We've moved back to playing for ourselves but, with a slightly different lineup than before.
We have also opted for a new name to mark a new era of orgasmic tf2 stardom..
We are now.. Team Panache!
The lineup is:
ANGORABEDSOCK
light
majc
DOH!
Drew Peacock
OTG
gl hf - we're playing in the etf2l 2nd cup, hopefully the new ED cup aswell..
Sunday 2 March 2008
Monday 21 January 2008
TF2 - The saviour of eSport?
Hi, my name's Mike. I play highskill tf2. I think TF2 is a great game to play, and beyond that I think it is the most important competitive team based FPS in the scene at the moment - now the super-duper, most cleverest readers amongst you might have already worked out that it is within my own interest to state this. That's because it is. Sorry?
What I will do now is try and explain why I believe this, with a mystical concept known only as 'logic' *OOOOOH AHHHHHHH*.
Many critics of tf2 from other team games such as CS Source and Call of Duty 4 (most of whom haven’t actually played, or seen the game played at a high level) criticise the game for being "cartooney" and "unrealistic". While these critics may see these observations as criticism, I don't. For a start, the 'cartooney' nature of the graphics didn't happen by accident; Valve actually chose (click here for evidence) to use the cartoon style to replace their original, more "realistic" prototype of the game that was produced during early development. So now we know that the 'cartoonyness' isn't an impossibly stonking over-sight by the developers, we have to work out why Valve chose to go down this route..
Here's my guess:
Because the concept of the game is not restricted by the limits of realism, it has allowed Valve to produce a clarity within the game that is impossible to achieve without that freedom. There are 2 teams in a game clearly separated by their red and blue clothes. The player classes are all over-exaggerated caricatures’; from the skinny ferret-like 'scout' to the gigantic beefy 'heavy weapons guy'. The textures and the maps are clean and simple, and the lighting is complete. All of these features help in creating a platform for competition that is beautifully un-complicated.
This has 2 major benefits - firstly, for the player, less complication and more straight-forwardness in the game allows greater concentration on simply out-skilling your opponents rather than standing or hiding in the right place; that is not to say that positioning is irrelevant in the game, just that its effectiveness is diminished and more boring tactics normally referred to as 'camping' have less impact.
Secondly, from a spectator's point of view - because the player models, maps, textures, and animations are all exaggerated; the overall effect produced is very rewarding even with little or no knowledge of the game at all. There is significantly less confusion over who is attacking who, who is killing who, what the objectives are, and how a battle is progressing. The clarity of the game is evidenced by the reactions of my own friends who, when watching clan matches over my shoulder for the first time, instantly understood what each different class's roll was, which players were enemies and which were friendly, and what the teams objectives were. In 8 years of playing cs I had never experienced such immediate interest and understanding from non-gaming friends; they just couldn't follow the game as easily and so it wasn't interesting to them.
Further evidence that TF2 is a great spectator sport has come from Multiplay's I-series LAN event (i33) that featured a tf2 tournament amongst games like cs, cs:s, cod4, ETQW - the final of the tf2 tournament attracted more spectators than any other game played at the LAN.
(http://i32.multiplay.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=170&Itemid=303)
TF2's strength as a spectator eSport, is an important facet that is the key to why I personally feel that it is such an important game for the competitive eSport industry. With the rise of events like the CGS, and channels like xleague.tv; the requirement for visually pleasing, and instantly immersive games is the key to these organisations' success. As a long-standing cs addict I was instantly drawn to the CGS; which I watched from start to finish on Sky 2 over the christmas period. The format of the tournament worked very well with various 'franchises' (read teams!) from various cities across the world competing against each other over several different game types. I was, however, quite disappointed with how cs:source came across on the television. Since moving away from cs 5 months ago I have become more critical of the attack/defend style of game play that cs provides, but ignoring that for now - I didn't really feel connected to the action that was on screen; and I even play the game myself! The problem was that the game was far too intricate to cover in the live TV environment, and much of what makes cs such a great game was missed from the coverage of the matches.
TF2 doesn't suffer from such intricacies, which is one reason that it would be better suited to television broadcast. If you also consider how much more understandable and dramatic the game play is, it becomes even more clear as to why TF2 could open up competitive gaming to a whole new audience; something which must be high on the agenda of any organisation such as CGS, xleague, GIGA, etc.
I have mentioned intricacy a couple of times, which brings me to another criticism that TF2 has suffered; the game is considered by some as "too easy" to play. Even if this were true (which it isn't by the way!); it is kind of a ridiculous observation considering multiplayer games are about playing other players, rather than the game itself, but I will address this point anyway since I have heard this opinion from a few different people now. To do this I will draw an analogy with poker (just bear with me here).
There are many different types of poker that exist, and essentially the more cards that are dealt to each player, the more complicated that type of poker is to understand and play. However, by far the most popular and successful type of poker is called Texas hold-em which is a very simple form of poker where each player only has 2 of their own cards throughout the entire of one hand. Because of this, the game is very easy to get to grips with and start playing. The complication, and most importantly the appeal, of the game comes from how you interact with the other players at the table, rather than the cards themselves. It is said that Texas Hold-em takes minutes to learn but a lifetime to master - what this statement means is that the game itself is not complicated but playing to beat other opponents doing the same thing, is.
In conclusion..
The competitive gaming scene is evolving and, unfortunately this means change. I urge the industry to take more notice of the new dynamic that is offered by TF2 as it could easily be the change that is needed to take eSport to the next level. One way that you could help is by financially supporting upcoming tournaments; the sequel to the previously mentioned Multiplay TF2 tournament, the final of which had the most spectators out of all of the games, in the UK could do with some cash injection to encourage more European teams to attend for example!
Here's a link for any companies that may be interested in sponsoring the event:
http://i33.multiplay.co.uk/tournaments/tf2/
Furthermore, I recommend the game to any teams that are becoming frustrated and/or bored with the game they are playing at the moment to try playing TF2 instead, it costs roughly £15 from steam which is nothing for such a great game :)
See you around.
Mike
What I will do now is try and explain why I believe this, with a mystical concept known only as 'logic' *OOOOOH AHHHHHHH*.
Many critics of tf2 from other team games such as CS Source and Call of Duty 4 (most of whom haven’t actually played, or seen the game played at a high level) criticise the game for being "cartooney" and "unrealistic". While these critics may see these observations as criticism, I don't. For a start, the 'cartooney' nature of the graphics didn't happen by accident; Valve actually chose (click here for evidence) to use the cartoon style to replace their original, more "realistic" prototype of the game that was produced during early development. So now we know that the 'cartoonyness' isn't an impossibly stonking over-sight by the developers, we have to work out why Valve chose to go down this route..
Here's my guess:
Because the concept of the game is not restricted by the limits of realism, it has allowed Valve to produce a clarity within the game that is impossible to achieve without that freedom. There are 2 teams in a game clearly separated by their red and blue clothes. The player classes are all over-exaggerated caricatures’; from the skinny ferret-like 'scout' to the gigantic beefy 'heavy weapons guy'. The textures and the maps are clean and simple, and the lighting is complete. All of these features help in creating a platform for competition that is beautifully un-complicated.
This has 2 major benefits - firstly, for the player, less complication and more straight-forwardness in the game allows greater concentration on simply out-skilling your opponents rather than standing or hiding in the right place; that is not to say that positioning is irrelevant in the game, just that its effectiveness is diminished and more boring tactics normally referred to as 'camping' have less impact.
Secondly, from a spectator's point of view - because the player models, maps, textures, and animations are all exaggerated; the overall effect produced is very rewarding even with little or no knowledge of the game at all. There is significantly less confusion over who is attacking who, who is killing who, what the objectives are, and how a battle is progressing. The clarity of the game is evidenced by the reactions of my own friends who, when watching clan matches over my shoulder for the first time, instantly understood what each different class's roll was, which players were enemies and which were friendly, and what the teams objectives were. In 8 years of playing cs I had never experienced such immediate interest and understanding from non-gaming friends; they just couldn't follow the game as easily and so it wasn't interesting to them.
Further evidence that TF2 is a great spectator sport has come from Multiplay's I-series LAN event (i33) that featured a tf2 tournament amongst games like cs, cs:s, cod4, ETQW - the final of the tf2 tournament attracted more spectators than any other game played at the LAN.
(http://i32.multiplay.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=170&Itemid=303)
TF2's strength as a spectator eSport, is an important facet that is the key to why I personally feel that it is such an important game for the competitive eSport industry. With the rise of events like the CGS, and channels like xleague.tv; the requirement for visually pleasing, and instantly immersive games is the key to these organisations' success. As a long-standing cs addict I was instantly drawn to the CGS; which I watched from start to finish on Sky 2 over the christmas period. The format of the tournament worked very well with various 'franchises' (read teams!) from various cities across the world competing against each other over several different game types. I was, however, quite disappointed with how cs:source came across on the television. Since moving away from cs 5 months ago I have become more critical of the attack/defend style of game play that cs provides, but ignoring that for now - I didn't really feel connected to the action that was on screen; and I even play the game myself! The problem was that the game was far too intricate to cover in the live TV environment, and much of what makes cs such a great game was missed from the coverage of the matches.
TF2 doesn't suffer from such intricacies, which is one reason that it would be better suited to television broadcast. If you also consider how much more understandable and dramatic the game play is, it becomes even more clear as to why TF2 could open up competitive gaming to a whole new audience; something which must be high on the agenda of any organisation such as CGS, xleague, GIGA, etc.
I have mentioned intricacy a couple of times, which brings me to another criticism that TF2 has suffered; the game is considered by some as "too easy" to play. Even if this were true (which it isn't by the way!); it is kind of a ridiculous observation considering multiplayer games are about playing other players, rather than the game itself, but I will address this point anyway since I have heard this opinion from a few different people now. To do this I will draw an analogy with poker (just bear with me here).
There are many different types of poker that exist, and essentially the more cards that are dealt to each player, the more complicated that type of poker is to understand and play. However, by far the most popular and successful type of poker is called Texas hold-em which is a very simple form of poker where each player only has 2 of their own cards throughout the entire of one hand. Because of this, the game is very easy to get to grips with and start playing. The complication, and most importantly the appeal, of the game comes from how you interact with the other players at the table, rather than the cards themselves. It is said that Texas Hold-em takes minutes to learn but a lifetime to master - what this statement means is that the game itself is not complicated but playing to beat other opponents doing the same thing, is.
In conclusion..
The competitive gaming scene is evolving and, unfortunately this means change. I urge the industry to take more notice of the new dynamic that is offered by TF2 as it could easily be the change that is needed to take eSport to the next level. One way that you could help is by financially supporting upcoming tournaments; the sequel to the previously mentioned Multiplay TF2 tournament, the final of which had the most spectators out of all of the games, in the UK could do with some cash injection to encourage more European teams to attend for example!
Here's a link for any companies that may be interested in sponsoring the event:
http://i33.multiplay.co.uk/tournaments/tf2/
Furthermore, I recommend the game to any teams that are becoming frustrated and/or bored with the game they are playing at the moment to try playing TF2 instead, it costs roughly £15 from steam which is nothing for such a great game :)
See you around.
Mike
charge are moving home
Just a quick post to say that the squad that were 'charge' have now moved to play for Team-Coolermaster. We are very happy to be part of the organisation and we will be representing them at lans and in european leagues from now on.
Read Team-Coolermaster article here
Read Team-Coolermaster article here
Monday 17 December 2007
Recent etf2l victory
We made it through to the 2nd round of the etf2l cup, defeating Team Jobola 9 - 2 on well and granary.
Well started off great for us, taking control of the 3rd point.. AppZ got in round the back and managed to grab us the first round. About 10 minutes into the game our resident special boy majc decided to screw up his internet connection, his computer, and his microphone. We did pause the game but majc was just that bit too special and took way too long faffing around so we had to play on with 5.. We somehow managed to defend cp2, we then moved onto 3, and AppZ got yet another couple of cheeky caps on the final points. Still playing with 5 man we struggled to hold them back and eventually they over-ran us and scored a round themselves. Eventually special boy turned up again and we played with 6, we presured Jobola back to their final point but we ran out of time.
cp_well: charge 2 - Team jobola 1
Special boy majc somehow managed not to break his setup for this game and we really took control of this map, we didn't struggle much at cp3 in the middle and our momentum just carried through onto the final 2 points several times. The score was 7 - 0 with about 5 or 10 minutes to go so OTG decided it would be an ideal time to bring out the pryo skills; it's hard to understand why but it didn't work out for him this time and we lost the last round.. I think he just needs more pratice; either that or he should eat more babies and beans :)
cp_granary charge 7 - Team jobola 1
When the matches were drawn for this round alot of people in the IRC channel thought that we would have a tough time with jobola. I think many had assumed that we would lose this since jobola have some fairly big tfc names in their team.. but alas we more than took care of them and we're ready for the next round - PEW PEW PEW!
Well started off great for us, taking control of the 3rd point.. AppZ got in round the back and managed to grab us the first round. About 10 minutes into the game our resident special boy majc decided to screw up his internet connection, his computer, and his microphone. We did pause the game but majc was just that bit too special and took way too long faffing around so we had to play on with 5.. We somehow managed to defend cp2, we then moved onto 3, and AppZ got yet another couple of cheeky caps on the final points. Still playing with 5 man we struggled to hold them back and eventually they over-ran us and scored a round themselves. Eventually special boy turned up again and we played with 6, we presured Jobola back to their final point but we ran out of time.
cp_well: charge 2 - Team jobola 1
Special boy majc somehow managed not to break his setup for this game and we really took control of this map, we didn't struggle much at cp3 in the middle and our momentum just carried through onto the final 2 points several times. The score was 7 - 0 with about 5 or 10 minutes to go so OTG decided it would be an ideal time to bring out the pryo skills; it's hard to understand why but it didn't work out for him this time and we lost the last round.. I think he just needs more pratice; either that or he should eat more babies and beans :)
cp_granary charge 7 - Team jobola 1
When the matches were drawn for this round alot of people in the IRC channel thought that we would have a tough time with jobola. I think many had assumed that we would lose this since jobola have some fairly big tfc names in their team.. but alas we more than took care of them and we're ready for the next round - PEW PEW PEW!
Friday 14 December 2007
c / Roster
Current charge roster is:
Cecil 'majc' Dingleby
Terrance 'Wai' Jingletits
Kirk 'AppZ' Cobain
Steve 'sock' Fondlebaps
Berty 'OTG' Gumball
Hubert 'mookid' Dingleby
Good luck Cecil, Terrance, Kirk, Steve, Berty, and Hubert!
Cecil 'majc' Dingleby
Terrance 'Wai' Jingletits
Kirk 'AppZ' Cobain
Steve 'sock' Fondlebaps
Berty 'OTG' Gumball
Hubert 'mookid' Dingleby
Good luck Cecil, Terrance, Kirk, Steve, Berty, and Hubert!
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