News / Bulletin Board

S! Practices to Resume on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday Nights

written June 20^th, by Ragef1st We are going to get back into the routine of practicing with internal scrims and practices at 8:30pm on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday Nights, S! members come show up and lets have some fun. I will start up a server at those times. It will be great to get back into the routine of getting together and having practices and working on strategies.

S! Welcomes _Devastation_!

written June 18^th, by Ragef1st _Devastation_ is an elite if not pro Doom 2 player and has been an admin of ZDDL League in Doom for a while. He has also hanged around the IRC for quite a few years. Intelligent guy who will definitely bring some competitive input for our team and contribute as part of our community. Good guy, welcome about Dev!

Overclocking Your Mouse Polling Rate for Opticals that Don't have a Control Panel Option to do so

written June 17^th, by Ragef1st For those of you who have a mouse that is a basic mouse or one that does not have options in the mouse control panel to set a polling rate, odds are your polling rate is 125hz. This 125hz means the amount of time per input your computer can interpret. There is the lag of response or input lag with this as well, so for 125hz your delay is 8ms. So for those of you who are ping conscious-you can add 8ms to your ping. There is a tool that I use that was developed by "sweetlow" that overclocks the mouse. In windows 7 you have to override the driver signature and this link will bring you to the page where you can download the tools. Using the 1000hz option decreases your input lag to 1ms. Using 500hz brings you to 2ms response delay. You can use the mouserate checker to check what your input rate is.

Below I will copy-paste the instructions on how to install the program and to run it from http://www.ngohq.com/news/15043-how-to-increase-usb-sample-rate-in-windows-vista-7-a.html:

1. Mouse Rate Checker App (mouserate.exe)
2. driver enforcement overrider application(dimr.exe)
3. Mouse overclocker application(hidusbf.inf)
4. Download Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider from this link.
5. Download HIDUSBF (attached below as hidusbf.zip).
6. Run Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider and choose Enable Test Mode.
7. Extract HIDUSBF to some folder, right click on HIDUSBF.inf and choose Install.
8. Run Setup.exe from HIDUSBF’s folder, check the Filter on Device box and select your desired sample rate.
9. Run Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider again, choose Sign a System file and insert full path to the installed HIDUSBF.sys file (For example: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\HIDUSBF.sys).
10. Restart your computer and enjoy.
11. Verify by using Mouse Rate or DirectInput Mouse Rate (attached below as mouserate.exe and dimr.exe)
12. If you would like to remove the test mode watermark, run Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider and choose Watermark removal.

Read more: http://www.ngohq.com/news/15043-how-to-increase-usb-sample-rate-in-windows-vista-7-a.html#ixzz1PY9gSEIc
Have fun!

Mumble Voice Help Information

written April 7^th, by Profan1ty I switched to the mumble for low latency and for financial reasons. I understand some are having problems with the mumble and I am quite a newb at mumble myself. I figure I will provide some useful links here to help with some of the mumble troubleshooting.
How to prevent mumble from changing volume of game

Mumble Wiki Page
Mumble Guide
Mumble Skins

Switched to Mumble

written April 6^th, by Profan1ty I have canceled our Teamspeak 3 server and have switched to Mumble provided by www.commandchannel.com.

Welcome Back Erebuz!

written April 6^th, by Profan1ty I am happy to welcome back into the fold Erebuz! Great player cool to frag with and an asset to the team! Welcome back!

Welcome to Dogas

written April 6^th, by Profan1ty I would like to extend a high-five to a new member of the s! by the name of Dogas! Good CTF'er has good team spirit and will be a great asset to the team and our community!

Farewell to Peril

written March 22^nd, by Profan1ty We lost a great member who has contributed to the squad for quite some time regretfully. However, it is great that he is coming around and banging out some CTF with us still :) I wish peril (or his new name which I won't name) great happiness in future endeavours and the door is always open for you to come back!

s! Practice Days are Back!

written March 22^nd, by Profan1ty It is great to see us having internal practice and pickups game again! We had some kickass games on Friday, and some hard great games again today on Monday, for all of those who showed up and played thanks and come again! It's fun to play a game with people who put in the effort and try hard but can take it easy at the same time.

Monstros1ty Name Already taken!

written January 16^th, by Profan1ty Someone has already claimed my past name and is using it. If anyone sees a monstros1ty in quakelive it is not me. It has to be someone that I know who is impostering the name being a wiseass. I am surprised the name was available that fast and if you look at the profile he has some of my stats and awards hahaha. So don't talk to the monstros1ty thinking he is me because he is not haha.

Monstros1ty becomes Profan1ty

written January 10^th, by Profan1ty
I have decided to change my name to Profan1ty, everything else stays same not a different account just a name change to Profan1ty :) .

Keep up the good work s!

written January 10^th, by Profan1ty
We have been having lots of additions to our squad and plenty of scrims and I have to thank everyone for their participation! Last monday we lost 3 to 5 against 8x speechless, and last night a loss 3 to 5 on courtyard against them. Spiral, Xfer, Omicron, 50fpshero, Fl1nt, Cwestberry and the usual 655321 have done great at helping us improve more every week!

S! Stacking Pubs

written December 28^th, by Monstros1ty
It has come to my attention that people believe that we only play noobs and that we stack pubs only. I have definite proof this is NOT the case. However, I realize that people may not see s! monstros1ty on the name of the server so they join it thinking its a public server. So for people's information, people are free to join the teamspeak or their own voice chat and if there are any slots that are not taken by s! to play. Key point being--it's a private server that we use for ourselves, it's different from the public-public games. Quite a few people have addressed with me the idea about how we like to stack pubs and I am like that is the farthest from the truth and today it came to me that people do not often differentiate my private server from public server. So look at the name of the server before you join it or agree to join the server, if you see a person's name on it, even if you can join it, it's paid for and then perhaps not bitch and moan because you may see it stacked by a clan :P

On the second note of criticism that has often been expressed about "how s! only play noobs all day". I can provide proof that we scrim on a minimum of 3 days per week and have been for the last few months-with a few days exceptions. We have regularly weekly scrimmed 9.c and not as often the f* and Focal Point and Flag Pirates-so if you consider them noobs ok then, I don't consider those teams noobs. I personally take pride in the fact that we play teams beyond our skilllevel, so I most definitely have an ax to grind with the people who love to think we only pwn noobs all day haha. Barring one perhaps blurry game that was an almost-we have said gg after every loss that we have taken.

Brings me to the point about humility. I find it interesting how Rapha points out how he strives to be humble. Humility isn't something you have completely, it is something that you have a level of or non of. A fellow clanmember on teamspeak stated once "if you are concerned with how people think about you in this game you have no business playing it." I won't give specific credit due to confientiality, but it's good point of view. One thing I am sure of, is that the s! does not rag on the teams it has beaten, nor has boasted on any team or talked any shit to a team for a loss. That form of humility I have to say we have been sincere on, and it's an important value to me. One thing that surely pisses me off about public gameplay in quakelive is the wide-margin punkgames and then the ragparty of the winning team has when they see a lot of people from the losing team ragequit. Several times you see a lopside dumb game that lasts only a few minutes that results in 8-0 and then the exodus from the server and then to see some of the people on the winning team have a cry party about how the people leave. I feel proud that the s! is not a clan that possesses that type of arrogance. One thing that is also important to realize and that I need to improve on myself, is that we all have shit somewhere in the past, so it's always good before calling out someone's card about how one may look that they take a look upon themselves first before they call people out on the carpet for things. As egotistical as quake is, most of the people who play this game will never be pro so there is no need to be worried about the "image" of things. There is definitely a culture of anti-anger in quake as if it's a taboo. Quake is a sport, it's an outlet for people's anger. The legendary coach Vince Lombardi is an example of how one has used a sport to sublimate anger. Naturally, there is a level of acceptable expression and often times people may cross the line from time to time. But personally, I would rather be an angry person than an arrogant ass who is full of him or herself :)

Also, one important part of being humble too is to do the research before stating things as fact. Think before one speaks. "s! only plays noobs all day" Ok, before making that comment look at the s! profile match history. One thing that I am very proud of about the s! clan is that we play higher skill regularly, so naturally, for those who express otherwise I definitely dispute those claims and can provide proof that we play skilled teams. It is one negative aspect of the ego is that often people talk out of their ass rather than from what they know. They are too consumed with their egos and their opinions rather than what the actual experience is.

Scrims and Spectators

written December 9^th, by Monstros1ty
Since scrims are just practices and we have the honor system and people can hop in our teamspeak and know we do not cheat, I think it's great to have spectators spectating the scrims. Even if we lose by lopsides to 9c and f* and perhaps some are joshing and jiving about that, it's good that a lot of people who may not know or have seen scrims to be able to see scrims take place. I think this will help encourage and perhaps inspire people to form ctf teams so that there will be more activity in CTF. I am not trying to be egotistical and say that our scrims will inspire the spawning of teams a lot of the games are not so close, but spectating is one aspect of learning. So, I will agree to scrims that have spectators for that purpose. Now, spectators are NOT to use global chat and as long as they keep their chat teamchats I think it's a good thing to have spectators in the games even if we take huge losses. For us, its about the process not the end result, it's about being able to cooperate and to learn from the past and to improve over time and that is precisely what we are doing. The time it takes to have the team ethic of the elite teams will not be an overnight change, this will take years and it takes patience. This is about team comradery and having fun, even if we take big losses it's cool to see a server filled with 16 people, just like people enjoy a basketball game that has its seats filled.

s! Scrimming Going Good

written December 9^th, by Monstros1ty
We are improving our game and this week we had the best games so far. Fat3 doing his typical handiwork, riM_ is turning out to be a nice asset for us, heron_ had some kickass capping, erebuz is contributing nicely too, JDB_ keeps running the O, 655321 doing his typical reliable positioning and me I am slowly improving haha. I am excited to have so many members who are active it allows for a lot of fun and learning. We capped 3 flags on 9c and we capped a flag on f* we had some very close games against Focal Point except for the last map they took which was Troubled Waters by lopside. Keep up the great work s!

Let's Give a Round of Applause to ehuntx for his Acceptance into the s!

written December 9^th, by Monstros1ty
ehuntx has a mighty rail and some good duel-sense, kicked the shit out of me on bloodrun 9-0 :D Good guy and we look forward to playing with you ehuntx and to see how you will gel with us in the future :)

S! Enthusiastically Welcomes riM_

written December 6^th, by Monstros1ty
I would like to take this time to welcome a veteran of fps games riM_. Good skilled good natured Quaker who has played Quake II on msn gaming zone (I used to play msn gaming zone but back then I didn't know what Quake was, if I did happen to have clicked on it I would have played Quake a lot sooner! haha). Looking forward to playing more with ya riM_ and I will get the profile information off ya on the teamspeak for our profile page.

S! High-Fives and Welcomes Hol

written December 6^th, by Monstros1ty
Canada brings lots of talent to Quake and is why I am happy to welcome another Canadian to our team hol! I had a brief encounter with hol back in Quake 4 and reencountered him in QuakeLive. Great teamplayer and gets a long well with the team and has a lot of knowledge about Quake and is a veteran of many years. Looking forward to playing and enjoying the contributions you have to offer to the team Hol!

S! New Policies on Agreeing to Scrims

written November 26^th, by Monstros1ty
I set up scrims with 9c and f* on Mondays and Tuesdays for a purpose, it is to set up our out of skillrange practices at the beginning of each week. Then we play teams who are within our skillrange Wednesdays and do internal clan games after. This is so we can keep new members from becoming frustrated and people from losing morale. Morale is not only a military term used for a soldier's mindset and optimism, it is a term that fits quakers as well. So that is why it is important to be careful in my scheduling of games with teams throughout the week. We expect landslide losses to 9c and f* and we use that as a way to learn, however, it is counterproductive to play those skillranges every single day and will then hinder our progress. That is why I have come to realize I will make sure teams we play on Thurs, Fri, Sat will be within our skillrange. So I will make sure that everyone on the team that we agree to scrim will wear the same tag, not using ringers who are in the top echelon. This does not mean we are noob farming it means that we want to have an equal opportunity to enjoy close games and not just participate in 8-0 punkgames that are way out of our reach at the current time. Which is why I set up hard nights for Monday and Tuesday and want us to enjoy an easier time the days after to kind of wind-down from the Monday and Tuesday experiences and to learn from them.

Of course, this all stems from the lack of teams in QuakeLive. There needs to be more teams formed for the ctf community. Currently, it seems the ctf community is very tiny and the teams that are in it are the veteran elite teams. There are not many teams who are moderate or medium skillrange and this is devastating to activeness of ctf. There needs to be enough teams so teams can enjoy some sucess rather than constant 8-0 failures. Personally, I don't care about the losses I enjoy playing with my team and use the experience to try to work on following gameplans, not that I don't want to win though. It is easy to understand how the lack of teams is because of the steep skillgap that is so wide it just discourages people, so you find a lot of pubstars and people who just don't play. This is by no means a flame on skill or any of the top teams, this is just a rationale of how morale is important and why it's important to be careful on scheduling of games. It is very easy for people to lose morale when they play repeated games and cannot cap and are outaimed and cannot make frags and so forth, and the solution to this is to see more teams form and a more diverse skillrange so teams can have a balance of nightmare and skillmatched scrims.

S! Weekly with Echo setup for Thursdays at 9:30pm Est time

written November 26^th, by Monstros1ty
I have set up a weekly srim/practice with Sadistic/Chains Echo team for every Thursday at 9:30_pm est time. Hope to see you all there!

S! Enters Insanity CTF League

written November 22^nd, by Monstros1ty
The week after Thanksgiving Insanity ctf league will be starting, Homicidalwaffle and Mrgreen are running this league and they are on gamesurge at #insanity. I have enrolled Monstros1ty, weirdwolf, 655321, jdb_, fat3, erebuz, tkara, vith, heron_, and tueton in the roster. If there are other members of the s! who want in just pm me on the irc or come to the teamspeak and talk to me.

S! Television has Arrived!

written November 9^th, by Monstros1ty
As you can see on our homepage video window there is a livestream video, that is our live broadcast, there are also ondemand videos available and some of them will be moved to the youtube link which is on the left-hand side of this page below which will open up in same video window for you all to enjoy or to laugh at hahaha.

S! Weeklies with 9c on Mondays 8:30-11:00pm EST

written November 9^th, by Monstros1ty
We will be having weekly practice games on Mondays with 9c starting at 8:30pm eastern time.

S! vs FP (focal point) Practice Schedules Wednesdays 8:30pm

written November 2^nd, by Monstros1ty
I have spoken with xfer and we have a practice tomorrow 3^rd at 8:30pm eastern time. We will have this time set on a regular schedule. I think it will be a good game and fun! I believe it will be a 5v5 probably best of 3. I will set the server up at like 8:00pm eastern for us to get ready and to discuss strategy. I like 30 minutes prior to matches for people to arrive on teamspeak and the server for preparation and warmup.

S! Practices Progress

written November 1^rst, by Monstros1ty
Well, we had an S! only practice for like 3 hours last night and I feel it went off great. Had some really close and intense games. Furthermore, I learned a lot from it and I think the squad learned some, and also Ithink we are improving our communication. This 9:00pm eastern Sunday Practice as a regular thing is just awesome! This definitely will help us continue to grow as a team. It's great to see the s! coming around and laughing, joking, getting into the intensity of the game. It's fun to hear people joke around. This game is definitely a "sport" it has the same kind of intensity for it, like on Japanese Castles only seconds left to go and RC13 has the flag and I kill the dude who is behind him and now he has the area free and to tie it up (I think the second after the game was over) that is definitely what helps make this a sport is the intensity the need for coordination and teamwork and the varying skillsets people bring to the game. Looking forward to many more Sunday Night Practices and of course during the week too.

s! Practices

written October 31^rst, by Monstros1ty
We have three forms of playing ctf, 1) public-private where people come and play and we do the best we can to communicate with non-communicating joiners, 2) internal-clan practices where it's only s!, and 3) scrims. I also with some of the s! members request to have more of #2. Figuring we can have 2 days that are regularly scheduled to be S! only we can then work on our communication. Also I want to schedule regular days per week to practice against teams too, then in between we can do the public-private games we play during the week. One of the days I want to schedule for s! clan only are Sunday Nights after 9:00pm eastern since lots of us are available during that time. I will set the server to password so only s! people know it and can join. I think this will help also get us more communicative with one another in games (not that we are doing badly hehe). But room for improvement can always be had. I am very pleased by our recent activity of the clan and the people who get on teamspeak and are representing the s! Thanks to all of the people who have come to participate in the s! clan you are very much appreciated!

s! has signed up for the ESL League!

written October 28^th, by Monstros1ty
Since the mill has it that cyber-sports league is not going to last too long, I have decided to register our team at the ESL league. I think ESL is a stable league and has been run for years so let's hope more teams join up, and also lets hope there are some divisions too so its not just an all pro league. S! Members contact me and I will give you the password to join the squad and first register on their site at http://www.nationalesl.com/us/team/spiritmasterqlan#/us/team/5410448/.

S! Welcomes oaki_duke!

written October 28^th, by Monstros1ty
I would like to give an enthusiastic welcome to oaki_duke formerly from idk! I have seen this dude around the servers in the past year and can attest he has skill, and he has played with rc13 of course and is going to be a great asset to the s! Welcome oaki_duke!

s! s* *s* *smq* +smq+ +sm+

written October 26^th, by Monstros1ty
All the above tags represent the SAME team, just different ways of representing, the only people who will have no choice are the people who have standard accounts who cannot.

S! Welcomes RC13!

written October 19^th, by Monstros1ty
It is a great pleasure to welcome RC13 to the s!. RC13 is a knowledgable experienced quaker and will be an asset to the s!. RC13 has idled and participated and debated with me on various topics over the last two years so even though it stinks that the idk kinda went dormant it's great that he was able to accept the invite. It is really cool to be able to have debates and discussions or the ability to do that with an individual and I have always appreciated RC13's opinion on things-even if on some things we disagree :) Welcome RC13!

S! Welcomes Nuttin!

written October 19^th, by Monstros1ty
This dude has played Quake for a long time and it's great to announce Nuttin's entry into the s! I have played against this guy in Quake 4 and yeah his Rail pissed me off hehhe. It's cool to have him aboard and he is cool on Teamspeak as well. Looking forward to many more games with you Nuttin and keep up the good work!

Sad News in QuakeLive and in Real-life

written October 17^th, by Monstros1ty
My condolences to Sematic and the family. I woke up this afternoon and went to the pc to read the IRC and found out that Vishnewbie had died. Information about the tragic event. At first I was hoping that it was just some wrong information over the Internet but the article above sadly verified it. I never met vishnewbie in person, but he was an intelligent guy and a colorful character who put in a lot of time in Quake and knew a lot about Quake and had a lot of Quake skill. The ole addage about how you should live your life like everyday is your last-rings true, because you do not know if you can be walking home or somewhere and a tragic accident can happen, 27 years old is just way too young and it sucks to find out someone has lost their life at such a young age.

S! Welcomes Heron_!

written October 14^th, by Monstros1ty
S! is still growing and is excited to announce their newest member Heron_, another great ctfer who also comes out of Massachusetts! He played his first friendly-scrim with us tonight against GAT crew and is a good asset. Welcome Heron_!

Monstro's Game of the Week

written October 14^th, by Monstros1ty
As an excuse to write news, I figured I can post a demo of a game I think was my best game and I think this 5 to 7 loss to vith on Aerowalk was one of my best duels, I did get 7 frags so I self-killed a couple times but on that map being one of vith's top maps I felt pretty good about it. You can download it here

S! vs .GAT

written October 14^th, by Monstros1ty
Tonight 655321, P1ro, JDB, and Monstros1ty won probably the most difficult win, I think this win was harder than the win on that ONE map against v. Lots of interuptions and having to pause the game and whatnot but probably the most difficult winnable game we have played to date. Winning the game on Shining Forces in overtime was nice, and that game was anxiety-driven for sure. Their team had better aim and was not only good at aim, but they were also trying to control the mid very often. P1ro literally tied the game with the last second to go in the match to send it to overtime. I know Tbonetime is good at communication since he once played a game or rang for us once so it feels good to play againts a skilled team that has good communication, timing, and fragging skill.

The second map Troubled Waters was not as anxiety driven but 655321 really pulled off the job and covered for my mistakes. P1ro and JDB worked well on the offense and I except for a couple faux paus did ok on flag defense.

It feels good to be actively playing with the team and am continuing to grow as a team, and in the future I will password the servers so I don't have to pause the server and kick specs hehe. GGs GAT and looking forward to playing many more scrims.

S! vs fP.

written October 12^th, by Monstros1ty
Looks like Thursday at 10:00pm easternish we will be scrimming another game against the flag pirates, clanmembers just get with me if you are available and we will have another attempt at playing the flag pirates.

S! vs XLR8

written October 12^th, by Monstros1ty
655321, Weirdwolf, P1ro, Monstros1ty (first game), and JDB_(second game) played against a newly formed but talented team tonight and finally enjoyed a victory after a long drought. We maintained control of the powerups or atleast gave major damage and maintained a lot of the items which helped us secure the win. It is nice to be able to change and modify our gameplay based on past experiences and we were able to do that tonight. It is true that you cannot win a game of ctf without any map control; it's just like duel-you cannot expect to rush and take a battle with no stack and the same happens in CTF. We also got a lot better communication-wise, we used one person to call out the times to get in position for the powerup and it seems to have worked out well, and also for the red armors.

We also got together this afternoon and practiced the Team A vs Team B intra-clan practice and it definitely helped and was also much fun. Let's hope that the ctf community sprouts more CTF teams so we can have more scrims with a variety of teams. Good games XLR8 and hope to scrim more, and great work JDB_ our new guy and the rest of the team who did great work also :)

S! vs (9)

written October 12^th, by Monstros1ty
Again, valiant efforts put in by Krasnal, 655321, p1ro, and somewhat Monstros1ty on 3 maps against probably one of the higher level non-pro ctf teams and additionally on three of their strongest maps-including one they beat Evil Genius EG on. P1ro scored our only capture on Siberia. (9) is a tough team to play because of their coordination and their strength. As Blatrix told me via pm--you guys don't provide enough pressure, and also no matter how skilled you are if you do not have more health you will not get the frag, you have to get stacked and keep applying pressure you guys focus too much on defense." One thing for sure is we did not get powerups and every time like 655321 stated after the game they capped on all their powerup grabs. Learning lesson for sure is about taking the time to get the stack and weapons needed and to get in position for the items-it's easier said than done when there is such pressure being made and you're being fragged over and over. The lessons also made by me is on how to improve communications-wise. These matches are definitely a learning experience for me personally and for us as a team, and that is why even though we do not have any expectations of beating (9) we definitely will continue to grow as a team by competing against them. The way I see it, if we can stick together and play against teams like (9) we can do so against other teams that are closer to our skill level hehe. One thing about playing highend teams it does serve as a weeding out of members who may have different expectations and leaves behind the ones who stick. Good efforts to the members who played and looking forward to playing with you guys in the future! Below are screens of the accuracies of the games.
s! vs (9) Troubled Waters
s! vs (9) Siberia
s! vs (9) Iron Works

S! Team A and Team B

written October 12^th, by Monstros1ty
We are going to have practices on a private server and we are going to split into Team A and Team B in order to practice the strategies discussed from our past scrims-ie. position for powerups, communication, movement etc. This is not a split of the clan this is just for coming up with a way to have organized games within the clan so that we can improve on what we learn from our scrims we win/lose. This has been advised by both p1ro and 655321 and I think its a great way to improve so we can start pulling off some wins in the future :) Also in the future we will have a post listing the strategies and gameplans for the clanmembers to read so that we can all be on same page on what we are working on.

S! Welcomes ehh!

written October 11^th, by Monstros1ty
I would like to welcome ehh to the clan, another dedicated ctfer who has enjoyed playing with us and is a friend of JDB_'s. Looking forward to more games with ehh and more scrims!

Scrim vs XLR8 Tuesday 8pm Eastern

written October 11^th, by Monstros1ty
Really private stuff I won't place on our homepage, but scheduled scrims and results why the hell not? Using forums, irc and others is good but if this is an easy way to alert clanmates its cool hehe. Basically the title says it all, I think its a 4v4 I didn't quite ask that but that is a standard but I would be up for a 5v5. I do not know how many games they have in mind to play, it wouldn't be any less than a best of 3 and I am definitely down for more games than that. Didn't go over servers, but as long as they are not Texas or Georgia or West Coast I don't mind either. So peeps get ready!

Website Statistics

written October 10^th, by Monstros1ty
If anyone is interested below are the website stats :)

S! Welcomes JDB_!

written October 9^th, by Monstros1ty
I would like to welcome JDB_ to the s!, he is a good ctf'er and is a good communicater as well. We had some close games, one with devilsincarnate, on Troubled Waters and Vortex Portal. Interestingly, I invited JDB_ to a private server to try to start up some CTF and timezone was discussed a bit becuase I said, "it's hard to start up a game at 3:00am" and I said Mass, and found out dude lives in the town nearby! hahha. Roughly a year into QuakeLive and plays as good as if he has more experience, so delighted to have another ctf'er who is a regular player in Quake and looking forward to more scrims!

S! vs fP. Flag Pirates

written October 5^th, 2010 by Monstros1ty




As one can see we lost again, but also from the past games we have improved. I was actually expecting a closer game on Japanese Castles and a gapped game on Shining Forces. However, we held them to 1 cap until the last minute of the game. We decided to go with a gameplan of 1 attacker and 3 defenders until 15 seconds prior for getting set for the powerup, then if we got the powerup having 3 of us attack the flag. It may not have gone perfectly as planned offensively, but the gameplan did work at keeping their caps at a low amount and it did prevent bleeding. As one can see from the above screen Arcangel, Mrollie, and Devilsincarnate did a good job defending, while I did a pretty shitty job at attacking hehe. However, we did put up a fight for the powerups even though we lost them and that's another improvement. I think we should have controlled the red armor a bit more and that we will do the next time. One can see too we lost the frag war! Japanese Castles was a bit difficult to play, I have been so used to 5v5 on that map and 4's definitely change the dynamic of play. This time, after dying 86 times on Shining, played flag defense; I kept respawning in the enemy base and was a bit annoyed. However, I did make quite a few stops and I prevented a cap from Despair. Did not have as solid a gameplan on Japanese Castles and as one can see, we again lost the war on frags. I understand frags is not what ctf is about but fragging helps!! I am really happy with our improvement on Shining Forces map from the previous games and look forward to improving more in the future. Great effort Arcangelll, MrOllie, and Devilsincarnate! Look forward to many more scrims with you guys!

Teambot on Quakenet

written October 4^th, 2010 by Monstros1ty
I have put the s! on teambot on the irc in quakenet if any other team is on it they can use it. TeamBot website, to invite just type /invite teambot in the irc and it will come and then follow the instructions on setting up your team. Not sure how many will use it but it's a good idea. For me I get notices from the irc client that I am in too many channels and gamesurge doesn't load so many channels cause of entering the channels too fast, so for this teambot to be able to challenge other teams in unknown channels-I think it's good. But will the teams use it? Who knows probably just the Europeans, American Quakers are a bit too I don't know what to say hahah.

Trackmania Nations Forever PC Racing Game

written October 3^rd, 2010 by Monstros1ty
I'm not planning on leaving quake or anything and am not tired of quake, but for an additional non-fps game that's free and incorporates the ability to have squad or clanplay Trackmania Nations Forever is just fucking outstanding, check it out. All the tracks, all the servers and players, the music, the easy ability to make your own tracks, lanability, it's just awesome. When I am not in Quake I am in Trackmania. Here is a brief intro to my spin on a track Here Movie Will Show in above video window.

Pickup games better to be used off of the IRC rather than chosen from Server?

written October 2^nd, 2010 by Monstros1ty
P1ro spoke to me about how the IRC was the home of pickups becuase of the one-game occurances of pickup games. I can understand that idea and I think that's the way to go. After all, who wants to sit and spec games if you have 8 all-stars and 5 average dudes? So, if you can get a shitload of people on the irc then you can have people adding up like they do on #uscpmpickup and #spontan.games and have fluent games rather than the wait and the one-timer games. I think that's why the quakenet's webchat is a good tool, there's nothing to install just a link to click to join the channel. I think the best way to go is to have IRC Pickup games, Friend-Invite Games, and intra-team games. But, if someone is just looking for one game the pickup game that Quakelive uses isn't too bad an idea. But if you are looking to play for a while intra-team and invite games are the way to go.

Scrim vs the Flag Pirates

written October 1^rst, 2010 by Monstros1ty
We had 1.5 scrim games last night against the flag pirates on Shining Forces and Japanese Castles. The reason I say .5 on second is that there was 3 who joined the second game after a few of their members had real-life stuff to take care of :P Not bad games the first game on Shining Forces was:


Their accuracy was a lot better than ours, so despite that it isn't too bad of a score. The second match


Second game was a bit quicker to end but despite having no control of the powerups not too bad.

I agree with a member and that is one thing we are going to do is come up with a way to practice coordination and syncrosy. Their team definitely coordinated their control of the powerups and their flag attacks. They did not just attack and take powerups one player at a time-they did it as a team. So it gives a good point of reflection to look at where to improve and from that to be able to set up practices accordingly just like any sport. As you can see, their accuracies were really high as well as their teamwork.

S! Welcomes Seaweed and P1ro!

written September 29^th, 2010 by Monstros1ty
I want to extend a warm welcome to two skilled Quakers by the names of Seaweed and P1ro! Seaweed is a good Clan Arena and CTFer who has past experience playing for the KL kitten's litter clan. Seaweed is definitely an asset to the s! and we look forward to playing in scrimmages with him! P1ro also is a newly added member and brings a lot of talent as well. He is an ass-kicking latino dueler and has lots to offer the s! in Clan Arena and CTF. I am very excited to make this announcement today!

S! vs (9)

written September 29^th, 2010 by Monstros1ty
Devilsincarnate, vith, numbers, bannedit (from v. ) undertaker12, and I scrimmed a couple games against 9 circles last night. The scores may have been a bit lopsided but I think the games were actually closer than the scoreboard stated. The 9(c) on Iron Works is a pretty tough match, their way of running offense on that map is a bit tricky for the defense. This is because they like to not leave the base immediately after they take the flag, they like to run to the back get the RA or double back and take the other way out, this leaves the defense wondering where they are and also helps trick the middle defense. They are pretty good at timing the items and powerups as well, so even though the scoreboard may seem a bit deceiving on how bad the game went it was also good becuase we were able to reflect and learn from it. Also they had 5 caps that happened within a minute so for the most of the game on Iron Works we staved off their attacks pretty good, and that's why I say the scoreboard was deceiving. Good games 9 circles and we look forward to playing more against ya!

Hackers Lately and Punkbuster

written September 27^th, 2010 by Monstros1ty
Lately I have seen a few hackers and it makes me wonder. Punkbuster uses a definition style form of catching hacks, how can punkbuster keep up with the hacks? What is to stop the hacker programmer from having recompiled hacks that are the same that they don't release? How could Punkbuster keep up catching them? At any rate, it's just like any sport that has athletes using enhanced drugs, the hacks cast a doubt on skilled players just like enhanced drugs has hurt baseball and other sports. Goes to show as well that people will do anything to win, it is not how you win but that you win. The stat-hoes do same thing and it hurts the game.
edited by Monstros1ty September 29^th, 2010
Now, I am not saying that hacking is a rampant issue in QuakeLive, hacking is a reality in any game that becomes popular. More of a curiosity behind the way Punkbuster detects hacks and how ineffective it probably is. I wouldn't think even 10 percent of people in quakelive hack, probably the most is 3 percent not sure, naturally the size of the community is something to factor in. Probably only 1 to 3 percent.

Fun Scrim with the Flag Pirates

written September 26^th, 2010 by Monstros1ty
Had some tough games this Sunday, but good games. Flag Pirates took their revenge upon us by whipping us 3 games to nothing. The first game was a pretty tight game, ending with a blowout in the third hehe. I have improved on keeping times of the Red Armor and the powerups. However, the Flag Pirates were really good at having more than one person in position to take those items, so the group effort won the game for the Flag Pirates. As well, offensively they had 2 to 3 guys coordinated which was hard to defend against. I have to say that with all the skilled teams we have played against, we have not faced that good of coordination yet and we have played against good teams. It is definitely something to learn from. One personal pat on the back-I did not lose my composure during those games and pull a Mike Ditka so I am pretty happy :).

Looking for more CTFers

We currently have a starting roster for our ctf squad, and we are full enough on our clan arena. However, we are looking for more ctf dedicated players so that we can have more intra-clan ctf matches to help improve our games. Not bad mouthing clan arena (I play it myself) however, the ctf time is a bit lacking and we would like to see more ctf-dedicated players come our way. Stop by click here.

Personal Qualities we are looking for:

Intelligence People who can think critically. People who can reason without having to to think about what the convention is or what the bandwagon viewpoint is. People who can reason and think about the issue rather than what the status quo is. People who can look beyond a name or a brand. People who won't do as ESR does and just shit on something becuase it will give them a +.

 

Adults (There are a couple young folks that are exceptions from Quake 4 who played my Q4SupremacyMod). But we are looking for adults, sometimes our language isn't suitable for young adiences and I don't want to have to censor for the pg rated haha.

 

Communication People who will use Teamspeak, IRC, and/or forums, so that we can coordinate practice/scrim times. This also allows us to know who is alive (not in the literal sense) and who is still around. I don't want people who are not on the roster still on the roster.

 

Punctuality A person who makes a commitment sticks to it, and if he or she cannot will inform us. Noone is forced to do anything, but for those who do make commitments that they honor them or give notice if they can't. This is crucial for our league gameplay because if we would have issues with punctuality we will end up with lots of forfeitures and lose credibility due to the lack of responsibility.

 

Sincerity This is not a street gang, you will not be forced to draw blood on exiting the game, or be coerced into things hehe. So if you do not want to do something (like be in a tournament) just say so and it's cool. And you are not trapped into being in the clan once you are in the clan. Be a part of this team because you want to be not because you feel obligated becuase you agreed to be in the clan and feel you can't leave it. So, for the members who will join in the future think before joining and saying yes, I would rather receive a NO than a member who is only a member for 2-3 weeks.

Recommended

Email Address We recommend you setup an aliased email account so we can contact you that's not your real one, now if you are comfortable with your real one than that's cool, but email is a good way to contact members for dates/times. For example my email address is monstros1ty at live dot com.

We are not looking for:

Grandiosity/Conceit S! clan respects people's dignity and their ego or sense of pride. We are not here to try to make people look or feel stupid and we base our philosophy on this. One prime example of what we don't do, is harrass team/person into a game. If someone feels uncomfortable playing or if we see them avoiding we don't harrass and chase them around. Making this game about face ruins the game and the fun for everyone and only makes us look like arrogant assholes who are only looking to inflict the pride or the ego of other gamers. That is precisely what we are not about, we are not here to try to make people look or feel stupid via trolling people on the servers for games they may not want to play or avoid. Boxing trainers choose their fights for their fighters, and so does everyone else, if someone disconnects before a join or we get a cue we respect it and leave the person/team alone. The activity of pursuing a duel or a game from someone who is not willing only creates hatred and trollers and in the long-run hurts the community. Grudge matches are what they are, and we prefer to have matches with those who we are on good terms with. The ego-sport of "hey, he disconnected, therefore, he is admitting he is a lower-skilled player" is a fallacy.

 

Deceit/disloyalty People who are disloyal, we are not looking for fairweathered folk who will only be around if we win. Losing is part of the game and s! is a skilled team but we also do not make fake or false promises. We look for people who are "real" not those who pretend they never get angry or are emotionally perfect. If you are emotionally perfect and never get angry, cool God will give you your reward when you die. We are looking for people who are sincere, not the fake who are just trying to bolster an image so they can look good. I don't give a shit how you look-I respect loyalty more than I respect skill. Example: say Rapha says hey I will become a member and plays only 3 league games and then all of a sudden quits, and this other dude who of course does not have close the skill rapha has, but sticks around and plays, I pick the latter not the prior. I don't give a shit if you are the hotshot of quakelive, I want reliability I don't really give two-shits about status, the pros do not make Quake active, the pro community is tiny. Not that I don't enjoy watching the pros or have any hatred towards them, they are what royalty are to England not too close to the people, or the rich in America. However, there are some pros who are cool to the community, so the parallel is good there are some rich folk who are better than some others hahaha.

 

Ringers. You cannot ask Pierce from Celtics to play for the Lakers if they are not playing on the same day, you choose a team, one team at a time, it's one team or the other, it's a choice. Ortiz cannot play for the Yankees while he is still playing for the Red Sox, the same principle applies to our team. Leave our team before entering another, and leave another team before joining ours, and we do make a principle that we do not recruit off of other teams rosters (unless they have broken up prior).

 

Flamers. Now, this does not mean that we do not engage in public debates or defend ourselves from other trolls, or makes us masochists. But we look for those who aim to be diplomatic and if are in the wrong atleast try to make things right in the future.

Farewell to Razek and Empyr3

Sad farewell to two good players from the s!. The s! has had quite a few talented members leave and this is no difference. Azarua or zkeem and Empyr3 formed their new clan and Razek being with the vitality clan with Empyr3 it makes sense the departure occurred. Wish them the best of luck on their venture. One thing that the s! has is stability over time and I hope the (e) can have and enjoy the longevity that the s! is enjoying. There is too many clans changing names too often in QuakeLive. There needs to be some stability in the teams for there to be an active community and I think it has hurt the CTF community greatly.
          However, I think the flag pirates are back, I remember seeing their talent in Quake 4 and am looking forward to seeing how they will do in QuakeLive. One thing we do need is more teams to see an active CTF community.

S! Entered the CSN Cyber-Sports Network League

After The 2nd Coming league fiasco I looked for another league to join and came across the CSN since SuperJake who is the head of No Mercy NM clan wears the tag and is the admin of the QL section, I decided to check it out. I think there is going to be a CTF tourney soon and we have had a few interested members join the team. Superjake is a cool guy and an intelligent one so I definitely have faith this tourney will be run professionally and am looking forward to the competition.

Huzubu Found an Interesting Article

Here is an interesting article one of the s! members huzubu found. huzubu's find. Cognitive Psychology was my favorite area when I was studying psychology. One good thing about this study is they can continue to study it, but as the popularity of gaming has grown it may become more difficult to find people who haven't gamed in that agegroup.

Back

Well, I enjoyed my camping trip out in the State reservation woods. Went fishing, got lost in the woods (found our way back hehe) and enjoyed the campfire. It has been ages since I have done anything like that and I miss it. One thing is certain, campfire hotdogs pwn all other forms of hotdogs, there is nothing like a campfire grilled hotdog hahaha. I am going to go out and buy some camp gear and a good tent and a pillow! The only thing that sucked was I didn't bring my pillows so it was a bit rough on the neck hahah. It is also fun to fish at nighttime. I had a ball and can't wait to do it again.
          Here is a picture of me at night near the campfire:

Monstros1ty vs Wild

Believe it or not, I am not going to be on a fregen computer all weekend!!! I am going to be out in the woods camping. Goes to show how addicting the Internet is because my mind is like "wow I cannot go a whole weekend without my computer!" But I will, and I am going to enjoy the camping trip, I have always loved the woods.

More stuff

Well, it turns out that id said we could play on Sunday. However, I can see that since DaHanG wasn't the captain of the team that I was wrong to schedule it with him. But still, he is a fellow EG member and the time was verified by an admin of the league so I am not going to bother myself about it, my point still stands. Not a big deal.

Update on The Second Coming League

I may first, give my apologies to _2_ for being a bit harsh on my response to the snafu on this weeks match. However, I did pm DaHanG with our second time that our lineup could show which is 10:00pm Thursday and got no response. So, with the idea of having to face the fact we have to reschedule the match for another week, I have decided to pull out of the 2nd Coming CTF League. We showed up at the scheduled time they didn't, its not our responsibility, we offered a second time and got no response. I checked viju's profile and he was online at around the time the match was supposed to happen, so it wasn't as if some of their members were not playing quake last night. So I strongly feel that the rules of the league need to be obeyed. It wasn't as if we didn't have a scheduled time and we had 5 weeks to play, we scheduled a time and we showed up and were around for more than an hour. We are not an e-sports team it is hard for us to get together at one time and is the main reason I offered 10:00pm Thursday as the second time. When it comes to running a league I am not a pro at it, but I know its vital for us to be able to rely on the rules around meeting times and is the main reason I pulled our team out of that league.
Now again, that didn't give me an excuse to respond to what I thought was ridiculous by saying fuck your league and a few other choice words, so my apologies to _2_ and will be the only apology you will get from me. And I hope The Second Coming CTF league prospers in the future. I cannot just call my starting lineup at any given moment on any given day and that's why it's so important for leagues to obey their scheduled times. Cause then we would have to play 2 or more matches in a week and end up forfieting ourselves. That is one of the reasons I took the time I did before entering a league was so that I would meet the obligations we signed up for and not forfiet. We are not EG, SK, or Fnatic got jobs and lives and real-life responsibilities. So for the future league I will entroll in, I will definitely make sure about the rules on scheduled times before entering it.


So that leaves us looking for another ctf league to play in which we will, and we will continue to scrim to make for better appearances in the future.

Of course 2nd Coming CTF league currently shows 2nd Week Schedule, but my screenshot
shows otherwise, as well as a screenshot of one of their squad members being on quakelive at around the time which I can prove, and as well DaHanG conversation setting up the match, so they can make it look as if we didn't schedule and didn't show up, but I got proof otherwise :P nanananannananana! NO SHANANAGANS!

I will take down that proof if that gets adjusted. Before the disagreement me leaving or how the other may interpret it as being kicked, the event happened prior to today so it shouldn't be deleted as if it never happened. The disagreement and departure occurred in the evening time on Wednesday 15th, not the 14th. As well, I pasted DaHanG's comment to the admin and it was verified prior to being posted and scrimmed so therefore my proof is valid and that's good enough to prove there was a match scheduled. So they can try to coverup the fact, whatever! The time was verified prior to being posted up there for the week, I scheduled the match early. So, if they delete the scheduled time they should just delete our team entirely, not pick and choose by deleting the scheduled match that was etched up there for the week prior to the match that didn't happen.

I understand a lot of the EG players are busy, however the conversation with DaHanG he stated the iem finals and therefore the scheduled time. It's not a big deal, I will remove my proof pictures if he fixes the past deletion, it just kinda puts me into a position that I have to prove that we showed up as we did. However, EG or enemies shouldn't enter a tournament if they know they cannot show up to the games. Becuase its as simple as this-a scheduled match was verified, one team didn't show up, therefore the other team gets the 6 points. This idea of exceptions only creates drama. If it was s! who didn't show there would be no question about the forfiet loss.

Welcome Rawrz!

Rawrz is a very new player to Quake, but not a new player to pc gaming. He has already progressed greatly, and will most definitely be a great asset to our ctf/ca squad. He played competitively at the pro level on the Day of Defeat game, so he has good knowledge about teamplay. Welcome to America and to the s! Rawrz, it's great to talk and play with ya on the Quake battlefields!

Second Week of The Second Coming CTF Season

Well, the s! and Enemies were supposed to play tonight 14th at 9:00pm est and noone was around, so technically I think that should be a forfiet win for the s! 6 points. However, we offered Thursday 10:00pm est as our other remaining time to be able to play, and when we hear word we will post more results.
So, we decided to scrim (9) instead and got our asses kicked hehe. Shining Forces game was a lot closer than the score shows (if that makes any sense). And we have improved our game against (9) 9 circles so I am not upset over the games, and the s! is still working together new and coming into shape so it's all good! Below are the results:

Just like in duels, when you play a lot of the top players you will enhance your skill and the same works out for playing CTF. And in Quake, teamwork skill is something to be patient with because it can take years to get to where you want, a perfect syncronized team is not going to happen in a couple weeks time. And playing against highseeded teams helps the team get better through the experience.
It is one interesting observation that I have personally or introspectively, is the major difference in emotion of scrim-teamplay vs public random play. Playing with your team is a very different feel and is not nearly as rageful as it is in the open pubs. That is why I think that more leagues and scrims and teams will definitely improve quake because for me personally I do not get nearly as wound up playing a scrim with my team like I do playing random pubs.
The s! has started its first competitive ctf season in The Second Coming CTF League, we competed against Perplexity. Perplexity was a skilled team-however mostly duelers and from what I read from them Team Fortress 2 players, but they played good. The results

Welcomes new members to the s!

Devilsincarnate, fat3, Empyr3, Razek, and figis are recent additions to the s! squad. As many know Empyr3 and Razek starred in the former vitality clan and as one can see from the above screenshots have greatly helped us in securing our first ctf week victory over Perplexity. Figis is a veteran of Quake III Arena who has recently came back to quaking in Quakelive and brings lots of knowledge and skill to our Clan Arena squad. I am more than proud to have these new members to the s!.

QuakeLive Server Tutorial

written October 12^th, by Monstros1ty The official link to how to run a server is http://www.quakelive.com/#request/help. Basically, you type \players in your console and a list of player names with numbers on the left will list in your console you use thoes numbers with the \put # r, b or s. r = red, b = blue, and s = spectate. For example you type in \players in the console and hit enter it will show:

• 0 s! Monstros1ty in-game example
• 1 s! WeirdWolf

So, if you want to put Wierdwolf into Spectate mode because he is afk you would type in console \put 1 s.

S! History

SpiritMasterQlan started around June of 2005 in Quake 4. S! got its start out of a listen or home server which was pretty unique for the Quake 4 community and it attracted many players. Then the clan sprouted even more when the fragfestmod which then turned into the q4supremacymod came on a dedicated server and started hosting a unique form of instagib capture the flag. At one time the SpiritMasterQlan had over 50 clanmembers. The SMQ ctf server was one of the most played in Quake 4 up until the 1.4.2 patch when things really got quiet. Last year most of the clan transitioned to QuakeLive or moved on. With the wave of time we are now back again and more active. It goes to show also how important private servers are when it comes to clan activity. Its really a lot easier to organize clan games and practices when you have private servers. Please !add up in Truecarnage pickup channel.
edited by Monstros1ty October 2^nd, 2010
Currently, we are thriving in QuakeLive with a Clan Arena, CTF, and Duel Squad. We are picking back up on our CTF and doing more scrims. We are a gaming community first and a competitive community second. We are always on the lookout for members and we are looking to improve our team skill and to compete at higher levels as we gain improvement. We have about 27 active members at the moment.Back Top