After many a month of preparation and the recent qualifying competition, Crossfight proper is ready to begin tonight on Matchweek 1. Despite some ongoing teething problems with the onsite software, we have two hot games on tonight. Places in the top and holding brackets are at stake, just who will end the night in what position?

Remember, the prizes which will be announced next week are awarded to teams who have won the most games and who have been leader for the longest, so tonight's teams have an added advantage over the rest as they vye for some top of the range hardware. It's not too late to join in! Simply challenge any of the relegation zone teams between Friday and Sunday to be in with a chance of playing. All the issues we've had this week with this will go away by next week!

Lets move on to the serious business of tonight's games. This is what the standings look like at the moment, but who knows what will happen in just a few hours time. Lets have a look at our games tonight on this, xfight Matchweek 1.



Maps tonight are frostbite and supply.

Lineups

ultimaRatio
day_
bruZl4H
purzl
artis
n3co
stoRm
Stronger Than Hate
butchji
keran
gifty
eddie
adzz
frozz

sublime
Hype
ins
mixer
vanq
bZ
clarkje
Rewind
N/A

Further to last Monday's newspost, I'm happy to inform you that the groups for the upcoming cup on Wednesday are now ready and live. This draw was done at random with Rotterdam style paper balls. The draw is here.

For the clans involved, please note what group you are in and the clans you will be playing. Bear in mind that to qualify for Crossfight, you have to finish in the top 2 of your particular group. This will ultimately lead to 10 teams progressing, while 10 are eliminated. If you do not see your clan on the list, your application was either too late, or rejected.

zP's postion is now filled. Teams are welcome also to seek backup status, should any other clans experience any problems come Wednesday.

All games will be played on Wednesday (Nov 8), this means you will be playing 3 games in one night. Each team has been assigned a letter: A,B,C or D. This letter tells you in what order you will play your games:

Match 1 - 19.00 CET, Maps - sw_gold + radar
A plays B
C plays D

Match 2 - 20.30 CET, Maps - supplydepot2 + ice
A plays C
B plays D

Match 3 - 22.00 CET, Maps - braundorf + frostbite
A plays D
B plays C

Please have at least one idler from your clan in #crossfight at all times. Good luck to all involved. Just as a reminder, as with other Crossfire events, this is taking place in 6v6.
Remember to hug taLa for his pro css skillz.

Soon season 2 of the koth competition will start, dressed in new clothes! Under the new name Crossfight and an altered/improved format, we hope to see some very nice games over the coming weeks and months.

I would like to confirm now that we will be running the competition in 6v6. We will use the Crossfight 6v6 Online config, a download can be found here.

To find the starting teams, we will be running a short 'cup' on Wednesday 8th November. The signup limit is 20 teams, with 5 groups of 4 teams giving 2 qualifiers from each group. This results in 10 Crossfight teams plus cdap oddjob who have already qualified. While these teams will begin in Crossfight, their places are open to be taken by outside clans who challenge them. More details about this can be found in the rules.

If your clan wishes to take part in Crossfight, please click here and include your clanname as it appears on Crossfire. If your clan is not registered already, please go to the register page. Signups are first come, first serve. Please only apply if you are realistically Opencup Premier skill or higher. Don't worry if I don't reply!

I mentioned that the format has changed. Crossfight is now fully integrated into Crossfire 3 and uses an easy-to-use user interface to schedule matches and manage your Crossfight agenda. This will become apparent when the section goes live after the conclusion of this cup. A list of all the rules and format details can be seen on the rules page (live soon). A cup page will be updated with signups and a bracket, you can find it here (starting cup page).

Signups are now closed, thank you!

When Big Igor Voldov woke up this morning with a raging headache, you might be forgiven for excusing his naive visions of beating Helix on the grounds of last night's vodka party. But today's game against helix is more than just a chance of a win, its also vib's last real chance of staying alive in ESL's IPS series final stage. With near 13,000 euros at stake as displayed by this charming banner on my right, the stakes right now mean vib will be desperate to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

Helix meanwhile do not find themselves in such troublesome waters. Having taken a win against a struggling sFx LAN side in their opening game, a victory tonight would see the Germans move joint top alongside Idle and Diversus with 2 wins apiece out of two. Whilst a loss tonight would perhaps be seen as unthinkable for Helix who start as clear favourites, it would in no way have the same impact as a loss for Violence is Bad, who with two losses from two are now very much in last chance saloon. They can see the money slowly edging ever further away, and have a mountain to climb tonight if they are to avenge their previous defeats to aMenti and diversus. Violence could have met helix in less desperate times only this August if not for a cancelled ET-Cup game but now, only a win will do.



Lineups
Helix: biqq, drago, evil, riddla, ramin, conan
Vib: fuzz, dunno, Officer, Clown, zerender, vinyl

Time- 23:00 CET
Maps- Adlernest, braundorf

So here we are on Xfire 3. At times it looked as if the moment would never happen, and it certainly wouldn't but for the incredible efforts of our head coder,
taLamasca. At the Crossfire LAN in Rotterdam I took a few moments out with taLa to talk Xfire 3 and discover a little more about our reclusive creator, the results of which can now be seen in our brand new interviews section. Here's a short extract to whet your appetite:

Quote

I offer taLa the chair as there is only one, and we get down to the nitty gritty. The subject of course is xfire 3, and I begin by asking him just how much of a challenge the process of taking xfire from 2 to 3 has been. This clearly is a subject taLa can speak for a long time on. His eyebrows furrow, and I'm given the sort of look that says 'if only you knew'. He talks about the trials of practically rewriting the site in order to remove all the bugs, and starting the new version from the ground up. He reels through the list with speed, touching on security, expanding features, starting with a blank canvass, not to mention the ever changing objectives being placed before him. Ending with a sigh, this last point seems to weigh in almost heavy fashion on his mind. Having spoken with taLa on many occasions before the LAN, I have an idea what he might say when pressed for the reasons.

View the full interview here

With the recent and concurrent heated debate over decisions made by CB to move to 5v5, many leagues and competitions have been quick to declare their stance, perhaps feeling a personal duty to side with those who called differently from ClanBase. Throughout this period, Crossfire have maintained their transparency on the issue, with no immediate upcoming plans for competitions allowing them to take a step back and analyse how successful either format remains following the transitory annoucement by Adacore.

When the crevasse showgame was arranged, the decision to play the game in 5v5 was made for several reasons including a desire to aim the map at the most prestigious mappool, that being of course the EuroCup. During the game, we also tested several aspects of a new config which had been in development previously. The tests were wholly successful and it is with pleasure that Crossfire are able to annouce the release of their certified online and offline (lan) configs. Crossfire continues to stay atop the fence regarding the issue of 5v5 / 6v6. The official quotable stance:

With no current active tournaments, and no timeframe defined for our next tournament, we will refrain from making a commitment at this early stage.

Included in the config pack comes both 5v5 and 6v6 versions of configs, all certified: 5v5 online, 5v5 LAN, 6v6 online, 6v6 LAN. The LAN configs are designed for a CPC type event, however a seperate 5v5/6v6 LAN config is also available for organisers of other LANs to fully utilise. You can find that pack HERE.

The Crossfight configs, to be used in all Crossfire based competitions, include the following changes:

[*] cl_maxpackets IN 60-100
[*] b_helmetprotection 0
[*] b_simpleitems 1 / 0 (derestricted)
[*] 5v5 Mines = 3 / 6v6 Mines = 4
[*] Knockback 800 (def 1000)
[*] Panzer allowed
[*] MG + Mortar disabled

LAN configs are exactly the same as online configs, except for rate being forced to 25000 and maxpackets forced to 100.

Download the certified Crossfire configs HERE.

This morning I logged onto xfire, and casually noted the findings of our latest poll. A few minutes later, my xchat buzzed and it was taLa, wanting to discuss some of finer details of our upcoming Crossfight competition. And then it hit me, why not combine the two?

For those of you who do not yet know, adlernest creator Dersaidin has just released his latest map, crevasse_b1, which many people believe to hold great potential. With a EuroCup approaching the maps have yet to be finalised, and how better to showcase a new map than to put it through the gruelling test of a broadcasted match environment. So after receiving many applications from teams wishing to play, we drew the names out of a hat, and we have our draw. Before I announce the teams, I would like to offer my thanks to all who applied: Fear Factory, cdap oddjob, cdap pi, elite, mvk, mustanaamiot, spawnraped, rev2, ec4 necromantia and vib.

So then, Wednesday's matchup:


Lineups

ec4 necromantia - hat / Viax / hentai / Meez / nev
cdap oddjob - kye / Ste / Baggiez / ngotie / Marvel

Update: In the last few minutes stewie[/url] of Radio iTG has confirmed he will be casting this game alongside myself. HeadShot Radio have also just signed up. Let us have a brief re-cap of the game:

[*] 5v5 format
[*] bo3 maps, crevasse_b1, crevasse_b1, frostbite
[*] Winner books guaranteed slot in Crossfight (xf3)

We all now know about the team named dMIZE. But be prepared to forget everything you know about that team, from the meteoric rise to near EuroCup glory last season, right up until last night's epic battle with idle which went all the way to the wire. Forget that, because dMIZE have, as their name suggested, succumbed to their demise, but not in the form that usually meets a EuroCup team. Instead, rising up out of the smoke comes a new and improved outfit under the support of ET specific MGC "aMenti", which has ambitions to take Europe by story this season. The aMenti lineup consists of:

[*] Players

Tomislav "aCoZz" Nizic
David "dAv1d" Philippaerts
Sergi "Winghaven" Torras
Tom "CrozZ" H.
Dario "XyLoS" Azzarelli
Ervin "seNti" Szappan
Gavin "sqzz" Buttler (bckp)

[*] Management

Atarax

[*] #aMenti
[*] Temp Web

Maybe you watched the last EC. Maybe you didn't. But regardless of rubbish puns that only bored or English people will get, the unlikely mixteam of Maybe did go some way to enjoying themselves last EuroCup season, reaching the quaterfinal stage. Now they're hungry for more, and with the two idle slots already taken, the team formally known as maybe has done the next best thing and assumed a new name, new players and will now try (or not as the case may be) to get past the proverbial 2 week stage. Playing under the name of "Pingwins", that goal looks likely with many a night already been spent on the wArning vent flashing their green lights at each other.

The pingwin lineup looks a little like this:

[*] Lightning
[*] joop
[*] chaoZ
[*] LION
[*] dr3am
[*] Gjerry

Clan frontman and all round poser Lightning had this to say:

The idea for this team started like 2 weeks before xfire lan 1, I always wanted to make my own team again but the players I knew from maybe were all taken. When some became cless I pmed the people I wanted and all were willing to go on with it. There were some problems like not able to find a 6th and the fact that I was going to play at Xfire Lan 1. Because of this the team idea came to a hold but after lan we picked it up and got our 6th and started praccing last week. The team is not ready for the big action yet but it will be in a couple of weeks.

The goal of the team is to participate in the upcoming EC and the next Xfire Lan. If these goals will be met is not sure but they will try there best.

Visit them at #pingwins

Tonight a nice match awaits thanks to the ESL IPS qualifiers. In this, the so called "Last chance", 8 teams have been battling for 2 spots in the International Premiership Season 1, which holds a jackpot top prize of 12,500 euros.

This is round 3 of last chance, meaning that only 4 teams are left. Having played the other match in this bracket, a game in which violence is bad beat sYnod5, only one spot remains available, and who takes it will be decided tonight.


Match: highBot 4-0 Fear Factory
Tonight
Time: 21:30 CET
GamesTV.org


highBot have been enjoying something of a renaissance recently, having overcome a slight dip in form to return to putting in some nice performances, and they will now be seeing this game as one they can, very realisitically, win.

highBot are: murDa | fireBall | humM3L | criatura | z3R0 | vrael

Fear Factory aka WoW/dtekt can also afford to be confident going into tonight's game, having remained a tightknit until for what is in ET's terms an ice age, they know what they must do to win and progress.

FearFactory are: thoro | r1co | wrobel | robol | sarna | wiesiek

Radio:

Mashed http://sc.pr3ds-radio.com:8006/listen.pls
sinuss http://preds1.hsradio.pl:8000/listen.pls