N0X vs OBV; AC Season Begins

Last AC season N0X made it into UC for the first time and we did that without skipping a single match. So naturally the expectations were high right off the bat this season. We are determined to repeat our last season's feats and maybe even better them. The change in attitude could be seen in our preparations as well. There were marked change in strategy regarding assignments of rally fillers for leads and positioning of players on the map. The guide Belore, our chief shot caller posted about do's and don'ts in AC was the length of several hefty novels.

For the first game we were matched against OBV, an alliance that we have never won against if memory serves me. This would be a scary proposition, in previous seasons it might have even be a write off. But in new N0X things were different. We had several big guns of our own. Gone are the days when Belore was our only nuke, now we had ImperialRock, NIGHTQUEEN, Grombold and MAKIMA in our ranks along with a number of old N0X heavyweights like DYW and VERGO. So, we had a lot more confidence going into this game.

They showed up with 96 people while we had a respectable 90 in our ranks. The race started out ok with 3 of the initial buildings going in our favour and only the Tower of the Warrior going OBVs way. But as the bubble dropped on the Warrior a wave of solos from our really leads slammed into it, and soon Grombold was the proud owner of the Objective. Meanwhile we had a mishap with the Mother and lost it while swapping. But Belore immediately ordered rallies to be set up and we were able to take it back within minutes.

One of the ports went to N0X and one to OBV, Belore once again proving to be a top notch racer. Both sides managed to pull off a pretty flawless swap . So far we had the majority of the objectives, though the Targaryen Outpost needed to be taken back. OBV had their eyes on the Mother and were entirely leaving Warrior alone. They also kept up a steady stream of solos and rallies on the Lannister Outpost.

By the time the Casterly Rock opened, OBV and we were neck to neck with the exact same points, we had a 100 points per minute lead over them, so CR would change things for either of us. Unfortunately for us OBV got the first capture points but we were determined to take it back. I was not really worried, things were close but the momentum seemed to be in our favour. We also had some really big guns to hit OBV with. ImperialRock alone could wreak so much havoc on OBV which is why he wasn't holding a building , what better time to deploy him but on CR.

Belore though hadn't put all his faith into solos , he had multiple people line up with rallies, and even as ImperialRock's solos softened up and bled the OBV defenders in CR our rallies mopped up and Mablung took it back from them. We rushed to fill up CR because the rallies from OBV would be coming as soon as the bubble on CR falls. In a game as close as this, CR would play a very important role, so OBV would be trying their best to recapture the objective as soon as possible. To no one's surprise, that's exactly what happened. Despite loud yells of "fill fill fill" from Belore, and our rally fillers' best efforts, Mablung was kicked out of CR by OBV.

We instantly went after the CR as soon as the bubble dropped. The solos from ImperialRock was having a visible effect on the beleaguered defenders at CR but once again rallies came behind him to clean up the last stragglers. Mablung once again got his hands on CR. Though because OBV already kicked Mablung out once Belore was worried that the same thing will happen again so he decided to hard swap the objective. I was quite worried that it might go abominably, but it went pretty straightforward and Araxxor was safely established as our CR holder.

By the time the mines were ready to open up, we had taken the game firmly in our hands. In many previous seasons we would have given away the mines to our opponents once we had ensured 80k points for ourselves, but since last season when we started our "getting into UC" mission seriously, that age old tradition of giving points away was abolished. So we raced for the mines and HotepRa successfully captured the left mine while the right mine was picked up by OBV.

Belore's immediate response was for everyone to solo the mine, with the idea that ImperialRock would be able to pick it up in the end. However OBV used their stratagem and threw up a one minute bubble to throw us off a bit. In the end though they were only delaying the inevitable. To be honest it took a lot more solos than I had anticipated but finally ImperialRock ensconced himself in the mine and we were able to pick up the mine points in peace.

Meanwhile I had noticed that Belore had not been rallying as frequently as he used to do in previous seasons. I figured this must have been because of the pressure of shotcalling a really action packed match and trying to smooth out all the inevitable first match issues but it turns out he did see his fair share of action.

In the end this was a pretty easy match though it definitely didn't feel like it to me. It was absolutely crazy with how much action there was. Though we did show some weaknesses with rally filling and swapping but I hope that will be fixed by next match. All in all a pretty good start to the season.