Phoenix squad was created in April 2008. Initially intended to be a temporary group of European based TF2 players, Phoenix has grown into an active member of the Control Point community. It’s forums are amongst the busiest in CP, and it’s squad members are all regulars.

Things, however, were not always so. The squad was born out of frustration. The first Euro group of TF2 players who listened to the Control Point podcast was the CPEU, a very loose collective of players who would come together to play on the same server with the goal of forming a squad to challenge the US squads. Practices were fun and had little organisation, but in the early days that was fine for everyone.

Over time, however, the majority of players in CPEU grew weary with practices where everyone talked at the same time, where you couldn’t leave your spawn to try to practice setting up for fear of being sniped, where you couldn’t even get everyone to line up in silence so teams could be picked. The forums were filled with ideas for how things could be improved, but nothing seemed to change.

Finally, the inevitable happened, CPEU split. A group of players formed a squad, leaving the remaining players stranded. Instead of open communication, CPEU resorted to whispers and rumour. When the dust had settled, CPEU had become one squad, full of the best and most committed players, and a group of others. The folly that a single squad has no way of playing regular games was realised only too late.

It was out of the ashes of this disaster that one man, Jason, rose. He quickly formed a group of the players still loyal to the true principles of TF2 (namely teamwork and enjoyable gaming). This group was little more than a list of names at this stage. It was left to Jason and West, his co-leader, to organise the group into a squad. Phoenix Squad was born.

The squad was formed with only two guiding principles – Don’t be an arse and Show Commitment (nulus balatro, ostendo conatus). This was an attempt to create a group very different from the CPEU days, where practices were characterised by foolish displays and when players often failed to show up regularly.

The early days of Phoenix saw encouraging victories and new members were recruited.  Phoenix participated in the inaugural Control Point Tournament, although harsh lessons were learnt on Gravel Pit.

August was a particularly momentous month for the squad, not only were the boxes of Website and Gameserver ticked, but Phoenix recruited several members from the old CPEU who had formed a separate squad.  The number of the squad swelled to over 20 and the new players were re-introduced to the old.

Late 2008 saw Phoenix taking part in its first league (Wireplay 6v6) as well as establishing an open community group.

For more information, to arrange a scrim, or if you’re interested in joining either the Squad or the community please contact either Jason or West.