ARCHIVES: WEDNESDAY 20TH AUGUST 1997 -WEDNESDAY 3RD SEPTEMBER 1997

JOHN B RESIGNS FROM UKCL?

Well, he says he has, after accusations of match tampering. Check out the report and make up your own mind:

"Now that the allegations posted on http://www.poison.co.uk/news/ have come to light I can no longer in clear conscience continue my role as Chief UKCL Administrator.

As such I hereby tender my resignation from all UKCL activities.

John Burton"

UK MODEM SQUAD EMPTY

Coerj writes with this desperate plea:

"I recently posted a mail to clan leaders asking to send me a list of the players they would like to see try out for the Modem side of the UK team. I've had a resounding 3 mails reply. Therefore, what I propose is that anyone interested in trialing for the UK Modem squad should mail me and we can go from there: you have all got 2 weeks, after which we can sort some trial games out.

Please mail me with "UK modem" in the subject line, and I can add you to the list. Please remember we are looking for the top 25 team players to trial. Be honest with yourself and if you think you have a chance then cool. "

Guys, I'm going to try out, and I'm poor. If you don't want forigners thinking everyone in the UK is crap, get there and beat me senseless.

CLAN NEWS

-Cenobite has quit the Quake Lords. He explains why in his lateest news and views update on his Web page.

AND THE NEWS IS...

Euro GenCon was wonderful. If you really want details (and weren't there...) email me.

Here is the roundup of the week's major (Quake) news in brief. Yes, very brief.

- The UK now has a Quake Widows' site of its very own. If you have an other half (of either sex) who is left staring in incomprehension at your monitor whilst you waste your "quality time" shooting people, point them in the direction of Mrs. TG-KamiKaze's Quake Widows' Site...

- If you've been paying attention lately, you'll have noticed that Killjoy has been organising some huge pick-up games, late at night, on the IRC channel #quake.uk. He has also, apparently, been recording demos, like the sadist he is- get them if you want to see some excellent free for all Quaking.

- Clan Corpus is no more. As the dreaded Real Life has caught up with Dibbler, Quicksilver and Rawmeat, forcing retirements, the core of the Clan has vanished and the remaining members "felt unable to continue playing under the name CC". As a result, the Clan, one of the oldest and most respected in the UK, has disbanded. They'll be missed.

- On a related note, Rawmeat has retired from playing Quake completely, save for Fragstock organisation. The big lug will be sorely missed, and I'll have to take over International Affairs again...

- The UK Quad Frag Fest is nearing startup! Zendog still has to sort out administrators and a skins database, but most of the work has been done- check their Web page for more details.

- The Stars Are Right, the UK Quake Movie, has had a Web page facelift. The script is in final draft and work is progressing apace.

- The UKCL Season 2 Skinpack 2 is now available from UK Quake Leagues 'n Tournaments.

- Maniac has been dropped from the UK Clan League for non-attendance. Many scores are still missing for Week 3 -please get them to John Burton ASAP.

- The Rude Monkey Clan are looking for players, particularly female players and anyone with an easy-going nature. Email Kane.

- The NetGamer( society, not magazine) QuakeFest happened: Sujoy won the one on one tourney, and Nightwing won the FFA. More details to come in a future issue of NetGamer magazine (plug, plug...).

- Sign up for Fragstock: there are only 50 places left! The team is also looking for dedicated Fragstock maps: email them if you're interested in designing.

- The Hexen II demo has been released: get it now. A Hexen II server is now available on 194.119.129.201

- Refux- yes, I'm back...

GONE FISHING...

Euro GenCon appraoches, and so I am off to spend a few days in sunny Lough-whatever, working 18-hour days in the name of fun...

I'll be back, most likely, this time next week. Keep sending in the emails: I'll do a huge roundup of news when I get back.

WHOOPS, APOCALYPSE...

Zucc, organiser of the Bournemouth BangBash, has made a mistake...

"In a tragi-comic episode yesterday night, I managed to format the wrong HD. - doh!

As a result I've lost the details of everyone who said they'll be coming to the BangBash in Southampton on 11 October.

*Please* can everyone who is interested in attending fill in the form on the page (again) so i can keep you posted!

BFF- THE MORNING AFTER

Aerotus emails me with this "Morning After" email on the huge LAN party which took place this weekend:

"The Birmingham FragFest, scheduled for this last weekend, has just ended. I'm writing this after 2 days of no sleep and networked carnage, and I think I can safely say that almost everyone who went had a good time. The weekend saw some cracking games, highlights of which included the two vs two final ( Jibsta and Danold .vs. Nightwing and Sujoy ) which nearly everyone was watching, and some exciting duels involving Jibsta, Sujoy, Ceno, Danold and others. Also, many clans had decent-sized squads present, so we saw many friendlies, including - and yes, it was good - DC vs QPD. Wait for the demo to find out who won...

Demos of many of these games will be forthcoming ( in .dem format - converted ) as will a BFF highlight movie, and possibly an .avi of highlights from Probe's frequent filming sessions. Unfortunately, this does not include Ceno's victory dance after beating Sujoy, which left us all in hysterics!

In addition to the people we knew were coming, Xena from ACME, Maddog and Zoser from DC, Twinkletoes from Vengence and Salamander from Dominion all made an appearance at the last minute, albeit without PCs, just to ' say hi '. Seeing as they'd made the effort, a few of us let them share our pc's, so they all got a decent game.

At 8.00 pm next sunday, the BFF-aftermath website, containing demos, portraits ( scanned photos of everyone - yes, everyone ), and information about the event will be uploaded to www.jamesmc.demon.co.uk .

I'd just like to say thanks to all those who came, and contribued towards a great weekend which was enjoyed by everyone ( I think ), especially those who brought servers, and / or helped out with the network. A few people have hinted that a ' BFF-2 ' would be worthwhile. This is something I'll have to think about, but I certainly won't rule it out of the question immediately; It will definitely be given consideration. "

THE STATS ARE BACK!

Doug emails me about his server, ":)", and the statistics page he has just started.

"Just to let you know I have started a frag stats page on server ":)" , 129.215.140.38 . It's been running for a week now and has had 2127 players so far with a 3Mb log file. I think it would be best if I started a new log every month and kept a summary of the top 20 players for each month. The page is updated every day at 5am while the server is quiet. BTW the server is a p133/40 meg running nt4 and hosts a few web pages: the web server dishes out 45-55Mb per day too. You can access the stats page on http://129.215.140.38/qw_stats . I have put my email address on the page and would welcome any suggestions of levels to cycle through: it's on e1m2-dm2-dm3-e1m5-dm6-e1m8(z.vertigo) at the moment."

FAKED EMAILS

Salamander, of Dominion, emails me with the following irritating news:

"One of my members(so far) has recieved a false email, seemingly from me, telling him that the peeps in Dominion think he is crap and are thinking of booting him out. I have spent the last 30mins telling him that it is bollocks and trying to find out who this imposter is. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to do. I am angry because it not only caused a problem, the actual mail was signed off in my REAL name. I'd just like to ask this person, whoever it was, to cease these silly little games. Luckily the member involved was sensible enough to know that I would not send any email like that.

Please put this on the page so everyone can be warned that some idiot is playing pranks on Clans."

UKCL ROUNDUP UPDATE

Garp of Death Gone Bad emails me to correct my statement that DGB lost to The X in Division D, Week 2 of the UK Clan League:

"there seems to be a scurrilous rumour going around that our clan DGB lost in week 2 to The X. I don't know where this has come from and indeed the X admit on their own page that they lost. Probably because both our leaders were larking around on holidays at the time no one thought to send the screenie in - me included .

For the record we won the match 180 to 157 frags in a close run game beset by connection problems for both sides . I enclose the final score board which should be wending its way to Rawmeat aswell and would appreciate it if you could amend your UKCL roundup page ."

So there you have it. What does this mean for Division 2? Well, it means that the "probable" on DGB's being able to upset the balance of the established Clans becomes a "likely". It also means that DEV are the only Clan to have played at least one difficult match and still be unbeaten in the Divison, and it means that The X will have to work harder for a decent position at the end of the season.

UKCL HEXEN 2 LEAGUE

John Burton emails me the following announcement:

"In September or October the UK Clan League is hoping to start it's Hexen2 league. Of course this all dependant on Hexen2's release date, and how quickly net servers are up. We are estimating that the league will start about 4 weeks after the release of Hexen2.

The league will follow the same rules as the current UKCL league structures, with one difference: you may be in a different Hexen2 clan to your Quake clan.

More than likely, we would like to guess anyway, clans will move as a whole to Hexen2 but in case that isn't the case we don't want to prohibit new H2 Clans from entering the Hexen2 league.

A page will go up on the UKCL pages shortly with an application form. Please don't use the existing UKCL join form for the moment."

John also has an announcement on the general sluggishness of the UKCL at the moment:

"As for the rest of the UKCL, I'm afraid you'll have to bear with me at the moment. I have very busy with Fragstock and a few other things, so the UKCL response times are down: the week 4 schedule should be released tomorrow (Monday) night, when I get back from SnS's Dusk to Dawn party.

There will be an admin meeting shortly to slightly reorganize the UKCL administration system, and hopefully this will put us back on track."

UKCL SEASON 2: THE STORY SO FAR...

OK, I can't put it off any longer. Here goes for the roundup to end all roundups: Weeks 1 and 2 of the 50+ Clan UK Clan League. Take a deep breath, and remember to come up for air every 30 seconds or so.

DIVISION A: In Division A, things aren't going at all according to plan. The only Clan currently unbeaten in this division who one might have expected to see there are QPD, unbeaten against Insomnia and Eradication On Arrival (who scored a princely two frags), and TFS, benfiting from being about to field Shmern and their other LPBs, fresh from two hard victories against Clan Corpus and CIX, and seemingly improving even as we watch! Even TFS, one might have thought, would have trouble, but so far they seem to be storming through any opposition presented to them.

But if that's a surprise, then the other two unbeaten Clans at the moment are even more of one. NIQ, who are a new Clan on the block this season, have admittedly not had too many challenging matches so far this season, having beaten the Mandalore Warriors in the first week and Insomnia in the second, but they're still doing well. And ACME, late of Division 2 in the Modem Clan War, seem to have seen the Rocket Launcher on the road to Damascus! Their Week 1 win against Vengeance was, perhaps, not too surprising, but their week 2 victory against the normally formidable Desperados was, frankly, quite a shock.

Clan Corpus and CIX, both experienced and feared Clans, are both languishing on one win, following their mutual encounter with TFS. The others on one win are Eradication On Arrival, who managed a default win against the Skull Scraggers in Week 1, and Vengeance, who pulled a considerable victory off against the Mandalore Warriors, who really seem to be struggling, in Week 2.

Languishing with no wins are the Skull Scraggers, who following their failure to show up in either Week 1 or Week 2 are no longer part of the UKCL, The Desperados, who really seem to be going through a rough patch despite their recent aquisitions of some very skilled players, the Mandalore Warriors, again obviously having problems, and Insomnia, a new Clan who have the choice of improving their game or becoming the Legion Of The Insane of Division A (postscript- of course, Insomnia have now left the UKCL).

DIVISION B: In Division B, the division seems to have neatly split itself into three sections: The Good, The - uh- not-so-good, and The Ugly. As one might have expected from probabally the highest-powered division in the UKCL, at the top are the Quake Lords, Demonic Core, the Special Patrol Group, and less predictably Xtreme Chaos and the Ministry of Death, who seem to be doing a good deal better than they did in the Modem Clan War Season 1. With the exception of the MoD, who had a comparatively tough game against Clan MOO in the second week (winning 262-189), none of the frontrunners have been seriously challenged yet, with none of SPG, DC, QL or XC's opponents having managed even half of their opponents' scores, and having recieved several default wins due to no-shows, with Division 2 having lost two Clans so far. The trials for what could be the most competative and exciting Division are yet to come.

In the "Ugly" position are the Mcnailz Clan (well, have you seen their skin?) and Clan TDC, both of whom have managed one win, in TDC's case a default and in McN's case a clear victory over the Lava Shadow Demons. The McNailz Clan, who haven't yet played any games against the top Clans, are something of a wildcard here, having several very good and very strong players, and are certainly worth watching, whilst TDC, although obviously no match for the top Clans, could provide some sticky moments for less high-powered Clans like XC and MoD.

And finally, the- um- unlucky. Unlucky, that is, to be in the same division as DC, QL and SPG, and probabally doomed to a final placing well below the half way mark. Only four Clans remain in the Division without any victories: the famously entertaining Clan MOO, who with the addition of MOOUther and his experience probabally have a better chance than most, but whose loss against the realtively weak MoD is. not encouraging, Clan Nasty, who didn't do so well in the last MCW but have the advantage of a long life and a lot of experience over the newer Clans, and who could yet surprise MoD or McN, and two new Clans, QCUK and the Lava Shadow Demons, who haven't done so well up to now (although in LSD's case a first week game against the Quake Lords can't have helped), but will most likely exhibit the same rapid learning curve we saw in many new Clans in the MCW.

I doubt there are that many major positional surprises waiting in Division 2: I can't see MOO beating QL, or DC getting McNailed, but with SPG's current alleged instability and QL and DC's old rivalry, there's still plenty to watch here.

DIVISION C: With the number of new Clans in Division C, any prediction is a chancy business.

Top of the Division, of course, are Clan Pendragon, who seem to be storming through the ranks of the opposition, with easy wins against the Dark Preachers and Terminal Gibbage. With their huge LPB contingient, amd their long experience and practise, the only people who could realistically oppose them at this stage are Dominion, also unbeaten, but who had a suprisingly hard game against Terminal Gibbage in week 1, which has pushed their frag count down. However, Dominion's lack of LPBs is likely to count against them: only time will tell if they can match CP at the top, and that game is almost certain to be the decider for the Division.

The big surprise so far in this Division is the Riders of Telgar Weir's superb success so far- although they haven't faced particularly difficult opponents, they're still looking a good deal stronger than they were last Season, and it looks like their temporary widrawal from the UK scene has worked to their advantage. However, it's still debatable whether they'll be able to compete with the might of Dominion and CP- we'll see... Minos Academy, the ancient and erratic Clan, are also unbeaten, and this Division could well be their chance to shine at last, with a third place a distinct possibility.

The only total wildcard at the moment is Clan Maniac, who haven't played any of the other Clans, having managed a default loss in Week 1 and a default win in Week 2. All the other Clans are, at the moment, no match for the two leaders, having been defeated either by one of them, the Minos Academy, or RTW in the first two weeks. Amongst themselves, the strongest contenders at the moment appear to be the Rude Monkey Clan, who managed a fairly good performance against Dominion in Week 2, and Terminal Gibbage, who nearly managed to fight DOM to a standstill in Week 1 and aquitted themselves relatively well against CP in Week 2. The Weedkillers have left this Division, after failing to appear for two matches in a row, and it's obvious from their scores that the Funky All Stars, who scored 28 against the Minos Academy in Week 2, and Clan Cornholio, who haven't managed to score 50 frags in the two games they've played, are likely at the moment to fill the bottom slot of the Division. However, they could well still improve.

Lastly, the Dark Preachers and the British Knights are both to a certain extent wildcards. However, each of their single wins didn't require much ability- BK managed a default win, against the Weedkillers, whilst DP won against Clan Cornholio. BK, therefore, are still relatively untested, but their Week 2 loss to RTW may suggest that they're not the most skilful Clan in the Division, whilst DP's record in the Modem Clan War implies that they, too, are destined for a relatively low placing.

DIVISION D: Division D is probabally the lowest-powered of the Divisions, with only one MCW Division 1 Clan. As such, the weaker Clans have a chance to shine, and there have been some quite unexpected results so far...

Probabally the biggest shock is BOG, who have had a consistent series of- wins! Yes, either the Boys Of Grangemouth are getting their act together or they've been bribing their opponents, with narrow but definite wins against RSI (my least favourite Clan) and The Darkening in Weeks 1 and 2. Can they keep this up? Well, they've been improving of late, and with the appearance of players like Fireblade, who knows? I'll have to find another Clan to be the butt of my jokes...

The Dark Deviants, currently top, have got off to an excellent start, with a 100-20 win against Onslaught ( now the Gunsharks) and a huge wn against the Mere Mortals in Week 2. How long they can keep this up, with old enemies the McMentals and the Fallen Angels still to face, is the question, but for now they're doing very well.

The X are also unbeaten at the moment, but by the skin of their teeth, with a narrow win against Death Gone Bad in Week 2. Chasing them and BOG both are the only new Clan unbeaten in the Division so far, Clan Eagle, who have only played one game, a narrow win over Clan Psycho.

The rest of the MCW's Division 2 in this Division currently holds one win. The Fallen Angels, MCW Season 1 Division 2 winners, are languishing on one win thanks to their default loss against MM in Week 1, whilst the McMentals lost to FA in Week 2. Last of the Division 2 crowd, the Mere Mortals, are obviously having problems, hanging on to their one win thanks to FA's default loss. However, any of these Clans could well challenge for the top of the Division: there's no telling at this point.

The Darkening, with their one default win, could well be headed for a lower place in the Division, having lost to BOG, whilst Psycho, who won extremely narrowly over the formerly Quake Classic Clan the Criminally Insane Assassins, are still a relatively unknown quantity.

The CIA are obviously having difficulties in their adjustment, having lost to RSI and Psycho. Whether this is a reflection of their ability or just a teething trouble we'll see in a few weeks. Likewise, Onslaught's reorganisation into the Gunsharks could well have given them a much-needed boost- we'll see. Currently, neither have any wins to their credit. Lastly, Death Gone Bad, the last of the Clans in the division and currently without a win, could well be a sleeper- so far they have played the McMentals, where they did fairly poorly, and The X. In the latter game their narrow loss against an extremely competant Clan indicates that there could be something waiting below the surface...

LYNCH MOB

As I recall, "Lost Highway", David Lynch's new film, has been released today, starring Bill Pullman. Review coming soon...

UK MODEM TEAM TRIALS

Coerj sends me the promised mail about trials for the UK Modem Team:

"Part of the new UK Quake team ideal is to utilise the top modem players who are as good as the majority of the LPB Quake population and in some cases a lot better. Some of you may have felt you have been missing out on some or all of the fun, others maybe feel that Modemers have no place in the LPB wasteland! Well, whatever you views on the subject, the reason for this mail is a request that Clan Leaders put forward their best players to try out for the UK Quake squad.

All Modem Clan War Division 1 teams get to put 2 or 3 of their top players forward to trial for the UK team. MCW Division 2 teams get to put forward 1 or 2 players to trial for the UK team. I stress that I want only your best players to go for this: if you don't have strong enough players to compete in your Clan then just send 1 top player instead of 1 top and 2 other average players. You need to decide who is right for the job: the players you send will need to be able to compete with LPB players, and win.

Once we have all the players there will be a series of trials. Note: a series of trials. We understand that one single game is too little playing time to base the UK modem team on so we will conduct around 3 to judge players' ability. This will reduce to a minimum the problems of a player having 1 bad game due to lag, crap day or anything else.

At the end of the day teamplay is the deciding factor. Head to Head skills and free for all skills are not going to help you here. During the trials there will be several observers, Ceno and myself included: the purpose is to study players and see how they play and more importantly, how they play as a team. Hot shot gunners who are selfish in their play and demonstrate poor teamwork are not wanted and will not be in the team. Intelligent play and ability are what we are looking for.

This is your opportunity to play for your country and we hope that you take it. Players who meet the criteria above will be welcome to come to the trials, there may be some wildcards in the selection process too. We are attempting to get things right this time and I would ask you to consider your players carefully, as I have already said any players myself or Cenobite feel should be playing who aren't will also get a chance to play. Once the selection process is complete we will inform players if they are in the modem squad.

For now we need a list of player names and E-Mail addresses. Once we have your replies then we will organise the trials."

Sounds exciting. If you're the best of the best of the best, get over there.

FRAGSTOCK!

More news on the LAN party to end all LAN parties, Fragstock:

"Yes folks, for those of you that don't know, Fragstock, the next generation in Quake LAN parties, will be taking place in November this year. We hope to have some serious shit going down, including the Official UK 1on1 Quake Championship (backed by the UKCL and hopefully our mystery sponsor)... Check out the Fragstock web page for updates.

Want to come to Fragstock, but don't have a car, or can't bring a PC?Go to the Fragstock help section and fill in the form requesting/offering help and the message will be posted on the site for all to see.

One final note. Fragstock is going to be a 2 day event (11am Saturday to 8pm Sunday) and we do require that anyone under the age of 16 be accompanied by someone over 18. Hope you can all come: it's gonna rock!

DOUG IN

Those of you who play on the ":)" server may well have noticed that an awful lot of Doug's family seem to be appearing... Well, Groffy sends me an email explaining the nepotism:

"I have some news for you, but it sucks...

Last night I got some emails with some screenshots of SPG.BastardDoug (aka Doug) who runs Sneezy (129.215.140.38) : the guy has setup up his own clan, called "Clan Doug". Attached are some pics.

So, I guess that it's the end for SPG now- because I suspect everyone else will quit!"

No, I don't knwo if this is on the level. However, I'll keep you posted...

CLAN NEWS

- MNK, who has received various offers of membership in Clans, would like to apologise to all those who have offered him a place, but due to increased stress thanks to exams and phonebills, he's unable to accept any of them...

- He would also like to announce the formation of a new 2 on 2 team, Team Extreme, consisting of MNK and DC-Maddog. If you want to challenge them, email him.

EAS(IER)NET

Those of you out there on Easynet, like myself, will have noticed that their service over the last few days has been almost unusable. I've just spoken to the Technical Support staff there, and they tell me that this is because they are transferring their service over to 57.6 kb/s connections. Apparently it should be sraightened out in a few days.

Phew.

UK1- THE UK TEAM RE-ORGANISES

Quicksilver, the Clan UK administrator, has gone off to America for a while, and so the UK team has re-organised, and nominated Lord Storm, the man who turned the Quake Lords into the force they are today, as their leader. I spoke to him about the changes that will be coming to the United Kingdom's team, and learnt that one thing he won't be doing is maintaining the status quo.

Firstly, the new UK team hierarchy, as decided at the meeting:

"LordStorm = New UK Captain.

NightWing = Vice Captain.

Bastard Doug is now in charge of servers for UK matches.

Groffy and DC Carnage are in charge of the UK1 Web page.

Ettu and Sujoy are in charge of arranging matches. "

After much complaint about the UK team being a closed shop, Lord Storm is making some sweeping changes (not least to the name, with Clan Uk becoming UK1). First off, he is creating a UK modem players' team, headed up by QL-Cenobite and QPD-Coerj:

"Their mission to get the finest 25 UK modem players together and train them using the instructions from the UK1.

Also, I am planning to get all the LPB university players to make Janet connections available for Members of the Modem squad, if they can, to give them a chance to play in UK1 games! For example, Ettu lets Cenobite play from his place at the moment , and NightWing is going to let Moose2000 and Jibstaplay from his. There will be no more favouritism. "

In general, LS is also opening UK1 up to new entrants and new ideas. He will, apparently, be hosting "regular training and invite sessions on a Sunday night", as well as saying that " I am open to mails from anyone about anything concerning the team: it is not a closed shop anymore (but I am running the show)." Overall, he says that he has "a new mission": to make UK1 unbeatable. "I did it with the Quake Lords, I can do it with UK1."

He has postponed all international matches until the end of September, to allow for a new team to be selected and trained.

Overall, it sounds like this could be an exciting new chapter in UK Quake! Can he do what he says? We'll just have to wait and see.

SPLATTER SUJOY!

Following a lengthy discussion on the UK Quake Mailing list, [MOO]Uther is organising a UK Quake paintballing day! Over to him for the details:

"What normally happens is that you can book 4 weeks plus in advance, and then within two weeks of booking everyone has to give a deposit (usually about a tenner). Last time I played it was £17 for the day (+ ammo costs), for which you get about 8 hours of games, protective wear, a gun of your choice (semi or fully automatic) and 100 pellets, but I think it may have gone up to about £20 since.

Those interested, email me - thanx to Kick, Granny, and the Dark Deviants for their interest. I'll stick a temporary webpage up when we have provisional numbers."

OK, ok, I don't know if Sujoy will make it. But it's more exciting than saying "Splatter a MOO today". Isn't it?

CLAN NEWS

- Clan Pendragon are looking ahead. With many of CP going to university in the Autumn, they are looking for two or three keen modem players to join their ranks. For more details, email Keeper.Cp.KoD.

- Lord Storm has founded a new Clan! Called the Dopplegangers, they are a mostly modem-based group with LS as the only LPB. Will they follow his last Clan to the top? We'll have to wait and see.

- Nicknames: If you've played a man named Number 11 in the past few weeks, it was Lord Storm. If you've played Sabre, it was Uther. More as I get them.

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