We Had No Strategy… and Still Dominated! a Ruin Rivals story

So, let me start from the beginning, and boy... am I glad this isn't a regular event with seasons and rankings and all that.

While it's in its current chaotic state, let's just agree to call it: Losers UC, because... you know... alliances that don't qualify in UC get to play this instead. Yeah, that sounds about right!😅

So there I was, minding my own business on a Sunday morning, when I notice it’s Losers UC time. My alt alliance is scheduled for the mid-day slot, and my main alliance plays in the evening.

Perfect, I think to myself. Since I have absolutely no clue what this event is actually about, I can use the alt match as a learning and warm-up experience. I'm eager to get some practice in before jumping into the real event with my main.

Now, N0X has recently accepted me back, not without a little suspense, mind you. I had to actually apply again. 😅Apparently, being alumni doesn’t come with lifetime privileges. But anyway, I’m back, done deal, and all is well in the world.

Until... the wife sees someone post cherries in one of our WhatsApp groups... and suddenly, she's craving cherries. And now I’ve been assigned an important real-life quest, to go out into the world and get some cherries.

Unfortunately, after a 20 minute drive to the “local supermarket,” (not so "local" if I have to drive 20 min to get there)... I come back empty-handed. The right kind of cherries wasn’t there. Now she’s angry, I’m angry, and instead of logging into Losers UC with my alt... the two of us embark on a grand tour of every supermarket in the city in search of the elusive holy grail of cherries.

Did I mention I’m probably spending half my income on cherries these days? They’re starting to feel like the caviar of fruit.

But I’m getting carried away, enough about f*king cherries... The point is, I didn’t get to practice with my alt alliance. So now, I’m heading into the main event completely unprepared, and diving in with my main.

At least we’re defending, so it should be a breeze. Or so I’m told.😀

Actually, after playing this event last time as part of the Combined Army, where we got absolutely steamrolled… I’m feeling pretty confident about our chances today. 😉

Now, if you take one look at our 57 players versus 181 from the Combined Army, you might say I’m crazy for being this relaxed and optimistic. But give it a second, you’ll understand what I mean soon enough.

As we start deploying on the map, it’s kind of nice to see the circular pattern we get, instead of the usual square or rectangle we see in every other event.

Someone asks how to set the language pack back to English, we have a quick laugh and... we’re off to the races.

We leap out of our little circle like rabbits out of a bush after hearing a gunshot, everybody's rushing to claim buildings left and right.

Everybody’s going… somewhere... But I have no idea where.

There doesn’t seem to be a real strategy here... we're just spam running like:

“Grab that!”

“Get in there!”

“This gives us that,” but no, “that gives us more of that !”

All I really know is that buildings give us some kind of currency needed for unlocking T5 troops.

And since I don’t have my own T5s yet… that's actually all I need to know for now. It would be nice to at least play pretend with T5s.

Oh, and one more thing I kind of noticed right away, even before unlocking T5s, the healing costs in this new event are way higher than expected? Or is it just me and not having played such events in some time?

But unlike AC/UC, where the goal is to stack in buildings and resist waves of rallies, this one wants us spread out in as many buildings as possible so each account gets maximum points per minute.

So it basically starts like an AC/AoH hybrid? But with personal points instead of alliance points?

And now I get it, now I understand why everyone’s running around like they’ve lost their heads.

It feels like a farm of headless chickens, but... it doesn’t really matter, right? Points are points, and we needs them.

We need points to unlock T5s AND upgrade our stats. That’s the name of the game now!

And pretty soon, things start snowballing out of control. Even mid-tier players are holding buildings and tanking rallies like it’s nothing.

For example, I don’t remember Iysabel being one of our AC rally leads…but here she is, tanking like an absolute boss.

Grimmjow’s got a decent account, and look at how he’s holding his ground against someone even stronger!

Even when he’s being countered, it’s still just overwhelming. Brutal!

Hotep’s also having fun. His account’s slowly evolving into a whale, but the guy attacking him here isn’t some random weakling either. And look how badly that went for the attacker.

And again, even with less troops? Stronger opponent? Still a decisive win for Hotep!

It’s kind of amazing. Sure, his account is strong, but I’m starting to think a big part of the edge comes from the "borrowed power" we get in this event.

And from here on out, the game becomes pretty straightforward:

Send out as many marches as possible, cover as many buildings as possible, and just camp them... I mean "defend"😜

It’s honestly funny watching entire solo marches get wiped out over and over, even when they’re using counters.

Even rallies are failing miserably. Just like I though, the United Army doesn't stand a chance. United in pain and failure they stand.🙈

Maybe if all the alliances coordinated perfectly they could snipe a building here or there, but... what’s the point of coordinating half the map to take one building?

And, yup, halfway through the match, the map is mostly all blue, as I predicted.

We start with 3 million troops, but with the in-game currency we’re earning, we’ve built up massive armies... of T5s😱

The troop limit from AC, where you can only send 3-4 marches max? Yeah, that’s not a thing in here!

Even with just a few troops “borrowed” from the event, I’m able to constantly keep my full 8 marches out, reinforcing everything I see. Now imagine that multiplied by 80... 90... 100 players in an alliance? This thing is snowballing fast.

Even when they do manage to snag one of our buildings, we’re immediately kicking them back out. "What was briefly yours is now back mine."

The last speck of red on the map? "No, you don’t!" That’s basically the theme of this match.

At this point, it’s not even fair, they’re dropping like flies. Honestly, I remember what it felt like being on their side last time.

We were the Combined Army, desperately trying to take anything, and even when we managed to get a building, the biggest whale from Barren would just slap out. That’s exactly what we’re doing now. Sucks to be on the other side. I know, I was there.😅

With less than a minute left, it’s clear: the Combined Army never stood a chance. They didn’t even get close to securing the buildings required to try attacking the center castle.

It would've been fun to see this turn into a CCS-style finale with rallies flying toward the middle, defenders speeding to reinforce, clutch holds and last second flips.

But nope. Not today. Just a full-on blue map from start to finish.

A few seconds before the end, we take back the only important building they managed to steal from us.

No you don’t! Naughty! You shall finish with no red for you on the map.

The map started blue and it will stay blue, just like the Devs clearly intended.😂

They’re still desperately trying to get that building back, but the curtain falls before they even arrive.

Honestly, I’m not even sure why they were still trying, the bubble was already up.😅

So yeah, to wrap it all up with my conclusions coming out of Losers UC:

1st of all, I had no clue what was going on for most of this event. There’s waaay too much happening all at once. Too many buildings, too many reinforcements, too many bubble timers to track. It’s simply too much

But despite all that? Somehow, my alliance was having... there I say? Fun?!?

Maybe it’s the complete lack of pressure... Maybe it's the thrill of camping buildings and taking rallies like end level bosses that the event helps us become? Or maybe it’s just because this event heavily favors the Barren Army and makes the Combined Army feel like background NPCs.

Myeah, that's probably the reason some people had fun.😏Either way, I’ll take the win, a few T5 books, a few Valor points, and the confusion from my 1st big event back in N0X.

Until I see you again, build up those troops for CCS tomorrow and don't forget to bubble after CCS tomorrow!😂