Highlighting the January 3334 Dirty 30
There was a new event coming up. This time it was one where I felt I actually had some business attending. It still took a lot of patience to be admitted, but finally the guards at the entrance to K2 grew tired of my pestering and let me in.
It was still early in the climb, so my formation pushed aside the overweigth formations of the opponents. I have to admit it is a heady rush when you can bully your way through a crowd where most have almost five times the tonnage you are mustering. A few loop sided battles later my crew was at the top, and I had to return to the camp for more mundane tasks, such as paperwork and meetings.
I went back from time to time to check on the status of the challenge, and was not really surprised to find the others had started to get into formation. One consequence of that was my crew was being pushed downward to the foothills.
My last return was about 3 hours before the scramble. About half of the other contestants were still in their main formations, and there were a couple who used Red Ants. Don't get me wrong, Red Ants are excellent Mechs, the best in their weight class, but here they was outmatched by the 30 ton formations.
Unaligned Melissa Powell had 1200 tons, and Omegas Legacy`s Randy Taylor had brought 1170. The Spirit of Bunny had sent three tough Commanders as well; Both Hendrik Smith and Bob Schlomer had 1200, Joe Kump had "only" 1175. Against them I was much the junior. My 845 tons was not exactly chaff in the wind, but all of them had at least four Mechs more than me, and their iMechs had significantly more weapons and armor than mine.
But as John Mainer once told me: "The only way to beat them is to attack"
It took some tries, but finally I was in position to strike for the top. Taylors forces resisted, but I had some lucky breaks and the top was mine for the time being.
But the exhaustion of the day had taken its toll, and I fell asleep at the controls.
Some time later I woke, and queried my team about the situation. I had to admit I was really surprised when they told me none had seriously disturbed my sleep and we were the winners. They had even taken some notes and footage.
The full list of winners this time was:
- Div 1 225+ (26 Commanders): Shawn Wretham, Warlock (46s)
- Div 2 -224 (15 Commanders): Sten Hugo Hiller, Star League (3h,26m)
- Div 3 -162 (26 Commanders): Chris Zimmer, Northwind Dragons (5h,41m)
- Div 4 -118 (33 Commanders): Sebastien Roussel-Konan, S. Dragons (2h,52m)
- Div 5 -95 (24 Commanders): Richard Howes, Heroes S. B. (36m,18s)
- Div 6 -78 (28 Commanders): Polly Waffle, today and tomorrow (12m,13s)
- Div 7 -61 (26 Commanders): Brian Wilson, Smurf War Patrol (17m,2s)
- Div 8 -47 (20 Commanders): Bob Becker, UNDERWORLD (2s)
- Div 9 -30 (25 Commanders): Robert Pawulski, Punishers Guild (1m,13s)
- Div 10 -20 (6 Commanders): Bill Harper, Karma (16m,54s)
- Div 11 -17 (15 Commanders): snowjob, Dr.Z`s BMH Squad (1h,42m)
- Div 12 -7 (3 Commanders): Bm Oscar Cavero Jara (1d,2h)
1+7+4+1+1+2+3+1+0+2(1S)+1+0= One Silver and twenty-two Bronzes was awarded to Commanders who had at least one overweight Mech.
Total Contestants: 247, Total medals claimed: 159 (of 180 possible)
An infusion of fresh Commanders flocked to the event. Participation rose by 38.
The spread was not to bad, except for K10 where the narrow entry requirements might get at least some of the blame. Many of the medals on K12 went unclaimed as well, a total of two Silvers and nineteen Bronzes were sent for resmelting after the award ceremony.
The fight for the tops were pretty intense this time. Seven Gold medals changed hands at least once during the scramble, one the last couple of seconds.
Four Gold medals were held for more than two hours, one of them for more than a day. But there was some struggling further down on the slopes as well, the number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event was:
.............Silvers......Bronzes
Div 1 ....0 of 4.........3 of 10
Div 2 ....4 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 3 ....3 of 4.........6 of 10
Div 4 ....0 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 5 ....3 of 4.........9 of 10
Div 6 ....3 of 4.........6 of 10
Div 7 ....3 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 8 ....2 of 4.........6 of 10
Div 9 ....0 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 10 ..0 of 4.........1 of 1
Div 11 ..4 of 4........10 of 10
Div 12 ..2 of 2.........N/A
The most active top was K10 where only one of 6 Medals was held the Whole scramble, but Mount Olympus, K9 and K4 was also a flurry of Activity. On the other end of the scale was K11 and K12 where no successful attacks were launched.
No single clan managed to bring home more than one Gold after this event. None managed to repeat the Gold performance from the Cannon Balls either.
We had one unaligned winner; Bm Oscar Cavero Jara on K12
Bm Oscar Cavero Jara is another New Commander. This was the second event he participated in, and the first Gold. At Level 11 he probably uses base Themis, and have 8 Mechs in the formation. So far he have concentrated on getting more energy, but there is some improvements to Projectile, Missile and Lasers as well. Currently the safest Mech he can handle is a 45tonner. Clan leaders looking for reinforcements for the upcoming Clan War could do worse than contacting him.
Upcoming event: Fire and Ice
Here we have a special kind of weapon specialization. It is as usual an essentially unlimited event where you might use whatever Mechs you have and can fit into the formation. But this time it is not just one, but two weapon types who get enhanced. Both Ice and Fire type do an additional 80% damage.
Equipment and the other 3 weapon types work as nomal.
(Event ends April 9 Between 2100 and 2130 New York Time)
Any fresh winners can try to get in touch to tell their story, the first to grab hold of me before the report is finished might get a few Niodes for sharing their thoughts.
(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)
