Lord of the M4: Return of the Pings

Hello, old friend

RevolutioN, an old face on the EU MGO clan scene, seems to have returned again (New Years ReVolutioN) Joke here) with a lineup (so far) that includes RM-11, !! RAGE !!, DaRK*MaRTiN and Samsterw. Given the small size of the clan so far, I’m not sure whether this will be a permanent return, although hopefully it will be as this should mean we see lots of clan battles!

Fatality, led by ex 2TM and PBO player MeteoraX was one of the few completely clean clans left in recent months and was comprised mostly of ex-2TM, DoomsDayLegion and DeathRainsDown players . While it was a very active clan, it had always suffered from periodic low numbers, although it still managed to compete in several clan battles(PoM1, PoM2, DrD). However, for compound reasons on the 6th of January, 2010, Fatality disbanded. Out of the ashes of Fatality came a new clan, Skys The Limit, led by FUTUREace (and including –Phantom-, DAEFRY and Half Light among others) and precipitated the return of an old face…

(Fatality alumnus: MeteoraX, Fischer, M.$nake, Solid007,  Manu sp, XTREMESNAKE, xFrontLine, Tauro, Red Eight 8, El Unicox, +Blaze+, JulianSnake)

 To The Max, widely considered by many to be EUs top clan, returned the next day. After a few months of inactivity, many of the former players who helped to shape the top clan were returning. The clan, known now as To The Maxímum following the sale of the original clan name,  includes leader N00B, Solid007, The WhiteMantis, REDWINGS, M.$nake, «F¢rarrï» and Bobby ^_^ among newer faces such as Snake90, LoicSnakeKruspe (JulianSnake) and theblackfox. It has been reported that ex leader C4RNIF3X/Zzzonked and flyboy95 will be returning soon. The news was met with excitement, both by the players and the scene in general

I for one like many used to hate that 2TM were untouchable for all but the best clans on the game.
But now i would sooner see 2TM dominate again, and pwn every team just so the lagswitchers don't get there way

Kazuya

anyways, i always liked 2tm, good luck

{Templer}

2TM haven’t always been the cleanest of clans, with past recruitment of notorius glitcher xXTELEPORTXx, accusations of using NetTools to lag, and use of deathlooping before it was “fixed”, and in the announcement of it’s return, Solid007 said

Some of us probs will get a LS to glitch glitchers out. We wont glitch legit teams

This was roundly criticised, for being unnecessary and leading down a dark path

You'll do this, then glitch legit teams that lag really baad, then glitch like darkliquid.
To The Max will then become a joke

-DiscoMad

thats what they all say and then they end up glitching every1 and makeing an excuse saying that they lag or they called you a noob.

-Daniel2090

what [Solid007) said was wrong.We won't get a lagswitcher in 2tm, And tbh if this would happen im the first guy who leaves 2tm,because the clan would'nt be clean anymore.

-«F¢rarrï»

Whether or not these prophecies will be fulfilled is yet to be seen, although if kept on a leash under N00Bs leadership, perhaps the fine (for some nonexistent) line between counterglitching and glitching won’t be stepped;

IF someone would get LS in 2TM he would only use it against players like teleport etc. but if they would glitch some regular lagging
noobs I would kick em and block em

-N00B

In the end strong roster, respected leader and host of old faces and general community support means that this incarnation of 2TM looks set to last. While there may be pressure put on by the arrival of strong clans in the past few months as well as by the continued proliferation of glitchers, I hope that 2TMs return could spark a revival of their long term rival PBO- remember rivalries help forge stable clans.

Hello, new enemy

The NA MGO community was left reeling, and the EU MGO Community left celebrating, after news of a series of small scrims between top EU (RevolutioN’s !! RAGE !! and DrD/ Fatality’s Tauro) and NA (Mind Games’ <<ThunderBoltz>> and A black guy and Aliens’ BIGGESTBOSS) players;

• BIGGESTBOSS vs Tauro

BB TDM 2-0 to Tauro

BB CAP 2-0 to Tauro

• <<ThunderBoltz>> and A black guy vs !! RAGE !! and Tauro

BB CAP 2-0 to !! RAGE !! and Tauro

The results came as a surprise to many, as NA have long considered themselves rather arrogantly to be the most skilled server, and with <<ThunderBoltz>> and A black guy being long term members of the best NA clan, Mind Games, while Tauro and !! RAGE !! were not. Unfortunately despite the generally friendly and cordial match, the complaints and excuses came out rather quickly (admittedly only from one player, the other NA players were gracious in defeat, and the EU players magnanimous in victory)

I got raped due to lag.
How do you expect us to win when I have red ping and a broken controller?

-A black guy

However, moment ruining as they are, ABGs words do contain a pinch of truth- everybody was lagging (the game was being hosted on the JP game, by an NA player), and hopefully the moaning that results from the clash of egos and moaning wont tarnish what could turn out to be a fruitful rivalry between the top NA and JP players. For now we should congratulate Tauro and !! RAGE !! for being good envoys to NA, and finally making them sit up and take us seriously. To end on a positive not, here's some quotes about the matches

in all sensuousness he's pretty good, there was lag, but nothing big really.
It was a fun game in the end & EU has bragging rights

-BIGGESTBOSS

Wp Tauro. Nice to see no bullshit talkin at the end. good sportmans ship. Keep reppin us Tauro. Thunderbolt and ABG faught 1 of our finest players !! RAGE !! so watchout 4 that peeps

-RjJr01

well fucking played Rage, you'll have turned a few NA heads tonight.

BB's thread looking for 1v1s was respectful, there were no insults to EU players, and he gave solid reasons for why he is a decent player. He didn't say he was NA's best, he just said he'd try and see how it went. The bloke seems like a genuinely nice bloke,

-Tauro

Yeah, we can't really settle this feud on equal footing unless we're all in the same area

-A black guy

I'm glad i 1v1d some you like you, one of the rare people now & days with common sense . We should do it again some time

-BIGGESTBOSS

Just a side note, EU Survival servers are located in the US, and most players are used to the lag that we get from that. A game hosted in on the East Coast of the US by somebody with a very strong connection is probably the closest we’re going to get to “equal footing”, since it will be near perfect for the NA players and similar to what we’re used to for the EU players.

Winter Worries

Unhealthy MGO

Before Deathlooping started several months ago, the highest Grade Points reached in EU was 2600+ by both The WhiteMantis and flyboy95. Nowadays the Top Ten looks more like this (click it!)

Nearly all of the top ten are glitchers or inactive accounts! The steady rise in GP over the last year has stalled, and the blame for this can be attributed squarely at deathlooping, and now glitching. Also the banning of high GP accounts due to deathlooping also has a part to play in this, with those players coming back on alts and “eating” GP. Lots of people would say "GP doesn’t matter!”. For an individual player, this is true to an extent; the exact number doesn’t really reflect skill. However the rise and fall in top GP is a good indicator of the “health” of the community of players- a steadily rising GP average at the top shows increased competition, and helps to differentiate between the clans. In NA, the clan Mind Games/BKY/CheckMate dominates the clan scene, and this is shown by the cluster of MG players at the top of the rankings. Similiarly the upper legit GP and level boundaries were always first pushed by the JP servers, where deathlooping, glitching and extensive alting are relatively rare.

Diseased MGO

In EU MGO, true glitchers have been few and far between. We all know a few, reformed glitchers such as Chica ^^ and Dark Weller, as well as a few unrepentant glitchers such as xXTELEPORTXx. However as a whole, EU MGO was pretty free of (lagswitch using) glitchers and because of this the Grade Points of the top players until recently been relatively high compared to the Glitcher-rife NA server. However in October 09 an infamous NA glitcher, Sgt. BlackBird, made his way over to the EU servers after reportedly being uberbanned in NA. These glitches include

Infinity looping- a continuous deathloop which only ends when the glitcher is killed

Freeze glitching- where a player is frozen in place on the glitchers screen, allowing them to be shot from behind cover, around corners etc.

Mao lag/ Long Lag- A rare but particularly nasty one in which the glitcher is given at least 10 seconds to run around invisible to others and do what they want

DismaliciouSx on the NA server has a lot of videos showing these glitches (This is a particularly good one). It is feared that the glitching might spread with organised glitching teams- and since an ordinary player can’t retaliate it could be far more destructive than the deathloop fad. 

Update: As of January, EU MGO has effectively turned into what NA was like. Glitching in various forms is rife, varying from dedicated glitching teams such as kogarasumaru, Double99 and Rude Awakening, to previously respected clans such as Peace of Mind  who have lagswitching members for “counterlagswitching” purposes.

Dead MGO?

On November 10th the most hyped game of the year, Modern Warfare 2, came out. Many MGO players had previously played it’s predecessor, the blockbuster Call of Duty 4, and it was thought that the vast majority of MGO players would forget about MGO to play with their new toy. However, while there was a visible impact on numbers, especially at the upper levels of MGO, MW2 ultimately had a far smaller effect on the MGO community than expected. While there of course lots of people who “quit” MGO for MW2, many still stayed active at TGForums.co.uk and MGO was left very much alive.

Game News

Seemingly out of new items to sell, the MGO Reward shop is now holding a sale, with two items being put offered at half price for one week only. Last week it was the 50, 000 rwd Kabuki Face Paint and all colours of Bush Hat, this week it is all colours of Shemagh Scarf and the CQC gloves.

While it’s true that nearly all the items shown in promotional pictures and videos are now available, it’s disappointing to see that this may be it for the utter weekly excitement of a new item. Hopefully new items will be introduced after some hard thinking by the Konami staff, but until then, happy January sales!

September Shakeup

It's been a hell of a summer here in MGO land, and as we head into Autumn it looks like a very different game/community to when I left on holiday. A lot has happened, so I'm going to break it up into sections to make it easier, but let me give a quick recap:
Lot's of people "left" MGO
The Elite Clan Scene saw a big shakeup
MGOForums shut down
TGForums rose from it's ashes

Social News
Several high profile players left the MGO Scene in the last few months, most prominently MGO World Championship Deathmatch Runner up Red Leopard and fellow PBO Teammate Mlopes. The pair, known by practically nobody but me as Redlopes, quit for similiar but unrelated reasons, but the gist of it was that they had outgrown the game and the community and grown bored. A spate of quittings soon followed (although many were retracted), including: (now that MGOF has gone I can't remember who else, leave a comment of who quit).
The aura of negativity that lingered in the EU community as many people quit combined with holiday abscenses has led many to predict doom for MGO. While many prominent players and clans have dissapeared on kept rather quiet as of late, I think it is a bit of an overreaction to say that MGO EU is dying. Removal of players at the top only draws up more players to fill their place- and nobody is irreplaceable. The main threat to MGO, however, is the approaching release date of future blockbuster Modern Warfare 2, which could be devastating for player numbers. I personally believe that after the initial buzz the majority of dedicated players will return, but we can only wait an see.
Ex 2TM, PBO, PHILOSOPHER and MGO 1vs1 Champion BOSS. has deleted his character and is making a comeback as OLD BOSS, free from any clan arguments and looking to make a fresh start:

The reason I have called myself OLD is because when i play the game all those younger kids make me feel old while they run rings around me. Although I still have my old skill and can rip them apart at times

Clan News
Sometime in September, the recently formed Final Story was largely absorbed back into To The Max under the leadership of Zzzonked, putting things the way they were before the dramatic split of 2TM in August. While METE0RAX is missing from the clan, N00B has been rerecruited after disbanding Painkillers (PROTIP: Painkillers was named after N00Bs MGO1 name, Painkiller)
Elite clan Stealth Pro M4 have disbanded following the recruitment of  co-leader SpmxXD@rknessXx to PBO under the new name Half Light. The remnants of SPM have been largely absorbed by other elite clans, with some left clanless.

Peace of Mind have been reformed less than a month after their split, with a very strong roster after getting many of their players back from 2TM and Final Story along with some new recruits.
Top Finnish clan Suommen Paskimmat has appeared to have not returned after their lengthy absence this summer, leaving a hole to be filled behind the dominating 2TM/PBO.
Two major new clans have appeared on the scene in September; Tranquility and Fatality. With similiar sounding names, born at the same time and both with dragons for emblems, I'm not sure if the two clans are connected.

Tranquility, led by ex RevolutioN leader RM-11, seems to have dissapeared already but contained the remnants of Revo minus Samsterw, Fawzi and some others.
Fatality, led by ex PBO, 2TM and Skyper Rifle player METE0RAX, seems well placed (along with PoM) to fill the void left behind by the dissapearance of SPM, SP and White Element, with a strong roster (a first team consisting of METE0RAX ULTIMA HUNTER, M.$nake, Snake90 PlayeR 1. and  El Unicox)

Long running and Fan favourite clan Utopia  has been disbanded, after several players gradually left in the last month or so. However it seems to have quickly returned with many of it's old members as Quazi Zeal Tale, lead by TIME: 7:32 AM (protip: it's the time on his alarm clock), a name vastly inferior to the Space Pirates (or PwnStars) recomended by many TGFers! I'll update when I find out what Quazi Zeal Tale means.

Demise of MGOForums.com
On the 24th of September 2009 the home of the EU MGO community, MGOForums, was dramatically deleted. It started out at around midday, when the forums part of the site were innacesible and replaced with this message; to which many an MGOFer's pants were soiled.

It was put up by MGOF Admins Mike (Exodus) and Rohel  (RM-11), who had control of the forums part of the site. Many people sent in Poems and Psalms as requested, but nothing appeared to have any effect.

The site's front page, however, was edited by the Admin Sousouke and the following message was put up which directed users to Sousoukes site; Technime.

The site provided a forums and a haven for MGOFers who were simply thinking "wtf!". Rumours swirled as to what was happening, and speculation as to when, if ever, MGOF was coming back. Some said that Sousouke had been hacked, while others said that Mike had come back and gone crazy.

Our worst fears were comfirmed later that night, when logging onto the site simply showed garbled code and the remnants of MGOF's adverts. Later the site changed againto a blank white page with the poetic:

Which was soon changed to:

The deletion of the site and the reverence shown towards it was rather bittersweet, but it left hundreds of lost MGOFers looking for a new home. While Technime seemed like a good temporary shelter, we were finally saved by the final alteration to the site as of yet to the way it is now; a white page with:

The image directs user to the site TGForums.co.uk, which appears to be the permanent new home for the EU community. While it has far less registered and active users than MGOF did, it is growing quite steadily and the word is spreading.

So what the hell happened?

It seems Mike deleted, for whatever reasons, the entire site with the help of Insanor; the site's host. I personally believe that he had an ulterior motive past the front of a simple "meltdown"; to start fresh. By creating a new, more general site, the community will be stronger and more close knit as it becomes smaller again, especially with the wider appeal "The General Forums" has with the approaching release date of Modern Warfare 2; a game to which MGO may lose many players. It allows for a more cross-platform community, and could surpass MGOForums in terms of activity if carefully managed. On the other hand it's possible that I'm spouting pure kak, and that any positive effects are unintended: only one person knows.

Game News

Konami updated the TOURNAMENT mode entry system to prevent Tournament Riggings, only 3 months late as well. The update prevented more than one character per GAME ID from being registered for a TOURNAMENT, effectively making it harder to rig one (although you can still create multiple GAME IDs but this would require purchasing the expansion packs for each one).

A message has been issued recognising the Death Loop glitch, and warning that usage is cheating, and can result in a ban. While this is encouraging, and shows that the MGO execs aren't just snoozing on the job, the actual fix for the glitch is a far more complicated issue requiring changes to the game code.
Hope for a solution lies in the most recent Update to the Game Version, 1.34, a minor update which consists mainly animation adjustments, repricing and adjustments to certain weapons, scoring adjustments and changes to skills. While there is no word from Konami on any repair to the Death Loop glitch, it is hoped that a fix has been sneaked into the update Deathlooping is, as of yet, unfixed. Information on the update is available here.

Poll Results
Results of last weeks poll on Deathlooping were

Don't ask me why I put MERKENT in there, I'm obsessed o.O.  According to the poll you're just as likely to be recorded as deathlooped back, something which I seriously doubt. The next poll is up, get voting!

Thanks to MERKENT,*Agenda*/NevaeH and OLD BOSS.

Deathloop Disaster

A worrying new trend has recently emerged in MGO, a little easy piece of glitching called "Deathlooping" (shortened to "DL"). It is a glitch which is used almost exclusively in Survival and Tournament modes, and goes as such:

• 
  
  NubSox2 kills CoolDood93
• 
  
  NubSox2 shoots at CoolDood93's corpse's head
• 
  
  CoolDood93 dies immediately upon respawn (And loses DP from the lost weapon if DP is on) and the kill comes up on the killfeed.
• 
  
  The second kill does count towards any stats.
• 
  
  Lather, Rinse, Repeat

However if you know you're about to be deathlooped, you can prevent it by pressing select at the weapon selection screen before you spawn, then press start and spawn as normal.

I'm unsure as to where and when the glitch originated, but it is likely to have started on the NA server where there is a far higher incidence of glitching than in EU. However it's usage has become very high only in the last two weeks or so and is now widespread among the the EU MGO community, with several prominent players getting banned by Konami for it and more openly admitting to using it. There have been lots of complaints about entire teams using it against them, although it's ease of use means many players retaliate in kind.
However unlike several other forms of glitching, Deathlooping is relatively easy to prove with video evidence since it's usage is obvious. Reporting players to Konami for using the glitch has seen considerable success, for example flyboy95 and Zzzonked bans likely being due to video evidence. This spate of bannings might put off a lot of players from attempting the glitch, but hopefully Konami will soon do an emergency update to remove it.*

In Other News:
The longtime EU clan Peace of Mind has disbanded, after a large roster change in the last few months, such as some players moving to other clans (Yasmin, *Yuki*, NeoN-KnighT, Manna, Sephiroth, Front Line with most of the roster getting absorbed by 2TM and FS) and others leaving MGO.

Another legendary EU clan to disband recently was White Element, who went from strength to strength only a few weeks ago to rapidly losing most of it's members to the new 2TM and FS. However there are still four players left including it's leader Raging_Snake91, and WE's clan notice reads "White Element Will Rise Again". I hope this prophesy comes true, WE have been a strong stable clan for as long as I can remember.

A new clan know as Dark Matter was briefly created by DARKLIQUID and XRAYKARMA with Tauro and Red Eight 8 also on the roster, but as of the 27th this clan has been disbanded an replaced by the more familiar DeathRainsDown, a clan which has been around sporadically since April. While Red has admitted that running a clan is difficult, the strength of the first four players (all ex-2TM) combined with the amount of clanless players available due to recent disbandings leads me to believe that this will be the most successful incarnation of DrD.

The Kings of 2vs2 Showdown was played last week, with MGOForums Doubles Tournament Champions Mlopes and Red Leopard challenging MGOForums Kings of BB CAP Tournament winners METE0RAX and Solid007. The scores were:

AA CAP - 2-0 to METE007
SS RES - 2-0 To METE007
TT RES - 2-0 To Redlopes
GG TDM - 2-0 To METE007
Congrats to all involved, matches were good so check them out here, courtesy of MGOFs favourite new recorder Gayle San

Finally last weeks poll results to the question "Final Story or To The Max" were

I only did that poll because it was the topic of the last post, not because I particularly cared about the results ^^

PS. Sorry about the long wait, this stuff is time consuming you know!
PSS. Also apparently I have to give mention to some darkie who's name escapes me =|:3

*Nevermind this is Konami we're talking about

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!

League Reboot

Only several weeks since it started, the MGOForums.com Premiere League has had to be restarted due to the breaking up of some clans (such as Skyper Rifle, PHILOSOPHER) and large roster changes in others (such as DDL, 2TM, RevolutioN).
The signup process is currently underway for the second attempt at the League, which can now include Vanity, the newly reformed RevolutioN, the updated roster for 2TM and the renamed Shinsen Mibu (now VessanOvenKahva).
I hope the Premiere League can find a way to work around the fluid nature of the clan scene and show how strong the community can be when it pulls together

Update (19.08.09)
Team entry for the tournament is complete, and the clans being entered for this 8-team Tournament are:

Final Story
The WhiteMantis, Ferrari, Mandator, Meteorax, Solid007, Neon-Knight, Yasmin, REDWINGS, IIITheEndIII, MIE-Fin

GGS
Articulate goat, Nyuu!, 0ld-boy, Experiment, Genesis VII, Koolkid, Major kitsune, Faith, Nubpwner, Swagga Like Us

RevolutioN
RM-11, Freeze, Toy Doll, Fawzi, xVengeance, xXx_Shawy_xXx, !! RAGE !!, Prodigy, $towen, Samsterw, Comeback Kid

Vanity
Skynet, Javialco, RaNgEr BaRaMoR, DasE twin_snake91, X¢MnäS, oO)RubenXuz(Oo, Cid_Campeador, Pr0d1g3X, -O l g a-, ...SEPHIROT...

PBO
MERKENT, SnaKeEater, Mlopes, CelalSnake, Xx-DáRK_aLeX-xX, GILLIAN, SlasH, TeddyKgB, Xx_AssAssin_xX, RION

Stealth Pro M4
SpmXxshadowxX, SpmXxD@rknessxX, (SGT)R-A-M-B-O, Dark weller, -Kurosaky-, Sok, Bruiser, GilGAMESH893, Daking, M.$nake

Hewhodares.com
Mumra.eu, White Lightning, samurhero, --ICEMAN--, ghost_01, Iroquois_Akiva, John Rhoads, chosen1, Sousuke Sama

Esouls
Desert Viper, Agent Rob, Kinners, -MUFC-, Shalease, JEDi_, BMG - Ben, TheGame17, Andy-898, Alex, Frodo666, Rocksman, M4CKUN70$/-/ U, Kenshiro, Freydonara

Army Dreamers (Artless lb, x-ALTAIR-x, thebird, NoSoulZeal, !RAZAVI!, Ville91, M@ST3R, Incognito, Fury, One Shot, Kill3r_X) and VessanOvenKahva (p0pp3rm4st3r, Òbèlísk, BOUNTYHUNTER., HEADSTRONG, -TornadoSnake-, IMP0SSIBLE, Blue Cobra, $*Nok*$, xMen, M4 CU$TOMER) are substitute teams.

The league also has some new rules. Firstly is the decision to include all maps, all modes (except SNE, DM and SCAP obviously) and for them to be randomised.
New to the rules is the inclusion of "stats on" by request, where both teams can request on or off, but on overrides off. This was likely included on the request of Mumra, leader of both HWD and ESouls.

I really hope this tournament plays out to the end, I was really excited the first time and I hope our community can pull it off.
Alliteration is difficult okay?

Anniversary Anger

Today the ingame prizes for the winners of the MGO Anniversary Tournament were unlocked, to the anger of many.
NA players won:

A White Mantis gasmask

A White Full Ghille Suit

Courtesy of <> and DeathOnTheRoad
EU players won:

Red combat vest

JPN players won:

Vamp Sheath* (for males?)

White Bikini (for females)

*the sheath he carries his knife in I presume
I can't understand why they would give us all different items, and a lot of people are a bit ticked off about it, and in my opinion the prizes aren't that great.
Gasmask: Alright looking, a bit ugly and looks a bit similiar to the mask already available in grey
White Ghillie: Horrid, too similiar to the Snow Ghillie.
Combat Vest: A combat vest. In red. Meh.
I will update with JP pictures if and when they come in.

Premier Premiere

The Official MGOForums Premier League was unveiled last week, an 11 week Round Robin league in which the 12 best teams of MGO EU battle it out to be officially titled the best clan. The rules are quite strict, with 6 players per side (as per normal) and the fixtures have already been released.
The teams and rosters are:

Skyper Rifle
+EXODUS+, MeteoraX, Comeback Kid, SNAKESonaPLANE, Dinger, Captain-Cod, Solid Specter, Agenda*, Red Leopard

Peace of Mind
Urban Tiger, Sebant, MIE-fin, NeoN-KnighT, Wu-Tang, RUZZI, NAKED SON, Red MinX, Tauro, Red Eight 8

Shinsen Mibu
P E T E R, Sepiroth*, gibsonmate., toktok, Templer, Tenar, .* H *., Headstrong, p0pp3rm4ster, Ragin_Blaze17,

Stealth Pro M4
SGT)R-A-M-B-O, SpmXxShadowxX, Sok, SpmXxD@rknessxX,GILGAMESH893, daking, *Yuki*

PBO
MERKENT, XTREMESNAKE, Mlopes, Chusin, Zhax-Rx, SnaKeEater, GILLIAN, xX-DáRK_aLeX-xX, SlasH, DrDaniH

To the Max
Zzzonked, Mandator, N00B,The WhiteMantis,REDWINGS,IIITheEndIII, -Kurosaky-, DiscoMad,flyboy95,«F¢rarrï»

GGS
Nubpwner, Faith, Articulate Goat, Major Kitsune, 0ld Boy, Experiment, Genesis VII, koolkid201

13th Alliance
Paid, Joe Mcilvenna, Kill3r_X, PROvano, XIndealX, Monkey D Loul, Menace, Decypher This, Wiggles, Sickboy

Doomsday Legion
MFDoom, +ZACHY+,-_[M]îGrÂì[N]_-, Arben2, FutureAce, Young Adik220, +Flash0ver+, (WALID:C), T4k3r, vk9

SuomenPaskimmat
Maija, Sissidin, Roosa, Valaspuku,Miss Savage, Hohtavagorilla, TheLightning, Vashyo, Caidan,

White Element
RAGING PHOENIX, (Ryu Hayabusa), Dell Girl, The_Fear91, ULTIMA HUNTER, Chica^^, GrieVer, HeavenSoldier X, Xz_ThePain_zX, theblackfox

PHILOSOPHER
Xx_AssAssin_xX, *HiT*MaN*JaY*, AngelShadow, assaxin, BOSS., !! RAGE !!, Faysal_King7, Wh1ite C3ll, Solid-Fury, Bobby^_^

'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.

Top Tournament Round 2

It seems despite their obvious bias towards the JP region, Konami still think of us poor westerners, and so the Champions Tournament Lobby is being put in for both EU and NA servers, as shown by the in-game and website update yesterday:
While personally, as a fully fledged sloth, I'm excited to be able to possibly win one of those beautiful white fleece caps, my enthusiasm was not shared by everybody. Some people are annoyed that, since runners up can't enter the main tournaments, they will never get the chance to win a beret in the new more competitive lobbies. Also players who have not won all the coloured berets may be unable to get any other colours without winning in the Champions lobby, however it is unknown whether the tournament restriction will be lifted after every prize colour change.
Some feel that it will result in devaluation; a loss of "specialness" for the berets and fleeces now that they will be easier to get. In fact reception was very unwelcoming:

Excess:
imo its a bad thing because some people i know are just too shit to win a tournament, yet they will have prizes that i myself won by beating DDL and 2TM in the same night to win, when they may bet teams like thr sloths and other autoteams.

gfg.

Dinger:
i have mixed views, berets are supposed to be for the elite and the laggers, now any scrub will be able to get them.....shit

Tauro:
I like the part of MGO which rewards you for being a good player, and don't want random sloths walking around with elitist prizes.

*Agenda*
See, now a bunch of non-worthy retards are gonna have berets, therefore making them worthless to wear.

However there are some that support the new update:

Maxtec:
What's with all this unworthy shite?
There is not one single person here who is good enough to win every time so why are people acting like they do?
I notice none of the real pros are here moaning I.e merk/mfdoom and that's because they are willing to face any opposition and win which makes them worthy. Anyone who has a problem facing only pros is not worthy of a beret IMO

Okay then only one, but it was words of wisdom!
It has been speculated that the prizes for the Championship lobby will be different, such as differently coloured berets or more reward points to provide an incentive for the "serial champions"
The Champions lobby will, of course, increase competition among the top players as well as encourage lower tier players and clans to compete rather than just play for rewards, and I personally think it will be a very positive change for MGO. However it may be that, just like the "RAY=Elite survival lobby" idea, this will start out well but end up failing when eventually average players get into the champions lobby again. Only time will tell...


The Champions Lobby will be opened on the 16th of June

Top Tournament

This was recently posted on the MGO JP website (in Japanese of course, it's been translated).
Click it to see it in full.
It seems that from now on there is a special tournament lobby devoted only to players who have previously won a Tournament, or have got runner up. The fact that they have two lobbies for it means there must be a lot of tournament winners in Japan, I doubt there's been more than 384 tournament winners in the past on the EU server. Hopefully this will come to EU, it will surely help top clans to improve by playing against each other more often, and will give lower players a chance to rise through the ranks. Another possibility is that while half the elegible players will play in the new tournament lobby, the other half will continue to play in the original lobbies, as they're more likely to win and prevent worse players from accessing the Champ lobby. Either way I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome.

Thanks to +KïtSuNE+ for this one!

Berets, Bosses and Blood Bath

Beret-for-Pay
Recently there has been a bit of a furore over the selling of Tournament Berets (uniquely coloured berets that can only be had by those who have won an in game tournament) by 2TM's C4RNIF3X, now known as Zzzonked. The scheme was an offer of an tournament beret for €15, or €5 for every 10,000 rwd points made. This is done by giving C4RNIF3X your GAME ID and Password, which he'll then play on in a tournament with the rest of 2TM.

While intitally the idea was met with praise for it's business potential, quickly things turned sour, and soon the thread was locked and the situation reported to Konami. However like they say any publicity is good publicity and word quickly spread about the beret offer. It is unknown how many berets have been sold but C4RNIF3X has been reputed to have made over €500 from the scheme, including the purchase of his own MGO ID by an unknown player for a supposed €300. MGO can now be considered a part time job with a pay rate of a €1 per hour.

Big Boss Emblem attained
As of the weekly update today, Tuesday 2nd June, Raging_Snake91 of White Element on the EU server is the first and only player to acheive the Big Boss emblem. His weekly stats are unrecorded since they were reset after the update, but he has a rough estimate of them. I'll post details on the requirements as soon as SaberBlade cracks it.
More information can be found here.


Kings of BB
MGOForums' latest tournament plays on the recent popularity of 2vs2 Capture on the map Blood Bath . It was initially abandoned due to lukewarm reception and the large amount of effort involved, but it was restarted and signups started on May 1st. While there is no GB ladder (it was deleted due to inactivity in mid-May) MGOForums' record with tournaments means it looks promising. The current Roster and matchups can be found here. In keeping with the theme of prizes being clothing of famous MGO players, the prize will be a thong worn by RevolutioN's RM11. No really.

Update
The tournament was eventually won by 2TM's Solid007 and Skyper Rifle's MeteoraX, who beat 2TM's Fawzi and «F¢rarrï»

Recap: Tournament Riggings

Recently there has been a furore over the rigging of multiple tournaments over the last two weeks. Here's a recap for the uninitiated:

The S.WOLF Incident May 24th 09
At around 8.30pm people began to notice that all the tournament lobbies for the 20.00GMT Tournament were full. While most of the tournament lobbies (V.RAVEN, R.OCELOT, D.OCTOPUS, OLGA etc) seemed full by normal teams, something was amiss with S.WOLF. It seemed that, somehow, there were only 16 teams playing the tournament, as opposed to the normal 64 teams. Of these 16 teams, 15 of them were AUTOTEAMS (the teams created by the game for solo entry players) and only one proper team: "BANANA TEAM". BANANA TEAM were eventually knocked out by a team containing PBO's MERKENT, while another AUTOTEAM containing PBO's SnakeEater won the tournament.

Quickly people began to realise what had happened: the tournament had been rigged. A group of people had created 63 teams using their alternate characters (each player is allowed 8 different character slots), resulting in all the team spaces being filled before anybody else had a chance to enter. When the tournament started, lack of leaders for any of the puppet teams meant they were dissolved. The plan would've meant the single legitimate team, BANANA TEAM, would have cruised to win the tournament against several AUTOTEAMS (which are usually weak teams). However this plan was thwarted by the entry of several PBO players as solo players, resulting in them being put onto one of the AUTOTEAMS.

Due to the Beret-for-Pay fiasco, some people pointed to 2TM's C4RNIF3X as the person who rigged this tournament. However he was quickly cleared (using common sense) and all fingers pointed at BANANA TEAM (who's players are from the clan "BaNaNa TeAm" led by IL PEGGIORE). While IL PEGGIORE denied any involvement, it is now accepted that they were the perpertators. A lot of debate arose from the event, with some people worried about imitations for future tournaments. Also there were reports that on the same day Japan was experiencing the same problems, although details are a bit sketchy.

Konami Investigates
The next day the following message appeared from the MGO Japan main website, using google translator.

It is unknown if the message was aimed at, or in concern of EU region players or JP region players, but as of yet there are no messages regarding the issue on the EU MGO website.

Riggers Thwarted?
On May 27th, the day when Tournament registration opens, people began to notice that history was repeating itself. The V.RAVEN server for the Saturday tournament (30th May) were being filled very quickly in the same way as S.WOLF had the week before it. MERKENT posted on MGOForums requesting everybody to report to Konami, en masse, what was happening. Also several players were named and were also reported. One named player, Tomberi, admitted that they were doing it and was linked to the thread about them all being reported. V.RAVEN quickly began to empty as the riggers cancelled their entries, allowing players to enter once more (including stronger teams such as RevolutioN and +Kowagaru+, making the lobby effectively rigproof). It seemed any issues had been safely averted...
Revolt in RevolutioN and a succesful rig
On May 30th reports came in again of rigging, this time widespread across the servers. S.WOLF, however, was not filled by the "usual" riggers, but by members of the respected clan RevolutioN, dark weller and Hiroshiko. Those members were swiftly kicked from RevolutioN.

R.OCELOT was also full for the 17.00 GMT tournament, and this time fingers pointed two teamsl "Shining Sun" (which contained the player Tomberi) and "Black Elements". Despite the presence of the clan Valhalla, Shining Sun went on to win the tournament, a succesful Rigging.
The S.WOLF 20.00 tournament (the one filled by dark weller and Hiroshiko) was eventually won by Peace of Mind.

Easy like Sunday Tourney
An admission by Tomberi was posted on MGOForums. Read it.
Sunday 31st was another day of riggings. It seemed that 17.00GMT V.RAVEN, 17.00GMT S.WOLF and 20.00GMT R.OCELOT had all been rigged. The amount of riggings, from multiple teams, helped to ensure that ant-rig teams were split up over the lobbies. Also it seemed people were rigging the second tournament while everybody was playing the first one to ensure nobody could stop them. However they were defeated by SuommenPaskimmat, who they weren't expecting to get.

So what next?
On Tuesday 2nd of May, Konami posted this on the EU MGO website, a few days after posting a similiar message on the JP wesbite. Although it likely relates to glitching and lagswitching, hopefully investigations will relate to other forms of cheating as well.

What will happen to the dozens of people involved in this scandal is yet to be seen. People predict bannings, but due to the sheer amount of people involved to various degrees, I think it will be difficult to do. Hopefully this message will deter any future riggings, so that MGO Tournament can return back to normal.

Update:
As of Sunday 7th June, there have been no reports of any forms of rigging for yesterdays or todays problems. I think the new announcements about tournaments may have had something to do with it...

Update 2:
The 20.00 GMT S.WOLF tournament was rigged by a team called CHEATERS>LOSERS, however since the introduction of the champions lobby apparently it's been quite easy for any organised team to win.

It has widely been criticised as "pathetic"