i've had loads of quake related stuff to say over the past few days, and lazy fh cunt0rs can never read my (very long) emails and i doubt fh website gets much traffic, so this is a good way to communicate my semi-spammical ramblings. also... i need some excuse not to study for my leaving cert pre's next week anyway, i can't update without mentioning this website. i read what other people said about it, but i never expected it to be this efficient, with loads much more beneath the surface that i won't know about.

q3 is becoming very active again lately, for a few months there i thought tdm was dying out. with bw going, there were no 4v4 leagues around, i nearly believed what the ctf freaks were telling me. savageuk q3dm league, and wireplay dml saved the day by opening their sign-ups at the same time, and within a week, there were about 70 clans signed up to each - i just counted 94 in the savage league :o savageuk is definitely the league to replace barrysworld as the premier league of q3 (if bwdml does end). nearly all the clans i know are signed up, and if the servers are up to it the league should be really good. looking at the clan list, it will be interesting to see who will be in div1, all the top bwdml div1 clans are there, but there will be plenty of competition coming from the likes of clan-e and the bw div2 winners like wtf. fh have signed up to both leagues, and this is the one that i will take seriously, playing our best lpb team whenever we can.

i don't know what to expect from the wpdml. i have loads to complain about after the wireplay cup, so i might as well get that out of the way wireplay clan servers are brutal!!! i've had a good few 1v1's on wireplay cpm servers in the past, always with a ping of 50, really smooth. these league servers are a joke, not just for us, being irish, but it seems also for uk players who are on isdn. you might say its our isp's that gave us great ping bw, gi, and savage servers, but i don't think so. i don't know much about servers and stuff, but i saw a wp admin saying that the reason pings were so bad was probably because of too many ports running off one box. that sounds like something that can be fixed, otherwise it won't be worth our while playing in the wpdml. standing still, our ping is usually ok, but as soon as we move/fight, its laaagy. its like after a round in clanarena, just as the next round starts, all isdn players have pings of 150, while cable fag0ts aren't really affected. i have demos of all fh games in wpcup (5 games) and in each one, our isdn pings vary from 70 - 160. its not much fun pinging like ir while you're opponents have nd-esque connections. cwdml vs wpcup pings.

aside from minor irritations, eg last-minute postponement of the quarter finals because the wpffa leauge fixtures co-incided with the wpdml (how could ye manage to schedule both leagues for the same time ffs!?), the cup would have been quite good if it weren't for the map selection. the first week of the league, we had two games in the one night, while other clans did not. it makes sense to have us play dm7 in our first game, dm6 in the second, dm11 and then dm8. as it happened, because we played both of our first games on the same day we had to play dm7 twice. this is ridiculous imo, dm7 is not one of our preferred maps, why did we have to play it twice while xpd never had to play it at all? dm7 is a map which favours the better lpb teams like federation who can lock down the level easily with good railing. because xpd are about the same level as us, they would have had the advantage of not having to play against a good team like fed on dm7. thats not a big deal, it would have annoyed me if we had finished below xpd on frag difference, but we won more games than them so it was alright.

i don't like the system for the semi-final and final of the cup. the semi-final is played on one map... thats fair enough if wp don't have the admins who could stick around for 2 games or something, but it is a pity imo. the game that concerned me was wtf vs hood in the semi final. the day before, they clashed in the bwdml div2a, and it ended up a 1-1 draw, becuase wtf are better on some maps, while hood prefer others. in the case, it was up to the map as to which team makes the final.

thats the semi, but i think its crazy to have the final on one map, especially a custom map. cpm4 and mexx1 were the maps the wpcup head admin had in mind, to choose between one of them for the final. home and away maps would be a good idea, or best out of three. whatever the case is, issues like this should be discussed and sorted out, and leagues should drop "this is how it is, now accept it" attitude. a well run cup could be much better than a league imo, and i expect the next season (if there is one) will be much better providing they improve the servers, and also accept suggestions from participating clans.

so what does that mean for the wpdml? thank god its being run by clan-wars. they were very efficient in the clan-wars 4v4, the admins were very friendly and knew their stuff. the website 0wned and there was a great system of updating the tables, just enter the result and the rest is automatic. the best thing about this league is the 4 custom maps. cpm4 and mexx1 are well established at this stage, but there was a poll to choose the next 2 custom maps. cpm9 and ancient archipelago was the result, and i'm glad thats how it ended up. a league like this is made up mainly of clans of fairly average ability who just want to have fun playing in this league. getting into the technicalities of q3 teamplay is good for major leagues like bw, even the iq3cl, but it will be a refreshing change to play on a completely different map (ancient archipelago). theres not even teamplay locations, and there is a bfg. bfg!?! that is like a taboo word and its hard to remember what its like playing a 4v4 on a map with a bfg. i remember what it was like, and some of my most enjoyable tdm's were on bfg maps - ir vs se7en dm14 in the first iq3cl 0wned even though we got raped, and ukccl games on dm12 were nice as well. it was fairly logical to upgrade to tmp versions, because a bfg can destroy an serious important game and doesn't belong in clanbase eurocup or anything, but it should fit in nicely in a league like this one, especially since the map does not revolve around the bfg as much as dm12 did.

and finally.... fh will be at trinlan! yes, i will get the bus up if i have to, and even if i can't play because i have no computer, i will be able to organise and coach my team for as many clan 4v4's as possible. at last our hpb's will not be crippled with a ping of 400, and with a bit of luck, we will be able to field our strongest 4. i'm sure most of ye agree (esp zero) that there should be an organised iq3cl-style event allowing all clans to play each other on even terms. (if some clans can't get their best players there, eg hat and bio, well, haha because now ye know how fh felt when we couldn't get lorc, pred or nex on low ping for the iq3cl ). (btw, don't let quozl know that i have written a virus to delete counterstrike and install q3 on all the computers).