Hello everyone,

as you know, Wargaming takes e-sport very seriously and is dedicated to making the competitive part of the game fair and bal… hahahaha who are we kidding, nobody at WG EU gives a flying fuck about that and their latest fail just confirms that.

So sit down kids and hear the story, as explained by H311fi5h (from clan IDEAL, ranked 4th in that tournament) and confirmed by Kyrahihi (clan LGEND). By H311fi5h’s words:

“The last two weeks the “Clan Wars Winter Tournament” took place on EU server. The tournament was full of fail from the very beginning, but the most notable is the following.

The teams progressing from the group stage to the final stage (8 teams) were promised 25.000 gold each. The prizes were transfered to the teams today, but the 25.000 gold for winning the group stage is missing for all teams. When reporting the issue, WG employee Azkolek (French Community Manager) states this prize was not supposed to be part of the tournament (followed by some bullshit with translation issues and other excuses).

Azkolek:

At first this was displayed in every language, but not in English. This was fixed, but the line somehow re-appeared in the English rules only, but was still correct in the news article. We’re sorry for the people who got confused.

Fact is: At the very moment I am writing this email, the 25.000 gold is still listed on the official tournament page. I added a screenshot in case they remove it:

But that’s not all. The tournament rules also promise a bonus of 25% on top of the winnings from the final stage for teams with all players from the same clan. The rules state: “In the Final Stage, if the team has only members from the same clan, they will receive a +25% boost to their prize gold!”

Two teams, “The Legendary Peasants” and “KARP Alliance Please Ignore” moved all their players in the same clan before the final stage started. WG is refusing to pay the 25% bonus to those teams. This means WG is robbing the winners of another 100.000 and 43.750 gold. This means in total WG is cheating the top 8 teams for a total of 343.750 gold (that’s over 1100 € when bought in the gift shop).”

So, there you have it, clearly WG takes tournaments and fair play very seriously… and don’t forget to watch WGL!

Hello everyone,

Yuri Pasholok posted this interesting video on his blog. Another piece of the old MS-1 tank (a development of Renault FT-17, it was the first Soviet mass-produced tank) was restored in Vladivostok, Russia to working order. The video also nicely shows the insides of the vehicle – and yes, it is really cramped.

This particular MS-1 is known to have participated in the Changkufeng Incident, also known as the battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 (a clash between Soviet and Japanese forces, resulting in Soviet victory despite taking considerable losses). The restoration itself took three years, but the process was much longer, as before the restoration, the engineers had to obtain detailed materials in order to make the tank look as historical as possible. Today, only about five tanks of this type remain in existence and according to the people who restored it, this is the most realistically restored one.

Author: AgaresTretiak (NA)

Introduction

Like many of us here, I play games with tanks in them. Not just one game, like World of Tanks, but others. Some, like Darkest Hour and the original Red Orchestra, provided many a happy hour of game-play (though not strictly the most accurate at times). Others, like War Thunder have provided me with equal measures of frustration and triumph. Yet others, like World of Tanks have been a long standing source of entertainment and fun with friends through Clan Wars. One of the key aspects however, of any presentation of World War II armored vehicles for myself, has been the accuracy and detail of what was being displayed.

Part of this, I suppose, is in part due to my training as a historian, part due to my love of modelling, and I suppose a third is my pretention of artistic ability. Regardless of the motives though, I find myself irritated by inaccurate representations or information. Authenticity can be replicated through details, and when it comes to any fighting vehicle from a given nation, there can be quite a few details involved. Things like the right colour for camouflage, the placement and correct tactical markings on a vehicle, and even little personal touches crews might have added are all part of the details that can bring that much more authenticity into a game, a model, or even just for the pleasure of knowing someone took the time to make it that detailed.

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Source: http://www.noticiasautomotivas.com.br/blindado-passa-por-cima-de-chevrolet-s10-e-motorista-sobrevive/

Thanks to PzBarkhorn for this one

Hello everyone,

check out what happened in Brazil recently.

The 79 year old farmer Lusardo Ottaran was returning to his property trough a non-paved road, that connects the BR-290 highway to the “Campo de Instrução Barão de São Borja” (a Brazilian Army tank instruction camp), located in Rosário do Sul, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, when he found a column of Leopard tanks. He was instructed by the column recon officer (who was there to ensure people’s safety, making them move away from column’s path) to move his Chevrolet S-10 pickup to the side, so the tanks could pass, which he did. The first 2 tanks of the column passed without any problems, but the third one couldn’t maneuver fast enough due to the slippery mud, and ran over the pickup. The driver was able to jump to the right seat moments before being crushed, but he suffered injuries to one leg and to the fingers of both hands.

The driver of the tank helped rescue the farmer, who was taken to the city hospital. He passed trough a surgery to reconstruct his fingers and another one to reconstruct his leg. The tanks where supposed to be carried on trucks, but due to the conditions on the road, the military decided to drive them trough the muddy area, since the trucks would just get bogged in the mud.

Hello everyone,

a bunch of pictures from the Minsk office of Wargaming, how it was “decorated” during yestarday’s Day of the Defender of Fatherland holiday (held in Russia and Belarus as well). These photos were posted on Wargaming instagram.

Most of the tech offices around Minsk go pretty heavy on this holiday — camo nets, paper tanks, the works, even from places that have nothing to do with military games (one of the bigger Belarusian online casino sites apparently had a full inflatable tank in its lobby last year). Wargaming kind of has a built-in advantage on the decoration front though, given that, you know, tanks.

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Hello everyone,

a few bits and pieces gathered from various supertest sources, as presented by VK Ekspress community (it’s a must for every serious WoT portal to have their own supertester “agent” :) )

- it’s possible that this week (possibly today or tomorrow), videomakers will release first “official” (approved) videos with new, improved physics
- a new map (city map) was brought to supertest, pictures and minimal leak will come later. It’s possible that it will be limited to tier 1 to 8
- a completely new team will start working on World of Warplanes. Their task will be to revive the game.
- physics test will go “as planned”

Hello everyone,

time for another week-delayed contributor review and a few explanations. First, I’d like to thank the following contributors, who help out via Paypal:

Michael H. (United Kingdom)
Taugrim (Californa, USA)
missile742 (Colorado, USA) – read below, mate
Tim F. (New York, USA)
Fraser H. (Canada)

Now, missile742, before we go any further – you asked me a question in the “donation message” part about skill MM. Well, since you took the effort to contribute, I took the effort to ask around, especially for you. No, it is still not planned, not for random battles anyway, but it’s possible a special “ranked” mode will appear in the future.

Several points I’d like to make.

I know some of you hate me. I don’t lose any sleep over that. But I have a good advice for you (the several of you): do NOT fuck with Paypal. Paypal is not like Patreon, it’s a regular banking service (some idiots seem to have the impression that it is some lulzy site – no, Paypal is registered as a banking house with all the obligations). Trying to fuck around with it (won’t post how not to give people any ideas) will not only make you known to me, but you can also get in legal trouble, as this kinds of stuff actually does cost Paypal (not me) money and it could be classified as attempted fraud. Consider this a fair warning. It was a stupid idea and I won’t destroy your lives for that by reporting you or publishing your names (if you get contacted by law, it was Paypal, not me), but do not EVER try this again.

Moving on.

You might have noticed that there have been a lot of typos lately. That’s because I am busy. Really, really busy, as in “FTR is now not a second job but a third” busy. As it happens in life, there are some personal issues to add to that as well, so I’ve been sleeping for 4-5 hours there last weeks. I am trying to keep FTR up to speed with everything to all that, but it’s hard. As I write this, I have 125 unread FTR e-mails for this weekend alone… will spend some time parsing through them, but realistically, I will not answer some. I am sorry. There’s one thing connected to that:

Please, do NOT send me any replays with the sole comment of “look at this”. I won’t. Especially lately I have been getting a lot of “IM rigging” replays and there is simply no way I can watch even a few when you don’t even write me exactly what went on and when. If you have a rigging suspicion, contact WG support – they are lazy and will not do anything, but apart from putting them in Hall of Shame, there is not much that I can do either.

So that’s it. As for FTR, it goes on as I promised – but you have to excuse the typos and all that. Sorry. I will keep you informed.