Reason Changes

Following a disappointing performance at the DSRack LAN the news broke that the Reason Gaming CS:S team would be leaving the organisation they had called home for well over a year. Today we can announce their replacements.

Coming into the organisation will be none other than uber G33KZ, a team who have been without a home since leaving The Imperial following a first place finish at the Copenhagen Games - where they ironically defeated Reason Gaming in the final. The team have also found replacements for the players they lost earlier this month in the shape of Danni "rytme" Hansen and Troels "eXce" Kierulff, two ex-teammates of Henrik 'FeTiSh' Christensen.

The team will have big shoes to fill given the success of the previous Reason Gaming lineup but they still have the core of the CPH Games winning lineup, and with two of the most well decorated and highly rated Danish players ever joining the ranks they have everything needed to become just as successful. Both new additions are however returning from spells out of the competitive game and as shown in the past it will take a while for the rust to disappear, when it does it seems we may just have another challenger for team VeryGames.

Statement from v1ctor, FeTiSh and wantz given to Reason Gaming:

Today it is our great pleasure to be able to announce not only the remaining two players for our lineup, but also our new home. Joining us will be Troels "eXce" Kierulff and Danni "rytme" Hansen, two of Henriks old team mates. We approached Troels and Danni some time ago, when we learned about the departure of purity and gravity, and it was clear from day one that we had great chemistry and potential to compete amoungst the best. As for our new home, we have been given the great honour to represent an amazing organisation, Reason-Gaming.

Reason-Gaming have most recently supported one of the best and most stable Counter Strike Source teams, but hopefully we can live up to the name and achieve what they have before us. Thank you to Ben and the rest of the Reason-Gaming management for giving us this oppertunity, i am confident we are going to have a good time together.

Danni "rytme" Hansen also added:

I am stoked about the fact that I now can announce my comeback to competitive gaming. I realised that I could not just play on a casual level cause of my competitive gene and I still feel I am able to contribute with many things to a top team and the new updates to the game made it even more interesting. Therefore I dusted off my mouse and started playing some gathers with my old friend eXce and shortly after we got the offer to trial with the über G33KY boys which we could not say no to. After a couple of days of online cups and practice we all felt we had the chemistry and potential to be a top team and I could not imagine joining a better team nor organisation.

From now on we will be known as Reason Gaming and I cannot express how satisfied I am with this, because they are one of the absolute best, if not the best, organisation to be in. Reason Gaming is run by lovely people and we will strive to achieve greatness and increase the reputation of Reason.

Troels "eXce" Kierulff finished off with:

I am really excited about getting another opportunity to play competitively again, it has been on my mind for quite some time. The reason why I considered playing again was that looking at both old and new lan pictures, watching and following matches and lans, you get to miss the whole psych game in matches at a lan. The thrill about being so close to winning and the opponent team takes another vital round. The strive to be the best. It's all something you truly miss when your away from it, when just being a spectator and even though I hate losing, even that you miss when your away, the whole feeling of wanting to be better all the time gets multiplied by 10 when you lose a tight game. Then there is the most important part of a return, the enjoyment of playing cs with likeminded individuals. "Luckily" there was a split on the Danish scene as I decided to take another shot at playing again, which opened 2 spots on the former über g33kz team. They gave me and rytme the opportunity to play a few cashville cups and pcw's. At the end, we had a good chemistry which led to an offer to join their ranks. I quit approximately 1 year ago, so obviously there is a lot for me to work with now including the new patch. But I have a strong belief that I will adapt rather quickly and hopefully be back at the level I once was.

On top of my return, I am glad that Reason-Gaming decided to support this team so that we from now on can call ourselves a part of Reason-Gaming. Reason-Gaming are in my eyes one of the major companies on the CSS scene, with a very friendly staff and very reliable in terms of organizing. I have honestly never heard a negative word about Reason-Gaming.

A big THANKS to FeTiSh, v1ctor and wantz for letting me and rytme have another shot at competitive css and a very special thanks to Reason-Gaming for supporting us.

Reason Gaming is now:

 Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen
 Victor "v1ctor" Brunn de Neergaard
 Bo "wantz" Vestergard
 Danni "rytme" Hansen
 Troels "eXce" Kierulff

zBlock changes

zBlock has again been updated, this time from RC1 to RC2.

The most recent update to CS:S saw Hidden Path address an issue that has been well noticed for a long while now, dxlevel issues. In this update, it is said that dxlevel 95 will now have the same effect as dxlevel 81 in terms of flash times and things such as lighting issues (most noticeable on de_nuke).
Now, in this update from zBlock, we see the removal of the "forced dxlevel" feature which was placed there in the first place in an attempt to eliminate any unfair advantages caused by the value of a players' dxlevel. This is not the only feature, of course.

The full changelog, as quoted from the official zBlock website:

zBlock 4.5RC1 -> 4.5RC2:

-added zblock.cfg
-zb_lo3/ko3 now run slightly slower to allow people time to read the text.
-"use" command was triggering spamblock, we've tested the command and found it to be inexpensive so it's now excluded by spamblock checks.
-zb_antispeedhack now no longer kicks everyone on a modified server.
-zBlock no longer thinks that sv_pure is set to 2 when it actually is 0.
-zb_warmode defaults to 0.
-sv_maxcmdrate and sv_maxupdaterate now are locked at a maximum of 66, rather than being locked to 66.
-Removed "Have to see the bomb to defuse" feature, it will return at some point.
-No longer kicks lan players when their server attempts to auth players (even though they shouldn't).
-zBlock now remembers changes to locked cvars and when they are no longer locked they are changed to their actual value.
-Added zb_allowcashcalling 2, allows automatic cash calling at the start of a round.
*Players must use the command "setinfo zb_wantautocashcalling 1".
-Readme and Changelog typo's.

mTw With Major Changes [Cadred]

nooky is one of only two surviving members from the old mTw lineup

Following a poor finish at the EPS finals team mTw have undergone a complete roster overhaul, throwing up an interesting and surprising lineup.

In the years gone by the mTw name has been synonymous with success, especially on home turf as they time and again proved they were the team to beat in the EPS. However recently the team began to slide, firstly they surrendered their EPS title to long time rivals Alternate Attax, going down without a whimper at the LAN finals. Not long after one of the teams longest standing members dav1d was caught up in a cheating scandal, forcing the side to make some changes to the roster.

As it turns out the changes didn't work out well for the side.   Another poor finish at the EPS finals followed a very inconsistent online season has caused the management and the team to make serious changes to the lineup. Leaving the team will be Florian "puRit" Dobberphul, a player who has been key to the success of the German side in the past. Adrian "vINCE R."' Kohl and Steffen 'sraven' Wiegner will also be following him out of the exit door after a short time within the organisation.

The players coming in to replace them will come as a shock to most readers, team Alternate duo Patrick 'KRAEUTERHUMPEN'Jakobi and Joshua 'hossa' Keller have jumped ship to join up with their long time rivals in what is certain to send shockwaves around the German scene. The lineup will be completed by none other than George 'hudzG' Hoskins, last seen plying his trade in the doomed TCM lineup. What this leaves for team Alternate remains to be seen but from the looks of this lineup on paper the European scene just found themselves a new "superpower"

George 'hudzG' Hoskins had the following to say to mTw:

Well, what can I say? For me as a player this is a big step in the right direction. I am very happy to have such a great opportunity to play with mTw and it is a great privilege and an honor for me to play in a team with such good management and fantastic players.

In the next few months I will work very hard to make the team as successful as possible. This change will also mean i'll be taking part in one of the most professional leagues around, the German EPS. I look forward to getting to know the German community.

I would like to thank the people who have helped me through the bad and helped me make this step, especially Rich and Nat. A big thank you to others, paddy, philipp, olli and markus. I look forward to successful cooperation.

Team mTw is now:

 Patrick 'KRAEUTERHUMPEN' Jakobi
 Joshua 'hossa' Keller
 Andre 'nooky' Utesch
 Philipp 'osirisbash' Kaczmarczyk
 George 'hudzG' Hoskins

Phnatic Formed

Following the CS:S update there has been both a renewed interest from some, and the threat to quit from others, as such, there have been some unexpected teams forming and folding in the aftermath.

One such team has formed and it features some familiar, and unexpected faces. Heading the charge will be Richard 'ritch' Gibbs, who was most recently seen playing with Fragmasters Toxic at LAN79, joining him will be his ex-Fragmasters teammate Brandon 'weber' Weber who has been building a reputation for himself in the UK scene with some great performances in the past. Matthew 'Carrel' Carrel will be joined by Connor 'sliggy' Blomfield to make up the 3rd and 4th members.

The fifth and final member will be one that may cause some people to rub their eyes in disbelief, it is none other than Kyle 'fataL' Mardel, of ex-Zboard fame. He will be making a return to the game after a lengthy spell on the sidelines. For now the team will be concentrating on online tournaments but the possibility of attending LAN in future will be open to the side.

Statement from Richard 'ritch' Gibbs:

Basically, I want to play CS:S against teams online in the evening as I'm bored of being sat around so I handpicked the biggest losers I could find that want to do the same thing, we wont be attending any lans for now as we are online warriors and I'm too shit at this game now. Yeah, we'll last about 2 weeks approximately.

Team phnatic is:

 Richard 'ritch' Gibbs
 Brandon 'weber' Weber
 Kyle 'fataL' Mardel
 Matthew 'Carrel' Carrel
 Connor 'Sliggy' Blomfield

CSS Bugs [xiphrex]

There are quite a few bugs, I hope they read the steampowered forums and fix all the ones posted there.

The old css fps configs still work fine, there are only a few cvars that dont work anymore but they did nothing before either (like r_phong).

But multicore support there are new cvars and also a few more below:

Code:

// CSS Orange Box update
r_bloomtintg "0"
r_bloomtintb "0"
r_bloomtintexponent "0"
r_bloomtintr "0"
r_drawdetailprops "0"
r_flashlightrendermodels "0"
r_hunkalloclightmaps "0"
r_lightcache_zbuffercache "0"
r_propsmaxdist "0"
r_staticprop_lod "7"
r_sse_s "1"

cl_clearhinthistory "1"
cl_detaildist "0"
cl_detailfade "0"
cl_debugrumble "0"
cl_playerspraydisable "1"
cl_showhelp "0"

mat_alphacoverage "0"
mat_bloom_scalefactor_scalar "0"
mat_maxframelatency "0"
mat_max_worldmesh_vertices "0"
mat_software_aa_blur_one_pixel_lines "0"
mat_software_aa_strength "0"
mat_software_aa_strength_vgui "0"
mat_software_aa_tap_offset "0"

prop_active_gib_limit "0"
adsp_debug "0"

// Multicore Support
mat_queue_mode "2"
cl_threaded_bone_setup "0"
cl_interp_threadmodeticks "0"
cl_threaded_client_leaf_system "0"
r_threaded_client_shadow_manager "1"
r_threaded_particles "1"
r_threaded_renderables "1"
r_queued_decals "0"
r_queued_post_processing "1"
r_queued_ropes "1"
mp_usehwmmodels "-1"
mp_usehwmvcds "-1"

Only just tested the above and it didnt seem to do anything negative. FPS was the same though. So I think it comes down to using mat_queue_mode "2" or "-1" (both are the same thing)

New CSS Update 2010

CSS Update Released « on: June 24, 2010, 12:10:40 AM »

Quote Modify Remove Split Topic

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The CSS Beta update has gone gold and been released. Took a while to update but its finally done.

How you guys finding it?

I quite like the fact they have locked server tickrate to 66. The rate of fire has been fixed as well so it doesnt rely on tickrate, so the AK fires the same speed as on 100tick. Also on clientside server anyway, the reg is pretty good I reckon, better than before. Still to test it in the real world but servers are updating across the land!

Also multicore support works and you have to turn it on manually.

I hope they fix the dx9 bugs for ATI users, I hate having to use dx8 to get around that. Also I think a new bug has been introduced which is the excessive fog on d2 in dx8. The most pointless 'feature' of d2 is to have that fog, it just looks like the colours are washed out, I cant see shit properly, 100% pointless:



That might look normal to some of you but its quite different from just before the update for me. Also things are brighter, like reflections off barrels etc are much brighter.

Theres also a slight zooming animation when you allow the awp to rezoom after shooting (without quickswitching), sort of like the autosniper.

Oh btw here are the new optimized netcode settings to use clientside (courtesy of Regnam):

Code:

rate "35000"
cl_cmdrate "66"
cl_updaterate "66"
cl_interp "0"
cl_interp_ratio "1"
cl_lagcomp_errorcheck "0"
cl_lagcompensation "1"
cl_predictweapons "1"
cl_smooth "0"
cl_smoothtime "0.01"

DONT play with cl_cmdrate 100 and cl_updaterate 100, it doesnt put it down to 66 automatically, and the reg is god awful!

Dignitas Disband [Cadred]

Team Dignitas have decided to release their CS:S team after 2 members left.

Earlier this year, Team Dignitas announced that they would be picking up a team to fill their EPS UK spot, and proceeded to sign Team AMDERS. This team was certainly not the same sort of level that their previous CS:S team had been up to, but dignitas were willing to give this lesser team a chance.
However it has been announced today that they have been released from the dignitas squad with immediate effect. This has come about due to two of the players of the team choosing to leave. Not wanting to rebuild the lineup, ODEE indicated on the Team Dignitas site that they would stop their contracts short.

The following has come from the official Team Dignitas post on their site:

With regret I have to inform everyone that we have released our Counter Strike Source team from our organisation. The team joined us earlier this year when we decided to give a lesser known team a chance to develop over time within our ranks.

With two players deciding to leave the team we have decided to call it a day with the remainder of the line-up. We had every intention to continue with this team for the agreed period that we had in place with a view to review the progress that had been made. Unfortunately this catastrophic break within the team has reversed our plans.

The old dignitas CS:S roster featured:

 Ryan 'SkiddY' Hudson
 Mike 'ZooL' Eastham
 Scott 'SM' Mansell
 David 'icebox' Morris
 Mike 'Acky' Halliwell

Tom Nevill // DuRuS Posted 23 hours ago: Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:58:29 +0100