July 22nd, 2008 by CEVO|Bass
CEVO’s Playoff Interview Series is a short question and answer session with each of the Counter-Strike Source Professional playoff teams. Bobby “Weenus” Hicks had a chance to ask a few questions of team x3o
Who are you looking forward to facing in the Playoffs?
We are really looking forward to playing Dallas Venom. They have a great lineup this year, and have shown that they are a top CSS team in the world by winning the CGS Individual CSS Championship.
How did your team manage to bump back after losing four straight matches earlier in the season?
During this past season, the composition of Team x3o changed tremendously. After losing cbz, da bears, and sunman, we didn’t rush into picking up the first available players. Finally getting our roster set with Chris, we started to get our momentum back. As with a new lineup, it took us some time to fill out the rolls of the players, however in the end we found our rhythm. We are really looking forward to showing the world what we are made of next weekend.
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July 22nd, 2008 by CEVO|Bass
CEVO’s Playoff Interview Series is a short question and answer session with each of the Counter-Strike Source Professional playoff teams. Bobby “Weenus” Hicks had a chance to ask a few questions of Dallas Venom
How much have you been able to focus on the CEVO play with you making it to the CGS World Final?
Preparing for the world final has taken up the majority of our time. However, practicing on LAN for the world finals, and the regular season for that matter, has been paramount to the cs teams success. The LAN environment has allowed us to increase communication, while playing the same teams has forces us to diversify our strategies, both of which will help us in the Cevo playoffs.
Your results took a significant dive in the later portion of the season, what changed?
For the first portion of the season, the guys were able to play from their own home on fast Internet connections. Once they got to the apartments, the Internet was much slower. It was significantly faster from last season and was great for our website needs, however they received heavy amounts of loss while playing online. I don’t think those later online results will be reflected in our playoff performance.
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Baltimore, Maryland - June 29, 2008 – CEVO, LLC is pleased to announce the dates for the Counter-Strike Source Professional playoffs. The playoffs will take place from Saturday, July 26th through Sunday, July 27th. The entire weekend will be jam packed with some of the world’s best teams going head to head for a total prize purse of $10,000. You can follow all of the action via the CEVO website and with our coverage partners QuadV and GotFrag. QuadV will be providing the LIVE streaming coverage for the two day event with expert in depth commentary from Corey Dunn and Griffin “Shaguar” Bengar.
To celebrate this weekend and our event sponsors AMD / ATI and SAPPHIRE Technologies, CEVO will be running several promotions where we will be giving away SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD 3870 High Definition Graphics Cards.
Unshackle your PC’s performance and save the coin in your pocket and WIN a SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD 3870 and liberate your inner gamer without compromising your wallet. The SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD 3870 extinguishes all doubt that the Radeon HD 3870 core is a mid-range performing product. With features such as: DirectX® 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support, integrated HDMI and HDCP support for Blu-ray™/HD DVD decoding and for the extreme enthusiast, CrossFire X™ support, the SAPPHIRE incarnation of the HD 3870 will own your imagination and accelerate your performance on the virtual battlefield of your desktop! Reinvent the way you engage your gaming experience with every LOAD!
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July 10th, 2008 by Graham Clay
Overview:
The Spy is a sneaky character, capable of disguising as an enemy and cloaking to get behind enemy lines. He wields three weapons: the Revolver, the Electro Sapper, and the Butterfly Knife. Each of these weapons is unique to the Spy and extremely powerful.
Weapons:
Revolver – The Spy’s primary weapon is a six shot Revolver that deals 20-60 damage, depending on range. A critical hit always deals 120 damage, regardless of range. This weapon is very valuable for finishing enemies and picking others off at long ranges due to its accuracy.
Electro Sapper – The Spy’s secondary weapon is the Electro Sapper which is used to destroy an Engineer’s buildings. Usable only at close range, the Sapper disables the building and destroys it in 7 seconds (8 if it’s a level 2 Sentry Gun and 10 if it’s a level 3 Sentry Gun). A common strategy is to sap a Sentry Gun and then stab the Engineer as he works to repair it (it takes 2 wrench swings to remove a Sapper).
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July 1st, 2008 by CEVO|Ping
CEVO sponsor OCZ Technology recently announced a partnership with Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel to produce Fatal1ty Brand high-performance gaming products. According to the press release on their website, OCZ will collaborate with Fatal1ty to produce “high performance memory and power supplies which will be specifically engineered to meet the unique needs and requirements of gamers.”
The move brings Wendel one step closer to having an entire Fatal1ty Brand PC solution. His product line already includes motherboards, sound cards, video cards, mice, mousepads, a headset, and even a keyboard. With the addition of OCZ RAM and power supplies, an entire Fatal1ity gaming beast may not be far off.
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June 16th, 2008 by Graham Clay
Overview:
The Engineer is a powerful defensive class in Team Fortress 2, a relatively stationary cornerstone to any team’s defense. He is capable of building sentry guns, dispensers, and teleporters and wields three weapons: the shotgun, the pistol, and the wrench.
Weapons:
Shotgun – The Engineer’s primary weapon is the shotgun, a weapon shared by many other classes in Team Fortress Two. This shotgun is useful for close range combat (do to it’s ‘shot ammo’) and can crit for a large amount of damage (180). When fighting alongside a turret, the Engineer’s shotgun is extremely powerful but can only be fired 6 times before reloading.
Pistol – The Engineer’s secondary weapon is the pistol, a weapon of the rapid-firing variety. It has 12 rounds to be used prior to reloading and 200 rounds total. This is similar to the Scout’s pistol except that it has many more total rounds than the Scout’s.
Wrench – The Engineer’s melee weapon is a wrench and is, without a doubt, the most dynamic melee weapon in the game. On top of its Spy-crushing capabilities, it speeds the building of all of the Engineer’s contraptions and also allows the Engineer to repair these contraptions. Many Engineers do not use the other two weapons and instead prefer to simply ‘wack’ their machines.
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April 7th, 2008 by Graham Clay
Overview:
The Demoman is a powerful member of any Team Fortress Two team. Capable of killing any class with potent explosives, he is a force to be reckoned with.
Weapons:
Grenade Launcher – The Demoman’s primary weapon is a grenade launcher that fires bouncing pipe bombs (four before reloading). These pipe bombs explode upon impacting an enemy or blow up after a certain amount of seconds on the ground. The key to this weapon is getting used to the ‘arc’ of fire. Once you learn how to judge where the enemy is going, you can begin pre-firing and hitting them on the run. Although this strategy works for some of us who can judge arcs and distances well, fighting scouts is another story. Since scouts move so quickly, it is hard to nail them in flight unless they are moving in a straight line. Because of this, proper use of the Sticky Bomb Launcher can handle even the most agile scout…
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April 5th, 2008 by Graham Clay
Overview:
The Scout is a quick and agile class that is useful for aggressive attacks and eliminating choice targets. Two good Scouts in a 6v6 match are a powerful combination…if they work together.
Weapons:
Scattergun – The Scattergun is the Scout’s shotgun that has six ammo rounds available prior to reloading. This shotgun is powerful against enemies that are close to the Scout; the Pistol is more accurate at longer ranges. Because of this, use your shotgun when you are close to an enemy. Use surprise and speed to close the distance between you and your opponent as rapidly as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
March 11th, 2008 by Ted Ottey
Out of all the maps in CoD4, mp_pipeline is probably both the most loved and most hated map. Some teams seem to excel far beyond their expectations while others simply fall apart on this one sided map. The debate whether Pipeline should even remain a competitive map goes back and forth, but with a limited supply of competitive stock maps available, it’s pretty much safe to say Pipeline will be sticking around for a little longer. With that in mind, we’ve come up with five simple tips to help your team succeed on Pipeline.
Utilize Grenades
Too many teams do not use their grenades to their full potential on Pipeline, especially on offensive, which is tough enough already. If everyone on your team does not use their secondary grenade (smoke or stun) on the offensive side of Pipeline there is a serious problem with your strats. More often than not, you’re going to want everyone to take smoke grenades on offense to allow you to actually move around the map at the start of the round without getting picked apart from multiple directions. This is absolutely essentially if your opponent is able to make the back B hanger building jump at the start of the round, otherwise your just letting him pick you off one by one down the street. These cover smoke grenades are usually best thrown by players with Spec Ops because they are often the first to die rushing into a bombsite. Some teams like to have their Spec Ops use flash grenades to take bombsites. While this can work, Pipeline is a very open map and unless you know exactly where your opponents are playing flash grenades can be ineffective at times.
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March 6th, 2008 by CEVO|Ping
Understanding game servers can be tricky business. With all the various settings, it’s hard to know which configuration will maximize your server registration and make for the best playing experience. Fortunately, the pros over at NuclearFallout (nfoservers.com) have been kind enough share some of their secrets on how to choose the right game server for you.
The Basics
To understand server settings, it’s important to understand how your computer interacts with the game server. As you play, your computer sends little bits of data, called “commands,” to the server. These commands tell the server where you are and what you are doing (i.e. shooting, ducking, jumping, etc.). The server accepts and processes these commands and sends more little bits of data, called “updates,” back to your computer.
There are several settings you can configure on your side to manage the sending and receiving of data, but that is for another guide. This guide focuses on settings specific to the game server itself.
There are two major factors that impact a server’s performance and registration:
- Frames, usually referred to as “FPS” (frames per second, not first-person shooter)
- Tickrate
FPS is a measurement of how often the server engine processes “network frames.” Network frames are simply incoming and outgoing network events – the packets of data coming from your PC (commands) and the packets of data being sent back (updates).
Tickrate, on the hand, refers to how often the game server engine recalculates the world. Every time a “tick” happens, the server runs all the necessary calculations to decide where people are located, where shots have landed, etc.
What the Numbers Mean
Most Game Server Providers (GSPs) offer varying levels of “server quality”, usually centered on the FPS statistic. 250, 500, 1000 FPS — what exactly does this mean? How does 1000 FPS translate to better registration?
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