First of all we want to acknowledge all the people that travelled great distances to Frag with us. People came down from Sydney and up from Tumut. Many of these people travelled to attend their first TD. We certainly hope you enjoyed it and hope to see you again. We also would like to thank all those people who hung around at the end to help with the pack up and clean up. Many hands make light work and we were able to clean everything up in close to an hour. Finally the last TD was host to the physical meeting of TDs online clan - Damage Incorporated. For several months now a group of dedicated gamers have been playing in competitive online TF2 ladders. While a lot of these people know each other from TD there are some team members who have never met face to face. Well that changed on Sunday with a large number of the Damage Incorporated Crew showing up for the LAN.
We had a solid turn out of 43 people and every spot on every table we had was filled (we even had to put Mr Lee on smallish table on his own (sorry )).
The team player LAN games were all a huge success. TF2 was played by 4 teams of 9. Once again teams were selected and captains named. Surprisingly Moddy was voted the number one captain even though he wasn’t even playing - such is the power of the man.
The team which triumphed was Team 1 ( Rogueagent, Pickles, Fang, Dr angry, Trojan, Scorp, Stealth, Forge and Gretchen.) No surprises that this team had more then their fair share of Damage Incorporated players. Team 1 went through undefeated but were pushed to the wire by team 3 captained by XT who was abley supported by Tiger, Waffles and Mr Hix only going down 3-1 with the last capture taking place only minuted before the end. The epic draw on well between 3 and 4 (captained by Genesis) in the first round showed the evenness of the teams in the competition.
Next up was quake 3. This was taken out by team 1 which consisted of Sauce, Harlan, Hiscsy, stealth, The Unbeliever, Pickles and Prometheus. They manged to win 2 out of the 3 games they played. Team 3 (Gretchen, Imy, Mccurry, Phil, Master Rofe, XT and Chrismann) found themselves in the unusual position of not losing a single game and not actually winning any games either by playing out 3 draws.
In the starcraft battle the 2 on 2 teams of (Mr Lee and Gretchen) and (Waffles and Imy) won their categories while the monster free for all game was won by (opps I don’t know can anyone help me with this??)
During free time we saw some TF2 been played and some quake 1 amongst others. We also saw the humans smash the beasts in the savage game.
So in closing we feel the LAN was a great success. There was minimal problems and judging by the feedback we got on the day and since everyone really enjoyed themselves. We will be looking to hold another LAN very soon and will let you know details within the next 3 weeks. Remember if you have any suggestions about the LAN we more then welcome them -so please contact us or post and share your wisdom.
Just a quick post about the LAN this weekend. We have released some extra details about the day that have been emailed to everyone and is also viewable in the forum here: http://www.teamdamage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4553
As always, please be sure to update your copy of TF2 on steam before the day.
We will also be running mumble and emphasising it's use - althouh we are all in the same room together, its a big basketball hall and gets quite loud so its hard to hear your team mates. Mumble at the LAN is a good idea to help communication in the team games. So bring your Mics if you have them.
The next TD on Sunday 12th July is approaching and we have 24 registered so far! We have decided on a list of games - in fact last TD's list was so popular we have decided to stick with it :)
Bring a friend - Entry to next TD is free!
If you have been to a TD before, and you have a friend who has never been to a TD before who registers on the site and attends on the day, you will receive free entry at the next LAN!
Games
Quake 3 Arena - Threewave CTF
MAP: q3wctf1 - Bloodlust
We will be offering another TPL style Threewave CTF competition again - this time we will be going with a different map. Up to now we have been sticking with "Bletley's Return" because it is a relatively simple map and easy to remember between TDs - however it is a little small and a bit tight for 6 man teams. But this time around we are going with "BloodLust" - which is loosely based around the original threewave map "Spill the blood" (the best ctf map ever made). This map is slightly bigger, symmetrical and easy to learn - so hopefully should have some fun here.
TF2
How can we not run TF2? :)
We will be doing this TPL-style again, with everyone voting for captains and these captains choosing teams. Allways lots of fun.
Starcraft
So many people enjoyed this last time, we just have to bring it back :) Altho some people got knocked out pretty quick (heh. sorry Lothlar..), lots of people had one or two decent games and said it was thoroughly enjoyed. Although this is an old game, it's still got what it takes!
Schedule
Pretty standard TD schedule:
9AM Doors Open - Set Up and Random Play
10AM Quake 3 CTF
11AM Quake 3 CTF
12PM Lunch Random Play
1PM Random Play
2PM TF2 match
3PM TF2 match
4PM Starcraft 2 v 2
5PM Starcraft 2 v 2
6PM Random Play
7PM Random Play
8PM Random Play pack up.
We've already had people hammering at our doors for another TD to happen soon - and we are happy to deliver! The next TeamDamage is in the works and we have set the date at July 12 - thats right just a little over a month away!
Game line-up will be announced shortly, but expect to see some more TF2 action - plus the ever popular Quake 3 CTF should also be getting another run.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to welcome the folks from SCGC (South Coast Gaming Community). TeamDamage and SCGC have recently joined ranks, with Nick from SCGC becoming one of TD's core admins. We hope with the combined LAN we will be seeing some awesome TDs coming up in the future.
Well another TD has been and gone and while some gaming goodness was had, we felt the LAN was below the usual high standards we like to set.
First of all we would like to send a big thanks to Nim and Nick who turned up at 7:30 in the morning to help with the set up and also to all those (too many to name) who stuck around and helped clean up after the day – and what a day it was.
What follows is a little insight into the trails and tribulations of running a LAN. Things were off to a bad bad start when we arrived to find the networking gear was not where it should be – it had been moved and to make matters worse moved to a location our key didn’t give us access to. Frantic phones calls were not answered and so a big thanks again to Nick who sped home to get his network gear. Also in the morning for no reason our all purpose server decided to contract a case of extreme Alzheimer's and trash its memory making it unusable. As a result all of our beautifully set up gaming servers had to be set up ad hoc (many of the server settings had to be “rediscovered”). While setting up the tables we also discovered that many of them were in a shocking state. They were unclean and\or broken. We cleaned a few and put aside the broken ones. Those that were not broken where were very “wobbly” and after a table collapse (thankfully with no injury or major damage – team or otherwise) we went out to buy some tape and taped all the suspect tables up so no more table dramas would occur. Then at about 10:25 and 47 seconds a large man wandered in very confused by our presence. The guy runs a portable LAZER skirmish company and was supposed to set up for a birthday party – we managed to get him set up in the gymnastic area. OK now we’re ready for some gaming.
Once the gaming got underway it was good. Just about everyone got involved in the Quake 3 CTF matches with a really close game to start with the team captained by Rogueagent just beating out the team captained by Gretchen. However the team captain by Moddy (who was overwhelmingly the number one choice for captain) managed to go through undefeated with Scorp on the attack and Mo Girks holding the fort this team was seldom troubled. After quake we broke for lunch and when we came on we got a massive, all hands on deck game of TF2. The teams chopped and changed so it wasn’t a real team player type game but a good time was had by all. People were burned, shot in the head, medics were backstabbed, heavy’s mowed down exposed enemies and glowing ubered soldiers sent those that oppose them scurrying for cover. All in all a good time. Next was a trip back in time to what is without doubt the single most popular RTS ever – starcraft- we split up with 2 lots of games each a 3 V 3 played on a map called “Razors thicket”. After this a few other game reared their heads. There was some quake 1 (sorry Nick) we saw some COD 4 but the biggest effort was by Lothlar who managed to get a great all in game of savage with much sword and claw waving fun for all.
So ultimately a decent LAN was salvaged form disastrous beginnings. We would like to thank all of those who attended and would like to let every one know that we have targeted the next LANs date as no later then first week in august (yet to be confirmed). When hopefully we will be able to have a much more hassle free LAN.
NOTE: Please ensure you have your TF2 updated on steam as of Saturday night before the LAN. You won't be able to play in the comp if your TF2 is not ready to go.
We have decided to run the following games as official games in a TeamPlayer style.
Quake 3 CTF – (suggested by Lothlar) this is a regular favourite easy to install easy to play and has always been a winner with some great games going down to the wire in the past.
TF2 – (suggested by just about everyone who made suggestions to us) Probably the game of the moment very popular and great fun. The good thing is that no mater what you like to play sneaky spy, brutish heavy, nimble scout or helpful medic there is something in this game for everyone’s tastes.
The third game we have decided to run (and suggested by IIParadigmII) is ye olde starcraft. With the release of starcraft 2 schedule for July\August 2009 we thought we would get people in the mood by bringing out the original starcraft and organising a group of 2 V 2 games. If you have not played starcraft its an RTS which has been the most popular RTS … well.. ever. It is almost the national sport in korea (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCra...al_competition) while we probably are not up to the skill level of these guys we’ll still do our best.
During the random play times we encourage people to walk around and hook up what ever games they want with however else is keen to play their game.
Also there will be representatives from Damage Incorporated (|D!|) – TeamDamage sponsored online TF2 clan - if you want to know more about this aspect of TeamDamage then just ask. We are also more then happy to talk about the other online activities TD are involved in and would more the welcome any input any of you may have.
Some other fact for you about the day.
* Doors open around 9ish
* Cost is still only $10
* We will not be cooking a lunch but will be leaving it up to people to bring their own lunch or go get something during the lunch break
* Pack up starts at 8 (any help is appreciated)
* Other games people have suggested they want to play include
- Red Alert 3
- Counter Strike: Source
- Company of Heroes
- Sins of a Solar Empire
- Starcraft
- Savage 2 (will be awesome if we have the numbers, also now free)
- Demigod (depends on interest may be good for cheap kicks)
- WC3 custom maps
- Left 4 Dead (if we have a large enough install base).
- Quake 1
- Trackmania
The plan for the day is out lined below
9AM Doors Open - Random Play
10AM Quake 3 CTF
11AM Quake 3 CTF
12PM Lunch Random Play
1PM Random Play
2PM TF2 match
3PM TF2 match
4 Starcraft 2 v 2
5 Starcraft 2 v 2
6 Random Play
7 Random Play
8 Random Play pack up.
Please note - we previously mentioned that the LAN would be starting at 10AM. This has been changed to 9AM so we can fit everything in (the LAN usually starts at 9AM anyway..dont know why we chose 10AM this time)
Our schedule for the day will be as follows:
09:00 - 10:30 arrival set up / Free For All
10:30 - 12:30 TPL TF2
12:30 - 14:30 Lunch / Free For All
14:30 - 16:30 TPL Quake 3
16:30 - 17:30 Free For All
17:30 - 20:00 Dawn of War Pro
AFK
