http://www.vip-gaming.net Latest news from http://www.vip-gaming.net uk-uk Thu, 10 Jan 2013 05:50:38 +0100 Written by Boserup 

Hey guys,

As some of you already know, I work for 2Dawn Games as Community Manager. We released the game Ravaged in October with limited success. The limited success was caused by a lot of things like, no marketing resources and not enough game content at the prize of $24,99. So we added more content and will add a lot more for free in January, and we also reduced the prize permanently to $9.99.

Ravaged is a vehicular FPS set in a post apocalyptic world. The game has small, medium and large maps(9 maps in total). Ravaged has 2 game modes, Capture the Resources (Unreal type of capture the flag) and Thrust (a conquest type on mode with frontline system). The game focus a lot on teamwork and squad play as well as tactics. The game is very similar to Battlefield 2 and Team Fortress with fast heavily armed cars, tanks, ATV's and Helicopters.

As many of you know, I am and will always be a competitive player. So I have fought hard to get eSport features implemented in the game. At this point we got a solid working Spectator mode(free cam+3P cam) however the first person spectator still needs some work. But at this point its better than it was in Battlefield 2. Also the devs are working on the demo recorder.

We have been doing tons of community events and 8v8 matches that was live-streamed and commentated by the Legendary Stoner from RushTV and TotalBiscuit.

The lack of marketing resources are our biggest challenge. Our game is simply not reaching the majority like BF and CoD titles. Therefor I would like you guys to come support the kind of development I know you have been wanting since battlefield 2 died out and got replace by the money machine BF3.

The Ravaged Free Weekend starts today at 19:00cet and will end sunday at 19:00cet. The game will be sold on Steam and 2dawn.com with a 66% discount.

Saturday at 19:00cet The Apocalyptic Free Weekend will start. The event is basically an community 8v8 tournament. Only difference is that you will be randomized into a new team with new players after each match. If you win a match, then you will win 1 point at the time. The event will end Sunday around 22:00cet. But before that, the most winning 8 players in Europe will play the 8 most winning players from America. The match will be live-streamed and commentated by RushTV Stoner on 2DawnTV. During the event you must be on teamspeak3, so its easier to communicate with your teammates rather than using the ingame squad VOIP.

If you like, we could also set up a 8vs8 match without the community.


For more information on the Apocalyptic Free Weekend event and the event schedule, check out this link:
http://www.2dawn.com/i...lyptic-free-weekend-event

Teamspeak3 ip:
ts.2dawn.com

2Dawn TV:
http://www.twitch.tv/2dawngames


I hope I will see you all there!

- Boserup

]]> blandreasen@hotmail.com (Brian Lund)
The days one matches was against the Polish team, Positive (PST) and our own VIP-Gaming Alpha(Alpha). The match against the polish was played on Seine Crossing. It was also a welcome back to XeoStyle, who had been absent because of work for some weeks. Ultra won the 1st round with 121-0 and 2nd round with 94-0. So a total victory of 215-0 was acceptable.

The 2nd match of matchday 1 was against our own Alpha team. The Alpha team is undergoing a huge devolopment and are getting better and better. Ultra did however start well in both rounds on Damavand Peak and won 1st round with 152-0 and 2nd round with 146-0 meaning a total win of 298-0 for Ultra.

The quaterfinal match was set to be against Team Printspeed (PSD) from Germany. The match was played on the 2nd matchday. The map was this time Operation Metro. Ultra started out as USMC and had a expected back start due to the balance of the map. Ultra had to use a couple of attempts to get through and get the B flag. However after getting the B flag it was a one way street. Ultra won the 1st round with 251-0. 2nd round as Russian went as expected. Ultra got the B flag first and pushed PSD down to their last flag and shortly after, all the way down to their Main Spawn. Ultra won the 2nd round with 279-0. So a big win of total 530-0. Default ticket are 350 for each team on both rounds.

The semifinal match was against Team Firestar.Deadbeat from Sweden on Teheran Highway. With a relatively easy 1st round with heavy hit detection problems for both sides, the round was won by Ultra with 141-0. The 2nd round was a bit more hard for Ultra. This time we had to fight a lot harder to get a stable bleed on the Swedes. After achieving this, Ultra managed to keep the Swedish locked down to 1 flag and in the end to their Main Spawn. Ultra won 2nd round with 133-0 and the match with total 274-0.

The Final was against the same team from ESL 5on5 Infantry Cup #1, the German team AeQuus. This time the match was to be played on Grand Bazaar.



1st round:
Ultra started out as the Russians and manage to get both C and B. The B flag was however lost again in a split second and was now under heavy lockdown at C flag. Ultra tried several times to get past the heavy German defensive both without luck. it took 4-5 minutes before Ultra finally made it through and got B flag back. Now it was the Germans time to feel the Ultra lockdown. AeQuus managed to get the B flags a couple of times only to lose it fast again and this time to be locked down to their Main Spawn a couple of time. So after a very bad start from Ultra and against a really strong playing German team, Ultra managed to win the 1st round on Grand Bazaar with just 58-0. The round duration was 20 minutes.

2nd Round:
Ultra now had the upper hand both in ticket lead and motivation. The great comeback from 2nd round had a huge impact on the Ultra players and it lead to a great start on 2nd round getting A and B flag in the first attack. The Germans now really got a feeling of being locked down by Ultra, who kept on annoying AeQuus at their last flag, so that they really never got the chance to mount a serious attack. Ultra won the 2nd round after just 13.30 minutes with 217-0. The final result was 275-0 Ultra.

Their has not been set any new date for the next Infantry Cup, but we are looking forward to join the next one as well as looking for Cups hosted by others than ESL.
]]> sjanten22@hotmail.com (Carsten Boserup)
Ultra played a total of 5 matches:

1st match was against the German team beQuiet on Damavand Peak. Sadly the Germans had connection problems and they were force to play 2ith only 4 players. The match was quickly done and Ultra won with 465.0

2nd match was against Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Finland on Grand Bazaar. It didn't take long before VIP had the Finnish team down to their main in both round. VIP won in total with 392-0

3rd match was against the Greek team, Hellenic Elite Armed Team (HEAT)On Operation Metro. As many might know, metro has 350 tickets as standard. This meant that the match was taking a very long time. Ultra had some problems in the beginning as USMC and HEAT managed to bleed Ultra down a lot. Ultra did however manage to get the B flag on Metro and dominated to the end and won with 197-0. 2nd round as Russians where more or less a walkover. Ultra got A and B flag fast and pushed HEAT all the way down to last flag and shortly after, down to their main. Ultra won big time with 334-0. Ultra won in total 531-0.

4th match and semifinal was against the Danish team ireplica. ireplica is one of the best and most active teams in the Danish community and Ultra was in for a hell of a fight. The map was Teheran Highway. Ultra started out as Russians and managed to quickly get 2 flags and get a solid bleed on ireplica. After some hard fights ireplica managed to get back into the fight and had for some time bleed on Ultra. Ultra did however manage to get both A and C flag and by then get the bleed back on ireplica and won 1st round comfortably with 91-0.

2nd round is was supposed to be uphill for ireplica. But instead they had a good start and bled Ultra down for a long time. Ultra never really got a good grip in the 2nd round and due to strong teamplay from ireplica, Ultra lost the 2nd round with 0-33. Ultra did however win with a total 91-33 and won the 1st spot in the final.


The final was against yet another German team, AeQuus. AeQuus roster a couple of Battlefield experienced players, LordOfTheGames and KONgiii. Both players have showed great skill in earlier Battlefield games.

1st round Ultra started out as Russians. Ultra had a very good start and managed to get 3 flags very fast and Seine Crossing. AeQuus was never allowed to get back into the match even though they showed great skills and fragpower, Ultra managed to bleed them down to 169-0.

2nd round was a lot more intense and equal. Ultra had a lot of problem getting a foothold and bleed on AeQuus. This resulted in a small win after 37 minutes of playing in a small win for Ultra with just 39 tickets. In total VIP Ultra won the final against AeQuus with total 208-0.

VIP Ultra will be joining the next ESL 5on5 Infantry cup Wednesday 7th December and depending on how far Ultra reaches, the cup will continue on Thursday 8th December.
]]> sjanten22@hotmail.com (Carsten Boserup)
We started out playing against the Dutch team Vital Gaming on Teheran Highway. Without any problems Ultra managed to get 2 flags and hold Vital Gaming off without many problem. With good organisation and teamplay we defeated them by 403-0.

In the 2nd match we had the British team Absent With Leave (AWOL) on Seine Crossing. Again we sat on the majority of the flags and managed to bleed AWOL down to zero is short time. It repeated it self pretty much for 2nd round and we won with 402-0.

The Final was yet again versus a British team called Elite Armed Force (EAF) on Grand Bazaar. We had pretty good starts in both rounds and ended up controlling the match completely from 1st second and won 432-0.

In overall it was good practice for us and loo forward to participate in the next BF3L Cup.]]> sjanten22@hotmail.com (Carsten Boserup)
Before the cup started there was a lot of discussions about the rules. Some wanted to allow all perks and weapons and some wanted it limited. Maps were also a topic. Some maps where simply better to play in 64 size than 32. ESL decided, besides the majority of the community wish not to allow the well known Flashlight ( SUN ), lasersight and IRNV ( BF3 build in hack )to allow all.

VIP Ultra won by forfeit the 1st round and had then Vital Gaming coming up next. Vital Gaming who we know from the good old Battlefield 2 days. Sadly Ultra had to wait for an opponent who didnt show up and VIP Ultra yet again won by forfeit.

3rd round Ultra had to play the polish team Clan Poland. BF3 ( CPL ) on Damavand Peak(64). Without any practice at all on that map, Ultra however took control from first second and didnt give CPL much breathing room and defeated them by 305-0 total.

4ht round was against the Swedish team TOP Nordic Battlegroup on Seine Crossing. Seine Crossing is very infantry based but still we manage to make lots of mistakes in the first round and were fighting up hill the most of the time. We lost the first round by a few tickets. In the second round we had to do better and we did. Still TOP fought back and didn't make it easy for us. We did end up winning second round comfortably and by then win the match.

5th round met the Russian from n!Core bf3. n!Core is a team we know from Bad Company 2. This was our first conquest match against them however. The map was Operation Firestorm. Another map that Ultra had played before. We started out really bad. We lost the Air, but did well on the ground. We did however end up losing first round with 0-49. The second round did go a lot better. After learning a lot from first round, Ultra came back in style and manage to win with 52-0. This meant that Ultra won with just 3 tickets against a very strong n!Core team.

6th round ( Quarter Final ) was against the Russian team BFCQ or formerly knowned as Team Empire. We played on Noshahar Canals and started out as defence. Its was very clear that our lineup wasnt the strongest and we ended up losing by just 0-1. Second round we had to attack as the USMC. This was up hill from 1st minute. BFCQ Played very well and more less managed to keep us down to 1 or no flag at all. VIP Ultra ended up losing 0-164. So in total we lost 0-165 against probably one of the best teams in Battlefield 3 8on8.

In general our permanences were acceptable. We didn't have our main lineup available all the time which clearly was showed in the results. But we learned a lot and know its just up to us, to use the experience for next time.

]]> sjanten22@hotmail.com (Carsten Boserup)
Battlefield 3 is shipping without a Battlerecorder. The battle recording or 1st person demo recording is the frontline of catching cheaters. All known anti cheat applications like Punkbuster, ESL wire, VAC and lots more are simply failing in catching "Professional" cheaters.

For competitive gaming having a working anticheat application is just as important as having teams playing in the cups and leagues. As long as the matches are being played online there is no way of catching the professional cheaters in competitive gaming with the current anti cheat applications available. As Battlefield 3 doesn't provide ANY proper anticheat app( battlerecorder or 1st person spectator) then the competitive community have to take the responsibility and do something about it.

What the competitive community can do is making 1st person recording mandatory! This means that all players must record in 1st person while they are playing a competitive match. There are several applications on the marked who can provide this without decreasing your PC performance( fps drops) drastically. Applications like Playclaw and MSI afterburner has proven that this is possible without affecting the player ingame in term of FPS drops.

If everyone who plays Battlefield 3 competitively would record in 1st person in all their matches then this would be a huge step toward having clean hacker free competitions. Showing this dedication and seriousness towards potential prize donators, shows that the community is to be taken serious and that it doesn't want cheaters running away with all the prizes.

Of course implementing this kinds of rule is not easy and no one have ever said it would be. There are a lot of obvious questions and challenges that have to be taken into account.
Here is a list of questions and challenges that have to be answered and dealt with as good and possible.

Some of the issues and possible solutions when recording in 1st person:

1. Low-end PC´s. Not all PC´s can handle a recording tool as well as the high-end PC´s. Low-end will have less frames per second meaning low performance and effect the player ingame.
Solution. Upgrade the PC hardware and change the recording tool settings. Reducing ingame graphic settings can help a lot, as well as reducing the resolution.

2. 1st person recording file size. Recording files tends to become large.
Solution. virtual dub is a great tool to compress files into smaller files. Virtual dub also have a great feature that allows you to select different codec's, so that you still can get great quality. It also have a feature that allows you to cut your recording into smaller pieces.

3. What about uploading the files. They will be huge. 1 round can be up to 5-7GB and it will take ages with 512 upload.
Solution. There are lots of file sharing sites out there like, Rapidshare, Media fire and a lot more. Some are free to use.

So to prevent cheating in Battlefield 3 and to remove whatever suspicion towards players from VIP-Gaming who are participating in big cups or leagues with prizes, then we have decided that ALL VIP-Gaming players must 1st person record and share the recordings if asked to from other teamleaders. To prevent too much upload time any teamleader with a reasonable suspicion can ask for specific parts of a match ex. 1 round, between 03:00 and 04:00 from player Boserage. Then Boserage will compress the file and deliver a recording in good quality for the teamleaders for review.

This means that VIP-Gaming will be the front figure in this crucial matter. VIP-Gaming will do whatever we can to prevent cheating outside and inside VIP-Gaming. VIP-Gaming will not sit on their hands witnessing competitive Battlefield 3 gaming being ruined from day one by hackers and cup and league administrators not caring and who have to will to make Battlefield 3 clean in the competitive scene! We hope that other teams will follow our example and join us in combating hackers and ineffective cup and league administrator. VIP-Gaming will invite all interested teamleader for a meeting on this matter very soon, to get a mature debate and come up with solutions on the matter.

Contacts:
Boserup
steam: sjanten22
xfire:Boserup

Lund:
steam blandreasen@hotmail.com
xfire: viplunddk
]]> sjanten22@hotmail.com (Carsten Boserup)
HomeFront has a huge potential as a competitive game, but it do need some patches and new features to help run a match. The developers has showed great dedication and interest towards the competitive community, last in the podcast and showmatch hosted by Rush-Zone. The developers have added features, addressed issues and fixed bugs and are continuing it as long as it take.

Sadly not enough teams have signed up for the Cup and we there have to cancel it. VIP Gaming are however not giving up on Homefront and will continue playing it and hopefully host a HomeFront cup in near future.]]> sjanten22@hotmail.com (Carsten Boserup)