XsT Disbanding

Sick’s Breakup Message

As of this week, Team XsT will be disbanded. This difficult decision was made by a couple of us oldies and I apologise for the sudden notice.

This decision has been extremely hard to make, considering the clan’s long and elaborate history. Over the past 9 years, many friends were made, many bonds were formed and many good times shared. I will miss all of these. XsT has been like family.

But I guess all good things must come to an end. In recent times, the clan has lost its zeal…its energy…its focus and ultimately its spirit. While TF2 rallied us back together, we lacked the spark that made XsT what it was during TFC days. Perhaps this can be attributed to the clan members (myself included) growing older and having other commitments. Gone were the days when school and gaming were all we had. Now we have serious tertiary studies, jobs, national service and spouses to share our time with. This has resulted in us having very erratic and sporadic playing times, making clan trainings very difficult.

Our recent foray into competitive scrims have also proved difficult and frustrating, probably also due to the above few reasons. Many disagreements have cropped up among older members of the clan, disagreeing on issues like scrim timings, tactics, team members and clans to compete against. I am sorry if I have been harsh and hope that we may remain friends. I guess it just goes to show how much the clan means to each of us.

I would like to thank every member who has put on an XsT tag, past and present. We have truly made each others gaming lives more fun, satisfying and complete. My last wish is that current members do not continue to use the XsT tag. It is now time to move on.

Regards, Sick aka brendan

Insanity’s Side of The Story

XsT has been a great clan and over the years has natured my gaming. However, in recent time, things have changed (to me at least). It is no longer the zealous, fanatical XsT I used to know back in classic. We’ve lost the aura of being invulnerable and untouchable. Many measures were taken to preserve this 9 year old bond, but ultimately, the committee has decided. Let us now part our ways and let the other clans use our various skills to the fullest. It is very sad, but inevitable. Its been a memorable and enjoyable experience with you guys on vent, in-game and at gatherings. On that note, I’d like to wish everyone the best of luck in finding a new home. Keep in touch; we may continue to meet in servers.

Good luck and have fun!

Cheers, Insanity aka Dennis

Psyrabbit's Message

It's a sad day for all of us. After hours of debate and discussion, we decided that it is time to cease this gaming fiasco and move on to other things. Insanity, Sick, Truman and I have decided that it is only best that we disband XsT. There is no need for reasons as there will be too many to list and most of them are extremely subjective. Everyone in XsT deserves a huge "Thank you," and "Well done." You've all performed amazingly in-game. I'd like to point out in particular that unlike many others who attempt to play games "seriously" and end up getting angry with their team, we always end up laughing at each other and mocking our socks off later. Every game we play is taken in utmost seriousness and aggression, we're always going out for the kills. This is something admirable. Even in our dying moments in-game, we'll still be fighting to take down those who mean us harm. XsT, I salute you and wish you all the best for your future endeavours in a world without Team Fortress. It pains me to say this, goodbye XsT.

Yours,

Gad "Psyrabbit" Tan

SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR LIFE?

To XsT, An Ode.

We are a team, a team we are,
And comrades don't stray too far.
The enemy attacks and one is slain,
Vengeance. Our deaths are not in vain.

The battle threatens a dire tone,
Together we are stronger, lesser alone.
Never perish without a fight,
We will prevail, uber when in blight.

Purity of skill is what we believe,
Without crits training we receive.
For no crits, is all crits to our foes,
Our fury they will feel in our blows.

Fun we'll have, all the time,
Xeon laughing, Duece on the line.
Sick and Stup are abroad and away,
Craig and Ren, more they must play.

Insanity our Heavy and Scout,
Just bought new com, now want to throw out.
Rat and Q, our Soldier friends,
On them our defence most depends.

Mut plays Spy and comes from behind,
A knife in your back, you normally will find.
Ville's our sniper, or so they say,
Watch out. He playing Soldier today.

Feanor, he's our foreign talent,
wait so long, skill better relevant.
Truman's yelling, Spiddy's drunk,
Indi's in camp and Mass is punk.

HBB and Crim are epic support,
Madquack dunno defend what fort.
I'm Psyrabbit and I felt ghey,
So here's an ode to XsT, Selr MIA.

***

The HWGuy Story.

"We have SIX Medics!!!" 

Just. Fucking. Hilarious.

What happens when people don't listen...

And you all know when this happens.

XsT Steam Avatars - Series 2

We're rolling out some new candy coloured avatar icons for all XsT members. We're looking to get your input for this one and allow you to personalise the icon. Send a private message to any of the admins listing your 2 favourite colours, first for the background, other for the alphabet!

About The Deathly Hallows

For you guys who are wondering about the poll. It's a direct reference to the last book in the Harry Potter series. The book describes The Deathly Hallows as three exceptionally magical items in the Harry Potter universe.

Referencing Wikipedia: The three items are, The Elder Wand (a.k.a The Deathstick), an extremely powerful magic wand made of elder wood with a core of Thestral tail hair. Supposedly, it is the most powerful wand in existence, and when used by its true master, he or she cannot be defeated in a duel. It also appears, as the wand is somewhat sentient, as are all wands, that it will not allow itself to cause real harm to its true Master. The second item is The Resurrection Stone. It allows the holder to see and communicate with the dead. According to the fairy tale concerning the origin of the Deathly Hallows, using the Resurrection Stone drove its original owner to commit suicide after seeing his deceased fiancée but being unable to truly be with her. The final item is The Cloak of Invisibility. This has the power to shield the wearer from being seen by Death. In the Potter universe, it is a true invisibility cloak, in the sense of being able to completely shield the wearer from sight, and cannot be worn out by time or spells.

Applying these items for some novelty into our game, three items are drawn from this reference.

Unlimited Cloaking - This is potentially the most dangerous and cheeky asset to have. The limitations are similar to regular cloaking though; when shot at you show up, you can die in cloaking to random crits and you won't be able to attack. This "Hallow" is directly referencing Harry's Cloak of Invisibility.

100% Crit Rockets - A reference to The Elder Wand, crit rockets are probably the most feared assault on a battlefield. As Xeon has boasted so many times before, "Give me crits and I'll clear a CP no problem." Similarly, its limitations reflect the loyalties of The Elder Wand in a sense that the overconfidence you place in your 4 rockets could find you exposing yourself to too many enemies, resulting in you dying, or you potentially self-damaging yourself to death.

Revive Fallen Comrades - Like the Resurrection Stone, reviving fallen teammates is perhaps another extremely good "Hallow" to have. However, perhaps before you choose this asset, think about the situations in which reviving a fallen friend might be useful. Like The Resurrection Stone from the Potter universe, perhaps bringing back a fallen friend might expose yourself to danger, ultimately resulting in the untimely deaths in both parties. Think Saving Private Ryan, and how the sniper used a fallen teammate (lol at Vin Diesel) to attempt to lure the others into the open. In many occasions, fallen team members perhaps should all spawn together and chiong as a unit (remember gravel pit anyone lol?), revival of a single fallen member while the others are already spawning back in the spawn room might perhaps break the "flow" of things.

These are my impressions and considerations on the poll we put up and are completely open to debate. If you guys think that any item you voted on has far greater pros than cons tagged to it, do post up in the Shoutbox or commentary!

Team Roomba presents: Meet Massacre.

We all miss you big 'buffed' 'cool haired' guy.... AHAHAH

Real life streetfighter

This must've hurt preetty bad.

Not really TF2, but gaming at its finest.

Griefing

A little off topic, but this made me laugh so hard=D
"Guys, can you hear me?"

-denn

Half-Life in 60 Seconds

In conversation with Feanor-|XsT|

As of 1932hrs, +8 GMT, Sunday the 2nd of March, our overseas detachment in the US, Feanor-|XsT| has attained 45th worldwide HLstatx ranking. A big shoutout to him for that. Personally, I don't like the idea of kill-per-death ranking systems, because it's often an unfair gauge of how a player performs. But this ranking just goes to show, how much Feanor is dedicating to his game. I had the chance to conduct a short interview and thought I'd write a small creature feature on Feanor. Read on.

Psycho_Rabbit-|XsT|:
How's it feel to be playing in a different country, do you find you have to adapt to their play-style?

Feanor-|XsT|:
Yes,there are lots of good players here. Haven't seen anyone get run down by a train in well for quite some time, lol. Lots of competitive leagues here, CEVO, CaL.

Psycho_Rabbit-|XsT|:
How does their style of play differ from the local (Singapore) ones?

Feanor-|XsT|:
I guess it's faster paced. More "in-your-face" type of playing,more direct combat. Then again each player has their own style, but that's the general idea of American play.

Psycho_Rabbit-|XsT|:
In general, what kind of classes do you usually face in those servers? Any different from our local ones? Like more soldiers, less engineers etc?

Feanor-|XsT|:
Lots of 32 player servers here, it depends on the map, lots of demoman though, almost everyone plays demo, usually 5-6 per team... 2-4 soldiers... 2 medics. But for dustbowl, offense will have 6 medics,defense will have 4-7 engineers. Dustbowl play here is quite different, you're constantly facing an uber. They're very good at chain ubering. So u have to line up ur sentries well. It's more on how fast the medics can charge their ubers and how fast the engineers can rebuild their sentries. But then again there're some "special" players who kill everything in their path. There's a soldier who keeps killing ppl with mid-air rocket, his name is Eriotic. Then there's Ghost, a pro demoman. There's Funky,a heavy who hits almost every single of his heavy bullets, even from far distance. Just some unique players. They're all in the top 50 I believe, I mean there are so many American players that the pro ones are really good. But there're many average players as well. Well,I often play in the pestgaming.com, Fatgamer, FearedGamer servers. I know many of the ppl in the top 50, play with them everyday. Some are my rivals,some are more friendly. I guess that's the gist of TF2 here.

Psycho_Rabbit-|XsT|:
No shit. You could write a wiki. But nevermind. Moving on, when will you be back?

Feanor-|XsT|:
I'll graduate (with a degree) by the end of this year. Go back and do NS at the beginning of next year.

Psycho_Rabbit-|XsT|:
Awesome dude. You looking forward to coming back to frag with us?

Feanor-|XsT|:
Yes, those people who killed me in that e-sumthing server, they will pay.

Psycho_Rabbit-|XsT|:
Yes they will Feanor. Yes they will. Anything else to add before this goes live?

Feanor-|XsT|:
When will our ISPs allow us to play across the world with no lag? That would be awesome. The world will be playing with each other. I mean 300 ping from right across the globe isn't that bad, a few years ago the ping would be around 800-1200. Anyway, good night. Chat with u some other time, I'm gonna climb up the global rankings.

Psycho_Rabbit-|XsT|:
Spoken like a champ, catchya later dude. Keep the XsT standards flying high.

The Choice: Cake, or Pie