OK. I'll admit it. Before last Thursday, I thought a Double Full Hold was a Judo move. Well, after watching my first competitive (i.e. eSport) BRINK tournament...I now know better. The final, which featured Hubris against -l4s- was like watching a flip-card movie of two teams banging their heads against a brick wall.

Though we were supposed to get a winner out of the two-night tournament, streamed live over thebrink.tv, the defensive nature of the current version of BRINK made it impossible for any team to actually complete an objective. Hence the term...full hold.

The game ended in a temporary stalemate and will be played out in the future...but as for me, I will unofficially name both teams winners rather than have to be subjected to the defensively-weighted play witnessed in this first streamed tournament.

The final had promise. It featured two teams filled with eSport legends. Hubris Team captain chump led h.ras, h.arch, h.melagacoo, h.matt and h.crow into a 5v5 match with newly formed -l4s-. The latter was going to be called Team Holly, after their leader, RTCW legend -a-hollywood. Holly captained -l4s-. His team was made up of CoD-all-star dr-rob-wiz, emong, another CoD great...Michael3d, tm and v1d.

Tournament rules were as follows: link

What have we found out?

Simply put:

1. The objective-based BRINK is currently too defensive-sided. The defense rules the roost on all maps. A moderately talented team can stop a very talented team in its tracks the way the game currently plays. The defense respawns just too quickly and stops offensive rushes in their tracks.

Though there were nearly 600 people watching the final, I doubt many will return to watch this fare unless the developers can figure out a way to allow someone on the offense to actually win an objective. Anyone. Anyone at all.

2. Due to an exploit, the record function in BRINK had to be shut off by the developer. The eSport future of BRINK hangs in the balance if SplashDamage cannot get this feature going.

3. On the shoutcasting front, third-person spectate mode simply doesn't cut it for viewing FPS games. In game camera angles were very restricted as the camera had to be "flown" inside constricted spaces. Not having the ability to spectate through another player's POV is unacceptable for any modern FPS game. This needs to be addressed going forward. Having said that...don't expect it from any major shooter other than CoD anytime soon. Correct...I'm not expecting this from BF3.

4. The weapons are a bit too spammy. The Carb-9 SMG seems to be the weapon of choice for most. The secondary for some was the Ritchie...a pistol with the lethality of a sniper.

I hope I don't sound too harsh on the eSport viability of the game, BRINK is just out of the box and I don't think anyone would have expected the game to be balanced right away. It needed to be played at the level we saw in this tournament to really understand the true nature of the game's balance. That was the point of the tournament. To flesh things out. To see what needed to be tweaked.

rob-wiz's take on the games:

I asked friend of BASHandSlash.com rob-wiz to give us his take on the game. He played Engineer class throughout:

BS: i fell asleep what happened?  i can't find the results
Rob: haha. well, both maps were full held on the first objective, so uhh we have to play another map.  it was 1 am so we rescheduled. no one blew up the thing
BS: thats when i fell asleep, guess i didn't miss anything. oh and i saw you make a phenomenal head shot on someone that blew my mind. with the Ritchie pistol.
Rob: haha that pistol
BS: the shoutcaster freaked.
Rob: it's the new deagle
BS: lol
Rob: so good, but they NEED to up the defensive spawn time. that was a joke. any half decent team can easily hold on defense.
BS: i felt bad for you guys...lots of good ideas but couldn't get thru. um...you were really effective with a soldier by your side, not so much with a medic
Rob: yea
BS: MichaelD played well with you
Rob: yea hes excellent. we tried so hard. but its so difficult when they spawn right on top of you and then if you die you have to run from across the map.
BS: brinktv had a lot of fans though. i saw 600 watching u play.
Rob: yeah. surprised there was that many considering its boring watching full holds ;/
BS: yes, im not sure it will continue to be watched for that reason the 3rd person view was bad
Rob: yup. theres a bunch of things that need changing pretty soon or people are gonna lose interest and it will die off
BS: the strategies though were new and fresh. that's what made me watch
Rob: we have a couple good strats for offense on Aquarium. we executed them perfectly and cleared them out.  but Jesus the re-spawns and the mines combined doesn't let you get bomb down
BS: dumbest thing i found was the Adrenaline buff was banned. that was the only thing the offense has to give it an edge.
Rob: i dunno im still undecided on adrenaline. i think it should stay out, but only if the defensive spawns are increased. if the spawns remain how they are now it is kind of needed
BS: as far as im concerned they should declare both of you winners and leave it at that
Rob: only prizes for one team. and i want them prizes.

There were a lot of interesting elements in the game, regardless of the fact that the game was too defensive. Assuming balance gets worked out, here are some tactical issues to debate while you watch the action:

• Class combinations in rushes. What class combinations work best?
• The guns in the game are a bit spammy...but skilled shot makers still have an advantage.
• What is the relative success of coordinated frontal rushes versus ninja lone-wolf attacks?
• Do you need to dominate high ground in order to gain an objective?

Here is a great thread on tournament results...or lack thereof: (Double) Full Holds Should Never Happen

Some of the vids are already up on thebrink.tv's forums. Watch them here.