ALLIANCE CONQUEST

PLAYOFFS ROUND

N0X vs OBV

I still remember the last day of the regular Season in the Alliance Conquest. As N0X we had played in the 1300 GMT time slot our last match. A friendly match against WxD. We had lost with the minimum points. After that we needed to wait until all the other alliances played their matches to check if N0X made it to the Playoffs with their score.

As I was checking the score again and again I was 80% sure that we would make it. Most of the alliances had changed time slots, they had already played. Not many of them could pass us on points but still weren't totally sure to start celebrating our success.

Most of the alliance was online and waiting like me. When it was time I kept refreshing the page on the AC to see if I was right on my calculations.

‘’N0X is in!!!!!!!!! N0X is in!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!’’

I think i was the 1st who posted it, tagging everyone to check also. It was the time that I felt that someone had given the ok for the celebrations.

‘’Lets the party begin’’

The most funny reaction was from Scy , one of the leaders.Was tagging and sending messages everywhere. In the alliance chat on game with email on the game. In the alliance discord in every channel and trust me when i say it was a lot of messages. I was very happy for them.

Since my both alliances had made it to the Playoffs.

We knew that our first will be hard since we were 12th on the ranking and we will face BDR. That match was lost from the start.But as always we showed up, played to have fun in the game and waited for the 2nd Round.

In the 2nd Round we will have the chance to face a familiar alliance to us since we had faced them also in the regular season, OBV.

A very good opponent. Similar to our strength. Even if we already had knowledge of our opponent from the previous match. In the Playoffs, everything is different.

Our leaders and event planners right after the 1st Round had started to make preparations for the upcoming match.

They made a poll inside the alliance who will certainly be available to play that day. From all those players, needed to choose the best. A hard decision for the management, since all the players had proved themselves during the AC season. An initial plan had to be ready before the last day.

I don't know why, but I had a strange nervousness before match day. I was one of those who would participate. I kept checking the plan over and over, my account, and even my internet.

Belore, a member of the council but also the main shotcaller of the alliance, as always before every battle tried to encourage the alliance and most importantly to relax us by making jokes in chat.

The time had come. The roster with the participants was ready. The plan was already up and clear to all of us what we needed to do. The map was open, time for a last check and into our spot.

Same for OBV side,

We were all in voice chat on discord. Listening to our

 shotcallers to give the last instructions that were ready to start. We were counting the seconds backwards. Everyone had muted their microphones and there was absolute silence on the channel. If it had been open, I think we would have heard how everyone's heart was beating at that moment.

‘’Racers get ready!!!!!!!’’

The calm, strong, and decisive voice of Belore broke the silence. The racers took their positions just as athletes do in a running race in order to pass the baton to the Rally Leaders.

The calm, strong, and decisive voice of Belore broke the silence. The racers took their positions just as athletes do in a running race in order to pass the baton to the Rally Leaders.

The first buildings have just opened and when I saw that our racers had managed to make the 1st capture I was thrilled. What a great start!!!!

Mother, Warrior and both Outposts were ours, now the hard part was coming. The swaps….

Is the moment that all shotcallers are afraid ... .Because everything can go wrong.

Belore chose to make the first swap on our Outpost,

Open all our troops, Grogu.

People start sending and don't speed up.

Get ready for a swap on my call.

3 2 1 go go go , fill, fill, fill it.

We had succeeded to the first building but we had 3 more. Hoping for the same result the next was Mother,

Let’s do Mother next.Again with my call in 3 2 1 Go go go go

Nice guys.

After our Outpost we need to do it fast, let's go ….

What an amazing job!!!!!

For last we have enemy Outpost, get ready…Go go go …Fill it 

4 incredible and accurate swaps had happened and everyone kinda relaxed a bit. But it was only for a second since we need it to start defending now. OBV decided to go against us on Warrior first.

24 rallies were coming and needed to be ready.

All get ready, start sending ….Dont speed up….Now go, keep speeding, speed speed …….And we lost it….

Belore, that moment took a big breath..But he was sure that OBV will try to swap at Warrior. Now we need to watch on that to have a chance to snipe it.

As we were hearing Scy mentioning rallies on Mother, suddenly we heard Belore yelling

Swap …swap …swap ..Good job….

One of our players had managed to snipe that building from OBV.

But for the moment we didn't have time to make a new swap on Warrior since rallies were coming against us on Mother. But this time we were more prepared and we managed to defend it.

At that moment both teams couldn't do much since Port was opening in a few seconds.

Racers were ready to shine for one more time.

This time we had taken only one Port from the two of them. It was really good for us winning the races on buildings.

Then was the time that Belore had decided to make a hard swap on Warrior …..and we lost it again.

Everyone's disappointment over the failure in Warrior was expressed by the shotcaller with an exclamation of frustration. But again, he mentioned that we might have it back because he believed that the OBV would try the same plan again. In the meantime, we had to make the swap at Port.

I will say was successful one more time.

At the same time OBV had decided not to make any swap on Warrior or in the Port, they had filled both buildings. Dont know if they had taken that decision cause Casterly was opening soon or cause they didn't want to risk it by losing again the buildings from us snipping them. When our shotcallers noticed that they asked all our rally leaders to solo the Port at the same time, it was the best call since we didn't have the time to make rallies against them. That call was the best for us cause they were right…We had won the attack.

Still 2 minutes until CR was opening and we were pretty sure that with speed rallies we had a chance to take back Warrior

the other side had decided to do the same against us but on multiple targets to confuse us. Scy’s job at that moment was to help on defence until Belore finished with the attacks.

Unfortunately this time OBV reacted faster than us and managed to take over the Outpost.

Unfortunately this time OBV reacted faster than us and managed to take over the Outpost.

From our side the attack was unsuccessful. While the opponent, having captured a building and a successful counter-defense, launched an attack also on the Port. Things began to get difficult. Especially when in the race for the CR we failed.

We could understand from the tone of the shotcallers' voices that they were not happy with how things were turning out. However, we had an opportunity with the CR because OBV would certainly want to make a swap, and we had to be ready for that. We urgently needed the CR if we wanted to have a chance to continue our journey in the UC.

The bad luck continued; we had lost Port as well, and we didn't see OBV making any changes to the CR. We decided to become more aggressive, having been left with only 2 buildings in our possession. We needed to turn the odds in our favor. This made us even more determined and more resolute for victory. Perhaps we had become complacent at the beginning, seeing that we had almost full control of the map, but that had to change, and as always in N0X, nothing is over until the last minutes. One of the things I like about this alliance.

The new targets and how we will act were announced by Belore. One target at a time. Starting with the Outpost. Rallies were quickly organized, filled, and sent immediately without OBV having the ability or time to react.

The next target was Port, but instinctively Belore wanted us to wait because something was not right with the moves that OBV was making on the CR.

Something fishy is going on CR. Better wait for a few seconds..

That was the moment that everyone yelled

CR CR…….Go Go

Good job…

As it turned out, Belore was right. Wanting to mislead us, OBV had decided to delay the swap and keep us occupied in other buildings so that we wouldn't have the chance to snipe it from them. But the experience and instinct of the shotcallers proved to be a lifesaver for us, and the quick reaction of the racers was amazing.

Now it was our turn to be careful in our swap in CR , we need it to keep this building no matter what. We were all ready to send reinforcements. And for one more time we succeeded.

The good work kept going, we had managed to have a defense on our Port and to win the both Strongholds on the race.

Now we were targeting Targaryen Port and hoping to win that also.

But the opponent had not abandoned it either. By organizing a successful attack, he managed to capture our outpost.

Their next target was the CR. But our defense held.  

Now it was our turn to attack and take back what we had lost. The enthusiasm and energy of the shotcallers were contagious to all of us.

As we were rallying at the Outpost, the opponent was preparing for another attack on the CR. We had to be quick and we did, but at that moment the opponents decided to use a bubble at the Outpost so as not to lose the building.

From our side one more time we had held against them in CR. Now our target was to keep defending and take back until Mines were open whatever we could. As we did on our Outpost after the bubble dropped.

We needed to defend our buildings now until Mines since if we were keeping that would mean that we had won the match.

For a few minutes the only thing we were hearing was.

Start sending marches….

Keep sending…

Fill fill fill

Go Go Go …

Doesn't matter who was speaking that moment cause for me i was understanding only one thing, to heal , back and again the same. In the process we had some losses like Mother but our leaders were sure that we can take it back.

As we did but in the process we lost again to Outpost.

We took it back but we had lost CR, after our attack to take it back and failed we had decided to wait for mines. We needed both mines.

This time our racers didn't win but we were pretty sure that they would try to swap both buildings. Everyone was focusing on that.

Be ready and go go go

As we had predicted it for one more time they swapped and we snipped them.

We needed to do the same for the other Mine too but they didnt swap. We need that mine , that is why we tried everything. Solo rallies but we couldn't take it. OBV was trying the same tactic. Now both alliances were trying to keep the Mine they had and to take the other too. Belore noticed that even with one mine we were winning this match. The only job was to keep reinforcing it ... .But that wasn't enough….We had lost both mines….. 

But we didn't give up. Not even then, we started the attacks right away and our efforts gave us one of the Mines.

But we need it to put a stronger player in, a swap i s risky in a mine but we needed to try it and we failed. Now OBV had both mines again.One last try with rallies in one of them could change the outcome. Rallies , solo attacks, we were not giving up and we won the mine back. But wasn't the end. Since both teams wanted so bad to qualify for the next round we were attacking each other in every building.

We needed every point we could get to hold the difference on the points. We had only 3 minutes before the match would end but both teams were struggling to take buildings for points.

We realized that we had won this match only a minute before it ended, when we were absolutely sure that we had enough points to be the winners.

Everyone was waiting for Belore to announce that the game was over and we had won.

When he did it was then I could breathe normally.

We needed a few minutes to slow down our heartbits.

We made it again!!!!!!!

As always being very happy with our success and waiting to see how far we will go on this UC.

Both alliances after the match exchanged congratulations and expressed their appreciation for that fair match!!!

As for me, i  was excitement for our performance in this season.