Damn these are deep :lol:

Greetings Tankers, today we're back with another highly anticipated eSports guide! This is a new series that will help newbie eSports players and experienced players alike grasp the key elements of positional play in eSports. This series of guides will cover the likes of defending, midfield and attack in the most common formats and observe the characteristics of some of the top players in the game. This specific guide will focus on defending in the XP BP format. Read on to find out how you can become one of the best! Disclaimer: I will try and cover as many of the eSports formats as I can, but to avoid repetition; many equipment choices, and techniques can be transferable across multiple formats where the same equipment is permitted. Enjoy! XP/BP - Equipment for Defending With the XP/BP format, it's as easy as it gets when you look at the foundations of defending. There are many great ways to defend and things to look out for as a defender in this format. You'll want to use the XP combination to defend in this format, due to the larger surface area compared to Wasp, as well as a greater pushing force. This will come in handy to block off incoming attackers, which I'll touch upon later. Defending techniques: #1 - Knowing Where to Stand So, you've equipped yourself with Hornet and Railgun, now we'll have a look at the best positions to adopt as a primary defender. For now, we'll use the map "Barda" as a case study, as it's a common eSports map and the techniques can be applied to many of the other maps as well. As you can see in the picture below, it's best to camp out behind an object or building in your base with a clear sight of enemy paths (highlighted by the arrows). Not only are you guarding the base by being able to shoot at incoming opponents nearby, but by thinking outside the box, you can shoot deeper into the enemy base to do more damage early on. Whilst in this position, you can also be looking out for drops, as these are the key to winning any match. You can do two things in relation to the drops. The first of which is to guard drops nearby that are not as much use to you as a defender, for example the Nitro and Double Armour. Often attackers from the enemy side will try and push for these drops in your base so it's your duty to put your tank on the line for the benefit of your team. The second thing you can do is move to the Double Damage drops when your base is clear. In this example in Barda, you've got one just in front on the short bridge on the right, and another on your left behind the wall. As a defender looking into the enemy base from back in your own base, taking either of these drops will distract and take out your opponent early on, making the job for your attackers much easier. Obviously you can do this ONLY when your base is clear, and when your team is on the front foot as you don't want to be caught "out of position". To be completely honest, grasping the right positions as a defender is common sense most of the time, and it's the only position where you have to ensure there are no risks taken. #2 - Blocking Your Opponents Being in the right place at the right time is one thing to becoming a great defender, but the main thing to understand is how you control yourself during situations where you need to withstand oncoming attackers. The first technique in this guide is known as blocking. As the word suggests, you need to literally "block" attackers from taking the flag, or even drops from your base. Rather than cowering behind a building then shooting when the enemy is near, it's much more effective to come out of hiding, and use your tank to stand in the way of the flag. By doing this, you're being so much more efficient than waiting to shoot, and with this you can block off more than one player. The correct way of going about blocking is shown in the picture. Take note of the angle of the tank which aids the technique. You want to be facing the tanker in front of you, head-on, so it's harder for them to push you away. This also has another advantage, that being that there is less surface area for them to aim at when shooting at you. Not only can you use this idea for directly preventing players from taking your flag, you can use it further up the map, in more advanced positions. Tactically, it can be very smart to push up the map and block players from coming along a useful passageway. This can buy your team extra time to keep the enemy flag moving in order to capture, as you're doing your bit by doing what you can to prevent any sort of enemy counter attack. #3 - Utilise Your Camera Angle The next technique to give here in this guide is one that may be overlooked by many players. To some, it may seem really obvious, but to others, it is something new to try. That would be the utilisation of the camera angle, the "Q" and "E" keys to vary the camera angle of your tank. Many of us players use these keys subconsciously, and it's to be expected of any experienced player. You'd be surprised at the number of players that still never use these keys as often as they should be. Using them to your advantage in times that matter is extra important. It won't directly help your defending, but will improve your vision so you can see any oncoming attackers in many blind-spots which aren't spotted by many defenders in battle. It makes a massive difference using the "Q" and "E" keys to heighten the camera view, even when you think you don't need to. For a realistic example, the below image shows the difference between the "typical" screen view and the more observant view. So, this is the incorrect way of using your camera to defend, you can't see all of your base and it could cost your team This is the correct camera view, and enables you full vision around your base. Vital when you need to check your base for incoming attackers. Knowing this, you'll be able to pivot around and 360 shot your opponent modestly block them off, potentially saving your team. Funnily enough, these techniques usually can be used in every position, not only defending. For example if you're an attacker trying to guard your drops to get ready to make a push, these techniques can be handy. All in all though, these are the basics that make for a great defensive player. That brings us to the end of this guide to defending in XP BP format. I hope you've learnt something from this article and helped you to polish up those defending skills. There are probably tons more techniques when it comes to defending, but to me, these are the fundamental ones and will help you get on your way. These techniques can always be applied to other formats too, especially the Light Format, with similar equipments. Keep your eyes peeled for articles to be published on the Medium and Hard Formats in the near future, to keep you sharp on the battlefield! As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more articles like this to come!

Indeed I am, Fender Stratocaster style, made from parts I've acquired over the last couple years :)

Good work mate!

2589

sick

Love seeing fun articles like these, good job! Can I just add a possibility for #5 - I think maybe the map is based off a race track, since Monaco/Monte Carlo is one of the most popular tracks in the world. :)

Well done to all those who participated, some really nice pieces of work!

2592

I plan to finish building my guitar over summer :D

Hit 3 million experience points today ayyy

"An Inside Look at the Hottest Clans" is a new series created by myself and @Spy. We take a look at the current top clans and find out how they achieved their success. Leave a comment below for clans you want to see us write about in the future, but for now, here's Random Noobs. Enjoy! Who are Random Noobs? A fairly new clan when you look at the lifespan of Tanki Online's eSports history, the English community clan "Random Noobs" have shot through the ranks over the past year. Most commonly known for their victory in the Masters of the Sword second league of 2018 they rose to fame, winning Gladiator paint, and are regarded as one of the top English clans. Like all clans however, they've hit various peaks and troughs, but that hasn't stopped them from continuing to work as one tight unit. Let's learn all about how they became one of the most respected clans in our community! Taking it From the Start The clan was formed around one year ago at the time of writing, in April 2017. The players @Lockheed and @zZ_TT_P_O_T_E_C_T_Zz (Los_Angeles, Opex) were the ones who founded this clan, and with them, they brought the original squad of , @Repartee (Indy), (4ever_Rich), (Slidee), @Forbid, (Bushido_brother), @F.I.N.I.S.H.E.R, @terminatorCOC, @Superarms and @Hell-Guardian. Main Motivations Like many clans that are starting out, they had ambitions to be the best, which so few clans actually have the capacity to do so, and it was the motivation of the whole team that kept them fighting for victories. Random Noobs' first aim was to win Domination Series II but it was a flop for them due to a lack of experience since they never saw past the group stage. After this, Random Noobs finished just outside of the top 16 of the Blitz tournament for Clan Championship X qualification meaning they had to play against the top clan "Invincible" in order to qualify. They narrowly lost this game and so missed out on Clan Championship X by a fine margin. The English Ranking Cups were introduced after Clan Championship X and this enabled Random Noobs to rise. They won five Ranking Cups in a row which granted them a spot in the Top League of the English Community. From this league position, they secured a place in the International Championship, a tournament specifically for the English, German and Polish community clans. They achieved third place in this competition, after losing to Bad Intentions. Two months later, in Masters of the Sword, they won the second league, beating Russian clans and winning against "Can't Lose" in the grand final winning the Gladiator paint. What was so special about this monumental victory was the fact that their squad still consisted of more than 50% of the original members from over a year prior to this. Top Matches For Random Noobs, there are probably two matches that stand out massively from the rest. The first of the two, was that Clan Championship X qualifier match mentioned above. Random Noobs lost 2-1 to Invincible but it was still a very good effort by a clan that was only three months old, up against players who had been playing top eSports since the StarLadder StarSeries days. This match was not streamed unfortunately. After a loss like this, and losing out on the most prestigious tournament in the game, many clans would have disintegrated, but these guys kept on fighting. Random Noobs' best game was easily the recent win against Can't Lose in the Grand Final of the Masters of the Sword second league, winning 3-1 in rounds. Even though admittedly there were not extremely stellar individual performances within the match, they gelled fantastically well as a team. The key to their victory was the two weeks of training prior to the match, which clearly paid off in the end. Random Noobs Winning Class of '18 @Vitality @NlTALlC @Repartee @Lockheed @Headshots @Violet.Crew @II.Salvator.II @F.I.N.I.S.H.E.R @ROBERTO7773 @zZ_TT_P_O_T_E_C_T_Zz Future Plans Their next ambitions are to gain a decent position in the TOF Dream Team competition, and also to get into the playoffs for Clan Championship XI to earn a decent place there as well. It is vital for the clan to stand united together in the coming months since it was the unity that got them to their highest point. Special thanks to Nathan ().

2563

J227mes

Is it not up to you?

Edinburgh

Exciting! Good luck to everyone participating. :)

That video was absolutely amazing!

Hello Tankers! Recently we had the latest installation of the Masters of the Sword clans category. Everybody was eager to find out who'd be crowned the true Masters of the Sword and receive the special "Impulse" paint. After an interesting and eventful group stage and playoff stage, we were eventually left with Peppers and Penguins, two of the most promising clans we've seen this year. We were expecting a top quality Grand Final, and boy did we get one! If you missed the live match, below is a recording of the stream, as well as a short text review of the events. Enjoy! The Grand Final took the structure of seven rounds, each in a different map decided by the cross-out method. It would have been safe to say that an edgy start would occur, which it did. The opening two rounds didn't see a single capture in the maps Red Alert and Bridges showing neither team wanted to make the first mistake. The defense of both Peppers and Penguins was very sound with scoreless rounds at this stage, showing what a good job both teams were doing in the Grand Final. We eventually saw an opening for Penguins in the third round, played on the map Forest. This round started like the previous two rounds; very tight, not many attacks coming from either team. However, with five minutes left on the clock, @Lankbouv made a very smooth capture after a great bit of team play, catching Peppers slightly off-guard. Two minutes later, Penguins were finally getting into their stride with @I.z.I making great use of the Double Armour and Nitro with his BP and bringing the flag back close to their base, which again was captured by @Lankbouv after he picked up the pieces from another solid attack for 2-0. There was a late attempt at a comeback for Peppers as they captured a flag to make it 2-1. But with less than a minute remaining and no drops available, we saw Penguins win the third round. The fourth round was held in Barda and where we witnessed the best capture of the match so far. , on full drops (who did a phenomenal job of controlling the triple of Double Armour, Double Power and Nitro on the blue base every single time) did well to pull the flag from the Peppers base. @Ne_T brought the flag even further, all while other members of Penguins were scrambling across the map to prevent a Peppers counter-attack. @I.z.I picked up the flag right in the base after plenty of scuffles and hard focus for around 30 seconds from Peppers, and went on to finally capture. The score of this fourth round ended 1-0 to Penguins, meaning they were very close to clinching the title. Round five was played in Solikamsk, a very large map and tough to play due to the sheer size and number of drops to keep track of. If Penguins would win this fifth round, it would seal the 3-0 victory for them, as Peppers mathematically wouldn't be able to come back with only two available rounds left. We afterwards saw Peppers cracked under the pressure. @SecretDream captured for Penguins on the rare occasion of the Peppers defense being ripped apart, making the score in this round 1-0. Penguins maintained their defense of the small lead well through to the end, ultimately rewarding them with victory of round five and of the match, winning 3-0 overall. Congratulations to Penguins on winning first place in Masters of the Sword. After the match, I had the chance to interview a familiar face to the Masters of the Sword scene, @Lankbouv. No doubt one of, if not the most successful eSports player we have seen in our community. He gave me an insight as to how he became involved with Penguins and then finally winning the top prize in Masters of the Sword with them, a feat which eluded him for so long. @Lankbouv, first and foremost, congratulations to yourself and Penguins. You've now become the first English community clan to go all the way obtain victory in the Masters of the Sword and to secure the top prize of Impulse paint. Let's start with the run-up to this years Masters of the Sword. Tell us about your personal clan motives, were you actively looking for a clan to further your eSports achievements? I guess I was looking for a way back into eSports after what happened in Domination Series 2, and after we tried to re-open All Kind, which failed, I searched for a new clan. I joined Invincible for a month but decided that Penguins would be a better option partly because of them speaking English and also I thought the players there had more potential than Invincible to win an XP/BP tournament. I can't say I got many offers to join clans aside from the above two, I've been linked with others in private, but I can't mention them, so Penguins was the choice I went with. I remember asking @FinalStage before joining whether he'd let his friends play or the best players play, come match day. He answered that he would choose the best, and I liked that, and I knew here was a clan I could work hard and succeed with, and it was down to me and not any friendships players had with a leader to get into the main team. Very interesting! So, you joined Penguins within the last year. A lot of new players were recruited at the same time, did you think that this newer group of players would be able to instantly compete against the top forces of Synergy, etc? Ironically, we always said we could win top 3 in MOS, right since almost the start, not making it up! But to be honest, I don't think any of us dreamed we'd actually win it. If you were strong at that stage, when, or how did it really click that you guys really could compete at the highest level and be a top 3 clan for example? It was after winning four Blitzes in a row, after which we flopped for the rest of the Blitz, qualifying out of the top 8 for MOS, but that was due to lack of training and issues with some players being inactive, but those sorted themselves out after a while, in time for MOS. I'm pretty sure there was only one thing on your mind since the start of the Masters of the Sword campaign 2018 with Penguins, and that would've been to go all the way and win it. As many of us will remember, a couple years back, your old clan All Kind came so close and achieved runners-up after losing painfully in the grand final. Tell us about your feelings after winning this time around, and also give us an explanation as to what was different with Penguins compared to All Kind in the Grand Final? An intriguing question that I feel is not easy to answer. The differences between MOS #1 and #3 are huge, not least the lack of losers bracket in #1, or the fact that the final of #1 was on just a single map, or the fact that we felt Arm Power had an unfair advantage in that final due to, what we felt were hacks. It's too long after that to say I learned any lessons from it, and everything has changed so much to be honest since then, and all the players in #3 were different from those in AK except me. For sure though, winning MOS was a big aim for me. I'm glad you got the opportunity to finally achieve the aim. In the tournament with Penguins specifically, what was needed in order to go all the way to win such a top-profile championship? Training was most important, notably we didn't train before our loss against Peppers in the upper bracket, but did before our win in the Grand Final against them. We needed a good mentality. We always lost the third round for many matches, because we assumed psychologically we'd won after 2 rounds. Stuff like that was crucial. We always play the best in first rounds, ironically this all changed, at least for me, in the Grand Final where I was nervous (yes I still get extremely nervous) for the first round and then we won the last three rounds, and my nerves had vanished. An important thing to remember is always that your opponents (such as dark horses DejaVu) deserve to be there, so don't underestimate them, and you yourselves also deserve to be there, so don't underestimate yourselves. Great advice there. As a team, you showed all how you overcame many of the top clans to reach the Grand Final vs Peppers, a very experienced side. You must have been sick of the sight of Peppers, having played them so many times since being put in the same group for the group stage. Did the number of games you played against them have any effect on the grand final? Due to the way crossing works (Host/Guest), when we played them first time in the playoffs they had more red sides, and so crossing out was better for us in Grand Final, as we had more maps on red side (Red Alert and Solikamsk where red is better), but also we realised throughout the tournament that we were phenomenal in Bridges blue side (the infamous side), and our principles of heavily pushing to their drops paid off. Also, rounds in Parma (Penguins' famous best map), always felt the easiest in every match. We also beat peppers twice in group stage, but they had not added their great transfers @Force and @Kenya at that point, so it didn't mean much. Now you've pretty much won the lot in terms of special paints in eSports with clans, with this new addition of Impulse to the trophy cabinet. What are your future ambitions in the game now? Will you continue to competitively fight for more? Future ambitions? I want someone to give me my veteran back. I think I deserve it. Enough said. Nobody can argue what you've achieved and the positivity you've spread on eSports in this community. Thank you for your time, and again, a massive congratulations on winning MOS, all the best for the future!

2869

Love this :D

Cya mate, all the best for the future, the community really was a better place with your presence :)

Nice little story there, enjoyed the plot twist at the end.

2860

Greetings Tankers! As you all know, the English eSports team has just held the International Championship, a prestigious tournament for the best clans of the top two English leagues. After finally being able to make a tournament with fantastic prizes to compete with the top Russian community eSports events, this one, without doubt, grabbed a lot of attention from eSports fanatics everywhere. In the Grand Final, of 24.04.2018, the real fight was for the ultimate prize of 800 000 crystals, 20 containers and 15 gold boxes. Not only these (as if the prizes weren't big enough), but particular members of the winning clan would also receive the newly-announced eSports paint "Prism" and the Spectrum M-B module, offering 20% protection from all in-game turrets. What makes this paint so special is the fact that the English eSports administration fought so hard to obtain a unique paint for such a tournament, and finally it paid off, giving what the English community fairly deserved, considering both the Russian and German communities have their own paints. Now to the participants, we slowly saw the strongest teams of the championship emerge after the end of the group stage, and by the time we reached the finals, the heat was really turned up. Many underdogs such as Jokers, Bad Intentions and Death Squad made it very far which is a plus for the English eSports community, showing that it's growing and that we have real competitors for the most dominant in the English community. Eventually, two successful teams arose, which were Bad Intentions, who won the Losers bracket final against Jokers, 5-3, and Penguins, who stormed their way straight through to the Grand Finals as strong favourites to win. But as we know in these tournaments, it's often hard to predict the outcome. Would the experience of Penguins be able to overcome the good run of form picked up by Bad Intentions? Well, let's find out what happened... The Grand Final For the Grand Final, the setup of the rounds was slightly different to what we saw in previous games of this tournament. There were five different battles all in different formats consisting of two rounds each (in other words, a total of ten games if necessary). All of the five formats which could be played, should all five be needed to decide the outcome, for the Grand Final were XP/BP, Light, Medium, Hard and Plasma. You can read more on these formats here. Some may already be familiar with the duration of each round, but for those who are unaware, there are twelve minutes in each round, with two of those minutes being for preparation, and then the teams get underway on the ten minute mark. Below, you can find the stream by the eSports team of the Grand Final, to watch for yourself how the game panned out. The full Bad Intentions squad consisted of: @Tepo, @Mr.Qwin, @Who_Is_NexT, @D_R_A_M_A, @IMRI, @marq666, [member=Inimaniminimanimo], @My_Life_My_Darkness, @rafal1305, @Diamante, @HaIF-DeaD, @macman00, @Dumbledore6969, (O.U.F.I.X) and @Y.i.n.Y.a.n.g All the players included in the Penguins squad were: @I3oris, @Daydreams, @SecretDream, @Sherlock, [member=I_N-V_I-N_C-I_B-L_E], @Advice, (Governor), @Assertive, @GG_reg (Aimbot), , @MIKI3, @I.z.I, @DR.TWINS, @Ne_T, @CriminaL_LyF and @Lankbouv First and Second Rounds For the opening two rounds, it was decided by cross-out method that the first format played would be the Medium format, a dynamic format which can be very fast paced, and really ignites any eSports tournament. The map played for this round was Molotov, Penguins starting on the blue side, and Bad Intentions on the red. The match started pretty edgy, with both teams appearing to play a little safe at the beginning. Some impressive bits of play to note was the use of @Sherlock's Vulcan on Viking for Penguins, where he camped in his own base focusing on incoming enemies, with the aid of @GG_reg on the Isida to ensure there was so self-destruct. They made a good pairing in defence. For Bad intentions, they made use of Twins in defence with @Who_Is_NexT also helped by an Isida the majority of the time. After a slow start to the match, Bad Intentions made the first breakthrough, with a late capture in the remaining two and a half minutes. It was a nice move which saw @Who_Is_NexT move from his initial place in defence to attack with the double armour, with finishing the move with a nice capture, after some nice tactical dropping of the flag by his team to prevent Penguins from advancing. With under a minute remaining of the first round @HaIF-DeaD got the second capture for Bad Intentions, a nice move which saw him easily travel back to base across the bridge, helped on his way by an Isida, therefore securing the first round for Bad Intentions, 2-0. The teams switched sides, so Penguins on the red side, and Bad Intentions on the blue. This round started with Bad Intentions trying to make a push from the word go, but unsuccessful. Smart idea though, as it could've caught Penguins off-guard. The defence for Penguins was changed from Vulcan to Twins, with @Sherlock controlling the defence nicely. Penguins came close to the first capture with seven minutes remaining, as @CriminaL_LyF pulled the flag, although driving into the wall did not do him too many favours, the flag was then picked up by the XP combo of @SecretDream, unfortunately, outnumbered and an eventual return for Bad Intentions. Late in this round again, with four and a half minutes left, Penguins made a breakthrough, capturing with some top-notch communication - exactly what we'd expect from a clan of this calibre. The move was started by @I3oris taking the flag with his fast fire-wasp combination with a nitro. When he was taken out, the flag was picked up by @Lankbouv with the Viking-Ricochet, who pulled it closer to base. In the meantime Bad Intentions made an effort to counter-attack, but didn't get too far, @CriminaL_LyF returning for Penguins and ensuring the capture for @Lankbouv. A minute later, Penguins captured again to make the score 2-0 with @SecretDream starting this move off, supported well by his team, especially @I3oris who picked up the flag afterwards, and was patient to capture while his teammates cleared the base. Third and Fourth Rounds The score at this point was now 1-1 in rounds, both teams looked promising in the Medium format. The format decided for the third and fourth rounds was the Plasma format, a very interesting, and uncommon format only specially trained for eSports purposes. The map for these two rounds again was Molotov. This round would not come down to control of the drops like the previous rounds, but the focus would be more upon how efficiently supplies could be used since, in Plasma format, supplies are on. This round saw Penguins back to the blue side, and Bad Intentions take up the red side. The first capture in this third round came very rapidly from Penguins, in the opening two minutes and saw @GG_reg take the Bad Intentions flag with his Hornet and Ricochet. At the same time, his own team's flag was being pulled by who didn't get too far and was quickly outnumbered, seeing the return for Penguins and allowing @GG_reg to go all the way to his own base and capture very smoothly. Immediately after, @DR.TWINS almost quickly got away with another flag after poaching on the other side, but Bad Intentions were alert enough to recover and attend to the danger. With just under six minutes remaining of the round, Penguins doubled their lead with another smooth capture which started off with @DR.TWINS pulling the Bad Intentions flag back to base, and then @Lankbouv continuing with the flag, while his base was fully defended by the rest of the guys from Penguins to capture easily. Penguins then obtained a third flag capture in quick succession from the capture prior and happened extremely fast. advanced to distract the Bad Intentions defenders and again, @DR.TWINS made away with the flag, and sped back to base to capture, where he narrowly avoided a massive cluster of opposing players all trying to counter-attack. The cluster was not cleared after that capture and allowed Bad Intentions to exploit. @Mr.Qwin took the flag after some nice blocking by his teammate @Tepo and captured nicely, as Penguins were still respawning. Another two flags were captured, the first of these two by Penguins making it 4-1 after a short standoff. The Bad Intentions base was overwhelmed by Penguins returners and eventually allowed @Sherlock to capture. Similar to earlier, the next capture by Bad Intentions was while the defence of Penguins was distracted and allowed @Who_Is_NexT to claw back another capture making it 4-2 in this round. A lengthy standoff in the closing minute saw no outcome and gifted Penguins with this third round. The teams switched sides yet again, and the fourth round commenced. The first capture of this round was by Bad Intentions, a very impressive capture which occurred two minutes in and saw @Mr.Qwin sneak into the Penguins base amazingly unnoticed, and managed to take the flag without suffering any damage. He sped straight through the middle, catching Penguins unaware and used a perfectly timed repair kit supply as he saw some incoming Penguins attackers, but evaded them brilliantly and completed the capture. Bad Intentions captured again a couple of minutes later by after a nice team move, which involved a few flag drops, and camping behind the large building in the blue base until the base was clear. He then advanced, to then add to the lead of Bad Intentions. Although at this point Bad Intentions were leading 2-0 in this round with five minutes remaining, Penguins managed to pull off one almighty comeback. It started with @I3oris and @GG_reg taking the Bad Intentions flag, later supporter by @DR.TWINS who easily captured. Immediately after, @GG_reg again with an effective attack pulls the Bad Intentions flag and gets all the way to his own base, before @Lankbouv takes the flag as @GG_reg is destroyed and captures comfortably. Bad Intentions made attempts to push and steal the lead back, but all efforts were broken and uncoordinated. With under three minutes left of the fourth round @GG_reg yet again made an attack and successfully took the flag back to his own base across the bridge. He was able to capture very easily, completing the comeback to 3-2 in this round as his whole base was empty with the Bad Intentions team still respawning after an earlier failed attack. Fifth and Sixth Rounds It was decided that these rounds would be played in the Light format on the Kungur map. A large map that brings a lot of action, and common for the occasional standoff, especially in the Light format which makes for a very entertaining watch. With the score in rounds 3-1 to Penguins at this stage, it was all up to Bad Intentions to try and turn things around, which would be tough since Penguins really excel in the Light format. Penguins were back on the blue side for the fifth round in Kungur, and Bad Intentions red. Penguins took the early advantage in the fifth round with eight minutes remaining, a somewhat scrappy capture, but a capture nonetheless which saw the flag initially taken by @Sherlock and picked up again on the bridge by various Penguins players and eventually falling into the hands of @Lankbouv and finally captured by @SecretDream. A fairly comfortable capture in the end with no real effort to push from Bad Intentions. The next capture from Penguins to make it 2-0 came immediately after, with a beautiful double shot from @Sherlock, preventing Bad Intentions from returning, and allowing @SecretDream to run away with the flag, with @Lankbouv nicely finishing the move. One highlight to pick out, four minutes in, was a sublime flip shot from to flip the Bad Intentions flagholder, @Tepo, to prevent him escaping the Penguins base. After an extremely long, but intense flag standoff, which was to be expected in Kungur, Penguins returned and were able to capture again late-on to make the score 3-0 and give Bad Intentions no chance of coming back into the round. For round six, the sides switched yet again, and would give everyone a chance to see whether being on the blue side gave an advantage to whichever team was playing there, and possibly a chance for Bad Intentions to claw back on a game that was evidently slipping from their grasp with the score in rounds 4-1 against their favour. Penguins started to kill many of Bad Intentions hopes, as they managed an early capture again with @Lankbouv and his Viking making use of its may hitpoints, three minutes in on the ride showing their skill, expelling all doubt that the blue side poses a significant advantage. The second capture of this round again was by Penguins, now in full control, started with @SecretDream taking the flag, and then later finishing his own move by capturing on low health after he respawned and his teammates helped bring the flag back to base. A third capture soon followed, with @Sherlock bringing the flag far, whilst the defence of the Bad Intentions was distracted. Eventually, @SecretDream, who was constantly at the forefront of the Penguins attacks, picked the flag up from him and captured nicely after controlling the Double Armour and Nitro in his base successfully. @Lankbouv then picked up a Double Armour and Nitro for his Viking and advanced into the Bad Intentions base whilst the defence was empty. He was quickly focused upon by the respawning Bad Intentions players and taken out by @HaIF-DeaD. @Lankbouv was gifted with a lucky spawn and picked up the flag in a spot where he could keep it moving towards base, especially aided by his 35% Railgun protection module giving his team a fourth capture and really putting the game to bed. The round ended leaving the overall score in rounds 5-1 to Penguins. Seventh and Eighth Rounds The next format played for the seventh and eighth rounds was the Hard format, in the Rio map. Penguins starting on the blue side, a lot more exposed on the edges of the map, compared to the red side which Bad Intentions would start on. This round was being leader 3-2 by Penguins, but in the middle of the round free win was given to Bad Intentions, due to Penguins found playingwith illegal equipment (three short range-turrets) and violating the format rules for the Hard format. That made it 5-2 in rounds, still an absolute mountain to climb for Bad Intentions if they were to get anything out of this game. For Penguins, winning the eighth round would secure the overall championship title, leaving Bad Intentions with not enough rounds to fight back. Right from the start of this round, it was easy to tell Penguins (now on the red side) wanted to get this game secured as the first capture for them came very early on. It came two minutes in, and @Lankbouv found himself in acres of space with his Firebird and Viking combination, helped along the way with @GG_reg, the Isida. In this round @I3oris was doing a nice job of camping above with his Vulcan and doing plenty of damage on Bad Intentions defenders, allowing the rest of his teammates to easily push and steal the flag. We saw this happen straight after the first capture, with @GG_reg capturing moving very quickly across the map having a Nitro activated on his Hornet, giving Bad Intentions no chance of catching him up. Bad Intentions eventually started to crumble as the round progressed with adding his name to the list of captures, after @I3oris again, was blocking incoming Bad Intentions players from escaping their own base, with his Viking and Vulcan. There was a tiny hint of promise for Bad Intentions, after a standoff, @Y.i.n.Y.a.n.g returned the flag and allowed @Mr.Qwin to capture, making the score 3-1. All of the slight hopes for Bad Intentions were immediately shattered by a capture from @Lankbouv made it 4-1 with a minute to go, making it virtually impossible for Bad Intentions to do anything about the deficit. Gold box sirens started to wail as Penguins started dropping boxes in celebration as they knew this round was won, regardless of the last second capture by @Y.i.n.Y.a.n.g for Bad Intentions, as it was 4-2 with less than a minute of game time left. No final round was required, since Penguins had already made it 6-2 from the previous rounds, and it was mathematically impossible for Bad Intentions to make a comeback. After clinching a 6-2 win in rounds, Penguins secured the overall victory and their players were rewarded with the juicy grand prize, mentioned above. The players who played the most throughout the tournament for Penguins were also awarded the new prize paint: "Prism", and with it the 20% Spectrum M-B protection module. Those players include: @I3oris, @Sherlock, , @DR.TWINS, @Lankbouv, @SecretDream, @GG_reg and @CriminaL_LyF. After the match, I caught up with @GG_reg (formerly known as Aimbot), an experienced member of Penguins, for his thoughts on the tournament. Here's what he had to say: Hello @GG_reg! First and foremost, congratulations on winning the first International Championship with Penguins. Give us an insight as to how the game went in your opinion? Thanks! I feel the game went quite well, there were a few nerves at first which is pretty natural for any tournament which was partly why we lost the first round. After that, our communication got better and we were more relaxed which enabled us to improve our focus and pull more flags. I think we could have improved on some of our call-outs earlier on in the match, especially in Medium format where we lost a flag or two because no one gave early information. What ensured you the win? Did you have a particular strategy in each of the formats, if so explain? The thing that ensured us the win was good team work. You maybe saw on stream a few players sometimes going into attack alone just to weaken the defence and camp a little bit, so when the main attack was ready we could pull flags a lot easier and more efficiently. As well as this, drop control was especially important so we had to make sure at the start of the game the drops were timed accurately meaning we could die, ready to respawn at the next drop times. How was the team attitude throughout? Did everyone remain focused? Is it easy to lose focus in a game like that? The team attitude was very good throughout the match, despite a bit of frustration at times. Everyone however, maintained focus well which really comes from having previous experience in tournaments. Playing under pressure is quite different from playing random battles with your friends, knowing that a few mistakes could cost you an epic prize makes focusing even more difficult. With that said, it's important to maintain confidence and not be hesitant, going for some risky shots is better than playing too paranoid and defensive. A lot of new players when they come under pressure may feel more nervous than someone with experience so it's really having the ability to control your nerves, relax and focus on the game. Did you enjoy being a part of the first international championship? Was it a good idea, and would you want to see more tournaments like this? What benefits would it bring to the community? I really enjoyed the first International Championship. It's a great way to encourage more players in the English community to get more competitive in eSports and participate in those bigger tournaments which require more training and dedication. I feel the tournament was a great idea, especially as it had a paint prize which is always a better incentive than crystals as it's something money can't buy! Thank you, and well played! So, congratulations to Penguins on winning the first International Championship, and commiserations to all those who participated but did not get as far as they hoped. For sure there will be future tournaments for all players to showcase their skills. So, let that be you, keep training hard. Until the next time, see you!