Snap to Grid, Splash Damage's regular look at up-and-coming user-created content for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, is back with another installment! This week, ETQW Mapping's lead singer Terry 'Salteh' Seidler focuses on Spirit Speedway, a map for the hotly anticipated Wheels of War mod for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, and its objective-driven twin Free Spirit City. To top it all off, Salteh also manages to update us on the progress of three of the most popular user-made maps currently in development for the game. Click here to get reading!

The latest Splash Damage round-up is here, bringing you the latest musings from the jolly chaps behind Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars in condensed list form:

• Games 5s Football Tournament - The Splash Damage Story
  The MCV & Xbox 360 Games 5s Football Tournament was an unprecedented emotional rollercoaster for the Splash Damage squad, christened "Fire Team Alpha" by community member mortis. This blog update re-tells the gut-wrenching story of the tournament in word and pictures.
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Arne Olav 'ao' Hallingstad
  Gameplay programmer Arne Olav 'ao' Hallingstad makes a surprise appearance in this staff interview. Arne came to Splash Damage via the mod team route and shares his story along with many other details about himself in this interview.
• Currently Hurling Mice/Controllers At... Braid: Bad Company
  In a more or less vain attempt to prove that game developers are gamers, too, we share what games we've been playing lately here at Splash Damage. Braid and Battlefield: Bad Company may or may not be featured.
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Jiri 'JFK' Kristek
  Production Coordinator Jiri 'JFK' Kristek and his brain feature in this installment of our on-going series of staff interviews. Jiri looks after our oh-so-delicate art team to make sure they have what they need to be super creative and such.

The Group Thing, a multi-gaming community spanning several games including Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, has successfully launched into the depths of the intertubes. Sponsored by Direct Clan Hosting and Rackage, The Group Thing aims to provide servers and leagues for gamers wanting to play in a friendly environment in the vain of the now-defunct Barrysworld. The Group Thing's Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars league is said to be coming soon along with actual prizes - for more on this, keep an eye on their website, where you can also register a free account to join their community.

DemonWare will be conducting some emergency maintenance on their cluster of game authentication servers tomorrow, which includes the login servers for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. This sounds worse than it actually is - the issue in question involves a software update for one of the routers and is not expected to disrupt the service for more than 5 minutes. If you're connecting to the master server via Telia routes, you may be disconnected during that time, but if all goes well, the maintenance should go without a hitch and you won't notice a thing.

While out at QuakeCon 2008, Splash Damage ambassadors Jared 'jRAD' Hefty and Dave 'ducks' Johnston were dragged away by the EnemyTerritory.tv crew for a video interview featuring not just one, but in fact both of them. The dynamic duo discusses a variety of things, including the typical process a game update for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars has to go through, the value of large-scale beta tests, the ETQW console versions, and a rather hotly anticipated fruit analogy. You can grab the interview in a variety of flavors over here on the EnemyTerritory.tv website.

The third and final part of Splash Damage's adventures at QuakeCon 2008 is now up on the Splash Damage blog. Dave 'ducks' Johnston and his faithful companion Jared 'jRAD' cover the grand finale of the event, including their soon-to-be-posted interview with enemyterritory.tv, the QuakeCon finals, and the wrap-up party. Set sails!

If you haven't already, don't forget to check out the updates for day 1 and day 2!

Day 2 of Splash Damage's QuakeCon extravaganza is now up here on the Splash Damage blog, conveying the adventures of Jared 'jRAD' Hefty and Dave 'ducks' Johnston in neatly arranged blocks of texts occasionally interspersed with actual photos from the event. Day covers the BYOC and vendor areas, the myriad of often bizarre contests held at QuakeCon, as well as a few of the tournaments. Set eyes to read!

The Develop Industry Excellence Awards 2008 took place earlier in the week and among the winners was Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars PC developer Splash Damage which came away with the highly sought-after trophy for Best Independent Studio. The Develop Industry Excellence Awards are voted for by members of the UK development community and arguably the most prestigious industry awards in the United Kingdom. The full list of winners can be found here on the Develop website.

With Splash Damage's Jared 'jRAD' Hefty and Dave 'ducks' Johnston both out at QuakeCon 2008, we'll try and bring you regular coverage from the event in form of riveting and highly emotional blog updates and photo galleries. The first installment penned by Mr ducks is now up on the Splash Damage website and covers the pile of excitement that was day 1 of QuakeCon 2008. It's quite possibly the next best thing to actually being at QuakeCon 2008, so go have a read and/or look at the pretty pictures!

QuakeCon 2008 is nearly here and with there being two Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars tournaments this year, Splash Damage will be dispatching a few guys there. Both long-time Splasher Jared 'jRad' Hefty and Dave 'ducks' Johnston (whom you might remember as the valiant leader of our ETQW Shackbattle squad) will be there to hang out with the community and hand out a few goodies here and there. If you're going to be at QuakeCon, look out for them and don't hesitate to say hello. If you'd like to arrange an interview with them at the event, drop us a line and we'll make time for you. See you at QuakeCon!