Just a brief note to say, with the loss of Mr.Floppy, we needed a new council member to keep up the numbers. This was a tricky decision, but Ruthless was selected on the grounds of length of service, knowledge of AC and his superb attitude to the game. Belated congratulations Ruth, and sorry I forgot to put this here earlier.
December was a quiet month for DES. There were lots of battles, clan-matches and public games alike. Some we won and some we lost. We had a good showing in the AC Mapping Contest #4, with 3rd (ac_stellar – Halo and Bukz) and 5th (ac_noct – Dreamer). Our congratulations go to the winner, dm_canicule_night by SnD, who we all thought was Sundown using a pseudonym.
Then, the bomb-shell was dropped; Mr.Floppy announced his decision to cease all AC activity for personal reasons. Mr.Floppy joined DES in March 2008 already demonstrating the mapping skills that would lead to him achieving the ultimate AC mapper’s accolade – official map status for ac_keller in the v1.0 release. His contributions to the community in the areas of mapping and other map customisation are widely recognised, especially through his work on the akimbo site, and his views were always eagerly awaited and respected. He’ll be sorely missed on IRC by those of us who appreciated his acerbic wit and improptu cigarette breaks.
Some of Mr.Floppy’s best work can be experienced on the Custom|DES server which has laucnched (officially) today. This server, which has been running for some weeks as test_server, has a maprot consisting entirely of custom maps made by DES members. Needless to say, these maps are of the same quality, or higher, as the official maps from DES members. Most of them are being played on servers around the community already. Some of the maps use custom content; you can download everything required via our mapping page.
It’s that time of year again; time to celebrate a successful second year of gaming for Dedicated Elite Soldiers.
This time last year DES had just 17 members, so it’s been a year of recruiting, as well as one of high-quality map output and ever-presence on public servers. There have been downs as well as ups, but resolving the problems only makes us stronger.
Here’s to another fun-packed year. Cheers.
ps. Drinks are on DES all day.
We are sorry for the inconvenience that this has happened.
We are currently investigating what has happened, I just hope it had nothing to do with my little xhtml code I added to the forum last night,
We will keep you updated on changes that may occur.
We might be able to provide a temporary forum but then thats not a solution.
It seems it’s a time of major upheaval here at DES. As if one council retirement wasn’t enough, two more swiftly follow with the creation of a group of DES Veterans. Cleaner has been joined by tipper and TampaMike as the elder statesmen, leaving the way for two more council appointments. Congratulations to Mr.Floppy and Bukz who, we are sure, will help to carry DES forward on the groundwork set by our older members 
, who will, of course, be watching very closely.
Congratulations also go to Davitomon, of A&D clan, on his victory in the ESL 1v1 Summer League, proving that even if SMG > sniper, at the top level, as some claim, there’s no substitute for practise and dedication. Well done Davi.
Congratulations to jamz on his appointment to the DES Council!
Sadly, Cleaner has expressed his wish to step down from DES duties, due to inactivity and other commitments. Our warmest thanks go to Cleaner for everything he’s done to make DES the respected AC clan that it is. He will always be DES, whatever he chooses to do, and his resignation has left a hole which would be hard for anyone to fill.
jamz hopes to do the best job he can in making the right decisions for DES, and will continue to represent the clan’s ideals as he has for the past six months.
More sad news at DES, as we say farewell to Jelly, who has quit for personal reasons. He’d only been with us for 4 months, but in that time he became, arguably, our deadliest player on the public servers. He hasn’t admitted it, but it was probably the pressure of being called an aimbot every other game that did him in. Best wishes Jelly.
The DES mapping department has been busy again, turning out ac_culvert by Bukz and optus (missed off the last post 
), ac_ingress by R4zor and RuThLe$$, and ac_alcove by Halo and Bukz.
Apologies go to Woop, oNe and BCFH, against whom we were unable to fulfil our ESL 3v3 fixtures. ESL apathy finally set in for good, and that will probably be our last involvement with the website from hell. Maybe.
This week marks a sad point for DES as we lose long-standing member jiba. jiba had been at DES since March 2008, but has resigned for personal reasons. He has said that he’ll still be playing AC, and will, we hope, continue to turn out the high quality maps that are his trademark. Good luck jiba.
In other news, we’ve taken the unusual step, of closing recruitment to DES, even through invite. With several new members on board, we need time to settle everyone in. This means that current apps will be on hold for the forseeable future. If this affects you, we hope you understand and, if you’re meant to be DES, there’ll be a slot waiting when we open up again.
We got our act together, briefly, to play an ESL match against MCNNM. Thank you Boni for being patient; your reward was a well-deserved victory. DES lined up with Godsmack, jamz and OpenSource, but a lack of tactics was the key issue again. A heavy defeat in game one, 14-4, led to us copying their tactics in the second. Our brilliant plan lasted for about three minutes, until MCNNM came up with a new one. 6-3 showed an improvement, but the most important feature was that it was a fun match.
Not much good news yet in this competition. Timezones continue to get in the way of arranging matches, as the Australian trio struggled to even arrange an appointment with ANGRA. When an agreed time came up (on 11 August), we tried for an all female team to play, but Cyprian’s internet connection cut out at the last minute. Medusa, Hallstrom and stand-in jamz performed admirably against a team centred around an outstanding display by Panico. ANGRA won both games 11-5; a lack of paractised team tactics being the major difference again.
On 16 August, again with time running out to play the game, A&D were ready and enquired in IRC as to DES’s position. Freddo, Bukz, and Jelly were present and able to start, so together they took the decision to play. Despite a strong start, once more, never having played together, the DES team were eventually beaten by an experienced A&D side 11-3, 11-6. These bad results and the difficulties in arranging matches with the multinational, multi-aged squad, has left DES clan disillusioned with the ESL tournament. We will, however, fight out our remaining matches with our usual good grace.
Meanwhile, the clan is investing time in a different tournament altogether. tipper has been singing the praises of competing in Unreal Tournament 2004, with RuThLe$$ joining him. A large group of DES players is looking at the game at the moment, with a view to DES branching out into another community. However, with the deep feelings we all have for AC, there’s no danger of us disappearing from this game at all.
And for all byrus fans out there, he may be back this weekend, after studying hard and, hopefully, getting his broken computer seen to.