When ZFZ first started I played with mostly former teammates. One of the biggest bonuses of being a part of ZFZ was getting to know and be teammates with a lot of talented players from many different games. Thanks to everyone that helped make Zero Five Zero a great team, and a great help to the SoF2 community.

Stay tuned for ZFZ's Quakecon 2003 video, until then check out our Quakecon 2003 writeup/picture gallery.

Additionally, Drwho Frost and Kev represented for ZFZ on Team 12, along with Sunstyle, Wombat, Sez, m4sh and milez. Team 12 fought its way through the single elimination, and ultimately won the tournament. You can read all about it here.

We are now in the CAL-i playoffs, tonight we defeated the "rising star" of CAL-i ; the well respected Team Addiction. The match started off on Hong Kong Streets, their pick. ZFZ probably surprised a few by clinching the map with relative ease 14-6. The second map Shop Under Siege I think we were not prepared enough for. We subbed Sinatra out for Echo, but alas ZFZ still got pounded 7-14. The overtime map was Raven, where we have started off nicely 7-4 on offense. After ZFZ forced the 4-1 on defense, ADN had a mini rally of 3 rounds before we were finally able to seal the win. Thanks for the games ADN, and great job to sinatra, kudos, glawk, echo, przn, and kev!

Lanatic 5 has gone and passed, link to the picture gallery. I personally had a blast, and it was good to meet Killiah (hogmaster). I'm looking forward to Lanatic 6. Hope to see Echo, Havoc and Darkangel there this time (flakes). Also Lanatic BBQ is the greatest, I recommend everyone try it.

Another update: We welcome Excon to ZFZ, we've been working with him to get him prepped for the next CAL season, let's hope he doesn't suck.

Long time, no update. In a series of some pretty ugly wins, we took our first two CAL-i matches, the first against XIL on mp_shop and the second against DFW on jordan. Each time after securing the match win we were unable to get any more rounds while "playing it out". Most disappointing was our recent match with DFW, where we went 7-2 as red, and 3-1 as blue to win it, then lost the next 6 rounds. This is definitely something we'll have to work on.

Lanatic 4 went well, here's a link to a picture gallery I put up. We'll definately be looking forward to Lanatic 5, and Quakecon 2003 later this summer.

Another note, there seems to be a bunch of kids on message boards making comments about zfz, citing events that transpired on quakeshit servers. Most these guys, have no idea what actually happened and are posting some pretty trashy stuff claiming we have no "class". To them I'll simply say: throughout the history of SOF2 no clan has come close to matching the work ZFZ has had done work to help improve the sof2 community.

I find it funny that the people talking smack have done nothing to contribute to the community. Meanwhile, ZFZ has been making real and continuing contributions to the community not for a week, or a month, but since the mp-test. ZFZ has contributed by: Donating servers, Starting and admining tournaments, Consulting Leagues, E-Sports Reporting, Anti-cheat consulting, Lan Coverage the list goes on. We've asked for nothing in return, think about that before you act like an ass on a message forum. It is hypocritical, people lecturing ZFZ about "class" when they have neither the guts nor the "class" to address these issues privately first.

Quick update of matches we've had since last time: We played Vanguard for our CAL-i season pre-season match on mp_jordan. We've been scrimming fairly hard on this map, and we were able to come out ahead in our match. ggs v

In the TWL league we took on NCG on mp_shop2, we've also been playing this map a lot in scrimmages and defeated NCG in convincing fashion. ggs NCG.

This weekend Echo, myself and tripp will be attending a Lanatic LAN hosted by X-RAY3D [LL] in Pleasanton, CA. We'll be sure to take some pictures and will probably be playing SOF2 most the time.

A few updates: First we left the TWL Infiltration East Ladder after staying at the #1 spot for eight months we have retired from the ladder to play in the TWL Infiltration League, which should be a lot of fun. Here's a link to all the matches we won during our run. We had our first TWL Infiltration League match against TS this week, we were forced to play 4v5 due to connection problems and no available backups. GGs anyways.

Now that Echo, Sinatra, and Tripp are fairly well situated with how we run maps, most of the ZFZ players agreed that we should pick up some more players, just in case we have have further activity issues. We've been scrimming with several players over the past week, and will probably continue working with them to help them improve.

For the time being we wanted to fill some holes quick so we offered przn and kudos spots on our roster conditional on high activity. I wasn't really in on this whole process, but I hope both przn and kudos will be able to contribute to our team. I'll probably be working with them both personally to get them up to speed.

Our Zero Effect ctf matches have been going well, so far they've been a lot of fun, and playing with the Fe guys keeps it light and fun.

In our CAL-i finals match, SMF exploded on the scene dominating mp_shop 10-2. Since Shop is known to be a ZFZ favorite, I'm guessing that we didn't get enough relevant practice on it during the week.

On Hk2, ZFZ appeared it may make a comeback going up 5-1 on red, if we hammered out that side 7-1 we could have easily forced the tiebreaker. But it was not to be, SMF kicked it up, taking 4 more rounds before we could finish the round. When sides were switched, smf came out ahead 7-4. Final score 12-11

After talking to some of my teammates in ZFZ, a lot of us are disappointed, second place doesn't suit us. but we had a good season, and are still optimistic about next season. Ziggurat and KG are going inactive for season 3, but we've made an important addition to our roster: darkangel.

In the Semi Finals, tonight ZFZ took out NPH in a very close and very exciting match. The match started off on mp_shop, where ZFZ started off with an explosive 7-1 offensive win. I have yet to see the demos, but ZFZ sealed the win on defense 2-1.

The second map was much closer, NPH selected their favorite map mp_finca, ZFZ started off on defense only giving up 2 rounds winning 7-2. NPH showed the SOF2 community just how strong they are on Finca by shutting down the ZFZ offense only dropping 1 round winning 7-1, taking the map and forcing the tiebreaker.

The tiebreaker was mp_kam3 (only to be played 3 rounds on each side), ZFZ came out charging hard taking the offensive side 3-0. The side was switched, and ZFZ sealed the win at 1-1. GG's NPH

Tonight ZFZ faced off against PwK for their first round in the CAL-i playoffs. On the first map, Shop, we came out rushing hard, every round, a tactic that has worked fairly well in most of their matches. The rushes seemed to work as ZFZ won on offense 7-2. The teams switched sides and we secured the win by winning the first 3 rounds on defense.

On Hong Kong Hotel (mp_hk1), the story was a bit different. PwK stacked defense heavy in the case room, we had some moderate success with slow rolling offense, but ultimately PwK adapted and we were forced to rush more. We won on offense 7-6. Starting off on defense, it was still anyone's map, but PwK had an unlucky disconnect, which seemed to hurt their momentum. The score on the second side was 7-3, zfz. GG's PwK.

Tonight we had our week 9 match for CAL against the Full Effect, Fe fielded: Hands, Hobbes, Keller, SS, and Hallowed. ZFZ fielded: Kev, Zig, Glock, Kg, and Tripp.The first side with zfz on blue was very close, we lacked the knockdown power needed decisively push back fe's defense. Even still, zfz took the first half as blue 7-6. Starting the second half it was still anyone's game, but on defense zfz seemed to get all the necessary kills to build strong defensive advantages, winning 7-1. The final score was 14-7 zfz. GG's Fe.

This was also the pre-season of the CAL CTF league. ZFZ and Fe are fielding a team called [ze] Zero Effect. Our first game was against PwK, we fielded Glock, Zig, Kev, Isaac, Tripp, and Hobbes. It sounds like it was a really fun game, we look forward to more.

Our ZFZ highlight reel has been completed, its 45 Megs, and requires Divx 5.0.3 to play. Download it here:

Own-age: http://www.own-age.com/vids/download.asp?ID=387
Mirror: http://puppetmowers.com/~matrix/movies/zfz_movie_divx_5.0.3.rar

Tonight we had our week 8 match for CAL against the formidable Living Legends, our match was delayed because of superbowl sunday and lanatic 3. We had practiced kam4 nonstop the week before so I was very confident we could give LL some serious trouble. We only made a few mistakes which is very good, you don't want to make many mistakes against a team like LL.

LL had to call a timeout, and echo accidently joined the LL team before the match up so the score for the first side was infact 7-4 (ss shows 9-4). On defense we really didn't allow LL to get the drop on us much, it was a well played side, there were a few critical 1v1's and 2v2's we lost, but its nothing that can't be improved on. On offense we performed very well, mixing up the strategies to keep LL guessing what we would do next. We ended up winning that side 7-3 making the final score 14-7. GG's LL.

Lanatic 3 was a lot of fun, I got to meet Tripp, SmokaJ, Serb and X-Ray3d. We had some good games and some good times, I hope X-Ray will have another sometime soon, maybe we can get a ride for Kev. Check out some of the pics we took: http://www.ombad.com/lanatic3/

Tonight we had two matches, our first was defending our TWL spot from XAT an undefeated cal open team. An error in the scheduling left our team short of Kev, so I was plucked from retirement and drafted in short order. We started off on mp_col2, on defense we played flawlessly winning 5-0, when we switched sides XAT decided not to play that map out and the side ended at 2-0 for zfz.

The next map was Kam4, XAT challenged us much more offensively taking 4 rounds on our red side before the map ended 5-4. Our offense seemed much more composed than our defense we won as blue 5-2 winning the map and the series. This was Echo's first match with us, he did excellent, scoring some very needed clutch 1v1's. ggs XAT

Our second match was for CAL Invite, against Play with Knives on mp_shop. It's funny that we've been playing Sof2 for so long and this is the first match we've ever had with PWK. I did not play, but i did see glock's pov demo. While the 14-9 (7-4, 7-5) win is respectable, the demo shows some bad plays, and bad calls that clearly cost us rounds. Regardless, ggs PWK.

Last night we had a match against the canadian team xenoclan. Glock sums up the match in his weekly wrapup:

"zfz has been facing some activity issues lately with it’s long-standing members, and they hoped to usher in the next generation of members this week by defeating xeno on Kam3, 14-9. Problems arose early for zfz, as heavy-hitter Ziggurat had a connectivity blackout minutes before the match. Founding zfz member killagorilla (penguin) stepped in and performed very admirably, being “cold” and not having practiced at all during the week with his mates. Xeno put up a very good fight, but was unable to win either side of the map."

This was Tripp's first match with zfz, and from what I understand he did a nice job.

Our delayed match versus NPH for CAL turned out to be very close and exciting, I wasn't really happy with my own performance on red, overall we dropped way too many rounds on defense, many on shotgun duels gone wrong. Things looked grim going into the second half only winning offense by 7-6, but we picked it up on blue going up 5-5 until nph nailed down the last two rounds. 13-12 final score. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get another shot at nph in the playoffs.

I will be going inactive until a lan tournament from CAL, WCG or Quakecon is hammered out, or perhaps CAL season 3. I've been a "backup" player for ZFZ ever since Recoil and Drwho went inactive, but lately I haven't had as much time to practice and play full time. I'm happy to announce we've picked up some recruits, Tripplex from pm, and Sinatra and Echo from the now defunct doggus, we've scrimmed with these guys a lot in the past week, and think they will be good additions to zfz.

Trip and I will be attending LL's Lantanic lan, in Norcal the weekend of 25-26th

Happy Holidays everyone, we're relaxing for our winter break, hope everyone has a good one.

This week has been a rough one, two big matches for us, the first earlier in the week against NPH, and tonight we faced off against the suave motha fuckas, formerly known as the deviant objectives. We decided to prepare for this match fairly early, on thursday following our match with nph. We were pretty surprised when our whole raven strategy seemed sorely lacking, and doubled our practice regimen.

We started off on blue, trading rounds with smf until killagorilla started lagging out, time was called at 4-3 zfz leading. When he fixed his problem, smf took the next 3 rounds making the total score 4-6 smf, zfz answered by taking the next two rounds, however it was not to be, smf came charging back to finish the side winning it 7-6.

The next side red, was where all the practice and preparation paid off, we continually harassed smf's offense, sometimes flat out rushing them on the roof hoping to catch them off gaurd. We won the side 7-3 to win the match. All in all a great, close match. The screenshot on the match page is off by 1 round on the first side, add one to smf's score.

13-10 Raven -- SMF 6-7 as red -- ZFZ 7-3 as red.

Last night we defended our #1 East TWL spot against the Nephilim, we started off on Finca, taking red 5-1. It seemed we had the upper hand, but then NPH locked us down completely on defense 5-0. Most of the rounds not being even close, except one where Asus ran in and killed 4 NPH's by himself, that was actually funny to watch. We're probably going to have to revise our offensive strategy on Finca, because right now it doesn't work.

The next map side was Hk1, where our offense was again shut down 5-3 by NPH led by some nice defensive nading by All-Out. At this point I have a feeling many people watching the scorebot on IRC were confident NPH could pull the win. I myself had my doubts about our ability to stay in the game, but to my surprise we executed the defense flawlessly. We got our nades down to counter their rushes, and won all the clutch rounds to take the map 5-0.

With the Series tied at 1-1 the tiebreaker map, Shop was up next. We came out charging hard on offense taking the side 5-2, dropping only two rounds. We played very aggressively on Red, with Zigg leading the way taking the side 3-1 technically winning the match. Both sides opted not to play it out because it was getting late for both sides. Poor Killagorilla on IRC probably sweating his ass off, but it was a great match for the spectators watching the scorebot on IRC. GGs NPH

5-6 Finca -- ZFZ 5-1 as red -- NPH 5-0 as red.
8-5 Hk1 -- NPH 5-3 as red -- ZFZ 5-0 as red.
8-3 Shop -- ZFZ 5-2 as blue -- ZFZ 3-1 as red.

Last Sunday we had our week2 Cal-i match against AKA, on a new map prague streets. We started off with a strong 7-1 win on the red side, which we've found to be slightly easier than the blue. We switched sides technically taking the series at 2-2 on the blue side, but struggled on a few rounds ending the side 7-5. GG's AKA.

14-6 Pra2 -- ZFZ 7-1 as red -- ZFZ 7-5 as blue.