The Dark Siege X was originally formed in 1998

The Dark Siege X was originally formed back in 1998 by two friends growing up in grade school. What was first formed as a nonchalant gaming clan soon took hold as one of the most renowned and respected HLDM clans on the scene. Lead by the founders of DSX, Jinx and Hurtmbad, the group soon became a dominant force in its original game at a time when E-sports were non-existent. Competition, rank, and standing was all determined by knowing who was who in the community and taking advantage of tools such as mIRC, ICQ, and AIM to garner top players and top competition alike. All of this was surprisingly accomplished by the founders who at the time were only 13 years old.

DSX strove to be the best and competed with the best with the likes of clan di, Red Spiral, sh0ck, --DU--, TRU MaStAs, IZ, No Limit, O, ToS, and many more. While HLDM may have missed the e-sports scene, the level of competition and skill never waned as the HLDM era was full of reflex/twitch skilled players hungry to prove they belonged. The depth of the game was fully discovered by those involved in this higher level of play, often finding themselves joining a pubic game and easily ripping off a 100-2 K/D ratio. The real fun began when equally knowledgeable clans went head to head creating a tug of war for map control involving weapons, health and armor. HLDM would have truly been a spectacle in today’s streaming and YouTube era without a doubt. Those of you reading this and not familiar with HLDM can check out this video of di.tamale on YouTube to get a small taste of how fast and competitive the game really was.

Proudly, one of DSX’s many great members, Frank Nuccio (-SiTh-), went on to help pioneer what we now all know as e-sports today. It started with The Domain of Games gaming servers which became extremely popular servers offering up HLDM games and later Counter-Strike games. With the success of the gaming servers our member maintained, he was later picked up by Angel Munoz and together they formed the renowned Cyberathletic Professional League. The league was more commonly known as The CPL. The CPL laid much of the ground work for e-sports helping games like quake and counter-strike thrive in the late 90s and early 2000s. The CAL league (Cyberathletic Amateur League) the smaller brother to The CPL also gave thousands of gamers a place to compete in their favorite games for many years as well. Maybe the most prominent of these was Counter-Strike which had many leagues that were offered from open, main, and invite.

Once the HLDM scene started to lose steam and it was evident that it was time for DSX to find new bearings. The team ventured into the Quake 3 community as well as the Counter-Strike community. DSX enjoyed success in many Q3 competitions mostly competing in 2v2 and 3v3 formats. However, DSX truly found its main game successor in Counter-Strike which enjoyed many more years of competition, great community involvement, and great members. While DSX was not as prominent as it was in HLDM, CS provided great times and the clan got to grow alongside CS as it went through Beta and its many incremental versions.

Jinx carried the torch through all of the CS years alongside a valuable recruit, Enforcer, who helped run the team as well. Hurtmbad also participated in CS but moved on to other games and organizations during the early 2000s. The team eventually disbanded after many quality years in counter-strike prior to the release of counter-strike source.

While the founders and members were not actively participating in DSX I’m sure their gaming endeavors carried on to other games and organizations and added value to wherever they went.

Now fast forward 7 years to the present and DSX is looking to return to old form. Reemerging onto the scene much like the game that it will be picking up, DSX looks for members that are passionate about the game, the community, and striving to be as competitively proficient as they can. Hurtmbad is again looking to lead after playing DOTA since 2006. With Dota 2 on the rise there should be many fruitful years of competition at hand. The Dark Siege X is preparing diligently. Will you join the legacy?