History of Recoil
Recoil. To some it can mean the effect of firing a bullet, to others, it means possibly the biggest stand alone online tournament in the UK CSS scene. The brainchild of a certain, Adam 'Ad-hoc' Brennan, Recoil was first launched in 2005 as a stand alone project hosted for his friends and clanmates from his resident community, it fast became more successful than he could of ever imagined. The tournament, held in the traditional straight knockout fashion peaked with a fantastic clash of skill and panache.
16 teams entered the first Recoil tournament, including some well known teams at the time such as PONG, [GASH], `DnC| and ?®åmÞ$. The first round passed with few upsets, with some great matches. The match of the tournament was the first round tie between the favored =]FM[=^ against the unknown NI+I on de_cbble. In an extremely tight game, the underdogs came very close to pulling off what would have been a huge upset, but the experience of =]FM[=^ brought them out the victors.
The two favourite teams, =]FM[=^ and -=WtS=- (revealed in the semi final against PONG to be the popular TainteD mix), made the final, and in an exciting match played across de_dust2 and de_inferno, =]FM[=^, after having overcome SM in the semi-final, came out on top with a 29-19 victory.
After the final, the brand Recoil seemed to of dissapeared into the history of the internet, surviving only as a whisper on the wind. Mid 2006, Ad-hoc was approached by a fellow CSS player from the same community called Steven 'The Joy' Brady. He persuaded Ad-hoc to run another Recoil tournament and convinced him to help him with the task.
The pair embarked on the next part of the Recoil legacy, found themselves a sponsor and a band of affiliates to commentate and run advertisments for their matches, the names Richard 'Ricardo Castro' Lewis, and Mike 'Floydy' 'Ted Lets 'Avit' Storey being some of the most prominent.
The tournament was played in good faith and high spirits, many community clans had turned out again in some shape or form to put their weeks, months and some cases years of training and playing together to the ultimate online test. Friends and foes alike were bought together under the banner of CSS by this single event.
The climax was as epic as the build up to the final. iG had been defeated at the hands of a strong =]FM[=^ team in the first of the two semi finals, and a similar fate had been laid before LaseR by the superior might of TainteD. The final of Recoil 2, the epicentre of the british Source scene for the length of the tournament, had begun.
Controversy was the word on everyones lips as the final commenced. Both =]FM[=^ and Tainted had called in mercenaries to get the long delayed and anticipated final underway. Neither team could pull themselves away from the other for a long period of time on either map, and the level of play had definitely reached its peak.
The pinnacle of the tournament ended in a =]FM[=^ defeat. An extremely close game played in good spirits on de_inferno and de_cbble, climaxed in a TainteD victory of 31-29. TainteD, the Champions of Recoil 2.
The Championship Gaming Series for Counterstrike Source has ended until the winter, and the Recoil staff have taken the stage. Furiously supported by the admins and community of Xciteuk, the third episode of the ever popular Recoil tournaments has begun. The word has been spread, and those who are worthy will answer the call.
R3coil - The 3 is like an E backwards.
