Round 30

Round 30
Winner 🥇
Player:	Ivetza
Dominion:	Little 👻👻👻 army (#5)
Race:	Spirit
Second 🥈
Name:	Jcinnz
Dominion:	Alotta Fagina🌮 (#8)
Race:	Human
Third 🥉
Name:	Almezo
Dominion:	Float like a Bee, Sting like a Bee (#2)
Race:	Human
General
Changes:	Round 30/Changes
Valhalla:	Link

Round 30 started on the 10th of July 2022 and ended on the 25th of August 2022.

Round Win Story

I apologize in advance for my realm's lack of attentiveness in keeping track of our round, but I'll do my best to recount the events as best as I can remember them along with some notes from the crier and realm discord. - Sly

This round gives Spirit their third win, but technically it's their first win since previous Spirit wins were the legacy version of the race which was very similar to Undead. This round was also probably the strongest Human has ever been and we see this with two top 3 finishes from them.

Pre-round

Like usual, I randomed into a realm I wasn't too certain about and didn't have any significant expectations for the round. But there were some very nice surprises throughout and we ended up having a very active and supportive team, an advantage which gave us the edge at a few critical moments I believe.

We had a 3-pack of Ivetza, Gipsa, and Rompar and the eclectic 5-pack of Erix, MannoWrath, Sarmis, Volv, and squarewave. The notable randoms were myself, Templeman (who achieved his highest finish yet), and Vovin.

I knew it would likely be a better round for slow attacking, but how competitive the strategy could be would depend on Erix's (Magnum) ability to prevent any fast runaways.

From the 5-pack, Erix was our only pure fast race as FW, Manno (Kermit) wanted to convert as WE, Sarmis (The Smallest Yellow Crayon) ended up converting DE, Volv (Miss Piggy) went for a fast Nomad, and squarewave (Wargasm) tried a slow attacking Nox.

From the BGs, Ivetza (Little 👻👻👻 army) ran a fast Spirit, Gipsa (Spy x Family) ran a slow attacking Nomad, and Rompar (Ferrets eat parrots like carrots) tried a more efficient Dwarf.

I (here we go again) was leaning towards Spirit prior to realm assignment but ended up going Orc due to how insanely cheap their OP is, and this is the first round they had 3-point turtle on BBs. Templeman (Fozzie Bear) was happy to get ops for us as a Merfolk, and Vovin (Consider it Mutual) played a Nox attacker. So we had a wide variety of strategies on the board with no overarching plan on how to secure control of the round and win, but we were going to have fun nonetheless.

Early Round

I attacked out of the gate first with 3 bot hits. Gipsa had bounced on his first hit but ended up making 4 successful invasions afterwards, then 9-houred accordingly which rocketed him up. Erix's first hit came at the expense of a DE in realm 4, which squarewave followed up on--but this resulted in him being doubled by 4's strongest attackers. It wasn't ideal as they looked like one of the main threats to try to make a runaway out of their FW.

2022-07-10 17:59:42 Snowflake Melter (#4) invaded fellow dominion Wargasm (#5) and captured 45 land.
2022-07-10 18:58:23 Hide the pain (#4) invaded fellow dominion Wargasm (#5) and captured 41 land.

Despite the big early hits, we rolled on. Ivetza's first hit came on an Undead in 7 just 2 ticks later, so we were all up and running. And yet, at the start of Day 2, a nightmare scenario unfolded. Erix made a nice hit, but Dumb (#10) suicided him seemingly out of nowhere. We had mostly missed him and assumed he didn't have as much sendable OP as the other top attackers--an oversight looking back since he had waited a full 26 hours before making his second hit. Additionally, a new player who found us off an Instagram ad had gone inactive and ended up feeding 2 of our main threats.

2022-07-11 00:29:20 Rent seeking behavior (#7) invaded fellow dominion Sakarra (#5) and captured 50 land.
2022-07-11 00:39:37 Pickle Rick (#10) invaded fellow dominion Sakarra (#5) and captured 45 land.
2022-07-11 02:03:25 Dumb (#10) invaded fellow dominion Magnum (#5) and captured 55 land.

Ivetza, Gipsa, and I took smaller bot hits and Erix recovered with a second sizable invasion. All things considered, we didn't look in terrible shape but it was going to be a dogfight. Poor squarewave took another lesson in checking top OP and gave some additional land to some competitors again:

2022-07-12 11:58:01 Scary Terry (#10) invaded fellow dominion Wargasm (#5) and captured 54 land.
2022-07-12 11:58:51 Birdperson (#10) invaded fellow dominion Wargasm (#5) and captured 45 land.
2022-07-12 12:52:19 Queen Bee (#2) invaded fellow dominion Wargasm (#5) and captured 44 land.

More early misplays: Erix had a hit on Dumb and bounced due to a mistype, and a few others had previously bounced due to not asking someone to double check the math. But from here on out, we became pretty focused in on doing what we needed to do.

The first significant moment of the round came as realm 10 declared war on realm 4, trying to take down Snowflake Melter #4 (DanTheMan) and Hide the pain (Wurstmeyer). Snowflake had been rolling early with his largest competitor being Pickle Rick in 10 (Bobbo). Hide the pain #4 had started pushing massive 5:4 OP, I guess trying to allow Snowflake space to run. But I think it was probably far too early to do this as there were simply too many dominions who were still a threat, and that ended up proving itself true.

Snowflake made a hit on the WE in realm 10 and left himself open to be hit by Erix, assuming that we would just wait for 10 to hit and then be able to make a safer hit on one of them if they suicided him. But to us, Snowflake appeared to be the largest threat at the time, and him getting home safely yet again on another large hit (with Wurst r/ring to push huge temps and 5:4 as Nomad) was not an option.

2022-07-15 14:59:35 Snowflake Melter (#4) conquered 69 land from Squanchy (#10).
2022-07-15 15:59:54 Magnum (#5) invaded Snowflake Melter (#4) and captured 114 land.
2022-07-15 16:55:44 Pickle Rick (#10) invaded Magnum (#5) and captured 70 land.
2022-07-15 16:57:53 Birdperson (#10) invaded Magnum (#5) and captured 71 land.
2022-07-15 17:59:53 King Flippy Nips (#10) invaded Snowflake Melter (#4) and captured 104 land.
2022-07-15 18:53:55 Hide the pain (#4) conquered 117 land from King Flippy Nips (#10).

Realm 10 may have felt like they gained a lasting advantage, and they did appear to win out the exchange. But their builds weren't set up for longer-term success (even Birdperson, [bigchris27/allegorical] wasn't going to be capable of running in our estimation). Their best long-term threat was pretty clearly King Flippy Nips (InternetFett), and nobody saw the OP Volv had pushed until it was too late:

2022-07-15 23:58:30 Miss Piggy (#5) invaded King Flippy Nips (#10) and captured 97 land.

Volv was triple-tapped, including by 7's DE (Nate), but the suicide on the Nomad in 10 was well-timed after seeing how annoying Wurst was with his Nomad in 4.

2022-07-16 00:10:25 A result of genetics (#7) invaded Miss Piggy (#5) and captured 63 land. [Nate's first larger hit]

All the while, Ivetza was flying under the radar but keeping up nicely as Spirit. He didn't have a very efficient build at the time, but it ended up serving him well. 10's war on 4 ended without more fireworks, but then they re-declared...

Mid Round

With the first week over, a critical moment in the round came. 5:4 OPs were holding several large attackers from going all out, but not most of us in realm 5. Players like me who were efficient and smaller knew we wouldn't likely be targets of the suicides, so we just kept hitting--and so did Ivetza, despite being just a little smaller than some of the larger attackers at the time.

Erix was one of several who started pushing 5:4 while the rest of us went on a bot-hitting spree for about 4 days. Then, another pivotal moment. Snowflake, who hadn't sent since the 18th, suicided A result of genetics #7 (Nate). This kicked off a series of invasions that ended up putting us in a prime position to compete for the round.

2022-07-21 09:11:35 A result of genetics (#7) conquered 80 land from The Grean Peace Party (#0).
2022-07-21 13:59:48 Snowflake Melter (#4) invaded A result of genetics (#7) and captured 128 land.
2022-07-21 14:06:12 Magnum (#5) invaded Snowflake Melter (#4) and captured 116 land.
2022-07-21 14:17:07 Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) invaded Snowflake Melter (#4) and captured 92 land.
2022-07-21 14:41:38 Pickle Rick (#10) invaded Magnum (#5) and captured 100 land.
2022-07-21 14:57:46 Birdperson (#10) invaded Magnum (#5) and captured 92 land.
2022-07-21 15:52:48 King Flippy Nips (#10) invaded Snowflake Melter (#4) and captured 99 land.
2022-07-21 22:04:32 A result of genetics (#7) invaded Snowflake Melter (#4) and captured 77 land.

So now realm 4 was pretty much toast, 2 wasn't involved enough to keep up, 10 had benefitted but we knew we could overtake them in the long-run, and 7 were still scary but had suffered a setback. We still needed to deal with Pickle Rick, and the Spirit of Rent seeking behavior #7 (mris) was starting to look very strong too.

Quite a few bot hits later, 10 declared war on 7 on the 25th, though I don't think they had a lot of success as the DE wasn't sinkable and resilience prevented much lasting damage on the Spirit.

More bot hits, mostly.

The FW of Queen Bee #2 (Peabrain) fell too far behind and sent out unsafely:

2022-07-27 00:18:48 A result of genetics (#7) invaded Queen Bee (#2) and captured 143 land.
2022-07-27 00:29:21 Pickle Rick (#10) invaded Queen Bee (#2) and captured 133 land.
2022-07-27 02:55:48 Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) conquered 113 land from Queen Bee (#2). [We had to wake Ivetza up; the first of a few times]

Ivetza was no longer under the radar, but was able to keep up with the top 2 attackers' hits. 10 only had 5:4 to threaten with and it was more of an idle threat by this time. Genetics looked impossible to challenge with a better build and potentially a better race than Ivetza's Spirit, but all of the top doms hovered roughly around 120k OP/DP.

The top doms started hitting explorers, but a battle over the round win with 7 was inevitable. 7 had an advantage after Pickle Rick drained too many of his peasants trying to keep up as FW in that they essentially had a 2v1 against us, with all 3 races very happy to trade acres too. Rent seeking was on a knife's edge with his DP, but so was Ivetza for some of this part of the round. A silent battle of two Spirits began. But then, something very strange happened:

2022-07-31 06:27:05 A result of genetics (#7) invaded Losing my wife and kids in Las Vegas (#6) and captured 160 land.

Sly — 07/31/2022 you hitting him same hour? i dont understand why he left himself open?

As Rio said on the podcast, apparently Genetics had assumed Rent seeking would cover him, but Ivetza could hit Genetics without sending virtually any DP the next tick:

2022-07-31 07:36:17 Victorious on the battlefield, Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) conquered 226 land from A result of genetics (#7).

This was the beginning of the end for everyone else. Rent seeking was pushing 5:4 but as a Spirit who is already slightly behind, it was a little desperate and not going to be effective against Ivetza. Still, Genetics the DE looked amazing and it wasn't clear whether Nate or Ivetza was better positioned. But Rent seeking then allowed himself to get hit by Ivetza with only a suicide to retaliate. We assassinated his drafts assuming he wanted to push more spec OP, though he still got the suicide off on Ivetza.

2022-08-01 00:15:10 Victorious on the battlefield, Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) conquered 204 land from Rent seeking behavior (#7).
2022-08-01 01:18:26 Rent seeking behavior (#7) invaded fellow dominion Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) and captured 313 land.
2022-08-01 01:38:01 Birdperson (#10) invaded Rent seeking behavior (#7) and captured 228 land.
2022-08-01 01:59:21 Pickle Rick (#10) invaded Rent seeking behavior (#7) and captured 213 land.
2022-08-01 01:59:52 Been There Drone That (#2) invaded Rent seeking behavior (#7) and captured 188 land.

I decided against hitting as I felt like I was in a great spot and could afford to wait this mess out a bit longer. Rent seeking could've retaliated on me safely too if I'd joined in. Instead, he hit me all in (I had AC off because it was such a stretch of a sui for him):

2022-08-01 13:01:05 Rent seeking behavior (#7) invaded fellow dominion here we go again (#5) and captured 151 land.
2022-08-01 13:02:59 Victorious on the battlefield, Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) conquered 180 land from Rent seeking behavior (#7).
2022-08-01 13:18:35 Victorious on the battlefield, here we go again (#5) conquered 232 land from Rent seeking behavior (#7).
2022-08-01 13:59:39 Birdperson (#10) invaded Rent seeking behavior (#7) and captured 171 land.
2022-08-01 13:59:46 Pickle Rick (#10) invaded Rent seeking behavior (#7) and captured 163 land.
2022-08-01 13:59:53 A result of genetics (#7) invaded Wandering Souls (#4) and captured 160 land.

Okay, not ideal for me but also not all bad, and great for Ivetza as 10 were still clinging on only really posing a significant threat to Rent seeking and not us. Rent seeking climbed back up near Ivetza's range and pushed more 5:4...

Final Stages

A few explorer hits later, we arrived at somewhat of an arms race. Genetics wanted to push out into the lead while Rent seeking wanted to threaten to jump into Ivetza's range to suicide. I decided our best course of action was for me to simply hit Rent all in to prevent him from even threatening Ivetza, which wouldn't take long since Rent wasn't training much DP.

At one point Rent seeking had explored some acres to just barely get into range which I caught, but we made sure Ivetza had the DP to cover. I closed in on having the OP to break Rent, and according to Rio on the podcast, they realized I was going to hit Rent so he took his DB without thinking. But his DB was keeping him out of Ivetza's range. We actually had an internal debate about whether or not I should still be the one to hit Rent as it would've given me a massive amount of land, but ultimately Ivetza made the call to hit Rent himself. It worked out in the end:

2022-08-05 00:59:55 Victorious on the battlefield, Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) conquered 203 land from Rent seeking behavior (#7).

Rent's round was over from there and it was a straight fight for the win. It still looked like Genetics would be a huge pain to overcome, even now, and we noticed the Gnome of Rest and Ricklaxation #3 (Rury) starting to look quite strong. Rury said he saw me as a threat and hit me instead of Rent (despite Rent being like 800 acres larger):

2022-08-05 22:59:40 Rest and Ricklaxation (#3) invaded fellow dominion here we go again (#5) and captured 223 land.

But the fight was really between Ivetza and Nate. Just as we assumed it would be a long and hard fight, another mistake from 7. Bobbo got hit all in, maybe AC drop? I don't recall, but it didn't matter. I guess Nate assumed Rent would cover him or that his DP covered Ivetza, but hitting at the start of the hour allowed Ivetza to fully, safely smash Genetics with his PKs (though he took quite some time to wake up).

2022-08-06 00:00:38 A result of genetics (#7) invaded Pickle Rick (#10) and captured 205 land.
2022-08-06 00:58:25 Victorious on the battlefield, Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) conquered 274 land from A result of genetics (#7).

From there it was certain that Ivetza would win. Genetics fought for second place and probably did the right thing in trying to hold down Rury's Gnome:

2022-08-10 15:59:20 Rest and Ricklaxation (#3) invaded Wandering Souls (#4) and captured 205 land.
2022-08-10 23:59:56 A result of genetics (#7) invaded Rest and Ricklaxation (#3) and captured 231 land.
2022-08-11 00:06:04 Victorious on the battlefield, Little 👻👻👻 army (#5) conquered 275 land from A result of genetics (#7).

And his other future-top-5 competitors as well, hitting Genetics 3-4 more times after Genetics hit the up-and-comers.

Ivetza closed out the round by hitting the top 3 out-of-realm explorers to ensure Templeman finished as the largest explorer.

Some shoutouts from me:

Manno, awesome realm names. WE wasn't the best race this round but you still did well and were a great teammate. Templeman was always getting ops for anyone and everyone, even with being a competitive explorer. Erix was super active and played FW attacker very well to make sure the rest of us had a shot. Gipsa played pretty well as Nomad and probably tanked a hit or 2 so that someone else didn't have to lol. Sarmis had an interesting converting strategy and was essential for getting wiz ops on Genetics. And of course congratulations again to Ivetza, well played.

Finally a quote from Ivetza in the discord:
Thanks all! A nice team win! @Erix you crazy mf, @Sly you deserve a bigger finish, @Templeman my favourite ops bitz please pack with us next round 😂, @Volv i hope you smash them good in SL, @vovin after all those years you are still the N1 nublette in dominion, @Gipsa you will pay for that call at 2 am. in the night, @rompar Glory Glory Man Utd, @MannoWrath woodies need a boost!

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