Changelog
Fixed the most common server crash. The story behind this one is fairly convoluted:

When a player begins the process of joining a server, the server will begin buffering some kinds of information in anticipation of the player completing the loading & joining phase. However, players sometimes get stuck in the loading screen. This makes the server buffer more and more info for that player. A side effect of this is a temporary resource leak in the game server. The leak is immediately restored if the server changes map, or the player completes loading, or the player shuts down the game client. However if a player manages to remain stuck for 30+ minutes in loading on a server with lots of activity and the server doesn’t end the round, then the server could run out of the particular resource – it would then crash.

The new server version will forcibly disconnect clients which are threatening to exhaust that particular resource. With this change in place, we do not know of anything that would make high-ticket servers less stable than normal-ticket servers.

Long banlists will not crash the server.

The banlist supports up to 10.000 entries now. This limit can be raised in the future.
The banList.list command has been modified to return at most 100 entries at a time (similar to how BC2 PC’s banList.list command works).
Any administrative tools will need to be updated to be able to see more than the first 100 entries.

Corrections to the banlist documentation.


Docs
The R18 documentation applies to R19 as well. It can be found here: http://static.cdn.ea.com/dice/u/f/bfbc2/tmp/BF3_PC_Server_R18_902705_Docs_ServerAdministrator.zip [static.cdn.ea.com]

Wow. I never thought I´d see South Africa actually getting a line up for this Nations Cup but I am extremely happy that they did. It´s also much needed for e-sports in RSA.

The team is completely new to Clanbase and Nations cup as seen by their empty track record on the website. Clanbase [clanbase.ggl.com]. They´re like a breath of fresh air in the Battlefield e-sports scene. Also, they are hitting the scene like underdogs this time. Unfortunately, it´s probably not going to be enough considering the group they have been seeded in. I rate these guys on position 4 though mainly because their team seems to emphasize teamwork since way back. The biggest shocker will be if South Africa actually manage to beat the bigger ones like Finland or Russia or even manage to steal a round of scores off of them.

I am very sure that a lot of folks probably haven´t even heard of any of their players or seen any of them in action and that´s what makes these lions so dangerous. Their team seems to be put together by a gaming collective called "FiB" who´ve raked in some awards during gameshows like RAGE in RSA the past years.


Lineup for Nations Cup:


Team South Africa on Battlelog [battlelog.battlefield.com]




Pro tip:

1. Russia
2. Finland
3. Belgium
-----------
4. South Africa

Home to many successful esport teams all around, Battlefield has enjoyed a lot of attention on the isle. You may remember Team Dignitas as a powerhouse in the Battlefield e-sport world, all the way from good old Battlefield 1942. Although the Battlefield team for Dignitas was as British as Madonna considering almost no British players actually played there, Dignitas was home to a lot of Nordic and German talents but the e-sport organization has shown that they know how to build successful teams and make it count in world finals!

UK has a huge playerbase, considering that a large part of the known world is still part of the empire *cough* South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Pitcairn Islands and Kiribati. Amongst the players for Team UK, you have some great players from Rush Zone, Karnage and PROXY. These players pack some skill and I´m pretty sure UK has a great lineup this time around. Last time the Brits managed to get into the playoffs was during the BF 2142 Infantry Tournament where they lost against the Russians with ONLY 3 tickets. I´m not entirely sure that the Brits will make it to the finals but I do believe that they will do their best and be tough to beat, at least in the group stages.

This time around, UK is probably going to face the toughest games against Denmark and Poland who both have some great teams for the Nations Cup. So let´s raise our cups of tea high up and wish Team UK the best of luck. If they don´t manage to win, I heard Spice Girls are going to reunite for the Summer Olympics in London.


Team UK on Battlelog [battlelog.battlefield.com]


Lineup for Nations Cup is:


rush.Duky Rush Zone
Beargrylls PROXY
Born Rush Zone
BYZE PROXY
celticgirl N/A
dandy3
dLIGHT Rush Zone
Ezekial Epsilon
Jamesey PROXY
JonesyWelsh TCM
Lindl3y XSS
Luciferlololol Rush Zone
Marrowlol Karnage E-sports
Mazi Rush Zone
nKM PROXY
radis Karnage E-sports BF3 Captain
RJayW
Scribbles Rush Zone


My protip for this group is:

1. Denmark
2. Poland
3. UK

If you don't know how it works, it's very easy to do. Just run over to a fallen soldier and hold down the Reload button; PC: the R key, PS3: the square button, Xbox 360: the X button.

What is the tactical use of this? Here's a couple of examples: if your Assault medic dies you can switch over to his kit and revive him; your enemy has unlocked a powerful weapon that you wouldn't be able to use otherwise; your fellow Engineer just died and you need to take down a tank.

Please fill out the poll on the bottom left corner.

Do you pick up kits?

• Yes, it's very useful
  
• Yes, but I change back
  
• No, it's not very useful
  
• No, didn't know about it
  

In our largest crackdown yet, this week sees us banning a significant number of cheaters. Because you deserve a fair game.

Also, we have a fix on its way for the VOIP issue that some Battlefield 3 players have experienced on PS3. Expect your patch soon (stay tuned for exact timing), and have a great gaming weekend!