While most of you were unwrapping presents, carving turkeys, or perhaps accidentally running into small children/woodland creatures with your sled, a super-duper-extra-secretive-secret-stealth-unicorn-operation was going down behind the scenes. A group of GU League veterans were in the process voting on the Top 50 GU League players of All Time.

The poll was conducted and organized by me, rhapsody, and required each member of the voting committee to submit their own "top 50" lists in order. The voting was based solely on skill and teamwork. Although sportsmanship, humility, and friendliness are very important personality traits, the aim of the list was to present the most skilled players in the league. The final list is a result of the combined Top 50 lists of 16 members (8 from North America, 7 from Europe, and 1 from Australia).

Points were assigned to each position on each individual top list, and weighted appropriately. 1st received 350 points, 2nd received 290 points, and all the way down to 50th place received 5 points. The total number of points each individual player received resulted in their position in the final Top 50 list. If two or more players ended up with the same number of points, a coin was flipped to determine which player placed above the other (there were only two ties between players, both in the lower half of the list). The final list was originally planned to be a Top 100, but most agreed that a Top 50 would be much tighter, accurate, and definitive. The list may not be perfect (no list is, really) and may have left out players that deserved a spot, but we feel that it's about as good of a representation of the history of the league and its players as we're going to get. *Drum roll*

Top 50 GU League Players of All Time

1. orbit
2. krisfeidt
3. grand slam
4. Red Baron2
5. Zelgadis
6. dexter
7. brad
8. slime
9. Red Baron3
10. 4morebeers
11. plasma kaz / beanpole
12. Saturos
13. R3lax
14. Janis
15. snick
16. doc holiday
17. dax
18. Lil Dog
19. Wayney
20. Sphere / Fade
21. benji 13
22. mania / Destruction Boy
23. Kenshin
24. skit
25. The Doink
26. TheRisingSun
27. NTH
28. Carnage
29. ducatiwannabe
30. Iggy
31. SAMY-{100%}
32. Gabriel G
33. hiya
34. lucky tank
35. klavier
36. The Red Baron
37. Leo.
38. dvb
39. red-der
40. hurricane
41. Joss
42. Grace F
43. rhapsody
44. Asmeouuus
45. Odysseus
46. Legend_13
47. Destroyer
48. Foo / Mucho Maas
49. Silent Assassin
50. Mopar Madness / Davechi04

Congrats to North America for winning the Riker Cup this year in a 2-0 defeat (was more of a slaughter!)

Also had a little FM after...

Riker Cup, Jan 22, 2012 (that's today!!!!) 8pm GMT

Servers:
euro.rikercup.org 5258 Replay 5159

riker.bzexcess.com 1337 Replay: 5153

Quol servers are now running 2.4
Thank you, Quol

Riker's Cup
Sunday, January 22, 2012. 8pm GMT
Euro captain: FiringSquad
co captain: red-der

NA captain: kierra
co captain: r3lax

Make sure to check your bzbb messages for team notice.

ahs3 has graciously provided a US gu match server:
bzbattleground.com 5158
replay at bzbg:5159
ffa public at bzbg:5156
ctf public at bzbg:5157

Just a brief note to remind you to upgrade to the new 2.4 Bzflag client version as soon as possible. As you probably know the new version 2.4 is not compatible with the previous 2.0.x. So you cannot join a 2.4 server with a 2.0.x client and viceversa. Please check http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=17477 to get informed about how to upgrade for your OS.

All GU official servers will be progressively migrating from 2.0.x to 2.4 version during this month. For the time being some servers might be available in both versions to help with the upgrade. By 1st August GU League will be 2.4 and no 2.0.x servers will be available.

After several concerns were brought to us by players regarding inactivity of certain members, the GU administration team has pruned several inactive admins from the list. The current list of admins and referees can be found at http://www.guleague.org/Contact/. This was done to improve turnaround time on collective decisions, as well as to ensure that match reports, requests, and complaints sent to admins will be received and forwarded in a timely manner.

Referee list updated. Newly added refs are Ebert, Frank the Tank and James.

Don't forget, folks. Ducati hosts Last Tank Standing Tomorrow, on 4th of March, at 22:00 GMT, we'll meet on brad.bzflag.net:5190 for about 30' of a pure fun :) Everyone is invited!
For more info: http://league.bzflag.net/News/
Make sure you can spawn for this event!

Hello Guys,

Its great to announce that the servers destroyer.gueague.org are back but now with an better performance. There are 2 match server and one replay server available.

If there troubles please call me it.

Have fun on the Battleground!

Congratulations to Europe for winning the 2010/2011 Winter Riker Cup! The cup went to Europe this year in three matches:

Match 1 (euro.rikercup.org): Europe 2, North America 0
Match 2 (amer.rikercup.org): Europe 1, North America 1
Match 3 (amer.rikercup.org): Europe 4, North America 3

Congratulations to all for a hard-fought tournament, and to the prevailing team for the victory!

Please see http://rikercup.org for match statistics and further information.

Update Riker Cup:

#When: 22nd of January 2011, 21:00 GMT
#Captains: Upsetter & red-der (Europe) - plasma kaz & Kenshin (America)

The official servers for this event are:
- American: "amer.rikercup.org:5258"
- European: "euro.rikercup.org:5258"

IMPORTANT: Point 21:00 GMT starts the first match. So be at least 30 minutes before 21:00 GMT online.

For more information visit dex' site: http://rikercup.org

Yes, the rumor is true! There is going to be another Riker Cup. The "winter" Riker Cup will take place on the 22nd of January 2011. More information will follow soon!

http://rikercup.org

In the past it had been discussed whether or not to allow 20 minute matches as an option for match length in the GU League and the general consensus was 'no'. However, the GU Administration Team has decided to initiate a poll to see what the league thinks of the idea at this point in time. It could be a beneficial change for activity, but overall you, the players should decide.
Here's where you can make your voice heard. Vote!
http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=16673

As you all well know, the former website went down recently, and we do apologize for the major inconvenience this has been.

After contacting menotume, much time has been devoted to searching through league software, obtaining hosting, choosing domain name, dealing with DNS propagation, beta testing the site and entering content into the new website. We come now to the present where we have a league site to offer.

As with any new project, this website will likely have some unknown bugs at the beginning. We hope to provide several updates to smooth out some of the rough edges. We welcome constructive, clearly worded input of bugs found and ideas for improvement.

We also added 2 more themes in the config, hoping you will find them pleasing.

1 more day !

The 2nd annual Ducati Chesval Cup will take place tomorrow, august 21th, 20 GMT. This years version will be an epic 15v15 battle.

First match will be played on catay.bzflag.net:59998 second match on brl.arpa.net:59997.

Further Information:
Chesval Cup Infos

If you are interested in a great BZF-event, you should definitely check this out:

During September 2010 the first BZF World Cup Tournament will take place. It will be played based on the FIFA World Cup rules. There will be two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage.
Teams will be build upon the country you represent. So you will fight for your country and we will find out who has the best BZF-players to win the World-Cup!
The tournament will be played on the ducati style map to use the highest skill-level maps.

For more information and to start building up the teams, you should begin to register, login, create and/or join your team that represents your country! Just click here and take part in this unique event!

Player taz (moonpix) has written a tutorial clarifying how lag affects the BZFlag gameplay. This tutorial provides lengthy explanations on how lag works, along with debunking common myths about lag, especially within the leagues.

I recommend that all players, veterans and newbies alike, read this to help better understand lag. I will post the link here, but you can also find it in the Links section of the site. If you have any questions or comments relating to the tutorial, please private message taz on the official BZFlag forums.

Demystifying Lag

Congrats to the Euro team for winning this summer's Riker Cup. It was an intense battle and probably the most exciting
tournament so far. Thanks to all who took part!

Match #1 - Euro 6 to 1 USA
Match #2 - USA 2 to 1 Euro
Match #3 - Euro 6 to 3 USA

Stats will be posted on www.rikercup.org Cya all in January for the next Riker Cup!