Arena of Honor, season 4, round 15. End of season.

Preparation as usual for me. Pretty random. The draw for the fourth and final match is approaching, there's still over an hour to go. Time to find the right team. Sometimes it goes better, sometimes worse. Today it's going pretty quickly. I review the players, nothing spectacular, but it'll do. I slightly overestimate the team's score, but if the players are active, I'll be able to lead them to victory.

A quick exchange of information, preparation of the appropriate formations, and everyone is ready.

Personally, I think that since the event was reduced to three real teams, there is no longer the same excitement, and some people are a little indifferent to the event and are less active. After all, it's impossible to lose now. Even third place gets points, so there's not the same fight as there used to be.

Registration goes as usual, someone hasn't accepted again and has to be kicked out to find another active player, but it's done quickly.

Matchmaking, checking the formation, and we enter the map. This part is always quite exciting because you never know who will be on the opposing teams. It has happened more than once that it was someone from my alliance who was also playing with random players. It's worse when you get a very good player, because here even one person can dominate the entire event.

Opponents

At the top, we have the Gold Faction, including

[GEU]Ashrak Jaffa, someone from [WWW] 😊, [LnS]Tiffany2104, [VOG]LoKKil, another [LnS]Omaric, and others.

Unfortunately, someone didn't connect, so they had to play with nine people.

On the right side is the Red Faction

From [TIS] KingBlueBear, MR KABUS, Christosi, Carmie, [RRH]Inkvi, [1FD]Wonreina and others

And on the left side, us, the purple faction.

The best player – me 😊 [Gjs]GAZUL and some [DCA] players like UPUAT, SanyOk and others.

We start the battle

The beginning is without surprises. We capture buildings quite slowly, but this is often the case with random players. After a few minutes, we move to the top of the table. Everything is quite even, so it doesn't mean anything yet.

 The minutes pass and the first clashes occur. I already know that it will be a tough fight and that there will be a problem with first place. Fortunately, there is still a lot of time and anything can happen. Unfortunately, our leader made a few bad decisions and both opposing teams were able to capture the bot team's castles, while we were not. This shows that the first few minutes are very important and every decision counts. I'm a little pissed off by this mistake and the yellows are definitely getting away from us.  

Every second is in their favor. While we are able to fight the reds, the yellows are pulling away, and at this stage of the game, there is not much we can do.

The battle for the center.

The reds were unable to hold the bot castle, but the yellows continued their good run. On top of that, due to our lack of attention, or more precisely, poor or even very poor communication, we gave the most important castle to our opponents without a fight. It's just a shame.

I try to take the initiative with my team, but there is a lack of reaction and a lack of willingness to fight.

Finally, I manage to gather the team for some kind of rally. I wasn't in the lead because we had prepared a counterattack. Unfortunately, it was ineffective.

The minutes passed. My team had completely given up. While I wanted to keep fighting, they seemed to be satisfied with second place. We knew that the reds wouldn't catch up with us, and the yellows already had such a big lead that there was nothing to fight for.

This can also be seen in the elimination points, although they show that the red team dominated here, but maybe they had more fun killing their opponents than scoring points. Of course, you can play that way too 😊 In this event, you have practically nothing to lose, so you can try out many settings and test your armies.

Ten minutes before the end, there is a change in the control of the City of Glory. I think the leaders overslept, which allowed the red team to take over the building.

I think this is finally an opportunity for me to prove myself a little on this day. I try to gather players for a rally, but as the activity has been low so far, not much has changed. Finally, I manage to gather an incomplete team and we go.

5...4...3...2...1...and...yes! I manage to capture the castle.

Without this, the red team was getting dangerously close to us and there was a risk that they could overtake us at the end.

I manage to hold City of Glory for a few minutes. However, due to our poor activity, the red team recaptures it, and since it's almost over, I know there will be no opportunity for another attack.

I quickly glance at the scoreboard and am horrified to see that the red team is getting closer and closer.

Will they have enough time to overtake us? I look at my watch and I can relax. There are only minutes left, and then seconds. Oh yea, they definitely won't make it. Our lead, built up during the middle of the game, is big enough that we will make it. I am calm.

At the very end, the yellows take the central castle and deservedly win.

Summary

Looking for random teams can be very different. From players who don't enter the map at all to very good ones. This time it was average. We managed to take second place, but first place was very far away.

However, I am happy with the valuable points and prizes. As it was the last match of the season, I am already looking forward to the next one. Personally, I would prefer this event not to last an hour, because on Sundays I sometimes prefer to spend time with my family rather than playing a game for an hour in the afternoon.