The Red Alert Blog of Boo

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW RED ALERT FFA WORLD CHAMPION 2021

ORA-Jacob was the last man standing, outlasting 17 other players in the Free For All tournament of Saturday 27th March 2021.

The tournament was not without drama as, for example, Bayrock was not happy with the positions in his semi final game. Maty unfortunately lost due to disconnection in his round 1 game as well. However there were some real highlights in a couple of games. Not least the titanic struggle between 3 of the pre tournament favourites in Blitz, Rushy and Jacob in game 1 which was a 3 pronged base trade and went down to the wire.

There were some nice games on Hatuken which saw Bayrock conquering Madman, Tankmatch and FrostyCap. However, the game of the tournament must surely be the huge shock in Round 1 as RandyMarsh literally came back from the dead in his King of the Hill game to claim victory. He had been wiped out early on by cousinad but slowly built tanks with NO POWER while he let Ad and Wasibi duel then bided his time and picked up the scraps with 3 healthy war tanks when the other 2 players were dead. He had literally been squashed by Ad within 3 minutes but was somehow able to win - that is what FFAs are all about!

The tournament was fast and furious and took 56 minutes to complete! At the end it received a fitting finale as Jacob defeated his old nemesis Lordy on the Mining Operation map to seal victory.

You can watch the final here courtesy of N8Diaz:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/965568560

Jacob therefore won the right to a Yuzgen Tshirt as his trophy. However we agreed that he would prefer the prize of owning the Remastered Collection game on steam and so he received a copy of the new game as his prize. Maybe we will see him replacing Dynamic as the top Remastered player going forward!?

Thanks to all who participated and a huge congratulations to Jacob once more on a unique victory which shall echo through time.

The Yuzgen tshirt proved very popular and if you would like to purchase one they are available here:

https://pro-q.teemill.com/product/yuzgen-tshirt/

Tournament Bracket

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

Some gone but not forgotten pros of the CnCNet 4 era (circa 2009-2014)! RARE VIDEO ARCHIVES! Part 1

Welcome to today's history corner story-time with Uncle Crushy.

Most modern players on CnCNet are only familiar with the lobby we have today which was designed by FunkyFr3sh, Iran and others. The modern lobby is vastly superior to what we had before and features game room names, friends list etc. The old lobby was very basic, here is a reminder of what it looked like:

Regardless, the old lobby had some very nostalgic times. There were many well documented players playing in those days (late 2000s to 2013) such as Ehy, Robskate and NastyNate. There wasn't really much of a clan element and I would say in general the old lobby had a less toxic atmosphere. People just played games - there were very few players playing in those days and so everyone kind of knew everyone.

Some players who modern pros may not heard of included:

DizzyMan - An American best known for being a strong tanker and good builder on maps like P4 and HJK6, he was pretty strong player even by today's standards. I believe he retired from the game around 2014. He was a member of MAN clan. There are several videos of his play on YouTube for example:
Cousinsmash - He was a very strong tanker who was capable of beating anyone in a 1v1 and performed very well in tournaments. He was active in the MPlayer days in early 2000s (forget his old username) and returned to CnCNet, playing from around 2012-2015. He was very influential in my own personal development to becoming "pro" as I sparred with him lots and lots of games on several maps playing 1v1 (mostly P4 and Path Beyond). Playing against smash was how I learned shifting and Q while I was a nubenator.He is best known for winning a strong Union Break 2v2 tournament in 2014 where he partnered Ehy to defeat some very strong teams such as At0m1 & Turret, Nate & Yuzgen:
NaughtyLove - This guy was really talented. He didn't play for long at all maybe 1-2 years around 2012-2013. He was 2nd ranked place on the very old IGL Red Alert ladder around 2013, behind Ehy. Naughty (aka Matt) was a really nice and helpful guy who was a pleasure to ask questions of when I was starting out. I believe he encountered some real life problems which is why his Red Alert career was short but very successful. He was particularly skilled in Q Master and this first person video shows this:

I don't want to flood the page with more videos so I picked these 3 players as the stand outs. If you ever see some random new player come along and feel like their play is very strong, it could be one of these guys hiding! Some other notable names include Danco-Cro (A croatian co-op map fan who had a very distinctive rocketmen defensive build on Ribbon Isle which stumped many a tanker!), Ifuc (A grenadier wizard who was very strong on 4c Niklas and P4 maps) and many many more players. I'll probably do another article with some more videos on this era of CnCNet with some more rare video footage in future! This was a great and happy era of Red Alert history, even if it wasn't the most busy in terms of player footfall.

Stay tuned for more Red Alert History Corner with Uncle Crushy! Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow!

Some recent March 2021 Tournament results

Congratulations to ORA (Hank and Jacob) for defeating TB (Lordy & Kickn) in official challenge match earlier this month. The ORA team won the match 5-4, video here:

Well done to [WP]Entidad and Lordy who won the [WP] clan 1 year anniversary tournament. WP members teamed up with a non WP member to create a balanced tournament which seems to have run smoothly. Full results here:

https://redalert1og.challonge.com/es/wijlfnt7

Also well done to Faust and Kipp for winning Liquid 2v2 Tournament 20th March 2021. Victory for [A] clan once again! Furthermore, another great tournament performance from my student Bart who reached the final and narrowly missed out in a 2-1 defeat in the final with his partner H3zb. My coaching programme seems to be really paying off and Bart's play and results have really upped their game in the last couple months which I am delighted to see. If you too would like some CrushyBoo secret pro training coaching then message me privately.

https://challonge.com/55vxe5fc

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more! Don't forget to Follow!

Red Alert Head to Head series, EPISODE 4: Bart vs Oldpr0

Today's instalment features a long overdue clash of the titans. The man otherwise known as FourLetterWord [4LW], Mr Bartzilla and the self-proclaimed top 5 builder of all time, [420] GodOldPr0.

The 5 categories which will be judged out of 10: Tanking (Shift, Q/GQ,Stacking,Positioning, Rushing), Building (Teslas,Base Crawl, Turrets, Chrono etc), Infantry (scouting, guarding, engineers, grenadiers, thieves), Teamwork, Map knowledge. Each of the 5 categories will receive a score out of 10 and we will get to a total at the end.

Bart

Country: USA

Best known for: Being a total freak troll weirdo, but a likeable one at that

Tanking 7.75

Building 7

Infantry 9

Teamwork 7

Map knowledge 8.75

The sama is famous in Red Alert for his magic hat box of tricks tactics. Games with this opponent are completely different to any other player on CnCNet. Concrete walls, APCs, Rocketmen, Dogs, Sandbags, Transporters, MCV driving are all other common features of games with the 4LW. In general his tanking is generally slightly above average so 7.75 is fair. He has pretty solid Q and an OK rush, however his production is very poor and he is pretty weak in large tank battles. His building is better than people might expect and he can be quite smart with turrets and flame towers for example and he is semi-ok when he plays serious on maps like T-dawg so on the whole 7/10 is fair for this category. His infantry is obviously the strongest part of his game. He is extremely skilled in infantry sneak attacks and his rocketmen use and apc tricks are very good. He is far above average in this category and there's not many players better in Red Alert in all honesty in the infantry department. Likewise, he has a very good map knowledge and has played and understands most of the common maps on Red Alert. He is most likely a top 10 level player on small standard maps but he is obviously quite out of his depth when it comes to huge gem maps. His teamwork is a mixture - when he plays serious he can be a pretty strong partner (as proven by us defeating BAT team in clan tournament) - however, if he is in troll bart mode he is the last player on CnCNet you want on your team - you would rather have Balky as your partner if Bart is in troll mode. A mixed bag - I've given him 7 for teamwork basing his overall average serious and troll performances.

Oldpr0

Country: Canada

Best known for: flaming teammates and having an imaginary poker pro career.

Tanking 7.75

Building 9

Infantry 7.75

Teamwork 6.25

Map knowledge 6.75

OldPr0 was officially voted the Rank 1 most delusional player on CnCNet, however he is also the rank 2 most underrated player. His tanking has actually gotten better recently and his production is strong. He still can't shift or use bookmarks properly but at least he has learned to spam the tank button and can Q/GQ so on the whole I think his tanking level is pretty similar to Bart's. For a man who claims he is a top 5 builder of all time, I think he a tad over-exaggerates. No one can deny that he is very strong in a 10 CY game as soviets, however his allies game lacks depth and there are still some stronger. He is definitely well above average in this department and it is easily the strongest part of his game. I think a 9/10 score for building is pretty accurate. His infantry use is a mixture - on maps like pico and P4 he is pretty good with grenadiers and solid with engineers, however he is in general quite poor with rifle infantry. He often lets himself get scouted by enemy infantry and his positioning can be mediocre at times. Overall I think his 7.75 score is fair. His teamwork is awful. It's a running joke in Red Alert that he literally lets partner play 1v2 for 10 minutes before entering the game. I honestly feel like 6.25 is maybe slightly generous, however I've not ranked him lower as it's true he can sometimes do his famous "steamroll" every once in a while (maybe 5% of games). On the whole he needs to look in the mirror and realise that his team-play is generally atrocious. Worst of all, he is famous for always blaming his team and criticising after every single loss. There is never a game that goes by which he doesn't have an excuse for. His map knowledge is really not much better and very average. He only really wants to play P4 or HJK/V3 type maps. If this was done a couple of months ago I would have given him a 5.5 for map knowledge but in fairness to him he has made an effort to start playing ore maps and other maps he isn't comfortable with so I've reflected that in giving him a very fair score of 6.75/10. Hopefully in time he will improve this map knowledge area of his game and his overall play will improve as a result.

Total average scores: Bart 7.9/10

Oldpr0 7.5/10

Congratulations to bart on being an overall stronger player in March 2021! My opinion only of course!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more! Don't forget to follow!

Red Alert Head to Head Series, EPISODE 3: Faust vs Rushy vs Tanja (WHO IS THE BEST PLAYER IN [A] CLAN?)

Part 3 of this blog where we compare strong pro players and decide who is the better player as of March 2021. Today I've chosen the 3 best players of [A] clan to compare. At the end I'll give my opinion on who I think is the best player in [A] clan right now. My opinion only based on playing with these guys a lot - they are all strong players.

T[A]nja

Country: Switzerland

Best known for: Production

Tanking: 8.75

Building: 9.25

Infantry: 9

Teamwork: 8.25

Map Knowledge: 8

Tanja is a very strong all round player who excels on large money maps such as V7 and P4 Rashowdown. I'd say on the whole his building is a bit stronger than his tanking and he is definitely one of the top 5-10 builders on Red Alert. His infantry use is in general very strong, particularly grenadier rushing so he deserves a 9/10. Teamwork is on the whole pretty solid, but sometimes he can have bad games such as letting himself get rushed or going Migs too early so I'd say on balance his game awareness is perhaps his only real weakness. He tries his hand on all maps 1v1 but I'd say this is also a weak area for him as he tends to only really like sticking to large money maps. He has played standards in the past, to limited success.

[A]RushyBoo

Country: Canada

Best known for: Using 100 different hider names

Tanking: 8.75

Building: 9.5

Infantry 9.5

Teamwork 9.75

Map Knowledge 7.75

RushyBoo (aka Herm) is one of the best players on Red Alert. Period. He has the best record in tournaments of anyone in 2020 and he has also won the 1v1 ladder one month. He is certainly one of the top 3 builders in Red Alert as of March 2021 and he is probably the best grenadier user in the game. He also has exceptional defensive skills and it is basically impossible to rush him on a map like V3 or Rasta. On Rasta he will always take the game to you first with his grenadiers so you don't even get a chance to rush. His teamwork is probably the best in the game as highlighted by his tournament results. I would suggest that he possibly has the best percentage of game wins in team game tournaments of any player (the highlight was me and him defeating beasty and kobra 5-0 in a crumpet tournament). Map knowledge on the whole pretty solid but this is definitely his only real weakness as he doesn't really play maps like Arena, path beyond etc.

F[A]ust

Country: Germany

Best known for: playing part time and still beating everyone

Tanking: 9.75

Building: 8.25

Infantry: 8.75

Teamwork: 9.5

Map Knowledge: 9

Faust is an extremely strong tanker. Definitely one of the best tankers in the game and is always overlooked when it comes to the "who is the best tanker?" conversation. He most often plays other games online but when he comes to Red Alert he always performs to the highest level. Winning multiple tournaments and usually reaching the final at minimum. I have seen him build and he is solid but it is not comparable to his Q tanking skill. His infantry use is also excellent with great scouting and positioning. His teamwork is great in tournaments as highlighted by his results. Map knowledge very strong as proven on the ladder, he is just as capable as beating RAM players on HJK6 as he is of beating robskate on Path. His rush defence has also improved massively recently and he is surely 1 of the best players on CnCNet.

Final average scores: Tanja 8.65/10

Rushy 9.05/10

Faust 9.05/10

Wow so close. All 3 players are very strong. I think it is probably fair on balance that Tanja is 3rd place as he isn't as strong in certain game scenarios such as 1v1 as the other 2. Rushy and Faust tied on the same score!!! Rushy is obviously the better builder and Faust the better tanker. It is really difficult to split them, you definitely want Faust on a path beyond, but you want rushy on V3. I suppose if I had to stick my neck out, there is one secret ingredient that Rushy has of an advantage over Faust - experience! So just by virtue of his decades long experience I would probably very very narrowly give the nod to Rushy as being the best in [A] clan as of March 2021, however it is extremely close as Faust (and Tanja) are extremely strong players. Faust is on a trajectory to become the best player in the game at the moment so it probably won't be too long until he surpasses the legend.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more.