To the Meltdown

What happened?
It appears that one of EUs top clans, To the Max (aka 2TM) has very nearly dissolved. The clan, which has dominated the EU clan scene for nearly the entire lifetime of MGO2 in one form or another, has as of this morning been reduced to three members (Zzzonked, -_[M]îGrÂì[N]_- and *Agenda*).
The various ex-members of 2TM have largely been absorbed by 2TM's co-leader TheWhite Mantis' new clan "Final Story", whose roster is essentially 2TMs best players+ Neon-Knight and Yasmin of "Peace of Mind".
The eventual rebellion of 2TM against it's leader Zzzonked has been predicted by some for a while, but whether Final Story will continue to dominate in the way that 2TM did (untill recently when PBO was acknowledged to have regained top spot) is yet to be seen.

How did it happen?
Why? I tell you why...
Okay wait I'll tell you why later...

Update (18.08.09)
It turns out my prediction about future of 2TM was quite wrong indeed. Intitially, after making amends with most members, Zzzonked joined Final Story. However this was only for a short stint as, fed up with the sporadic glitching and lagging that several members are purported to have used as well as arguments within the clan, he left to make the "new" To The Max, with bUnnY and flyboy95 in tow.
The clan, with a new (not so great) emblem of a black dragon on a white background, is currently in the process of recruiting, having already recruited several members of White Element (Arben2, HeavenSoldier X, The_Fear91 and Dell Girl ) among others to bring the total roster to 9. Meanwhile, minus the two previously mentioned members, Final Story has seen some strong new recruits and has 14 players in it's roster including the "whothehell?" Claire_hawk.
It seems that the surprising strength of the new 2TM, and the stability, at least so far, of Final Story lends itself to a good healthy rivalry between the two newest big clans on the scene. However what is certain is that the reign of 2TM in MGO EU is over, it's roster split in half, and so evening out the competition to currently reigning PBO.
Or is it certain? The multitude of old allegiances, friendships and enemies between the members of both clans makes the future quite unpredictable. Will they be seperate for ever? Will one destroy and dissolve the other? Will they merge? Who knows, lets give it a month or so.

Btw who are Inbred and Tila?

Other News
The identity of "sudden pro on the scene" HaO was confirmed by his longtime friend and ex clanmate XRAYKARMA to be, not "Pendulum" (as he LIED to me about >:C) but the fresh out of retirement headshot connoisseur -Flash0ver-, having retained his affinity for zeros instead of o's. After a short stint in White Element, Ha0 is now in Final Story, with many of his old clanmates (-Flash0ver- was a 2TM first team regular for as long as I can remember before he got randomly* kicked).
The similiarly named Pa0, said to be his apprentice by some, and a "Ha0 bumlick" by METE0RAX, is Me-Ox.
Another "reveal", or at least to me and a few other people, is that Comeback Kid is NerD. Or maybe it isn't a new reveal, maybe I'm just slow and retarded <[o.O]>
Finally I have found out who Inbred is, it's Fisher aka ____ from Valhalla, a player that Zzzonked has always rated highly.
Also White Element finally got a new, good emblem: a Cartoonish letters WE, to replace their "Pink bunny in a KJPro style" emblem, although I still think the "Element Logo" emblem was the best!

*as in I don't know the reason, not C4RNIF3X picking a random member to say byebyes.

PS I will eventually update this with the story of 2TM's downfall!

'Appy Anniversary!

To celebrate the one year anniversary of MGS4 and Metal Gear Online, Konami has gifted us with a new update (1.33)on the 16th and a few cool new features. Since the NA region had previously not received the 1.32 update, this was their first update to introduce the nerfed Mk.23 and subsequent damage reductions of SMGs and handguns.

The most important is probably is the introduction of a new map; Icebound Inferno.
This is the map on which you fight Sniper Wolf in Metal Gear Solid, and Crying Wolf in Metal Gear Solid 4, and is a large blizzard stricken desolate map, with plenty of open spaces, large towers and incredibly low visibility once the storm kicks in. Personally I liked II because of it's different "feel" from the other maps, with lower intensity warfare and lots of sniping aswell as the ability to sneak effectivley with white or snow camo. However the map lends itself quite well to camping, and without Monomania the storm makes it almost impossible to see who you're shooting.


Secondly was the introduction of the championship lobbies, which has helped to increase competition among top clans while helping lower tier players to get berets and rwd points.

AUTOMATCHING also saw a well needed update: The prize for every round was increased from 5 rwd to 20rwd. Also every 3rd or so match from AUTOMATCHING lobbies would be a "REWARD MATCH", where each player on the winning team would receive an extra 200rwd at the end of the macth. DeathMatch games resulted in an extra 200rwd for the winner of each round, or for all players in a draw. However this was exploited for "farming", where players "skipped" a map untill a REWARD MATCH came up, then left their characters to idle until the round ended, resulted in a winning of 440rwd every 10 minutes. Konami altered the system on June 23rd 2009 to have all matches be REWARD MATCHES, with a lower prize of rwds for both winning an participating.


Among other minor gameplay updates such as weopon damage balancing, Old Snake was introduced as a playable character outside of SNE, albeit without his "invisibility" effect of the OctoCamo, resulting in the high popularity of Snake vs Liquid games (since they are the most balanced special characters relative to each other)


Finally Konami announced a special "MGO Anniversary Tournament", a tournament which turned out to be a 20 ticket TDM Tournament played out on the four SCENE maps (HH, II, RR and OO). Many of EUs elite entered, however the lobbies were full within a few hours and not all of the best teams were able to play. The "EU Division" had only one lobby, and it was won by a 2TM consisting of The Whitemantis, TheEnd, flyboy95, Mandator, Zzzonked (C4RNIF3X), REDWINGS who beat Fight or Flight. The prize was a white gasmask for the ingame character akin to the one Psycho Mantis wears. (The WhiteMantis won a white Mantis Mask, how appropriate) which will be awarded at a later date. However the tournament was criticised for being unfair due to it being a "campfest", with most matches ending with fewer than 5 kills, and some on a draw (which are abitrarily decided). The list of NA winners was posted here




In other news:

• A new clan, Skyper Rifle, was formed by Exodizzle, and has quite a few power players such as MeteoraX, Red Leopard, Captain-Cod etc
• Revolution disbanded and a new clan, Atari, was formed by Toy Doll and seemed to have absorbed most of Revo's old members. This clan then dissapeared when Revo reformed led by RM11.
• Revo's previous leader, DiscoMad, joined 2TM along with new recruits -Kurosaky- and bUnnY over the course of the week
• The 2TM tribute trailer, made by "Alex94", was released, followed by "Chapter One- CAP". Yeah it's not very good, but the logo at the end is quite nice.