Recruitment spree by Noob Alliance snags Ghost Warriors

by Azman Khan | Mar 28, 2018 | News

“Ghost Warriors” is a clan with immense talent in their ranks with teams such as Team Insane” for Call of Duty, and Team Dark Knights” for League of Legends as well as Special Forces 2. Having talent such as Real Mojo who is one of the best supports in League of Legends in Sri Lanka right now and the likes of Himasha Shalini Perera who has been the two time champion in the women’s Need for Speed tournament as well as a dedicated member in team Dark Knights who also became the runners up for Special Forces 2 during Sri Lanka Cyber Games in 2017. “Ghost Warriors” have shown great potential in the eSports arena, bringing together talented individuals who work both as a team and as individuals each doing their own role to the best of their abilities.Ghost Warriors wanted to take their gameplay to the next level, and  receiving an invite from Noob Alliance to join their clan was their way forward

In a smooth acquisition “Ghost Warriors” have now joined the ranks of Noob Alliance. The alliance will reap rewards as the talent that has been on display will have a chance to practice and compete with one another and bring about a sense of self improvement as being in an environment of high skilled cyber athletes always bring about the competitive side of any player, increasing the amount of time invested as well as the concentration levels as games become that much more intense.

We were able to catch up with both  clans and get their opinion on what is instore for the alliance in the coming future and how they felt about the acquisition. We spoke to Lahiru “mi-_RA#” Perera about how he felt about joining Noob Alliance

“The truth is, when I started gaming, I was seeking for a great place to improve my skills, a great place to spend time with and a great place to have good friends. In this search of a great clan I found some but none of them lasted for long. Maybe it’s due to the experience of their admins, or maybe it’s due to the internal conflicts between the clan. It was then, I found ‘Ghost Warriors’, a small clan surrounded by all the huge clans which was out there, with the most friendly and caring people. So I decided to stay there, It was not the reputation of the clan which is important, it is always the people. Years passed we played every tournament, we played with all the great teams which was out there not always the victory but for the fun and experience. Times passed things changed and it was then we realized we have to bring forward our skills up to the professional level. We knew about nA, we had played against nA and we needed to improve. Yes, nA was out there among the clan giants who holds the experience and perfection, so we all agreed to go beyond our potential, improve our gameplay and most of all, as I said earlier, to have great friends.”

Finally finding a piece of the puzzle how will this affect the two clans? Will it lead to better growth of talent? Will it create an electrifying atmosphere that shocks the community with upsets in tournament to even tournament championships? Your guess is as good as ours – it is uncertain but also very possible.

Receiving a statement in regards to the acquisition from Noob Alliance,

“Noob Alliance’s main Target with the acquiring is getting a spot at women’s league and help them to develop the games they are currently playing. In return developing their skills Noob Alliance gets to secure some places at these games. They are mainly taking part in Special Forces 2 and Call of Duty 4 as well as League of Legends”

Noob Alliance currently placed third in the national rankings. With Ghost Warriors onboard, will they be able to reach the coveted number one spot on the Sri Lankan eSports clan ranking? Especially when it comes to getting a top spot at Women’s league with Special Forces 2 and Call of Duty having potential to rise to the top as well. Prior to their joining Noob Alliance, Ghost Warriors had been in high demand, having  been approached by Phoenix Gaming to join their ranks.

This is the latest in a series of recruitments and acquisitions by Noob Alliance over the past 6 months. With the stepping down of their senior team last year, the younger leadership has commenced an aggressive recruitment strategy to slingshot them to the number 1 spot in 2018. We watch eagerly to see the results of these decisions play out against the other clans vying for the top position.

Why Call Of Duty 4 is Not Dead in Sri Lanka

by Azman Khan | Mar 21, 2018 | News

Video games are a way of escaping reality by becoming a hero or just killing time, these games have become a part of people’s day to day lives. In accordance with this, games have evolved and developed more and more, since its inception. Certain games which were popular back in the 90’s are now just something children laugh at, with its limited graphics and funky animations, leaving the old school games to be a thing of the past.

Introduction

One such game that has been introduced but since has not gotten that much traction in a global scale is Call of duty 4:Modern Warfare. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a multi platform computer game in the genre of a first-person shooter developed by the American company Infinity Ward and published by Activision; the game itself was released on November 12 2007 on PC.

Upon the release of Call of Duty 4 in 2007, it was introduced competitively worldwide. Many professional teams, such as Fnatic and Evil Geniuses, took part in these various tournaments and the game itself saw a lot of fame. The first time Call of Duty 4 was introduced as an eSport in Sri Lanka was during the Sri Lankan Cyber Games back in 2008, which garnered a lot of attention and saw a rise in popularity ever since its introduction to the local scene.

“COD4, is a game that some would say is what defines Lankan gaming. A game which paved the way to all other games in the country. Call of duty is the pinnacle of esports in Sri Lanka right now, and has being for a very long time, from it’s extremely intense games to rivalries that has gone beyond gaming. Call of duty has lasted so long and will last even longer because of how competitive it is, and how passionate every cod player is towards their game.” – Javeen Tharka, prominent player in the League of Legends community.

As a game that was introduced such a long time ago with its limited graphics and small variations in weapons with limited skins, Call of Duty 4 is no longer being played in the international scene. Games that have introduced first person and third person perspective, along with purchasable weapon skins and additional items that you can use to customize your in game loadout, have become more popular with players in a global scale.

I have played all the fps games and moba games including lol and DotA and I’m fairly good at all of them and one thing that keeps me pulling back towards cod despite me wanting to get better at other games Is how much cod makes you feel utterly alive.
One moment, one shot, can give you such a rush. – Imalsha ‘Thunder’ Peiris, prominent player in the Call of Duty 4 community

Advantages & Disadvantages

Looking at Call of Duty 4, it has many positive points, such as its wide availability and the fact that you do not require a legal copy of the game to access online servers or play in a local area network. On top of this, the fact that the game requires minimal graphics, allows almost any personal computer to run the game; catering to a large population of gamers in Sri Lanka. As opposed to games like Overwatch and Counter Strike that have to be purchased online in order to play the game, while requiring mid to high end graphics; in turn not allowing the younger players to be able to take part or even get the game, as Sri Lankan parents don’t want to invest money into purchasing a virtual game that will not contribute to their children’s future. Third parties have created and added modifications or ‘mods’ to the game called ‘Promod’ (not a name of a Sri Lankan child), that levels the playing field by getting rid of overpowered features and weapons found in the normal game, such as perks like last stand, which allows the player to shoot even after he is dead for a few seconds. The International scene and Sri lankan tournaments have depended on this mod to create an even and competitive environment for players, making it a very high skill based game; the current version being played right now in Sri Lanka is “pml220”,.

“I think it’s just a really good game , and most of us didn’t have good enough personal computers with the performance to play other games when we started off. Somehow it became really huge in the gaming community and its one of the more easier games to grasp for a beginner.” – Sameera ‘SvTue’ Vidushanka, former captain for nA Team Spite.

What is it like in Sri Lanka

Taking a small visit to the gaming cafes available in the country, will show you that majority of these cafes will definitely have Call of Duty 4 installed, as it’s extremely popular with the locals and is fast paced; it also doesn’t punish the player for leaving games like Dota 2, which requires at least an hour to finish a game and puts the player into a low priority bracket when leaving early. A huge positive in Call of Duty 4 is the fact that it has a low skill floor, which allows newer players to enjoy and understand the game, while experiencing it fully with a wide variety of custom maps as well as game modifications such as the “Zombie Mod”, which allows players to have fun with their friends.

“Call of Duty 4 compared to other games have teams which compete on an equal level. There was no team which continuously dominated the game throughout the years. There was always tough competition between the top five ranked teams. The game was never one sided which is why it lasted so long and continues to grow in the gaming community.” – Harry ‘Distant’ Manoharan, captain of TechMorph Team EnvyUS

The Sri Lankan Call of Duty 4 tournaments has seen a huge growth in the number of competitive players, teams and clans.  The most recent Sri Lanka Cyber Games tournament hosted a whopping 112 COD4 teams which is an extremely high number of participants 10 years after the release of the game itself; in comparison, DOTA 2 had the next highest number, with 56 teams, half the number of Call of Duty 4 teams. SLCG Call of Duty 4 Matches were played out till 10 O’clock in the night and still saw a massive fanbase cheering the players on and supporting them, showing you just how popular the game is in Sri Lanka.

“No game has come out yet to compare with cod4
It doesn’t require a high performance pc to play it
Also it’s the fashion in Sri Lankan eSports
Many players started games like CSGO Dota2 and many other new games
And yeah glk keeps going with cod4 tournaments because people are asking for it. So it will not die for a very long time
I fear my kid will also will have to deal with cod4
Even I was a cod4 player” – Shenal AB Daniel, prominent player in the DOTA 2 community

Community

One of the major aspects of why Call of Duty 4 is so loved in Sri lanka is because of the support shown by the community itself, the blossoming rivalries as well as the intense games. As the glue that holds any game together, the community has shown tremendous support in and out of tournaments to ensure that this game receives the love that it deserves. We managed to get a few answers from some of the well-known people in the community itself, shedding some light as to why Call of Duty 4 is considered the best game in Sri Lanka and the game that paved the way for other great games as well.

“The strength of the game is always its community. Every member in the community has a great passion towards the game and gives their maximum effort to keep the game running. Though COD4 was removed from competitive tournaments in most of the countries around 4-5 years back, it was still increasing in the number of participants each and every year in Sri Lanka, so the community became stronger. Even one of the largest tournament hosted in Sri Lanka by SLT did not include Call of Duty 4 in it until they came to know how vastly the game is been played and how huge the call of duty community is” –  Harry ‘Distant’ Manoharan, captain of TechMorph Team EnvyUS

“Since the beginning of the e-Sports in Sri Lanka COD4 highlighted as one of the main attractions in the first person shooter genre, and today we see a lot of potential players of all age groups passionately engaged. We at Dialog Gaming are in motion to open the borders to international tournaments and showcase our local talent through similar titles such as Special Force 2 and many more which the COD 4 community can easily excel” – Udara Gunasekara Product Manager – Gaming Services Dialog Axiata PLC

“It has always been the community and the passion the players had. The competitiveness has not dropped a bit, and we can see new players emerging every year” – Isuru ‘Viper’ Herath, captain of TechMorph Outlaws

“Call of Duty 4 is game that is being held up high thanks to the Sri Lankan Call of Duty 4 community, all the way from the referees, to the players and even the spectators. After the death of X-fire, a social platform which was used by almost all the Sri Lankan cod players to find scrims and socialise, many people thought that the game was dead. However, the community persevered, and has now become the largest gaming community and game in Sri Lanka.” – Navod ‘Cyanide’ Bopitiya, captain of nA Team Phase 2.0

Call of Duty 4 has been a game that has created many memorable moments over the years for Sri Lankan fans and holds a close place in their heart, this is reflected by the majority of players that still find themselves running to their computer or the closest gaming café to play this game and create even more memorable moments, be it with friends or teammates.

Let us know what you think in the forum below!

PnX|Thé Kadé vs TM|Death Sentence El Clásico showdown at GCDL season 12 finals

by Azman Khan | Mar 13, 2018 | News

In a match that can be only classified as the clash of the titans Sri lanka’s very own El clasico which is basically a long standing rivalry and that is what we witnessed yesterday during the GCDL finals. The game between The Kade and Tech Morph Death Sentence in a best of five series which ended in stunning fashion.

The rivalry definitely stood up to be what we all expected, both team preparing and analyzing the opponents to know how they work inside and out. The first game brought us a very interesting an unorthodox draft from both teams. We saw death sentence picking up the night stalker who is one of the strongest position 4 roaming cores currently in the meta and being played by one the most talented players in Sri Lanka to top it off. The night stalker was followed up by a lich an offlane sandking a midlane tinker and to round it all off a surprising secret ace in the sleeve that was the Clinkz. The Kade in response to this went to pick up a warlock which was a very lackluster pick not providing too much during the game followed up by a strong laner in the batrider and an aggressive 4th position tusk along with a midlane Phantom lancer who does well to deal with tinker during the laning stage and to complete the picks we witnessed the gyrocopter as that position 1 carry.

Game 1 saw a unique style of dual lanes coming out due to the change in the meta after 7.10 patch update came out which made bounty runes not give any experience whatsoever but bonus gold. Which impacts the roaming position 4 heroes as they spend their time runnin around the map and applying pressure. So to combat this they came up with the dual lanes to ensure that the offlaner gets his farm and the position 4 receives his required levels as well. Beaver on his offlane sandking dominated the game creating a lot of space and opportunities for Death sentence to come out on top along with some aggressive rotations coming in from Tensa on his Clinkz ensuring that the gyro does not get off to the strong start that was required. The Kade managed to take some good high ground fights and force the game late to give them the advantage but some amazing coordination as well as teamwork allowed Death Sentence to take game number 1 in what was a nail biting game one in the best of 5 series.

Game 2 saw a very one sided performance with The Kade demolishing Death sentence in what was a drastic change in pace from game 1. Paradox getting his hand on Timbersaw which dominated game number 2. Death sentence having a very melee dominated line up with not much magic burst saw it fit to call the game early and try their luck in the upcoming game 3.

Game 3 was in similar fashion with game number 2 we saw The Kade picking up Disruptor with a position 4 earthshaker and the 3 cores consisting of Beastmaster, Outworld Devourer and finally the Faceless void in response to Death Sentence’s offlane puck and undying duo which was a unique duo coming out from them followed by a shadow shaman which was supposed to allow the arc warden to get the required early game start to apply split push pressure with the mid lane razor piling on the early game pressure. Things did not go according to plan for the Death Sentence team as their lineup came crashing down with excellent rotation coming out from Toadboss on his earthshaker ensuring that the beastmaster has a strong start applying a lot of pressure on the arc warden who was pressured constantly in his lane as well as the razor who had a difficult time dealing with the razor. The Kade sitting comfortable with a 2-1 lead in back to back dominant victories and it seemed like death sentence had finally hit the wall that they could not scale.

What happened next was something that hadn’t happened in the last 4 years and shocked the entire community. Death sentence bringing back their Clinkz which seemed to throw a spanner in the works of the Kade’s side partnered with Darkness on his disruptor as well as AB on his night stalker that seemed to be the key to allowing death sentence a very strong start. Assisting Sathan on his mid Queen of Pain who had to deal with intense pressure coming out of Paradox on his Viper which is never the best lane to get yourself in and beaver being the missing piece of the puzzle playing the doom which was key for death sentence as they were up against an omniknight a juggernaut a shadow shaman and a nyx assassin that The Kade had picked up.

AB realizing how vital the omniknight is to Kades lineup opting not to assist the doom in his lane as he has devour available ensuring that he has a decent time getting levels as well as gold necessary to put pressure during the mid game stage. Omniknight who was being played by Hawkie however was not that fortunate getting heavily pressured by the disruptor as well as night stalker who were already ahead of him in levels never found his footing during the game suffering in lane and not being able to achieve the required amount of farm or levels to keep up with Death sentence. Paradox on his Viper who had a dominating laning stage against the Queen of Pain seemed to be set to take on the later stages of the game found himself being pressured by some aggressive movements from the clinkz which was not something you are used to seeing as a carry usually sits in his lane and farm for the first 20 minutes of the game (chinese dota). These rotations definitely set the viper back which left only the Juggernaut played by Wado in the top slot to do some heavy lifting. The weight seemed to be too much as fight after fight we saw death Sentence coming out on top even after a lot of smoke rotations coming out from The Kade which were not too successful. The key factor being that the doom was able to catch out the omniknight in almost every engagement making his contribution to fights null and void which resulted in history being made as The Kade had been forced to the Final game in the best of 5 series now tied up 2-2 which had not happened ever before in the History of Dota 2 in Sri lanka!. El Clasico was living up to its expectations as we roll up to game number five the final game of the finals.

Spectators were definitely uncertain at this point of the series given how it seemed that both team were on equal footing in this moment. Still heavily the advantage on the side of The Kade as the experience and skill were definitely on their side. We saw the Clinkz being taken away to ensure that Tensa does not apply the insane amounts of pressure that was placed on Kade in the previous games with his aggressive playstyle. Final draft going in we saw Death Sentence picking up the night stalker along with the disruptor once again as the combination of heroes definitely paid them dividends in the previous games. Reacting to this we had The Kade picking up their Shadow Shaman as well as nyx in response followed by some respect banns following Kade picking up the doom themselves this time and a tinker which was instantly countered with a Zeus pick from Death Sentence and a Centaur Warrunner which allowed them to disengage incase a core did get doomed. To round the draft off for Death Sentence was an Anti Mage pick which gave them a lot of mobility and very potent late game, Which was immediately countered by a void pick as they could his ultimate ability the chronosphere to keep the Anti Mage in check.

The game started the usual way with standard 3-1-1 lanes the only difference being the centaur warrunner having a much better lane than the doom who was stuck at level 1 till about 2-3 minutes in the game while the centaur was at level 3 during the time. Zeus had a pretty favourable match up against the tinker being able to spam arc lightning from afar making sure that the tinker did not have any killing opportunities during the laning stage. Doom definitely suffered a lot during the early stage of the game finding himself putting more emphasis on his second skill to keep him alive rather than the usual aggressive option with infernal blade. The night stalker once again having good game presence especially during the night time made a really good impact bringing down the tinker multiple times along with the disruptor to ensure he would not get an ideal boots of travel timing which is usually around the 9-12 minute mark. This paid huge dividends to the side of Death Sentence as they managed to bring down the tinker multiple times with the team synergy they had with their picks. Zeus with his ultimate thundergod’s wrath is the perfect tool that works with disruptor and his glimpse ability and centaur warrunner’s stampede that allows them to get in and out of fight which enables the nightstalker to be even more aggressive with his rotations which led to a stream of kills during the early stages of the game. The glimmer of hope that was the Faceless void managed to do his duty of slowing down the antimage and bringing him down with the usage of his ultimate as well as create some very much needed space for the doom as well as the tinker to catch up in terms of farm to be able to help them come out on top during the next teamfight. Things did not seem to go according to plan as we saw anti mage showing the results of his extensive farm come to fruition as he assisted his team in wiping the dire team near the radiant tier 2 tower along with the immense burst damage coming out from zeus which in turn for winning the fight awarded the Death Sentence with the very valuable aegis of immortal which was placed in the hands of the anti mage. The play which enable Death sentence to close the 5th and final match was the play made by Darkness on his disruptor who managed to glimpse back the void who bought back all the way to the radiant tier 2 tower while they took the barracks at dier top lane. While on their retreat they managed to catch the void and burst him down leaving him out of the fight for 110 seconds allowing Death Sentence to take game number 5 and become the new GCDL season 12 champions!

We congratulate Death Sentence on achieving this feet which is in every word the equivalent to scaling the highest mountain and reaching the top besting the reigning champions.

Let us know what you thought about the game in the forum below!