Battlefield 1942 Tournament Primer March 02, 2003 Jakub Wojnarowicz

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How it works

There has been some confusion about the intentions and mechanics of the Battlefield 1942 Official National Championship tournament. First, of course, we suggest you peruse the rules to get an idea of the terms and organization. The top part may seem a little intimidating, but once you read down past that it gets easy.

First things first though: this tournament is for everybody. Whether you have a dozen hardcore BF1942 clanmates, or if BF1942 is just a game you play with some friends from home or a webcafe, this is for you. Remember, the game is new, there are no pros for it. No teams like Schroet Kommando and Clan Kapitol dominate BF1942 since there haven’t been any major tournaments.

Sign-ups have started for the pre-qualifier, the optional practice and eastern on-line qualifiers. The only cost involved is a $15 registration fee, but in return, all paid participants will receive a free 12-month subscription to Computer Gaming World, courtesy of Ziff-Davis. Considering the subscription costs $24.97 and registration is only $15, you do the math!

Timetable

All game centers can have up to two teams – one for East, one for West. If more than two teams register, these will have it out in a pre-qualifying round that commences on March 7th (better hurry with those sign-ups, kids!) The pre-qualifier will be followed by an optional practice on March 11th.

The real competition starts on March 18th, with the Eastern Online Qualifying tournament, with teams competing from within iGames centers, online against other teams from an iGames center. March 27th will mark the start of the Western Online Qualifying tournament, which follows the same rules as the previous.

May 3rd & 4th will see the commencement of the Regional Tournament, in which teams will play each other on a LAN at the game centers, as opposed to playing across the internet in iGames centers.

Finally, the National Championships will feature the top 2 teams from the East and West Regional, and top 2 East and West Qualifying tournaments.



SIDEBAR: I can’t stress enough: do not buy Master of Orion 3. Major suckage.

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The maps

We’ve got the final list of maps right here, complete with short descriptions.

Original Battlefield 1942 maps:

Battle for Midway. The US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy fight it out for a small scrap of land.

Operation Battleaxe. This small, compact map with 6 capture points and a permanent base for each side is a meat-grinder. The rough terrain conceals infantry from vehicles and vehicles from aircraft. Machinegun emplacements make life hell for would be tank-busters, but these in turn fall quickly to the explosive shells of tanks and the deadly shots from concealed snipers.

Wake Island. The classic. The map from the demo, the one everyone knows like the back of his hand. A Japanese carrier and destroyer launch an invasion of the American fortress-island. Full description and strategies here.

Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome maps:

Battle for Salerno. Axis and Allied spawn on even ground, in a gruesome king of the hill battle. Although easy to defend, the hill is also captured easily as it is exposed to constant aircraft bombardment and neither team can spawn there. At the bottom of the mountain, near each side’s base is a repair pad that can make or break a game if you can keep the aircraft away from it. Capture the enemy’s pad and he’ll have a hard time getting past it.

Operation Baytown is a flyboy’s dream. With two bridges that restrict vehicle movement and a small island vulnerable to bombing, winning here means playing defense on the ground and attack in the air. On the other hand if you like to play risky, God help your enemy if you get a beach-head on his side of the strait.

Operation Husky is like a UT Assault map. One side defends, the other attacks. The Axis forces, personified by Italy, are severely under-equipped and out-gunned. The Allied destroyer can make short work of any attempts to stall the offensive on the beach, but the Axis forces do benefit from having a Bf-110 fighter-bomber. The most defensible positions are the hill after the beach and the most natural spot for a stand, the bridge.



SIDEBAR: It’s rather interesting that DICE chose to use the HMS Prince of Wales for BF1942. This British battleship with 14” (rather small) guns and problematic 4-barrel turrets performed admirably in the battle against the DKM Bismarck, but was sunk in the South China Sea by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 10, 1941, a scant 2 days after Pearl Harbor. (Prince of Wales was on the other side of the International Date Line when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, so it was Dec. 8 as far as she was concerned.)

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The rules and prizes!

If you look through the rule list, you’ll see it’s rather simple. Teams will start with 175 tickets and play two 20 minute games on the same map. There will be a 10 minute break between rounds, during which substitutions can be made. To iron out any imbalance issues, each team will play as both Axis and Allied. At the end of the two rounds, the scores are tallied up and the team with the highest total wins. So if Team 2 won the first round 53-0, and Team 1 took the second round 55-8, Team 2 would have the overall win, by a score of 61-55, because their 8 tickets from the second game carried over and added to their first-round score.

Teams are made of 8 active members and up for 4 reserve players. There are no alternates (ie, players not on the reserve) who can be subbed in. A team can also play with as few as 6 players if some don’t show up, but any less than that and they forfeit the match. Note that the opposing team is not required to match their short-handed foes roster. They can choose to play 8 on 6, and, given the prizes involved, will most likely do so.

Prize list:

Over $50,000 in cash and prizes!!!

Participation Prizes
Every paid participant of the Battlefield 1942 National Championship event will receive a one-year subscription to the premier Ziff Davis publication "Computer Gaming World". This $24.97 value alone is worth the price of admission!
If you already subscribe to Computer Gaming World, you may extend your subscription for an additional 12 months, or you may choose a one-year subscription to PC Magazine.

Regional Qualifier Door Prizes
NVIDIA T-Shirts
ASUS T-Shirts
FiringSquad League/IGAMES BF1942 Event T-Shirts
BF1942 Event Posters

The Top Eight Teams Prize Distribution

1st Place Champions
Team Prize - $6,000 Cash
Each team member will also receive:
Plantronics DSP500 digitally-enhanced gaming/multimedia headset with full-range stereo sound. Perfect for multimedia applications such as games, CDs, MP3s, speech recognition and voice applications. Software included.
Shuttle SN41G2 XPC. Sporting the NVIDIA nForce2 chipset, this small form factor bare bones PC is the perfect computer to take to all your favorite LAN party events.

2nd Place
Team Prize - $4,000 Cash
Each team member will also receive:
Plantronics DSP500 digitally-enhanced gaming/multimedia headset with full-range stereo sound. Perfect for multimedia applications such as games, CDs, MP3s, speech recognition and voice applications. Software included.
Shuttle SN41G2 XPC. Sporting the NVIDIA nForce2 chipset, this small form factor bare bones PC is the perfect computer to take to all your favorite LAN party events.

3rd Place
Team Prize - $2,000 Cash
Each team member will also receive:
Plantronics DSP500 digitally-enhanced gaming/multimedia headset with full-range stereo sound. Perfect for multimedia applications such as games, CDs, MP3s, speech recognition and voice applications. Software included.
$300 Gift Certificate from ABS Computer Technologies. Use the gift certificate to enhance you existing computer system with the latest computer technology or put it towards a new top of the line gaming system.

4th Place
Each team member will receive:
Plantronics DSP500 digitally-enhanced gaming/multimedia headset with full-range stereo sound. Perfect for multimedia applications such as games, CDs, MP3s, speech recognition and voice applications. Software included.
ASUS Computer International will award each team member a new NVIDIA based video graphics cards or an NFORCE2 motherboard.

5th Place
Each team member will receive:
Plantronics Audio 90 multimedia stereo PC headset.
$250 Gateway Gift Certificate. Use your gift certificate to purchase a top of the line Gateway computer system or any products that Gateway offers.

6th Place
Each team member will receive:
Plantronics Audio 90 multimedia stereo PC headset.
$250 Gateway Gift Certificate. Use your gift certificate to purchase a top of the line Gateway computer system or any products that Gateway offers.

7th Place
Each team member will receive:
Plantronics Audio 90 multimedia stereo PC headset.
$250 Gateway Gift Certificate. Use your gift certificate to purchase a top of the line Gateway computer system or any products that Gateway offers.

8th PlaceEach team member will receive:
Plantronics Audio 90 multimedia stereo PC headset.



SIDEBAR: The HMS Prince of Wales displaced slightly over 35,000 tons, since when it was layed down Britain was obeying Washington Naval Treaty stipulations (for comparison, the Bismarck was about 43,000 tons.) America’s Iowa class (to which the USS Missouri belongs), designed after World War 2 marked the effective end of the treaty, displaced 53,000 tons and was armed with 9 16”/L50 guns. The guns are a high-weight, low-velocity kind like the famous British 15” gun, which proved a sound decision as the British experienced reliability and wear problems with their high-velocity 16” design throughout World War 2. The 16”/L50 had close to the same penetration and damage as the 18”/L45 used on the massive, 88,000 ton IJN Yamato.