Team Fortress 2 players — awaken. Sign ups for the TF2CSA 6v6 v2 are open until the 11th of June. Thereafter the tournament will start on Sunday, the 13th of June.

To register for the tournament players will need to head on over to TF2.co.za — click — . More details on the site.

There is a minimum of 12 teams required for the tournament. Once reached, players will be able to win the following prizes:

1st place
Razer Arctosa Silver Gaming Keyboard x 6 = R2400
Razer Goliathus Speed Edition x 6 = R600+ R2400 = R3000

2nd place
1 Months 384Kbps Uncapped Accounts x 6 R1200
Razer Goliathus Speed Edition x 6 = R600+R1200 = R1800

3rd place
1 Months 384Kbps Uncapped Accounts x 6 R1200

The two sponsors include LandMark Computers and Vanilla – Internet Services.

miNt Gaming has revamped their website. It’s probably the most intense looking on the local scene, however it might not work on your cellphone. Flash player doesn’t exactly come as a standard feature.

But who cares about cellphones? They suspect that most people will use a computer anyway. I mean, so do I.

The site has space for all their news, cup results, a forum, media – Mint gaming TV, anyone? – and the good old fashioned contact us.

Now, while I’d love to talk on and on about the site — they would prefer you to head on over and maybe sign up.

..Too bad they took our logo down, right?

We received an Email from Colin Webster, boss man of MSSA (coz we’re just so connected) revealing the following.

This year 2010 rAge and the World Cyber Games fall on the same weekend. That’s why MSSA (for those of you who don’t know :Mind Sports South Africa) together with SAMSUNG have come up with a new method to select how a competitor will to go through to the championship.

SAMSUNG along with MSSA will host qualifiers for the WCG at all the Provincial LAN Championships.

This means you, yes you the gamer will save some of that hard earned cash that would have been spent on flying, driving, kayaking to a certain location for the qualifiers. Since the Gauteng Provincial Championships have already been held the 1st and 2nd place from there have already qualified for the final play-offs which decide team selection for the WCG.

Trials will be held in:

-Bloemfontein

-Port Elizabeth

-Durban

-Cape Town

The dates are not know at the at the present time. We will let you know when we know.

As mentioned earlier this means South African Gamers will be able to compete for less than it would cost them in the past.

SAMSUNG have then also committed themselves to bringing the top two GUITAR HERO’s from Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Cape Town to participate in the final play-offs to be held in Sandton City on 7 August 2010.

This means that the top 2 from each event will go to the Final Play-offs to select a team for the WCG.

Another great thing is due to what every MSSA did last year, MSSA will have met the criteria to apply for Protea Colours. That means that the gamer that goes through to represent South Africa will get Protea Colours.

This is the first time anyone will get Protea Colours for Guitar Hero.

Hmmm could be interesting. I still can’t get my mind around the fact that Guitar Hero is played competitively. What are your thoughts? Will you be trying out? Will you save money?

Ventus Gaming. The newest and most successful Multi Gaming Organisation in South Africa. Yesterday we had the opportunity to catch up with Pieter ‘Cyrus’ Venter, the founder.

Ventus has a radical history, however as I told Pieter yesterday — we’re not going to dwell on the past. eGamer is all about the future — so this will be our focus. To be honest, we don’t feel that we need to talk about the history of Ventus Gaming. The future looks bright, and we want to know what they are up to. However, if you are interested in the history behind Ventus visit their Wikipedia page here.

The organisation sports 9 different divisions run by six different managers — or non-playing staff. Furthermore each division holds their own division manager which handles the team line-up. Pieter said that top-level management will only interfere with the teams if the division manager asks them to do so, or if the players complain about the division manager.

Ventus is the first ever legal entity for clan gaming. Their founders are bound by the Closed Corporations Act of 1984, and this essentially means that they have a duty to perform. Following their fiduciary duties as CC owners, Ventus will be able to enter into contracts on behalf of the team. This in turn limits their liability, but also shows potential sponsors that they are not only bound by the law, but that they have also invested time and effort into potential success.

Gaming organisations acting as a legal entity is something new in South Africa. Overseas teams have proven that you would need to create a legal body to succeed, and this seems to be the plan with Ventus.

We mentioned that Ventus holds nine different divisions. They include: Call of Duty 4, Counter Strike (both 1.6 and Source), DotA, Heroes of Newerth, Warcraft III, Quake Live, Fifa ’10 (PS3), Guitar Hero (Xbox 360) and an Overclocking team.

Past MGO’s in the country only ever held about three or four teams max. They never ever included console or hardware teams into their roster. Ventus seem to be trying something new, and we’re yet to see if it works to their advantage.

Staff members for Ventus include Pieter ‘Cyrus’ Venter (recruitment and sponsors), Jéan-Paul ‘Jeeva’ Avenant (Webmaster and competitions), Flipi ‘alcardu’ Portman (Editor), Husain ‘phANT1m’ Haffejee (journalist — you’ll notice he works with us too), Melanie ‘PiTi’ Bosman (marketing) and finally Goddy ‘Vivi’ Roodt (graphics).

We’ve quoted a large body of results from the divisions. We’d like to familiarize you with their success:

• V|COD approached us soon after we launched. They were in the 3rd Division of Telkom DoGaming Online League at that point, but got promoted to Division 2 in leg 2. Leg 2 finished yesterday and they were undefeated which means they will be promoted to Division 1 for leg 3. We aim to get to Premier league for leg 4 and then to get a top3 placing at rAge.
• V|CS joined us 1 week before we went live/public and have since then gone through a bit of a lineup change. The captain quit CS to focus on studies which got some players to lose motivation. We then reformed with a new lineup (only 2 of the original lineup still with us). The new lineup is currently underperforming but they are improving after each practice and they are planning on bootcamping in these upcoming holidays. They are currently in the DoGaming 1st Division and will most likely stay there for leg 3. They plan on getting to Premier League by leg 4 and to win rAge. There is a chance that CS 1.6 Dreamhack qualifiers will be held at rAge and in that case they will most likely rather enter that than the DoGaming CSS championships.
• V|DOTA had a few internal spats, but all has been resolved. They have taken 1st place in Twilight League Season 1, SynCidy March and SynCidy April. They plan to enter Twilight Season 2 and any other local online comps that are coming up. Thanks to our sponsors they are able to compete on Garena against European teams to increase their skill level to international standards.
• V|HON has yet to lose a match against a South African team. They won the DoGaming Leg 1 & Leg 2 as well as the S2 Games comp held at WITS University in March. They plan on continuing this streak. They have been competing internationally against various teams and will be entering the HoN World Cup in June. They are all based in Cape Town and will therefore be competing at OC on a monthly basis (when the lan version gets released). They will also be competing at rAge (if DoGaming hosts HoN there) and plan to win it.
• V|WC3 consists of 3 players who have been competing for years. They play on EU servers as the local scene is rather dead. (once again thanks to Web Africa for the unshaped accounts). They are competing in the MSSA online League and have won all their matches so far convincingly. They will be invited to National Team Trials and hope to be chosen for the national team which will be flown to Korea to compete in the International eSports Federation (IeSF) Championships
• V|QL consists for 3 players who have all competed in Quake 3 for years and now Quake Live. They recently won the 1st Ventus Quake Live Sprint Cup (16 May). more about that below. They also won the miNt Quake Live Cup in March as well as the MSSA Gauteng Provincial Championships.
• V|FIFA has won the Telkom/EA FIFA09 Roadshow in December after winning the Johannesburg Regional Qualifiers in October at rAge and then the national finals in Pretoria. Unfortunately there has been a lack of competitions lately, but he plans on entering the MSSA National Championships and to be chosen for the IeSF Championships in Korea.
• V|GH won everything held in 2009 from Provincials, to Nationals, to WCG Qualifiers (rAge). He got flown to China to represent SA but could unfortunately not exit the group stages (like many other SA teams). He plans on repeating 2009 by winning everything hosted locally and hopefully improve on his results at the WCG.
• V|OC has been overclocking for 2 years now and has won the GOOC SA Qualifiers and will be flown to Indonesia for the Regional Qualifiers in June.

Other News: The DotA team will participate in the Razer Challenge (1024 teams participating), while Ventus HoN came third in an international event  (Gamereplays.org warm-up tourney) — they lost to Fnatic.

* Extract from Ventus Gaming itself.

Ventus Gaming are involved in almost every aspect of competitive play. They host tournaments and they attend LANs for recognition and prizes.

As previously stated, I was able to share a few kind words with Pieter yesterday afternoon.

For those unfamiliar with Pieter, he has a long history. He previously ran a Multi Gaming Organisation in 2007 where he later joined forces with the MSSA. The previous MGO known as XploIT was involved with the MSSA as well as with Vodacom. They would have been the first team to receive sponsorship by Vodacom, however internal relations at Vodacom halted their gaming endeavours.

There is a shocking history behind Pieter’s attempt at success, and it’s amazing how he never gave up. No matter what the community said or did, he carried on. Pieter now runs one of the top teams in the country.

Thanks to Pieter, Ventus Gaming holds three major sponsors – WebAfrica for ADSL accounts, Samsung for electronics and Cooler Master for gaming accessories and chassis.

During the chat with Pieter he was slightly hesitant to reveal all his plans, but we managed to find out why he started an MGO opposed to an organisation which runs tournaments and big events with sponsors. Pieter hinted that, while he’d love to do major tournaments and events, the MGO idea would be the best start. Gaming in the country lacks competition, sponsors and enthusiasm. He plans to bring all of this back with Ventus Gaming. In the near future don’t be surprised to see Ventus involved in various gaming aspects.

While Pieter feels competition in the country is important, he assures me that they would rather be friends with rival teams opposed to serious competitors.

“While rivalry is good, it should stay in-game. When it comes to the management of MGO’s they need to work together to grow eSports in SA and not against each other,” he said.

Their competition between Bravado Gaming was described — to me — as, friendly.

When I asked about the legal entity idea he said that it allows for proper structure and a sense of security. Teams will be able to exist longer as there is more structure and risk behind the idea of a company built around gaming.

Ventus Gaming currently holds three leading sponsors. I asked Pieter if they would help other teams obtain sponsors and he replied by saying that the near future definitely holds opportunity for this. At the moment their organisation needs slightly more stability and thereafter they will try to help the community.

I asked Pieter where he gained inspiration for the MGO and he said that teams such as SK and Fnatic were good inspiration. Moreover, the MYM path was not the one he’d like to follow. Ultimately, his lucrative gaming goal would be similar to Vitrolic Gaming — an older international organisation.

With help from various international organisations, Pieter is looking at a bright gaming future. While I did comment on helping the community, it’s understandable that their first goal would be to better themselves.

Sponsorship Sponsorship!

I asked Pieter to describe what he would want Ventus to have by 1 January 2011, 1 January 2012 and 1 January 2015:

1 Jan 2011: Ventus has secured enough sponsors to send their teams to various events around the country with all expenses paid
1 Jan 2012: We start going international by sending teams over to international events
1 Jan 2015: We own a office similar to that of SK where our players can regularly bootcamp.

Ventus Gaming would like to hold divisions in most competitive games. Following this they would like their trophy cabinet to be used more than Manchester United, which isn’t far off as they have already trumped Arsenal FC.

But enough about cricket.

Girl teams? “A possibility”, he said. If things change with female competition Ventus would look into adding girls to the entity. That’s all Pieter could comment about girl-gamers. He said that not much thought has gone into this.

Finally – I had to ask. The name. Ventus Gaming being related to Venter. Pieter said, “well I just looked for a latin name that sounds good and has a meaning we can use in gaming,”

“It just happens to turnout to sound similar to my surname,” he added.

Ventus is latin for Wind – Their slogan is: The Invisible Force

eGamer’s Overview:

While gaming is changing, we definitely feel that Ventus are doing something right. Despite our slightly-negative attitude to gaming organisations in the country, something just feels right about this.

We preferred to look into the future of Ventus and not really the past. Their history is open to everyone on their Wiki page.

Sponsors, watch out. This team means business.

After being around the local gaming community for about 10 years, gaming feels fresh again. And while they might share ideas with other organisations, they are the only ones risking everything they have to make this work.

Of course, they cannot build the community alone — so why don’t we all try and help out?

To contact Ventus Gaming you can click here.

We’d like to open the comment section for questions. We’ve asked Ventus staff to, uh – troll – the comments with replies to any questions or suggestions you might have.

Unfortunately there are no team pictures of Ventus just yet as they are yet to play locally as a team.

We’re just dropping in to inform you that, in addition to our current eGameFame feature, we’re going to be investigating the various local South African clans. Coverage, exposure and all that jazz — you know, since we love our gaming community so much.

On the clan agenda we’re thinking reviews. We’ll look at clans and tell you about them. Perhaps we might even look at what they have been up to.

We’re telling you this not just to let you know, but also because we need you to help us. You’ll need to spread the word and tell us about your clan!

Drop us an email, and we will definitely get around to you. If you email us, we will reply as soon as it is your turn under the spotlight. We will ask various questions and even do all of the hard work. In fact, we’re only asking you to make first contact. Pretty simple, right?

So, if you cooperate with us — we’ll be nice. So nice that you might be able to call it objective. Even more nice that you might even be able to show it to a potential sponsor.

However, if you’re going to play hard to get — we’ll be slightly more subjective and mean. Just remember that we’re mean enough to find you, just so we can hurt your feelings!

We would greatly appreciate your cooperation in this. Please help us offer exposure to SA’s fine gaming teams.

Any game counts. Any team counts. In fact, any platform counts! PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. If you’re a Wii gang… Well, we’ll review you too!

Email us with your clan name, a contact email and what game you play.

Tell your friends too.

Mind Sports South Africa, or more commonly hated as the MSSA, has signed a deal with ASUS South Africa for a sponsorship agreement. ASUS is an internationally recognized hardware manufacturer with loads, and loads of products.

The MSSA on the other hand is a member of SASCOC. Sounds dirty, but in fact it stands for South African Confederation of Sport and Olympic Committee.

The partnership between the MSSA and ASUS will see National and Interschool grace leagues grace the local community.

Interschool leagues, you say?

For the record, our stance with the MSSA is neutral. While we do have a few problems, it is admirable that they are pushing forward with their ideas and always signing new sponsors.

Remember Ventus Gaming?

For those confused, Ventus is the newest MGO on the block.

The MGO’s site has received a facelift. Or a redesign, really. It is both easier to look at and read. The development team added functionality for blogs and other community ideas. There’s also a flashy background which fades with featured articles!

At the moment Bravado Gaming have a similar sort of setup. In the long run this will all boil down to preference, who will want their blog posted where. It might even get to the point where both sites feature exactly the same content in their battle for superiority.

My thoughts: Is the new site still in beta? A few functions do not always work. For example, the menu-bar decided to break whilst reading someone’s blog. The ‘Back’ button did not take me back and the damn background kept fading in and out. Does Ventus Gaming enjoy Cheese?

We’re still stumped how it rhymes with Venter — the founders surname.

A local gaming website for Team Fortress 2 has come to our attention. The site features news on the local scene, interviews, game info, tournament info and even server info.

TF2.co.za would be your one-stop, locally run, site which has everything you need. Give them some love, visit them!

Of course we’re only teasing you with what they have to offer. To get the full experience, you’re gonna have to go and look for yourself.

Oops. I was meant to do something on this last night, but while browsing the site I had to go for emergency eye surgery. Take a guess why. Here’s a hint: the site of it literally burnt.

Recently, we ran into a little bit of trouble with ZootFly — so I’ll try keep on track by being nice.

Ventus Gaming — a brand new MGO has arrived in South Africa. They apparently formed in October 2009, however we were totally oblivious to this. They officially blasted onto the gaming scene a few days ago, scarring retina’s nationwide.

Ventus means wind, in latin — but it also seems to match the surname of its leader Pieter Venter, who goes by the name Cyrus.

The new MGO has teams for DotA, HoN, Guitar Hero, Fifa 10, Quake Live and Counter Strike.

The DotA team is previously known as tankh, and they seemed to have jumped onto the sponsorship wagon, which is pretty nifty for a DotA team — seeing as all sponsors seem to hate DotA.

Cyrus has said that this is the first team to launch with sponsors, and they are pretty excited about it. He plans to make the team succeed by using his previous knowledge from XploIT, a previously failed MGO.

Check out their *cringe* site, for more.

The teams:

Guitar Hero

• Mark ‘DarthPenguin’ Dennison

Fifa 10

• Matthew ‘Cheezy’ Bosch

Quake Live

• Henk ‘Adrenalin’ Boshoff
• Micele ‘Szarko’ Aleksandrov
• Robert ‘Draven’ Szlanina

Counter Strike

• Connor ‘KING’ Laming
• Dean ‘HackeM’ Seyfried
• Jandrey ‘JiN’ Venter
• Marco ‘Lost’ Fourie
• Marchant ‘StripflOw’ Laauwen

DotA

• Anthony ‘scant’ Hodgson
• Mike ‘nakor’ Jones
• Wessel ‘Freez’ Louwrens
• Gerrit ‘Death’ Willigenburg
• Liang ‘Kspr’ Cai

HoN – Previous known as Kai

• Sakkie ‘RandomHero’ Basson (Captain)
• Mark ‘iLLuSioN’ Woodland
• Nicholas ‘Prodegy’ Bowler
• Justin ‘smke ‘ Probyn
• Riaan ‘azN_DoMz’ Visser

Similar to Bravado-Gaming, Ventus are planning to grow e-Sports in South Africa. They have already received a few sponsorships for their efforts and this includes:

• Web Africa: 11x Unshaped accounts with 12GB each.
• Cooler Master: 5x Cosmos Sport Chassis valued at R2200 each, 5x Hyper212plus fans, 5x 1100W
• Samsung: 5x Samsung XL2370 HD 23″ TFT LCD Screens. (In association with Rectron)

On a side note: Looks like something from the ’90s.

The next Syncidy Cup is about to arrive, and with it comes a with a new sponsor. The cup will take place on the 3rd of April at 14:00, where it ends on the Sunday.

The new sponsor is IStorage and they will award the winning clans with branded t-shirts. Yup, that’s it folks.

From Twilight’s Forum:

Syncidy Cup – April 2010

When:
Saturday – 3 April 2010
14:00

Fight for 3rd and 1st place:
Sunday – 4 April 2010
14:00

Where:
Server – Twilight Gaming
Channel – Clan sNc

Entry Process:
Registrations open Saturday – 27 March 2010 @ www.syncidy.co.za

Entry is free, and open to all players within RSA
Only the first 8 entries will be accepted!

Sponsored Prize:
The winning team will recieve their very own clan-branded shirts!

Competition Structure:
Double Elimination
Map version: 6.67

The MSSA’s 2010 online championships is the only official online competition in the country. By official, we have no idea what they mean… Or do we? We’ll, the MSSA can award provincial and national colours to teams which succeed in their respective game.

Therefore, official in the MSSA’s sense means, we can award you with national colours. ‘Nuff said.

Anyway, the qualifications for the comps end on the 29th of March, and no late registrations will be accepted.

Games played include:

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• FIFA’10 (PS3)
• Guitar Hero 5 (Xbox360)
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
• Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients
• CounterStrike 1.6
• Quake LIVE

Wow, would you look at that! DotA. Amazing! National/provincial colours can be awarded for playing DotA, but, prizes through various other tournaments cannot be awarded? Rage cannot support DotA, but the MSSA can?

Online tournaments via the MSSA can support provincial colours, but no other company can sponsor online tournaments? Hmm, strange?

Strange, indeed.

Well, look, I’m not saying the MSSA is good, I’m just saying that they see through the crap behind the ‘DotA-issues’. Other companies simply ignore the game, for what reason? Piracy? Doubt it. More like because the companies with the cash/prizes play CoD/CSS/BF2.

Tell us your thoughts on this..

Oh, and sign up here.. If you’re interested — which we doubt that you will be. We’re not.

Incredible Connection is currently readying their next One Night Cup. The next Cup will be a Counter Strike Source event, and it will have a limit of 16 teams. The format will be single elimination.

IC is currently looking for some admin help, so feel free to email quick@incredible.co.za, if you’d like apply to assist.

The One Night Cup prizing will come in the form of 5x 5GB Prepaid Accounts for first place, while second place will have 5x 3GB accounts, from Afrihost.

More information here.

Okay so it’s not actually called the Pew Pew Cup, it’s the miNt Quake Live Cup or miNt Cup for short. However at eGamer, we’ve decided to call it the PewPew Cup, because Quake Live is all about the Pew Pew.

What you need to know:

• Is it’s duel (1v1 for the noobs out there)
• Each round will be best of 3 matches
• Each match will last 10 minutes
• Players will be divided into 3 Divisions; Ph4nt0m;Pros;Amateurs (Kidding it’s 2 Divisions)
• Map choices – QzDm13,QzDm6,ztnTourney1, QzTourney7,QzTourney7
• Stage 1 starts 1st March 6pm

The players

Predictions? Well it’s going to be a 1, 2 finish between Shase and Phnt0m no doubt with d3ad3r coming a close 3rd.

For more info check out miNt gaming’s website. Registration’s close 27/02 and according to to miNt-SilencE, the organiser, there are no player limits.

FB Out!

Finally… Yeah this one has been in the works for a while now. There has been a lot of buzz around a league being setup by the “new” Twilight team and after much debate/procrastinating/stalling we’re ready to kick off season 1. And for those of you who have no clue what league we’re referring to, it’s a full on 5v5 clan based Dota league.

Details, you demand details! The basic format will be a round robin where a team plays every other team in their division. Division? Yeah that’s right. Depending on the amount of signups we get, the idea is to have divisions of 8 teams. This allows us to keep the groups managable as well as group teams together that are more or less on the same skill level. As it stands we’ve currently stands, we’ve had 8 teams sign up. Here are some the teams you can look forward to (Ed: Or dread) doing battle with:

TwG – Token White Guy
A fairly newly formed team from what I can gather with some big hitters. With Mint’s dota team disbanding Waz_Mac and AsSsMan (Ed: That’s MrAsSsMan to you) have joined up with Vsdgkk and doppl3R to form TwG. I recon they’re going to show some of the more established teams a thing or two.

S0NA – Spacefreaks 0N Acid
This has to be one of the most fun teams I’ve clannied against. Good spirit and not afraid to try something different. Expect a good game from these guys.

dedA – Dedicated Abuse
Or should I say, the new dedA. dedA along with TwG decided to snatch up a few miNt players and have now added sLoJ and Lemon-Grass to their line up. Definitely favourites for this season, no matter who signs up.

ExP – Extra Pulling
Exp should also be an interesting team to watch. While I’ve never seen them play before as a team, there are a few better than average players in their squad. With the likes of Fluro, Visrucis (Ed: Imba viper is imba), CuriousGeorge and Xylon who is incidently back after his cry thread about leaving cos he didn’t make gayHL2, ExP should make for a good competitive team.

DuC – DUCoRe
A fairly old team I remember seeing in the Agasa cup back in the day. Having played against them in the UCL and getting a solid ass kicking, I’d expect to see them fighting for a top 4 spot as they’ve been playing together for quite a while and have some great synergy.

Borg
Another team that has been around for some time, borg’s lineup has changed slightly however they’re still one of the stronger sides that have signed up. Expect some good games from these guys.

We haven’t done any sort of division placing yet as we’re expecting a few more registrations. However whether your team be n00b or pro you should find yourself in a fairly evenly matched league. Registrations close on the 26th February, so time is running out. For more information on the rules and format, check out the twilight forum.

FB Out!

WITS University, and their Wargames club — associated with the MSSA — will host a South African Heroes of Newerth LAN Tournament.

The Tournament is sponsored by S2 Games and it will be held at the Old Mutual Sports Hall on the Wits University. The date for this event is the 13th of March, 2010.

This unique tournament will see players compete in a LAN environment online. The tournament will allow for 16 teams to register (are there even 16 HoN players?), where the prizing will be $300 in cash and 5 free pre-paid HoN accounts from S2 Games.

Yeah, you’re at a LAN playing the tournament online.

To sign up click here.

You’ve heard right Cape Town, Syncidy LAN is back!

Following some tragic ‘irregularities’ from our venue’s side end-September last year, Syncidy was forced underground. Have no fear though, time spent wasted is never time wasted! We are back and better than ever.

Being as excited as we are to see everyone again, we have decided to kick the embers under the Dota community in anticipation of our relaunch:

In co-op mode with Twilight Gaming and eGamer, we are running a fast paced competition the first weekend of February. Entry will be free and open to everyone from the community, but act fast as we will only allow the first 8 entries to take part. The winning side will pocket themselves an ice cold R500-00 courtesy of Syncidy Gaming.

Syncidy Site Here

Syncidy Cup – February 2010

When:

• Saturday – 6 February 2010
  14:00
• Fight for 3rd and 1st place:
  Sunday – 7 February 2010
  14:00

Where:

• Server – Twilight Gaming
• Channel – Clan sNc

Entry Process:

• Registrations open Saturday – 30 January 2010 @ www.syncidy.co.za
• Entry is free, and open to all players within RSA
  Only the first 8 entries will be accepted

Sponsored Prize:

• The winning team will receive R500-00!

Competition Structure:

• Double Elimination
• Map version: 6.66

Being a new year, the MSSA has kicked off their plans for 2010. At the moment it looks like National and Regional events will again be sponsored by Incredible Connection although this has not been confirmed 100% yet.

eSports Tournament Calendar for 2010

Please note that all events are hosted by member clubs. For more information check out http://www.mssa-cgboc.org/

From the GosuCup Tourney: the Swedish powerhouse, DIPS vs the Romanian Devils, TeG (The Elder Gods).

Introduction

An interesting tourney as all matches are to be played in -CD mode (Captain’s Draft).

For those of you who do not know what -CD mode is all about:

Captains Draft. 24 random heroes are selected. Then Blue and Pink take turns banning heroes, then picking heroes. Then the players on each team pick from their team’s heroes.

This brings about pro’s and con’s to the DotA game as teams have to adapt and the strategies and teamwork of each side will be tested thoroughly in their DotA knowledge.

Pro’s for me are that heroes that are forgotten or rarely used are brought into the frame as teams can only choose from the pool of 24.

Con’s are that sometimes the pool is a bit unlucky and bad so it will make for an unexciting game.

The Game

Download the replay here.

Game Length: 48:40

Map: DotA Allstars v6.66.w3x

The Bans/Picks

TEG BANS (1st)

DIPS BANS

Scourge: TEG

The Scourge

• TeG-Ly0n^ (Top) [DP]
• freezer1905- (Mid) [Panda]
• TeG-S0ny4ce (Bot) [Jugger]
• TeG-Coco (Bot) [WD]
• TeG-RMP (Jungle) [CM]

Sentinel: DIPS

The Sentinel

• DIPS|Sword_777 (Top) [Puck]
• DIPS|Spear_666 (Mid) [Bane]
• DIPS|BeNTZER (Bot) [Riki]
• DIPS|Daegosaur (Bot) [Lich]
• DIPS|pepp3 (Jungle) [Tiny]

The Squeeze

• 87 Kills overall, so this game brings a lot of high action and fast ganking and movement.  Just over 2 kills per minute on average :D
• DIPS and TeG are quite an evenly matched side in terms of skill so its quite a fairly even match.
• Trilane vs Trilane interesting to see which 3 heroes win

What To Look or Look Out For

In the first few seconds of the game, take a look at bot lane and the warding position of TeG.  This position is becoming very overused if not always used when tri-laning.  So as you can see DIPS is countering by already not going to the lane but hanging in the bush together so they do not get caught out with their pants down.

Interesting to see at the 10min mark is what items the carry heroes are … carrying.  Rikimaru has a stout shield for tank/survivability, boots of elevinskin and finally boots of speed.  The reason for the elevinskin is to increase his damage for last hitting.  Remember the more damage you can do the better your last hitting will be, and in the case of agility — it does increase his armour slightly (but maybe some would say insignificantly).

Juggernaut on the other hand has increased his last hitting and damage output dramatically. This was obtained by going phase boots, accompanied with slippers and branches (every little bit of stats increases your output).  Stats are very important in the early game so you can farm/damage. Remember if you do very well early game, your late game could be made a lot easier in terms of items, so this is very important to get a good start by getting the right items.

Regen is almost important, but in these lanes sentinel are obviously the ones getting harassed more (with cm aura scourge are having a lot of fun) so that is why maybe Jugger could relax on the regen items.  Later both heroes do buy poor man shield’s as well as healing salves.

Watch at the 8:30 min mark! pepp3 get away from S0ny4ce with 9HP!!!

And seconds later Sword_777 and Sony4ce are lucky to get away with their lives, freezer1905- wasn’t so lucky.

If you find yourself in an AOE-storm like this one, you better hope you have a way out!

Summary

This game is a must watch, such an exciting game that really reminds me of why I love and play DotA.

Thanks to DIPS and TeG for bringing us such an exciting game and to all of you.

]]> http://egamer.co.za/2010/01/dota-replay-of-the-week-dips-vs-teg/feed/ 1 http://egamer.co.za/2010/01/incredible-connection-announces-three-new-one-night-cups-for-2010/ http://egamer.co.za/2010/01/incredible-connection-announces-three-new-one-night-cups-for-2010/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:12:50 +0000 Dean http://egamer.co.za/?p=12690

Incredible Connection will kick 2010 off with a new One Night Cup series. The league will boast an Afrihost partnership which sees prizing in the form of 5GB prepaid ADSL accounts for first place, and 3GB ADSL prepaid accounts for second place, per player, per team.

The competition takes place on the 31st of January and it will involve Call of Duty 4 teams. The registration opens on the 25th of January for these teams, and there are only 19 slots available. The league structure will see 16 official teams where 3 will be substitutes in case players drop out.

Following the CoD4 Cup will be a Quake Live Duel Tournament. The QL tournament will allow for 32 players to be accepted into a best of 3 single elimination format tournament. The first place winners will receive 5GB ADSL accounts, while second place holders will receive 3GB accounts. This competition will take place on the 14th of February.

Incredible is hoping to then host another competition after this, it will involve an undecided/unannounced game. qu1ksh0t, the host, is planning to do something with Counter Strike Source, however these teams are really bad at signing up for events. So, CSS players, if you’re keen email qu1k@incredible.co.za to pre-book your spot.

You can also email qu1k@incredible.co.za for additional information on the tournament.

Quake Live, the web-based shooter based on Quake 3 has been roaming around the community for quite some time now. The game is really awesome, and I won’t lie, some of us just can’t get enough of it. Anyway, we’re not really here to ramble about us, as there seems to be some major scandal in the local community.

DoGaming recently contacted us about information on cheating. Yeah - cheating in our own damn community!

The cheater, or accused cheater, is known as Rapts — the leader of NDC, South Africa’s oldest team.

We’ve included the DoGaming article below. Visit DoGaming here to read it on their site.

Jerri ‘Rapts’ Mperdempes has been accused of cheating by very high ranking members of the Quake Live community, who have claimed that his accuracy was well above where his levels actually were and that he was using software to see through walls.

Over a month ago, Garth ‘Garth’ Jones and Micele ‘Szarko’ Aleksandrov (also known by the nick ‘Azul’) started watching Mperdempes play Quake Live, and took an interest in his style saying there was something “wrong” in the way he played.

Aleksandrov has posted a clip saying he spectated Mperdempes games and recorded them. This video can be seen here.

The argument is, however, a complex one. Aleksandrov used a command available in replays enabling him to see the player opposite to the player he was spectating, which he says is Mperdempes. Aleksandrov and Jones maintain that when looking at Mperdempes gameplay in this format, they can draw the conclusion that the player being spectated is using a wall hack.

Mperdempes has confirmed that the clip posted on Youtube is him playing. However he denies ever using the wall hack and maintains his kills are legitimate.

“This is simply part of a smear campaign by various members of the community,” he says.

Jones and Aleksandrov are convinced that the accused is using an Aimbot as well as wall hacks, which would allow Mperdempes to have an almost unbelievable accuracy. To offset the accuracy in accordance with the Quake Live online statistics, they claim Mperdempes would apparently shoot randomly at walls to lower his accuracy rate and modify the accuracy of the Aimbot.

“He has poor mouse control, but when he takes out his Lightning Gun (LG), he would almost lock on to players and be insanely accurate,” says Aleksandrov. “He has been around the game for something like 10 years, just like us, so he would obviously know to shoot randomly to offset his accuracy.”

Travis “Shase” Weedon, who recently competed at Dreamhack in a Quake Live tournament in Sweden, has left the NDC clan because he says he doesn’t want to associate himself with cheating. Weedon posted the Youtube clip in the Quake Live channel on IRC in the channel topic.

However, Mperdempes says no member of NDC had confirmed to him that they were leaving the clan.

Unfortunately, even Aleksandrov and Jones admit that no player can prove irrefutably that Mperdempes is cheating. It is simply the judgement of senior Quake Live players that he is cheating, in their opinion. Both Aleksandrov and Jones, both having played in CPL competitions, are convinced of the fact that he is cheating and claim Mperdempes has brought the entire NDC clan into disrepute.

“It’s just disrespectful. Plain and simple. It’s disrespectful to your opponents and your team mates. The guy is cheating and he leads a clan like NDC that has been around for a decade, which consists of respected players from the community,” Aleksandrov claims. He went on to say he will notify ID on their forums of his belief that Mperdempes is cheating and will list two accounts he believes Mperdempes plays on.

Mperdempes says he does not understand why he is being targeted. He says the players accusing him are better than he is anyway and with stats of 159 wins and 179 losses, according to his Quake Live profile, he is not even breaking even yet. His accuracy is listed at 28 percent.

His lightning gun is listed at 27 percent and his railgun at 53 percent (his two most used guns). Mperdempes’ highest accuracy is with the shotgun where he has a 78 percent accuracy rate.

Comparing the other two players same stats: Aleksandrov has a win record of 625 wins and 70 losses on Quake Live. His accuracy is listed at 27 percent. His lightning gun accuracy is 30 percent and his rail gun accuracy is 40 percent. He also has an accuracy of 78 percent with the shotgun.

Jones has 162 wins and 174 losses. His accuracy is listed at 29 percent. He has a lightning gun accuracy of 29 percent and a railgun accuracy of 39 percent. His highest accuracy is also with the shotgun with an accuracy of 80 percent.

Mperdempes’ railgun statistic seems to be the most surprising compared to that of Aleksandrov and Jones. Furthermore, it can be compared to the railgun statistic of Weedon (44 percent) and Stephen “Ph4ntom” Cloete (43 percent).

Mperdempes took over the leadership of NDC in 1998. He says the clan went quiet on the First Person Shooter front around two years ago after Quake 3 started to die down. However, when Quake Live came along he started to play the game and recruited players like Weedon and Cloete.

“I’ve always stuck to what I am good at: recognising the potential in players and managing players. NDC was a platform to allow players to be competitive, and there was a lot of resentment against NDC when I recruited players like Weedon and Cloete,” he says.

Mperdempes says he is “over this” (the accusations) and lists this current incident as the “cherry on the top” in a long list of smear campaigns against NDC.

It is hoped the Quake Live community will be able to work the issue out, and grow a game which has only recently begun to grow in popularity as players have been able to play on local servers with good ping times.

Following the comments on DoGaming, Vitrolic posted a few accuracy states to back up the cheating allegations.

Rail Accuracies
DaHang: 45%
Rapha: 45%
Cooller: 47%
NDC Rapts: 53%

For those unfamiliar with NDC and Quake: NDC has been around for years, and they are probably the oldest clan around. They are home to many of the top local players which attend overseas events.

The article above is very informative, however there were a few things that made me smile and ask, WTF? For instance, “Mperdempes says he is “over this” (the accusations) and lists this current incident as the “cherry on the top” in a long list of smear campaigns against NDC.”

Why would someone start smear campaigns against NDC? What’s the point, they are the best, they have the best. There is nothing that people can do about it. I highly doubt that this is one big conspiracy aimed at breaking the team down.

Anyway — one cheater down. Who’s next?

[via DoGaming]

As SMM comes to a close and the Alienware 30-day Tourney taking over, another tournament fell over the month of November –

THE OC DOTA TOURNEY OF COURSE!

Garena was unfortunately down during this time period, but the following replay has been released!

THE GAME

dedA vs JJ – Replay

Game Length: 57:08

The Sentinel – dedA (1st Pick)

The bans:

The picks & lanes:

• DedA.( •)<*(Top) [POTM]
• DedA.BurNing~(Top) [SVEN]
• DedA~CryT_T.(Top) [VS]
• DedA.YMT(Mid) [WL]
• DedA.longdd(Bot) [QOP]

The Scourge – JJ

The bans:

The picks & lanes:

• <JJ>6iS</JJ>(Top) [BM]
• <JJ>Freez</JJ>(Mid) [LICH]
• <JJ>Aion</JJ>(Bot) [CM]
• <JJ>PLEASE</JJ>(Bot) [SF]
• <JJ>nrg</JJ>(Jungle) [ENIGMA]

THE SQUEEZE:

The reasons to watch this replay are simple, this is an exciting game which is a lot of fun to watch but for those of you who want a more detailed explanation keep reading otherwise just download and DISCUSS?

1. Banning pipe (The captains of both teams before the match came to the decision to ban pipe) to make the game more exciting.
2. Scourge going for a level 1 roshan strategy with overpowering AOE, whilst dedA looking to dominate in lanes from the get go with trilane top and strong solo’s mid and bot.
3. AOE watch the ulti’s and spells go BOOM!
4. Roshan level 1, wanna see kills before the creeps are out? THEN THIS REPLAY IS FOR YOU!
5. Tri-lane top, watch 6is soak up the pressure of 3 heroes on 1.
6. 8min mark, watch how Saidin literally raze his way out of a tight gank.
7. 32min, wanna see a double triple kill? 2 heroes left? wtf?
8. Did I mention ULTI’S GO OFF = BOOM!
9. DISCUSS ALREADY

DOWNLOAD, WATCH & NOW DISCUSS

Over the past few days we’ve been chatting to the guys from BloodMoney, a new online tournament with the big M involved.

The ‘big M’, you might ask? Money, money money.

That’s right, BloodMoney are hosting online gaming competitions where competitors can win cash back for their efforts in destroying faces.

The tournament will be team-based (for certain games), and then individually-based for other games.

To allow for prize money, the hosts are simply asking that each player enters by handing in a fee of only R10.

It’s a winner-take-all style tournament, and this essentially means that the winner will claim all of the cash. All of the cash being, entrance fees minus 10 percent (labour, hosting, bla bla).

At the moment sponsors are minimum, however Square Eyed Computers will host games and supply servers.

BloodMoney are expecting to host games throughout the entire day. It’s loads of fun for the holidays when you’re bored.

Prizing will not be limited to money, as gamers can win spot prizes for extraordinary achievements such as outrageous kill-to-death ratios.

The contact address for the main-man behind the name can be found here, while the web address can be find right over – here.

Questions are arising, I can see it already. We’ll try answer these to the best of our ability.

1. Skill levels

There will be various skill levels and various skill level servers. This means that good players will win, mediocre players will win and n00bs will win. BloodMoney will judge your skill level to ensure that no one good sneaks into bad-player games.

Prizing for the skill level games change as Elite players will win more of the cash then the n00bs – this is because they are Elite.

2. Cheating

Banned on spot, ’nuff said. Oh, and thanks for your cash, cheating douche.

3. Games played

CSS
DotA
CoD 4

These tournaments will be once a week, or so.

Check out the site for more.

Even though our boy, Shase was knocked out in the group stages at DreamHack, as promised we have covered the rest of the QuakeLive competition. With 16 of the worlds best players making it through to the knockout stages which is single elimination, best out of 3 maps – this has proven to give some very exciting games.

16 Players to make it through to knockout stages

Stermy
tox1c
Av3k
draven
Chance
dkt
DaHang
serak
linkoo
l1nkje
strenx
Cooler
Spart1e
fox
Z4zmuZ
Cypher

The competition has already moved into the semi-final stages with a few upsets orccuring along the way. The first round of knockout stages saw Spart1e, who was one of the favourites to win the tournament get knocked out in an epic thriller against DaHang. Cooler dominated fox in an easy 2-0 victory and Cypher showed Chance who was boss.

To see the results for the knockout stages please click here.

Hi MYM|MaNia-, Tell us a bit about yourself and how you started off with DotA.

Hey all, in Dota you know me as MaNia-, but in my private life my name is Brian and I am at the moment studying to be a multimediadesigner, which is pretty much making commercials or creating websites etc. I started playing dota about 4 years ago. It started out as just being an outlet after playing intense warcraft 3 matches. I used to play on a pretty high lvl of normal warcraft, but I started playing more and more dota, and in the end I didnt play anything else than dota. As you know it is a quite addictive game. :)

How do you view of the future of international DotA?

Things are looking really good in the competetive world of dota. More and more tournaments are appearing with bigger prizepools, which really makes it more worth traveling around the world to join these events. Theres not many organisations that are able to send dota teams to events around the world, so we are really blessing that our organisation is so generous.

Can you tell us about your team, the players, their roles etc?

Our main lineup is Kuroky, PusHer, Miggel, Angel and myself.

Me and Miggel normally play the hard gankers while kuroky plays the semicarry/ganker and angel normally plays our lategamer, but he also helps gang around the map. Pusher is mostly defined as being in the support category, but hes been really active in the ganks and has improved alot. I think with our current playstyle it allows all the members of the team to reach their potential.

How is the European gameplay different to that of the Asian gameplay?

I dont really see big differences between european and asian playstyle, its only few teams in each region that differs from the rest of the teams. Like cybertime is using alot of different heroes, and are trying to mix melee agility heroes in their lineups.

How much time does MYM spend practicing together?

Its not really scheduled but we just prac when all are online. Eventhough we have tried putting in more hours of training, since the arrival of Kuroky, since there is allways a transition period when a new member joins the team.

About SMM. Are you looking forward to it? How is MYM preparing for this event and what do you expect from other teams in terms of preparation and performance?

Im really looking forward to playing against all the asian teams, since we dont get the chance to play vs them normally. We havent done some speciel training up to the event, since people are very busy with their studies, but we have tried praccing as much as possible to be ready for the event, and we feel that we are in great shape atm. I heard that the asian teams are spending 12 hours a day preparing for smm, plus they also spend some days up the event analyzing the different opponents, so thats real dedication. I heard all asians are like that in every sport they play. I saw some program once with chinese gymnasts that were training like robots all days every day, which is how i picture the asian dota teams, when I think of them.

Have you ever watched a South African replay?

Unfortunately I haven’t had the pleasure of watching south african replays, I dont even know a place where I can download them. (edit: well now you do :D)

Lately we have seen some exciting picks from MYM and other international teams. Are there any unorthodox heroes you would like to try out in a game?

Theres many heroes I would like to try out, but I cant disclose this information up to the event

What would you like to see changed in 6.65?

I dont want much changes, mb add some new heroes to make it interesting. Would be cool with a hero that has an aim skill, since they are most fun to play.

Have you seen the Nightcrawler teaser? What’s your opinion on it?

Yea I have seen the teaser, the hero looks imba :)

Favourites:

Hero? Pudge tiny

Item? dagger

Spell? Techies suicide

Strategy? offensive

International Player? Darkarax4

Local Player? Flaskehals/41-eyes they are twins :)

Food? Chinese duck

Drink? Guld tuborg(danish type of beer)

Movie? The butterfly effect

Song? The temper trap – sweet disposition

Quote? What are you a gay fish?

Lastly, any shout outs you would like to send to fans?

I wanna make a shout out to two of my favorite fans: Clitsybananas and xeRa! Im really glad to hear that we have fans in South Africa, I hope I can learn more about the SA playstyle and culture. Keep supporting us, you make us stronger!

All photos taken from mymym.com and gosugamers.com. Captions for images are from the top of the page to the bottom:

Image 1: MaNia-

Image 2: Top left to bottom right: Maelk, Angel, Pusher, Mania-, Miggel

Image 3: Right: MaNia-

Image 4: Left MaNia-

In a few weeks time will see the ‘biggest’ gaming even in Durban. Frag LAN will be aiming at a full 500-man LAN with 90% of the network being Gigabit.

The organisers are requesting that you buy your ticket as soon as possible.

Bookings will only be accepted once the seat has been paid for, and there will be no reservation without payment.

The Details:

Date: 11-13 December 2009
Time: 10:00 (11th) – 10:00 (13th)
Place: Edgewood College Dininghall, UKZN, Pinetown
Cost: R200
Web page to book: http://www.frag.co.za/

There will be various tournaments played, and the games include:

Call of Duty 4: 5 vs 5 Search & Destroy (Promod Live – AGASA Maps & FRAG Ruleset)
DotA: 5 vs 5
Crysis Wars: Team Deathmatch 2 vs 2
Counter-Strike Source: 5 vs 5 KOTH (minimum of 8 teams needed to enter ; pay2play tournament)

Frag staff are trying their best to confirm the prizes. It was said that the prize pool will be around R30,000.

The event is hoping to award prizes to teams as far down as 5th place.

Other extra’s for the event includes:

• A pool
• Volleyball
• Pool Table
• Xbox setups
• Give aways
• Promotions

More details will be added once they have been confirmed.

Check out the Frag site to book your ticket, etc.

We now go into week 3 of the Intel iGame Call of Duty 4 League and things seem to be heating up in the pro bracket. With only one week left of games, teams will be fighting to make the final placings into the next round of the league.

Group 1

¬ Brazen (4points)
¬ UbS.En (2points)
¬ EVO (2points)
¬ dS.eQ (0points)

It seems Brazen have had quite an easy time, taking two easy wins against dS.eQ and EVO. If UbS.EN wants to make it through to the next round they are going to have an uphill battle and will either have to pull off a win against Brazen or hope that EVO doesn’t win against dS.eQ – if there is a three way between EVO, dS.eQ and UbS.EN one team will go through on points difference.

Group 2

¬ UbS.GT (2points)
¬ sG.Evoke (4points)
¬ Element T1 (0points)
¬ Bestiality (2points)

With Bestiality taking on Element T1 who have shown promise but not put up much of a fight, we will most likely see sG.Evoke and Beastiality move through to the next round. UbS.GT have an outside chance of making it though but they will have to play out of their skins against the group leaders or hope that Element T1 can somehow pull off a win against the strong Bestiality team.

Group 3

¬ miNt Gaming (4points)
¬ Pantheon (2points)
¬ UbS.ZK (2points)
¬ ATF.T (0points)

Our boys in Green have almost guaranteed their spot in the next round. If Pantheon manages to beat miNt, and UbS.ZK beat ATF.T by a long enough margin we could just see the miNt Gaming team be knocked out. But judging by their strong performance against both UbS.ZK and ATF.T the teams that are most likely to progress are miNt Gaming and Pantheon Gaming.

Group 4

¬ A*P (2points)
¬ ATF.A (2points)
¬ Prodigy (4points)
¬ Pandemonium (0points)

In a tight match against Prodigy, only marginally losing out to them 11-13 on mp_backlot – A*P are in a good postition to move through to the next round with Prodigy.

In all four groups, we could see some upsets occurring in this last week. It will all come down to who wants it more, some teams still with a fighting spirit wanting to take home a podium place, whilst others still fatigued from the past season. Teams who are most likely to move through to the next round are:

• Brazen
• EVO
• sG.Evoke
• Bestiality
• miNt Gaming
• Pantheon Gaming
• A*P
• Prodigy

*Please note these views reflect the personal opinion of the writer and in no way express the views of the eGamer. All games, Points and match-ups are taken directly from the iGame Forums.

Written by Michael “Orange” Masson

Week one of the UCL got off to flyer last week with wins going to clans Star, PhD, dedA, DUC, 8or9 and Crap. One of the weeks highlight replays was the clash between CraP and NsF, captained by Magicman and Doppl3r respectively. NsF are a recently reformed clan, looking to get back into the competitive scene, sporting the likes of Doppl3r, Ryuu and Vsdgkk. The expectation was on them to win this one, with individual skill and experience exceeding that of Crap. However, a determined Crap kept cool, calm and collected throughout the game and with some well coordinated team play, managed to give NsF a lot more than they bargained for. NsF were downed by the good communication and synergy of Crap and out muscled late game by the TenQ’s in axe and necro.

The Draft

Bans

NsF:

Dark seer has, of late, become more often used – and used well with his flexibility be it ganging, laning or even late game support, thus he was banned. Bane was also elimed, a powerful ganger and solo lane. Stratting for a Rasta solo mid, bane would’ve been an obvious threat to the success of the rasta. We can also note at this point the tide ban, a mass AoE disabler, was benched with the stratting of a Chen, who thrives off less AoE to disable his creeps.

Crap:

Na and es, known trouble makers, were banned by Crap. Veng being the roaming problem child – going 2 solos, Crap were probably thinking whats best for someone trying to hold a lane/farm. Slardar was Craps more unorthodox ban, a hard to control super carry.

Picks, Assignments and Lanes:

NsF:

• Chen [Doppl3r] – Bush/Gang
• Doom [BearGrills] – Bot Solo
• Rasta [Ryuu] – Mid Solo
• CM [_Pies4ng] – Top
• Panda [Vsdgkk] – Top

Doppl3r went for strat based around Panda and him getting his scepter as early as possible (with cm to babysit and harass in his lane) and the silence doom to farm up as much as possible (note the early midas). Opting for a ganging chen that could help cm with the support role was a risky pick but allowed for some early kills to the favour of panda. The rasta played a more aggressive game than what we are used to seeing, taking on the solo mid and controlling the pirate. Lucifer in the bottom lane had a tough time controlling the conventionally feared axe/wl lane and eventually farmed less than expected.

A cm laning top supporting panda, a bushing chen ready to gang and a relatively frail necro laning top, sentinel were planning on dominating an early lane (top) whilst Doom farmed up bot and Rasta defended mid. Things obviously didn’t go as planned.

Crap:

• Axe [Magicman] – Bot
• Admiral [Lighten] –Mid Solo
• Warlock  [h0nd] – Bot
• Necrolyte [-Eraser-] – Top Solo
• Enigma [Nowhere] – Top Bush

Many new strats have emerged lately
and have been tried and tested. Last week, Crap kept to what they new opting for a more conventional strat. A bushing enigma to assit a top solo, farm some stats/wards/blink was not so surprising from Crap. Pirate is also a known solid farmer when soloing – of which can also make some kills with his disable. He also some decent late game AoE. Necro (who solo’d top) can be a deadly force late and early game, and after Nsf picked semi tanks in Panda and Doom, having someone who could eliminate one the higher hp battle heros could greatly influence the outcome of battles! The idea of Necro versus a Panda in battle is to focus his ulti on a lower hp panda before he can use Primal Spirit, the deadly, tanking three pandas from hell that can single handedly win battles. Necro had a hard time in his lane and his farming was halted by some constant deaths and harassing. Axe/WL is known to pay dividends if executed correctly, and was a good lane bot (with them assuming Chen would bush bot).

Early On

After some Rasta nets to attempt solo kills, a few missed torrents by pirate, and doom not letting up versus his tough axe/wl lane, first blood predictably went to NsF top lane with the cm/panda slows and chen rushing (frightening) poor necro into a dismal corner.

Enigma
had quite a tough job in the farms and was gunned down by the cm/panda/chen combo as often as necro. He ganged effectively and attempted to help recover top lane but, even after making 2 kills, couldn’t hold panda back from a farming spree (note there were wards planted in his primary creep pulling camp early on).

Meanwhile, bottom lane, axe was farming it up with the help of wl. An almost untouched, unganged lane by NsF – a critical mistake in my opinion. Their over-commitment

top blew Dooms farming expectations to smithereens, yet he did well for the situation he found himself in, even earning a kill when chen made the trek across the river! Axe was yet to be killed and sported a large wad of cash to
show for it. Doom was also hauling it in. Rasta and Pirate were also farming it up a bit mid, with even creep scores for a while and 1 kill a piece (pirate had a death and an assist).

These are the following aspects to note 10 mins into the game:

Score: 7/4

Towers lost: 0

Creep
Scores:

Wards
Purchased (sets): 2(cm)/2(wl)

Midgame

Midgame, things seemed to go all NsF for a long while, with multiple lane pushes, takings of towers and well coordinated gangs. This went hand in hand with some decent mid-game warding by chen. However, a big negative for NsF were the 3 low hp intel heros. As much as NsF seemed to dominate, Crap often snatched one or two kills from a gang. This kept them well in touch score wise.

Axe was already well farmed and on his way towards super tanking (with blink). Many NsF gangs, however, were ill coordinated and lead to nothing. This gave Crap the break to farm up – pirate with battle fury, enigma with blink, wl with necro book. Crap started comboing up with axe blink call, enigma ulti, wl ulti. They started winning 5v5’s and gaining the upper hand (with the odd battle victory going to NsF). NsF had the rasta pushes on their side and successfully took some towers, gaining gold all along and allowing them more space to farm.

NsF, although on the backfoot, also began to come back with some well timed aghanism-induced ultis from Vsdgkk (Panda) that won them many kills in various battles.

The game remained tight throughout the middle of the game with both teams trading kills every 5 or so minutes.

Mistakes were made by both teams, however it was evident at this stage that Crap were gelling well as a team, with some really well timed ulties and farming management.

NsF were burdened by some lazy map awareness by cm at times, and over confidence in many pushes. With cm buying wards and chen planting them, NsF were showing doubt in their support’s capabilities, never a good sign. Communication also brought them down at times with some people speaking over Teamspeak and others not.

Another big issue was the division of farming in NsF. With only a panda to carry them through fights, piling him with items seemed a plausible option. However, with doom farming his aga and refresher, rasta soloing (for a long time) and raking in gold from towers and creeps and cm carelessly pushing lanes every so often, he did not get enough chance to farm as much as he should’ve. Late game turned out interesting indeed.

Late Game

Some interesting stats (at 40 mins):

Score: 30/32

Creep Scores:

Wards: 18 /16

We began to see some late game pushes after NsF took a few vital kills. This severely dampened Crap defense and NsF were able to take a (melee) rax at 52 mins.

NsF continued some power pushes with panda’s ulti and rasta wards, taking another rax. 2 rax’s down and the creeps having pushed bottom scourge tower, scourge were on the backfoot, and if this pushing was to continue, they were sure to lose. It was time to act for Crap. After roshing (2^nd rosh – 2^nd aegis to necro), they pushed a few times themselves, the first few to no avail. Finally, one last massive push, Crap cleaned most of NsF out, continuing to rax mid. Slipping past defences, they raxed both bot and top, inducing super creeps. Nsf’s defence was weekend by consecutive deaths and no synergy. Pandas idea to save cash for a possible push of this sort, bought back 3 times trying to defend. Crap was already way too powerful and tanked up for vsdgkk’s primal spirit. They took the tree. Very persistent play from both teams lead to a classic!

Very powerful 5v5 heroes from both Crap and NsF lead to some decent late game turtling, and it was nice to see a tight replay for a change!

Well played Crap! Look forward to seeing both these clans back in action this week =P.

End game screenshot:

DotA Parse
Date: 09/11/2009 21:17

Patch version: 1.24

Map: DotA Allstars 6.64

Game name: [12]nsf v crap

Game mode: Normal mode

Host name: Vsdgkk

Replay saver: Doppl3R

Game length: 1:25:32

Players: 5v5

Game score: 52/43

Observers: Sacred_Warrior, The_Protagonist

Sentinel:

Doppl3R, level 20, K/D: 14/11, CS: 208/4, build: 9353 gold, items: , APM: 94

BearGrills, level 21, K/D: 7/13, CS: 149/10, build: 16258 gold, items: , APM: 94

Ryuu, level 19, K/D: 21/5, CS: 302/10, build: 12487 gold, items: , APM: 67

_Pies4ng, level 20, K/D: 0/0, CS: 0/0, build: 13265 gold, items: , APM: 65

Vsdgkk, level 21, K/D: 5/14, CS: 37/0, build: 17530 gold, items: , APM: 86

Scourge:

Magicman, level 19, K/D: 3/13, CS: 157/6, build: 19149 gold, items: , APM: 109

(Pirate)Lighten, level 25, K/D: 8/15, CS: 95/4, build: 21733 gold, items: , APM: 99

h0nd, level 25, K/D: 8/14, CS: 147/4, build: 12871 gold, items: , APM: 101

-Eraser-, level 21, K/D: 5/10, CS: 95/13, build: 19214 gold, items: , APM: 74

Nowere, level 19, K/D: 0/0, CS: 0/0, build: 12459 gold, items: , APM: 64

Article Source: www.GoodDota.za.net

The Unofficial DotA League will start on the 2nd of November, 2009. The league will be a ‘warm-up’ for the official Twilight League which should kick off in a couple of months time.

The league will see 14 teams face off in a 14 week long race to become the champions. The 14 teams included differ in experience and reputation, and it will be interesting to see whether there are going to be any upsets or whether the big clans will easily triumph over the lesser known ones. Either way, this league promises a great deal of competitive gaming and all round fun for those taking part.

Teams will play one game per week, and will earn points for a win and bonus points are available should a team win or lose with specific conditions being met. After having completed all of their matches, the team with the most points wins the league. The weekly standings of the 14 teams will be updated as the replays of the games are uploaded and reviewed.

Check out the details of the league here
Check out the results and scoreboard here

To all the teams involved – all the best and let’s try to put on some top notch performances!

My friends it is my pleasure to stand here at the back-end of a 25 week run from eGamer Koth. As head admin I had the wonderful job of blaming others for problems and delegating all my work elsewhere while I looked good.

Koth was formed from various suggestions, comments and tantrums; so as to satisfy the maximum amount of people and give us something to bring the community together a little once a week. Judging from the roaring support we received from everyone during this past half a year our community is most definitely growing into a slightly more engaging toddler, something that makes me smile deeply.

But of course Koth was not without problems, and so I have to add a special thank you to everyone for still coming back week after week as we all went through the learning process of running this type of community driven and sensational style competition. Sometimes the ink ran dry for a week or two, sometimes the players had the usual connection issues, but next week once more we would be joined by all of you for another go at the dream of Community Fun.

Koth was the first Dota competition in South Africa to run WaaghTV and commentaries throughout its duration, and has definitely set out some fresh and exciting possibilities for coming competitions, such as the Twilight League which will be launch registrations soon.

‘So who won already?’ Well if you are asking me that then you certainly have been missing for a few weeks, as the clear winner at the end of Koth is MiNt Gaming. MiNt settled onto the throne just over a month ago and didn’t budge since, beating back challenger after challenger. Infact MiNt did so well they technically won about 3 weeks ago already, when the last possibility slipped away for any opposing team to match their points on the scoreboard.

We throw a big well done in MiNt’s direction and happily crown them eGamer Kingz of the Hill!

MiNt showed off their skills with the following roster:

• sLoJ
• Waz_maC
• MrasSsman
• Lemon-grass
• kspr

And so as the final note I simply cannot leave without saying thank you to the eGamer, Twilight Gaming and THE KOTH ADMIN TEAM ROAR ^^ . Slaving away week after week, formatting and reformatting, learning new skills in order to meet expectations, they really deserve a big round of drinks/applause. So, if you see any of the following people please do buy them a drink: Nitrate, Slobber, Hallow, FluKe, Mortal, Blade, Shoprite_Packet, DeMoNiK, Blink, Demraz

And so I wish you all the best for the rest of your exams, myself included.

gl hf ;)

Flipi ‘alcardu’

Full KOTH Stats:

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
01 September 2009 – Match 16 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
08 September 2009 – Match 17 – JJ vs mmK -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
15 September 2009 – Match 18 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
22 September 2009 – Match 19 – miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
29 September 2009 – Match 20 – miNt vs JJ -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
06 October 2009 – Match 21 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay
13 October 2009 – Match 22 – miNt vs dedA -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay
20 October 2009 – Match 23 – miNt vs JJ -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay
27 October 2009 – Match 24 – miNt vs dedA -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

JJ is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
01 September 2009 – Match 16 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
08 September 2009 – Match 17 – JJ vs mmK -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
15 September 2009 – Match 18 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
22 September 2009 – Match 19 – miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
29 September 2009 – Match 20 – miNt vs JJ -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
06 October 2009 – Match 21 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
13 October 2009 – Match 22 – miNt vs dedA -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
20 October 2009 – Match 23 – miNt vs JJ -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

dedA is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
01 September 2009 – Match 16 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
08 September 2009 – Match 17 – JJ vs mmK -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
15 September 2009 – Match 18 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
22 September 2009 – Match 19 – miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
29 September 2009 – Match 20 – miNt vs JJ -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
06 October 2009 – Match 21 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
13 October 2009 – Match 22 – miNt vs dedA -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

This tournament is proudly sponsored by Rectron, Powered by Twilight and Run by eGamer!

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

tankh is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
01 September 2009 – Match 16 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
08 September 2009 – Match 17 – JJ vs mmK -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
15 September 2009 – Match 18 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
22 September 2009 – Match 19 – miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
29 September 2009 – Match 20 – miNt vs JJ -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
06 October 2009 – Match 21 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winner -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

This tournament is sponsored by Rectron, powered by Twilight Gaming and run by eGamer

This has been written in the opinion of Lemon Grass.

This is a post-game article of the latest King of the Hill DotA game between Mint Gaming and JJ.Dota on the 29th of September 2009

Mint

VS

JJ

The Draft

In the drafts we see jj eliming heroes that miNt uses particularly well in the past namely; chen bambi and clock followed by one “imba hero” elim (tc). miNt is seen eliming two heroes that we simply hate playing against (tide and viper) followed by another two “imba hero” bans. miNt dominated the picks having a very all rounded strat. Plenty gang, plenty AoE, plenty carry, and plenty push, enough support, not too many farming intensive heroes. miNt’s lanes were extremely strong (ill get back to this later). The strat is an early-mid game one, but still can manage late game. JJ chose a VERY item intensive strat (aka rice aka turtle). Four out of the five heroes are all item dependant (this means that the heroes are reliant on getting expensive items – required to farm a lot.) So their strat is considered a late game one. JJ relied on the Avernus and NA to ward (which really nerfed the NA). JJ’s lanes were not very strong, the only gang they had was NA and they lacked AoE with undying being their only push. Overall miNt won the draft and took great advantage of this from the word go.

I have the replay of the first part of the game, up to where jj..notouchthis dropped. I will include it here.

The Lanes

Top: POTM (LeMoN-GrAsS) vs Undying (sAidy)

Mid: Darkseer (MrAsSmAn) vs Sniper (freez) + NA (Machine)

Bot: Syllabear (Waz_maC) vs Morph (Blizzy) + Avernus (Sixis)

Roam: ES (kspr) + CM (sLoJ)

As you can see from the lanes, sentinel had stronger lanes overall. Top and middle had constant gangs from the two roamers which resulted in many kills and huge amount of pressure. Waz_maC solo’s bottom without problem (one of the beauties of Syllabear is that it can solo against almost any lane). Although very little pressure was put on him (only one gang from the NA which did not result in a kill). The action of this game happens mid and top. Having two heroes dedicated to roaming creates a huge amount of pressure on the other team. Having to provide vision of more than just the river. miNt had a very aggressive strat but at the same time it allowed for the Syllabear, Potm and even the DS to farm. This is a perfect combination. miNt took advantage of jj’s lack of early game dominance from the word go.

First Blood

First blood top is a perfect example of the two roamers making a huge impact on the game. The first gang top occurs when the undying attempts to claim a creep kill, before he knows it, he is blocked and frozen shortly after. One his last attempt to escape, he finds him self smacked in the face with a dangerous arrow of death. (lol). This early gang is one of the many that the es and cm controlled. This game can play as a great example for anyone who is keen to see how roam. They communicated very well, the skill of kspr’s es and experience of sLoJ led to a deadly combination. These gangs were made possible with very good counter warding.

Throughout the game, the only hero on JJ’s side that was not being ganged and was managing to farm decently was Blizzy’s Morph. He managed to pick up a large amount of kills, and farmed quite a lot. He would capitalize on the contrasting movement speeds of miNts heroes – Syllabear and DS would chase very far and the CM and POTM would try to as well, only to be picked off by the Morphling. So with morph being miNts only fear, we pushed hard. The combination of Syllabear (with images) POTM and DS wall, towers dropped extremely fast. JJ’s lack of AoE prevented them from stopping our pushes. Before JJ knew it, we had raxed. The POTM farmed

Throughout this game there are large amounts of individual skill shown. This is a game to watch.

GG

This tournament is proudly sponsored by Rectron, Powered by Twilight and Run by eGamer!

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

JJ is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
01 September 2009 – Match 16 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
08 September 2009 – Match 17 – JJ vs mmK -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
15 September 2009 – Match 18 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
22 September 2009 – Match 19 – miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
29 September 2009 – Match 20 – miNt vs JJ -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

This tournament is proudly sponsored by Rectron, Powered by Twilight and Run by eGamer!

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

dedA is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
01 September 2009 – Match 16 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
08 September 2009 – Match 17 – JJ vs mmK -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
15 September 2009 – Match 18 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
22 September 2009 – Match 19 – miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

Koth, I want, to be with you all of the time!

Match 18 once again gave me a reason to live (: The reigning kings, Just Juking [Scourge], were taken on by the voted challengers, Dedicated`Abuse [Sentinel]. Last week Just Juking had pocketed their second Koth point, bringing them up to a total of 2 points and tying them in second place with Dedicated`Abuse and tankH.

Shockingly enough, this week by the time I was sitting down and pulling a glass closer, the game was hosted – the players were ready – and I was being told we were actually ON TIME! Almost fell off my chair.. but we went at it and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The replay for this week is available here:

• Replay – HERE

The Bans help:

JJ: dirge tide rhasta NA

dedA: bat bane bambi TC

As you can see most of the trouble makers were eliminated. Tidehunter is not a standard ban at all though, and must have been JJ reading into dedA’s likely strat and trying to upset their plans. The only real surprise here is that Tide must have replaced ES as an elimination, which is strange because it is well known that dedA like their ES medium to rare.

The Picks, Assignments and Lanes:

JJ:

• Lina [Notouchthis] – Bot
• SF [sAidy] – Top Solo
• SK [SixiS] – Bot
• clock [Midas/Blizzy] – Mid
• Veng [nrg/Machine] – Mid/roaming

JJ opted for a slightly unorthodox strategy, using the (now old school) SF and Veng in their draft. SF is by definition a solo hero, geared for farming and late game destruction, and we saw JJ employing him as such. Veng on the other hand is a slight all rounder. With her nice stun and useful-without-items ulti she garners favour as a roaming ganger and warder. Alternatively she functions very well as a supporting carry, should she acquire the necessary farming time. Her ulti also makes her quite dangerous to an untrained team as a surprise initiator, swapping a vital hero out of allied reach and sacrificing herself for the kill a lot of the time.

Clock of course would be a solo as well, and lastly the SK Lina lane (Still one of my all time favourites, with Drow Viper, Viper Huskar and Lina CM) bringing up the rear with its classic dual stun action.

dedA:

• Potm [glitch] – Bot
• Morph [ClitsybananaS] – Top Solo
• Viper  [WingSter] – Mid
• Abba [BonKerS] – Mid
• ES [CryT_T/Xera`] – Bot/Roaming

On dedA’s side things looked slightly less surprising, but still quite interesting. Morph would be sitting in a solo lane, but here again we have a second solo, this time Viper. This leaves ES Abbadon and Potm. ES and Potm can form quite a destructive lane, while Abbadon is one of the most irritating and surprising babysitters that Dota has to offer. With his Apothic shield and heal he can save team mates from near death experiences and at the same time his Ulti gives him the freedom to not worry about himself.

The Kick-off:

Straight out of the boxes JJ did what I like to call a KS.Int move and had 4 of their heroes running down into the Sentinel bush to try and score a pre-creep kill, with only SF going straight top to block his creeps upon them spawning. Unlucky for JJ, dedA was also moving in a direction, which was that of the top Rune spot. This meant that before the match started we had a lot of ground being covered, with 0 clashes.

The top rune spawned, and ES picked up Invisibilility. This resulted in the first gang (and fail) of the match, as Viper, Abbadon, ES and Veng tried to take out Clockwork mid. Unfortunately ES blocked Clockwork backwards and fumbled firstblood for his team.

Pictured: As usual, xeRa’s unsure about who’s side he’s on…

Interestingly enough both mid solo’s in the match had accompanying baby sitters: Clockwork had Veng running in and out of the area while Viper had Abbadon by his side. Thus mid was not actually solo.

The Meaty Midsection:

The match itself once again gave us a great show of the communication taking place in both teams. With many a TP scroll being bought and spent as the teams fought to gain the upper hand in kills across the map. Gangs, counter gangs, warding, juking and surgical assassinations were running rife through the game, as neither team wanted to give an inch and always came back that much harder upon conceding a kill.

Pictured: Saidy says put your hands up in the air!

SF farmed blink and BKB as his primary goal into mid game, while no other hero was doing nearly as well at the time. Morph had a tough time through the first part of the game – being ganged repeatedly and losing a lot of his farming time and already farmed gold in the process.

And so JJ was taking the lead into the first half of the game. Although the kills were close still, and only 1 tower separated the teams on the map, JJ were pushing their aggressive advantage with their farmed SF and dedA were looking to be in for a lot of trouble, with no real items yet to bolster their defense.

Equilibrium and over:

And so there came a time, when JJ was pushing into the second mid tower of dedA: SF was slaughtering wave upon wave, while the rest of his team hid in the bush by his side, hoping to take the opposition unawares. At this time the whole of dedA were forcing their way to the first top tower of JJ.

Top tower went down faster than mid, as it was already damaged, and so dedA’s mid tower was still in the red. Instantly we saw a blooming blue pattern form as one after the other the whole of dedA kicked TP scrolls into action (Morph used a replica he had sent mid earlier). What ensued was an incredibly intense battle with all 3 commentators trying to keep up, all over each other ^^

Pictured: Errrr beam us down Scotty.

As soon as the first TP completed, SF blinked, BKB’d and initiated his ulti, while the rest of his team came charging around the bottom corner of the trees. Potm was one of the first heroes on the ground, and upon seeing the situation, placed an incredibly useful ulti (I believe this is why dedA didn’t simply all die). Thus SF ulti went off, hit the whole of dedA, but they were all invis and JJ had no one to focus down. Meanwhile dedA were quickly reforming and getting into position. One second, another, a hit here, and suddenly Potm ulti was done and dedA popped back into sight, hurdling for JJ’s throat.

Pictured: Saidy: “MARCO!

This was the first fight that dedA came out victoriously of. With no dust or sentries, JJ had no way of hunting dedA down as they came down on the tower, and so were unable to take the battle.

After this battle we slowly saw dedA starting to push back JJ and take back some ground on the map.

Me, myself and my double:

So what made dedA win at the end of the day? Was it their determination, sheer force of will, big mouths and small w*****s? No, they had a million copies of themselves! Morph’s copies alone were able to push lanes and towers (Watch top as he does just that with the base tower). With manta upon manta dedA overwhelmed JJ in the end with numbers and survivability.

Pictured: It’s like playing dota after a few tequila’s but seeing tripple instead of double…

JJ’s SF and clock simply could not generate the amount of damage necessary to take on such odds and so were pushed back again and again (You see, SK Lina and Veng have no late game carry potential. And JJ’s mid-game focused strat did not succeed). Bot rax fell to the onslaught, top rax fell to the onslaught and mid rax soon followed. dedA were congratulated ‘good turtle wd’ and the match was over.

And so we now have a new reigning king team, our original point scorers are back, ladies and gentlemen – Dedicated`Abuse!

We hope all the watches and listeners had as good a time as we did bringing you another week of Koth’y goodness and we hope to see all of you again next week. Please stop by the poll for next week and cast your votes – mmK has unfortunately left us, but I am happy to announce that miNt is back! So drop by and vote for who you want to see taking on our new Kings next week.

I’m alcardu, and Checkers_Bag and Hallow owe me their virginity ;) Goodnight!

P.S. Thanks to the fattest guy I know for some of the pic’s, some captions and for posting.

-The King of the Hill DotA Series is sponsored by Rectron and powered by eGamer and Twilight Gaming-

Week 18 Match 17 – JJ.Dota vs mmK

This week we saw reigning Koth champions JJ.Dota take on mmK, in what could only be described as an extremely fast paced and exciting match. mmK haven’t featured in the King of the Hill Series since week 4, having been bested by dedA at that time.

ELIMS

JJ started the drafting, and the elims were nothing out of the ordinary: Viper being elimed by mmK thanks to his recent buff and both new heroes being removed as well. You will see that JJ was eliminating very quickly (Probably letting a single person do the drafting and maybe deciding ahead of the time on a few standard heroes to get out of the way.) while mmK was taking out the most popular trouble makers.

JJ

mmK

PICKS:

Some of you might wonder why Blood Seeker did not feature, however with a little reflection and some attention during the drafting phase you can come to a rough conclusion.

mmK opened the picks with Dirge, the fun loving tank with good farming and solo potential. JJ kicked off their own drafting with Clockwork and ES, thus making an Enigma pick a much weaker choice.

In total JJ seemed to try a slightly more fun approach to defending their title, using both CM and Sniper.

JJ.Dota

MmK

Overview:

I could tell you on a blow by blow basis what happened in the game. I could tell you about the warding, the battles, and the mistakes. I could give you some screenshots and substantiate my opinions. But I don’t believe that this game is worth that. The article would be pages upon pages long if I ever got to finish it and the list would be countless.

This game is a textbook on mobility and ganging. Exceptional use of TP scrolls turned many a gang, and even counter gang, into a full on battles. This fast pace was kept up late game as well, with more than one Boots of Travel making an appearance in the inventories on both sides. Both teams played exceptionally well, the scores neck and neck, with JJ eventually coming out just on top, mainly because of item difference and teamwork.

The only thing I can say is you HAVE to watch this game. Every single minute, right to the end, is action packed and filled with amazing play. The warding is good, the teamwork is good, the (counter) ganging is good and the communication within both teams was definitely also of the highest quality!

ITS GOOD. WATCH IT!

DeMo~

Ahoi one and all! Well I’m back from the Syncidy LAN held this past weekend, and what fun it was (:

What you have before you is a review of the Syncidy: Dota Tournament run at the event, so dig in and enjoy!

…
We launched, we gamed, and now we have even more work than before! WHAT! Nway let me fill you in on how our dota competition went:

The Dota tournament was scheduled to kick off at 11am Saturday morning, however it was postponed till around lunch time to ensure the players who didn’t spend the night Friday made it in time to compete. Happily the tournament kicked off with a total of 5 entries, with even the Syncidy admins jumping in to rumble with the attendees.

The teams who entered were:
Spar-letta
WEARECOOL
Syncidy
Gaming Logic
Babtism In Fire

With our focus on providing the maximum amount of fun in the tournament, the structure was adjusted to that of a Round Robin, thus ensuring all teams 4 full games minimum, with any tied prize-spots having their own play-offs afterwards.

The first matches kicked off around 2pm, with one team receiving a bye every round. The atmosphere was a mix of social trash talking, serious strategising, good fun and many an outburst. Having swapped some of the registration computers over to gaming stations, it was also possible to view a few of the admin players showing their (lack of) skill throughout their matches.

Around 7pm the dust settled around the battlefield and WEARECOOL [above] was standing victorious on top of the scoreboard. However second place was being contested by 3 teams and so a second bout of gaming ensued as these 3 teams started fighting over who gets the money and who gets the burger, coke and chips! Late into the night the battle was fought, with some of the best games of the tournament resulting from this.

Finally Babtism In Fire [above] was seen emerging from the dust clouds, victorious, leaving Gaming Logic [below] to place a final blow to the jaw of Syncidy [no picture] to secure third place.

Final Standings:
1st ] WeAreCool
2nd ] Babtism In Fire
3rd ] Gaming Logic

Congratulations to all 3 teams on their victories and we hope you enjoy(d) your Prizes! WEARECOOL received a total prize of R1500, with Babtism In Fire receiving a prize of R500 and Gaming Logic taking home (or devouring right there) the coveted Burger, Coke and Chips!

In total the tournament resulted in many a good memory and laugh (: From Syncidy’s side, a huge thank you to all you guys and girls for competing! We really enjoyed laughing, screaming and gaming with you all, and we look forward to doing the same the first weekend on November at our next event!

As a final word, please note – We received various questions regarding out prizes and how they might change depending on the turnout. As you can all see we did not alter the prizes at all. We pride ourselves on supplying the experience we advertise, and this policy includes our prizes.

Syncidy – Gaurenteed! (:

For a behind the scenes look at the LAN, directly from mr Gareth ‘Cidic’ Kropman, just follow [this link]

The full player list:

WEARECOOL
BonKerS
ClitsybananaS
frenzy
HorrorCast
Radox

Babtism In Fire
DoNuTT
OptiMum
SheLookedLvl18
Shr00m
Xaro

Gaming Logic
ab0rt3d
bronny
M1cron
SlynCky
Zh3nK

Syncidy
Ajay
Arcanius
Flossie
syn
cidic
lokix/berserk/alcardu

Spar-letta
ci3la
Thai_fighter
Hyper10n
Zelphar
|337BuNNy

As those of you not living under the proverbial cobblestones of the Twilight community know, eGamer Koth uses the fantastic rough diamond WaaaghTV to broadcast our matches live each Tuesday.

Unfortunately, with more than a mouse click or a stick wave comes the inevitable need to idiot-proof a program, and so it is also our pleasure to inform you that WaaaghTV is now easier to use than ever! That’s right, no more will you be required to download and explore a vast interface with 3 buttons! No more will admins be queried with lines containing the words ‘cannot’ and ‘understand’ within the same sentences!

We present to you the WaaaghTV Java Applet, an even easier alternative to using the full WaaaghTV program! Simply point your browser to the WaaaghTV website, look in the ‘Games’ section for the specific Koth match being streamed, click the green >> button next to it and you’re off to a world of Koth adventure!

Of course, in our effort to accommodate everyone we are also providing a guide to using the Java Applet to watch your favourite local players in action.

And the good news just keeps on pouring in: On the second of this month WaaaghTV acquired a brand spanking new Master Server for themselves. And so we say goodbye to the majority of our technical streaming problems as well!

See you guyz Tuesday night ;)

The official WaaahTV comment can be viewed on their website
The WaaaghTV Games page
Our guide to using the Java Applet HERE
And as always our Weekly Koth Poll

This tournament is proudly sponsored by Rectron, Powered by Twilight and Run by eGamer!

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin — Inactive
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

dedA is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article
01 September 2009 – Match 16 – JJ vs dedA -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

This tournament is proudly sponsored by Rectron, Powered by Twilight and Run by eGamer!

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin — Inactive
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

Tankh is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
25 August 2009 – Match 15 – JJ vs Tankh -> Winners -> JJ -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

Battle of the Clan for Call of Duty 4 will end on the 30th of August when brazeN face-off with Pantheon Gaming in the finals at 18:00. The Pantheon team will be required to beat the brazeN team twice as they were previously over come by the winners bracket champions earlier in the tournament.

The brazeN line-up will be:

- Sean “r0adrunner” Grobler (SMG)
- Michael “Bl4ck0ut” Ferguson (SMG)
- Stephen “Vitrolic” White (Assault)
- Steyn “Vindicator” Grobler (Assault)
- Max “fAiTH” Mclaughlin (Scope)

The Pantheon line-up will be:

- David “Numb” Guimaraes (SMG / Assault)
- Hayden “Pooks” Huntington (SMG)
- Kevin “Privacy” Woodland (Assault)
- Gary “Craolia” Noble (SMG / Assault)
- Chris “Evax” Noble (Scope)

A couple of players have said that brazeN will defeat Pantheon in the finals as the teams current form is just spectacular. The unfortunate detail about Pantheon having to win twice will definitely mount extra pressure on the team when they battle for prize money.

The sources, interviewed by doGaming, said that the brazeN team has already beaten Pantheon on their strongest maps, Crossfire and Strike.

Pantheon has a strong heart, and we can only say best of luck to both teams.

Spectators will be happy to hear that the entire game will be shout casted over Teamspeak (196.2.97.211:8767), as well as relayed on IRC with a score-bot in the #cod4rank channel on the ShadowFire IRC server.

Winners of the final will receive a R5,000 Incredible Connection voucher, where second place will be awarded with R2,350. The team that is placed third will receive R1,550.

[s:doGaming]

Hello everyone, as you can see this week’s review is late. Unfortunately some late night emailing resulted in various attachments never making their way to the recipient. But here we are!

We hope you enjoy this review of another epic match! As always, should you simply want to view the match yourself, the replay is available HERE

Week 15 saw miNt still sitting comfortably on the throne they have defended since the start of July. Tankh came out of the voting as the favourite, and soon was faced with the considerably task of dethroning miNt.

The Bans:
Morph | Undying | Bloodseeker | Clockwork || Taurenchief | rhasta | kitty | Bambi

The Sentinel [TankH]:
Batrider | Narubian Assasin | Bane | Tidehunter | Viper

The Scourge[MiNt]:
Abbadon | Enigma | Puck | Earthshaker | Void

First blood was scored by Remixdanny (scant), captain of tankh. Himself and NA had sneakily changed course mid push and intercepted the roaming ES from the bushes, and killed him. There were a few seconds when they risked losing their courier, but luckily it survived.

A few seconds later ES bounced back with a TP gang top, using his fissure to block the lane against the trees and giving Void a nice kill. Viper survived this gang but had to retreat to base to heal.

Mint solo’ng their Enigma middle was a fresh look at the hero, seeing as he features almost exclusively in the bush now days. Solo’ng Bane is also not an easy task, but with some nice minion-denials and a helping hand from ES saw Enigma successfully drawing ahead of Bane. Bane’s deadliness was proven as he was on the verge of killing Enigma at soon as he reached lvl 6, but ES foiled his ulti with a supporting stun.

10 minutes into the game Batrider was doing very well for his team with a 4-0 K/D ratio, 36 creep kills and a first blood to his name. MiNt’s side saw Waz_mac, the turtle deity, doing well for himself against the opposing dual-slow lane, with some help from Abbadon.

13 minutes saw Viper baiting miNt extremely well mid. MiNt, not knowing Viper had support standing by, jumped at the seemingly easy kill, only to be met with a strong supportive counter by tankH. Viper got a double kill and soon the mid tower on the scourge side had fallen.

26 minutes into the game tankH was leading in both towers and kills, having taken down both external towers of scourge’s mid and top lane. Some aggressive warding by tankH in the scourge bush also saw them starting to box miNt in a bit behind. At this point it was obvious that tankH would be pressing miNt steadily and hard all game in the hopes that when Void hits proverbial puberty it would be to late.

28 minutes Batrider finds Puck and Enigma around the bot river area. Some quick blinking, sheeping and general teamwork paid off for tankH, walking away with a 1 for 4 kill’s advantage over miNt from the battle. As miNt started to look lost tankH was taking their 6th tower bot lane, followed it up with some more wards from the faithful NA and proceeded to completely control the map.

Around 28 minutes we saw tankH making their first real mistake. All miNt’s outer towers were down and they were being pressed into their base. TankH decided to move into top bush and make a push for miNt’s base tower and raxes. Unfortunately miNt’s draft was at its strongest in such a defensive battle, being up a hill for tankH and much smaller in area, which compliments ES and Void and Enigma’s ulti’s all incredibly. As predicted by the commentators, tankH was hard pressed to make a positive result out of this battle, and succumbed to the area of effect ulti’s of miNt. After this battle Void was looking quite strong, and the suspicion began to creep in that miNt would once again make a legendary comeback, as they did lat week.

NA and Puck were having ward side battles, and Puck used this opportunity to counterward the scourge bush and free them of the NA’s malicious eyes. Yet tankH was far from falling yet, Viper now had a heart to compliment his hood of defiance, and Bane had tankH’s second Guinsoos, which gave tankH incredible disabling power over miNt, if they could utilise it effectively.

As with all histories, this game again repeated an age old situation: MiNt was busy chopping at Roshan around 40 minutes, but had to back off as tankH caught scent of this and advanced. What ensued as the usual to-and-fro as both teams tried to lure the other into slipping up. MiNt ended up the lesser this time, tankH pounced on a stray target, and soon the battle was decided in their favour. TankH rushed mid and took down the rax with ease. Soon after miNt’s top rax also fell to a sneaky viper, which crept out of the battle and proceeded to finish the rax while Void was finishing his team behind him. After this battle it was evident that not only were miNt in some serious trouble, but Void was also unbelievably strong, with the exception of a BKB to combat all of tankH’s disables.

The last bit of the puzzle fell (into place), along with Void, middle, when he found himself on the wrong end of a 1v4 gang by tankH. Guinsoos flashing and ulti’s shaking the earth, tankH threw all they had at the Void and were rewarded by a Godlike Streak ended. Ignoring bot lane and rax, tankH stormed straight into miNt’s base and clicked the ancient, which was already considerably damaged. MiNt’s remaining heroes were unable to effectively hamper tankH and in a few more seconds GG was called by both sides.

And so miNt’s tyranny has come to an end. Retreating to lick their wounds I doubt this is the last we’ve seen of them though. In the mean time tankH is now sitting proudly on their throne as the new King of the Hill.

Stay tuned next week to see how they fare in defending their newly won kingdom..

Gg
mortLOL

The Battle of the Clans (BOTC) team has decided to lift the ban on the Counter Strike Source team Royalty Games Club Sport (also known as Hybrid). The ban on the player who was adjudged to have cheated remains in place.

Rob ‘iNFy’ Hart, BOTC organiser, says the decision was taken to follow AGASA’s lead as from what he can see, it only bans the player(s) concerned and not necessarily the whole team.

“AGASA’s policy seems to not ban the team, but rather just just ban the player. We spoke to community leaders and most of them said we should ban the player and unban the team. They only used the player concerned in some of their games,” he says.

For the full story please click here.

This tournament is proudly sponsored by Rectron!

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin — Inactive
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Audio Recorder & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel: #egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu.

Voting

Exclusions:

miNt is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
21 July 2009 – Match 11 -> miNt vs dedA -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
28 July 2009 – Match 12 -> miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article
18 August 2009 – Match 14 – miNt vs Tankh -> Winners -> Tankh -> Replay -> Post game article

The full scoreboard, updated weekly, can be found at KothSeries.

miNt Gaming, Equilibrium Team Fortress 2 (TF2) and IS Gaming have all teamed up to host an online TF2 competition – the 1v1 Soldier Rebirth Competition.

The point of the competition is to build up the TF2 competitive community in South Africa in a fun way. MiNt Gaming and Equilibrium.TF2 have noticed a large influx of TF2 players in the last few months, but have also noticed that most TF2 players are fairly casual towards the game.

So to give gamers an easy opportunity to see how enjoyable true competitive play is for TF2, the 1v1 Soldier Rebirth Competition gives TF2 gamers the ability to guage their skill with TF2 players all over the country, showcase their skill and become recognised within the TF2 community.

As there are only 50 spots available, TF2 gamers who are keen to go for it should register quickly. The tournament is free to enter and registration closes on 16 August. It will run over a period of six weeks, with the first two stages being two weeks each.

All matches will be played on the all new arena maps released by Valve. The player who reaches a certain number of rounds first will be the winner and will move through to the next round of the Cup. The number of rounds required to win will depend on the stage of the Cup, says miNt Gaming.

To register, gamers must register at the miNt Gaming forums (click here). Once registered, gamers go to this link and fill in the necessary details.

The ruleset can be found here.

Any general info about the competition can be found at the Mint Gaming site here.

There are only 8 spots left, so hurry if you want your shot at being South Africa’s number one Soldier.

The King of the Hill DotA Series is sponsored by Rectron and powered by eGamer and Twilight Gaming

King of the Hill Dota Series: Week 11 – miNt Gaming VS JJ.Dota. An EPIC Game. By far the best game this series.

Gather round children, tonight we have storytime with with Nicholas ‘Lemon-grass’. He tells of heroes, blood curling battles, risk, fear, reward and victory. So snuggle up and enjoy!

[You, fat kid in the back. If you don’t want to listen then go watch the game yourself and listen to the commentary!]

Replay

Commentary

I am writing this article from my point of view, of course with as little bias as possible, but it being the first ‘inside scoop’ game review: prepare yourselves! I recommend you watching the replay if you don’t like spoilers because, you can ask scant, the ending is not expected, and is what makes this an epic game. As GosuGamers puts it, “RR”. — Lemon-Grass

MiNt
Batrider – ES – Kiti – Rhasta – CM

JJ
Puck – Chen – WL – BS – Lion

The drafting went as follows:

There was nothing special in the elimination phase, things were pretty standard. We (miNt) laughed about the morph elimination, as sLoJ rates he was the reason for it ^_^ This was one of the few games where we didn’t have Clock/Avernus/Morph, we were using a new lineup. We were confident picking ES, having a very good ES player (kspr). Our Batrider pick was influenced by Waz_maC’s recent love with his high base damage (allowing easy farming).

The Lanes:

Top:
ES (kspr) + PotM (lemon-grasS) vs BloodSeeker (sAidy) + lion (Machine)
*note* Lots of action, probably the lane to watch. Gang mania for everyone.

Mid:
Bat (Waz_maC) vs Puck (sixis)

Bot:
Rhasta (sLoJ) vs WL (freez)

Bush (Scourge)
Chen (Wingster)

Roaming
CM (MraSsMan)

First blood
First blood results from a gang from the roaming CM on the lion. A good fissure followed by an arrow secures the blood of Machine’s Lion.

Later another gang from the CM and another good ES stun results in BS dying. Waz_maC was out farming the Puck middle, with 19-15 CS while puck had 5-5.

Wingster played a very good Chen throughout the game; the most memorable part of it for me must have been the frustrating mana burn, it prevented us from engaging quite a few times.

8 Minutes: Bottom

Here we see some very clever play by sLoJ using his wards at the right time to scare the WL, clear the creeps (including the wagon) and make it in time to deny the tower. Interesting fact was how WL out pushed the Rhasta, but of course with creep pulls and WL’s bas damage it can be explained.

*Note for those who are still young in DoyA using spells (even ultimates) for creeps or denies is very acceptable and often better than the melee attack of the hero, of course its all situational and experience is the key to success

sLoJ shows his experience and skill here, denying the scourge 1000 gold.

10 Minutes – The Creep Stats

1 — Waz_maC with 53-31
2 — freez with 42-11
3 — sLoJ with 30-7
4 –  sAidy with 24-2

As seen Waz_maC farmed very hard and had his radiance in under 15 minutes. Although it was impressive, we unfortunately didn’t utilize it to its full potential.

Warding

This game is very ward intensive, with a war raging between MraSsMan and Machine. At almost any time in the replay, Machine has provided his team with very useful vision which is probably why many consider him being the best support in the country.

* Note Chen was buying a large amount of the wards as the hero is not item dependent

His ability to give his team vision really makes life difficult for any sort of gang. It also helps tremendously in every battle. Vision is key. This is seen top at 10:55 where CM and ES are engaged on by the Scourge, ES makes an escape but a large push is created by the scourge. Without the ward placement, Scourge might not have been so keen to engage. Messy fighting takes place after the push is defended and miNt clean up some chase kills, some miss communication from both teams as mini engages and withdrawals frequently occurred.

*Note Waz_maC was bottom farming/pushing the whole time (73-35 creeps) and soon takes the tower

Communication

9 out of 10 times when you cringe in a replay, it’s because of a lack of communication or confusion with the communication. 13:32 is a perfect example; miNt has the opportunity to kill Chen or WL, but because of confusion neither WL nor Chen dies. These failed 4 man gangs really start to hurt the team because a huge amount of exp and gold is wasted while the other team is left to farm.

14 Minute Battle

This battle is easily won by scourge; once again the WL and Puck catch two of miNt heroes separated from the team and swiftly engage on them. The warlocks infernal allows a large amount of tanking to be done by the scourge and the nuke of puck makes mince of the cm. Good co-ordination from the scourge as spells were not stacked and no deaths occurred on their behalf.

Teleporting

When you see this, you get scared..

… Because at the other end of this is:

The other main reason to be scared is that when you have a chain TP it usually means its coordinated (not individual decision) which means that everyone has an idea of their plan in the battle (which often leads to a successful one). The last reason is that when playing against ES, you have to be ultra careful that you don’t get “ES’D” which basically means that many of your team get caught by ES in his ulti with creeps around.

*Note how fast spells are cast, and how quickly the scourge’s hp dropped

The battle only resulted in the WL dying and the tower was not denied, however from this we can learn another big mistake miNt made in this game:

Chasing too far

After the death of the WL miNt choose to chase the Scourge heroes and after the PotM misses her arrow (if it was 1mm longer: P) they still continue to chase. Big mistake. The JJ takes advantage of the error and end up with a few picks leaving miNt with nothing but a bleak TS channel. From many errors that occurred like this, the blood seeker benefited and the scourge farmed up slowly. Later JJ can be seen as chasing too far (but probably more justified to be doing so – having BS) but are out played by a brilliant piece of skill from Waz_maC. This good play (with the reactions of miNt result in BS and WL dying AND Waz_maC escaping.

20 Minute Battle

This battle see’s miNt being out played. JJ initiate well again. miNt make the mistake of separating (communication again) and end up very hurt after this battle. This is a turning point in the game – after this battle JJ start to dominate completely with miNt making silly mistakes and JJ capitalizing on them. JJ farmed up while miNt’s game play worsened. It is important to try remaining focus after losing such a big battle, because it can easily lose you the game, when it doesn’t have to.

29 Minute Battle

miNt lose 2 and JJ lose 2. miNt gains tower. This battle teaches you how much rupture hurts while leaping. :)

31 Minute

This is called being baited. Another huge mistake made by miNt, engaging on a target very far away, with no vision of the surrounding area (while they have Chen). This turned out badly too and JJ dominated for a while after this farming freely.

By 45 minutes JJ were completely on top, pushing towers, dominating us in battles… Things were really looking grim and doom for miNt. JJ had basically out farmed us overall. Soon miNt was rax’d too and it all looked like it was over. I mean even scant stopped watching. But there is one thing a few of the players in miNt are known for (mainly mrasssman and myself, but kspr is included in this) is our positive/happy attitudes. This combined with our controlled captain who manages to refocus us at dire times (such as this) led to an epic game. We knew the only chance of us winning from where we were was to turtle and play extremely well in our next few battles… We needed to engage at the best time on the right heroes and even then we would need JJ to make some mistakes for it to work out. And so we did…

The 52 minute push was held off by miNt and we managed to do decently in the battle with some survival. From this battle we felt that we still COULD win. The 55 minute battle was the ultimate turning point. We had turtled enough, a very intense battle began, we were lucky for the blood seeker to have missed his ulti, and engaged on the puck, our engagement led to a rough battle in which we were victorious. We managed to kill the blood seeker quite quickly without him being able to do a lot of DPS (thanks to bat riders ulti + arrow). Our position in this battle was very good, we had the hills and very well placed wards helped us win it. This victory led to us wanting to frantically push. Bottom was the only pushed lane, and our base was full of creeps. sLoJ made the decision for the CM to defend and for Rhasta, PoTM (manta) and bat (high base damage) to mission for the rax. With no one to defend (except chen) We managed to rax bottom and middle in one go. Now we had the momentum we needed to win.

We ended with one last push top where the final rax was destroyed.

This game truly was epic. A really good game… It’s a lesson to all teams out there… Do NOT give up… Never –ff before the end… Because you never know what can happen. I really recommend watching the replay. It was really awesome to play. A magnificent play from both sides, truly top tier teams!

“Good game”

LemOn-GrasS

This tournament is proudly sponsored by Rectron!

Vote for the team which you would like to challenge the King!

Rules

You can view the full rule set and how the tournament works over here.

KOTH Admin Team:

Alcardu – Admin Head & Commentator
Contact him by email here

Blink – Co-Admin — Inactive
Contact him by email here

Demonik – Co-Admin
Contact him by email here

Slobber – Dedicated Host
Contact him by email here

MortaL – Helpline
Contact him by email here

fluKe – Ingame Admin & Streamer
Contact him by email here

Demraz|B| – TeamSpeak & Bot Host
Contact him by email here

Hallow – Commentator
Contact him by email here

Nitrate – Deity
Contact him by email here

Admins are reachable in our IRC channel:
#egamer [shadowfire.org]

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly or have a complaint, contact Alcardu

Voting

Exclusions:

JJ.dota is excluded this week as they lost their last game.

Results

05 May 2009 – Exhibition Match -> tankh vs dedA -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
12 May 2009 – The Beginning -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
19 May 2009 – One or None -> miNt vs dedA-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
26 May 2009 – First Blood -> dedA vs mmk-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
02 June 2009 – Two To Tango -> dedA vs SF-> Winners -> dedA -> Replay -> Post game article
09 June 2009 – New Kings on the Block -> dedA vs miNt-> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
16 June 2009 – Clash of the Titans -> miNt vs tankh-> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
23 June 2009 – New Blood has been Shed -> tankh vs Ks`za -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
30 June 2009 – Match 8 -> tankh vs JIMP -> Winners -> tankh -> Replay -> Post game article
07 July 2009 – Match 9 -> tankh vs miNt -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
14 July 2009 – Match 10 -> miNt vs KsZa -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Post game article
04 August 2009 – Week Break – Check out the Article here
11 August 2009 – Match 13 – miNt vs JJ.dota -> Winners -> miNt -> Replay -> Commentary -> Post game article