Top Gun is a DCS online dogfighting tournament organized in association with the Art of Warfare squadron, the 104th Phoenix squadron and the 51st PVO Regiment in an attempt to provide DCS virtual pilots with a competitive environment that would allow them to practice BFM (Basic Fighter Maneuvers) and hone their skills in the art of dogfighting.

In this competition, participants go head to head in 1v1 or 2v2 formats trying to shoot each other down using short-range heat-seeking missiles and internal guns only.

After two successful rounds, Top Gun was back in its third edition featuring some of the finest pilots the DCS community has to offer:

Defending champion Stuge achieved an incredible performance by winning again both the 1v1 and the 2v2 tournaments.

His first match in 1v1 against Teknetinium proved to be his toughest; Stuge managed to score a kill in the first round with an R-73 missile but failed to exit the combat station, which forced the round to be replayed.

The second round saw Teknetinium taking the upper hand in the first merge as he moved into Stuge’s six o’clock before scoring a few hits that forced the defending champion into a reversal in a attempt to shake his pursuer off or at least force an overshoot but Teknetinium did not take the bait and instead wisely pulled straight up to preserve his speed; at that moment, Tek was clearly the man on the offensive but while swinging back around for the kill, he excessively bled his speed taking aim and threw himself in the slow turning fight that Stuge was hoping for; with now both aircraft closely matched in speed and angular advantage, Stuge brilliantly worked his way out of trouble by gradually and meticulously gaining a speed advantage, which allowed him to dominate the fight as separation increased and fight morphed into a classic nose-to-tail turn rate contest; a well-timed final hard pull allowed the 104th instructor to make use of his exceptional marksmanship to convert a delicate snapshot into a kill.

Round 3 started in a similar fashion with Teknetinium getting the first opportunity after once again dominating the first merge owing to superior energy management but Stuge’s superb jinking allowed him to survive the first hits and even score a few of his own but ultimately lost control mid air and went down into a fatal flat spin; score 1-1!

The tie-breaker unfolded differently with Stuge apparently learning from past mistakes thus did not pull as hard on the stick and did a much better job at keeping the pressure on while retaining sufficient energy. None of the two pilots could clearly dominate the first merge this time around as they flew past each other at over 1000 km/h before initiating a high-G two-circle; The stalemate stayed on until a moment of hesitation from Tek where it looked like he wanted to reverse his turn to probably initiate a nose-to-nose then rocked his wings back to stay in the two-cirle flow; Stuge did not need more than that to capitalize on the opportunity as he pulled lead to bring his cannon to bear a few moments before Tek could do the same, taking his valiant opponent down and coming out on top in this first fight that proved to be his toughest and trickiest of all his 1v1 matches.

Stuge and Tek met again later on in the competition and were destined to go through another decisive round but this time, it was in the 2v2 tournament. Tek was backed up by squadron mate and top 10 pilot, Frostie while Stuge was teaming up with SF pilot, Razer, also a 2v2 Top Gun champion since his trimuph with Stuge in TG2.

After sharing the first two rounds, a tie breaker had to be flown and this time around Teknetinium was able to score a clear-cut kill on Stuge while Frostie and Razer were batting it out a few miles away. Odds were at that moment against the defending champions to say the least as Razer found himself alone against two experienced pilots; When Stuge had been shot down, Razer was already chased by Frostie so he was already defensive; events that followed are incredible: as Stuge went down, Razer was able to spot the crash site and hit the burners trying to put as much separation as he could with his pursuer while hopping to spot Teknetinium first for a hit and run pass, which he incredibly pulled off, scoring the kill. He then started jinking violently in an attempt to shake Frostie off his tail by forcing the overshoot; he succeeded in turning the tide, shot his opponent down and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat! this had to be the most trilling fight of the tournament and what an amazing and brave performance that was from the Finnish ace, Razer.

We have had a lot of fights going on so there were a lot of other interesting matches and while it is simply not possible to breakdown each one of those in this write up, we will try to go over the best performances in a “by the numbers” style:

100

is the number of dogfights that we hosted in this third Top Gun tournament sequel, which has seen 30 pilots from various nationalities taking up the challenge in a two day competition.

31

is the number of 1v1 dogfights won by Stuge in both Top Gun 2 and 3; he lost 2 only in the whole process and remains undefeated after 8 matches.

4

months spent at the very top of the SA air-to-air rankings for Stuge since his induction into the Hall of Fame in November 2015; this is 4 months shy of the absolute record held by the most decorated DCS fighter pilot and squadron mate, Maverick.

8400

is the amount of points separating reigning champion, Stuge from his new runner up, Bushmanni in the air-to-air rankings as of April 2016; the gap has never reached such heights with any of the former number one’s.

6

is the new DCS ranking of Razer and personal best after winning his second 2v2 title alongside countryman, Stuge who was also the man who stopped him in the 1v1 tourney.

Razer pulled off an amazing performance in the 2v2 decisive round that opposed Stuge and himself to Frostie and Teknetinium in the first semi-final when he found himself alone against the deadly pair after Stuge got killed and amazingly ended up shooting down both opponents and claiming victory for the Finnish duo.

2

finals in 2 participations from Plaiskool who once again proved himself as a force to be reckoned with be it BVR or BFM; Aside from Stuge, no one seemed to be able to overcome his aggressive style; a string of excellent results from the Frenchman over the last competitions added to his runner up position in TG3 have earned him a spot in the top 3, his highest ranking ever.

31

spots gained by Oberst Zeisig in the rankings upon his first Top Gun participation after reaching the last four in the 1v1 tourney but most importantly, ousting second seed and former number two, Ocelot and snatching one round in his semi-final fight against Plaiskool; Oberst is now a proud top 20 member.

4

pilots from the 51st squadron are back into the top 15 after solid performances from Frostie, Teknetinium, Rage and Holimoli. 51st squadron will be expected to shine in the next SATAC competition as the title holder although the date of this championship has not been set yet.

5

ranking spots gained by Razer after his successful Top Gun tourney, joining Bushmanni and Ocelot in the very exclusive top 10 club while solidifying SF squadron’s runner up position in the squadron rankings and Finland’s overwhelming supremacy in the country rankings

9

more significant jumps in the rankings owing to positive results in TG3 came from TAW’s Alephro who enters the top 25, AAK224, Grey77, Dimsum, Dutch Baron, Overdude, DarksydeRob, Dr.Goose and Fomenko.

Highlight Video by SkyCap

This is a great video put together by TAW member and tournament staff, SkyCap highlighting some of the best moments of the competition.

The highlight video from the previous Top Gun edition, TG2 is available and is also a feast for the eye; make sure to check it out and subscribe to his channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9XCLFg0BiTZSZuIipwoo3Q

1v1 results











2v2 results











Screenshot of the Tournament