As we approach 2013, let's have a look back on the major SWAT events that occurred during the year that just passed:
January of 2012 saw the completion of the RD 1.1 Tournament after a long delay. It also saw the beginning of this blog, which was starting to get noticed after an opinion article criticising some 1.1 player's arrogance was published. Attempts were also made to organize a SWAT "Version" war, but unfortunately nothing of note happened, although the choice of organizer from the 1.0 side could have been the problem.
February was a slightly quieter month - although a few new clans were opened, including Wanted Heroes, Zambezi Mambas and Forever United (and it seems the latter is the current sole survivor). It was also in this month that UAC developer DExUS confirmed that UAC4 is "95% ready".
In March we witnessed the beginning of the ViP 1.0 Premier League, consisting of 1.0-based rules on the Courthouse map. The month saw several clan closures, including {B4E} and {|UFF|}.
April was the month of birthdays, with SWAT 4 celebrating it's 7th (and possibly last) birthday and UAC celebrating it's 6th year of existence.
In September {KL} clan proposed a new VIP tournament with 1.1-based rules. To this day the tournament has yet to be complete, and it seems it never will be. The month also saw the closure of |DWMT| clan after a co-leader was caught cheating on UAC, but a new clan with virtually the same members (including another member who has 3 cheater accounts) was opened with tag JF||.
It is October 2012 that will surely go down as the worst month in the game's history. GameSpy shut down their services of providing a SWAT 4 server list for all multiplayer lovers. Not only was this bad news for active gamers, it also meant that growth of the game would severely stagnate as new players would see an empty list of servers and simply presume that it's a dead game. However, many server list alternatives quickly came to the fore, the most popular ones being DExUS's Alternative Server List, and MarkieBoy's client-sided fix, both of whom's download links can be found on the side of this site.
On the 1st of November prizes were handed out to the winners of the BS 2v2 Tourney as the 3-month tournament had finished. In reaction to the server list disaster many clans started to merge, with {FAB} and |Fs| joining together towards the fag end of October/start of November and exotic latino clans SAM, FLV and FBI merging as one and wearing tag «GWLU».
Finally, in December we saw the true after-effects of the empty server list - a maximum of 10-15 active servers online across both SWAT versions. Some people leaving the game for CoD, others waiting for the supposed sequel TAKEDOWN - while the dwindling die-hard's among us still playing this legendary tactical shooter at any limited opportunity available.
On that slightly sour note, we conclude the summary of SWAT 4 2012. The year saw many tournaments (some not mentioned here), many clan formings and breakups, but ultimately the lasting impression is that 2012 is likely to be last full year that this game will remain alive. Happy new year folks - and remember, DON'T SHOOT THE VIP!