Highlighting the October 3335 Buccaneer
A new event was announced, and I thought to myself "War of the Aints"
Not war of the Ants as in Red Ants, but in Aints as in most Commanders Ain't got any Buccaneers.
Don't get me wrong, The Buccaneer is an excellent Mech, one of the two best in its weight class, very closely matched against the Nephilax.
But there the problem lies. The Buccaneer needs Niodes to be upgraded, the Nephilax don't even need Crystals.
Successful Commanders will therefore sell off their Buccaneers and use the Nephilaxes they win in the climbs instead so the precious Niodes might be used where they make a bigger difference.
I have gotten a Buccaneer or two in my career myself, but they were sold off promptly. At the time I received them I already had a full lineup of Nephilaxes.
For most of the other top Commanders I assumed it was the same way, so it would perhaps be a Dual Novum contest?
I had plenty to do back in the compound, and just a few moments to spare, so I brought my unlimited formation to the K2 entrance.
The usual red tape was in place, so when we finally were let inside the formation was parked out on the plains.
I could have tested the opposition there and then. When none have a legal Mech, the attacker always wins, but then they would just have struck back, and as I was totally out of formation, I would be back where I started.
Instead I returned to the compound, and planned on a late comeback where my Novums would dance in the moonlight.
Well. "The best laid plans of mice and men often gang alight" as was said millennia ago.
The paperwork was the usual drudgery, and when my mind had gone about blank, I was reminded of a meeting. After that it was some contract negotiations and then….
When I finally remembered the climb, and started toward the hangar I was met by my crew. The climb had ended early, and they had returned without even the plastic participation badges one got back when I started my career.
But they had faithfully gotten me some footage, so I could clearly see the winners this time had been:
- Div 1 226+ (25 Commanders): Sal Vezzosi Jr, Warlock (23s)
- Div 2 -225 (17 Commanders): Joe Kump, Spirit of Bunny (38m,1s)
- Div 3 -160 (32 Commanders): Chris Zimmer, Northwind Dragons (16m,52s)
- Div 4 -118 (21 Commanders): Carlos Chin, Heroes Support (1h,24m)
- Div 5 -95 (14 Commanders): Richard Howes, Heroes Shadow Brigade (3h,15m)
- Div 6 -77 (24 Commanders): VMDL, Dogs of War (13m,54s)
- Div 7 -63 (22 Commanders): Cora Soco Hiller, today and tomorrow (5m,53s)
- Div 8 -45 (12 Commanders): AuraFr00b, Borg (7h,32m)
- Div 9 -33 (10 Commanders): Mark Stevensalo, Behemoth (57m,4s)
- Div 10 -23 (42 Commanders): Seven_of_9, Borg (1d,23h)
- Div 11 -15 (39 Commanders): Chris Mari Macabudbud (1d,23h)
- Div 12 -9 (40 Commanders): Del Hunter (1d,23h)
9(2S)+10(G,2S)+7(2S)+4+9(2S)+6+7(G)+7(G,1S)+7(3S)+2+0+0= Here 3 Gold (25%), 12 Silvers (25%) and 53 Bronzes (47%) went to Commanders who clearly had irregular formations.
Total Contestants: 298, Total medals claimed: 172 (of 180 possible)
Compared to the SelfSame, there was a slight drop of 16 Commanders where it came to participation.
But this time the spread was more uneven, so on K5, K8 and K9 there were to few contestants to claim all the medals, and a total of eight Bronzes was sent for resmelting.
On the other hand, there was plenty of Commanders on the three lowest tops, each of those tops had a bigger crowd than the three aforementioned tops put together.
As usual the fighting varied, some tops was a wild melee, others were quieter. Four Golds changed hands the last half-hour, one of them the last half-minute. On the other end of the scale five Golds were held for more than two hours, a trio of them for more than a day. Fighting lower on the tops was also varied, as witnessed by the number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event:
.............Silvers......Bronzes
Div 1 ....0 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 2 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 3 ....1 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 4 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 5 ....4 of 4.........9 of 9
Div 6 ....0 of 4.........9 of 10
Div 7 ....2 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 8 ....4 of 4.........7 of 7
Div 9 ....4 of 4.........5 of 5
Div 10 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 11 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 12 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10
Mount Olympus saw most action, but it was pretty intense on K3 as well. In addition there was some scuffling on K6 and K7. The other eight tops had not a single successful medal attack between them.
Borg was the only clan to claim double Gold, on K8 and K10. They also had the single repeat winner, Seven_of_9 on K10.
This time we had two unaligned winners; Chris Mari Macabudbud on K11 and Del Hunter on K12.
Upcoming event: King of the Mountain (Unlimited)
This is a straightforward sudden death climb. You are allowed to use any Mech you have that you can fit into the formation. Still, my recommendation is to choose Mechs that are more or less fully upgraded and you have the skill to Control.
Equipment and weapons work as normal.
Event ends June 3 between 1700 and 1730 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)
