Madshrimps Belgium OC team wins ROG OC Showdown Team Edition

The ROG OC Showdown Team Edition online overclocking competition ran from April 14^th to June 5^th on oc-esports.io. Over seven weeks, PC enthusiasts from around the world and with every level of expertise were invited to join in the pursuit of more performance . A total of 110 teams participated, and more than a thousand score submissions were made over the five-stage competition. ROG partnered with EKWB, G.Skill, Open Benchtable, Seasonic, and Thermal Grizzly to offer a prize pool worth $5,000 USD. Let’s see who came out on top overall and in the various stages, and who was the most valuable player for the competition.

Overall Ranking - A tight fight among the top five

The secret to reaching the top of the overall ranking was working well as a team and submitting all the scores required for maximum points in each of the five stages: XTU, X265 – 4K, GPUPI for CPU – 1B, Reference Clock, and 3DMark Time Spy. After covering all the bases, teams could focus on improving their scores by sharing knowledge and knowing where their strengths and weakness stood. The team captain role was crucial for keeping track of team dynamics and constantly motivating members to remain competitive, explained Leeghoofd, captain of Madshrimps Belgium OC Team.

From the first few weeks of the competition, three American teams did pretty well; /r/overclocking, ASUS Republic of Gamers and Overclock.net all had scores that put them at the top of the rankings. But the standings changed a few times right up until the last days of the competition. In the end, Madshrimps Belgium OC Team took the overall win by completing all the submissions required and reaching a total of 218 points. There were followed by Alza OC, a team composed of 15 members mainly from Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, and Romania, with a total of 208 points.

The biggest challenge encountered by the top two teams was recruiting new blood to join them. Alza OC enlisted about 10 new people, while Madshrimps Belgium OC Team found new recruits in forums like Tones.be and ended up with 13 members. Both teams used every form of communication to stay in touch and provide helpful advice. What’s App and Facebook Messenger were the best way to go, they told us, and Madshrimps Belgium OC Team even had a few gatherings in person.

Most valuable player - kn0ppers brings a total of 104 points

In order to select the most valuable player, HWBOT.org provided an additional ranking to show which player had the biggest impact on their team's performance. Over the competition, kn0ppers from the Hardwareluxx.de team in the novice league accumulated the most points. This achievement is especially admirable because he only started overclocking about two years ago with a water cooling system. He first joined the ROG Camp online competition but didn’t make it to the final. Competitions keep kn0ppers going, and overclocking hardware is always a no-brainer for him.

During the competition, kn0ppers submitted scores in the three first stages for a total of 104 individual points. In Stage 1, he reached 1891 marks in XTU using the Maximus IX Apex and Core i7-7700k, scoring 42 points in the process. In Stage 2, he scored 11.11 FPS in X265 – 4K, bringing 40 points. For Stage 3, he only got 22 points with his GPU PI submission, but it was sufficient to come out on top of the final ranking. He wins a Maximus IX Apex motherboard and Thermal Grizzly thermal paste as well as exclusive ROG goodies.

Stage 1 XTU - Ribze§ takes the lead with 1924 marks

For this stage, only overclockers from the rookies and novices leagues on HWBOT.org were invited to join. To ensure conventional cooling, they needed a temperature higher to 60 degrees during the benchmark run to submit a valid score. Running at a frequency of 5.4GHz with an i7-7700K, Ribze§ took first place with 1924 marks. He wins a Maximus IX Apex motherboard.

The top three scores with different CPUs were combined to create an average for each team. Hardwareluxx.de took first place with an average of 1791.33 marks, followed closely by ASUS Baguette with an average of 1787.67 marks.

This benchmark made the Madshrimps Belgium OC Team rookies realize that OC competition is about more than just pushing raw clocks and submitting scores, said team leader Leeghoofd. 

Stage 2 X265 4K - Kuivamaa submits 11.99 FPS

Overclockers from the rookies, novices, and enthusiasts leagues were able to participate in this stage. Kuivamaa from Greece submitted the best score with a Crosshair VI Hero reaching 11.99 FPS. He wins an ROG Strix GTX 1050 Ti graphics card.

Madshrimps Belgium OC Team was the strongest overall for this stage. They quickly realized that pushing the new Ryzen platform was the way to gather maximum points. They took the first spot with an average of 10.79 FPS, followed by Hardwareluxx.de with 10.56 FPS.

Stage 3 GPUPI for CPU 1B - jastas scores 2min 19sec 880ms

The apprentices league joined the competition for this stage. Jastas from the Belgium OC Team took first place with a score of 2min 19sec 880ms. He used a Rampage V Extreme motherboard with a Core i7-6950X processor, and he wins an EK-KIT L240 water-cooling kit.

For the teams, the rankings were decided by the average of the top two scores. Alza OC nabbed 50 points for the win using the latest Crosshair VI Hero motherboard with Ryzen R7 1800X and R5 1700X CPUs.

Stage 4 reference clock - Xtremeoverdrive OC Team gets it all

In Stage 4, overclockers had to show their best reference clock. As with the previous stages, they had to think about which hardware would be the most efficient. For reference clock, it’s like going back in time! This test resurrected older platforms such as the very first Rampage Extreme motherboard, the Maximus II Formula, and even the P5E3 Deluxe. The Italian team, Xtremeoverdrive, was the most prepared and averaged 653.84MHz across their top three scores. They were followed by Hardwareluxx.de with an average of 638.34MHz.  

The best individual score was achieved by the Italian overclocker scannick with a reference clock reaching 676.03MHz on the Rampage Extreme with an Intel Core 2 Duo. He wins a G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-3600M CL16 2 x 8GB memory kit.

Stage 5 3DMark Time Spy - jpmboy wins the last stage

For the last stage, we brought in a 3D benchmark that focuses on graphics power.  All the leagues were invited to join, and the top two scores from each team were averaged for the stage ranking.  ASUS Baguette took first place thanks to submissions from Wizerty and Dark Gregor, which averaged 8503.5 marks. In second position, the Madshrimps Belgium OC Team scored 8389.5 marks.

Among the individual rankings, jpmboy from the USA, got the best score with 9418 marks. He wins a PSU from Seasonic: the Prime Platinum 1000W.