This month of August has seen the formation and beginning of Exile5's SC2 division! We received positive feedback from the SC2SEA community and gained the interest of several top players looking for new teams.

The players have been competing well in online tournaments with Bard recently finish top8 in the previous masters cup (a very competitive tournament run by the SEA community) along with Notorious who just missed out on the prize pool, placing 4th for the IXLlegion cup. Practice for LANs is the main priority for the team at the moment, along with attaining rankings on the SEA server.

There has only been 1 major LAN of note, which was WCS Australia where 16 of the best Australian players were invited to play in a Blizzard sponsored event with the likes of international casters Artosis, Tasteless, Painuser and HD. Frustration qualified for this event, placing second at the RF LAN in Perth. Unfortunately he was knocked out of the tournament first round, playing an extremely tight series with Nv.YoonYJ and against the Broodwar legend Legionnaire.

The next month promises to be a big one, with 2 big LANs in South Australia, several online tournaments starting up along with a possible re-introduction of the teamleagues. Overall spirits are high, progress is steady with several players improving drastically, posting better results in tournaments and higher win ratios on ladder. The immediate aim for the team is to play in as many LANs and online tournaments as possible in order to learn how to cope with the competiti

Dayz: Cryptik and Syrim

Time 9:30
Arrive at North West airfield and find 3 broken ATVs between the fire station and the control tower. Operation fix an ATV begins on a full 50 population server.
Head to the factory area and find a tire and jerry can. Return to ATV.
Head to north industrial area and on the way find a guy who is crawling through a bunch of zombies. Cricket*Chrip*.... BANG, the guy is dead. Crawl over to the body and loot the baked beans.
Call: Another guy over there! **** LOOK!!!!!
He disconnects.
Arrive and find another tire so head back to ATV.

Time 10.00
Return to ATV with the need to find engine parts and another tire.
Go to factory area and luckily get engine parts 2 tires.
Find a Gaz/car in the tree line near the factory area with a quarter of a tank of fuel and only needs a tire. Gaz fixed and on the move to ATV.
Shots fired on the other side of airfield.
Target spotted! Shots fired! Guy disconnects while dancing?
Repair the ATV.
Convoy heads north to refuel both vehicles.
Refuel at industrial area.

Time 10.30
Finished refuelling and shots fired at us or near us.
Gap it out of there!
Vehicles take hits from 4 5 guys shooting.
Ditch vehicles and hide in the tree line.

Time 11.00
Return to vehicles
ATV needs repairs and a tire. Gaz still working.. barely... One of us takes the Gaz and exits the general airfield area.
URAL spotted on the airfield!
Hold position.
No sounds.
Gaz drives up to damaged ATV and collects all the loot.
ATV destroyed.
Leave the Airfield.

Time 11.30
Attempt to find a hiding spot and pitch a tent.
Travel in trees for another half of tank of fuel.
Attempt to find super secret tent spot.
Nek minute ported by hacker into the middle of no where with everyone else on the server.


A night of dayz. Tell us your story!

So this month of hectic Battlefield 3 has been intense with lots of matches, competitions and preparation. Earlier on in the month several members of the team showed up for social event in WA at the Local Area Gamers LAN which hosted a 3v3 competition that created some intense games and matches between players from the community. The LAN ended up in a tied first with one of the teams being lead by x5.Scrpz.

The BF3 team is currently competing in the GamersPlatoon SEA International $1000 League and are currently undefeated in our group after playing Team Avalanche, 26space and Colourful Gaming. The league is creating quite a competitive community with teams fighting for their places to make top 8, for the finals. A little closer to home the 4v4 tournaments are in full swing with both the CyberGamer 4v4 Finals and Mwave tournament currently active. Both of the Team Exile5 4v4 teams made it into the Top 8 but unfortunately only one of them could proceed to the semi-finals since they were both scheduled to play each other in the first round. Team Exile5: Clutch is now proceeding to the finals against Team Immunity.

Mwave $1750 Cash Competition has only just started and both teams are currently competing against 40 other teams to make the Top 16 double elimination finals. The teams are both showing promising results in securing top positions within their groups. On top of this the CyberGamer 8v8 team played out in a epic 2 hour clash in the Grand Final against Team Immunity. Unfortunately some very costly mistakes and some general bad luck got the better of the team and meant that Team Immunity became the victors. It was an amazing effort from the team to make it this far, especially after being labelled as the underdogs from the beginning of the season. GG boys! Make sure you check out the game clips from Cryptik at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPJaH__ctwc&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNWZUEFGVHw&feature=channel&list=UL

On Sunday the 1st of July, Team Exile5 squared off against Avant in the second semi-final in the first season of CGI. Representing Exile5 were Floormassace, Dlux, BigArmz, Cryptic, Shan1n, Gary, Beefay and Syrim.

Showing consistent form in the traditional pre-match repair tool challenge, x5 having lost were asked to pick what map they would play first in the best of three maps format.

First Half of Dama:

Having picked Damavand Peak as our choice, x5 quickly set about enacting the Russian stratagem. A successful chopper drop and assault on the enemy home flag meant that as planned, x5 had an early grasp on A and C flags, leaving Avant to sit vulnerable from both fronts on B flag central to the map. The rest of the first half followed along the same route as this early success, with Syrim masterfully maintaining air superiority and Beefay countering Avant?s armour x5 were able to quickly and efficiently rebuke any attempted counterattacks. A dominant 203 ticket victory was just reward.

Second Half of Dama:

Expecting a team of the quality possessed by Avant to strike back, x5 moved quickly as the US side to take the fight directly to B. Ut est when both teams elect to fight over B on Damavand, each successful skirmish and subsequent lockdown was challenged and broken from determined counterattacks from both sides. Not happy to spin idly in this carnage, both sides attempted raids on the home flags. Eventually Beefay?s skill in the tank (ably repaired by latest team member Gary) shone through, allowing x5 the rare gift of a sustained lockdown on two flags allowing us to take the hard fought second round 125-0.With one map down, it was now time to play Avant?s choice of map. As expected they opted for Grand Bazaar, the map they had soundly beaten us on just a week ago. However, in the ensuing week much effort had been put into practicing for this outcome. Floor in particular was instrumental in picking up some organisational slack and arranging some much needed practice matches. The fruits of this labour were about to be seen.

First round of Bazaar:

Starting on the favourable US side, we knew that this was the only leg up we would receive in the gruelling match to follow. Leaving Bravo squad on our home flag to contend with armour pushes, Alpha moved into the fray of B alley determined to confront one of the best infantry teams around. Having learnt from previous matches Avant?s aggressive flanking rollout was well countered. As expected the resulting melee around the flag was a see-sawing affair with the flag trading hands numerous times. Superbly led by Dlux, bravo squad was able to take some of the pressure off Alpha. Seizing any opportunity Bravo again and again combined with Beefay in the LAV to harass, cap and generally make a nuisance of themselves on Avant?s home flag. Enjoying this distraction, Alpha was able to make significant inroads through the central alley, eventually capitalising on sustained pressure to hold the flag and give x5 a ground out 43 ticket win.

Second round Bazaar:

Confronted with the less forgiving Russian side, x5 once again engaged in a direct confrontation on B whilst holding our home flag. Whereas capping B from the US side may be considered more of a bodies on cap in the relative safety of ?Pool? and ?420? affair, to attack it from the Russian side involved liberal use of smoke, well timed darts between cover and sharp reviving. Gary, playing his second major role in as many games acquitted himself skilfully in the fracas along with another relative new comer to the workings of alpha squad in Cryptic. It would again fall to Bravo squad to be the tie breaker in this round with Shan1n, Syrim and Dlux working in tandem with Beefay to flank the central alley and support Alpha?s fight on numerous occasions, while acting as a holding squad on the captured flag to allow Alpha to maraud into Avant?s home territory. In the end it was enough to allow x5 to cling onto a narrow 20 ticket win.

A compelling win against quality opponents produced much jubilation in TeamSpeak, with the hours of effort put into practice during the week bearing one of the most rewarding victories in Exile5?s BF3 history. Special thanks goes out to our unofficial prac partners in Crux Crew as well as Carnage and Team Immunity who were good enough to provide us with a much needed warm up before the main event. We progress to the grand final of the inaugural season of CGI to be played against iM in the much anticipated clash of two true Battlefield heavyweights.

Gday guys,

It's been a while since my last blog update and so much has happened in the battlefield division in the last month!

CyberGamer 10v10 Social Ladder Finals:

Exile5 managed to finish in #1 spot on the 10v10 ladder before it came to a lock for finals. This drew us against Vanguard, one of the top 10v10 teams in the league, and it was going to be a tough match. Both rounds were long and arduous, but Vanguard proved to be the better team on the night. Exile5 would like to congratulate Vanguard for their win of the quarter finals, they proved to be the better team on the night, and we wish them all the best for the rest of the finals.

CyberGamer 4v4 Team Clutch:

Team Clutch has had 3 major 4v4 matches in the last couple of weeks. The first was against Avant.tt Team on Grand Bazaar, and Beefay, Floormassacre, Biggy and I all pracced hard in the week prior to the match. Exile5 was on top of their game that night and the boys managed to pull off a 3-1 win, however the scoreboard doesn't reflect the intensity of the match. GG Avant.tt!

The next match was against Team Infinity. Exile5 pracced hard for this too, taking no chances against the New Zealand champions and won the match 4-1. The match began with Exile5 on the back foot as Infinity blew the first bombsite, so once again, the scoreboard doesn't reflect the intensity of this match. GG Infinity!

The last match was against Avant.tt Team 1 on Operation Metro. This match went to triple overtime in an absolute nail biter and finished up after 2 hours and 15 minutes. The game ended 4-6 in Avant.tt's favour. We?ll still make the finals, and this match is a prime example of how close the finals are looking to be. The boys learnt their lessons and weren't disheartened, and have made us all hungrier to claim the 4v4 title. Stay tuned for finals updates!

CyberGamer 4v4 Team Massive:

Team Massive has played 3 tough matches in the last few weeks. The first against Team Immunity: Team 2 on Seine Crossing. Immunity proved once more why they are the top team in Australia, and took the game 3-1. GG Team Immunity!

The next two matches were against Overwhelming Threat and Team IPX. It was an absolute necessity that Team Massive take out these two games to ensure they make the top 8 before the ladder locks. The boys defeated Overwhelming Threat 4-1, and took out Team IPX 6-2.

The team currently sits in 7th and is continuing to challenge to cement their spot in the top 8. It's looking to be a juicy finals series!

GameArena 16v16 Finals:

The 16v16 ladder has been bumbling along, with Exile5 winning their last three matches 278-0 against Team BnG, 606-0 against WP Platoon, and 458-0 against HoneyBadgers. This cemented Exile5's spot in the finals.

The first finals match was against number #1 finishers Armed Assassins on Sharqi Peninsula. Team AA went out flying, with a beautifully executed strat of javelins, mines, RPG's. Beefay and Couchy went down early, and Exile5 was on the back foot on the defensive side. Team AA were relentless, and pushed us all the way back to the back flag, TV station, where we were capped out. A bit of squad swapping allowed us all to spawn back in and capture a flag but by that stage Team AA had both choppers and it was all over, with Exile5 losing the round 51-0. The boys knew we could turn it around on attack, and with the setup of some of our own javelins, and better use of the armour, Exile5 went out flying and capped AA all the way back, winning the game ~150-51. GG Armed Assassins! Exile5 now gets the week off whilst the elimination bracket fights it out!

CyberGamer 8v8 CGi:

Exile5 has gotten off to a flying start in the CyberGamer Invite League.

Match 1 was against CRUX Crew on Operation Metro. CRUX Crew have been producing some impressive results in pracs against some of the top teams. They are not a team to be underestimated, and Exile5 put a lot of preparation in to the match. Exile5's US rollout was strong, and we eventually pushed through B and locked down, holding the bleed to win 218-0. The second round Exile5 got straight on B and held the bleed. CRUX's pushes were strong, and eventually pushed us back and locked us down. A good counter push saw us break through the lockdown, reclaim B and win the round 36-0. GG CRUX!.

Match 2 was against OGA on Seine. The game was very fluid, with several pushes being made by both teams, but Exile5 won the round 147-0. Our RU rollout was semi-successful, with Exile5 securing 2 of the 4 flags, neutralising the bleed. Some strong pushes saw us reclaim the bleed and won the round 55-0. Exile5 took the game out 202-0. GG oga, I'm sure we'll see you again in the finals! This puts Exile5 in second place on the ladder, and in an excellent position for the rest of the season.

Well that's the last month in Battlefield, and it's only getting bigger and bigger! Tune in for more CGi matches, 16v16 finals and 4v4 finals!

On Sunday 29th April, team eXile5 took place in the Mwave Online 8s finals tournament, wherein x5 was fighting for third place against the New Zealand team, Online Gaming Addicts.

The finals match was a best of one map on Damavand Peak, and playing against a formidable team like OGA meant there was little-to-no room for error to be made by x5.

Damavand Peak can sometimes be a difficult map to play on as there are 3 flags to hold; one on either side of a mountain and one directly in between, located in a tunnel. Both teams have a tank and a heli scout, adding to the complexity and need for strategy regarding this map.

Team eXile5?s line up consisted of beefay and Celerity in the tank, dluX/Syrim in the heli and BigArms, CryptiK, Floormassacre and 1MMort4L as the ground infantry.

First half
For the first half of the match, x5 started on the Russian side, with OGA on US. On rollout BigArms took the vodnik from the RU spawn to cap the C home flag and try to make it into the tunnel to cap B. However, OGA quickly moved their tank into B, thwarting x5?s first attempts to cap B. As such, beefay in the tank played defensively by holding the home flag and occasionally moving into B to put pressure on their tank and infantry, so x5 could try to make a push for the flag.

Early into the first half, whilst OGA had a strong hold on B, x5 decided to try a chopper drop onto the opposing teams? home flag to cap it, meaning x5 would have the bleed and would also ?sandwich? in OGA. x5 was able to cap A and bleed the tickets in their favour whilst holding off OGA?s persistent attempts to cap back their flag and hold B for majority of the first half. x5?s tank eventually started to put pressure on the B flag with the help of infantry and were able to destroy OGA?s tank, but lost their own in the process. A couple of x5?s infantry players remained on the B flag allowing other teammates to spawn on them in order to clear out all the remaining OGA infantry to cap B and lock it down, leaving x5 with a short cap-out over OGA. However, OGA was able to cap back their A home flag, leaving x5 with a two-flag hold over B and C for the remainder of the first half to win it 153-0.

Round 1: eXile5 153-0

Second half
Going into the second half of the match, eXile5 was determined to win, after taking out the first half. x5 was now on US with OGA respectively on the Russian side. On rollout, Syrim took the humvee from spawn to cap the A home flag and move into B. Similarly, dluX skillfully flew the heli through the tunnel with infantry to try and cap the B flag, but lost the cap after OGA?s tank and infantry pushed in quickly to cap B. Again, x5?s tank played defensively, occasionally trying to push B to destroy the tank and allow their infantry to move in; however, early attempts to do so failed as OGA once again had a strong hold over B.

Eventually, after various attempts to cap the important B flag, x5 coordinated their tank and infantry attack on B to destroy OGA?s tank, kill any remaining infantry, cap the flag and go into lockdown with a strong A and B hold for majority of the second half. x5?s infantry was set up to hold from all tunnel entrances, with the tank holding the B flag and moving around to cover all access points and prevent OGA?s tank from pushing up.

OGA eventually tried to make a chopper drop over x5?s home flag, but x5?s tank and infantry were quick to respond and held it. Throughout the remainder of the second half, x5 once again maintained a 2 flag hold on A and B. Towards the end of the second half, four of x5?s players were ?disconnected from EA Online?, thereby dropping from the server and leaving their flags less guarded and giving OGA an opportunity to move up and cap all 3 flags. x5?s players quickly joined back for the remaining few minutes of the match, but x5 was unable to stop the ticket bleed, which meant that OGA took out the second half 4-0.

Round 2: Online Gaming Addicts 4-0

Overall, team eXile5 won the match 153-4 against Online Gaming Addicts, taking out the Bronze 3rd place and $350 in the Mwave Online competition. Congratulations to x5 and thank you to OGA for a fantastic game.

A big thank you to the organizers of the Mwave Online Competition ? it was a great event for the Australian Battlefield 3 scene and we hope to see more well run competitions such as this.

Also, congratulations to team Immunity and Vanguard for placing 1st and 2nd in this competition.

On Sunday the 22nd, Exile5 took on Avant.tt in the Mwave $2000 quarter finals.
Avant.tt is a team which has been proving itself time and time again, and one of the biggest contenders for the Mwave competition.

The map was to be Grand Bazaar and the team pracced hard during the week in matches and pracs in preparation for this match. Lining up for eXile 5 was dluX, Floormassacre, BigArmz, Beefay, Couchman, Kraz3, Syrim and Cryptik.

Avant lined up with Jonah, Kracky, BunnyX, Cardio, Glove, Yarnu, Unreal and former team Exile5 player, Necriss. The team was very hungry for this win, and we went in hard!

The first round began with Exile5 on Russia. An absolutely failed rollout meant Avant capped their home flag and middle flag (B) on rollout, whilst x5 was left with their home flag. Quick action was needed and we set about getting off the bleed. Avant.tt was unbelievably strong, and their lockdowns seemed impenetrable. No matter what push was made, the team really struggled to get onto a second point and capture it. At one point the scoreboard read around 230-100, and the mood in mumble was becoming grim.

Some big calls came out, and finally some luck went our way. Couchman made a good push around the side of the map to deliver Bravo squad to a flanking position on B, whilst Alpha pushed straight up the guts. Finally it worked, and the combined efforts of both squads finally earned us B, whilst maintaining our home flag. The hard work had now begun. We decided to completely lock down B and our home flag, with Couchman and Bravo manoeuvring to counter any side pushes, while Alpha held the middle. Both squads performed fantastically, but the tickets were ticking down all the same. Eventually Alpha succumbed to the pressure of Avant's infantry on B, however the round was nearly at an end, and the team had managed to bring the score down to a 39 ticket deficit for the round. The team knew a successful rollout in second round and strong lockdown could bring the game back.

Team Exile5 rolled out on the US side for round 2. A fast push into B and some early frags got the team in on B and capped early, with the APC securing the home flag. The team straight away went into lockdown mode, covering all entry points into B and our home flag. Some fantastic infantry work on B by the Alpha boys, with Floormassacre at one point going 6 or 7 down at B, meant B was held, and some great covering play by Bravo squad and the APC managed to hold down the home flag. Eventually Avant managed to push onto B and lockdown, at which point the tickets were about 80 in Exile5's favour. It was a dire position to be in knowing how strong Avant's lockdowns were, and Alpha felt a hard push onto B would be unsuccessful and result in a loss of too many tickets.

It was decided to stack on Couchman's APC, and make a back flag push, leaving a few to lock down the home flag. Couchy flawed it down D road and straight up onto Avant?s home flag. Avant was obviously not expecting this, and Couchy managed to drop the enemy APC and plenty of infantry on the flag. Alpha squad picked up the scraps, and an A-C lockdown was setup. The plan was to squeeze B and leave Avant?s home flag when pressure was placed. However the boys managed to secure up B without losing the back flag, so Avant was capped out. It was near impossible to hold the lockdown, and eventually x5 left the flag to hold the home flag and B, but by this stage it was all over. x5 came out victorious in the round 58-0, winning the game 58-39.

The game was one of the most intense 8v8's Exile5 has ever played in BF3, and there was plenty of yelling in mumble after the game! Big props to Couchman and Floormassacre for going massive this game. Exile5 would like to thank all its prac partners during the week for helping us prepare for the game, and Avant.tt for providing an absolutely epic match. Exile5 looks forward to matching up against Avant soon!

Exile5 progresses to the semi-finals vs. Team Immunity on Sunday night. The team is confident they can bring it to Immunity, and is thoroughly looking forward to the match. Don't forget to comment!

Should start doing some more reviews and some Battlefield 3 match recordings!

Would you guys be interested in seeing some write ups from competitive games in Australia for Battlefield 3?

Another BF3 video!

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