I'm a gamer

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We've been looking at creating a tournament for quite sometime and we've been wanting to do it in conjunction with the launch of our new site and domain. However certain delay's have arisen and forced us to come out with something sooner. When it comes to deciding tournaments you need to create something that you're almost sure everyone's going to participate in. so we had a vote as at the time of posting we had a couple of options:

• Call of Duty 4
• Gears of War
• Halo 3

Of course the victor by a mile was Call of Duty 4, I have to say that I think we almost missed the expiry date on the game though as it seemed to have died down before we managed to get to our registration opening, but more on that later. When it comes to creating tournaments the most difficult part is creating the rules. You have to come up with rules that will be accepted by everyone, and even then there will always be complaints. I've been fortunate enough to have met many people involved with LAN's etc. and it was at a Mayhem LAN that I met TheBanMan and his crew.

TheBanMan runs a community called TheLair, their speciality is Offline/Online Leagues, mainly based on PC, they've been looking for the opportunity to bring Professional tournaments to Console. They've previously been known to run many prestigious events for companies like Arena77. It was as if it was a calling for a new relationship to form and bring professional gaming to the XBOX360 console.

TheLair took care of all the nitty gritty, the rules, the schedules, the registrations, we merely gave them the tools. It was a tough couple of weeks finalising certain criteria which we haven't gotten 100% correct but we had to play it out to find out first. We only gave 2 weeks worth of registration time, for the tournament which was probably bad timing as it was put straight over the Easter Weekend. I think we missed a lot of clans and is one of the reasons why we only had 6 teams enter.

Registrations were interesting as we had rules up but because of our "unique" situation here in SA we had to be accommodating, we introduced a minimum broadband requirement which was then reduced to iBurst (After testing) and then we had minors keen to enter so we introduced parental consent. A couple of rules where challenged and changed, all was very acceptable as we're making a tournament for the gamers. We were however adamant to stay with certain rules as we believe tournaments are based on skill and not splash damage.

Starting the tournament was strange, as I was in my own clan competing (Panda's of LAWN). I've played Call of Duty 4 Countless times, and yet stepping into the lobby you feel that rouse of competition, that "first day of school" feeling... well let me tell you it should've been cause we got OWNED! but although we were beat and somewhat de-motivated it was experience that counted and I knew we weren't out of it yet.

And this is where I really liked how the tournament was structured with two different pools the winners pool and then there's the losers pool (or the nothing to lose pool) so even if you loose in the first round you can still make a come back. I think we'll play differently on our next round but it should make for some interesting gaming!

anyway's it seems that most of the teams have played through in the Winners pool Smokin' Aces have made it through to the finals and now we're in wait for the losers pool to select their champion. to determine the COD4 Champs!

TheBanMan500 who is the tournament administrator and referee for the game had this to say:

The COD4 tournament thus far has been an interesting display of strategies and tactics. From the word go the tournament was far paced with all teams giving away kills rather carelessly.

We are now in the middle of this tournament and we are starting to see teams slow it down and play more tactical.

As an admin I have noticed a few tactics that have seriously impressed me. It has been interesting to see teams work together and even more interesting to see teams that do not. 

I really appreciate the level of respect that has been show by the different teams. Thank you for taking yourselves, the games and the other teams seriously.

I look forward to the next tournament and hope to see an improved level ok skill as we move forward.

All of the best guys

            - thebanman

So with that guys it's back to the battlefield tonight we find out who will be the first to leave the Tournament and who will prevail and move forward.

for more info goto: http://www.thexboxlounge.co.za/RegisterCOD4/

I don't know if it's just me maybe I'm getting old and grumpy? but there are some gamers out there who really know how to rub me up the wrong way, not necessarily by doing anything to me but, just the way they act on live. For instance I joined a game last night of Gears of War enter a new gamertag I've never seen before I greeted him and we briefly chatted, he seemed like a nice guy I knew most of the others so I assumed it would be a good match. boy was I wrong. Now every super hero has a theme song... let me repeat that EVERY S-U-P-E-R H-E-R-O, and behind every superhero theme song is an orchestra probably from the Lucas Arts Studio's.

So when one of these kids (I say kids because I imagine the days of children wearing superman outfits) decides that he's superman, and starts his theme song before he takes of into battle I feel like telling him "There's a reason for the age restriction on the box, now go and tell your mommy you've been a bad boy and to take Gears of War and trade it in for Viva Pinata". I don't see the reason to sing and if you do feel like singing in please mute your mic!

but that's just one type of kid, the others are the ones that have been bullied all their life and have stayed indoors for far too long playing Gears of War/COD4 and get really good I have no problem telling a guy that he's an awesome player, I give tons or respect to those of you who pwn me left right and centre with no problems. but when you turn around and mock me or anyone for that matter about how you "owned my ass", or how much "I suck at a game", trust me friend you're not welcome in any match of mine. I've muted a few people and removed them from my friends list, because of this. I still for the life of me can't understand why you do it all it's doing is causing gamers in SA (which is limited) to not want to play with you. Catch a Wake up KID! people don't like you!

Regardless of what I've just said we started a new game, and I had the most enjoyable game I've had in a while! It was good to get into a game without worrying about politics and people hating each other, Other than the guy who just headshoted me from god only know's where! but yeah I hope I get more matches like that one it reminds me of the good ol days... maybe I am getting old...???

There have been many rumours about central park, that many seem to want to ignore. but what if they're true? what if there's something out there? lurking in the darkness of night. Megarom Interactive has been contracted to dig deeper into these occurrences and we hope that you reading this will help us find out more

to find out more visit: www.centraldark.com and join the investigation as we dig deeper to find the truth.

Well it seems our current ISP, is having a bad year, and have decided to bill us a ridiculous amount of cash. for Bandwidth used... which is nice to know that people are using our site we're just a little disappointed that our ISP doesn't handle their clients quite as nicely.

So we will be moving the site probably this evening so if you get redirected when getting onto our site fear not we shall be back with a better ISP :) ... hopefully

until then keep gaming!

If you've ever had worse luck than I sympathise with you! here's how mine went!

My luck ran our sadly on the day I left work last year! I got home plugged in my xbox, bought an extra gig of cap, cause I was going to sit and play COD4 all day and night, turn on my box only to find that my profile won't log into live?? so I fiddle and fiddle and figure that I've forgotten to change the accounts over for the extra gig I just bought, fine done!

back to step one turn on XBOX! ready for COD4 .... signing in..... still signing in.... 2min later the blade (that I presume says could not connect) now says "Your account has been suspended due to a failure in billing" what this means of course is that MS have sent me a mail to a mail box I don't read anymore, what it normally states is that your account is due to expire if you wish to continue with the service we will bill your credit card, should you wish to cancel your service please reply to this e-mail.

Of course I didn't get the chance to read the e-mail so they went ahead and billed the credit card, which of course has expired! so after attempting numerous amounts of times to try and get my live account cancelled I could not, MS seem to be stubborn about this kind of thing! it's NO! we don't want you to cancel, we want to charge your credit card this one! no unfortunately for me I cannot get hold of MS (overseas) to cancel my account but fortunately for me one of my live buddies was able to help!

In the end he managed to resolve the situation with much debate over the phone (as he was pretending to be me!) we managed to get the account changed/cancelled and moved onto a prepaid voucher. in this matter I'm not committing "Fraud".

I bet you thought this is where the story ends? after thankfully getting put back onto live! and coming home at 2 in the morning after a good time with my mates I decided to get in some long awaited COD4 Action (this is now Jan, a month after) YAY! I get into a match! I celebrate by being completely slaughter by everyone! :( wow I'm out of practice! anyway's we continue, and everyone' now tired not me I just got back onto live! so I pipe up, let's play Gears of War! yeah why not I hear!

So I plug it in and there's an update! well that's no problem I can update my games again now cause I'm back online! update done setup the match get into the lobby the machine freezes!.... wha? dammit, restart... R.O.D  0_0  no... not the R.O.D! nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! now to understand my despair you must understand that my machine is the a pre-launch (in SA machine) so it's one of the longest standing XBOX's in the country, my trooper has thrown in the towel and give up the ghost! :( so no gears for me ... so I sleep.

Next morning I make a plan, fortunately I have Xbox's at the office :) so I pick up one of the core units and plug in! wooo hooo! plug in Naruto to collect on the exclusive content, and play a match with a mate... I get the update required! no problem! ..60% ... 75% .... 80% (wow the updates' are cruising!) 98% ... *woosh* blade comes in "Cannot complete download" huh? try again and again something happened to me in the market place as well 99% = can't complete download.... What's going on!!!! and apparantly MS Live was having another bad day.... which added to my bad month :(

and that's my story I have a temporary console for now going to get my new console soon. but at least I'm online again and working :)

on a side note I'd hate any of you to get caught out on this billing act. so go to www.billing.microsoft.com if you are on a Credit Card get off of it. cause they're clamping down big time on this. get yourself a pre-paid card you can get them from www.take2.co.za or www.gamepointsnow.com

Fourways, South Africa— 2^nd January 2008 — Megarom Interactive (Pty) Ltd. , one of South Africa’s leading interactive video game importers and distributors, today announced that Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced the first details for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Vegas 2, currently in production for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows. Scheduled for a March 2008 release and developed by Ubisoft’s award-winning Montreal studio, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the sixth iteration of the multimillion-selling Rainbow Six tactical shooter franchise and follow-up to the highly successful and award-winning Rainbow Six Vegas.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the last chance for gamers to rescue America’s sexiest city from an escalating terrorist siege that will impose heart-pounding action from beginning to end.  The best are back and this time winner takes all. The highly-anticipated sequel to the recipient of numerous awards, including 2006’s Best First Person Shooter and Best Online Game, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will push the top-selling franchise to new heights with new gameplay features and groundbreaking co-op and multiplayer modes.

Product Highlights:

• More Multiplayer – The highly acclaimed multiplayer mode in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas has been upgraded to include 13 new maps with more intense face-offs, two new adversarial modes, more rewards, and easier access to matches using the improved and intuitive matchmaking system.

• Unprecedented Customizable Experience – Create your own identity that persists through both the single player and multiplayer modes and progresses along with you.  Reap the benefits of your single player rewards in multiplayer and vice versa. 

• Vastly Improved Co-op Mode – Turn single player mode into co-op mode at any time, just by jumping into the game. Now you and a friend can jump into a single player game and assist without any change to the story. The single player maps and storyline were created with co-op in mind, meaning every map has multiple entry points and the story is unaffected.

• Challenging  AI – The AI is more challenging than ever. Now, the terrorists are equipped with thermal vision, night vision, and shields – not to mention a multitude of varying tactics – all of which are guaranteed to give you a new playing experience every time you go into battle.  As you progress within the game, you’ll be able to outsmart your enemies by taking advantage of intelligence opportunities, such as thermal scanning.

• New Weapons and Armor – Take down the terrorists more effectively using 11 new weapons.  New camouflage, clothing and gear allow for the ultimate customizations.

· More Vegas – Sin City is back and bigger than before. Explore all new Vegas hot spots and the gritty back streets creating a visual experience that is as challenging as it is breathtaking.