UKTerrorist

3 Months of UK Gaming

As some of you know, I recently came back to the UK after spending three months in the heart of Africa, Uganda. I now plan to evaluate the progress towards "Pro-Gaming" the UK has experienced during my absence.

The majority of you probably believe that Africa doesn't even know what a computer looks like, and you are very wrong. During my travels I was never to far from Internet access, even if it was extremely poor. The average Net café in Africa is a grotty little room with about 4 PCs, all with a poor specification, all connected to one 56k line with an African ISP (However while I happened to be in Zanzibar I was in a very nice Net café which happened to have a 1mbit net connection). As I am sure you have guessed this is not good. However this did not hinder me from keeping one eye firmly fixed on the UK scene, as I planned to return to it when I got home, as I have done.

Infinity-eSports gain sponsorship, Nocturne fold

From my point of view, being an outsider, the UK scene made a lot of changes almost as soon as I had stepped foot out of the country, which happened to be the day after the GDOC. Probably the first posts I saw when I reached Uganda was that of the sponsorship acquisitions of Infinity-eSports. These were none other than AMD and Gainward.uk. This was a major step forward for Infinity-eSports, acquiring their first two hardware related sponsors. This was also a big step for the UK community in general as it showed that it could attract large sponsors like AMD. I also understand that these sponsors were acquired without the aid of eSports-Pro, which yet again shows how well organised and isolated Infinity-eSports are from the UK scene as they do not need to use the same methods as other teams.

The first "major" clan piece of news I first saw when I was in Uganda was the folding of Nocturne.uk. I can't say this was much of a shock to me, or anyone for that matter. Nocturne had been through many changes in past years, but never quite regained the level of the original Nocturne. As I understand noc.uk made a good effort at GDOC, however they fell by the wayside to only take joint 3rd position along with omg! I personally feel that the folding of Nocturne was long overdue, simply because they never managed to regain the stature they once possessed even with their fairly talented line-up. This however did not affect or contribute to the reality of "Pro-Gaming" in the UK, I simply saw at as an inevitable step in the UK scene that we would have to say good bye to good old Nocturne.

During the time of me leaving the gaming scene there was a lot of activity surrounding eSport-Pro and announcing their client lists for the Gold, Silver and Bronze services. I felt this was an excellent idea, as it was a way of getting larger sponsors interested in the UK scene, as well as providing the up and coming UK clans with the much needed skills in obtaining sponsors. Throughout my time away from CS I saw many clans acquire sponsors such as clan servers like that of ePlanet-Servers providing omg! with a war server. Also the more recent deal with Everglide.uk to provide six of some of the top UK teams with free mouse pads. eSport-Pro are making huge steps on behalf of the UK scene in terms of sponsorship and support for our sport from the large franchises.

Probably the next major team change for a top UK team was that of the launch of omg! V2. This team consisted of none other than M0rph, KaM, Sarge, Fred, Landshark and Craig. There were two new additions to the team here: Fred, from np fame and Landshark from ui and the recent nocturne team. This meant the loss of Brorjace, Munk and Baal. This post did stir a lot of interest in me, previously being involved with omg! I felt this was a good step for the clan to achieve its goals of becoming one of the top UK LAN teams. This was also a move forward for the UK scene as it was once again creating more competition for the current giants Infinity-eSports, as well as improving the UK’s chances of competing in Europe. This proved to be a good move for omg! as soon after they took the UK WCG Online Qualifiers, meaning they would go to compete at the NEC for that chance to go to Korea.

WCG Korea

Now we come into the start of October with the UK WCG qualifiers fast approaching with clans such as Infinity-eSports, ONE, omg! and uninspired. Before this event even took place I, as I'm sure many of you did, knew that Infinity-eSports would walk away with another victory under their belt. The only real contender at the time was ONE, and they weren't quite at the level they needed to be yet to challenge the mighty Infinity-eSports.

Only days before the WCG I came onto UKT to find an interesting post saying that ONE had added a new member to their line-up, this was none other than KhAoS, possibly one of the best CS players in the UK. Whether this was just for the WCG was unknown but in my eyes undoubtedly a serious boost for ONE and I fancied their chances to challenge Infinity-eSports even more. I also felt this was a good move as KhAoS hadn't really been involved in the UK scene of late, playing for uG and before that being very inactive in the clan scene, and he is a player the UK should not have been without.

The day of the WCG qualifiers came and as I suspected Infinity-eSports had taken top place thus securing their place at the WCG in Korea. As I had hoped ONE had found form and made a very good assault on the champs and had taken them to a nail bighting 13-11 victory over ONE. Maybe the inclusion of KhAoS had aided them, or had Infinity-eSports been off form? These things were very hard to determine being so far away from the UK and only having UKT as my source of gossip. None the less Infinity-eSports had won the right to go and represent the UK in Korea. I'm glad Infinity-eSports had won the qualifiers as I felt only they could represent us in a true manner.

ONE were also in good fortune as they started their campaign in the Clanbase Open Cup division 1. They were doing well for themselves and carrying the support of the UK on their shoulders. Many had them down for favourites to take the cup; I had no idea not being able to actually see their form. Yet I quote from UKT "they did this superbly, winning 31-17. This win puts them top of group B, and with the recent addition of KhAoS, ONE must surely be one of the favourites to take the cup." They are now in the final of the OpenCup to face either Highland or Team Magic. At the time I probably didn’t see them getting this far, but I truly hope they can do this as they are doing the UK scene proud.

The next intresting piece of news UKT had instore for me was that of Vip joining omg! Vip is another of the UK's big talents and it was good to see him rejoining the clan scene, things were really looking up all round as so many of the UK’s best players were now coming together as shown here. Things were really looking up for omg! and this could only help them to go on to better things. I did wonder the fate of the other omg! players as they were now starting to have a rather full line-up so to speak.

Eurocup

It had to happen, UKT brought me some sad news in the form of Infinity-eSports leaving the eurocup. I had seen this coming after speaking to Wr!ght a couple of times on MSN out of a net café in Mbale north east Uganda (wanted to make it sound spectacular, wasn't really). I had hoped this wouldn't happen as Infinity-eSports have always struggled for form in the eurocup and after their performance at the CPL I believed they could go far in this compation. It was not to be. This was a step back for the UK as it showed we were still unable to take the fight to euro clans online, not just on LAN. However ONE took over the job of owning the euro's and have done a fine job I must say!

"Muzzle and Gideon leave dNC" "OMG! Gideon and Muzzle join omg.cs" Well, I never saw this one coming. I did feel that it was a strange move for these two to be leaving dNC so soon after they had joined. This was blatently yet another smart move from omg!, as Gideon and Muzzle are both class players. omg! were going from strength to strength, but I really did wonder about the amount of players that were in their lineup. I also assumed both of these players being Irish would be purely for online purpuses and in that case would omg! would gain no end.

Team-UK

While this was going on it had come to that time of year again, choosing the Team-UK captains. I wasn't sure who I wanted to be captain this time, from the posible candidates I wouldn't have really felt comfortable with any of them. "Congratulations j0nb0y, who has been named the team captain for the UK CS team" I read and a smile came over my face. I was very pleased to know that Neffgen would be in charge of the UK's CS team simply due to his experience and reputation. At this point I believed the UK could do some big things after doing so well in the previous season. However, then came the selection and I can't say I entirely agreed with him. The no ISDN rule was a controversual onw, but I think it is the right choice because online it all comes down to latency and the rates you can use. As for the squad everything seemed OK to me until I got down to "tR^Demo" and I clearly remember muttering "wtf" to my computer screen. I have nothing against the guy but in my eyes he was not of Team-UK quality. Like many other people I simply put my faith in Jonny because I knew he would never make a mistake - he is TheGenius after all.

I had all but forgotten about the WCG until Myers started posting his usual waffle about it on UKT. I can't say I read his 10,000-word diary but I am sure it was fascinating. Going back to the games Infinity-eSports appeared to be doing us proud over in Korea except for one upset I believe. They finally reached 5th place, which was a good effort, but I felt they could have done better for themselves, but now it becomes apparent that not everything was itself in the Infinity-eSports camp. Beyond that I couldn't really find any other information having not be able to speak to anyone or see demos etc., but the placing of Infinity-eSports alone showed that once again the UK could do well on the world stage. During this competition our very own Marc Mangiacapra and Greg Edwards picked up gold medals playing for Europe in the continent vs. continent event. This is yet another reminder that the like of Mangiacapra and Edwards are amongst the best players Europe has to offer.

Some of you may not consider this progress for the UK scene but I do. The first Nations Cup for women and the picking of the CS Female UK team lead my MS^DK. Long have girl gamers been in some way or another part of the UK scene, and I am sure they were very pleased to be given a chance to represent the UK as a girls only squad. Looking through the line-up one face does stand out to me: "Spacette". I know Spacette from Scottish LANs but some of you might know her better as omg! Craig’s girlfriend. I can definitely say she is a good player, better than Craig for that matter and I am pleased to see girls like her being given a chance to play for the UK and to show that this is not just another male-only sport.

DArtagnan

After all the progress the UK was experiencing during this time came a sad moment in UK CS. I remember coming on to UKT after checking my emails only for my jaw to hit the flaw as I read "DArtagnan removed from Infinity-eSports". This was something I almost couldn't believe as I read. I was so shocked. Reading the little interview Ripper conducted with him I saw references to him being removed due to personality clashes and unrest in the Infinity-eSports camp. I found this rather hard to believe as I had met Greg a year or so ago at i10 and I can only say he seemed like a nice guy who wanted to do well in CS. I don't know about other people but I rated Greg one of, if not the best CS player the UK has to offer, up there with the likes of bob and Mangiacapra. All I could see coming out of this was Infinity-eSports suffering from the decision. It was also apparent the UK in general would suffer having a player of his talent not being involved in the UK's number one team and therefore reducing the chances of Infinity-eSports proving that the UK was a strong nation in the global CS scene. I was actually in Zanzibar living it up on the beach when I saw this news, and I can admit I had thought about who would be next player to leave Infinity-eSports while being bored out of my brain while it pissed it down. I remember sending an MSN message to Wright saying something along the lines of “wtf? FJEBHLBGFLgfb” He then proceeded to tell me some of the reasons of the removal of Greg but I still failed to see how this wouldn't badly affect the CS scene.

Staying on the topic of Greg, the next major piece of news to hit the scene was word of him joining up with current number two clan in the UK, clan ONE. I had anticipated him doing this as well as thoughts of him probably starting his own clan up. I think this was probably his best option at the time. As for ONE they could not have done better for themselves in increasing their chances of taking Infinity-eSports' top spot. I was now starting to doubt that Infinity-eSports could keep their position with clan ONE possessing such a talented line-up, the likes of DArtagnan, KhAoS, Keiju and of course the Righteous ONE. ONE in my eyes were now favourites for the soon-to-be Intel Masters tournament as well as a sure chance of taking the Open Cup. Even though this was a move forward for the UK scene, it was simply a recovery of the previous step back made when Greg left Infinity-eSports. Unfortunately I didn't see this overwriting the loss following Greg's departure from Infinity-eSports.

Red November

During this time Jolt had been running their Red November competition which I had been keeping my eye on. I was very glad to see CS-Marines leaving the event as the winners. I have met a few Marines at LANs, mainly Skinner and bob, and I can say they are all great lads, just as nice as they are good at CS, which is saying a lot. I was also glad to see Marine becoming more active and showing the UK that they are still one of our best clans, being led by bob this is hardly surprising. I'm sure most of the UK scene was also pleased by this, as bob has always been known as the UK's number 1 player, proving his worth for Team-UK many times, because he is yet another world class player that the UK could not have inactive. I am also glad to see him playing once more for Team-UK. Let's not forget the other Marine players such as Mr AWP Whore Skinner, KD, bdm and Dazz who all make a very strong line-up. We must also look at Jolt here, they had organised a very good tournament with large sponsors involved such as AMD and Gainward, but how can this be taken as a step towards "Pro-Gaming" when only unsponsored clans could take part?

Changes in I-eS

Maybe another piece of unsurprising news was Infinity-eSports' announcement that they would not be attending the CPL qualifiers due to the upcoming Intel Masters tournament. At the time I thought that they should have been attending the CPL as there would be no other team representing the UK and they would not be attending for their 3rd time to hopefully yet again improve on their previous performance. In hindsight it seems they made the right choice because of the money at stake and the fact that the odds of them winning Intel were greater than those of them winning the CPL.

On the same day as seeing this post Infinity-eSports announced their replacement for Greg. I had given this some thought, with names like m0rph, Keiju, Righteous and AnNuM running through my head; but I admit I had no clue as to whom it would be. "Xenon for Infinity-eSports", I didn't see this coming either, I was very shocked and not too impressed either. I would have much rather seen a UK player fill this spot instead of a Swedish player, after all the UK does have players with more talent than Xenon. It was also stated by Xenon himself that this was only for the Intel Masters; so basically in my eyes Infinity-eSports were mercing for this event. Many of you like myself may have taken this as insult to the UK scene, that the number 1 clan had to use a foreign instead of UK player to reach their goals. Maybe this was a choice they felt they had to make to win the tournament.

I missed most of the news of the CPL qualifiers as I was travelling home but I understand that ui played very well vs. the Euro clans in the absence of Infinity-eSports. From my point of view it didn't look like a success for the UK scene with the likes of team9, GG, and aT attending the event and taking the top 3 spots. It felt like we had been defeated in our own back yard, and with only ui on form and being able to tackle the euro clans, it wasn't to be, overall a disappointment for the UK scene.

On the 2/12/2002 a set foot back in Heathrow after the adventure of a lifetime.

Once I had returned to the UK scene after some solid practice, I could say that in the three months of my absence a lot had changed for the UK scene. In terms of sponsorship and organisation the UK had come on well, with organisations such as eSports-Pro leading the way. Also many of the game's best players had become more active in the scene and uniting in such clans as omg! and ONE. The current champs Infinity-eSports are making good progress in their goals to become a true "Pro-Gamer" clan, through sponsorship and their performances at the WCG and the more recent Intel Masters. However I think the UK has taken several big steps backwards. Most importantly of all the recent announcement of Greg Edwards quitting "pro gaming". I think this is a huge loss for the UK scene. I truly hope he will return to it, someday. During Intel masters many people showed they don’t even want "Pro-Gaming" by stealing from the event. This is no way to go about progressing the UK scene, and it just shows you are not ready for it, almost ungrateful for the attempt Intel is making to make this a reality for clans. In the past three months there have been a lot of changes, but if I hadn't kept checking up on the scene, I would have only had a few shocks, there has still been no leaps in progress. But we are on the right lines.

If anyone would like a report on my travels in Uganda, please, send 50 quid my way.