SOW big finale: NBe vs RoD in one incredible match!

After a very intense and difficult season, the time has finally come for the grand finale of the Siege of Winterfell season, in which last season's finalists meet - the defending champions NBe and RoD, perhaps the only alliance that can oppose the defending champions! Both alliances have fully deserved to reach this final: NBe won all the matches so far, including the match against today's opponent, with great ease, while RoD lost matches precisely to NBe and one match in the regular season to BDR, another alliance that lost the semi-final match to RoD in a great match that could have gone either way and in which the smallest details decided the winner. In this match, NBe was the favorite, but this will still be a much different match than the previous one - the rules are such that in the playoffs, alliances enter with only 70 players, which suits RoD better, and it was also possible to bring in reinforcements for the end of the season, which the strongest alliances took advantage of and strengthened their rosters, primarily BDR and RoD, and then everyone else. I got the opportunity to participate in this spectacle and I am grateful that my friends from NBe gave me the honor and allowed me to be a part of it all!

There are not many unknowns in this match, these two alliances have already played many matches against each other, they know each other well and it is difficult to surprise the opponent with something new. According to the initial estimates, NBe was the favorite in this match: when it comes to SOW, NBe simply has by far the best organization within the alliance - Arto, Frank and others who organize the matches do an incredible job, they pay attention to literally every detail and take care of all their players, they advise them what and how they need to improve in order to give the maximum and that brought them last season's title, and also victories in all matches so far this season. On the other hand, RoD brought a few reinforcements to an already strong roster, in fact they have many more strong players than NBe, however, as I already mentioned, NBe covers this small deficiency with incredible organization, but in one match anything is possible, especially when the strongest players in the whole game, who are in RoD, are playing. Even the prelude to this final was not harmless: it was necessary to carefully take the Lords for the HOF and for the Dungeon bonus due to the fact that both alliances were in focus - staying a little longer without a bubble meant a great danger that the rival alliance would not attack and zero you!

The preparations for the match were very thorough, even more than usual - after all, this is the final! Once again, I was shocked when I saw how analytically these players approach each match, how much they pay attention to every detail, how dedicated they are to the goal! Amazing!

I was assigned to the right side of the map, that is, I liked the duty to fight for Hot Springs and the other Great Castles on that side. Again, our tactic was to try to be as fast as possible, since RoD has stronger players, not to enter into unnecessary battles with them when they come with a lot of players, but to disrupt their concentration and confuse their plans with quick movement and change of direction, which has been a complete success so far - we used the same tactic in both the last and this season, which brought us such great success in the last season! Now that we all got our tasks, all that was left was to wait for the match to start...

The grand finale has begun!

I was tasked with first capturing Stark Outpost 2 with a few teammates and then joining the fight for Hot Springs. In this match, every point is extremely important to us, so we had to worry about the Outposts that bring the least points right from the start. Because of this, I was a little late for the start of the big battle for Hot Springs, but it didn't take me long to join the main events.

The match didn't start well for us. Although we initially had more players than RoD, their strongest players relatively quickly managed to remove some of ours so that they suddenly had more players than us! This required us to start with our familiar plan after just a few minutes of playing - Frank and Arto gave us the order to head towards their base, meaning our group's goal was Greyjoy Stronghold 2!

The plan worked! In fact, there are many benefits hidden in this tactic of ours - not only will we force the RoD to constantly have to be on the move, which works for us, but we will also prevent them from using the ability to teleport near the battle location! In addition, of course, the fact that we avoid a direct open fight against them is also very important, since their players are stronger than ours.

However, something was not right... It took less than a minute for RoD to come with a lot of players! They obviously learned from their previous matches against us and this time they were ready for our tactics! After seeing this I knew that this would be an extremely difficult match for us... Still, I trusted our leadership!

The battles continue! Although our plan didn't quite work out, we were the ones who managed to take more Castles at the beginning! We knew that every point would be important for us, so this start to the match was very promising. I personally didn't really like this start to the match, I somehow hoped that we could immediately gain a big advantage, so although of course we can't expect the match to be decided in the opening minutes, I still wished for a slightly bigger points advantage than the one we had now. But, I wasn't so worried about the difference in points as much as the fact that RoD was ready for our run from Hot Spring to Greyjoy Stronghold 2. It was as if I could feel something was brewing!

After we lost the battle for Greyjoy Stronghold 2, the plan was to gather at Stark Stronghold 2 and wait for the troops to arrive there and then move forward again! It also worked in our favor that Hot Springs was still under our control - when we initially set off from Hot Springs towards Greyjoy Stronghold 2, RoD followed us, but they didn't count on us leaving a certain number of our players at Hot Springs, which is why we managed to take Hot Springs under our control!

For the next ten minutes, the match went on at almost the same pace - we moved from one Castle to another, as soon as RoD appeared with a lot of players, we would start a new march on the orders of our leaders. However, there was one big difference in this match, compared to previous matches - RoD was always somehow close to us with their players, they managed to catch up with us very quickly, which was reflected in the result: in all matches this season we had a big points advantage after the first 10 minutes, but this time that advantage was almost negligible! Now it was quite clear that RoD had analyzed our matches and the tactics we were using in detail, and it was clear that they had prepared well for the match!

Now we come to one of the key events of the match - the fight for the Treasure! As in previous matches, our main focus was the fight for Castles, that is, running from one Castle to another, but we also had a group of players who were in charge of the fight for Treasure. Even though Treasure was less important to us, that didn't mean we were going to easily let the RoD take it home, quite the opposite - the plan was to not let them take Treasure home easily, to make sure they took as much time as possible to take it home so that as few Treasures appeared on the map as possible. If they could manage to make only one or two Treasures appear - we are confident that they would be very close to victory! Of course, there was a hidden plan here too - once Treasure got close to their Castle we would try to intercept Treasure, steal it from them, occupy the Castle and take Treasure home! Simple, right? Well, not really...

Treasure was heading towards Greyjoy Stronghold 2, and slowly but surely it was getting closer and closer. We were still waiting with our troops, still following the same plan from the beginning of the match, i.e. we still hadn't made it clear how we were going to try to take Treasure. The order came to head towards Greyjoy Stronghold 2, even though at that moment RoD had many more players there than us, but slowly the territory was being prepared for an attempt to seize Treasure!

But - damn they are extremely strong! They managed to remove almost all of our troops that were near that Castle relatively easily and quickly, we constantly had to heal our troops and send them back into battle. A lot more of our players headed towards that Castle, Treasure was also now quite close! I had to heal the troops once again and send them back into battle again: they only needed a few seconds to remove my troops! Treasure is now very close and one of the decisive battles of the entire season is about to begin! The order has come to stop Treasure, and at the same time another part of our players must try to occupy Greyjoy Stronghold 2!

As expected - we can't do much about Treasures - their players are simply stronger and we can't keep Treasure in our possession for long, but that's not really important at this point - the most important thing is to stop Treasure and try to occupy Greyjoy Stronghold 2! But they still outnumber us, we're still not close to occupying the Castle!

It's not over yet! A new wave of our players is on its way, they're just about to arrive! The biggest fight so far is still going on: at one point I couldn't even see where my troops were or who I was attacking, I was just nervously clicking in the hope that I would be able to do something! In all this confusion we manage to capture Treasure and move it a little further away from the Castle!

Unfortunately, at that moment I realize that this may have been a huge missed opportunity since we had more players near the Castle at one point, and if only we had managed to take Treasure then and move it just a little bit into the Castle, we might have been able to secure it! But who would have expected it to come to that?! Instead, the exact opposite happened - RoD took Treasure almost immediately, during which time they managed to move enough of our players away from the Castle and after a long and arduous fight they still managed to secure Treasure...

This hurts... Not only did they win this very important battle, they took the lead! This is something we are not used to at all, by this point our matches had already been decided. We had no choice but to put our heads together and continue with the original plan!

I must admit that at this point, returning to that original plan was quite difficult for me. I was completely emotionally drained, this defeat in the fight for Treasure was very painful. Like many others, I expected the match to go in a completely different direction, however, it must be admitted that RoD came excellently prepared for this match and they are fully deservedly in the lead at this point! Despite the current drop in morale, I had to continue the fight!

We again arranged to meet at Stark Strognhold 2. But as throughout the match, RoD was also very close!

As always, our plan was to run, run and just run! And so we did - when they arrived with more players, we headed towards Hot Springs!

And shortly after that, towards Greyjoy Stronghold 2!

And now comes the decisive battle in this match, that is, in the whole season!

The situation in the match is completely even, RoD has a small point advantage, but that is not enough for them to win, everything can turn around literally in a second. Our plan was simple: try again to prevent them from taking the Treasure home for as long as possible, during that time try again to steal the Treasure and the Castle from them, while on the other hand, a few of our players are tasked with trying to capture one of the Castles - at this moment literally every point is important to us! Since this was a decisive battle, the order was to no longer divide the map into left and right sides - everyone had to join the fight ahead! And the frenzy began!

Right now we have fewer players than RoD near Greyjoy Stronghold 2, but almost all of our players are on their way, or already fighting for the Treasure. And the Treasure is getting closer and closer!

And here it is! Treasure has reached the finish line! The fiercest battle yet begins!

Once again I feel so small... They manage to kill my troops again in just a few seconds, there are simply so many players in one place and as soon as they notice that you have slightly fewer troops in your deployments, several enemy players attack you and you are finished! But nothing can shake us - heal and send back, that was our motto!

Treasure is now very close to the Castle!

Once again my troops are dead... They are incredibly strong!

On the battlefield, teams alternate possession of the Treasure - sometimes it's our possession, sometimes it's theirs! Merciless battles are being fought for the Castle too! The match couldn't be more equal than this - not only in terms of points but also in terms of players: we and RoD have almost the same number of players in this fight! Treasure is slowly, centimeter by centimeter, approaching the goal! At the moment we have slightly less players than RoD near the Castle, so we need to focus on that battle and bring in more players!

And now...

Suddenly they have so many more players than us! And Treasure is so close!

...

Once again they managed to take Treasure home...

Unfortunately, that was the end of the match. There wasn't enough time left to secure the next Treasure, and there simply wasn't enough time to take enough Castles to turn the tables, not against such a strong opponent. Of course we tried! We quickly managed to occupy some of the Castles: Stark Stronghold 2.

Immediately followed by Greyjoy Stronghold 2

And even Greyjoy Outpost 2!

However, it was too little to cause a major turnaround and unfortunately we suffered an unexpected defeat!

This was an incredible season that ended with a somewhat unexpected ending. Almost everyone expected us to win, especially after a brilliantly played regular season in which, among others, we easily defeated RoD, who defeated us today in the most important match of the season. However, RoD should absolutely be congratulated on this match! It was clear from the beginning that they had prepared very well for the match, they had their own game plan, in the most important moments of the match they were always the ones who came to the advantage and they fully deservedly won the title. We may not have been at the highest level in this match, we certainly could have reacted better in some situations, and we especially regret the missed opportunity in the fight for the first Treasure in which, at one point, we could have secured the Treasure. But being second in such a competition is also an incredible achievement and you should definitely be proud of it!

I once again had the honor of attending such a match and for that I am immensely grateful to my friends from the NBA! I hope I lived up to their expectations, at least a little! It's an incredible feeling to play in a league like this, with these stakes and against these players! Only the chosen ones can do that, and now I've got the chance! Certainly one of the best experiences I've had in the entire game so far! It's a shame that we didn't win the title, but I'm really happy with this experience! I have no choice but to pass on the knowledge and experience I've gained to my teammates in my small alliance and slowly start preparing for the next challenges, first of all Alliance Conquest, which is starting soon! Once again, I would like to thank the people from NBe from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to be a part of all this! Until next time!