UKTerrorist

UK CPL Qualifier - Q&A with the Clans

As part of UKTerrorist's coverage of the 2002 UK CPL Qualifiers, the participating clans have been asked a series of questions before and after the event.

Part 1 - One day before the UK CPL Qualifiers

I put foward these questions to each clan:

1. Can you give us a brief run-down on the history of your clan?
   
2. What are your experience with LAN events? How well did you do in them?
   
3. What are you expectations for the CPL Qualifier?
   
4. Who in your opinion are the favourite teams and how might they perform?

And this is how they answered...

Clan One

1. Represented by: [ONE]-RoBerts (Barely-Legal)
2. ONE started in around May 2000 with local boys Obi and Righteous deciding to make a fun clan. They managed to recruit some more local 'talent' and some others such as nerf, roadeh, shady and cloak. We recently became more serious and had to part ways with some of our squad. In the run up to our CPL campaign we lost nerf and Kid arguably two of our best members so we had to recruit ex-ONE member Strikes back into the squad for the CPL. (I was also kicked for inactivity during the beta 7 period, how they came to regret that and eventually they begged me back in)
3. This is our first major LAN event. The CPL pre-qualifiers were the first time that we have all met together and played on LAN. So we are pretty inexperienced in that aspect. But we have played together online for a long time now. We had a very close and tense match with mag8 in the pre- qualifiers. We managed to come together well as a team in the end which is something that we find a lot easier to do on LAN. It could have also been my simulation of sex with several of the ONE members that helped.
4. Looking at how hard some of the bigger clans have been training our expectations are not that high. It's our first time out as a team at a LAN event and it will be a learning experience for us. Hopefully we can provide an upset against a big name clan and at least show our potential for the future. Losing 2 key players and Negotiator being on holiday hasn't helped much as well. My prediction for the CPL qualifier - PAIN.
5. Well the big 3 clans dnc, i-es and noc have all been training hard together. We played noc in a pcw and even with a very new team they are looking very threatening. But the final has got to be i-es vs dnc and it will be a classic. You can't count out any clan though. We saw what happened at primary strike and on the day it could be anyone! Even ONE!! Good luck to all clans going, there is a 'special' meet up in the men's toilets at 10pm.

Clan erm

1. Represented by: WaZ
2. The clan was originally formed as a mess around last summer for the WCG but did quite well in it. The clan was properly formed in February/March 2002 with a mixture of players from many top clans such as VETS and Mendax?.
3. We have all been to various LANs before, in our previous clans and as erm. Three of us attended the Primary Strike 2002 Qualifiers but didn't do too well. We've been to various i-series LANs and came 3rd at i9, and got knocked out in the quarter finals at i10. We've all attended various Roweb LANs and 2 of us were part of the winning team at the Roweb Tech LAN last summer. We came 2nd at the most recent event, the Combat 250.
4. We are going to give it our best at the UK CPL finals and have lots of fun. To be honest I don't think we're going to win as there is such hard competition. Then again it is all experience. If we win, it will be a bonus. :)
5. I reckon I-es will be favourites since they have plenty of experience, and they've also been training on LAN this past week so they should give every1 a run for their money. dNC proved to be an excellent team at PS2002 so I'd say dNC would also be top contenders. I just hope everyone has a great time and learns a lot.

Infinity-eSports

1. Represented by: Wright
2. The clan started in the early betas of CS under the name B!TCH. B!TCH were very successful and were asked to become the cs division of the UK's best quake3 team at the time, 4K. So we did and had a lot of fun. Then as the q3 team became inactive we split off from them and renamed to Infinity-eSports and here we are today. :)
3. Humpf, I have a list of all the lans and stuff but do you really want it all? They are great fun, we've won a lot of big UK ones and lost a couple.
4. I will be disappointed if we don't take the win. We've had a great week on lan courtesy of the people at Virtual Realm Slough . We have practiced hard and are well prepared.
5. dNc are the top seeds and they are certainly the hardest game there. I'm confident we can beat them but as we have seen before, anything can happen. ;)

Lancity^Inept

1. Represented by: [inept]Huxall
2. Clan iNepT formed about a month ago. We play our games from a Lan gaming centre in Leeds called Lancity. We have also entered Barrysworld, Jolt and VGA leagues
3. The CPL finals will be our first major LAN event other than any other lancity one
4. Our expectations for the cpl qualifiers are to get stuffed by everyone, as we don't come close to all the others. We are just looking forward to the day and think it will be good for our experience.
5. The favourites for us are either Dnc or infinity-esports. They will both perform well and Lancity has had infinity players here, they're well good.

Twisted Reality

1. Represented by: tR^Jay
2. Well we started as DNA about 1 and a half years ago, then basically we decided that all the serious members should split of and create Twisted Reality, this was around Oct 2000, we have basically had the same team since we started - recruited 1 or 2 members (since 2 left) and since have grown to be very good mates.
3. Well we as a clan have been going to lan events since we started, but the London qualifiers was our first Tournment lan event.
4. Our expectations for CPL, hummm to make some new friends and to maybe live up to our seed. :]
5. In my opinion everyone has a chance there are some very strong teams there, it is going to be a very interesting tournament. :]

Clan SCEE

1. Represented by: DK
2. Clan SCEE was born from the offices of SCEE QA (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) about 3 years ago. Starting with half a dozen lads playing the new HL mod CS in their lunch times. Eventually got so addicted that we used to play it in our breaks as well. I mean how bad can you get when you're waiting for a 15 minute break to be able to run around like mad men with guns and grenades. :/ Soon the numbers grew and it became departmental wars. That's kind of when I had the clan idea. I asked some of the more hardcore CS'ers; Omni (with long time online experience), FELLA, Strike, Doomlord, Slaine (another vet onliner) to see who was up for taking it from LAN to NET. We joined CB INT (we was 'noobs' remember) and started to play wars. We played French 'rush' and got hammered so badly in about 3 minutes on de_nuke my head was spinning from all the rapid mouse movement as they swarmed over us as CT from every side. We left and joined CB UK :P and reached the dizzy heights of 7th I think. That was when CB UK had something happening every week, the likes of CSA, B!TCH, SLDR, KMA, BME were all about with the first 3 having regular BIG games. We started reading CB like it was the Saturday football paper, seeing what heavyweight fights had gone on. CS was great back then as was the blissful ignorance of being 'noobs'. We gradually expanded members from outside the office as we realised it couldn't get stronger without these NET players. Many members have come and gone but still we stick around, all because the core of the team all work together.
   
   
3. Three LAN events; CPL twice and PS2002. We've managed to reach the finals all the time (proving the UK LAN scene is poor really :P). Then we traditionally get butt raped in the finals, showing the gap the top clans have.
4. To get butt raped! Although if I have the table worked out correct we play ^Inept first. This game I hope to win, but without any practise and pretty crap team play to be honest it will be tough. Then we play dNC (butt rape), then we get a bye in the losers bracket and that gives us the honour of playing dNC again (butt rape). After that we'll hang around
   chat s***, drink some, watch the games and head home. I'd say that'll be the SCEE contribution to the finals give or take 1 game (if we lose to ^Inept).
   
   
5. I won't predict because that'll make me ignorant (aye Greg). I pay less attention in the UK CS scene now, I'm wiser to how things are. It's a low respect, non loyal community with to many ego's and not enough community. dNC and I-es are my favourites, but I'd like to see a team with honest, hard working, humble lads do well. I'll be routing for erm because my mate Rob Quick (bombay roll) is in them and I've known monst online a while, they're good lads. I'd also like to wish Wrighty (Grim) luck as I've played with him in both [SCEE] and Last Rites and he's an honest lad. Really though good luck to everyone and I hope it runs smooth.

Does Not Compute

1. Represented by: PHB
2. Welcome to Does Not Compute. Formerly =DnC=, it was founded in the third week of January, 2001 by Malevolence and Telgere. In June 2001 it became .dNC with Verifyor taking over the helm. We are proudly sponsored by Does Not Compute Internet Cafés, gamire.com, Intel and Redbull.
3. We attended a Qualifier for CPL London in Ireland, with two teams attending, coming a joint first and second place. We went to CPL London as two teams, one .dNC. and one KS, KS had telgere from .SoE. at the time. As I'm sure you know KS beat noc and were knocked out by armateam, .dNC. preformed very well but after a little mishap with GG and the server crashing and rules being changed etc, were knocked out at the group stages. We were happy to attend and learned a lot from CPL London.

   PS2002 was our next big lan and after a very long journey there, consisting of a boat, then a bus, then a train, then another train, then a taxi, we finally arrived in Maidenhead and as I'm sure you also know beat Noc, then ui in the finals to become the champions. PS2002 was a great experience for us since we had proved our doubters how good we are. :)

4. Well obviously we are hoping to win this and attend Dallas, but we will be happy to come out of this tournament a better team from when we went into it. It's Alex's last games with .dNC. so I'm sure he'd like to go out with a bang, so watch out for him. :)
5. We have great respect for IeS and Noc, and have seen how much better they are now than they were at the PS2002. We've trained hard, kinda :), for this so are happy with our chances. And a lot of people say because the "noc" team is newly formed with players a week ago, they wont be able to perform, I'm sure lots of people will be mistaken.

   We'd just again like to thank the sponsors for getting us here.

Nocturne

1. Represented by: Rhyzz
2. The clan was made up of both oZ and SLDR players, including the legendary Blazing_Steel, also known as Mike. Later on nemo and Messiah joined, nemo then quit, and Savace went inactive, so I then joined, and it went from there.
3. I've only been in noc for about 6 months now, but the clan has been to both CPL qualifiers in the UK, and the WCG qualifier, which they won, and went to korea for a week. We also came third at ps2002, losing to dNC, the mighty Irish!
4. With my current team, I don't expect much. We are out to have a laugh, and maybe come home with some goodies. Everyone thinks we are expecting to slay everyone, but we don't. We know we're no match for i-es but im not sure how hard dNC have been practicing. We are prepared for the CPL, with a great team, and this week in Bath has given us a massive boost in team play, so who knows what will happen on the day.
5. I know for a fact that i-es are definitely the most popular team in the UK. Noc have a good reputation, but The Genius was an awesome leader, and he has made i-es what it is today. My favourites would be I-eS to win the CPL, as dNC didn't prove much at ps2002, which was they're real debut on LAN.

Eikosia

1. Represented by: shads
2. We formed as a little "fun" summer clan from people who had all recently left good clans and were just wondering what to do next, and when the cpl qualifiers came about we decided to enter for a laugh and just see how we'd do.
3. The only LAN event we've been to so far is the first stage of the qualifiers last week, but in that weekend we practiced a lot with i-es to sort out our tactics and get us ready for the finals, we didn't do quite as great as we could've in the actual event but most clans wouldn't with 3 hours sleep. ;)
4. We're really aiming at second place but as everyone would say, first place would be nice, and we at least want to come in the top 4 somewhere.
5. I think i-es are the favourites for winning the event by far after practicing with them a lot last weekend and with them taking the event seriously by being at cyberweb all week, I think they'll be properly prepared for it. Other than i-es I think nearly all the clans in the event could be considered dark horses, and the event could be a shocker.

Part 2 - After the UK CPL Qualifiers

With the help of St_George after the event, the next set of questions were then posed to each clan:

1. Final Position?
   
2. Do you feel you deserved the position you got?
   
3. Who in your opinion deserved to win?
   
4. How was your experience of the CPL Qualifier?
   
5. Where there any unexpected surprises?
   
6. Anything you'd like to say to the public?

Read on...

Clan One

1. Represented by: Obi and the crew
2. I was very pleased, considering we were expected to finish something like 6th in deean's prediction.
3. Yes, we managed to beat NOC on two separate occasions and therefore achieved the position we deserved.
4. I'd have to say IES, who are in my view slightly better than DNC.
5. Being our first LAN as a team we found it to be enjoyable and will look forward to attending future LANs.
6. Us beating noc on two separate occasions was surprising, but well deserved.
7. We'd like to thank everyone who helped make the CPL qualifications possible, it was thoroughly enjoyable. We'd like to our new sponsor, xtreme it and we'd welcome anyone who want to come and play us down their at Canterbury. ALL AS ONE!

Nocturne

1. Represented by: messiah
2. Well its a bit disappointing but considering the team we had (not players but amount of playing time we had together) it's fine, so it'll do I guess. :)
3. Well I think a lower position woulda been more deserved considering how poorly we played, but to get 4th after managing to scramble a team together is ok at the end of the day. :)
4. i-eS definitely deserved to win. They've put so much time into practice and it paid off. dNC were very unlucky and its a real shame they couldn’t of gone to Dallas as well but i-eS played a class game both times versus them.
5. Best LAN to date. Sujoy and co' have done a brilliant job. The venue they chose is the best LAN cafe I’ve seen in the UK and was perfect for a qualifier. I’d like to thank the people who put in time to make it what it was.
6. I think many people see ONE's placement as a surprise but that'd be taking credit away from them. They played superb versus us and deserved the 3rd they got.
7. Rhyzz is the best.

Eikosia

1. Represented by: Deean
2. We didn't do ourselves justice; we had 5 very competent players and had done a bit of preparation the week before the original qualifiers in slough. However one of our members didn't turn up on the day and we had to merc, which obviously didn't put us in a great frame of mind. We also shouted at each other a lot and only played really well when we played noc on nuke as t's and really went to town :)
3. No I think we could of come higher possibly third.
4. i-es
5. It was good fun, long way for me to come from Durham but it was good none the less
6. Unexpected to see clan one perform so well, nice guys I liked barely-legal :D. Us not beating nocturne was quite surprising also.
7. And to the public, well there may be a video of me as we came out of the last game with a retirement speech. I dunno if I am going to fully retire yet, so take that with a pinch of salt if you do see it. Otherwise eikosia was a clan made for the cpl as far as I’m aware tom has already deleted half life from his hard drive so I don't know if we will go any further, again wait and see.

Twisted Reality

1. Represented by: tR^Jay
2. I think our final position was like 5th ?
3. I don’t think we deserved the position we got, we played the poorest I have ever seen us play. :[
4. I:es played amazingly and deserved to win but erm came close .:]
5. Gained loads of needed experience at CPL, that will help us in up and coming LAN tournaments.
6. Any unexpected surprises uhmmm, nearly with erm:cs coming close to i:es :], but a big surprise was the way we played. :/
7. Thanks for all the support we got from the peeps idling in #tR over the cpl, we will be back stronger. :]

Infinity-eSports

1. Represented by: Chris0
2. Won it.
3. Without a doubt, they trained hard for it for a week at Virtual Realm Slough who are great people!! And it definetly paid off.
4. With all the training and skill level of the members in Infinity before the tourney, I think we deserved the win, but had to work very hard for it.
5. I didnt go due to work. :/ All of Infinity said if ran very smoothly and big thanks to Sujoy, shame lil was nearly kicked out while waiting for his lift home.
6. Think ONE's double win over nocturne was a big surprise, but they proved it wasnt a fluke by beating them twice.
7. Thanks for the support and head off down to Virtual Realm Slough for a great gaming centre, also thanks to *cough* Infinity-eServers *cough* which paid for Darths flight over. :)

Lancity^Inept

1. Represented by: [inept]c0ld
2. We came 8th. :(
3. And no I don't think we deserved it. LOL, we got a bye from [SCEE] not turning up. Although i pwn3d the only [SCEE] guy to arrive in the practice room.
4. I wanted dNC to win. They were a friendly bunch of guys and had good skills. i-eS were also good (obviously) but arrogant as well.
5. Sujoy Roy was a great organiser very helpful and the IT Centre was very good for gaming. The PC's gave a steady 100fps but for some reason pings crept up to 40.
6. [SCEE] not turning up was a pleasant surprise. And also Clan ONE beating Nocturne was a bit surprising. The moment when 'Barely legal' took out the last nocturne player was good.
7. Don't go to the CPL unless you are uber 1337... And liquid - sell that gamecube!

Does Not Compute

1. Represented by: Vertakill
2. 2nd.
3. Of course. :)
4. Us or i-eS.
5. Great laugh with all of dNC as usual and had a laugh with a few other clans... Well-run and exciting. :)
6. ClanONE were a big suprise in beating noc.
7. Not really. :P

Clan erm

1. Represented by: Monst
2. Not sure, low down somewhere but it was out first major lan together and we've still got a lot to learn.
3. We felt a bit hard done by with the seed we were given (7th) and ended up facing I-eS in our first game, and then noc in the lower bracket. Given a different seed we could have ended in a better position, but I'm sure most clans would be able to say something similar.
4. Either Infinity-eSports or dNC, from what I saw and heard they both put in a lot of time and effort to be in with a winning chance.
5. Overall it was highly enjoyable, even though we had an early departure, most of us stayed till the final. Only thing I would change was the lack of HLTV for anyone not attending the event.
6. For us the initial seedings were unexpected, and also clan ONE surprised a few of us with how well they did.
7. We'd like to thank The VGA and The IT Centre for running and hosting the event, and we hope to see more people at the next CPL qualifier.

Clan SCEE