Hey everybody,
Double-posting here as an update to my previous message.
While I don't feel any need to justify our performance as a War team in comparison to previous years, I do want to say something on behalf of my team (one of the best I've ever worked with!) as words of potential encouragement and/or motivation for future events.
Firstly, in terms of our team as a whole; you guys are all absolutely awesome. We worked well together and got along great, everyone contributed their fair share, and I'm really happy with the team I built this year. Given better circumstances, I still think we could have been in the running for a second Darkness victory! Unfortunately, good circumstances were not what we were given, and I believe external events were the main reason we didn't perform as well as we could have - and why we didn't reach the high placing a majority of the community expected.
I won't go into too much detail about my own circumstances, but I would like to share a bit of personal information here. My mum has been in and out of hospital for the second half of this year following a cancer diagnosis and complications with her surgery. The week of my sudden disappearance was due to quite a severe emergency - War was the last of my priorities at that moment, and I didn't even sign in to team chat that whole week - thankfully, she seems to be recovering now, and it looks like things will be okay.
Among other things, this month also marks the loss of a very close family member one year ago - this was the primary cause of my absence as Warmaster last year. Not a very good time of year for me, unfortunately - but I think that's enough about that! I wanted to leave some quick notes for my teammates.
Odii Odsen - this guy is amazing - but you all know that already! We both knew from the very beginning that activity would be an issue, as Odii is currently (and has been for the majority of the event) travelling around Africa with very minimal internet connectivity, but we wanted to play a War together regardless. Awesome deckbuilder, great at predictions, quick and ruthless with his in-game decisions, and an all-around fantastic guy. Love you Odii.
CactusKing - absolutely one of the star newcomers to this community, and to War. Phenomenal amount of time and effort put into predictions, deckbuilding and testing, with some creative and hilarious deck ideas for tackling tricky matchups. Would 100% bid on you again, just sorry I couldn't give you a better performance as a General. Thank you for everything!
Should be noted that in our untimely final round, Cactus basically single-handedly picked up the vault tool, managed all the salvage, discards, transmutations, deck-building and other technical vault tool management by himself. Stellar effort which should absolutely be considered by anyone looking for team members in future events!
DoctorC - another fantastic newcomer to the community and the War scene. Time zone differences between yourself, Odii and I did lead to a few mishaps, but regardless of any of that, it was wonderful having you on board and working with you as a team member. Thank you for all the effort put in, Doc, you're awesome.
To conclude, another big thank you to all three of you. Also, to the Warmasters, and all other War participants. I wish you all a merry Christmas, and (if a number of different circumstances work out in my favour) hope to lead Darkness to victory next War!
