Mint Gaming eSports Organisation: Counter-Strike : Call of Duty 4 : DotA : Starcraft 2 ; QuakeLive ; HoN News Feed

CS:S - The death of Caucasian Persuasion

merc@mintgaming.co.za (Daniel Balusik)

Last years rAge winners, Caucasian Persuasion (cP) have dropped out of the Telkom Do Gaming League, due to a number of reasons, and effectively rendering the team 'dead'.
[toggle=read more]The news came when cP's stand in captain, Neill 'Clipse' Roelofse stated that the team would be dropping out the league due to ADSL problems as well as the teams captain PossibLe being physically ill for some time now. When asked about the team dropping from the league, he stated that the team had already 'technically' stopped even before leg 4, and that the team just decided to enter to have some fun.

It must be said that cP also underwent some lineup changes a few weeks before the team shut down, the first casualty was Johan 'Las' Van Eck who left the team due to personal reasons, then long time substitute and initial stand in for Las, Ricardo 'wink-E' Rebolo was dropped from the team, and lastly " Petrie 'kgs' Koegelenberg left the team to join up with Pantheon.

The team then recruited ex c7e players, Andries 'NEUT' Jacobs, Eddie 'sNaKe' Viljoen and Warrick 'fr0st' Noble in order to try and restore cP to it's former glory but it was too little too late.

The former cP lineup was as follows:

Trevor 'PossibLe' Rebolo
Neill 'Clipse' Roelofse
Andries 'NEUT' Jacobs
Eddie 'sNaKe' Viljoen
Warrick 'fr0st' Noble
De Wet 'SpN' van der Merwe (Reserve)[/toggle]

PolarfluKe: Heaven's Devils Groups Announced

roberto.chaotix@gmail.com (Roberto Rocha)

With the group stages set to start at 3pm today, the PolarfluKe staff have finally announced which players have been drawn into which groups.
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96 Players have registered to participate, in what should be a cracker of a tournament! Angry African, Dreamer and Shase are amongst the usual participating players. Mint's Starcraft II players George 'Kreeflewer' Bence, Bevan 'LegOlas' van Wijk as well as Marius 'Stripe' van der Merwe will be participating, as well as other Mint players who usually represent Mint in other games, such as our call of duty players Timothy 'KrimZoN' Woolley and AJ "Ginshank" van Rensburg, counter-strike players Travis 'azterix' Coppin and Robert 'Hazzard' Botha and last but not least Kline 'Zound' Moralee co-founder of Mint.

Unfortunately Mint's Starcraft II star Ryan "Avokodo" Quevauvilliers, will not be able to participate today, due to personal reasons. We hope to see him in the next tournament.

PolarfluKe: Heaven's Devils Groups

We wish all participants the best of luck!

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SC2: Fugen Demolition Expedition tournament

merc@mintgaming.co.za (Daniel Balusik)

Another competition host catering for the Starcraft II community has popped up. Fugen will be running their first competition Demolition Expedition, with some awesome prizes on offer.
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"The site we created was a fun side project which has grown exponentially. It has only been live for 2 weeks. Any way with the great response and the need for a site for Starcraft 2 to cater to the SA players we made it public. We introduced the competition Demolition Expedition with only 32 spots for 1v1 plays, thus far an amazing response. We will also live stream the final match event on our site thanks to Livestream.com. Our sponsors have given us great prizes including gaming hardware (gaming mouse and Razor pads) and ADSL accounts (10GB, 5GB, 3GB) for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. If the tournament is successful we will introduce more 2v2, 3v3 and FFA matches. We also have plans to grow our sponsored prizes, if this competition proves to be successful.

This site is for the community by the community where we bring whatever news we can to our readers and fans and hear what they want in order to build the site the way they like it."

Prize update:

- To spice things up a bit, ISP Sponsor Cybersmart have upped the prize, the three winners, 1st (10GB) 2nd (5GB) and 3rd (3GB) can use their data CAP account for one month, however if they move their ADSL line over to Cybersmart them they will get that amount that they won every month free for the rest of their lives. T&C’s apply.

Further details:

Site url: fugenIT
Tournament: Demolition Expedition
Tournament runs 11-09-2010 | 12-09-2010
Entries are now open and close 09-09-2010

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CS:S Beta updated - Now with ammo changes

merc@mintgaming.co.za (Daniel Balusik)

The Counter-Strike: Source beta has been updated again, this time we see ammo costs back for the game, a feature some may recognise from Counter-Strike 1.6.
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One cannot help but think if Valve are trying to make the game more 1.6 like, effectively making the game a little more complex and competitive but might just make the game unenjoyable for the everyday gamer.

Updates to the Counter-Strike: Source beta:

• Reinstated ammo cost.
• Added client ConVar cl_autobuyammo ( default 7 ) which determines how much ammo to attempt to buy with guns.
• 1-7: The ammo buttons in the Buy menu are hidden. ConCommands buyammo1 and buyammo2 are still active.
• 0: Ammo is not automatically purchased and the ammo buttons in the Buy menu are visible. They now buy single ammo boxes.
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PolarfluKe: Heaven's Devils

roberto.chaotix@gmail.com (Roberto Rocha)

After the extremely successful PolarfluKe: Release Tournament, which had a total of 101 players register to play, PolarfluKe is back with their next big monthly event. PolarfluKe: Heaven's Devils!
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Group stages are set to start at 3PM on Saturday the 4th of September, while the Single elimination matches will be starting at the same time (3PM) on Sunday the 5th of September.

The tournament is going to be run via the European Battle.net server. So if you are thinking of participating please ensure that you own the EU version of the game, otherwise you will experience problems and will most likely not be able to compete.

Tournament Structure:

• 24+ Entries = 4 groups, 6+ players each, bo3. Top 4 from each group proceed to the 16-player bracket, Single Elimination, best of 3.

• 32+ Entries = 8 groups, 4+ players each, bo3. Top 2 from each group proceed to the 16-player bracket, Single Elimination, best of 3.

• 48+ Entries = 16 groups, 3+ players each, bo3. Top 2 from each group proceed to the 32-player bracket, Single Elimination, best of 3. In the event of each group having 6 players, all further registrations will be on stand-by.

• Seedings will be taken from previous PolarfluKe tournaments where needed.

• The groups will be made available on Saturday between 2 and 3 pm.

Prizes:
1st – R700.00 cash
2nd – R300.00 cash

Players have until 12:00 on Saturday the 4th of September to register for the tournament.
To register please click HERE and submit your application.

For further information fluKe and Alcardu from PolarfluKe can be be reached via IRC (/join #polarfluke), or via Battle.net (Alcardu, Code: 599 | fluKe, Code: 855)
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Rob's (Cha0tiX) Thoughts: Some frag videos

roberto.chaotix@gmail.com (Roberto Rocha)

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted anything regarding my likes / dislikes, university is to blame for my sudden absence. Today I finally had some free time in-between lectures, and well decided I’d make use of the quarterly bandwidth that was allocated to me by looking at some frag video’s, I looked at a variety of games ranging from call of duty to quake. So after wasting about an hour of my time here are my favourite videos by game:
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Game: Counterstrike 1.6
Movie: ALIVE
By: MiXeP

Summary: Even though the frags etc don’t involve any well known players, the really creative introduction kept me glued to this video, waiting to see what would happen next. To make things better the frags are alot better than I had expected. The cut scenes included throughout the video are just amazing, and in my opinion is what put this frag video way above the rest. The whole visual aspect of the video is very inventive and entertaining.

Rob’s Rating:Video:
Music:
Effects:
Frags:
Overall:

Game: Call of duty 4
Movie: Stevy - 9 Lives
By: tek-9 cinema

Summary: What else should one expect from the talented staff over at tek-9 cinema. While this movie isn’t filled with a flurry of editing, it has what people look for in frag vid’s, Amazing frags! This video displays the quality of the fnatic star, in the days before he was representing the black and orange. While the music did irritate me a tad after a while, Stevy’s fragging ability ensured that I watched this video until the end.

Rob’s Rating:
Video:
Music:
Effects:
Frags:
Overall:

Game: Counterstrike: Source
Movie: Ex6TenZ History 2
By: XhoK

Summary: A video featuring one of the most talented and accomplished players cs:s has ever seen. Ex6TenZ, has the ability to single handedly crush teams, and this video is the perfect portrayal of what he is capable of. The intro music is really quite good and hypes you up in a way. Right after watching this video I went and played some css. Was I able to get a kpd of higher than 1? NO! Yet I carried on playing! I enjoyed this video because of the feelings it invoked!

Rob’s Rating:
Video:
Music:
Effects:
Frags:
Overall:

Game: Quake
Movie:AnnihilatioN
By: unknown

Summary: The music definitely starts getting tedious after about 3 minutes, I’m a huge fan of air rockets! This video displays exactly why! While I’m sure this video would definitely not make my top 5 favourite frag videos, it is without a doubt my favourite quake frag vid!

Rob’s Rating:
Video:
Music:
Effects: Only simple editing was used
Frags:
Overall:

Game: Counterstrike: Source
Movie: sYnced II
By: unknown

Summary: I really like this video, I went through tons of counterstrike: source videos, and they all seemed to be similar, with this vido and the Surreal series by lepi standing out, unfortunately the Surreal video was over 10 minutes long, yet this one managed to accomplish as much as the surreal videos in just over 4 minutes! It's short and sweet yet action packed, insane frags and suitable music.

Video:
Music:
Effects:
Frags:
Overall:
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PolarfluKe: Factions information

roberto.chaotix@gmail.com (Roberto Rocha)

Today sees the registration window for PolarfluKe: Factions come to an end. Meaning that the first Starcraft II League is about to go underway. 12 Teams have signed up for the league which will be run in two placements groups.
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According to the Alcardu, the league wont have any prizes as of yet because the the PolarfluKe organisers want to see how the competition/league runs for the first time. If team members have any questions, they can ask their team captains as the structure has already been explained to them, or you can read the rules by clicking Here

Teams will have just under a week to complete their first round of games. The maps have been chosen for the 1v1 and 2v2 matches and can be found in the relevant links below.

PolarfluKe: Factions - Placement Groups

Group A

Ventus - Dreamer (c), ANGRYAFRICAN, Genecide, Nibby, TenthPlanet
Artificial Intelligence – Sonic (c), Infinity, Tutelary, BlueFox
AW3h - Snake (c), Specter, SpY, Siege
Kim Jong X - Raziel (c), Doomsday, Maklik
Sexi Badgers – Silva (c), Alcardu, Gridlock, McNoob, Avokodo
Rouge Warriors – Spinks (c), WarlordZim, VoiDude, Dvie, Gino

Group B

Bravado - AsIfImTrying (c), Edward, ToiletJuice
hjv sdhj etrhesrg – Musnit (c), Glay, Cobra, Sillicur
Pawns vs Rooky – BeanHeaD (c), Becks, Bipolarbear
The_Pew - Lokkenreload (c), Azterix, Zchance
[IYM] – Strom (c), Nigredo, Racoonboy, Bakchiadai
Scraps - Arcadies (c), Xevious, Maku, Tile, TonyMontana

This weeks games:

Ventus -vs- Rouge Warriors
Bravado -vs- Scraps
Artificial Intelligence -vs- Sexi Badgers
AW3h -vs- Kim Jong X
hjv sdhj etrhesrg -vs- [IYM]
Pawns vs Rooky -vs- The_Pew

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COD4: rAge Qualifiers announced

merc@mintgaming.co.za (Daniel Balusik)

Call of Duty 4 teams will be happy to know that dates for the qualifiers to rAge, which will be hosted by Gaming Inc have now been posted. So far there are three dates available for teams to enter into.
[toggle=read more]All qualifiers are set as one-night-cups, where the top 6 teams will progress through in the first qualifier, and the top 4 in the next, where they will all eventually meet at the finals or championships which will be held at rAge, inside the NAG LAN area later this year.

The first set of qualifiers are set to open later tonight and will close on the 6th of September, with matches being played over a single elimination style. From the information provided, teams can enter into the cup's as many times as they'd like, provided that they did not make the top 6 in the first qualifier or top 4 in the others.

• One Night Cup #1 - Qualifier - Top 6 teams to progress

Entries Open: 30 August 2010
Entries Close: 6 September 2010
Start Date: 8 September 2010
Ending On: 8 September 2010

• One Night Cup #2 - Qualifier - Top 4 teams to progress

Entries Open: 9 September 2010
Entries Close: 11 September 2010
Start Date: 12 September 2010
Ending On: 12 September 2010

• One Night Cup #3 - Qualifier - Top 4 teams to progress

Entries Open: 13 September 2010
Entries Close: 15 September 2010
Start Date: 15 September 2010
Ending On: 15 September 2010

For more information on the tournament follow the link below.[/toggle]

Mint.cod4 takes 3/4th in GamerNet

roberto.chaotix@gmail.com (Roberto Rocha)

Tonight was the second edition of the Gamernet BttR Call of Duty 4 cup, the winners of the first edition, Bravado, didn't take part this time round due to differences between the Gamernet Admins and the Bravado team, leaving things completely open for the teams that chose to compete.
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The tournament had slots for 16 teams, however only 11 teams registered to participate which meant that Area52, Vintage, Pantheon, Prodigy and Mint all had BYE's in their first game. Things went as usual in the second round of games, the only relative surprise was Gamerover managing to force Area 52 into an overtime, which people definitely weren't expecting.

In the Semi-Finals 4 teams for the Dogaming Premier league were set to face each other: Mint gaming vs Prodigy and Area52 would be facing Pantheon. Pantheon was boosted today by the return of their star player Greg "Rora" van der Spuy, who has been unable to play for Pantheon in the last few months due to needing to dedicate his time to practise for Qoob gaming, the South African player team that Competed in the Antwerps ESports Festival.

The Semi-Finals could of gone to either teams, but in the end Pantheon managed to edge over Area52 with a 13-11 win, while Mint was defeated by prodigy.

The finals would be played in a best of three format. The ruleset for the finals was changed in accordance to Vita Nova rules, seeing as both the finalists agreed that the ruleset used by gamernet didnt exactly make much sense.

Prodigy chose Crash, seeing as they recently managed to beat Pantheon 16-8 on this very map in the first week of the Dogaming League, while Pantheon choose to play Strike. A final map would be chosen out of the remaining three maps in the map pool if after 2 maps the teams were still caught in a deadlock.

Pantheon started out as the stronger team, proving that their recent slump in performance meant nothing now that Rora was back. They quickly sealed the map and put the pressure on Prodigy. Things on the second map didn't get any better for Prodigy as Pantheon mantained the momentum and won the second map quite convincingly.

Gamernet BttR cup Brackets - 29th August 2010

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"I have a much greater respect for CS 1.6" - anthem

merc@mintgaming.co.za (Daniel Balusik)

After a long period of inactivity the legendary Damage Control (DC) is back in action and playing in the Do Gaming league. Roberto 'Cha0tiX' Rocha caught up with Christopher 'anthem' Lake, the man responsible for waking the beast up from its slumber.
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Cha0tiX: How long have you been playing Counter-Strike and what would you say is your best moment in your gaming career thus far?

anthem: I've been playing since 2001, but only started playing online and thus competing since 2005. My best moment would have to be placing second with virtue at the ESWC 2007 SA qualifiers, since we had worked so hard to get there.

Cha0tiX: Talking about eswc 2007, how did you feel after getting so close to finally knocking DC, the team you play for now, off the podium?

anthem: I was slightly disappointed because, as I mentioned above, we had practised really vigorously for the event. This included spending entire weekends bootcamping online, so a lot of time was vested into the team from all the guys. However, DC were the top dogs for a number of years, and that was the first time I had played against them on LAN. We managed to win the upper bracket game versus them, but lost two maps in the final. We played nuke twice in the final, which makes little sense to me, as I've never seen this happen before. I am confident that if it were another map we would have annihilated them.

Cha0tiX: virtue was made up of players from various parts in South Africa, this meant that the only practise the team could get was online. Would you say this was a disadvantage in any way?

anthem: I would like to say this is a disadvantage, but I'm sure many of the teams that attended the ESWC event would have bootcamped before the event, yet we still beat them. I think if you're dedicated enough, there are no obstacles you cannot overcome. The reason for the creation of virtue in the first place was to topple the 'CS giants' in order to prove that hard work goes a long way. As I stated earlier, we bootcamped online quite a few times, and it seemed to be pretty much as effective as a LAN bootcamp.

Anthem playing for Mint at the 2009 Counter-Strike: Source competition at rAge

Cha0tiX: Was the end of virtue due to the problems at ESWC 2007 with Arena77 etc, or was virtue's purpose solely to compete at ESWC?

anthem: After ESWC, the team was very relaxed, and took an apathetic view towards CS. This resulted in little-to-no practice and thus our shocking performance at the rAge invite tournament held later in the year, where we lost 16-1 to DC. I decided, rather stupidly if I were to look back on it, to leave virtue and take a break from CS. I was asked by Bravado to sub for them at the KODE5 qualifier the following year, where we placed second. We did, however, drop a map to virtue, who took in Marco 'Playboy' Olevano in my place. I felt rather ashamed, having lost to the team I had left only a month or two earlier. I am not sure what happened to virtue after KODE5.

Cha0tiX: More recently we saw you be quite an integral part of the Mint Counter-Strike team that competed at rAge last year where you guys only lost to CP the eventual winners during the group stages. What were the reasons for you leaving, and how was your time playing for Mint Gaming?

anthem: The time I spent in Mint was fantastic. The entire organisation was filled with such awesome people, and we shared many laughs, especially at Kline's house the weekend before rAge. I left because I was just sick of CS: Source. I have a very dim view of it, as I'm sure many people know.

Cha0tiX: Did your return to playing source come forth due to the CS 1.6 scene being very quiet lately, or was it because you finally had an opportunity to play with DC?

anthem: Well CS 1.6 basically died after RISEUP. I missed competing, and figured that I'd bring the DinoCaurs (hehehe) out of retirement to jam some CS:S. Sadly, the game feels even worse to me than it did when I was in Mint, probably due to the constant updates.

Cha0tiX: Does this re-emergence of DC mean that the team are back to try and dominate the scene again, or is this just something you guys want to do while you have some free time.

anthem: I was hoping we'd come back and dominate, but this is hardly the case. It seems the rest of the gents only come online to play league games, and then disappear again. I guess it's just the qualifier for the online/LAN finals that will be held so it can be forgiven, but I'm hoping to practice a lot before the finals, nothing less than first place will do.

Cha0tiX: DC were out of action for quite some time before the Van Niekerk brothers made their come back a short while ago, would you say that the level of play in South Africa has improved since they were last around.

anthem: I can't really pass comment on the CS:S scene as I have not been actively a part of it over the years. Although it seems like everyone is insanely good, but maybe that's because I dislike the game and don't understand how it works. CS 1.6 made sense to me, it's logical. If you shoot a guy, you hit him. CS:S is not like that. I'm sure the level of play must have picked up though, seeing as CS:S gets all the competitions and leagues.

Cha0tiX: Will you be sticking with DC after the LAN championships, as you stated there is a lack of commitment and dedication?

anthem: I will see what happens. They're a great bunch of guys who never cease to make me laugh, especially Apocalypse! I would like to stay with them, as they have got what it takes to win, they just need to put in the slightest amount of effort.

Cha0tiX: Seeing that Source has in the last 3-4 years been the game that leagues have chosen to feature, do you think this attempt to revive 1.6 will be a success?

anthem: I hear James 'zer0ch4nce' Wijnberg, Dane 'racno' Friedman and Andreas 'cent' Hadjipaschali are attempting to revive the CS 1.6 competitive scene. Personally, I hope this succeeds, as I have a much greater respect for CS 1.6 and simply love competing in it. I do not, however, think it will work, as it has been tried in the past and failed.

Cha0tiX: You have been around the Counter-Strike scene for quite some time, and have been a top player in both the 1.6 and Source version of the game. Who in your opinion is the best player you've played with or against, in both 1.6 and Source.

anthem: In 1.6 it would be a close call, but I think the best player would have to be Apollo. He's just plain sick. In Source... hmm. LEONNE! I joke. Uhm, for me it's hard to choose in CS:S as all the top players seem to be of the same skill level. It seems like there's only a certain level you can get to in CS:S. But my choice would have to be Zeo, he seems like a cut above the rest.

Cha0tiX: We all know you don't like CS:S, but what aspects of the game do you like?

anthem: Haha, really putting me under the knife here! I like it that when enemies are approaching my PC lags slightly, so I know when they're coming. And I like the fact that it has a large player base in SA, so it's possible to pub nearly any time of day or night.

Chris partying it up

Cha0tiX: If the 1.6 revival doesn't work, do you think you'll carry on playing Counter-Strike: Source? Or will you move to another game, like you did with Team Fortress 2?

anthem: It depends hey. I'd like to see how we (DC) do in the DGL finals after actually putting some time into the game. I may take time off as varsity would take priority, but would most likely return to activity before competitions.

Cha0tiX: What do u think of Counter-Strike: Promod?

anthem: I enjoyed the latest version they released, despite the bugs. I thought it was really professional, and I hope they release the full game some time soon. I think it will serve well to combine the communities, judging from the people that were playing the beta.

Cha0tiX: Any last words, or shout outs?

anthem: Nah, I don't like shout outs, they seem unfair. All the people that don't get mentioned catch rage. Thanks to miNt for the interview though!

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