So, Is This Our New Life?

2010 passed its first month already and surprisingly, it appears the Call of Duty 4 scene seems to be overly vibrant for the time of year. To what can we attribute this surge in activity? Well teams started to pick up their activity a few months ago in preparation of the highly anticipated Modern Warfare 2, but we all know how that tragedy played out. The main question being asked right afterwards was, what should we do now?

Many of the top players were a bit sick of Call of Duty 4, but a future could not be found in its successor and therefore almost all of the top tier players remained with the game and this allowed for the top base of the game to stay the same. So with a decision being made on what version to play and with nearly all the top teams picking up their activity levels, it seemed like the community was saved again from a desperately boring time.

But it is never that easy, if there is nothing to play for. The odd Esports Heaven cup here and there is not enough to keep those teams and players active who are used to several thousand euro events and  travelling across Europe to participate. It would bore rather quickly and it would not take very long before we would find ourselves in the same situation as 3 months ago. Thankfully, two events occurred that inspired and pushed everyone into full blown practice rhythm and our hopes of at least one more year of Call of Duty 4 and maybe, just maybe that stability our community has been looking for ever since the transition from Call of Duty 1 over to Call of Duty 2.

After the failed attempts of the community in attending the rather respected Crossfire Challenge series the last couple of times, we were more than lucky to receive notice by Stuart "TosspoT" Saw that the Call of Duty 4 community would be given one more opportunity at its 7th instalment, albeit under strict conditions. We needed to have 10 signed up and paid teams by the end of December in order for it to go ahead as announced. I, personally and probably joined by some others as well, viewed this challenge with great scepticism as I had always been utterly disappointed at the lack of interest towards the previous editions and, as an outsider, felt it would be an uphill battle to get these teams in the clear and the approval of TosspoT.

Two well-deserved thank you’s are in order here according to me, first of all I would like to thank the lesser known and more local teams to sign up immediately and make sure we, as a community, cleared that first hurdle. From the real top teams, only a small number were amongst those initial teams and that did not mean they were not looking to attend, it just meant the organisations behind them were relying on their sponsor income at a certain time and most probably the announcement of Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 was not calculated into the teams’ budgets beforehand. Another needs to be pointed at Adam Vanner who really took charge towards the end of December and was unrelenting in his pursuit for a great opening LAN of 2010. He not only kept pushing all possible teams for rushed payments, he chose to work out travelling plans for the teams involved and whereas that might seem like not that special of a job, his help and his promoting of CiC7 has in part made sure that in March 2010 we will witness the biggest ever non-BYOC Call of Duty 4 event in the history of the game. And that is worth a thank you in my book.

Although it might seem that stability is finally amongst us, there is still a great deal lacking. There is a definite pattern in the Call of Duty scene and unfortunately it is what separates us from those tried and tested eSports games like Counter-Strike 1.6 and Warcraft III or even Quake Live now. When we look at Call of Duty 4 throughout the year, there are always distinctive lows and highs recognizable, with March/April as well as the Summer always being the highlights of the year with a multitude of LANs which offer several thousands of Euros. But there is always a long downtime in between where teams and players tend to change line-ups every other week or simply disband because of inactivity. Taking a break is one thing, but with almost half a year of inactivity awaiting us, we are bound to have a very fluctuating eSports year.

And this brings me to my following point, the start-up of a new Call of Duty 4 project called "Vita Nova", surely known to all those who have browsed through the TEK9 website in the last couple of weeks as they have been working behind the scene to create something long-lasting, something that does not only provide a service but maintains a high quality throughout. While I applaud the initiative, I hope with all my heart they will not falter where previous projects have and keep their feet very close to the ground they tred on. Staying realistic is one of the main goals they need to keep to and I feel the hype surrounding the #cod4eswc was unjustified, as it was never a very likely goal towards the future. I am not saying we must give up as a community in reaching the status of a sort of "super eSports" title, but usually these things are done way too quickly and too inefficiently in order for them to work. If Vita Nova can keep a straight head and slowly improve of a steady base and with an active enough group of motivators behind it, then I am more than convinced they will become a positive influence on Call of Duty 4 as an eSports title.

So what should Vita Nova do? Well, organizing a stable online competition is a good start and hopefully, as the format is currently not known yet, it will take a couple of weeks of intense battling with a sort of group stage or robin round style before heading into playoffs and eventually finding a winner. When timed properly, they can become a great supplement to the coming Esport Heaven cups as well as ESL competitions and enough motivation to keep the top teams in training before LANs are announced. If they could somehow end up becoming more of a united body of the Call of Duty 4 community, we can see ourselves with better odds towards future events, as a simple and united front will undoubtedly raise more success than several dozens of individual gamers all pleading for their shrill voices to be heard.

Basically, I hope Vita Nova has the balls to inflict change but is not looking to step on too many of them to reach their goals. It seems they have a certain logic and an already figured out way of moving forward about them and because of that I stand behind them and hope they can achieve a more stable community, although they cannot and should not do it on their own. You, as a individual player, will need to be as much involved as those running Vita Nova. So, start working on this New Life right now.