SoW Season 15, Match 3: Last-Minute Glory! Breaking the 30k Barrier When the Odds Are Against You

Siege of Winterfell Season 5 hasn’t been kind to me, but it’s been a great run for my alliance so far.

While I couldn’t reliably play the first two matches, N0X pulled off victories in both.

Now, with Round 3 on the horizon, I finally have a chance to join the fight, though it’ll be tight since I have plans after work.

I’ve set aside a 1h buffer for any delays, but will it be enough to make it back in time? I sure hope so.

As luck would have it, I make it home just in time; barely 5-6 minutes before the match begins. Not before the map opens, but right before the actual match starts. I rush to equip my war gear (thank God for my Quick Adjustment presets), then jump in. My alt is next and slips in less than a minute before the game starts.

As the 3rd Siege of Winterfell match starts and everyone rushes for objectives, my first priority is a quick change of clothes😅

I don’t even have Discord open yet, so I have no idea what my assignment is.

Five minutes in, I can finally sit down and start playing. As I wait for Discord to launch, I glance at the map and it’s completely red! Red? That’s not N0X’s color today. What’s going on?😒

I hop into voice chat, expecting an active and tense atmosphere, but instead, the alliance is in a good mood. Are they laughing? Joking? Having fun? Isn’t it a bit early to celebrate? Especially when it looks like we’ve started the match on the wrong foot? A few seconds later, I realize we’re up against HOH. Lovely. Are they any good at SoW? Apparently, they’re not bad! Well, let’s see how things unfold.

Ten minutes in, I notice they have a "slight" advantage in points. Oh, and a "slight" advantage in participation too. But we’ve got our heavy hitters on the map. Rock, Grom, Bel and the rest of the team is up, so things are bound to get interesting soon.

As soon as I reach "my lane", it’s clear we’re facing an overwhelming force. We’re giving it a good try, but they simply outnumber us. Enemy Night King procs are becoming annoying. Not to mention Dany’s dragon procs! They’re just deleting us from the battlefield.

Within seconds, my three armies are completely obliterated. I just sit there, speechless, trying to process what just happened. What’s the counterplay to this? I’m not even thinking about killing enemies anymore; my only concern is figuring out how to survive a few commander procs. Because right now, survival feels like the only game I’m playing.

I usually rely on my alt for the smaller fights and capturing unguarded objectives, but this time, it looks like my main will be doing that.

We’re giving it an honest try, and the entire map is blinking with battles. It’s mostly red, but we’re doing our best to keep up.

As we reach the midpoint, the harsh reality sets in: there’s no coming back from this. We don’t need to say it out loud, but we all know. The enemy isn’t even bothering to move the package to their buildings. And they control pretty much the entire map. They just sit next to Winterfell, because they know we can’t do a thing about it. This arrogance is a gesture we will not forget.

N0X leadership doesn’t officially call the game, but they do give us a hint by saying "at least be there at the end to take some buildings when they recall." We’re not technically giving up, but it’s clear we’re no longer expected to burn through healing speeds. A smart call, if you ask me, healing my three marches again would cost me another month of speeds.

Not long after the halfway mark, we’ve literally lost everything. The only building we still contest is just a last stand for players farming elimination points. Obviously I'm not in there, I'd probably die from a distance, without doing anything.

I can’t decide if I’m more discouraged or fascinated by how they all seem to be everywhere at once.

I try to sneak around the map, looking for an unguarded building to flip. Maybe they’ve neglected one closer to them? Nope. A few accounts show up, waiting for me before I arrive. So I just recall, no point in giving them free elimination points.

It looks like most of my team is away at this point. We get a nice anniversary building on our side of the map, so I start walking toward i only to realize I’m completely alone. No friendlies, just red. The entire map is red.

Guess it’s time to take a break and check back in about 15 minutes. By then, they’ll probably hit 80k points and recall.

And just as expected, once they’re getting close to 80k, they start pulling back. Turns out my timing was a little off; it wasn’t 15 minutes, but closer to 20. Makes sense, considering they probably didn’t bother delivering any packages during that time.😀

As soon as they start recalling, we crawl out of our cave, hoping to at least scrape together 30k points before the match ends.

I send out my alt to grab Hot Springs for some discounted healing. Seems I’m not the only one with that idea.

With Hot Springs secured, I shave off 2-3 days from my month-long healing and start working on my healing rankings for the game 😃

This is also the perfect time to heal up my rebellious alt, who got a little too adventurous in some unlucky PvP fights and lost a big chunk of troops before SoW. On the bright side Lord of Lords is starting soon, and I’ll have a good opportunity to rebuild them anyway.

Now look at that pretty baby blue map. This is the color I'd like to see from the start!

If I ignore the score, I could almost convince myself this was a great game.

Look at our mighty Belore, bravely carrying the package alone, squeezing out some much needed last minute points. Time isn’t on his side. With only two minutes left and 25k on the board, we really need this delivery to push us past the 30k threshold.

This whole match has been an uphill battle, but can we at least wash off some of that shame? Can we hit 30k? We’re just trying to make the best of a bad situation. They don’t want to rack up too many points and risk a tougher fourth match, and we just want to scrape together some extra rewards and hold our place in the seasonal rankings. With only three games left, every bit counts.

And he makes it! Just like I entered the game under a minute, Belore delivers the package and we break past the 30k threshold with less than a minute to spare. The last 10 minutes of this game were probably the most fun we’ve had this past hour🙃

The closing score flies by on my screen, marking the halfway point of the 15th Siege of Winterfell season. With only three more games left, will we make it into the top 12 for the playoffs? After getting into UC, that should be our goal for SoW, and I could definitely use those rewards, hihi.

This match didn’t go as we hoped, but it taught us a few key lessons. Teamplay isn't just about winning; it’s about adapting to the circumstances and staying in the fight, even when the odds are stacked against you. Sometimes, it's about making small wins count, learning from each defeat, and keeping morale high. In the end, Siege of Winterfell isn’t just about the final score, it’s about the lessons we carry forward and the bonds and grudges we forge as a team, ready for the next battle.

Good game in the end. Considering who we were up against, hitting the 30k threshold was a small victory. We only lost ~100 points in the total ranking, and my main even managed to get the 20 troop appearance on the 1st try🙏

All things considered, it wasn’t such a bad day after all! Now we’re looking forward to the second half of the season with high hopes of qualifying for the playoffs. And may the odds be ever in our favor, not like today, obviously!😅