SoW Season 15, Match 6: Will the Playoffs dream become reality?

The final Siege of Winterfell match was here, and with it, our last chance to keep the playoff dream alive. Spoiler alert: we went home!😅

We hadn’t even been told what time slot we’d play. Our leadership scheduled as late as possible, hoping to get more information on what slots other alliances had picked. This would allow us to maximize our chances of not getting a really unbalanced matchup.

So, I went to bed not even knowing when I’d need to be online, just hoping it was a slot I could actually be available for.

When I woke up on match day, I saw we had our usual slot. Nice! At least I could play at that time. I didn’t even bother checking who we were up against. That should probably have been my biggest interest, lol. Instead, I hopped on Discord, hoping for some juicy gossip. Nothing! Nothin? Oh well, I went about my day, completely forgetting about the game until a few minutes before the map opened.

I logged in, put on my war pants, and finally checked our opponent. NBe? Really? Not cool, they have double our alliance strength.

I looked at our strategy on Discord... or rather, the lack of it. I threw a joke on Discord, seeing if I could get a reaction, but still nothing.

I was already looking for my brown pants, but I was curious if anyone in my alliance was wearing a red suit.😀

While waiting for my alt’s troops to return from gathering (a quest for Alliance Mobilization, of course I don’t usually gather, we're big boys and this isn’t Farmville), I threw some popcorn in the microwave. I needed a snack for what I was about to go through.😅

A buff hive was set up, but since I don’t have any SS aura skins... I left the buffing to the big players. Still no strategy in chat. I hopped on voice, catching the last few seconds of what seemed to be the pep talk. The ending wasn't much of a pep talk.😔

When the game started and the barrier dropped I was ready. Ready to race, I charged out of the base, only to realize I was the only one leaving. Whaa?! I go back fast, before I embarrassed myself any further. Nobody was moving?!? Apparently, this was a throw match.😒

Two minutes later, NBe appeared at our doorstep. We were already being camped. They had guars all the exists, no way out for us.

At this point, the only reasonable thing to do was not to feed them any elimination points. Leadership encouraged us to do whatever we wanted: run interference, stall where possible, but healing would be at our own expense and above everything, don't feed eliminations.

Then came a plan: we’d be making a run for special buildings. Some players still needed the bubble appearance, and this was their last chance to grab some money bags. The first building would drop ten minutes into the match, so until then, we just had to stay alive and not feed points. When the building appeared, we'd make an organized, mass run for it.

I went to make another bowl of popcorn. At my current army power, it seemed like the best use of my time. I was 100% sure my troops would pop just like the popcorn in the microwave.

As the building was about to spawn, the runners got ready. Those who already had the reward went out first, to take the hits and lure away the NBe predators, while the ones who needed it followed behind, hoping to blend in. But looks what's waiting for us at the spawn:

And let me tell you, running wasn’t easy. The Dragon Interception skill and Grey Worm slows made every sprint almost impossible. If someone got slowed, their march was as good as dead. Here comes the train, and here they come to intercept the train.

Surprisingly a lot of us make it but we're quicky wiped out. At least some of our players manage to get bags so the run was worth it.

Until the next race starts I find a low health opponent in front of our base and take this opportunity to show them who's boss here.

It felt something like this, but what can I do. I was bored out of my mind and bummed out for the impossible match we got.

Our first attempt ended in disaster, but then something odd happened. Their camping got lighter. Were they giving us a free pass? Or was this a trap? It felt like they were luring us into a false sense of security, waiting to ambush the moment we left our protective barrier.

As a diversion, we made a run for Greyjoy Outpost 2, the closest building with only two NBe marches defending it, hoping they were afk.

We even took it, but not for long. A small enemy force returned and wiped us out shortly after. At least we pulled some troops away from the special building spawn. Hopefully, that gave someone a shot at a sack of tokens.

The runners pulled together a good attempt and, as far as I understand, 2 players managed to pick up some tokens. Good for them!

Some other players seem to be having fun. A lonely Cav account broke the blockade and is sniping unaware enemies across the map.

Fifteen minutes left and the last statue was about to spawn. If I remembered right, this one would be near Winterfell.

A bit far, considering we barely reached statues near our base, but we’d make one last organized run for it.

Indeed, the last statue spawned just right of Winterfell. We stacked at the edge of our base. A full speed run would take about a minute, maybe more for slower troops. Only a few of us were still available at this time. Honestly, I’d be surprised if I even made it there, let alone survive at the statue.

Midway through the run, my alt got picked off. But somehow, one of my main marches made it. It's my third march, the Night King / healing setup, of all things. Interesting, but probably lucky.

The odds weren’t in our favor this time. If this were The Hunger Games, we would’ve stepped off the podium, hit a landmine with our first step, and instantly exploded. That's how this match felt like.😂

Then, a surprise: another statue? The timer appeared, and we planed a run for it. But just as we grouped up... the icon disappeared.

Well... that was that. Might as well get some healing points for my troubles. I don't think I've ever seen this much heeling needed before.

At least I had the bubble skin so I personally didn't miss out on much this match. And as an alliance, at least we didn’t lose with 0 points.

With this match ending in a one sided stomp, I was thinking: Is our playoff dream dead now? It probably is, it probably is by far!

Honestly, this whole special anniversary building system kind of messed up the entire Siege of Winterfell season. Instead of focusing on actual strategy and PvP, people got distracted chasing shiny butterflies, I mean skins. Teams abandoned normal tactics just to run after pinata statues. And in the end, most people who didn’t get their skin felt incredibly disappointed that they missed out.

But looking back at the season, we actually won two games that could have been problematic simply because we had the correct determination and followed the alliance plan. Leadership made the right calls, we ignored the anniversary spawns in those matches, played normal SoW tactics, and walked away with victories. In the end I'm sure most N0X players got their skin just from the wins.🙌

This match was a lost cause from the start. But at least I went down with 2 bags of popcorn in front of me.😅

As the final results are calculated, we land way off the playoffs but still finish in the top 30, so we at least get 15 blue Winter Rose fragments. On top of my existing 33, if I keep this up, I only need another four seasons to get the castle skin.😅

There's always next year, for my skin as well as the SoW playoffs. Strange but interesting season this was. Before the month is over there are plenty of other events and activities to enjoy so until the next big event is up, have fun on the plains of Westeros!