The time has come for the final showdown, the most important match in the history of our alliance! Although we achieved all the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season, with an excellent game throughout the season, with a certain amount of luck - we came to a situation where we can enter the Ultimate Conquest with a victory in the last match. I was aware of the fact that we were going to play against a strong opponent, at this stage there is no easy opponent anymore. I was just hoping that we wouldn't get one of the league's strongest alliances, we have absolutely no chance against them. The same excitement prevailed among my teammates - everyone was waiting tensely to see who would be our opponent.

I will try to explain in a little more detail how much this result means to us. Until a few seasons ago, our best result was three wins in a season. In some cases, we would have a bit more luck and get four wins. There were also cases when we would only have two wins in the entire season. However, in the last two or three seasons, we started to grow as a team, some new players came to us who became one of the main players in the matches, which resulted in us raising our expectations and goals from season to season. I personally thought that our result from last season was a huge achievement that will be difficult to repeat, especially because we achieved big victories in almost all previous matches, which meant that our opponents were getting better and better as we approached the end of the season, but we managed to pass all the obstacles and we got here! We just need a little more luck and another well-played game...

PREPARATIONS

We definitely could have done a lot worse! As in the last round, looking at the possible opponents, I again classified them into two groups - in the first group there were alliances that were much stronger than us, while in the second group there were those that we might be able to play with, regardless of the fact that they are stronger than us. GTy definitely belonged to that second group!

Before the last round and the duel with us, GTy had four wins with only one loss, and that loss was against SIG, an alliance I know very well - I was with them on k88. The fact that SIG beat them by less than 5,000 points tells you what kind of alliance it is. And SIG is one of the alliances we can't play against...And the reason why GTy is so good is this...

Before this round, GUMMY was by far the best player in the league in terms of overall score. Just looking at his account is terrifying, and now we are on the opposite side...

It took me a long time to prepare the tactics for this match. Since GUMMY is their only extremely strong player, I assumed that they would use a tactic where he would attack all of our Castles and thus remove our troops, then let his teammates occupy those same Castles. If I were in their place, I would certainly have set the tactics like that - in fact, we already did something similar to that in the last match, as well as in some other previous matches, so we are not unfamiliar with that tactic. It was for this very reason that I came up with a way to prevent them from doing this - I knew that objectively we could not withstand the attacks of their best player, however when he takes one of our Castles - when he abandons it and leaves it to his teammates to occupy it that leaves us a certain time in which there aren't many of their troops in the reinforce, which we can use with a few quick solo attacks and thus take over their Castles. This is a very well-known tactic used by almost all the strongest alliances - the race for Castles is very important and very often the fastest players are not necessarily the strongest players in their alliances, so they are forced to "SWAP". In the lower leagues, and especially in our league, there are no such tactics because the alliances are not that strong, so matches like this are very rare. All our players received instructions on how to react if such a situation occurs, I also arranged who goes to which Castle and all that remained was to wait for the start of the match!

I would by no means agree with the statement that we are the favorites at the beginning of the match, despite the fact that we are ahead by the initial points. Although the opponents don't have that many strong players, or maybe we have a few stronger players than them, the fact is we can't fight against their strongest player at all, which means that whichever Castle GUMMY takes we can't recapture it. However, I believed we had a good chance, especially when I saw that they did not bring a large number of players in the match!

THE MATCH

And so the match began!

50% again…

That this will be a difficult match for us is also shown by the fact that the opponents very quickly sent quite a large number of troops to reinforce, in contrast to some previous matches in which we very easily managed to overrun the Castles with solo attacks. Because of this I changed the initial plan - as always our plan was for me, as our strongest player, to fight for Casterly Rock, however seeing that we lost the race for the Temple of the Mother, and the fact that the opponents sent a lot of troops in reinforce, I decided to try solo attacks to help my teammates. An additional reason for that decision lay in the fact that also their strongest player was not active at the beginning of the match, which means that our opponents had a similar idea to us and left him to fight for Casterly Rock.

However…

Not even a scratch…

If there was any doubt, after this failed attempt it became clear that our opponents are very strong... Our opponents didn't wait either, and they also tried to attack our Castles on the very opposite side of the map!

Once again I must emphasize how grateful we are to have players like Paul! Once again he managed to defend his Castle!

I tried to use the same tactic again and this time attack the Targaryen Outpost...

But I suffered another humiliating defeat... However, unlike the previous attempt, this time I had my teammates behind me and immediately my attack was followed by theirs and we managed to capture the Targaryen Outpost!

We didn't even have time to react and send troops to reinforce, and it was already time for the Ports to open their gates! And once again we managed to occupy only one Castle!

The next few minutes were quite turbulent. Around the same time we managed to capture Lannister Port, the opponents captured the Targaryen Outpost... Although this seems like a more favorable outcome for us, we weren't too happy about it due to the fact that the opponents can attack our Castles very easily. And all that without the strongest player. It is precisely for this reason that the next battle that follows us - the battle for Casterly Rock - is so important. Losing that Castle to their strongest player means we can't take the CR, which would generate a lot of points for our opponents, much higher than us. We didn't have to wait long to find out the outcome of the race for Casterly Rock...

I DID IT AGAIN!!!

And now the madness begins! From this moment until the next ten minutes my match came down to defending Casterly Rock - healing the troops and sending them back to reinforce! That's why I couldn't pay too much attention to the other battles my teammates were fighting on some other fronts... But let's start in order.

Not a very convincing victory, but a victory is a victory :)

But not long after this attack, what I feared the most started - their strongest player, that is, the strongest player in our entire league came at me with all his strength!

I don't even know how I survived this attack. But somehow I managed to hold on! It didn't take long for the second attempt...

Another powerful blow! I only managed to heal the troops and send them back, and the next attack was already on its way...

The problem was that we lost quite a lot of troops with each subsequent attack, which is why some of our players were soon left with a small number of heal and speed up items. I knew it was only a matter of time before we lost Casterly Rock, and finally after six successful defenses the seventh attack was fatal and we finally lost Casterly Rock...

Meanwhile, while I was fighting for Casterly Rock, fierce battles were also being fought on other fronts. I only noticed later that in the meantime we lost both Ports, but we managed to occupy both Strongholds!

We managed to get Lannister Port back under our control very quickly!

Burdened by the troop losses we experienced in the Battle of Casterly Rock, we could no longer send a lot of troops to reinforce, which the opponents skilfully took advantage of and attacked the Castle where we had the least number of troops - the Lannister Stronghold...

And now we have reached the halfway point of the match. I was more than satisfied with the current state of the match - despite the fact that we ended up without Casterly Rock, we kept it under our control for quite a long time, thus we constantly gained a bigger and bigger point advantage, and that's exactly why we're halfway through the match in a nice advantage. Even though the opponents are currently generating more points than us, I wasn't worried - losing Casterly Rock meant I could now attack other Castles, while their strongest player was tied to Casterly Rock so he couldn't attack our other Castles! I would briefly go back to the beginning of this match, where I mentioned how I would set the tactics if I were in their place. They had a different mindset though and it's obvious that they kept their strongest player exclusively for Casterly Rock and, I guess, later for Mines. I think they made a mistake, which you can see in the middle of the match. Only now can be seeing what a good job we did defending Casterly Rock for so long!!

There was no way I could forget that humiliating defeat from the beginning of the match... Since I was now free to attack whichever Castle I wanted - it was time for a rematch!

It took me a little more attacking than I planned, but we finally occupied the Temple of the Mother! Even though this Castle didn't mean much to us at this point, I wanted to turn the tide of the match and get into a position where we generate more points than our opponents!

In the following minutes, both alliances took turns in supremacy over some Castles. In reality, everyone was waiting for the final showdown - Mines!

GUMMY once again showed me how much stronger player he is than me by humiliating me once again...

In the meantime, the opponents tried to get completely close to us in terms of points, but it's obvious that they didn't have many troops at their disposal either.

And we have come to the very end of the match, it's time for the final showdown!

As I expected, GUMMY left Casterly Rock and they diverted everything they have to the Mines! We took advantage of that and again came into possession of almost all the Castles, only Targaryen Port remained in their possession. Before the opening of the Mines we were in a very good position - we had a big advantage which meant that the opponents had to occupy both Mines! I knew it would be hard for them to do, although GUMMY will surely occupy one Mine, we will fight for the other one! The most ideal scenario would be for us to occupy both Mines, which would mean we won since GUMMY can't keep both Mines under his control. However, I go back to the already mentioned tactic when he can occupy a Mine and leave it, then attack our other Mine. I was afraid that they would play like that throughout the match, but they didn't, but there was still a possibility that they would do it. On the other hand, I ordered my teammates to return any remaining troops they have available and prepare for battle, and that they should all enter the race for Mines! Losing both Mines would be catastrophic...

The most chaotic part of the match followed! Due to the intensity of the match itself, the importance of the match and the situation in the match, I was not able to take pictures of the current state of the match, so I will try to tell as best as possible what exactly happened...

So, once again, for the umpteenth time this season - we managed to occupy one of the two castles. But, this time, this outcome was completely in our hands! As expected, as soon as he was able, GUMMY attacked our Lannister Mine, however our defenses withstood his attacks! On the other side of the map, we lost the race for the Targaryen Mine, but meanwhile i left the Temple of the Mother and was free to attack whatever I needed to. That's exactly what happened, I attacked Targaryen Mine and captured it!

The joy was short-lived, since almost all of our players remained with a very small number of troops, we could not send a sufficient number to reinforce, so that two strong rallies was enough for the opponents to steal Mine from us...

But, while all this was happening, our other players took advantage of the opportunity and started taking other Castles, which, along with the fact that GUMMY already had one Castle, meant that we still generated more points than our opponents!

During this time, Paul successfully defended all attacks on the Lannister Mine! I can't praise Paul enough!

And now we come to the decisive moment in the match! Seeing that they were losing the match, the opponents decided to finally try the tactic they should have used from the very beginning of the match - GUMMY left the Targaryen Mine with the idea of attacking the Lannister Mine as well. Mines has enough points left to completely turn the match in their favor. However, we were ready for that and as soon as GUMMY was removed, we started to attack!

Although I didn't manage to occupy that Castle, my teammates followed me once again and we managed to seize the Targaryen Mine again!

In the meantime, I have come into possession of Targaryen Port, just in case some miracle does not happen at the last minute. The opponents tried to attack us several more times, but it was too little and too late for anything to change and after a big and long fight and a lot of spent speed up and heal items and diamonds - we got another victory!!

CONCLUSION

A brilliant victory! Absolutely brilliant! By far our strongest opponent this season, we played against the strongest player in our entire league and managed to achieve a great victory with teamwork! Let's not forget that SIG, led by an extremely strong player, King Goran, barely managed to win against our opponents today. We beat them by a much larger margin! Once again, we pushed the limits of our expectations. Not even in my wildest dreams did I expect that we would achieve all six victories in the league! I will not single out anyone by name, absolutely everyone deserved great respect and thanks for listening to me from the first match to the last, for playing exactly as I asked them to! Once again it was shown how good my decision was to join this alliance!

In the end, unfortunately we didn't manage to enter the Ultimate Conquest - we finished the season as the 17th alliance in the league with the same number of points as the 16th, that is, the last alliance that placed in the Ultimate Conquest. Maybe in some matches we could have played until the end, in some matches after reaching 80,000 points we let the opponents take the points, which in the end cost us not to enter the Top 16. However, then we would get other alliances for the opponents, maybe some much stronger than the ones we met, maybe then we wouldn't even get six victories. All in all, this was a season that exceeded all expectations! I know that after the end of last season and at the beginning of this one, I said that it would be difficult to repeat the result from last season, but we managed not only to repeat it, but also to surpass it! So now, at the end of this most successful season so far, I will not make any predictions for the next season. We will just enjoy six victories in six matches played!!!!