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20ID is an online gaming organization that competes in team-based first person shooter games for the PC.
Founded in 1998 by Chris "ginc" Polan, 20ID has since competed in many games and attracted a membership that enjoys FPS gaming, having fun,
and competing against other gamers from around the world. Most of our team members are located across North America and are between the ages of 18 and 25.
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20ID is run by a small group of managers that direct and coordinate the efforts of several teams, each of which competes in a different game.
Each team consists of one or more team leaders, and enough members to compete in the game that they play.
Note that these positions are not mutually exclusive - managers can be team leaders or members, and members can play for multiple teams.
Leadership positions are gained through maturity, seniority, and activity.
Like a lot of organizations, 20ID's decision making system is loosely based on a combination of seniority and democracy.
Most of the time, 20ID only has one active team at a time. This means that we have a fairly large community of inactive team members.
Some of these members hang around and chat, waiting for the next game that catches their interest.
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Our main goal is to have fun playing and competing in online games.
While the concept of "electronic sports" and "professional gamers" has grown steadily over the past few years,
20ID believes that video games are meant to be a hobby, not a profession. A real-life education or career should come before gaming.
That being said, the thrill of competing and trying to be the best at a game is what makes it fun for us, and we take winning very seriously.
However, we will not compromise the fun of a game to gain more wins, and we will not play games that we don't enjoy just because they are popular.
Friendship among members is important to us, it makes the 20ID environment more fun and promotes the solidarity of the organization.
This has allowed 20ID to exist for more than 6 years, with a very good retention rate. Even when our players go inactive
or quit playing our current game, they stick around and chat with us. In other words, if you fit in with 20ID, you find
yourself staying 20ID for life.
When it comes to competing, we are dedicated and hard working. We enjoy improving our abilities on both an individual and team level,
and we enjoy the thrill of climbing to the top of a game's pecking order. While we do our best to win, we do so within the league rules and the
generally accepted rules of sportsmanship. A respectable loss from playing fair is better than a win gained through
unsportmanlike methods such as cheating and rules-whoring. In other words, we play to win respect from the community.
We are not politically correct. We can and will joke about nearly everything.
We find that if you take online gaming drama too seriously, you'll just get angry all the time, as there are alot of jerks on the Internet.
As a result, you'll find that most 20ID members are laid back and are not easily fazed by the crazy things that go on in the community.
We do our best not to act like jerks, however we are human and we do get caught up in arguments sometimes. One thing we will not do is talk trash
without backing it up - we prefer to let our game speak for us, as actions speak louder than words.
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The primary way to contact a member of 20ID is via IRC. Our active team members and a good amount of inactive members can be found in our IRC channel,
which is #20id on irc.gamesurge.net.
If you need an IRC client, try mIRC (Windows) or
BitchX (Linux and other Unix-based systems).
In addition to idling in our IRC channel, we occasionally check our Official Forums.
20ID's managers can also be contacted via email and Xfire:
Chris "ginc" Polan - chris [at] 20id [dot] org | Xfire - godinc
James "jamison" Noonan - james [at] 20id [dot] org | Xfire - jamison884
Jim "ji-had" Derrick - jim [at] 20id [dot] org | Xfire - xjihad
Here is a list of the best contacts for the following situations:
| Recruitment: |
Relevant team leader(s) - See "Joining 20ID" for more information |
| Interviews: |
Any manager or team leader |
| Match/scrimmage setup: |
Relevant team leader(s) |
| Problems with a team member: |
Relevant team leader(s) |
| Problems with a team leader: |
Chris "ginc" Polan
James "jamison" Noonan |
| Proposals for new 20ID teams: |
Chris "ginc" Polan |
| Webpage issues: |
Chris "ginc" Polan |
| Game server issues: |
James "jamison" Noonan |
| Sponsorship proposals: |
James "jamison" Noonan
Jim "ji-had" Derrick |
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Most of the time, 20ID recruits on an invite-only basis. We prefer to recruit friends and people we know, as we've built up a rather large presence over the past 6 years.
This means that it is generally hard to get into 20ID without getting to know us first, no matter how skilled you are.
However, we will occasionally announce on this webpage that we are looking for players for a certain game, and give the contact information of the team's leader(s).
Even then, we still do not have open tryouts - applicants will be screened, and we will contact the players that we feel will make the biggest positive impact on the team and on 20ID in general.
We may invite applicants to hang out and get to know us, to see if their personality fits in with the team.
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The hosting for this website is generously provided by Lost In Space Hosting. The design and page templates were provided by Innate Media Group; their work was very efficient and done in a timely manner, we highly recommend them for your site design needs. Chris "ginc" Polan did the site coding - a combination of PHP, HTML, JavaScript and MySQL databases.
The page was designed with simplicity and accessibility in mind - all relevant information concerning 20ID is easy to find. The site is also a lot less cluttered than most other sites, which are generally packed with more "features" that nobody ever uses.
For more information on LISHosting and IMG, please visit our Sponsors Page.
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Game, Voice and File Hosting |
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20ID's official game server provider is MyInternetServices.com; MyIs is currently providing us with Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, and Call of Duty 2 servers located across the country. 20ID's Ventrilo (voice communication) server is hosted by Pure Voice Communications, a leader in Ventrilo and Teamspeak hosting.
For more information on MyInternetServices.com and Pure Voice Communications, please visit our Sponsors Page.
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Battlefield 2 is the latest class/vehicle-based teamplay FPS game from DICE and EA Games. Modern era warfare is the theme of the game, with
battles taking place in theaters across the Middle East and China. Players can choose from 7 interdependent classes and drive a variety of air and
ground vehicles, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. In competition, teams of 8-12 players battle it out to control the map and defeat
the other team. Teamwork, strategy and players that are skilled in their respective roles are required for a team to be successful. |
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Call of Duty 2 is the sequel to the groundbreaking World War 2 era teamplay FPS game from the makers of MOH:AA, Call of Duty. Again,
focusing on small squad combat, teams battle it out as Allies and Axis in war-torn cities on the western, eastern, and African Fronts, using a variety
of WW2-era infantry weapons. In competition, teams play the Search and Destroy or Capture the Flag game mode. In the Search and Destroy mode, the
attacking team must either destroy key emplacements or wipe out the enemy within a limited amount of time, and the defending team must stop them.
In Capture the Flag, both teams must use various tactics in an effort to capture the enemy team's flag while defending their own. |
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Battlefield Vietnam is the sequel to DICE's breakout hit Battlefield 1942. Taking place in the jungles and villages of Vietnam,
players can choose from 8 weapon kits and pilot a variety of Vietnam War era vehicles, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
As before, teams must use strategy, teamwork and skill with the guns and vehicles to battle for control of the maps. |
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Call of Duty is a World War 2 era teamplay FPS game from the makers of MOH:AA. Focusing on small squad combat, teams battle it out as Allies and Axis in
war-torn cities on the western and eastern fronts, using a variety of WW2-era infantry weapons. In competition, teams play the Search and
Destroy game mode, where the attacking team must either destroy key emplacements or wipe out the enemy within a limited amount of time,
and the defending team must stop them. |
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RTCW: Enemy Territory is the completely free, downloadable stand-alone sequel to id Software's popular Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
With a focus on fast-paced gameplay as opposed to realism, Allied and Axis teams attack and defend various objectives using 5 player classes:
Soldiers, Medics, Field Ops, Covert Ops and Engineers. In competition, teams must use a variety of classes working together to accomplish their objectives
more quickly than the other team can do the same. |
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Battlefield 1942 is the revolutionary game that introduced large-scale teamplay warfare to the FPS genre. In a World War 2 setting,
Allied and Axis teams engage in battles across 4 theaters: the western front, the eastern front, northern Africa, and the Pacific islands.
Players can choose from 5 players classes and take control of various land, sea and air vehicles. In competition, teams make use of all available
weaponry in an effort to push the other team back and control the majority of the map. Because every player class and vehicle has its own strengths
and weaknesses, teams must use a variety of each and work together to win. |
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Reaction Quake 3 is a remake of the popular Action Quake 2 for the Quake 3 engine. While it wasn't as popular as the original, it faithfully
preserved the fast-paced action movie style gunfights of AQ2. The gameplay remained the same, while the graphics and sounds were improved over the
original and a few new maps were added. |
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Quake 3 Fortress is an adaptation of the popular Quakeworld Team Fortress (the world's first class-based teamplay FPS game) for the
Quake 3 engine. Being an oldschool FPS game, realism is forsaken in favor of fast-paced gameplay and fancy movement techniques. Players can
choose from 9 player classes, each of which has special abilities and carries weapons such as rocket launchers, grenades, shotguns, nailguns
and sniper rifles. In competition, teams would frag each other using various classes in an effort to capture the enemy team's flag while
defending their own. |
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Action Quake 2 is a modification for id Software's Quake 2 that was very popular in its day. Recognized as the father of urban "realism" games
such as Counter-Strike, AQ2 is nonetheless a game that takes its inspiration from flashy action movies, emphasizing stylish action over realism
in its gunfights. Players can shoot it out in various urban environments using modern weapons including pistols, assault rifles, submachineguns,
shotguns and sniper rifles. In competition, AQ2 is played as a round-based one life game where teams of 4-5 players work together to eliminate the
other team and win rounds. |
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| Battlefield 2142 |
January 2007 - Present |
Offline Record: 2-1 |
- 2nd Place - Gamecaster BF2142 Invitational
| Battlefield 2 |
June 2005 - December 2006 |
Offline Record: 25-3 |
- Champions - Winter EverLAN 2006
- Champions - DirecTV Championship Gaming Invitational July 2006
- Champions - Showdown Lanfest 2006
- Champions - Extreme LAN KC
- Champions - StompFest LAN
- Champions - Extreme LAN KC: Operation Topeka
- 4th Place - CPL Winter 2006 5v5
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| Battlefield 2 |
June 2005 - December 2006 |
Online Record: 145-14 |
- Champions - CAL 12v12 Season 1 Open
- Champions - TWL 12v12 Season 1
- Champions - CAL 8v8 Season 1 Open
- Champions - TWL 8v8 Global Crisis Tournament
- 4th Place - CAL 8v8 Season 2 Main
- Champions - HTGN 8v8 Season 1
- Champions - ChampionsCAL 8v8 Season 3 Main
- Champions - CAL 8v8 Season 3 Open – Poppycock
- 2nd Place - HTGN 8v8 Season 1 – Poppycock
- Champions - Major League Online 5v5 Season 1
- 2nd Place - CAL 8v8 Season 4 Main
- 2nd Place - GameSpot Infantry Wars
| Battlefield Vietnam |
April 2004 - February 2005 |
Online Record: 79-2 |
- Champions - TWL 8v8 BFV Tournament
- Retired at #1 - TWL 12v12 Ladder
- Retired at #1 - TWL 8v8 Ladder
- Champions - CAL 10v10 Season 1 Open
- Champions - TWL 12v12 League
- Retired at #1 - TWL 10v10 Ladder
- Retired at #1 - TWL 5v5 Infantry
- Champions - CAL 10v10 Season 2 Open
| Call of Duty |
April 2004 - June 2004 |
Online Record: 8-3 |
- 1/2 Finalists - CAL Season 1 Open
| Enemy Territory |
August 2003 - June 2004 |
Online Record: 39-14 |
- 1/2 Finalists - TWL Stopwatch League Season 1
- 1/4 Finalists - CAL Season 1 Open
- Playoffs - TWL Stopwatch League Season 2
- 5th Place - CAL Season 2 Invite Division
- Finalists - ND80 Blue and Gold Tournament
| Battlefield 1942 |
October 2002 - July 2003 |
Online Record: 83-7 |
- 1/4 Finalists - CAL 10v10 Season 1 Open
- Champions - CAL 12v12 Season 2 Open
- Retired at #1 - TWL 12v12 Conquest Ladder
- Champions - TWL12v12 League Season 1
- 2nd Place - TWL12v12 League Season 2
- Champions - SG 12v12 Invite Tournament 1
- 2nd Place - SG 12v12 Invite Tournament 2
- Retired at #1 - OGL 12v12 Conquest Ladder
| Reaction Quake3 |
July 2002 - September 2002 |
Online Record: 21-2 |
- 1/4 Finalists - CAL 10v10 Season 1 Open
- Champions - CAL 12v12 Season 2 Open
- Retired at #1 - TWL 12v12 Conquest Ladder
- Champions - TWL12v12 League Season 1
- 2nd Place - TWL12v12 League Season 2
- Champions - SG 12v12 Invite Tournament 1
- 2nd Place - SG 12v12 Invite Tournament 2
- Retired at #1 - OGL 12v12 Conquest Ladder
| Quake3 Fortress |
July 2000 - June 2002 |
Online Record: 133-29 |
- Retired with Title - STA 9v9 League
- Champions - STA 9v9 Seasonal League Season 2
- Champions - STA 9v9 Seasonal League Season 4
- Retired at #1 - OGL 6v6 Ladder
| Action Quake2 |
September 1998 - June 2000 |
Online Record: 94-18 |
- Retired at #1 - OGL 4v4 Ladder
- Retired at #1 - OGL 4v4 Friendly Fire
- Retired at #1 - OGL 7v7 UberLadder
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Part I - The early Action Quake 2 days |
September 1998 - June 1999 |
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20ID was founded sometime in September 1998 by 3 casual Quake2 players: Chris "ginc" Polan, "Gleaker" (real name withheld because he's a jerk), and Mike "MikFly" Polan.
These 3 players dabbled in various Quake2 mods throughout that year, just playing for fun on public servers. Then sometime in mid-1998, they discovered
Action Quake2 - an "action movie realism" mod for Quake2. In the formative days of AQ2, only the deathmatch gameplay mode was available, which was incredibly
fun but only suited well to public server gameplay. Later, the teamplay mode was introduced, and this is when Ginc, Gleaker and Mikfly decided to make a team
to compete in AQ2. Why did they choose the name 20ID, and what does it stand for? Lets just say it has something to do with big... uh... egos.
Shortly after 20ID's founding, they recruited a few other people who were interested, and this plucky group of high pingers (yes, almost everyone was on dialup back then)
started to compete against other teams. There were a few wins and a few losses, but the team stayed together and fought onward.
Eventually, 20ID began to find better players to recruit. People such as Vealslap and Bizmarkie were among the first low pingers to join the team,
and with their addition we started to compete well against the top teams in AQ2. Again, there were some wins and some tough losses, but now that
we were playing against the best teams in AQ2 (there were over 100 competitive AQ2 teams back in the day), people started to notice us. Our first
moment of glory happened when we beat NSV for the #1 spot on the OGL ladder in December 1998. We went into this match as underdogs, and still pulled out a
win, our first title win. We didn't manage to hold it very long, however... the competition at the time was tough. 20ID began to invite more
players from the growing AQ2 scene to the team, and players such as Kramed, Johnholio and Iceman bolstered our ranks. We developed friendly rivalries
(sometimes not so friendly) with the other top teams at the time, including the Goon Squad, Aggression Rangers, DeathSquad, and Armed Weapon Experts.
While 20ID wasn't _the_ dominant AQ2 team yet, soon they would be...
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Part II - Action Quake 2's prime |
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One thing separated 20ID from the other competing teams at the time, however: we were always dedicated to improving our level of play. While
some of the other teams stagnated, we continued to grow in skill and teamwork. After a few more title wins and losses, we managed to
secure the #1 rank firmly. Around this period, AQ2's Tournament Edition was released, and this made matches much easier to run, and it also
made spectator cheating impossible. The AQ2 scene continued to grow, and 20ID grew with it while staying on top. We had so many members, and
Ginc didn't have the heart to cut people, so we formed a secondary ladder team. This would later prove to be a mistake, as there was very
little communication with the secondary team, and things eventually became pretty awkward.
The AQ2 scene expanded enough to allow other ladders to open, and 20ID managed to rack up the wins in those as well. During the year 2000,
we managed to hold the #1 rank for nearly 8 months. With over 40 wins and only 2 losses during the year 2000, we earned the respect and envy
of those around us as the greatest AQ2 team of that era. However, competing at the top of AQ2 began to grow tiresome, and the team would eventually
retire on October 2000. The secondary AQ2 team continued to play a while longer, but due to a lack of communication, the history and people involved
with the secondary team are relatively unknown. All we know is that they didn't quite reach the same competitive level as the original team, but
they still kept the "fun comes first" attitude of 20ID.
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Part III - 20ID branches off into new games |
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Around the summer of 2000, 20ID decided to try their luck in other games and mods. Quake 3 had been released nearly a year ago, but people's
hardware was only starting to catch up enough to play it at acceptable framerates. Half-life mods were looked at as well, however we decided
against playing Counter-Strike, as we thought it was just a gimmicky version of Action Quake 2 with the speed and fun sucked out of it. After
testing out various mods for Quake 3 and Half-life, we decided to put the Action Quake 2 team to rest. Then, we decided to go in 3 different directions: Johnholio lead a
Rocket Arena 3 team, Nightmare lead a Day of Defeat team, and Ginc himself lead a Quake 3 Fortress team.
Unfortunately, the RA3 and DOD teams
died a few months later due to sporadic leadership and lack of interest. However, Ginc's Q3F team met James "Drakka" Lawlor: a Q3F player that
Ginc would later find out had the same drive to excel that he did. Despite being up against fierce competition in the form
of QuakeWorld Team Fortress players with much more experience, Ginc's Q3F team stuck with the game and carried the 20ID torch onward.
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Part IV - The early Quake 3 Fortress days |
November 2000 - June 2001 |
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At first, 20ID's Q3F team was made up almost entirely of 20ID AQ2 players... but most of them weren't very good at it and/or didn't like the game. Most of
the original 20ID players slipped into inactivity after a few months of Q3F, but Ginc and Drakka continued to play it, and look for new recruits.
Drakka soon became Ginc's new co-leader of the Q3F team, as Bizmarkie had stopped playing Q3F not too long ago. Ginc and Drakka recruited more Q3F players,
and competed in a few matches. Unfortunately, there were quite a few losses in the beginning, as we were competing against older teams with
years of experience in the Fortress gaming scene, and most 20ID Q3F members at the time were relatively inexperienced (Ginc and Drakka
included). However, just like the AQ2 team before them, they didn't let a bunch of losses ruin their day, instead they fought onward and
sought to constantly improve the team's level of play.
Despite playing with what many in the early Q3F scene considered to be "inferior" players, 20ID started to put up a good fight against more experienced teams,
sometimes earning a few "upset wins". The 20ID team attitude must have impressed some people, as we soon had good players asking to join us,
and not the other way around. With a few key additions, we started to find a groove to settle into, and ran solid defense and offense that only the
best teams could defeat. Our key upset win of this era was our semi-final playoff match in the first STA-Q3F seasonal league, where we were matched up against
The Nothing. TN was heavily favored to take the match, but we pulled of an impressive comeback win in the second half. At this point, other teams began to take
20ID's Q3F team seriously. Although we lost in the finals to the dominant team at the time, Quantum Flux, other teams finally respected 20ID as a formidable opponent.
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Part V - 20ID's Q3F hegemony and the fall of Q3F2 |
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After 20ID realised that being the best Q3F team was within their reach, they continued their efforts to improve the team. 20ID began to hold the STA
title for a few weeks here and there, losing it and regaining it by playing against top teams such as Quantum Flux and Megadeath. The hard work paid off,
because when the Seasonal league's second season came to a close, 20ID were the champions. At this point, we weren't quite considered to be
a dominating team, but we were winning more than other teams at the time, and by popular vote we were considered the #1 team. We continued to
play in the 3 STA-Q3F leagues, mostly successful in all our matches but dropping a game here and there. During the STA seasonal league's third season,
TN managed to pay us back for what we did to them last year - this time, TN were the underdogs, but they still managed to defeat 20ID with a buzzer beating
capture. As usual, 20ID didn't let a heartbreaking loss bring them down.
During late 2001 and early 2002, 20ID recruited the last few players they needed,
the final pieces of the puzzle. At this point, 20ID had what many consider to be the best North American team to ever play Quake 3 Fortress, and they didn't
lose a single 9v9 game from that point until their retirement in June 2002. From July 2001 to June 2002, 20ID won over 70 games while losing only 6, and 4
of those games were only lost by a single capture. Eventually, the Q3F team released a major update to their game in the form of Q3F2. For various reasons,
the update was generally hated by most Q3F players and it ended up decimating the community. 20ID retired from Q3F shortly after Q3F2's release,
because of a lack of interest and a stagnant, dwindling community.
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Part VI - A brief affair with Reaction Quake 3 |
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Most of 20ID's ex-Q3F players couldn't find any other suitable game or mod that caught their interest, and most slipped into inactivity,
while a few joined other Q3F teams. At this point in time, Reaction Quake 3 was released, so Ginc and Bizmarkie decided to make a team to play it.
RQ3 was a faithful reproduction of the original Action Quake 2 for the Quake 3 engine, so it definitely brought on a lot of nostalgia with 20ID's old AQ2 players.
Unfortunately, RQ3 never became very popular, and there weren't very many teams to play against. Still, 20ID played the game for 4 months, mostly with old 20ID
AQ2 players, but with 1 or 2 other faces from other old AQ2 teams. Despite a few stumbles in the beginning (2 losses to RBA), we beat all the other teams handily and had a 3
month win streak going (including 3 revenge victories against RBA :D). Because the scene was so small, there was no point sticking around
though... we retired from that game a mere 4 months after we started, with a small record of 21-2. Now 20ID had to find a new game to play...
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Part VII - 20ID does Battlefield 1942 |
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While 20ID's RQ3 team was winding down, Ginc and Bizmarkie searched for a new game to play. The demo of Battlefield 1942 had caught their
interest, so they decided to form a Battlefield 1942 team when the full game was released. They started by forming the team with 20ID's RQ3
players, but soon found they needed alot more people to fill a BF1942 roster, as games were played 12vs12. Many other AQ2 and RQ3 teams heard
about 20ID entering the growing BF1942 scene, and 20ID picked up some people from these other teams. 20ID's BF1942 team was composed of
the some of the best AQ2 and RQ3 players, with a strong 20ID core, and players from teams such as The Goon Squad, RBA, and The Elite. 20ID
soon earned the respect of the BF1942 community and became one of the top teams.
After a brief period of ladder matches in BF1942, the community grew big enough to support a few big name weekly leagues, the 2 most prominent
being CAL and TWL. 20ID rolled over most of the teams at the time with relative ease, with the exception being a few teams such as Demise, D2D,
TFS and aEm. As usual, we developed some friendly and not-so-friendly rivalries with these teams. With a good combination of teamwork and skill
in all aspects of the game, 20ID had no problem reaching the playoffs in CAL and TWL,
as well as being invited to the SquadGames Invitational Tourney. 20ID won the TWL and SquadGames championships by defeating D2D and Demise,
respectively. However, our progress in CAL was stopped by an unfortunate event, one that shook our faith in online gaming for a while. While
playing in a playoff match against a certain team, several of 20ID's members became the victim of DDoS attacks - dropping them off the internet
in the middle of the match for long periods of time. This inevitably contributed to our narrow loss and elimination from the playoffs. It was
later found out that a member of the opposing team was responsible for the DDoS attacks on our team (among others). Needless to say,
this left us very pissed off, as neither CAL nor the proper authorities could do anything or bring any sort of justice to the matter. The CAL
season 1 championship was eventually won by Demise, who defeated TFS in another drama filled match. TFS was caught using several ringers and
ended up banned from season 2.
After the events of season 1, many of 20ID's BF1942 players decided to drift into inactivity. Regardless, our roster still had enough depth to
allow us to stick around for another season, with the addition of a few new faces. Although we didn't practice as much or put in as much
hard work, we remained at the top of the scene. With the decline of D2D and TFS, Demise and aEm were the only teams capable of beating us.
Season 2 was filled with drama just like season 1, but we had fun anyway. Demise ended up defeating us to win the SquadGames season 2 Tourney,
but we fought onward to win the CAL season 2 championship by defeating Demise in a very close game. Unfortunately, the match was plagued by
sporadic DDoS attacks against the game servers themselves. After this match, we decided it would be best if we retired from BF1942. The increasingly
dominant yet unfun tactics of pixelaiming and runway camping, along with the threat of being DDoSed in big games, lead us to this decision.
All in all, 20ID finished up BF1942 after an impressive run, considered by many to be the best oldschool BF1942 team.
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Part VIII - 20ID does RTCW: Enemy Territory |
August 2003 - January 2004 |
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Only a few weeks after we retired from BF1942, RTCW: Enemy Territory was released as a free, stand-alone multiplayer game based on the popular
RTCW's gameplay. We gave it a try and found it to be very fun, requiring both skill and teamwork. Leagues soon popped up for ET, and we signed
up. Our ET roster consisted of former 20ID BF1942 players, a few players from BF1942 team Demise, and we later went on to recruit players we knew
from the Quake 3 Fortress scene.
Q3F's league scene was finally dying, and many of their players gave Splash Damage's newest creation a try and loved it. The competition in the
ET scene was pretty tough - all the good teams were filled with veteran RTCW players, and their experience gave them a significant advantage
over everyone else. Regardless, we persevered and improved our game rather quickly, and in a few months we found ourselves playing at the level
of these veteran teams. We finished out season 1 by making it to the semi and quarter finals in the TWL and CAL leagues respectively. Season 2
started pretty well, with a few new faces, but not long after, another bombshell was dropped...
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Part IX - Battlefield 1942 and the CPL |
January 2004 - April 2004 |
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Shortly after the conclusion of the Winter 2003 CPL event, the CPL announced that they were expanding into new games.
The CPL was and still is the biggest and most professional LAN tournament organization in North America, but since they mainly concentrated on
Counter-strike (a game not well liked by 20ID), we largely ignored it. As a clan we'd always thought it would be cool to have a large real-life
reunion, and the CPL would have been a good place to meet if the right game came along. Although 20ID actually voted to have Enemy Territory at
the CPL because we were playing it, the new games that got chosen were Halo, Call of Duty, and our old haunt - Battlefield 1942.
This provided us with a big opportunity - the idea was to gather the old BF players for some fun in Texas, and have our costs covered by
sponsorship and/or prize money. We quickly rejoined the BF1942 scene on CAL, and started playing again. Shortly after, we partnered up with
Clan Wat? - a multigaming team with other CPL-bound divisions and sponsorship. Although the returned interest in BF1942 weakened the ET team,
ginc passed the reins on to Newdeal and carcass, who recruited a few more players to keep the team alive. This made 20ID a multi-game clan again
- the first time since the summer of 2000. The Enemy Territory team fought onward and finished season 2 in the playoffs, with results similar to
season 1. With a lack of interest from 20ID's core members and a lack of quality players to recruit, 20ID's ET team would eventually shut down in June 2004.
Anyway, 20ID's BF1942 league play and CPL preparations were going well at first... but an underlying problem
troubled us. The number of team signups for the event were alot lower than the CPL wanted and expected, and they set cutoffs which would spell
the cancellation of the tournament if they were not met. The first milestone of 20 teams was reached, but no more teams could be found afterward.
When the CPL required 12 more teams in a few weeks, things seemed hopeless - and this was in the middle of a CAL season. Alot of our players never
really liked the "newschool" gameplay of BF1942 anyway - pixelaiming and runway camping were refined to a science, and the latest patches introduced
frustrating problems with hit registration among other things. With the looming possibility of no CPL event to practice for, our interest in the game plummeted.
As a result, our performance declined towards the end of the season, and as our suspicions became confirmed with the cancellation of the event, the roster situation
became desperate, eventually requiring us to drop out of the league before the playoffs started. With many of the game's flaws magnified
by competitive play, we decided to once again quit BF1942 - this time for good.
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Part X - Call of Duty and the early BF Vietnam days |
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Right before the CPL cancelled their BF1942 event, Battlefield Vietnam was released. Also, Call of Duty had been released a month or 2 earlier. With no other
games out there that caught our interest, we decided to make teams for both BFV and CoD. 20ID's early BFV roster consisted of mostly old 20ID BF1942 players,
while our CoD roster consisted of a mix of 20ID BF1942 players and Q3F players. The CoD team had a brief but enjoyable run that ended quickly due to team
leader inactivity, while the BFV team would continue to compete for a while.
20ID's Call of Duty team was lead by James "Fum" Keller, an old 20ID veteran coming from AQ2 and BF1942. The CoD team joined CAL in the middle of a season, but
didn't let that stop them. They managed to learn the game quick enough to play their makeup matches and earn a 6-2 record, enough to just barely make the playoffs.
With the #16 seed, they went into the first round facing Check Six, the top seeded team in the east. Of course, everyone predicted us to lose because of the seedings
and because 20ID was not a very well known team. The teams in the CoD community liked to hype themselves up, in stark contrast to 20ID's style of being quiet and
letting our game talk for us. In any event, 20ID squeaked out a win over Check Six - known to many as the biggest upset of the season. They went on to win the next
playoff round as well, and then lost in the semi-finals to rSports by a small margin. Despite a good run in such a short period of time, 20ID's CoD team proved to
be only slightly more stable than the average CoD team (lol) and opted not to compete in season 2. The lack of an active team leader combined with some players getting
bored of the game lead them to that decision.
20ID's Battlefield Vietnam team was lead by Ginc and James "jamison" Noonan, who joined 20ID during our run in RTCW: ET. The early versions of BFV had horrible
balance problems and bugs that drove away alot of teams, but we stuck around out of boredom. BFV's first major competition was TWL's Tour of Duty tournament,
played on a 128 team single elimination bracket. 20ID coasted through the early rounds, only starting to meet some tough competition in the semi-finals.
There, we faced the Ravens, a team composed mostly of Tribes players from the venerable Vanguard. 20ID won this match in overtime, but used a controversial
(yet legal) tactic that few teams had seen before. After a lengthy dispute, TWL awarded 20ID the win. Despite some bad blood between 20ID and the Ravens at the time,
a good chunk of their players would later join Paradigm Shift and become friendly with us. Our next match was against Super Best Friends for the championship
and first place prizes. While the match went into overtime again, 20ID got side choice and held it down on defense for the win. For our efforts, we received a bunch
of free games from EA, a free webhost, and some other random junk.
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Part XI - Battlefield Vietnam's prime |
August 2004 - February 2005 |
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Battlefield Vietnam's popularity suffered from the "release early, patch later" philosophy of the developers. Out of the box, it had major balance
issues that made it weird and sometimes downright stupid in competition. Thankfully, the 2 major flaws of the game (overpowered M60 and unstoppable
helicopters) were mitigated by the first 2 patches, and by the time CAL-bfv season 1 started, the game was in decent shape. However, 20ID's BFV team
had roster turnover problems because a good deal of players had gone inactive due to how bad the game was at first. Because of this, 20ID picked up the
remnants of the defunct team Prize Fighting Goats. We knew some of pFg's players through Jamison, who had played with some of their members in Demise
in BF1942. Although pFg was known as an undisciplined "raw talent" kind of group, 20ID's leadership did what it did best: it transformed a group of
mavericks into a well-oiled machine.
With the exception of one preseason loss in CAL-bfv season 1, 20ID would go undefeated in North American BFV competition. During this time
we had many close matches with other solid BFV teams such as Super Best Friends, Revival, Paradigm Shift, the Blackjack Brigade, and of course our
biggest rival at the time, Team Warchild. There was the usual trash talking and forum drama, but nothing noteworthy, especially compared to the
craziness of BF1942. 20ID managed to keep its BFV roster extremely stable during this run, only needing to pickup 2 additional players during the
next 6 months. As well as reaching and holding the #1 spot on some TWL ladders, 20ID won the CAL-bfv championship of seasons 1 and 2. In both
seasons we met Team Warchild in the championship match, and both times defeated them somewhat convincingly with a superior team ethic.
20ID's luck in BFV would not hold out long though. As BFV competition started to wane, a World Tournament was announced. Despite being rather poorly
run, it attracted teams from all around the world with a first place prize of high end video cards. In what would later prove to be a curse for 20ID,
the team steamrolled through the group stage only to draw a tough German Utopianer team in the second round of the playoff stage. Having received
forfeit wins for the past month and deciding to sit out of CAL's third BFV season, 20ID had not played a match in a long time. Regardless, the team
prepared hard by practicing with many North American teams. Overly confident, we went into the match and were caught off guard by a strategy that
no serious North American team had used. Losing a main flag in the second half proved too big a setback to fight back from, and 20ID would lose the match
by tickets. Since the WT was 20ID's last BFV league to participate in, this match effectively ended 20ID's BFV run. Utopianer would go on to place third
in the tournament, while Paradigm Shift (the #3 ranked team in North America at the time) would go on to make sure that a North American team won the
title. Despite the anticlimactic end to 20ID's run in BFV, we were still satisfied with our North American championships and our record of 79-2.
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Intermission - 20ID's hibernation |
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20ID decided to quit BFV because in the end, alot of the old flaws of BF1942 were present and alot of us just didn't enjoy the game any more.
The next big class-based teamplay game on the horizon was Battlefield 2, but that was months away. To pass the time, 20ID's members dabbled in other
games, mainly in Counter Strike: Source and Enemy Territory Fortress. CS:S was and is highly popular, but 20ID never really liked the one-life
round-based format. ETF was a fun and fast-paced game based on QuakeWorld TeamFortress and Quake3 Fortress, however the community was way too small
for serious competition. Regardless, some of us played these games casually to pass the time until the release of Battlefield 2.
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Part XII - 20ID returns for Battlefield 2 |
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This chapter in 20ID's history is still unfolding!
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