Arena of Honor - Season 2 Round 5 - The redemption

March is just begging in Westeros, snow has slowly melted, trees have started blooming and for [N0X]OliverQ it's time for another round of his favorite event, Arena of Honor. Prior to this round he had mix results, a win, a 2nd place and 2 3rd places, not bad results for a new warrior but as always, he wants more. After the fiasco he had in the 4th round with him and his team losing the clan castle he was determined to not let that happen again and if possible, get a win in this round and climb on the glory rankings. He chosen to fight this battle at dawn, and Sunday just before 18:00 he marched towards Mercenary Camp as he still didn't find a team to fight along. Upon arrival he signed the required registration forms and then waited for the matchmaking to be done.

Once the matchmaking was done, the gates of the battlefield opened, and everyone stepped into the arena. OliverQ was assigned to fight on the still frozen north in the name of House Stark for this round and along him, Sansa also invited [1FR]Di4bolo, [PRa]cengizz, [KNi]Zwilling, [VOO]IIIArkonaIII, [KNi]Ursus Strong, [CBc]Sarastro, [FmL]Elmooooooo, [TMH]RB88 and [G2L]Asterixion. Quite a decently strong solo que team i got here, was OliverQ thinking.

Once he knew his team, OliverQ took a look at what other houses have prepared for this round. After carefully inspecting all the other teams it was looking that all the other houses also invited teams made from Mercenary Camp warriors, so everyone had a fair chance on winning this round.

Time for looking ended quickly as the horn announcing the begin of the battle was heard and time for action was there. First set of strongholds dropped their bubbles and become attackable so everyone rushed to occupy them and build their first set of structures. After the 2 minutes of occupation required, the House Stark's commander decided to go with Cavalry Camps and OliverQ decided to let the commander handle his strongholds too and not do a mix of buildings again.

Building military camps meant the Clan Castle should be safe for the whole round, in theory at least, depending on what the house that directly attacks House Stark builds, and luckily, they decided to go with Trading Posts. However, having military camps also means less points per minute generation so having the strongest NPCs on the battlefield was mandatory for a good result, so the battle for the altars was going to be fierce. Generally, on these smaller fights the first few altars often remain unchallenged, so OliverQ took Altar of the Stranger for House Stark without any opposition. But as time passes and more and more altars open, the fight for them also intensifies, OliverQ put his eyes on Altar of the Warrior and sent a quick solo army to fight for it, however the altar wasn't empty, [DRI]Bongo Badger and his cavalry were waiting there. A bloody battle emerged between the two armies

Ultimately OliverQ proved to be stronger, and Bongo Badger had to retreat, leaving the altar under House Stark's control. Slowly but surely House Stark was occupying more and more altars, and their NPCs were growing stronger and stronger, and they started occupying the Watch Towers and later on the catapults. House Stark then managed to occupy House Greyjoy's Clan castle and OliverQ noticed that and quickly sent his lord march to help with occupying the building.

OliverQ's lord helped House Stark's NPCs just enough for them to take the Clan Castle but now it was time for the City of Glory opening and OliverQ had a dilemma, does he focus on trying to stop House Tyrell from reclaiming their Clan Castle or help with the taking of City of Glory? Ultimately the points given by the City of Glory were too important to neglect so he decided to focus on it. He started a rally and managed to defeat the NPCs guarding the city but was expelled just a few seconds after by [DRI]Omni Badger.

Seeing his teammates don't have enough bows to reinforce him in the City of Glory, OliverQ decided to let someone else from House Stark hold the city, and [FmL]Elmooooooo did a way better job, not only managing to take the City of Glory but also with the help of reinforcements coming from the other warriors he also managed to keep 'it for the 4 minutes of occupation needed to go under House Stark's control.

With City of Glory under control it was time for House Stark to try and take more altars to strengthen their NPCs and take some of the Watch Towers back from House Greyjoy in order to recover the points difference. The plan worked as good as it was expected and with 10 minutes before the fight ending House Stark was sitting comfortable on the first place in rankings, but they had to stay focused on defending the City of Glory as losing it would've mean losing the first place. With relentless reinforcements House Stark's warriors managed to keep the City of Glory till the end of the battle and with that they managed to keep the first place in the rankings as well.

It was an excelent fight from everyone on House Stark and they're efforts were rewarded with a well-deserved first place along with a lot of victory spoils and 42 glory points. For OliverQ it was his 2nd win in just 5 rounds and he's now approaching the King rank in glory rankings and hopefully soon after he'll be able to get to his goal for the season, Glory King rank. See you all on the battlefield!