My 2011 Recap:
Most memorable moment: ono's 5 man at GRUNEX, nreo's 1v5 at GRUNEX
Worst moment: Losing to MIW at GRUNEX
Biggest Achievement Winning a LAN with my brother nreo!
Favourite team (excluding ourselves): Epsilon
Favourite players(excluding ourselves): Stevy, miRACLE, VATO
Most valuable community members: Tomzki, Bocerbo, Seanza, Smuggy
MVP of CoD4 in 2011 (excluding ourselves): Stormy
Breakthrough player in 2011: SexAxZ
Favourite LAN: Adroits CoD Masters
Most disliked LAN: The Party 9
Where to begin? There's so much to talk about that happened in 2011. A bittersweet feeling to the end of it all I suppose - but let's start at the very beginning of my timeline. We were without a real home between February and April and had little hopes of finding one. Jasko (cozje) contacted one of the guys over at LowLandLions and from that point onwards we were given the opportunity of representing the very best of BeNeLux, an organization built from the bottom up with fantastic core values, sound management, and a very strong eye for talent. Let's take a look at our team's journey in 2011.
January to April 2011
We had had moderate success in the 6 months before we officially joined (on the 2nd of April) what was to be our home for the rest of 2011. Moderate success included winning the Full Tilt Poker Challenge (defeating Anexis, TCM, Redlink, and Team-MondialServers), coming 5th-8th at Gamersject after a fantastic group stage (defeating Power and Fnatic, losing to Anexis in the Quarter Finals), and some other smaller successes on our pre-LLL timeline. However, we were riddled with problems (support-wise) and we were forced to look elsewhere for a supporting backbone. We were actually offered a lucrative deal with Meet Your Makers, but had our reasons to decline and instead continue our search elsewhere.
April to July 2011
But then came our time in LowLandLions, a time filled with promotional events, lineup changes, LAN wins, LAN flops, exciting partnerships, GAMEPLAY videos, and a heck load of life experiences. The prospect of joining LowLandLions excited all of us. We had joined 8 days before Outpost on Fire 4 and were to miss out on what was probably one of the only spring LAN events of 2011. Keeping our activity up online we were winning cups, still learning tricks of the trade, with only a few losses in what was to be a successful next few months.
Yet, my memory becomes a blur when it comes to reminiscing upon the summer period. Filled with exams, pressure from my peers, professors, and colleagues, I had no time to play. Our activity dropped due to my lack of time, and before we knew it we had missed out on three consecutive LAN events (3 events we were bound to place on the podium if I am to be honest). Upsetting to say the least, but once my exams had finished I gained the time and energy to restart playing the game with my friends.
In these few months we had also toured BeNeLux doing various promotional events alongside Sennheiser, endorsing their seemingly flawless audio gear (this isn't an exaggeration or preaching of a partner, I genuinely mean it...) where myself, Jasko (cozje) and Chris (nreo) all took turns playing against the general public. With Adroits CoD Masters on our schedule after the shootouts, we couldn't wait to compete offline again.
August to September 2011
Our first LAN win came in the third week of August at the Adroits CoD Masters, only our second event ever attended together as a team (a strange thought come to think of it). Having strolled through the groups and done the dirty work against teams such as replika, WinFakt! and Infused.Tt in the playoffs, we had finally won our first LAN event. September came quickly as we eagerly anticipated our third event of 2011, GRUNEX. We arrived in Prague and explored the city a little bit in our first full day there before playing.
As soon as the group stages had begun we seemed edgy and quite sloppy in our play (I can only attribute that to the soaring Saharan heat we played in on that Saturday evening). Coming second in our group we were bound to meet our arch-rivals Anexis in the semi finals, which we narrowly lost out to and were put straight to the lower brackets. Meeting MIW for a spot in the consolation final, we unfortunately lost our rhythm and were knocked out of the tournament in a game we really should have won with all the effort we had put in to the game for the past few months. Yet, they deserve all the praise they received and we could only blame ourselves for the shock-loss.
nreo, cozje, and ono after an enjoyable group stage at Adroits CoD Masters.
Chris (nreo) was set to quit and had to fly back early morning from Prague to begin his quest of becoming a Master. Not a CoD Master, But a Master of New Media at the University of Amsterdam. And with the need for change we witnessed the departure of Declan (germaine), another heavy hearted move made by all of us.
September progressed quickly for us and we saw two new faces arrive in our team. Adam (Mumma) and Roe (froz) had joined us shortly after going two men short of a full lineup. Knowing that these two would benefit us in the long run and fit in very well with us we couldn't have envisaged any other way to progress even further than we already had.
October to December 2011
By this time we had received so much support from the CoD community we needed to give something back. Creating these GAMEPLAY videos was something everybody would enjoy so that was what we kept making (and intend to do in the upcoming year). A fantastic and exciting time for the team and everyone over at LowLandLions with eSports still going strong and the partnership of MSI.
Jasko and I attended FirstLook (one of the biggest gaming expos in Europe) with MSI and played against visitors of our booth for two days. An incredible atmosphere with incredible guys and girls over at MSI, we enjoyed our time there and I can safely speak on behalf of Jasko that it was a great experience to have. It was strange, as I had attended FirstLook myself the previous year with two friends over at fnatic, and I thought to myself, next time this year I'll be doing these with my team. And, strangely enough, I peered up and saw a huge MSI booth with myself seated in the middle of it all.
Just before the GameKings guy came to interview me / pester me while doing shootouts at the MSI booth, FirstLook
And with a bright light in Autumn in the wake of MSI becoming a partner came a fantastic prospect for Call of Duty 4. A $10,000 tournament hosted by Corsair. The biggest online tournament to date and we took part in it. With a lack of practice with each other we went in completely unprepared, using our precious time to build on our team play and tactics as we slowly progressed to the final. Defeating fnatic, Team Dignitas, and many other teams along our way to the grand final, narrowly losing out yet again to a very sportsmanlike Anexis side. Despite our loss we can only have high hopes of what's to come for our team, with the likes of Hampus (mySn) joining our ranks of a young, hungry team of friends (and waving a sad goodbye to Adam [Mumma] who has decided his time had come to pursue his real life career path).
What's to come in 2012
Elsewhere in CoD tournaments, we slipped up in the ESL EMS group stage we were thankfully given a second chance thanks to FragMasters (a very happy new year to you), only to see us presently set in the semi-finals of the tournament! With a triumphant first place finish in the CyberGamer invite league, we seem set on competing for honours left, right and centre for the upcoming 2012. With the quarter finals of the EMS to be played in early January 2012, and having just won the CB EuroCup Final vs Anexis and the Sparkle Cup final against Aces, we hope that 2012 brings many more successes for our team.
A very 'emotional' end to 2011 with many highs and little lows (albeit large ones), we look to the future with our eyes wide open (don't you dare crack an Asian joke). Receiving fantastic support, and a feeling of camaraderie amongst our fellow LLL gamers, it is a bittersweet end to our time over at LowLandLions. But as all good things come to an end, great times lie ahead with the birth of Western Wolves. The same familiar faces under a new collective name, with significantly larger aspirations and an influx of European talent, I can only look positively to this move. And with our sights set on attending Grunex, Dockyard LAN, and other large CoD4 events this upcoming spring season, we have the belief and drive to pursue that ever-evading number one spot of CoD. A very large thank you to Birger, Florent, Michiel, Robin, Filip, and absolutely everyone else who has taken good care of us over the past year. 2012 will be a big year for all of us!
My Goals for 2012:
- Improve myself more as a player and teammate
- Playing alongside my (two new) teammates and improving ourselves together
- Help the smaller teams progress and improve
- Focus on my YouTube channel, bring enjoyable content to the community
- Finally take that number 1 spot in CoD4
Happy new year to all,
Thomas 'cHoObiE' Mead
Most memorable moment: ono's 5 man at GRUNEX, nreo's 1v5 at GRUNEX
Worst moment: Losing to MIW at GRUNEX
Biggest Achievement Winning a LAN with my brother nreo!
Favourite team (excluding ourselves): Epsilon
Favourite players(excluding ourselves): Stevy, miRACLE, VATO
Most valuable community members: Tomzki, Bocerbo, Seanza, Smuggy
MVP of CoD4 in 2011 (excluding ourselves): Stormy
Breakthrough player in 2011: SexAxZ
Favourite LAN: Adroits CoD Masters
Most disliked LAN: The Party 9
Where to begin? There's so much to talk about that happened in 2011. A bittersweet feeling to the end of it all I suppose - but let's start at the very beginning of my timeline. We were without a real home between February and April and had little hopes of finding one. Jasko (cozje) contacted one of the guys over at LowLandLions and from that point onwards we were given the opportunity of representing the very best of BeNeLux, an organization built from the bottom up with fantastic core values, sound management, and a very strong eye for talent. Let's take a look at our team's journey in 2011.
January to April 2011
We had had moderate success in the 6 months before we officially joined (on the 2nd of April) what was to be our home for the rest of 2011. Moderate success included winning the Full Tilt Poker Challenge (defeating Anexis, TCM, Redlink, and Team-MondialServers), coming 5th-8th at Gamersject after a fantastic group stage (defeating Power and Fnatic, losing to Anexis in the Quarter Finals), and some other smaller successes on our pre-LLL timeline. However, we were riddled with problems (support-wise) and we were forced to look elsewhere for a supporting backbone. We were actually offered a lucrative deal with Meet Your Makers, but had our reasons to decline and instead continue our search elsewhere.
April to July 2011
But then came our time in LowLandLions, a time filled with promotional events, lineup changes, LAN wins, LAN flops, exciting partnerships, GAMEPLAY videos, and a heck load of life experiences. The prospect of joining LowLandLions excited all of us. We had joined 8 days before Outpost on Fire 4 and were to miss out on what was probably one of the only spring LAN events of 2011. Keeping our activity up online we were winning cups, still learning tricks of the trade, with only a few losses in what was to be a successful next few months.
Yet, my memory becomes a blur when it comes to reminiscing upon the summer period. Filled with exams, pressure from my peers, professors, and colleagues, I had no time to play. Our activity dropped due to my lack of time, and before we knew it we had missed out on three consecutive LAN events (3 events we were bound to place on the podium if I am to be honest). Upsetting to say the least, but once my exams had finished I gained the time and energy to restart playing the game with my friends.
In these few months we had also toured BeNeLux doing various promotional events alongside Sennheiser, endorsing their seemingly flawless audio gear (this isn't an exaggeration or preaching of a partner, I genuinely mean it...) where myself, Jasko (cozje) and Chris (nreo) all took turns playing against the general public. With Adroits CoD Masters on our schedule after the shootouts, we couldn't wait to compete offline again.
August to September 2011
Our first LAN win came in the third week of August at the Adroits CoD Masters, only our second event ever attended together as a team (a strange thought come to think of it). Having strolled through the groups and done the dirty work against teams such as replika, WinFakt! and Infused.Tt in the playoffs, we had finally won our first LAN event. September came quickly as we eagerly anticipated our third event of 2011, GRUNEX. We arrived in Prague and explored the city a little bit in our first full day there before playing.
As soon as the group stages had begun we seemed edgy and quite sloppy in our play (I can only attribute that to the soaring Saharan heat we played in on that Saturday evening). Coming second in our group we were bound to meet our arch-rivals Anexis in the semi finals, which we narrowly lost out to and were put straight to the lower brackets. Meeting MIW for a spot in the consolation final, we unfortunately lost our rhythm and were knocked out of the tournament in a game we really should have won with all the effort we had put in to the game for the past few months. Yet, they deserve all the praise they received and we could only blame ourselves for the shock-loss.
nreo, cozje, and ono after an enjoyable group stage at Adroits CoD Masters.
Chris (nreo) was set to quit and had to fly back early morning from Prague to begin his quest of becoming a Master. Not a CoD Master, But a Master of New Media at the University of Amsterdam. And with the need for change we witnessed the departure of Declan (germaine), another heavy hearted move made by all of us.
September progressed quickly for us and we saw two new faces arrive in our team. Adam (Mumma) and Roe (froz) had joined us shortly after going two men short of a full lineup. Knowing that these two would benefit us in the long run and fit in very well with us we couldn't have envisaged any other way to progress even further than we already had.
October to December 2011
By this time we had received so much support from the CoD community we needed to give something back. Creating these GAMEPLAY videos was something everybody would enjoy so that was what we kept making (and intend to do in the upcoming year). A fantastic and exciting time for the team and everyone over at LowLandLions with eSports still going strong and the partnership of MSI.
Jasko and I attended FirstLook (one of the biggest gaming expos in Europe) with MSI and played against visitors of our booth for two days. An incredible atmosphere with incredible guys and girls over at MSI, we enjoyed our time there and I can safely speak on behalf of Jasko that it was a great experience to have. It was strange, as I had attended FirstLook myself the previous year with two friends over at fnatic, and I thought to myself, next time this year I'll be doing these with my team. And, strangely enough, I peered up and saw a huge MSI booth with myself seated in the middle of it all.
Just before the GameKings guy came to interview me / pester me while doing shootouts at the MSI booth, FirstLook
And with a bright light in Autumn in the wake of MSI becoming a partner came a fantastic prospect for Call of Duty 4. A $10,000 tournament hosted by Corsair. The biggest online tournament to date and we took part in it. With a lack of practice with each other we went in completely unprepared, using our precious time to build on our team play and tactics as we slowly progressed to the final. Defeating fnatic, Team Dignitas, and many other teams along our way to the grand final, narrowly losing out yet again to a very sportsmanlike Anexis side. Despite our loss we can only have high hopes of what's to come for our team, with the likes of Hampus (mySn) joining our ranks of a young, hungry team of friends (and waving a sad goodbye to Adam [Mumma] who has decided his time had come to pursue his real life career path).
What's to come in 2012
Elsewhere in CoD tournaments, we slipped up in the ESL EMS group stage we were thankfully given a second chance thanks to FragMasters (a very happy new year to you), only to see us presently set in the semi-finals of the tournament! With a triumphant first place finish in the CyberGamer invite league, we seem set on competing for honours left, right and centre for the upcoming 2012. With the quarter finals of the EMS to be played in early January 2012, and having just won the CB EuroCup Final vs Anexis and the Sparkle Cup final against Aces, we hope that 2012 brings many more successes for our team.
A very 'emotional' end to 2011 with many highs and little lows (albeit large ones), we look to the future with our eyes wide open (don't you dare crack an Asian joke). Receiving fantastic support, and a feeling of camaraderie amongst our fellow LLL gamers, it is a bittersweet end to our time over at LowLandLions. But as all good things come to an end, great times lie ahead with the birth of Western Wolves. The same familiar faces under a new collective name, with significantly larger aspirations and an influx of European talent, I can only look positively to this move. And with our sights set on attending Grunex, Dockyard LAN, and other large CoD4 events this upcoming spring season, we have the belief and drive to pursue that ever-evading number one spot of CoD. A very large thank you to Birger, Florent, Michiel, Robin, Filip, and absolutely everyone else who has taken good care of us over the past year. 2012 will be a big year for all of us!
My Goals for 2012:
- Improve myself more as a player and teammate
- Playing alongside my (two new) teammates and improving ourselves together
- Help the smaller teams progress and improve
- Focus on my YouTube channel, bring enjoyable content to the community
- Finally take that number 1 spot in CoD4
Happy new year to all,
Thomas 'cHoObiE' Mead
stephen
dusty
zauron
zMVP
