September 23rd, 1999

TFC Monopoly - Lately, it's almost gotten to the point where you need a "Get out of Jail Free" card to enjoy the TFC clan scene. Believe it or not, threats of legal action have actually been made (and unmade) regarding the recent KiN/STA/GoH hullabaloo. That might make for an interesting episode of NBC's latest drama series "Internet Law!", but it most definitely has no place in our little gaming world.

I think this might be a good time for each member of the community to reevaluate why they play this game and what their ultimate gaming goals are. Hopefully the words "debasing", "defamation", and (definitely!) "litigation", are nowhere on that list. Let's get on with the show.

Wooden dandruff - Despite all the controversy that KiN was engrossed in this last week, they managed to brush the chips off their shoulder and grab the Top 10 Tournament title for Round 2. They now wear two league belts (the STA and Top 10) and seem to be weathering the latest storms without too much of an effect on their play.

Lost in the shuffle - Without much of a peep, the OGL keeps chugging along with some great upcoming matches. Here's a quick list:

• #1 CE vs. #11 HATE, Friday
  
• #2 US vs. #15 cM, God only knows
  
• #3 CA vs. #10 AOD, Tonight
  
• #5 100k.d.l vs. #7 ARM, unknown
  
• #6 ZB vs. #12 V.Y.L., Tuesday

September 21st, 1999

I.G.Hell - Nothing helps your beans and rice go down at supper time quite like a good dose of controversy. And that's exactly what's brewing on various messageboards around the community (on the IGL and TFCNews.com messageboards, in particular). It all began with the Kollektiv vs. Kindred match on Darkness last Sunday where an IGL admin was asked to make a ruling on which map version to use. Kollektiv viewed the ruling as inconsistent and confusing and therefore wrote a letter to various news sites (including TFCNN) expressing their concerns (you can see a copy of the letter on tfcnews.com...there's no sense in posting it here now). From there, the rest of the community jumped in and shared their opinions, resulting in a twisted spiral of debate, anger, confusion, and weariness.

If you're one of those people who can't help but toss your change around, you might want to hurry over to the messageboards before people stop caring (I give it two more days at the most).

In the meantime, life goes on.

Championship night? - The Top 10 Tournament has an interesting scenario in tonight's matches, thanks to their double-elimination system. Here's the blurb from the Top 10 site:

The title for Round 2 can be decided tonight if AOD beats CdG. If that happens, then the winner of THD and KiN is our Champion for Round 2. However, if CdG wins, the Round will be decided next week.

This will be the first official match play on Bam, so expect the clans who have put in the most time preparing to come out victorious.

September 20th, 1999

Clogged like my sink - It's STA night tonight, with 26 clans facing off on the nice shiny bottleneck known as Rock. Remember that in the STA, ties are decided by sudden death overtime. That should mean a long, nail-biting night for many clans.

The headline match for the night is KiN vs. GoH. This is the third matchup between these two clans with GoH still trying to come out on top. This may be their best opportunity, especially if the match goes into overtime.

Shake hands and come out fighting - Last night's IGL action didn't have too many surprises, with the possible exception of CdG earning their first shot at the title against CE. This will be the first time these two veteran TFC clans have met on the battlefield, and it promises to be a slugfest. How do I know this? Just look at these quotes from the clan leaders themselves:

Barker[CdG] - We plan on slugging them.

Krunnch-[CE] - We're really going to slug them.

Both Barker and Krunnch may deny ever having said those things. But who do you trust, me or them?

September 18th, 1999

Gilligan's Island; the S.S. IGL - There's a new skipper at the IGL. DownLoaD has stepped aside and handed the helm over to Karsiss and his trusty sidekick, Gilligan (whose gaming alias is ARod). Now if they can just get the help of the Professor and Marrianne the league should be in top form in no time.

It's beginning to look a lot like baseball - After the initial week of 9v9 action in the IGL the results were quite positive. The "baseball experiment" will be continued for another week or so when a final decision will be made. Go Padres!

Who needs television? - Sitcom producers around the country are scratching their heads, wondering how they can add a laugh-track to the latest US/cM match fiasco. After more than two weeks of delays, last night's match was put on hold once again after continual server trouble pushed back the starting time until it was too late to begin. Industry insiders are now predicting that next Thursday's US/cM match will win the ratings race against the season premier of Friends.

September 16th, 1999

Rumor Mill - Sure, sure, some of you have heard the rumor that TF2 won't be out for another year, but have you heard this one from [cM]Severed_Red?

Word around gamesnet is that cM may actually play US tonight.

September 15th, 1999

STA carpetbagging - Tresmer, the STA admin, sure gets around! In one day he managed to spam the identical piece of STA propoganda on over 4,566 messageboards and websites in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Southern France. In it he describes the phenomenal growth of the STA, and the need for a clan interrogator to handle some dirty admin work. The STA has proven itself to be a great league, and Tresmer is working like Jimmy Johnson to make it even better.

By the way, if you're interested in reading the message Tresmer spammed, you can catch it on the TFCNN messageboard.

New shark in the pool - One particularly noteworthy addition to the STA roster is heavyweight Clan Erinyes who will play their first STA match this coming Monday against SiGiL. A quick check on the SiGiL homepage shows that they most certainly noticed the change. Here's a short extract:

Paramon Kreel your dream has come true, we are F&#king playing clan [CE].

Down to the wire - After last night's Top 10 Tournament action, only three clans are left in contention to win the double-elimination round. CdG, KiN, and THD all have one loss and will showdown next week on the brand new map Bam to see who is left standing.

Pathetic Scheduling Award returned! - In the kindness of their hearts, US has decided not to keep the coveted TFCNN Pathetic Scheduling Award, which was bestowed upon them because of their non-match versus cM. In a warm and friendly rejection letter, Flesh&Blood explained the situation:

Well maybe word didnt get spread around about our cM games but ill let ya in on whats going on but i dont think it was meant to go public cM leader is having problem with a personal issue. So we agreed to postpone game we didnt expect to do it again a week later but that is what happen'd , we could have taken a forfiet win over them yes they did offer it but we said we can wait! why one player is holding them back from playing i dont really know i know there roster is small but we wanna keep the peace with most all tfc clans and have clean fun games.

I have already notified the United States Postal Service. They're redirecting the TFCNN Daily Planners (originally sent to the award winners) to South Carolina where they'll be destroyed by Hurricane Floyd (along with many small animals and a few unintelligent people).

September 14th, 1999

Very Yuseful Lad - I knew Zang would come in handy someday! He slapped on the Sherlock Holmes cap and did some super-sleuthing. Here were his findings concerning VYL:

VYL - ???

"vyl" - No such ticker symbol - (finance.yahoo.com)
Webschool "VYL" - Vihti High School - Finland
Zang's Guess - V.Y.L. = Vux, Yaz, & ? (leaders of VYL)
Obvious Guess - A Finnish Clan
R'vyl - character in a novel, slightly wimpy, so probably not
VYL - OCLC (online library cataloging symbol for Nehman College Library in NY)
Vyl Bitch Diva - Band/artist with online mp3's - http://www.zip.com.au/~fox/track3.mp3
Vyl - drummer in the band called ILDSKJAER

Thanks a bundle, Zang. I might have invested in a non-existing stock if it wasn't for you!

Who the heck is VYL? - While we were all picking the lint out of our mouse balls a surprising new clan crept onto the OGL Leader Board. They're listed as the [V.Y.L.]Clan, and have entered at #10, knocking off Dice for their position. Without as much as a peep they've moved on to challenge AoD for the #8 spot. The strange thing is there is no indication on the clan's homepage of what V.Y.L. stands for. Therefore it's up for speculation. Virile Young Llamas has been suggested, as well as Vicious Yanni Lovers. But perhaps it's just an odd way of spelling Vile.

Maybe someone from the clan can drop us a note so we don't abuse them any longer.

TFCNN Award Show - The highly coveted Pathetic Scheduling Award is being bestowed upon US and cM in the OGL. These two clans have bungled their scheduling for more than two weeks now without managing to play their match. This is quite a feat in these days of electronic communications. [I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation somewhere, I'm just having fun with this.] As a result of winning this award, each clan member will receive a complimentary TFCNN Daily Planner which they can throw away at their leisure.

Q. What is every hockey player's favorite part of a magic act? - Kindred is playing their third consecutive match tonight (they played CE Sunday, and SD Monday). This time it's for the Top 10 Tourney against the 9-0 Coup de Grace on Pipezone. I called the Super Mario Bros., since they know all the ins and outs of Pipezone, to get their opinion on the match. Here's what they said:

Mario: Kindred is a'gonna squash those little Coup de Grace turtles and marry the princess!

Luigi: No, no. Coup de Grace is a'gonna beat that Koopa lovin' Kindred clan. It might be different if they were playing on that Valve map Calzone, but they're not.

As you can see, our Italian experts are split. Either way it should be a barn burner!

Here's the answer to the headline riddle: The Hat Trick!

September 12th, 1999

Their side... - Hate Inc. had the following to say to TFCNN in response to their AoD match coverage:

In response to your 'calling all cars' news blurb:

The reason Hate Inc. hasn't reported their loss yet is because of the simple fact that 2 of the members who CAN report the loss to ogl.org are having technical problems. These problem's range from not being able to even view the page, to receiving some lame software error once reporting it.

Hate Inc. has been in contact with AOD about the problems and have kept them informed as to what to expect, and when. Seeing a once respected news source such as TFCNN resort to name calling (I reference the "show of poor sportsmanship") is tragic to say the least. We at Hate Inc. are puzzled as to why you would resort to such antics, or why you would even care? This match was something out of the ordinary, perhaps these technical issues are because of this? In retrospect, it might have been better to do a little investigating before reporting on the actions of a clan where you have no inside information from. In the future, you may also want to actually ATTEMPT to contact the parties involved, not just the side you wish to take.

In closing, mistakes and problems are bound to happen on a system such as ogl.org (this is not the first time technical issues have risen up), Hate Inc. only hopes that TFCNN will rectify *their* mistake and show their unbiased news stance by issuing some sort of apology, or clarification for all to see.

Regards, ~Cy
HATE

September 11th, 1999

Feeling brave - I figured I'd go out on a limb and post the email message I received from Darkmane. The more strong competition in TFC the better.

Hey Potato long time no talk anyways the reason ZB has been loosing is some of there Key players have left the clan and started there own called Night Stalkers[NS].You shopuld be seeing them on IGL soonDarkmane who was the offence leader of ZB has started this new clan to add the fun back in playing him and Case which were the main offence for all the scoring of ZB are startibng this new clan with a few names you might have heard and some that are new but good.We have about 8 people now but we are looking for about 5 more so if you could put the word out ..also the reason Im telling you all this is because its news and for the people that have been watching us for so long they might want to know who knows..Thanks for your time.
Darkmane

Calling all cars! - Where oh where is Hate Inc? In a show of very poor sportsmanship (or is there another explanation?), Hate Inc. has yet to report their loss to Army of Darkness in the OGL on Thursday. Hopefully sometime today they'll rectify this sorry situation before Shaggy (the OGL admin) has to flex his muscles.

Number crunching - The Top 10 Tournament has a really interesting double elimination system, and Nemo has put up a mind-boggling "what-if" match scenario chart that should make all you statistics fiends drool. It's better than baseball!

By the way, it's leagues like the Top 10 that beat back the twin tides of Communism and Fascism from our pristine shores of Democracy. They vote on everything!

So there you have it...Democracy and baseball. It's an all-American league.

September 9th, 1999

A sight for sore eyes - If you take a peek at the OGL Ladder today, you'll see that in the top twenty rungs every single clan has a match lined up. In fact, only one clan out of the top 33 is waiting for action. I hope that brings sunshine to your Thursday evening.

Two lengths behind at the quarter pole - Forgive me, I forgot to post this when I first received it. It seems they play TFC on the dark side of the planet as well! I had no idea....Here's the convincing news that tipped me off:

We recently finished Season 1 and The UKTFCL Season 2 site has just been opened and is currenlty getting all kinds of exciitement and exposure from around the globe...

The UKTFCL was started up earlier this year - and Season recieved over 60 clan applications, but Season 2 looks set to get even more this time!....

The UKTFCL is sporting the best UK TFC Clans this side of the world. So if anyone would like to know more about the best clans at TFC in Britain - this is the place to go.

Check out the new site at: http://uktfcl.games-world.net/

If anyone is interested or has any questions in regards to the site - ..... please email me at: [email protected]

Regards,
Miles aka [F2C]Bad-Ass and UKTFCL ADMIN

September 8th, 1999

IGL Overhaul - The reigns of the IGL have been temporarily handed over to ARod, the international man of mystery. He has revamped the ranking system, basing it primarily upon the W/L difference, followed by streak lengths. Scheduling has also been changed, with the loser of the title match dropping back down into the regular pool of clans, rather than automatically receiving a spot in the next contender match. This is a welcome change which will mean many more clans receiving a shot at the title.

On the more dramatic side, the default number of players for a match is being experimentally bumped up to 9 per clan, beginning this Sunday. If it works it should be a fantastic change. The odd number of players adds a lot to the strategic side of the game, forcing clans to decide whether or not to play mostly offensive or mostly defensive. But increased lag and spam will certainly be an issue, so we'll keep a close eye on how this experiment turns out.

Check your local listings for a showing near you - There are a few noteworthy matches on tap for the upcoming days.

• CE has two big matches this week. They take on upstart Cogent Alliance this Friday in the OGL, hoping to prevent a rags-to-riches story, and they also have their regularly scheduled battle with KiN...this time on Canalzone. For those who like to fan the flickering flame of hope that CE will lose a match someday, you'll be heartened to know that in a scrimmage long, long ago, KiN beat CE on Canalzone.

• Also on the Kindred front, the backwoods Texas boys (forgive the affectionate nickname) run up against the undefeated San Dawgs on Monday in the STA league. This definitely has all the makings of a potential upset. Some people in downtown San Diego even went so far as to say that the original match (scheduled for last Monday) was rescheduled because KiN was absolutely terrified that they would get demolished. But we know how those hometown fans are. They don't have a clue.

• Thanks to the new IGL schedule, either 100k.d.l or NULL will have their first shot at a title match next week. These two clans have never played each other before and it should prove to be a matchup to remember.

• The OGL is brimming with important matches to keep you daydreaming during 5th period tomorrow, including the conclusion of the HATE/AoD match, but we'll have to get to more of those a bit later.

September 3rd, 1999

Freud would be proud - If you really want to know what's going on inside someone's head it's always best to let them tell you themselves. Here's a quote from [THD]Blashy about why they decided to challenge ZB rather than CA in the OGL:

It seems that TFCNN implies that THD thinks ZB is down for the count and that is why we challenged them. Well they have "ONE" lost so do we think there down? NOT! A clan loses their 1st match and they're out? Quick recap, KiN lost to CA and the next 2 weeks after what do they do? They destroyed their opponents.

THD does not take any opponent lightly...period. And we could only challenge either CA or ZB, we just played CA 3 times in the last 3 weeks, makes sense to change opponent if you ask me.

These are the facts.

[By the way, Freud is an avid TFC player. His alias is Cigar and he always has time to listen to the problems of newbies.]

David and Goliath? - The big news in the OGL is that CA toppled undefeated ZB, taking the #3 spot on the ladder. This is a huge win for CA which may have changed the way many clans view them. THD had a chance to either challenge #3 CA or #4 ZB, and it appears they sensed more vulnerability in ZB. It will be interesting to see how ZB responds to their first loss, whether they rebound and get into top form once again, or if they let the loss eat them alive.

100k.d.l took down Black Sun, which puts the grand clan in a good position to move into the top five. #13 ARM is scheduled to play #5 DA tonight(?), which could finally bring ARM into the spotlight as well.

Director's cut - In other behind the scenes OGL news, cM has delayed their match with US until next Thursday, and CdG has bid farewell to the Ladder for good.

September 2nd, 1999

Like the Steelers and Cowboys - It's a new month, but no really exciting matchups to tickle our fancies. There don't seem to be many really strong rivalries among the TFC clans at the moment. US vs. GoH is a big one, maybe KiN vs. CE (but that one's been done to death), and perhaps a couple others. Are there some other big ones that I'm overlooking?

Slightly making up for this general match malaise is SuperBeast, from TFC News, who is raising some eyebrows picking Dice to beat CE in the OGL this Saturday. "I've never seen Dice play, yet from the buzz in the community, I say this with 100% confidence and not a hint of bull. I think Dice is taking this one." Wouldn't that be something if the heavyweight championship belt got taken oversees? It could start World War III.

Don't bother me, I'm on vacation - The IGL is closed for the Labor Day weekend, also giving them time to work on putting new staff into place, and perhaps revamp the scheduling process. The STA, on the other hand, appears to place TFC above barbecued ribs and end of summer parties (which is hard to believe seeing as it's run by a KiN member). Those Monday matches are still on schedule.