July 30th, 1999

Retiring like Magic Johnson Things have been a bit wild in the OGL the last week or so with Shaggy disappearing and plenty of clans getting the jitters. Yesterday, Shaggy announced his retirement from the admin position, but today some circumstances were changed and he's back in the saddle again. Shaggy has also spent the better part of the day whipping the ladder into shape and clearing up old business. Here's a note he sent our way: "I am reviewing the current OGL rules tomorrow (Saturday) and making the necessary changes (how matches are won and such to fix a lot of the confusion and make it a lot more to the point, some map issues and some other stuff). The ladder is obviosly growing (we've almost hit 100 clans since the ladder transition) so a lot more organization is needed. It will be there very soon. Thanks, Devin McBride (Shaggy)" There are in fact 99 clans on the ladder as of this moment, and new life has definitely been infused back into the OGL.

Who's that on the Leader Board? During TFCNN's downtime lots of changes occurred on the OGL Leader Board, the most notable being ZB's win over Hate, taking the #3 spot and extending their record to 11-0. Before they could take the next step and challenge CE, however, Black Sun reached up and challenged them. Also of note is CdG's emergence on the Leader Board. CdG has proven themselves to be a worthy team in some of the other leagues and now they're making their presence known in the OGL. The competition level at the top of the ladder has never been as strong as it is right now, and there are still quite a few good clans making their moves up the ranks, ready to surprise the folks at the top.

IGL insanity? With DownLoaD on vacation most clans were beginning to believe that this week would be a bye week and regular scheduling would resume next Sunday. However, Karsiss stepped in and slapped up a schedule (yep, that's how it's spelled) for this Sunday. KiN will face off with CE again, this time on Pipezone. cM will have their hands full against CdG in the contender match. With the short notice, clans may not be fully prepared for their upcoming battles. Perhaps we can expect some upsets. [Note: Trained eyes will notice that the Mountain Server Group's servers are not being mandatorily used this week.]

STA Title Match The STA has officially awarded the TFC division title to Kindred, who will face off against Hate Inc. on Well to defend that honor. Hate recently lost a close round of Well to the Zodiac Braves and will undoubtedly want to prove that they still have what it takes to fight with the big boys. Kindred has never been too fond of Hate Inc and will certainly do all they can come out victorious.

Old time rock and roll Clan 30+ surprised the Talking Goats last week in the STA and snuck off with a sudden death win. Now 30+ runs up against U Suck. The Vegas line definitely swings towards US, but perhaps the old timers can pull off another surprise.

Top 10 Round One The Top 10 Tournament has a really unique way of keeping standings. Ranks are determined by a clan's record and their margin of victory. The last undefeated clan in a "round" is declared the winner of that round and a new one begins. There's a bit more to it than that, which you can read up on the Top 10 rules page. This week THD and CdG face off for what could potentially be the end of round one (assuming RTL loses as well). The map will be Run.

July 25th, 1999

Talking Goats talking TG wanted to bid adieu to the OGL. Here's the note: "Well I didn't think that this day would come and we have made alot of great friends in the OGL community. But unfortunately we (The Talking Goats) have run into too many issues with the rules of the OGL (too vague) and we also find that the overall format of the STA and the IGL is more fitting for the Goats. Now that we play on a set night every week and also that we only play 2 maps that night makes for alot less head aches for us. For all the clans from the OGL that are in the STA or the IGL then we can't wait to meet up with you all there. For the rest of you then it has been a blast playing you all and I hope we will meet up again in the future. I hope that by us leaving this league that everybody doesn't think less of the goats. -[TG]Redrum"

Like most Chinese food Here's an email I received from Flesh&Blood (I think) which apparently presents both sides of the MSG (Mountain Server Group) issue. The first paragraph is apparently from an MSG admin, while the second paragraph is Flesh&Blood's response. It's quite a read, but it will give you a sense of the issues the MSG servers are raising.

"Controversy over using MSG servers! (gasp) Well we expected it to come along, and it finally has. As most of you know we host servers by request, usually by clans. Now the big controversy is that our servers are unfair because they are not located in the middle of the US. Granted this has arisen from only ONE clan, but the controversy is out. The complaint, ping times are unfair, MSG hosts to the west clans. Ignore the fact that are are located off an OC-48 line, that we have hosted almost 100 clan matches with continuing complements, that we use about 7% of our bandwidth with 16 people on one server.As usual this complaint is based on much less than all the facts, and has more than one real objective. 1) The person with the 'horrible' lag was on a dial up modem pool in Canada, with a bad ISP (thank you Unix and traceroute) 2) The complaint came from a clan that has their own server that has better ping times (probably b/c its next door), and 3) they dont want to give up their advantage by playing at a neutral server location. While we don't usually like to comment on anything, (and enjoy our neutral status), we feel that unfair accusations made with less than all the facts bring to light one issue that has plagued clans from their existance, they want to win, and will do anything (including trying to lie about neutral servers) to retain something that gives them an edge over their opponents.Granted this will probably start a 'flame war' of hate messages, but we have the facts, and are willing to supply all the details, including traceroutes, router times, ping times, log files etc to anyone doubting it. (because that is fair, and neutral) :) taken from msg servers web page news

"west coaster most likely will ping better to your servers and people and or clans near you will also, ie null has good ping advantage or CDG on your server so how is this deemed fair or neutral when CDG could use there own server and at least get one rnd in with a ping in there favor or maybe even. you state 1) the person with horrid lag is from BFE yea that why some clan have server far east so there canadian or far east or west player can play maybe that why he joined that clan casue at least one round he can play and not lag up, you MSG servers are 22 hops for me from Michigan which isnt that far west almost considered central my pings threw the trace route a pretty good until they hit the qwest servers at the 11th hop where it starts to rise (22 hops from Michigan isnt that great not saying i ping horrid to your server i avg 135 and it is playable) when i get less hops to CE and hates west coast servers but yea i would rather play at my home server with a 30-50 ping as i do to most east servers. 2) complaint came from a clan with a better server casue they live next door well our servers have hosted many games also and we played many clans from all over and most of the time we do sport better pings but insome cases like last night hate from the west coast avg'd almost as good pings as we had on our own server(router probelm from east coast occcured) but if we where to play 2 round on your server im sure hate would ping much better than our clan to your server giving them a advantage both rounds. 3) give up a advantage , now what will you say to a clan that has 2-3 player at your university and a group of other from all right around there, would they be giving up an advantage by playing both rounds on your server hell no they would have a major advantage and the other clan would be SoL playing 2 rounds there. John doe builds a clan with alot of his friends from maine 1/2 are lpb 1/2 modems they got a decent server way up there by them and there modem player ping ok too it and it works for them....they have to go play on your server and them being far east clan they play a clan like Vampire's there based in texas with alot of lpb's you server would work at really nice in this situation like this ?? i dont think it would they would be better off ususing there home server in maine and them rough it out at the away one letting there lpb try for the away game and there modem players play the home game ......ie the way CE handles there away and home games as stated by potatoes and it wasnt just our clan [US] that complained i see CDG, Kin, CE and a few others not liking the idea(there must be good reasons then). and what about the little old guy that lives in canada on a dial up modem pool he joined his clan casue he gets good pings onthere server ?? screw him ? bah let him play on his clans server for a rnd and give them a chance!"

IGL Night in America The IGL is on for tonight, expect results to be posted here about midnight on the east coast, 9pm on the west. And you may even see the IGL homepage updated with results tonight now that ARod and Buffalo1 are helping DownLoaD out.

July 23rd, 1999

Walking under the ladder The OGL is back and swinging with tons of good action taking place. Here's a quick rundown on what's happening near the top:

• #1 CE has been challenged by #4 BlackSun. BlackSun just got done playing a marathon match with TSUA, pulling off a win in the end. CE has come out on top the two times they've met BlackSun before, so they're certainly favored, but BlackSun keeps improving and they're obviously not afraid to try their hand at #1.

• US took over the #2 spot from Hate Inc. who had held it since the end of April. This is a big step for US and it will be interesting to see which clans step up to challenge them next.

• #5 TSUA lost a heartbreaker to Black Sun and now has to bounce back against #9 CdG. CdG has been putting up solid results in all the leagues they're in and could have what it takes to knock TSUA out of the top five.

• The Zodiac Braves shut out RTL in their match Thursday, moving to #6 on the ladder and increasing their unbeaten streak to 10 games. Feeling confident, ZB challenged #3 Hate Inc. Without a doubt, this will be ZB's most difficult challenge to date, and Hate Inc. will have a lot of motivation to show the rest of the clans on the ladder that they haven't lost a step, despite dropping to #3.

• #7 AR has been challenged by #13 Epi. The Epidemic Clan is gaining confidence by leaps and bounds, still undefeated with six wins. AR has had some troubles lately, losing four out of their last five matches. This matchup is extremely important for both clans and may define their status in the months to come.

• #10 Talking Goats was beaten by CdG in four rounds and is most likely dropping out of the OGL for greener pastures.

• #12 Dice plays #19 cM on Saturday. cM is a top contender in the IGL and is wanting to make their presence felt in the OGL. Dice has slowly made their way up the ladder, still unbeaten with six wins.

IGL Schedule It's up and ready for your perusal. This is the last week of Well in the IGL. Pipezone is on tap next. That should be interesting.

Mountain Server Group Some grass roots backlash is developing among some of the IGL clans concerning the MSG experiment being conducted in the IGL. Some matches (the pink ones on the schedule page) are being played on the MSG servers in Colorado (thus removing "home-sever advantage"). The idea is to provide a neutral platform for clans to play on. After the first week of the "experiment" the participating clans weren't too thrilled with the outcome, but for now four more clans are scheduled to give MSG another shot.

July 21st, 1999

Top 10 Tournament News There's a new tournament on the block, with match results already pouring in. If you read the match results section you'll know that one clan in the Top 10 Tournament was a bit disgruntled about the organizer of the tourney also being in one of the clans playing. They claimed that that clan will win the tournament because of that advantage. Nemo, Top10 admin, is trying nip that accusation in the bud. Here's what he said:

Hi, you may have noticed that one of the teams that submitted results for the Top10 made a vague statement that could be interpreted to mean that I am running a biased show so my clan, THD, wins. To that I wrote the following comment and I would greatly appreciate it if you posted it on your web site. My point is to assure anyone who might follow the tourney that there is no way I can bias the scheduling of matches: its all by the numbers.

Also, I would like to thank you both for being so kind as to consider the tournament. I got real chills when I saw Tuba's listing and saw the results on the TFCNN results page. Thanks!

Here is the comment:
In the summary submitted by Demons of the Apocalypse for their recent match in the Top10 tournament, they wrote "We all know who will win this tourney though, the same clan that made it, it is obvious after playing with them." I am not sure if this comments means that DoA thinks THD (my clan) will win the tournament because we are so good (ha!) or because I have biased the tournament in my clans favor (bull). Part of my real-life job is applied statistics and I have strived to make all scheduling decisions strictly by the numbers. The procedures for scheduling teams are clearly spelled out on the Top10 website; I even gave a typical example of how I will do it. Scores from each week are rank ordered. Teams are paired up so that winners from the previous week play others that they have not played before and that also won. The team that wins by the largest margin plays the team that won by the smallest margin. Losers are also paired up in a similar manner. If we have a new team, then I add them into either bracket to even out the teams and to give teams that have been unorganized a week off to get their act together. This is the case this week, as we have a new team, Ride the Lightning, and a team that has not been able to field a full team the last two weeks. I feel it is necessary to send this info to the web pages that receive scores from the tournament to defend my scheduling policy and to assure anyone out there that might be interested in the tourney that I am not biasing how it plays out in any way.
-- Nemo

One really nice thing about this tournament is the map rotation. Non-standard maps are the norm, with participating clans voting on which ones should be played. This will undoubtedly influence the map rotations of the other leagues later on down the road as they see the success (or failure) of some of these lesser-known maps.

STA royalty After KiN's doubleheader wins on Sunday, moving them to an impressive 12-0 record, they became the first STA TFC title holders. That distinction earns them a bye this week as the rest of the teams battle it out for the honor of challenging KiN for a title shot.

There are some great matchups scheduled in the STA:

• DiRe vs. BlackSun: Both of these clans have been making their mark recently and should be pretty evenly matched. This will be a gut check for both teams.

• Epi vs. Hate: The Epidemic Clan has put together an impressive 6-0 record in the OGL (this will be their debut in the STA) and now they're facing off with their biggest challenge to date. Hate enjoys Well, and should give Epi a hard test.

• GoH vs. US: Gods of Hate is bouncing back from their first loss as a clan and now has to play the #2 clan in the STA. This is another match to watch closely.

July 19th, 1999

Streaks The big CE vs. KiN match is now history, with CE coming out on top. KiN's TFC winning streak ends at eleven games while CE's streak continues, now at twenty-one straight matches. KiN goes up against another unbeaten clan tonight in the STA when they face Gods of Hate on Darkness. Both of these clans will be playing two STA matches in the same night due to their rescheduling from last week.

OGL Action The new ladder doesn't give an indication when matches are going to be played, but you can expect that quite a few matches are scheduled for the first few days of this week. Black Sun and TSUA are scheduled for their tiebreaker round(s) this Wednesday on 2forts, Well, and Rock.

Last goodbyes The NAM Marines, a promising TFC clan in the OGL, has called it quits, fading into the mist. We're sorry to see them go.

July 18th, 1999

IGL TFC Predictions Buckeye, from the TF Times, has begun posting match predictions for the IGL TFC division. Tonight's matchups are there for the viewing, including the super showdown between KiN and CE. Buckeye chose KiN to squeak out the victory. (The map for tonight is Well, not Darkness, as posted on the match predictions page.)

Some added hype CE and KiN have scrimmaged in TFC twice before, each time ending in an overall tie. The two clans have never faced off on Well. Both clans are known for their very solid defenses and bigtime concussion jumping offenses. KiN and CE get along very well. Many members have met each other in real life (see the picture at the bottom of the main page here at TFCNN). KiN is almost all located in Texas, while CE is primarily located in California. Pings for both rounds should be fairly even, with KiN having a slightly higher ratio of LPB's.

July 17th, 1999

TGL TFC War|ock is busy getting the word out about his new TFC league endeavor called the Team Gaming League. The TGL will play its matches on Saturdays, and the regular seasons starts three weeks from today. There are already quite a few clans signed up, including some well-known names in TFC. Give it a look!

OGL Challenge Mania The OGL Ladder is back in business with lots of new challenges. Perhaps the most intriguing matchup is #5 US versus #2 Hate, scheduled for Thursday the 22nd. These two clans have faced off once before in the STA with a win going to US on Canalzone. Lots of water has run under the bridge since that time, however. Will US be the first to knock Hate from their perch?

TFCNN Staff Expansion One staff hiring has been finalized. Kendog, from clan Hate Inc, will begin doing some TFC clan spotlights for TFCNN. These will be interviews with TFC clans from all walks of life, the big and the small, the known and the unknown. Welcome to the gang, Kendog.

July 16th, 1999