BF2Combat.net
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BF2Combat.net is a pay to play online community for the videogame Battlefield 2. It is run by Combat Studios, a company which specalizes in large-scale community creation. BF2Combat receives support from the game's producer, Digital Illusions CE and publisher, Electronic Arts, as well as sponsorships from Nvidia. Currently over 15,000 members are enrolled in the BF2Combat league. The league has been featured in a multi-page article in Computer Gaming World magazine, and in various issues of PC Format magazine.
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[edit] Premise
In the words of the league's founders: "BF2 Combat is a Tour of Duty. Unlike a clan ladder or other online tournaments, our members participate in a simulated war, with commanding officers, divisions, and a grand strategy map showing the progress of the war from week to week. The Tour revolves around regular practices, large-scale company practices and huge, ten hour battles fought twice a week across a variety of servers. Members may attend as much or as little of battles as they like.
Players will join an army (China, MEC or NATO) and will be assigned to one of that army's divisions. Each division will have a general who will make strategic decisions on where his division will fight. Twice a week the divisions will fight battles with the opposing army on maps representing the territory being fought for. The progress of the war is displayed on a strategy map where territories change color based on which army controls them. Each Tour lasts approximately 12 weeks. At the end of each Tour, the outcome of the prior conflict is taken into consideration and the battle will enter new areas, featuring new content and action."
[edit] Teams
During the first two tours of duty, there were eight armies. The armies consisted of four "NATO" armies who play as the USMC & US Army in battles: the 1st Marines (1MC), 2nd Marines (2MC), 101st Airborne (101), and 82nd Airborne (82). There were two "Middle Eastern Coalition" armies who play as the MEC team in battles: the 9th Iranian Forces (9IF) and the 3rd Iranian Forces (3IF). Finally, there were two "Chinese" armies who play as the PLA (People's Liberation Army) team in battles: The 24th People's Army (24P) and the 38th People's Army (38P).
Beginning with tour three, to coincide with the release of the Euro Force expansion, the 101st and 82nd armies were converted into the 1st European Union army (1EU) and the 4th European Union army (4EU) respectively.
[edit] Tours of Duty
The league is divided into "Tours of Duty" which last 12 weeks. Each week of the tour contains two "battle days", Thursday and Sunday. Battle days include a 10 hour long battle. Each battle consists of three rounds on a "story-line" map, and three rounds on a "secret map". In between maps there is a 10 minute break. Story-line maps are assigned at the beginning of the tour. There is a large campaign map that lists all the territories in the tournament. When a map is scheduled for the story-line map, the tournament administrators note who controls the territory and who is attacking it, and determine the starting sides of the battle. The winner of the story map takes control of that territory after the battle, and the strategic map is updated. Secret maps are chosen by the winner of the last battle, (i.e. if the 4EU won the previous battle, they choose the secret map). The choosing side gets time to practice the secret map, while the other side will not find out what map they are playing until the battle begins. The winner of the secret map for the battle also takes control of that territory. Usually, a custom map is played for one round after the secret map; this is for testing purposes only and does not affect territorial control.
[edit] Tour of Duty dates
- Beta tour began:
- Beta tour ended:
- Tour 1 began:
- Tour 1 ended:
- Tour 2 began January 2, 2006.
- Tour 2 ended March 26, 2006.
- Tour 3 began April 10, 2006.
- Tour 3 ended July 23, 2006.
- Tour 4 Ongoing
[edit] Tour of Duty winners
- Beta tour: No clear winner as winning rules were not set. The 24th People's Army had the best record (24P).
- Tour 1: 24th People's army (24P).
- Tour 2: 24th People's army (24P).
- Tour 3: 38th People's army (38P).
- Tour 4: MEC 9IIGF (9IF).
- Tour 5: TBA
[edit] Custom content
The tour features custom content: the majority of the maps have been modified to allow other armies to play. For example, Strike at Karkand is typically a USMC vs. MEC map; however BF2Combat has created a modified version called Strike at Burqin which features USMC vs. PLA. There are also maps called "Day 2 maps", where the starting sides are reversed; for instance, Strike at Karkand Day 2 features the USMC starting in the city instead of the MEC. BF2Combat also features some extra custom maps not included with the game, though the quality on some are better than others.
Because the battles take place on custom maps, the battle servers are not ranked servers and statistics from battles do not count toward a player's rank and statistics within Electronic Arts' official player rankings.
[edit] Special Forces battles
Beginning with Tour 2, a six hour battle using the Battlefield 2: Special Forces expansion was added on Saturdays. These "SF Battles" affect the territorial control for the week, and were have been the deciding factor in a week's victories. They were later abandoned due to lack of interest.
[edit] Special relationships
Combat Studios has a special relationship with BF2 developer Digital Illusions CE and publisher Electronic Arts. Though the extent of their relationship is unknown, BF2Combat members typically beta test new patches to the game before their release in conjunction with BF2Rankedservers.com, another EA sponsored organization.
Combat Studios also has a special relationship with Nvidia, and often gives away Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX graphics cards as prizes.
[edit] Videos
Unofficial E3 Promotional Video
