Thanks for the shots!

Tonight we debuted the UCC Sweat-Test Lobby; a map testing lobby featuring pro and semi-pro players and teams.

What an amazing night! And very special for me. I've put so much of my energy and time over the last few weeks into getting this thing off the ground and tonight it all paid off.

We had some really impressive maps! Gameplay was sweaty and featured everything from clean-sweeps to huge upsets.

Feedback was excellent. The team I run, UCC, made me so damn proud offering thoughtful, and insightful comments, answering forgers' questions, and generally handling themselves as professionals.

Of course as with anything great it's not up to one person and I could not have put this together without the help and support of plenty of other folks and I'd like to thank some of them now.

First and foremost the UCC team. I've said my piece on their part above so I won't repeat myself but obviously they are an integral piece of this puzzle.

Next, Team Ramrod! (We couldn't decide on a team name for the upstart rebels and somehow ramrod stuck- that'll change... I hope) These guys came with it and they went hard. They gave UCC a real run for their money and even took a best of 3 series on @MythicFritz kickass breakout map, Knell. A certain team-owner happened to have a breakout game of his own and actually keep up with his team ::cough:: ::cough:: Seems Dangerous ::cough:: that's my gt ::cough::. Anyway... We are going to have info on Ramrod so you guys can check them out as soon as I finalize the permanent roster.

A special thanks to JohnLovesGaming. John's a tryhard's tryhard and an amazing communicator. We asked John to jump in at the very last minute after we lost a player to an epic salt freakout. And it worked out. Because John is one of the strongest players I know, and his experience and skills in pro gaming brought Ramrod together in a really special way so that we could step to UCC and make them work for it. If you ever have an opportunity to play with John I suggest you do back flips to make it happen because it's a learning experience like no other.

@GodlyPerfection and the CF crew for supporting our efforts and being with us tonight. Godly and some of the CF guys hung out with us on twitch all night and helped to sort of curate and interact with viewers and forgers in the chat. Godly was tweeting about the stream and even got us a retweet from Unyshek! Amazing. Thats the kind of community support and mutual respect that makes doing this kind of stuff so worth it.

Thanks to @Sn1p3r C, @MythicFritz, @darkprince909, and @JamesDF, and all of the forgers who have so far submitted maps to our lobby. You're the other integral part and it is a privilege and responsibility the whole UCC family takes to heart; playing our small roll in the creation of your maps. There is a tremendous amount of trust and intrinsic respect given to us (@iParanormal, @Max Extra, @Duke of Mearl, and myself) as lobby hosts when you invite us into your creative process and we at UCC are honored to play our part.

To anyone else who had even a small hand in making this all go, I sincerely thank you. We are super excited for next week's lobby. More maps, more sweat, more awesome!

I'm going to have some very exciting announcements to make later today regarding a coordinated initiative between some of the more active test-lobby hosts here on forgehub so keep an eye out for that.

Moving forward there are some recuisits going into place that need to be met to have a map tested in the UCC lobby and an official process by which you can meet those requirements. The system is organized such that each map is being tested in the most appropriate lobby for its current iteration with the ultimate goal of getting that map into the UCC lobby as a final phase before you can confidently release your matchmaking-quality, final product.

Be assured that the UCC lobby and all the amazing gameplay and feedback that comes out of it will always be available to any and all forgers. I will have plenty of detailed info on how all of that is going to work within the next few days.

I know that was long and a round of applause and maybe a shoulder to cry on for those who've made it all the way to the end .

What a night.

 

Yes it's on Prime's twitch-Twitch.tv/iprimedevil