Interview with dT|Nemesis on RTCW:CD

Posted by: rand0m (Sunday, February 23, 2003)

random: Hello dT|Nemesis

Nemesis: Hey!

random: First off, explain something about your self and where you stand in RTCW, and how much you feel you contribute to the RTCW community.

Nemesis: Well, I think I'm just the average joe. I've been wanting to do a tournament for a while now, and im just trying to keep rtcw alive.

random: Thats nice, sounds good sir. Second question, do you feel RTCW is slipping away or do you see it still gaining speed, or do you think its still in a normal state and doing fine?

Nemesis: I honestly dont know, there are alot of wolf players out there, but they just arent playing competitevely, so its normal I guess.

random: Ah, Next, there is a tournament you are heading, RTCW:CD, can you tell us about that and what it consists of?

Nemesis: Well, Rtcw: Continental Domination is an idea that was started by CaseyJones and well I put it in the works. It's a tournament where you represent your stateprovince, and it's mostly a "bragging rights" tournament. But, I hope for better tournament ideas, with prizes and a large involvement.

random: Sounds like fun! Next. Are there any prizes, and who are your sponsors as of now?

Nemesis: Well, at the moment it depends what you consider a sponsor, we have TsN - http://www.tsncentral.com - and GTV - http://www.geeteevee.com - covering it, but we are trying to get Activision - http://www.activision.com and nVidia - http://www.nVidia.com.

random: Does speakeasy allow you to use their servers, and give you ref pass rights?

Nemesis: Yes they do, thanks to citizen from team abuse and speakeasy. http://www.speakeasy.net - http://www.teamabuse.com

random: Is there some additional information, links to the website, and the player list, or anything else you wanna add that can inform the reader.

Nemesis: Well the tournament is 6v6 with 7 players per team. The link to the players that have signed up is here --> http://www.elbowrage.com/shaft/ thanks to cK-shaftian of cK and kapitol sports. And you can find a link to the site on the sig that is on that website.

random: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Nemesis: For more information, I can be reached in irc at irc.gamesnet.net #RTCW:CD as dT|Nemesis|cd in the official channel for the tournament.

random: Okay last question, Do you plan on having another season of this, or is this is just to boost some of the soldiers morales?

Nemesis: Well, I think I will continue to do this but it will be organized better. And with different ideas, but I hear there are other tournaments in the making, not just Battle of Beachead II

random: Anyway, dT|Nemesis

Nemesis: You're welcome

random: Thanks for your time, and I love you!

Nemesis: I love you too

Nemesis: danke

How do I post predictions?

Posted by: (Sunday, February 23, 2003)

Posting predictions is really quite simple.

The first thing you must do is sign up on the site. A verified user is required to post predictions on this site.

Once you have one, contact an admin and tell them you would like to make predictions.

Once a staff member grants you access simply go to the admin page and scroll down until you see the Matches/League Maintenance section. In there you will notice a link to Post Predictions.

After you click on that link, it will ask you what league you would like to post predictions for. Select the league and then it will present you with a list of each match and allow you to select who you think will win and also post a short message as to why you made that choice.

Occaisionally match schedules will change after you post your predictions. In order to protect your predicting record the site will simply remove your prediction for any changed (or removed) matches. So if the schedule changes, you will have to go back and re-predict. Any unchanged matches will still show up how you originally predicted.

That's all there is to it!

What is the results page and how do I use it?

Posted by: (Sunday, February 23, 2003)

The results page(s) of this site are an informal way for people to submit scores for a match. They allow each clan to post a little writeup along with the scores so you can get some background information on how the match went.

Most of the time people will explain how each round of the match went. They will indicate who won each round, if there were problems getting the round started or ping issues that occured, or maybe explain how well a team's defense or offense did.

It is very simple to submit a match result. Simply go to the admin page and towards the top you will notice a link to Submit or Modify Match Results.

First select which league the match was played for. From there you will be presented with a list of every clan you have administrative access to. Select the clan you wish to submit a result for. Next will be a list of every match that clan has played in that league. Simply select which match you are submitting for.

Enter in the scores and your writeup on the last page and hit Post Results. The result should be listed on the main results page now!

Sometimes people wish to post a URL to either screenshots or stats pages for the match. If you want to include a url and have it turn into a hyperlink, simply type in the url. The site will automatically turn it into a link for you! Optionally you may type [url=http://www.somesite.com/]Text[/url] and the hyperlink will say 'Text' instead of the actual URL.

A Chat with Lynch from NARF

Posted by: Pravda (Monday, February 24, 2003)

Pravda: how long have you been in NARF

Lynch]NARF[: since the beginnin of season 3 when da_g decided to start it up again
Lynch]NARF[: picked up me and cyno from nyX

Pravda: thats cool, so how well do you foresee you guys doing this season in cal and who would you say is your biggest competitors

Lynch]NARF[: i see no reason why we can't repeat our performance from last year
Lynch]NARF[: winning cal main is still our goal for this season
Lynch]NARF[: as far as biggest competitors go...
Lynch]NARF[: well, with FH out of the picture, wicked and uprise have always been our strongest competition in the west
Lynch]NARF[: and obviously the east powerhouses are something to fear, but we don't have to worry about them till the finals

Pravda: who do you predict to win the east

Lynch]NARF[: dT
Lynch]NARF[: maybe D|S but right now
Lynch]NARF[: dT is gellin and playin really strong
Lynch]NARF[: wouldn't be terribly surprised to have a NARF vs dT rematch this season

Pravda: switchin gears a bit, what do you think of sponsorships in rtcw and is it a good idea to merge CS and RTCW clans?

Lynch]NARF[: eh...
Lynch]NARF[: I'm in favor of getting sponsorships and gettin wolf teams some more recognition
Lynch]NARF[: if that involves having to merge with a CS clan
Lynch]NARF[: it doesn't really bother me as much as it seems to bother other people
Lynch]NARF[: i wasn't such a big fan of LoT changing their tags there though, i like the }x{
Lynch]NARF[: =P

Pravda: hehe, thats why they're back =)

Lynch]NARF[: =)

Pravda: lets see, whats your favorite color

Lynch]NARF[: blue
Lynch]NARF[: =o

Pravda: as a NARF member do you do lots of drugs

Lynch]NARF[: actually, no, i'm one of the more straightarrow members of NARF =P
Lynch]NARF[: not that my clan members do anything illegal =o

Pravda: haha. whats a good question to ask yourself

Lynch]NARF[: uhh
Lynch]NARF[: i dunno, that favorite color question is kinda hard to top
Lynch]NARF[: how about, Lynch, how are you such teh awesome panzer? It requires such great aim and mad skillz!

Pravda: haha. k.
Pravda: Lynch HOW DO YOU WROK THAT PANZER like you do?

Lynch]NARF[: luck
Lynch]NARF[: =P

Pravda: who do you think of as good panzers

Lynch]NARF[: well, when i first started learnin i watched demos of warbringer
Lynch]NARF[: so i guess he's kind of my inspiration
Lynch]NARF[: but as for current panzerwhores
Lynch]NARF[: pretty much the default names
Lynch]NARF[: holly, cash, grym...
Lynch]NARF[: vatican's pretty good from what i've seen
Lynch]NARF[: but haven't really had to face him too often

Pravda: yeah hes gettin good at it

Lynch]NARF[: seems like a decent amount of people are startin to get good with it
Lynch]NARF[: every team wants a panzerwhore now =P

Pravda: whats narf's best map btw

Lynch]NARF[: hmm
Lynch]NARF[: base and village in my opinion...

Pravda: what do you think makes you guys good on those maps

Lynch]NARF[: communication
Lynch]NARF[: pretty much one of our strongest points
Lynch]NARF[: helps us a lot on maps like village where it's a bit chaotic
Lynch]NARF[: not sure why we're good on base
Lynch]NARF[: prolly cause da_g pwns ne tower =D

Pravda: in terms of strats do you see narf as a more innovative type or the more systematic basic type

Lynch]NARF[: well
Lynch]NARF[: we start off a little systematic, we're not gonna pull out all sorts of weird shit out of nowhere =P
Lynch]NARF[: but we change things a lot during the course of a week
Lynch]NARF[: see what works for us and what doesn't
Lynch]NARF[: strats have to be made according to what type of team you got and how your players play the positions

Pravda: whats the weirdest thing you guys have done in terms of strategy in a match?

Lynch]NARF[: hmmm
Lynch]NARF[: we ran 6 venoms against Amish on Tundra =P

Pravda: hahah did that work?

Lynch]NARF[: no haha
Lynch]NARF[: i think we were on offense

Pravda: LOL

Lynch]NARF[: kinda hard to plant without a neer =\

Pravda: so what do you recall as the closest game you guys have played

Lynch]NARF[: nameless and dt on ice
Lynch]NARF[: nameless definetly
Lynch]NARF[: gave us the biggest run for our money
Lynch]NARF[: we went down 2-0 real fast
Lynch]NARF[: lot on assault was pretty tough too
Lynch]NARF[: down 1-0 then had like 2 straight ties
Lynch]NARF[: uprise on ufo definetly a good one too =)

Pravda: haha
Pravda: WELP I DONT GOT ANYTHING LEFT

Lynch]NARF[: lol

Pravda: any shoutouts

Lynch]NARF[: shoutout to noodles, the greatest pub player ever

Pravda: alrighty, thanks for the time and interview

Lynch]NARF[: aight, well, gluck with planet rtcw, site looks pretty sweet from what animeman showed me

What are these P2Ps I keep seeing?

Posted by: (Tuesday, February 25, 2003)

P2P - Person to Person Messaging system

Basically I wanted a method for people to be able to contact other user's on this site without resorting to email. Email is still the best method of contacting other people (and then of course IRC) but P2Ps can be quite handy.

The P2P system allows the website to email you about certain things. It will remind you to go post new predictions for a new week of matches. It will inform you of changes to your user access levels. This allows a much easier way to keep you, the user, informed of things on this website.


How Do I Use P2Ps

Using P2Ps is quite simple. Go to the admin page and you will notice a link to Send a Message to a User. Then you select who you wish to message, type in a topic, and then fill in the body and click Send.


How Do I Read P2Ps

You may read and manage your P2P messages from the P2P page. From there you will see your most recent P2Ps as well as any you have not already deleted. You can reply to any message or if you want, delete it.

Chatting with Dot from Down Under

Posted by: Pravda (Wednesday, February 26, 2003)

Pravda: so how are you guys

dot|flare: im well thank you :)
dot|KOSMiX: I'm great!
dot|flare: vipz and ringo got colds tho :(
dot|tofu: university has started back up, i'm a bit tired
dot|tofu: but wednesday is my rtcw day
dot|flare: SaMe!!
dot|KOSMiX: I still got a week w/o uni :P
dot|ringo: SaMe
dot|flare: SaMe!!
dot|ringo: I skip work well, arrange it off for my cal fix

Pravda: hehe
Pravda: So when did Dot start up

dot|flare: last year? end of ga season 2
* dot|flare copy/pastes intro on our website
dot|tofu: well we were originally mostly in a clan called cD - coffin dodgers, back in season 1 of the aus ladder
dot|tofu: that was 8v8
dot|tofu: we voted to go 6v6, so i took the best guys from cd (basically) and a few other guys like ringo and whorky, and here we are

Pravda: what made you guys join CAL and how has it differed from Aussie leagues

dot|flare: certainly takes patience thats for sure
dot|ringo: antilag
dot|flare: like knowing u could have taken somebody down, but didnt cuz of ping
dot|ringo: and the prospect of bob2
dot|KOSMiX: yeah :(
dot|ringo: were big factors in joining cal
dot|flare: i think we banned the ping word on voice coms :P
dot|KOSMiX: lol
dot|tofu: we joined CAL because antilag was being tested, we joined up, it was fine - but then it was rejected by the admins, but since we'd established a lot of friendships in the US community we decided to stay
dot|KOSMiX: bob rocked
dot|ringo: oh yeah
dot|flare: with cal-m and cal-o wolftv addresses being spammed on gamesnet, i dont take notice as much as ausirc being my main network to chat on
dot|ringo: thats the real reason we joined cal
dot|ringo: battle of the beachhead

Pravda: So you guys are really looking forward to BOB2 huh?

dot|tofu: if bob2 is rtcw, we'll probably enter
dot|flare: no idea what bob2 is :\
dot|tofu: if its ET, we'll probably enter
dot|flare: im not helping!

Pravda: bob2 = battle of beachead 2

dot|KOSMiX: lol fla
dot|ringo: yeah

Pravda: ok, so in one word responses, what do you think when i say "cal took away antilag"

dot|tofu: understandable
dot|ringo: hat tofu siad :)
dot|ringo: yeah
dot|tofu: "understandable"
dot|KOSMiX: "pants"
dot|ringo: when they took it I was disappointed
dot|ringo: but I understood why
dot|ringo: and if I was one of the low pingers I'd have voted to same way
dot|KOSMiX: I wouldn't have
dot|KOSMiX: but I dont think we are worth changing the whole comp for

Pravda: Do you guys think there are any differences betweeen strats in Aussie teams and american teams?

dot|ringo: oh for sure
dot|flare: yeah
dot|flare: some differences and some similarites

Pravda: Like in what cases or what maps? Is it styles, skills?

dot|ringo: the three major different areas, europe aus and usa all have different styles of play, and different ways of looking at a map strategically
dot|tofu: american teams have a lot more other teams to practice, and have had a LOT more game experience to practice with so we notice US clans tend to gib better, faster, revive faster, and generally have better teamwork micromanagement
dot|tofu: on the strat level, most aussie clans try to take from us clans because of this expereince
dot|KOSMiX: I rkn from what I've seen, the europeans seem to have a lot of innovative strats
dot|ringo: well
dot|ringo: I think of usa as having much better medwork and general teamwork
dot|tofu: this season in australia we're trying out a lot of new ideas, and positions, and class layouts, so we'll see how that goes too
dot|ringo: euros have better aim and some interesting strats

Pravda: cool, i've been talking to a few euros on differences and they seem to say some similar stuff
Pravda: for predictions, who do you guys think will win Cal-M this season?

dot|tofu: in current form, Deathtouch
dot|flare: er, i onyl know narf :P
dot|KOSMiX: my first wolf heroes were d|s so I'll say them!!
dot|ringo: well I hope narf do :))) but as tofu said I personally think dT are looking very smooth atm
dot|tofu: if narf come back strong however, and scrim hard and fast, they can win
dot|tofu: narf tend to just own, and dt seem to own perhaps less 1v1, but seem to have better overall coordination

Pravda: Flare, I hear you're an excellent freestyle rapper, is this true?

dot|KOSMiX: haha
dot|ringo: lol

Pravda: if so, give us a taste of it

dot|ringo: flare rap some jiggle in ventrilo right now!!!
dot|tofu: i dont know where you heard that =P
dot|flare: 1 sec, sorry, just grabbed dinner
dot|flare: lol i hate rap

Pravda: ok we'll well come back to you at the end of the interview for the rap

dot|flare: although, pokemon rap is ok :P
dot|KOSMiX: hshsh
dot|flare: lol if anybodies the singer its fatphil

Pravda: so as Aussie players, do you guys get a lot of kangaroo/outback/hey'mate jokes

dot|tofu: yes.
dot|KOSMiX: not really
dot|flare: hehe ive heard a couple
dot|ringo: yeah
dot|KOSMiX: onyl at the start
dot|ringo: most of them we make ourselves tho
dot|flare: dont forget the boomarangs!
dot|KOSMiX: but now its all good
dot|ringo: yer mate gotta ride the roo to town and see the wombat for some advice

Pravda: haha yeah boomerangs are good too
Pravda: djideridu
Pravda: bet nobody mentions that ;)

dot|ringo: probably only cause they are to scared to try and spell it ;)
dot|flare: lmao
dot|flare: ive tried playing a dij 1 time, man its hard
dot|flare: i was young tho
dot|KOSMiX: its just like any brass instrument
dot|KOSMiX: not too hard
dot|flare: yer
dot|flare: nice spelling btw
dot|KOSMiX: can make a makeshift dij out of a vacuum cleaner tube

Pravda: Haha, okay back to RTCW, what do you think is dot's strong points

dot|flare: experience
dot|ringo: tofu!!!
dot|tofu: strong friendships, loyalty, smg skills, game knowledge, and true professionalism, we are the best
dot|ringo: tofurage!!!
dot|KOSMiX: hahahahah
dot|KOSMiX: tofi
dot|ringo: yeah our strong points include being the best ;)
dot|KOSMiX: I plike the proffessionalism bit

Pravda: okay, let's say all pings are the same, what is your record in cal-m now

dot|ringo: depends who we've played :)
dot|KOSMiX: what is aour record?
dot|tofu: that's an interesting question

Pravda: well hypothetically you guys have played the same exact games, what would your record be

dot|tofu: 7-0
dot|KOSMiX: yah
dot|flare: yeah 4sure
dot|ringo: in cal-o?? definately 7-0

Pravda: who's the best cal-o team right now

dot|KOSMiX: nfi (*author's note: this means 'no fucking idea' in Australian)
dot|flare: c4c :P
dot|flare: they just prawned us :|
dot|tofu: in CAL-m, narf, dt could beat us
dot|tofu: that is all
dot|tofu: and i stress 'could'
dot|ringo: c4c is a pretty tight outfit
dot|tofu: c4c and redeption are good teams
dot|tofu: redemption sorry

Pravda: so, if dot was located in the USA, they are pretty much up there in the best 4 teams?

dot|ringo: haven't seen enough of the other contenders, but i our division c4c for sure
dot|flare: id like to think so prav, at least in cal-o
dot|tofu: i think so pravda
dot|KOSMiX: I dunno
dot|tofu: in cal-m flare
dot|flare: oh
dot|ringo: well, imo we'd own cal-o, but cal-m would be a great challenge
dot|flare: yeah
dot|ringo: realistically we'd be a top 10 main team
dot|flare: dunno about
dot|flare: haha
dot|flare: what i was sayting
dot|KOSMiX: how many in o?
dot|ringo: but I reckon with the prac we could push top 5
dot|flare: dunno about top4 but pretty confident with top10

Pravda: do you guys think RTCW is growing or dying. There's been a lot of talk about rtcw dying because of recent clans calling it quits

dot|flare: hmm, i think its hard to grow, when so many new ppl always are getting errors
dot|tofu: it was dying for a little while, but with the news of cK, wSw coming back for bob2/qcon we may see it surge in popularity again
dot|flare: especially with pb
dot|ringo: rtcw isn't doing either imo, its alive as it ever was really, but I doubt its ever going to grow
dot|KOSMiX: with the top teams ita about the money too
dot|flare: recently we've had alot of new ppl on the aus forums, but its always about errors, and why they cant play

Pravda: are you guys looking forward to expansion RTCW and what other FPS games are you guys into?

dot|flare: i am
dot|ringo: yeah we're all looking forward to et
dot|flare: et hoorah!
dot|ringo: I'm a bit of a game whore, I play bf42 in the 2nd best team in aus :o and a bit of cs on the side mainly cause thats what most pros play.
dot|flare: i tried my fair share of other fps, not really into them but, i more prefer the odd rts and rpg on the off side
dot|tofu: i play ra3 (quake 3 mod) for fun on occassions
dot|tofu: but rtcw is teh only game i play competitively, or have a lasting interest in

Pravda: okay, which american rtcw player is most like yourselves?

dot|ringo: o0o0 hard one
dot|KOSMiX: dunno any
dot|flare: we're all unique!
dot|KOSMiX: lol
dot|KOSMiX: cheap answer
dot|flare: better than dunno :P
dot|KOSMiX: yeah but thats not an answer
dot|tofu: i wish i was more like shogun

Pravda: that's okay, flares still got that freestyle rap comin

dot|KOSMiX: tofu = 187 wannabe
dot|flare: omg
dot|flare: i so cant stand rap, worst music EVER
dot|flare: its like tofu music
dot|KOSMiX: aussie rap = THE WORST
dot|flare: man assosiating me with rap is almost an insult :P
dot|ringo: I dnot think I know any us players well enough to see if they're like me

Pravda: lol
Pravda: whats your favorite maps

dot|tofu: base
dot|flare: sub beach base
dot|flare: all time favs
dot|ringo: base, ice sub
dot|tofu: base & keep
dot|flare: sub beach base ice
dot|KOSMiX: all of the :(
dot|ringo: HEY dot|tofu YOU'RE OUT OF THE CLAN!!!!
dot|ringo: keep is soooo wrong
dot|KOSMiX: although ice beach base keep

Pravda: you guys think UFO belongs to competition play or not?

dot|KOSMiX: nah
dot|flare: not with buggy respawn times :P
dot|flare: and yeah generally no
dot|ringo: if they stop trying to f$%k around with spawn times yeah
dot|tofu: i dont like UFO's design either
dot|tofu: so no.
dot|ringo: just usual normal ones spawn camping happens no matter what

Pravda: are any of the GOTY maps competition level?

dot|ringo: I dont like ufo that much but its more suitable for competition play than say tram :)
dot|ringo: yep
dot|ringo: rocket and chateau
dot|KOSMiX: and keep!!
dot|tofu: keep chateau, perhaps rocket
dot|ringo: not keep
dot|flare: chateau id say
dot|ringo: definately not keep
dot|KOSMiX: keep!!
dot|tofu: no tram thanks
dot|flare: ha!
dot|ringo: rocket is maybe
dot|ringo: but chateau is a good map
dot|flare: only good thing about that tram map is tram rail riding

Pravda: Welp, I guess i'll end the interview with an important question: boxers or briefs

dot|flare: briefs and boxers
dot|ringo: I used to be a boxers man but now I wear briefs
dot|KOSMiX: flare knows the score
dot|tofu: i will only answer that to trillian on ventrilo thankyou.

Pravda: tofu: thongs

dot|flare: rofl

Pravda: finally, flare, you gonna freestyle for us
Pravda: or we gonna have to end this on a depressing note

dot|flare: hey Pravda, how about NO
* dot|ringo eggs flare on
dot|flare: hey ringo, how about NO
dot|flare: gfed :P

Pravda: ok, well you guys have any shoutouts

dot|tofu: yes we do
dot|KOSMiX: yeah hi to schnell!!!1
dot|flare: haha
dot|flare: was gunna say schnell
dot|KOSMiX: I win
dot|ringo: me to :)
dot|ringo: spike!!!!!!
dot|flare: STURDZ0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
dot|ringo: my drunkard buddy :D
dot|tofu: shoutout to narf, they guys that kept us in cal, to c4c who owned us today on ice, all the other teams we've played
dot|tofu: huge shoutout to samantha for all the stuff she has done for dot
dot|ringo: and shoutout to all the guest stars we've had on dot ventrilo
dot|ringo: including praaaavda
dot|flare: shoutout to del for all the ggz!
dot|KOSMiX: and bubs for me!
dot|tofu: shoutout to nail, the most misunderstood guy in rtcw since shogun =)

Pravda: well that concludes the interview, thanks guys for the time =)

dot|KOSMiX: tanks
dot|ringo: npz dude
dot|flare: nps Pravda
dot|KOSMiX: fix up mah typos will ya prav? thakns
dot|tofu: thanks for the interview Pravda

wSw back in action!

Posted by: EvilKiller (Thursday, February 27, 2003)

West Side Wolves started out as four friends: Exclusive, Elusion, Emaciator, and EvilKiller, who got together on the weekends to play RTCW in public servers with no intention to rise to the top of the RTCW community. As time went on, our desire to make something out of ourselves grew which eventually led to the formation of the clan wSw. We made a website, held a countless number of tryouts, and recruited many decent players, all who either quit or were kicked from wSw. wSw started playing everyday and began scrimming some of the top clans, Tip, D|S, and Narf.

After a few weeks of scrimming every night, we decided to join Cal-Main. At that point, we were a very strong Cal-Main team. We were undefeated and faced little resistance from the opposition. That is when one of the Cal-Invite clans disbanded and wSw, along with Narf, were invited to move up into the Cal-Invite division. We started out strong beating xil in a very close match on mp_ice.

At that time, phx began to have their differences and decided to disband. We picked up four of their members, Burnzone, Warbringer, Cash, and Excon, but had to pay a costly price. These four guys were used to starting for a clan that finished second in BoB 1 and would not accept the role as a bench warmer for a clan who had not yet established themselves as a top contender. We were forced to make a decision; the leaders of wSw, Exclusive, Elusion, Emaciator, and EvilKiller decided that we would have the best opportunity to win the Cal-Invite division with the old phx members starting in place of our other members.

Tension grew within the clan. Two private channels were made on IRC, one for the leaders and the phx guys and the other for the entire clan. At this point, everyone in wSw, except the leaders and old phx members felt betrayed and abused; some remained quiet, some remained as backups for wSw, but most quit. At this point, we barely had enough members on each night to scrim, but somehow we managed and began scrimming Empire 3-4 times a week.

We finished the regular season strong, only one lose to Empire on mp_beach if I remember correctly. We began playoffs and easily advanced to the championship round against Abuse on mp_base. Everyone, including some of our own members, favored Abuse to win 3-0. The match began very slow for us as Abuse easily held for the entire 15 minutes and then won on offense in only a few minutes. Everyone counted us out, even Cache did, who wrote that the match started out exactly how everyone thought it would, with Abuse taking control and living up to their name.

But we were not finished, we came back and tied 2-2 and started out the last round strong, blowing both towers under 4 minutes. We were thrilled, no one counted us to make it this far, but yet here we were. Our defense started out strong and abuse wasn’t able to push through to the first tower until about 2 minutes into the round when we made some crucial penalties and were caught out of position. Abuse ended up winning the match and went on to win Cal-Invite that season.

This was the beginning of wSw's fall. Most of us lost desire to play, some quit playing because of problems in real life. However, we some how manage to make it to the end of the summer where we made an appearance at qcon 2002. I was unable to attend as I was on vocation in Hawaii with my family. We only had 5 wSw members on our squad and were forced to pick up a ringer. We finished in a disappointing yet respectable 8th place. After qcon 2002, the wolves went into hibernation for the winter of 2002/2003.

Now with spring just around the corner and the power house of the 4 E wSw leaders, we hope to climb back to the top and win Bob 2 and Quakecon 2003.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Clans list.

Posted by: (Thursday, February 27, 2003)

This site maintains as accurate a list as possible of the current clans. This is achieved through the help of both the site admins and the users.

My clan isn't listed
If your clan isn't currently listed on the site then adding it is quite simple. Go to the admin menu and scroll down to the Clan/Guild Maintenance section. In there click the link to Sign Up Your Clan. On the following page fill out all the information and when you are finished click Add Clan. Once you do this, the clan will go into sort of a 'limbo' stage where it won't actually be visible on the site yet. An admin must then approve the clan. After an admin approves it, it will start appearing on the site.

I see my clan listed but I am unable to modify settings for it
This situation most likely occurs after an admin adds the clan to the site. Each clan on this site maintains a list of users who have full access to modify the clan's information and submit match results for that clan. By default, the owner of a clan is the person who signed the clan up. If an admin signs your clan up on the site, then that admin is the default owner of your clan. In this situation, simply contact a staff member and let them know that you are a leader of the clan and would like to gain ownership. After the admin updates the clan ownership list, you will have full access to your clan.

How do I edit my clan?
Go to the admin menu and scroll down to the Clan/Guild Maintenance area. Click the Modify Clans link. Then select which clan you wish to modify. It will then present you with the current settings for that clan and you may update them as needed. Click Update when you have finished.

RTCWTools

Posted by: -doNka- (Friday, February 28, 2003)

RTCWtools is a mIRC script that is able to analyze your OSP stats over long periods of time. Unlike many log analyzers it doesn't work for just a single game and most importantly, it analyzes the accuracy stats generated by OSP. It doesn't have anything to do with HTML files. You can view your stats in a nice GUI and also report the results directly to the IRC channels.

The script is a remake of Q3Tools that came out 2 month ago, it looks just like new RTCW script, just take a LOOK.

Besides stats analyzer there are 3 very useful tools:

CfgSpy: on*TEXT little thingy that will report your cfg settings to your friends once they trigger it.

CfgComparer: Cool feature that helps you to compare the values of two various configuration files.

DJWheat personal spamBot: advanced spambot, what can I say...

RTCWTools-0.8c

The Stocks system: explained.

Posted by: (Monday, March 3, 2003)

By now you have certainly noticed on the right side of every page a section titled "Top Stock Prices". Possibly you have even been over to view the Clan Stocks page. So what exactly is all this?!

Clan Stocks are a method of ranking clans. Instead of giving the rank points however, we use dollars. When you sign up on the website, it will give you a small amount of "cash" which you may use to purchase stocks in a clan. It is sort of like a real stock market. You want to buy low and sell high. There is also a page which will list the users with the most money. So in a way, it is like betting on clans. If you think a clan will win, you buy their stock. If you own stock in a clan and think they are going to lose, you would want to sell that stock.


How Do I Buy or Sell Stocks?

If you have already registered a user on the site, head over to the Clan Stocks page. Click the link to Modify your Porfolio. This page will list all stocks you currently own as well as your current cash reserves. From here you can Buy or Sell stocks. You may notice that when you go to buy (or sell) stock that the clan you were interested in is not listed. In order to prevent people from buying stock in clans that have completed a match and haven't been updated in our system yet, we will lock them. This prevents people from buying stock in a clan that just won a match (and hence, will most definately go up in value). Once a site admin enters in the official score of that match, the stocks will un-lock automatically and you may purchase or sell stock in that clan.


How does the site generate a stock price?

Clans start with a base stock price of $100. Clans only have one stock price, which is determined by every match they play in any league. There is not a separate price for each league. This forces clan to perform well in all leagues. After each match, a price change is generated. The formula for determing this change is quite complex. It takes into account factors such as how many points the clan won by, the map played on, how well the clan performed in relation to other clans in the same league and on the same map, how people predicted for or against that clan, and even the prices of the two clans involved. For example, if people predicted that the clan would lose and they ended up winning, they would gain considerably more than if they had been predicted by all users to win the match. If the clan they were playing has a stock value of only $50 and they currently are worth $200 one would expect them to win based on the fact that they are worth more (and supposedly better). So if they do win, the price change will not be as high. However if they lost, the price change will be considerably higher due to the fact that they were expected to win.

Interview with OGG-Witchdoctor on the OGG Tournament

Posted by: Pravda (Monday, March 3, 2003)

Pravda: What exactly is OGG and what is your position in it?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: ogg is the Online Gamers Guild. built to bring clan and players together in one forum
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: example.. players looking for clans.. clans looking for players
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: unholy and myself are co=owners but non profit at the momment

Pravda: How did the idea of this tournament come about and what were your initial goals with it?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: the idea from the tournament was an online event with fun in mind. we wanted to do something for the RTCW community.. kinda like giving back. we wanted to run a fair tournament where anyone could play. we have 1 level to pro level clans.
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: you also mssed our 1 vs 1 and 2 vs2 mod matches all day yesterday

Pravda: Speaking of which, could you give a rundown of the different tournaments that were held?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: sure.. we have a 1 vs 1 (started with 64 players) and a 2 vs 2 (64 players)
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: hold one
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: pls
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: sorry.. the 1 vs 1 was the first part of the day starting at 9am pst and running until apx
5pmpst we made a custom server config for he 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 we called it super soldier
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: this config gave you ammo heath dyno all at once
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: same for the 2 vs 2.. which ran from 5pm until about 1 am pst
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: day 2 was standard osp ab/ba ab/ba
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: for the clans

Pravda: How many clans participated?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: 8 clans showed up but 10 signed up
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: 128 people for day 1

Pravda: What were the strong points and weak points of this tournament? Looking back, would there be any changes you should have made?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: yes next time we dont do it in two days haha.. maybe spread it out over a few weekends
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: we also need to find a server donation to make it fair for the east coast guys.. our server dies on day 2
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: *died
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: but all in all it was a blast..

Pravda: When can we look forward to another tournament?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: people loved it
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: we will try to do it every two months..
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: TRY..
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: its a lot of work

Pravda: Was there any particular reason you guys chose Chateau as the map for finals?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: yea.. no one ever does.. if you saw it on wolf tv it was a fragfest. we tried to do it different then the other

Pravda: Any thanks you'd like to give to anybody for helping out with the tournament?

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: yes.. first off my partner OGG-Unholy could not have done it with out him. Also Spottyg-TRAM and the whole TRAM crew. been with us from the strat www.tramdesign.net and of course all of Murder X clan for helping us out with server configs. and all the OGG peeps who play marketgarden everynight!
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: oh of course INC aka mr irc
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: strat = start
OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: sorry long day

Pravda: Well thanks for your time and hopefully the next OGG tournament will be even larger. =)

OGG-WitchDoctor[MX]: hope so! good for us all.. thx for the coverage Pravada and stay close for the next one.. maybe some inside scoops!

A Short Chat with George from Doctors

Posted by: Pravda (Tuesday, April 1, 2003)

Pravda: hi george

CPL|George: Hey

Pravda: so lets make this official for planet-rtcw, doctors are back for rtcw?

CPL|George: We are back for BoB2.

Pravda: so what basically it's more or less a one-shot deal? you guys are back for the tournament only/

CPL|George: Yes, the competition that a tournament brings out is something we didn't want to miss out on.

Pravda: awesome! are all the doctors back from the last quakecon? are there any roster changes or new recruits going on?

CPL|George: As of now there's 3 Doctors from Quakecon who won't be playing. Wombat, Revenant, and Arkaine. So far it's myself, Gusto, Wiseguy and we're going to use 2 of our back up players from last year in Northman and Anomaly. We are currently unsure about a 6th starter.

Pravda: i think scheme wants to join
Pravda: april fool's! =D

CPL|George: :D

Pravda: anyway, there's a lot of talk about doctors not being what they used to be and probably not going to do as well at BOB2 because of their absence in RTCW
Pravda: what is your response to that?

CPL|George: I'm afraid it might be true from what I hear about the game changing so much. Other than anomaly none of us have played for 7 months so it will be interesting how fast we adapt and wear off all the rust.

Pravda: how are you guys preparing for the tournament? are you planning on scrimming hard or taking this more relaxed? what are your realistic goals for BOB2?

CPL|George: Our goal for anything is to win it or we wouldn't really bother playing but right now we are pretty relaxed about the whole thing because even if we don't win, we won't be devistated. It would be different if we never stopped playing RTCW, but that isn't the case. Half our team doesn't even have RTCW installed yet. We need to get scrimming!

Pravda: how often are you guys going to scrim? and when are all of you getting RTCW installed?!

CPL|George: Well I'm bothering the rest of our players to get the game installed so we can start scrimming. I'm hoping we can scrim 1-2 times a night but I'm sure that won't happen. We just don't have that competitive nature back in us yet but maybe that will change if we get further in the tournament. I predict us scrimming once a night Mon-Thur only.

Pravda: cool. since your absence in RTCW have you kept up at all with the teams or cal or anything? if so, what are your views on the current top teams in CAL?
Pravda: do you think today's top teams are as good as the top teams in your heyday?

CPL|George: Other than Anomaly telling us who's good and who's not I pretty much don't know that much about the top teams. I haven't really been following things.
CPL|George: Well if the top team right now was at Quakecon last August we would still crush them! :D

Pravda: =D

CPL|George: If we never stopped playing RTCW we would also be on top! =)

Pravda: i see you're wearing a CPL tag, what's your position in that and i'm assuming thats for counterstrike

CPL|George: That tag isn't for CS, but just for the CPL. I do a lot different things for the CPL but right now I mostly handle online coverage.

Pravda: so will the doctors be playing any games competitively after BOB2? any new games that you guys think might be the next competitive league-type game?

CPL|George: No, the Doctors are pretty much done after this. They might play SWG in the future but that's an MMORPG. I personally am not allowed to play CS anymore because of my position with the CPL so that's why we stopped playing that together.

Pravda: I noticed you guys have been pubbing lately on LoT, has the aim gotten better on the pub servers or are they all still noobs? =D

CPL|George: Well like I said before Anomaly hasn't stopped playing much and other than that it's just been Northman and myself pubbing to try and get our aim back. I'd say it's coming back nice but aim can only take you so far in a game as team oriented like RTCW.
CPL|George: nicely* :D

Pravda: good point
Pravda: did you see me playing?

CPL|George: Yes, pretty good medic!

Pravda: thanks! in one word, describe my pub play!

CPL|George: Teamplayer

Pravda: haha good enough =) I think that about concludes our interview
Pravda: any shoutouts or anything you'd like to add about doctors in rtcw?

CPL|George: Just good luck to all the teams participating in BoB2!

Pravda: alrighty thanks for your time george and good luck to doctors

CPL|George: =)

Talking to NightFall from SI

Posted by: Pravda (Wednesday, April 2, 2003)

Pravda: Hi nightfall

NightFaLL\SI\: Hi :D

Pravda: Let's get something straight: Is Suicidal Intent the best CAL-O clan today?

NightFaLL\SI\: Of course :D

Pravda: I see you guys have a tough matchup tonight against Redemption, are there any keys to the game for you guys to win in terms of strategy?

NightFaLL\SI\: Well, although I give pretty much everyone a hard time, the (r) guys are the only clan in Open i've ever worried about in matches, really the key to us winning is just hoping that our strategy works well, and that we can adjust to anything they throw at us
NightFaLL\SI\: It could honestly go either way, but NF still predicts 3-0 SI :D

Pravda: So looking through the list of Cal-O clans, Redemption is probably your biggest competitor?

NightFaLL\SI\: Easily, yeah.

Pravda: If you guys win this next match, easy road to CAL O champs?

NightFaLL\SI\: I think so, yeah. Whoever wins out of (r) and SI tonight will win open, unless there is a huge upset, but I doubt one that huge will be pulled off.

Pravda: Do you see SI as a competitive CAL-M clan and you guys are joining CAL-M next season correct?

NightFaLL\SI\: I'm not sure, this may be our last season, we haven't really decided yet.. as for being competitive Cal-M, I think we could hang with some of the main clans, but we'd get dominated by the dT, Z, Narf, and such.. i'm not giving any props to D|S cuz warrior is a fag ;)

Pravda: What is your opinion of 1) the most underrated clan in CAL-O and 2) the most overrated clan in CAL-O

NightFaLL\SI\: Probably OPP as the most overrated, they're not necessarily a bad team, they're pretty decent, but people thought they were all that because they had a perfect record, but when you're in a division with little competition, that's usually what happens. :p
NightFaLL\SI\: that, or FF
NightFaLL\SI\: cuz the ff guys are extremely lame :o

Pravda: how come?

NightFaLL\SI\: Well, they just act really lame towards me and SI, even before I started giving them shit about it. ;)
NightFaLL\SI\: honestly, most underrated i'd have to say one of them is Team Counterfeit
NightFaLL\SI\: you never hear anything about them, but they're a pretty good clan
NightFaLL\SI\: and of course, SI :p
NightFaLL\SI\: we get predicted to lose pretty much every match, I think that's cuz they hate me, who knows :D

Pravda: Haha why the hate?
Pravda: Someone mentioned that you're a slag wannabe

NightFaLL\SI\: lol, slag is a newb, who thinks that because he wins duels in a video game, that he's good at it, and since he thinks video games = life, then slag = teh win, in his mind. We all know better.

Pravda: Okay, we'll whats your thoughts on c4c who seem to be another big competitor to win CAL o

NightFaLL\SI\: well we've scrimmed them a few times, but their pings were pretty ass, so I can't really say much, but I honestly don't know a whole lot about them. So I really can't say

Pravda: What's your predictions on the winners of CAL-M?

NightFaLL\SI\: well i've only been around a few months in wolf, but if I had to guess i'd say dT, just because they've got some really skilled players

Pravda: Well that about concludes this interview
Pravda: Have any last words, shoutouts, or thoughts about the upcoming match?

NightFaLL\SI\: Well, I'd just like everyone to know, I'm sticking by my thoughts that SI will win open, and even if we don't, I'll deny we lost and say it was all rigged.
NightFaLL\SI\: Oh, and for everyone out there, don't get mad when I talk smack to you, i'm just fuxing with you, I love you all.

Pravda: haha okay, thanks for your time NightFall and good luck to SI

NightFaLL\SI\: thanks ;)
NightFaLL\SI\: I'll hit a homerun for you
NightFaLL\SI\: err, wrong game :(

DarkSide vs DeathTouch Pre-Game Chatter

Posted by: Pravda (Wednesday, April 2, 2003)

Questionaire

DeathTouch

1. How many of the past D|S vs dT matches have you played in?

DimmaK: Personally, I have only played in 2. Had some health issues that have held me back a bit.

Holly: 11-07-02 dT > DS 3-2 Beach CAL-M Season 3 (playoffs)
10-17-02 DS > dT 3-2 ICE CAL-M Season 3
09-13-02 DS > dT 3-2 Village CAL-M Season 3
05-12-02 DS > dT 3-2 ICE CAL-I Season

Decka: none

2. From the past matches the two teams have competed in, which has been the best or most memorable you've seen or played in?

Dimmak: I would have to say the Beach victory. Didn't get to play much leading up to the match. Enjoyed playing with the guys once again.

Holly: Beating D|S last season 3-2 on Beach was one of the most thrilling an exciting game I have ever played in. Demo here
http://www.cached.net/?go=%2A/demo/single/11455////textmatch/holly

Decka: I didn't start last season.


3. How much have you guys scrimmed in the past week as preparation for the upcoming match? Watched any demos?

Dimmak: Well we haven't changed much preparing for this match. We usually scrim up to 4 hours a night along with some much needed team discussions on strat. I personally don't watch demos. Hate to see all the bad habits and lack of skills most players have these days. I am afraid that might rub off on me.

Holly: We usually scrim 3-4 hours a night. We also have a warm-up practice before scrims to go over positions. During the week we will be playing a lot and getting our strats down and getting every one focused on this weeks match. We haven't watched any demos this week and don't plan on watching any demos.

Decka: I personally haven't been scrimming that much, im kinda "inactive" at the moment but the guys have been scrimming 2-3 times a night. I hop in every now and then but im having alot of comp problems.

4. What do you think is your team's strength on ice: defense or offense?

Dimmak: Our defense is always our best asset on any map. We take pride in our strat variations and being able to adapt. We have numerous defensive setups to chose from.

Holly: Defense on any map hasn't been our biggest concern. I know DS is more of a defensive team instead of offense. Offense is the biggest concern on Ice this week and not so much on defense. My goal is to not have any tied games this time and make sure D|S readies up on time, so the game won't last 3 hours. If it does last that long my girl friend turns into the devil and starts yelling at me because I' not spending time with her.

Decka: Probably a mix of both.. we try to keep things dynamic on both ends.

5. What do you think will be keys in the game in terms of strategy on defense or offense?

Dimmak: Obviously adaptation and execution.

Holly: Not giving out any info:). When the wolf community watches our game on wolftv this Thursday night, you will see us pull some crazy shit both on offense and defense. I think the biggest concern is for D|S to ready-up and stop delaying the game after every round. That is annoying to not only us, but the people watching wolftv.

Decka: I'd say whoever can get their offense going stronger because i expect both teams to bring really strong defenses

6. Has your team's strategy evolved significantly since past matches for Ice? How so?

Dimmak: Our strategies have evolved immensly. We all came from aggressive gaming backrounds. Hence, why most of our early strats were all made with the mentality of always pushing. Now we more or less let the opposing team come to us. I am not saying that all our strats are passive cause we do have some kick ass aggressive strats. RTCW requires less aggressiveness and more patience.

Holly: Last time we played ICE was vs. aN (elbows), week 6. During that time, Sunday, we really didn't have a good practice because during that time my video card got fried and couldn't really go threw our strats through. The whole week we didn't really didn't play up to our caliber. We really didn't have anything in sync and were pretty much relying on aim. On game day, we did fairly decent, shutting down aN on defense for two full holds I think, but our offense was a little sluggish only capping the docs around 6 minutes each time.

Decka: Yeah, we've changed quite a few things.. you'll see on thursday:o..

7. Who, in your opinion, is the most dangerous player on the opponent's team and one of the main people you
must stop?

Dimmak: Well RAmbo is tough cause he hates to move around. It is like yellowstone national park when he plays. Always looking to pitch a tent somewhere. Must be a cubscout.

Holly: I think the most dangerous person on D|S is chaoslord. If things aren't going his way he will start yelling and bringing down the teams moral. After that, they happen to lose composer and start to suffer.

Decka: I'm not worried about any of them individually

8. Who do you predict will be the MVP of the game and why?

Dimmak: No single player is MVP in my mind. It is totally a team effort.

Holly: My entire team will be Most Valuable Players. We have had a perfect season in CAL this year with out losing a single round. We were the only team to do that in CAL wolfenstein. We will not lose this game and I will guarantee victory on it.

Decka: I'd say holly because he does so many different things not to mention his pro strat calling hehe

9. Which team, in your opinion, has the better aim? Better teamwork? Better name?

Dimmak: If we didn't have the better aim we wouldn't be 10-0 right now. Our teamwork is superb. Name has nothing to do with it. We are making a name for ourselves.

Holly: D|S is very strong holding their positions on defense. They camp to the extreme not relying on much skill. Their cross fire is pretty good but they don't have the communication that we have.

Decka: Both teams have good aim.. I haven't really experienced D|S's teamwork since i don't really follow any of their games and we don't scrim much.. so I'll say us. And both teams have well established names in the North American Rtcw scene

10. Considering that Darkside has gone through several makeovers in terms of roster, what do you think is the biggest difference between this team and the past Darksides?

Dimmak: They rely solely on a single player. One of their starters doesn't play, they are done for. We played numerous matches this season with different lineups. Had no effect on the outcome. Still KO'd, & 3-0'd

Holly: I don't really know, don't really care. The one thing I see is they are very panzer dependant or one player dependant. If they don't have one of the starters playing they are done for.

Decka: Again I don't really know enough about that so I'll just guess.. their teamwork probably isn't as well developed as teams who have been together longer

11. Why will your team win in the end and what is your prediction of the final score?

Dimmak: We are a hard working team. We have team goals and want to attain the goals we set forth. We scrim alot, talk alot amongst each other and most of all, play well as a team under pressure. I predict an agonizing 3-0 defeat for D|S.

Holly: My prediction is dT 3 - D|S 1. We will send Chaoslord back to cooking the fine egg rolls at the local Suski Sushi bar this off-season.

Decka: Right now we are really meshing well as a team.. and it will push us over the edge.. 3-1 dT

Thanks for your time. Any final thoughts on this match you'd like to add?

Dimmak: Keep the wok's warmed up, and the chopsticks in hand. dT in the finals woohooooooo!!!! My opinions expressed here are solely mine and not that of dT. dT likes me muzzled. :-)

Holly: I'm glad that we didn't have to play D|S in the regular season this year. The hype of this game is almost has exciting of watching Dr. vs. Abuse back in the day. Many people have anticipated dT to play D|S this season and now it's going to happen. There is a lot riding on this game as terms of bragging rights and who is better head to head. The past 6 games dT and D|S have met, ending with the score of 3-2. The game should not be a lemon to watch. We have not played D|S in a match and only scrimmed one time since we last played them on Beach (11-07-02). The game should be highly exciting and fun to watch. Only thing I have to say to D|S is "Big country, "Ready your team the f*ck up!"

Decka: Should be gg's.. kinda pissed that my computer decided to screw me over around playoffs and BoB2 time but hey whatever gl everyone

DarkSide

1. How many of the past D|S vs dT matches have you played in?

Chaoslord: Three matchs, all last season, on village, then ice, then beach in the playoffs. (Though I have played vs dT with other teams.)

Herbal-Tea: I've played in the last three, all of them last season in Cal-M.

Rambo: 3


2. From the past matches the two teams have competed in, which has been the best or most memorable you've seen or played in?

Chaoslord: I would say for me, the ice match was the most memorable as a match, personal performance I did the best in the Beach match.

Herbal-Tea: Probably either of our matches last season on Ice or Village. Both were 2+ hour marathons with 3-2 scores and some tie rounds.

Rambo: The Ice match where there was a break in the action for a while b/c i had to go pick up chaoslords mom at the corner, she was hookin again.

3. How much have you guys scrimmed in the past week as preparation for the upcoming match? Watched any demos?

Chaoslord: Week just started =o.

Herbal-Tea: We're scrimming more than we normally do this week. There really isn't much sense in working to come this far and losing because the other team was better prepared. We'll probably have between 10-15 hours in before our match. As for demos, we never really watch them. We have a pretty good idea of what works for us and what doesn't. You really need to base your strat around the capabilities of your players, and watching demos won't help you with that.

Rambo: We scrim 3-4 times a night, on top of that we practice our strats. Yes i have watched some demos.

4. What do you think is your team's strength on ice: defense or offense?

Chaoslord: I would say our strength is defense, but that is true most maps, I try to make a strong defense and take some of the pressure away off our offense.

Herbal-Tea: Defense is probably our strong point. It almost always is. We normally get pretty long holds, which takes a lot of pressure off our offense, and gives us time to set up how we need to.

Rambo: Defense and Offense both very abusive.

5. What do you think will be keys in the game in terms of strategy on defense or offense?

Chaoslord: The key for us, is working well as a team, it will always be the key, has always been the key. As a team, I think we have the best guns in the game, but teamwork is something we need to get down more.

Herbal-Tea: Depends on the strats that are run. There are a lot of positions on ice to set up an effective defense, and different ways you need to go about breaking them.

Rambo: Me, I am the show, I think good communication and also if we work together as a team and not pub the map we should be fine.

6. Has your team's strategy evolved significantly since past matches for Ice? How so?

Chaoslord: I think every time you play a match your strat changes. We start off with something we have used before, then change it from there. People adapt, things change.

Herbal-Tea: Yeah, we've been changing/tweaking both our o and d some. As for how, well, you'll see :).

Rambo: Yes, added a 5 panzer defense plus 1 man playing medic with a knife.

7. Who, in your opinion, is the most dangerous player on the opponent's team and one of the main people you must stop?

Chaoslord: I don't think there is anyone player on dT we have to stop. When you get to this level, it's a team game. One man might shift the difference a little, but it all comes down the the quality of teamwork and execution of the strategies.

Herbal-Tea: Dimmak and Brian are probably their strongest players. All of them are good though, except Nail, who sucks. Hell, I think Lakai is a better player than he is.

Rambo: I think dT|Evil-Doer 2 should be playing on dT| 1 he is a 1 man team.

8. Who do you predict will be the MVP of the game and why?

Chaoslord: No way to know until the match is played, everyone has a chance of being the mvp. Only thing I am sure of, it wont be Rambo.

Herbal-Tea: No idea. All of the players on both teams are capable of making big plays. Probably whoever plays the most consistently.

Rambo: MVP = RAMBO, TO MUCH RAGE.

9. Which team, in your opinion, has the better aim? Better teamwork? Better name?

Chaoslord: I know we have better aim. I believe, at least for now, they have better overall teamwork. My name is the coolest thanks.

Herbal-Tea: Overall we definately have the stronger guns. They probably have better teamwork, but we've been focusing on improving ours. Better name? Depends on who you ask.

Rambo: Better name? D|S by far, come on now me and warrior and not to mention Herbal-tea have more 2v2 championships then anyone combined crazy aim. Teamwork thats a good question what is teamwork? Better name would have to go to Darkside just becuase i say so.

10. Considering that Darkside has gone through several makeovers in terms of roster, what do you think is the biggest difference between this team and the past Darksides?

Chaoslord: It's hard to compare. DarkSide at first, was a mass of people, with something like 20 members. Half those members left, went to cK, and the other half recruited a few but as members went inactive, it slowly fell into medocrity. At the end of the first CAL-Invite season I approached one of the overall leaders of D|S and talked to him about reviving and revamping the D|S team. The only clause in my joining was that I had total control over the team: members, strategies, lineups, etc. Then I went about recruiting and putting together a team of people I knew and trusted, and believed had the ability to be one of the best. The new D|S is smaller, more of a brotherhood than it was before. We really don't have members we don't trust, or don't need. We are a true team, as close to one as I have been envolved with during my RTCW career

Herbal-Tea: We're really a totally different team. The only original player still with us is Pharoah. Most of us have been playing together for a while though, as 2/3 of our starting team came from Hostile Inc. We're probably a tighter team than the original D|S, i certainly don't see half of our players leaving so they can be 'pros'.

Rambo: Darksides? We added Warrior and got rid of lee hockey.

11. Why will your team win in the end and what is your prediction of the final score?

Chaoslord: One word - Redemption : 3-1 D|S

Herbal-Tea: We'll win because we're the better team. My guess is it'll be another 3-2 game, hopefully without 3 tie rounds, i'd like to finish before midnight this time.

Rambo: 3-0 D|S domination. Because the paintrain will be running through ice on thursday night, No stopin the PAIN TRAIN!!!!

Thanks for your time. Any final thoughts on this match you'd like to add?

Chaoslord: GL to all, see you in the finals whoever wins in the west.

Herbal-Tea: Not really, just that it'll be ggs, and i'm looking forward to it, and thanks for the interview :).

Rambo: Id like to give a shout out to the pimpest clan NwT (niggas with triggas) BAD ASS!!!!

Team Thorian Interview - Being Thorian has its perks

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Monday, April 7, 2003)

I had a lot of fun doing the interviews back in the day, but got wrapped up in making fun of Jamandy there for a long time and forgot to do em. It wasn't until today, when I saw Team Thorian on the BoB2 roster, that I knew another interview HAD to be conducted.

I tracked down this team of legend, and easily odds on favorite to win BoB2, this afternoon while they took a break from smiling at their reflections in the mirror.

Team name, irc channel, when do you scrim, who are your members?

tTt-Thorian: #team-thorian on gamesnet. Scrim? Thorian doesn't need to scrim, I can make teams win. Current member list is, Thorian x 2, xil-thorian, Thor!na, tTt-Thorian, :: Thorian, ]cp[Thorian, Thorian]NARF[, f!thorian and w*thorian.

http://www.teamthorian.cjb.net

The_Wippuh: There's a lot of new n00bs out there who don't know who Thorian is. Tell us about yourself and how you came to form Team-Thorian.

xil-Thorian: How could someone not know who Thorian is? Thorian is the greatest player in every game ever played. Team Thorian was formed basicly because I realized that owning alone wasn't as fun as raging with other people.
tTt-Thorian: You n00bs don't know about thorian? There should be no introduction or anything, thorian is the myth the man the ledgend!
Thor!na: Thorian is teh l33t3st player that has ever lived.

The_Wippuh: Every team has that identity. DeathTouch is the dynamic strat team, NARF is the lan team, tell me what the identity is of Team Thorian?

xil-Thorian: Being Thorian has perks of course.
tTt-Thorian: Being thorian has it's perks.
Thor!na: The identity of Team Thorian is Thorian!! Cause, like, Thorian can make any team win

The_Wippuh: What's the typical day like being Thorian?

xil-Thorian: Its pretty awesome, I usually start off by reading my fanmail, maybe sign some autographs in our irc channel, and then go own me some n00bs on a pub server, i frequent pubs like unskilled players only and the like.
tTt-Thorian: Well, I get up in the morning, and go on irc and try to join teams that I haven't been in yet, and then after that go out to the store for coffee and avoid getting my ass kicked by nerds, then back to irc looking for more teams.
Thor!na: First I get up and make a hearty breakfast...Cant start the day out right without it. Then I spend all day pwning n00bs and being a jackass.

The_Wippuh: What do you look for when recruiting new people for Team Thorian?

xil-Thorian: We mainly look for people that have perks, if you dont have perks, you obviously cant be as awesome as Thorian because he has perks, so you really dont have a chance of making it in the team.
tTt-Thorian: We look for the biggest n00bs around who have no clue who thorian is, so they will like us, and then force that person into belief that we are rtcw gods!
Thor!na: They have to be high quality Thorians...and willing to dedicate their entire lives to playing!

The_Wippuh: Give 4 pieces of advice to new players to become more like Thorian.

xil-Thorian: 1. The first step to being like Thorian is having perks, this one is a must. 2. Second you have to have been in AT LEAST 5 clans in 3 weeks 3. You always have to remember that you are the greatest player ever so everyone should fear you. 4. You have to frequent places such as cached or planetwolfenstein and bitch about how awesome you are at all times.
tTt-Thorian: 1. Everyone is a bigger asshat then you are, remeber that. 2.No matter how many teams you've been on, there's always a handful that don't know who you are. 3. Flaming people on planetwolfenstein is a must! 4. And remeber being thorian, has perks.
Thor!na: #1 Play all day long, #2 Dedicate yourself to being the best, #3 Make a jackass of yourself in public all the time, #4 You need Perks.

The_Wippuh: What's the biggest influence on Team Thorian, what was that turning point where you just knew there was no one as good as you?

xil-Thorian: Uhh, wait a second here, a turning point? We are Thorian, we have always been the best and noone has ever been able to come close to our greatness, and we have always known that. The biggest influence would probably be my teammates, look at them, they are all awesome like Thorian!
tTt-Thorian: There was no turning point, thorian has always been better then every one else.
Thor!na: Biggest influence is Thorian but as far as a turning point: The first time we got on a server. We've always been the best.

The_Wippuh: With there being 6 Thorians on your team, what leagues do you plan on NOT dominating, and why not?

xil-Thorian: Hmmm, good question, its pretty obvious that every league we enter is gonna be dominated by us, so its really only a matter of how much time we can spend raging every week, I mean we are allready owning the twl 5 vs 5 ladder, and we will soon win bob2, its just a matter of time until we get invited to cal main because we are so awesome and then of course we will go undefeated there. I dont really see team thorian entering STA since we have our hands full with twl 5 vs 5 and cal main, and of course rumble in the desert which is an awesome league that we own.
tTt-Thorian: Well we just finished up dominating rumble in the desert, we were winning so bad that the admins decided to shut the league down.
Thor!na: For the greater good of mankind we have currently decided to ONLY play in TWL 5v5... As far as BoB2 is concerned...Welp Thorian is a professional gamer and must play for prizes

The_Wippuh: With the great power of being Thorian, also comes great responsibility. How do you keep yourself from just raging on all the n00bs and completely scaring everyone off from a game?

xil-Thorian: Well, first of all, I don't. Being Thorian has its perks, but it'd be no fun being alone and having noone around to rage, so I show the power of Thorian to one at a time, giving them time to recover from the awe of being in my presence while I humble someone else with my awesomeness.
tTt-Thorian: You mean I haven't been raging on n00bs all the time?
Thor!na: I dont stop myself. Let them leave no one wants anyone that isnt Thorian

The_Wippuh: There's been a lot of "wannabe's" out there. Shogun, Slag, Daniel, and lately Nightfall. What puts Thorian on a level that they can never hope to achieve?

xil-Thorian: Well first off, none of those guys have perks, I mean, when you think of Thorian, you think like, wow awesome, Thorian owns, but when you think of those n00bs its like elbow rage and no skills. It comes pretty naturally that none of those guys are near Thorians level of awesomeness.
tTt-Thorian: Well all those kids talk about is there elbows, elbows this, your elbow fits where now? As soon as they drop there elbows and play, then maybe they could touch me.
Thor!na: Welp as Thorian I have perks and like Thorian can make any team win Shogun rages all nice and stuff, SlaG and Daniel have some mad elbow power and NightFaLL makes a jackass of himself well enough...they just dont compare to Thorian though

The_Wippuh: What is the one thing you really see as the ultimate perk of being Thorian?

xil-Thorian: Well the fact that Thorian can make any team win is a great perk, so that is propably what i think is the ultimate perk.
tTt-Thorian: I think the name alone says more then enough, it strikes ph33r into n00bs around the globe.
Thor!na: well, like I can make any team win so...I'd have to say that

xil-Thorian: A Shoutout to all the people I have owned (basicly the whole wolf community) and remember n00bs, when you see players above your skill level on a server, think twice before joining.
tTt-Thorian: I wanna give some shout outs to all my fellow thorians in #team-thorian those gamecubes are as good as ours! Everyday life is tough in the thorian ghetto
Thor!na: Shout out to my female counterpart Aphrodite! and uhhhhh...well no one else is good enough to be recognized by Thorian

I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to conduct another interview that will live up to this one :/

East vs. west, the battle continues...

Posted by: Kuniva (Sunday, April 6, 2003)

Two epic teams will be renewing acquaintances this Thursday as Narf battles Deathtouch for the Cyberathlete Amateur League Return To Castle Wolfenstein Main Division Championship. In a repeat of last year's nail-biting finals match, in which Narf prevailed over Deathtouch 3-2, these two teams will duke it out for bragging rights as the best team in North America.

The match many have been hoping for, is finally going to happen. Ever since the community witnessed last season's Main finals, the questions have been getting asked; "What if it had been another map?", "What if the pings had been fair?", "Was it a fluke?" All these questions and more will finally be answered, with Thursday’s match. Is Deathtouch out for blood? Or will they be leaving with a Narf footprint in their ass? Everyone who has ever heard of these two teams will be tuning in to Wolf TV on Thursday to find out.

Emerging last season as powerhouses on the west coast, and carrying the momentum of their championship into CAL season 4, Narf has been plowing its way through team after team, seemingly impossible to beat. In dropping only two rounds all season, they have proven, among other things, that “performance enhancing drugs”, doesn’t always mean steroids, and Deathtouch will be hard-pressed to find an answer to the enigma, that is Narf.

Deathtouch’s regular season was one of absolute perfection. They did not lose a single round as they systematically dismantled almost every main clan on the east coast. Their strong guns combined with flawless strategies, seemed to surgically cut through opponents with a deadly precision. As the playoffs rolled on Deathtouch kept up the hard work, and has found themselves in another CAL Main Championship match, but strangely after a strong regular season, Deathtouch has showed some minor dips in the past two weeks. Although they did defeat both the strong Darkside last week and the surprising Team Z the week before, they dropped single rounds in each match. Now many might see this as a problem that needed to be fixed, but it is actually perfect strategy execution by Deathtouch. When the opposing team found a weakness, and exploited it, they automatically shut them down, by adapting to the opposing teams offense. This is one strength of Deathtouch that sets them apart from other teams. The only way Narf will be able to defeat them, is if they can solve the adapting defense.

There is one other factor that adds an interesting twist to this match however, and that is the fact that Narf and Deathtouch, have already met during this CAL season. It was not in CAL however. Narf and Deathtouch met in the OGG Masters Tournament, with Deathtouch coming out with a 3-1 victory (correct me if I’m wrong), and an eventual tournament championship. What does this mean? Well it means that Deathtouch does have what it takes to beat Narf, it also means that they were able to execute the adapting defense vs. Narf. 3-1 was the final, in other words, Narf was able to solve Deathtouch’s defense for one round, but then Deathtouch adapted, and were able to shut them down. Should this happen on Thursday, Narf will be in for one hell of a bumpy ride.

Worlds will collide on Thursday, and a community of thousands will be waiting intently for the outcome. The title for North America is on the line, and only one team will rise from the battlefield to claim the title, but when that clock runs out on the final round, and one team is victorious, I will be watching, and I will be able to say that I saw one of the greatest matches, in Wolfenstein history…

Interview with cD and dot - by LoA-MajikShoe

Posted by: .tofu (Monday, April 7, 2003)

CD - DOT INTERVIEW

by LoA-MajikShoe

The Australian Wolfenstein community will remember the first season of the Gamearena Ladder for many reasons - the undefeated Infantry, the raw skills of the fearsome ]nv[, and the much anticipated grand final. Everyone expected one of these two skillful clans to take the trophy after playing each other in the grand final, but seemingly coming from nowhere, Coffin Dodgers surprised all by beating ]nv[ in a semi final and took on INF for the title. Although they were defeated, it signaled a new powerhouse clan was emerging and was a looming threat for season 2.

After the wash-up of the grand final and the reduction of team sizes from 8 to 6, cD found itself over supplied. Six core players, mostly grand final members, decided to leave and start their own clan, known as Dot. Dot adopted arguably the most respected Hollywood actor, Chuck Norris, as their mascot and since then they have taken no prisoners, playing an important role in season 2's finals and threatening once again in season 3. Dot currently sit at the top of the ladder.

Meanwhile against all odds, cD regrouped and rebuilt during season 2, and after snaring some quality recruits have worked their way now once again to the upper echelon of Australian Wolfenstein. The departure of their leader (PhatHag) earlier this year has not seemed to hinder cD who now sit in third position in the current ladder standings.

After their split over 7 months ago, these two teams have never played each other in an official match. April 8 changes all that, and the much anticipated showdown is slated for 9pm Eastern Australian Time. One of these teams will sit atop the ladder after this game, and this match will sort it out.

Dot (Represented by Tofu, Ringo and Dozer)
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MS: It must have been difficult packing up and leaving a long established and successful clan to try your own. What was the reasoning behind Dot's formation and how did that affect the relationship between yourself and the remaining cD players?

TOFU: Well, when the ladder season moved from 8v8 competition to 6v6, basically .cD split into dot (led by myself) and (led by Phat Hag and Badass). Team dot split off with the harder core players, who wanted to play a professional career of Wolfenstein.

RINGO: I wasn't an ex cD'er as such but had left behind a great and well established clan in Screaming Eagles. At first there were some pretty annoyed people in cD that gave us some stick, but its all good now.

MS: Obviously the six cD players had played with each other for some time, but the other members had never played together as a team before. Most new clans take some time to gel and play as a team, did it take long for Dot to get some cohesion and how did you try to minimize the time needed to get everyone playing as a team?

TOFU: There were 6 from cD, tofu, delerium, flare, fatphil, kosmix and vippin. Ringo and Whorky fitted right in with us from the start, we started as a meccano set, and were put together very quickly much like a hobbyist puts together his new model within the space of hours - with great care and skill.

RINGO: On the gelling issue for sure there was problems at first, but we're all pro's and after a few pracs we started playing as a team. I think having such a small roster (8ppl at the time) helped immensely.

MS: Dot are currently competing in CAL-o and the only clan from Australia playing in that tournament. What was the motivation to take your gaming to a world stage, and how has it improved Dot's game play overall?

TOFU: Well we entered CAL due to antilag, but when they took it away we persevered and have since done quite well out of it. Consider Quakecon RtCW won by Team dot if we go this year. Our motivation comes from within, it's very spiritual, it's very positive - we want to tackle this thing head-on and get e-sports to be as high status as any other major sports in the world. Playing overseas competitions has greatly improved our teamwork and now we are an unstoppable force.

RINGO: The scene is Australia is small and the egos in the US big, it seemed like a good idea to get more practice while showing some Yanks how to play RtCW. We've had the chance to sample the best the USA has to offer, and know that they have no chance against our skill and raw emotion at QCon this year. In terms of improvement, playing with a 200+ ping and no antilag isn't pretty, you can’t rely on your SMG skills or even getting panzer shots off. So we learned how to work as a team more and as a result our medic skills have improved immensely.

DOZER: We decided to join the American scene because there was simply no competition in Australia for us, we needed something more to fulfil our destiny of greatness. Therefore we decided to join an American league to expand on our professionalism and be all that we can, and will be.

MS: Although Dot promised much, they were beaten in the semi finals by a determined Anarchy who went on to be defeated by O2 in the season 2 grand final. Considering Dot had beaten O2 3-0 earlier in the season, did this loss affect the morale of the team, and have you changed anything in your planning or preparation to try and avoid such losses in the future?

RINGO: Oh for sure, we went into the o2 match already lost, our preparation and attitudes were poor. The dead wood has been cut and the new saplings nurtured. Nothing and no-one can stand before us now, we are confident but not overly so our abilities will carry us over the line.

TOFU: We take losses with dignity, those two losses we did not prepare as well as we should have, but at no stage did the losses themselves shake the team's focus and dedication to winning. We started preparing for the season 3 finals the day after the season 2 finals were over, we're not too concerned with the inner rankings of the ladder.

DOZER: From the sidelines which I was forced to sit upon in the last season finals, Dot's morale did not stumble, with every defeat we've grown stronger. From those two games we gained valuable knowledge on each team and they will not beat us again. Also with myself and LoKnLoWd pulling triggers and elbow raging there is no longer room for loss, we will simply destroy every team we come across and take no mercy upon them.

MS: On to tonight’s game, Base is probably one of both team's strongest maps. Have you been preparing for long, and can we expect any surprises from Dot?

DOZER: Now look here Majikshoe, we both know that Dot prepare for every game that we play, to not do so would be unprofessional. And Base may be one of cD's strongest maps but every team’s strongest map is a map we are stronger on, the only surprise you can expect to see from dot tonight will be the responses to the record times dots going to set, and the 15mins dot holds. cD will be no match for us, its going to be an easy game as they all are. Someone try and prove us wrong. It’s not going to happen.

TOFU: We have no strongest map, we are equally dominant on all maps. Base is boring same old. I guarantee some surprises in store for cD and all the viewers coming by way of Team dot originality.

RINGO: Oh you better watch out tonight, we're coming to deliver a three course meal of ownage. For entree we shall blitz any defense they try to put together the speed of our service shall put them cowering in their spawn. Next up our defense will be exquisite, they'll keep on coming back for more but never finishing. Lastly, they will be confronted with the most blindingly delicious plate of pure f***ing prawnage they have ever seen.

MS: Considering it’s been quite a while now since the split from cD where most of your members are from, does tonight’s game have any significance to Dot as a team given your opposition, or is this just another game?

RINGO: Firstly its never just another game. Each encounter, while not being personal, is emotional.

TOFU: This is the first game the two sides have played against each other. I only hope we can end cD's misery as quick as possible, it's what any old friends would do. It's business.

DOZER: A bullet to the heart..

MS: Finally the question on everyone's lips, why Chuck?

DOZER: What a silly question, why not Chuck? Chuck is the epitome of professional. Who else (other then Jackie Chan) does his own stunts so elegantly, who else elbow rages tesus winmaen style? If you had seen Delta Force you would know what I mean.

RINGO: Have you seen Chuck getting emotional? It’s scary - fear the angry pro.

TOFU: Chuck is winmaen, need I say more?

Final Word:
DOZER: O2, im sure you can come out of retirement and bench half your clan for the next game guys, just so long as you reach us and give us the chance to rage your faces.


cD (Represented by BaDaSs and Nightwolf)
---
MS: After four key members leave to form their own clan, many teams would fall apart and disband. What made cD different and how did the rebuilding process take place?

NWF: Hmm, tough question...I guess we always had PhatHag, and PhatHag is KNG, the rest of the people did very little in cD, i.e. the dot people, the main strat makers were Miggy and myself. So although they may have the raw talent, even now their strats are far inferior to cD's and only get close to us by stealing strats off US clans.

BAD: We had a big roster, and those dot fags thought they were too pro for us, but we will rage them tomorrow night and show that cD are KNGS!!!

MS: I recall reading one of PhatHag's posts soon after the split that cD were in the ladder for fun, which usually implies that there will be not be as much focus on winning. That went out pretty quickly with lots of good recruiting, practices and scrims, and cD were unlucky not to be in the top 4 at the end of season 2. Was it a conscious decision to get back to the top, or something that just fell into place?

BAD: The competitive nature of cD wouldn’t let us be in it just for fun. Hag was an awesome leader, and just inspired us to keep pushing to win. After a while I guess we started to gel and knew we could get close to the finals.

NWF: LOL, from mah perspective, I always had a terrible computer up till about half way through last season, and couldn’t compete. As soon as I got my new computer I sorta took a step up and things followed that. :p

MS: Its been a remarkable comeback, what are your thoughts on the last six months - are you happy with the direction cD is taking and where do you position yourself come finals time?

BAD: Recruiting has definitely help strengthen the squad with two awesome players in reso and smeagol. the knowledge they bring to cD along with myself owning, we will be number 1.

NWF: Along with Smeagol, Resolute, Diesel and grill returning to the ranks, cD has an opportunity to make its way to the finals without much trouble. Once finals comes however it will be a different story. Everyone will come over to nwf's place and cD will LAN for the entire period of the finals and prawn dot into oblivion...

MS: The map is Base, which is traditionally one of cD's strongest maps. It was cD who introduced the now standard "Abuse" style defense on the NE tower to beat the fancied NV in season 1's semi final. Should we expect any surprises in this game, or will it be another game won and lost at the North-East tower?

BAD: Zone 3 flamer pwns ! Seriously though, I don’t think either clan would have the balls to try anything different, but sif I'll give away l33t nwf and Smeagol strats

NWF: cD will not be revealing anything interesting for this game but as said in previous reply, expect the unexpected when finals time comes around.

MS: PhatHag was obviously an important leader until his recent departure. How did his leaving affect cD, and do you think his absence will make a difference during the finals?

BAD: Obviously we didn’t want him to leave, but NightWolf and Smeagol have stepped up into brilliant stratmaen roles, and I think we will have an excellent finals series.

NWF: Phathag is the winmaen, he’s a top bloke, but I don’t know how essential to our setup he was. I think he was the best medic in cD apart from Miggy, which we are now coming to terms with

MS: Considering its been quite a while now since the split, does tonight’s game have any significance to cD as a team or are you all just taking this as another game?

BAD: We really want to rage dot. Elbow pads are no where to be seen, and I reckon they gonna crap there dacks and disband when they go down 3-0

NWF: Nah, elbow pads are well and truly on, we are trying to lull Dot into a false sense of security.

MS: Now for something I've been wondering for a very long time, as has the rest of the Australian Wolf community. What do you prefer, red M&M's or blue M&M's?

BAD: Red peanut ones, they hurt more when you hit people

NWF: Red coz they remind me of Redknob!

Final Word:
BAD: Just a note to dot: pls don’t disband once we own you 3-0. We still want to use your Ventrilo server!

Thursday's Weather at the Beach

Posted by: [u]Korollary (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)

Thursday's Weather at the Beach: Heavy artillery early on, followed by thundering panzerfausts, which will clear up once the docs are transmitted.

Even though focus has been much shifted over to BoB2 in general, there are two teams out there that are going to play one last Cal match just as the first round of BoB2 completes: NARF and dT. Just like at last season's final, but this time on mp_beach, which is also the finals map for BoB2 where these two teams may possibly meet again.

These two teams represent the highest degree of dedication, teamwork and possibly the deadliest arsenal in RTCW in North America today. It will be a spectacular match, where both teams will seek the rewards of hours and hours of practicing and scrimmage.

Predictions are already up, but the one thing everybody can agree on is that both teams will be well prepared with their ideal line-ups for this match. Pressure will be high, as this match will have international WTV audience and TSN coverage .

I thought about my past scrims and matches against these two teams, then I even watched the demo of the match they played at the OGG tournament this year. In my humble opinion, when I look at deathTouch, I see a well balanced team that can morph on the offense to find the weak spot of the defending side. They can be pretty stealthy and throw the defence off. That same balance on defense helps them recover really fast.

When I look at NARF, I see a brutal defense that can lay down the pain for long periods, thanks to Lynch. But their recovery is not as quick as that of dT. On offense, NARF is more straight to the point with heavy use of firepower.

As much as most of us would like to see this match go 3-2 either way, I don't think it's going to be like that. Deathtouch is more used to probing tough defenses than NARF is, because the pacific division has not been tough enough to NARF to prepare them for this kind of matchup. On mp_base, which is one of NARF's best maps (maybe the best), where the offensive routes to the objective are asymmetrical, NARF's defense shined when Lynch was overloading and overpowering the northeast tower. But dT was able to win it 3-1 on base. On mp_beach, where the offense can be more safely split, equally talented dT players will find holes and be able to jet to the radio room quicker than NARF will. The rounds will be close in the 6-7 minute range, the likelihood of a drawn round is low, and deathtouch will win it 3-1.

NARF vs dT Pre-Game Chatter: Dem Fighting Words

Posted by: Pravda (Wednesday, April 9, 2003)

Holly's Interview

am|Pravda: hi holly

dT|holly: hiya prav

am|Pravda: so how has dT been preparing for this finals matchup against NARF?

dT|holly: We haven't been preparing good so far. Over the weekend I sat down in front of my computer and thought of some new strats for beach. I knew our defense was strong, but like D|S narf is mainly a defensive team. We had a lot of work cut out for us this week on offense. Thing is Sunday night I had to go to a concert
dT|holly: "planned out for over a month now"
dT|holly: so the team didn’t really have a good idea on how to rage the new offensive strats I made. Also with bob2 coming up, which is turning out to be a more of a hassle then it really should be, we have our match right before our match on Thursday.

am|Pravda: ok, would you say there is bad blood between NARF and dT? something of a rivalry?

dT|holly: not enough games for a rivalry. their is starting to get some bad blood brewing though

am|Pravda: where would you say it began and what happened?

dT|holly: probally this season when all they would do is join wtv, our irc channel and talk mad shit about us. They really got pissed when we raged them on base and won 3 - 1 when they were lanned.
dT|holly: btw,
dT|holly: im also enjoying my new motherboard, i won at that tournament :)

am|Pravda: was there some issues with scrimming with NARF that added to the tension between the clans?

dT|holly: yes, they would never finish the rounds with us, we haven't really scrimmed them a lot compared to other teams. We really didn't have any tension(s) from our scrims w/ narf
dT|holly: and also
dT|holly: they never RUP on time :(

am|Pravda: now going through the predictions on the site, i see that some people actually predict deathtouch to dominate narf, maybe even 3-0 them. do you see a game like that coming along? is this match tougher than the dT D|S match?

dT|holly: well last season even though narf beat us on ice for the finals, I still felt like D|S was the better team. D|S just plays us tougher and have much stronger guns then narf. The only reason narf is good, "especially on a map like beach" is they are lanned “since scrimming them when they are lanned and aren’t is like day and night” and because of lynch and looking at his other teams monitors to get a good shot off. I just wonder how much of a better team dT would be if we lanned as much as them. Now for a 3-0 match, it could happen if we play our best. Last weak vs. D|S, on ice, we played really
dT|holly: really sloppy. I felt like we weren't executing strats, bitching too much on ventrilo and just weren't playing our best game and yet we came out on top 3-1. If we are all focuses and on the same page this week and get off to a good start, we will take this 3-0.

am|Pravda: so you'd put a lot of NARF's success on the fact that they're lanned?

dT|holly: I don’t think all of narfs success comes just because they are lanned. They have dedicated players, good organization, and most of their players get along with each other (like most successful teams). Most of the wolf community knows that narf isn’t the same team if they don’t lan and when they do, like I said, it’s like day and night.

am|Pravda: okay, where would you say NARF's weakest point or weakest player is? the person that dT plans on abusing and exploiting throughout the match.

dT|holly: I don’t know each of narfs players individually that well “on what positions they play, who is the weaker etc…” I do know that the biggest shit talker on their team is obliv with immortal close behind. I hope to keep obliv in limbo the whole time so he can spec the game from the sidelines. I never seen a guy talk so much shit after losing a game then him.
dT|holly: They also relay on the panzerfaust (lynch) way too much

am|Pravda: okay well holly
am|Pravda: what we're going to do now, is do word association okay?

dT|holly: lol whats this ?

am|Pravda: i'm going to throw out a name, you give me your first impression or thoughts quickly
am|Pravda: tell me when yo'ure ready

dT|holly: ready

am|Pravda: holly

dT|holly: #1 duke player baby :)

am|Pravda: nail

dT|holly: hammer

am|Pravda: brian

dT|holly: air brians

am|Pravda: obliv

dT|holly: i will make him scream medic at qcon

am|Pravda: da_G

dT|holly: one fucked up config

am|Pravda: lynch

dT|holly: eggroll

am|Pravda: NARF

dT|holly: very whiney potheads, if they were so much of drug fanatics they wouldn't care what server they played on

am|Pravda: have any predictions for this match? anything out of the ordinary you see happening?

dT|holly: i say we can take them 3-1 if we get our shit together this week. I expect if dt wins or loses narf will still talk shit about us even though it was an epic battle vs. the two best teams in wolfenstein (north america) right now.

am|Pravda: ok cool, now what we're going to do
am|Pravda: is end this interview
am|Pravda: with a holly freestyle on the dT NARF match
am|Pravda: sound off holly

dT|holly: whadduppppp

dT|holly: that good ?

am|Pravda: thats your freestyle?

dT|holly: i dont have a freestyle ?
dT|holly: whats an expample

am|Pravda: haha ok
am|Pravda: that concludes the interview lol
am|Pravda: any shoutouts or thigns to add concerning the match

dT|holly: i got something writen up about it
dT|holly: but i dont know if u want to post it

am|Pravda: sure, post it up
am|Pravda: we here at planet-rtcw like to encourage brutal honesty at it's best

dT|holly: I don’t understand how people can say narf is good for the wolf community.
dT|holly: When they careered it last season, in the cal finals mp_ice 3-2, instead of being diplomatic about it they trash talk us on irc and on wtv.
dT|holly: After the ice game all we said to narf was “good games” and that was it.
dT|holly: I couldn’t believe during the ogg tournament that narf wouldn’t agree to play us on DFW, since that is where *ALL* east vs. west matches are played, and their response was, “we like advantages”, “it’s time for us to ping fuck you”. "Prizes are at stake!" They won nothing. Their individual skill lacks. NARF is all lan.
dT|holly: We played them that night and won 3-1 on base, decisive win on supposedly one of their two “best” maps.
dT|holly: And after the game all they complained about was “they weren’t prepared for base, was too aggravated with the server changing, and they said we ping fucked them.” First of all, we had the same amount of preparation of base as they did.
dT|holly: I don’t understand why they didn’t play in the best possible equal ping environment, DFW. Dallas is where East vs. West play and they still complained that we (dT) pinged 10ms less then them. The funny thing is after the match they kept trash talking us.
dT|holly: Time to put the trash talking behind them.


Obliv's Interview

am|Pravda: hi obliv

obliv]NARF[: hi sexy

am|Pravda: =D
am|Pravda: so with the cal-m finals coming up against death touch, how hard have you guys been preparing?

obliv]NARF[: well, lets see, today is sunday, and we just scrimmaged on mp_beach for 4 hours, and plan on doing the same the next 3 days, so id say pretty darn hard

am|Pravda: lets be honest now, with scrim problems and server selection problems in the past, would you say that there is bad blood between narf and death touch?

obliv]NARF[: let me just say one thing, if u scrim deathtouch, be prepared to ready up!

am|Pravda: haha why, what happened

obliv]NARF[: o we were trying to get our shit together on ice and they basically told us they would never scrim us again because we took too long to ready up, and we made fun of nails bad cooking.
obliv]NARF[: he's a housewife, what can i say!

am|Pravda: wow, nails been catching a lot of crap lately, did you read the D|S interview about him? he did respond nicely in the match though hehe
am|Pravda: would you also say that hes the weakest player on dT?

obliv]NARF[: nope, i personally dont know who teh weakest player is, i personally dont pay attention.. he's obviously pretty good, but still, i just give them all crap to see their lovely responses most of the time
obliv]NARF[: holly is the man!

am|Pravda: is that sarcasm i sense?

obliv]NARF[: well no, of course not, he runs the best team in rtcw, he creates strats all day!
obliv]NARF[: he's my hero pravda.

am|Pravda: =P
am|Pravda: with the addition of brian this season and a pretty impeccable cal regular season for dt, would you say they have improved dramatically and will pose a tougher challenge than last year?

obliv]NARF[: i dont know the challenge they poised last year, i wasnt in narf, brian is a hell of a great player, and dT is a forced to be wreckoned with, but everyone always talks about dT and brian, what about obliv and ]NARF[ ... yep.

am|Pravda: so let's talk about obliv and narf lol. what does obliv bring to narf from last year?

obliv]NARF[: nothing, cept an annoying rich jew bastard!

am|Pravda: haha
am|Pravda: how would you rank Beach on a list of NARF's best maps?

obliv]NARF[: o its our best map, just like every other map, i always notice when we win a game its because a) its our best map or b) we're lanned.. its quite humorous

am|Pravda: speaking of which, you're right, there is a lot of talk about how narf wins only because they are lanned, how would you respond to an accusation like that

obliv]NARF[: well, it definately helps... who really cares, we do it to hang out more than have an advantage, thursday nights at da_g's pad = NARF.

am|Pravda: wouldn't you say it also helps with communication a lot?

obliv]NARF[: well of course it does, having 22" flat screen monitors rules too (www.gamesessions.com) !

am|Pravda: i'm deleiting that plug later

obliv]NARF[: ahaha loser.

am|Pravda: okay, lets see, the predictions site says you guys are going to be major underdogs and some people even say sweeped, what's going on obliv?!
am|Pravda: and what are your predictions for htis match?

obliv]NARF[: well, predictions are blah, dT really hypes themselves a lot, and for some reason we are always the underdogs.. i dont know why considering we've had 0 losses in cal for almost 2 whole seasons now (it will be after thursday)
obliv]NARF[: i think it will be one of the closest matches the community has seen in a while, im sure we'll both be prepped for it, its all a matter of execution
obliv]NARF[: i cant really say who will win, but of course i am going in with the mindset that we are going to win 3-0

am|Pravda: do you guys have anything special planned in terms of strategy or are you going to be systematic

obliv]NARF[: none of our strats are special, they are watered down and simple.. over complication is hard on the minds of people in our clan.. we just roll with the punches

am|Pravda: mostly just roll

obliv]NARF[: only if ed is around.

am|Pravda: ah ok
am|Pravda: will you guys be a drinkin and a smokin for the match?
am|Pravda: pull a david wells on us?

obliv]NARF[: hrrm, i am under the legal age limit for consuming alcohol so i wont (:P) smoking? whats that!
obliv]NARF[: you talking about cigarettes?

am|Pravda: yeah cigarettes, of course =p

obliv]NARF[: werd then, ya

am|Pravda: let's play a game, word association
am|Pravda: i say a name and you come up with whatever is the first thought in your head
am|Pravda: tell me when you're ready

obliv]NARF[: i like games only when they require sp1ke man.. but alright ill play urs.
obliv]NARF[: go for it.

am|Pravda: obliv

obliv]NARF[: awesome
obliv]NARF[: best rtcw player in the god damn world

am|Pravda: da_g

obliv]NARF[: one bigass fool who likes breaking computers
obliv]NARF[: "compkilla" if u will

am|Pravda: holly

obliv]NARF[: shmuck

am|Pravda: dimmak

obliv]NARF[: cool name, bad player.

am|Pravda: nail

obliv]NARF[: best cook alive, good lord!

am|Pravda: pravda

obliv]NARF[: he joined am, what a fucking idiot.

am|Pravda: lol

obliv]NARF[: :)
obliv]NARF[: say dT!

am|Pravda: dT!

obliv]NARF[: GUNNA GET OWNED
obliv]NARF[: yar!

am|Pravda: you guys going to put up full holds? or cap in 2 minutes?

obliv]NARF[: both.

am|Pravda: haha
am|Pravda: any challenges you think that you will have to overcome to pull off such times?

obliv]NARF[: not really, we are proffessional.

am|Pravda: wait, isn't that clan kapitol? =p

obliv]NARF[: yea, they are too, good guys. very professional.

am|Pravda: so final questions about the match: who will be best player?
am|Pravda: and own everyone in sight

obliv]NARF[: you even have to ask? HOLLYWOOD OF COURSE BRO
obliv]NARF[: that guy is the best panzer alive, i swear

am|Pravda: who will get owned over and over on WTV?

obliv]NARF[: sp1ke... always happens to sp1ke

am|Pravda: haha, any final thoughts on this upcoming match?

obliv]NARF[: good luck dT, dont take our sarcasm to heart....
obliv]NARF[: cause u know
obliv]NARF[: ive been talking mad trash!

am|Pravda: great! any final shoutouts?

obliv]NARF[: i give a shoutout to team thorian, what a grand grand bunch of guys.
obliv]NARF[: best players ever.

am|Pravda: haha thanks for the interview obliv and good luck to NARF =)

obliv]NARF[: thx pravda, gl with ur new clan, and once again, good luck dT

Interview with Warwitch from TSN

Posted by: Pravda (Friday, April 11, 2003)

1. How did you initially get involved with TSN and what drew you to the RTCW community?

Previous to my joining TsN I had been a part of a now defunct online radio station. Realizing that my future would best be served with the Team Sportscast Network I spoke with a couple guys from the management staff and arranged a telephone interview - that was fun. Anyhow, I got involved with them and since then I've never looked back. Previous to shoutcasting RtCW I broadcasted Tribes and Tribes 2. I was desperate for something new to break TsN and myself out of the box we were in. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was the perfect game. It's been a rollercoaster of fun ever since.

2. How has your shoutcasts evolved since your debut with TSN? How about your shoutcasting partners, from Justice to Trillian, etc? Any favorites?

Good questions. I listen to some of my first shoutcasts that I did years ago - they are really embarassing to listen to. I think if anythings really changed it's that I've just gained more of an understanding on how to transmit my enthusiasm for the game into my broadcast - or in short: I scream and shout a lot more *grin* As far as favorite shoutcaster partners, I love working with everyone in TsN.

Each shoutcaster brings a different flavor to each cast. Justice brings a real tactical element to the shoutcast that compliments my style - It's been Justice who's made most of the suggestions to me on how to better RtCW shoutcasting. He has a strong handle on what people want to hear. DeeAy is great to work with - real strong excitment and a great sense of humor. Her Axis cat is da bomb! Sabo does some great work, his casts are always worth checking out. Shoutcasting with Trillian is always a blast as well. And having Archvile as a co-partner is crazy stuff - you never know what the guy is going to say. Watch out for him!

BONUS followup: Ever heard EJ shoutcasting from the Australian ladder?

Hmmm - I may have once some time ago. Off hand however, I don't recall. I love to dial into other people covering games, escpecially RtCW.

3. You took a short break from shoutcasting to go to Europe and have mentioned this in shoutcasts before. What did you do in Europe?

Europe! My home from home! I have some dreams to move to London. I loved the country and the people. I was in Europe for an RtCW event called 'The Intel Masters'. I arrived to meet up with Coldshot, Wonderdog and Juno to bring game broadcasting to the public. It was an amazing experience - I've had enough of Rammstein though. You'd have to be there to understand just how much they played at the event. *laugh*

4. Speaking of Europe, you also do shoutcasting of Eurocup Clanbase matches. Are there any differences you see between European gaming and American gaming in terms of manners, strategy, etc? Which matches do you prefer to shoutcast?

In the past there was a huge difference in how the Euro teams played vs American teams. When Wolf first hit the market, the UK teams tended to play mp_wolf as opposed to stopwatch, so their strats would border on the heavily defensive as opposed to the wildly offensive.

Times have changed and gameplay is very similiar now. Some of the most notable differences is that Euro teams tend to play 2 maps instead of 1 in a match - but that alone doesn't make much of a difference. I really make no preference in the matches I shoutcast ... I have noticed however that the following for RtCW seems stronger in Europe at the moment.

5. As a shoutcaster, one is supposed to be somewhat neutral. Have you ever found yourself consciously rooting for a team in a match? Who is your favorite RTCW team?

If I do have a preference for a team to win, I keep it to myself. I mean, we all have opinions and such - but I try to stay as neutral as possible. That's a big reason why I never joined a clan. I wanted teams to feel that I could devote myself totally to the broadcast without them having any concerns that I might be checking out their strats in order to use some information against them. Even if I were in a clan, that would never happen - nor would anyone at TsN slump to that level.

As far as my favorite RtCW team .... well, I could tell you that but then - you know - I'd have to kill you *smirk*

6. What is or was your favorite team to shoutcast for RTCW and do you have any favorite or memorable matches that you shoutcasted?

I mention this one a lot on air. Empire vs High Voltage - BoB 1 - mp_sub. This game speaks for itself. People should dig it up in the TsN recording archive and give it a listen. The Quakecon final: Doctors vs Infensus is also another personal favorite of mine. We had upwards to 2000 listeners online and even more at Qcon. That was definately a high moment - you could feel the energy!

7. You mentioned that you will be shoutcasting RTCW at QuakeCon 2003. Does this mean there will be an official RTCW tournament there? Do you have any insider info to share with us? =)

I have very little information at all to be honest. As far as I know, Wolf will indeed be at Qcon 2003. It was a huge success last year and will continue to be so this year. I am told however that some people in TsN plan to show up to the event in costume. *shifts eyes* I just hope I don't get hung in Texas for being 'The Axis Shoutcaster'. *grin*

8. How often do you play RTCW? If so, do you alias? What servers do you play on? Ever considered joining a clan?

Editor's Note: Warwitch neglected to answer these questions and it can only be assumed that the answers are highly classified information on a need-to-know basis. For all we know, Warwitch has been aliasing as Thorian all this time. =x

9. Who's winning Quakecon, and BOB 2 this year? Have any predictions about any games?

I have a feeling that we'll see the classic RtCW teams make it to the final 4 of BoB2. Clan Kapitol, Deathtouch, Darkside, High Voltage -- all contenders for the finals IMO. As far as BoB 2 goes, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a European team in the finals again this year. Teams like 4Kings are really dominant. Good times are ahead - I'm looking forward to it!

10. Do you have any advice for people who wish to be shoutcasters?

Practice practice practice! I've been a DJ for years but it took time to find my radio voice. The best thing to do is to listen to sports radio. Watch sports on TV and listen to the broadcasters more than watching the game. Take notes on what they do to add excitement, how they speak, and the things they say. Sports radio has been a huge help for me ... I listen even now to pick up more hints and tips on how to better my own broadcasting. Beyond that, just keep at it. It's not easy but it's fun. Best of luck to those who give it a shot!

Thanks for your time Warwitch. =) Any shoutouts you'd like to make or any comments regarding RTCW or TSN?

I'd just like to thank you for the interview - and a huge thanks to all the people who support RtCW and TsN's broadcasts of the game. Without the community support, we wouldn't be here. Jawohl!

BOB2 Predictions for Round2.

Posted by: Apoculos (Sunday, April 13, 2003)

The first week of bob2 is over and done with. Any major upsets? Nope not really. dT, D|S, Narf, and the other big names have survived mp_upset. Week 2 promises many more close matches than the previous week. cK vs fx, r vs c4c, d1g vs D|S, and LOT2 vs P shift just to name a few. We’re down to 32 teams and this is where it gets interesting. The map is the ever sexy village. For predictions I have Warkrime of Narf to add a little fun. We basically went went down the bracket predicting the matches trying to include some useful/useless info and then the other guy agrees or disagrees with his own little spill. Hope everyone enjoys! Schedules for this week should be out soon on the BOB2 website. Expect lots more wtv and tsn coverage!



NARF vs Mistreatment (Uncrowned Kings)

Apoculos says:

Last week I predicted narf to go down to wsw in an upset. Not only did that not happen, but according to the 3-0 score it wasn’t close. Narf then went out on Thursday and won the Cal-M championship (which I predicted not to happen). Good week for narf and bad week for me picking against narf. Narf faces another fairly tough team this week. uK is made up of some former D|S wolf dudes and some other quality players, but uK doesn’t have the experience or skill right now to hang with Narf on village.

Narf > uK 3-0

Warkrime says:

Gonna practice the week away looking for it to be a tough match. I see some big name in there.

AC vs dTII

Warkrime says:

I haven't had to many run-ins with both teams, but I do know AC has been actively looking for scrims as of late. dTII in my opinion has experience on their side.

dTII > AC 3-1

Apoculos says:

dTII has added some strength to their lineup recently, and as warkrime said have experience on their side. I will have to agree with him, but I'm predicting a 3-0.

dTII > AC 3-0

Aftermath vs 502

Apoculos says:

Both teams beat down their respective opponent last week on sub 3-0. 502 isn't a bad team or newbs, but aM have the skilled players and experience on their side that is needed to take them to round 3. aM is a new team with lots of former wicked dudes along with animeman and Pravda. They’ll be looking ahead of this match to likely hv next week on assault, or if I was them I would be : ).

aM > 502 3-0

Warkrime says:

Have to agree there, I don't see aM slipping up at all. They have a solid lineup of experienced players and I expect them to be a force in BoB2. Grym(Prevail) has one of the strongest Panzers in wolf and I expect 502 will be seeing a lot of it.

aM > 502 3-0

We Aren’t Trying vs High Voltage

Warkrime says:

Since the beginning of Season 4 CAL-Main HV has proved they can stand up to the best of them and having scrimmed them a couple weeks ago I have no doubt that they are a top team. Don't really know what Wat?(2002'qcon competitors) can bring since their return but I can't see it being anything close to what HV can.

HV > Wat? 3-0

Apoculos says:

Wat have been scrimming like madmen as of late. I’m always having to put up with their annoying spam :p. Anyways IMO Village is probably hv’s second best map behind Assault. I agree with WK, but I wouldn’t be too shocked if Wat Stole a round.

HV > Wat? 3-1

Team Z vs Dead Penguin

Apoculos says:

DP pulled a fairly big upset over Amish’s backup/inactive team full of quality players, but I don’t see anything of the sort happening this week considering they get to play a tough Z team on village. Z advances with ease.

Z > DP 3-0

Warkrime says:

All I have to say is best of luck to DP, but I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes right now. Z is a tough team by anyone's standard. I have to agree with you on that prediction.

Z > DP 3-0

Nyx vs Trinity (Wk’s MOTW)

Warkrime says:

MOTW in my opinion (Don't let me down) Having scrimmed against nyX recently I know that they have what it takes to compete with Trinity. Sharp's gun is a big + for nyX also. Trinity have added a few new quality players in MentholMoose and Tacoma which will keep things interesting. I'm hoping for a 3-2 match either way but Trinity takes it with experience.

.:. > nyX 3-2

Apoculos says:

Well I don’t see this being as close as WK does. Still should be a good match. tTt with their recent pickups should have added stability to their lineup, and will take this on village (where they took a round from the western powerhouse Wicked in the playoffs) 3-0.

.:. > nyx 3-0



Global Assault Team vs Team Arise

Warkrime says:

GAT vs Arise Finally a match where there are two CAL-Main teams battling it out. They didn't get to meet each other in the field during the CAL season but I have a feeling this will make up for it. I see the Global Assault Team coming out on top with a few bloody knives in hand and a 3-0 victory

GAT > Arise 3-0

Apoculos says:

Can’t wait to beat down mustynuts! Seriously should be a good match, we’ll be practicing!

Team Effect vs Clan Kapital (Apoc’s MOTW)

Apoculos says:

cK is back and we’ll find out how strong they are this week when they face a very solid efx team. Efx has many quality players and look to be scrimming often. cK is well cK. We’ll see if bloodspot’s cockiness (tsn before cal-m finals) has any truth to it at all when he said the only teams that worry ck are narf and dT. I don’t see ck losing, but it won’t be a blowout. Very close game imo.

cK > efx 3-2

Warkrime says:

I have to disagree with Apoc on how close this one will be. efx are a very good team with players from the Abusive Elbows gig and Flatline but cK are a team that confront any challenge put in front of them and do extremely well in the process. I have to give the nod to the third place QCon'2002 team cK but expect to see Vatican get a few good Panzer shots in there.

cK > efx 3-1

Darkside vs Digital Tactic

Warkrime says:

I see a few good players in the Dig lineup, such as Fuman and Slag, but see a great team in DarkSide. I really don't think D|S will be tested until a possible LoT meeting in a few rounds.

D|S > Dig 3-0

Apoculos says:

I disagree with WK on this one being an easy one for D|S. If Dig does their pushups I think on lineup strength alone they can pull out at least a round. I don’t see Dig winning, but I’m hoping its close!

D|S > Dig 3-1

Locked on Target 2 vs Paradigm Shift

Apoculos says:

Another close game woot! P shift’s first real test, as well as LOT2’s first test. P Shift returns to wolf after a long break, and haven’t had much time to prepare for BOB2. LOT2 is a team that came together for BOB2 (not sure if they are sticking it out afterwards or not). I don’t know if p shift is scrimming some or at all, but I see lot2 scrimming often. I also see them taking this match.

LOT2 > -P- 3-1

Warkrime says:

Kind of a difficult one for me to call. Without seeing both teams in action and no current records I have no clue where either one stands. I can place kinda place Paradigm through scrims my buddy told me about. Judging from past experience and ]NARF[ getting beat down by them in TWL back in the day I'm gonna go with -P- even though there is no Kow handing out the pain.

-P- > LoT2 3-2

Amish World Order vs Elements of Destruction

Warkrime says:

EoD proved themselves as a strong open team but the butter churning skills of the Amish are gonna be too much for them to handle.

AWO > EoD 3-0

Apoculos says:

Agree with WK here. AWO is much to sexy for eod to handle. Mad butter churning skillz baby.

AWO > EoD 3-0

Clan Casualty vs Locked On Target

Apoculos says:

Casualty is a top west team in cal open. LoT is a top 10 team in wolf. LoT with the added additions of a lot of quality players including George from dr. should win this game with ease.

LoT > + 3-0

Warkrime says:

With my long time friend Reno(Clone) in Casualty I would like to let him see a prediction of how Casualty will dominate, but thats not going happen. With the addition of new players from Dr's, Crucifix going back and the amount of experience LoT has they(LoT) will win decisively.

LoT > + 3-0

Team Uprise vs Violent Infantry Brigade

Warkrime says:

ViB got unlucky this week and I don't believe they will be advancing to the next round. Uprise finished up CAL West as the second best team and have all the momentum on their side.

[U] > ViB 3-0

Apoculos says:

Gotta agree with WK here. Uprise proved to be the one of the best in the west yet again. VIB is solid, but not solid enough to make this a close match.

[U] > ViB 3-0

HandOf vs Liquid

Apoculos says:

LQD should win this easily and I look forward to seeing an east power and a west power (besides narf and dt) battling it out next week on assault (uprise).

LQD > HandOF 3-0

Warkrime says:

I agree with Apoc, LQD should prevail in this matchup. Handof did tie Empire 3-3 a long time ago and were once a CAL-I Wolfenstein team, but those days are long gone unfortunately. Good Luck with the comeback HoD.

LQD > HandOf 3-0


Redemption vs Cause4Concern

Warkrime says:

Good matchup here. Redemption is in the finals for Cal-o, c4c almost made the finals but ended up losing to the Outsiders. Things get interesting here, (r) have to practice for the Cal-o finals tuesday while c4c get to practice their hearts out on village. This could be another MOTW in my opinion. I would predict (r) normally but under the circumstances im gonna go with c4c.

c4c > (r) 3-2

Apoculos says:

I agree a very good match here, but when it comes down to it the winner gets to face dT as a prize :p. c4c recently lost to Outsiders, who will play R for the cal-o championship. R will be preparing for beach more than village, but seeing beach only scrims will be next to impossible to find I see them going half and half and being decently prepared for village. Hard game to call here.

(r) > c4c 3-2

Operation Psycho Patrol vs Death Touch

Apoculos says:

dT should be able to take a much deserved week off after their loss to narf for the cal-m championship, and still be able to win this easily. Not to say opp is a bad team, but c’mon they’re playing dT on village.

dT > opp 3-0

Warkrime says:

I agree with Apoc 100% dT is the strongest of teams and would win 3-0 against just about any team out there today. I don't even see dT getting any sort of opposition for at
least 2 more rounds, maybe 3.

dT > opp 3-0

BOB Round 2 Admin Clan vs Deathtouch 2 Pre-Game Chatter

Posted by: Pravda (Monday, April 14, 2003)

Evil-Doer from Deathtouch 2

1. What will happen in this match? What is your prediction for the final score?

I believe it's going to be a good match. I know AC is ready for us and I know we are ready for them, so with that said, I'm going to go in thinking we will come out 3-0.

2. How does Village rank along the other maps for your team? Why?

Villy would have to be our worst map along side Sub. We are working with a new roster and still have to elevate as a team. We have the individual skill but have to work more on the teamplay and discipline abit longer.

3. Have you made any roster pick ups specifically before BoB2? How will this person(s) aid you in the win?

The team has picked up Arachnyd and myself...I know for a fact that rach is a major add on to the team, he's skilled, coo guy and teamplay oriented. As for me, you make the call. >

4. What is your biggest worry for the match and how do you see the team addressing this worry?

I find dicispline the biggest worryment, if we don't play our area and play smart we will crumble, but if we have our game faces on, do our thing and play it like we are suppose to, it will favor us in the end. And the team knowing that NARF could be our next match up, pushes us even more to want to beat AC.

5. Since CAL-O, what changes have been made and what differences do you see from the BoB2 team and the CAL-O team?

Well, I wasn't around for the CAL-O team really...so that I can't answer. Alls I know is we are basically running a whole new lineup.

Tricome from The Admin Clan

1. What will happen in this match? What is your prediction for the final score?

In this match you will see alot of teamwork on our part. We've got alot of good players with good shots. Having good aim is an important thing but the way our clan communicates with each other just makes us that much better. Not to sound cocky or anything but i think that we will take this match 3-1. dT2 is no doubt a clan with alot of skill but weve been preparing for this match for alot of time and were pretty confident.

2. How does Village rank along the other maps for your team? Why?

I would say that our best map would be beach and our worst map would be Sub as you saw in Cal-O playoffs. Most of us enjoy playing village and I would say its one of our good maps. As i said before we communicate well with each other and we have good team work which is an important thing to have on a big map like village.

3. Have you made any roster pick ups specifically before BoB2? How will this person(s) aid you in the win?

We have picked up a few new people not just for BOB2 but also for Cal. We added to our roster JFreak which i cant say enough good things about. We also added DSTskillz and he is a great shot and he loves to knife people so watch out for a knife kill by him in the match. These 2 have really good shots and are very smart players.

4. What is your biggest worry for the match and how do you see the team addressing this worry?

Our biggest worry right now would probably be the experience the dT2 team has. Evil-doer is an ex invite player from hostile inc' they have recently picked up Arachnyd from GAT and they have Random from Imagine. Those three pose the biggest threat in my mind with their great shots and experience. The way we will adress this is to just play our game and hope that our strat and crossfires will take them out of their game.

5. Do you see DT2 as big a threat as they were in
Cal-O? Would they have won the CAL-O championship?

I think any team in the tournament would see dT2 as a threat in this tournament. They are an all around good team however I am confident in our team and think we will take them out. I didnt really follow the other teams in Cal-O to much so im not sure where they got taken out in the playoffs. Im pretty sure the lost to AS on sub. I think that dT2 would have gotten further if it werent for the map sub. I hate sub and I think that whenever a match is played on that map anything can happen.

IRC Interview with Fatal1ty

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, May 8, 2003)

Fatal1ty`: Sup guys.

[carn]crim|44: kansas city
nyX-BeEz: everyone who says ME should be kb'ed
fX-Apicide: wow
D|S-WarRi0R: omg omg omg
fX-Apicide: the tiger man
* D|S-WarRi0R faints
D|S-WarRi0R: wow
cylenc3R-187: haha

Fatal1ty`: haha... sup warrior.

D|S-WarRi0R: suip
* arch humps a leg
the-don: is that fatality?
[carn]x-facts|01: yes.
D|S-Illshot781: !
Ac|Squirts: suip
[carn]x-facts|01: =0

Fatal1ty`: Yeah, from Kansas City:)

[carn]x-facts|01: illshot.
a-Infect1on: em
[carn]x-facts|01: ;[
am|Prevail: haha
[CCCP]sF: john, look at all this trouble you caused
boh|Phuzzl: lol
a-Infect1on: i'm guessing
w-[cp]xil-thorian-ttt]narf[: fatality, join my clan(s)
cT|streifen: shogun just freestyle for us
arch: suip
D|S-WarRi0R: Illshot write your novel
a-Infect1on: fatal1ty does not play wolf

Fatal1ty`: Hey... Shogun is the instigator:)

Hexine: Fatal1ty, about a half a dozen people have joined pretending to be you. :P
LoT-odin: how did not having the fatpad effect your performance vs b100.death?
shogun-187: spam that
shogun-187: he is comming now
Jagobah: he's here

Fatal1ty`: You better come to the next FATlan:)
Fatal1ty`: I should hopefully have it scheduled soon.

[carn]x-facts|01: if someone who is used to playing without a mousepad will his gaming decrease, increase or stay the same with the fatpad?

Fatal1ty`: I can tell you just from my experiences with smaller mousepads.
Fatal1ty`: When I use to play Quake 3 back in the test days and when I ws shafting someone around the map.
Fatal1ty`: Occasionally I would run out of mouse space room... This limited me to how much damage I could do in the matter of 5 seconds.
Fatal1ty`: By having this extra space on my mousepad, I was able to deal a little more damage in that last couple seconds and possibly win the fight because of the bigger mouse pad.
Fatal1ty`: Wombat and I went head to head there at Frag3 all day in the practice area and once in the finals of the losers brackets.
Fatal1ty`: But Wombat came out ahead that time;)

[carn]x-facts|01: did it help you in cs as well as in q3?

Fatal1ty`: Definitely.
Fatal1ty`: With the bigger mousepad, it allows you to use a lower sensitivity.
Fatal1ty`: So you can become even more accurate and more consistent...
Fatal1ty`: I wrote up a little testimonial that should be a good read at www.fatal1ty.com/fatstore/testimonial.htm

shogun-187: what was up with astros dog?

Fatal1ty`: shogun, we shouldn' go there:)

cT|streifen: Fatal1ty`: are you going to qcon this year?

Fatal1ty`: Yes, I plan on attending this year at QuakeCON.

Hexine: Fatal1ty`: Do you have a girlfriend?

Fatal1ty`: No, I just go out clubbing and date girls now.
Fatal1ty`: I'll eventually have a gf again someday, but for now I enjoy dating. Its fun.

cT|streifen: Fatal1ty`: before tournaments how long do you practice?

Fatal1ty`: Well, before a major tourney, I'll train about a month or so solid.
Fatal1ty`: Sometimes more, sometimes less.
Fatal1ty`: Depending on what is going on at the time.

cT|streifen: like how many hours straight?
cT|streifen: like per day

Fatal1ty`: Well, shogun and I went for over 16 hours one day.

[carn]Walker: i want to ask him what he did with that ford focus he won/...sell it or keep it

Fatal1ty`: Keep it! I drive that car to all the clubs :) Its a great chick magnet too. Check out this pic... http://www.fatal1ty.com/fatgirls.htm

Jagobah: I wanna ask Fat if he prefers optical over ball mice, or ball mice over optical, and why

Fatal1ty`: Well, ball mice have one advantage over opticals. One being that ball mice are able to calculate and receive more DPI which allows you to aim more precisely and shoot long shots very well.
Fatal1ty`: Now opticals are great though at the sametime. Opticals are like never different. So everytime you swipe it one way or whatnot, its not based on how much dirt is built up in your ball mouse... Its always the same and consistency is nice!

Hexine: Have you ever tried Wolfenstein? Did you like it?

Fatal1ty`: Yes I've played Wolfenstein.
Fatal1ty`: I actually played with CCCP at MillionManLan last year and we won the tournament there. We won gamecubes and other Wolfenstein Gear...

Marauder[FH]: Fatal1ty: Does your infamous chronic masturbation hurt your aim? and a followup, which wallhack/aimbot is your favorite?

Fatal1ty`: Well, I really enjoy using the FATaimbot that I created with my own hands. But unfortunately this is not available to anyone else besides me.

shogun-187: a-Infect1on: Fatal1ty: If you would like to do a 1v1 with me anyday, bring it (PLZ PM ME BACK)

Fatal1ty`: gg
Fatal1ty`: Bad question:/

shogun-187: john do you really have a fatbot?

Fatal1ty`: Didn't you see my aimbot against you in San Antonio?

shogun-187: lol
shogun-187: you bad

Fatal1ty`: hehe, just kidding with ya.
Fatal1ty`: For all the people who don't know me. I joke around a lot with my friends and I like to have fun...
Fatal1ty`: shogun unfortunately is my friend:/

keen: Fatal1ty`: You've been the best at Quake 3, and now UT2003, What do you think will happen if Quake 4 or Doom 3 come out and you train at them and are not the best, will you drop gaming or wait for future games?

Fatal1ty`: No. I will keep moving along. I plan on to keep competing for as long as I can.
Fatal1ty`: I want to dominate Quake 4 and any other popular FPS game that comes out that is strong in 1v1.
Fatal1ty`: I'll also look into teams as well in the same game, but 1v1 is where its at.
Fatal1ty`: 1v1 shows the real skill.

Wat|Spike|HW_for_real: I want to ask him if he still plays tennis, and how good he was in high school

Fatal1ty`: Yeah I still play tennis occasionally. I'm a little rusty from where I was my senior year. I broke a school record for most double wins for my school and I placed 5th my Junior year at Districts and placed 3rd my senior year in Districts.
Fatal1ty`: My doubles team was probably one of the best teams in the state, but unfortunately in our district, we played the team who won state every year:/

ragh: Fat, are you competing in the WCG, and if so do you think you'll get raged by players such as CombatCarl and xs| Pain who were not at the CPL?

Fatal1ty`: Well, I think a lot of people already know they didnt show up at the first CPL because they weren't ready yet.
Fatal1ty`: I'll definitely attend WCG and probably face against both of them at WCG finals.
Fatal1ty`: They're both great players and we'll just have to wait and see what happens at the Finals.

Fragile: question: how do you think the MTV special went, and what do you think of those weird ass order of the light kids?

Fatal1ty`: Well, putting me up next to those guys really shows how professional gaming is getting.
Fatal1ty`: I want to show an image that people will grasp on to and make this sport become bigger.
Fatal1ty`: With Fatal1ty Inc, I'm trying to build the gaming community and help sponsor teams and players in the future to make this a reality for all of us.
Fatal1ty`: I'm really pushing for us gamers.

[carn]x-facts|01: if you had to bring one thing on an island, would it be your pc or a girl?

Fatal1ty`: I would have to bring a girl... A PC with no internet sucks.

redem-paper: i want to ask if anyone ever tried to fight him at a lan...

Fatal1ty`: Nah, no one has ever tried to pick a fight with me personally.

Wat|FireBlade: fata: when will you start to take apps for sponsorships?

Fatal1ty`: I'll be at E3 this year May 14th-16th at the Auravision booth and we'll be talking a lot about this.
Fatal1ty`: For right now, I don't really know.
Fatal1ty`: But I know thats our goals and its been one of my goals for a very long time now.

|pR|swift: did ck stop playin 2k3 or somethin u guys should get back into it

Fatal1ty`: I believe cK is going to wait till the next big game comes out and dominate it.
Fatal1ty`: I really look forward to Doom3 and Quake 4.

CombatCarl: Fatal1ty: Are you going to rage on me at WCG?

Fatal1ty`: CC, I'm a modest guy and I don't talk crap to scare you, I just show up and play my game.
Fatal1ty`: That should be enough:)

ICF|pure`143: have you thought about going rtcw?
ICF|pure`143: and do you remember a person by the name exzol` who fought with you on etg about how you wont be #1 anymore?

Fatal1ty`: I've had tons of people doubt me and say I wouldn't be number 1. I still have a post from back before RazerCPL that people said that I wouldn't be the best.
Fatal1ty`: I kept it to motivate me to prove that person wrong and everyone else.
Fatal1ty`: I'm not going to leave, I'm going to be here forever and keep competing in gaming for a very long time.

Icephoenix: How should I begin a gaming career and when do you usually practice your skills on normal servers?

Fatal1ty`: Well, I typically always practice on private dedicated servers.
Fatal1ty`: I do play on pubs every once in a while, but I'll always alias because half the time people don't even believe its me.
Fatal1ty`: So its pointless to have my name as Fatal1ty on servers...

Wat|FireBlade: Do you ever have fears (or have had some signs) of getting carpal tunnel?

Fatal1ty`: Well, to tell you the truth, when I was about 15-16 I use to use a small allsop mousepad, and I use to get horrible cramps in my arm.
Fatal1ty`: I use to have to use a towel to fix this problem so it wouldn't re-occur.
Fatal1ty`: But since I switched to the FATpad about 3+ years ago.
Fatal1ty`: I've never had this pain again.
Fatal1ty`: I game 8+ hours a day and never get pain.
Fatal1ty`: I wrest my whole arm on the mousepad so I don't have the weight of my arm pushing my wrist into the pad.
Fatal1ty`: It works great.

nyX-BeEz: Ask him the main question that everyone wants to know, why is he in a rtcw channle? is he going to promote it? Support teams? everyone wants rtcw to be bigger then it is now, so whats the deal?

Fatal1ty`: Well, I use to play RTCW and I wrote a guide for it back in test days, but mainly I'm trying to support everyone of course.
Fatal1ty`: I'm trying to grow the community as a whole.
Fatal1ty`: I want all of us in a couple years from now to actually be able to live off from competing in tournaments or at least raise the number who live off of there winnings right now.
Fatal1ty`: I want it to become an easier hobby to have and possibly make a good side ammount from playing games for fun.
Fatal1ty`: Just like what people do in golf.
Fatal1ty`: I'm not a Pro Golfer, but I can go to touranments in my area and possibly win 100-200 dollars on a weekend with a scramble team.
Fatal1ty`: Thats where gaming needs to get so at least you guys who like to game but don't have time, you can still make a little money from gaming possibly.

brett: ask him why he sucks so bad a basketball

Fatal1ty`: Brett is mad because I put on my Kobe Bryant jersey while he had his weak Iverson jersey on and I raged him 1on1.
Fatal1ty`: I coulda just wore my Fatal1ty jersey that I had on MTV :)
Fatal1ty`: Brett thinks he's god since he balls with high schoolers:)
Fatal1ty`: He doesn't know I use to ball regularly with friends around the hood.

Slugs-187: Fat, what advise do you have to the young childeren of the community who wish to fill your shoes one day as one of the greats?

Fatal1ty`: Just keep having fun...
Fatal1ty`: Thats what its all about, play the game to have fun, if you become a great player, take it to the next level and go to major competitions.
Fatal1ty`: But for now you should go to LANs in your area and whenever you get the oppurtunity to show up to a LAN where a great player is going to be, you should go and watch him play in the tournament.
Fatal1ty`: You'll learn a lot from watching top gamers compete.
Fatal1ty`: Its just like going to a baseball game or a basketball game and watching how the pros work as a team.


ICF|pure`143: what kind of music does he like, i like listening to retro music to get my adreanline pumping before playing. does he have any riutals?

Fatal1ty`: Actually, I really enjoy listening to all kinds of music before competing.

revenant: pantera ] *

Fatal1ty`: I like listening to music that relaxes me and gets me pumped up or calmed down.
Fatal1ty`: lol rev.
Fatal1ty`: Rev, you need to listen to this:) http://members.shaw.ca/zerobeats/fatal1ty.mp3

Amish_Maximal: Fatal1ty: Do you have long term plans as to going to college, or do you plan to be a pro gamer til' the day you die?
Amish_Maximal: Also, Fatal1ty, do u think astro is a loser?

Fatal1ty`: Right now my plan is to keep competing and run Fatal1ty Inc.
Fatal1ty`: Of course I have back up plans in case things don't go as planned, and I would possibly get involved in creating games and go back to college of course.

Slugs-187: Fat, do you find that some days when you play your head is lodged up your ass you just don't play the way you usually play and has this happend during any major matches in the past?

Fatal1ty`: Well, if I'm trying to have fun and don't care about dying or whatnot, of course I'm not playing my best game.
Fatal1ty`: Even I like to have fun and like to mess around in games, its just sometimes when I do that, people think they're improving and they're better than me now.

spetznaz-iCe: why most of the UT2 community thinks he sucks now
spetznaz-iCe: IE infinite, tex, vai etc

Fatal1ty`: Thinks inf, tex, and vai suck?
Fatal1ty`: Is that what ur asking?

Astro-187: he's saying they think you suck

Fatal1ty`: I doubt that.
Fatal1ty`: Astro, you don't know what he's asking.
Fatal1ty`: Silencer, repeat the question.

Silencer-187: [spetznaz-iCe]: why most of the UT2 community thinks he sucks now [spetznaz-iCe]: IE infinite, tex, vai etc

Fatal1ty`: ut2 community thinks inf, tex and vai suck?

kolt-187: UT2 Community thinks you suck.

Fatal1ty`: lol
Fatal1ty`: If I suck why did I win 10,000 dollars playing THEIR game.

Icephoenix: I think he is great and his modestly really adds to the respect i have for him

Fatal1ty`: Thanks a lot Ice.
Fatal1ty`: If you guys want, feel free to visit #fatal1ty on gamesnet or ETG and I'll try to get back to all of you.
Fatal1ty`: If you have personal questions u want to ask.
Fatal1ty`: I'll start getting to questions tomorrow.
Fatal1ty`: So feel free to drop by and hang.
Fatal1ty`: We talk a lot in #fatal1ty and is a lot of fun, especially on irc.enterthegame.com.
Fatal1ty`: Thanks for the interview and I hope I answered most of the questions.

g|krishtoff-187: Thanks so much John, was a pleasure having you as our guest tonight

Fatal1ty`: No problem was my pleasure.
Fatal1ty`: Was fun.
Fatal1ty`: Cya 187crew boyz later:)
Fatal1ty`: Later guys;) Peace... www.fatal1ty.com

Team Z Talk with RoyalJelly

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, May 8, 2003)

1. How did Team Z Unit initially begin and what is the meaning of the name?

z Unit was started by Riceboy and Doublex. After the break up of team 82nd which had 20 active members at one point. This break up help fill the rosters of two solid main teams fx and z Unit. The name z means "z".

2. Z has been criticized lately for their use of panzers. What is your view on that and on a possible panzer limit for league play?

I've seen a lot of criticism about our use of panzers, which is fine with me. People are free to say what ever they want. z is not worried about critics. We focus on winning matches. If it takes 6 panzers to win a match we'll use 6 panzers. Like wise if we feel 6 guns with win the match we'll use 6 guns. If a teams show up to matchs thinking we can shoot it works to our advantage. in my opinion i would like to see a 2 matches limit. Panzers takes the fun out of game. People on wolftv don't want to watch one shoot panzer kills or suicide panzers. thats just my opinion.

3. Last week Z was able to defeat cK with no panzers. Why was this strategy used and was it perhaps to prove something to the critics?

We used all guns because in our scrims we tryed panzers and it was not as effective as all guns. I don't think we really tried to prove anything.

4. As consistent underdogs against the top teams, where do you really rank Team Z among the top North American teams?

i would say z Unit is in the top 5.

5. What do you think will be the biggest challenge in this upcoming match?

winning the match.

6. Is Base a map that Z is comfortable with? What is the most important aspect of Base strategy-wise?

To play at this level you can't really have a bad map. z is comfortable on all maps, we scrim a lot and put a lot of work into our game play. The most important aspect of base strats would have to be. On offense not getting panzered good medics and controlling NE tower. On defense controlling NE tower, gibbing, communication.

7. What do you believe your odds are of defeating NARF?

I think we can stand a good chance of beating any team out there. This match will come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes. Every TK, poorly timed reload, missed revive, missed panzer shoot will add up. I think you'll see the team with the fewest mistakes walk into the finals. Should be fun to watch no matter what the outcome.

Any last comments or shoutouts? Thanks for the interview.

I'd like to give a shout out to all the teams that help us get ready for this match. Fx, -A-, cK, redrum, redemtion, D|S, the Hulk.

BoB2 Finals - Rematch of NARF vs Affliction

Posted by: Pravda (Tuesday, May 13, 2003)

Talking to NAIL from Affliction

am|Pravda: 1. What has changed with Affliction since the CAL-M finals match for season 4 in terms of rosters, attitude, etc?

|a|nail: we got rid of our 2 best players, bio and dimmak
|a|nail: err, i mean cheerleaders
|a|nail: attitude, nothing really, we are more positive about matches and we dont whine on ventrilo as much anymore
|a|nail: the finals match was a wakeup call, and any other loss will be the same, a learning experience

am|Pravda: 2. What about your thoughts on beach? Have you guys grown to hate it or appreciate it more? Many strat changes since the last match or just small adaptations to the original strategy?

|a|nail: we've never liked beach, and after this week of scrimming we do not like it at all
|a|nail: we dont ever change our strats, we just work on outgunning people and winning the 1v3's like we know we can

am|Pravda: 3. NARF: Are they a better team today since the last match?

|a|nail: of course, they are always improving
|a|nail: in predictions people have picked them to win an easy victory over us, so be it
|a|nail: and some people say team lan : dt 3-0 or whatever
|a|nail: teams have to just accept the fact that they are lanning for big matches and not bitch about it

am|Pravda: 4. What do you think Affliction's attitude is toward NARF now after the loss? Anything changed since Holly's last interview with me?

|a|nail: what was the attitude during hollys interview?

am|Pravda: did you read it?

|a|nail: no

am|Pravda: bastard
am|Pravda: that hurst my feelings

|a|nail: we get along with them for the most part, they dont like us tho
|a|nail: because we make them readyup fast in scrims
|a|nail: we hurt their feelings when we do that
|a|nail: they get all emotional about it
* |a|nail shrugs

am|Pravda: 5. What is the difference today that will make Affliction beat NARF as opposed to last time?

|a|nail: we are going to play the game the exact same way we played in the cal main finals, and we'll win doing it
|a|nail: and we didnt eat any eggrolls before this match
|a|nail: last time we got sick off some bad MSG

am|Pravda: Okay, that concludes it since I know you guys got some preparation to go through. Thanks for the chat, any last comments/shoutouts?

|a|nail: preparation? we dont scrim for narf matches
|a|nail: ggs narf

am|Pravda: lol
am|Pravda: thanks nail


Talking to LYNCH from NARF

am|Pravda: 1. What has changed with NARF since the CAL-M finals match for season 4 in terms of attitude, confidence etc?

Lynch]NARF[: nothin, we're just as good, confident, and ready as we were entering the cal-m finals
Lynch]NARF[: only thing that's different is our opponent is sans Dimmak

am|Pravda: please don't use latin for this interview thx

Lynch]NARF[: sorry =(

am|Pravda: now i know what it means at least

Lynch]NARF[: =P

am|Pravda: 2. What about your thoughts on beach? Have you guys grown to hate it or appreciate it more? Many strat changes since the last match or just small adaptations to the original strategy?

Lynch]NARF[: eh, getting a little sick of it lately but exciting shit always seems to happen on it
Lynch]NARF[: the doc run is always exciting
Lynch]NARF[: as far as strat changes go
Lynch]NARF[: well, you'll see =P

am|Pravda: 3. Affliction/former Deathtouch: Are they a better team today since the last match?

Lynch]NARF[: hmm
Lynch]NARF[: well whenever a team loses a leader it's gonna hurt em, but it seems that holly has pretty much taken control of their crew
Lynch]NARF[: they'll obviously miss dim's gun, but i think decka is a fine replacement
Lynch]NARF[: i expect them to be just as good if not better than they were in the finals

am|Pravda: 4. What do you think NARF's attitude is toward Affliction now after the loss? Anything changed since Obliv's last interview with me?

Lynch]NARF[: oh, we're buddy buddy with affliction now, holly and obliv are pretty much the best of friends
Lynch]NARF[: i think all the bad blood
Lynch]NARF[: if there was any to begin with
Lynch]NARF[: has died out since the CAL-m finals really
Lynch]NARF[: we've scrimmed -a- a few times in the past couple of weeks and had ggs

am|Pravda: 5. Do you expect any type of different outcome today as opposed to the CAL-M finals?

Lynch]NARF[: nope
Lynch]NARF[: if i expected to lose i might as well just /uninstall right now

am|Pravda: Thanks for your time and I know you guys are on your way to GS as we speak, any last words/comments/shoutouts?

Lynch]NARF[: shoutout to cyno, our cheerleader and spiritual leader and noodles, the greatest pub player to have ever played the game

am|Pravda: thx
am|Pravda: lynch

Match Format Change?

Posted by: Apoculos (Friday, May 16, 2003)

This is just an article to open the discussion more than anything else. As some of you know I’m an Euro wolftv whore and one of my favorite things about Euro matches is the fact that it’s always at least two maps.

If you’re not familiar with the European format allow me to lay it out for you. Take the match I watched today plan b vs. rewind (excellent match btw!). The first map was ice, they played two sets there and the score ended 1-0 rewind. One set was tied and just thrown out basically. On to the second map beach, where they also played two sets. This ended 1-1 with rewind getting a point and another full hold by both teams. I believe if this wasn’t the playoffs of Euro cup it would be called a tie and done with, but since it was the playoffs the way they handled the map choice was an admin gave a list of maps and each team eliminated a map they did NOT want to play until assault was left. Strange way of picking the tie breaker and maybe there should just be one preset. BTW rewind did win the match. While that description above was probably a bit to much hopefully it’ll give you an idea of how things work if you’re not already familiar with it.

I personally would like to try the two map format. I think it would make games far more interesting and much more exciting. I do disagree with the way Euros generally handle ties though. I believe there should never be a tied game. I want a winner damnit, who cares how long it takes. Just think if the bob2 final was beach and assault or any other map. Narf was getting tooled on beach, but would it not have been great to see if they could turn it around on a different map? Hell maybe just a two map format for playoff matches? It’s a shame a team can draw a map they are generally bad at and get knocked out so easily (yea they should learn how to play it I know: p).

There are definitely arguments that can be made against this. One most people will throw out there is probably match length. Well the way I see it its still 5 sets (two on map 1, two on map 2, and 1 on map 3). Yes changing the map will probably add a little more time, but overall Euro matches seem to go by just as fast as American matches in my experience. Another argument that is reasonable is scrimming, and being prepared for all the maps. I personally think it would be more fun to scrim more than one map for a week straight and maybe this would help with burnout. It would also add another element to your team’s preparation about which map(s) they should concentrate on for that week.

I’m personally not convinced either way after a little while of thinking about it, but I believe I’m leaning toward the 2 map format. I think its something worth experimenting with if nothing else. To me it adds more excitement to the people watching/listening. No more marathon 5 hour matches on assault. Yes still maybe 5 hour marathons, but not on the same damned map! Please leave your opinions and thoughts. I mostly wrote this just to open up the discussion and see what people thought.

The RTCW Config Repository

Posted by: a//shatter (Monday, May 19, 2003)

Just wanted to get the word out for those of you that may not know about the site. The Config Repo is a community resource geared at storing/sharing configs for RTCW. There are more than 100 configs at the moment, ranging from your basic, stock wolfconfig_mp.cfg to the very advance (Da_G]NARF[ comes to mind.) Browse screenshots and when you find the look you are going for, download the config.

It's also a great way to make sure you never lose your config. Hard drive crash? Reformat and forgot to back it up? Make some changes, save the file and forget to back the old one up? Well, your config is always online and you can just go re-download it.

Plus, nothing beats pubbing and seeing your custom class binds being used by someone else because they are running your config.

Think my config sucks? Tell me in the comments of my entry. Every config can be commented on.

There is also a forum if you have questions/comments/suggestions/flames for me, the staff or anything else.

Submission is a snap, your files (configs and screenshot) are uploaded directly to the site and are posted upon approval from the staff.

The criteria to be approved is quite simple:

1.) Including a screenshot is required.
2.) The screenshot must be taken from the MG42 on the tower in mp_assault.
3.) Wolfconfig_mp.cfg doesn't help me know who it is that is submitting the file, name it accordingly.

Come check it out today, and submit your config: http://www.team-arise.com/config

Playertracker: Nard

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, May 29, 2003)

1) Thank you for this interview. First off, tell us some information about yourself:

wSw|nard: ima verbalize these chimpanzees
wSw|nard: Well i got a psycho ass woman of a girlfriend, whos extremely hot and owns as a panzer...i started TIP or The inner party whatever..we raged faces for months..until D|S grew to be a dominant threat.. Lethal, Sunstyle, Hollywood, and myself all grew to become talented players
wSw|nard: i joined D|S cause sunstyle and lethal did..and i was a pet monkey at the time wanting to follow the players that tought me
wSw|nard: i wish i never joined D|S
wSw|nard: i wish i was in wSw

2) How did you get your nick?

wSw|nard: my aunt used to call me a retard and when she got drunk she would just call me nard

3) How and when did you start playing RTCW?

wSw|nard: since test one, as soon as i stpped foot on mp_beach i had an instant boner
wSw|nard: ive played it ever since..
wSw|nard: prolly most exciting game to be apart of i think

4) If any, what event or player inspired you to play competitively?

wSw|nard: when i was like 14 my dad was like, "come here and see this" so i walked over to his computer and he was playing q2..i must have shit in my pants 5 times..i had no idea what was going on i was so excited..he let me play, and i swear for bout 3 years 12 hours a day thats all i did
wSw|nard: i steadily grew to get better..and then i got introduced to mIRC..and i got sucked into the hole

5) Who supports your gaming?

wSw|nard: my whole family, especialy my gf..who is playing wolf right now..
wSw|nard: when i lived at home
wSw|nard: i would get bitched at so much..when she would walk in on me with mIRC "ARE YOU TALKING TO GIRLS, WTF"

6) Does being a gamer affect your life?

wSw|nard: errr...not at all... i work on the weekends..got all my nights to scrim.
wSw|nard: i think over the years ive just fit it into my lifestyle

7) If any, what are all the tournaments/events you have won?

wSw|nard: ive only been to one lan and that was with D|S at qcon...i was never one of those lan kids...and we didnt win shit we had the gayest fucking lineup.
wSw|nard: i thought lans were scary
wSw|nard: and they are.
wSw|nard: i was onthe #1 q2 LMCTF team (PTH) we won Ragnorak Tourney..and beat ImageOmegas team like chumps for the championship.

8) How long do you play on any given day?

wSw|nard: we scrim 4 hours a night mon-thursday

9) How do you prepare yourself before a match?

wSw|nard: i take a shower..drink some water..sex on occasion...although that was only for our NARF match
wSw|nard: take a good shit before hand
wSw|nard: and turn on your AC
wSw|nard: cause my mp40 us fuckin hot

10) What is the best rtcw match you've ever played?

wSw|nard: aye! lots..i think the best matches ever were D|S versus dT anywhere....but it would have to be D|S versus the new cK (at that time) when all that shit went down...i remember we were attacking as axis on assault...and in our first rush we got owned..but jones snuck by as eng..and planted in under 3 mins held the tower himself. we wer eso fucking excited..even tho we got our asses kicked the rest of the way
wSw|nard: and when D|S played BOH on sub..and we broke OSP..
wSw|nard: they beat us by 2 frames
wSw|nard: took em almost 2 hours to though it all frame by frame

11) What do you think about the current e-sports scene?

wSw|nard: if it looks like CAL invite is doing..i dont know..but alot of good games ar due out soon, so they should boost the e-conomy
wSw|nard: i know alot of wSw is looking forwar dot q4
wSw|nard: forward to*

12) What is your computer like? (specs)

wSw|nard: Dog Shit: os Windows XP Professional (5.1 - 2600) ram: 2100 (Usage: 204/768MB (26.56%) cpu: (1-AMD , 1469MHz, 256KB) GeForce 3 Ti200 64ddr SGAM 19inch res (1152x864) hd: ( 22.78GB)
wSw|nard: time to upgrade, yah.

13) What headphones, mouse, mousepad do you use?

wSw|nard: sennheiser HD 500's, allsop mousepade , and a logi mx300

14) What are some of your hobbies?

wSw|nard: frisbee golf..laxin with my girl...fishing...buying new shoes...going to see my dogs at my parents place

15) What are some other games do you look forward to playing?

wSw|nard: quake 4 for sure... and half life 2 single player...

16) What is your average day like?

wSw|nard: wake up around 1pm...take the dog to piss and shit..go buy food...come back...eat...shit.....play some frisbee golf with my alcoholics...come back spend some time with gf...play some wolf at night
wSw|nard: weekends are pure work
wSw|nard: fri-sunday its work

17) What is your favorite food/drink?

wSw|nard: my moms lasagne and chicken and dumplings, with a dr.pepper

18) Any last thoughts/shoutouts?

wSw|nard: to West Side Wolves...im so glad they are back..id woulda liked to be apart of them back in the day..but things are good now..and we are looking more solid each night..coolest guys ive played with in a long time...we hope to make an impact at qcon this year. and to my girl shea, shes the best thing in the entire world to me. much love wSw and Shea, and thankyou to everyone that has supported our comeback..for scrimming with us so much..
wSw|nard: we really appreciate it
wSw|nard: and to pravda and animeman
wSw|nard: and be sure to add that i myself direct the Welcome Wagon..and is the Sole Proprietor of Facial DIstributing. DONT GET NEAR MY THOMPSON YOU DAMN CHIMPANZEES

The truth is a hard to swallow pill.

Posted by: cK AnimeMan (Saturday, June 7, 2003)

In recent light of what Tapper has stated on cached (Cached Article ) I thought it was necessary to ask ColdShot, Head admin of TSN on his side to the story, here is what he had to say:


The truth is a hard pill to swallow for most people. Realizing any flaws or thinking that you are in the wrong to any degree is the most difficult admittance anyone can make. Finding an ethical business person is even harder to locate unless you are dealing with someone you implicitly trust, even then odds are they are out to ensure their best interest is in mind, no matter what yours is. Lately true colors of individuals and organizations have flourished, the trick to make this happen: add a touch of controversy.

The Team Sportscast Network owes a great deal of gratitude to OGL and Speakeasy. If it weren’t for them, the post Gameloft days would have ended up without a TsN in the industry. Tapper deserves a lot of credit for standing on the side of TsN on the deal and secured a future for eBroadcasting and the highest possible level. However, with any relationship in business, it will eventually end. This is where we find ourselves today.

The TsN, in its quest to continue growing and provide the best possible coverage, has taken innovative steps in the eBroadcasting industry, from the early days of dual casting to today’s TvSN for online gaming. We have constantly challenged ourselves to expand from one community to another and get blanket coverage of the games that matter, those now, and future. We have learned a lot of valuable lessons from just trying. From many failures there are also plenty of successes.

2002 was a pinnacle year for TsN. We covered six large events for various communities. From WCG Canadian/USA/World finals, to Quakecon, to the Intel Masters Championships; we produced the highest quality of LAN coverage ever done in this market. Our unique ability to increase sponsors marketing reach and today’s constant 140k + unique hits to our stream provide us with the title of #1 eBroadcast company for this industry. But, like I said earlier, it has to end.

TsN leading the industry is not ending. We are growing even faster than we can handle. We have plenty of innovative ideas in the testing phase that will secure that title for a long time. The truth of the matter is this market is still too small to be lucrative for anyone really, and to have warring factions is just plain ridiculous. In a recent interview on cached.net only one side of the story was revealed. This is the other. In order to find truth, you must know all sides. This is not the absolute truth; however, just another piece to fit in it so you can find the truth.

TsN entered the agreement with OGL/Speakeasy in a manner of independence. We were at one point exclusive to one league, and that dictated how we did business. This is the reason we almost went bust. TsN, in its own way, covered what it wanted and when it wanted as long as we promoted those two sponsors. We did that with the most enthusiasm even knowing that OGL was a mediocre league at best with all of the communities. Their shining point was, and still is, the fact they have the best-organized online tournament setup and staff that I have come across. We even went as far as to play OGL commercials during other leagues games, thus giving them cross promotion. I believe it is safe to say TsN has done more than its share to promote these sponsors and follow their guidance on coverage.

An opportunity, once out of reach, presented itself at the beginning of this year. Knowing our commitments for this year at that point was Quakecon and WCG, we felt committing to a third was not a problem. Then came the date releases recently for these events. The WCG being the same weekend and CPL two weeks prior set the stage for us to test our mettle. Having set TsN up they way I have, it would have been no problem at all from a logistical standpoint to properly cover all of them and at the same degree.

At this point I would like to state that I do understand the decision given by OGL. There is a lot of history between them and various organizations and sometimes those wounds never heal. TsN requires that it remain independent in order to grow and survive, and knowing OGL would not allow resources to be used for other events, we set up an arrangement that no OGL resources would be used for the other events. We would even go as far as to find alternative web hosting to provide for the other events leaving our main site as Quakecon only. This reasonable compromise would be snubbed because I guess sometimes history is too vivid in the memory.

In order for TsN to ever make any money to become self-sufficient we need to generate advertisement revenue. The only way to do that is to broaden our coverage to sell cross-promotional space. Why would iD buy space for Quakecon when those are the people that already have iD products? It would make sense to sell Quakecon space for Sierra. This is just one example of many models on how to make this a viable industry. Systemically, we had set up the ability for a cross promotion for Speakeasy to advertise across the other two events. They host the bandwidth, and WCG and CPL both agreed to that. So the inherent ability for OGL and Speakeasy to reach an audience that they would want to attract was set in place.

Quakecon will not fail because of a lack of TsN coverage. You will see more and more events happen as time goes on. With any luck you will see TsN at most of them, barring personal issues doesn’t stop progress of online gaming. One day the industry will grow larger than petty feelings, and the gamer and audience will dictate the successful events.

Playertracker: Intact

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, June 12, 2003)

1) Thank you for this interview. First off, tell us some information about yourself:

rew`intact: I am 21 years old. I live in Estonia, Tallinn. Play rtcw in a clan called rewind.

2) How did you get your nick?

rew`intact: It just sounds cool -_-
rew`intact: there is no story behind it

3) How and when did you start playing RTCW?

rew`intact: I started playeing rtcw in january 14, 2002. That whas the time when i got my internet connection. I saw the game at my friends place.

4) If any, what event or player inspired you to play competitively?

rew`intact: I saw quakecon last year on wtv, and got my inspiration form there.

5) Who supports your gaming?

rew`intact: My mother :D

6) Does being a gamer affect your life?

rew`intact: Yes it does. It takes lots of my time, that i could spend on "outdoor activities".

7) If any, what are all the tournaments/events you have won?

rew`intact: we have won 2 online tournaments so far. RTCW.No League: Premier Group Sesson IV- Scandinavians biggest League (Placed rank 1, 6.3.2003) and Clanbase Eurocup VII which is biggest online tournament in europe.

8) How long do you play on any given day?

rew`intact: 3-5 hours

9) How do you prepare yourself before a match?

rew`intact: i kick everyone out of the house, wash hands
rew`intact: etc

10) What is the best rtcw match you've ever played?

rew`intact: Best match was vs Septagon (old clan which consisted of snaps players) in rtcw.no league. When we just had recruited some new players and won the game 4-0.

11) What do you think about the current e-sports scene?

rew`intact: I think it is rapidly growing. Hope that cpl and other big leagues would cons

12) What is your computer like? (specs)

rew`intact: AMD1200, radeon 8500, mx300 mouse....

13) What headphones, mousepad do you use?

rew`intact: some old Kenwood headphones, ALLSOP mousemat.

14) What are some of your hobbies?

rew`intact: I have played soccer for 6 years. Before rtcw it was my biggest hobby. I am a big fan of Metal music.

15) What are some other games do you look forward to playing?

rew`intact: none

16) What is your average day like?

rew`intact: brrr....i just had my final day in the university, dunno how my day will look in the summer. Prolly wake up around 10am, then play some public, then go to beach, home around 18, then rtcw.

17) What is your favorite food/drink?

rew`intact: pizza/saku beer

18) Any last thoughts/shoutouts?

rew`intact: DeeAy and WW to Qcon.



Pravda: how long has rewind been around and where are most of you guys from

rew`intact: rewind was created 3 years ago as a q3 clan, rtcw part joined it 9 months ago. most of the rtcw guys are from estonia (5), one danish, one norwegian and one swedish.

Pravda: have you guys ever played american clans in rtcw or watched demos of american clans playing

rew`intact: we have never played vs american clans, ping is the main factor here. i was a fan of infensus earlier and watched all their games from quakecon 2002

Pravda: do you think sponsorships in rtcw is important and do you like the idea of CS clans merging with RTCW clans?
Pravda: also, if you do know anything about american rtcw, do you think there are any differences between american and european rtcw styles of play or strategies?

rew`intact: sponsorship in rtcw is very important as in every online game i think. rewind is currently looking for sponsor. we have had offers from some big european cs clans, but havent decided on anything yet. i think merging with CS clans is good, coz it can attract more people to rtcw
rew`intact: i don't know much about american clans, but so much as i have seen their playing style/strategies are different than euros in some of the maps

Pravda: can you be specific? what exactly is different? some euro players say that europeans are better aimers and are maybe more aggressive with beach being their best map

rew`intact: maps played in euro and U.S are sort of different, in europe the accent is mainly on beach and base/village, when in U.S popular maps are ice and sub. don't think there is any big difference in aiming

Pravda: how many leagues are you guys in and which leagues are the most important or the ones you guys concentrate the most on?

rew`intact: rewind is participating in rtcw.no premier league ( http://www.rtcw.no/main/league/viewleague.asp?league=19 ) and clanbase euro cup. our main go is to finish top4 in ec. we also play in one short tournament, called ufo cup on the new map te_ufo ( http://www.swertcw.com/ufo ), but thats more like for fun...

Pravda: if american teams and european teams played with same ping, who do you think would win? and would it be close?

rew`intact: very hard to predict as i haven't seen any demos of US clans playing lately, think it still would be very close, but I would put my money on the euros ::

Pravda: how does ping work in europe? is the broadband connections there very good in general? are there problems for pings between diff countries?

rew`intact: the are very big differences between european connections. like swedish players have ping under 50 everywhere in europe, and guys on polish connections cant play outside their country.

Pravda: what about estonians

rew`intact: i can proudly say that estonain adsl is very good, ping under 50ms in finland, sweden and norway, little bit higher in other countries. under 100ms everywhere in europe. i am satisfied

Pravda: finally, is there anything you'd like to add that is important about european rtcw? leagues, gameplay, maps, strats, anything.

rew`intact: the only thing that bothers me is that clans dont last very long. even top players are changing clans all the time. european rtcw scene needs more stability.
rew`intact: thats all

Playertracker: Vash

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, June 19, 2003)

1) Thank you for this interview. First off, tell us some information about yourself:

Hi, my names David Meckin, I'm 20 years of age and from the North of England.

2) How did you get your nick?

I ripped it straight from a cult Manga flick named "Vash the stampede". I've never actually seen the movie before but I liked the name.

3) Tell us a little about All Guns Blazing.

All Guns Blazing was a team formed right at the beginning of wolfenstein, dominating the UK scene for about 18 months before retiring. We recently reformed with some old and some new players after about a 6-month absence. We hope to attend as many LAN's as we can and have a good time.

4) How and when did you start playing RTCW?

I started when the game officially came out. I hated the test. I got into it because the game I played previous(Kingpin: Life of Crime) was all but dead :-(

5) If any, what event or player inspired you to play competitively?

None really, anything I do that has an aspect of competition I do competitively, be it a video game or some real life shit.

6) Who supports your gaming?

Nobody anymore, I'm getting too old for it all. I guess I support myself financially.

7) Does being a gamer affect your life?

Yes. In a good or bad way I'm not entirely sure yet. The older I get the more I'm thinking my life's been affected in a bad way.

8) If any, what are all the tournaments/events you have won?

As an All Guns Blazing Player.

Thrustworld 2002 RtCW Tournament - Winner
i10 RTCW UK LAN Tournament - Winner
Highest position on Clanbase ( http://www.clanbase.com ) UK ladder :
Rank #1
(unbeaten for 18 months before retiring)
Clanbase Spring cup RTCW : Unbeaten & top in group
Games Domain LAN Championships - 3rd place (Winning £2000)

As a Four Kings Intel player:-

Intel masters gaming championships - Winner (Winning £6000)

9) How long do you play on any given day?

At the moment my team is playing catch-up as we just reformed so I'd say we're clocking around 4 solid hours of practice every night for about 5 days a week. On top of that I like to play abit of public and sometimes just go on a server with a few guys to work on tactics overall we're doing quite alot at the moment.

10) How do you prepare yourself before a match?

I listen to music(Metallica usually), get a drink. I always try to play some ctf_multidemo/badplace if it is an important game just to warm up the aim. I sometimes go out for some fresh air too depending on importance of the game.

11) What is the best rtcw match you've ever played?

Either Gamesdomain LAN championships last year, Semi-Finals vs. 4K on mp_sub stands out like a sore thumb because of the history of the two teams (massive rivals etc..) the game being 1-1 best of three, we attack first and set a time of 1:29. The place erupted(we had alot of support) and we were sure we'd win. 4K beat us with a time of around 1:27. very very very ouch.

Last years Quakecon qualifier vs. -SM- was pretty cool too. We went down 2-0 on mp_assault and it was looking pretty grim until we pulled out our clutch game and fought back to win the game 3-2. The shoutcast from TsN was pretty intense and we had alot of support from the UK community in our irc channel when the game was over, pretty nice.

Demo URL for 4K vs. agb | Games domain LAN championships:
http://www.rtcwnation.com/features.php?section=8&index=273
Demo URL for agb vs. SM | Quakecon 2002 Qualifiers:
http://www.cached.net/?go=%2A/demo/single/9894////textmatch/agb

12) What do you think about the current e-sports scene?

Messy. Everything seems like it's in some sort of limbo at the moment. All signs point to esports becoming the next big thing but it needs someone to step up to the plate and take it there. Fatal1ty is doing great things for esports.

13) What is your computer like? (specs)

I have a pretty sweet rig. Pentium 4 2.53 ghz, 19" Monitor, 512DDR and some other good shit. I don't know a whole lot about the hardware aspect of computers it bores the hell out of me. I got this system free from Four Kings too, I guess I should add that :-o

14) What headphones, mousepad do you use?

Plantronic headphones, Zydec mouse mat, Logitech mx300 mouse.

15) Have you guys ever scrimmed any American teams or watched demos?

Yeh we all have played and watched demos of American teams, we intend on playing with US teams more in the run up to Quakecon qualifiers so if you're clan is looking for a scrim, come and find me on irc :)

16) Do you see any differences in strategy between American teams and European teams? Do you see any differences between aim?

Europeans are more aggressive on both offence and defense, Americans seem to "play it safe" alot more and rely on panzers alot. You'd have to blind to not see have much better European aim is.

17) How do you feel about the current seedings in Quakecon and the ordeal with Rewind and Minions? How would you deal with it?

The seedings now are good but Quakecon shouldn't have released them until they were finalised. The re-seeds have been quite unfair some some teams and a degree of favoritism is shown towards certain teams.

18) How satisfied are you with your own team's seedings?

Yes, It's fine.

19) If you could change one thing about Quakecon, what would it be?

I'd rename it to LottoCon.

20) Who do you predict to win Quakecon?

Four Kings Intel.

21) What are some of your hobbies?

Other then gaming, I'm mad on football(soccer). I hardly play it anymore but I love watching it. I like to get to the movies when I can too. Gaming is my main hobby though.

22) What are some other games do you look forward to playing?

Blizzard games, I've been beta testing Warcraft 3: The frozen throne for months and it's pretty cool. I look forward to World of Warcraft too, it's an mmorpg.

23) What is your average day like?

Long.

24) What is your favorite food/drink?

You can't beat a hot cup of tea and a fry up.

25) Any last thoughts/shoutouts?

http://www.allgunsblazing.org
#allgunsblazing @ QuakeNET
vash@allgunsblazing.org

Sponsored by:-

http://www.everglide.co.uk & http://www.multiplay.co.uk

Newspaper scan of Vash:

Playertracker: Astro

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, June 19, 2003)

1) Thanks for the interview. First, tell us a little about yourself.

I'm astro, one of the origional members of an RA3 clan called the packet Kids. I played ra3 for q3 for a million years then discovered a game called Wolfenstein after pK-REM started playing and said it was fun, been hooked ever since, though I took a 6 month vacation to play ut2k3 for CPL.

2) How did you get your nickname?

Hah. When I was like 10 or 11 and I first got on irc, I joined some random channel and I started talking to these 2 really cool dudes from florida. One of them was named ScoobyDoo2, the other was Snoopy3. we made our own channel called like #doghousechat or something similar, and they were like "dude u need a cool cartoon dog name like us" so one of them suggested Astro, but it was taken so i used Astro1 instead, then it just became Astro once i started gaming cause obviously there's really no other Astro's in gaming except for one I know of in ut.

3) How and when did you first start playing RTCW?

As I said before, I bought the game when I discovered that REM thought it was a cool game and he was in D|S at the time, so I decided to play.. he also said there was a lot of cash to be made and all that so I thought it was worth the $40 :P

4) How has the transition from Q3 to RTCW been? Difficult/easy? How is it different?

Transition wasn't very difficult, Q3 strafe jumps with new weapons and all, took some getting used to but I most definately love RTCW - best team-based game in history IMO.

5) Have you won any tournaments or ladders? If so, which ones?

I've placed top 3 in a few local lans only ones that really come to memory right now are, Last saturday I got 3rd place in UT2K3 1v1 TexasLAN tournament after not playing since about March (I lost to *69|Lost-Cause and k|pen. Oh ya, me and Muzzy=-cD got 3rd in a 2v2 ra3 tournament at one of the TexasLAN's.

6) What do you do to prepare for matches?

I usually stop by #affliction and talk some shit, then make fun of someone on ventrilo and goto the server to play.

7) What is the greatest RTCW match you've ever played?

I honestly haven't played any high profile matches, so instead I'll say the best match I got to see was the cK vs D|S CAL match last year after D|S starters left. Only reason it was one of the best one's i've seen is because both teams all typed Welcome Aboard at the same time and it was funny to hear WarWitch say "Well.. it appears both teams have just welcomed each other aboard!"

8) How often do you play this game on a given day?

2-3 hours sometimes more or less just really depends on the day and what I have planned already.

9) Describe your average day.

Wake up, smoke a cigg, take a shower, eat some breakfast, boot up my pc and check irc/email for anything important, type like 2 lines of bullshit in #affliction or #packet-kids or wherever else and walk away only to come back 10 mins later and see everyone still talking and arguing about whatever i typed, clean the house, go out and hang with some friends, sometimes I would goto Spurs games! (GO SPURS GO! 2003 NBA CHAMPS!) and whatever else I feel like doing.

10) What is your favorite food/drink?

Favorite food would have to be baked boneless skinless chicken breast and a salad (gg low carb diet) drink - water. you can never get enough water.

11) What is your view on the e-sports scene?

v-sports my friend, v-sports. There's only a few real pro gamers out there, and that definately sucks, though I think by the time most of us are like 40 we will see gaming go main stream, though I don't think it will really be ready until there is a perfectly even playing field. They need to build a console type system that allows for keyboard and mouse hookups, and an internet connection that gives you 0 ping around the globe for it to be 100% even, but that probably wont happen for a long time, so for now, the v-sports scene is pretty good.

12) Has any event or any person inspired you to play competitively? If so, who?

Well the person who got me into gaming is pK-vex. he helped me install q3 onto my pc a few years ago and taught me how to play RA3. That got me started.
Then, I remember I went to quakecon 2001 and I saw all these kids hanging around some newbie with a stuffed tiger on his monitor. I turned to my friend adam and said something like "look at that fag with a stuffed tiger on his monitor and all those losers watching him play." then some guy watching him must have heard me and he was like "That's fatal1ty man he's a pro gamer he makes like $100,000 a year playing this game". That kinda got me wanting to learn to play games and compete more than anything. I think fatal1ty won that Quakecon but I don't remember cause I was awake like 84 hours playing q3 :P That's really all that got me into it.

13) What are your computer specs, mouse, and headphones?

Computer specs: Athlon XP 1800+, GeForce 4 ti 4400, 512mb DDR ram, SB Audigy Platnium, Microsoft Keyboard, Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0, for my mousepad I have a FATpad! jk, I have a Ratpad on top of the rubber base to a FUNCpad (it makes it not slip as much on my desk). Headphones, cheap sony headphones I got for like $20 at best buy.

14) Your recent appearance on MTV has generated a lot of reaction, negative and positive, in the RTCW community. Do you feel you were portrayed accurately by MTV?

Hah.. MTV was cool, It kinda sucked with that bright light in my apartment cause I really couldn't see the monitor after being blinded by that thing... I really wish MTV did a special on gamers and not morons who play pacman, golden tee, and nerds who miss work to play x-box. that makes us look like fat nerds who eat cheetos all day and sip coke. With all the footage they shot at my place, CPL, and at FAT's place up in KC, they could have done a whole show on his stuff and it probably would have been a lot better to see us talking shit to each other and just having fun playing games.
Overall it was a good experience - and I know people will find this hard to believe but ever since that show came out if I goto a mall there's almost always at least 1 person who asks "Hey aren't you that guy who was on that mtv gamer show?" That's always kinda cool :P I even had like 3 people ask for autographs lol. I promise i will give the my good pals in Assliction some pK shirts signed by me at qcon though :P

15) What is your relationship with John Wendell aka fata1ity?

Hah. I don't remember how I first started talking to John. I think I just messaged him and asked him to 1v1 and we played and I got beat badly. hmm.. he also idled in my old RA3 clan #K4H's channel on ETG one nite too after he beat me lol. After that, I didn't really tlak to him except to say hi occasionally if i saw him pop in a channel that I was in.
Then, when CPL was coming around, I invited Shogun Valdez Lethal and a few other people to lan and I think shogun told John about the lan and john in turned asked me what was up and I told him he was welcome to come. We got it all set and he drove down, hung out, built a computer (funniest thing i've ever seen BTW), and he made white boy burritos for us. (Has anyone else ever had a burrito with no beans in it? Cause in texas that's a sin). That's pretty much it as far as John goes.

16) What are your predictions for the upcoming Quakecon RTCW and Q3 competitions?

Well, I'd love to say my clan, pK, are going to win Quakecon's RTCW, but I honestly have my money on Affliction. I've given those guys so much crap since wolf started, but they're all really good guys so I'm saying Affliction Top 3 for sure, probably 1st place unless a euro team steps up.
As for Q3 1v1, I'd love to see Daler win. He lives about 45 mins from me and has came to our TexasLAN's a few times in the past. He's another really great guy who I'd love to see win the big show this year. As for the Q3CTF, I don't follow CTF so I really can't comment. The enemy territory tournament.. If I play, my team wins :)

17) Have you played or watched any Europeans play RTCW? If so, how big of a challenge do you think they will pose at Quakecon?

HUGE challenge! Euro's have their stuff down, the only thing that will stop them from playing their A game is the vast ping advantage, but that's the price you pay for playing in a NA based tournament :P I think iN has a really good change if they can get past us in the 2nd round >:) bobo

18) What is your reaction to the recent cancellation of TSN shoutcasting at Quakecon?

I've heard both sides of the story, and honestly I don't really care. On one side, I totally see where TSN is coming from, however, I understand Qcon/OGL's stance as well. The bottom line is - if the casters are doing this for the love of the game they would show up to qcon with their own pc's, their own equipment and cast as themselves and not as TSN staff.

19) Any other games you are looking forward to playing beside RTCW?

Doom3 Halflife2, Quake4. Enemy territory is great already, they've done a great job for a totaly free game and I salute id for this - giving back to the community with a great game that anyone can play.

20) How do you feel about the current seedings in Quakecon and the ordeal with Rewind and Minions? How would you deal with it?

Seedings... I would do euro vs euro matches, and americans vs americans. LuckyB was the MVP of that game for sure, he served up facials all nite and took no prisioners, even murdering innocent teamates if he so felt the need. LuckyB and Minions did everyone at quakecon a favor by raging rewind badly

21) How satisfied are you with your own team's seedings?

We're in a bracket with 3 euro teams so no matter what happens - win or lose - there will be mad shit talk :P if we beat iN 2nd round we will have "only won cause of our ping" if we lose we are "total newbs who lose to a team who has double your ping!" so we're screwed either way in that department :P

22) If you could change one thing about Quakecon, what would it be?

Hmm.. If your team qualified for qcon and didn't attend, I would make some rule about the team not being able tocompete for 2 yearss or something like that to stop teams who dont intend to go from signing up.

23) Thanks for the interview. Any final comments or shoutouts?

Shoutouts to the dudes in affliction, my long time friends in the old school pK as well as our new members, phildo karate, valdez, strych, steme, and a big whats up to the guys who were formerly in masters, now most of them are in pK - i've never had as much fun playing RTCW scrims and matches till I played with these guys they just have fun flat out. Also, big shoutout to pK-sh1fty and |a|nal for the late nite vent sex :o

NARF vs Fear Factory Resist

Posted by: selfie (Monday, June 23, 2003)

Thursday the 2x CAL-M champions NARF are facing off against the up-and-coming Central-European Fear Factory - Resist. I had a short interview with binBASH from FF and Lynch from NARF.


FF|binBASH

SelfieP: First off. What do you think about the Qcon configs? Are they too strict or are you ok with it?
FF|binBASH: I think that QCon Config is quite nice. Only Problem for some Players with it is that cg_drawgun 1 is enforced. I personally have no Problem with it because I play with drawgun 1 all the time.

SelfieP: Allright. How much have you guys scrimmed in the past week as preparation for the upcoming match? Watched any demos?
FF|binBASH: We scrimed usually 3 Times a Day and watched the Demos we found on cached.net of our Enemies.
FF|binBASH: We scrim
FF|binBASH: btw. :)

SelfieP: If you do know anything about american rtcw, do you think there are any differences between american and european rtcw styles of play or strategies?
SelfieP Is there a difference in aim, as many say?
FF|binBASH: I didn't see any Difference in aiming yet but USA Clans use much different Tacs compared to European Tacs. The Ami Tacs sometimes look like parts from very old European Tacs.

SelfieP: What do you think about the current e-sports scene? The involvement of sponsors, rtcw clans and counterstrike clans merging, etc.
FF|binBASH: The e-Sports Scene is still developing and most RTCW Clans think it's easy to gain Sponsors if they merge with CS Clans, but to get Lan Sponsorings for eg. is still much harder to get than ordinary Server & Bouncer Sponsorings which most Clans will give to RTCW Squads. As a RTCW only Clan it's even harder than for CS Clans to get Sponsors, because CS is more popular.

SelfieP: What country(s) are you and your team members from?
FF|binBASH: We are at the Moment a Germany/Poland Clan.

SelfieP: I see. How do you see the future of RTCW after Quakecon?
FF|binBASH: I dunno how it will develop. But if RTCW will unfornately die we'll look for alternative decent Online Multiplayer Games.

SelfieP: Speaking of Online Multiplayer Gaming OMG!, how do you think their chances are against Team-Frontline?
FF|binBASH: I don't know what will be conditions for omg! vs. frontline. I mean omg! is a decent Euro RTCW Team. When Pings are equal I think omg! will win.

SelfieP: How well do you know NARF? Do you know any members in particular?
FF|binBASH: I don't know anything yet about the US Scene, but I was in contact with Da_G and Immortal. Arrogant People I think who need a lesson :>
FF|binBASH: You can add that Da_G tries to get the worse Match Times for Euro Clans ever. I mean we have to play Friday Morning 03:30 CET when most of our Players go to work @ 06:00 CET.
FF|binBASH: So you can understand our Situation

SelfieP: Did your team make any specific pickups for Quakecon? If so, how will they help you to win?
FF|binBASH: We had a special Pickup (soulreaper) but kicked him again because he didn't want to play Ladder Games like cb.int or so. Only QCon Games. But we need Ladder Games to gain Sponsor Contracts.

SelfieP: If any, what are all the tournaments/events you have won?
FF|binBASH: We are kinda new Squad (3 Months old) and didn't win in any Cups yet. But we have much power and are Top 5 German RTCW Squad.

SelfieP: When did you start playing RTCW, and when did you first get into competition?
FF|binBASH: I'm playing RTCW since mp_test2 and joined a Clan 3 Months after it. The MASH-Clan. It was fun team and not active in any Leagues. I started playing in Leagues 3 Months later with German Pale Killers (GpK-Clan)

SelfieP: What is the best rtcw match you've ever played?
FF|binBASH: Best Match I think was vs. Ocrana when I was at starComa. We trained some Weeks for it and beat much Clans in pracs (plan-b, majesty, [xi], etc.). All the Work didn't pay out finally when the official Game was lost. :P
FF|binBASH: But it made a lot of fun.
FF|binBASH: :>

SelfieP: What do you think will be keys in the game in terms of strategy on defense or offense?
FF|binBASH: In the Game vs. Narf?
SelfieP: yes
FF|binBASH: Our main Key will hopefully be good Medic revive work and gibbing of the enemy dead bodies. We gonna pull the Enemy into much infights because it's easier to aim their with that high Ping than on Distance.

SelfieP: How do you see your chances in the match? What do you think the score will be? After all, you're at a ping-disadvantage, and you're playing a team that's has not been defeaten in CAL for the last 2 seasons. The odds are definitely against you. Do you think you can pull the upset?
FF|binBASH: I think our Chances are not so bad at all. Our Teamplay has improved much the last Weeks. I don't wanna make bets at score btw. but I think we won't lose 4:0. We'll see what will happen. When they play like we've seen on their Demos I think they'll lose the game.


Lynch]NARF[

Mr.Selfdestruct: What do you think about the Qcon configs?
Lynch]NARF[: Eh, a little too dark in my opinion. I've had people who never seen wolf watch me play with the Quakecon config and they say they can't really see anything
Lynch]NARF[: I think most of the players have gotten used to it
Lynch]NARF[: but if they really wanted to make the config all nice and pretty for the spectators they could have allowed it to be a little brighter so that they could catch the action
Lynch]NARF[: I think you can raise the intensity a bit and still have the game look really nice
Lynch]NARF[: Other than that it's awesome, it's the first time in a long while I've been able to see the panzer and the airstrike explosions =)

Mr.Selfdestruct: I see. What are in your eyes the big differences between the European and the North-American RTCW scene?
Lynch]NARF[: I'm gonna go with the rest of the RTCW community and agree it's the panzerfaust
Lynch]NARF[: the US scene since the past Quakecon has evolved into a panzer-heavy game
Lynch]NARF[: more and more you see US teams building defenses/offenses around their panzers
Lynch]NARF[: it really hinders the heavy medic rushes you used to see

Mr.Selfdestruct: Yes. I noticed many Euro teams saying that the US teams used their tactics from 6 months back, but they seem to be overlooking the panzer.
Lynch]NARF[: and now the U.S. game is centered around spawncamps, big kills, and gibs
Lynch]NARF[: yeah, I think the Euro teams are in for a surprise if they think that the panzer strats aren't good
Lynch]NARF[: they're build solely for stopping the style of play European teams like to go with...

Mr.Selfdestruct: Ok. Any comments on the rew' vs MiN match?
Lynch]NARF[: yeah...
Lynch]NARF[: I think Quakecon screwed up in a few spots in their seedings
Lynch]NARF[: Plain and simple, they underestimated some of the U.S. teams
Lynch]NARF[: they obviously didn't think Minions had what it took to take out Rewind
Lynch]NARF[: same with carnage vs gamepoint
Lynch]NARF[: I think it's a shame that one of the top european teams will not be making it to quakecon because of poor seeding

Mr.Selfdestruct: Do you feel there should be separate NA / Aussie / Euro qualifiers, or should the OGL just pay more attention to seedings.
Lynch]NARF[:I hope that quakecon officials will learn from this mistake and fix next year's seedings either by simply reserving spots for euros and holding a euro tourney for the spots or whatnot
Lynch]NARF[: I think the separate qualifiers are the way to go =)

Mr.Selfdestruct: You talk about next year's Quakecon. I'm pleased to see not everyone is as pessimistic, what do you think about the future of RTCW (after Quakecon 2003)
Lynch]NARF[: I would be very surprised not to see some form of RTCW (stock/ET/whatever new might come out) not played at next year's Quakecon
Lynch]NARF[: I think for a few months after Quakecon
Lynch]NARF[: you will see a lot of teams dropping out
Lynch]NARF[: just to take a breather
Lynch]NARF[: but other teams will step up to fill the gap and eventually those teams that left will come back
Lynch]NARF[: and the competitive scene will go back to being as strong as it is today

Mr.Selfdestruct: How good is NARF on assault?
Lynch]NARF[: hmm, I'd say it's one of our stronger maps
Lynch]NARF[: we have a lot of offenses/defenses we can throw at you
Lynch]NARF[: and they all work pretty well to our strengths as a team

Mr.Selfdestruct: All right.
Mr.Selfdestruct: Great! Have you watched any demos of Fear Factory - Resist, or scrimmed any special (Euro) teams?
Lynch]NARF[: Haven't watched any demos of Fear Factory actually, I probably should get on that
Lynch]NARF[: as for scrimming Euro teams...
Lynch]NARF[: we've been meaning to do that but it's awfully hard with the time difference
Lynch]NARF[: we've scrimmed dot on occasion

Mr.Selfdestruct: I will pretend not to have heard you compare us with aussies =P j/k
Lynch]NARF[: hopefully we'll squeeze in a few good euro scrims to see what we should expect
Lynch]NARF[: haha
Lynch]NARF[: yeah, the aus competition is very different than the european scene =)
Lynch]NARF[: Aus play a style pretty similar to the US from what I can tell
Lynch]NARF[: on a side note I'd like to wish dot the best of luck in their match against wSw
Lynch]NARF[: I'd love to see those crazy aussies make it to qcon =)

Mr.Selfdestruct: I think we all do :>
Mr.Selfdestruct: About the match vs FF-R. What's the deal with pings and times? Where will the server be located, and at what time will the match be played?
Lynch]NARF[: Well, from what I know our match isn't until Thursday @ 7:00 pm pacific time...
Lynch]NARF[: I'm assuming we'll be playing on some east coast server like New York to make the ping difference as small as possible
Lynch]NARF[: NARF will be lanning as usual from our sponsor's lan cafe that you can see at (Link: www.gamesessions.com)www.gamesessions.com (shameless plug)
Lynch]NARF[: Our pings will probably be around 80-100
Lynch]NARF[: I have no clue what FF will ping like...
Lynch]NARF[: From what I hear it could be anywhere between 100-150
Lynch]NARF[: Hopefully the pings will be relatively equal and won't play a big factor in the outcome of the match

Mr.Selfdestruct: 4k-Zommy told me they (from UK) have found a NY server with 110 pings. Seeing as FF-R are located in Germany-Poland, I assume slightly higher (It must be said that the pollish connections are known to be horrible)
Lynch]NARF[: yeah =(
Lynch]NARF[: but i did watch FF play last week on wtv
Lynch]NARF[: and they were around 140-150 on an Atlanta server I believe

Mr.Selfdestruct: What are some other matches you're looking forward to in Round 2 of the Qcon qualifiers?
Mr.Selfdestruct: Any predictions? :>
Lynch]NARF[: haha, i just made a post about this about 30 seconds before you pmed me...
Lynch]NARF[: i'll just post the link =P
Lynch]NARF[: http://www.forumplanet.com/planetwolfenstein/topic.asp?fid=6001&tid=1080243
Lynch]NARF[: lots of other people's predictions on there as well
Lynch]NARF[: I'm mainly looking forward to the Euro vs US matches though
Lynch]NARF[: + dot vs wSw

Mr.Selfdestruct: Have you made any roster pick ups specifically before Qcon? How will this person(s) aid you in the win?
Lynch]NARF[: Nope, our roster has been the same since the start of this last CAL season

Mr.Selfdestruct: what do you think of sponsorships in rtcw and is it a good idea to merge CS and RTCW clans?
Lynch]NARF[: Can't hurt I guess, if it gets wolf teams some more funding and wolf itself more exposure I don't see the downsides
Lynch]NARF[: As far as sponsorships go...
Lynch]NARF[: I'd like to see more big name companies offering U.S. teams some nice sponsorships
Lynch]NARF[: I see nvidia and d-link and intel and other corporations giving Euro teams sponsorships
Lynch]NARF[: yet the top American teams get very little help from them

Mr.Selfdestruct: European clans are often sponsored by bigger corporations indeed.
Lynch]NARF[: But I guess it's the Euros that really need the money to get over to America
Lynch]NARF[: So I can live with our small, but awesome sponsors (shoutout to Metamule) =D

Mr.Selfdestruct: What do you think will be keys in the match vs FF-R in terms of strategy on defense or offense?
Lynch]NARF[: Well...me I guess
Lynch]NARF[: =P
Mr.Selfdestruct: Haha
Mr.Selfdestruct: Ok!
Lynch]NARF[: I don't really want to expose any parts of the strategy so I'll just leave it at hmm
Lynch]NARF[: everyone needs to do their role
Lynch]NARF[: and if we play together as a team
Lynch]NARF[: we should prevail =P
Lynch]NARF[: offense will defenitely be our main focus
Lynch]NARF[: i have the utmost confidence in our defense
Lynch]NARF[: but it's all useless if we can't blow that tower up right?
Lynch]NARF[: at least we're playing euros and won't have to worry about 5 panzer defenses and such =)
* Lynch]NARF[ knocks on wood

Mr.Selfdestruct: Any last shout-outs?
Mr.Selfdestruct: Thanks for your time and good luck in the match :>
Lynch]NARF[: well i'm out of sponsors to spot so I guess one big shoutout to all the teams left in the quakecon qualifiers. gg and gl
Lynch]NARF[: thanks =)

4K-Zommy Interview - Four Kings vs Exodus

Posted by: selfie (Monday, June 23, 2003)

SelfieP: What do you think about the Qcon configs? Are they too strict or are you ok with them?
[4K-Zommy]: At first when I used them I was shocked at how crippleing they were, but after having a few weeks to adjust I am more than happy to use it... My old objection is that they are forcing drawgun, I wouldnt mind if it didnt have a retarded fire animation that took up the whole screen :(

SelfieP: Allright. How much have you guys scrimmed in the past week as preparation for the upcoming match? Watched any demos?
[4K-Zommy]: Yeh, we've actually done a hellava lot of prep work... At the moment we are playing 2 scrims a night and 4 on Sundays.

SelfieP: If you do know anything about american rtcw, do you think there are any differences between american and european rtcw styles of play or strategies? Is there a difference in aim, as many say?
[4K-Zommy]: We've tried to play every prac on US East servers to adjust to the ping/config, and tried to play as many USA teams as possible

SelfieP: I see :>
SelfieP: If you do know anything about american rtcw, do you think there are any differences between american and european rtcw styles of play or strategies?
[4K-Zommy]: We've played a few of the tier1 American clans now, and some of their strats seem fairly archaeic. We were doing them 6 months ago :-)
[4K-Zommy]: I know im gonna get flamed for it
[4K-Zommy]: but seriously
[4K-Zommy]: i mean teams still doing warroom defence on beach :)

SelfieP: Any comments on the rew' vs MiN match? Will we see any effects of this match in upcoming games?
[4K-Zommy]: Nope, didnt watch it. They shouldnt have played at 5am though, thats just crazy.

SelfieP: Were you able to work out a good time with -x-?
[4K-Zommy]: Yeh, we got our best server, and the best time (we could have got)... NYC / 7pm EST (11pm our time)
[4K-Zommy]: Our best server gives us 110 in game, which is fairly playable.
[4K-Zommy]: Our best server = NYC :)

SelfieP: Nice to hear the playing field will be evened as much as possible. What do you think of Team Exodus? Do you know know any of their members in particular?
[4K-Zommy]: We've tried to do some research in preparation, havnt come up with much. After speaking to a few tier1 US teams we arnt expecting them to be that great. But we've learned not to take anyone for granted and we will be going into it more than prepared. We saw there latest Qcon qual game, and they deffinatly have decent aim, more decent than I had hoped for given the ping disadvantage anyway.

SelfieP: What do you think about the current e-sports scene?
[4K-Zommy]: I myself have recently given up work to do a fulltime job in the "e-sports scene" working for Four Kings. We've got some really exciting plans to push e-sports in the UK in the coming months. I forsee a bright future :-)

SelfieP: Great! Are there any specific plans for Four Kings after Qcon?
[4K-Zommy]: Well, Four Kings is a multigaming team, so we have many plans pre and post Qcon. As far as the RtCW squad is concerned though, Depending on CyberXGaming and the then current ET scene, we may switch over to ET... Who knows.

SelfieP: I see. How do you see the future of RTCW after Quakecon?
[4K-Zommy]: As I say, with ET released and becoming ever popular its hard to tell. I think CyberXGaming will help push it on for another 6 months, but after that I think ET may take over. Hopefully we will see some great custom maps get accepted into the ET community as I feel the current mappool is kinda limiting.

SelfieP: Any thought on the failure of Wolf Tactics? Was it the release date, or the mod itself that caused it to disappear from servers quickly?
[4K-Zommy]: I never read much into it, I guess with both ET and Qcon dawning, it was never gonna get much attention though.

Quakecon Qualifiers: tTt vs. Affliction

Posted by: Da_G]NARF[ (Tuesday, June 24, 2003)

OK so before I get into this, lets get the FACT's out of the way.

1.) The score was 2-1 (Lead favoring Trinity .:.)
2.) Trinity had 5 players on the tower base area + a sniper in the tower near the axis spawn.
3.) Affliction had no players on the tower base area.
4.) The game clock was on round 1 with about 4:30 on the clock

(All above facts are from memory from watching the match on WolfTV, please correct me if i'm wrong.)

At this time the OGL referee present (Lehmann) called a time-out when the player tTt-Opio went 999 due to an apparent accidental pressing of the ALT and ENTER keys. Up to this point all actions taken by the referee were perfectly valid. At this point the referee kicked tTt-Opio, citing 'incorrect assumptions' in this post on the main quakecon page. While this was all fine and well, it's OGL's administrative decision that I don't agree with.

OGL decided to give Trinity the rematch, which is indeed the 'right thing to do' given the situation, however they are in essence docking Trinity the 2 points they earned, as well as docking affliction the point they earned. There were no administrative errors made prior to this 999/timeout kick, so why are the previous 3 rounds being replayed? It is my feeling as a long standing member of the Wolfenstein community and having a fairly good amount of expierience playing this video game that a round replayed for no reason at all is never good; Both Trinity and Affliction earned the points they had prior to the administrative error and they should be allowed to restart their match from the point at which the error occured within reason; which would logically be to discount the 4:30 or so they had on the clock and start the match in round 4, at a score of 3-1. There is a poll located on planet-rtcw regarding this matter that I would encourage you to vote on as well, I'd like to get an idea of what the community thinks about the decisions surrounding this match.

Disclaimer: These are my opinions and mine alone, not the opinion of my team nor any other team competing in Quakecon. They are in no way intended as slanderous or otherwise aimed at any person place or thing in particular. If you have the urge to flame me or otherwise respond unintelligently and in an uncivilized manner to this article, feel free to smoke a load then come back when you're feeling a little more sane. :D

-Da_G, Leader, ]NARF[

Playertracker: Zaf

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, June 26, 2003)

1)Thank you for this interview. First off, tell us some information about yourself and your clan.

My names Tahir Zafar, im 20 and currently studying computing. I play for Gamepoint.amd (www.gmpo.de) and were off to Dallas :D

2) How did you get your nick?

In school, people shortend my second name to zaf. not to exciting i guess.

3) How and when did you start playing RTCW?

I was a very late starter to rtcw compared to other top european players. I was a quake 3 player before i picked up rtcw, and didnt want to give it up really. In about the febuary or march after rtcw was first released, my mate told me he had joined a clan called plotz and told me to come to the irc channel. In quake 3 my strongest weapon was my lightning gun, so the move over aim wise was really easy. I played the game a few times and found it really easy and the teamplay aspect really appealed to me (i was 1v1 q3 player). The rest is history.

4) If any, what event or player inspired you to play competitively?

hehe, alot man. I always wanted to reach "the top" in a game. Make a big event. I still wont believe im going till im in dallas and sitting at my pc. But as for inspiration, Blokey in quake 3 without a doubt. A uk player who made it big in esports and was all skill and no image. Gotta mention Fatality, i still remember the day i watched his demo from razer cpl where he won on q3dm13. Timing every armour to perfection. I remember thinking "god damn i wanna be that good". Event wise, well babbages cpl, where there was upset after upset and i just wished i was there. Also my good mate Raj "turbanator" Singh. Me and him had a HUGE rivalry in games, We went to school together and he always told me he would kick my ass at quake 3, so i practised hard and beat him 54 to -3 :)

5) Who supports your gaming?

For the last 9 months it has been me, but im moving house atm so living with my parents, So i guess them for 2 months. Money wise i support myself.

6) If any, what are all the tournaments/events you have won?

well, i won a local lan a few months ago! 1v1 q3 tourney. Only one other guy there played quake 3. but about 20 ppl entered. :D (www.badlanrising.com). Other than that, we won the te_ufo cup, came 3rd in eurocup (god damn it).

7) How long do you play on any given day?

Apart from friday and saturday, i play about 4 hours a day. Maybe more depending on how close it is to a tournement. For the qualifer game vs carn i was trying to hit about 6 a day.

8) How do you prepare yourself before a match?

Music Music and more music. I listen to about 5 songs every time to warm me up.
50 cent / g-unit- 8 mile freestyle
50 cent - poor lil rich
Gangstarr-who got gunz

+ which ever 2 im in the mood for :)

9) What is the best rtcw match you've ever played?

Well my set up at home is to crap for me to ever perform amazing (fps) but on lan ive played quite well. At the intel masters i played pretty welll in all my games.

10) What do you think about the current e-sports scene?

Fickle? I think thats a fair comment. its like, very hard to get sponsors, but even when you do, unless you sign legally binding contracts, then its unlikely you'll see much. Like 3d around 2 cpl's ago, sponsors pulled. Same goes for many other clans. As for competition wise, i think its great. But Apart from the satisfaction of being good, for the amount of time we put in, theres very little return.

11) What is your computer like? Headphones, mouse, mousepad? (specs)

Plantronics Nice Headset 2003 with mic , Logitech Duel Optical + Alsop.
Im currently on a 1.2 gig amd, geforce 4 4800. If you want to send me a new pc, feel free.

12) What are some of your hobbies?

I love to play football and Basketball. I play as much football as i can. Love going to the cinema with ma mates, have a ball every fri or sat night usually. Other than that, during my holidays i try to do as much charity work as i can. Marathon walks, feed the homeless and stuff. Its very self fulfilling :)

13) What are some other games do you look forward to playing?

Doom 3 and Half life 2. Mostly Half Life 2 from what ive seen. I love a good single player game and hl2 lookings amazing.

14) What is your average day like?

Wake up, go out, get back @ 4 hit irc. Hit a public 5-6. Scrim 6-10 then chill out after 10. For quakecon thats gonna change though. Looking at longer practise sessions :) (alot longer hehe)

15) What is your favorite food/drink?

Bottled Water man. Nothing beats mineral water. Food...hmmm. Curry?

16) What are your views on the recent upsets of SnapS by Last Chance and Rewind by Minions of Rage? Do you believe with SnapS and Rewind losing in the qualifiers that the two best teams in Europe are not represented in Quakecon?

Well Snaps losing to lc was their own fault. snaps didnt take lc seriously and Lc finished them off. Dont take anything away from Lc, they are a great team, and now that they are going they will go from strength to strength. Rewind... hmmm. Unlucky draw i guess, but still they could have played better.

As for them being the 2 best teams, i disagree. There is like a top 5 who can beat each other on any day / map (4k , Gmpo, iN, Rewind, Snaps). 1 of those is going, 2 are out, 2 are yet to qualify. If 4k and iN qualify then Eu will do v well @ quakecon. I think ocrana are through to, so another strong team. If amnesia beat amish, then you have another great team that will have the incentive to really start practising hard.

17) What is your opinion on the bracketing of Quakecon qualifiers this year? How satisfied are you with your own bracket? How would you do it?

They have been great. We all knew we had to play on usa servers, if you want to go to the best gaming event in the world, then you must be ready for the extra lag and adapt. The brackets are as far as you can get. Every bracket has 2 good teams in it. So its pretty fair.

18) If you could change anything about Quakecon what would it be?

More prize money! Oh and being able to stay warmed up during games would be good. Ive heard they are trying to sort this out though.

19) You guys handily defeated Clan Carnage on Assault. What do you think were the keys of that game that allowed your team to win in impressive fashion?

Well we made a pretty important change in swapping me with veracious. The defence was alot more stable when we switched, but it meant i only had 1 day to practise panzer. Not enough as im sure you could tell :P But the all round play, ramzi is just fantastic in officials. I mean you can be a most desperate of situation and he bails us out time and time again. Blaze is just crazy. When theres an important game, the guys like terminator. Refuse , Zemme and Veracious are brilliant medics, without them we would have got nowhere vs carn. Big shout out to refuse, who has had to wait to play for a LONG time due to eurocup rules. He waited for his chance, pracced with us solid for like 2 weeks and has been great.

Btw while im bigging us all up, special shout out to our army boy Alban. hes been a big part of the team for months and sadly had to go the army. Come back soon :D

20) Have you watched demos of or played many games against American teams? Do you see any differences in strategy or aim between European and American RTCW? If so, what?

Zommy said it already, American teams are using old tactics man, heavy panzer reliance and no aggresiveness. Maybe thats how you guys like to play. But i mean, if you switched the server rules around and american teams played on eu servers, im serious, every us team would have been well and truley smacked.

21) What are your predictions for Quakecon this year? Who do you think will be GamePoint's biggest competitors at Quakecon?

hmm, 4kings and Infensus. Narf if they dont smoke to much of the good stuff. We been scrimming Fx to, they seem to be using more aggrssive tactics and have the aim. They are my team to watch :)

22) Gamepoint is sponsored by several companies. How important do you think sponsorship is to RTCW gaming?

Right now its really important. Securing sponsership to go to quakecon is a big boost to anyone. gl to anyone looking sponsors!

23) Thanks for the interview. Any final comments or shoutouts?

Big up yo self to omg! Ninjai. my Xi buddies, Splitter, Montana, Logos, Blacklotus, Shiver, Phr3nzy. The 4k homofags Yilider, Hardnut, Explicit, Creamy, og and ofcourse my BEST MATE agb|insectsx.

Amish Spawntimer Drama

Posted by: Amish Gigolo (Monday, June 30, 2003)

Well, we've had to keep quiet about this, due to a spawntimer drama :)
But, the 3-2 win over Amnesia on Thursday on mp_assault is now official and the Amish will be attending Quakecon 2003 in Dallas, Texas this coming August.

We've had to wait awhile to give our position on all of this, untill we heard officially from OGL. But, here is our side of the story...

Basically, this all stems from a conversation that aINail from Team Affliction had with Zay from the OGL.


[16:34:10] Zay|Away: You can bring your own keyboard and mouse.
[16:34:19] Zay|Away: And make sure you have your configs on cd or disc.
[16:34:23] Zay|Away: Cuz we'll load em up every time.
[16:34:25] a|nail: right, script configs are allowed
[16:34:30] a|nail: but not extrenal programs?
[16:34:30] Zay|Away: Yes.
[16:34:33] Zay|Away: No.
[16:34:35] a|nail: cause euros got like
[16:34:41] a|nail: 4 different external spawntimers
[16:34:43] a|nail: exe programs


In this log, Nail is asking about the rules for the LAN portion of the tournament. Where external spawntimers are NOT allowed.

Well Nail, in his infinite wisdom thinks that these rules are throughout Quakecon now, and he is wrong. External Spawntimers/ANY kind of spawntimer is allowed in the Quakecon ONLINE Qualifiers.

Quote by Zay in an email to both Amish and Amnesia...


Spawn timers will be allowed and were not specifically disallowed during the online portion of the tournament. This was discussed before the tournament and no rule changes to make spawn timers illegal was made. The rule that was quoted by Amnesia in 9.a. was concerning weapons, items and areas within each map that can be used as exploits, not as spawn timers.

The reason for this was threefold. 1) Spawntimers were allowed in previous competitions. 2) Spawntimers were discussed when a team brought it up before competition and no rule was made against them and 3) While "in game" spawntimers can be banned and seen to be banned, it would be easy to make a voice one that would do the same thing that is NOT traceable during online competition. Rather than try to ban something that could not effectively be banned, it was decided to allow it.


After our match with Amnesia, Nail pm's me and gives me "part" of the log of his conversation with Zay (below). And then tells me, we're fucked...we used an external spawntimer.


[16:34:25] a|nail: right, script configs are allowed
[16:34:30] a|nail: but not extrenal programs?
[16:34:30] Zay|Away: Yes.
[16:34:33] Zay|Away: No.
[16:34:35] a|nail: cause euros got like
[16:34:41] a|nail: 4 different external spawntimers
[16:34:43] a|nail: exe programs


This is the same thing that a|Nail evidently pm'd members of Amnesia, which led them to complain against us. His portion of the log, missing the whole "LAN" part of it. In those responses made by Zay, she was answering his questions about the LAN portion of Quakecon, not the online quali's.

Basically, during this whole weekend of "drama", we were upset with our name being dragged through the mud, with everyone calling us cheaters. For anyone/any clan that knows us well, they know that we are one of the most respectable, honest and fun clans in American RTCW. We're proud of the reputation we've built and the fact that our name was shit upon, this past weekend, hurt us more then any complaint filed by Amnesia.

The Amish World Order would like to thank members of the Wolf Community, who stood by us, while everyone else bashed us. Members of cK, a||shatter, wSw|emaciator, -x-pissclams and -x-cracker, The Wippuh, members of Office Space, [u]Nok and LoT-Odin, along with many other people and US Clans who supported us privately.

We'd also, like to give a big heartfelt "Fuck You" to all the European fans, who bashed us without A.) Knowing our Clan or B.) Knowing the true story. Also, to the European clans who jumped on the bandwagon and called us cheaters, a couple of which are going to Quakecon...we look forward to meeting you in the tournament.

A special one finger salute goes out to a|Nail from Team Affliction, for being the dumbass that started this all and forgetting that the conversation he had with Zay was about the rules for the lan event in Dallas. And on top of that, giving the log to Amnesia to try to get us Disqualified. It's refreshing to know, that one dumbass can drag an entire clans name through the mud and cause this much drama in the wolf community.

We realize this was most likely not intentional, and just Nail confused. But, regardless...his confusion caused us alot of crap the past 3 days and in hindsight, we wish he would have been a little more careful :)

GG Nail

- Amish Gigolo and the Amish World Order

The REAL Amish spawntimer story!

Posted by: Kr#kc (Tuesday, July 1, 2003)

Okay I just read the article written by Amish|Gigolo on the whole issue. I feel I had to explain what REALLY happened, because Nail is now taking the blame for something he is not to blame for.

After we played the match against Amish we were just sad we lost since we really wanted to attend quakecon. Nothing was said though, and we just 'accepted' the fact that we didn't make it. Then the next morning when everyone in our IRC channel found out about the loss they started to download the demos submitted by the Amish players. Not to check for cheats or anything, but just to wacht the match.

Then one of the people in our IRC channel mentioned that Amish used an external spawn timer, and he said that this must have been illegal. Ofcourse this gave our depressed asses a little bit of hope. We checked the rules on the quakecon site and we thought we found something (in the already not-so-clear rules) that would disallow the spawntimer. We then wrote an email to Zay with a complaint about the spawntimer.

We didn't want to go public with it before quakecon had given us a reply on the matter. I sent the email to some friends though to show them what was going on (stupid!). I specifically told them not to bring it out, which they didn't do (well at least not into the public). Then Nail heard from one of my friends and he spoke to me on IRC and he pasted the conversation he had with Zay. Nail just agreed with us that the spawntimer was illegal and that it was an unfair advantage Amish had over us. I'm not sure wether he knew Zay ment that the external programs would be banned on LAN only and not in the online portion of the tournament. Anyways he told me he really liked the Amish and he didn't do this because of them, but purely because he felt the spawntimer was unfair. This conversation made us feel more just about filing the complaint, but it sure as hell did NOT START the whole complaint issue.

Anyways when I told one of my American friends about the issue he was smart enough to paste the whole conversation in his private channel which was occupied by the two well known mediawhores Pravda and Animeman, who were shoutcasting at that very moment. As any other mediawhore would have done they spilled the beans and I had to deal with a lot of angry Amish fans on IRC.

Now did we really think the spawntimer was the reason Amish won the match? No, ofcourse the spawntimer wasn't the reason they won the match. Do we think the spawntimer has given Amish an advantage we didn't have during the match? Yes, we do think the use of a spawntimer is a (small) advantage and we surely would have liked to use one ourselves (but we didn't think they would be allowed).

I already spoke to some Amish people yesterday after we got the final decision from the quakecon officials. Once again I want to express that we never ment to drag the Amish name trough the mud. We have nothing personal against the Amish, we just really really really wanted to attend quakecon. If people have called them cheaters then that was their opinnion and one that wasn't shared by us since we feel that a spawntimer isn't a cheat, but just a helpful tool. We'd like to wish Amish the best of luck at quakecon and we hope that the quakecon officials have learned from this and will be more clear in their rules next time so that every team will know what is allowed and what is not.

Playertracker: Warri0r

Posted by: Pravda (Thursday, July 3, 2003)

1) Thank you for this interview. First off, tell us some information about yourself and your clan:

Well, my name is Vinny Smith, I live on Long Island and im 15 years old. My first computer was the one im using now and rtcw was the first computer game I ever played. The clans I played in were old sk00l 82nd, then |LQD|, then LoT (for about a week, till I fucked over crucifix somehow, Then back to 82nd, yawn then Darkside and now fX. Some may say im a clan hopper but I had agreeable reasons for leaving everyone of them. FX Is a bunch of skilled and young players working there way up cal. We only have 2 loses under our belt. 1 in a bob2 match (yea the one wit the 3 panzers) and our 2nd pretty recent to wSw (http://www.geocities.com/dswarri0r/wswowns.jpg) just for a rough estimate of the pings.

2) How did you get your nick?

When I got this game I saw this server *laff* happy penguin and I was like awesome, a man 64 man server. The name I played as was EliteMarine22, which was pretty gheyz0r so, Nightwolf told me to use warrior. So I changed the name to what it looked good as and I got WARRIOR and eventually changed it to WarRi0R. That’s mad hotz0r.

3) How and when did you start playing RTCW?

I started playing RtCW around December of 2001..im pretty sure.

4) If any, what event or player inspired you to play competitively?

I had no knowledge of what a computer was till I got this leet Dell and I only played in happy penguin, so I guess you could say it just happened.

5) Who supports your gaming?

The only one that really supports my gaming is good ol’ mommy. After I started winning little prizes in those FnF tournys she was kind of happy I was atleast getting something (even if it was small).

6) If any, what are all the tournaments/events you have won?

Well the first tournament I was in was those FnF tourneys. I won quite a few of them..around 5 1v1 and 2 or 3 2v2s. I got around 50 bucks and a bunch of games and shizzle. Like I said nothing much, but your getting fo hizzie for the things you like. D|S prolly would of beat taf in bob2, but after our disappointing lose to dT, it was over. So I guess we ranked 4th bob2.

7) How long do you play on any given day?

Well I don’t really pub anymore, so I only play about 4 hours a day. But there are other games im starting to play even though there old.

8) How do you prepare yourself before a match?

The best way for me is scrimming and listening to Vaticans gh3y a$$ techno. Wow you would not want to be on voice with that freak while hes listening to techno/Kelly Clarkson/and Tatu. All u hear is high pitched squeals…

9) What is the best rtcw match you've ever played?

82nd vs xTc in cal open was an excellent match because 1) we won and 2) 82nd was down 2 rounds then came back to win 3-2. I would have to say the best match I played was the dT/-a- vs D|S in bob2. We totally had that game, but we definitely fudged up at important parts, which cost’ed us the game.

10) What do you think about the current e-sports scene?

Im not really sure of what this e-sport telefizzle is, but it has somewhat of a cool name 

11) What is your computer like? Headphones, mouse, mousepad? (specs)

Well I have a Dell pc (Ownage) 1.8ghz
512 SDRam
gf4 ti4200
Plantronics audio 90’s
Fatal1ty gaming pad aka fat pad
And the mx500
I got the fat pad because laws69 told me it was really good and it had a lot of space for movement. He was definitely correct…Im not here to advertise the fatpad but its %@#@%# big.

12) What are some of your hobbies?

I like long walks on the beach….

13) What are some other games do you look forward to playing?

Doom3, Halo for the pc, maybe even Quake 4

14) What is your average day like?

Wakeup around 1pm,eat,jump in pool,computer,work for a small amount of time ,eat,comp….repeat

15) What is your favorite food/drink?

Lobster owns all..i don’t care what anyone says
Ive been drinking a lot of water lately but I would have to say original MountainDew dents the facial region =x

16) If you could change one thing about Quakecon this year, what would it be?

One thing I would have to change is the lamers that threaten to beat up the 15 yrs old. People who say this must be real mature and really strong (I mean really strong, you just need to be) to even think about this. Haha I could picture it now….

17) What is your opinion on the whole qualifier bracket issue with Europeans? Do you think there was admin bias in favor of American teams?

I did read the post from one of those quakecon admins…it was his opinion or something like that…and I guess what he was saying was true. It would be nice for the euros to play the euros and the Americans play the Americans, maybe to get some of those known euro clans in,bahhhh I don’t know.

18) Which European teams, in your opinion, will be the toughest competition? Which American teams?

The toughest competition from the Europeans will be 4k and gmpo. Some of these guys can really shoot with a 100+ ping, just imagine a 10 ping.The tough American teams will be affliction and maybe taf. I really don’t think narf will be that good just because they have immortal and he thinks he is hot shizzie which he really isn’t . He knows exactly why I said that to 

19) What do you feel will make Team Fx the best team at Quakecon? How has your team prepared?

What would make us the best team is having the ‘Antidote Rage’. Somehow he sneaks by everyone and is able to plant TeH DyNoMiTe. None of our shoots are that bad, and they can easily take down 2-4 guys in one clip…..maybe heh

20) What is your response to players who have claimed that members of Fx have used hacks?

Hmm this is kind of a tough question, because I lanned with a lot of them, and no one didn’t have any hacks on. I know they definitely don’t hack in RtCW but those other games I have no idea, and I really don’t care. If there not hacking on the same team im on, in the same game, I really couldn’t give 2 cents.

21) What are your predictions for CAL Invite this season?

Well without my team being on the list I think its going to be
Narf
Wsw (don’t really like the guys, but they seem to have their shizzle together, they will prolly get 2nd or 3rd)
[taf] (Warmachine is a really messed up kid but taf will prolly get 2nd or 3rd in cal)

22) What future do you see for RTCW after Quakecon?

I really think RtCW is going to die after qcon but who knows. LET RTCW LIVE ON!!!!!!

23) Thanks for the interview. Do you have any shoutouts or final comments?

Thanks for the interview planet-rtcw and good luck to all the seeds in quakecon. O and also our irc has been moved to #fxgaming, peace

Bring on the New Maps!

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Tuesday, July 22, 2003)

Another season of cal/twl is about to end and a new one begin. Last season saw the inclusion of Frostbite and UFO into the rotations, bringing a lot of new and interesting gameplay.

A season or two back, TWL fooled with a 4 week preseason of custom maps. That was probably the most fun I've had in wolf in a month. The mappers were very interested in what we had to say and listened closely to those who returned intelligent feedback. Well, now TWL and CAL look at a new season and we don't have any suggestions for new maps.

So, lets get some ideas out there and see what people think. Perhaps NARF and LoT can be persuaded to include these maps in their rotation and we can play them. After all, who isn't tired of spawning on base, running to the lower halls to radar 2 and throwing a nade to catch withever asshat wants to leancamp that doorway.

I'll start up some ideas and we can go from there. Keep it civil people! If you love the 3-0-9 slugfests on Assault then just don't post here :P

MitchellDown - Played in the preseason mentioned, this has been released as a brand new seperate pk3! It eliminates the no plane/fog bug and includes water you can't see through! A small and simplistic map, it features a lot of 1v1 situations and wide open firefights!
http://www.rtcwfiles.com/file.info?ID=8601

Infamy - A map designed specifically for league play, this map was produced from a long list of requirements put forth from team players. I've heard nothing but good things about this one. I would highly rec' that it be checked out!
http://www.rtcwfiles.com/file.info?ID=14186

I know that there's been interest in Chateau with tweaked spawns and a map named Pacific which was made by a clanmate of the guy who made frostbite. If you know anything about those, chime in. If you know how Chateau, with 30 sec spawns for each team, could be achieved on the Speakeasy servers please say so :)

Maybe we can get 2 or 3 more maps selected for league play so we can make a te_mappack.pk3 and lessen the load of multiple downloads.

fx vs NARF - Da_G and Vatican ze Interviews!

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Tuesday, July 22, 2003)

So I was asked to do some interviews and write ups for the cal-i championship match. Thinking that I'd head to the gym tonight I instead changed my plans to do some hardcore researching and interviewing. Detered only by a stop by the grocery store to buy some food (hamburger meat and Miller High Life @ 5.99 for a 12, hello bachelor life), I came prepared to dish out the dirt on our two cal-i contestants! You'd have to be living on a bani server, or be named Zydoran, to not about these two powerhouses. From the very beginning of the season where Cal-I reformed it figured to be a great season. With 17 teams things looked strong.

At the end of the season apathy had run rampant due to BoB2/quakecon qualifiers and only 12 teams remained. At one end of the table was NARF. The undefeated champs for 2 seasons, they are the team everyone is gunning for. At the other end was the young upstarts in fx. One team playing an incredibly disciplined style and the other playing an aggressive, kill everything you can style. Both teams wanted that #1 spot that NARF has held for so long.

fx started the season with a tough 3-2 win over cK and then rolled the rest of the way. Powered by the larger than life player named Warrior, fx went through only dropping 1 round. that to Uprise in the playoffs on assault. This included a huge win over NARF on base. A 3-0 win no less. However no wtv was allowed, and no demos released. Hard to base a judgement off a game no one saw. Was NARF really playing or were they holding back for qcon? Was fx just that dominant? No one is sure.

Narf rolled seemingly through the regular season too. There were questions though as am (now cK) pressed them 2-3 both matches they met, and both TAF and CARN stole a round vs the beer boys. Not to mention the 0-3 loss to fx on base. Has NARF loss their touch? Have they gotten tired of wolf? Abuse lasted two seasons. Doctors lasted two seasons. No powerhouse team has even tried to go three seasons.

So Thursday night at 11est they meet up for the grand finale. A match watched world wide by the wolf community. Euros, forgoing baths yet again, will stay up late and see if NA has anything to offer up. NA players will shut that Euro smack down with the dreaded "who won last year?". We'll find out Thursday night who's gonna be the top rep out of NA, the hunted at qcon.

All I know is that those dirty Euros must be beat! Long live Freedom Fries!



NARF: Da_G tells it like it is.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Tell everyone who you are, what you do, how NARF started, all that good intro stuff.

(Da_G]NARF[) Well im this wierdo from southern california, some people call me "Gabe" some people call me "Da_G" and some people dont call me. I'm the leader of ]NARF[, have been for oh, since somewhere around the time Action Quake 2 came out (which was when I founded the clan of then 4 members). 2 of us had played serial-null-modem doom on LAN before playing Action Quake 2, but it was named something else at that time, heck if I can remember back that far :D


(c[_]`Wippuh) You guys are one of the few teams still around that played some of the original big boys. How do you think today's invite would stack up against The Doctors and Abuse of seasons past?

(Da_G]NARF[) I think the air surrounding the game is certainly very different these days... perhaps tied into the stagnation of strategy on the 'league maps' that have been played time in and out (and in, and out!) When Abuse and the Doctors were in the mix they were able to come up with alot of the strategies still used today.. Gun-wise, my memory isnt that great so I wouldnt be able to tell ya anything more than I probably got prawned by em :D


(c[_]`Wippuh) You guys have pretty much been the dominant team in wolf for a couple of seasons now. How do you prevent burnout and keep on going? How have you managed to stay successful for so long?

(Da_G]NARF[) Burnout.. well we've all taken vacations throughout the time we've been playing.. that helps :D And we do clan powwows every other weekend or so where we can get together around a bong and a blintz and discuss strategies and whatnotwhowhere.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Dante went to one of your lans and told me it was hella fun. Since you guys are so famous for being a lan team, describe the typical NARF lan.

(Da_G]NARF[) We tend to set our computers up first in the 'designated lan area' then make a trip to the store to grab some bieres and munchies and whatnot, have a session or two, then start playing when we get to the 3rd or 4th beer :D We tend to start around 7-9 PM and typically play well into the morning... the last person to fall asleep usually does so around 8 or 9 AM ;x
oh, and we dont only play RTCW... sometimes we rock other things like Command and Conquer Generals and that queermo gheyme CPMA... :D


(c[_]`Wippuh) Not trying to get any secrets here, but can you describe how you guys have been preparing for fx? What do you think of them? What will be the keys to the match?

(Da_G]NARF[) Mostly typical scrim schedule, trying some wierd things like flamers and dynamites and grenade juggling.. we might beat them in the show dept if we can get 2 panzers to collide at the pole from both doors in the flag room simultaneously celebrating our countries' independance while blowing anyone in there to shreds!
Or, we might not. You never know.


(c[_]`Wippuh) A lot is being made of the scene right now and all the smack talking going on. Demos being traded back and forth, players just bashing teams b/c of their age, etc... What do you make of all of this, and what do you think RtCW needs right now, if anything at all?

(Da_G]NARF[) RtCW needs... hmm, i wouldnt presume to know what RtCW needs right now, I took one too many bong hits earlier in preperation for scrimmaging.. "typical scrim schedule" as I said :D What I can say is that I'd prefer to keep out of all that hoopla.. im just here to have a good time :D


(c[_]`Wippuh) On the subject of trading demos and so forth, you guys release pretty much all of your demos. You let wolftv in on your matches and release your cfgs for people. What's the philosophy behind that?

(Da_G]NARF[) meh our strats are old and so is everyone elses.. ptooey. If someone comes up with something supar-l33t, im sure everyone would be using it soon enough anyway.. as far trading demos of scrims and whatnot goes, scrims are a different issue than matches and giving demos of that out is ghey =( not saying that anyone has or hasnt however :x


(c[_]`Wippuh) You've been around forever in the scene, and you've seen teams come and go. If you could give 3 pieces of advice to new teams on what to do in order to be successfull, what would they be?

(Da_G]NARF[) hmm advice.. practice as much as possible, but only within reason.. dont overdo it beyond the point of being able to go about your day-to-day tasks and feel stressed about things or you'll probably end up burning ourself out
get to know your teammates as well as possible and resolve any differences you may have between each other.. anything on your mind precluding your thoughts of the game is a detriment.
and have fun :D


(c[_]`Wippuh) You're on your way to qcon, with a possible #1 seed. What are your goals at qcon? Who are you looking forward to meeting? What kind of keg will you have (#1 question for the 'quickies' section)?

(Da_G]NARF[) Our goals are to kick ass and take names, trying not to get too faded the night before big matches (if we have a morning match omgorsh =( =( =( ) Looking forward to meeting everyone i've played online, if not to at least get a face to go with the name then to collect on some debts of beers people owe me (bwahahhaah) and slampound a few with the euro bastards :D
As far as the keg goes, that's top secret! it'll probably contain some sort of "strange brew", hold the hockey robots. But if anyone has any ideas how we can get it up to the hotel room without getting busted, im all ears :D If we cant we'll just have to bring up suitcases of biere.. BWAH!


(c[_]`Wippuh) Quickies, the quick questions sent in from IRC!

- (ryzer|HV) if you could have sex with one rtcw player who would it be!?

(Da_G]NARF[) ryzer.. if i could have sex with any rtcw player, it'd probably be kane! he's been our official leper for the longest time and a favorite little known mascot :D

- (arch) ask him what's the weirdest thing he's ever seen at a party

(Da_G]NARF[) arch.. the wierdest thing ive ever seen at a party was when there was a keg up the street from my house and it started raining, and everyone was determined to keep drinking... there were alot of girls there wearing heavy makeup and the rain made all their faces look like clowns.. they i dropped an acid blotter and started talking to the trees while running from the ugly clown-women.

- (a||rrc) what is his recommendation for an anti-dandruff shampoo?

(Da_G]NARF[) rrc, well, refer to 'there's something about mary'... that girl's got the right idea :p

- (Sir_Shaggy]NARF[) ask him about his dogbot...

(Da_G]NARF[) shaggy.. GAH! the dogbot. that's a good one. the other night we were scrimming and my cousin brought over his little purebred chiuahua, who was trying to get me to pick it up while we were scrimming.. anyway i kept ignoring it so it got more and more antsy, and headbutted my computer at full bore which crashed it making me invincible.. :x

- (opp-storm) there is a picture, in it da_g is (what looks like) getting his armpit licked by a teammate. Would you care to comment on this?

(Da_G]NARF[) storm.. that picture.. EH!!!! that's ed's fault.. we were drinking all day at a LAN.. what canI say :x oops scrims starting bye :D


(c[_]`Wippuh) Ok dokey, that's it. Any shoutouts, put them here :)

(Da_G]NARF[)





fx: Vatican tells us something.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Tell everyone who you are, what you do, how fx started, all that good intro stuff.

(fX|-Vatican) Well i'm Vatican, I came from LoT then joined Elbow$ for a few weeks then we got knocked out of the playoffs by HV. I thought slag and dan would be gone to sof2 for sure and I still wanted to play wolf. So I got wyld and impulse to come along with me and start the clan. We got some friends for Flatline and we merged with them. I'm the leader of fXgaming along with Bk2x for the wolf division.


(c[_]`Wippuh) You guys are a relatively new team formed from veteran players. With being such a new team, what's the biggest thing you've learn about the success of a team? What keeps you guys together?

(fX|-Vatican) Well winning is fun and all but we're all friends and close to the same age so we get along with each other very well
Success of a team comes from being friends with your teammates and knowing what they are gonna do and how they think.


(c[_]`Wippuh) fx has some very experienced players on your team. Guys have played on teams like 82nd, LoT, and d|s to name a few. How does that experience help you?

(fX|-Vatican) When you've played on big name teams in the big time competition, all your guys will know what it takes and what kind of people we're playing against.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Without a doubt you guys have a huge name on your team in WarrioR. Describe his contribution to the team, what does he bring? Also, with him being such a large name who do you think gets overlooked and why?

(fX|-Vatican) I'd have to say someone that gets overlooked is definately all of my guys. People know that they are good but they don't know how good they are. Impulse is one of the best guns in the game, wyldcard can do everything.
The two that get overlooked are wolve and antidote. They definately have some good guns and are very smart, people probably don't think they are any good.
Warrior brings his gun and knowledge of the game to my clan. He makes the strats most of the time.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Give me the goop (stfu HandofDeath), but can you describe how you guys have been preparing for NARF? What do you think of them? What will be the keys to the match?

(fX|-Vatican) Well as of now we have been scrimming hard because we know that NARF will be a tough team to beat.
Lynch is a very smart panzer and he'll bring his game.
The keys to our match will be how well our offense runs. If our offense is gelling then we have a great chance of beating NARF.
NARF all in all have all pros on their team, with da g, beaver, obliv, etc


(c[_]`Wippuh) NARF = lan to a lot of people, all their success is purely derived from the fact that Lynch gets a sneak peak for big pf shots. What do you think of that? Overrated, underrated?

(fX|-Vatican) Not too sure, I know that lynch is a very great panzer on the lan and off the lan. Sure looking at another persons monitor to see where they are is easy but you also have to have the knowledge and skill of how to shoot it. Panzering is a very tricky thing, it is definately very hard to be a good one like lynch is.


(c[_]`Wippuh) A lot is being made of the scene right now and all the smack talking going on. Demos being traded back and forth, players just bashing teams b/c of their age as I'm sure you know :(, etc... What do you make of all of this, and what do you think RtCW needs right now, if anything at all?

(fX|-Vatican) Well I know that we get picked on about our age and stuff, people tell us we have bedtimes, tucked in by mommy, etc. Doesn't hurt me or my team a bit, just funny to see them say that. As for demo trading, you'd have to talk to impulse on that. I wasn't even aware that we were handing out demos to other teams, if we were doing that. It only hurts us because that gives the other team that is watching it to see our positions and they'll know how to break it.
Every game has shit talk in it, cs, sof2, rtcw, you name it The way things look and what people are saying RTCW will die after qcon, so if anything maybe some more skilled teams that will bring top competition.


(c[_]`Wippuh) You guys look to be going into qcon with a very high seed and a team that the Euros praise. You've been destroying teams left and right. How do you keep your team level headed through all of that? Do you think all that talk can be bad?

(fX|-Vatican) We can get overconfident and talk all the talk and then not walk the walk and get raged by the shit talk.
That also gives us confidence maybe.


(c[_]`Wippuh) After Qcon, what's the plans for the team? RtCW? Other games?

(fX|-Vatican) I know there is talk that they want to be playing Halo, HL2, the new cs and stuff. I'm not sure if we'll be playing wolf but I will be and I'm probably going to be looking for a team to stay active while they are practicing for Qcon since I can't go because of school.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Quickies, the quick questions sent in from IRC!

- (Recon_Para) Ask Vatican what he feels the Catholic Church must do if it is to recover from the sex scandals that

have plagued them? Also, why the fuck do Catholics disavow the use of contraceptives, wtf is wrong with them?

(fX|-Vatican) Well being the head of the church I must consult God with this question as I have been since it first started.

- (operative) are they going to try a whole new way about thinking of a defense or stick to there normal defense, and trusting it will work time after time (you know people watch demos)

(fX|-Vatican) No we're using a brand new D, few flamers here and there, venoms, sten, the works.

- ([502nd]Col-Mustard) what was it like handing a loss to a team that hasnt been beaten in 3 seasons?

(fX|-Vatican) Well there were some server disputes at the start of the match where most of them pinged a solid 50 where we had no one below 60. But I don't want to get cocky but NARF brought a good game and was missing a few key starters in Lynch but Mark filled in for him and did a great job imo.
We were also missing Nightwolve.

- (Royal_Ally|TB) ask him if he's ever heard of teamburque and its legendary captains.

(fX|-Vatican) Yeah that's oldschool Amish.
Is rudy bega playing for them? I like his little picture with a santa claus or something.

- (c[_]`Wippuh) Best Alabama joke you've heard told to Antidote? Damn rednecks!

(fX|-Vatican) Well I'm from North Carolina and me and anti are both southerners.
When I try to crack down on anti he always thinks of something good and puts me down harder than I tried to put him down, that's what he does to everybody, you can't make fun of him.

([_]`Wippuh) Ok dokey, that's it. Any shoutouts, put them here :)

(fX|-Vatican) First off, a shoutout to kappa the alien, go spectator kappa, you aren't playing.
Second a shoutout to all my starters, warrior, wyld, impulse, anti, reaper who's filling in for wolve and wolve who's on vacation.
And also to the rest of the dudes in fXgaming.
Well shoutout to all the people in my old clans, the guys at lot, warmachine parcher dan slag tp, the elbow guys the

guys in redemption and the rest of the wolf community as well
shoutout to vexed who goes to my school and is in team damage
And of course, the friendly board guest over at Planetwolfenstein.

-x- vs dh - warch1ld and reddevil ze Interviews!

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Tuesday, July 22, 2003)

With the three teir format coming back to cal, there's been a very slack happy cal-i season. However, the same can't be said for main. Nothing but praise has been heard for the level of play that has been consistantly held there all season. We're now down to the finals and digital heresy (formerly Minions) face off vs Team Exodus. The top seeds in their respective divisions will put on their flannels and duke it out on mp_ice at 10est on Thursday night. TSN will be shoutcasting and WTV should be present too!

Thursday night looks to be wolfer's dream come true. Cal-m finals at 10, then Cal-i finals after that, all with ze axis goat, Sabo, and the one and only, Warwitch! Hot damn!

I went into the write up about NARF and fx knowing a good bit about their high profile teams. Cal-m posed a different problem. I didn't know much about either team. So I did some looking around and here's what I now know.

.dh is the old Minions. They've just come off a very big win over Rewind, the #1 team in Europe, in the quakecon qualifiers. After that dh went on to finish off Wat? on assault and secure themselves a spot at qcon. Being the
team that a lot of buzz is about, they've cruised through the regular season with a perfect record. Scares came at the hands of kinetic, arise, and deathtouch in 3-2 wins, but the rest were 3-0 romps, including a mid July matchup vs BYE on ice. A lot of people associate .dh with HCC as some former players make up their present lineup. I'm not sure who is who, but some big names do play on the team. Guys like LuckyB, RedDevil, Kuniva and Havoc pick up the slack that they surely endure with the inclusion of Yogi. dh looks to be the cal-m team poised to take the leap to the cal-i level of play.

Team Exodus is an old school team that has seen several different lineups. I really only knew them as the home of the MIDGET ABUSE!!!, but Maximal went to shack up with the damn dirty Amish and now the lineup consists of names like ABomB, fragile, Warch1ld, and Super Luigi! Exodus went 7-1 during the regular season. The lone loss coming on mp_coinflip to the Immortals. They had impressive wins along the way, including two over Trinity, the team that almost (should have?) knocked off Affliction in the qcon quali's. -x- didn't face off vs anyone during the regualar season on ice, but did eliminate UwF in the quakecon quali's before they met up with the British Powerhouse of 4k. A team notorious for their assault prowess.

A lot of questions look to be answered in this matchup Thursday night. Is dh all that they're suppose to be? What will -x- bring to the table on a map they haven't played a strong opponent on yet? A lot of pressure appears
to be on dh to dominate this match and prove that the win vs rewind wasn't a ping fluke. A loss here could damage their rep big time, with their seeding at qcon possibly taking a huge dive. Will dh just pull it off like the
Lakers vs the Nets, or will a 'hey, we have nothing to lose' attitude propel -x- to the cal-m championship?

.dh interview

(c[_]`Wippuh) Tell everyone who you are, what you do, how .dh started, all that good intro stuff.

(dh|RedDevil) Da RedDevil. Started playing when test2 came out and moved into full. First clan was in Europe called *GiB* then moved onto muppet labs and Lemmings. Joined the US scene right b4 QCon and met up with slaG who was in XoS at the time. He recruited me and when me and him started carrying the team constantly we decided to form Elbows with D@niel. blah blah blah elbow story is old then I made MiN with some 3rdtime HCC guys and We proceeded to merge with dh in euro for lots of reasons...

(c[_]`Wippuh) You guys are really known for your huge win over rewind. How did that win feel, what are the good/bad ramifications of that win?

(dh|RedDevil) The win felt good. About 2 weeks of preperation for it paid off. The win gave us confidence and that helped in the next round vs wat?.
Bad ramificcations.... All of Europe hating us. :/

(c[_]`Wippuh) What are your goals for qcon? Who are you guys excited to meet? How do you prepare for matches in a lan environment like that?

(dh|RedDevil) Oh man... Lets see... Goals: Stay drunk as long as possible without missing match time. Do our best in the tourney. We are very excited to crack brews with anyone and everyone we met along the way bc you never know when you will get that chance again. But slaG, D@N, next2u, fX, and most importantly my own clan... I am sure the guys have their own favs to meet but thats the overall crew we all in dh have in common...
Preparing for a LAN is like impossible unless u prac on a LAN... :/ Me and JT (Havoc) been lanning once in a while so we have an idea of what its gonna be like sitting next to the whole clan playing. But all in all we are just going to be scrimming like always.

(c[_]`Wippuh) You recently merged with .dh from the UK (Dusustin is THE sexy!), what do you hope to gain from that relationship? What do you plan to bring to it?

(dh|RedDevil) Man... We have allready gained a lot from the UK division. Lots of their strats are completely different then ours and they share all kinds of input when we scrim. Usually like 2-3 of em are speccing and watching us, giving tips. They played with all the Euro teams so they always tell us what to expect when we go to QCon and what to look out for. So we got an advantage allready. BUT most importantly we are bringing the dh
We sent out apps when the clan was just Minions and ATI was happy to sponsor us but bc we were not an established name they declined on that reason alone. So, we figure having the dh name and its long history as a clan would help us get sponsors. Plus the UK guys are funny as hell on voice. :)
We are going to maximize the exposure for the dh name in the US as they are doing the same in the UK/Europe. This way companies that sponsor us will get exposure around the world as apposed to just the US or UK/Europe.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Team exodus. What do you know about them and what will the keys for dh to win the match?

(dh|RedDevil) Lets see... We dont know much about exodus except that their rostor is nice... They got some good shots. We also heard that they like panzers... like 3-4 of em. :p I think execution of strat will win this one. We are prepared for whatever they throw at us... but spawn camping with 6 panzers is gonna be a problem.... :p

(c[_]`Wippuh) A lot is made of individual players lately. Guys like Warrior and Lynch really being match changers for a team. Do you think all the hoopla surrounding just 1 player like that can be bad? What kind of signal does this send out to new teams and new players?

(dh|RedDevil) hehe... Its not bad to praise one players abilities above the rest. But on my team we cant really say... if we did it would be Lucky but then again we had lots of matches where it was cky who took down 3 in a row or Havoc or Kuniva who sniped 6-7 in a row..
I dont think new teams and new players should pay attention to that. Working on teamwork is most important. Yeah its gonna help having an awesome shot so u can destroy a rush on ur own but then again if that was the case then play
the game 1v6.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Lately I'm hearing more and more smack talk. Not stuff or fun, but actual mud being slung left and right. What do you guys think of that? What do you think RtCW needs, if anything at all?

(dh|RedDevil) HAHA... Funny u should ask me that... Especially since when I was in elbows me and u never got along. I think its funny and I personally love to read it... but I *try* to stay out of it now... Not my thing anymore.
I think RTCW needs more competition... and I guess telling someone they blow will make em get stronger so that they show em up... maybe shit talking could be put to good use. :p

(c[_]`Wippuh) Say that you had the chance to take all of the guys out to eat with your mother at qcon. Who's the one teammate you would ditch and why?

(dh|RedDevil) umm would have to be... LuckyB If u come to QCon u will see what I am talking about. Dude has a mohawk
scarry as hell Wouldnt want my mom meeting him

(c[_]`Wippuh) What are the team's plans for after qcon?

(dh|RedDevil) Thats up in the air atm. The plan is to stay RTCW and play for the CyberX tourney but it looks shady atm. Plus we are like the only clan signed up for the NYC LAN so it also looks like not enough clans are interested. We are looking into new games and with Halo being released in Sept, or so I heard, that may be the next game for us since the guys are really into it on XBox.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Irc quickies

- (Zydoran[FH]) ask them if bears have pubes, and if they do, where does the hair end and the pubes start

(dh|RedDevil) oh man... yogi warned me. How do u even answer that? "You are an idiot." - Triumph

- (smokeSteeL) Has Kuniva ever assaulted someone during a CAL Match

(dh|RedDevil) umm Kunivas little escapade with the twinkie snatcher cost us a night of scrims. But no he NEVER abused anyone during a CAL Match.

- (@opp-Natas) why is yogi so FIRN

(dh|RedDevil) I believe he is FIRN bc he didnt get enough attention by Momma bear. Someone ate his cheerios I dont know.

- (nyX-Sharp) It has been known for exodus to run 1 or 2, maybe even 3 panzers in matches, how do you plan to overcome a panzer fest if one occurs

(dh|RedDevil) Gonna whine first... saying something like "Try using 5." Then we are gonna bind the "Eblow Pads removed" bind by every member and proceed to rage in a orderly fashion. But seriously if they do its just gonna be a diff strat adjustment. We got something for em.

- (dR|SykotyK_) ask em if reddevil yells on vent sometimes

(dh|RedDevil) haha yeah I yell all the time I need to keep ppl in check...
I learned from D@N who made LuckyB quit elbows bc he yelled ALOT. But its effective. :)

(c[_]`Wippuh) Shoutouts? Put em here!

(dh|RedDevil) hmm ALL of dh... we are a big family. Kinetic, Arise, Elbows (u have no idea), Frontline, wSw, fX.

.
.
.

-x- interview

(c[_]`Wippuh) Tell everyone who you are, what you do, how -x- started, all that good intro stuff.

(-x-warch1ld) I’m warch1ld, the leetest h4x0r in rtcw, and leader of Team Sexodus. Basically exodus started roughly a year ago when talent from several different clans merged together under the leadership of sexy essential. Several came from overdrive, xpk, mwk, and so on. After a year of breakups and reformations, here we are now.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Out of the 4 teams in the finals, you guys are the only ones who didn't qualify for qcon. What did you learn from that loss vs 4k?

(-x-Cracker) “Well, we learned a few things: (1) Never underestimate European teams. (2) Ping won't save your ass if you don't properly execute your strat. (3) Beer before liquor, never been sicker. (4) We played in a qualifying match?”

(c[_]`Wippuh) From my pov, this match has a lot of pressure stacked on top of dh to win, and to do so convincingly. How are you guys approaching it?

(-x-warch1ld) Same way we pretty much do every week, scrim hard and tweak our strat until we are somewhat satisfied with the results.

(c[_]`Wippuh) So tell me, what do you guys know about dh, what do you have to do to win this match?

(-x-warch1ld) We know that this match is going to be our toughest of the season. Dh is a very strong team, that has only improved throughout the season. To win were going to have to play our best, not make any noobish mistakes, and we’ve got to be able to adapt to anything they throw at us.

(c[_]`Wippuh) You've attained a lot of success this season. What 3 things would you tell a new team to do in order to achieve a high level of play?

(-x-warch1ld) To achieve a high level of success, you’ve got to want it very bad. That means you will practice, practice, and practice. Also, never give up. We were certainly the underdog quite a bit this season, but we pulled through and here we are at the finals. You have to stay focused on your goal to achieve success.

(c[_]`Wippuh) A lot is being made of the scene right now and all the smack talking going on. Demos being traded back and forth, players just bashing teams b/c of their age as I'm sure you know :(, etc... What do you make of all of this, and what do you think RtCW needs right now, if anything at all?

(-x-warch1ld) Honestly to me, all the bashing and so forth is ridiculous. This sort of thing only plagues the community, and sends a bad impression to new players. I think that rtcw needs to get over the trash talking and move on, the community would be so much better that way.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Piece together your uber team from the characteristics of the team's out there right now. Aim, fun, teamwork, etc...

(-x-warch1ld) It’s really a combination of aim, teamwork, and enjoyment you get out of the game. To me, the most important aspect is the fun you have playing with people you’ve known for some time now.

(c[_]`Wippuh) What do you hope to see happen in the RtCW scene in the future?

(-x-warch1ld) Hopefully rtcw will live on, I’d hate to see such a good game die off. As for exodus, we are done after this season, but dst is making clan bonar. So GL to all the teams and players that stick around after this season.

(c[_]`Wippuh) This is a question for Cracker. Many are curious about last year's qcon. It seems that there was a wetness in Amish DeviantDuck's backseat after your ride to Hooters. Would you care to tell us what that was?

(-x-Cracker) Well, I would like to take this opportunity to say that DeviantDuck is a really cool guy and he's very, very nice. However, my mother always told me not to lie. Yes, I did ride in the backseat. Yes, DeviantDuck drives like a goddamn lunatic. Yes, I was fearing for my life. Did I piss/vomit/cream/spit/or otherwise transfer fluid on the backseat? Hell no. If there was a wetness left on the backseat, I certainly wasn't aware of it until well after QuakeCon in some PlanetWolfenstein post by Gigolo. Maybe DeviantDuck and CrackFiend had an accident with their man-love and decided to blame it on me... who knows. But if you ask me (which you did), it's all just a bunch of h4x and lies.

(c[_]`Wippuh) Irc quickies

- (nyX-Sharp) ask em if sharp owns them :D

(-x-warch1ld) yes, on a daily basis

- (Amish_Maximal) exodus: Which one of you has the tightest abs?

(-x-warch1ld) besides me, that would be essential

- (es|Phaze) Which Olsen twin do you prefer, Marky-Kate or Ashley

(-x-warch1ldr) this is a tough one… both =] Jawohl

(c[_]`Wippuh) Shoutouts? Put em here!

(-x-warch1ld) First off, I want to personally thank Redrum for hosting our vent, and being so cool

with us. We couldn’t have made is this far w/o them.
As for individual shoutouts…
Fragile - sharp and decka =o
Dstskillz - love papa and clan bonar
Cracker - beer, titties, and Crackle The Ugly Crackwhore
Essential - Essential would like to shoutout to vienna sausage and all the fine single ladies out there
Warch1ld – apoc, essential, seric, viking, the Mario brothers, anarchist(my stalker), agentxzors,

rap1er, and everyone who I left out =P

Qcon Seeding Predictions

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Friday, July 25, 2003)

While listening to and watching demos of the matches last night, I couldn't help but think how these two cal matches would have an effect on qcon. Most of the week we listened to how fx and .dh were gonna go on to victories, with almost everyone I talked to saying that dh would win 3-0 while fx would escape with a close 3-2 or 3-1 victory. However the opposite was the case in both matches last night. exodus dominated dh in convincing fashion and NARF snuck off with their 3rd straight championship.

With a fx win, the qcon seedings would be very interesting to see. With NARF winning, they almost assuredly secure the #1 seed. Last year, Abuse got the #2 seed behind iN. With 3 straight seasons of having the top cal championship in their grasp, NARF has shown the consistancy and dominance that is needed for the #1 seed. There's no other team out there that can argue for their spot. Maybe iN can, but I've got the feeling that this year NA will get the #1 seed.

With the way fx came in and pushed NARF to the very limit, a #3 seed looks very possible. A win might have won a #2 seed, but a #3 seed is none to shabby and will take the pressure off of them and put it on NARF in the next few weeks while everyone prepares for qcon. If anyone can handle the pressure, it would probably be NARF. A few cases of beer and a gravity bong are a sure cure for any expectations placed on them.

The cal-m match threw some things in the air. WolfTV was full, but I listened on TsN and heard the commentary afterwards, things looked very poor for dh. This hurts them in their quest for a higher seed. With their loss to exodus, dh might have secured a bottom quarter of the bracket seed. A loss to exodus seems to negate the momentum gained from defeating Rewind and place them beneath 4k, whom beat exodus in the online qualifiers. This could be the proper motivation needed for dh. Now they can kick the bandwagon jumpers off and scrim again with the fury that got them the win over Rewind.

The biggest loser in all of this? Affliction. With no participation in cal and a rocky performance vs Trinity on assault, -a- has dropped from a possible 1 seed to anywhere from 5-9. The only team to challenge NARF the last 3 seasons, Affliction was poised to take the lead for NA RtCW and take a top spot at qcon. With the break off from dT and the loss of DimmaK, things have changed drastically. A lower bracket means tougher competition earlier in the tournament, and certainly tougher opponents on assault later on in their run. With only top 4 getting money, the move to dismiss cal this season looks to be proving costly.

These are just my opinions however, and I'm sure yours are different. Beneath are the brackets from last year, and what I see as the brackets for this year. Feel free to tear it apart and tell me why I'm a moron. Make sure if you do that, you tell everyone your 16 team seeding and why you disagree with me.

Qcon 2002 Seedings.
01. iN
02. Abuse
03. ocr
04. drs
05. mTw
06. P
07. cK
08. wSw
09. -a-
10. D|S
11. BoH
12. Wat?
13. Amish
14. DiY
15. HfH
16. TF

The_Wippuh's predicted 2003 Seedings.
01. NARF
02. iN
03. fx
04. ocr
05. wSw
06. gamepoint
07. -a-
08. 4k
09. cK
10. TAF
11. f|
12. awo
13. HV
14. amnesia
15. dh
16. lastchance

Qcon Round One Predictions

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Wednesday, July 30, 2003)

I found a post from Pissclams on pw.com about round 1 predictions. No doubt that a quality post like that will quickly be closed by the forum's mods or just disappear under the weight of "This n00b filed a complaint on me in ET" threads. So, I'm gonna steal Pissclam's predictions, and then post my own too. Lets hear what you think in the comments!

(1)Effect vs (16)Amnesia
PC: Effect is a sure pick to advance to the next round in the Winner's Bracket.
Winner: Effect

Wipp: fx on ice is scary. Amnesia showed some mean pf teamwork on assault vs Amish, but that won't matter here. If fx shows, this will be a win for them.
Winner: Effect

(8)4k vs (9)wSw
PC: No offense to my homies in wSw but 4k dented my cranium in the 2nd round of qualifiers, they made a believer out of me. Should be interesting to see how Laws compliments the wSw roster as he's proven himself to be a factor in big matches.
Winner: 4k

Wipp: There's a line I've drawn with my gaming. I can only go about 3 hours of scrims, but prefer 2. wSw prefers 5!!! If they keep their insane scrim schedule, they pull off a win here.
Winner: wSw

(12)dh vs (5)iN
PC: iN is the better team, dh may upset but I don't see it happening at the LAN.
Winner: iN

Wipp: dh scrimmed like madmen for Rewind and won 3-0 on ice. They then went and got properly destroyed by Exodus in the cal-m finals. I think iN's superior aim will overrun dh.
Winner: iN

(13)Lastchance vs (4)NARF
PC: For anyone who didn't believe NARF still had what it takes before last Thursday can't question that now.
Winner: NARF

Wipp: lc beat both one and snaps in quali's and may be getting overlooked, but I think facing off vs NARF on a map that they've shown to be extremely strong at is going to be an uphill battle.
Winner: NARF

(3)GMPO vs (14)Frontline
PC: Depending on how Frontline handles the LAN environment they may be able to pull off the upset, but after seeing GMPO rage in the pingfukd qualifiers, I don't see it happening.
Winner: GMPO

Wipp: This will be the must see match of round 1 at qcon. With Valdez, Rambo, Sunstyle and I think Sephy, frontline boasts a HUGE lineup of pure gunners. If they play strong with their strats they could be a potential sleeper team. They've toyed with some teams on ice making matches their own personal pub. I'm not sure who shows up but I notice that D@niel hasn't been flaming on boards in a long while, could he be buckling down with the rest of the frontline team?
Winner: Frontline

(6)HV vs (11)Affliction
PC: Will the time off from TWL/CAL league help or hurt Affliction? Seemed to hurt them against Trinity, however does HV have what it takes to defend that #6 seed?
Winner: Affliction

Wipp: This match will tell us a lot about Affliction. I don't know what happened, but I've been told that rok doesn't play for them anymore and that will be big. HV gets a big boost from Chaoslord, but I'm not sure how active they've been over the last few weeks. If Brian gets past the service door with the docs, it's all over.
Winner: Affliction

(10)cK vs (7)Ocrana
PC: cK has proven that they can play at a very high level when they want to peel chrome, it could be argued that Ocrana's seed was a little on the generous side.
Winner: cK

Wipp: I think that everyone is overlooking ocr. They're a very strong and consistant team from everything I've heard. cK is another one of those "We scrim all night long" teams. I think cK pulls it out here if they continue their scrim schedule.
Winner: cK

(15)Amish vs (2)TAF
PC: I'm not sure which Amish will be playing in this match, with the right line up they can hold their own with a very talented TAF roster. Could they pull another upset run at QCON?
Winner: Amish

Wipp: Putting Assault at the end of the tourney is only a blessing for the Amish as it's by far their worst map. If the Amish stop making fun of each other long enough on their ventrilo and scrim some, they will give TAF all they can handle. If you go to qcon, attend this match and watch Seed. The best pf that doesn't get any attention. But since it's against my instinct to pick the Amish to win anything...
Winner: TAF

GLOW vs Comm - Dirty and Sureshot ze Interviews!

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Tuesday, August 5, 2003)

Here you go, the cal-o championship interviews from Sureshot and Dirty. Fun stuff!

Commission

(c[_]`Wippuh) Give us the rundown on The Commission, where did you guys come from, all that good stuff.

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) we started as a split off of Toilet Paper. 5 members Enforcer, Sureshot,Silencer,Simple, and Xecutionr. We wanted a clan where people had a say in all matters. So we named the clan TheCommission. The heads of the 5 Families. We recruited strong and hard , but always followed our guide lines.
at one time we had 7 members on our team that were leaders of other clans. We like to play smart. Use our heads not our guns to win matches.


(c[_]`Wippuh) A lot has been made of Illshot and what he brings to Comm, tell me about all of the Mildorfs and what they bring to the team.

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) The Mildorfs give calm, collectiveness, and Determination to our Family


(c[_]`Wippuh) In preparing for a big match like this, what is the process you guys go through? Scrims? Demos? Practices?

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) Of course, We scrim hard. But we worry about working as a team in scrims/matches more than we worry about opponents. sometimes we just have internal scrims with are own people so loose scrims help out alot to


(c[_]`Wippuh) You guys have been around a long time it seems, yet have never been this deep into the playoffs, what is the difference this season?

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) We have doubled our old roster giving people more free time with the real life stuff. This has made it more fun than in the past seasons. And in addition to adding the Mildorf Triplets, we picked Envy and Reloaded back-up. They were always Commish but just had to find their way home.
The extra time in the Leagues help too


(c[_]`Wippuh) Give us the highlights of this cal-o season for the team.

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) We started season 5 out with the intend not to drop 1 round to anyone. We decided this after seeing everyones prediction of the teams that would win cal-o. The list did not have TheCommission on it. This struck us oddly. We new we could make the playoffs like we did every other year. But we wanted to strive for more.
One off the big matches for us was against [WS]. Alot of people picked them to beat us. That motivated us to work/scrim harder. We won 3-0.
The next Big one for was of course the SI match. I think one or three people picked us to win. After winning the SI match we were only worried about TH. TH is a team built like us and that scared us more than SI or WS combined. They have excellent teamwork. Teamwork wins matches hands down. The two matches we had with TH in cal, were the bloodiest. Kudos to TH


(c[_]`Wippuh) You're playing GLOW for the championship, what do you know about them and what do you expect?

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) We expect them to come out swinging their tassles. LOL. Really, what we know of them is that they are a class act. GLOW is 11-0 in CAL, that says it all.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Base has been broken down to a defense that is almost universal. From NARF to the newest cal-o team, everyone runs the exact same thing. Why do you think there's such a stigma against trying new things in terms of strats?

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) Hip has given us the key to life. KISS. Keep it Simple Stupid. We will just work as a team and watch each others backs. People don't like change in real life so it travel straight to "game life"


(c[_]`Wippuh) At the least you're going to be invited to play in cal-m next season. What are the various challenges you think this will present the team?

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) the biggest challenge is us. Can we scrim/prepare as much as needed for main. We like the laid back approach. TheCommish will not disband like so many other teams that move to main. It's not in our blood to do that.
but main means alot more time and dedication. Hats off to all teams that are in main and invite


(c[_]`Wippuh) Give us your pick to win qcon and why.

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) I would like to see Amish win it all. but my first pick was FX.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Shoutouts

(TheCom-SuReSh0t) shout out to all of TP, and Deagle of LQD. aka Agentred. thanks for being there for us. peace out

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GLOW

(c[_]`Wippuh) Give us the info on GLOW, where did you guys come from, all the good intro info!

(GLOW|DirTy) Well, almost all of us from one life. When the competition started dying on the onelife ladder most of my clanmates from my old team, 01, started joining stopwatch teams. Dima joined c4c, stoned joined nyx, and we had just merged with the janitors. Some of them went to really good teams because they had played stopwatch before.
So me and spanish Red grabbed all the leftover oltl noobs and made glow ;)


(c[_]`Wippuh) GLOW was picked in the preseason to really go this far, how did you go into every match knowing that every team was bringing their absolute best at you?

(GLOW|DirTy) Nervous We faced some great old and new teams this season in cal open, gg's everyone! This being our second season we were able to not work as much on strats and spend our scrim time really getting them down.


(c[_]`Wippuh) I know that way back in the beginning it was Clan Crayola that really got me interested in team play. Just the way they had so much fun and were still competitive in q2 was something I admired. Is there anyone like that for GLOW?

(GLOW|DirTy) Most of us were in one life clans prior to GLOW. 01, rac, Extras, Janitors is where we started our teamplay. The oltl community was a great place to start for us all because when you're dead you just chat. So we all got to know eachother that way. The Quarks Challenge (the original oltl server) was a really great learning ground where people would give advice and such
Special thanks to gnomish, lambo, and the other [sm] folks for getting so many of us out of our training bras. I think [sm] was really my greatest inspiration for joining a team and playing in a clan. They flung lots of poo.
In glow we really wanted to be rediculously funny mostly as a reaction to all the tough named clans (you know who you are :o). We used pink alot and all named ourselves after GLOW girls.


(c[_]`Wippuh) The (.Y.) tag is quite an eyecatcher, give us your top 5 clan tags.

(GLOW|DirTy) Yours is cool. I like tags that draw something the best. Team dot from australia has a cool one, it's a dot. The new commsion tag is pretty cool, very dns style. But none others really stand out, sorry teams... time to get creative.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Give us the highlights of this cal-o season for the team.

(GLOW|DirTy) It's the tk's that stand out. I would have to say our best match this season was TV, they are definately the most improved team over the 2 seasons glow has been together. Kudos TV. I think our match with .com will definately be our toughest of the season.


(c[_]`Wippuh) What do you know about the Commission, and how are you preparing for them?

(GLOW|DirTy) The .com isn't one of our regular scrim partners, so we don't know much about their playing style. We haven't done anything different for this match, if it aint broke ...
We are just scrimming our usual schedule and hoping sl1k doesn't tk us all at either radar. I think it's better for us if we stay focused on what we can control (our team) and not get too heady about big matches like this one.


(c[_]`Wippuh) The match will be on Base. Who is the guy you need to have a strong game for you to be successful on this map?

(GLOW|DirTy) Definately our panzer, SpanishRed. We also on offense really put alot of faith in our medics, I just hope they don't feel too rambo tomorrow.


(c[_]`Wippuh) At the least you're going to be invited to play in cal-m next season. What are the various challenges you think this will present the team?

(GLOW|DirTy) Well, honestly I think we need to be prepared to lose. So far in league we've only lost 2 games out of 2 seasons in twl and one in cal. We have started scrimming tougher teams and I think that will be key to GLOW stepping our game to be competitors in main. Well, that and flashing our virtual boobs.


(c[_]`Wippuh) Give us your pick to win qcon and why.

(GLOW|DirTy) I think affliction probably has the best guns, but NARF has mad teamwork. I think if NARF has the proper level of narcotics they will pull it off, but if any of their starting lineup gets busted, affliction will have zero tolerance. (Lame pun)


(c[_]`Wippuh) Shoutouts

(GLOW|DirTy) Definate shoutouts to Da_G and Spike from narf, thanks for all your help. All our regular scrim partners, especially opp. I really enjoy this community and I really appreciate everyone that brings something positive to it. Love from GLOW

Overall Impressions of Qcon

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Monday, August 18, 2003)

With qcon over, there's a lot to look forward to and look back upon. The event was a big success and extremely entertaining to attend. If there's ever a chance that you can make it, do it. So here goes a lil' article with my experience and impressions at qcon. Hopefully this will shed some light on how the event was run, the stuff liked/disliked, and all that jazz.

The event was held at Adam's Mark. Super nice place, with plenty of room. Gigantic and laid out well, unlike the streets of Dallas! The BYOC computer room was huge and filled out. Getting from one point to another was easy, and there was a large food court only a short skywalk trip away. The biggest thing that was brought to mind upon seeing everything was that games generated more revenue last year than people going to the movies. It was apparent that the sponsors realized that they were marketing to a dedicated group, as they gave away anything and everything all the time! The first day, you didn't have to spend nearly any money. Free pizza was given away to everyone attending, and Bawls was practically forced on you! Not sure why Bawls doesn't mass distribute their drink more. It's not bad and definitely keeps you awake. Too bad the hotel's bar was a joke. $3.25 for a 10 ounce Bud Light, in a bottle that would make a tiny drink umbrella blush it was so girlie!

There were two games that were the buzz of Qcon. The obvious one was Doom3. If ut2k3 flopped b/c of graphics > game play, then Doom3 is going to bomb. However, we all know it won't, and that's because it's focused heavily on the single player portion. A mysterious lil' monkey gave a sneak peak at the game and their impressions on it. It's pretty, really pretty. That's about it though. The rest of the game is extremely slow; imagine playing wolf at a speed slower than walk, the ENTIRE time. There's no revolution in game play, as it's the standard find monster, shoot monster, type game. At such a slow speed, it got boring in a relatively short time. It will sell, and it will be fun to play through one time, but the game holds little to no replay value at all. Also, buy a new computer, this thing is a resource hog. Played on a TOP of the line computer at 800x600, with AA on, left the game with a slight choppiness. Further down the line, id will probably spend more time optimizing the game. Let’s hope that they get it where everyone won't need insane computer specs.

The second game, which came as a slight surprise, is Call of Duty. Made by the guys who developed MoH, this is a fun looking game. The single player was the only portion of the game on display. Written from a hybrid of the q3/rtcw engine, the game comes off as a kill em up fast paced single player game. You have hundreds of soldiers on maps at once, all working together and defending their spots. Extremely intense looking SP. This is a for sure buy, and maybe the multiplayer will be promising. There was little to no talk about the MP, and the developers were very closed mouth about it. The only thing that anyone was pretty sure of was that it wouldn't have classes like RtCW.

From the sponsor’s area, it's time to talk about the event from the view of a spectator extremely interested in Wolf. Half the time it was kick ass, the other half you would have wanted to /kill then and there. There was a spectator room set up with 3 large plasma screens. When matches would start, the gtv broadcast of it would be shown on the screens. This was probably the best part of the entire event. Alcohol wasn't prohibited, so everyone brought down their beer and liquor and cheered on their favored teams. The only bad part was that at 4pm everyday they booted everyone out of the room so they could spend 4 hours setting it up for a dinner? How hard is it to give the people interested in the tournaments a spectator room that they can watch all the matches in? Biggest disappointment in the entire week. From there you only had one choice, watch from the tournament room. If you like sardines and trying to view a game from 4 to 10 feet from the monitor, then you might have enjoyed this. Not to mention watching progamers toy with their refresh rates for 45 minutes before they played a 5 minute round. Simply not fun. Wolftv eventually made it to the BYOC, but wasn't widely known at all. During one match, Kith checked the number of specs, only to find that he was alone in viewing from the BYOC. Good thing that you could watch people playing DDR on the big screens in the BYOC though.

From the frustration that the spectating portion of the event brought on, it was nothing compared to the apparent frustration that the players had to go through. With new processors and new motherboards, the players got high fps. Watching the quality strafe jumpers use that to their advantage was incredible. However, it was a crapshoot if everything would work right. Not sure what the exact problem was, but every match seemed to have a person or two having major issues with equipment. This lead to a huge delay and no one ever knowing when matches were to be played. From the info gathered, there might have been a patch applied to the computer images. This in turn just wrecked more havoc on different people. Keyboards dying in the middle of matches and numerous complaints about mice being flakey on the mobo's were heard. I remember watching the cK vs Amish match on beach in the spec room. Redbird's headset would not work with ventrilo. They eventually replaced his computer. Still wouldn't work. They tried his headset in his teammate's computer and it was perfectly fine. Eventually he played the entire match without being on vent. It only took 45 minutes for him to get hosed by the supposed latest and greatest in technology. So disappointing to see so many players complaining about similar situations. Fo3twinny talked about how smooth the scheduling and so forth went last year. Why was it so horrible this year?

There was no mention of anything or anyone related to Xcast until some guy came into the BYOC on Saturday night at 2am to broadcast some q3 stuff to the BYOC (got boo'd off stage so people could listen to the music and not have their voices over the sound system). There was no way that Xcast could have stepped up and filled the Axis boots of WarWitch, but on RtCW's biggest stage they had a chance to leave a good impression and begin building their company. A giant step backwards.

Speaking of the BYOC, what a let down in terms of game play. There were a few RtCW pubs, but they were all Vanilla Wolf. There was no event driven OSP servers, so if anyone wanted to play OSP, you had to download the OSP .83a patch and run a server off of your box. With the connection in that place (sub 7Kb/sec), that was such a huge pain. And yes, the legends of the smell are true. Why some people don't bring fresh clothes to wear or even attempt to put on deodorant is beyond reasoning. There were some kids there that were simply disgusting, and obviously made no attempt at bathing. So gross.

The most worthwhile portion of the event, and the thing that would bring me back personally, is the people. Meeting everyone was great. Putting faces with names and talking with them was fun. Everyone was cool. Even the Affliction guys, who I pick against all the time, were polite. To see them getting ragged on by so many people is pathetic. Why be rude to the only team that saved face for NA? The rivalry between them and wSw is fine, but others seem to be hopping on a bandwagon that not all that many people are riding on. The only disappointments in terms of no shows were PissClams and the OPP gang. The Euros lived up to their high standards by pimping into Dallas with their Capri pants on and drinking Bacardi silver :o Could you pay 20k to any of the NA teams to do that :P The people who were not playing, but still made it were fun also. Good to see so many people attending just for the Wolfenstein portion of the event. Anyone who bought beer most likely gave the majority of it away, but got much more back in return. That is the reason you should attend qcon if you ever can in the future. The games, the sponsors, and everything else takes a backseat to meeting everyone. Good times.

Maybe the American teams learned something from the way Infensus played. Without a doubt, they should have. Great aim is nothing without great teamwork, and a plan for every map. They were the class of qcon2k3, and put themselves on a level that only the Drs can speak about. Teams like Frontline and wSw provide a great basis for NA at CyberX, if it happens for RtCW. When those teams go back and tweak their strats to incorporate the tidbits learned from the Euro side of things and strengthen their team play with more time together, they could very well do some major damage. Looks like Wolf still has some life in it can't wait to see what happens next.

The Cons of Quakecon

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Monday, August 18, 2003)

Submitted by -x-Cracker

QuakeCon 2003 was my 2nd QuakeCon to attend (I went last year as well), and I've got a few little problems I ran into. I just want to clear things up so that people who are planning to go for the first time next year aren't disappointed.

1) Lack of diversity in BYOC games:
Unless you go with a large group of people you know who are likely to agree to playing the same game, expect to play a lot of Quake 3. Do not, I repeat DO NOT go with expectations of playing RTCW. It's a dead game there. There were supposed to be dedicated servers running, but those didn't get up until Friday night (none were OSP). At any given time in the BYOC, there was an average of ZERO people playing RTCW. I played a few rounds of 5v5 for maybe an hour. Other than that it was playing by myself in a server, waiting/hoping for other people to join. Friday night was the only time I saw more than 14 people playing RTCW, when Da_G]NARF[ set up an osp server with a respawn time of 1 sec (yay) for a few hours. Strangely enough, it seemed that all of these RTCW community players (not competing) decided to come all the way to Dallas just to watch WolfTV in the spectator room. Can't you do that from home?

2) Smelly euros? More like smelly Americans:
Ok, so it was a little weird seeing Infensus stroll into QuakeCon with dyed spiked blonde hair and some heteroquestionable capri pants (they looked like true gaymers to me, but I hear they were pretty cool guys). But even after all the trashtalking about "Euros shouldn't come to qcon cuz they smell bad" blah blah blah... you know who stunk the most? All the little retard Quakers who think they don't need to shower after a 4 hour car ride and 4 days of gaming. I swear to god I caught some whiffs of B.O. that could have knocked out a horse. When you check into the BYOC for the first time, they hand you a name-tag, an Athlon 64 hat, and a ratpad mousepad... I think they should add a stick of RightGuard to the list.

3) Random Complaints:
I know all those volunteers try their best to make things work for everyone, but I can still bitch if I want. The two switches that my whole table (~60 computers) was plugged into had to be replaced after hours of complaining that they didn't work. Many people had issues with losing power to entire tables. Free vendor stuff is there for the taking, but if you want an actual QuakeCon shirt, you either have to be in the right place at the right time or tell the ugly girl that runs the place that you think her bowel movements smell like bakery-fresh cinnamon rolls (i.e. do a lot of sucking up). My biggest complaint is that they didn't give out the Doom III multiplayer tickets on a daily basis. They just kept giving them out for timeslots in the coming days as opposed to only giving out a day's worth at the beginning of each day. By around 5 o'clock on Friday, all of the Doom III tickets had been given out and I didn't get to play. Another thing that drove me crazy was all the damn BYOC announcements. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't like to play games with "ATTTTTTENTION BYOC..." ringing in my ears every five minutes. They let some absolute retards in control of the microphone a few times and I almost went postal. A few times I remember they actually played some music in the BYOC. The rest of the time it was the audio from fucking Dance Dance Revolution eating away at my soul as a crowd of over-caffeinated retards gathered around the projector screen to pound their feet to shitty music.

In the end I managed to have fun. I really just wanted to tell the community not to go with expectations of LANing RTCW. Throw a LAN in your town if you want that. I went this year hoping the RTCW scene would be better than it was last year, and I was wrong.

The Flaws in the CyberX System

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Monday, September 1, 2003)

There's no doubt that many people have been clamoring for a new tournament for Wolfenstein. The competitive community is great and continously sees high play acheived at the top levels. However, there's a lot of obvious flaws with the CyberX Tournament. Problems that will prevent them from reaching the targeted sixty-four team mark.

Initially when the tournament was first announced, it sounded like a great idea. $3000 for first place! Such a prize would help keep teams interested in the game, and bring back the fanfare associated with tournaments such as BoB and Qcon qualifiers. Upon closer inspection of the prize money, the doubt began to rise, and it began with the inclusion of the $20 per player fee.

$20 per person to enter the tournament is seemingly a fair price. BoB, BoB2, and Qcon didn't ask for such a fee, but CyberX is a business and is working on a business model. When you figure that sixty-four, six man teams at $20 a player comes out to equal $7680 in total player fees, you would believe that all of the money would be put back into the prizes. That's not how it works. The top four teams recieve $3000, $1000, $750, and $500. THat's $5250 worth of prize money being divided out between the winners. $2430 goes straight into the pocket of CyberX.

One is not foolish enough to assume that CyberX is not a business and not trying to make a profit off of such a situation, but pocketing $2430 (more if teams sign more than six players to their roster) with such a large amount of sponsors leaves a bad taste. Where does that money go? Since Speakeasy is not affliated with the tournament, it would appear that servers for a six week tournament could cost a lot of money, but SCI is a sponsor providing the servers. The admins are all TWL volunteers. The only apparent cost for the online qualifiers is the site being used to organize the tournament. Up until now, teamwarfare.com has been the main source of information for such, and it's a non-profit, suplemented by gamers site.

For the average gamer, it is a hobby, sometime to ease the stress of school, work, etc... There is nothing like logging onto a server with your friends and besting you opponent. In turn it is almost enough to make you want to give up when you face off vs the top teams. CyberX is asking the average gamer to put down $20 to be beaten soundly by these teams. As of now, there are thirteen teams in Cal-I. These are the cream of the crop teams in NA right now that are competiting. There's not a single Open team, and you can include the majority of Main teams also, that can hang with these teams. There's thirteen Cal-I teams and only four spots for money. For a Cal-O team what incentive is there for them to put down $120 to play once they see four teams of that level signed up? They know that money will go to what they see as some sixteen year old with an inflated ego who's vocabulary extends to "downgrade" and "bow". There's no incentive at all for them to play. There's no ideals of progaming for them. There's no thoughts of playing for money. To these players, the ones who truly keep Wolfenstein alive, the game is played for fun. CyberX is in direct opposition to those ideals. Once they see four teams they know they can't beat signed up, there's little chance that they will. THere may be a few "for the good of the community" teams around. Most teams however would rather save that $20 so they can keep their server up, or buy a case of beer. To many of the younger players, and even college students, $20 can go a long way, especially when they can get their two game fix each week in CAL and TWL, and not pay $20. There is simply no incentive present for them.

When you look at the arguments made for CyberX and their current setup, you see a lot of pointing at CPL. You cannot compare the two. The CPL is balanced upon thousands of crate camping kiddies who play a game that even a tweaked cfg is prettier than. When the CPL throws a tournament and charges a fee for playing, there is a huge market for them to pull teams from. When CyberX and TWL get together and charge a fee to play a Wolfenstein tournament, the pool is much smaller. IF you currently count every team in Cal you come with a number around ninety. CyberX is asking that more than two-thirds of the competitive community throw down their money that will ultimately go in CYberX and four invite teams' pockets? To quote the brillant Bill Lumbergh, "ummm yeah...".

The top sixteen teams going to Orlando is also being bantered about as a reason to join cXg's online qualifiers. Yes, the top sixteen NA teams get to attend Orlando and battle it out for the $22,000 first prize. How many teams dropped from Qcon's lineup? How feasible is it for a team from the midwest to travel to Orlando? If they cannot place in the top four of the NA qualifiers, what makes them think that spending hundreds of dollars to travel to Florida to play sponsored teams like Infensus will help their chances? Again, the incentive is not there.

In the end, CyberX is hitting on a niche community with a high level of gameplay at the top and trying to apply a business model used on much bigger scales. The solution is not easily found, but there seems to be several ways they could go. Put the enrollment fee back into the tournament. If the top twenty spots offered a type of prize, you would see attendence increase. Drop the huge prizes and sign up fee and offer smaller, more manageable prizes. BoB's gamecubes and other prizes were much smaller than CyberX's prize list, and the response for those tournaments was huge. Surely such money generated from the sponsors could provide these prizes and almost assuredly get them more exposure than they will get on the current course.

We've all been listening since the end of BoB on how the Wolfenstein community was dead. Always, new teams form and old teams come back to the game they love. With or without CyberX, the scene will continue to stay on course. Many see at least two or three more seasons of WolfTV and TsN goodness coming at us as we battle it out on the maps. CyberX may be the last big lan for Wolf, but at the current pace they're setting it's easy to see how they won't be the last big lan, simply the last lan. For now, one can only hope that Qcon 2004 will bring Wolfenstein back, as it continues to be the bar set for Wolfenstein competition.

Viva la Wolfenstein!

Interview: Hollywood

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Friday, September 5, 2003)

Tell everyone who you are, your background and all that good stuff

Name is Rob Fisher, I been playing RTCW since the beta days. First team I joined was teamtip, when that team folded I joined, deathtouch, around April 2002. In September 2002 I took command over deathtouch and turned them into one of the powerhouse teams in rtcw North America. I took unknown players that no one wanted and turned them into all-stars.

First cal season, (Cal Season #3), I commanded my team to the finals and lost 3-2 vs. NARF on mp_Ice. Shortly after I managed to win the 1v1 ogg tournament and my team and I came through and beat Animosity, Narf, and cK for the ogg 6v6 championship. During that cal season we never lost one round during the season and lost to NARF 3-1 on mp_beach in the finals. As battle of the beach II started I parted from deathtouch and took my team under Affliction. We won battle of the beach II over NARF in one of the most lopsided victories in rtcw history, 3-0. During Qcon2k3 we were the only non-sponsored team to reach the top 4 and were the highest placing North American team at the event.

Qcon, you placed 3rd in your first trip to a big lan. What was the experience like, do you think you would do things differently in the future, and did Brian's experience help at all?

Brian’s experience from quakecon2k2 helped a lot. This was my first big ‘lan event’. I remember during quakecon2k2, there was a lot of hype with tsn, and wtv. I figured the same thing would have happened this year but it didn’t seem that way when I got home. To be honest with you one week after the Trinity game in the online qualifiers the team and I almost agreed to stop playing rtcw. One of our best shots left our team for some personal reasons and we didn’t play/scrim with the same momentum. With 35 days left till quakecon2k3 we continued to play on with our backup player, Time-bomb, and suddenly just two week left until the main event, we were winning most of our scrims.

During this time of scrimming it was funny how most of the teams you faced in scrims used the same exact offensive strategies I came up with. I guess having all of your strats posted by same lamer on www.elbowrage.com/strats helps people run more coordinated offenses together as a team. We went to quakecon, playing with one backup player and having all of our strats posted on a web site and still managed to get third. We did this with basic fundamentals of the game and team work. No one predicted us to beat High Voltage the first round, and certainly not get past Frontline or GMPO in round two. In some ways I’m happy the way we performed at quakecon this year, but in other ways I knew we could win it. It seems like the way we got into quakecon is the way we got out. (Opio his alt-enter on his keyboard during the online qualifiers and decka’s keyboard locked up during the most crucial offensive push vs. Infensus, it most likely cost our team 12 Grand)

The European vs NA dynamic. What was it that allowed the European teams to come out on top of the NA teams, and how did Affliction avoid falling to that?

Map rotation. The two months before quakecon the NA teams were scrimming mad crazy to prepare for each other and the European teams. The problem was, many teams saw the quakecon seedings and only prepared on two maps, Ice and Beach. The North American teams upset 4Kings and GMPO (round one on Ice). 4Kings/GMPO got their revenge on Village, officially knocking NA out of the loser’s bracket. North American didn’t balance their time and prepare for all of the maps in this tournament. Too many times I saw NA teams scrim on Ice for maybe 2/3 weeks straight, which was a problem for my team, Affliction, because it was very hard finding a team to play another map besides ice. We really had no practice on Base to solidify our strats. At quakecon we beat HV, Frontline and TAF and were in the winner’s bracket finals.

We had to play Infensus on Base and we knew absolutely nothing about them. I’m sure they knew a lot about us the day of the game, right evilkiller? Verse Infensus, my offense was in ‘shock and awe mode’. We set a really good time in the first round and were able to hold. iN came back, set a low time and we were unable to beat it. In round 3 we set a 2:58 (or something) and weren’t able to hold Infensus off. Two of my players made two crucial errors. One made an mental error and got us both panzered in the conjunction room and the other TKed our PF. Infensus was up 2-1 now and our defense stepped up and held them 7:01. During the last round with about 4 minutes left, decka’s (our engineer) keyboard locked up when he would have planted radar1 (about the same likely hood of opio getting the plant on the tower during our trinity game). Leahmen made his return to take back the mistake he made during our qualifier game and we lost.

People flame us for challenging the rule of decka’s keyboard lockup. People don’t understand that if any other team were in our position, with 20 Grand on the line, they would challenge too. People will say, “he had no chance of a plant” and then people will see “he would have planted that shit.” Either way, like the trinity game, its all about ‘what ifs’. About two hours later we had the round replayed and got our asses handed to us. We didn’t play with the same momentum as the other 3 rounds on offense. The shock and awe campaign was over.

Tired and exhausted our team had to face gmpo on base. We were just out of steam. Gmpo just had one of the most remarkable comebacks vs. 4kings to beat them, and we just had one of the most agonizing loses in my life. Frustrated, burnt out, every reason why people stop playing wolf, is what I felt. I couldn’t command my team through a victory, but we continued to play anyways.

When we played GMPO we didn’t feel like moving our keyboards, mice and reinstalling our drivers on the other machines so we just decided to play right across from them. The first round, gmpo’s offense set around 4:12. Around the 2 minute mark we were on offense and we severely damaged most of their defense. Brian, yelled “Push Tunnel” and forgot to realize that GMPO could here us. During that time one of the GMPO players said to Ramzi, “watch tunnel”. And then all of a sudden Ramzi gets a 3 man pf kill. Either way it was our fault for not moving our computer equipment and taking time to setup on the other side of the room. During this time I was fed up with some of my players and their attitudes. The main thing that took us threw the tournament was gone (our teamwork).

Infensus won quakecon with teamwork. They have one of the best medic pushes I have ever seen, reminded me a little of the doctors. I have much respect for both Infensus and gmpo. They played extremely well and focused on each match, that is why they finished #1, #2.

What was up with the stuffed animals?

The stuffed animals were pretty much a joke idea to mock fatality. Nothing more, nothing less. But nails big ugly dog was a huge distraction when I played.

A lot of people, myself included big time, thought that Affliction taking time off from CAL last season would hurt your teamwork and drive. Maybe take a night off b/c you didn't have a match the next day, etc... How did you avoid situations like that? What was the thinking when you made the move initially?

I personally wanted to play in CAL. My team on the other hand didn’t want anything to do with it. Getting burnt from wolf was the main reason not to join cal. We figured cal would end around the same time quakecon would start. I figured what’s the point of playing CAL if we were to get to the championship game again and lose to NARF in the finals. Some other reasons were to focus solely on quakecon. Make new strats just for quakecon and make sure they don’t get on wtv. Once again, scrimming a team with slag playing under an alias of team “clan weed” still gets your demos on cached!

Beaver and Elusion beef up your roster for CAL and the upcoming CyberX. They come from teams that were traditionally viewed as rivals in NARF and wSw. How do you hope to see them contribute to the team and who do you see as your main competition this season in CAL?

Anytime this team goes into battle we know that there isn’t a team that can beat us. The only way we will lose a game is if we beat ourselves. TK’s, mental errors, and fundamental mistakes are the only reason we will lose a game. The other team will never out play us, nor will out strat us.

I’ve had a chance to have Beaver and elusion on my team for about a week. Elusion brings one of the best medic games that the game can bring. Having elusion and Brian on defense as two medics really solidifies our defense. It seems that having them two as medics feels like having a total of four medics on the team. Elusion has a very good gun and is very smart. I always knew Beaver was a great player, but since he’s been on my team I personally don’t think there is a better gun in this game. I’ve never seen a player gun down people from across the map and still manage to gib before their medic can revive. He is defiantly one of the most underrated guns in this game.

I got one of our old school players back, Rokrok aka “chrome”. I stole him from the peewee game ET and got him suited up to peel chrome. Our starting roster consists of BeavermanA, Brian, chrome, elusion, hollywood, and nail. (We lost decka and nard, two of the best players in wolfenstein, good luck to them and their new team.)

The problem I thought I would have before we recruited two players, (beaver and elusion) and getting the third out of the old wheel chair (chrome), was getting all of our players on the same page. Everyone knows how much aim can take you and I know how much teamwork can take you (3rd place at qcon). I figured I would try an experiment and take great players with great skill/aim and get them all gelled together. So far after our first week of scrimming I’m amazed by the way the team is quickly coming together. Ventrilo has been very professional with very little or no arguing. It helps not having Ernie in your vent channel too.

Teams generally have maps that they view as their strengths. wSw had beach, HV was seen as a strong Assault team. Affliction seems to have several strong maps. What do teams need to be successful on all the maps? What is the biggest pitfall that you see teams foolishly committing that keeps them from being great all around?

The main thing that teams struggle with is changing their shit up. Constantly I see teams keep trying to make a defense work when in doubt it never will. I remember back in the old day I was on team deathtouch. Back when Samstein led the crew, we would get to a climax point where we would no longer improve. We would be able to handle good teams but weren’t able to beat the top teams (ck, -a-, dr., a|). We would scrim 3-5 hours a night and still wouldn’t improve. What teams need to do is focus more on strats.

A lot of time scrimming for several hours a night won’t improve your game if you don’t come up with solid strats. I personally don’t like to pay a lot of attention to defense. Too many teams spend too much time focusing on defense. I like to develop more offensive strategies then defensive. I think of ways to penetrate defenses like I would like to penetrate slag’s vagina. If you know where the other team is positioned you can use Mortars, pfs and airstrikes to make get them out of position and see where you can penetrate their defense the best. Once you start to think like a strategist on offense you will be able to figure out the best defense for that map. Also, I see too many heroes or anyone who only care about ratios. Ratios mean nothing in this game.

Following that up, people have always seen Assault as a map that gives Affliction problems. How do you view that image and if true why is it? What about that map doesn't play to your strengths and how do plan on correcting that?

I’ve had a lot of theories that I’ve tried on assault. Assault seems to be one of my weakest maps of coming up with a decent offense and defense. Before the trinity game in the online qualifiers it seemed that we really solidified our game on that map. We worked hard and thought we found our perfect strats on defense for that map. We barely lost any scrims that week for preparing for trinity. During the trinity game we just played bad. We didn’t execute our offensive strats the way we wanted and are defense seemed to be scattering the whole game. Assault didn’t use to fit our playing strength as a team because no one on my old roster liked the map. Assault is a map where our strat game needs to work the most on for the upcoming cal season and cxg tournament.

As a member of the community for so long, what do see as the highest point for Wolfenstein so far, and of course, the lowest point.

The highest point in the community was no doubt bob1. So many teams signed up for that tournament and seemed like the community was massive compared to now. Tsn made its first appearance during this stage and never looked back. They really made the community come together.

The lowest points in the community were after both Quakcons. In my opinion if wolf wants to survive the game needs an update patch. The update patch must include osp so the beginner wolfenstein player can join an osp server. It seems a lot of players play wolfenstein but play them on either a “main or shrub mode” server. It seems that no “new” players are coming into our community because of osp.

The level of play that you compete at is so high. A lot of the teams you're playing scrims for 3 to 5 hours a night, yet the casual competitive team can't do that. With CAL-O teams like that, give us your advice on what they should focus on to become better.

Get 6 players on the same page. Play with people you enjoy play with. Watch demos of top teams to get an idea of good strats. Get the people that complain all the time off your team, like Ernie. You need a good leader to call out stuff and always be vocal on ventrilo. Every player needs to be vocal on voice. Remember to gib anything you kill. Think of it this way, if all 6 people kill one enemy each push and gib that one player, everyone has done their job.

At quakecon, many players forgot about using their basic fundamentals, (gibbing/reviving/calling shit out). So many teams didn’t gib what they killed and missed so many revives with the needle and this cost them the round or even the match.

A lot of people watch -a- demos and try to copy the strats that your team carries out. That's got to be pretty flattering. Who do you watch and keep an eye on in terms of strats? Is there a team/player out there that you think should get more props for how they do things?

I use to get a lot of my theories of strats from the doctors. George was a brilliant man when it came to strats. I know a lot of people watch my demos or copy our strats from scrims. But every time I make an offense or defense strat I always think of ways to beat it at the same time. Just in case we tend to see something down the road :). Sometimes it’s very annoying to see people copy your strats, and sometimes it’s actually funny. If they are running your strat you know what to do to beat it relatively quickly.

The thing I have a problem with is teams sending other teams demos of scrims. My team stopped playing teams in scrims because they were trading demos around of our scrims to other team we were going to play that Thursday. People say, “Well what’s the difference if they know your strat or not, it doesn’t make a difference when all teams do the same thing” my answer to that is not every team does the same thing. Usually a lot of tie rounds happen in the first rounds of a game because teams are feeling each other out. If one team knows what the other team is doing before they actually are playing the game that one team will have a huge advantage.

I think a lot of players out there that don’t get a lot of credit for what they do. I remember illumina used to always do the same thing over and over. Hold the same position day in and day out and never tried to be a hero. He always tried his best at holding his spot, never complained and never asked to try out a new position like PF or be sent where the action is. Teams need reliable players like illumina who never complain where you put them on the map.

What's next for you?

My biggest concern is to improve the teamwork portion of my team. We will be playing in this upcoming cal-invite season and possibly twl. Our main focus is 1st place and 1st place only at cyberxgames. For me I still need to concentrate on school, work and see my girlfriend in any spare time I have left. It isn’t an easy task to accomplish :(. We will be scrimming only at night from 11 pm est to 1 am est Sunday to Wednesday and always looking for weekly scrims.

Four King's ZaF interview

Posted by: selfie (Sunday, September 7, 2003)

Salvat1on: Well, I'm not going to say a lot about Quakecon. You can't keep looking back with so many great cups, leagues, and LAN tournaments coming up. For those who are interested in your Quakecon stories, I will just refer to www.rtcwnation.com where you made you excellent write-ups.

I'm going to start with a couple of questions about the European RTCW scene after Quakecon. The gap between the top teams (iN, GMPO, 4K, rewind) and the subtop teams such as dh, omg, snaps, eye, amnesia, ard, unicon, death embrace, last chance, instant defeat, etc. seems to be decreasing. In the US it's exactly the other way round, teams like Affliction, Rewind.US and Redemption are miles ahead of their opponents, and it doesn't seem likely they will be catched up with anytime soon. Do you have an explanation for this? Have the top Euro teams decreased in skill, or are the other teams really stepping it up? And if so, why now? Why not earlier, what was holding them back?

[4K-ZaF]: The eu has a much deeper talent pool than in the us. We have alot of good players that are willing to make the step up to being great players. I wouldnt quite put the uk teams in the same bracket as amnesia, DE or snaps. European teams will only get better and we will be alot better prepared come cxg. Those teams have always been good (amnesia / de / snaps) but the qcon qualifier was on high pings and its always gonna be hard when you face a descent team. Hopefully for cxg there will be eu qualifiers and we can get all of our best teams their.

In the usa its very interesting at the moment. -a- will be shit hot come cyber x. beaverman and elusion really makes their lineup look formidable. They just chewed up 2 top na players, maybe that has something to do with the gap :)


Salvat1on: With such a competitive scene one big problem seems to be presenting itself. Every team will have to play "Match Of The Week"s every week, always facing a very solid and almost equally skilled opponent. Because it will be so hard to ease on the scrimming, won't the risk of burned-out players and teams be huge?

[4K-ZaF]: Yes the risk of burn out is very large. Especially when real life keeps poking its ugly head at you :) But the big tourneys and chance to travel the world and play american teams keeps me going. Match of the week every week is good. It keeps you on your toes and practising hard. I feel in some ways, the european teams have it alot better. We have about 10 brilliant teams to prac against, while in america you seem to have about 2 or 3 left. American teams are very organised though, so im sure they will be on top form come cxg.


Salvat1on: Focusing on the UK scene now, with Battle Of Britain 2 ahead, and later on the Intel Masters II LAN tournament. The finest British teams battling it out for that #1 UK spot. This spot has been strongly dominated by Four Kings for ages now, or so it appears. Do you see this changing, with the newcomers uniCon, the returning veterans of Digital Heresy, and the excellent people with so much potential in OMG!, recently picking up Cream?

[4K-ZaF]: Well as im now in 4K ofcourse i dont see that changing! hehehe. You can do anything if you try. But im confident that if we keep practising hard no uk team can catch up with us. We put in alot of time into wolf and we have a massive wealth of experiance. 5 of us having been in huge quakecon games, and the 6th (ninj) is an amazing player who will only go from strength to strength the more he plays with us.

The other teams are playing catch up, but you can only catch up if you prac more than the other team. We are making sure nobody does. If we begin to underestimate the uk teams and lay off our practise's then yes the #1 position can slip.


Salvat1on: How do you see the addition of yourself and Ninjai making up for Zommy, Explicit and Nataku going inactive?

[4K-ZaF]: Well zommy is a great leader and explicit is a awesome LT. I feel that i bring some experiance from gol / gmpo to 4K that will help. Ninj brings alot of enthusiasm to the team. Hes eager and willing to learn. We need time to gel yet though, ive been living at home for 3 weeks so our pracs have been a bit short :) I move out in 7 days though so we are hardcore practising from then. Im a full time LT and Ninj is a fulltime medic so we slotted in perfectly.

With Zommy going inactive we lose a natural leader in the team, but once i move out im sure i can help there and we have the UK team captain yilider running the show aswell. So in the short term its a loss as we need time to gel, but in the long term i only see great things :D

Why I left gmpo? I had a great time with them all in america so im not gonna air any dirty laundry in public. I hope to meet them at future events though. They are the most talented team out their, if they can get a professional attitude towards practises they will be amazing. I left for 4k because these guys have been friends for about a year. I have a great laugh with them and i need a bit more fun in my rtcw along with the competative side. I hope thats enough :)


Salvat1on: Looking further in the future, what are your goals concerning CyberXGames? How do you see the European teams matching up against Affliction, recently picking up BeavermanA and Elusion, according to some to be the best dueller and the best medic in the game? And Rewind.US, as most Europeans regarded fX as the biggest threat to European victory, prior to Quakecon?

[4K-ZaF]: haha rumoured to be the best medic and best dueler in the game. Thats the funniest shit ive ever read. I dont know what to think of the usa teams. GMPO played F ,HV, ck, Taf and -a- . Id say F had the best aim, the rest didnt really have much aim. the -a- game was disapointingly easy. So im sort of lost as to what to think about the american scene. I know we will be practising ice a bit more. The ice games were real close, i dont think we need to do to much work on it though.
Rewind.us will be good. Rewind.eu will without a doubt be helping them out with what the eu teams are up to. So they will be a threat. -a- , after adding 2 good players, will also be a big threat. Both continents would have learned alot from quakecon. We know the usa scene doesnt totally suck and the american teams learned how to play village and base. :D


Salvat1on: Ok that was it, thanks for your time. Any last shout-outs?

[4K-ZaF]: Shout outs to 4K (www.four-kings.com) and ma team. Si , Chris, Rob, Dan and Mike. A big hello to Zommy for being a great laff in germany and at qcon. Lots of love to kappa coz he rocks and HV who are the biggest and friendliest guys ive ever met. Hello to GMPO.qcon team. Soz i had to go but see you at the next one (*kiss* Blaze, zemme, Refuse, Verac, and maybe ramzi :P).
I could keep going, liiike Hi to warrior (say hi to your sister for me, we had a nice chat on the elevator, cant belive she’s 17!!) was nice prank calling you nightwolve and ummm hi civ... -_-

A Fireside Chat With The_Wippuh...

Posted by: pissclams (Thursday, September 11, 2003)

Recently I was thinking about who in the NA community hadn’t been interviewed by our most famous interviewer, The_Wippuh, and I realized that he hadn’t been interviewed and thought it would be interesting for people to get to know him a little better, the following is my best attempt at being Barbara Walters. Personally, I’d like to thank Wippuh for all he’s done in helping move our community in the right direction, enjoy the interview…


Pissclams: Ok, first of all tell us a bit about yourself.

c[_]`Wippuh: My name is The_Wippuh, I just turned 26 and live in Birmingham, AL. Wolfenstein is my first real game that I've played online. I use to work with Landshark and he wouldn't shut up about how cool this demo was, so I looked at it and then realized that my best friend who moved in 10th grade was an artist on it, so I gave it a try.

Pissclams: How long have you been into gaming, computers, etc?

c[_]`Wippuh: Not long at all. I went to school for Industrial Design (product design) and graduated in 2000. One of the teachers was an ex grad who drove down every Friday to teach some photoshop/flash classes. I wanted to learn something different than just drawing and building models, so I enrolled in his class. Later I saw an internship open for his company in Birmingham, which did small websites and stuff. I went there and worked the entire summer 9-5 earning nothing. I had to work nights at Papa John's to support my concert habit, but it turned out for the best as they hired me before I even graduated. While everyone in my class was stressing over where to work the last quarter of school, I played basketball and drank beer all day.

c[_]`Wippuh: Been a Nintendo fan my entire life, loved Final Fantasy and all that!

Pissclams: Explain your nickname

c[_]`Wippuh: Hehe. Well, I took Japanese my 10th grade year of high school. I knew no one in there, and it was only like an 8 person class. There was this one kid who noticed I liked to draw one day and started talking to me. We became really good friends and use to sit in the class all the time and draw in our workbooks. Really demented stuff. We'd have these awful pictures of stereotypical japanese people in everyday situations and we'd throw in goofy stuff like turtles attacking them and so forth. Anyway, we created a character. He was a British soccer player who got knocked on the head and forgot who he was. He stuck a bunch of chicken feathers in his head, and fought crime with his soccerball and his sidekick. That was Wippuh! When trying to come up with a username years later in college for various things, I decided to use the name since it was unique and I didn't have to attach a 39172 to the end of it :P

I attached the "The" to it after watching The Rock on tv one day and thinking he was absolutely hilarious. The_Wippuh had a nice ring to it, so I went with it.

The guy who really came up with Wippuh was ]CC[-Turquoise of Clan Crayola (http://uvtek.net/crayola/crayolahistory.html), he's one of the artists who worked on Wolfenstein. I know that he eventually took the book he drew in all the time and chopped it in half with a samurai sword he had, haha. One of our friends still has it somewhere. His run through quake2 with Crayola Clan is one of the things that made me want to start gaming online one day.

Pissclams: What does The_Wippuh’s typical weekend consist of?

c[_]`Wippuh: Heh, well, I start off at work and leave around 6:00. I'm usually pretty tired so I go to the store, buy a bunch of beer and then go home and take a nap. When I wake up I play ‘till the wee hours with all the other guys of OS. Either FNM with the Distress guys or wc3 so that Kith can have someone to clear Expansions for him. On Saturday I wake up around 2 or 3 and then proceed to go over to my friend's place. We usually end up drinking till dawn (not bragging :/). If it's football season it's even worse b/c we all like the rivals :o Alabama vs Auburn, Mich vs OSU, Browns vs Steelers, etc....
Sunday = recovery, cleaning up, and then scrims.

Pissclams: Some people think that Olive Garden is a sub par Italian restaurant, I hear you feel otherwise, tell us your thoughts on the OG, and have you ever been arrested in the OG parking lot with nothing on and holding binoculars?

c[_]`Wippuh: I plead the 5th, my only statement on that subject is OG girl > *

Pissclams: lol

Pissclams: What's the history behind OS?

c[_]`Wippuh: Landshark and I eventually joined Pro after we got tired of pubbing. It was good and bad. I met a lot of great people in Pro. Guys like Abi, NurseEdna, Rystan, Sharp, Del3, Skynx, RRC, etc... We had a LOT of talent, including LadyLuck who I still to this day think is one of the most dominating pf's to ever play the game.

However, we didn't have good leadership. The idea for a strat was "defend radar 1". A lot of us argued continiously about that and begged for strats that had spots and definition, but no "don't wanna confine players", so we got beat up on a lot in Invite and got a rep as a subpar team even though we stuck it out and didn't bail like a bunch of other teams did. Playing teams like Abuse, Paradigm, III, that will humble you.

So eventually my computer got stolen, I couldn't play and our leader vanished. But we got to start putting in strats as the team became more democratic. The first scrim we really ever ran a "real" strat we went 3-1-1 with wSw the match before they had the classic with Abuse I think. I was really proud that Pro did that and thought we had a bright future. Then Sceadeau came back, got all pissy over various things and literally took all the talent and formed Nameless. They started running the strats he so wouldn't run with Pro and they got good press in Invite. Pro got hosed Tommy.

I was dating a girl at the time and I quit Pro to spend more time with her. After that Pro sorta stopped playing and Abi-Normal and Landshark started OS. They asked me to join, as a fun thing, no tons of scrims all that. So I did and we joined the 5v5 ladder with Abi, LS, Recon_Para, Kith, and myself.

We set up a kind of wishlist of players we wanted, and eventually we got them all! Orbyte, Doppy, Jamandy, and Skynx from Pro :) We added Roguer and LTP later on. The only two guys we didn't really know that we grabbed were Hellfox and Dante, and we made good choices on them. The mistakes in recruiting in Pro has made us really watch people in OS, and it's paid off as no one has ever hopped away. We recruit off of friendship and how you mesh with the existing members. Ratio and skill means very little. We're extremely proud of that. We might not be the best, but we have a ton of fun and we don't rotate our roster like so many others.

Pissclams: So your first clan experience was in the original Invite?

c[_]`Wippuh: yuppers

Pissclams: What is the future plans for OS in terms of RtCW? What games do you guys plan on playing in the near future?

c[_]`Wippuh: We plan to play Wolf until it's dead. We still have as much fun in matches (if I'm not mean to Kith that is) today as we did when we first started. When we play well and execute our offense/defense, our ventrilo is a great place to be.

We've tried to play ET and it just doesn't click with all of us, so I'm not sure if we'll go there when Wolf is over. Something will come up and we'll head there as a team, as I plan on going wherever the other guys go. I just have too much fun with all of them.

Pissclams: I’ve rang with your team on several occasions and was impressed with how well you stick to your team strategies, what is your philosophy on strat development and where do you get new ideas?

c[_]`Wippuh: Well, we've got several guys who have been playing for almost 2 years now, and all the rest have been together for a year. So the lingo is down and we all know who plays what well.

We know who to put in spots that never move, who will roam a lot no matter where you put them, etc... and we put guys in the classes they like and spots where their game is gonna work the best, that has been a big part. There's certain combos of players we know will work together and guys who are rl pals and like playing together. We try to keep that consistant so everyone is happy.

We use to run the same thing over and over and over and ram our heads into the wall in frustration. I was really the stubborn one on that and make it very not fun for a while. Then I saw some demos of teams doing CRAZY stuff, not having 3 meds all the time, not running a pf, etc...So we started to run goofy stuff and having fun, and it's really helped us... We run all sorts of stuff and learn from the results and I think that has helped a ton. Guys see more and cover their angles better.

A lot of the ideas come from that goofiness combined with demos (iN, NARF, dT/-a-, and Drs/LoT with George). We've got to thank the Amish a lot for all their help. They use to scrim us every week and show us what was up. We use a lot of their stuff, which was unique in my eyes.

Pissclams: For as long as I can remember you’ve been very active in the Wolf community, most notable are probably your interviews, but you’re a huge forum whore and now a reporter for Planet-RtCW, why spend the time?

c[_]`Wippuh: I like to read. I hope that others do too. Where I work I do a lot of imaging of computers and troubleshooting, installing os's and all that good stuff. During that time I'll browse the forums and read up on what's going on. I loved the old interviews that were getting done with Shaftian and Citizen all the time.

I thought it would be really cool to be interviewed and I bet others felt the same, so I set out on a quest to interview as many Cal-O teams as possible, b/c I knew some of those guys were interesting and would provide good stuff, and all I ever saw were "big name" interviews.

I remember interviewing OPP (omg, the spam even then) and HV back then :) I had a lot of fun doing it and kept on. Eventually it became too much work, it takes a lot to keep coming up with 10 good interesting questions, as I couldn't stand some of the stuff that would only get answers like "yeah, we won". I wanted to see questions that got guys giving long answers that were actually interesting to read and revealed some personality.

I quit for a while, and then one day I got a chance from planet-rtcw to send in news, and it got me interested in doing interviews again. So, I'll just keep doing it until it becomes more of a hassle than it's worth, or people just quit responding to them.

Basically it boils down to Wolf being such a great game and it has a great community (despite what you think). There's a lot of personality out there and I loved reading about it, so I want to keep it going.

Pissclams: I loved those Open interviews, the majority of players could really relate to what was said in those more so then when they read what Shaftian was talking about.

c[_]`Wippuh: yeah

Pissclams: That was Season 3 correct?

c[_]`Wippuh: I don't remember
c[_]`Wippuh: I was still in pro when I started I think

Pissclams: After nearly two years of league play, leagues have mandated stricter PB settings without any input from the players involved in league play. I have a 3-part question concerning the config.

Pissclams: 1)What are your thoughts on the config itself?

c[_]`Wippuh: It's fine. I think it's a shame uifullscreen is in there, b/c it basically nullifies a lot of what they were trying to do I think. I wish pf's were limited to 1 though.

Pissclams: 2)What are your thoughts on the way the config was introduced?

c[_]`Wippuh: I have major problems with that. I think the admins made themselves look extremely bad, and I think the community should be more up in arms about it than anything else. Basically 4 to 6 guys have decided what is best for all of competitive wolf. If that's not a Thorian mentality, I don't know what is. I don't like the fact that those people are deciding what's best for me and everyone else without asking for our input

I was really disappointed with the response I got from some of those guys. I was voicing my opinion and not disrespecting anyone. Just making noise and getting the word out on why it was wrong. There were some nasty personal attacks and bullshit things said to members on OS. I won't forgot those.

Pissclams: 3)What are your thoughts on the overall sensitivity of league Admins to player’s concerns?

c[_]`Wippuh: I think it's sincere with some, and I think it's just for show with others. I believe a lot of them really care what the player's want and listen to them. I really think CAL did a great job in picking up Baby as an admin. She's maybe as in touch with the scene as anyone I've ever seen, extremely down to Earth and realistic. Others, I think they think like Thorian does. They know better, and they'll just make it happen and then put on a bunch of politician-like talk to dismiss it. I can't stand that.

Overall, they have a lose-lose job. Anything they do will get them criticism. I know I wouldn't be able to handle it, so Zed, TWL, Gill and the rest of the guys out there making things happen do a great job. More work than we'll ever know goes into what they do.

Pissclams: Sorry, I have one last question on this subject then we can move on-

Pissclams: In your opinion, why were the new PB limitations introduced now, after 2 years of league play?

c[_]`Wippuh: I'm not sure why they were introduced. You can't tell me that asthetics matter to the leagues. The cvars were in place so that no one can see through trees or gain an advantage. To think that they cared what my screen looked like is silly.
I think it was just a thing where TWL was trying to promote cXg more, and then cal just went along. I don't care what ClanBase was doing.

In the end they flipped it back so far that the really bad things like timenudge weren't even affected. They basically changed very little and only made a mess of things. If they would have talked to the players first, it would have been so much better I bet.

Pissclams: Ok, I have 5 more questions, need a break?

c[_]`Wippuh: I'm fine :)
c[_]`Wippuh: I'm getting to ignore Kith in the staffroom, it's driving him nuts :)

Pissclams: staffroom?

c[_]`Wippuh: Our priv channel
c[_]`Wippuh: #initech-staffroom
c[_]`Wippuh: If you're gonna have a theme, go super dork on it :)

Pissclams: Yar!

Pissclams: What were your impressions of Qcon, getting to finally meet the people you’ve played with, the overall feeling of the LAN, etc.?

c[_]`Wippuh: Oh man, it was great!
c[_]`Wippuh: I went down there, got to the hotel and tried to call Doppy and Kith. They were nowhere around, so I just went to the bar and drank a few beers. Eventually I got tired of waiting so I got up and walked around a little.

The first person I recognize is the Da_G. I introduce myself and 5 minutes later I'm shooting Jack Daniels and drinking beer in their hotel room. The NARF guys were super fun, Shaggy was chugging Jack Daniels like a pro and we were just shooting the shit.

It might have hurt me in the end though, as Gigolo makes a point to make fun of how drunk I got and how loud I was in cK's room making fun of Haas and Helmut. I was just so drunk and felt so at ease goofing off with the NARF guys that I really didn't watch it, hehe. I'm surprised that Haas didn't kill me now that I think back on it. I feel like shit about that. But overall it was great. Everyone I met was great, even the Affliction guys whom I really dogged on in predictions :/ I had only problems with a few people there and I'm not going to talk about them. They're getting what they deserve.

I highly recommend that you go if you ever get the chance. Meeting everyone in person and talking with them was a ton of fun. HandofDeath (/me SUPER high-fives HandofDeath), Lust, RedSaynt, Laws, the Amish, Burque (Psilo is scary), NARF, my teammates, all great people. Just make sure you don't look like a tool in any pics that get taken of you, throw the HV guys, SilentStorm, into that list too. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot though.

Pissclams: European teams dominated Qcon, what did they do that teams from NA didn’t? Was it the Bootcamp (j/k)?

c[_]`Wippuh: Nah, I don't think the bootcamp did anything. I think the Euros won b/c they had their shit together on offense. The NA team that did the best was affliction, and that's where they excelled.

On defense the NA teams looked towards spam a lot more while the Euros went after the flag and let aim do the talking, with a big pf backing them up. I think it's a shame that NARF got knocked out by two NA teams b/c I think their super spam level and style of play, would have given the Euros trouble.

Also, Holly is right about the maps. The NA teams looked strong on beach and ice, but nothing after that.

I hope there is wolf at qcon next year (and what else would be there if you think about it?). I think the NA teams, if they paid attention, could come back very strong.

iN was heads and shoulders above anyone there. Simply incredible team.

Pissclams: So what you’re saying is that in your opinion NA teams play too conservative on Defense and rely too heavily on that defense, instead of getting more aggressive on D and also working new more flexible offensive pushes?

Exactly

Pissclams: Indeed, that's what I took from watching on WTV.

c[_]`Wippuh: I think NA teams did certain things better than the Euros. NARF could spam, frontline could aim, blah blah blah, but they couldn't put it together in one package like the Euros could.

c[_]`Wippuh: Affliction put together the package, but it just didn't happen for them.

Pissclams: What's your most memorable moment from QCON '03

c[_]`Wippuh: Meeting Kith and Doppy of course. Meeting Gigolo, the Amish and team Burque. Partying with NARF and ck, and trying to drink like Deisel (omgtequila!)

Pissclams: You get all of your clanmates together in real life, where's the first place you guys go?

c[_]`Wippuh: Oh man, lets see..
c[_]`Wippuh: We've got 3 underage guys, and Kith who is a straightedge llama, so that would eliminate the bar. I think what would happen is we'd go back to someone's place, buy a TON of beer and some mint Snapple for Kith. We'd do it on a Sunday so that 49er's and Bears are playing for Abi and Landshark. We'd get an igloo loveseat for LTP and Skynx so they could cuddle together the entire time and a pink mac, so Hellfox would feel at home. And then LAN up, play wolf and wc3 till we either beat the hell out of Kith enough to call an ambulance or had to drag Orby and Dante out of the place so their lil' girls didn't see them singing Disney songs together drunk. Beer = anything but Miller lite. We'd have a warm pack of Miller Lite set in the corner beneath Ann Coulter's newest book so that Recon would have something to drink while he read his favorite author, and probably a bunch of matchbox cars for roguer to play with

Pissclams: ROFL

c[_]`Wippuh: So it would end up Doppy and I drinking while we made fun of Jammy marrying a Wookie.

c[_]`Wippuh: :)

c[_]`Wippuh: We'd be blasting to Tom Jones and have pictures of Wombats hung on the wall too!

Pissclams: Well just to wrap things up a bit do you have some shoutouts and/or advice you would like to give clans or players reading this?

c[_]`Wippuh: Shoutouts, oh yeah

Pissclams: I believe it's a rap term or something =x

c[_]`Wippuh: To all of the guys in OS, it's freakish how much I enjoy playing with this bunch. Great group of guys, even Landshark, who may be the funniest man alive. To SumDumDood, Dusustin, DonKing, KillerMike, Burque, the Amish, Shaggy and NARF, Sharp (I own you at Soccer), you guys make #initech a fun place to be!!!

c[_]`Wippuh: To Zydoran and the rest of the guys in Team Thorian, representing the perks!

c[_]`Wippuh: To Laws, Slag, and NF, all hilarious guys at qcon. Visit our site at www.pcLoadLetterWTF.com we spend a lot of time to keep it updated. Visit planet-rtcw.com so we can keep a real community site alive, and keep playing Wolfie, the best game ever.

c[_]`Wippuh: I'd just tell everyone to make sure they have fun. Have some fun on Ventrilo, don't yell all the time. Ratios aren't everything. Remember to make fun of your teammate, and yourself, when they make a goofball mistake :)

c[_]`Wippuh: GL, HF, FSD, and also, Fear the c[_] !!!
c[_]`Wippuh: And don't forget the puddin' ahhhh yeah!
c[_]`Wippuh: LOCKNAR!

Cal-O week 3 - mp_crapteau

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Thursday, September 18, 2003)

Week 3 is upon us and while some teams have folded and headed home, there's some new teams showing up and the races look to be intense. As usual the preseason sandbagger teams are strugglin and the teams that didn't get any press are starting to be noticed. Week 3 gives us another week before mp_sub comes to town and then down the home stretch with the tried and true maps.

This week it's mp_crapteau and the spawn times are altered to 25/30. This helps the defense and makes the map more oriented towards the library, as it's some of the best mid range fighting you'll find. Take out all the lame doors, give the map something other than a straight hall EVERYWHERE, and you could see chateau becoming a somewhat reasonable map.

Coordinated offenses are big, but the pf can rock them. Look for teams with the better guns to win this week.

Onto the predictions.

Ufo Killers eastern (1-1) vs Commission (2-0)
UfoK brings an impressive roster, and Commission brings their team's rep from last season. Despite the fact that these are the two lesser divisions of two well known teams, they both can do considerable damage on their own. Look for Com to continue the winning ways here.
comm 3-1

The Sexy Guys (1-1) vs Total Konfuzion (0-0)
When you're wanting to figure out how seriously a team is wanting to get better, there's no better indicator than the good pubs. While scrimming can certainly help, the aim factor is huge. I've seen a tsg player or two pubbing it up on Narf/Locked Box, and that only says good things to me.
TSG 3-1

UnClan (2-0) vs Spookhouse (0-2)
Unclan has been doing well with their so far, unblemished record. The same can't be said for Spookhouse who is struggling at 0-2. The good thing for both cal and spookhouse is that the schedules will always find a way to reward you if you stick it out.
Unclan 3-0

Perfect Drug (1-0) vs Das Fuhrers (0-1)
pd comes off a VERY impressive win vs a strong team in AS. Das Fuhrers lost to a relatively new team in Ghetto Pimps.
pd 3-0

Order Thru Chaos (2-0) vs Absolute Synergy (1-1)
This is a big match for both teams. Otc can prove they're a team to watch out for, while AS needs a win here to say that the lost to pd was just Frostbite working its mojo. Both these teams bring considerable amounts of experience, expect a solid game.
AS 3-2

Ghetto Pimps (1-0) vs Cross Breed (0-2)
Ghetto pimps are new on the scene and scrim a good bit. They have a small roster so you know that they're getting the same 6 to 7 guys in and really working a good chemistry. This week they go off an experienced, but battered, team in CB. Look for CB to break out of the slump here and get back into the win column.
CB 3-2

eXcalibur II (1-1) vs Dead presidents Secret Service (0-2)
DPSS has had it pretty rough so far with 2 0-3 losses, but they come into this week with a match I believe they could win. I'm not sure they can do it vs the Mr and Mrs T combo, but they will be able to steal a round or two if they play well.
xII 3-1

Major Impact (0-0) vs FMJ Clan (1-1)
MI is just what RtCW ordered. A new team entering a league and ready to play with the big boys. This will be their first test as they get matched up vs FMJ. FMJ has some streaky shooters, who can roll through you if you're not careful. Chateau caters to that type of style and I think it will be MI's demise.
FMJ 3-1

Old SkOol Gamers (2-0) vs Team Envision (1-1)
Two very evenly matched teams here. Env still scrims a lot and osg are quietly making a name. I think that OsG continue the winning streak as the only common opponent these two teams have met up with (FMJ), equaled a win for osg and a loss for env.
Osg 3-1

Ufo Killers (2-0) vs 502nd PIR (2-0)
Could ufok possibly be match of the week 2 weeks in a row? Maybe, maybe not. These two are both teams that always come up during the argument of who should/shouldn't be moved to main. Between their four matches, they've lost a combined 3 rounds :o This should be a good one on a map that 502nd has traditionally been strong on. Look for the team that holds the flag longest at the onset of each round to win.
Ufok 3-2

Cult of Hands (0-2) vs Alliance of Soup Nazis (1-1)
Disgust, utter contempt, despise. All words I use to describe Handof now that they lost to the damn dirty penguins in week 2 of cal. But my logic, this makes them the worst team in cal since DP is so bad that I had previously placed them in that spot. asn comes off a brutal schedule where they played GFU two days in a row, both tough losses. Look for HandofDeath to change his name to BackofHand and stop giving his cult high-fives, but only bitch slaps as he gets them back into shape. Until this match is won by Handof I refuse to take Sokar off of ignore. No more cyber for you, scrim!
Handof 3-1

Blitz Taktikz (1-0) vs Cerebral Assassins Inc (2-0)
***MOTW!!!***
Want some respect c!a. Beat bt! c!a comes in with a solid 2-0 record, but bt comes in with some HUGE names and a huge win vs Superheros last week. This match will give us a better indication of just how far along c!a is. I've got a feeling it's pretty far, as distress gave them a lot of props for their frostbite match. But then again, Arch changed his name to Ari, and that's pretty damn firn.
bt 3-1

Dead Penguin (1-1) vs Ground Force Unit (2-0)
Somehow this band of salad tossing birds won a match last week. I'm going to call that a fluke and say it was because they played on a cold map. While Handof was all bundled up DP was running around in the nude and frollicking like the freaks they are. This week however, DP meets up with a map not so suited to them. Instead of ice, they get books! Since we all know that all of DP can't read, look for KillerMike and GFU to roll to a super easy victory as they deploy the dread of an all flamer strat. DP runs that strat all the time too, without weapons though.
GFU 3-0

distorted Reality (1-1) vs fuZion (1-1)
dR didn't like the sandbagger tag too much it seems, so they gave it to UfoK in a loss last week. Look for them to come back vs a fuzion team that is exactly what Cal-O is all about.
dR 3-0

Iron Warriors (1-1) vs Droog (1-1)
The sleeper of Central div, Droog is a team to watch out for. The original bad boys of wolf, they will talk the talk and then walk the walk. Their record is deceiving as their loss was b/c they couldn't field 5 in time for their match. However a 3-0 win vs RC says a lot about this team. If they bring their 6, watch out for them as the library defense falls right into the aim oriented, headshot focused style of play. IW is a great group of guys, and could possibly pull off an upset, but they'll have to tune the guns up if they want this one.
Droog 3-1


NY Clan (0-2) vs Murder X (0-2)
There's something about these two clans that everyone respects. They've been around forever and continue to battle it out week after week. They may not be the best, but they're hella fun to play with/against. Class acts. I've seen teams with tons more talent fold after losing a round, but not these two teams. Teams like this are the epitome of what wolf is all about. Playing with friends and having fun. Teams like MX and NY should be thanked by everyone for having a backbone and providing the base that allow leagues like CAL to continue on. I don't care what l33t players say, they all envy what these two teams have.
MX 3-2

Team Eclipse (1-1) vs Office Space (2-0)
Oh gawd, not our match. tE and OS happen to be scrim partners, which would probably help explain tE's lone loss. With OS removed from their schedule, they will have the chance to scrim a real team this week and improve, unlike their scrims with OS which only make them worse :( The only bright spot for OS is the possibility of a Recon Para sighting on pf. Then they may get 3 kills the entire match.
tE 3-0

Raiders Coven (0-1) vs SuperHer0s (0-1)
This match is an indicator for both these teams. Losing last week to very good teams in Droog and bT, it's time to see who's who. Was SuperHeros goofing off vs bT? Are they doing their best lemmings impersonation? Does RC still have last season's flair that got them all the praise? We'll find out.
$ 3-1

Stormtroopers (2-0) vs Team Burque (1-1)
SS comes in with an impressive 2-0 record. TB skips in with a 1-1 record. Look for Royal_Ally to craft some flaming hot, hot pants for the guys of TB to wear indoors. They'll all accessorize nicely, except for Twinny who will forget where all his clothes are b/c of memory loss. However, he'll be wearing his pf, and that's gonna be the big turning point in this match.
TB 3-1

Team Vote (1-1) vs Team SSI (1-1)
Not much is known about these two teams other than their records. F1 is a bunch of cfw members who split off to be more competitive. Sad to see that happen, as it usually ends up in flames, but they look good so far and keep that up here.
F1 3-0

Infernal Crisis (1-0) vs eVe of Domination (1-1)
!c brings a big pf with them vs eVe. This again, is another match that should guage each team's strength. I wouldn't be surprised to see eVe give !c a slight run as they're a good team that is coordinated on O. If !c doesn't make them pay for clumping up, watch for them to win here.
!c 3-1

Wyldcard

Posted by: -a-WarRi0R (Wednesday, September 24, 2003)

Wyldcard…

You all know what happen with wildcard. The fact of the matter is, is that we met him in real life. We had a LAN at chaos’s and he played right next to me. I didn’t see him using any hacks and what not but you know they probably can be toggled. Truthfully wildcard was a friend and I know some of you guys wouldn’t just dump a friend right off a cliff. When we found out that he hacked in sof2, we knew he was just using it to have fun, we never thought he would try it in wolf. Then when the CAL Admins said it was serious, and then it definitely did get serious in our clan.

Now we come to the conclusion should we let him play or not, and of course we let him play. In the end it was a poor judgment on our part and now we face some consequences. But the only thing that comes to my mind is if you get caught hacking in one game why would you do it again, you took your chance? Now I know you all won’t believe me on this but, fx and rewind.us didn’t believe wildcard hacked. It’s kind of like if your clan member gets in a fight, won’t you back him up? So we backed him up in all his arguments. Here is another mistake we made and now is going to be haunting us forever it seems. “Wyldcard doesn’t hack, leave him alone you fags, I hate you, die, you’re a noob, get off your team ogl all-star” is what we said to back him up. Now that wildcard was caught with something I apologize to all the people I said that to, especially Yellow from LoT. Yellow would ban wyld from lot box and I would beg to get him unbanned, and Yellow wouldn’t do it. I told Yellow he doesn’t hack and all this other bullshit. I guess I was wrong. So once again my clan and I are sorry on that remark.

As a team we decided we would branch off rewind because we found it disrespectful that we are ruining a well known European clan’s reputation. We are also trying to show to the community that we do not harbor hackers. So we started off fresh but starting a new clan, which can be found at #stylez. We have banned wildcard from our voice server, IRC, public channel, and IRC private channel. Anywhere else we can ban him from? This is our way of showing the community that we can win without a cheater. Impulse, Vatican, Serbian, Nightwolf, Joker, Chaos, Kappa, Guerrilla and I would like the communities respect back but I know we aren’t going to get it for three reasons. A) We had a cheater on our team that we didn’t know about b) There are kids on our team that like to say things like fag and other 5 yr old words c) people like dimmak. We would like to sort out our odds and ends with people, so if you hate me or my clan, talk to me in irc. We don’t h8 =).

I have also seen screenshots of Serbian getting kicked for a video driver hack. I would like to say this is true that he did get kicked by this but, we did research and found out that some video driver hacks are because pb gets tripped by accident. I also remember seeing a while back (only an example LoT) that LoT-Noir was kicked from a public ET server for the same error. Now we know that the players in LoT are mature and well respected players, they don’t hack… so it’s obvious pb got tripped accidentally.

If you have any questions message me in IRC I would like to sort things out and yes the 2v2 tourney is still going on, but there have been some big modifications to the rules. The rules will be posted on the official Website and the Website will be coming out in a few weeks. Teams that already signed up will stay signed up unless you want to be removed.

UPDATE:

Once you get caught you don’t do it again. Also I was questioning wyld the same day did you play cs with chaos and he denied it and changed the subject immediately. Chaos and Impulse remembered that wildcard was playing cs. This is a tough call who to believe, but i believe this is what happened.

Cal-O week 4 - mp_sub

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Thursday, September 25, 2003)

The season is halfway over and here comes the first real map we've played in a long time. Teams that did well on chateau/frostbite will be good to go in this heavily gun oriented and communication DEMANDED map. People call it mp_coinflip, but sub may be one of the best maps to judge just how good a team is. It requires it all, on both offense and defense.

Onto ze predictions!

The Sexy Guys (2-1) vs Perfect Drug (2-0)
The Sexy Guys are flying under the radar still. With a near miss vs Unclan in week 1 on the very tough assault, these guys proved they could hang. pD has been rolling along with a clean record and I think they take this one too, in a very tight match.
pD 3-2

Team Envision (1-2) vs Convulsion (0-0)
Envision is experiencing the growing pains of a new team as they only have 5 guys on their roster right now. This week they get the honor of being Convulsion's first opponent. Convulsion features the almost pf magnet Vexed, along with Natas of ex OPP fame. Dakind and Infinite also chime in to make their lineup Main worthy imo. Look for them to roll straight into the playoffs, even with the late league start.
Convulsion 3-0

Cross Breed (0-3) vs Absolute Synergy (1-2)
AS is a good team and some of their losses boggle me. A close 2-3 lose to oTc on chateau is surely a heart breaker, but I think they get back on track vs Cross Breed.
AS 3-1

FMJ Clan (2-1) vs Ghetto Pimps (2-0)
Ghetto pimps are getting the job done with a perfectly clean record. FMJ has that big gun that will step up every round and get some kills, but I'm not sure if that will be enough to save them on the VERY comm heavy mp_sub.
Pimps 3-1

Dead presidents Secret Service (0-3) vs Major Impact (0-1)
DPSS comes in struggling at 0-3 and faces off vs a team that will surely be struggling if they lose to DP. I think DP gets their first win here as they've been together for a while, and sub offense is something almost anyteam can accomplish, but the more experienced teams seem to do better at.
DP 3-2

Das Fuhrers (0-2) vs eXcalibur II (2-1)
Das Fuhrers haven't had the best luck in scheduling with Ghetto Pimps and Perfect Drug. Excalibur II came out of the gate slow on assault, but has pulled off two quick wins on maps that play somewhat similar to sub, in Frostbite and Chateau.
eX II 3-1

Cerebral Assassins Inc (2-1) vs SuperHer0s (1-1)
MOTW
C!a has their tag all fubared up, it's not Cerebral Inc Assasins, which would dictate a c!a tag, but oh well, that's beside the point. They've pressed one of my early picks to do well, in bT, to the absolute line in a 2-3 loss. SuperHer0s is making a lot of noise on and off server as many believe that |Cool|Oldschool, who I think is also *SpY*LoyalGuard, is actually playin on this team of mismatched ex Spy/Saint players as Garfield or Roadrunner. That would be a BIG no-no since those nicks only bring up one term from the leagues. Banned!
With the addition of Scrilla from hel, and the fact that they did much better vs bT than $ did, the predict goes in ca!'s favor.
c!a 3-2

Team Burque (2-1) vs eVe of Domination (2-1)
Two teams go at it with matching records. eVe comes off a big win in beating !c 3-0. Team Burque escaped with a 3-2 win over SS. Now they meet up on sub. Burque is a lan team which both helps/hurts them. It's in their favor in that they can flex on sub a lot better. It hurts them in that they have a certain tendency to smoke a weeeeeeeee bit the whacky tabacky and make fun of Ally a lot. But making fun of Ally only helps in the end as we all know, so watch for TB to turn mp_sub into a huge gravity bong and have a good ol time with eVe.
TB 3-1

Murder X (1-2) vs Office Space (3-0)
Since this week's map is sub, that is currently OS's worst map without a doubt. Look for nothing short of the return of Recon "give me my pliers and let me destroy EVERYTHING" Para, to help OS out of a certain loss to MX. I see Hellfox having big problems on this map as he can't turn corpses into carrion beetles and let them attack MX for him, meaning that he might have to figure out how to bind an attack key :o
MX 3-0

Droog (3-0) vs distorted Reality (2-1)
Another excellent match coming up here. I'm nothing short of a droog fanboy when it comes to talking about their skill. They look at guys like Slag and Daniel and laugh at them when it comes to talking trash. dR got back on track last week by beating fuzion, but this week gives them another stiff test in a season that has been very unforgiving for them in terms of scheduling. This one comes down to who lets their guns do the talking the most, and I've seen Fire4ge on narf. Not a good sign for dR.
Droog 3-2

Beer is Good (0-2) vs Cult of Hands (0-3)
BiG has picked up a big player in Mikey of BYE fame. Look for his experience, especially in terms of strats, to really help BiG out. Handof is the best 0-3 team in the history of CAL. 3 narrow 2-3 losses to tE, DP, and 502nd shows you what happens when you let those nasty penguins beat you. I wouldn't be surprised to see Handof get pissed and run the table the rest of the season.
Handof 3-0

Dead Penguin (2-1) vs Team Eclipse (1-2)
Even a blight squirrel finds a nut and DP is proof that even stupid ass penguins can find a way to win matches. Codewarrior and his band of retarded penguins are stumbling and bumbling around CAL and severly hurting the progress we have all made towards e-sports becoming legit. They are the RollerBall team of e-sports. I wouldn't be surprised if b3e had some kneepads and rollerskates tucked away somewhere in his closet as he waits in anticipation for rollerball to make a comeback.
tE knows better though. They're hard and in charge as mouse has cracked the whip and brought in fenix of redemption fame. Look for this one to be a total blowout and tE laughs their way to a super easy victory.
tE 3-0

Ground Force Unit (2-1) vs Raiders Coven (0-2)
RC has gotten off to a rough start, and GFU had a rough week of matches on Chateau, where I honestly expected them to do much better. I think they get their stuff back together this week and pull out a super close win vs a RC team that has gotten the short end of the scheduling stick
GFU 3-2

fuZion (1-2) vs 502nd PIR (3-0)
502nd is 3-0 but has managed to drop some rounds. They've added the super duper stat whore in GAT-Nikon, and I expect to see him /kill himself into 32 second spawns consistantly as axis. The /kill rep on this guy is well deserved. Look for the rest of his team pick up the slack as they continue to march towards a long push into the playoffs.
502nd 3-0

Team SSI (1-2) vs Blitz Taktikz (2-0)
bT was my pick to win Open after seeing them dominate Superheros. GAT-ALien and TAF-Parcher could carry this team as far as they wanted I thought. Then they went and dropped 2 rounds to c!a on chateau and it maybe time for me to reconsider my predictions. bT will have to get their strats and teamwork a lot tighter as they've been shown that they're obviously not alone at the top of cal-o.
bT 3-0

Iron Warriors (1-2) vs Stormtroopers (2-1)
IW will have their work cut out for them vs a SS team that hung tough with a very good TB team on Chateau. Again, I think IW's experience will pay off for them here as they will be able to adapt and wing it on defense a little better than SS will.
IW 3-1

NY Clan (0-3) vs Team Vote (2-1)
This will not be a kind match for NY. Vote has reached my radar as this ex group of cfw players has been extremely impressive in their matches. Lots of people giving them kudos on their aim and teamwork.
Vote 3-0

Commission (2-0) vs UnClan (3-0)
OooOooo, another prime time matchup as these two undefeated teams go at it. Should be interesting to guage who wants it more. Look for the winner of this match to go extremely far in the playoffs. Going with unclan here as disrespect seems to fuel Com more than anything else.
UnClan 3-2

Spookhouse (0-3) vs Total Konfuzion (0-1)
I've heard that TK does nothing but forfiet their matches? Yup, seems they've dropped CAL, but are still scheduled. Hopefully CAL can find someone else to play Deffy and his band of spookies.
Spook 3-0

Old SkOol Gamers (3-0) vs Order Thru Chaos (3-0)
This final match is more of a battle for respect than anything. Both teams are 3-0 but lack that pizazz that makes me think they're an upper echelon cal-o team. Both are on the verge of being there, and a win this week will certainly help them get there.
oTc 3-2

Cal Invite :: mp_sub Fleet Week Bitches

Posted by: laws_69 (Friday, September 26, 2003)

The first stock map into this Cal Invite season leaves 3 undefeated teams... Affliction, Trinity, and Immortals. Rewind, ergh Stylez, is now 1-2 after being forfeited their first two matches over the great hacking incident of '03. ICF, DH, DT, and 8 are all tied up with respective 2-1 records. Team Chrome is 1-1 IN MATCHES, while Kinetic's roster issues have brought a dismal 1-2 record. New teams returning or just forming are: Excuse (0-1), LQD (who forfeited early in the season, but is now back with a returned vigor), and GAT (a formation of First Edition and Redemption). On to this weeks matches.

Deathtouch vs. LQD

dT unexpectedly dropped from their match last week with Affliction. Whether this was chicken shit antics or an actual roster problem, it has not been sorted out yet (please clarify). LQD has just reformed and will need at least a week to jel before they can take a team like dT. Of course, if dT doesn't show...I guess LQD is jelled plenty to take the win...

If dT shows: 3-1 dT
If not: LQD in a barnburner 3-0


Digital Heresy vs. Affliction

Interesting matchup. Normally, 3-0 Affliction, but on mp_coinflip it has me scratching my head. With the right panzer action, clutch saves and grenade spam, dH could pull out this tough match. Then again, Affliction swims better than Greg Luganis and LOOOOOVES the waterplant. I expect show very fast times in this match.

Affliction 3-1


Intense Combat Forces vs. Chrome

ICF has a nice squad, one of the few Cal-Invite teams that can hang with the top dogs. Beez will try to distract the Nazi forces with donuts, cakes, cupcakes and pies, but to his dismay it still won't be enough.

ICF 3-2


Immortals vs. Trinity

A battle of undefeateds. Immortals brings almost the same lineup they had last season in Main, while Trinity broke out the broom and totally revamped. Speaking as a member of Trinity, we've not played a match yet that the other team didn't max out their panzer limit...I doubt that will change this week. Watch for Redbird and Chocula to showcase their synchronized swimming.

Trinity 3-2
(that's right, I'm jerk enough to predict my own match)


Raging Octopi vs GAT

Panzer happy GAT gets to play against an up and coming 8 squad. Gat wins purely based on Pissclams playing for 8.

With Pissclams, GAT 3-1
Without Pissclams, Tossup 3-2


Kinetic vs. Stylez/Rewind/FX/Flatliners/82nd

Won't be a nice week for Kinetic, roster issues and then having to play the accused hax0r majax0rs. I expect a lot of smg abuse in this one.

Stylez/Rewind/FX/Flatliners/82nd 3-1

CAL Invite Predictions Week 4

Posted by: icf|r0b`GG (Friday, September 26, 2003)

A look at the matchups for week 4 of CAL Invite. The map: mp_sub

Deathtouch vs Liquid
The re-emergence of LQD will be one to see. With the same roster as they had before they took a lil RTCW vacation and along with some additions, LQD will look to come back strong. dT will look to continue to punish the opposition. However, with LQD back and fresh and not gone too long, the rust will quickly evaporate and this match will go down to the wire. But the constant play of dT will be the difference here.

dT > LQD 3-2

Digital Heresy vs Team Affliction

dh.na has now added the powers of the infamous Slag. Despite what you think of him, Slag is an instant play maker. With the already strong lineup that dh.na has, he will prove vital to their season and this match. Team Affliction is just on too much of a roll. The chemistry keeps getting better and better. It’s hard to stop what appears to be the best North American team in RTCW today.

Affliction > dh.na 3-1

Intense Combat Forces vs Team Chrome

In all honesty, even if I wanted to predict this one, I can’t. I really don’t know anyone from Team Chrome other than uber film maker Joey. Should be good games on this fast pace map.

The Immortals vs Team Trinity

Wow. This looks to be a very tight match. In my opinion, probably the most even of all matches this week. Trinity has definitely gotten stronger with the additions of Redbird, Maximal, and R3m. They are quickly gelling and look to make a strong show in Invite. Immortals on the other hand is at that point of their gaming careers. This match will be crucial as to how they do in Invite. Hartman, death, Warmachine, and company will be the x factors that will make this a match of complete and utter chaos, but with Trinity pulling it off by the smallest of margins.

tTt > i- 3-2

The Raging Octopi vs Global Assault Team

Apoc and Madness make a lethal combination. And with Seed on the panzer helm, there is no telling how many engineers he’s going to gib and blow to complete pieces. Hope Dez fired his ISP cause last week, it gave him too many troubles. Octopi is that team that doesn’t die. One that doesn’t go down easily. It will take a lot to bring them down. But GAT has the talent and the teamwork to do just that

GAT > Octopi 3-1

Kinetic vs Rewind US/Stylez

The name on the CAL website didn’t change. Anyways, with or without Wyldcard, Stylez still has the talent. The crossfire they bring works very good on a short map. However, K is still that team that people don’t talk about. Sort of the silent assassin. And if you don’t take them seriously, the consequences can be quite devastating. But Stylez is just too much on this map. Here, they go back on the path to regain those wins before the wyldcard situation.

Stylez > K 3-1

Redrum vs Team Excuse

The two newest Invite teams go head to head in their first week. Redrum has the talent. They have the players. Now they need the experience to play at this level. They will be a sleeper team. Team Excuse is just too much though. Too much experience on that team on how to win a crucial game. They know that a team must get on their winning paths quickly. And this match will be their first W.

Excuse > )r( 3-1

Enemy Territories Weekly League Update.

Posted by: -opp bigbear- (Tuesday, September 30, 2003)

I will be doing a weekly Update featuring news and scores from the TWL and CAL ET leagues. Each week will focus on one league or the other and will contain scores from the most recent week and 3 highlighted matches from the week preceding that one. Also featured will be an interview each week and as the playoff picture starts to come together information on that. If you dont like ET or dont care stop reading now and dont bother with the pointless..."this is planet-RTCW posts and bs like that." This weeks focus will be CAL-ET.



Now to get started. Not all of Week 2's Results have been posted so I'll edit and fill them in later.
Week 1 Expanded Results.

Preeminence vs. Clan Casualty. Preeminence wins 2-0

Casualty is one of the original ET clans after having ported themselves over from RTCW and have shown some strength in competition so to some this result may seem like a surprise. But you gotta look at what they went up against in Preeminence...
Preeminence is made up of some pretty elite former RTCW players and will be a force to reckon with if they devote their time to ET...If this team scrims as much as the other top teams they could be in the finals at the end of the season...

smf vs AoP. smf wins 2-0

AoP another old RTCW is back and features the greatness of the Mildorf! Unfortunetly Illshot couldnt carry them to victory this week. My boy teh haximal and the other suave mofos stepped up and proved something in their return. With its new look lineup after briefly going inactive in ET smf is looking stronger then ever.

Team Ballz vs Arise. Ballz wins 2-0

The result of this battle of former RTCW teams kinda suprises me to be honest. I've had a lot of experience playing Arise in RTCW but I honestly dont know what they are capable of in ET. However the really only impressive name I see on Ballz is Cheese so I have to believe that Arise just wasnt ready for this match or didnt have its players. I'd like to see a rematch of this game, Arise might bring its A game next time.

Week 2 Results (incomplete so far)

Just Cause > Team 7 3-0
Clan Commission > Demonic Elite 3-0
Major League Killers > Suicidal Intent 3-0
WolfJaeger > Licensed to Ill 2-0
Rotators > Charters Phalanx 2-0
Alliance of Pain > GO 2-0
ILAN Addicts > Canadian Club 2-0
Team Arise > Team Default 2-0
Warpigs Clan > Digital Heresy 2-0
Fatal Attraction > Ghosts of War 2-0
Xtreme Chaos > Clan Cohesion 2-1
Ascend > Soldier Clan 3-0
20 Inch Dongs > Deviance 3-2
Omnipotent > Supreme Mercenaries 2-0
smf > StormTroopers of Death 2-0
Team Ballz > Broadband Wolf Corps 2-0

ON WITH THE INTERVIEW!

This weeks guest is Shatter from Arise.

[Blackj4ck] Give us a brief history of Arise and yourself as a gamer.

[a||shatter] well I started gaming back when Doom2 came out in '94 on bbs' and dwango then nothing again until i downloaded rtcw test1 so, rtcw is really my 1st online fps. I formed [WF] for bob1 and we got smoked in the 1st round by s62. Joined [Pro] and pRfor a while, then in Sept of 2002, decided I wanted my own gig again and started Team Arise with Nitemare and Ender from SST

[Blackj4ck] What do you see in the future for Arise?

[a||shatter] Well, we're talking about making the team larger and branching into other games. Halo2 and HL2 come to mind as possibilities. As does Quake4. I suppose we'll have to see what interest there is as we move forward. For now, it's mostly ET and we've recently started up the RTCW division again.
But the team is here to stay no matter what direction we head.

[Blackj4ck] How is ET Like/Unlike RTCW and what advantages disadvantages does Arise gain from these?

[a||shatter] Heh...That seems to be the raging debate lately

[Blackj4ck] lol

[a||shatter] ET is like RTCW in the team aspect mostly. It's very easy to change from one game to the other as far as basic tactics and gameplay. It is easier to aim in ET which REALLY helps us :)

[Blackj4ck] for sure

[a||shatter] spam isn't really an issue with all the great work that TWL and bani have done to produce etpro

[a||shatter] and although vanilla et isn't very geared for competitive play, etpro and the leagues have really turned it into a real competition game in my opinion

[Blackj4ck] So whats a typical night of scrimming like for Arise?

[a||shatter] Well, when we actually take the time to do it right, it's 3 hours a night mon-thu with matches on sun (cal) and mon (twl), however usually, since teams are new and we haven't had to worry too much, we'll usually do 2 hours on tues/wed and sometimes thurs just to get strats worked out.
At the moment, our biggest challenge has been our weekly scrim with Preeminence, not any matches we've played

[Blackj4ck] yeah they sound tough

[a||shatter] They are. If I were ranking teams now, they would be at the top

[Blackj4ck] What makes Arise special...What abilities and skills do you and your teammates bring to the table that seperate you from other clans?

[a||shatter] Special? I don't really think we're special. I do think that what seperates us from a lot of clans is that we realize that this is a game. And while sometimes people get angry and say things that may be taken the wrong way, at the end of the day, it's all in good fun. So many teams have roster issues because of egos bumping each other

[Blackj4ck] So with arise its all about the team. I would say that compared to many clans in both ET and RTCW that is something special

[a||shatter] Thanks. We try to make it as fun as possible. A lot of the time we'll all sit on ventrilo for 2 hours after a scrim and just talk about whatever. It's not a job, it's something that we all WANT to do

[Blackj4ck] Who do you see as the teams to beat in ET as of right now

[a||shatter] Preeminence, LoT, Rotators, Casuality and I guess Team Arise as far as NA I haven't been checking out the Euro scene at all yet.

[Blackj4ck] Now this is an article on CAL but I would like some feedback from you regarding both CAL and TWL seeing as your an admin for TWL and TWL was the innovator as far as ET leagues go. Which league do you feel is working harder for the community? Which league has a greater future? And should I start doing an update like this for TWL as weel as CAl?

[a||shatter] Well, first, I'm actually not a TWL admin anymore, I left to concentrate my limited time on the team and Warpath and Blue have done an outstanding job. As far as which is better? I don't like saying things like that usually, but in this case, TWL has far and above done the groundwork, the work with the modders, the community and the other leagues to get this game up and running as a valid competition game. CAL is great and we are in it as well, I just think that right now, TWL is the leader in running ET And yes, an update for TWL would be great

[Blackj4ck] Ok. Thx for the interview. Any last shoutouts?

[a||shatter] Ya. A shoutout to My entire team, sunstyle, warpath, blue, Zedsdead, the wippuh, and everyone else that makes the et community stronger

[Blackj4ck] Again Thank You. Goodluck the rest of this season in both TWL and CAL hope the see Arise deep in the playoffs.
Well thats it for me this week...Starting next week I may start doing a TWL review so that each and every week there is a TWL or CAL review. However, in my next CAL update 2 weeks from now look for an interview from Maximal of smf!!! the haximal is teh own.

*note next weeks interview WILL in fact be Maximal. Following Maximal I will have an interview with NightFall. Others I probably will interview before the season is over include; chilly (r), Warpath, Dashiva, CAL-ET|Moore (aka dh|badaxe), and if possible the entire SToP Clan.

Cal-O week 5 - mp_beach

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Friday, October 3, 2003)

Ah yeah, we're turning the corner for the home stretch. The quirky customs and mp_coinflip have provided some good matches, but the playoff teams will get sorted out in the next 4 weeks. We start out on mp_beach, a map where spam can rule you, but dominant guns can power their way to wins. Big pf's and clutch plays will be needed for wins, so onto the predictions!

Iron Warriors (2-2) vs Blitz Taktikz (3-0)
I know that IW just picked up a big player, but bT counters that with the pickup of an ex dT guy. With 3 ex invite players on their team, bT can corner camp their way to victory in the basement.
bT 3-0

NY Clan (0-4) vs Team SSI (1-3)
Two teams that have been around cal for a while now meet up in the middle of the season, looking to notch a win and get their teams turned around. Beach is a map where the offensive plan is a little crazy, and pubbing can actually work. Since the map has been pubbed to death, players instinctively find themselves working together.
NY 3-2

distorted Reality (3-1) vs Ground Force Unit (3-1)
dR put the smack down on Droog last week. GFU got another forfeit win as the schedule gods have not been kind to them so far. This week isn't any relief, but at least they'll have someone to play. GFU puts up a hell of a fight, but dR comes out on top. Keep the lookout for Kluv's Zima stand out near sniper hill in the sandbags. Kluv LOVES the girlie drinks, and he'll be giving them out all night long.
dR 3-1

eVe of Domination (2-2) vs SuperHer0s (1-2)
Superheros keep adding infamous names to their already questionable roster. I don't believe anyone is fooled by them, but look for them to get a win on beach as they pf their way through eVe.
$ 3-0

Office Space (4-0) vs Team Vote (3-1)
Wowsers, this has been deemed the match of the week. All I know is that our buddy KillerMike has nothing but absolute praise for F1 and what they bring to the table. Xported on pf looks to be a huge factor in this match. If he doesn't kill all of OS everytime they attempt to come up the beach, then the rest of F1 will have to stop reenacting the 4k cheese scene in the basement barracks and actually shank some OS goons.
F1 3-0

502nd PIR (4-0) vs Dead Penguin (3-1)
Nikon is absolutely going nuts for 502nd. Beach D allows him to /kill into 39 second spawns, and that's what he does best :P The tUx crew on the other hand is still a sad sight to see. Codewarrior and B3e will probably be seen taking long walks together in the sand instead of doing anything productive. Look for this match to be an easy winner for 502nd.
502nd 3-0

Team Eclipse (1-3) vs Droog (2-2)
Two teams that come of losses last week. I honestly expected fire4ge and company to do better against dR, and I'm let down in a BIG way that tE lost to the damn dirty penguins. However, the karma of letting the underpriviledged penguins win will come back to help them down the road.
tE 3-2

Murder X (1-3) vs Beer is Good (0-3)
MX is some of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I see them putting another win under their belt vs BiG in some EXTREMELY good games.
MX 3-2

Team Burque (3-1) vs Cerebral Assassins Inc (3-1)
WTF, how has TB racked up a winning record? Fo3twinny spends more time writing backwards in their irc channel than they do scrimming. I guess that Ally is sewing up some nice new hotpants for Chili, and the rest of the team is so focused on them that they follow him wherever he goes. This week they run into one of the Cal-o powerhouses in ca! though. I wouldn't be surprised to see TB win this one as the 2002 qcon mojo comes back from Chili and Twinny, but I think they'll come up short vs the guns of Ca!
Ca! 3-1

Cult of Hands (1-3) vs Stormtroopers (2-2)
There's been a distinct lack of Sokar trying to cyber with whomever enters #handof the last week in irc. Looks like The Cult is pissed off and storming back. Look out as their modified Chevette roars up the beach powered by salsa and occupied by The Cult of Hands Mariachi band! If Cult of Hands goes back to the classic green and blue tags, phear!
Handof 3-0

Perfect Drug (3-0) vs Commission (3-0)
Reading Spiticon's posts in the twl forums is painful. The puncuation masta has a firm grasp on the IM culture. Fortuanately, the rest of his team is pretty good in wolf and they've gone undefeated so far. Both of these teams have had relatively easy schedules, but Comm took out a toughie in unclan last week. I think they'll be in better shape for this matchup.
Comm 3-2

UnClan (3-1) vs Das Fuhrers (1-2)
Das Fuhrers got their first win last week, and hopefully they can build off of that, but this week they meet up with Masters.. errr... Unclan. The aim differential will power unclan to a solid win on beach.
unclan 3-0

Total Konfuzion (0-2) vs The Sexy Guys (2-2)
TK has had it rough so far in cal, with their 0-2 start. TSG hasn't had it much easier, but have managed a .500 record. Look for TSG to get the win here over a team that is improving in TK.
TSG 3-1

Ghetto Pimps (2-1) vs Old SkOol Gamers (4-0)
OsG didn't like my prediction last week it appears and I got numerous "We get any respect now" pm's on irc. Of course you don't! This week they face off Ghetto Pimps, and while I think OsG will get out with the win, I've got to say that they get no respect from me :P
OsG 3-1

Order Thru Chaos (3-1) vs FMJ Clan (3-1)
oTc allowed OsG the chance to pm me, so they're now right above tUx and right below Kith in my book. That's a nasty place to be, with plenty of hate to go around. They pull out the win here, but I get to pm them all my OsG logs! muwahahahaha.
oTc 3-1

eXcalibur II (2-2) vs Major Impact (1-1)
I think MI's record is wrong as DPSS might have beaten them last week. Either way, I think xII is the stronger team here as MrsT makes up some quality bloody marys.
xII 3-1

Cross Breed (1-3) vs Dead presidents Secret Service (0-4)
DPSS is really 3-1 from what I hear, so this is the clash between 1-3 teams. Honestly, I thought CB would do better this season so far, but they have had a pretty brutal schedule so far. Look for them to inch closer to the .500 mark.
CB 3-2

Absolute Synergy (1-3) vs Spookhouse (1-3)
AS being 1-3 is very surprising. The Hammer is 2 Legit 2 Quit though, and this week they'll be able to get by Spookhouse. Look for AS to comeback on more familar maps as their team comes together faster on more traditional strat maps.
AS 3-1

Cal-O week 6 - mp_base

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Wednesday, October 8, 2003)

Onto week 6 as the playoffs look to take firmer shape. Some huge matchups on base this week.

Base may be the most intriguing map. It's so set in stone what teams do on defense, that offenses must try a multitude of things. This makes it a map where the action all happens in one place, and I believe that this might be THE map everyone talks about when they speak of burnout. It's like being a hamster, running the same path over and over and trying to eliminate mistakes.

Onto the predictions.

Cerebral Assassins Inc (4-1) vs Office Space (5-0)
When you have wins over TB, F1 and $ you know that you're a good team. Add in a near win vs one of the teams favored to win it in bT, and everyone else will notice too. This looks like a pretty swift loss for OS, but hopefully they can be on defense first so that they can hurry up and lose so they can play some wc3 afterwards. As a footnote, there have been rumblings of a certain c[_]`Steve, aka Recon_Para, returning for OS from his journey of selling mags (most likely of the pron variety no doubt) door to door. If that is the case, you can be sure of some roasty toasty c!a members as THE Ohio State University fan goes on mad rampages with his flamethrower. Won't matter though.
c!a 3-0

Dead Penguin (3-2) vs Beer is Good (1-3)
I'm assuming b/c of the 1-3 record, that CAL has gone ahead and helped BiG get an easy win by scheduling them vs the losers from up North. Beer is indeed good, and the penguins know this even though they're as dumb as Helmut after 23 Shiner Bocks. Look for BiG to laugh their way to victory as they observe DP trying to slip them money to go and buy them a 6 pack of Sharps.
BiG 3-0

distorted Reality (4-1) vs 502nd PIR (5-0)
MOTW imo. This one is a potential playoff matchup. dR is starting to look extremely strong with sweeps over Droog (now #) and GFU. 502nd is the team now. They're strong. Look for the pf's to be flying all over Base. Nikon and Insano will be rocking the hizzy fo shizzy, whatever that means. This match all comes down to dR and their ability to run relentless multiple attack formations.
502nd 3-1

Perfect Drug (3-1) vs UnClan (4-1)
These two teams share a common bond in that both of their losses come at the hand of 2-3 heartbreakers to Comm. I don't know a lot about either team other than that unclan doesn't like to be called Masters and gets in a hissy when you mention Masters. :P Unclan was rooting for OS on wtv this week and actually being kind to us, which is more than I can say about all the other wtv's I've watched where the idiots roam free.
Unclan 3-2

eVe of Domination (2-3) vs NY Clan (0-5)
I'm seeing more and more of Canadian Bacon on quality servers lately. I like that, it shows me a real will to improve as an individual in order to improve your team. That commitment has helped eVe come closer to a .500 record. This week I think they get it.
eVe 3-1

blitz taktikz (4-0) vs Stormtroopers (2-3)
What did SS do to deserve this? Not sure, but look for them to get hit hard by the half ex-cal-i, half making excuses for those ex cal-i guys, team. I see a lot of corner camping coming in this one :(
bT 3-0

FMJ Clan (4-1) vs Dead presidents Secret Service (2-3)
FMJ is quietly stepping it up with a great win over oTc last week. They should be able to move to a 5-1 record and securing a spot in the playoffs this week. Don't count DPSS out though. A team that many had left for dead, they have ripped off two sweeps in a row.
FMJ 3-1

Spookhouse (2-3) vs Team Burque (3-2)
I'm not dead yet! That's the rallying cry for Spookhouse, who many had been saying was a defunct team a week or two again. They returned though with two wins, and now face off vs Team Burque. The Chili should be cooking pretty intensly this week and Twinny will be running all over the damn place with his pf trying to find a bathroom. With Twinny's eratic runs (no pun intended), I suspect TB will get a win.
TB 3-1

SuperHer0s (2-2) vs Team Vote (3-2)
Team Vote is all they've been made out to be and more. I can see them running some very explosive defenses on base. Rev and his potato mashers look to have some big rounds. As for SpyHer0s, they like to create controversy. LoyalGuard has proved what kind of asshat he's been in the past, but they're fortuanate in having two dominate players in Ryan and Transit, who have brought the pain on base many a time before. I believe that if Vote scrims hard, and I know they do, they'll be able to pull this out vs the rumored pub like offense of SpY.
F1 3-1

Cross Breed (2-3) vs Old SkOol Gamers (5-0)
CB has finally gotten back on track, as the more familar maps seem to be a good thing for them. They run into the oSg this week, and it might not be pretty. oSg goes on to pretty much secure a playoff spot with a win here.
OsG 3-1

Das Fuhrers (1-3) vs Commission (5-0)
What does the schedule makers have against Das Fuhrers? This one hurts to think about :(
Comm 3-0

Absolute Synergy (1-4) vs Clan Nexus (1-3)
Two teams that I thought would do a lot better. Booch has spent the last week or so doing damage control over the DieHard and that might hurt them here vs an AS team that is much better than their record indicates. JaYtee is a big pick up for Nexus, and his experience can very well be the turning factor on this map. Toss up.
AS 3-2

Team SSI (2-3) vs Iron Warriors (2-3)
IW took a round from the very hyped bT team on beach. I know that IW can bring the pain, and do it right. Smart teamwork and strats power this team where others just try to get by on pubbing and guns. Look out if Bus Driver plays!
IW 3-1

Ground Force Unit (3-2) vs # (3-2)
A rematch of week 1 where # had to forfeit vs GFU b/c they only had 4 players. This can be an intense matchup, and I know that GFU will be ready on their favorite map. Watch for KillerMike to kick some guys pretty high, and Machine to be more than ready to show Droog that they're not the only good guns in this match. Turning point of this match is the pf's from both teams. Whichever one makes the bigger impact, wins.
GFU 3-2

Cult of Hands (2-3) vs Team Eclipse (1-4)
REPEAT! Another repeat, this match will be a great one indeed. I hate picking this map, because I like both teams a whole lot. tE is turning their game up a lot these last few weeks and I'll go with them since HandofDeath hasn't been seen in #handof for a few days. Going into #handof and it NOT smelling like salsa is an ill omen. Look for Shoeshine to spout off a bunch more of his 'l33t' vocab that he's so proud of lately.
tE 3-2

Major Impact (0-3) vs Order Thru Chaos (3-2)
MI is sticking with it after a late entry into the league, but this week doesn't look promising for them to get their first win.
oTc 3-0

Cal-O week 7 - mp_village

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Thursday, October 16, 2003)

Onto village as the teams square off in some playoff seeding matches. Cal needs to get that shiznit out! 16 teams is what I'm assuming for these predictions.

Village is probably the map I look forward to the most in the regular season, yet hate the most too. Long runs are made so tedious, and the drama can be high, but if the gold is returned, it's like a visit to the dentist's office. The map can be full of good firefights and clutch plays, or lamers running 2 pfs and suiciding you around every corner. It all depends on the team.

Onto the predictions!

502nd PIR (5-1) vs Office Space (5-1)
Without a doubt, the biggest surprise of last week's matches was 502nd losing to dR on base. dR must have their shiznit together on that map to take it from 502nd. Look for 502nd to get extremely angry and take this one from OS with relative ease. Lots of pf's from Nikon and company on this one for sure :(
502nd 3-0

distorted Reality (5-1) vs Cerebral Assassins Inc (5-1)
I haven't played dR, but I have played C!a and they have taken the coveted "Sticklers for Server" award that was previously held by Droog :P Good luck on getting these guys to play on any server east of California, hehe. All kidding aside, this match all depends on which dR shows up. If the team that beat 502nd shows, then C!a won't have the depth to cover the entire map and stop dR. If the team that narrowly escaped from the slippery clutches of those damn dirty penguins shows, then C!a will be able to run right though them.
C!a 3-2

Iron Warriors (3-3) vs SuperHer0s (3-2)
Jesus, I just wish $ would go away. Looking at their roster makes me wanna gag it's so lame with all of its Loyalguard like abuse of the English language. SuperHer0s can take all the shots they want to about twl beta and how they were kicked out because they were feared to take it. No one can really take them seriously seeing as they're sporting a 3-2 record in Open and don't look to be a true threat to even take Central. I give this one to IW on principle alone and feel free to call me a hata, b/c it's true, who isn't?
IW 3-0

Ground Force Unit (3-3) vs eVe of Domination (3-3)
GFU is one of the teams that I see on the fringe of the playoffs. Wins must come their way or else they may not make it. I see them getting this one as they can neutralize CanadianBacon.
GFU 3-0

Team Vote (3-3) vs Cult of Hands (2-4)
The 2nd biggest surprise of the week was seeing Handof fall to # on base. Handof, when on, can take it to anyone on base. Maybe the addition of LuckyB on pf for # is indeed as big as some believe, or maybe it's the loss of HandofDeath to Deportation (Sport your [HoD] tag in irc) is really bringing Handof down. Either way, I think F1 takes this one, as all the chip and salsa bowls around the Cult's liar are empty, sapping them of their mojo :(
F1 3-2

Team Burque (3-3) vs Team Eclipse (2-4)
tE has made the most of invite team's folding by picking up stiegl from GAT and fenix from redemption. Rumors have it that fenix came back for mouse, but we believe that it may have been for Cypher instead! Drama! Too little too late for tE as their record doesn't look good for them making the playoffs, who knows. They should take the rapidly improving TB on village though.
tE 3-1

Beer is Good (1-4) vs Team SSI (2-4)
BiG committed the cardinal sin of Cal-O last by losing to ze penguins! This does not make the Wolf gods happy! And while beer is indeed good, losing to tUx is not. Look for BiG to be plagued by 999's, their mice malfunctioning, lost sound and default cfg's being loaded as I DOS att.. errr... as the Wolf Gods show their fury.
SSI 3-2

blitz taktikz (5-0) vs # (4-2)
bT won't slip under the radar anymore, and this week they face off vs the team formally known as Prince, errr Droog. # is kicking the number system is seems by naming themselves 1,2,3, etc... All we know is that #0 is LuckyB and he is a HUGE addition in Cal-O. I'm not sure if # can pull it off, but I'm not sure that bT can be beat until the late late rounds of the playoffs. This is the "corner camper" special of the week in Cal-O.
bT 3-2

Stormtroopers (2-4) vs Dead Penguin (4-2)
4 and 2. The number of Big Macs and large chocolate shakes that each penguin orders at McDonald's everyday for lunch? Probably just the number of Windows (4) and Linux (2) monitors in each penguin office as they work on their radiation tans. No doubt it cannot be their actual cal record. Stormtroopers are walking talking badasses encassed in plastic and will show cal's least likeable team what it's all about to smacked around.
SS 3-0

NY Clan (0-6) vs fuZion (1-3)
The only fuzion I found in cal-o was listed in the unassigned division :(
NY 3-0

Commission (5-1) vs FMJ Clan (5-1)
Comm lost to Das Fuhrers? What's up with that? Was an actual match played? Did Comm underestimate their opponent and take the week off? I'm not sure. Either way I think they take this match vs FMJ. This is a match that will really tell us what FMJ is made of.
Comm 3-1

UnClan (5-1) vs Old SkOol Gamers (5-1)
Both of these teams have had relatively quiet schedules. This week they meet up to clear up some playoff seeding and it should be a great eastern matchup. Unclan comes with oldschool Shifty from Rogue Warriors and OsG counters with Skeeball from Chuck E Cheese. Now as much as I've bugged Shifty, he's never given me any love, while Skeeball has provided me with many a ticket over my lifetime, which I've used to buy cheap plastic crap with. This is the matchup of the week in the Eastern Conference, and I see it being a complete tossup. I'm going to go with unclan as they swept PD last week, while OsG took a very surprising loss to CB.
Unclan 3-2

Cross Breed (3-3) vs Spookhouse (3-3)
CB came up HUGE last week vs OsG and got a 3-1 win. Spookhouse also came up large and got the win vs those damn goons in Burque (no more trivia questions for you guys). I've seen Spookhouse scrimming like mad already for this one, so no one should take them lightly as they look to be pushing for a playoff birth in the East. Good matchup, it all comes down to which team can run the gold better.
CB 3-1

Order Thru Chaos (4-2) vs Perfect Drug (3-2)
PD started out strong, but have hit a bump with 2 losses in a row. OtC gave MI a loss last week, but took a loss to FMJ the week before. This is a very difficult match for me to pick but I think the chemistry of PD from their NCG days will help them in the all critical doc runs that village is built upon.
PD 3-2

Dead presidents Secret Service (2-4) vs Das Fuhrers (2-3)
DPSS is coming off several losses in a row while Das Fuhrers is coming off the biggest upset of the season vs Comm. I don't see how I can't pick DF to win here. Also, I like the name Boomstick, makes me think of Army of Darkness. Shop smart, shop S Mart!
DF 3-0

Clan Nexus (1-4) vs Absolute Synergy (2-4)
Ouch, the cal admins need to check their schedules a little better. neXus and AS played last week. Looks like Astro, pro gamer extroidanaire couldn't carry enough elbows into battle to escape from a loss to AS. I don't think it would change here, as I haven't seen a team ever pick up Astro and do better. Too much bad mojo encased in the guy for some reason.
AS 3-2

Is Las Vegas Good?

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Tuesday, October 21, 2003)

This is a quick article written up a few days ago upon the announcement that cXg was moving locations.


The Cyber X Games recently switched their location from Orlando to Las Vegas. With all the hype surrounding the event, cXg could possibly become a great step for video games as they proceed to take ever so small steps towards the mythical esports category. Helping video games to be accepted and promoted like they are in such cultures as Korea's. There are several large lans each year. The CPL holds many each year, with extensive cash prizes. WCG also provides a setting that cXg is trying to emulate. Qcon is the final big lan that occurs yearly. Will Cyber X Games succeed and prove to be another step forward that all of the aforementioned events have? That is up for debate, especially if you compare and contrast cXg to Qcon, the event that RtCW players can most easily identify with.

The most obvious and glaring problem with cXg is the apparent wishy washy attitude they have attached themselves to. Declaring for months that their final event would be held in Orlando, they have had players book vacation time, plane tickets and hotel rooms. Signifigant investments have been made by many to get themselves to Orlando, only to be trashed by a quick switch to Las Vegas. THe date change also takes them to a timeframe in which school will be back in session. This again eliminates the chances that many had to attend. Why target a younger demographic and then place the event in Las Vegas while the majority of them will be in school? While Las Vegas is certainly more centrally located that Orlando, how many people will lose faith in a company that had very little to spare? It was just in the last few days that they've regained control of their own site to make updates! cXg is not making the favorable first impression with any actions so far and losing players money and disrupting thier plans does not help either.

The quick switch is a big problem for cXg and how they can regain and reaffirm their client's trust, if they even can, will be interesting. The bigger issue than the quick switch, is the attention that the event will draw. If you're not aware, it seems that cXg intends to hold their event during the middle of the Consumer Electronics Expo. Over 2000 exhibitors and 110,000 plus attendees figure to focus their attention on this even during the same time and location, the Las Vegas Convention Center. In Dallas, the entire focus of the hotel was on Qcon. In Las Vegas, the cXg will be a much more difficult to notice. Press will not be covering cXg, they will be covering the CES. The most valuable resource that the path to esports needs, and for such massive lans to be successfull, is exposure. There needs to be coverage that will allow people and sponsors to see that there is a substantially sized market of a dedicated demographic that is growing. cXg has been swallowed in the event that is CES, and will be extremely easier to miss among the crowd than if 2000 individuals converged in one place by themselves.

Ah, one place by themselves. With over a hundred thousand people attending CES, the hotel rooms will be packed, and if there is one event in Las Vegas that could possibly inflate room prices it's the CES. This is probably the single most positive thing that Qcon has for it. Qcon allowed for a weekend of everyone being in one hotel. Everything one could want could be found within walking distance of the event. This led to a very friendly and definate gamer environment. Mix 2000 gamers into 100,000 other people in the same convention center, and then add a large city that was built on entertainment. Is this a benefit or a drawback? Will players be able to find each other and hang out as easily as Qcon? The overwhemling positive from players attending Qcon was the environment created. A place that was nothing but other people who enjoyed the very same thing that they did. Video games. Many attend it yearly just on that very fact. Forcing the players to scatter across the city and providing them with so many different options for entertainment could become a massive fault with cXg. Will cXg assume a personality that will draw gamers to it year after year, or will it fade away as the hassle of CES and lures of the casinos overpower any chance of it establishing its own identity?

In the end, cXg has the potential to be a great event, melding many different subcultures of gamers into one. Have they already shot themselves in the foot with the quick switch, or will the timing of the event hurt it even more? Can they overcome the odds that they have stacked against themselves? It's sad to see so many questions about an event that could have easily been a major boon to all of those wishing to see more prize events for playing video games. Right now cXg appears as a business that's being run haphazardly. Hopefully it will go off well and become another lan that can be counted on to provide the exposure needed to turn video games into the same sort of genre that it is in Korea. Hopefully cXg will learn from this year and still have the power to survive a potentially poor event, to return next year.

Cal-O week 8 - mp_ice

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Wednesday, October 22, 2003)

Rawr, the final week of the regular season, and we're rewarded with a great map in mp_ice. This week there's still plenty of playoff spots up for grabs with 5 to 6 wins looking to be enough to get in possibly. In the Central Conference, it looks like OS, C!a and bT have locked up spots. 502nd, tUx, dR all look pretty secure, while $, GFU and # fight it out for the last two spots! 10 points (5 wins) looks to be the cutoff point for the Central! In the East Comm, unclan and oTc have all distanced themselves and secured spots. FMJ and OsG are also looking good with Spookhouse, DF, pD, CB, and AS all fighting it out for the final spots. 8 points (4 wins) looks to be the decisive point total needed for the playoffs in the East. Lots of good matchups to look at this week, and I'll dive into the playoff implications of the matches where needed.

After looking at the way the seedings are done, and assuming it's a 16 team bracket, a lot of the seeding will boil down to teams who manage to grab rounds in losses. A lot of teams are right there with each other and the determing factor for 3+ teams tied in points is round win differential.

Onto the matchups!

Office Space (6-1) vs distorted Reality (5-2)
There's only a few things that really piss me off. One of those things is outkast. Not the rap group (Bowtie RULES!), but the fairy Big 12 fan who likes to put jolly ranchers in his Zima and prance around while he pretends he's rpc. Ok, enough for the ranting as that has little to do with the match, as Kluv can't afford Zima (his fav beer) so he buys Bacardi Silver b/c he saw iN drinking it at Qcon and wants to be l33t. OS smells the reak of bitch beer on dR before they even get near the Allied Stronghold and start tk'ing each other out of common courtesy.
dR 3-0

Iron Warriors (3-4) vs Team Burque (3-4)
A 3 game losing streak has not been kind to TB. I think it's because of this that Chilifiend crashed our ventrilo server last night causing all sorts of problems for OS as I couldn't hear Kith's beautiful voice and ask him to sing to me anymore. This is Burque's first return to Ice since the infamous Qcon qualifying match where Mr.Bean did the seemingly impossible. Playing in his first wolf game ever, he bypassed the mouse entirely and aimed with his keyboard! That right there is l33t3r than anything any of us will ever do. There's not enough /kill monkeys out there that can /kill fast enough to be that l33t. Rumor also has it that upon realizing this, Stylez withdrew from Cal, knowing they were outclassed. Expect a name change to Team Bean for them at cXg.
Bean is l33t, however Ally is not.
IW 3-2

Team SSI (2-5) vs Stormtroopers (2-5)
Two teams with matching records step up this week to duke it out. SS has had an absolutely BRUTAL schedule the last 4 weeks. First they got IW, then Handof and bT. To top it off, CAL insults them by matching them with tUx and SS probably forfeited the match in disgust. These two teams met up in week 2 of the season with SS getting away with a 3-0 win on Frostbite. I think the same happens here.
SS 3-0

Old SkOol Gamers (5-2) vs Commission (6-1)
OsG was flying high with a 5-0 record by ran into trouble with CB and then unclan. That's really hurt them a ton in potentially grabbing a high playoff seed. I still think they make the playoffs, but they get hit hard here with a Comm team that has been rolling pretty much all season long.
Comm 3-1

Order Thru Chaos (5-2) vs UnClan (6-1)
This match has already been reported!!! I'm not sure wtf is up with that, but supposedly unclan won 3-1. I'm going to assume that it is a mistake and act like they haven't played it yet. No way did they find out at 2:30 est that they played each other and in turn took off to the server with 12 guys to duke it out. I've got a sneaky suspicion that unclan will win this match, making us look at the rules to determine which team should be #1 in the east.
unclan 3-1

Absolute Synergy (3-4) vs Cross Breed (3-4)
Two teams that have had seemingly disappointing seasons, meet up for some braggin' rights. CB got the 3-1 win in week 4 and I'm betting that AS will be chomping at the bit to show them that ice isn't sub and that the loss was a fluke. Potentially great matchup here with plenty of friendly smack to be talked. I see Virus and Hammer getting tied at the wrist and each given switchblades and jackets with lots of zippers to go at it in the north service halls.
AS 3-2

Spookhouse (4-3) vs FMJ Clan (5-2)
There's something spooky about Spookhouse. They started off 0-3 and have stormed back for 4 straight wins? Only losing 1 round during that streak too! Hold on, is that Sharp "I wish I could play Soccer" Shooter on their roster? Looks like Spookhouse has some players hidden among that roster. I think they continue their streak and beat FMJ.
Spookies 3-2

Das Fuhrers (3-3) vs Perfect Drug (3-3)
.500 is the theme here, as one team goes home with a winning record and the other goes home with the losing record. pD benefited from the invite trend of playing on open teams with 50cent pimping his way onto their team, but I'm not sure if it will be enough for this match. DF has looked awfully impressive the last few weeks and have gained a swagger.
DF 3-1

Major Impact (1-4) vs Dead presidents Secret Service (2-5)
I hear nothing but good things about MI lately. Getting lots of love in the 'friendliest clans' thread. Good to see that there's still teams out there like that. THey've struggled this season and their only win is from a forfeit vs neXus. DPSS has also struggled, but has managed to get 2 wins. I see DPSS winning this one, and both teams doing a LOT better next season in open as hopefully the admins will make the sandbaggin free agent teams move up finally.
DPSS 3-1

NY Clan (0-7) vs Clan Nexus (1-5)
NeXus took a forfeit loss on village and I see that Astro is recruiting for a pK RtCW division. That spells bad things for neXus, but I bet Booch will keep truckin'. Unless they show up, I don't see a reason why they won't forfeit this match also.
NY 3-0

eVe of Domination (3-4) vs Team Vote (3-4)
Team Vote has hit on hard times. 3 of their 4 losses are 2-3 and vs playoff teams. They had the unfortunate task of meeting up with Handof on village last week. With some ex LBL players, I wouldn't be surprised if they now knew what a mouser can do to an offensive rush :/ I look for Team Vote to rebound strongly in the final week of the season and be a potential powerhouse for next season. On a side note, eVe has showed extremely well this season in CAL. Good work.
F1 3-0

# (4-3) vs Ground Force Unit (4-3)
# baffles me. If they show up, they can hang with anyone. Two of their losses have both been by forfeit. This week they get their week 1 matchup again in GFU. It was a forfeit too. The winner of this match has a great chance at making the playoffs. I really want to see this match be played as it would be a shame to see # take 3 forfeit losses in a 4 loss season, and it would be bad for GFU to go into the playoffs on a 2 game forfeit win streak. If they all show, this one will be a goodie.
# 3-2

Cerebral Assassins Inc (6-1) vs blitz taktikz (6-0)
bT, if they would have gotten in during week 1 could have possibly been 7-0 going into this match and already have the top seed locked up. However, they have to beat C!a this week in order to get it now. Winner of this match will be the #1 seed in the Central Conference. I'm not sure, but I think C!a can match up with bT's guns. This match should go the distance, and it will all boil down to adjustments made by each team. I think C!a comes away with the huge upset win this week and beats bT.
C!a 3-2

SuperHer0s (4-2) vs 502nd PIR (5-2)
Nikon and Insano are nasty pfs but $ has some nasty pfs to counter with. This match will come down to big plays by big guns on big doc runs. I bet the service halls will be like that flash cartoon where you put the frog in the blender and hit "PF". The addition of Havoc is huge for 502nd and pushes them into the playoffs with a very experienced player. This is a barnburner. Whoever loses this match will point at missed opportunities with their pfs.
$ 3-2

Dead Penguin (5-2) vs Cult of Hands (3-4)
5' 2" is the hieght of all the tUx players when you stack them on top of each other. That way you can take a baseball bat and go down the tower whacking them into a brick wall. Which, of course, is the only way to treat dirty ass penguins. I see Handof giving sUx the Hand and two Z snaps in a relatively easy victory. O HandofDeath where art thou?
Handof 3-0

Team Eclipse (3-4) vs Beer is Good (2-4)
Could tE possibly sneak into the playoffs with a win here? It would give them 8 points and put them in a logjam with a ton of other teams. tE is NOT a team I want to face in the playoffs. Madness and Steigl, plus the team's experience, would make them extremely scary. They'll win this match and then wait for the chips to fall to see if they get to go onto round 1.
tE 3-0

Predicted Playoff Seedings

Central
1 C!a
2 bT
3 dR
4 OS
5 502nd
6 tUx
7 $
8 #

West
1 Comm
2 unclan
3 oTc
4 OsG
5 FMJ
6 Spookies
7 DF
8 AS

Seedings and Tiebreakers are determined as follows:
1. Points
2. Wins
3. Head to Head Competition (2 Way Ties Only)
4. Round win differential (3 + Teams tied)
5. Strength of schedule based on forfeits. (Least number of forfeit wins)

Ventrilo Karaoke Challenge Round 1: Arch versus FuZion

Posted by: !SoS! Arch (Thursday, October 23, 2003)

**I moved this from news to an article because long ass posts like this are unappealing on the front page. Arch/Ari/Dumbass gets off this time because he's retarded :P**

i copied this from my post on PW forums. it was great fun, and i invite everyone to hear us on tuesday night for the rematch!

we had a blazin' round of karaoke challenge on team Convulsion's ventrilo tonight.

contestant 1: Ari aka distress!arch
contestant 2: Colin aka [c]-FuZion
referee: p-Mortal

we split it into categories so it would be easier... Mortal picked a song genre and we each sang to a song from that genre

round 1 Country:
Ari - hound dog by elvis
Colin - i forgot what he sang =/
winner: colin

round 2 Pop:
Ari - whole new world from aladdin
Colin - i want it that way by backstreet boys
winner: draw

round 3 White Boys Rapping:
Ari - what's my name by snoop dogg
Colin - ice ice baby by vanilla ice
winner: ari

round 4 Foreign Language:
Ari - sweet home alabama by lynyrd skynyrd
Colin - bailamos by enrique iglesias
winner: colin

round 5 Female Pop Stars:
Ari - you drive me crazy by britney spears
Colin - beautiful by christina aguilera
winner: ari

round 6 80's music:
Ari - sweet child o mine by guns n roses
Colin - eye of the tiger by survivor
winner: ?

Round 6 White Boys Rap Again:
Ari - nuthin but a g thang by dr. dre
Colin - what i am by eminem
winner: ari

we had about 20 spectators... not too shabby for some high school amateur videogame losers heh

NEXT TUESDAY around 7-8pm EST ROUND 2 KARAOKE CHALLENGE...

we will be presenting another karaoke battle between colin and ari, tuesday night on a yet to be determined ventrilo

meet us in #distress or #convulsion on gamesnet on mIRC tuesday night for ventrilo info :D

that is all :D

edit: per popular demand we will be taking requests...
edit2: if we get bored we'll take challenges too. yeah that's right. you think you got it goin' on? bring it baby!

Cal-O Unofficial Playoff Seedings

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Wednesday, October 29, 2003)

These are the unofficial seedings for the Open playoffs. CAL has in their rules that seeds are based off of the following order. 1)Points 2)Wins 3)Head to Head (2 way ties only) 4)Round win differential (3+ teams tied) 5)Strength of Schedule based on forfeits (least number of forfeit wins).

So here's how they look when figured out by planet-rtcw's thinktank of lemmings.

Central
1. bT - 7 wins
2. dR - 6 wins +12 Round win differential
3. c[_] - 6 wins +10 Round win differential
4. C!@ - 6 wins +7 Round win differential
5. $ - 5 wins +7 Round win differential
6. 502nd - 5 wins +5 Round win differential - head to head win vs DP
7. sUx - 5 wins +5 Round win differential - head to head loss vs 502nd
8. # - 5 wins +3 Round win differential


Atlantic
1. Comm - 7 wins - head to head win vs un
2. unclan - 7 wins - head to head loss vs comm
3. OSG - 5 wins +7 Round win differential - head to head win vs FMJ
4. FMJ - 5 wins +7 Round win differential - head to head lose vs OSG
5. oTc - 5 wins +7 Round win differential - head to head losses vs OSG and FMJ
6. SH - 5 wins +5 Round win differential
7. PD - 4 wins +5 Round win differential
8. CB - 4 wins -3 rd

These seeds line up some interesting matches for Round 1 of the playoffs on assault.

Central
bT (1) vs # (8)
c!@ (4) vs $ (5)
c[_] (3) vs 502nd (6)
dR (2) vs sUx (7) - Rematch of week 1!

Atlantic
Comm (1) vs CB (8)
FMJ (4) vs oTc (5)
OsG (3) vs Spook(6)
uN (2) vs pD (7)

Why isn't serbian banned?

Posted by: stiegl (Monday, November 3, 2003)

I had the following e-mail correspondence w/ Even Balance. Cal/Twl haven't bothered to ban him or the team (with two confirmed cheaters on it).


Hello *****,

This violation states that some driver was used that allows for
cheating. This can either be a usual video driver which has been
changed/altered in some way, it could be a video driver which allows for cheating
"out of the box", and it can also be a opengl driver which allows for
cheating.

There are NO known false positives with this violation except the ones
noted on our website for each game - if no false positive statement
exists for a violation number, then it is considered valid.


-Bjoern

Even Balance, Inc.
www.evenbalance.com

Note:
Please attach any past correspondence with your reply, do not remove
any
text from the email.
Failing to do so can result in replies taking longer and not being
correct
as crucial information may be missing.
The information contained in this email is for the recipient only and
may
not be made public unless otherwise stated.

Your email from Thursday, September 25, 2003 7:50:29 PM to
support@evenbalance.com:

> Even Balance Support,

> Has there been any official release from Even Balance concerning
video driver hack #90007 (http://members.cox.net/ecjoens/haxors.JPG) in
relation to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I wasn't able to
> find any information concerning it in the player's manual, admin's
manual, faqs, or news and release notes. Any information you could
provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

> Sincerely,

> ********

RTCW Nastalgia

Posted by: astro* (Monday, November 3, 2003)

Everyone is talking about RTCW dieing. RTCW is dead. RTCW will die soon without tournaments. Well, uncle Astro says this game isn't going anywhere. I'm tired of everyone complaining about how the game is dead, there's no competition etc, so I've decided to do a lot of digging, and what I've come up with is quite unique :)

Does anyone here, besides me, remember the old days? The season 1 days... Where Darkside reigned Supreme, they looked so damn unstopable, then one day, they dropped the biggest bombshell of them all: The Darkside starters joined cK. There was a lot of arguing going on in IRC, lots of drama, but RTCW was still fun! It created a huge rival within the same base clan. Think about it, the team that won the tournament that helped shape RTCW, BoB, decides to leave to cK to be more professional. It was a business deal, no? Well, we all had our share and our thoughts on that, however, I've decided to post some things such as my interviews from the "old days" on cached, as well as my personal file of famous Shogun quotes. Upon re-reading over this, I'm laughing at myself, and at everyone involved. It was so incredibly stupid, yet people bought into it and it helped hype the match up for the battle that was Assault, Darkside vs clan Kapitol. WOW What a match up! Check out the links and post your comments on cached, it would be nice to compare comments then and now.

http://cached.net/?go=main/eventcoverage/single/745 - cK-shogun and D|S-ioneye pre-match interview.

Below are some shogun quotes I've found on my hard drive, they're very funny, espically if you can actually remember when he said many of them :) Kid's a pro, what can I say.

(cK-shogun) maybe you some skills and play me sometime (D|S-ioneye) Maybe you some english and talk to me sometime
(cK-shogun) im a true capitalist and im taking the socio economic strategy i developed in college and making it a reality
(cK-shogun) i never posted my demo seeing my demo would be to dangerous, thats where i draw the line
(cK-shogun) we will be cK clan for life, we will make our own team within cK int he near future my team will be made up of all locals
(cK-Sho187) you notice that i get the docs a lot? i can get the docs/gold anytime i want. im just that abusive
(cK-Sho187) we all have an order of operations. ill know by august how pro our team is and ill submit to the team style thats best. as of now im all about pushing our guys to be warriors
(cK-shogun) im not a moron im going to make gaming all it can be thats it (cK-shogun) then ill move on to bigger things
(cK-shogun) we could have avoided doctors and abuse and left them to learn RTCW themselves
(cK-shogun) im saying that gaming doesnt have to be sold as the next professional sport. it is better sold as entertainment/drama (K4H-Astro) so are the irc shananagans part of that drama? (K4H-Astro) kinda like in wwf where they have the shit talk before matches (cK-shogun) of course, the next step is a pro circuit similar to golf
(cK-shogun) i dont even think i should be on this earth, the world is not ready for a prodigy like myself
(K4H-Astro) So should i expect to see you on 'The Screen Savers' instead of fatal1ty next time they have a 'pro gamer' on? (cK-shogun) im to cool for those dorks
(cK-ShoGun187) id think being in new york would have opened your mind more a clan should be as if solo. 1 unit 1 being 1 unstopable force i am a puzzle piece
cK-shogun187: no I consider team cK to be one entity, not just the team but also the fans, we do this for the kids. and yes it is kinda like the matrix with these undercover agent lees they are so downgraded and they think they can abuse us but its just not going to happen bro. Welcome aboard3
(cK-ShoGun187) i think being so exclusive makes the clan look bad our own fellow gamers are holding down gaming. i was probably one of the best cs players in the world but i wasnt given a chance becuase of bullshit politics.
(cK-ShoGun187) cK tag means something to people cK tag should mean your worthy it should not be an exclusive club their should be a cK starting team and that is the exclusive club people should be given the opportunity to prove themselves always otherwise we are just a pack of communist bitches
(cK-Sho187) my beach is emotional kids would hate life if we used my beach
(cK-Sho187) we are going to write a book on rtcw like x3 did with cs but ours will be more professional the game alone makes it more professional.
(cK-Sho187) i just like to run around investigating the enemy and my team then in the big games i end shit with an atomic elbow drop
(cK-shogun) i am the epitome of professional and wolfenstein no longer deserves the glory i bring to it.

After reading all of this, everyone needs to realize it's a game, the players are what will decide it's fate. Look at quake3, there's really no more major tournaments for it, but people play it because it's FUN! RTCW IS FUN!!!!!!!! Don't quit playing, join a clan, make a clan, have fun, its the best game I've ever played and I hope some of you can agree! Astro out.

Interview: Warri0r

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Sunday, November 9, 2003)

Warrior was kind enough to take the POW with a good attitude and after speaking with him a bit on irc, I found the idea of an interview with him to be interesting. Usually, with someone who has been so profiled before, the interviews are just rehashes of the same ol same ol, so some different questions were asked and hopefully everyone will enjoy what turned out to be a more in depth look at Warrior.

c[_]`Wippuh: Tell everyone who you are and all the good intro stuff. How you choose your name, your first team, how you got to wolf, blah blah blah... Also, your irc channel, when your team scrims, and who to contact for scrims.

[fe]Warri0r: Well, my name is Vincent Smith, Im on team Full Effect, #fulleffect on gamesnet. My team fX, rewind, stylez, Flatline, 82nd, whatever you want to call it, just merged with, the sof2 team, Full Effect. No more changing names :( such a sad time :P. The members of Full Effect have been together for a while and have competed in many events. We ranked 1st in the seedings for Quakecon 2003 but were unable to attend because of financial issues as well as our age. 2-3 of our members were unable to go and we felt we didn’t want to recruit/or start playing with benchers 2-3 weeks b4 the event. So we disbanded, and returned after Quakecon. The rest of our accomplishments can be found at www.teamfe.file-arena.com under the RtCW section, then results page. Personally, I was on a bunch of teams (L). It started out as Old school 82nd, LQD, LoT, 82nd again, DarkSide, fX, Frontline for quakecon, then Fulleffect. The only reason we changed names a lot is because we didn’t like the name except for rewind. But that’s a long story :o. Fulleffect is looking for scrims or weeklys anyday from 8pm to 10pm. Hit me up on irc whenever you can, if so. Actualy im beggin, WE NEED SCRIMS TO PRACTICE FOR CXG HELP US!!!!

c[_]`Wippuh: Wolf has become a very individual oriented game. Elusion, Beavermana, etc... are as recognizable as any team. You've become perhaps the biggest name in the NA Wolf scene. When was the first time you really realized that recognition, and how do you deal with it now?

[fe]Warri0r: There was really no one time I realized I was good, there were people that kept saying wow your really good in pubs and such, but the true beginning of my wolf career was when I was recruited into LQD. I begged for a tryout and during the tryout I scrimmed against stickmen. We played mp_base and there was really no northeast tower strat. Me and warpath watched low2 and we held it for 15 minutes. I later learned that stickmen was a Cal I team and since I did so well Tsunami recruited me. It was actually a very exciting time.

c[_]`Wippuh: 82nd is a team that defies today's traditions of sandbaggin' and so forth. Where a team today would win main and then disband so they wouldn't have to play in invite, 82nd and the later variations of it, pretty much ran through open and went straight to the top without pause. Why are teams so scared to do that now and what drove 82nd to excel so fast?

[fe]Warri0r: Im really not sure why teams dropped out so fast. Seems like teams do good in Cal Open, get moved up and disband, thinking that it will ruin there matches record. Then your saying wahhhh now sponsors wont look at you because you have a bad record. All I see is the euros getting the sponsorships :o. There also can be a lack on interest in that yay we had fun beating noobs, and not trying, now we are in a higher degree in Cal and we actually have to make strats. The reason 82nd grew so successful is because we played everyday for a decent amount of time. Our skill kept growing and we kept making more and more detailed strats. Since we had more skill and better strats it helped us work our way to where we are today.

c[_]`Wippuh: You've had a pretty distinguished run team wise in wolf. Two of those teams were d|s and f|, who had 2 big name players in chaoslord and valdez. Tell me how those two teams differed, and what the experience was like with each.

[fe]Warri0r: I was in D|S right after 82nd went inactive for a bit. Even though I was still young in the game I understood how it had to be played. When Chaoslord was leading D|S we were serious. We played our spots and never moved which helped to build a great crossfire. Chaoslord and Herbal Tea were the only people that commanded D|S. D|S didn’t have the best shots but we had decent teamwork which helped us get into the CAL I playoffs. In Frontline I only joined 2-3 weeks b4 Quakecon. We really didn’t have much time to prepare for it and we didn’t scrim as much as we should have b4 the event. Frontlines outlook on it was lets throw bows baby! We really didn’t have the time to get our $hit down, and many people would talk on voice at numerous times commanding different shit. Almost all of our players were good shots with the exception of 2 (if you know who I mean). We had horrible teamwork which cost us the game at the end. If you watch the affliction vs frontline match at Quakecon you will see I had a pistol the whole game and our panzers would shoot blank panzers into nowhere :x. This ultimately cost us our Quakecon chances.

c[_]`Wippuh: You didn't play in the ice match vs GMPO at qcon b/c of your team's rotation. Why was ice, vs what many considered the #1 team in Europe, the map that you rotated out on? Also, what do you think seperated the European teams from the NA teams? How did Affliction get by that while the others suffered?

[fe]Warri0r: The reason I rotated out vs GMPO was because before I came into Frontline they scrimmed that map a lot. They felt that was there best map with there best people in on it. Although I feel it could have been better it did its job, winning first round at Quakecon. What separated the European from the NA teams was there strats and med work. I wasn’t impressed with there shooting but they always had a medic behind them. 2 heads are better then one :o. If you saw any Infensus match or 4k match you will see what I mean about strats and med work. What separated Affliction from the NA teams was that they were together for so long. They had the teamwork, they had the strats, and they had decent guns.

c[_]`Wippuh: What was the biggest surprise of Qcon to you? What did you enjoy
the most about it?

[fe]Warri0r: The biggest surprise at Qcon would be NARF losing so early and TAF coming out in a rather decent spot. I guess I overestimated NARF and underestimated TAF. Or maybe it was because of the seedings. I think if the seedings were rearranged in a different order (because of the teams that couldn’t go, and there subs) the outcome would have been different. The reason for this is because you will play different people on different maps.

c[_]`Wippuh: You're planning on hitting cXg up. How do you prepare yourself and your teammates for the event? What did you learn from qcon that you think will really help you in Vegas? Do you believe that the NA scene has any chance of placing high with the recent slump in the high level competitive scene?

[fe]Warri0r: No one will scrim Full Effect. Either there is no competetion, people still believe we hack, or we get the response “we aren’t at your skill level and don’t want to get raped”. How could teams even say that when they haven’t played us once? We really cant prepare ourselves for cXg just yet for 2 reasons. 1) CoD is a very addicting game 2) There are no teams that will scrim us. Although I hear some teams will come the month before cXg I still think that is doubtful. With no scrimming, it will definitely hurt our performance at cXg, but I still think we will place high. The reason being is that we have better guns then the euros, and we know that. All the Europeans have on us is that teamwork. If we can conquer their teamwork I think we will get a top place at cXg.

c[_]`Wippuh: Developing your skill is a major factor in wolf. Rather through pubbing on good servers or scrimming a lot. What do you look for when trying to gauge yourself? What advice would you give that player looking to improve on what to look for or pay attention to? Finally, what is the most overlooked part of the individual game aspect of Wolf?

[fe]Warri0r: What I found that really helps me playing wolf is playing a quick round of Q3 CPMa. The movement is so much faster compared to wolf and when I track people in Quake then go to wolf it is so much easier. I keep my mouse steady and I keep it at head level. What I recommend for people trying to get better is to imagine where the opponent’s head would be. If you hear an enemy working near by you want to keep it at head level. If you are in a common spot where people like to crouch lower it down a bit, but if you see them standing all you have to do is move it up slightly. Another good pointer is you don’t have to be the fastest one. Save your sprint and strafe like a mofu66a when you see them. The most overlooked part of the individual game of wolf would be centerview. Lets be serious here, that really couldn’t of helped anyone. People are just better then some, and those people cannot take it. They’re in denial and have to blame it on something. Oh well that’s just my 2 cents.

c[_]`Wippuh: What has been your favorite moment in RtCW so far. Both as an individual player, and as a member of a team. Also, what has been the lowest moment for both?

[fe]Warri0r: My favorite event in rtcw personal would be the FnF tournaments. I won a lot of them and it was really a fun time, playing people 1v1 and 2v2. As a member as team my favorite moment would be winning Cal Open way back when. Even though it might not seem something to big it really was. 82nd was virtually nothing and that whole season we built our way up to the top. The lowest moment I faced would be the time Vatican and Wyldcard told me they couldn’t go to Quakecon. I really wasn’t sure to use benchers, recruit, or leave and try to jump on another team. Hopfully this time the kiddies will get there tickets!!!

c[_]`Wippuh: If you had to pick 5 guys to team with, that you've never been on a team with before, who would you pick and why?

[fe]Warri0r: The players I would pick to be on my team would be brian, elusion, beavermana, lynch, and hollywood. That team would just be melon farming.

c[_]`Wippuh: Shoutouts

[fe]Warri0r: Shoutouts to mah homeeeeee dawgggggs in fulleffect. #fulleffect gamesnet
BTW *****As soon as my website is done, really should be soon (chad from affliction is coding it) the 2v2 RtCW tourney will still be on. Die hard hasn’t been around so the servers as a prize is gone, but there still are fatpads and webspace. I do not have any servers so if anyone has any servers and wants to help me out, msg me in irc. Im also gonna have a CoD tournament for fun shortly after. That’s about it for now.
DON’T BE HATIN!!!

Unity: As One Stand Together.

Posted by: -opp bigbear- (Friday, November 21, 2003)

When I first thought about writing this article I planned on pulling on your patriotic heartstings to try to get my message across but thats just to fucking played out. So I'm gonna bring this shit straight from the Hood IronM!ke style. The Return to Castle Wolfenstein North American Community is now a crew of punk ass niggas pretending to be gangsta up in here. None of you can kick it OG style. Ok now that the kiddies know what I'm talking about lets grow up here and talk about something for a little while. Why has this community become so fragmented and splintered? Why have teams moved to back to CS and back to q3? Why have teams moved on to CoD and ET? We only have ourselves to blame fellas.

Shogun was fun. He added an attitude to the game that gave it some personality. However, he was always a pro about it. When it came down to it even Shogun gave teams and players the respect they deserved. Now it seems that all we have is a bunch of little Shogun wannabes running around with a bastardized/hybrid version of his schtick. "Downgrade" this and "OMG CAL-O noob" that. An abrasive personality is fine, it makes the game fun and interesting but don't take the pseudo-anonymity of the internet as a license to become a total piece of shit. There is a fine line between Shogun and Thor!an people and no one wants to be Thor!an now do they.

Strong personalities are healthy for a game in small doses. So maybe these immature or bored loudmouths can't be blamed for all of what the community has become. You wanna know what gets the most annoying about RTCW sometimes? It's not that we play the same maps over and over again, it's that everyone uses the same fucking strats on every map over and over again. Talent and innovative thought mean very little to this game anymore and now it's all about which team plays the system better. People may say; "Abuse was succesful because they played the system" but you have to remember that Abuse created that system. Teams still use Abuse strats over one year and four seasons since they last played RTCW. It's time for an imaginative team to step up and revolutionize the way people strat RTCW. Unfortunetly there aren't very many teams left to do this.

Which brings up another point. What teams are going to carry on the RTCW banner into 2004? The Full Effect is going to be around at least until CyberX is over as are the infamous $uperheros and OPP will never die. However, what other Invite/Main teams are going to stick together? Which open clans are going to develop into powerhouses? Sure the outlook doesn't look good right now but have some faith. When Abuse and almost all the other "Invite" teams left shortly after Qcon2002 people wondered if the community was dead. That next season 82nd won CAL-O and NARF started its run of CAL M/I dominance. Members of 82nd would later fill out key roster spots in such top teams as z/[TAF] and fx

Even though in the past teams have stepped up we may not see that this time as new blood is no longer entering the community and when it does it wastes away playing shrub. We no longer have high quality and high class clans like Abuse and Dr so incoming players dont have a positive paradigm to base their behavior off. Pubbing isnt fun anymore because of how people play (/kill, corner camping, ridiculous spam, and childish behavior), stats dont matter just have some fun. Do me a favor and go on a 30+ man server and play for 30mins without using your /kill bind and without camping corners or spamming arty everywhere. Play depot, play trenchtoast, play destruction and have some damn fun...isnt that what this game is about? To solve these problems we need to work together a little more and not alienate each other.

Interview: Gigolo

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Friday, November 21, 2003)

To start off a run of a bunch of interviews that are planned for the site, we're gonna start off with one of the most well known guys around in Amish Gigolo! Enjoy!

c[_]Wippuh: Amish Gigolo. Tell everyone how you got into gaming, how you met the Amish and eventually ended up playing Wolfenstein. We need ze background info! Nick, all that good stuff!

Amish Gigolo: How I got into gaming is pretty gay, I could lie and make up something manly...but thats not my style :/ I started with Diablo/Ultima Online, with the guys that are now Team Burque mostly...we played as a serious clan, then as "Amish" as a non-serious, "just for fun" clan. Took a long break, but always kept in touch with the members, found out they were playing Wolfenstein, we didn't really have a cool clan name, so we decided to reserrect Amish for it. Wolf is my first FPS, other then just farting around with the original Quake for like an hour when it first came out.

c[_]Wippuh: The Amish are one of the most recognizable teams in all of Wolf's history. Lately the team has gone on an extended hiatus. Tell us what all of the Amish are doing now.

Amish Gigolo: We basically just burned out, but a few of us are still around and kicking. Myself, Helmut, AtomicFish are all trying to start a clan for Enemy Territory (we're that bored). Seed's playing ET with smf, Redbird just finished the CAL season with Trinity/3DO (we're trying to lure him to ET), JimmyJack/DeviantDuck are playing Halo and Haas is MIA. We have no idea where Haas went, so if anyone has seen a short, surly looking bald guy who likes fruity umbrella drinks, tell him to stop by #awo. We miss him :P

c[_]Wippuh: Cal-O was the first stop for the Amish, but before anyone knew what happened, you were participating in the qcon qualifiers and then you were playing in Qcon placing in the money. How did the Amish get so good so fast? What were the strengths of the team that allowed them to do so?

Amish Gigolo: I'll be honest, we didn't get good that fast. We got into Quakecon 2002 as a non-Qualifier...we had 6 guys there, they needed teams to sub in and we were chosen. Because we were a sub team, we got raped by the Doctors in the 1st round, beat Clan Wat? in Round 2, got raped by Infensus in Round 3 and had a huge upset against Paradigm Shift in Round 4 to qualify for some cash. Basically, all the -P- guys were cocky and took us for granted somewhat and we surprised them (3-1)...end of story :P Justice ever since, crapped on us in every single shoutcast he ever did with us...3> Justice.

c[_]Wippuh: There's a generation gap in wolf. You can classify one with Abuse and the Drs, and the other with NARF and dT. The Amish are one of the few teams that have bridged that gap and actually played both of the invite scenes. What's your thoughts on the differences between the two? Would anyone be able to hang with Abuse if they decided to come back?

Amish Gigolo: Current teams could take Abuse, definitely. I'll take shit for this, but so what...Abuse was a good team back in the day because they were ahead of the times, cvar wise. Wonder why Citizen/Wombat were such good snipers? r_uifullscreen, Low Framerate scripts etc. I'd take any of the newer invite level teams (-a-, Narf) against any of the older teams any day of the week.

c[_]Wippuh: Of course, being one of the teams that bridged the gap, how did you avoid the burnout that took so many other teams down?

Amish Gigolo: Well we didn't :) We took a small break after QCON 2002, then basically retired after QCON 2003. I guess it just "seems" like we've been around that long...

c[_]Wippuh: Qcon 2k3. What was the experience like? Meeting the guys from Burque? Why didn't you dress up like the year before? Could anyone out there ever sleep longer than Seed?

Amish Gigolo: QCON 2003 was fun. Take away the punishing long car drive from Connecticut, the fact we were in the tourney for a grand total of maybe 10 minutes and even after all that, I still had a blast. We got eliminated by cK on day 2 and 5 minutes later, I was getting hammered...so I had my fun in other places then gaming. The guys from Burque were cool definitely, I hung out with them and/or the Narf guys practically every night. Dressup this year...was because Haas didn't want too. I'm pretty sure everyone else would have...Helmut wanted too, Jimmy/Duck did it before, I wanted too. We could have pressured Seed and Red :P Haas...is just a stubborn little bitch and ruined it all :P

And Seed. OMG. I love the kid, seriously. But, he drove me insane on the car rides to and from Texas. He slept, arguably 80-90% of the ride while I drove. And while he was up, he never talked! I was stopping at gas stations...just so I could talk to people at the end of the trip. And at Quakecon itself, it seemed like he was always asleep. It was actually quite disturbing actually.

c[_]Wippuh: Unique strats, the Amish are famous for trying them out and not sticking to the accepted norms. In doing so, you've created some new ideas that are widely used now. How did you get the courage up to try new things, and what are some of the more memorable ideas the Amish have tried?

Amish Gigolo: I dunno about unique strats. We always would try fucked up strats either A.) Just for fun or B.) When our regular strat wasn't working. If we were having a bad week with a strat and had a match on Thursday. Wednesday night or something, we'd say "Fuck it" and just do something totally different. Personally, there is nothing worse then beating a strat like base...over and over again. We all know the NE Tower, Bridge, Tin Roof spots...might as well fuck around and try something new.

c[_]Wippuh: A lot of the current community has adopted the kiddy mentality of hateful smacktalking and wanting to do nothing but own it up vs easier teams. If there was ever a team that was the antithesis to them, it's the Amish. How did the Amish avoid this flaw, and what do you think of teams that are doing this now?

Amish Gigolo: I dunno, some of it might have to do that most of Amish are older (mid 20's), we just never got into the whole l337or and trash talking aspect of Wolf. Basically, all of us pretty much believed that if you're a good team you don't have to tell other people about it :) We had our cocky times and we had confidence in our abilities, but they were private. We'd go .500 or something in invite and people would say "Amish Suck" blah blah, but every single one of us knew we could go undefeated in a CAL-Main season and just rape some of the teams that were saying that about us :)

People that talk trash and act like asshats use that to instill confidence in themselves, we had confidence in ourselves without that. We could be nice guys and still kick your ass.

c[_]Wippuh: You have to make up a team of 5 guys who you have never clanned with before. Who would you pick and why?

Amish Gigolo: Easy. I wouldn't give 2 shits about winning...but they're all still great players :P Da_G, Sir_Shaggy, WarKrime, Obliv and Paper.
All of them for the same reason, hung out with them at Quakecon and they were all cool as hell.
And Shaggy...god bless him. Was the only person to give Amish a standing ovation as we left the Quakecon Tourney area :P

c[_]Wippuh: Finally, lets do some character association. Family Guy is coming back to Fox, so lets match Family Guy characters with people playing wolf. Who would fulfill the roles of Peter, Brian, Chris, Meg, Lois and Stewie

Peter (The Dad) - Da_G]Narf[ - Basically a big, fun loving guy who doesn't really care as much as all the other people around him.
Brian (The Dog) - The_Wippuh - Very analytical, eloquent and opinionated about Wolf. Yet, will get easily get shitfaced at Quakecon and stoop down to "punk ass bitch" levels :P
Chris (The Son) - Slag - The Big 13 year old kid. Looks really imposing...like he could hurt you. But, he wouldn't hurt a fly
Meg (The Daughter) - a//shatter - Huge drama queen, always has to be right. But secretly...deep down, yearns for acceptance :P
Lois (The Wife) - Juliebean - Julie's nice, I won't say anything bad. But, someone has to take care of Stewie.
Stewie (The Child) - Laws_69 - Always bent on total world domination, always scheming for that next big evil scheme to rule Wolfenstein. Yet, when you look at him, he's a little baby with a big head :) 3>

Best in RtCW History

Posted by: (Monday, November 24, 2003)

Hi i thought it would be cool to see the opinons of rtcw players on what they think or the best rtcw players ever the reason i'm doing this is b/c i saw somthing like this on erou web site i think it would be a nice way to cap rtcw and see what the ppl think old and new players the reason of this post is to see what ppl think about 1) who they think was/are the best players in rtcw history 2) the best shot 3) the best team in rtcw history. 3) best sniper 4) and if you really want to get into it best medic and LT and feel free to say eruo teams/players since they are apart of rtcw oh and the best panzer if you think of things i haven't feel free the post i'm just doing this to see what the ppl of wolf of past maybe and present think. as for my list it would be.

best shots
1) wombat : even though i just saw a few demos of him i'd say he is number 1
2) wiseguy : same as wombat but it looked as if he was one of the best
3) beaver : b/c i have seen him play in cal and lan/qcon and he showd he is good
4) rambo : i'v seen him play in cal and proved at qcon he is one of the best shots of the post dr's abuse aria
5) warrior : the only reason i have rambo in front of him is b/c i think rambo did better at qcon

best players/team players
1) brian : b/c i have seen him in matches and pubs and both of them he seemed like a solid team player
2) pain-elite : i know none of you have prob heard of him but i have and he is a totall team player
3) elusion : i'v scrimed with elusion a view times and seems like a team player
4) rambow : allways make sure his team has ammo to make sure he gives his team the best chances to win
5) r-minp : i'v played with him and he is always helping out the team


best sniper(s)
1) wombat : saw him in demos looked great
2) citizen : same as wombat
3) laws_69 : heard alot about him to put him at 3
4) defftone : same as laws never saw him play but heard he is one of the best
since those are the only 4 i heard of / seen i don't have a 5th


best med
1) brian
2) elusion
3) wiseguy
4) wombat : don't know if he was onlty a med/sniper but from what i saw he was a good med
5) da_g

best LT
1) obliv
2) dr. rev
3) rambow
4) goerge
5) decka

best pazer
1) lynch
2) warbringer
thats all i know or heard of pf in the game

best team
1) in/gmpo
2) doctors
3) abuse
4) narf
5) dt/-a-

these are my opinons and i know not all of you will see things the same way. but i thought it would be fun to see what ppl think so plz post and once i think ppl are done posting i will count up all of them and post what most ppl thought. i hope this will be fun for everyone and a look back for some of the old players on some of the good times thnx. rehAb

Interview: ChaosLord

Posted by: c[_]`Wippuh (Wednesday, November 26, 2003)

Finally, we were able to track down Chaoslord and ask him a few questions for planet-rtcw.com. CL came through and didn't disappoint with several indepth answers to all the questions we asked. So put on your reading glasses and enjoy!

c[_]Wippuh: The typical first question. Let everyone know who you are, where you came from, why wolf, and all that good stuff.

D|S-ChaosLord: Hrm, long or short, i'll try a bit of both. My name is Kurt Dimos, alias's being ChaosLord (usually for FPS's) and Trazar (usually for other games and pubbing without a tag). I started playing FPS's online with Duke3d, then really got into with qwTF in college. Guess what class I played in TF...the medic! If a game has a medic, I will usually try it. Here is some tooting of my own horn but just to let you know what kind of player I was.

May 1999
http://web.archive.org/web/20010303070859/tftimes.com/hall/hall_scout.htm
May 2001
http://www.planetfortress.com/tfa/Top5_medic.htm

Anyway, about about mid 2001 TF really died, everyone had moved on, including myself. I had played CS and been really good, leading a STA clan to undefeatedness and winning some local lans with pickup teams, but when CS 1.0 came out, I disliked it so much that I quit playing CS. Finally RtCW came along. The test was so damn fun, I had never been so pumped about a game before. The test2 was even better so I picked up the full version about a day after it game out. I started looking for a clan then, I knew some TF people were making a clan called Paradigm (former CS newbs), but was looking to just jump into something good. I found a pretty good pub with decent players with a clan name of Krieg on it, so I started idling in their channel. After talking with various members, I found out a split was occuring, and the leader of the split Ace72, asked me to go with them to form a new clan, I decided to go with them because I pubbed with them more, even though the leader of Krieg, herf, asked me to join them. So [B]loodshed (Versus, NOYB, Ace72, Tanguero, PsychoBud, CXXXVII, and myself) was formed. We entered BoB (losing a close game in Rd2 to FMH), and started playing in STA and TWL 5v5. After awhile I got frustrated with having to run things and having people have attendence problems, and after getting recruited by some members of a new team, I decided to move on. And that goes to your next question.

c[_]Wippuh: A lot of the players who have been around remember Clenched Fist, but mostly the team didn't last long enough to get into the spotlight like they could have. Tell everyone about that team. Who played on it, how good do you think it could have been, etc...

D|S-ChaosLord: So I joined cF. The team was made up of Bruce, Azar, Fuman, Yellow, Probie, SeveredHead, gax (after I joined), cloud7, illumina and one or two other people I am forgetting. This was a good learning experience for me, I was a good teamplayer, and had decent overall aim, but needed to get down headshots and better overall control. cF was, how should I say this, the best scrim team to ever play. We raped in scrims. We took rounds from dr, abuse, -a-, D|S etc etc. I remember putting a hurt on dr and -a- a few times, to later on get raped by them once their got their strats going. Problem was, this didn't translate into matchs. Come match time, people wouldn't show, people would have computer problems, and we would end up losing to a team would should have beat. Our one highlight was almost beating abuse in STA on castle. We couldn't hold them the last round, and they were able to hold us (using 3 panzers =p) to win the game. Add to that, we had leadership problems, infighting and other BS. Then we made the mistake of recruiting Casey (aimology) and Log1k.

So I left and was clanless for a few weeks. That was a cool time actually. I had made a decent rep for myself from cF, so I got alot of offers. This was a bit after the D|S split (I remember scrimming D|S on castle and beating them, then they split like 2 days later) and I got approached by Shiner to join D|S. I remember in one week, I scrimmed with the stickmen, Hostile Inc., -a- (brian got mad at me for scrimming with stx against them and wouldn't let me scrim with them anymore - which I don't blame him really), D|S, and like one or two other teams.

Like I said, was pretty fun. I had a tuff time trying to figure out who to join. D|S was on a down turn, I was idling in their private as they lost to cK on assault, where Jones retired, they were looking at recruiting some odd players (s1lver, some 15 year old), so I didn't think I would go with them. stx was also on a downturn. They never could get their recruitment right, and people wouldn't always show up, though if they could have put the time in they would have been great (they had lagwagon, bugzer, sergio from RIO, dgd, and other good players) but they just didn't look stable (they collasped about a month after).

Hostile Inc.was on the upswing, painkiller and a few of their other members were really on me to join, so I decided to go with them. What really hurt hostile was that Austin and Fusion lost their computers right as I joined and epik the other leader went AFK. I really don't know how good we would have been if they hadn't left right as I joined (and Herbal like a day before me). Anyway, I joined when they were sort of in a state of confusion, but it was all good. Hostile (osmo, plateau, Herbal-Tea, Dimension, PainKiller, Legion, ohmz, sgt-pr1ck, Austin, Fusion, epik, and Ramblow (who we recruited from -x- and who returned to them after awhile)) was pretty fun. We ended up going 8-2 in CAL-I that season, losing to cK and in our final game -a-.

Just like every RtCW clan (and most other clans I have been a part of) people started going inactive (plateau, ohmz and painkiller), we had ping problems (we actually were Ping flooded in our last 2 games as Hostile, vs -a- and vs dT, I really had never experienced it before, we would have won both games as well, so it really pissed off some of our members). In the end, Hostile sort of fell apart. There were alot of arguments between the Tri-Leadership (me, pr1ck, and osmo). Non-starters wanting more playing time (cough*Legion*cough).

Now here it get's a little foggy. I can't really remember exactly what happend, but about this time, I pretty much took over, we picked up hollywood who got kicked from dT, Bread (a friend of pr1cks), aimology, and BlowShitUp (who we later kicked) and I believe rambo came back. I think this was before the next cal season, but I can't really remember. I remember us scrimming, but I don't think we played any matchs. Anyway, I got into an argument with pr1ck, and left, then the clan collapsed a few days later with everyone going different ways (hollywood back to dT, rambo back to -x-, bread to RC, herbal to scary MONKEYS), so we continue.

c[_]Wippuh: What possessed you to reform Darkside? How did you approach the situation and what were the goals that the team set for themselves? Was it a success or a letdown, and do you ever plan on reforming the team for RtCW again?

D|S-ChaosLord: Well, so now I was clanless again. Right at this time, D|S was looking horrid. In one of our last matchs, Hostile Inc. had given D|S it's only 0-3 Loss on mp_sub. Their lineup kept changing, and they were on the verge of not being a RtCW team anymore. Doomsday was sort of the overall D|S leader at the time. He got word from someone that Hostile was gone and I was out and about, and he contacted me about coming in and helping out D|S. I thought it over. Doomsday and I talked over the phone, and in irc, and I told him the only way I would come to D|S, is if I had full and total control - Over lineups, strats, recruitment, everything. We talked about making D|S-RtCW into a good team again, a different team, but something that was worthy of the D|S name..

So, D|S was reformed. After talking herbal back into playing CAL-I, he agreed to come to D|S with me, and because I was joining back up, pharoah who had quit the team after D|S got rolled at qcon, decided to join back up as well. We started the season with Herbal, Vai, Naz, BigHogins (pharoah), Slugs, Kristoff, Doze, and myself. About a week or two in, I talked to rambo and bread and brought them into the fold as well. After a few weeks, pr1ck being lonely and clanless, talked Bread and Rambo to bugging me all the time to let him join, so now the newer D|S was formed. That first season, we lost once the whole regular season, to our rivals LoT. The starting lineup was Herbal, Rambo, Bread, Krishtoff, Pharoah (or pr1ck), and myself.

We end up playing dT in the playoffs on beach rd1. We had beat dT early that season on village (before picking up rambo and bread) 3-2 on village. Then dT reformed picking up nail, rok, illumina; we beat them on Ice 3-2 in the longest RtCW game ever. Anyway, we end up getting totally ping raped (4 players with 110+ pings), and lost to dT 3-2. It was sort of heart breaking, because we knew if we had even pings, we would have taken it (and this is not dissing them at all, watch the demo, we lost because Rambo runs into bullet spray from nail!). Add to the fact that hollywood said that we would cheat if pb wasn't on, made us really want to beat them.

Anyway, that season ended, and we went onto the next. During the break, Toff decided to call it quits, so we went looking for someone to replace him. We tried out a few people, then at about the same time, we heard that brian and some CAL-O newbie called warri0r were both needing clans. We scrimmed with both, and I felt that warri0r fit with us alot better. He really listened, and wanted to improve, add to the fact that he had a super gun (something that toff sort of lacked) made us fell like were in good shape for the next season. I think at this time too, bugzer was returned to RtCW, and was wanting to play, so we picked him up as well. We also had a stalker, his name was mildorf, and everytime we scrimmed he would pop up on the server. It was scary, but nice when we needed someone to fill in.

Anyway, the next season went pretty well, this time we lost to to z on beach 3-2, which was just the worst game I have ever been a part of. We played pharoah, bugzer, AND pr1ck. It was just bad, we played two panzers, neither of which got any kills, and had albert "buddylee" as a gun in place of rambo. Down rambo and warrior I was still suprised we kept it close losing 3-2 I believe. I finally picked up dildorf and got him to change his name to Illshot about this time, and we got our revenge on LoT (mildorf played for rambo and we still won!) beating them on ice 3-1 or 3-0.

I don't think we had faced dT all season, and we finally fought them in the CAL-I semifinals on ice. This is the weirdest match overall that I have played in. No discredit to dT, but we creamed them kill wise and their D was sloppy to begin with. Things were just on dT's side. Lucky nail (we have their whole team dead, I am running documents, with herbal in front of me, he goes thru service door, doesn't look around, my dumbass doesn't either, and nail pounces on me for the return) saves a win for us. Then warrior is running the documents for another cap, and gets killed by the super fast brian who is alone chasing him (if warrior had just turned and killed him =/). Then herbal's sister has to go to the hospital during the middle of the match, we bring in pr1ck to play a airstriking lt spot he has never played, and it ends up killing us and we lose 3-1. Still to this day, I can't understand how we could frag so much better, and lose anyway, though I credit 50 percent of the win on brian, who insured if he got the documents off the tower, they capped because he was uncatchable and who caught our document runner with his blazing speed. Our second cal season ended, but BoB2 was just beginning.


c[_]Wippuh: In BoB2, Darkside had an incredibly difficult path. First you managed to knock off LoT on ice in the elite 8 and then faced off vs DeathTouch on base in what many consider one of the greatest matches in the history of the game. Couple of questions about that match. In it D|S ran the radar 2 defense quite effectively after it hadn't be seen in so long. Was that the reason it was successfull or was it something else? Do you believe that this type of 'oldschool' tatic could be used on other maps? Also, what were the turning points in that match? Why did D|S not come out on top?

D|S-ChaosLord: By this time, I personally was getting in burnout mode, but, we had something to prove so we prepared hard and planned on dominating BoB2. Your right, our path was overall I think alot more tuff than almost anyone else's. We had Ac (I think it was Ac) on sub, d1g (laws_69, slag, fuman, and some other players - LoT3 we called them) on village, LoT2 (soma, odin, etc) on assault, LoT (george, blue, warpath, muddy, etc) on Ice, then dT/-a- on Base. We put down Ac rather easy 3-0 on mp_sub, beat d1g with a little controversy (them cussing out an admin) 3-1 on village, taking it to LoT2 3-0 on assault, then to a match where some considered us underdogs because of dr.george being in the lineup for LoT. I think we took this 3-0 on ice.

Finally we had come to face dT/-a- (you all know that controversy) on mp_base. We didn't scrim as hard as we could for this match, me partially just wanting BoB to be over so I could take some time off. We had already talked about BoB2 being the end of D|S for awhile, since some of us wanted to go to qcon and others didn't. Anyway, we went into the match fairly well prepared, alot of thanks on that goes to team Z, who ran a nice 2 panzer strat vs us that helped us out alot.

I struggle to remember the first part of the match. The story of the 02 D is pretty simple, we had ran it a few times before, but nothing ever really setup. When -a- forgot to plant 02, but got 01, we just fell into it. It was successful because overall, our aim was better, so we were able to hold them back, add to the fact that it really confused them and they seemed to have no idea what to do, it worked really well. As for why we didn't come out on top, I would say a few reasons. 1. I made a cruical mistake. When we set a good time on an O round after we setup the 02 D, I asked the team whether we should go 02 again, or normal D, everyone said normal D, they end up planting with about 1 minute left, if I had said 02, we would have won. Next, the last round, 2 things happened. One decka dominated our O with some sneaky panzer strats, and pharoah instead of playing a second panzer like we had all game, decided he wanted to play engineer, without telling us, thus we didn't plant on our 8+ minute hold.

It was a great game overall. They played well, and we played well, a few different calls on either side could have won or lost it for either team. The only thing I hated, was that I wish the last 4 spots would have been round-robin, so we could have played narf and z on beach, that would have given us a reason to play more matchs, cause we really wanted to play narf on beach. Anyway, after that, we retired, and that's about where we are today.


c[_]Wippuh: Darkside started out with Valdez and company running a very aggressive, in your face, type of style with big name guns and even bigger named personalities. The two biggest named players on your version were Rambo and Warrior, and you've made statements that indicate they'd be more suited to play the original style vs the strict, disciplined style that you dictated. How did you convince them to buy into your style? What are the pros and cons of your style vs the original one?

D|S-ChaosLord: There was really no buying into my style, I pretty much just told them what to do, yelled at them if they screwed up, and they usually did it =). Warri0r and Rambo are 2 great guns. Their problem is overall, in a strat, they arn't that great teamwise. I tried to setup solid strats, where if I had let our team "pub" a bit more, you could have seen rambo and warri0r do alot better. I dunno, I guess you could say I was more an abuse style of guy, than a cK or old D|S kind of guy. I believe that teamwork will always win over superior aim. Not that you can have totally suck aim and win, but that you don't have to have the top shots to get your job done if you play well together. The pro's of the pub style are that, it takes less practice, it's probably more fun, but you are going to lose alot more. Unless you can dominate other teams with your pure aim (ala old D|S) you arn't going to win. In a game that gets older, strats tend to override individual skill, that's why you saw teams like the doctors and abuse take over. Not only did they overall have really good guns, they had awesome strats and execution of those strats.


c[_]Wippuh: HerbalTea, Bread, Illshot are all names that people recognize now because of playing on Darkside, yet they weren't so well known beforehand. How did you find those guys in a scene where name recognition seems to matter more than skill sometimes? Do you have any guidelines on what makes a good player?

D|S-ChaosLord: Herbal I found thru hostile. It was recruited right before I joined, I think I joined up the day after he did. He is just the best teamplayer that I have found in RtCW. I mean, he is intelligent, has good aim, and is great support wise. The fact of the matter is, I probably wont play RtCW with a clan that herbal isn't involved with.

Bread was a friend of Pr1ck, and was brought into Inc. by pr1ck. He is just one of those not so big name players, that is a stalwart on your team. I like having Bread because I can put him in his spot, and he will perform ABOVE my expectations, that's saying alot about any player.

Dillshot The Dragon - he's turned out to be a cool guy. One of the younger members of our team, he came in with good raw skill, but it took a long while to work him into a good team player. I just saw that he could have the ability to be really helpful to our team someday, and now he is a great player to have on our team.


c[_]Wippuh: Rumor has it that there's were not any snipers on D|S so you had to fulfill that role. What seperates the truly great snipers from the rest, as you can almost name all of the dominate NA snipers on one hand. What are the mistakes that other players are making when they snipe?

D|S-ChaosLord: Actually, I started sniping in Hostile. Before that every team I had played on had had a sniper of one type or another. In hostile, we didn't have a good sniper, I could snipe, so I just did. Add to the fact I had a really good ping then, and that was all she wrote. The truth of the matter is I HATE sniping. I like to play medic and be in the heart of the action, sniping just isn't really fun, plus, as my name got out there, you see more and more teams doing things like, camping me with a panzer, going all underground, running 3 snipers, etc etc. That it gets really unfun. I think the keys to being a really good sniper are to keep moving, a sitting target is a dead target, so even if you are zoomed in keep moving, and take quick shots. Alot of snipers I see play will wait like 10 seconds to shoot someone, until they get that perfect lineup. A good sniper wastes about a 1/3 of his bullets with misses, just keep pumping out those bullets, you are bound to hit something! I never used any sniper scripts or anything else, I just bind mouse2 to zoom, so other than that I have no good info. Though, In the qcon qualifers when I played for D|S, cF`Fuman accused me of having a sniper script =o.


c[_]Wippuh: Your other team is Hostile Inc. How did that start? I've noticed that Inc is playing some CPMA in q3 leagues and getting beaten up on. What has carried over from Wolf to q3 and what have you totally had to forget in order to get better in it? Has CPMA taught you anything useful that can be brought over to RtCW?

D|S-ChaosLord: I guess most people know, I started up Hostile Inc. as a RtCW 5v5 team about 2 years ago. We kept that going, and we have been the on the TWL 5v5 spot now for 1 year and almost 3 months! So don't think we still don't play. It's just a for fun team. We joined CAL-main to have fun this season, got removed, we played cpma for fun, got raped, and we might play savage so we can axe people! As far as cpma, we just decided to play it in wansanity for fun, something to get our minds off wolf. It sucked herbal into q3 for a bit, and it was just something different for us to try. Only sad part is, we got beat by the quake girlz. Hostile Inc. saddest day.


c[_]Wippuh: You have a long history of FPS's. Name the top 3 things that you have found that matter from game to game? What are those universal principles that help players as they move along.

D|S-ChaosLord: Aim - It's the best thing that translates to other FPS's, you have to learn aim in other games, but its all hand-eye coordination. In the beginning of an FPS it's what seperates the good from the bad usually

Map Knowledge - You know the map, you know where to go. Put the best players on a map they don't know vs Decent players on a map they know in and out. See who wins. That's why you see in tdm games like q3, certain teams pick certain maps to play, cause they know them inside and out and have strats for them.

Game Awareness - This is the hardest thing to learn or teach. It's knowing where people are going to be, what corner they are going to camp, what is happening to your team and theirs thru death messages and comms. It's when you are pubbing and get a grenade to the face from someone who had no visual knowledge you were there, but KNEW you were there. From playing FPS's for a long time, I know that visual, and auditory input make alot of difference, hearing that person coming, hearing that airstrike being thrown, hearing that gun being reloaded. That's something that you just have to be good at. I know alot of times I have seen really good players get killed because they didn't listen to what was going on. It's just something you have to work on.

c[_]Wippuh: Again, along the lines of the long history of competitive gaming, what do you see as the next step for the FPS? What do you want to see that you believe will really pull all of the communities together, or is that something that will never happen?

D|S-ChaosLord: Pulling the communities together wont happen, people like different things, as far as the next step, if I knew that, I wouldn't be here, I would be making games. I really don't know what the next thing will be, I just wish it would get here.

c[_]Wippuh: A lot of top teams cite burnout as the reasoning for them quitting Wolf. They'll admit that they love the game and consider it the top team FPS out there, but that the constant need for scrims and eliminating mistakes takes too large a toll in order to be on top. Then they'll go back to their old game or move onto a new one and play it. Why is it that they can play other games and not get burned out, yet fade after a season of wolf? Is there a solution?

D|S-ChaosLord: Wolf is a game that just takes alot of work to be on top of your game. You can't really pub, and have your team work well together. It's also very individual dependant. A key person dieing at the wrong time, not playing his position correctly, can kill your D on O. Add to the fact that just setting people in places or positions doesn't tell you everything that's going to happen, you need to scrim it to find out. Add to the fact that you have a respawn timer, that makes you have rushes, and respawns. It's just a very complex game overall. I could list over alot of specific things, but it just comes down to it being very complex.

c[_]Wippuh: pwn. Tell us the story of when it where it was first used.

D|S-ChaosLord: Lol. Circa 1996 early 1997 a TF clan called Clan Marauder .M one of their members was talking about how badly they beat someone, he was saying how he owned something, and mis-typed it pwned. Back then, irc was new, and l337 speak wasn't around, so everyone started using it as term for owned and it spread thru TF. From then on, it spread out in the community, so that alot of TF clans started using it, then TF ppl moved to other games, and there you go. The funny thing is, you can find it's creation from a supposed billion places, but I know this, no one I ever heard used it before that time, and after that time you heard it alot.

c[_]Wippuh: Shoutouts.

D|S-ChaosLord: All of RtCW, past, present, future
All of TF, past, present, future
Anyone who says ET is gay.
All the people who I have played with, especially the Hostile Inc. and D|S guys.
The wippuh for finally interviewing me!