Round 7 of the Arena!

Time moved forward incredibly fast with rounds of Arena of Honor passing by in a flash, and this time it was the 7th round of the season on the line where SbG had to give it their all for a chance at greatness. For Ashun, the event had become more than just a battleground as he and his team had incredible performances, it became a place that fueled his hunger to compete and prove that they could reach the ultimate goal in the event: the capture of the City of Glory.

Every second week is when the event takes place, plenty of time for SbG to prepare and try new strategies and approaches. This raised their synergy since the start of the season, although their results still left space for improvement as they have not yet won the City of Glory. The results were sadly at best a second place finish due to encountering the fiercest alliances in Westeros on multiple occasions. Once that was not going to happen anymore, Ashun believed that SbG could secure the City of Glory for themselves.

This week, however, his hopes were crushed in an instant in a brutal manner, the battlefield welcomed Ashun, after a brief vacation he has had, with incredibly strong opponents, against whom he knew that SbG had no shot at winning against.

SbG had been placed against two of the absolute best teams in the entire event: the strongest lineup from BDR, and the strongest force of NBe, both teams were impenetrable forces for SbG, and Ashun could only dream to finish on the podium. These were alliances that had already made it to the top 50 in the regular season, a feat that was more than incredible, it was a statement to their strength, not only for this season, but also the past and future. Ashun and his team quickly understood the situation that they were in: fighting for the City of Glory in this match wasn’t just a difficult task, it was an impossible one and thus they had to start shifting their focus on something else. The strategy needed to be precise and executed to perfection.

Instead of aiming for the City of Glory, catapults and watch towers, SbG decided to focus on getting a constant flow of points. They would build trading camps from their strongholds, secure steady points, and aim for any altars that weren’t held by the top factions. The goal was to avoid confrontation with BDR and NBe directly, and instead strike at weaker factions, although everyone was SbG's strength or above, but they needed to capitalize on any openings and chances that they were given this time around.

At first, even this strategy seemed doomed with BDR and NBe dominating the battlefield by capturing all of the altars in-sight, not giving any faction a chance to obtain any points at all in the early stages. Every attempt SbG made was met with overwhelming resistance, even when they filled the altars to the brim, they would be soloed out or rallied out, there was no shot at capturing an altar early on, and thus they decided to wait instead for more of them to open up.

Despite more altars opening, Ashun, exhausted and frustrated, found himself losing fight after fight, struggling to even contest against the weakest of opponents in this round, for him it felt hopeless, but giving up wasn’t an option.

Ashun kept pushing and slowly but surely, he began capturing a few altars left and right without any pushback from the other factions, they had just too much to defend against. And once the City of Glory unlocked, all attention turned towards it as BDR and NBe clashed head-on for the capture, the attention of those two factions was directed in another area and SbG capitalised on it.

With the top two teams locked in a fight for the City of Glory, even if briefly, SbG swept in and recaptured altar after altar. Their trading post points continued to grow, and while they weren’t dominating the battlefield, they were making every point count.

When the dust finally settled, SbG stood in 4th place, it was their lowest finish of the season. But for Ashun and the rest of the team, it didn’t come as a surprise, they had faced giants, and there was no shame in being outmatched.

As Ashun thought back on the battle, wondering if something else could've been done, nothing came to his mind, they had done a perfect job. Now, he had to turn his mind to the next round and make sure they will be ready. He knew that something had to change if they wanted to pursue their goal, and thus he was looking at the options available. Perhaps their time slot was holding them back, he thought, maybe other hours could provide different challenges, ones that SbG might finally overcome. An experiment with it was coming, they will find a way to capture the City of Glory, no matter how long it takes.