UKTerrorist

Is Online Competition Slowly Dying?

Recently this topic of discussion has been brought to my attention by the distinct lack of lust for online gaming in Counter-Strike among the mainstream clans. With the CPL World Championships kicking off in Dallas and the World Cyber Games happening in Seoul, LAN Competition couldn’t be bigger. No other gaming competitions have ever offered prize values of such a high amount and this is just the beginning… But is the presence of such highly rated LAN competitions killing the value and reputation for online ladders and cups?

As I put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, I glance across at the CBUK ladder. Most notably is inactivity amongst the top five clans. Between the five of them only 6 wars have been played in the last two weeks and one of those clans played 4 of those wars! This also leaves a question lingering such as, "where are the UK’s most feared clans, noc.uk and Four-Kings?"
Well 4K can be found “hibernating” while noc.uk are nowhere to be seen at all. However, both clans felt the need to compete in the currently occurring LAN events (good luck to both clans btw). But maybe this is just the UK scene? Let us spread our wings and improve our knowledge about the European community of Counter-Strike…

State of the EuroCup

This winter saw Europe’s most prestigious ladder hosting community, ClanBase, host their fourth European Cup. With Counter-Strike being one of the main games and the finals to be held under LAN circumstances on the 15th and 16th of December in Holland, this truly looked to be a remarkable event and would have definitely underlined who were the best Online and LAN gaming clan in Europe. The tournament consisted of 32 of the best Counter-Strike clans across Europe and began with a qualifying group stage much similar to that UEFA’s European Cup and then with the qualifying groups moving on to the knockout stages.

With clans such as NiP, MAFIA, SoA, Exousia (defending champions) and the UK’s Four-Kings and Nocturne all being invited to participate in this tournament, there was soon to be an impressive line-up of matches. Divided into two regions, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe the qualifying groups were established. But then disaster struck,

Saturday 8th September – NiP replaced by GoL.

So was this the first sign of online competition slowly decaying? Seemingly so because NiP are regarded as the best Counter-Strike clan in the world, yet they refused to participate in the tournament, after previously stating they would. Simply because they “dislike online gaming”. But how important was this decision and has it really affected the tournament? Or the community for that matter? Well it sparked a debate resulting in over a 150 comments by the public, some outraged at their decision with others kindly understanding. With close inspection you can see their point though. EC4 was to use CO rules for the tournament and NiP felt they would be wasting their time when there was a more important tournament beginning in 3 months time using different rules of gameplay, max rounds for the CPL. But so what if NiP declined this opportunity, I mean it’s not as if they were replaced by a poor clan. GoL or GameOnline, now known as mTw.GoL, recently placed 3rd at the UK CPL Championships earlier this year so quality wasn’t exactly lost.

So then the tournament begins and the bets are placed with the community conversing over who will qualify and who the eventual winners might be. And ironically disaster strikes again. The irony being that NiP’s replacements, mTw.GoL, then went on to quit the tournament after just one match stating similar reasons.

Why are you leaving EC4?

GoL-XeqtR: We prioritize LAN events like CPL as first priority and simply dont have time to prepare ourself as we want b4 EC4 matches, so we decided to drop EC4 to put all our attention to pracc b4 CPL events.

However, the show must go on, right? With the tournament now down to the last eight some would say it’s been an impressive one at that. Well personally I’d disagree because out of the 32 clans invited only 23 ended up finishing the qualifying stages. Some of the clans departed due to members leaving etc but most mainly due to the fact that LAN events are more important. Clans such as MAFIA, SoA, GoL never finished their group matches and clans such as 4K and noc failed to qualify. However had they have made it through to the last eight then would they have carried on? Considering both UK clans are now competing in the two biggest LAN competitions in the world then surely they wouldn’t have had enough to time to complete their matches for EC4. I recently caught up with Counter-Strike Armageddon star, Aapje, to get his views on Internet Competition and the presence of LAN competitions such as The CPL and WCG.

XceeD: Firstly, what is your take on the current affairs of online competition?

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: Well I think first of all, online competition is arranged way better and you are not totally in problems. When you have a problem like a delay, it’s easy to schedule on the Internet and on LAN you need to set up all the computers. You always have an amount of time for a LAN so if you make a mistake with cfg checking or something you lose a lot of time. And not playing because of the prizes is a bad reason I think because it’s about fun not about prizes. Of course the quality online is better because you have your own computer. But on LAN you can communicate very well.

XceeD: But do you feel that fewer clans take online gaming as serious as LAN events therefore degrading the performance online?

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: Nah I don’t think many clans see league's like the Eurocup or Opencup as a practice for LAN's like CPL, every clan wants to look as good as possible. If a clan only uses the Eurocup matches to practice they won’t look too good. And no clan wants to look bad, like winning the Eurocup will get your clan in the spotlights.

XceeD: This winter ClanBase held the Eurocup for a fourth time but sadly many clans dropped out because of other clan commitments (such as preparing themselves for the CPL/WCG). Firstly I'd like to congratulate CSA on being invited but what is your opinion on clans' decisions to quit the Eurocup because of commitments to LAN events?

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: Thx, well I think everybody knows that there are gonna be held CPL events. Many clans also know the date already. If you get invited but decide to leave because you want to practice for the Eurocup I think that's a shame. Being invited to the EC is an honour and should be respected. When you leave you also leave a lot of clans with no matches. That happened in group A, like 3 clans left and the remaining clans had only 4/5 matches to play.

XceeD: This also occurred in the Scandinavian group C where 4 clans quit, including SoA, GoL and MAFIA.

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: Yep, well it is their decision but I totally do not agree with the fact that you have to leave the cup because you want to practice for CPL.

XceeD: Had CSA been competing for the CPL or WCG would this have affected their participation in the Eurocup?

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: To be honest I don’t think that would have affected us. As you maybe know I was supposed to go to the WCG with a Dutch team but the organisation ruined that for us (full story on www.csnl.net). And even if I (or CSA) would have competed with such a LAN event we feel honoured being invited to such a cup and I’m 100% sure we would play till the last match.

XceeD: Are there any other competitions that CSA compete in online because of the value they represent, i.e. the quality of the clans that participate?

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: Yes, we just joined ICSL2; it’s an Italian competition that we joined last year as well. It wasn't too famous then but it is now. Many great clans compete in it. But it is MR so we will use those wars to train max rounds. For the rest we play friendly’s most of the time.

XceeD: And lastly do you feel that online competition is being affected by the increasing presence of LAN competition?

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: Well, of course in some way it has affected online competition because organisers always want to start a competition. If they wouldn't start a LAN competition they would have started 1 online. But there are enough cups online to compete in such as OC, EC and ICSL.

XceeD: Thank you for the short interview, and UKT wishes the best of luck to CSA in the CB EC4 and future events they wish to partake in :)

-[CSA*Aapje.eu]-: Thanks.

From this interview and research I have covered, I have established what I believe to be an interesting conclusion. I think it is fair to say that top clans do not regard Internet competitions as important as the well known LAN events for the obvious reasons such as prize values and “ping/lag”, still a very heated argument online which is one that is perhaps settled on a LAN. Also many top clans now mainly use the Internet for practice wars to test and tweak their tactics. For they will have greater reward at a CPL event than a CBUK war.

But that does not mean that online competition is becoming obsolete. New and upcoming clans can still and will always use online gaming as a stepping-stone for propelling themselves into the big world filled by the likes of NiP and 4K. But as the tournaments unfold and greater interest into professional gaming grows, who knows how the organisers and sponsors will want gaming to be played. Internet or LAN? The latter most likely…

Please feel free to post your comments on the situation. I'd also like to state that I am not complaining at the current state nor flaming any clan's decision to not compete online as much and reserve their time for LAN events, just merely stating the obvious.