Sunday, 3rd January 2010: TSA’s first Modern Warfare 2 Clan match.  TSA was up against LMZF and after sifting through some intelligence from the front line, this is what I can tell you about it.

Three squads took to the battle field, and although we know the fate of them all, only Squad’s one and three have provided any intel.

Squad 1

Capture The Flag: TSA took control with a thumping 5-1 win.  Defence was the order of the day, which then allowed TSA to attack.  And attack, and attack.

Sabotage: A sensational performance by TSA, taking the bomb from the off and marching into the opponents base to plant it.  About a minute later, one big BOOM made for one big win.

Things didn’t quite continue in the same way however, as LZMF mounted a stiffer challenge from them on.

Demolition: A very tense game, with the wily campaigners of LMZF outfoxing TSA to take the win.

Domination: LMZF clearly on a roll now decided to up their game again and destroy TSA in this game.  2-2 now and all to play for.

Team Deathmatch: TSA bounced back in fine style, bursting into life in this game.  The game-winning kill was quite brilliant: An amazing, jumping akimbo G18 headshot, which sent TSA into raptures.

A very close 3-2 win to TSA then.

TSA’s captain Kingsley remarked in his post-match comments: You all did TSA proud, and I was honoured to fight alongside you!

Squad 2

The only intel we were able to glean from this match was that Squad 2 lost out overall in an incredibly tight final Team Deathmatch, with the score 7400-7500.  A narrow defeat for our troops, but they still fought well and with honour.

Squad 3

mynameisblair managed to get some intel through to us.  The good news is that Squad 3 also won, 3-2, but here’s how they did it.

Domination: We failed pretty much, but brought it back a bit towards the end. LMZF were the better team to start with. 0-1 [Lost]

Sabotage: Kept them in their own half the whole way through, eventually planted after 10 minutes or so. 1-1 [Won]

Demolition: Lost in the first round, second round they managed to defuse at 0.0 seconds and we couldn’t get it back together. 1-2 [Lost]

Capture The Flag: Defended well, they didn’t capture our flag, and we managed to capture theirs a few times and did pretty well. 2-2 [Won]

Team Deathmatch: LMZF were amazing, jumping out to a 5000-2000 lead, until everything seemed to slow down and we edged our way back to the top, winning 7500-7300. 3-2 [Won]

mynameisblair had this to say in his post-match briefing:

Overall we had some great matches and the guys from LMZF were extremely well mannered, played by the rules and were genuinely nice guys. They even stayed for a Free-for-all on Rust with us afterwards for a laugh, brilliant matches and well done to TSAN Squad 3!

Not only did TSA manage to win, but they also came back from the front with some enemy intel.  Here’s what the rather splendidly named Soggy_Growler from LMZF had to say about the Squad 1 match.

LMZF’s Squad
Soggy_Growler
Shanemcn
Rachy
CabVol
Gazeele (for 3 minutes before his connection died), then the Swedish Super Sub, Prepps, was brought in to replace him

TSA’s Squad
Kings1337
C_Stewie
BrendanCalls
Lfc-Gaz
Ultimatebox

A special mention must be made for all the uninvited guests that joined us at various points throughout the game, in particular the very stubborn, Perdy1.  Despite being kicked out of the lobby 30 or 40 times he kept re-joining.  I guess he was always picked last for football at school.  “You’re in goal again Perdy you useless s!*t”,  “But my Mum said I was special”, ”Your Mum’s right, Perdy, you’re very, very special”.

The opening minutes in the lobby were cagey, small talk abounded, TSA unsure what to make of the loud, drunk Irishman and the loud, drunk, stupid Aussie, LMZF unsure what to make of these young upstarts.  A hushed whisper went round LMZF, “I don’t think they’re even drinking, we’re doomed!”  Thankfully Perdy1 provided a common enemy for us all to shout at and the banter flowed.

With Kinglsey hosting, we kicked off with a quick lag test on Favela, and CabVol got his excuses in early, but the rest of the lobby were happy with the playing conditions.  Much respect to BrendanCalls for playing the whole game with 1 red bar and not complaining once!

Capture The Flag on Highrise: Some sweet ass flanking action from TSA saw them take an early lead on Highrise.  LMZF pulled themselves together, got some defence set up (yee ha) and pulled one back.  However an intruder forced a restart with the game poised delicately at 1 all.  TSA came on strong with some lovely use of the perks that make you run really really quick and some good supporting action of the flag carrier.  LMZF tried desperately to pull this one back, Rachy taking charge and issuing instructions to her brow beaten men but to no avail.  The damage was done and TSA literally ran away with this one 5 flags to 1.

Sabotage on Afghan: “We can do this guys – we know how to play Sabotage,” I said as the game started.  
 
I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I really, really couldn’t have been more wrong.
 
Eager to get one back, LMZF rushed the bomb.  All of us.  All 5 of us.  At once.  Together.  In a nice little tightly packed group.  Carrying a sign saying “Shoot us please, we want to die”.  TSA promptly cut us down, snatched the briefcase and chipped off round the back to our completely undefended bomb site.  I could only watch TSA plant as my silenced M4 bullets dropped miles from their targets.  TSA set up an almost perfect defensive position around the site and some excellent use of flash bangs slowed LMZF down enough to run the timer down and then BOOM it was all over.  50 seconds to plant and then however long the timer takes.  Sweet Jesus Mother of God that hurt us.
Back in the lobby things were very quiet at first.  CabVol demanded a restart because he’d been trying to open a can of Fosters Lite and wasn’t ready.  The Silent Swedish Assassin said nothing.  As usual.  But you could tell he was angry.  TSA seemed confused.  Could LMZF really be this bad?  Have they even played the game before?  Thankfully Kingsley took charge and started the next game before anyone on LMZF hung themselves.  A victory here would see TSA run out overall winners.

Domination on Derail: “We can do this guys – we know how to play Domination,” I said as the game started.
 
Thankfully for LMZF I was right this time. 
 
5 a side on this large map made for a slightly slower paced game, with positioning and teamwork being paramount.  A quick snatch of the B flag by LMZF from the off allowed good defensive positions to be set up across the map.  TSA were pinned in around their C flag.  As ever in Domination the sexy B flag saw most of the action (slut) but LMZF managed to hold on to this long enough to take a sizable points lead.  TSA switched up tactics, probing the flanks for a way round to the C flag.  The last third of the game saw the flags swapping owners (sluts) regularly but by this point LMZF had enough of a lead eventually running out 200 – 130 point winners.
 
Phew.  Back in it and some pride restored.

Demolition on Terminal: Home to the Daily Mail’s favourite bit of MW2, Terminal provided the backdrop to a truly epic battle.
 
LMZF planting, TSA defending.  A quick rush, smoke, and plant at the site at the top of the escalators put LMZF in an advantageous postion.  Wave after wave of TSA was repelled until the bomb detonated, switching the focus to the airplane outside.  All 3 plane entrances saw some fierce action.  TSA pulled out the riot shields which proved to be a real bitch to deal with in the confined space of the aircraft.  LMZF got their Semtex out and eventually got the plant and the first round.  It’s too exhausting for me to have to relive the entirety of this round so let’s just leave it that TSA won the next one, someone dropped in to join us halfway through and played for both sides before leaving, and then LMZF won the deciding round taking the overall score for the match to 2 all.
 
After all the action, all the deaths, all the heartbreak and all the beer the whole match hinged on a single round of Team Deathmatch.

Team Deathmatch on Scrapyard: Shouts of “hardcore, hardcore, hardcore” were heard from one unruly member of TSA.  He was politely ignored (although maybe the next games should be hardcore…) and the game began.  The first few minutes were relatively close but TSA edged ahead before a big push from C_Stewie wrapped it up for TSA.  7500 to 6000.

3 – 2 to TSA overall.

In the other two lobbies LMZF snuck a 3 – 2 win under the guidance of mouseville with the final round finishing 7500- 7400 (!) whilst TSA took the other one 3 – 2 and therefore the overall inaugral LMZF v TSA cup 2 lobbies to 1.

Thanks to all involved for making this a smooth experience.  I’m amazed we managed to get 3 lobbies kicked off at the same time despite Infinity Ward’s incompetence in providing proper private lobby facilities.  Mad props to all the captains; mouseville, ivor_bigun at LMZF and to carlosfillipsen and yungjones at TSA.  Bigger and madder props still to Kingsley for responding so quickly to my initial request for a match and for making the whole process so easy even when I was emailing during the Celtic game!

Finally, after some skilled hacking and code-breaking we were able to decode this link which gives more details from the enemy’s point-of-view.

So, a brilliant success on all fronts.  Great competition with people who seem to play with the same sort of ethos as TSA.

A rematch may well be on the cards: We’ve tasted victory, let’s drink from its cup some more!

On a personal note, I’d like to thank Kingsley for organising the match, and everyone that respresented TSA in such a positive manner during the game.