UKTerrorist

Four-Kings Intel - Show Some Support!

Four-Kings Intel – Show Some Support!

Infinity-eSports, 2002: Edwards, Harriman, Wright, Lucking, Mangiacapra, Neffgen

The warmup was flickering before my eyes, the HLTV admin had neglected to turn off public talk, naturally we were doused with typical American machismo, and brags about the superiority of American sides on de_cpl_mill. I relaxed slightly, resting my back against the stylish, yet affordable, leather chair. It felt good, I had had my face far too close to the screen and my back was paying the price. The smell of coffee reminded me to consume its remainder before it went cold. My 3rd cup of coffee in as many hours, I was tired, jittery and nervous. Why nervous? I wasn't sure, but if they could push SK.Sca, a team boasting 3 former world champions, they certainly had a shot at a top 10 finish.

I wanted it for them so badly, my role in their success had been extremely limited, arranging a week long bootcamp at a gaming cafe in Slough, it was the team that had put in the effort. Yet I felt a part of it, we all did, the #infinity-esports channel, rapidly expanding pass the 600 guest mark. Everyone that followed the team it the 2002 Winter World Championships had had some sort of connection with one of the i-es members. Either they played against one of them on a public server once, or they spoke with them for a few minutes at a LAN event, spoke to one of them over irc or their brother's friend's girlfriend's dog walker once met one of their mothers...their was nearly always some sort of connection. More than that, these guys represented us, they were the finest achievements of what we could achieve.

All members had earned their spot in the team some way or another, Mangiacapra a life-long loyal member from the earliest B!tch days, Harriman a member of the Uninspired lineup that defeated 4K at Primary Strike 2002, Edwards a member of Nocturne 4k's biggest rivals, Wr!ght a member of -m4- who defeated the team at a CPL Holland qualifier, Luck1ng..a legend from the early days who'd lost little of his skill.

4K were undisputedly, undeniably number 1. Yes for a while there it was close, Nocturne had risen, and in the minds of many, stolen their crown for a couple of months, but it hadn't lasted. The team had been through a lot together, seen off the challenges of Nocturne and -CSA-, made HeatoN famous, dominated the UK scene for so long. This was the time to prove it to the world!

I alt-tabbed back to IRC, 823 people..bless them, 823 people who, probably like me, had made a considerable caffeine-aided effort to stay awake, stay up and watch the action unfold. A victory over RiotSquad, a thriller against SK.sca and now 8th seed Texas Area Untouchables on Mill. Sure they had been falsely seeded 22nd (despite a top 12 placing at the Winter event) but they knew they were so much better than that. The players began joining their pre-determined teams, 4K Counter-Terrorists, TAU terrorists...live on 3 restarts...restart...restart...restart....

When I think back upon my memories of 4K, all their encounters, all their games, the games I watched sitting behind them at LAN events, the games I watched over HLTV, the games I watched while they were playing on a stage at the World Cyber Games, no game ever matches the intensity, joy, and connection I felt as that TAU encounter. Win or lose, the outcome wouldn't have made a difference, it was a feeling of how much I cared, how much I wanted them to win and how much we all wanted them to win. 800+ people hardly stay awake for the majority of the night to see them lose. It was a buzz, and I haven't felt so connected to the UK CS community since, like supporting a football club, we were a community, a proper community.

Now hold your trigger-happy mouse-clickers, don't go wading over to that top-right 'x' just yet, this is not about to turn into a "UK CS scene is dieing" column or a "what needs to be done to imrpove the scene" post, because, spelling mistakes aside, we have had more than our fair share of them to make us feel gloomy. It is more of a post reflecting on what has happened for us to stop supporting 4K like we used to? Now whilst it could be something as simple as a reflection of a UK CS scene decline, or a general decline for CS in general there seem to be other factors involved.

I'm not quite sure when I realised that the support for 4K had diminshed, it feels to me, or perhaps it is just me, that people began to support 4K less when the aforementioned connection to the players vanished. 4K for a long time were an extremely stable lineup, any team that makes less than 3 team changes a year is fairly stable right? Yet when major money from Intel began rolling in, 4K had to respond by acquiring the best players that money could attract to remain at the top of their game. Edwards, Luck1ng and Kwak found themselves homeless (briefly) in favour for other names such as Xenon, Dark and ShaQ, players that we still accepted mainly because we knew them, but then the changes never stopped throughout 2003, as with each change their results got progressively worse. ShaQ left, m0rph joined, m0rph left. I believe the real turning point came when Wr!ght left, being one of the leaders of the team his departure meant that the team, for the first time in it's existence, was no longer a 'UK-side' by many people's beliefs.

Perhaps the bigger issue here wasn't that UK players were being replaced by foreign ones as 4K strived ever-greater for success, it was that the replacements were unknowns. They were no longer SK world champions like Xenon and Dark, they were SEL players, good SEL players, but nonetheless players that weren't familiar to us, for the first time, we did not actually know the line-up, the former players had their names splashed regularly across UKT headlines, these did not.

So a CPL later and 4K are no better off than they were with a UK side. Dropping from a 5th place at CPL Summer to 8th place at CPL Winter. Something had to change, and it did, Xenon vanished as did Dark, Hartman went for military service and Snajdan dropped off the radar too. New blood was required, so for the first time since the m0rph debacle, a UK player was recruited...Akujii, though sadly along with another rather unknown foreigner in Juven9le. But was it too late by now?

Last Year: Zommy, Dark, Harriman,Mangiacapra, Juve9le, Hartman

If 4K were going to once again recapture our interests and spirit in the way they used to they needed not only a stable line-up, a line-up which we could come to know and respect, but also just one or two big results. It wasn't happening, ESWC turned into a disaster, then further confusion over a c4u result and everything was still sliding downhill. Possibly the last chance to reignite our passion was the Summer 2004 CPL World Championships.

Sadly we rarely remember defeats, no matter how close, sure 11 - 13 against SK.sca and 17 - 19 sticks out in our minds, but sadly 7 - 13s against g3x and 15 - 19s at the hands of NoA did little to recapture the spirit, or form, of old. Four-Kings, after months locked away practicing in Swansea and vast amounts spent practicing in Brazil, achieved their worse result in 2 and a half years, 9th - 12th.

It (sadly) continued to get worse, Juven9le left, Dark vanished, Goodfella arrived and Snajdan rejoined. The team also embarked upon a 3-week practice session in Sweden, competing daily against the world's greatest top sides. Then mid-way through such practice disaster struck once again, Snajdan, supposedly upset with the attitude of other 4K members, departed the team. Red` another unknown Swede, talented..but unknown was brought in to replace him. How many of us sighed upon reading this news I wonder?

4K sunk to a new low during CPL Winter, indeed the results became so bad us at UKT couldn't even muster the effort to report the majority of them. Sadly to say they lost to Complexity Syndicate and Alt.Attax finishing in 13th - 16th position. Their worst ever performance at a CPL event in 4 years. Pre-CPL 4K had taken a rather acute bashing at the hands of Gotfrag’s Midway, many UKT readers took to the offensive responding, sometimes very intelligently, sometimes not so intelligently, to the article. The final thoughts on the matter were “wait and see”, we needed, for the first time in some time, for 4K not to let us down! Which sadly did not happen.

The World eSports Games are a perfect opportunity for a team such as 4K to prove themselves, or at least improve themselves. With Intel’s financial support and limited commitments on behalf of the members, 4K could match both the expenses and length-of-time involved. By now, most 4K news and results were met with apathy, we no longer cared. They lost to ABIT-Who? whatever…what’s on telly? They beat FLUX?..who are they?

Last Week: Harriman, Akujii, Goodfella,Mangiacapra, Red`

Then something bizarre and unexpected happened. They did what Tim Henman has been trying to accomplish at Wimbledon for the past 9 years. They exceeded our expectations. Possibly even our wildest expectations, they defeated the CPL World Champions Team NoA on map they proved under 6 weeks ago they play better than anyone in the world. The sad thing about this victory, is the small amount of fuss that was made over it. Few comments, few questions, few cares or concerns. Had 4K defeated the CPL World Champions 2 years ago we would have gone start struck crazy with joy. Now, nothing! a silent empty void filling the space where our support and passion or the UK’s greatest team used to be.

4K didn’t stop there, like a fire finally igniting inside them they progressed with a victory over MouseSports, then Maven, then the other night conquering ABIT-Strike to advance into the semi-finals. Yet still, such little interest, perhaps this could stem from a lack of HLTV or available demos to watch. But that would never have stopped the 800+ people that stayed awake nearly 3 years ago to watch 4K give TAU a hiding. I wonder how many of those 800+ people are still following 4K’s progress, have they moved on perhaps? House, mortgage, 2.4 children? Possibly, many former games now enjoy the hazards of commitments and obligations.

If 4K wins their semi-final encounter, and even at present form that is still a big ‘if’, 4K will be in the finals of an international competition for the first time in the team’s history. More than that, they will be in the finals of a competition against a team that they have proved they can beat. Is there any better time to get behind our boys? Final thought…

Three weeks ago, 4K were down and out, defeated by another team we really knew little about. Three weeks ago no-one would have given 4K a chance against 3rd place CPL side, GamerCo. This Sunday they go into the semi-final, not only with a guaranteed $7,000, but also as favourites. We all know that supporting a team is primarily about supporting a team through the good and bad. Supporting a team is dragging yourself to a Division 2 game in the pouring rain to watch your team slog out another defeat as they crash into the relegation zone, supporting a team is phoning up for tickets to England International games the moment the tickets go on sale and supporting a team is staying awake half the night, going in to work exhausted the next day, just to watch them play. For the 800+ of you that watched the TAU game, good times, bad times, we have been through the bad; it’s time to rejoice in the good!

- Myers