ARCHIVES: FRIDAY 6TH JUNE 1997 -THURSDAY 19TH JUNE 1997

DOJO DECENT AGAIN...

Zanishin has picked up on the hack of his site. The GlQuake Dojo no longer has a naked woman decorating its entrance!

UKCL UPDATE

John Burton has updated the UKCL pages with a few bits and pieces, including some news on the Season 2 structure. I'd also like to congratulate thw UKCL's two new admins, RawMeat (is there anything this man isn't involved in?) and Leann, on their appointments. John says if they do well, he might retire in Season 3!

Yeah, sure...

BACK TO WORK

Oh, well, I can't spend forever playing POD. Whilst I'm on the subject of GL Quake, I'd like to give an honourable mention to the GL Quake Dojo, which is an excellent source of info on GL Quake (I improved my frame rate by 5 just from one of their hints) and is also a British site, despite being hosted on PlanetQuake. If you're interested, The Grail also has an interview with the Dojo's instructor, Zanishin.

One word. I don't know whether the title picture is meant to be there: I assume not. Until it's corrected, if you're going to the Dojo, turn images off unless you wish to offend anyone offendable in your vicinity. Could be embarrasing.

BRIT TCS NEED YOU...

Ravage has asked me to put in a word for his Total Conversion project, Trapped In Limbo. TIL is a UK-based Total Conversion project aiming to write a new episode for Quake, including new monsters, weapons, maps- the works. He's already got Ql-Rorshach on the team, and would like some assistance: if you think you can help, email him.

On a similar note, Mick (of TFS) has the following request:

"I have an idea for a potentially cool Quake map (which would include some code and model work), but I need the help of a QuakeC dude and possibly a modeller as well. Anyone interested in working with me (or just discussing the idea to check that its viable), please drop me a line. "

Sounds intriguing.

INTERCOLLEGE LEAGUE: THE NEW SEASON

One aspect of Quake in the UK to which I perhaps haven't paid as much attention as I should have is the InterCollege League, originally an Oxford-only league that is now expanding to include universities throughout the country. I'm aiming to correct that in the future.

In the meantime, let me hand over to DMS for the latest news and opportunities. If you're at University, you need to read this!

"he Oxford Intercollege League is forever growing. We've finished the first season (which was an effective testing ground) and we're making headway for the next, which naturally begins next University term.

We've grown to include teams from Cambridge and other Universities (Glasgow, Exeter, Southhampton), and we would welcome any university, college or other educational team who would like to join the league (we could hardly turn down a team of lecturers!). This may well be LPB heaven, but with the other leagues taking measures to limit their LPB intake, they've got to go somewhere!

For more details go to our "Holiday Homepage" which contains links to the normal site (which is only operational during term time) . Next term this server will also be offering irc and news servers, for quake and other multiplayer games!"

As the man says, this is effectively the only purely LPB league, and the only place where wired Uni students can compete on equal terms. I'll be following it avidly next term: you might even see Frying_Tonite appearing in an Edinburgh team soon...

E3? I1.

Are you getting sick of the Americans going on about E3? Me too.

However, if you want to know what they're talking about, there's no need to go over the pond to find out. My QuakePerfect roomie, Spike, has put up a "whole lot of stuff" on E3 so far on Impulse 1, including N64 Quake screenshots and news on Prey. Yes, I thought that had been scrapped too.

Apparently Spike is also thinking of closing I1. I'm not sure what to think about that: I know how much work a page like his is, and I realise that after running it for as long as he has he has every right to quit, but it'll be a loss if he does. I wish him well with whatever he decides.

SILENT NIGHT...

It's a quiet night. Normally, this would be the time to catch up on the UKOOL, the UKCL, the MCW or whatever, but today I have just aquired a 3dfx graphics card and a Matrox Mystique. So, I'll be seeing you tomorrow...

UK QUAKE AWARDS: VOTE NOW!

CC-Angel has been working around the clock (kinda) and has finalised the list of awards for the UK Quake Awards '97, to be announced at the UK Clanmeet II (5th July). The online voting form is now up, with voting catagories including "Best UK Player", "Most Hated Clan", "Best Individual Skin", "Most unpronouncable Quake Name" and, erm, "Best Uk Quake Newspage". No comment on that last one...

The ballot boxes close on July 30th, so get down there and vote. Remember, if you don't vote you can't have your say. Plus, Angel mentioned winners getting free drinks at the Clanmeet...

UKCL NEWS

Various pieces of news in from John Burton at the UKCL:

- The UKCL is now missing scores from matches dating as far back as Week 15! Obviously, this is irritating for them, so please get your scores in ASAP if you're one of the clans with missing results. Until he gets the results I can't do a UKCL roundup, so if you want your Clan's moment in the spotlight or just want to know what has been going on throughout the UKCL, get those results in!

- We're into the last two weeks of the UKCL Weekend Season 1 now, and the schedules for weeks 18 and 19 have been posted. For full details, check the UKCL Web Page: exciting games this weekend include CP vs TD, with the two Clans who have improved the most in the last three months coming up against each other, whilst Week 19 is of course the time for the big match: Quake Lords versus the Quake Police Department, the decider for the top position in the whole league. Of course, we'll have coverage of that match, and hopefully statistics and demos of what has to be one of the most exciting games this year.

- The UKCL has started recording demos of matches. Currently available on Poison are demos of QPD vs BOG and Clan Corpus versus The Desperados, which will be added to the Demo Archive in due course. This is a very cool idea, and one that I'll be discussing with John soon, with a view to a weekly "UKCL roundup" demo.

- Lastly, John has a request. Season 2 of the UKCL will be huge, with over 30 Clans entered, and the infrastructure of the UKCL needs to expand to cope. Specifically, the UKCL needs servers. If you're going to be running a server in the immediate future, or run one already, John would like to be able to use it for UKCL matches over the weekend period, starting from August. If you can help him, email him now.

John tells me that there has been a lot of response to his request for admins. Hopefully there will be as many enthusiastic responses to this request.

DEV: NOT A SURGICAL CREAM...

I've had an email from one of the new Clans in the Modem Clan War, the Clan formerly known (in yesterday's update) as DEV, asking me to point out that their full name is, in fact, the Dark Deviants.

Despite being a new Clan, they're looking formidable: names you might have heard of among their lineup include CopyCat, UKOOL Levelab organiser, and Reaper, whose formidable ability has been demonstrated at the Quakeathon and in the Demo Archive.

I'll be watching them.

FIND THAT PLAYER

A useful little site which I should have mentioned a while ago, but which slipped my mind, is the European Quake (Player's) Site, aiming to be a directory of all European Quake players and Clans. It's pretty comprehensive already, but this is the kind of site which can only grow with your input, so go and list yourself.

Thanks to MNK (the "Supreme Quake Warrior", or so his .sig says...) for that info.

REFUX LEAVES UKCL ADMIN TEAM

I've just heard from John Burton that Refux, organiser of the Scottish Quake Gathering and longtime UKCL admin

REFUX LEAVES UKCL ADMIN TEAM

I've just heard from John Burton that Refux, organiser of the Scottish Quake Gathering and longtime UKCL admin has left the UKCL administration team. More news as I get it: in the meantime, both the UKCL and NFTF wish him success in whatever he chooses to do next.

UK-DENMARK INTERNATIONAL DATE SET

Clan Uk will play Denmark's international team on the 21st June.

Team will be announced on UK team pages, and people are urged to turn up for practice MORE. The game is at 8pm BST.

- Rawmeat, NFTF International Correspondant

MODEM CLAN WAR DIVISIONS SET

CP-Spirit has set the new Modem Clan War divisions, in which all future games will be taking place. The divisions are as follows:

Division 1: CIX , Dominion , The Desperados, The Quake Lords, Quake Police Department, Clan Corpus, Clan Pendragon, Demonic Core.

Division 2: Mere Mortals, ACME, Fallen Angels, Terminal Gibbage, TFS, Extreme Chaos, DEV, Minos Academy.

Division 3: Legion Of The Insane, BOG, Jedi Knights, Dark Preachers, Biker Klan, Dogz, The X, Quake United Tiger Attack, Vengeance.

Obviously, the new structure means that there will be many more exciting MCW games. This week's highlights include the Quake Police Department vs Clan Corpus, which should be interesting both from the point of view of QPD's new players, Iggy and Zippy, and because of the TG/CC split, Fallen Angels vs Terminal Gibbage, where we'll see how the newly reformed Clan does against FA's new aquisitions from the Hellbringers, and Legion Of The Insane vs BOG, purely for humour value...

I'm unsure who McM, who have suddenly appeared in Division 2, are. More news as I get it...

DEMO ARCHIVE DOWN

The Demo Archive will be temporarily going down from tomorrow. With any luck, it should be just for a few days. In the meantime, satiate yourself with Quake Done Quickly, a 20 minute dash through all of Quake. It's very, very well produced, funny, cool, and you've no doubt already heard of it, but if you haven't, treat yourself.

BACK FROM THE TABS...

And another nice weekend away: thanks to BoyWonder for updating the page whilst I was away.

I'm especially pleased to have had a chance to meet a few more Cambridge quakers, and to have watched the first Oxford-Cambridge Quake match. More on that later...

QUAKEWORLD DEMOS

As I'm sure you're aware, the new version of QuakeWorld can record demos. This is good. However, I haven't got the space available to store a hundred new QW demos. This isn't so good.

Until further notice, please email me for confirmation before sending me any QW demos. I still haven't entirely decided what to do with them, or where I will store them.

On a related note, if you have about 100Mb of FTP space I could use, please email me!

VOTE MCW FOR A FAIRER CONTEST

As I mentioned on Friday, CP-Spirit (the chief administrator of the Modem Clan War- note his change of address) has decided to switch the War to a divisional league system. However, some Clans would apparently like to continue the way that the MCW is working at the moment, at least until the end of the season, so Spirit is throwing it to the vote.

Obviously, continuing means that Clans on the top will be faced with less challenging games on a weekly basis, but also means that none of the Clan's plans will have to be altered regarding the MCW and that Clans at the top will still feel free to allow their weaker members to play in MCW matches. However, changing would immediately give all Clans fairer and more challenging games every week, as well as allowing Clans who wish to join the MCW (Terminal Gibbage and Extreme Chaos, for example) to do so.

Only Clan Leaders are allowed to vote, at one vote for each Clan, so if you have strong feelings about this issue contact your Clan Leader.

RAMPING UP

The 3_Secs server, run by Danman (one of the most popular and fastest UK servers), is having an upgrade. Danman:

"Just to let you know I'm in the process of upgrading the original 3_secs server (although the original will remain). The new machine is a sparkly dual PII 266, clocked to 300MHZ (bout 80Mb RAM). It will be up and running servers out of office hours (I do keep some funny hours though), and I haven't yet decided exactly how many or what servers will be on there. Either way keep your eye out for it under the UK minos master."

It's nice to know he cares.

QUAKING DOWN THE RIVER: THE VARSITY QUAKE REPORT

It has been a long time in arriving, but all the best things are. The Varsity Quake project is a long-running attempt to set up regular Quake matches between those old enemies Oxford and Cambridge, which has passed through multiple admins on both sides, over a period of about nine months. The first Varsity match was scheduled for Saturday, and I was spectating over the shoulder of one of Cambridge's more recognisable Quake denizens, DC_Nightwing.

As is normal for any Quake match, the instruction to meet at 7:00 pm on IRC was at best optimistic. When I arrived Nightwing was in the process of setting up a backup server for the game, negotiating remote links and UNIX servers with the skill of someone who actually gets a grant to do this. IRC showed about eight Cambridge Quakers, including QL-Enrique, J'honi-Bo and of course DC-Sujoy, and rather less Oxford players, with QPD-Azde, BigSquid and a "tired and emotional" DMS heading up the troops. Due to the short notice and business of many Quakers, this game has been designated a test rather than a full-scale match, but even so it looked to be a spectacular and explosive event.

Sujoy decided to sit the game out, instead testing the new QuakeWorld Chasecam and demo recording for posterity, whilst the rest of the players flooded onto Adze's server and in traditional Clanmatch fashion proceeded to ignore his attempts to organise the chaos. Finally he restarted the server and the game began.

It was swiftly apparent that the game was to lean heavily in Cambridge's favour, and Nightwing's in particular. Getting a good start into the DM2 area, he swiftly established a control over the Rocket Launcher "corridor", gibbing Oxford players at a terrifying rate and climbing high in the rankings. Lost in admiration, I forgot to commentate for about ten minutes.

About twelve minutes in Oxford suffered the first of their losses, with Ben having to leave the server. At this stage Cambridge were well in the lead, with Nightwing on top of the rankings and Enrique, J'honi-Bo and Adze duelling for the next three places, but Oxford were by no means being devestated, with about half the Cambridge frags and Adze and Weasel aquitting themselves well. DMS, on the other hand, was doing less well, although given his inebriated state it was a wonder he could even find the mouse. The size of the level meant that the Cambridge players were unable to prevent Oxford from aquiring weapons and armour, and made the game fairer and more even.

Then disaster struck again for the Oxfordians: Weasel, who until then was racking up frags for his alma mater, had to leave the server. Sujoy and Adze called for some Cambridge players to leave to even the odds, and Varies and PsychoDom obliged, and the game continued on. Without Weasel, the Oxford team lost a little ground, but managed to hold their own, and the game finished on a score of 270-128 to Cambridge, with Nightwing in top place on 67 frags.

Despite losses, the game went reasonably smoothly, with both sides enjoying the game. The hasty and informal nature of the game meant it resembled a free for all Deathmatch more than a controlled Clan game, but that was no bad thing. The performance of the less well-known players on both sided was also impressive, particularly on the part of Oxford, who were faced with two Clan_UK players on the opposing team.

Varsity Quake obviously works well, and has the hallmarks of something set to become an institution. Frankly, given the choice between this and the Boat Race, I know which I'd rather watch.

QUAKEWORLD 1.64 Released!

This includes GLQWCL, which as Nick just said - 'w000000000000000000000p!' - ie. it makes your jaw drop with a 3dfx card. This is what QuakeWorld was destined for all along. There are no protocol changes in this version, so you all will be able to play on 1.55+ servers while everyone upgrades - BoyWonder

• QuakeWorld 1.64 Full Install
• QuakeWorld 1.64 Client Only
• QuakeWorld 1.64 Client for Unix\Linux
• qwsv0613.zip - QWSV 1.64 for Win32
• qwsv1.64-i386-unknown-bsdi3.0.tar.gz - QWSV 1.64 for BSDI
• qwsv1.64-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz - QWSV 1.64 for Unix/Linux
• qwsv1.64-sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1.tar.gz - QWSV 1.64 for Sparc

AND QUIETER...

Nothing much to report, so I've done some work. New listings available in the Who's Who, and some cosmetics in the Demo Archive.

I'm away for the weekend, in Cambridge. See all of you who aren't on Monday...

MODEM CLAN WAR BECOMES FAIRER

CP-Spirit, the chief admin of the Modem Clan War, has decided to drastically change the way the MCW is played:

"I have decided to change the way the way the MCW runs, hopefully starting from next week it will run using a league system. This is mainly due to the current situation of far to many one sided games, which I'm sure neither side enjoy.

The league system will run with 4 divisions, with 6 clans per division, meaning a season will last 5 weeks, at the end of the season, the top placed clan in each division will be promoted, and the bottom place demoted. This means clans will be playing other clans of the same general skill: obviously some clans will do better than others (that's why it's a clan war!), but the overall fairness of the games should improve dramatically.

We currently do not have enough clans to fill all 4 divisions. If you know of an interested party please get them to mail me ASAP. If I get a massive amount of critism over this idea, I may consider not doing it, but I doubt it: the idea of the MCW was for clans to have fair games, which is not currently happening enough.

The divisions will be chosen using the current League table (so your work so far hasn't gone in vain)."

This structure seems to be the way the Clan scene is heading at the moment. I'll be interested to see how the MCW bears up with the new structure, and how it compares to the UKCL Season 2 random leagues.

QUIET NIGHT...

Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse...

It's been quiet these last few days. What's going on, people?

FORMAL APOLOGY

First order of business: yesterday I wrote a piece on the soon-to-be-formed Irish National team, in which I made some jokes about the Irish. I would like to formally apologise to anyone who was offended by them or percieved my tone to be racist.

I am naturally flippant. I make jokes about virtually anything with no ill will intended, as was the case here. It would appear I overstepped the mark, and I shall endeavour not to do so again. I do not and would never condone racism or any other form of discrimination: such things make me extremely angry.

I don't make jokes maliciously. I also tend to be far from politically correct. If anything I write oversteps the mark again in future, I'd ask my readership to remember that it was certainly unintentional. I'll try to avoid such an event.

NFTF FOR THE BOOKER!

Angel has made a very bright suggestion:

"Thought u all might be interested in supporting us with this. Its justan idea to rejuvenate the quake scene since it seems like with the endof term for many at school and Uni and UKCL Season 1 winding down and the recent moans and gripes we need to put a bit of fun back into the scene.

So....The UK Quake 97 awards! We will send this out to the "usual" mailing lists and peeps can send it back to a central point where all the votes are counted. also we will create buttons that could be stuck on the "usual" sites initially asking people to vote linking up also with an online form.

At the end winners get sent a winners button or could pick up a winners button which could link back to the results page . Plus any other prizes going (i've got a 4-month old Mars bar in one of my cupboards!)"

The shortlist of possible awards is anything but, including over 25 suggestions. If you've got any ideas on trimming the list, (heaven help us) extending it, would like to help, or just want to place your votes for NFTF now, email Angel.

DOCTOR IN DA HOUSE?

You may remember the Quake Doctor, the ambitious program headed by Kalgari aiming to "troubleshoot" Clans' play. Well, it's still ticking over nicely toward its start, and the Quake Doctor Website is now up.

Kalgari is looking for comments, and obviously if you'd like a little help for your Clan this is the place to go. Slightly more altruistically, he's also looking for Doctors: if you've got the remedy (bit of a Prodigy reference for Nick there) call him up.

LATE BROKEN NEWS...

Sorry about the late update. I've been out- first praying for the Luis Palau mission in the Bristol City football ground (which I'd never been to before), and then visiting Uther. However, I'm back.

HIGHER RISING GUN

Longtime readers will know that I, along with about every other UK Quaker, am a great fan of QL-Rorshach's artwork and skins. Well, we have a treat coming.

Yes, Rors has finished his revamp of the House Of The Rising Gun, his personal gallery and homepage. It's nice: Rors' artwork is superb as always, and there are many new pieces and even an offer of free skins (he says). Check it out, and maybe your gun will rise too.

Hmm. Was that too risque?

US CRY OFF

Yes, the US vs UK International match is apparently off. However, Clan UK are now apparently scheduled to play Denmark on the 15th instead.

Of course, Rawmeat, our regular internationally roving reporter, will be covering that game.

WITH A POTATO IN IT...

Aha- yet another opportunity for NFTF to indulge in cheap jokes at the expense of another nation. The Ireland is forming an International Team. I can't hold the cheap jokes...

Seriously, CloudWarrior is forming an Irish International side. If you'd like to be involved, and obviously are Irish, contact him: trials are intended to happen this weekend.

He's also looking for someone who could set up a 32 player server for games, preferably in the .co.uk domain. Internationals are a Good Thing: if you can help him, email him soon.

With players like Shmern around in Ireland, they could be an interesting side to watch.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. Did you hear about the Irish Quaker who tried shoplifting?

They found him dead under Tesco's.

FEELIN' GOOD...

I've had a very pleasant weekend. Not touching a computer for two days was nice, surprisingly.

I'm contemplating buying a 3D accelerator card. Which would people recommend, and why?

Ok, I've stopped being Redwood now...

QPD SIGNS IGGY AND ZIPPY

There hasn't been much news this weekend, but what there has been is fairly stunning. Yes, the Quake Police Department have signed the forbidable pairing of Iggy and Zippy, new players who have been stunning the UK Quake scene left, right and centre. Danman:

"Just to let you know, QPD have recruited two shit hot players, Iggy and Zippy. They are both of Fragga / Coerj Quality, and will give QPD the edge that was lost when Fragga retired. Be Afraid....."

Iggy has promised me a demo soon, so you'll be able to see their play for yourself. I can't wait.

UK VS US?

Yes, the ultimate confilct may be coming to a Quake server near you, soon. Clan Uk captain Quicksilver has sent out a message that there may be a possibility of a UK vs United States International match on the 15th of June. This should be quite something: of course, if it happens NFTF will have an exclusive report from RawMeat, our correspondant from the International scene. Watch these pages...

LET'S DO THE (TERMINAL) GIBBAGE AGAIN...

They're back, back and indeed back. Yes, ancien Clan Terminal Gibbage has reformed. TG-Onyx (chief administrator of the UK One on One League), their new leader, said this about TG- The Return:

"DocTyrell, myself, and Grim, have left CC as from tonight. We shall be reforming Terminal Gibbage.

The core principle behind TG is fun, not winning. With the essence of it been a group of friends quaking together, not a group of people intent to win at all costs.

Come along to ircnet channel #tg, which used to be the place to be seen, and hangout with us, or just say hi as you gib us."

I've got fond memories of TG, who merged with Clan Corpus several months ago citing lack of LPBs, and I wish them well.

4x LEAGUE CANCELLED

The 4x league was a brave experiment by the Uk Clan League, aiming to give Clans another type of game beyond the straightforward "us vs them" environment of a normal Clan game. However, that experiment has come to an end. John Burton:

"For various reasons, I have decided to cancel the UKCL 4X League. The main reason for this is server problems.

The 4X League matches put an extraordinary strain on servers, a combination of the maps that are run, the number of players and the mod, and results in either the server running very slowly, which spoils the game all round, or the server crashing.

I apologize to all clans for this, especially the clans who are solely in the 4X League, and promise that we will try to start Season 2 of the Weekend League as soon as possible. "

UKCL SEASON 2 ADMINS WANTED

With the current number of Clans signed up for Season 2 of the UK Clan League standing at 35, John Burton is looking for help...

"I know I've sent this message out before and had 1 or 2 replies, but this time I'm looking for 7 people who are willing to commit to helping run the UKCL. The structure and their duties will be as follows:

1. There will be 2 admins per division.

2. Scores from matches will be sent to your divisional admins, not me. The divisional admins will tot the scores up and send them to me in an email. I will then update the league and the web page. It will also be the responsibility of divisional admins to chase down missing scores from their division.

3. There will be 2 admins running games every week on a rota basis so that admins will only be required to run matches once every 4 weeks. ie week 1 = Divisional admin 1 & 2, week 2 =divisional admin 1 & 2 etc etc....

4. All schedules will still be drawn up by me, to ensure no clashes in times.

5. Admins will be given training on to how to use the UKCL mod and on how to set it up for games.

If you're interested drop me a line. It is intended that season 2 will start at the beginning of August 97."

John works very hard. Please give him a hand- then he might actually manage to play Quake a little...

HIPPY, HOPPY BIRTHDAY

We have an announcement:

All together now...

WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD...

I'm away this weekend. Next update Monday.

RESULT!

Yes, we've got the results of arguably the biggest UKOOL game so far (possibly excepting Sujoy-Fragga), Sujoy versus Ettu. They played two games, firstly on DM4, then DM6. On DM4 Sujoy won 14-9, but on DM6 Ettu won 6-3. However, the frags are totalled to provide the victor, so SUJOY IS THE VICTOR, 17-15!

Congratulations and well played to both of them. A report may well be coming later...

REPORT!

Yes, there is a report from Sujoy's game versus Ettu available, written by the winner of the day and the man of the match, Sujoy! No, it isn't here- it's over at BoyWonder's Fragbook!

Well? Why are you still here?

CLANMEET DOESN'T BEGIN WITH AN "M"!

RawMeat emails me with some new information on the upcoming Clanmeet II, now only a month away:

"The first thing is that we have for various reasons had to limit the amount of attendees to 75. This will be run on a first come first serve basis, and we have roughly 40-50 people signed up already.

Secondly Shoot n Surf have room for 10 more PC's on their LAN. They have agreed to let people in for free if they bring their own PC, but the PC has to arrive at S n S by 11:00 on the 5th July, and you have to agree to share your PC with another user, so that the User to PC ratio is improved. The LAN has RJ45 connections, so your network card will have to support this type of cable. Again, this is a first come first serve thing.

Please goto the new ClanMeet homepage for more information. If you have any questions or would like to book your PC in or confirm your attendance at the meet please contact either RawMeat or Uther ASAP. Remember it is only a month away now...."

And it's going to be fun!

ANGELS ON HOLIDAY

If you want to contact the Fallen Angels before the 26th of June, contact FA-Nut, not Andromeda. He's in Antigua.

Yes, I did spell that right.

MCW WEEK 6 ROUNDUP

There can be only one. And Week 6 of the Modem Clan War went some way to showing who it would be.

Sadly, half the games from the sixth week of the MCW had to be postponed due to the perennial "Internet troubles"; in this case, difficulties in accessing JANET from the rest of the UK's network. However, at least one game was played, and its result was crucial: DC vs QPD.

I've already reported on the DC-QPD game, the day after it happened. There isn't a lot more to say on the game: Fragga's absence obviously affected QPD, as did their connection problems, but in the end DC's clear win (118-68) puts them in the lead of the MCW, with only CIX and themselves still unbeaten at this stage, and CIX still to play both QPD and DC. However, the unexpected could still happen, and with CIX still untried against them and looking formidable it might well turn into a very close race between those two modem-based giants.

Futher down the league, the closest game of the week was the Mere Mortals versus The X. With an end result of 118-113 to MM, this is yet another blow to the Xers, bereft of their ace player, Bagpuss, and going down badly in both the MCW and the UKCL. Equally, this yet again proves that the Mortal's prediction at the start of the season that they would finish in the "bottom 3" was Mere Modesty: in fact, with a current 14th place, the Mortals have a fair chance of finishing in the top half of the field, and possibly even in the top 10.

Other games were less close. The Legion Of The Insane again fell in fountains of blood, this time to CIX, in what has to be one of the most uneven matches in recent history: 351-9. The Dominion destroyed the Jedi Knights, in the throes of a split and presumably low on numbers, 126-2. Clan Pendragon won by almost as much against the Quake United Tiger Attack (formerly PC Zone's Nutter Of The Month winners): 184-21. And lastly Clan Corpus won by default against the Fallen Angels.

I'll report on the rest of the results when 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