonight's semi-final will be the Dead or Alive Female fight. In one corner, we have Carolina's Mystik who has never lost to an international competitor. In the other corner, we have Birmingham's rookie superstar Sarah Lou who was never lost to anyone not named Vanessa. They also both play very similar play styles with aggression being their number one priority. When they meet head on tonight, whoever keeps things mixed up the best will bring it home for their franchise. In the first round of the World Final against Mexico City, Sarah Lou was able to defeat another strong Hayate female Hitomi1. Mystik's Hayate is probably better than Hitomi1's, but the game gave us a great preview look at what tonight's match might look like. Not only will the winner of this fight give their franchise a much needed point boost, but because it is the pivotal game of the night, the momentum will be at the sole discretion of these two ladies.


Sarah Lou may look innocent, but her gameplay is not.
Mystik will be playing the character Hayate.

Sarah Lou will be playing the character Kasumi.



Carolina Core - Counter-Strike: Source:
Cyrus "org" Habibi
Sam "Devour" Chamma
Chad "DAFF"White
Mark Torrez
Hoang "s0nNy" Tran

Birmingham Salvo - Counter-Strike: Source:
Marc Mangiacapra
Pete "pt" Wright
Sam "RattlesnK" Gawn
Elliot "weZ" Welsh
James "wilzOOO" Wilson

This match will be taking place on Dust 2.

As a fan, you can never go wrong when you have a cross-Atlantic Counter-Strike match. They are always some of the most hyped and anticipated matches of the season and tonight's showdown is no different. The Salvo come in to this match looking to get some of their respect back. They came into the 2008 CGS season heavily hyped, but after losses to Dallas in the Individuals and then a shocking loss to Mexico City in the Quarter-Final, their hype is gone. They will be fighting to get their respect back tonight, but at the same time Carolina is no different. In the North American Final, the Counter-Strike team almost single handily lost the championship, but they were able to clutch it in the end. They did defeat Wuhan last week, but the score was only 10-8, so people are really confused on what to expect from this Core CS team. Most people will tell you that the key player versus player matchup will be the battle between Rattlesnk and Devour, but the truth is that the true battle will be fought by the riflers. When the Salvo win, it is usually because their riflers like pt, weZ and wilzoo had solid games. The same is true for the Core because Devour almost always plays well, but when s0nNy, org and DAFF play well, Carolina rarely loses. Tonight whoever is better with the rifles, will win this match.


It could all come down to Counter-Strike.


In the Quarter-Final, Messy shocked everyone when he chose to play as Gen Fu against El Divino. In 2007, Messy exclusively played Ryu Hayabusa, but in 2008 he had added Hayate to his character lineup. No one knew that he had been playing Gen Fu in preparation for the World Final and it definitely shell shocked Divino. He will again be playing Gen Fu tonight against Offbeat Ninja, but he's not going to shock Mr. CGS. In North America, Gen Fu is a wide spread character in both the male and female divisions. Offbeat Ninja is currently riding a four game winning streak that included two wins over Master, the 2008 Individual World Champion. Although the male division of DOA4 has been crazy all year, it's more than likely that the Core's Offbeat Ninja will pull this one out for his team. The questions just becomes by what score. Messy has improved tremendously this year, but Offbeat has this.


Messy dominated El Divino in the Quarter-Final.
Offbeat Ninja will be playing the character Ein.

Messy will be playing the character Gen Fu.



It's a new year, a new game and new jerseys, but the match up is still the same. In the 2007 Semi-Final, Anomaly and Bazza also faced off, but the game was FIFA07 and Anomaly was representing the Chicago Chimera. If the Core fans get their way tonight, the result will be the same however as Anomaly simply dominated the match last year with a 3-1 victory. The rumor is that Bazza has improved greatly in FIFA08 compared to last year's version however, so the match will indefinitely be closer. The Core's striker has yet to win in a shootout this year, but he's found a band aid for this. He simply avoids the shootouts by winning in regulation now. He is riding a four game winning streak heading into this match and is also undefeated all-time in the World Final at 4-0. The match should be in Anomaly's favor, but after a hectic year in FIFA08, any thing's possible.


Anomaly took on Bazza last year wearing a different uniform.
Anomaly will be playing Brazil.

Bazza will be playing France.



If you turn your clocks back a few years and check out the original Forza leaderboards, you will see two names at the top or near the top of every list, General E and Picasso. Heading back to the present and you will find both racers in the Championship Gaming Series as rookies for their respective franchises. Tonight, they will finally settle the score as they take each other on. The stage couldn't be any bigger and both players will be playing for a lot of personal pride tonight. The Salvo racers may be some of the fastest in the world, but they have struggled with the 2v2 format so far. They showed a huge sign of hope in the Quarter-Final when they raced perfectly and 6-1'd the Mexico City Furia. The Core on the other hand have had a consistent grip on the format all year. They also raced their way to a 6-1 in their first game of the World Final, but someone has to lose tonight. The Core are the first to admit that Diamond Back is their favorite track, but that doesn't guarantee anything. The Salvo racers are hungry and fast, which is always a good combination in any race.


The Core racers hope to continue their winning streak.
The race will be played on the track Diamondback.

The action starts at 11:30 PM EST tonight!!!

Go Core!~