OCTOBER 6th, 2008. - The guys from Paragon of Virtue (POV) have returned home today after a successful run at the Extreme Masters III event in Los Angeles, California; an event many predicted would be swept by one of many European powerhouses in attendance. With an easy victory over Vio for their first match of Group Play, POV faced off against the popular team, GamePlay (roccat)  in a crushing loss on de_nuke; a map that would prove to be one of GamePlay's strategically strongest. Following the devastating loss to GamePlay, the boys refocused and successfully defeated one of  teams whom many predicted would be a possible winner of the entire event, mTw, in a match-up on de_dust2 which resulted in a score of 21-9 in POV's favor and thus qualifying the team to advance into the Day 2 double-elimination bracket.

Day Two started off with a tough match against Made in Brazil which ended in a 16-9 loss on de_inferno. As the guys were sent into the lower bracket and on the brink of the money circles, POV was matched up against the strong X3O squad whom was just sent into the lower bracket by Schroet Kommando. In a display of merciless intensity, POV ended the first half in their favor of 12-3 and ended up quickly finishing off the entire match in the second half resulting in a final score of 16-7. Having already entered the final six remaining teams in the tournament, POV finished out the tournament with a truly tough loss versus MYM on de_dust2, 16-11.

Overall, Paragon of Virtue turned many heads at the tournament, and shocked many onlookers from Europe with their mind-blowing victory over mTw early on in the tournament.

Below you can check out some of the praise and positive critiques POV received for their performance at this event:

POV has breakout event.

Before this event, it was clear that PoV was nipping at the heels of the top three teams, just waiting for their chance to join their club. They started off slowly, being torn to pieces in a 27-3 rout by GamePlay. After that match, PoV regrouped, and came out strong against a shaky mTw. They were too much for the Danes, and took their predicted spot in the double elimination bracket. There they dropped in the first round to the red hot MiBR squad. They took down fellow Americans x3o, before their tournament life was ended in a close fought 16-11 loss to MYM. They ended EM III LA with a 5/6th place finish.

- Jeff Suckow, GotFrag.com (http://www.gotfrag.com/cs/story/43159/)

 

POV has kind of had a break out event here. Did you ever expect them to be able to compete with the international teams?

I did. I've know them for a while. They are all friends, and I think NineSpot touched on that in an interview that they have no pressure to perform. So I expected them to cause some upsets. I still don't think they are fully developed so that means they should only get better.

- Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert, Interview with GotFrag.com (http://www.gotfrag.com/cs/story/43141/)