May 28

Koth Kup Results To Date “Last Day” Updated

Today is the deadline of this Koth Kup with 5 matches still to be played and so far we have seen some interesting matches that are leaving the logs very close to qualify for the semis with the last 3 spots still to be decided today as Operator is already qualified for the semis.

[table “32” not found /]

Operator really showing their supremacy on this competition and it doesn’t look like there is someone to be able to beat them.

[table “30” not found /]

Matches to be played:

( Operator vs i ) – ( i vs Shift ) – ( eNg vs Fury ) –

**This Sunday 30th of May till (11:59PM) to play the matches above**

Unfortunately there was a mayor technical problem with Mweb that left lots of players without internet connection so the TF2CSA Team decided to extend the deadline till Sunday.

With Operator already on the semi finals we just need to find out which other 3 teams will join them for the semis where the 1st vs 4th & 2nd vs 3rd will be playing to book their spot on the Koth Kup final on Sunday 6th of June.

Note: For Semis and Final First to 4 / 30 timelimit & Golden Cap will be used

Semi Finals

(2nd vs 3rd) To be announced**

(1st vs 4th ) To be announced**

**Shoutcasting will be available for both matches**

Details will be up soon


May 26

General Ladder System Description

Overview

Here is a brief overview of the ladder system:

  • Player signs up a player account on the ladder and is sent a validation email.
  • Once the player validates his/her account, the account is operational. Nobody will ever need more than one player account.
  • The player then has a profile, which he can edit to include contact information etc.
  • The player can also join ladders now, providing the admin has created some ladders.
  • To join a ladder however he needs to either create a team for that ladder or have a team manager add the player to a team.
  • It is important to note that for 1v1 ladders, the player will need to create a team account. In other words on 1v1 ladders the participants are actually all 1 person teams.
  • The player can then start to play matches using his/her team account, he can play on his own or he can play with other team members depending on the type of ladder.
  • To initiate a match, one must either organize a game by icq, email etc. or initiate a game using the challenge system, which is described later in this documentation.
  • Some ladders will only allow games initiated by challenges while some ladders will not allow challenges at all. This is up to the administrators in charge of the ladder system.
  • Once a match is played, it is up to the losing team to report the loss via the ladder system. The winner then has to confirm the result and the result will be official and rankings will be updated.
  • The ranking system is described elsewhere in this documentation.
  • This is a basic overview of how the ladder system works, obviously there is much more to it, which will be described in the different sections, below.

Challenging

The challenging system is very straightforward and can be described as consisting of three stages.

Stage 1: One team decides to challenge another team, providing both teams are on the same ladder and that the first team is within the correct number of ranks which allow him to challenge the other, then he may do so by choosing the challenge option on the ladder page.

Once a challenge is made, the team challenged is automatically sent an email informing him of the challenge. He then has a certain number of hours or days to accept the challenge or receive a forfeit loss.

The number of ranks a team can challenge above themselves and the number of hours or days one has to accept a challenge is defined in the admin control panel. It can be changed by an admin at any time.

Stage 2: The team that has been challenged can now accept the challenge by clicking on the challenge link on the ladder page (the page for the specific ladder). This team can now select a certain number of dates/times and maps for the match. Note: Maps are optional and may be switched off in the admin control panel under the settings for each ladder.

Once they have selected these suggestions, they confirm that they are accepting the challenge and the original challenger receives an email notifying him that he has to finalize the challenge. The time this team has to accept the challenge is defined by the ladder settings.

Stage 3: The original challenger can now finalize the match by choosing one of the suggested dates/times and a certain number of the suggested maps. Once he chooses these, he can finalize the match and it is fully scheduled. If the challenger fails to finalize the match within the necessary time limit, as specified by the admin in the ladder settings, then he will receive a forfeit loss.

NOTE: If Open Play is enabled in the ladder settings, then unranked teams will not be able to make challenges. To make challenges one must have a rank. If the league owner wishes for the ladder to be challenge only, then he should turn off open-play and then each team will be given a rank as soon as they join the ladder.

Reporting/Ranking System

Once a match is played, it is up to the loser to report the result. The loser inputs the statistics for the game, for example the team members involved and the score. It is then up to the winning team to confirm the win and the ladder system updates the ranks. To report the loss, a player from the losing team must use the Winning Team’s Report ID.

The ranking system works as follows:

If the winning team is unranked, then their first win will move them to the bottom of the ranked section.  This is regardless of whom they beat.

If the winner is ranked, then they will move half way up to the loser’s position. In other words, if the 20th placed team beats the 10th placed team, then the winning team will move to 15th. If the winning team is already above the losing team, then no change occurs.

The inactivity-drop feature is important for preventing teams in the number one position from becoming inactive to prevent their place being taken.

May 26

PAS Team Wins the Challenge

On Sunday 23rd of May the TF2CSA Team organized a game (WG vs PAS) aimed at boosting interaction amongst the various members of the TF2 SA community. The event really showed the promising interest of some players to become active in the TF2 competitive scene.

Results were as follows

Competitive team’s map, Badlands (BL)

PAS (5) vs WG (0)

Although the WG team usually managed to get to the mid point first, most of the time they could not manage to deal with the extra players from the PAS team.

Public team’s map, Badwater (BW)

PAS (4) vs WG (1)

The team most likely to win this map was the Pubber’s team as their extra players would allow them to spread properly across the map. That’s exactly what ahppened as PAS managed to capture all four points with the cart.  WG struggled to get the cart past the first check point.

WG captain comments

WildgirlsOn Sunday night we played the PAS (Pub All Stars) team on Badlands and on Badwater, the number of spectators was an unexpected surprise and the shoutcasters did a great job from what we could gather. We went into the game thinking we stood some level of a chance, only to meet a pyro coming up from under bridge and a suicidal demoman jumping onto our crates, we knew we were going to be playing 6v9 with the pubbers using highlander classes, but we did not expect the sheer intensity and the impact 3 more players had on the game.

We were taken unawares several times throughout both maps while we were concentrating on choke or mid, trying to spam the heavy, soldier and medic, Only to have a pyro or a spy come from behind and ruin our push. Generally when a team gets a pick or 2, there’s a considerable advantage, in this type of game play, if we get 2 picks without getting picked off ourselves, we were still facing 7 other players!

We had a debate after our game as to what cause us to get steamrolled like we did, some players thought it was the number of players they had as well as the variety of classes, some thought the fact that some of their players were in the past competitive players, or were part of clans at the time, this would give them a competitive ‘edge’ as they had experience in the more organized side of TF2.

Then again, we think that would we have played a team of 9 people who have never been in a clan or played a pickup, the result would have been in our favour, a balance needs to be found if we mean to make the teams more even. All in all, it was a fun match to participate in and we had a good couple of laughs throughout both maps. This would definitely be something to be repeated in the future, but I would definitely advise the 6 man team to prepare in advance to face a 9 man team!

~ Whisp

PAS captain comments

Pub All StarsThanks to WG for being good sports and playing in the inaugural Pub vs Comp match.  I have already had requests from other clans interested in playing against PAS, and we will more than likely play the winners of the Koth Kup and the 6v6 v2.  A few notes and observations from the field.

From the outset, WG played with the standard comp lineup (2 scouts, 2 soldiers, medic and demo man). This indicated to  me that they thought they would win a head-on confrontation with the PAS team.  Based on this, I don’t think WG planned enough ahead for this match. Whether this was due to complacency, arrogance or some other factor, only they will know.  In my experience when faced with the prospect of a superior force, the best thing to do is map out a defensive strategy.  Perhaps running 2 snipers, or a sniper and a spy instead of the scouts would have been better. Even using a heavy instead of a soldier might have bolstered the WG defence.

WG captured the middle point on BL first, in the first round, held it for a few seconds until PAS captured it.  This was the only time in the entire match they captured a check-point.   The spy came last on the PAS team, scoring only 8 points for BL.   The PAS spy wasn’t really a spy (the person who played spy usually plays solider as his primary class). Had we run a proper spy (the player originally picked for spy didn’t show, and we had to get a last minute substitute) I think WG would have felt the effects of the spy more radically.

The engineer was pretty much in-effective on both maps. On BL he scored the 2nd lowest amount of points, most of these from teleports, with the occasional sentry kill.  On BW the engineer gained points only when we were defending, again mostly from teleports.

In light of the above, I think the effect of the “superior numbers” run by PAS in this match against WG are over rated.

The PAS medic died 3 times during the entire match (once on BL, and twice on BW).

I was very happy with the way the team played and supported one another, especially to Neptune 9 for his great sniping, Alien for his spectacular mid-airs and Striker SA who (as heavy) played in his first competitive match and came top of the leader board in both maps.

Playing in a clan against PAS will give you a completely different perspective and will battle harden you unlike any other type of competitive match.  Just make sure you don’t take the PAS team for granted and put sufficient preparation and planning into your team’s strategy.

~ LikaLota…

Information about the rosters can be found: Here

**Congrats to the Pub All Stars Team**

This challenge was a success as we managed to get 65 spectators and by bringing together pub players to play against competitive players, it really creates some sort of confidence to those players that are unsure if they can do well on the competitive scene as well that is also fun to be part of a team and play against other teams.

We would to ask everyone that really cares about the future of TF2 to help players to form clans or at least show them that it is fun to have fun playing competitively. We cannot force everyone to play TF2 competitive but we know that there are good players out there that just need that little boost to jump into the competitive side of TF2. Please guys go play on the public servers and try to get recruit some guys interested and introduce them to pickups as that is the first step to take shape on individual skills and get used to the 6v6 gameplay.

NB: A recruitment system will be up very soon to make it much easy for player to be recruited and for teams to find available players. Also a ladder system with team management is almost done.

The TF2CSA Team will keep working non stop to help this community by creating competitions, tools for the team management, tutorials and so on but all our hard work will not help much if “You” the community of TF2 players of South Africa cannot get along together to try and grow a solid base of players to be able to get a healthy cycle of pubs/pickups/clannies where everyone should not have any issues to play together.

Can you help us? ;-)as

On Sunday night we played the PAS (Pub All Stars) team on badlands and on badwater, the number of spectators was an unexpected surprise and the shoutcasters did a great job from what we could gather. We went into the game thinking we stood some level of a chance, only to meet a pyro coming up from under bridge and a suicidal demoman jumping onto our crates, we knew we were going to be playing 6v9 with the pubbers using highlander classes, but we did not expect the sheer intensity and the impact 3 more players had on the game. We were taken unawares several times throughout both maps while we were concentrating on choke or mid, trying to spam the heavy, soldier and medic, Only to have a pyro or a spy come from behind and ruin our push. Generally when a team gets a pick or 2, there’s a considerable advantage, in this type of game play, if we get 2 picks without getting picked off ourselves, we were still facing 7 other players! We had a debate after our game as to what cause us to get steamrolled like we did, some players thought it was the number of players they had as well as the variety of classes, some thought the fact that some of their players were in the past competitive players, or were part of clans at the time, this would give them an a competitive ‘edge’ as they had experience in the more organized side of TF2. Then again, we think that would we have played a team of 9 people who have never been in a clan or played a pickup, the result would have been in our favour, a balance needs to be found if we mean to make the teams more even. All in all, it was a fun match to participate in and we had a  good couple of laughs throughout both maps. This would definitely be something to be repeated in the future, but I would definitely advise the 6 man team to prepare in advance to face a 9 man team!

May 24

Koth Kup Results To Date

Well the Koth Kup has proven to be a challenging competition so far as koth_viaduct map gameplay really closes the gap a bit between the teams. Have a look for Shift as they managed to draw against Narcotics 2-2 and surprisingly but deservedly beating Equilibrium 3-2.

[table “31” not found /]

Just a reminder guys that next friday 28th of May is the deadline for the group stage where the top 4 teams will go into the semi finals 1st vs 4th & 2nd vs 3rd.

[table “30” not found /]

The next five days will be very interesting for all the teams with some tough matches ahead and keep an eye on Shift as they will be playing tough to break into the Top4.