Riley recollects the early Commission days!
Commission was unlike any team I had ever played for
Ceres: When did you first start playing ET? When did you start to compete?
Riley: So this is a tricky one. I believe that I, like most of the RTCW community, started playing when the game was first released. I stuck with RTCW at the start as I was unsure if I wanted to make the switch. If I remember correctly, I was hanging around team fX in RTCW when ET launched.
Multi-game teams were starting to become a big thing and a player named rand0m was going to be leading fX ET. I decided to join but the team fell apart after the RTCW roster broke up pre-Quakecon. I chose to stick with ET as I was enjoying the new fresh feel and I felt it had a lot of potential.
As for competing, I starting playing with the Commission/ .com after Illshot introduced me to Sureshot. Both Cal and TWL weren't hosting leagues yet (if I remember correctly they were waiting for Quakecon to finish). However, STA's league was up and running and TWL had a few ladders open. Commission was playing in STA (8v8), I got along with most of the members really well so I joined. At that point I think the roster was Sureshot, Illshot, TwF, Hempy, Threebs, Glassman, and Shaky (I am likely forgetting some names).
Ceres: A little throwback to RTCW then but do you mind sharing if you played for other teams besides fX there? Or do you mean you just hung around fX but didn't really compete at the time?
Riley: I was definitely a late comer to RTCW, I never found myself on lasting teams. I just happened to make friends with Chao$ and J0ker who were a part of fX, that introduced me to WarRi0r, Vatican, Antidote and the rest of the team.
As for other teams there were quite a few but nothing to write home about. Once fX fell through, Commission became my home.
Ceres: What was playing with the Commission guys like? I know you are thankful to Sureshot for helping you out. If you don't mind going through the team, atmosphere and plans for ET if you guys had any back then.
Riley: Commission was unlike any team I had ever played for, a lot of the members were older so it had a much more mature setting. While winning was still important, overall the core group just loved gaming together and wanted to play in a relaxed environment. When I joined Commission, they were splitting time between RTCW and ET. As I said, I was definitely more interested in ET, and STA was our major focus at that time.
The first match that I ever played was on Radar vs. team Coalition. I remember sitting on top of the east Radar tin roof with Illshot mowing people down as they tried to push through the grass. Meanwhile, I only had 4 fps. Overall, Commission was hands down the best team in STA, as the majority of teams weren't interested in its rule set and settings.
As TWL and CAL began, Commission was slotted into a lower bracket and the higher skilled members began scrimming more regularly and preparing for the first season of ET's major competitive leagues. Since I was a newcomer, I didn't initially slot into every starting line up, and Illshot was looking to play with a higher level team. I stuck around with Commission through most of the initial first season but I too was more interested at competing in a higher division.
We were about a 500 level team (if memory serves me correct). I had always played a lot (in between pubbing and pick up games) as well as being active on ET-center, I had made a lot of connections throughout the community, and I had already started playing with others in the TWL ladders.
Ceres: I actually found an old file of you playing with .com. Sadly, there is nothing more available to us at this point. What TWL team did you land on when you decided to push up the rankings?
Riley: That's so cool! After I stopped playing with Commission (the first time) I had become really good friends with Apathy from the Rotators/ (). He and I decided that we wanted to dominate the 6 v 6 TWL ladder. We created ShadowFlare Inc to pay homage to Hostile Inc RTCW's 5 v 5 ladder gods.
The roster consisted of: 90% of the Rotators, a few NoRemorse/ -r. members, and two of the top European teams at the time (Destination Skyline/ DSky., Dignitas/Rewind d. / [<<] ). The first two matches we played, I don't think we played anything other than meme classes, and absolutely destroyed the unsuspecting teams. It was so crazy having some of the DSky. and other European members in Ventrillo. The majority of them didn't speak much English so everyone was just running around like crazy but it didn't matter as none of the other teams on the ladder were anywhere near the caliber of basically the top ET players in the world.
NoRemorse had a team in the 7 v 7 (or maybe it was 8 v 8) called team Lumber and that led to me joining them for a short stint to start out the following CAL season. I never really fit in as well with NoRemorse. They were all really good people but I just wasn't playing enough so I went back to Commission, who had much more competitive roster at that point.
Ceres: Oh, now you have to share the roster for ShadowFlare! Also, who were the DSky. and Rewind guys? I know you have a fond memory of one of them in particular :)
Riley: So it was Apathy, Klew, BloodyMist, Illshot, Dator, BigNutz, stiegl and n0fx. As for DSky., it was Redcross, morty and SW. As for the Rewind guys, I don't recall their names as much, they only played one time. For NoRemorse it was slay, eyes and x11.
Ceres: What's your memory of DSky. Morty at that time?
Riley: I feel like the only word that Morty knew in English was "morty." He literally played a mortar in the most random positions like flag room or dock room or at command posts and would attempt to mortar the enemy team indoors. All while shouting, "morty!"
Ceres: Seems like a fun guy! Any other memories from the other players? We are spending quite some time on this ladder team but it's a unique mix of players.
Riley: The ladder was really fun and it took off with a lot of steam. Everyone was really having fun with it. It was kind of place where the guys could unwind, as the majority of the NA players wanted to just mess around and have fun outside of scrims, as well as try things they may have wanted to incorporate into their strats such as airstrikes or nades. I don't remember how many wins we finished with, but we sat on top of the ladder for half a year I'd say.
One of the interesting things was seeing some of the positions the Europeans played. I remember them doing something I had never seen before. For example, on supply depot, in the back axis compound, some of the Euros were able to get on top of the center bunker above the gate and I had never seen that before. The novelty of it eventually wore off, and it was exceptionally difficult to for the Europeans to play as the time difference was a major factor. I don't remember ever losing a match, but I think we removed the team when we weren't able to get enough bodies. I think we won a match a man down and we didn't want to keep doing that so we removed the team.
Ceres: Okay, so you go back to the Commission to compete after ShadowFlare. How did you slot in the team again?
Riley: This team featured TWF, shaky, threebs and myself. Overall, we had a pretty decent season - we made it into the second round of playoffs in TWL, I don't remember who we lost to. We weren't scrimming a lot, and while the team was much better (our team play was definitely better) and we were still the undisputed champs of STA, but at this point a lot of us were lost in the World of Warcraft. I also began playing RTCW with Commission, since I wasn't good enough to make any of the top tier ET teams.
My first real crack at a competitive team came when Definition asked if I was interested in Suave's/ suave>> new roster. It kind of came out of the blue and I wasn't familiar with most of the members of the team, but the moment I started scrimming with them, it was like I was playing with the same caliber of players like the Rotators or other top teams at the time. That roster was Definition, Silver, Spartan, Nomad, Axe, MegamanX, and Special.
Ceres: Was this during the time Suave had that rivalry with Rotators/deathTouch dT?
Riley: No, I believe that was the first Suave line up. I was not part of that time frame. I think that Suave team was jalapeno, Newdeal, etc.
Ceres: You mentioned ET being this 8v8 ladder game at first. What do you remember of the competitive scene when it started forming with the first TWL and CAL seasons? Walk me through the most notable leagues, teams, radios and shoutcasters if you can?
Riley: ET was vastly different than RTCW with the proning, mines, and vehicle objectives. I felt the elements at first were a lot more fun than the typical RTCW flat ground, headshot dominant, gameplay. I will say very early, the competitive rule set needed a lot of work, as the spam in the game made it very difficult with certain objectives, especially with the landmines. Also some of the maps were not exactly balanced. STA was nice opening to ET for me. I know others were not interested in STA, due to its more pub style gameplay, and were more focused on perfecting their shot and strats.
In the beginning there were a lot of people who moved over from RTCW and quit relatively quickly. Most of the really good teams were surprisingly not names that I was very familiar with. Of course people like stiegl, MadnesS, and the rest of the Rotators were so good, along with the original Suave team.
But I cannot for the life of me remember who even won season 1 in ET! I'm honestly struggling to remember. I remember Rotators becoming deathTouch and cyno&friends/ c&f- etc
To be continued...