I'm quite sure you've met them: winners. People who always seem to be successful at what they do, who never lose and where competing against them is a lost cause. Nobody really likes these people. You won't score a girl around them. You'll lose any competition in their company. Only if you're really, really ambitious you'll eventually beat them at some point, but mostly there is an easy solution: Just don't let them take part in anything you do.
So what is it about winning? I say winning sucks. Oh, not on a general level. For any competition there is there has to be a winner. It just sucks if it is the same winner every single time because it disqualifies the term "competition" itself.
We were at that point with idle/Dignitas in the past twelve months. Can anyone honestly say that he has followed one of the two past EuroCups without expecting or even knowing that Night and his fellow players would come out on top in the end? Or the first Crossfire LAN? Or the shgOpen? There were some exciting matches, yes, but nothing that could rock the foundations of the so solid all European team that did not lose once in a full year of playing 6on6.
There might be those who think it's appropriate that the best team wins all the time. I won't contest that. It's just that there shouldn't be one team that is the best every time. Look at the Counter-Strike community: Pentagram are arguably a very good team, placing first at WSVG London and WCG 2006. But at the WSVG Finals the tide turned and the German mix team of aTTaX won. A week later at the CPL Finals fnatic were the victorious team. And so the story continues, with MIBR winning shgOpen and the paradox situation at the CeBIT, were Pentagram won the Extreme Masters while SK Gaming took the SEC although both teams took part in both tournaments.
Some might argue that this is because Counter-Strike is a tad more random than Enemy Territory. I don't know about that. Maybe it's just that ET teams have to practise more than they'd possibly need to in some other game. But if there was one thing that the CPC 2 showed us, it is that dedication and practise can transform a good team into a team that can beat Dignitas. We did not have the final we all dreamed of yet, but I'm sure it's no longer impossible. The upcoming EuroCup has all of a sudden been blown wide open with a couple of teams able to take it home.
So what did CPC 2 have that other ET tournaments didn't have? A fancy config, a lot of new maps? I don't think so. A nearly standard config (if it wasn't for CB), four well-established maps and one custom map made the mix that provided some high quality action.
What do we learn? You don't need new maps or some weird config to see awesome matches. You need teams that stick together and practise until they beat the reigning champion. The situation at the moment is as good as it gets and hopefully none of the players decides to resign right now. With three teams at the very top level and a lot of hopefuls only close behind, it is far from impossible that there will be more tournaments that are as enjoyable as the Crossfire Prizefight Challenge 2.
Winning sucks. It is okay to lose every once in a while. Every superhero has a weakness and so do the best ET teams. Let's hope that it was not just Night's absence that let Dignitas struggle but that the other teams have actually reached their level. If that is the case, the coming months of Enemy Territory look extremely promising.
So what is it about winning? I say winning sucks. Oh, not on a general level. For any competition there is there has to be a winner. It just sucks if it is the same winner every single time because it disqualifies the term "competition" itself.
We were at that point with idle/Dignitas in the past twelve months. Can anyone honestly say that he has followed one of the two past EuroCups without expecting or even knowing that Night and his fellow players would come out on top in the end? Or the first Crossfire LAN? Or the shgOpen? There were some exciting matches, yes, but nothing that could rock the foundations of the so solid all European team that did not lose once in a full year of playing 6on6.
There might be those who think it's appropriate that the best team wins all the time. I won't contest that. It's just that there shouldn't be one team that is the best every time. Look at the Counter-Strike community: Pentagram are arguably a very good team, placing first at WSVG London and WCG 2006. But at the WSVG Finals the tide turned and the German mix team of aTTaX won. A week later at the CPL Finals fnatic were the victorious team. And so the story continues, with MIBR winning shgOpen and the paradox situation at the CeBIT, were Pentagram won the Extreme Masters while SK Gaming took the SEC although both teams took part in both tournaments.
Some might argue that this is because Counter-Strike is a tad more random than Enemy Territory. I don't know about that. Maybe it's just that ET teams have to practise more than they'd possibly need to in some other game. But if there was one thing that the CPC 2 showed us, it is that dedication and practise can transform a good team into a team that can beat Dignitas. We did not have the final we all dreamed of yet, but I'm sure it's no longer impossible. The upcoming EuroCup has all of a sudden been blown wide open with a couple of teams able to take it home.
So what did CPC 2 have that other ET tournaments didn't have? A fancy config, a lot of new maps? I don't think so. A nearly standard config (if it wasn't for CB), four well-established maps and one custom map made the mix that provided some high quality action.
What do we learn? You don't need new maps or some weird config to see awesome matches. You need teams that stick together and practise until they beat the reigning champion. The situation at the moment is as good as it gets and hopefully none of the players decides to resign right now. With three teams at the very top level and a lot of hopefuls only close behind, it is far from impossible that there will be more tournaments that are as enjoyable as the Crossfire Prizefight Challenge 2.
Winning sucks. It is okay to lose every once in a while. Every superhero has a weakness and so do the best ET teams. Let's hope that it was not just Night's absence that let Dignitas struggle but that the other teams have actually reached their level. If that is the case, the coming months of Enemy Territory look extremely promising.
Gl anyways ;)
As I said before. There is no need for the lineup change but it might happen, for example if someone gets bored of the game.
I spoke to mystic last night before we went out drinking about him and the team post cpc2 and i my impression was that his motivation was not massively high when he first started at Impact, he then got into things and we saw him motivated and part of the team but still could not see anything beyond cpc2. Now he has been to cpc2 and after getting over the nerves on the first day i think he had an absolutely fantastic time and all i will say is that he and the team now want to win EC and CPC3 and everyone is determined to get our team play to a level where that is possible. On review we came 2nd in CPC mostly because of individual performances and aim. We all agreed that our teamplay is no where near the level of parodia however we all know we can get there given more time. If anything this lan was positive for the team cause we all got to meet each other and instead of breaking the team it bonded everyone closer together and made us even more determined. The attitude is right and thats whats required.
Good to hear anyway... Good luck for the future.
congrats on ur 2nd place as well! =)
Also Zerobarrier showed how a group of friends and a good team spirit can overcome even the best of the best.
Stop flaming CB for giving the noobs a config of their own. Nobody forces you to use the mg / netlame config of CB. Only thing you could complain about is that they still use that config for the Eurocup and Opencup premier devision. ps@cb: nice fixing the fps/spread issue. How long will it take to add a single line of code to a config? Force com_maxfps IN 60 125. tnx
€: xfire replies fucked up!
So fucking true!
with my old computer i didn't got even up to 40 and still played.
If ppl have bad computer it doesn't mean they can't play :x
but it's also true that it's not good to let a team be depending from one player
If my team plays without our best player, we draw or loose against teams also that we normally win.
then they lost to impact. because of night was missing.
oops!
Replay the match anytime you want on frostbite and I will be highly surprised if Impact manages to put a time of less than 3 minutes more than 1 out of 10 times.
Ofcourse TLR and Impact played nice, and TLR fully deserve their victory. They were the best team that day. But I do believe that Dignitas was unlucky to not end in the 2nd place. They humiliated Impact imo in the WB, and they set some pretty fast time on Bremen and Frostbite (can't remember the 3rd unfortunately) and any team that wins with a time below 3 minutes against Dignitas is just lucky.
But you could just discard my opinion and say that I know nothing about ET. Would be easier.
The Last Resort played impressive the whole tournament, I must have said that about 5 times now, but Impact didn't play as impressive (doesn't mean they played bad xD) but seriously, if they would replay Frostbite 10 times, do you honestly believe that Impact would set a time of less than 3 minutes again and again?
Once again, doesn't mean that Impact didn't play good or anything.
(PS, just to annoy you, Dignitas have set the whole tournament long fast times against Impact ;-D )
you're from uk
Agreed.
btw nice not broadcasting zp vs vigorz :( only game where I could play with working settings and not just waving around with my mouse
j/k nice writeup :)
Or just ban him ( some tricky reason, "too good", "human cheat", "too estonian" ... wutevah you can think of. )
the truth is, they werent using their best lineup, there was someone very important missing.
they will win EC easy.
however, their dominance depends on how great will be Impact dedication to ET in following weeks, cos they can beat everyone if they want to.
lets wait to see how it goes.
continue in there current form, well, should make for a very interesting eurocup!