So...Water's out in 11th, maybe 10th. That really can't be considered anything but a failure after last war, where we finished 7th and I'd argue that was closer to our floor than our ceiling. Here's why:
I got arrogant, honestly. I thought I could mirror what I did in Trials - I was awful enough in 4 that I sat out 5 and prepped for the future, I was decent in 6, I was good enough to go toe-to-toe with Raving in 7, I beat Blacksmith comfortably in 8, and then I defended in 9. I thought being 11th in my first war as general and 7th last war meant I could pull off a similar series of progression.
So I rode on what I thought was my experience, I built my team in a different way than the relatively successful setups of War 8 and Brawl 4, I made some gambles in the vaultbuilding phase that backfired, I slacked a little in early deckbuilding phases, and my actions caused so many little mistakes that by the time I realized I was the problem, the damage was pretty deep and ultimately irreversible.
It's rare that I consider myself overly prideful and it's even rarer that I admit it, but I think this thread is the place for it.
To my team: I'm so sorry, I honestly feel that you could have been part of something really special in this war and I wound up being the cause of the majority of things that went wrong for us. I hope at the very least you enjoyed yourselves.
I thoroughly enjoyed my first war experience, and I'd even do it all over again even if we wound up last place! I never once questioned the leadership of you, or Jcj, as I always felt that I knew not as much of either as you - and I certainly don't!
That being said, the whole of Team Water felt really confident coming into War, and in the early rounds and that was quickly diminished. The longer War lasted, the more distraught and negative we became as a whole. But we fought through it.
You have nothing to be sorry for. The team we had was special in my opinion, even with my sudden real life issues that caused me to be afk for practically 2 1/2 rounds. And for that, I am sorry. I became a dead member in the team with no feedback or opinions simply because I had real life going on(and I know that's perfectly reasonable-) but I felt like I certainly held the team back because of it.
I don't have enough posts to put this in the proper section, so I'm going to do it here:
Goodbye.
My experience on this forum has been nothing short of fun and memorable, but I cannot stay here much longer. I simply have too much going on in life(mostly negative things) that I don't have time for the game or forums. One day I may return but it definitely won't be soon. Team Water: Ddevans, Jcj, Spiel, Espi, thank you so much for your support, from both my girlfriend and I. Knowing that you guys cared about what was going on, and being there for me even though I never opened up. And another thank you to Newbie for being such a good opponent and person in general. You were also there for me, even though I never told you what was going on.
And last but not least - A big thank you to the forum as a whole! You are all amazing people and I hope to be back someday. Don't let the war drama ruin your friendships and what you've built :).
Ddevans, Jcj, and RR - I'll be back one day to take that Master of Water title. Be prepared! And if I don't, I'll still follow any of you into war!
Thanks everybody for an amazing first PvP experience. I never expected something like this to be as big as I thought it would be, so thank you everybody. Teammates, spectators, WMs, and of course, members of the other elements. Congrats to everybody for their efforts, and good luck in future endeavors!
I leave you with this, something I decided to write, with the great assistance of Discord, dawn to dusk and Zawadx.
It's moments like these when Patience can turn into Serendipity. Sacrifice does not bring out one's Bravery. Focus and Integrity show the Wisdom that leads into Readiness and Freedom. Acts of Gratitude brings out the Divinity in one. But if all is absent, Void will take over and rule all. :darkness
:darknessbig
Wow... what a journey.
While I'm glad to see the end of it after 16+ weeks, and while we've had our fair share of ups and downs, it's been an incredible experience overall. Thank you to everyone involved - participants, followers and staff members alike, for making War #9 such a fun experience.
I was confident I could lead Darkness to the top three again, but I don't think anybody - myself included - expected me to win as a first-time General. I'd like to extend a huge thank you to everybody who showed so much support for my cause - actually ended up facing a fair bit of negativity from several "veterans" (who shall remain nameless...) but the positive reinforcement from the rest of the community has been absolutely fantastic.
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Team Light, I was gutted to see you hurt so much by the market prices - my first impression from the rosters was that you had an awesome team of friendly, active players, and a couple of very experienced deckbuilders. You had some neat deck innovations - it was just a shame that your core decks were so expensive. I'm looking forward to seeing how well Light performs next War with some more favourable card prices.
Team Water, you were another team I was really impressed with the composition of - bunch of awesome people here. dd, you admitted to a few mistakes earlier in this thread, and I think recognizing your faults is one of the most important keys for improvement - if you lead Water again next year with these changes in mind, I'm very excited to see how far you can go.
Team Life, I'll admit it - I was surprised by the amount of trouble you gave us. Darkness isn't typically weak to Life's decks, but you managed to hold one of the strongest winrates against us in the early game. You killed our Vader Saders and our Ghostmare - neither of those decks got used again. Props to you for being one of our toughest opponents while you were still in the game, with so many Life experts and generally experienced players on the team I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. Better luck next year!
Team Death, I was also sad to see you guys knocked out early - everyone deals with bad RNG in their competitive matches at some point, but... wow. I'd have said you definitely had the upper hand in a lot of those matches - for one of my favourite Elements, with such a strong player and a good friend as your General, it hurt me to see you guys get punished so heavily by bad luck. Hoping things turn around for you next time, would love to see that glorious purple at the top of the leaderboards next War. (behind black, of course!)
Team Time, like Light, I know you were another team that suffered from expensive market prices. Spike, once again, you managed to build an awesome team for a very low cost, and I have to tip my hat to you for your competitive use of Shard of Void... I was disappointed I didn't get to do that this War, we simply couldn't afford to bring them in favour of our incredibly expensive Vampire Daggers. A couple of big names from this team have since left the community, but I really hope to see you again for next War.
Team Entropy - this is an element that'll always be quite special to me, as the one that gave me my first taste of competitive PVP. It's awesome to see a team full of Entropy fans this year. It was interesting to see some of the deckbuilding choices made here in comparison to the traditional decks we're used to seeing - some of them worked out, and although some didn't, they were all very fun. Better luck to you guys next year!
Team Earth, in true Earth style, you guys made a hell of a stand! Despite a rough start, you endured, and ended up giving us far more trouble than we bargained for - I think you were one of only three teams who had a positive winrate over us at some point during War. Kirbyrolls are terrifying.
Team Fire - inactivity from most of your team seemed to be the killer here, really sorry it had to be like this for you guys. The addition of Shard of Patience didn't help your cause, either, it makes for some very strong answers to one of Fire's best competitive decks. I'm sure Fire will reign again - I'm looking forward to meeting you on the battlefield in the future.
Team Gravity, I think we all knew from the get-go that you'd be a formidable force this War. A strong team with a powerful General, shards, and that colossal starting vault of yours meant we all expected a great performance from you, it's a shame that bad luck in the later rounds prevented Gravity from making a top 3 finish. You should all be very proud of what is probably Gravity's best performance ever - very well done!
Team Aether, while I can't say I've ever been a fan of your element in general (despite the number of Darkness/Aether duos we fielded this War...) I must say that I'm very impressed with your comeback. After an early 0-5 I certainly didn't expect to see you in the top 3. Congratulations to you for your performance as a General, Zawadx.
Team Air... wow. I think both of us knew from the very beginning that we'd be against each other in the final rounds. After stealing two of my teammates in the auction, I could tell from your roster that things were going to be very interesting! Our Air matchups were always the ones I was most worried about during deckbuilding - this was a very, very strong team. Afda, I've considered you one of the very best Elements players ever since you taught me how to build my first good Silver arena deck, over Kongregate chat... that's going back couple of years ago now. It's been an honour to fight with you in this event - playing against such an unpredictable opponent and talented deckbuilder always keeps me on my toes. Thanks for being such a good sport the whole way through - whether I'm working with you or fighting against you again next War, I'm sure it's gonna be great.
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Team Darkness... my brothers. Everybody says they couldn't possibly ask for a better team, but... I really do think this has been the best team in the history of War. Every single one of you is amazing. Everyone pulled their weight, everyone was very active, and I'm very glad we managed to create the fun and friendly team environment I aimed for with my team building. I've built new friendships and strengthened old ones within this team, and every step of the way has been absolutely awesome. Thank you all, so much, for being a part of this with me.
chrispybacon84 and RapidStar_, nobody can argue that you two were the star newbies of War. I'm thrilled that I got to be the one to give both of you your first War experience, and very proud that I could lead you both to victory. Definitely looking forward to working with both of you again in the future - never doubt yourselves, you're both awesome players and you made very valuable teammates. I hope this win marks the beginning of very successful PVP careers for both of you!
Aves, while I'd had very few interactions with you before the auction, I knew there was a reason I was drawn to your signup topic. Perhaps it was the lone :darkness symbol in your list of favourite elements, perhaps it was the black spiral you picked for your avatar, perhaps it was the row of birthday cakes in your awards list. Whatever it was, that feeling definitely paid off, because you are an absolute star. The amount of time and effort you put into our pad and vault management - even going as far as writing a script to check our totals during vault preparation - was absolutely fantastic, and very much appreciated. Thank you for all your hard work, I'm sure our team would be a lot less organized without you around!
trashduke, I can't believe how cheap I got you in the auction - I'd have expected to pay far more for such a skilled player, and was absolutely prepared to do so. Your previous event performances in tournaments, Trenzalore and the World Championships definitely brought you to my attention, and I'm very lucky to have secured you for Team Darkness. I really appreciate how much time you put into preparation each week, despite your busy schedule - that dedication is very impressive, and it's that kind of attitude fom everyone that made our team so strong. Thank you for everything.
Calindu, as soon as I saw your signup post, I knew I wanted to work with you again. You took a risk in drafting me to Entropy #8 last year, and I'm very glad I impressed you enough as a soldier to get you to list Darkness as a favourite for this War. You are, without a doubt, one of the best players, deckbuilders and innovators this game has ever seen, and I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with you for two Wars in a row. Thanks for being such an awesome guy, a brilliant teammate and a good friend - so proud that we're both able to get that War winner icon under our names!
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It makes me proud beyond words to finally see the forums reigned by Darkness - absolutely thrilled to be the one to lead Darkness to its first War victory ever. Thank you again to everyone who has shown so much support along the way.
Long may we reign.