European ET is about to enter a pretty huge overhall of its clans and players, and with another Eurocup just a few months off its interesting times for potential stars.
We are of course just concluding the fall eurocup season. Now the traditional Eurocups ran in fall and spring of each year with summer cup filling the gap. However since the GGL's acquisition of Clanbase, things have changed somewhat. Clanbase now is dependant upon timely completion of the Americup season so that the lans can take place. Last year the Spring Eurocup season finished at the start of September. This year it is highly expected that the season as a whole will finish in March, with next Eurocup announcements having to come in April if they want to avoid a hold up during the summer.
Lets assume ET gets another Eurocup, which based on players and activity it certainly should do, I mean if Quake 4 gets a eurocup and nobody plays the game, then ET is still in with a great shot of at least one more Eurocup. Where does the competitive community go to next?
Well lets take a walk down memory lane and look at the last TRUE RTCW Eurocup, I am chosing to ignore Eurocup X as an RTCW EC as the game was already dead by then and had missed 1 season for a very good reason.
So back to EC VIII, an all benelux final between
mysod and 
Kreaturen one that in the end was decided not by a team winning it, but by Krea`Eskimo having to go to bed, and the admin ruling that at 3-3 and Krea leaving, that mysod would take gold. These two teams are perfect examples of what is going to happen to ET in the coming months.
mysod - This team was very much an allstar team, built on the foundations of the illustrious dutch RTCW community. It boasted superstars from Quakecon silver medalists GMPO and oldschool legends .@ Amnesia. The team really was a "Who's Who" of dutch RTCW. Forged together after Quakecon for the final onslaught in RTCW.
Kreaturen - Krea were the exact opposite of mysod, in the fact that Kreaturen had been around for a very long time before this. Infact Kreaturen were very unlikely finalists, it was this EC that would pit xfire admins RaZa and 
TosspoT against one another in the qualifiers. Krea had age and experience as a team on their side for this season.
So where is the comparisson to the ET situation? Well right now the top dogs are predictably dropping like flies. And those that dont plan on leaving the game they are good at, are going to stick around either forming new teams or joining old ones.
Looking at the most recent team to fall,
Gods.Inc who got so far based on long term hard graft, their players dont appear to actually be quitting ET, more joining other clans as 4 or more of their players have formed new teams stfu & 
trinity these teams are both looking for the mysod effect, top players hoping to gel quickly and get themselves in a good position for the next EC for which they have 2 or more months to prepare.
There is also the Kreaturen model that would see older clans picking up 1 or 2 top players from the folding teams just to push them up to the next level, just like former rewind star SyL did when he joined Kreaturen for that EC season.
Looking at the first two teams that have formed from the ruble of the EC folders, I probably would not class either of them as finalists. trinity have now added Mztik to their lineup, for whom I have a great deal of respect with his determination not to let 141 die, however the roster does then feature players like FaTaL whos played in more clans than xfire has members. Language and ping barriers are always painful, but there is quality in that lineup, with 3 ex 141 players and RTCW veteran de57. stfu? have the benefit of being all finnish which helps them on a genetic level, and perhaps the ex-negative image players can pull out another underdog type performance.
However now it is very much going to be a battle between the golden oldies who have been playing together forever and the players that are only in it in desperation for a eurocup next to their name! It most certainly could bring out some interesting contests!
Last summer Feuersturm raised the argument that the oldschool had the edge over the newschool, but now we're looking at another generation of players about to take center stage and anyone wanting to class themselves as oldschool has quit competitive ET at least once. This debate may well get a real outing on the field of play soon enough.
There is of course the other possibility that CB will announce that the next eurocup will be in the fall due to time constraints, and that would ruffle a few feathers for sure! Whatever the outcome, to those cupadmins who so excellently filled the void between summer cup and eurocup now is the time to work your magic once more!
So with the future very much unclear, can anyone safely say, this team will be the next top dog? In the past, someone was always emerging and you didnt look at them with the 2 weeks question in mind.
The Dignitas team battled their way to #1, following their demise, Saevus and DSky were heirs to the thrown and some 8 frags later when Saevus were due to depart, another group of finns emerged next to a certain estonian team and we were treated to a fine battle that concludes on Tuesday. But, Where to next?
We are of course just concluding the fall eurocup season. Now the traditional Eurocups ran in fall and spring of each year with summer cup filling the gap. However since the GGL's acquisition of Clanbase, things have changed somewhat. Clanbase now is dependant upon timely completion of the Americup season so that the lans can take place. Last year the Spring Eurocup season finished at the start of September. This year it is highly expected that the season as a whole will finish in March, with next Eurocup announcements having to come in April if they want to avoid a hold up during the summer.
Lets assume ET gets another Eurocup, which based on players and activity it certainly should do, I mean if Quake 4 gets a eurocup and nobody plays the game, then ET is still in with a great shot of at least one more Eurocup. Where does the competitive community go to next?
Well lets take a walk down memory lane and look at the last TRUE RTCW Eurocup, I am chosing to ignore Eurocup X as an RTCW EC as the game was already dead by then and had missed 1 season for a very good reason.
So back to EC VIII, an all benelux final between
mysod and Kreaturen one that in the end was decided not by a team winning it, but by Krea`Eskimo having to go to bed, and the admin ruling that at 3-3 and Krea leaving, that mysod would take gold. These two teams are perfect examples of what is going to happen to ET in the coming months. mysod - This team was very much an allstar team, built on the foundations of the illustrious dutch RTCW community. It boasted superstars from Quakecon silver medalists GMPO and oldschool legends .@ Amnesia. The team really was a "Who's Who" of dutch RTCW. Forged together after Quakecon for the final onslaught in RTCW. Kreaturen - Krea were the exact opposite of mysod, in the fact that Kreaturen had been around for a very long time before this. Infact Kreaturen were very unlikely finalists, it was this EC that would pit xfire admins RaZa and TosspoT against one another in the qualifiers. Krea had age and experience as a team on their side for this season.So where is the comparisson to the ET situation? Well right now the top dogs are predictably dropping like flies. And those that dont plan on leaving the game they are good at, are going to stick around either forming new teams or joining old ones.
Looking at the most recent team to fall,
Gods.Inc who got so far based on long term hard graft, their players dont appear to actually be quitting ET, more joining other clans as 4 or more of their players have formed new teams stfu & trinity these teams are both looking for the mysod effect, top players hoping to gel quickly and get themselves in a good position for the next EC for which they have 2 or more months to prepare.There is also the Kreaturen model that would see older clans picking up 1 or 2 top players from the folding teams just to push them up to the next level, just like former rewind star
SyL did when he joined Kreaturen for that EC season. Looking at the first two teams that have formed from the ruble of the EC folders, I probably would not class either of them as finalists.
trinity have now added Mztik to their lineup, for whom I have a great deal of respect with his determination not to let 141 die, however the roster does then feature players like FaTaL whos played in more clans than xfire has members. Language and ping barriers are always painful, but there is quality in that lineup, with 3 ex 141 players and RTCW veteran de57. stfu? have the benefit of being all finnish which helps them on a genetic level, and perhaps the ex-negative image players can pull out another underdog type performance. However now it is very much going to be a battle between the golden oldies who have been playing together forever and the players that are only in it in desperation for a eurocup next to their name! It most certainly could bring out some interesting contests!
Last summer
Feuersturm raised the argument that the oldschool had the edge over the newschool, but now we're looking at another generation of players about to take center stage and anyone wanting to class themselves as oldschool has quit competitive ET at least once. This debate may well get a real outing on the field of play soon enough.There is of course the other possibility that CB will announce that the next eurocup will be in the fall due to time constraints, and that would ruffle a few feathers for sure! Whatever the outcome, to those cupadmins who so excellently filled the void between summer cup and eurocup now is the time to work your magic once more!
So with the future very much unclear, can anyone safely say, this team will be the next top dog? In the past, someone was always emerging and you didnt look at them with the 2 weeks question in mind.
The Dignitas team battled their way to #1, following their demise, Saevus and DSky were heirs to the thrown and some 8 frags later when Saevus were due to depart, another group of finns emerged next to a certain estonian team and we were treated to a fine battle that concludes on Tuesday. But, Where to next?
