News: Champions League 2008, Season 1

[Jimmy B]

Neverdie is mocking Star. Star is taunting everyone else. Neomaven is none too pleased with his loot. Skalman is untouchable, Naomi unstoppable. Lady Nadie is dressed to kill, Kazanori won't sit still. Freyr has found a HoF, will Sodi get one too? Stoikow is battling, Lorfat is fighting, Moogle is moogling, oh wait, here's Slaaaaaaaaapnuts! And Fat Boy Slim is, um, in heaven!

Neverdie has a wacky collection of tunes on the stream, he's in the domes killing mobs, he's in the control room tweaking the fertiliser station settings, he's commentating on the globals, he's telling jokes, he's singing, he's shouting, he's screaming! We've got excitement, we've got atmosphere, we've got big mobs, we've got big guns, we've got a scoreboard and we've got to get on it! This, ladies and gentlemen, is Entropia Universe. We're at CND for the Champions League and it's time for some carnage!

It's the final Champions League match of the Season, a special two-hour event, and there are serious prizes at stake. First place takes 400 PED, second 200 PED, third 100 PED. The single highest loot wins 150 PED. The leader at half-time wins 100 PED. The first player to get three globals wins a CND apartment. There's also the CL Season Leaderboard - the top 15 win prizes, the winner takes away 3200 PED. There's an annual leaderboard - the top 8 in points for 2008 seasons 1 & 2 qualify for the MMOWC Quarter Finals (last year's winner won a Land Area!) and the top 52 get to appear on a seriously fine Champions League deck of cards!

Neverdie somehow finds his way onto the flop

The weekend has already witnessed plenty of EU excitement in fact. The World of Firepower has seen the dramatic conclusion of Round 4. Last year's winner, and pre-tournament favorite Team USA has been eliminated, while underdog Finland has battled its way through to the semifinals! So what better way to round off the weekend than with a two hour blast in the CND domes? Star has already comfortably clinched the season title before this final round, and Skalman is safely positioned in second place. The real battle is for third place - Neomaven needs to outscore Naomi, but Freyr could steal it from both of them with a victory tonight.

It's been a long week for me, I haven't smoked a cigarette for seven days which is playing havoc with my mood, and I had a job application rejected on Friday which didn't help either. So I decide to treat myself and end this Season's Champions League with a bang. I want to be competitive and I want to finish in the top five. In the past seven appearances I've managed 6th on a miracle loot day, two 11ths and not much else. So I've got my work cut out.

First I choose my weapons. I've always skilled with laser weapons, but the best I can find is the HL14+A106 set up I've been using in previous matches. It's just not doing enough damage. I trawl wiki for a while and come up with some BLP alternatives. My BLP professions are too low to use any of them though. Luckily, I looted a Trooper carrying a pair of Nemesis Arm Guards worth about 400 PED during the WoF yesterday. I quickly eat 400 PED of BLP Weaponry Tech chips and that's one problem solved.

Unfortunately, the auction lets me down as well. I even trawl the three malls but can't find my first choice gun anywhere. I also get a nasty shock when I look at the limited BLP amp prices. Laser may not be fast, but it sure is cheaper than BLP! In the end I settle for a Svempa X1 amped with a BullTac 70. After markup, it's over 20% less economical than my normal set up but on the plus side its cranking out nearly 100 dmg/sec with maxed stats, significantly better than anything I've used before. It's going to take a minor miracle to outloot Neomaven's Terminator, but if loot is good I reckon I have a chance at a top 5 finish.

Next up, I must decide what to hunt. Some of the Champions League leaders seem to use spur-of-the-moment judgement very effectively to decide which dome to hunt in and when to move, but that hasn't worked so well for me in the past. I decide to fight in one dome only. It's a choice between big Berys, mid-level Longu, mid-level Neconu or big Allo. The Berys are too small to make good use of the dmg/sec. In Ghost+5B, the Neconu are too tough during event conditions. So it's between Allo and Longu. I quite like Allophyls, and the spawn looks good, so I switch to 6B plates and load up with two hours worth of ammo.

In the Control Room everyone is screaming at Neverdie. Ten minutes before start, and the commentary is in full flow. And it HURTS! Neverdie has forgotten to turn down his speakers so we have six Neverdies talking in feedback hell! Thankfully he fixes it before the ear damage is permanent and the mood is restored as ND announces a series of extra prizes for the final event.

Shortly afterwards, we're in the domes, the event scoreboard is up, and we're all shooting like crazy. Naomi gets off to a great start, with a 68 PED Longu Guardian followed by an 80 pedder in the first few minutes. The Allophyls start out pretty kind to me too, my second mob carries 45 PED and a few minutes later I hit a 78 PED Old Alpha. I hold second place for a while behind Naomi; it can't start much better than this.

Just after ten minutes Naomi hits her third global (wining a CND apartment in the process). Sodi has climbed up to second place, with Neomaven in third. Neo needs to catch Naomi up if he wants to overtake her on the leaderboard. I'm in sixth place now and loot hasn't been bad. Suddenly I hit an 85 PED Allo Prowler and I leapfrog up to third for a few minutes. Before the first half hour is up I land another small global and I can't believe how well its going.

For the next 45 minutes things go downhill. I can't find globals, I can't find minis. Soon the great start isn't looking so good anymore. I drift slowly down the leaderboard to ninth. It's gone a bit quieter for everyone else too. Neomaven briefly wrestles 1st place away from Naomi but her sixth Longu global is a 234 pedder and she's back on top. Star, often holding a near unassailable lead by this point, hasn't made much of an appearance on the scoreboard yet. Sodi is going well and holds third behind Neo.

Suddenly my loot improves again. I jump back to 7th with a near-global and then I go on a crazy global spree. Four Allo globals in the space of 14 minutes! Even Neverdie can't believe it! I find myself back up in 5th place. Naomi leads, Star has battled up to second, Neo holds third. I reckon from chat that Freyr and Sodi have fourth and sixth one way or the other.

Naomi on fire (left), Star tops the Season leaderboard (center), Moogle dead angry (right)

It's time for the bounties. In Champions League, bounties can be put on contestants, and in the last half hour players with a bounty on them can be pk'ed for PED! Tradition has it that there's a bounty on Jamhot and this week is no different. There are a few other bounties up for grabs too, as the leaders try to slow each other down. Suddenly all hell breaks loose in chat, someone has broken the PK rules, another has illegally PK'ed Moogle! I ignore it all, my trigger finger is tired, mobs are becoming scarce, but we're 100 minutes in, I've had a remarkable 7 globals, and the top five finish is in sight!

Another fifteen minutes pass, no change on the leaderboard, but I've dropped back down to sixth. The Total War period, where contestants can score league bonus points, has just started which means there are five minutes remaining and it's now a PK free-for-all. I see it as a chance to steal 5th place back while everyone is busy killing each other. I kill three more allos, no special loots but the scoreboard updates and I'm back up in fifth! However, I can't avoid the green dots forever, and with three minutes remaining I find myself reviving back in the control room.

The cunning plan now is to TP into the empty Corn and Cauda dome and continue to loot mobs in peace. It goes horribly wrong when I charge over a mountain into a red dot that turns out to be a Neconu Guardian. Wrong dome! I've dropped back into 6th though, so it's got to die! I shoot like mad at it, each hit I take requires a fap but its half-dead and the green dots at the teleport aren't coming closer! But no! Suddenly another Neconu appears from nowhere and I'm back in the control room! With a minute remaining I can't get back to it in time, I head to the Corn and Cauda dome and kill two Caudas but they're no-looters!

Suddenly its over, Naomi has held out for first place with 6 Longu globals and 2 Neconu globals. Her loot in globals is a mighty 1147 PED - she could well have 2000 PED total loot in two hours! Star takes second place with 9 Neconu globals worth 829 PED. Neomaven takes third place with 8 Neconu globals worth 616 PED.

Projected final leaderboard scores, bonus points for last round are not yet confirmed and totals could vary by a point or two. Top half positions should definitely be correct.

Despite narrowly missing out on fifth place I'm pretty pleased to be sixth, and with seven globals (worth 492 PED) in two hours I've beaten some personal records. I do a few quick sums and find I've shot 78432 rounds of ammo, spent 1006 PED in tt and 1248 PED including markup. I've returned with 1085 PED of loot in tt and maybe 75 PED of markup. Bearing in mind I'm using some pretty high markup weapons here, the loot is pretty decent but on a really good loot day those top five places don't look unattainable.

To round the evening off, eight of us go for a quick Daspletor hunt in Dome 16. I'm feeling pretty noob all of a sudden and my Ghost doesn't let me take too many hits before dying. But we're killing them quickly, and the more uber half of the team can outfap the Dasps for a good while. We hit a global fairly quickly but it's very quiet lootwise after that. A cK team is roaming the dome too, and after a slight moment of mob confusion a vicious firefight ensues. Perhaps predictably, we're soon all back in the control room but we've taken a few of them with us.

Aaaaaaaii Heeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllppppppppp!!!!!!!

Many thanks to Klod and Neverdie for running and hosting such an entertaining event, and to the 76 people who've taken part this season and made it so much fun. Champions League 2008, Season 2 will begin in August. The official Champions League 2008, Season 1 thread can be found here.

[SuperKanjo]

Nice long read love it

[Force Majeure]

You got my adrenaline pumping again!








Apprentice Jedi,
Force Majeure

[dj.]

I even got in role, read it like some american presenter, maybe at some important base-ball match.

Then thinking 'Ohhh I really love Jimmy!!'

I carried on, could see the lights, could hear the fan-fare, I was there man!!

I was jumping up and down in the crowd!!

Then, I got bored of reading, and stopped lol

Never-mind, I had a good time while it lasted!!

[Jimmy B]

Originally Posted by dj.

I even got in role, read it like some american presenter, maybe at some important base-ball match.

Then thinking 'Ohhh I really love Jimmy!!'

I carried on, could see the lights, could hear the fan-fare, I was there man!!

I was jumping up and down in the crowd!!

Then, I got bored of reading, and stopped lol

Never-mind, I had a good time while it lasted!!

I read the first four lines and I'm thinking 'yeah, this is how its meant to go!'. Wasn't expecting the fifth line after that

Thanks dj, and Force & SuperKanjo

[Jamhot]

Absolutely brilliant read Jimmy you truly captured the atmosphere of Champions League , adrenaline pumping , global hunting , player killing mayhem! Gotta love Champs League!! sponsored by JamhotTV
Seey'all next season!

Jamhot

[dj.]

Originally Posted by Jimmy B

I read the first four lines and I'm thinking 'yeah, this is how its meant to go!'. Wasn't expecting the fifth line after that

LOL sorry luv

Short attention span and all that

Had me excited for a little while, if it helps, hehe

(for sure beats Oleg's burgers)

[Mercury]

Nice read and great writing...I especially like the part about Star winning the league.

[MistyDawn]

Originally Posted by dj.

Short attention span and all that

Had me excited for a little while, if it helps, hehe

Sorry Jimmy I'm with dj on that one.

I read the first paragraph in bold and thought to myself "oooh I know him, I know him, I know her..."

Skimmed the rest and paused briefly to look at pretty picture of Nadie and some big monster at the end.

[Jimmy B]

Originally Posted by Mercury

Nice read and great writing...I especially like the part about Star winning the league.

Thanks Star, and lol you don't say

Originally Posted by dj.

Short attention span and all that

Had me excited for a little while, if it