Post by StormHunter on Sept 7, 2016 13:21:08 GMT
Backdrop:
Alliances were released at the end of tournament 2 but alliances were not rewarded prizes…. tournament 3 gave the top 15 alliances the same prize so there was no real bitterness between us, and the community was still working together.. But tournament 4 the developers shook up the ranking system hard. They gave the top 3 ships and the top 3 alliances special higher tier prizes for winning. The top players at the time loved the community more then prize money… and saw the disaster this would create. I was one of those players… but our advice was ignored.. this would turn into a tooth and nail battle for first now..
The Red Tide:
Dark matter held second place.. the Chinese alliance Old Drivers held third. But by mid-month the Chinese were on the rise.. We were watching their movements and recruiting closely at SQUID.. They were pulling top player from other smaller Chinese alliances and propping up Elder Drivers.. They were climbing slowly but surely. SQUID lost our lead on the final week of the tournament... One of our own famously betrayed us losing faith in SQUID (But the rest stayed loyal).. It was our wake-up call, we were being surpassed by what we felt was a Chinese super alliance that would beat us and simply disperse after they won..
However the Elder Drivers had made some enemies along the way, their leaders were the Super Ships DDN and Jjjb who appeared out of nowhere in the top 100 with perfect crews of all the best hero’s and fully upgraded ships. The whole community at first though they were hackers… bombarding the developers with questions about them. The developers finally confirmed the truth of the matter.. no they were not hackers.. they were players who spent thousands of dollars to buy the best ships and crews.. They were what we call now Pay to Win (P2W) players.
Last Minute Shenanigans: (Yes Citizen i named that after you lol)
A plan was formed between alliances, we would beat the Chinese alliance at their own game… we too would temporarily pull in top players and beat the Elder Drivers... but we would do it with just minutes to spare right before the tournament ended.. We at SQUID thought we were just doing what the Chinese were doing.. only better and more organized. Caxy, the beloved leader of Wolf Pack and his then team of top players agreed to join us. They were upset with the P2W players and were (and still are) friends of SQUID. Vlad the leader of Pillaging Scourge also agreed to join us. VladTheBad is famous in PSS for having multiple top 50 accounts, and he brought his alts into SQUID to help push us over the top.
Disagreement Sacrifice and Victory:
Other alliances disagreed with us, Dark Matter Hero’s felt that it would be no better to “cheat” this way to win then to allow the Chinese to do it. Dark Matter Heroes have always been friends of SQUID also, and while we were disappointed with their disagreement to help us, we know they valued morals and consistency above winning. As I’ve said in the past, DM is the oldest and most noble alliance in the game; and I have nothing but respect for her leaders and the way they run things. SQUID has always been a hybrid.. judge us as you see fit, but our members are loyal and our conscious is clear.
To pull this off, we needed to kick members of our own alliance to make room.. Most thought we did this without a care.. nothing is further from the truth.. We had a list of inactive players (I maintained a huge roster that tracked member activity and history) However that was not enough. We needed a few more spots… I asked our lowest trophy players at the time to make the sacrifice.. leave squid.. and join wolf or pillaging for the day to help us pull out the win. They agreed to lose out on their prize money to help the rest of the alliance possibly win… and their deeds were well remembered. Players like Dakillerofworlds may be younger than most of us, but they were some of the most loyal SQUIDs.
Aftermath:
We pulled it off, we won the tournament in the last minutes and we got a lot of bad press for it. However, when both teams allied ships left their alliances to rejoin their original fleets, we once again held first place comfortably (i feel this justified our actions.. we were always first.. and we beat them at their own game to keep it). Our actions that day would later be used against us however, and the old drivers would continue to hate us for months to come.. a story for a different day.
Alliances were released at the end of tournament 2 but alliances were not rewarded prizes…. tournament 3 gave the top 15 alliances the same prize so there was no real bitterness between us, and the community was still working together.. But tournament 4 the developers shook up the ranking system hard. They gave the top 3 ships and the top 3 alliances special higher tier prizes for winning. The top players at the time loved the community more then prize money… and saw the disaster this would create. I was one of those players… but our advice was ignored.. this would turn into a tooth and nail battle for first now..
The Red Tide:
Dark matter held second place.. the Chinese alliance Old Drivers held third. But by mid-month the Chinese were on the rise.. We were watching their movements and recruiting closely at SQUID.. They were pulling top player from other smaller Chinese alliances and propping up Elder Drivers.. They were climbing slowly but surely. SQUID lost our lead on the final week of the tournament... One of our own famously betrayed us losing faith in SQUID (But the rest stayed loyal).. It was our wake-up call, we were being surpassed by what we felt was a Chinese super alliance that would beat us and simply disperse after they won..
However the Elder Drivers had made some enemies along the way, their leaders were the Super Ships DDN and Jjjb who appeared out of nowhere in the top 100 with perfect crews of all the best hero’s and fully upgraded ships. The whole community at first though they were hackers… bombarding the developers with questions about them. The developers finally confirmed the truth of the matter.. no they were not hackers.. they were players who spent thousands of dollars to buy the best ships and crews.. They were what we call now Pay to Win (P2W) players.
Last Minute Shenanigans: (Yes Citizen i named that after you lol)
A plan was formed between alliances, we would beat the Chinese alliance at their own game… we too would temporarily pull in top players and beat the Elder Drivers... but we would do it with just minutes to spare right before the tournament ended.. We at SQUID thought we were just doing what the Chinese were doing.. only better and more organized. Caxy, the beloved leader of Wolf Pack and his then team of top players agreed to join us. They were upset with the P2W players and were (and still are) friends of SQUID. Vlad the leader of Pillaging Scourge also agreed to join us. VladTheBad is famous in PSS for having multiple top 50 accounts, and he brought his alts into SQUID to help push us over the top.
Disagreement Sacrifice and Victory:
Other alliances disagreed with us, Dark Matter Hero’s felt that it would be no better to “cheat” this way to win then to allow the Chinese to do it. Dark Matter Heroes have always been friends of SQUID also, and while we were disappointed with their disagreement to help us, we know they valued morals and consistency above winning. As I’ve said in the past, DM is the oldest and most noble alliance in the game; and I have nothing but respect for her leaders and the way they run things. SQUID has always been a hybrid.. judge us as you see fit, but our members are loyal and our conscious is clear.
To pull this off, we needed to kick members of our own alliance to make room.. Most thought we did this without a care.. nothing is further from the truth.. We had a list of inactive players (I maintained a huge roster that tracked member activity and history) However that was not enough. We needed a few more spots… I asked our lowest trophy players at the time to make the sacrifice.. leave squid.. and join wolf or pillaging for the day to help us pull out the win. They agreed to lose out on their prize money to help the rest of the alliance possibly win… and their deeds were well remembered. Players like Dakillerofworlds may be younger than most of us, but they were some of the most loyal SQUIDs.
Aftermath:
We pulled it off, we won the tournament in the last minutes and we got a lot of bad press for it. However, when both teams allied ships left their alliances to rejoin their original fleets, we once again held first place comfortably (i feel this justified our actions.. we were always first.. and we beat them at their own game to keep it). Our actions that day would later be used against us however, and the old drivers would continue to hate us for months to come.. a story for a different day.