Yearly Archives: 2012

eSports @OnRPG – Lone Star Clash

E-sports Lone Star Clash

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

After last week’s success at MLG Dallas, the players of both Starcraft 2 and League of Legends hardly had a chance to catch their breath as they were whisked straight into the Lone Star Clash. This student organized event took place for the second time in Austin, Texas. The Texas e-Sports Association together with the Cyber Sports Network were thrilled to present thousands of viewers with two exciting tournaments that took place last weekend. Hosted by Rachel “Seltzer” Quirico and Anna Prosser, this promised to be a very interesting show for any e-sports fan!

 

 

Starcraft 2 and League of Legends are undoubtedly the most played e-sport titles in the states, and maybe even worldwide. The Texas e-Sports Association (TESPA) strives to bring competitive gamers together of all backgrounds to play, improve and compete. With the yearly Loner Star Clash TESPA has proven how far the industry has come that such a small group could garner so much attention. Once only offering Starcraft 2, they now have gamers playing competitively in all genres from professionals in big money tournaments to amateurs looking for weekend fun.

 

 

 

Starcraft 2

With a busy weekend behind us, it might have been a rough week for the Starcraft 2 players without any practice. Yet it still promised us a lot of good games since the player list was no joke. With big Korean names, the Americans and Europeans had a tough fight to prepare for last weekend. While the prize and venue wasn’t quite at large, this was a quick opportunity for the foreigner teams to lick their wounds and prove how quickly they could adapt to Korean tactics.

 

 

However out of the nine foreigners that were competing in the tournament only three of them managed to get into the second round without falling to the losers bracket. With Stephano, BabyKnight and NaNiwa in the second round, Axslav, QXC, Ret, Hawk, ThorZain, Sheth and Tod eyed each other nervously as double elimination loomed over their heads in the losers bracket. No matter the outcome, it was unavoidable that half of the foreigners were set to be eliminated in just two rounds.

 

 

Unfortunately both BabyKnight and NaNiwa fell to the losers brackets in the second round which gave the foreigners little to no hope to reach one of the top three spots at this university tournament. This was a proven fact when Koreans dropped down to the losers bracket and eliminated these two, leaving Stephano the last man standing. With some big names like Bomber, Violet, GanZi and a fan favorite CranK left, the French zerg from Evil Geniuses had his work cut out for him. The feared ‘Evil Geniuses Curse’ held no sway over Stephano as he crushed Ganzi in the next round 2-0.  The fan favorite CranK chilled the blood as he looked unwavered by Stephano’s win streak thus far. However Stephano played like a man possessed as he dispatched even CranK to emerge in the winners bracket finals. Hopes betrayed the fans that the foreigners still had a chance to win the title. But this would be a tough challenge for the French zerg.

 

 

The other finalist was the feared Bomber who has been a very strong Korean for years now with many titles behind his back which are won mainly in the foreigner tournaments. Since Stephano came from the winners bracket completely undefeated into the finals he only had to win one of the series, starting with a best of five. The first series proved to be a tough challenge against the feared Korean terran Bomber. Unfortunately in this nail biting series Stephano fell short one game and lost the first series 2 to 3 to Bomber. Everything was now on the line as Stephano and Bomber entered into a best of three series for the championship.

 

 

Stephano had to upgrade his play to overcome this strong Korean opponent. Where many had fallen, one rose above the curse of Curse to claim an uncommonly seen foreigner championship. With a tight series 2 to 1 for Stephano, he took home the golden medal worth $7,500. Bomber the Korean Terran showed some really strong games but unfortunately fell short in the second series, nevertheless taking home $4,000.

 

 

League of Legends

Just like the Starcraft 2 players, both Curse and CLG.EU had a tough job ahead of them with the lack of practice because of MLG Dallas last week. Since League of Legends is a team game and the games usually take longer than the average Starcraft 2 game, only four teams were invited for the League of Legends tournament. It technically was the first game CLG.EU played together in a month since they played with a substitute last week and because of that were unsure how well they would do it in this tournament. Besides Curse Gaming they also had to face Team Fear and the previously parted Orbit Gaming’s roster that bared the name of Reddit Nation.

 

 

With such a small tournament it meant that the first match would be a huge key towards winning it all. Both the fan favorites Curse Gaming and CLG.EU showed that they were too strong for both Team FeaR and Reddit Nation and managed to advance to the half finals to face each other before the Grand final. This meant for both the teams that got kicked into the losers bracket that they had to ‘do or die’. Unfortunately FeaR Gaming fell short against the Reddit Nation and lost 2-0 to achieve the fourth place at the Lone Star Clash, taking home a small prize $1,500. In the meanwhile both the fan favorites clashed against each other to fight for a Grand Final spot. Unfortunately Curse didn’t manage to win any of the typical CLG.EU ‘dragging to lategame’ games and fell to the Losers Bracket to face the Reddit Nation who were less than a doormat against this experience team. This is where they unleashed their true power and showed Reddit Nation the door to take home $2000.

 

 

This meant Curse had to face the feared CLG.EU team again which they previously fell to. The Grand Finals were played in a best of five series giving Curse Gaming a little more room to breath unlike their previous series. Starting out with a strong showing, Curse Gaming looked like they had woken from the dead. They came strong in the second match as well but CLG.EU’s honed patience in past losing matches shown through as they recovered to pull a win in the late game. CLG.EU won the third as well and were well on the way to the championship. However Curse saw to it that this would go to the full five games. CLG.EU in the end was simply too consistent and outplayed Curse in the final match, taking home their prize of $7,500. Curse had to settle for a mere $4,000.

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/15: eSports, SMITE, Guild Wars 2, and Much More!

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/15: eSports, SMITE, Guild Wars 2, and Much More!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

SMITE Releases Video Revealing Bacchus

Bacchus, the God of Wine is highlighted this week in Smite’s latest God Reveal video. The nearly six minute long video shows off drunken fighting from the God of Wine, his various skills and the best builds to use.

 

 

San Francisco Star Trek Convention Attendees to Receive Special STO Items

Star Trek Online fans will be wanting to attend the San Francisco Star Trek convention November 16-18 to receive a unique STO Holo-Leeta Duty Officer and the title “Convention Veteran.” There are two ways to claim the codes for these items. Both involve pictures of yourself! Take a picture of yourself at the convention then tweet @TrekOnlineGame or go onto the STO forums.

 

Fractals of the Mist Introduced In GW2 Dev Diary

A recent dev diary has introduced the new level 80 Fractals of the Mist dungeon. Thanks to the work of the asura Dessa fragments of time have been stabilized to allow small groups of people to travel to some familiar and not so familiar events in time. While this dungeon is meant for level 80s it is accessible to anyone of any level. It is also a scaling dungeon, that means it get harder the more times you do it, but also more rewarding.

 

 

Glitch MMO To Close

Tiny Speck has announced that it will close it’s casual MMO, Glitch on December 9. The company had this to say about the reasons for the closure; “Unfortunately, Glitch has not attracted an audience large enough to sustain itself and based on a long period of experimentation and our best estimates, it seems unlikely that it ever would.” This is partly being blamed on the move to mobile games and the decline of Flash as a tool for making games.

 

 

Knight Age Mega Expansion Coming Soon

The biggest expansion to come to Knight Age is expected to be released on November 20. With it the level cap will be raised 7 levels to a maximum of 42. In addition a new mount and two combat pets will be made available to players. And for players looking for a challenge Grey Shores of Oblivion is a new map being added that takes players to a beautiful but deadly mountainous region.

 

 

eSports Globally Unified After New Partnership

The Electronic Sports League (ESL), Major League Gaming (MLG), and DreamHack have formed a new partnership to unify and elevate eSports around the world. The initial partnership will surround the rest of the tournaments for 2012 and all of those in 2013. With the partnership between the three biggest eSports leagues comes a universal ranking system, a master tournament schedule, unified competition structure, and cross promotion of events.

Wartune Announces Massive Content Update in Patch 1.4.5

Wartune Announces Massive Content Update in Patch 1.4.5

 

Wartune

 

Reality Squared Games – Reality Squared Games has announced that it will be launching a massive content update this Thanksgiving holiday for its thrilling hybrid strategy MMORPG, Wartune.

 

 

The massive content update will be part of Patch 1.4.5 and will include the following features:

 

Rested Experience – Players who are offline for more than 24 hours will now begin accumulating additional experience called “Rested Experience.” During this rested state players will receive double experience.

 

 

Guild Chat – Constantly missing critical messages from your guild members? Guild members may communicate with one another using Guild Chat, a private chat interface just for its guild members.

 

Wartune

 

Guild Chamber – All guilds now hold a special territory: the Guild Chamber. The Guild Chamber offers guild members the opportunity to gain bundles of guild contribution and experience!

 

 

Guild Battle – Think you have the strongest guild in the land? Well, now you can test your guild’s prowess in the Guild Battle. Each week, the top 16 guilds listed in the Guild Strength Rankings will be chosen to compete in battle. Rewards are based on how quickly guilds defeat each other. The longer you last, the better your rewards.

 

 

Cross-Server 3v3 Arena – Tired of beating up the same old players on your server in the Arena? With the updated Arena, you will now be able to compete in the 3v3 Arena across servers in the same time zone!

 

Wartune

 

Legendary Equipment – Looking for the biggest and baddest equipment? Level 40, 50 and 60 legendary equipment may now be synthesized in the Blacksmith, with the following requirements:

Relevant Epic Equipment – Found in Normal/Nightmare Multi-player Dungeons

Legendary Stone – Found in Level 40+ Nightmare Multi-player Dungeons

Legendary Equipment Shard – Found in the Arena Shop

Mounts – Once a player reaches level 40, they will receive a White Battle Steed. Mounts directly increase your attributes and increase your movement speed in the Battleground, dungeons, Guild Battle and the Wilds. Mount attribute boosts are compiled, therefore the more mounts you have, the more benefits you will gain.

 

 

That’s not all! You can read more about the upcoming features on the Patch 1.4.5 announcement page and follow along on the announcement thread here.

Carnage Racing Impressions – A Little Slice of Paradise on Facebook

Carnage Racing Impressions – A Little Slice of Paradise on Facebook

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

On Tuesday when I heard Jagex was hosting a preview of two of their upcoming titles in San Francisco I was giddy. It wasn’t often you heard about a new title from the company still known for the classic RuneScape and I knew that they wouldn’t put their name behind anything that wasn’t incredibly off the mainstream beat while still having fun factor through the roof. Then they threw a curveball at me – Facebook Racing Game. Both Facebook and Racing haven’t exactly been buzz words synonymous with fun and quality in the western online gaming market. But the next line of the invite followed with “Midnight Club Series dev team” and “Unity Engine.” I was back on board!

 

 

Jay Panek, the Jagex US Studio Director, opened up the session mirroring my exact thoughts on the subject. “Triple A gaming isn’t often associated with Facebook gaming and we are determined to change that. We wanted to take all our experience from the Midnight Club series and apply the same quality and gameplay benchmarks in a Facebook environment. The result is Carnage Racing, a massively addictive racing game where the main aim is not only the beat your friends to the finish line, but also the see how many of them you can blow up along the way!”

 

 

So how is this done? First off the Unity Engine isn’t your grandma’s browser engine. We’re talking the same technology behind such unbelievable upcoming browser titles as the territory war pvp title, Game of Thrones, and persistent pirate fighter, Kartuga. This means that you will be actively facing up to 7 of your friends or equally skilled and leveled auto queue rivals in a real time race to the death. Sound pretty intense for Facebook yet? They at least provide a serene environment to help you relax in between missile explosions.

 

 

The entire game takes place on a tropical island paradise, with tracks broken up via warp portals to make each race unique despite the locations being roughly the same. Of course it’s a pretty big island with scenic beach fronts, jungle, and an active volcano as you will find out on one track that circles the entire perimeter, resulting in an average 5-6 minute race. Though that might be a bit long for casual gamers trying to sneak some quick action in between glares from their boss so 13 total tracks are available ranging from a minute and a half to the massive race I mentioned prior. Those playing at home seeking more enduring races can find just that in the multilap races.

 

 

Customization is always a selling point in any racing title and Jagex knew well enough to not only offer the typical car performance upgrades (50 in total) and visual customization among 5 base vehicle options, but also weapon upgrades in the form of rpg style skill trees. Jagex races play out similar to the Mario Kart series with blue orbs scattered around the track providing extra firepower to decimate your enemies. As you race you’ll be able to specialize your weaponry to meet your style between 5 different weapons and 47 total upgrade options.

 

 

So on to the most important question, how does it handle? Carnage Racing is far more forgiving than most driving games I’ve played both on console and PC. The game is designed around the philosophy that skill should give you an advantage but everyone should be able to compete and the first step towards reaching this is offering extremely easy to pick up controls. You steer with A and D, go forward with W, and reorient yourself after being blown to bits with S as reverse. F handles all your weapon activation needs and space bar… well space bar is a world unto its own.

 

 

See when you fly off the edge of a jump and press buttons like mad to perform spins and flips, or when you blow someone up with missiles or leave a fire trail that burns up your rival’s tires, you gain booster points. Throughout the track are a series of blue spiral stones that at first glance you might mistake for arrows pointing the way to the finish line. Not the case. These are warp portals you can activate by pressing space bar to use up your warp power, rocketing you into short cuts and ahead of the competition, while also offering an excellent escape route from impending attacks. Every time you take damage your boost meter will decrease and you can only hold 3 charges at a time so there’s plenty of tactics as to when and why you use them. One particularly hilarious use is to time an opponent using the weapon that warps them to you, and then swerve into a warp stone to watch their car smash against the rock you just drove through.

 

 

But being a Facebook game Jagex thought ahead and included time trial modes and time trial challenges for those with different time zones and schedules that still want to compete with each other. Each track has a bronze, silver, and gold time for you to challenge to try to improve your skills. Once you’re practiced up you can send out a 24 hour invitational to all your friends. Then each of your friends can accept and try to turn in their best time on the track while racing your ghost. I’ll admit it’s not as exciting as the missile filled mayhem of the live mode but it really costs the game nothing to include this, so props to them for going the extra mile.

 

 

Carnage Racing really is the beginning of a new world of browser games that are going to blur the realm between client-based titles and instant play titles. As Jay said during the meeting, (paraprahsed) “The stigma of Facebook games is really starting to fade away. It’s merely a social medium capable of hosting anything you can do in a browser game so why not partner with it to create an easier matchmaking experience for our players?“ The devs did a fantastic job with the artificial rubberbanding via portals and items to ensure that everyone stays in the race within around a 20 second stretch of each other, even on the longer tracks. Out of the 8 races we played I only saw around 3 DNF (did not finish) which occurs if first finishes around 25 seconds before the player does so that gives you an idea of how close and competitive each race can be. I recommend any racing fan to take a few minutes today to slack on their job and get into the driver’s seat of Carnage Racing. My office’s Firewall doesn’t block browser games so I certainly will be doing the same!