Even though the unsettled Danish weather would have me believe otherwise, summer is well underway! The coming of a lengthy holiday has lured many gamers away from their computers and off to their favourite holiday resorts, leaving the competitive scene in a state of player shortage and a rock bottom level of activity. This has prompted some of those who remain at home to get together and form provisional "fun teams" to pass time by duking it out with each other in the various available cups, such as the ClanBase-hosted SummerCup that tonight plays host to two showdowns:


In what is arguably tonight's most prestigious SummerCup showdown (!), the all-Polish side of Veni Vidi Vici go up against the European mishmash of Twatwaffles in group E of the premier league. Currently leading the group after a 4-0 victory against atooN - Azure Fate at the end of last month, the Poles will look upon tonight's match as an opportunity to firmly entrench themselves in the number one position, while Twatwaffles will hope for a victory to tie things up with the Poles after having suffered a forfeit defeat to atooN - unplugged last month.


Before the premier league action gets going, however, the Benelux side of Kitchen Knife Conspiracy and the all-Polish #suffering.et will vie for the number one spot in group C of the fourth league. The two teams are currently tied for the first place in the three-clan group, both having defeated the Portugese Addicts Klan, but will look to put an end to that situation tonight.

John Carmack's keynote speech has never been quite so eventful. ID Software will be very busy in the coming years and won't be leaving the headlines any time soon! Carmack had these important announcements to say, you will be able to watch the whole speech courtesy of GGL shortly.

- ID Software's next game will be named "Rage". It will be both an FPS and Racing game. You can see the tech demo on Quakeunity

- QuakeCon 2008 is confirmed, but for a week earlier this time. It will start July 31st ending August 3rd.

- ID are currently working on Quake0, a free web version of Quake3 which is in development. The game will be supported by advertising.

- There will be a Quake 5 for the new id tech 5 engine, but there is no ETA on the project.

- ID Software will be putting ALL their titles on Steam from right NOW. Including Doom & Quake, but will not include ET nor Quakewars

- European Quakewars release date will be the 28th of September and the US release date will be the 2nd of October.

Quakecon is underway, the crowds are bigger, the venue is bigger and of course the tournaments are bigger! This weekend in Dallas, Texas, Crossfire is live on location for Quakecon 2007. ET:QW debuts on the big stage alongside the Quad Damage tournament for Quake, let us not forget the promised news from ID Software about the next Wolfenstein installment and ID's next engine release. Keep it here on Crossfire for all the latest!

Enemy Teritory: Quakewars 6vs6 - All times are local times to Dallas (CET -7)
:: *NEW* Gallery
Dignitas: http://www.team-dignitas.org/gallery.php?gid=213&fid=4
Qcon: http://gallery.quakecon.org/v/2007 [/hide]
:: Seeds
1 - Team HOT
2 - Team Dignitas
3 - 20ID
4 - Demis
5 - Check-six
6 - 20ID Garbage Day
7 - 50 Cal
8 - c5
9 - Team HOT-5
10 - Check Six Deceptions[/hide]
:: Tournament Preview
:: Prizes
$22,000
$16,000
$8,000
Fourth Place: $4,000[/hide]
:: Day 1 Schedule

Grand Final Dignitas vs HOT

SET ONE - Team HOT 1-3 Dignitas

Valley - Dignitas 1-1 HOT - Double Fullhold
Area22 - Dignitas 2-0 HOT - Dignitas set 11:49 and hold

SET TWO HOT 0-2 Dignitas

Area22 Dignitas 2-0 HOT - Dignitas set 6:06 on Area
Valley - Dignitas 2-0 HOT - Dignitas full hold

Lower Bracket Round 6 (Losers Bracket Final)

Dignitas 2-0 Check 6
Upper Bracket
Upper Bracket Round 4 (Winners Bracket Final)

Dignitas vs Team HOT

Valley [0:1]
Area22 [0:1]

Upper Bracket Round 3

7PM Team HOT 2-0 Demise
7PM 20ID 0-2 Dignitas

Upper Bracket Round 2

3PM Dignitas 2-0 50CAL - VoD Cast with TosspoT
3PM 20ID 2-0 20ID Garbage Day
3PM Team HOT 2-0 Team HOT-5
3PM Check6 0-2 Demise

Upper Bracket Round 1

9AM HOT 2-0 tbs
9AM HOT-5 2-0 c5
9AM check6 2-0 AwesomeNaders (default win)
9AM Gunit 0-2 Demise

11AM 20ID 2-0 Purius
11AM NUC 0-2 20ID Garbage Day
11AM 50 Cal 2-0 Check6 Decepticons - VoD Cast with TosspoT
11AM The Boardmen 0-2 Team Dignitas
Lower Bracket

Lower Bracket Round 5

Demise 0-2 Check6

Lower Bracket Round 4

Demise 2-0 20ID: Garbage Day
20ID 0:2 Check6

Lower Bracket Round 3

Team HOT-5 0-2 Check6
20ID: Garbage Day 2-0 50 Calibre

Lower Bracket Round 2

Team HOT-5 2-0 Check-Six:Decepticons
Check6 2-0 Numero Uno
20ID: Garbage Day 2-0 Gunit
50 Calibre 2-0 c5

Lower Bracket Round 1

-)tbs(- 0-2 c5
AwesomeNaders 0-2 Gunit
PIR'ÜS 0-2 Numero Uno
Check-Six:Decepticons 2-0 The Boardmen
Qualifiers
Dignitas 2-0 TE - VoD Cast with TosspoT
Team HOT 2-0 DAWGS
20ID 2-0 Guild Hall
Demise [2:0] Team Lan Maniacs
Check Six [2:0] FDS - 4PM
20ID Garbage Day [2-0] Car Ramrod - VoD Cast with TosspoT
50 Calibre [2:0] Nuts
c5 [2:0] Dragon Kill Points - (result missing)
LTK [0:2] Check6 Decepticons
Team Hot 5 [2:0] SSN
NUC Gaming [2:0] p*h
Awesome Nades [2:0] S*A*W
Skullriders 0-2 tbs
Gunit 2-0 Premptive Strike
Team Central Slayers 0-2 The Boardmen
Rockn- 0-2 PURIUS
Official Quakecon Bracket

Quake: Quad Damage

PURRI has progressed through his group and will be in the knockout stages tommorow, as has griffin who defeated Slasher but did manage to lose a map in Quake 2 to him. Stermy. Fox & Tox have all progressed to the single elimination round. 32 players will battle it out with no loser bracket.

There will be a special exhibition match between Europe and America, played BO3 over Quake 3 & Quake 4 - probably 5v5 CTF. Representing Europe will be Toxic, fox, purri, Stermy & Assasin. America will be DaHang, Clamp-ok, mik3d, griffin, chance, LoSt-CaUzE, ermac & rapha.

Quake Damage Grand Finals - (Will play all four quakes, q4 monsoon is 5th if needed to tiebreak)

Toxic vs fox - TOXIC WINS 3-2

Quakeworld - Areowalk - Fox 40-2 Tox
Quake 2 - Edge - Fox 29-3 Tox
Quake 3 - Dm6 - Fox -1 19 Tox
Quake 4 - Phranticv- Fox 2 - 18 ToX
Decider - Quake 4 - Monsoon - Fox 7-10 ToX

[b3rd / 4th Place[/b]]

PURRI 1-2 DaHanG

The Rage [7-20]
Monsoon [10-7]
The Bad Place [4-32]
Quad Damage Semi Finals

Toxic 2-1 DaHang
Fox 2-1 PURRI[/hide]
[bQuad Damage Single Elim Round 3[/b]]

Toxic 2-1 naymliss
DaHanG 2-1 Lost-Cauze

Fox 2-0 griffin
PURRI 2-1 chance
[bQuad Damage Single Elim Round 2[/b]]

Toxic 2-0 roo
naymlis 2-0 ERMAC

DaHanG 2-0 Thump4
Lost-Cauze 2-0 dorkiz

fox 2-1 Kovaak
griffin 2-1 Stermy (to be vod'd)

Purri 2-0 Prox
Chance 2-1 Black Stallion
[bQuad Damage Single Elim Round 1[/b]]

Toxic 2-0 Kassi
hs 0-1 roo
naymlis 2-0 obsolete
CoDro 0-2 ERMAC

Striker3175 0-2 DaHanG
Thump4 2-0 plop (To be VoD'd)
Carb0n13 0-2 LoSt-Cauze
dorkiz 2-0 FienD

Requ13m 0-2 fox
dkillone 1-2 Kovaak
GameTraveller 0-2 griffin
Phillipio 0-2 Stermy

Purri 2-0 dardik
Prox 1-0 Clamp
Mr Cram 0-2 Chance
BLack Stallion 2-0 Rapha

German flagship Speedlink have rung the changes post OOF in a bid to guide them back to the top of the pile once again. After returning to activity at CPC2 the side emerged with fresh face z1n, however after a few months the team have decided that this was the wrong move and have replaced him with one new and one old face!

Leader Trigger had this say;

Quote

It's unfortunate that after only 5 months we already have to say goodbye to Igor "z1N" Manschin. After we had decided against K1ckzZ in favour of z1N in the beginning of the year, we soon noticed that the chemistry between z1N and the rest of the team was not optimal and differences were apparent when we had to perform as a team. It gives us joy that we are still able to welcome Timm "K1ckzZ" Lücke to our team, he has great potential and was able to collect a huge amount of experience through playing with his former team, OCRANA.

The comeback of Michael "spaR" Ege pleases us as well, because he had played for our team already for over a year during Call of Duty 1 and Call of Duty 2 and therefore perfectly knows what we expect from a player. Due to his long inactivity he will be integrated as a back-up player at the beginning until the EuroCup LAN Finals. From then on we will work out a 6 player rotation line-up, the way we used to play when we achieved our biggest results.

Speedlinks new roster will look like this;

Trigger
Fuchsstute
phY1
Nightwalker
K1ckzZ
spaR

Source

Splashdamage owner Locki has today announced that after successful demonstration at last weeks E3, Quakewars Beta 2 will be released first to the Quakecon BYOC and then to the general public after. The second beta will contain the following upgrades;

- The map will be Valley (the one from the original QW videos)
- Bug and Balance fixing
- Improved Bots
- Improved Prediction and Player Physics
- Improved Vehicle Physics and Controls
- Improved Interface
- Improved Audio
- Improved Game Performance
- Improved PunkBuster
- Unranked Server Support
- New Statistics Website

The new Beta dosent have an exact date of release, although it will be shortly after Quakecon. Further in his newspost, Locki mentioned that Quakewars has been nominated for 2 awards at E3, after winning awards last year also.

Source

Quakecon have announced some small last minute changes to the rules for the Quakewars tournament this weekend in Dallas;

After a week of moderate testing with the closed beta, the following map specific changes will be made to the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 6v6 Tournament:

On the map "Valley":
The defending team, Strogg, may not use either the Tormentor or
Cyclops during map stages 1 (bridge) and 2 (MCP)

On the map "Ark":
The defending team, GDF, may not use the GDF base Titan during
map stage 1 (generator)

On the map "Area22":
No changes.

As the game does not currently allow these changes to be enforced directly, teams will be required to honour them and report if opposing teams are in violation. Any team found in violation will forfeit the entire match.

In the week leading up to QuakeCon Gameriot are doing a series of interviews with the five big teams expected to do well in the Quake Wars tournament. In the first of the series they've interviewed CerberuS, TKQ, XMorTus, dBs, digital and Sage from one of the two CheckSix teams that will be competing.

Gameriot: Europeans have usually dominated similar games like Enemy Territory & the Battlefield series; do you think Americans can make a decent stand in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars?

dBs: Like I said in the last question, it will come down to whatever teams put in the most time. I think much of the advantages of Europe is simply the sheer density of teams there are in the area that take the games seriously and scrim consistently. When it comes to North America it's just not taken as seriously and the teams are spread out over far more time zones which makes practising alone difficult. We will see what happens though since I think it'll go to the teams that are most hungry.

Read the rest of the interview at Gameriot.

Next up it was the turn of Radea from 20ID - famous for his second place finish in 2005 at Quakecon with his then team United5.ET.

Gameriot: What do you think of the game so far? As we all know, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is currently in beta, so are there any things that you would like to see changed?

I'll get straight to the point here -- I don't think it's ready for competition. The game in its current state is balanced for 12v12 publics, not 6v6 stopwatch competition. Vehicle counts, as well as player and vehicle spawn times all need to be fixed, and many of the maps are looking to be too big, thus producing many tie rounds due to neither team's offense completing the objectives. The solution is to significantly reduce spam, and make the game look more like Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory -- lots of hitscan aiming and coordination. The problem with spam is that most of it is position based and easy to learn -- to be an effective spammer you just have to learn good turret spots, vehicle spots, mine spots, and learn when to press fire..."

Read the rest of that interview on Gameriot.

The interviews came thick and fast and Tuesday saw the second Checksix.ETQW team attending Quakecon this year in the spotlight. Team captain FatBack took the questions.

Gameriot: How do you feel about the current size of this game's scene, knowing the game is in beta stage? Do you think it can become a healthy, competitive game? Are people excited or is the enthusiasm for competition lacking?

When the open beta hit file planet the scrim channels were flooding. I think that this game has tons of potential, and once they lock down the balancing issues it will be great for competition. I think there is a lot of enthusiasm. Everyone's been waiting for a new game, most of us have been playing the battlefield franchise since its birth, or CSS since season 1, or Quake 4 for so long, that we look forward to having something new to play.

The second Checksix interview can be found here.

Wednesday sees the penultimate interview of the series, as Team Dignitas take the probing questions. But you won't want to read that, as Crossfire already has the inside track - Dignitas Before Quakecon.

What Enemy Territory and RTCW movies always lacked is quality. Even though moviemakers have had tga_merge on their disposal, noone actually used it. Well, moviemakers, this goes in favour of your laziness, you have no valid reson to make bad quality movies anymore.
New moviemaking tool is here!

Bitmap.se has released a new tool that is based on tga_merge, but works like tga_hook.
Wrap writes screenshots to ram, merges them, and then writes only merged screenshot (blurred) to hdd.

It allows greater blur control then tga_hook and it also has a feature to change r_drawworld & r_fastsky color, by default it changes it to green, but you can easily change that. Head down to http://www.bitmap.se/itsawrap.html and read everything in detail.

Also, I renderd a short privew clip from upcoming trickjump movie that is being developed on this wonderful new tool, enjoy!
www.violenceisbad.org/vib-productions/ender/preview_oasis_xvid.avi
Update of Motion blur tutorial soon http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=tutorial&mode=item&id=18

The GamersNation.co.uk Cup Signups are now closed and the first weeks fixtures have been drawn.

[bCompetitors[/b]]

VPL
kod
cdap Identical
Artline
Forsakens
pstarZ
Deathless
ALIS
Goon Squad
C42
Kapoks
OVERLOAd
aGu
Phan
iG
GIB

Reserves:

Northern Darkness
Net
Apilas
#bux

[bMap Information[/b]]
Map Pool:

sw_Goldrush_te
bremen_b1
Radar
Frostbite
Braundorf_B4
Supply

The following maps are played in the following rounds:

Winner Bracket

Round 1: Radar, Bremen_b1
Round 2: Supply, sw_Goldrush_te
Round 3: ( WB Semi-Finals ) - Maps Chosen By Clans
Round 4: ( WB Final ) - Maps Chosen By Clans

Losers Bracket

Round 2: Supply, sw_Goldrush_te
Round 3: Braundorf_B4, Frostbite
Rounds 4 - 7: Maps Chosen By Clans


[bFixture Information[/b]]
All first round fixtures have been set as default to Monday 30th July @ 20:00 CET, if your team cannot make that date and time please contact your opponent to arrange an alternative - however the match must be played in the same week in order to keep the cup running smoothly. To find out who you are playing, take a look at the Cup Page

We recommend at least one member from each competing team idles in the cup IRC Channel (#GamersNation @ QuakeNet) to allow opponents to easily contact each other.

If neither team can agree on a server to play on, GamersNation can provide servers from Multiplay.co.uk for matches. Matches should be played using the most recent Clanbase 6v6 Config.

You can keep track of your clans and opponents progress in the cup by looking at the Cup Page.

If you have any questions, dont hesitate to contact Splodge on IRC or through the website.


Website | GamersNation @ Quakenet

Chaos descends on Antwerp this weekend as the big guns of Call of Duty head to the Outpost on Fire for one of the biggest competitions this summer. European's elite are in attendance and it should promise to be a cracking tournament, one that is already underway! Day 1's results are flooding in and are as follows;

Group A
Reason Gaming 10:13 FLS-Gaming - (Dawnville)
The Last Resort vs BYE
Reason Gaming vs BYE
The Last Resort [13:10] FLS-Gaming - (Burgundy)
Reason Gaming [12:12] The Last Resort - (Matmata)
FLS-Gaming vs BYE

Group A is already over and Reason Gaming have got a boring weekend ahead of them after going just one round away from the knockout stages, but the last gasp draw from TLR knocked the brits out!
Group B
TeK-9 13:04 Aksioo Gaming - (Dawnville)
CNO Gaming 13:08 cZklan - (Burgundy)
TeK-9 13:04 cZklan - (Dawnville)
CNO Gaming 13:03 Aksioo Gaming - (Burgundy)
TeK-9 13:08 CNO Gaming - (Carentan)
cZklan 13:11 Aksioo Gaming - (Toujane)

TeK-9 cruised through their group with three convincing wins over their opposition, CNO gaming did put up a little resistance and it was that which merited their second place in the group. For cZk it was a long trip that ended in 3rd place, their match versus CNO was always going to be the second place decider but five rounds seperated them from the knockouts.
Group C
Team-Dignitas 13:11 pewpewLASER - (Dawnville)
infusedGaming 13:01 mCstriker - (Burgandy)
Team-Dignitas 13:04 mCstriker - (Dawnville)
infusedGaming 13:07 pewpewLASER - (Carentan)
Team-Dignitas 13:04 infusedGaming - (Matmata)
mCstriker 06:13 pewpewLASER - (Toujane)

Dignitas got off to a slow start however still managed to rack up 3 victories including a domination of the otherwise very promising Infused Gaming. pewpewLASER managed to restore some pride with their victory over their fellow countrymen mCstriker but were unable to cause any upsets.
Group D
Team-Impact 13:08 here2own - (Burgandy)
AlienGaming 13:11 extremeGaming - (Burgandy)
Team-Impact [12:12] extremeGaming - (Dawnville)
AlienGaming 13:07 here2own - (Dawnville)
Team-Impact [13:08] AlienGaming - (Burgundy)
extremeGaming [13:03] here2own - (Burgundy)

One more round for extremeGaming against Team-Impact would have seen them become the 2nd French team to reach the knockouts, but that was not to be and Team-Impact topped the group. AlienGaming managed to take 2 victories and sees them also progress into Day 2.
Group E
eSuba.SteelSeries [12:12] Dfiance - (Dawnville)
HFD [13:07] Retroactive - (Toujane)
eSuba.SteelSeries [13:03] Retroactive - (Toujane)
HFD [13:10] Dfiance - (Carentan)
eSuba.SteelSeries [13:11] HFD - (Toujane)
Retroactive [08:13] Dfiance - (Dawnville)

No surprises here as eSuba tops the group with just a draw with Dfiance against them, although the latter couldn't capitalize and went down by 3 rounds to HFD who take 2nd place.
Group F
H2k.Qpad [13:05] We Are Retards - (Dawnville)
KomaCrew [13:10] Amazing-Online - (Burgundy)
H2k.Qpad [13:06] Amazing-Online - (Toujane)
KomaCrew [13:02] We Are Retards - (Dawnville)
H2k.Qpad [13:03] KomaCrew - (Dawnville)
Amazing-Online [13:07] We Are Retards - (Burgundy)

Neither Amazing-Online or We Are Retards could cause any upsets here, as H2k topped the group with a convincing win over the 2nd placed KomaCrew.
Group G
SPEED-LINK [13:03] idStar eSports - (Toujane)
OCRANA [13:10] overloAd Gaming - (Dawnville)
SPEED-LINK [13:08] overloAd Gaming- (Dawnville)
OCRANA [13:09] idStar eSports - (Toujane)
SPEED-LINK [13:07] OCRANA - (Carentan)
overloAd Gaming [13:06] idStar eSports - (Toujane)

Speed-Link continued their recent form to dominate the group whilst fellow Germans Ocrana proved that they won't be a walkover in the knockout stags.
Group H
tempkids [12:12] inFlux Gaming - (Dawnville)
HYPERACTIVE [13:07] Raptor Gaming - (Matmata)
tempkids [13:10] Raptor Gaming - (Dawnville)
HYPERACTIVE [13:05] inFlux Gaming - (Matmata)
tempkids [12:12] HYPERACTIVE - (Burgundy)
Raptor Gaming [05:13] inFlux Gaming - (Carentan)

2 draws for TempKids sees them advancing to the playoffs but only in second place, as Hyperactive capitalized to top the group.

Winner Bracket Round 1
The Last Resort [13:6] TempKids - (Dawnville)
TeK-9 [13:3] Ocrana - (Toujane)
Dignitas [8:13] KomaCrew - (Burgundy)
Team Impact [6:13] HFD - (Carentan)
eSuba [13:5] AlienGaming - (Dawnville)
H2k.QPad [10:13 InfusedGaming - (Toujane)
Speed-Link [13:7] CNO Gaming - (Toujane)
Hyperactive [13:6] FLS-Gaming - (Dawnville)

A number of surprises here, the most notable being KomaCrew's defeat of Dignitas on Burgandy, whilst Infused took down H2k on Toujane and The Last Resort had a convincing victory over TempKids. There were easy victories for Speed-Link, eSuba, Tek9 and Hyperactive, whilst HFD managed to defeat Impact.

Winner Bracket Round 2
The Last Resort [11:13] TeK9 - (Toujane)
KomaCrew [8:13] HFD - (Dawnville)
eSuba [13:8] Infused Gaming (Burgundy)
Speed-Link [13:9] Hyperactive - (Carentan)

TeK9 were taken down to the wire by The Last Resort and Infused weren't a walkover for eSuba and the same can be said for Hyperactive's performance against Speed-Link. HFD also managed to take a victory over KomaCrew.

Lower Bracket Round 1
Tempkids [13:11] Ocrana - (Burgundy)
Dignitas [13:16] Impact - (Matmata)
AlienGaming [11:13] H2k.QPad - (Dawnville)
CNO Gaming [13:11] FLS Gaming - (Toujane)

Dignitas went crashing out at the first hurdle, with Italians Impact impressing on Matmata. Tempkids managed to defuse any issues that arose with Ocrana, whilst the Dutch pair of H2k and CNO Gaming took 2 round victories over their respective opponents.

Lower Bracket Round 2
TempKids [13:10] KomaCrew - (Carentan)
Impact [13:6] The Last Resort - (Toujane)
Hyperactive [9:13] H2k.QPad - (Matmata)
CNO Gaming [13:8] Infused Gaming - (Carentan)

The successful runs of The Last Resort and Infused Gaming came to an end here as neither could continue their form, with H2k again struggling to just see off Hyperactive. Impact started from where they left off with Dignitas, as TempKids managed to see off KomaCrew.

Lower Bracket Round 3
TempKids [13:11] Impact - (Burgundy)
H2k.Qpad [13:7] CNO Gaming - (Toujane)

The Italians failed to make the required impact on Burgundy as TempKids scraped through, whilst H2k dispatched of their countrymen on Toujane.

Loser Bracket Round 4
TempKids [2:13] Speed-Link - (Toujane)
H2k.QPad [13:8] HFD - (Carentan)

Winner Bracket Semi-Final
TeK9 [13:4] HFD - (Carentan)
eSuba [13:10] Speed-Link - (Burgundy)

The tactics and teamwork of TeK-9 easily overcame loyalty as HFD were no match on TeK9's favoured Carentan. Speed-Link put up some resistance but eSuba clung on to advance into the final.

Winner Bracket Final
TeK-9 [22:20] eSuba - (Matmata) [3 OT's]

Loser Bracket Final
H2k.Qpad [13:10] Speed-link - dawnville

Consolation Final
Esuba [9:13] H2k.Qpad

Grand Final
TeK-9 [10:13] H2k.QPAD
TeK-9 [13:11] H2k.QPAD

Standings
#13-16 OCRANA
#13-16 Team Dignitas
#13-16 AlienGaming
#13-16 FLS-Gaming
#9-12 KomaCrew
#9-12 The Last Resort
#9-12 Hyperactiv
#9-12 Infused Gaming
#7-8 Impact
#7-8 CNO Gaming
#5-6 TempKids
#5-6 HFD
#4 Speedlink
#3 eSuba
#2 H2k.QPad
#1 TeK-9


Related:
:: Preview
:: Group Scores
:: Day 2 Playoff Scores
:: GotFrag Coverage