[OBV] taking the Lannister banners, are fighting with the army of [N0X] under Targaryen banners, for control of Casterly Rock and the region around it. Will the Warden of the West prevail, or the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms will end her reign?

==================== Matchmaking ====================

Season 23 of Alliance Conquest slowly moves to it's end and so far [N0X] finds itself in a solid position with three victories and one loss. Every battle has been fought against more or less equal in power opponents, making Noxians performance stand out and their strategy oiled up.

Alliance Conquest remains one of the favorite events among all Westeros and you may count Noxians there too. The entire alliance is eager for two more competitive matches and have high hopes to qualify into Ultimate Conquest too! Determined to make that happen, as always the leadership of [N0X] had another meeting and were preparing an even better strategy for the upcoming battles, constantly looking for new ways to catch their opponents off guard with a snipe or a fast soloes.

For Alex time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. But here we are at the registration day. Scy, the duchess of Noxians stepped forward to register the alliance, hoping that fate would grant them a favorable path to their goal.

For some reason Alex had no doubts whatsoever that this next match will be another win for the team. And even after matchmaking revealed who will be in the path of [N0X] - Alex stayed true to his intuition.

The opponent was [OBV], a very strong alliance that was the same as [N0X] consistently scoring high. Noxians already fought Oblivion in the previous seasons and other events. While not being as strong as [RRH] to the ones whom [N0X] lost - seeing [OBV] with the same score as RRH and as an opponent definitely settled a slight disturbance inside the alliance. Beside that, Noxians are tough to break so this time they will show their best!

After the strategy has been shared and explained by the leadership - Noxians assembled their forces. Every lord checked on his commanders and troops, dragons took to the skies and they marched toward the AC battlefield. This time [N0X] took the Targaryen banners.

While preparations were being finished, the overall situation looked like a real challenging. A quick look showed that Oblivion had a better hand in everything: more Lords present, superior score which leads to greater accounts, and more initial points from the start over capping the 20k mark. Yet to the Noxian veterans it was all very familiar territory as they used to fight a stronger opponent.

----------------------------------------------------- The First Clash -----------------------------------------------------

When the horn sounded, the gates to the both Outposts, Mother, and Warrior opened. The waiting ended instantly. Racers launched their marches, rushing toward buildings. The struggle for territorial control had begun and every second of the race carried weight in determining the outcome of the match.

Alex raced to the Mother but tripped somewhere in the beginning. The Mother was taken by Buzka, an unknown to Alex racer from [OBV].

Yet Noxians won 3 other races so it was a lot to focus on, and sniping Mother was not in Alex's plans - right now he fully focused on reinforcing and listening to the supreme shot caller Belore.

First swap was on the close Outpost and Micky, being one of the strongest rally leads, took ownership of it.

In a voice that sounded as steel Belore gave 2 more orders to focus on - intercepting a Mother and swapping Warrior. Securing the swap on Warrior would give Noxians a great synergy advantage between Outpost and Warrior.

The intercept of Mother swap didn't work out for Noxians, resulting in safe building for Oblivion by the lead of Ainzooal Gown, truly outstanding name! Mother gives a healing speed buff, so a fast waves of rallies right now would be advantageous for [OBV].

On the other side of the map Warrior was being swapped by [N0X]. Kryptic MIND, a famous Noxian racer made sure that every troop type was able to be sent and was waiting for Bel's command. The moment "speed speed speed" was said - the building changed owners with Lord Strandli, another great infantry holder.

Not wasting any seconds Noxians were ready to swap far Lannister Outpost and it went smoothly with Ser Enki taking the lead!

Thanks to the great racing performance - 3/4 buildings held Targaryen banners and thus [N0X] was forced to play defensively. [OBV] started setuping rallies on Warrior to break the stat synergy so the Noxian plan was to defend it and attack Mother right after. As they say, the best defense is a well timed offense.

Oblivions wave of rallies managed to break the defense and a holder Mighty Kebab took the Warrior tower right out of Strandlis hands!

Once again not wasting a second Noxians were already filling rallies on Mother and shorty soon, not giving any time for [OBV] to react they sent their wave and took the Mother!

After such an exchange it was 1 min before Ports opened their gates, but there were one more thing to complete before the first round finishes - take the Warrior and leave no buildings for [OBV].

With that said, Belore gave a call for all rally leaders to start bleeding the Warrior. [OBV] wasn't expecting such a greedy move, shortly after bubble drop VERGO, a great spear rally leader kicked everyone out of Warrior and proclaimed it his building.

[N0X] stressed slowly started shifting towards a strong confidence. But will the speed and bold moves be enough to overthrow the difference in strength..?

------------------------------------------------------ Ports of Doom ------------------------------------------------------

Five minutes passing tensely, and just about time for both Ports to open their Watergates.

All the racers were running towards the far port and a heartbeat later just like in cartoons everyone saw Fallin darting in, securing the Targaryen Port. At the same time being a rally leader, a shot caller and a jack of all trades Belore himself was running towards close Port, yet lost this race.

Belore started the count down when the slow march with fillers should speed up their marches. Swap on the far port went smoothly with Strandli again taking the building.

- This time I will stand them. He said in a calm and deep voice.

[OBV] made a quick rush on the Warrior and took the building!

But Noxians knew ACE wouldn't stay there so Oblivion requires a swap. It was a good chance for a snipe and Kryptic delivered it perfectly!

With rallies being open on close Port and a swap needed to execute - Belore mumbled a little and launched a coordinated attack on the Port, while aiming to hard swap the Warrior. Being an experienced player Belore commanded the hard swap and darted in first!

- What would I be as a leader without fighting my own battles! He said with a grin on his face and claiming the Warrior. Yet there weren't enough reinforcements he had and got kicked quickly by the same opponent lords ACE.

Meanwhile out of that wave of rallies, Grogu successfully took a port!

------------------------------------------------- Race for the Throne --------------------------------------------------

Casterly Rock, the enormous building, was waiting to share a place at it's Throne, but invited only one side into it's halls. Whoever takes it will get a huge advantage!

Every racer from each side wanted to take the spotlight, yet only one did. Kryptic Mind and after a flawless swap, Balrum took ownership.

Showing an absolute performance, Noxians held 6 out of 7 buildings. A great domination over a stronger opponent!

[N0X] knew that Casterly Rock was the last real chance for [OBV] to get back into the fight, so they threw everything they had into defending it. Alliance voice and even chat were full of calls for reinforcements - speed up! Keep them coming! Send everything you've got!, and the members answered the call.

At the heart of the defense was Balrum. With constant support arriving from his fellow Noxian allies, he managed to keep a huge part of Oblivion forces busy for several minutes. Time after time the attackers tried to break through, yet the steady flow of reinforcements kept the Casterly standing, along with Balrum sitting on the throne.

After a while, though, [OBV] managed to break the Targaryen Outpost and gain the attack bonus that came with it. With that extra strength behind them, Oblivion launched another wave at CR. A fierce battle followed, with both sides refusing to give an inch. After a long and hard-fought struggle, [OBV] finally took control of the castle and moved their strongest Lord Big Angry inside, giving themselves a real chance to turn the round around.

---------------------------------------------------- Dead End Mines ----------------------------------------------------

Even after losing Casterly Rock, [N0X] still held a strong lead in points. To Alex it seemed that only one mine was needed to secure the victory! Though capturing both would of course widen the gap and bring more ranking points to be closer to UC.

When the mines opened - Kryptic once again darted into one of them and secured a swap with Belore. One of the mines went to [N0X] and the other to DrGreenThumb, a great holder of [OBV].

While one mine would have been enough for victory, [N0X] always aims higher. They immediately launched a rally on the Oblivions mine, and with the timing and speed-ups lined up perfectly - Lord Strandli occupied the mine, giving Noxians control of both!

After failing the wave of rallies to the Strandli’s mine in an attempt to reclaim it, [OBV] attempted a final series of rallies on other structures in hopes of shifting the outcome.

But it was already clear as sky that [N0X] had won and were fully focused on securing maximum points in this match to get higher into rankings.

------------------------------------------------------------------ Mutual Respect --------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex heard many stories about [OBV] and was in one of the unpleasant ones himself, so the next move that Oblivion did came as the best surprise that could ever happen.

Once [OBV] had reached their 60k points with no realistic way to climb further for better rewards, they made a real gentleman move and respected Noxians strategy. [OBV] started disbanding the buildings they held for [N0X] to get the most of the remaining points. A respectful end to the match, and extra points secured for the winners.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors Afterword ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Compared to [N0X] - [OBV] had a huge score advantage in 3M points, which meant their accounts are overall stronger by a lot! And fighting a stronger opponent with constantly pressuring it, taking the buildings on and off is impressive. [N0X] coordination as always was on point during this important match.

It wasn’t a first nor a second match so Noxians finally got a grasp of new racing and that won them a lot of first captures, which gave an opportunity for flawless swaps. While Oblivion was slightly slower on races and first captures, which made them loss a lot of tempo.

Need to mention the move of respect made by [OBV] which allowed [N0X] to get almost twice the points of their opponent. In my opinion there should be more alliances with dignity like that.

=================================== The End ====================================

Remember that in GoTWiC you are not only playing the game, often you leave people around you with respect! →_→

AlexHarret