Messages

[Q: What's your name? (no last names)]

Q: What's your name? (no last names)
A: Connor

Q: What's your age?
A: 17

Q: What country are you from?
A: UK

Q: What's your favorite SFT Server?
A: 'Survival'

Q: What's your favorite thing to do on the SFT server you play most?
A: Used to be hosting events (e.g. Spleef Weekend, SFT Olympics, PvP Weekend), talking to others, before that helping players in my time of staffing (2011 & 2012)

Q: What are your hobbies?
A:  Counter-Strike (playing and watching!), I also like film

Q: What kind of music do you listen to?
A: Whatever really, not big into music!

Q: Do you own a Console? If yes what console?
A: Xbox 360 - not that I use it anymore!

Q: Do you have any pets? What kind of?
A: An 8-year old chocolate labrador called Molly

Q: Do you use Skype (y/n)
A: Yes

Q: Name the top 3 games that you still play
A: CS:GO (the only game I play..!)

Q: Is there anything about yourself that you'd like to mention?
A: Like Jerry above, I like chemistry. I'm only active on the forums these days, also... oh and I am approaching 4 years on SFT in May!

Onion, please, for the love of fuck. Shut the fuck up right now. Do you know how hard it is to be the head of staff? Do you know how a head of staff doesn't only have to try fix all the staff teams problems, they are in charge of saying yes or no to a promotion, they need to monitor their actions, Djk does monthly staff evaluations for the entire fucking staff team, if a certain staff member got a low score they would be talked to it's as simple as fucking that, ok? "OHMYGOD THERES SO MANY PROBLEMS IN THE STAFF TEAM RIGHT NOW>">{<"ERIONW"  yeah guess fucking what, SFT isn't filled with glorious minecraft gods who are 15 years old, have impeccable grammar and can deal with the stress of being shouted at by 40 players as well as have a real life as well as have these standards they are required to uphold to keep their rank. And krikky seriously? You aren't Mod anymore, so button it, things change things change all the fucking time in the SFT staff team, I know this because I was the god damn head of staff for god knows how many months, I've dealt with the bullshit of omg this jmod mod manager admin is naughty pls fix it, IF YOU HAVE A DAMN PROBLEM WITH A MEMBER OF STAFF OR THE STAFF TEAM AS A WHOLE

PERSONAL MESSAGE DJKIRSH, STINIPENGUIN OR TOWELIEDOH DIRECTLY, DONT POST IT ALL OVER THE GOD DAMN FUCKING FORUMS.

Rant over.

djkirsh evaluates 43 staff members every month? Holy moly. That really is quite an achievement! Only one was managed during my time (and that was a once in August '11).

Regarding 'personal message djkirsh' as she is the Head of Staff, perhaps players should be made more aware of this? It's hard to know who the Head of Staff is unless you are in the staff team. I certainly wasn't aware, for example. Sorry if this is publicised more than I think - I'm not too active around here these days! 

Perhaps she could have the forum title 'Head of Staff', similar to 'Head of Hosts' held by Karkafi, as a suggestion.

I see guests/ members, I can tell which ones have potential to be a Jmod+ And which ones don't have the potential.
I see a lot of the people that I think Didnt have the potential getting Jmod (I agree with krikky)

As Minecraft has grown over the past ~5 years, the target audience has shifted and subsequent age of the playerbase has decreased considerably. Where in 2011 many of SFT's players may have been aged 15-30, the majority now may be 8-14 (note I am just speculating). I can only imagine it is much harder now to find appropriate staff members with many Minecraft players being ~10 years old.
I've been to events (iSeries), which have now taken great interest in Minecraft and the Minecraft area may as well be a daycare centre; most of the Minecraft-interested visitors are literally 5-10 years old!

Egyptology

Type: Utilitarianism

One thing i've noticed about this poll: so "revert back to the old one" is the winning option, however none of these people that chose this are commenting and explaining why. Doesn't making a poll vote and not explaining it just make your vote pointless?

The grass is always greener on the other side, I suppose.

i liked the voting system when you didn't receive anything at all, but respect and gratefulness. People just dont give a shit anymore about the community, only the items, dont they?

Looks like it xD

It really does look like these websites are truly meaningless now with playerbases simply voting for the server, not due to how good it as, but for the rewards they get for doing so! Although, unfortunately, if you want votes, this is the path you have to take

Just me or would it take 250 days to get the million EMPbucks? If I've calculated right, that's voting 4 times every day for over 8 months; it might deserve a bit more than a million EMPbucks!

Lost a glock 18 water elemental stat track to this 

Well, I honestly don't know how they even made the final. They've been horrendous since Cologne, at their last LAN crashing out in the groups and losing to Platinium! They even lost 0-2 to Virtus.pro a week ago and now they beat them in the semis..very strange. They'll probably be back to their usual poor level soon enough ^-^

LDLC won DreamHack Winter 2014 with a 2-1 success over NiP in the final (16-10 on de_dust2, 4-16 on de_inferno and 19-16 on de_overpass).

LDLC started out strong, beating NiP 16-10 on NiP's map pick, Dust 2, with a convincing Terrorist-side performance, coming back from 6-9 at half time. NiP, however, challenged the Frenchmen, winning 16-4 on LDLC's best map, before losing 16-19 on a very tense overtime on the final map, Overpass.

LDLC have become the 4th team to win a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major, denying NiP the opportunity to become the first team to win two of the $250,000 events. The French team take home $100,000 and NiP, $50,000.

Read more at HLTV.org

Following mass attention on reddit of the following clip of flusha supposedly cheating at ESL One Cologne ($250,000 tournament in which his team took home $50,000):

,
pita, NiP's coach, has called for flusha's ban, stating "It's a fking disgrace to the community and every hardworking player if @csgo_dev put flusha thru to play Dreamhack. Its obvious as can be" on Twitter.

If flusha were to turn out to be cheating, he would have helped his team, fnatic, currently the best team in the world, to win in excess of $250,000 since this time last year, plus another $150,000 this week, assuming he attends the DreamHack Winter tournament.

Read more at HLTV.org
See reaction at reddit (initial video)
See further reaction at reddit (reaction to pita tweet)

[UPDATE]

UPDATE:
Following today's last call qualifiers, Copenhagen Wolves have qualified, beating 3DMAX in a very close 2-1 (7-16, 16-12, 16-1) series and so too have Flipsid3 Tactics, beating London Conspiracy 2-0 (16-13,16-13).

As Pimp said, it was the 'biggest match of my career', with both teams now receiving the $50,000 sticker money plus any prize money they get (at least $2,000 if eliminated in groups, then up to $100,000).

The groups these two teams will be put in will be decided in a best of 1 match. A pretty important match as the winner will be put in a group with Dignitas, iBUYPOWER and PENTA, whereas the loser will have to go against Virtus.pro and Na`Vi (and myXMG), almost impossible to get out of.

Seems pointless given it'd be impossible to cheat in the actual event, but I guess that's what large prizes do, entice people to cheat.

Actually, due to the nature of the cheat, it was entirely possible to cheat at LAN events and KQLY may have used it to cheat at the $250,000 ESL One Cologne event in August, in which they progressed to the semi-finals, taking home $22,000 + $50,000 from sticker money, I believe.

It's honestly sad to see three pro players caught cheating. Makes me question who else is out there just waiting to get caught.

Should be interesting, I'm sure there's more..

Titan and Epsilon have been disqualified from DreamHack Winter following the VAC bans handed to Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian and Gordon "Sf" Giry, the event's organisers have confirmed.

Questions about Titan's and Epsilon's places at the Swedish major were immediately raised after Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian and Gordon "Sf" Giry were caught in Valve's web as the latest wave of VAC bans struck the CS:GO scene today.

To replace the two French teams, a LAN qualifier will take place on Saturday at Inferno Online Stockholm with four Europeans teams in attendance, all of whom will be flown by Valve itself.

DreamHack is currently reaching out to teams potentially interested in attending this qualifier, and the participants' list will be revealed shortly. The tournament will use a single-elimination format, with every match being played in a best-of-three mode.

Source: HLTV.
See reaction on reddit: KQLY VAC ban
Sf VAC ban
DHW disqualification

[Emil "HeatoN" Christensen had this to say about the new recruit:]

Following the departure of Fifflaren, The Ninjas in Pyjamas are proud to announce the recruitment of a new player to the roster, to play under a trial-period. Mikail Bill, formally known as "Maikelele" on the CS:GO scene, a Sweden based player with a past in teams like SK Gaming and LGB eSports, has been invited to play for NiP. Mikail has happily accepted the offer from the organization and starts playing with the team during this week.

Emil "HeatoN" Christensen had this to say about the new recruit:
"He is a young and hungry player that has impressed me a lot over the last few months. He has a lot of people to prove wrong and we have decided to give him a chance of a lifetime and we will see what the future shows. I know that he will cherish this opportunity and do his best to make the team move forward. I am confident that he will find a place in the NiP family, that his trial-period will go well, and I wish to officially welcome him!"

Source: Aftonbladet

The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not "a magician with a magic wand", Pope Francis has declared.

Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the "pseudo theories" of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator – arguing instead that they "require it". "When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so," Francis said.

He added: "He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment."The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it. "Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve."

Read more at The Independent.

I really hope Cloud 9 take this major. Hiko, n0thing, semphis, shroud, and sgares are all just good people who stay away from bullshit drama. They deserve it.

They're also American.

c9c9c9c9c9 = winwinwinwinwinwin

shroud9 is just 2 op 

The Cloud 9 games are ESL One were fantastic - all of them - so I have a bit of a soft spot for them! Still waiting for a tier 1 UK team...(gogo The Lone Rangers[now fm Toxic]).

Virtus.pro (y)

ooooh why VP?

http://gyazo.com/caf174598441b1bb31c3b195b928fc85
Seems legit.

I felt your comment was rude, saying this esports news article in the news board wasn't news, hence I 'downvoted' your comment, as you have mine.

Why is this news? I mean, there have been DOTA tournaments for prizes about 10 million, so why this and not that?

Seriously? I am aware that Dota 2 has very big prize pools through crowdfunding..but significantly more people play Dota 2 than CS:GO. CS:GO is the fastest growing eSport and the biggest FPS in the world, with, as mentioned in the article, over 400,000 people tuning in to watch the ESL One final. To put that in perspective, 200,000 was the peak players today.
To answer your question, this is news because, in CS:GO, majors are the biggest events, hosting a $250k prize pool vs. ~$50k max prize pools of the other tournaments. If CS:GO continues to see exponential growth, I'm sure the prize pools will grow, particularly with its unrivaled accessibility as a spectator sport compared to all the other esports. I don't post about Dota 2 as I don't follow the esport; plus, I'm pretty sure The International was in July.
Any CS:GO or esports fan would certainly deem this as news.

Theres a team called Cloud 9? lol! thats the name of a night club in Melbourne haha

Yeah..there's one of the two top American teams (along with iBUYPOWER) - the got to the quarter-finals at ESL One!

[The 8 invited teams are:]

DreamHack has announced that the upcoming Winter event will feature a major CS:GO tournament with a $250,000 prize pool, with the winners taking $100,000 home.

One year after hosting the first-ever CS:GO major tournament, co-funded by Valve, DreamHack has announced that the 2014 Winter event, scheduled to take place between 27-29 November, will also feature a whopping $250,000 prize pool.

The tournament will feature a total of 16 teams, with the top eight sides from the last major, ESL One Cologne, receiving invitations. The remaining teams will be determined through a series of online qualifiers, to be held this month.

In a new addition, the organisers will offer a pre-event bootcamp in Stockholm, giving the participating teams the best possible training conditions going into the tournament.

The 8 invited teams are: NiP, fnatic, Titan, Dignitas, Na`Vi, Virtus.pro, Cloud 9 and Epsilon. The remaning 8 places will be fought for in online qualifiers.

The previous major was ESL One - at Gamescom - which was a huge success, with a record 410,000 viewers watching the grand final between NiP and fnatic.

Current Major Winners (runners-up):
DreamHack Winter 2013 - fnatic (NiP)
EMS One Katowice - Virtus.pro (NiP)
ESL One - NiP (fnatic)

Source: HLTV.org

Parliament probably won't allow another referendum for another 20 years or so.

I'll be shocked if there's another referendum in the next 30-40 years.

If there is one before I turn 60, I'll be pretty surprised!

Nice to see you Kooster 

Parliament probably won't allow another referendum for another 20 years or so.

I'll be shocked if there's another referendum in the next 30-40 years.

If the UK parliament doesn't sort itself out and uphold it's pledge (far more devolution than already planned) then there will be another referendum (or at least a strong push for another one). A lot of no voters were swayed by that, and a lot of yes voters are amicably accepting losing due to that promise.

What other devolution is wanted? Talks are already underway and there's no way Westminster is going to not uphold its pledge. I have absolutely no idea how Westminster would approve another referendum, especially considering how resounding the result was (see here) nor why such a large proportion of Scots would be shifted to the 'Yes' camp.

Parliament probably won't allow another referendum for another 20 years or so.

I'll be shocked if there's another referendum in the next 30-40 years.

 

Minecraft isn't too well known.

Really? 

Ah...looks like I missed the first anniversary party ever D:

Happy birthday SFT!

I feel for whoever has to supervise!

Sorry but I'm really bad with timezones ;n; If I'm in Vancouver GMT+7, does this mean the event starts at July 23rd 1 PM? Or is that early in the morning, like, 8 o' clock?

You will be the following morning, about 4.30am on the next day.

Actually, Vancouver (Canada) is GMT-8 at the moment. So the time would be 13:30 with you.

I hate to be pedantic, but I believe BC complies with DST, so would surely now be in PDT which would be GMT -7 / 8 hours behind BST.

So have we selected World Cancer Research Fund International? What's the next step?

Thoughts on Kiva? You can choose exactly who you help, you are ensured your money goes directly to that person's / people's cause AND you get the money back afterwards! (which we could pump into more charity things). We can literally help individuals / families / groups out of poverty and so much more; an interesting charity I think!

Too hard to determine who's a scam and who's not.

I can see you're point, however Kiva's a highly professional non-profit organisation. Here's an example:

Meet Ghayda. Here's her story.

For each loan, there is a medium by which the money gets to the borrowers - in this case, Izdiharona for Economic Development, so they ensure the money gets to the people in need just as much as any other charity would do.

Just my thoughts, but I think if we give to a big charity, we wouldn't be able to see where our money goes and it could just be spent on marketing, etc. (no disrespect to the big charities). With Kiva we can choose exactly to whom our money goes and get updates on how it's improving their lives. You even get the money donated back (it's a loan, after all)!

I can understand if you still feel you'd rather go with another charity, though. Just food for thought!

I get your point but yeah, i believe we should support global charities rather htan individuals.

What exactly do you mean? If you donate to a big charity, your money isn't going to change the world any more than donating to individuals / families / groups is, surely? So Kiva isn't a global charity because it gives money directly to individuals / groups? Plus, these big charities are already getting a large amount of donations, whereas the individuals / groups on Kiva are in desperate situations with nowhere else to turn. Anyways, I just think it deserves a place on the poll, but up to you!

Let's say people vote to Kiva and it wins. Who do we actually donate the money to? Who decides which of the people there to sponsor?

That's a very good point; could cause problems. My only answer to that would be a thread of suggestions and a subsequent poll, although you're right - it could get complicated