e-Sport teams - who is in one?

tom_e · 18 Oct 2016 at 17:00

Used to play at a pretty decent level in a clan on CS:S around 10 years ago, pretty much stopped PC gaming when I came to uni though.

It was good fun wasting the hours just chatting crap on TS and pwning some n00bs

BuffetSlayer · 18 Oct 2016 at 17:02

Rroff said:
^^ A lot of games these days seem to make it increasingly harder to a competitive scene to emerge - with Quake 3 for instance you had mods like OSP and competitive focused maps made by players, tools + dedicated servers, etc. a lot of that seems to be increasingly ignored by developers these days

I think rightly or wrongly it boils down to control. Publishers want you to consume their product, and they want you to consume it as and when they dictate. Having a strong community and a game with longevity does not fit those plans, hence the prevalence of throw away games that are shelved after a year or two for the next iteration.

Gaming has gone from a back room hobby where developers were passionate gamers and wanted to make awesome games that worked out of the box and were designed to last to a multi billion dollar industry where development, marketing and publishing are controlled by shareholders and dividends (IE bottom line). It is a shame but I guess that is the cost of progress?

AHarvey · 18 Oct 2016 at 17:07

I was invited to join a lot of COD clans over the years, working shifts and having an unpredictable work pattern means I couldn't really do it.

used to train with quite a few then when I was free.

Suicidal Ferret · 18 Oct 2016 at 17:23

Used to play semi-competively on ST Elite Force. Barrysworld tournament usually. Never won much in cash, but got plenty of good prizes.

lokiss · 18 Oct 2016 at 17:45

Last thing that tempted me to join a team/league was the old nascar racing online.

Quake was the only time I was with the competitive online thing. Played other stuff online, the novelty of being in a team was never there.

Time permitting id probably do a racing game, oldschool sims still have a level headed crowd.

Mark A · 18 Oct 2016 at 22:04

I wonder why there are so few (if any) UK teams in competitive CS? I have to admit I know very little about e sports, but I looked at the world rankings and the UK is nowhere to be seen.

Robi · 19 Oct 2016 at 00:41

Mark A said:
I wonder why there are so few (if any) UK teams in competitive CS? I have to admit I know very little about e sports, but I looked at the world rankings and the UK is nowhere to be seen.

4Kings attended the majority of international tournaments in 1.5/1.6 and consistently played well, but didn't really win anything. At one point HLTV/GotFrag ranked 4K as top 5 in the world due to results.

Other teams like TAG, alltherage, omg!, clanONE, dNc and a few others were known outside of the UK, but either didn't attend anything or did and failed completely.

EDIT: http://www.gamelux.nl/news/122-GotFrag-Counter-Strike-Rankings/

Similar to others here I played 1.6 competitively in a lot of the leagues in the UK. I also played Total Annihilation for years on Phoenix Worx, Gamespy and another client which I can't remember the name of.

jasoncb · 19 Oct 2016 at 05:13

Mark A said:
I wonder why there are so few (if any) UK teams in competitive CS? I have to admit I know very little about e sports, but I looked at the world rankings and the UK is nowhere to be seen.

First off the UK is more of a console nation than a PC nation. Second the UK mentality is all about being the best in the team rather than working as a team even if it means you aren't top of the scoreboard. Third eSports is considered rather geeky in the UK even in 2016, where's in countries like Sweden they are seen as role models and have huge support.

There is one UK player whos in a pro NA team but its a poor turnout considering our population. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of skilled players who can play in top teams but getting them working as a team is the biggest problem.

Artery · 19 Oct 2016 at 12:18

Anyone from Socombattles/GameBattles?

Those were the days, just playing for epeen.

Rroff · 19 Oct 2016 at 12:27

Mark A said:
I wonder why there are so few (if any) UK teams in competitive CS? I have to admit I know very little about e sports, but I looked at the world rankings and the UK is nowhere to be seen.

There used to be a lot more activity from the UK but most of the bigger UK esport entities seem to have moved onto other games or disappeared - maybe just played out on CS. To put it into perspective more than 10 years ago now my brother and myself used to run a clan that was basically a feeder/bootcamp for groups like 4kings, dignitas, sk, etc. we'd train with new players, etc. and the better ones would then be recruited into those clans.

jasoncb said:
First off the UK is more of a console nation than a PC nation.

Used to be a massive competitive PC gaming scene in the UK - its only in the last 5-10 years really its transitioned into more console dominated and as I posted above for some reason seems to have died off a bit post the days of games like quake 3 and CS 1.6, etc. especially with games that aren't so amiable towards a competitive scene compared to other countries where it has survived longer.

R.O.S.S.I · 19 Oct 2016 at 12:34

Played 1.6 extensively in my teens. Played in ED leagues, SGL leagues and CSGN leagues at various levels. Attended a couple of i-series LANS with 1.6 teams. Played a WCG qualifier against 4K if memory serves at one of them too haha.

Just grown out of it I think. Used to have a great set of mates who we used to speak to daily from around the UK (and Europe). Still have some of them on my Facebook but rarely ever speak to them!

As soon as I got in from school i'd fire up the PC, whack my headset on, log in to IRC and join our Vent channel and start playing mixes. Mum used to shout at me every 10 mins for being too loud and swearing when I got killed! Staying up all night playing various games and just chatting on IRC. Good days they were, good days indeed.

Quite sad that I'm not into games as much as I used to be any more.

Clakkers · 19 Oct 2016 at 13:47

Just asked in another section for upgrade advice and then came upon this -

Not so sure about the esports side but still a few clans playing COD4 - also in small but been running years leagues - if you want to look -

http://http://www.ati-league.co.uk/page.php?81

http://flatlinersgamingleague.com/misc.php?action=rules

Still a few 'clans' playing for fun and pretty much in public servers throughout the week -

More slippers and coffee tho' than redbull tourneys - Mostly ageing gamers, Uk and Europe - using TS!

That my tuppence - slightly off Esports topic tho, sorry -

Rgds

Clakkers

agnes · 19 Oct 2016 at 14:06

I'd happily start up an Overwatch clan if anyones up for it?

And multiple other games?

antijoke · 19 Oct 2016 at 14:07

Kreeeee said:
My best man for my wedding this year was someone I met playing games online.

How is Alrik these days?

TwsT · 20 Oct 2016 at 11:21

Rroff said:
I've been out of the loop for awhile now so not sure how things are now but yeah back in the day a lot was done through IRC - most of the leagues had a main channel on enterthegame or quakenet, etc. and you'd pretty quickly pickup on the main clan channels from the tournies, etc. I was active in the quake 2, 3 and CS competitive scene through 1999 to 2005 or so and a little bit of COD.

Slightly amusingly I played awhile for one of the top NA Quake 3 CTF clans - we decided to try our hand at UT2K4 and got stomped by a not particularly highly ranked team on our first outing lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntU1EU2rlzw

Made some good friends through those connections but in the last few years drifted apart.

well yes i imagine quakenet was born of the need for gamers to hook up with opponents

JediFragger · 20 Oct 2016 at 11:41

Ace Modder said:
pics?

And Lee means the good stuff, he's a filthy bugger

tcfreer · 20 Oct 2016 at 12:06

Well I guess it deends on the game doesn't it?

World of Tanks has a huge Clan base within it (and the other WarGamming Games)

There is even its only E-Sports league, with loads of divisions across all the regions, ending up in the World Finals every year.

A clan in WoT can have up to 100 people, though some people have created multiple clans to bring more people in (There is 1 Community in WoT that has almost 1500 people over 3 of the server groups (SEA, EU and NA)

boxman2000 · 20 Oct 2016 at 12:44

Husband of a friend used to be in a CS:S clan and won some UK competitions - I believe he even had sponsorship. Couldn't say I remember his clan name though.

I used to be in the same LAN group as him back in the BF1942 and original Call of Duty days and we'd never play CS as he'd just nail us.

dannyrj91 · 21 Oct 2016 at 10:11

Recently come back to gaming around 5months ago and the first thing I done was tried to install Xfire only to find it no more, which was dissapointing as I would have liked to try get in touch with everyone I gamed with years ago.