[Archive] An article for the clan championship written a while ago.

[skitee 555]

As you guys probably know, the newspaper has been delayed, mainly due to a mix-up with permissions in the new forum, but also due to a number of other reasons. This has meant that one of my articles on the championship has been outdated. I did not want it to go to waste, however, so I'm going to post it here if you want to read it. If you don't want to read it, feel free to insert hate messages below/in my PM box.

 

 

 

 

So far, the tournament has been brilliant. It has been a real great example of Tanki play. Some people may say that the skills involved are not as refined as they are in the Russian section, but the passion and heart in the clans taking part is certainly there. The battles have been tightly-fought and passionate affairs, on the whole at least, and the clans have been giving their all to try to win that crown. The preliminary rounds are over, and now we're onto the big battles: the group stage, which will soon be followed by the knockout battles, the quarter finals, the semi finals, and then the final itself. Who will win? What's your take on the issue?

 

The most impressive clan in the preliminary rounds, commonly called the "prelims", was Dare Devils, capturing 65 flags in their four victories without conceding a single flag. However, four other clans: Vengeance, White Red Squad, Kings of Tanki, and Kings of Arabs all also won every one of their preliminary round games. All four will be hoping to carry their unbeaten run forwards all the way into the final, and hopefully to victory! Do you think it is going to be one of those four who win? Or another clan?

 

We will hopefully find out the winners soon enough! But first, let's refresh our minds on what's happened so far, and preview the groups in the upcoming group stage.

 

The Prelims

Note: Full results can be found in the bottom post on this page

 

The format of these battles: In the space of two weeks, each clan will have to play four battles against other clans which have been randomly chosen for them to play. Every battle will contribute to a scoring chart, and the top sixteen clans in the table will qualify for the group stage. Each clan gets 3 points for a victory, 1 for a tie, 0.4 for playing their battle, 0.05 for each flag captured, and -0.05 for each flag conceded. After two weeks, the top sixteen clans will be seeded into groups.

 

Game 1

 

Being the start of the championship, some may have expected a lot of surprises, but Week One went much to plan. A number of clans pulled out from the competition before it started, giving their opponents a bye into automatic victory. Kings of Tanki, The Tactical Fighters, and Dragon Slayer benefited from this to record victories without even playing. The rest of the games went very much as expected. The big guns like Try To Stop and Dare Devils, as well as much-fancied Kings of Arabs, recorded big victories to start their campaign off on a high note. The only real surprise of the round was Vengeance, whose only previous clan war was a humiliating defeat to Greek Forces (who did not enter the championship), crushing Domination by a huge margin of eight flags to one. Other than that, the smaller clans struggled whilst the established faces, in the main, recorded comfortable victories.

 

Game 2

 

The second games happened, on average, a couple of days after the first, and the clans had very little time to prepare the turn-around, some clans playing two games or even three on the same day. Hurricane of Fire recorded the biggest victory of the whole prelims in this round, beating The Lightning Clan by fifty-nine flags after their opponents failed to turn up at the arranged time and Hurricane of Fire were able to capture flags at will. Otherwise, the game week was again much as expected, although Vengeance managed to spring another shock by beating Try To Stop by one flag to zero. By then, they had announced to the English Clan Community that they were no pushovers.

 

Game 3

 

Following the second games were the third (Would you ever have guessed?). Just like the two previous game rounds, the results were much like people expected. White Red Squad, Vengeance, Dare Devils, Try to Stop, Kings of Arabs, all recorded comfortable victories as the favourites stamped their mark on this championship and made it clear that they were out to win this thing: and win it style.

 

Game 4

 

With the final game, most of the top clans were comfortably through, but one or two were sitting on the edge of the abyss nervously. Best of German and Ironclads had drawn with each other in week two, and not had very convincing results in their other games. Both were hoping for the best as they went into the final game. Their fears both increased when they both lost their games, although Best of German would have needed two clans to overtake them to have gone out. Eventually, however, Cobras Poison, the clan which could have overhauled any of them had they won, lost to Kings of Arabs by a very small margin of six - four, and both clans survived. Cobras Poison, however, were left rueing the bad luck the draw had given them. They had beaten Best of German in the first game but had had three tough battles since then which they had all lost and ended up crashing out of the championship at the first hurdle.

 

The clans that went through were, in order of the position they got in the first round:

Dare Devils (English-speaking Clan); Kings of Tanki (Arabic); Kings of Arabs (Arabic); Vengeance (English); White Red Squad (Polish); Try To Stop (English); Kings of Mafia (Arabic); Domination Clan (English); Hurricane of Fire (Spanish); Red Devil Fighters (German); Georgian Clan Crusaders (Georgian); Dragon Slayer (French); The Mighty Midgets (Dutch/English); The Tactical Fighters (German); Best of German (German); The Ironclads (English).

 

 

The clans that went out, in order of points scored:

Cobras Poison (Italian): As I mentioned above, unfortunate to go out thanks to an unfavourable draw. They beat Best of German in the first round, but three defeats to strong clans in the shape of White Red Squad, Georgian Clan Crusaders, and kings of Arabs put paid to their hopes. Went out fighting, but would have hoped for better results - and a kinder draw. Will only get stronger from the experience.

 

The Lightning Clan (Dutch): Not given much chance in people's minds before the championship started, and so it proved. Three heavy defeats to Best of German and White Red Squad, as well as when they did not turn up to face Hurricane of Fire, ended their chances in the competition. They go out with their heads held high, proving that they can fight. But they had not much to show for it.

 

Kings of Genocide (Arabic): The clan had existed in different shapes and forms for a long time, and they would have hoped for better. A poor overall performance in defeats to Domination, Kings of Arabs, and Dragon Slayer, as well as in a 0-0 tie to the Tactical fighters, meant that they exit the championship at the first time of asking. Disappointing overall.

 

Darkness Tanks (Arabic): How could a clan be so poor? At times in their battles, looked like they had no co-ordination and no plan of what was happening. Seemed more like a group of Tanki friends than a clan. Conceded 80 flags in total without capturing a single one. But at least they did not give up.

 

Prineas of Tanki (Arabic), Criminal minds (Arabic), Metal Skorpion (Italian), Made in Portugal (Portuguese): All forfeited all their games without playing any. Makes you wonder why they entered the contest if this was all they were going to do.

 

Goodbye to those clans, but for the rest, they go through to the Group Stage!

 

The Group Stage

 

To explain the format: Each week, each clan will be pitted against another clan. They will play each clan in their group of four clans once, three games in three weeks. No points are given out for flags captured anymore. Two points for a win, one point for a draw. Each battle will be CTF, 6v6, with Friendly Fire on. There will also be weapon and tank elimination, where each clan removes one weapon and one tank that cannot be used in the battle. The top two clans in each group will qualify for the Quarterfinals.

 

Each group consists of one team from each pool of seeds. The four best clans in the first round made up the top seeds, the next four made the second seeds, and so on. ShadowVisions seeded the groups on livestream, and these are the groups that came out of the pool.

 

Note: All predictions were made before any of the games in the clan championship group stage were played.

 

Group 1

Clans involved, in order of seeding and with seeding from the prelims in brackets: Vengeance (4); White Red Squad (5); Hurricane of Fire (9); Ironclads (16)

 

This group consists of two undefeated clans from the first round, Vengeance and White Red Squad. Both will be hoping to continue their unbeaten run through the group. This group also contains Ironclads, who managed to scrape through in 16th position, but who have shown in the past that they have the firepower to defeat any clan. It also has Hurricane of Fire, the outsiders who managed to get into 9th position thanks to their record win when The Lightning Clan did not turn up, and an easy draw. It will be an intriguing battle to see which clans can record the crucial victories.

 

Prediction: Vengeance to win all three, Hurricane of Fire to lose all three. Battle between Ironclads and White Red Squad to be the crucial one to decide who comes second, and I'll go with Ironclads to win that one.

 

Group 2

Clans involved: Kings of Arabs (3), Red Devil Fighters (10), Georgian Clan Crusaders (11), The Tactical Fighters (14)

 

A technical hitch meant that none of the official second seeds (5-8) are in this group, but it will be a close one nonetheless. Kings of Arabs were unbeaten in the prelims and will be the favourites, but all three of the other clans are more than capable of causing a surprise. Between the other three clans, they all had up-and-down qualifying campaigns. The Tactical Fighters only played two games (with the other two being walkovers) and failed to win either, but they were both tricky battles against spirited clans. Georgian Clan Crusaders started out with two defeats to The Mighty Midgets and Kings of Mafia, but recovered with two victories against Cobras Poison and Ironclads. None of their games were decided by more than three flags, and I wouldn't bet against that continuing in this tough group. Red Devil Fighters, on the other hand, had no game decided by less than three flags, recording big victories over Darkness Tanks and Criminal Minds, but suffered heavy defeats to Dare Devils and Vengeance.

 

Prediction: KoA to go through top. GCC to follow second in a very closely-fought group with no game bringing a result of more than four flags. TTF to be third, RDF fourth.

 

Group 3

Clans involved: Dare Devils (1), Kings of Mafia (7), Domination Clan (8), Best of German (15)

 

The same technical hitch that ended up in there being two third seeds in Group 2 has meant that in Group 3, here, there are two second-seeded clans, namely, Kings of Mafia and Domination clan. Both won three of their qualifiers, suffering only one defeat each, to Kings of Arabs and Vengeance respectively. They are joined by Dare Devils, who won all four of their prelims with something to spare, and Best of German, who narrowly avoided elimination in the first round. Dare Devils may have captured sixty-nine flags in total in their first four games, but it will certainly get tougher here. All three of their opponents are more than capable of producing an upset. Whilst Best of German may have had a disappointing qualifying round, they are more than capable of far more. But will they show it? Domination have plenty of clan war experience, but will they be able to produce when the time comes? KoM have not existed for very long. Will they be able to have a sustained push at the crown? All these questions will have to be answered before we find out which of these clans will be in the quarter-final draw.

 

Prediction: DD to be top, but closer than most would expect. Domination to come second, with KoM third and BoG fourth.

 

Group 4

Clans involved: Kings of Tanki (2), Try To Stop (6), Dragon Slayer (12), The Mighty Midgets (13)

 

Whilst all of the other groups are exceptionally hard to call, there is no arguing about who are the favourites in this group. Kings of Tanki have plenty of Russian clan war experience, and have produced the bulk of the winners-in-waiting team in the World Cup, KSA. Try To Stop are also well grounded in clan war experience. On the other hand, Dragon Slayer and The Mighty Midgets are relatively new to the whole clan war experience, and will be expected to struggle against the strength of KoT and TTS. But they will also be hoping to spring an upset. Just one off day for the top two clans, or one on day for the weaker two, and the whole group could turn on its head. It will be a tough ask for Dragon Slayer and The Mighty Midgets, however. Try To Stop and KoT are no easy task.

 

Prediction: KoT to win all three. Whilst they may try hard, I expect DS and TMM to lose to TTS as well. I expect TMM to pip DS to third place though.

 

Review of Game One in the Group Stage

 

Results:

Group 1: Vengeance 5-0 White Red Squad; The Ironclads 11-0 Hurricane of Fire

Group 2: Red Devil Fighters TBC-TBC Kings of Arab; Georgian Clan Crusaders 5-0 ]The Tactical Fighters

Group 3: Dare Devils 24-0 Kings of Mafia; Best of German 8-1 Domination Clan

Group 4: Try To Stop 12-7 Kings of Tanki; Dragon Slayer 8-8 The Mighty Midgets

 

And yeah. So much for my predictions. Of the top seeds - of which all I expected to easily get through their groups in top position - only Dare Devils managed to win by an ordinary battle. All of the other top seeds either struggled or were handed a forfeit. Who says that this competition is too predictable?

 

In Group One, White Red Squad forfeited their game against top seeds Vengeance, instead focusing all their efforts on beating Ironclads and Hurricane of Fire to get through to the Quarter Finals. But will the move pay off? It's a risk, a very big risk. In the other game, fourth seeds Ironclads thrashed third seeds Hurricane of Fire, whom they had already beaten in the Preliminary qualifying rounds, by the huge margin of eleven flags to nil, to more or less put an end to any of Hurricane of Fire's hopes of qualifying for the Quarter Finals and the benefits of the sticky and map that that will involve.

 

Meanwhile, in Group Two, problems affected the scheduling of the battles there. TTF pulled out of the competition, forfeiting all of their three games, and leaving only three clans battling for the two qualifying positions. GCC were the clan to benefit this time around. Also in this group was a battle between RDF and KoA, but that was affected by connection problems that ended up with KoA members being disconnected without warning. RDF went on to win the battle 5-1, but the result did not stand due to the connection problems and the game will be replayed next week.

 

It was even worse for the other kings in Group Three. Kings of Mafia, having won three of their four preliminary qualifying games, would have been hoping to be able to pull off a shock victory over top seeds Dare Devils. It was not to be, as Dare Devils ran in huge victors, capturing 24 flags without any reply over the course of the two games. Kings of Mafia will certainly have to up their game in the next round if they want to qualify. In the other game in this group, the result was also very one-sided. Best of German, having not won a game in open play yet this tournament, suddenly pulled off their best result so far to stun Domination clan by the huge margin of eight flags to one, leaving the American unit with very little chance of qualifying for the quarter finals. But hey, anything could happen.

 

And in Group Four, the third clan of Kings also had a torrid day in the office. Kings of Tanki, who were most people's favourites after a strong performance in the world cup as Team KSA, showed that they were not so effective in the no-supplies form of the game with their crushing 12-7 flag defeat to Try To Stop. Will they be able to recover? Who are your favourites for the Championship now? Do you think that Try To Stop have shown that they are capable of winning the title? Anyway, KoT's hopes of getting through to the knockout stage and then further will rely upon their beating of the other two teams in their group, Dragon Slayer and The Mighty Midgets, who shared an 8-8 draw in a topsy-turvy game in Bobruisk. In the first round, Dragon Slayer won 7-1 and looked to be coasting to a routine victory, before The Mighty Midgets hit back and won by the same margin in the second game. The rest of this group will be a tasty affair, as those two clans hope to stun KoT and TTS and clinch a place in the Quarter Finals against the odds.

 

 

See you in the battle! God bless, skitee.

 

[CooperO 7,956]

I did not want it to go to waste

That would be a shame indeed, enjoyable article.

Edited October 18, 2012 by CooperO

[wertweuri 76]

Good article...This should go to the 6th newspaper.

[Alklines 1,751]

your doing great work, but I gotta tell ya, even I don't have the time to read this huge article :wacko:

[r_PC-JACK0 91]

Good article dude i enjoyed it :) :) :)

[r_SuicideWarrior0 1]

As usual, nice article skitee.

[cheese3000 23]

Its pink.

apart from that its good.

[skitee 555]

Good article...This should go to the 6th newspaper.

 

But it's way outdated, so it'd be inappropriate to go in the next newspaper. As such, I posted it here.

[hogree 4,179]

Its pink.

[wertweuri 76]

But it's way outdated, so it'd be inappropriate to go in the next newspaper. As such, I posted it here.

Yeah.... Too bad. :wacko:

[CONTROOL2 6]

Nice.

[SamkoBuzik 0]

your doing great work, but I gotta tell ya, even I don't have the time to read this huge article

[SamkoBuzik 0]

thank you earn 300 per day and are looking for there are good and de vituningovaní šefobja well as military tankers MISL

:mellow: ;) :) :D

[SamkoBuzik 0]

Player SamkoBuzik has been banned for a day. Reason: Flood in the forum, Point 2.3

Edited November 5, 2012 by MizARee

[FederalBureauFBI 2,881]

Oh my goodness^...

Edited November 4, 2012 by FederalBureauFBI

[Meliora 1,652]

Seriously, what the heck was that guy doing?

[fabian.wehinger 0]

Review of Game One in the Group Stage

 

I should their team I'm so good :ph34r:

[fabian.wehinger 0]

I should their team I'm so good