It's over! The first ClanBase CounterStrike Source Nations Cup, we had plenty of potentional teams and plenty of impressive matches. Some teams sadly dropped out during the playoffs or had some excuse that they couldn't get 5. But still it was a great tournament and I hope that everybody will be there again in the next season!

Nations Cup Results:

1. Team Finland -
2. Team Estonia -
3. Team Denmark -

Both teams were well early for match, but we had trouble trying to sort out a suitable server since Friday. We still did not have a server until a server was forced, as that was all that was available, this server gave EST a higher ping than FIN.
Knife fights where all done and match was started. After getting SourceTV back on server again, as someone thought they would kick it off.

ClanBase CSS Nations Cup
Grand Final

Today the grand final of the ClanBase Counter-Strike Source Nations Cup VIII will be played at 19h CET. The nations that will fight over the title are Team Finland and Team Estonia. Both nations had a very hard road in this Nations Cup. Both came from the same group and both faced each other before. Last time Finland won barely from Estonia with 14-16 on de_train. So everything could happen in the upcoming match!

Time:	Sunday 11 september - 19:00 CET
Maps:	tba
Lineups:	Team Finland: n/a Team Estonia: n/a
ScoreBot:	#cbnations.css
Source TV:	tba
ShoutCast:	Radio iTG [listen]
Cupadmin:	MedWay
Odds:	55 % FIN vs 45% EST
Interviews:	Eversor | eku

ClanBase CSS Nations Cup
Bronze Final

Today the bronze final of the ClanBase Counter-Strike Source Nations Cup VIII will be played on Sunday at 19h CET. The nations that will fight over the bronze title will be Denmark and United Kingdom. These teams haven't faced each other yet, but both nations have a high profile in Counter-Strike Source already. Sadly, both lost from the onces that are now in the Grand Final, anyhow this match will be a bomb.

UPDATE:
mixeh has noticed me that United Kingdom won't be able to play the Bronze finals and will therefor forfeit their game in favour of Denmark.

Today I connected to mIRC and found eku who is leading his country Team Estonia in the NationsCup. I've seen eku last weekend on Networkingday where he played with Oxygen on the same side as his team-mate Eversor so it was fun to interview 2 great guys that play in the same clan but will face eachother tomorrow in the Gold Finals in the NationsCup Source.

After meeting him on Networkingday last weekend, I thought it was time for an interview with the captian of Team Finland. I'm talking about Eversor, a great guy "in real life" and doing very well as captain of his country. If I can get in contact with eku I'll interview him aswell before the great Finals this Sunday.

The people of Finland made a massacre against team United Kingdom.

Because United Kingdom couldn't make it today. We have decided to delay the match Team Finland versus United Kingdom one more day.

Both teams turned up ok no problems, server picked, maps picked. knife fight to decide which map was played first. then knife fight was started.

Sunday 28 August 21:00 CET

Denmark will play against Team Estonia

I'll try to make sure that this match get's a cupadmin, scorebot, sourceTV and a shoutcast. Stay tuned for more info and check #cbnations.css for the latest info!

The match between United Kingdom and Team Finland still has to be agreed on by both teams. This newsitem will be updated as soon as they have confirmed the matchdate.

No cupadmin but a scorebot running, SourceTV covered 2nd map and 2 great countries playing against eachother. Check screenies inside!

I've had a chat with HeaS, the gamesupervisor for CS:Source. I feel that a NationsCup should be as transperant as possible and that the community should be able to see every player his demo's.

For the remaining time of this NationsCup, all players must record demo's. On demand by the Supervisors or your opponent, a player must upload his/her demo after the match. This rule applies today. Below is written how to upload a demo to ClanBase.

How do you send demos to ClanBase? The preferred method is by ftp-ing the zipped demo to ftp.clanbase.com/incoming. We will then move the demo to /pub/demos and update the database. If you do not have a FTP client, you can simply point your browser to ftp://ftp.clanbase.com/incoming and drag&drop the zipfile on the main window.

Use the following naming convention (don't include the brackets !): [clan1]_[clan2]_[map]_[viewtype]_[pov]_[war-id].zip

Example:
NED_EST_dust2_eyes_tkn_12345.rar

We are back in action after a short 2 week summerbreak. And there are 3 exciting matches ahead which will be played next sunday. In the meantime one match already has been played, unfortunally without a cupadmin and no screenshots, but on that notice i'd like to inform you that Denmark won over Team Sweden with a nice 32-9 score.

Sunday 21th at 21.00 CET:

The Netherlands vs Team Estonia

The following match will be shoutcasted by ReDeYe from Radio iTG. The shoutcast will start arround 20.30 CET.
United Kingdom vs Team Germany

Monday 22th at 20.00 CET:

Team Finland vs Team Belgium

gl & hf, keep checking #cbnations.css for the latest news.

Tonight we've got the first 1/4 finals between Team Sweden and Denmark. This match really promis to be exciting and hopefully a close one. Both teams pick 1 map they want to play and a 3rd map will be played if both clans win a map. Goodluck and have fun to all.

Sunday 7 Aug

Ins0mnia & tkn have been discussing the possibility of having some new maps ( Defuse only ) added to the cup, & perhaps future cups. At the moment maps being played are just like CS1.6 cup matches. The idea is to make CSS a bit different.

So with this in mind list some maps that you feel would be good to use in the cup, also a link to were these maps can be found so they can tested etc.

perhaps ClanBase should have their own map, just like CPL do, there are enough people out there making new maps!!!

Comments? Suggestions?

yez, i'm away for a holiday. Will return in 2 weeks from now. Token will take the cup over. See you later!

We decided to allow a few weeks summerstop for those teams who have roster problem due players being on holidays.

Therefor the matchperiod will be extended from 21 July - 21 August. This means you CAN play your matches if both teams agree on a date by the challange system within this period. For those teams who CAN'T play we will wait untill Sunday 14 August when we will force the unplayed remaining matches. These matches will be forced to Sunday 21 August.

Have a nice,sunny,beerlike,hot chicks-like,without bombing holiday and return home safely as your Nation is depending upon you!

The sweet RedEyE from iTG has brought the recording online. You can download the CS:S 1/8 playoffs match Swe v Hun Shoutcast recording - here

I would like the Teams of the Nations Cup to upload their demos to ClanBase site after matches, as it seems not many are being uploaded. Im going to list below the ClanBase instructions on how to do this below for thoses of you who are a bit unsure or have not found the link on how to.


How do you send demos to ClanBase ? The preferred method is by ftp-ing the zipped demo to ftp.clanbase.com/incoming. We will then move the demo to /pub/demos and update the database. If you want to make us very happy, and why shouldn't you, please follow this procedure:

• store only one map per file
• compress the file with winzip or rar.
• use the following naming convention (don't include the brackets !):
  [clan1]_[clan2]_[map]_[viewtype]_[pov]_[war-id].zip
  examples:
  
  7th_mm_dm1_eyes_shub_1234.zip (1234 is the war-id)
  7th_mm_dm1_chase_1234.zip (chase multiple players, no pov).
  7th_mm_dm1_free_1234.zip (freeflight, no pov)
  
  
• For 1on1 demos you can use an abbreviated system:
  
  [player1]_[player2]_[map]_[war-id].zip
  
  [player1] is assumed to be the 'in-eyes'-player.
  
• Don't forget the war-id. That's the most important part !

If you do not have a FTP client, you can simply point your browser to ftp://ftp.clanbase.com/incoming and drag&drop the zipfile on the main window.

There are some very skilled players in this Tournament & it would be nice for peeps to see just how good some of you are, so please after matches upload your demos to ClanBase site. Thanx Medway

We reached the quarterfinals as the 1/8 finals all have been played in time. This means only 8 nations are remaining who already belong to the best of Europe.

• Denmark vs Sweden
  
• Netherlands vs Estonia
  
• Finland vs Belgium
  
• United Kingdom vs Germany
  

These are some exciting matches that looks to be tense. But surprises are always arround the corner so let's see which countries make it to the semi-finals. goodluck, have fun to all.

Both teams were around well before time, they had agreed on a server. So knife fight was on, SLO won this and picked CT.

Thursday 21 Jul

Thursday Team Belgium who became 2nd in Group D will face of against Team Slovenia the #3 in Group C. Belgium only lost from The Netherlands and are the favourites for tonights match. But can Team Slovenia surprise them? will the new "best of 3 maps" system work in their benefits? We will found out tonight which team is on top of their game in this exciting 1/8 finals match. The admin for tonight will be Medway, one of the most experienced and respected cupadmins in the scene. Goodluck and have fun!

PS. Captains make sure you are fully up-to-date with the new mapsystem and rules.

Tomorrow evening we got 3 matches ahead. These matches are 1/8 finals and will decide which teams will play the #1 ranked teams in the groupstages. 2 matches already got an admin (Medway and Sniper1) and hopefully the last match will also be guided by one of the cupadmins. The match ger vs slo also has shoutcast coverage from RadioiTG with redeye. more detials about that match tomorrow. Goodluck and have fun!

Sunday 17 Jul

The ClanBase Crew decided to use de_CPL_Mill as the offical map for the Playoff stages instead of de_aztec. With special premission by mr. Angel Munoz himself, the president and founder of the CPL has offically allowed ClanBase to use the CPL CSS map for Counter-Strike Source.

The reason ClanBase wants to use this map instead of de_aztec is that the map is heavly unbalanced and hated by the clans. Another reason is to stimulate clans to play this map a bit more in Europe.

When i'm back from the CPL I will bring up the map and update the maplist. Be seeing you!

Welcome to the ClanBase CSS Nations Cup Play-off rounds ladies and gents. The first matches will be the decider for teams if they are going to face the number 1's in the 1/4th final or will go home and win nothing.

The matches we have are:

Team Germany versus Czech Republic
[C2] 70% versus [D3] 30%

Team Slovenia verus Team Belgium
[C3] 40% versus [D2] 60%

Team Hungary verus Team Sweden
[A3] 40% versus [B2] 60%

Team Ireland versus Team Estonia
[A2] 60% versus [B3] 40%

The teams have to schedule their matches before the 9th of july. After that the matches will be forced! We also asked CBooky to bring up the betting odds. Last but not least a poll about if we should make a summer stop after the 1/8th finals for 3 weeks or not.

This week I will be inactive for the ClanBase Cups and other duties. The reason for that is that I will be in Dallas during the CPL Extreme Summer World Championship 2005 (Damn, what a name). So that means TokeN will be totally responsible for all activities at the Nations Cup till i'm back.

Not only me but also the teams mTw.ATI, riZe, dragonZ and SSV Lenhitz. So that was a reason for us to delay the cup a week. Because they will defend the honor of Europe against those nasty Americans. So wish them luck!

Team Sweden wins sadly by forfeit against Team Estonia. After a long and hard anti-cheat research the ClanBase Crew and their cup admins conclude that Bazix from team Estonia has used the Hook cheat program during the match.

Because he used this cheat the team loses this match by default. This also means that Bazix is banned from the cup and soon permanent banned from ClanBase aswell.

And the winner is? Best out of 3 maps with maxrounds 15. Most of votes from the remaining teams went to this new rule. There for we are going to inforce the first upcoming playoffs match week: Anyhow let me tell you the rules again:

Best out of 3 maps rules::

* Both teams select a map they want to play.
* Both teams announce their map to the admin and he will announce 30 minutes before the match. I case that the teams both select the same map, one of the teams will be allowed to change their home map. If needed the admin can cointoss it.
* Incase of no admin, both teams announce it 30 min before match start to each other.
* The map win will count as 1 point.
* Incase of a tied score (15-15), both teams get a point for that map.
* If the map score is tied (1-1 or 2-2) a 3rd map will be selected.
* The map selection will go as followed. Both teams eleminate the maps they didn't play yet till 1 map is left, the match will resume on that map.
* The team who won the last round gets the first choice of eleminating a map.
* The last map cannot be tied!
* If the score is even again, mr 6 will be played with 10.000 start money. This will be repeated untill there is a winner.
* The poll decides if the match will be played in MR12 or MR15.

The groups are over of the first CB Nations Cup for CSS. With only 2 drop-outs and some groups had very close matches and results. I think that we already had a nice season and goes better then i've expected. Because of that i've made a small evaluation about every group.
On the end the week we will decide on which rules we are going to use and then you will be able to schedule your match. After the CPL Extreme Summer Edition 2005 in Dallas/USA the matches should be scheduled and you should be able to play your match.

Group A:

United Kingdom Wins 4 - Loses 0
Ireland Wins 2 - Loses 2
Hungary Wins 2 - Loses 2
Norway Wins 1 - Loses 3
Spain Wins 1 - Loses 3
France [Dropout]

- Ins0mnia's Comments: Not really unexpected that UK became first in this group. Hungary and Ireland are suprising though. Both have exactly the same ammount of points, but Ireland won from Hungary and so that gave them a 2nd place. Unexpected is that Norway was totally crushed. They had no chance in compare with the other three. France had a dropout because they had internal problems. Bit sad that a nation that big couldn't field a team anymore.

Group B:

Finland Wins 5 - Loses 0
Sweden Wins 4 - Loses 1
Estonia Wins 3 - Loses 2 (1 by forfeit)
Bulgaria Wins 2 - Loses 3
Austria Wins 1 - Loses 4
Croatia Wins 0 - Loses 5

- Ins0mnia's Comments: Finland was expected to be the strongest in this group and they have a flawless victory. Estonia didn't do that bad aswell though. Sweden is maybe a little bit dissapointing since they have 2 loses. Whilest in other games this is mostly the strongest nation. But they are in the playoffs (barely) so they still have a chance to win the cup.

An important side note: The match Estonia vs Sweden is currently in an Anti-Cheat research. So the results and qualified Nations can change, depends on the outcome by the ClanBase Anti-Cheat Department.

Group C:

Denmark Wins 4 - Loses 0
Germany Wins 3 - Loses 1
Slovenia Wins 2 - Loses 2
Russia Wins 1 - Loses 3
Poland Wins 0 - Loses 4
Greece [Dropout]

- Ins0mnia's Comments: Germany was expected to be the first, they would have if they didn't forfeit their first match against Denmark. Denmark did pretty well with a flawless victory line. Slovenia was stronger then anybody hoped for. I honestly expected Poland to be 3rd but it seems that they are way under-performing in CSS then in CS 1.6. Sad about Greece's dropout though, but they had 2 noshows. Don't think that we will see them back next season.

Group D:

The Netherlands Wins 5 - Loses 0
Belgium Wins 4 - Loses 1
Czech Republic Wins 2 - Loses 3
Portugal Wins 2 - Loses 3
Italy Wins 2 - Loses 3
Switzerland Wins 0 - Loses 5

- Ins0mnia's Comments: The Netherlands on 1 with a flawless road, not so unexpected after seeing them dominating in the Opencup. Belgium was just slightly behind the Netherlands. Ive also calculated that one right. Very suprising is that 3 teams have exactly the same score, Czech won from Portugal so they had the right to become 3rd. But if Italy didn't forfeit their last match they could have been to the Playoffs if they won their match. So that was stupid stupid stupid stupid...

Also brought up a small poll about the playoff rules. Should we use 'fixed' maps or should we use a best out of 3 rule? Your choice!

Fixed maps rules:

* Like in the opencup, the Supervisors give you a schedule of maps that you will play on.
* If the score is even, mr 6 will be played with 10.000 start money.

Some Pro's & Con's:

+ Match is fast over.
+ easier to prepaire your match
+ If your lucky it can you favorite map.
-/+ No unexpected map selections
- If your unlucky, it will be your most hated map
- If you have a few bad rounds it is much harder to recover from it..

Best out of 3 maps rules:

* Both teams select a map they want to play.
* The map win will count as 1 point.
* Incase of a tied score (15-15), both teams get a point for that map.
* If the map score is tied (1-1 or 2-2) a 3rd map will be selected.
* The map selection will go as followed. Both teams eleminate the maps they didn't play yet till 1 map is left, the match will resume on that map.
* The team who won the last round gets the first choice of eleminating a map.
* The last map cannot be tied!
* If the score is even again, mr 6 will be played with 10.000 start money. This will be repeated untill there is a winner.
* The poll decides if the match will be played in MR12 or MR15.

Some Pro's & Con's:

+ the match takes longer.
+ Shows the 'true' skill a little more.
+ You can select your own map.
+ You can bare to lose a few rounds..
+ Better for the fans, since it can get really tight.
-/+ Unexpected map selections.
- The match could take very long.
- When your raped, your trully raped.
- harder to prepaire for the match, since you never know what your enemy selects and what the 3rd map will be.

SO VOTE NOW!

Because tonight the last match of the groupstages will be played, i've brought up a small pre-view of the upcoming play-offs tree.