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Articles: Crew Perspective - By elusive |
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Crew Perspective
By elusive
What a weekend to remember. Events, tournaments, sponsors, stage matches, gaming clans from around New Zealand; WCG qualifiers… wow!
I remember waking up early Friday morning, grabbing a coffee and driving up to the event centre. If Friday was to be anything like the day before, I knew we’d be in for a crazy ride. I walked in through the main entry, entered the gaming hall. On my right, the stage, its equipment silent, sleeping, waiting. Directly ahead of me, a desk covered with name tags, and just beyond it, the dark hall awaiting its guests. Nothing but row upon row of tables and chairs, network cables, power adaptors. It really hit me at the moment just how much work was put into the setup. To think that just 2 days ago, this was nothing more than an empty hall.
I dumped my bag in the crew area, and proceeded to the entry hall, where gamers were already lining up, joking, laughing, doing the Mexican wave (yes you heard right). We opened the doors, and the event began! Over the next 2 hours, all I could see were name tags, lanyards, and a sea of faces. While each crew member has their own part to play during the event, the first couple of hours are critical. Every last crew member is there, handing out name tags, answering questions, helping gamers with their gear, making sure everyone has found a seat, has power and a working network connection. During those first hours, it really still strikes me how much that empty hall transforms.
 
The hard part finally over, on to the games! xLAN also hosts the New Zealand WCG qualifiers. Over the next couple of days, we’d be boasting tournaments not only for xLan, but for WCG and fun competitions as well! I turned on my pc, checked the roster for the Counter Strike 1.6 games, and proceeded to liaise with the rest of the game administrators. We picked up our walkie-talkies, worked out which teams we’d be refereeing for the first round, and the games began. From this point, for me, it was nothing but refereeing match after match, with a quick break for some lunch and dinner. But I didn’t care. Having come from a CS backround myself, there is nothing more exhilarating for me than to ref a game played by top NZ clans. Some of the rounds were intense! Some so close it was anybody’s guess who would win. I had no personal favourites though. When I wasn’t overseeing a WCG match I was helping admin the CS:Source scene. The rest of the event over those 2 days was a bit of a blur, there was just so much to do. The sponsors had their gear out for sale, the stage matches were drawing crowds. There was a even a Guitar Hero 2 match which drew much cheering and laughter. I know that behind the scenes, the crew were hard at work, each doing their own part. Fixing any issues, answering any questions, getting in the odd game themselves if they got a spare moment!
It all went by so fast, the next thing I knew, it was late Sunday afternoon. Prizes were being given out, WCG winners and qualifiers were being announced, and the gamers were leaving. It wasn’t over yet though. Now came the nasty bit. The bit your mother would do for you if you were at home: clean up. This is where I tip my hat to those who volunteer for crew. Many people don’t know it, but crew aren’t paid. They are volunteers. They spend their nights in the months leading up to the event preparing for it, from handing out flyers, testing servers and equipment. Right down to sharing jokes in a lounge while crimping cables, surrounded by wires, cuttings and lots of coffee. They spend 2 days before the actual event setting up all those stages and rows of network cables you see. That previous empty hallway is transformed by many hands, working together for free. Sunday night saw those same hands diligently putting away equipment, throwing out garbage, packing up tv’s and banners.
Why do we do it? For me, the answer is simple: gaming spirit. Crew are gamers. We want to see the event succeed, to see gamers having fun. This is what gaming events like this are all about. It’s never about the money. Anyone who’s ever spoken to the organisers, Susan and Anthony Baikie, know that they do not make a profit. It’s about the gamers. 2007 was the second year in a row I’d volunteered, and I’ll be doing it again this year, so see you all in 2008!
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Posted by Dee-Zilla on Friday, May 02, 2008 @ 23:15:52 New Zealand Standard Time |
 
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Articles: Professional-What? |
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Professional-What?
Following my previous article about the silent-running / duckhopping situation, this new editorial post refers to the professionalism of the Counter-Strike scene and e-sports in general. In fact, it is legitimate to ask ourselves what is a pro-gamer? If there is one question that stands out more than others and that can be applied to any game seen in competitions, it would be this one. Usually, pros are people that have an uncommon ability to perform a task, an extensive knowledge on a specific topic or a mix of both. In all of these cases, they usually make a living out of this talent, but also have responsibilities that match the wages and exposure they receive. Whether they are a doctor, a lawyer or an international football player, professionals represent an image, a group of different entities that share a similar goal. There are standards to exceeds, rules to follow, people to please. To me this is no different for pro-gamers. High-expectations on results, brand representation for sponsors, fans to get stoked; this is all about being a pro.
Nowadays, we see the gap between the casual gamers and amateurs expanding. However the one separating those amateurs and the professionals is getting smaller every day. That said, more teams call themselves (and really believe) pro-gaming organization. Of course, it’s not hard to find a ventrilo or a server company ready to sponsor you. Does that make you a pro? I think that the most important aspect is omitted: Sacrifices! Do you spend those extra hours practicing? Do you take the time to get in touch with the fans? Do you share what you know with the community? Do you absolutely follow the rules stated by the leagues and tournaments? If you answered yes to all of the above, then you’re on the right way.
Playing in front of a big crowd is one of the sacrifices that might be required.
It’s exciting, but can be difficult to perform well in those conditions.
The professionalism of a Counter-Strike team is all about being on time for their matches and practices, interact properly with fans, medias and referees, use a good sportsmanship attitude at all time, ave a passion for the game and a respect for those that have the same passion but less aptitudes. In fact this is just as important as how you flank bombsite B, smoke mid or clutch that 1 vs 5 situation while you’re in an eco-round.
To respect rules, staff, media and supporters is part of the job
During the last WCG Grand Final, I’ve been a witness of a lot of different way to act and react to different situation. Most spectators and participants will remember this event as the silent-run disputing fest it was, however I think we are not remembering the best moments. In the middle of all this un-sportsmanship behavior, some teams actually showed that they were real professionals, in the glory of in the defeat. Teams such as Emulate, NoA, Amazing Gaming, PGS, ate-t7, EG, Four-Kings and fnatic (they did dispute in the beginning, they stayed professional throughout the process) are good examples. They had a positive attitude the whole tournament and they made sacrifice in order to play their games in time despite the previous delays, do their best with the not-always-ideal conditions of a big event like WCG, cooperated with the staff and medias present at the tournament, etc. On top of this, if you take a closer look at this list, you can see that the top 3 teams are in that list, 2006 champions are stated and all the mentioned teams are great examples of successful organizations. You’re not professional only because you’re good. To say the truth, professionalism makes you that good.
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A good example or professionals: Team NoA, Emulate & Amazing Gaming (Top 3 WCG 2007)
If you achieved such a high level of ethic, only then you should ask yourself the million-dollar question: do you have the awe-inspiring ability to perform in the key moments? Then maybe you are already a pro without knowing. Although what is important to remember is: To be a pro-gamer is not only to compete at the highest level. A pro-gamer is all about the attitude, the work ethic, the respect you show to your peers and how you do compete at that level.
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Posted by Dee-Zilla on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 @ 19:48:11 New Zealand Daylight Time |
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Articles: DUCK JUMP, The CONTROVERSY for CS |
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As a lot of you already know, the CS community and the WCG committee have face an important issue during the 2007 Grand Final and it eventually cause a real coma in the competition schedule. I am talking about the infamous duck-jump or silent running exploit/bug that occurs when a player simultaneously hit the crouch key repeatedly. Now this doesn’t seem like a problem at first sight, however you have to know that when done properly, this can give an advantage to a player in two different ways.
First off, this method allow a player to move as fast as if he was running, while covering the sound and making it like if the player was running far away. That said, it means that a player, or a group, could make fake rushes towards a bombsite as long as they know they’re not going to get peeked. It also means that a player would be able to get from one point to another, with an unnatural amount of speed for the sound that’s emitted.
On top of the previous problem mentioned above, this technique can allow a player to deliberately mess up the normal hitboxes of the game. That means it will be harder to hit him than usual (for example you would have to aim at a different place that what it normally should be in order to hit his head). In that way, it is no different to using other config “hack” like developer 1, the old (nowadays fixed) ex_interp 1, and so many other things that can alter the game.
For these reasons, and the fact that the WCG Committee has seen this technique as an unfair advantage that wasn’t meant to be one in the game, the use of this exploit has been prohibited in the WCG tournaments for the past few years. In fact, the WCG see this problem just as other exploits like illegal flashing, rail sliding, silent plating, clipping, etc. It was an ethical decision.
However, some players brought up a whole point of view and the WCG is ready to listen to them. The main argument for them using this was that most players use it and they used to do this combination of moves in order to take the opponent’s off guard. As some leagues (mostly Scandinavians and Asians leagues) allow this, it is not true to state that everyone does it and therefore it should be allowed. This would be a completely different question (whether or not the WCG should allow the silent-running) and in no-way can excuse any player for committing such action. All that said, the WCG Committee is well-aware of the problem that this rule may bring up for the following events and is actually reviewing the possibilities. So far there hasn’t been an absolute answer. The three main possibilities though would be the following:
1- Old rule remains : dispute format gets changed, asking the teams to specify what round they think they could have been confused or disadvantaged by an opponent using this method;
2- Get rid of the rule, therefore allowing the move and play even though it can mess up the hitboxes.
3- (In my opinion the fairest of all 3) Get rid of the rules. Create a WCG Mod for the competition where the third duck-duck combo would have a jump penalty, therefore disallowing a player to move fast AND silent at the same time for a long period of time. At the same time, the players that are use to do this will still be able to do it, but won’t get the hidden advantage of it. This could also allow the WCG committee to fix the silent plant bug and other bug, facilitating the referees’ job and allow them to focus on things like ghosting and dead-speeches.
Players, readers and any other members of the community are welcome to collaborate in finding the best suitable option and are invited to write their comments about this situation or any other CS related subject to thierry@worldcybergames.ca
Cheers,
Thierry “Tee” St-Jacques-Gagnon
WCG Grand Final Chief Referee CS 1.6
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Posted by Dee-Zilla on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 @ 19:45:58 New Zealand Daylight Time |
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