Dedicated Elite Soldiers

This update comes fresh on the heels of the first AssaultCube World Cup. Started by Nighthawk of C=64 and followed through by Drakas of woop, the competition was hugely exciting, but strangely anticlimactic in the end.

DES was represented by tipper (UK), Medusa (Benelux), Godsmack (US) and a healthy showing from R4zor, RuThLe$$ and Jelly in the Australian team. UK and Benelux went out in the first round, each to the eventual finalists. US triumphed over Latinos before succumbing to a rampant Australian team in the semi’s. Unfortuantely for our members, Germany were too strong in the final. Congratulations go to tenshi, Smack, The_Rock and burp. All details available here.

Away from the battlefield there have been recent upheavals in the AC community, particularly at Tear you Down, whom we wish the best of luck in troubled times. Huge thanks go to Apollo and KanslozeClown for everything they’ve contributed in the past. Also, with AC servers coming under increased scrutiny from the developers, we’d like to let everyone know that DES server admins will be doing as much as possible to ensure adherence to any new rules, whilst maintaining fair and fun play, in the AC spirit, as often as we can. Changes to server restrictions mean we’re seeing a rise in the number of ‘new’ arrivals to public games. DES members will always be happy to say Hoi to those discovering how exciting AC can be away from their comfort maps. Stick with it guys and gals.

In the clan, tipper appears to have returned to his near-permanent position on public servers, and Cleaner is making more and more frequent appearances; they just couldn’t stay away for long.

Tomorrow (26th) sees the start of the ESL AC Summer 3v3 CTF league. In group A, we’ll be taking on M|A, followed by ANGRA, A&D, w00p(Tyr), BCFH, MCNNM and oNe. A feast indeed; best of luck to all.

In the 1/4 of a year since the last entry a lot has happened here at DES. We’ve seen the addition of four new members, the return of three long-term absences and four experienced players relaxing their game-time a bit.

April 7th saw the introduction of jamz (from the UK), spotted mouthing off in the AC forum as much as in-game. Six days later, the 13th brought Mr RAWR! himself SMASHing in; ex-oNe veteran, Woolly (Canada). There was a slight gap before Godsmack (US) was recruited on May 11th (raising the DES average age again); notable for his all-round friendliness, punctuated by long periods of in-game silence. And the latest appointment is Jelly (Australia), the one-time C=64 team member arriving on the 21st of this month.

The clan’s heartfelt ‘wb’s go to TwItCh, Fragment and blackbeast , who have all made reappearances in-game recently after spells away from playing. On the other side of this coin, tipper is taking a well-earned break away from ladder stomping duties for personal reasons and Cleaner, Cyprian and byrus are putting in the odd appearance as real-life takes the front seat in their lives for various reasons.

Away from individual endeavours, DES seems to have become incredibly popular in public games, with most members reporting ‘How do you join DES?’ incidents. In light of this and having a healthy roster of 27, we have reverted to an ‘invite only’ policy. If you feel you’re DES material, just be yourself in games with our members and don’t worry, we’ll notice you.

On the mapping front, the recent good news is that our very own RuThLe$$ (along with Undead) has had ac_iceroad achieve Official Map status. Congratulations Ruth. Also, last month saw the arrival of ac_outpost, an all-round DES map with so many contributions from our highly skilled members.

In server news, last month Freddo decided to ditch his unreliable home server to invest in Robotics, a VPS running one public, one match and one mapping server; a bonus for Australian players. Also, jamz brought the unreliable SpaceJam with him, since ditched and replaced with Astral on a linux VPS.

As far as playing goes, it seems so long ago now when DES got a raw deal in the opening season of the AssaultCube CTF league on the ESL site in March/April. After qualifying with wins against ANGRA and BCFH ( and a draw with C=64), we progressed to a victory over MCNNM in the last 8. This brought us to what turned out to be a controversial encounter with .rG! in the semis; having struggled to agree a mutually suitable time, the match was played at an ESL admin. appointed time when DES members were thin on the ground. Halo, RuThLe$$ and jiba performed admirably, but were beaten by .rG!’s tactical display. Thanks go to tipper, R4zor, sundown, Medusa, Cleaner, OpenSource, Cyprian and Hallstrom who all took part. With the memory of this behind us, we can look forward to the next official competition.

Our members list has ground to 23 recently.

Firstly I would like to welcome another lady to the bunch. E.Hallstrom has came to us from the sunny land of South Cal.

We welcome back an old member with open arms. Jiba returns after his little vacation he had.

Finally a very kind guy joins us fro Mexico, byrus.

We welcome these 3 among us. Show them your welcomes.

Yes our forums are currently off-line, but not because our host has ran out, because the phpbb system is being updated to the latest version. This may take a couple of days to get it back on-line. Sorry about the inconvience that this may have caused. The problem is currently being worked on. Thank you for your patience with the problem.

Today we announce our two newest members.

First, our newest player, from Norway, OpenSource. He has been in the game sometime and has some good experience and respect. Secondly, we announce our newest lady in the ranks, Cyprian. She comes to us from the land of Canada. She is new to Assault Cube but very respectful and a good player with a bright future.

With that being said, for the first time ever, we have reached a new limit to our members. 20 members, and what better then these two new ones to take us to that new goal.

Again, Welcome OpenSource and Cyprian, make yourselves at home.

Blackbeast has decided to return among DES. He rethought what he had said and felt some regret. We opened a vote to see what everyone thought and with no problem he passed and we welcomed him back.

Ruthless, formal KH member, has passed everything needed to become a full-time Dedicated Elite Soldier. We welcome him among us with open arms. Ruthless also runs a server (you can find info on all of our servers at our wiki page, DES wiki page).

Be sure to give both of these great players your welcome.

Dedicated Elite Soldiers, still marching on into year number two for us.

It is officially our birthday. Dedicated Elite Soldiers has turned one. After a rough start and a rough last few months to the first year, everything is slowly starting to smooth out. Entering two teams into both the Release Cup and the A&D Cup (good luck to both teams in both cups). Rytis left to join A&D. Also Ruthless has applied to become a member and has passed votes, he is now on the trial period, more details on this will come later.

Ok, now back to our big news for today, our birthday. This is a special time for us. We have overcame so much as a clan in this year, starting from literally nothing to building to what we are today. We have lost some great members here and there but what clan hasn’t I suppose. To all of those who have shown support, thank you from DES. Here is to many more years. Happy Birthday!

Lately we have had a few set backs on our recruiting efforts set for December 1st. First losing blackbeast was a set back. Now with JMKane resigning it pushes it back once more. We are now cut back down to 17 members, with our doors being open to JMkane if he decides he wishes to return.

Because of JMKane leaving, and Twitch being inactive, we have had a shuffle in the Elite Members as well. Sunny and Tipper have now been added to replace JMKane and an inactive Twitch

Now back to the on going subject, our recruiting efforts. We are now going from an invite only, to open recruiting. What this means is you can now apply instead of being invited. However, you still must pass a 75 percent vote from the Elite members, as well as the original DES test, as well as a trail period in which we will test your team play ability. So lets start seeing some people apply how about it.

Last do not forget, the DES Birthday is coming up December 1st. Still working on details for a birthday bash (open to ideas).

Recently one of our members decided to leave. Blackbeast has left DES. He reported his discussion to drop out of the ranks just a few days ago with the reason of attitudes. We wish him luck in the future on whatever he decides to do

This brings up the next point. Because of his drop out we have 2 spots now open to fill on December 1st. Get those recruiting applications in. It is very important that we put you through the test and trails before hand so we can let everyone know who we decide on December 1st.

First order of buisness would be the DES Open 2 vs 2 tournament. This has been extended until we have a winner, however, we still would like those still in the tournament to try to hurry things along more.

Next topic to discuss is our forums. On the forums some of you may notice there is now a section for guest posting. This allows guest to chat with us as they wish (with limited access of course) as well as being able to discuss why they have been blacklisted from our servers.

Finally, these brings up the topic about the DES birthday. This is quickly closing in on us. The DES birthday will be held December 1st. On this day we will name our 20th member. All those looking to be a member of DES please apply. We would like to review and test everyone that applys before December 1st. Also, on this day, we may have a special event (i.e fragfest, art contest, etc), still no plans set in stone for it yet.