Ultimate Conquest: N0X vs LEG

In the days following N0X’s Ultimate Conquest win against UTB, our team’s mood was high as we reveled in the joy of knowing we had already played a historic season for our alliance. In our previous experience in the playoffs, we had just been happy to be there. But now with a win to our names there was a new feeling of confidence that we carried with us as we prepared for our third UC match.

The next enemy to face was LEG. Funnily enough, LEG had been the team to end N0X progress in our last experience in Ultimate Conquest when we faced them during the second match of the 20th season. In that match, the speed and strength of their warriors had given us little ground to stand on, and with that experience in mind one would think we would feel apprehensive to be reunited with them on the battlefield. While we certainly would be facing the strength of their powerhouse players again, strangely we were feeling prepared. We had already charted new territory as a team this season, and hoped to be able to keep up our momentum. 

When the battlefield opened, the first four buildings were split cleanly. We secured valuable buffs by claiming the Temple of the Mother and Tower of the Warrior, while LEG took both Outposts. It was an even start, but the pressure would soon ramp up, as LEG was quick to launch an offensive on our Mother. Despite the barrage of rallies, our reinforcements and coordination held the building under our control.

Without wasting a second, we launched our own attack on the close Outpost. The speed of the rallies left no time for LEG’s reinforcements and soon the Outpost was ours. And with that we had finally taken the points advantage to go with our buffs, so the fight was already leaning a centimeter or two in our favor.

As the Ports opened, our racing balance remained even. Each alliance won their opposite buildings, and cleanly swapped holders. Here is when LEG decided to really up the pressure on our defenses, by keeping up near constant attacks on our Outpost. We were holding successfully, but it was costing us intense focus and speeds. LEG used that to their advantage when the protections dropped on the Ports, and were able to flip our only seconds before a very important race.

Despite LEG’s distractions, our speedy Atyaa had remained focuses and managed to pull off the win for Casterly Rock. However, when the call came to make our swap there, LEG’s holtep appeared to make a perfect interception. With Casterly Rock and both Ports belonging to the enemy, suddenly we had gone from a hopeful first quarter to finding ourselves firmly on the backfoot of this fight. 

The only option we had was to regroup and push back. While we waited to make another attempt on CR, our rallies successfully took over the far Port, taking a chip away at LEG’s points advantage on the board. We continued to hold up our defenses in the near Outpost as Belore simultaneously called for our rallies to launch on Casterly Rock. We needed to be able to focus on several things at once in order to make up the ground the being distracted had cost us.

Halfway through the match we had settled into constant movement. Ports traded hands multiple times, defenses at the Outpost remained constant, but Mother and Warrior stayed solidly under our control. Slowly but surely N0X’s score began to overtake LEG’s, but neither side was able to create a comfortable gap on the scoreboard. As the Mines approached, their importance was obvious to everyone. We would need to play them as cleanly as possible or risk handing the match to our enemy.

When the Mines finally did open, our team delivered exactly as we needed to. Both races were won by N0X, and cleanly swapped to be held securely by Belore and Bearface. Now we had nothing on our minds but defend…everything. LEG launched hard rallies, in multiple waves making our constant reinforcements a necessity. In the final fifteen minutes, we had finally put 10k points between us on the scoreboard, and this seemed to lessen LEG’s momentum. Despite their efforts, both Mines were emptied by N0X, and any remaining uncertainty for this fight began to dissipate. 

As the pressure finally began to release, N0X was emerging as the clear winner. By the end we had reached 84k to LEG’s 57k. Despite our mistakes, we had been able to recover and play out the most crucial elements of the battle cleanly. By beating LEG, the same alliance that had eliminated us in our last UC appearance, N0X had secured our second UC victory and placed our alliance in the top 8 of the event. Predictions may have leaned in LEG’s favor for this fight, but with this win we had defied even our own expectations.