ARCHIVES: WEDNESDAY 12TH MARCH 1997 - TUESDAY 25TH MARCH 1997

OH, NO- (QL) STORM IN A TEACUP?

Yes, it's true. He's back.

"Lord Storm is back at the Helm with Ettu at the Quake Lords.With a new ISP and no more lag I'm looking much better. In fact, I kicked some arse last night, as reported on the UKCL news page!"

Sujoy had better start watching those tail feathers...

On a related note, the Quake Lords have been hiring again (those of us who still twitch a little from their last hiring session will be scared already). Please, er, welcome QL-Xspectre and QL-DragonTung to the fold of those people you only ever see when you're lying sideways on the ground...

And finally, the QLs have challenged the Swedish Mob to a game! There has been a little controversy over the Frag Kings' informal win against them (which I am investigating: look for more news): let's see if the QLs can repeat FK's performance.

WANTED: TERMINAL GIBS

Yes, yet another Clan is hiring, this time the capable and skilled Terminal Gibbage. I'll hand over to TG. Onyx:

"Terminal Gibbage are curently looking to expand by adding 2 more players to our team. All applicants will (of course) have a trial of fire against existing members, so llamas need not apply! Previous experience playing Quake is prefered, but not necessary . If interested please mail me and we'll arrange your try out as soon as possible."

UK SINGLE PLAYER CHAMPIONSHIPS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

The UKSPC has reached its final round. Now we will find out who the best of the best of UK Modem players really is.

Results from Round 4:

FuckAll (28), DarkAngel (8)

Jibsta (22), DD (2)

Zoser (win), Mick (was outpinged and conceded)

Shadow(Win) , Loki (conceded)

Scanman (41), Shaggy (-1)

Smebo (win), MadDog (was uncontactable and did not turn up, even in rescheduled match)

I'll hand over to Fuckall for details of the final round, which will start at 6:00pm on Friday 28th March:

"The style of the finals will be as follows:

Duel Round:

Each finalist will get to play a duel with all the others, and the scores from all the games for each player will be aggregated (calculated as FragsScored - FragsLost), giving a final grand total (hence wins/losses from each game will not be taken into account, just the scores).

All duels will be 20 minutes long.

The players involved in each duel have the rights to nominate the level of their choice (admins reserve the rights to resolve disputes). However we recommend DM4.

Any players caught not respawning after deaths will be warned, and if this re-occurs the culprit will be disqualified.

After all the duels have been played each player now has a "Duel Grand Total".

Deathmatch Round:

All finalists will play in this deathmatch game, in a level voted and agreed by all of them (admins have the rights to resolve any disputes). This gives the chance for contenders who prefer group deathmatch games rather than duels to catch up.

After this game the score for each player will be added to their respective "Duel Grand Total", giving a final score.

Therefore the player with the highest final score will be the UK Modem Champion, where the next highest will be declared the UK Modem Runner-up. These 2 proud winners will be announced in BluesNews and News From the Front (sorry, these are the only prizes we can give!)"

Sorry? Sorry? Why, a mention in these pages should be all the reward any Quake player requires. Oh, and a mention by that Blue guy is a bonus, too.

The final should be fascinating: as always, I will at least attempt to move heaven and earth to be there. Already the UKSPC has been tense and exciting, if flawed slightly by some prime contenders dropping out early on. The final should be superb. Good luck to all involved.

COULD THEY GIVE A 4X FOR ANYTHING ELSE?

And once again The Nomad sets a new record for late reporting...

The 4x knockout tournament, hosted by the UKCL on the 16th of March, was an interesting event, if one dogged by difficulties. Finalists at the end of the day were the Frag Kings, Clan Pendragon, the Quake Police Department and the Quake Lords, with the Quake Lords winning (quote from their site: "We Won. Of course. Silly.") However, problems with crashing servers and a "Quake Lord" substitute from SPG ensured that the end result was contested (as noted in their report, a player calling himself QL-Krap turned out to be SPG-Trog, substituting for a Quake Lord).

The Pissup the evening before and the resultant confusion and hangovers resulted in a barely-show from the Demonic Core, with Sujoy condemned to "my first 250+ ping game in months", and the DC going out in the first round. Sujoy also had some concerns about the format, noting that the 4-Clan setup opened up the possibility for collaberation and abuse by two or three Clans in a game.

Nonetheless, the day was generally enjoyed by all. If the UKCL can find some way to eliminate collaberation, this could be an interesting addition to the UK Clan scene.

SHOTGUN POSSE FIRED

The Shotgun Posse have been removed from the UKCL. John Burton:

"On a sad note, I have tonight written to Clan Shotgun Posse informing them that I have dropped them from the UKCL. Out of the 8 weeks that the UKCL has been running so far they have either failed to turn up or fielded less than 3 players on no less than 5 occasions.

Consiquently, every clan that has not played them to date will be given a default win and the 50 frag default score. "

OOPS...

Nick of the UKCL emails me to clarify a few points:

"There is not to my knowledge a UKCL mailing list- please tell me if Iam wrong!"

I mentioned a UKCL mailing list a few days ago. I was, of course, referring to John's announcement list. Oops. There is no UKCL open mailing list, although they do have a bulletin board at their WWW site.

"I think in my orginal email Isaid the final weeks matches would be held in London.. This may not be the case, as after talking to a few people some say "yes" to a London match, but others say "no". We realise that we have to offer a complete package.

When Iannounced it I wanted to know the general feelings on this. If you have a comment, please email me."

And finally,

"I also hear from King DM maker Spirit that he has started on ukcldm2! Well, he said he had ideas!"

SO WHO IS THIS GROFFY BLOKE ANYWAY?

It's a bit of a UKCL day today...

I'm not going to say any more. If you play in the UKCL, you want to check this and this out. I see Leiah has been busy...

SORRY ABOUT THE UPDATES...

Yes, RSI strikes again. Updates may be briefer this week, but should be there.

I NEVER DID FIND OUT WHAT H.T.S. STOOD FOR

First news of the evening. Clan HTS, they of the enigmatic acronym, have changed their name to Corona Discharge.

No, no clearer, is it?

MAILING LIST CONCEPTS?

[TG} Illusion mails me with the following announcement:

" I am thinking about setting up some sort of mailing list based around UK Clans, UKCL or similar, and I want to know what people think about this idea and whether people would use it.

If people could mail me their views and ideas that would be great."

The UKCL, of course, has its own mailing list, moderated by John Burton, but an independent list might be a useful resource, if enough people were interested. Ideas?

UKCL: YET MORE NEW, COOL STUFF.

A couple of announcements from John Burton at the UKCL.

Firstly, you may or may not be aware that a recompiled progs.dat file has been released for Hipnotic's Quake Mission Pack 1 (The Scourge Of Armagon), allowing it to be played over QuakeWorld. John thinks that some of the Mission Pack levels would be perfect for UKCL games, but would really need some feedback from UKCL members before including them in the UKCL schedule. So, if you have any feelings at all on that, email him.

Secondly, it has been suggested that the final matches in the UKCL be played over a LAN. If you've got any suggestions, ideas, objections or other comments on that, email John or Nick.

And lastly, the UKCL now has its first custom level. I'll turn the microphone over to John:

"The first UKCL level has been written by Spirit of Clan Pendragon.......and it rocks!!

The file is availble from the UKCL pages, there is a link on Nick's blurb page, and another will be added to the levels section shortly. Can you please ensure that every member of you clan has downloaded this file by the end of next week as all of week 9's matches will be played on this level.

The file is 600k zipped and 1.15Mb unzipped so make sure that you don't leave it until you join your match server next week in order to download it, as I guarantee that you'll miss the begining of your match.

If you downloaded the map UKCL09 off sneazy over the last couple of days you'll still need to download the map from the UKCL page, as this is the finished version.

If anybody else would like to write a custom map for us, please do. As we said from the begining, we want to try and run all UKCL matches on custom maps and, amongst other changes, we will be using a smaller level pool next season, and we would love it if they could all be maps espescially written for the UKCL."

An interesting idea- I'll be watching to see how well the initial map is recieved, and might even run through it a time or two myself.

UK CLAN PISSUP: THE MORNING AFTER

Well, closer to the week after, actually. Sorry...

RawMeat has written a report on the Clan Pissup, which should enlighten those of us who just couldn't make it. Notable points? Well, it seems that DC can't even break their bad habits when they're out on the town ("Then Demonic Core took to camping at the end of the bar"), Sujoy has, in a shock result, been revealed as human ("I thought you were a 7ft tall, green monster"), and RawMeat has proven that Real Life is still superior to QuakeWorld in at least one way ("There are 36 of us and 3 of you!").

In other portions of his story RawMeat reveals that DC.CrystalTips is a woman, and more remarkably, that Uther had managed 11 pints before 3pm. Sujoy wasn't quite as terrifying as most people expected, but, frankly, MA.Cantona more than made up for it.

Anyway, why am I still drivelling on over here? Go and read the whole thing.

Seriously, possibly the most interesting part of the whole affair was the LAN play at Shoot And Surf. This was the first time that many of the people there had played each other over an even connection, and the results were quite interesting. Sujoy really is as good as he appears. So is ReAPeR. MadDog must have been having a bad day, and sadly Ettu wasn't there.

Again, RawMeat has the pictures. Thanks to Osiris for sending them to me earlier this week, too- I'm sorry I didn't get around to posting them then.

QUAKE LORD FOR HIRE?

Regular readers will have heard the sad news that QL-Rorshach has given up Quake. However, like me, he just couldn't stay away, and his reincarnation is- unusual...

Thus Spake John Burton:

"Many of you will know Kevin Johnstone (QL.RORSHACH), designer of all the Quake Lords artwork and skins, and winner of the Crackwhore skin competition.

Kevin has decided to open up his artistic skills to everyone, be it web artwork or skins. He has plenty of time at the mo as he isn't playing Quake so contact him and let him know what you want.

His approximate price list is as follows, but in his own words he's "willing to haggle...." :

1 Skin = £25

Web Logo = £30

Large Web art = £50( the huge comic style picture on the Quake Lords page, for example.)

You can see more examples of his artwork on his web page, House of The Rising Gun. "

Frankly, I wish I had some more money spare! Rorshach/Kevin really is a superb artist (I personally rate his QL skin as one of the best on the 'net), and anyone who can possibly afford to hire him will not be disappointed.

Does anyone feel like holding a whip-round for a new NFTF logo?

AAH, THAT FEELS BETTER...

Yes, I finally figured out you didn't want to load all 100+k of old news. The Archives are up.

UKCL WEEKEND WEEK 7 RESULTS

And another week of UKCL results passes. The field is beginning to thin out, now, and only three Clans remain with a realistic chance of winning the league.

None of the three remaining unbeaten had particularly challenging matches this week, with the QPD possibly having the hardest game against skilled, but modem-only, Clan CIX (some details of which can be found on BoyWonder's WWW Page), which they won by a convincing 181-78. The Frag Kings played the Minos Academy, easily winning 154-47, and as for the Quake Lords versus the Shotgun Posse (54-0)- ouch.

The gap between the leading Clans and the rest of the pack has widened, with both CIX and TG suffering defeats. CIX, as I mentioned, fell to the might of the QPD, whilst TG were slaughtered by the Demonic Core 224-30. Despite this convincing win, DC are still haunted by early losses, which have pushed them down the table, and now have only four victories to their three losses, putting them in the same position as Clan Nasty ( won 142-72 against QUTA) and the Weedkillers (201-153 win against The X). It's hard to see how DC could scrape a win, in spite of their formidable skill.

Down at only two wins to five losses, niether Minos, The X nor Vengeance have managed to pull out of their losing streaks. Given the fact that they are all mostly modem-based Clans, it could well be that their lack of LPBs is causing them problems, or it could simply be difficulties with attendance or poor teamplay. Certainly each boasts formidable players amongst their number, but this number of defeats suggests a problem more severe than bad luck.

And as for the bottom of the league, where Bog, the Shotgun Posse and the Riders of Telgar Weir are still languishing- keep trying, lads...

Due to the 4x knockout tourney and the Clan Pissup, there were no UKCL games this weekend. Week 8 will take place next weekend: big matches should include the Frag Kings versus CIX (Saturday, 16:00, E1M1), which could see another top spot contender knocked from his placing, QUTA versus RTW, offering the bottom place contenders a chance to win a match, and Corpus versus the Weekillers (Sunday, 19:00, DM5), which isn't a top-ranked game, but should feature some excellent play between two well-matched Clans.

COME IN, YOUR TIME IS UP...

Yes, it would appear that the UKQCR Clan Ladder is finally starting. Mark Clark, aka Salamander of Dominion, would like any Clans in the ClanRing that have not already joined to "get their arses in gear" and join up. Ah, that poetic turn of phrase. It just gets me right there...

Well? Get on with it, people.

HAVE YOU RECOVERED FROM THE HANGOVER YET?

Sorry I didn't make it to the UK Clan Pissup yesterday- it was a combination of lack of money, lack of place to stay and inability to contact Uther (did you leave your mobile off?). I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

Fortunately, even though I failed to make it, my psychic powers still mean that I can produce a full report, complete with pictures. Well, close. CC-RawMeat, one of the Pissup organisers, has agreed to write NFTF a full report. Thanks to him for that: watch this space for the report itself.

AARGH! IT'S ALIVE!

After a long period of quiet, the UK Quake ClanRing has suddenly jerked once more into action. In addition to a brand spanking new design, Octapus has also recruited a new organiser to the ClanRing, Mark Clark. Octapus says:

"He is going to be organising the Ladder League competition, which leaves me to sort out artwork and HTML, as well as prize negotiations."

Looks like things are moving.

UKCL 4x (OFFROAD?) TOURNAMENT STARTS TODAY

Yes, those fucky kids at the UKCL are running something else! As a prelude to the new 4X League's official opening, they are running a one-day knockout tournament involving 16 of the UK's finest Clans.

The format is simple: each Clan sends four of its finest members into the arena, there to battle with not one but three other Clans. The winners of each group goes through to the final controntation at the end of the day, where one Clan will be declared the victors. There Can Be Only One.

The action should be fast, hectic, and frankly extremely violent. I'll report on it as soon as I can. Until then, good luck to all concerned!

HAVE YOU SEEN THE QUAKE PLAYER WHO WALKS THE STREETS OF LONDON?

As I said a few says ago, I'm going to try to get to the UK Clan Pissup. However, I have nowhere to stay for the night. Anyone care to put me up for whatever remains of the night after we've finished with it?

Beg, beg, plead, plead...

Next update will be Sunday. I've rather overdone it and my RSI has become a little worse. I hope to see a lot of you on Saturday. Keep sending in news: I will still be checking email.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS DC-DANOLD?

A couple of days ago I mentioned that several highly respected competitors in the UKSPC, QueeG and DC-Danold, had apparently vanished into thin air before even the first round had begun. FK-Fuckall emails me with details of what happened:

"Yes, we all said that if Danold were in then he would have been a strong favourite, but he resigned before the event started simply because his ping to the UK servers was shafted due to an ISP problem. QueeG as far as I can recall did not even turn up at all in the first round."

Ql-Cenobite, who despite being generally expected to make the Top 4 of the UKSPC dropped out in round 3, tells me that he had to work later than expected on the Friday when he was due to play, and so missed his game altogether. He also makes the point that it is unreasonable to expect every player to turn up for every match, particularly when they have not had a say in its scheduling. This is something that the UKSPC will have to work on for future competitions, either polling players for suitable times to play or perhaps converting to double elimination.

Anyway, thanks to Fuckall and Ceno for clearing that up.

MINOS DUEL: FINAL AND RESULTS

Among all the noise surrounding such high-profile events as the UKSPC and the UKCL, it's easy to miss the fact that Minos, the nearest UK equivalent to PlanetQuake, is quietly running a wide range of events and competitions. In fact, they have been running their own Single Player competition, the Minos Duel, which has just reached its conclusion. Over to Cantona.MA for the report:

"After several weeks of heats, the Minos Duel competition saw its climax on Sunday. The two finalists: Tine, ex buckshot brigade now serving with clan pendragon, and Smebo, current Buckshot Brigade member. Insiders were tipping Tine to win, but Smebo had pulled off wins over Tine, and laying bets would prove to be risky business.

The Final was held over 3 levels, 20 minutes on each. The winner would be the one winning 2 out of the 3 rounds overall.

Round 1: DM1. Tine hated this level, and never really got into the game, managing to find the small pool of lava on this level with astonishing regularity. Best moment: Pausing on the teleport exit, Tine says "I've got all the stuff!", at exactly the moment that Smebo telefrags him. Hehehe. Final score 23-5 to Smebo.

Round 2: DM2. Tine makes a comeback, despite the large pools of lava now available for the contestants to jump. Some spectacular rocket jumping skills on display from Tine, to reach the quad and escape the cages. Final score 19-4 to Tine.

Round 3: DM4. It all hangs on the final round then...and what a round. Attracting quite a crowd of observers the lads embarked on a vicious scrap. First Tine in the lead, then Smebo, then Tine, then Smebo. Naturally the lava was the only clear winner on this level, with many a hard won frag being thrown away by ditching into the soup just after. Many exciting encounters on the bridge by the super-health, often ending in Tine or Smebo dancing around on the hot coals with scarce health. No one could have predicted such a tightly matched game. As it got down to the last minute with no clear leader emerging the crowd began to murmur with excitement. Neither player could open so much as a two point lead. Then the 15 second countdown began...they were even on 12 all....8, 7, 6, 5 a chase was going on somewhere and I couldn't see it! But there in the final few seconds of the round, Tine clutched the victory with that crucial frag. We were on our feet in Minos towers!

Congratulations to Tine, he wins the duel, gets a Moscar and other neat stuff. Smebo was Mr Unlucky, if there has ever been a match that could have gone either way that was it. We thank both players for a spectacular hour of gripping entertainment."

I couldn't put it better myself.

MATCH REPORT: DC VS TG (UKCL ROUND 7)

Yes, it's the one you've all been waiting for: UK Clan League, Weekend section, Round 7, Terminal Gibbage versus Demonic Core.

Both Clans are well known to be strong and experienced: TG, with only one match loss so far in the UKCL, against QPD, and boasting such formidable players as Interphaz, sysop of the Slaughterhouse server and feared LPB, and Scanman, who has been in the European Top 100 since the first records were polled, and the Demonic Core, possibly the oldest UK Clan, and previously considered near unbeatable, boasting Sujoy, Nightwing and Danold among their numbers, but reeling from recent poor performances and with only three wins to their credit in the UKCL so far. This was going to be a good match.

Tensions were high on both sides in IRC before the match started. The Demonic Core were confident, as any Clan with the players they were fielding would be ("TG beat DC..pah) , but were aware of the possible pitfalls: as Osiris said, "Our score? Hard to say. Dm3 is a tactical level: if TG play it well they could keep it respectable." For themselves they were primarily intending to hold the Red Armour and Rocket Launcher, with Sujoy and Paragon guarding the former after picking up a Lightening Gun and Rocket Launcher, whilst the other Clan members worked to hold the large main room, but they didn't want to disclose too many of their secrets to a reporter...

"We dont want the secrets to be told even after the match. ""Especially not the one about how we try to stay alive while at the same time trying to kill them ..."

Meanwhile, over on #UKCLAN_TG , tension was rising as the brave Gibbers discovered the full might that they were about to face ("SHIT, Sujoy is DC!!!!!"). However, Clan leader Interphaz was still cool, calm and at least fairly collected, saying "I'm confident about the game. We'll plug our best, and not think of loosing until we have lost." Pressed for a score prediction, he thought 150-35 would be close.

Tactics for TG were unsurprisingly similar to DC's, with Scanman and Onyx being pitted against Sujoy on the Red Armour, whilst Kamikaze would concentrate on the Quad and Grim would unashamedly camp by the Quad Damage. So far, so confident. But, as they say, no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

The line-up was DC-Sujoy, Paragon, Jibsta, Moose2000 and Nightwing against TG-Onyx, Kamikaze, Grim, Interphaz and Scanman (TG in Red, DC in Blue). Whilst DC had a clear ping advantage, with 3 LPBs to TG's 1, skill might still even things out.

A false start, with the server crashing 5 minutes into the game unsettled DC, and gave new hope to Terminal Gibbage, who had had a bad start to their game and now had a chance to regroup. However, DC recovered as well or better than their rivals, and within the first seven minutes had established a crushing 23-2 lead, with Moose2000 dominating the Rocket Launcher room and Sujoy going into the frenzy of destruction that has earnt him his no.1 place in the UK.

The next few minutes were hell for TG, only Interphaz, their token LPB, managing to make any inroads at all into the DC ranks, and with ten minutes played, TG were down 47-5. It looked like this was not going to even be a loss, but a massacre. Nightwing had control of the Rocket Launcher, Sujoy was slaughteringanything he saw, and Death was walking in the game with a DC skin on.

But TG didn't give up. Faced with unbeatable odds, and burdened by the loss of Grim to connection troubles, they decided to go down fighting, and with suicidal Lightning and grenade assaults managed to get control of the Rocket Launcher room. Now, they had firepower. Added to that, Kamikaze's guard on the Quad bore fruit, and for the first time it seemed that the TGs might, if not win, at least aquit themselves.

54-10 wasn't exactly an immediate threat to DC's dominance of the game, but it was enough to worry them. Sujoy was shouting for help, and the battle for the central room became fierce beyond belief, with both Clans devoting all their resources to either assaulting or defending the all-important Rocket Launcher. The admin staff were intent on the match, diving and darting around the central room, with the screenshot count soaring into the low 60's (nick's in astonishing 800x600). The walkover had turned into a real battle.

Scanman aquired the Pentagram from where it had lain unattended for several minutes and raced to the battle. Interphaz's grenades claimed a few DCs. Sujoy continued to wreak havok wherever he went.

Then Paragon assaulted the Rocket Launcher room. In an awesome frenzy of skill, accuracy and- let's be honest- low ping, he slaughtered three of the TG's unharmed and alone, and took the key position back for the Demonic Core.

Terminal Gibbage never regained the Rocket Launcher, but the effort had ensured that Scanman and Interphaz managed to fight their way up to a respectable score, and the match ended with TG thoroughly beaten, but far from humiliated. The end score? 223-30. Closer to their original prediction than they would have believed eight minutes into the game.

Feelings were mixed after the game. DC had certainly won convincingly, but as Osiris said, " We needed to win by a lot. If it was close it would have looked silly with us having 4 LPB's, but the pings can't be helped.". Moose2000 was less impressed: "That was a bloody shambles...They were not supposed to have rockets.". DC's tactics had not gone quite according to plan: massed assaults and suicidal lightening attacks had given them difficulties and they were debating whether they needed more people to defend the rocket launcher. TG had proved more of a threat than they had anticipated.

In comparison Terminal Gibbage thought that DC had posed exactly as much of a threat as they had feared. No matter how much of a moral victory they had gained they had still suffered a resounding defeat by a highly skilled group of killer LPBs. Interphaz felt that they had been "totally outclassed", whilst a lot of complaints were directed at the number of LPBs on the opposing clan and the load on the server created by having 4 admins on line (the latter was apparently a rather unfair accusation, as the server load , despite the number of observers was no greater than normal). However in the end Terminal Gibbage felt they had done the best they could in the circumstances and acknowledged that despite the unfairness of the respective Clan pings, DC "showed some top form...LPB or not".

So Terminal Gibbage, with two losses, are now out of the running for first place in the UKCL, whilst DC have shown that in spite of their recent performance they certainly are not a spent force in the Quake community. What will next week bring?

I don't know, but Iwill certainly be reporting it.

News From The Front and all written material therin is copyright 1997 The Nomad This page has had visitors since 26th May 1997 Report News to nomad@easynet.co.uk