tl; dr: For the second straight year, the non-elite faction In Memory of the Fallen has pulled off the longest, craziest, and most improbable chain of the year.
The Longest 50k (2021)
The Longest 100k (2022)
When SimbaJack messaged me on October 11th and invited me to guest with IMotF for their run at a 100k chain, I was skeptical. Since I’d left the faction in April, they hadn’t even done so much as a 10k chain. Besides, I was (and am) very happy with my role at Twisted, and with my health problems I wasn’t sure how useful I’d be on a chain that lasted for more than a few days. Still, that 17-day 50k chain we’d pulled off at IMotF last year had been so insane, and so much fun. Instead of saying no, I told Simba that the only way I’d do it was if Kelfi asked me to.
Kelfi is the heart and soul of IMotF. She’d been exceptionally kind and supportive during my year in the faction, and from what I can tell she tries to be that way toward everyone. She’s just awesome. We messaged back and forth for a couple of days until deciding that, even if we weren’t entirely convinced that a 100k was feasible, she wanted me to come over and help them try. A couple other good friends who had also moved on from IMotF agreed to join us.
Like seemingly every other faction in Torn aside from BB&B, we started our chain at the beginning of the Halloween event. Despite the frustrating lag and 504 errors, we persevered and kept it going. However, we were nowhere near the pace of the other factions going for 100k. We had a couple of chainers making excellent use of books and boosters to rack up the hits and a few others employing Dark Power and/or FHCs in pursuit of extra treats, but by far most of the faction were using nothing but Xanax, points refills, and natural E. When PT-Family finished their 100k chain, we had barely reached 30k. And when the Halloween event came to an end, we were still over 60k hits away from our goal.
As was to be expected, our pace dropped precipitously at that point. But something else happened that was really cool. Lots and lots of folks, both IMotF mainstays and guests, stepped up to help watch. Most could not commit to more than an hour or two, but with few exceptions they showed up when they said they would and did not leave without confirming that their relief had arrived. And backing them up was an army of lurkers, people with work and/or family commitments who nonetheless kept logging on for hours day after day to make sure the chain was secure. It was a true team effort, and despite the slow pace the chain seldom seemed in any danger of dropping.
At the start most were understandably more concerned with maximizing their treat totals (and finding available targets) than maximizing respect gains for the faction, and over the course of the chain some preferred the easier approach of punching babies over the challenges of developing a good target list, managing medical cooldown, waiting for the best targets to be out of hosp, etc. However, many understood that the chief benefit of doing long chains is the high chain multiplier and the potential to earn large amounts of respect per hit, and they acted accordingly.
The 13 bonus hits of a 100k chain provide a total of 81,910 respect. Ordinary attacks earned another 517,699 respect, As a result IMotF rose from 120th to 94th in the faction respect rankings.
These are the hitters who earned at least 10,000 respect for the faction (without including bonus hits).
Note: Simba now holds the record for most respect in a single chain, with or without bonuses.
Elmo holds the record for most hits in a single chain.
A special shoutout to Ratstar, who missed the first six days due to commitments elsewhere but still managed 1212 hits for 9451 respect. Kudos also to MgTheGreat, who only joined for the final 30k hits and averaged an insane 9.19 per hit with the help of his RW Warlord weapons. Thanks also to Mg for sponsoring the “greatest loser” racing series that added some fun to the grind of the last few days of chaining.
That was joyous. And exhausting. And surreal. Many thanks to the leadership of IMotF for allowing me to be a part of it.
The Longest 50k (2021)
The Longest 100k (2022)
When SimbaJack messaged me on October 11th and invited me to guest with IMotF for their run at a 100k chain, I was skeptical. Since I’d left the faction in April, they hadn’t even done so much as a 10k chain. Besides, I was (and am) very happy with my role at Twisted, and with my health problems I wasn’t sure how useful I’d be on a chain that lasted for more than a few days. Still, that 17-day 50k chain we’d pulled off at IMotF last year had been so insane, and so much fun. Instead of saying no, I told Simba that the only way I’d do it was if Kelfi asked me to.
Kelfi is the heart and soul of IMotF. She’d been exceptionally kind and supportive during my year in the faction, and from what I can tell she tries to be that way toward everyone. She’s just awesome. We messaged back and forth for a couple of days until deciding that, even if we weren’t entirely convinced that a 100k was feasible, she wanted me to come over and help them try. A couple other good friends who had also moved on from IMotF agreed to join us.
Like seemingly every other faction in Torn aside from BB&B, we started our chain at the beginning of the Halloween event. Despite the frustrating lag and 504 errors, we persevered and kept it going. However, we were nowhere near the pace of the other factions going for 100k. We had a couple of chainers making excellent use of books and boosters to rack up the hits and a few others employing Dark Power and/or FHCs in pursuit of extra treats, but by far most of the faction were using nothing but Xanax, points refills, and natural E. When PT-Family finished their 100k chain, we had barely reached 30k. And when the Halloween event came to an end, we were still over 60k hits away from our goal.
As was to be expected, our pace dropped precipitously at that point. But something else happened that was really cool. Lots and lots of folks, both IMotF mainstays and guests, stepped up to help watch. Most could not commit to more than an hour or two, but with few exceptions they showed up when they said they would and did not leave without confirming that their relief had arrived. And backing them up was an army of lurkers, people with work and/or family commitments who nonetheless kept logging on for hours day after day to make sure the chain was secure. It was a true team effort, and despite the slow pace the chain seldom seemed in any danger of dropping.
At the start most were understandably more concerned with maximizing their treat totals (and finding available targets) than maximizing respect gains for the faction, and over the course of the chain some preferred the easier approach of punching babies over the challenges of developing a good target list, managing medical cooldown, waiting for the best targets to be out of hosp, etc. However, many understood that the chief benefit of doing long chains is the high chain multiplier and the potential to earn large amounts of respect per hit, and they acted accordingly.
The 13 bonus hits of a 100k chain provide a total of 81,910 respect. Ordinary attacks earned another 517,699 respect, As a result IMotF rose from 120th to 94th in the faction respect rankings.
These are the hitters who earned at least 10,000 respect for the faction (without including bonus hits).
| as of 11.16 1300 | respect w/o bonus | total hits | average |
| SimbaJack | 17402 | 2703 | 6.44 |
| onlyelmosaints | 16072 | 2975 | 5.40 |
| rocko0031 | 14529 | 2227 | 6.52 |
| imaginarytruths | 14411 | 2557 | 5.64 |
| kelfi | 13236 | 1861 | 7.12 |
| lordarrakis | 12914 | 1905 | 6.78 |
| six1167 | 11709 | 1816 | 6.45 |
| caz9443 | 10271 | 1691 | 6.07 |
| Sheepie | 10153 | 1729 | 5.88 |
Elmo holds the record for most hits in a single chain.
A special shoutout to Ratstar, who missed the first six days due to commitments elsewhere but still managed 1212 hits for 9451 respect. Kudos also to MgTheGreat, who only joined for the final 30k hits and averaged an insane 9.19 per hit with the help of his RW Warlord weapons. Thanks also to Mg for sponsoring the “greatest loser” racing series that added some fun to the grind of the last few days of chaining.
That was joyous. And exhausting. And surreal. Many thanks to the leadership of IMotF for allowing me to be a part of it.
![[image: cdn.discordapp.com]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/783256391950663683/1041414206513221754/imotf2.gif){kind=link}