The air of excitement could clearly be felt in the YGG discord server an hour before the Yield Guild open kicked off. New channels were added to house the 64 teams that were about to compete in the tournament.
The response was off the charts when tournament registration opened and YGG decided to double the number of available spots from the initial 32 teams to 64 teams instead. Still, competition spots were snapped up in less than half an hour, and 181 teams (543 people) were left on the waiting list, unable to secure a spot in the tournament.
Match officials assigned to the different rooms tagged competitors to get ready one hour before the tournament was scheduled to begin. Team captains were instructed to send in their team lineups for the first game. It was clear that meticulous planning and arrangement had been made to ensure that the third tournament on the Axie Esports server would go on smoothly.
Day 0 - A 𝑭̲̅𝑨̲̅𝑳̲̅𝑺̲̅𝑬̲̅ 𝑺̲̅𝑻̲̅𝑨̲̅𝑹̲̅𝑻̲̅ caused by Server Issues
The clock struck 6pm in the Philippines and match officials gave competitors the green light to begin. Things quickly rolled downhill when the Axie Esports server ran into issues. Matches froze midway and competitors saw their opponents listed as offline even though both were connected on the servers at their own ends. When it became apparent that the issue could not be resolved immediately, the organisers finally made the decision to postpone the tournament to the next day. Initially scheduled for 28-29 Aug 2021, the Yield Guild open took place on 28-29th August & 4 September instead.
The bumpy ride at the start caused frustration among players to reach boiling point, and complaints began rising up to the surface. At least one top player announced that they were not continuing in the competition because it was held in the wee hours of the morning for them. This caused some unhappiness among Axie fans from the South East Asian (SEA) region, culminating in a response from a prominent Axie personality from SEA saying that Axie players from the region never complained when tournaments were organised at ungodly hours for them.
Other grouses heard were that some competitors who signed up and got approved for the competition were allegedly not whitelisted on the Esports server and could not compete. The change in tournament schedule by one week also allegedly caused one guild who flew their players to the same venue to train and compete in the tournament to incur unforeseen additional expenses.
Day 1 - Prominent Teams 𝑪̲̅𝑹̲̅𝑨̲̅𝑺̲̅𝑯̲̅ 𝑶̲̅𝑼̲̅𝑻̲̅
Despite the whopping $ 35,000 prize pool worth of AXS and YGG tokens, the false start on Day 0 dampened the spirits of some competitors, and several prominent teams like Axie.gg E1337 and CTG were knocked out of the competition in Round 1 because of missing team members. On the server-side, things progressed much smoother compared to the day before. At the end of the day, only 8 teams out of 64 teams moved on to Day 2.
Check out the final updated bracket here on communitygaming.io and catch the replays of the games in the following links:
Shout-casted by Kookoocrypto, Shanks and Sedano
Tagalog-English stream - Day 0 | Day 1 | Finals
Shout-casted (solo!!) by Zee
English stream - Day 1 (unavailable) | Finals
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ's ɴᴏᴛᴇ:
ɪ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴɢʟɪsʜ sᴛʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴇᴀʀɴᴇᴅ ᴀ ʟᴏᴛ ʟɪsᴛᴇɴɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴢᴇᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛᴀᴛᴇ. ʜᴀᴛs ᴏғғ ᴛᴏ ʜɪᴍ ғᴏʀ ʜɪs ɢᴏᴏᴅ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴅᴏᴡɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀᴛᴄʜᴇs, ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴇsᴛɪɴɢ ᴀxɪᴇ ᴛɪᴅʙɪᴛs ʙᴇᴛᴡᴇᴇɴ ᴍᴀᴛᴄʜᴇs, ᴀɴᴅ ғᴏʀ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛᴀᴛɪɴɢ sᴏʟᴏ 𝟿 ʜᴏᴜʀs sᴛʀᴀɪɢʜᴛ ʙᴇɢɪɴɴɪɴɢ ғʀᴏᴍ 𝟺ᴀᴍ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ! ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴀɢᴀʟᴏɢ ʙᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sɴɪᴘᴘᴇᴛs ɪɴ ᴇɴɢʟɪsʜ sᴏᴜɴᴅᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴇsᴛɪɴɢ ᴀs ᴡᴇʟʟ, ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ sᴏᴍᴇ ᴅᴇᴇᴘ ᴅɪssᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀᴛᴄʜᴇs.
Semifinals
The first semis matchup was a closely contested match between Happy Academy and Axie.gg (white) peppered by the occasional crit here and there. Happy Academy raced to pick up the first set, but Axie.gg (white) refused to be left behind and responded by taking the next two sets, going into the fourth set with a 2 - 1 lead against Happy Academy. The underdogs, however, held themselves together to turn the tide against the more experienced players from Axie.gg (white), pulling off wins for the final two sets to march into the finals.
All Lunacia witnessed the power of spiky wing in the deciding game, allowing Aaronnnn to effortlessly cut through the shields that Jaga put up on his backliner, and bag the win for Happy Academy.
Similar to the first semis match up, the both teams in the second semis matchup were neck and neck. The matchup had to go to five sets before the winner was decided. YGG2 got off to a strong start and won the first and second sets. But the band of scholars who make up AxieMon remained tenacious and found their groove to put up a good fight, picking up the next two sets to tie 2-2 with their opponents at the end of Set 4. In the deciding fifth set, AxieMon gave YGG2 a scare by taking the first game, but YGG2 planted their feet firmly in the ground and pulled through, winning the next 2 games to book a spot in the finals and set up a showdown with Happy Academy.
Here's a snippet of an interesting end-game play in Set 3 between Rennychu from AxieMon and Hygelx from YGG2. See if you can guess who won before it ends 🤣 Enjoy!
Third-Place Playoff
The third-place playoff was a best of 3 sets match-up that took place off stream. Axie.gg(white) took the early lead winning the opening set. AxieMon put up some resistance and won the second set to force a tie-breaker set. It was Axie.gg(white) who emerged victorious in the third set, finishing the tournament in 3rd place while AxieMon finished 4th.
Finals
The win did not come easy for the champions. Happy Academy and YGG 2 took turns to win sets until they were tied 2-2 moving into the final set. It was Happy Academy who pulled off the win in the end, in a nail-biting second game of the final set between Aaronnnn from Happy Academy and Zero from YGG2.
The crucial point in the game was when Aaronnnn did well to keep his midline aqua alive with 2HP left, playing a goldfish to avoid speed debuffs and bonus damage from Zero's thorny caterpillar. Zero subsequently attempted to conserve energy and make plays that would give him the end game advantage but his efforts were frustrated by Aaronnnn who continued to keep his midline alive for another two rounds.
In an unexpected turn of events, it almost seemed like the tables had turned and Zero had sealed the match when he played four nuts against Aaronnnn's backline disablesaur, however, the reptile survived with 12 HP and left Zero's backline dusk stunned at the end of that round. The tempo advantage and a perfect double nut draw that Zero had was invalidated by the stun debuff, and he could not muster enough damage to cut through Aaronnnn's shield, allowing his opponent to bag the tournament win for Happy Academy and bring the curtain down on an amazing final.
Special mention is due for FLU from Happy Academy who won all the games they played in the final. Such consistency is not easy to maintain in high-pressure situations, an achievement deserving recognition and praise. Overall, while YGG2 certainly played well, Happy Academy seemed to play more convincingly, bagging their 3 sets in straight games without the need for the third game to be played.
Lessons and Surprises 🎁
Growing pains are normal for any game or project. In fact, it is an indication that a project is pushing its limits and moving ahead to places it has never been before. Axie Infinity has to do all it can to grow up fast as tournaments are good platforms for Axie enthusiasts to introduce the game to the uninitiated. Server issues leave these evangelists embarrassed.
The Yield Guild Open uncovered worthwhile lessons for Axie Infinity, tournament organisers as well as competitors.
#1 - The Axie Esports servers need more work
There is work yet to be done to improve the stability of the Axie Esports server and the team of engineers from Axie Infinity needs to be on alert to make sure that the server is working well on tournament days. Claims that certain competitors were not whitelisted also need to be investigated, and if found to be true, measures need to be implemented in the future to ensure ample time for participants to check that they are whitelisted before the tournament begins.
#2 - Tournament organisers need to prepare contingencies and inform competitors in advance
To lessen the impact of sudden postponements, tournament organisers should be ready with contingencies in case the server malfunctions. Measures like backup dates should be made known to competitors in advance so that competitors and guilds can plan their schedules and allocate resources accordingly.
#3 - Competitors need to be alert and prepared for unforeseen circumstances
Competitors should check in advance to make sure that they have been granted access to the Esports server and raise any issues early on instead of when the tournament begins. They should also be mentally prepared for unforeseen circumstances and double-check tournament timings before signing up, especially if they are top players. Their pulling out of tournaments inadvertently causes disappointment for fans who are excited to see them in action.
Surprise!! Two of the top four finishers, including the champions 🏆, were scholarship teams
All things considered, the Yield Guild open was still a great success, as evidenced by thousands of viewers who tuned in to catch a piece of the action. An unexpected surprise that the tournament brought us was the fact that two of the top four finishers were scholarship teams. This was perhaps an indirect effect of the decision to double the number of participating teams. While that decision probably stretched the Esports servers beyond its capacity, it presented an opportunity for undiscovered talent to shine. Thank you YGG for the decision that provided an avenue for the discovery of new talent, and props to champions Happy Academy and fourth place finishers AxieMon for giving scholars from all over Lunacia hope that they too can achieve big things. Hope these scholars received big bonuses!
Fun Fact - AxieMon are a group of scholars under different managers who came together and formed a team for fun 😱
Huge congratulations to Happy Academy, YGG 2, Axie.gg (white) & AxieMon for sweeping the top four positions! Thank you Kookoocrypto, Shanks, Sedano and Zee for commentating! And thank you YGG for hosting the tournament! Was an enjoyable ride!
Read my reports of previous tournaments
Axie E1337 Open #2
The Axie MENA Cup
Randombrute's twitter - https://twitter.com/randombrute_axs