Three teams battle for CS tourney trophy

After a month's worth of gaming, three teams--Highly evolv3d, Team Supreme, and .50 Cal--have earned their place as the finalists in GameSpot's Ridiculously Long Lasting Tournament featuring the first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Source.

Each team won a free trip to spend their weekend in San Francisco, where the finals will be held at GameSpot's After Hours Event on Saturday, October 14. The teams will play for a grand prize of $1,000 in Best Buy gift cards, divided up among the team members.

All teams will play each other twice in a round-robin format with each match lasting eight rounds. Each win will be worth one point, for a possible total of eight points per match. After all teams have completed their matches, the team with the most points will be named the victor of the Grand Championships for Stride Gum's The Ridiculously Long Lasting Tournament.

GameSpot will host live coverage of the Championship finals online at 7:30 p.m. PT, which culminates with the crowning of the Grand Champion team. For more information on the action in the preliminaries or details on viewing the event, head over to the tournament's promotional page.

Here's a recap of the competition:

Mission 1 (week 1): Four teams were featured: BBT, Project Circuit, Highly Evolved, and GR. Each team played each other once, with a total of six matches played. The first pairing of BBT and Project Circuit resulted in each time having two wins. Next, Highly Evolved came out swinging with three match wins to GR's one. BBT again tied, this time with Highly Evolved, two matches each.

Project Circuit sealed the deal, however, by sweeping both GR and Highly Evolved, giving them ten total match wins and sealing their victory. However, no GameSpot tournament would be complete without a bit of controversy. One of the teams had two players that registering their accounts to participate in the tournament under false pretenses. It appears that there was false information entered to bypass the minimum age requirement. BBT was offered the Mission 1 spot, having finished second, but they declined as they were unable to attend. Highly Evolved was then offered the Mission 1 spot to participate in the championship and they have accepted.

Mission 2 (week 2): There were six teams duking it out: Source Syndicate, Team One, Team BABS, Team Supreme, Team Morpheus and the return of BBT. This week, each team played each other team for eight matches. Source Syndicate squared off against Team One, where Team one came from behind to take five matches to Source Syndicate's three. Team BABS was up against Team Supreme next, and Supreme scored a decisive victory, winning six of the eight matches, giving them an early lead. It looked, however, like BBT (which stands for Big, Black & Thunderous) was going to be the comeback kid, winning seven of their eight matches against Team Morpheus. But both Team Supreme and BBT swept Team One eight-to-zero, setting the stage for a showdown.

As the match started, Team Supreme took a commanding lead, winning all four of their first four matches. While BBT did win the next game, Team Supreme was able to eventually clinch the deal, guaranteeing them a spot at the finals at GameSpot's After Hours event.

Mission 3 (week 3): Six Feet Under, .50 Cal, LLC and 7oh7 battled for the last available slot in the finals. The first match up was between Six Feet Under and .50 Cal, which .50 Cal won with a three to one record. Next up, LLC (which stands for Livin' Life Casual) versus 7oh7. This was quickly decided, however, as 7oh7 swept all four rounds, giving them four match wins total. LLC would not have such an easy time with Six Feet Under, however, as the two teams split with two match wins apiece. Things were looking solid for .50 Cal after the next round, however, as the won three matches to 7oh7's one. Sure enough, .50 Cal swept LLC four to nothing, cinching up their victory and locking them in as the week three victor. 7oh7 swept four rounds over Six Feet Under, giving them a solid second place.