The official 9L soundtrack. No, really!

 

 

Admittedly the season ending was anti-climactic, as saunamen were unable to field a team and we had to take a forfeit win in the final. Nevertheless we proved ourselves by defeating them convincingly in regular season play and our score sheet for the season is perfect with six played wins, no losses or draws. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re worthy champions and the overall strongest season 15 team.

 

 

Franky prepares a traditional Swedish dish: French Lerk chops.

 

 

Ingame we carried ourselves well this season, although lack of regular practice left our play very haphazard at times. Between marko’s shotgun, franky’s Fade, s4’s skulk and the all-round play from the rest of us, we were able to dominate most matches through raw skill alone. Our alien side turned out statistically perfect: we didn’t lose a single alien round in season 15 officials. Of course, our alien play wasn’t actually perfect. We made lots of mistakes and had some very close games (Week 6 vs. CAL on orbital comes to mind!) but in the end we always managed to outperform the opponent and take the win. As the team’s alien comm, that’s something I’m very pleased with obviously.

 

 

Commanding. Not for the faint of heart.

 

 

Our marine side struggled more, however. Dux did a great job adapting to the comm chair, but he’s a field player at heart and re-educating yourself to be a perfect commander in one season simply isn’t possible. Combine that with weak team play and lots of silly mistakes in the field and you have the reason why our marine half wasn’t as reliable as perhaps it should’ve been this season. Fortunately for us, marko is a one-man marine team.

 

 

Nerf marko plz!!

 

 

Outside of the game things weren’t so idyllic unfortunately, as inactivity hit us just as hard as all the other division 1 teams. I suppose it was a combination of people having other priorities and the fact that for the last month of the league it was practically impossible for us to find opponents for practice matches. When there’s nobody to play, it’s difficult to get the motivation to show up for matches instead of doing something else. At times we had so few people on we had to use mercs for officials — practically unheard of in any previous incarnations of 9L. It’s disappointing for me of course, having put so much time into organizing the team, but understandable.

 

 

Six weeks of this was “fun”.

 

 

We still had a lot of fun when we actually did play though and this is without a doubt one of the nicest groups of people I’ve played with in the past seven years. When you put together a new team from a lot of players who don’t really know each other, there’s always the risk you won’t gel socially. Although we all knew who each other were, many of us had never teamed up together before, so this was a bit of an experiment. Fortunately things turned out great in the end.

 

 

Team spirits are off to a good start!

 

 

As usual with 9L, the IRC and Ventrilo (TeamSpeak actually… the times, they are a changin) antics were great. From the endless queries about Tweadle’s — our lost leader who randomly turned up for the semi final and then disappeared again — current whereabouts to terrorizing s4 with steam calls and Doctor’s failure to quit NS, there was no lack of “teh funnay”.

 

 

Fuck your three Hives, NOW we dance!

 

 

I’d like to thank Doctor, dux, enigmatic, franky, GibbZ, mOkezi, lagga, Tweadle and s4 for the good times this season. Hopefully you guys will stick around next year and who knows, maybe even play some NS…2? Well, maybe not just yet, but stay in touch and don’t let the IRC priv chan die! Thanks to our opponents too and the ENSL staff of course, for yet another good tournament in this rather dead game. Lastly, to all of you reading this, I wish you a merry Christmas and an EXCELLENT new year!

As the last season of ENSL has finished, at least the last season as far as 9L is concerned, it’s time for a quick recap. Once again, we were enticed to rejoin the dwindling Natural Selection community, for one last kaboom. At first I was skeptical, I doubted we’d even be able to get six 9Lers to return. I was wrong. It didn’t take long before old friends started mysteriously connecting to IRC and announcing their returns. How they knew we were even making a comeback, I will never know. After our miraculous Season 10 comeback, expectations were high. Too high. The competition was fierce and our chances slim, but we threw ourselves into the fray.

 

 

…mop’s back — HELL YEAH!? :D

 

 

ENSL Season 10 was a once in a lifetime event. So unlikely, so ridiculously unlikely, that I personally feel that expecting the same results this season — with even less time to practice — is strange. So many different and even in themselves unlikely events conspired to make that victory possible. I’d be surprised if anything like that ever happens again, to any team. Still, I can’t deny that I’m a little disappointed. Not with our results, they were quite decent considering our inactivity and short time to get back on form. I’m disappointed with the fact that we didn’t even really try. Still, playing without having any real ambitions was relaxing in its own way.

 

 

Cue five weeks of “wltrs gets a shotgun” predictions.

 

 

I must also take some of the blame for our mediocre performance. While I was able to effectuate some clever strategies, they were symptomatic of our condition. I’m not entirely sure why, but I just haven’t felt comfortable leading the team this season. As a result, my performance as team leader slumped. Badly. We used to be the most professionally organized NS team around, but this season we were one of the least. Poor motivating, in game leadership and roster management failed to give us the solid foundation we’ve had in the past. It could be time to recruit some new leadership talent — or maybe I just need a break?

 

 

Oetel decides to take justice in his own hands when sherpa jumps the CC.

 

 

That said, I still had a lot of fun playing and talking shit on vent. The screenshots in this news post don’t even come close to representing all the hilarious moments we had. Coming one red bar away from taking Saunamen to a tie breaker map in the semi final certainly isn’t anything to be ashamed of. Neither is taking a shared third place with take over. The rage levels were also almost non-existant, surprising considering our history of rage — even when we were winning! Big, big shoutout to b1, dux, evilness, JustMe, morphz, mu, Oetel, pantsu, sherpa, Sublime, vax, and wltrs for making our last NS tournament a very enjoyable one. See you around in NS2 yo!

 

 

Sublime eats nade, blames friends for “shouting in my ears”.

 

 

As this is the last time we’ll ever play NS together, let me take this opportunity to say thank you. Everyone. Thank you for all the matches, the great laughs and the camaraderie. Thank you for the memories.

 

 

9L has gone back into hibernation. Hopefully, we’ll be back for NS2, but the future is hard to predict. Some of us are still playing NS however, for different teams. Wltrs has joined the Tuxedo Men and I’m playing with take over. The community may be in a sorry state, but playing NS is still fun!

It’s no secret that we’ve been at it again lately, playing some games and getting revved up for NS2. We’ve even joined what is probably the last NS tournament ever, the thirteenth season of the European Natural Selection League. We were there in the beginning, albeit under the knife guise, so it seems fitting that we return for the proper ending too. Fortunately, several other teams have also been feeling the NS addiction return and it looks like we have a lot of matches to look forward to.

 

Now some of you reading this may be thinking “wow, deja vu… didn’t this already happen?”. Which is of course partly true. About a year ago, during ENSL Season 10, we also made a short return to NS. We went through trials and tribulations, from the lowest lows of drama to the highest highs of championship matches. In the end, through an almost miraculous combination of blind luck, latent skill and dogged perseverence, we managed to claim the title. Against all odds we beat The Sproggalots — who had 4-0ed us earlier in the season — and added another golden e-trophy to our collection.

 

A lot of good times were had, but winning let the air out of the balloon and we once again sunk back down into the quagmire of inactivity.

 

But now, we’re back again! Our last adventure has apparently given people big expectations. Unfortunately — I feel it’s appropriate to start with the bad — we’re in no shape to fulfill those expectations. It’s been over a year since the last time most of us played, and even then we were far from our top form. Even worse, the only past 9L-er who’s still on form, franky, (AKA. Kira or iwb) decided to join our main opponents. I can’t blame him for that though. The lack of a good Fade is especially hurting us, as I haven’t been able to get anywhere near decent in the couple of weeks we’ve played so far.

 

Since we started playing, we’ve gone through a little bit of drama and a lot of heavy defeats during practice. As the season is starting this week already, it’s going to be very difficult for us to get our form back in time for the tough matches. As it is, we’re likely aiming for the semi finals, possibly even a bronze finish if we can get back on form in time. Who knows though, another miracle may be waiting for us just over the horizon.

 

Now for the good. We’ve been placed in the arguably weaker group of the two, Group A. Keeping up with Take Over — our main opponents in Group A — will be tough, but we’re definitely going to try. The real kicker is the players we’ve managed to scoop together. When we started talking about mounting another comeback, I had no idea we’d be able to get such a legendary roster. Packed to the brim with old school ownerers, ready to mangle the opposition. Any experienced competitive player will certainly stop to think for a second when they see b1, Fana, dux, morphz, mu, Oetel, pantsus, sherpa, Sublime and wltrs join the server!

 

Will it last? That’s anybody’s guess. All I know is that we’re going to give it our best shot and have some fun together. Our first match is against another recently returned old team, Keen Edge. It’s probably being played this Sunday at 20:00 CET. I’ll post an update when I know for sure. An HLTV should be available for anyone wanting to watch us try to stumble our way back into the limelight.