Battle of the Nations tournament winner crowned

On Friday, May 26, Team TGB (The Green Berets) took home a $2,000 victory--$250 Best Buy gift cards for each member of the eight-man team--as it beat out Team Army 101 Charlie two games to zero in the Battle of the Nations Tournament, GameSpot's Xbox 360 Battlefield 2: Modern Combat championship. Team Army 101 Charlie took second place, winning each member of the team a $50 Best Buy gift card.

As the first game opened on the Deadly Pass map, Team TGB took a commanding lead, controlling most of the flag points for a swift and decisive win. It had broad control of the map, and its opponents' tickets dropped quickly, letting it keep control of the map.

"I think TGB showed off their offensive strategy--getting right into it," GameSpot senior editor Bob Colayco said during the event. TGB's fast scatter-and-control strategy wouldn't serve it quite as well in the second match.

While the second match would also fall to TGB, the game started off much slower, without either team getting early dominance. As the match progressed, however, TGB won a war of attrition, taking flags one at a time until it controlled the map once more.

"Round 2 we just kind of messed up on our first strike," TGB team captain Alex Foster said. "It happens every once in a while, but we recovered."

One member of Team Army 101 Charlie was missing from the finals, however--he had to attend his high school graduation--leaving the team a man down. "It's always tough being a man down," Foster agreed, regarding his opponents' situation.

"I think they had exactly the right strategy," Rich Briggs, the product manager from EA, said. "You've got to sacrifice."

The third- and fourth-place teams received a free month's extension on their GameSpot Total Access accounts.