6 Month/Annual Dentistry Checkup

I had my 6month check up yesterday... I had already rescheduled it three times, cause I know that I'm going to need some more work done & I really wanted to put it all off till next year. Alas I decided just suck it up & get it done so I'm held accountable for not fully keeping a strict routine of maintaining my teeth. I am doing better than I was before. I only have two cavities, one of which is on a tooth that will eventually get capped, so I'm not too worried about it.... it'll get done when it gets capped. The other is small, so I'm not too worried about... the major problem though is that I've reached my insurance limit for the year & will have to wait till next to get it done. I plan on having 3 caps done next year too, so this just adds to the amount of work that needs to be done. I should be able to get it all done in the early part of the year though, I look forward to being done with it.

They added a calcium toothpaste to my regime of mouth maintenance.... at least three times a week, in one session, I need brush my teeth with three different types of toothpastes (two of which are prescribed), floss, & use a subscription mouthwash. I thought I would save money by going to the dentist more often, but they keep adding things that empty my pocket.... not to mention the extra time I need to spend working my mouth over.

Bye Week

Well, we lost last night against the #1 team in the 8v8 TWL Intermediate league. We started off decently, but halfway through the first round we lost our footing & never regained it... & we never got past our opening move in the second round. It was a big moral killer for us.... as we have spent the last week working on this map, thinking we had made a lot of progress on our strats & teamwork. Although I wouldn't say it was a complete loss, cause like I said, they are the #1 team... & we are not quite up to that caliber yet.

We get a bye week next week, so we've actually got two weeks till our next match. It'll be a crucial match for us, if we don't win we won't get into the playoffs. It's against a decent team, & we are currently ranked higher than them... with two weeks to work on it we have a great chance of beating them.

A week in {cc42}

We are doing pretty well in the TWL 8v8 Intermediate league & this week we get to see what we are really made of.... there are 28 teams competing in the league, split up into 7 team divisions. We are ranked 2nd in our division & we are going up against #1 this Thursday. We started working on strats for the map last night, along with a internal scrim. We'll spend the next 3 nights preparing for the upcoming match... we are all excited about it & I think we stand a good chance of winning, provided we keep playing as we have the last few weeks.

Every council member for each gaming division has been assigned a task of getting at least one new recruit within the next month. This is something that I was not up for... I've never seen myself as much a recruiter. This last week has brought many surprises for me in this category. I've been constantly gaming on-line now for a little over two years & have been in two clans before {cc42}. I've met many people through that time, some good & some bad. This last week 3 previous clan mates got a hold of me, saying that they were interested in joining another clan! As well as two of my friends from here in town decided to get into competitive team play. For the 6 months that I've been in {cc42} I haven't recruited one single person... having 5 people sign up for recruitment in one week, all through me, still has me flabbergasted.

One guy in particular I am very excited about... although I've been gaming for a relatively short amount of time (compared to some) some of my fondest memories of gaming has been with him. To have him come out of the blue to join back up with me in this, my ideal clan, has got me really excited about things to come. Plus he is relatively close to me & I look forward to eventually meeting him IRL. Having played with us for just one night, in just one practice, he knows that this is the place for him. He is the type of person {cc42} looks for & I can definitely say he will be a great addition to the team.

TWL 8v8 Intermediate Win

We had our first win on the TWL 8v8 Intermediate league last night. We actually had a pretty weak week in regards to practices & attendance, but we had two scrims Wednesday night & one right before the match last night that really helped us prepare. We all feel that scriming more is the best way to get better, & it seems to be working. We are all capable of understanding & carrying out the strats, but we need to practice working together as a team, communicating & reacting with each other is what we really need to work on... & that can only be done in a match like setting.

Team Wicked Fury was the name of the team we played last night... they were a decent team, although they played one man short the first round. All their attacks were well coordinated, keeping their armor together & their infantry supporting each other. The majority of the fighting took place at the center flag. On the map we played, if you want to take center, you have to keep your armor together & support it with infantry.... although our attacks could of been tighter, we managed to take the flag, even under heavy fire. I'm looking forward to more matches like this.

Intermediate League Loss

{cc42} has been invited into a 8v8 intermediate league on TWL. It's a invite only league, composed of only dedicated teams. For now, we've decided to focus on this league alone. In the first season of the 12v12 open league we had several "no show" matches, where we won by default because the other team did not show. This is a major problem among the open leagues & ladders. The invite only intermediate league was formed with this problem in mind. Comprised of top notch teams, who have all made a commitment to playing a match every Thursday night into December. Last night was the first week of competition.

To prepare for this we had a 2 hour practice on Monday night, two scrims on Tuesday (which I slept through), & countless hours of strategy research & development. Although we felt like we had made a lot of progress over the week, in team play & strategy, we lost as if we hadn't prepared at all. We were all shocked at the skill & strategy the other team put forth. There is obviously more to these matches than meets the eye. Over the last two weeks we've felt that we've advanced to a higher mode of thinking in regards to strats. Although we feel that we've made a lot of progress, it's clear that we need to continue to push our ideas & skills to a higher level of play.

One of the reasons I joined {cc42} was for the people involved. All that are apart of this team don't really care what game we play or if we win or lose, as long as we are playing together & having fun. That makes all the difference when you loose... we were able to keep our heads high, take the loss, learn from it & move on. It shows real character when we loss a match like we did last night & instead of everyone bitching, we all sat around talking about how we lost & what we can do for next time.