this time last year i was crouching on a clanarena server spamming plasma, while staring incredulously at a smooth netgraph.

it was that phenomenon which made last year's 4v4 summer cup the most enjoyable q3 league i participated in in years. i was

one of the few irish broadbanders. this time around, i'm stuck without a connect, and only isdn on some weekends, but am

currently waiting for result of a line-test to see if i can get broadband. unfortunately it looks like the competition has

come a few weeks too soon for me, but at least the general situation has changed so much that now i am one of the few irish

narrowbanders. i'll be following this cup anyway, and hopefully i'll be able to get a connect for some games too, so i had

a look at the divisions containing irish clans. since the bulk of irish interest has trickled out of jb and ts, i won't

bother with them this time around. its a shame the league is n8zless, since the n8z have a formidable 4v4 ctf line-up with

rapp now a white-ping euro.

fourth league, group d

great to see another irish clan in action, with ded being placed in the

fourth league.

they'll be facing dx!, who were one of the better sides in div3 jolt last season iirc. the belgians are an old clan and have

always been lower div2/upper div3 standard but extremely inconsistent. can never take a win vs dx! for granted, since they

often spring surprises. i think they have the experience to win this division, but there will be crucial games against ded

and 303 which will determine the shape of the division. prediction: 1st

i haven't been able to experience much the magic of the dedanann yet, since i have been offline during all of their life

except for one or two weekends when i squeezed a game in. i see their line-up features a swedish zonic. if this is the

eurocup zonic of [foe] fame then they'll be serious contenders in this division. with a core is made up of baz, benji, and

flash, then they still have the quality to make the quarter finals assuming flash doesn't quit out of all the games as soon

as they start losing. they had a good start to sterlfr league, owning a french clan, gni, who have some experienced

pickuppers in their side. prediction: 2nd

303: a polish clan with a few familiar names. some experienced players like sz, formerly in ppp (also fourth league) means

this team will be competent. some clans might suffer when playing on the higher ping required to have a fair game vs a

polish team. prediction: 3rd

sqz were one of the best teams in division 4 last season, which probably means they're a solid division 3 side. they are the

standard for the fourth league, unlucky for them most of the teams here are slightly above that standard. prediction:

4th

foa join the legions of nameless dutch ctf clans who think they own. i have not heard of any of their players, and i have no

reason to think this, but they probably whinge and say 'n00b' a lot. they say they're a freezetag clan, but i have played a

fair bit of freezetag for tdi and although i still don't recognise any foaers, so i'll tip them to finish bottom of the

group. prediction: 5th

third league, group d

fh topped our group here last summer with some good wins over clans like @tarctica, hf, and 3p, and were cruising in the

semis when i lost my broadband and we had to default. its been a long time since then though, and we haven't played

seriously since. with no games since quakelan except for two friendlies with ded we are not in the best shape and might find

this division a bit too tricky.

cr is a new swedish clan i think. i only recognise the ex-div1 player killha, formerly of tkoe. i'll tip them to win the

group since they're swedish and have at least 1 good player.

ff is a polish clan that i have never heard of. you would expect fh to win this fixture since we beat the polish national

team on a few maps some months ago, but then you realise how far polish ctf has come in the past few months. they have 5

clans in the cup, and it looks like the ctf scene is booming over there. however, this looks like one of those multi-gaming

clans with their tdm squad trying out ctf for a change, so for that reason i'll take a chance and say they'll end up last.

zr is a new team, made up of players who wear sunglasses indoors (
target="_blank">here and here).
size=1>(actually that second guy might be just wearing tinted glasses, but it serves them right for putting the photos into

black and white to make it look cool.) these people look for division 4 clans to own and boost their egos, and then

when they only win by a few caps they see nothing wrong with apologising to the other team.

dude, sorry we sucked so bad, wont waste ur time in future

you beat us by 4 caps on cp9 and 2 caps on w2...

ya dude, sorry again, i didnt know we sucked so bad

...

rofl, from austria, is a clan that i have always been very wary of. with some austrian internationals in their squad, they

have the quality. sometimes their teaplay is outstanding, and they look like a division 1 team. other times their pings are

bad, or they just play shite, and this is why they have been floating from division 2 to 3 in jolt. i'd say they'll finish

2nd here though, this allows them to play badly on one or two occasions.