I HAVE BEEN TOLD THIS IS A BIT LONG - IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ IT ALL, REFER TO THE SET OF TITLES LISTED BELOW, AND READ WHAT INTERESTS YOU.
I have decided to write down a short set of memoirs in reference to my time in TORN. I will be writing to fill in a few set criteria, under which I will be including hopefully a few quotes at least, if not, as well as my own stories and memoirs. Prepare to be named and shamed y'all. I should be working along the lines of:
My beginnings
My friends & Not so much
Faction life
My character evolution
Trolling
Bans? Fed?
Leaving?
My Beginnings
I came from a humble background in terms of my torn career, I started playing aged 11, 6 years ago, and decided that I wanted to stick around. I had found the game on my Kindle paper white's browser (primitive I'm aware, but as an 11 year old it was the shit), when I was searching for a text based game to pass the time... Turns out I was bored. I got fedded on that account for multis maybe, 200 days in, and didn't return to the game until 2 years later, aged 13. I don't recall much from those days, apart from being very active in IRC until my mum caught me on it and banned me from using IRC to talk to strangers... Quite ironic based upon the famously friendly community of TORN... I couldn't care less if I get ribbed in the replies for having shit from my mum, I was 13 - grow up xD. I quit again for another couple of years, until I returned on an account commonly known as Vexxed, or Split. I restarted on that one after a lot of issues (I'll go into them in factions lol). Restarted again on the first Hazy account which came after that, and here I am now.
Friends & Not SoFriends...
My first ever friend on TORN was a guy called LEGOMANHAND96 - he gave me 25k on my very first account, aged 3 days. Cool guy to my 11 year old self, I wonder where he's at now?
Bringing it more recently, to a more mature age, I have found myself bouncing between wanting to be a troll, and being one of the inner circle of TORN. I'll confess, that initially, I wanted to be friends with Dexy, as I have always found her to be an attractive personality, always really bubbly, and she was always lovely to me, long as I was willing to respect her, and not be a cock. Thanks for that Dexy. I have found myself liking a lot of that group, Dexy, BellaDonnaB, most of the other cougars, all at least 20 years older than me, treating me like an extra child, it was nice, until I decided I wanted to cyber Kinkerbell, and we tried it, but it was just not compatible. From then on, I was no longer the "little boy of global", I was sick of being it, and decided to become a man. All of my adopted mothers became estranged, as much as I liked to try and be their friends, much like my own mother, they couldn't handle seeing their little man grow up, and kept telling me I "used to be such a nice kid", not realising that I was a man with a raging hard on that the rest of TORN city was about to feel. Hazy: You knew me in the past LucyPanda: I know. Hazy: As a kid LucyPanda: You were a lot nicer back then.
I changed group, found myself chilling with hill, finding comfort in his whiny, shit talking habits, I especially enjoyed his constant bitching about Collete and Lane, if I could, I would bring up his accusations, but I don't want an early forum ban/fed trip, thanks.
Speaking of Lane, him & I have never got on, I found his "habits" and his bad temper made him an easy target to troll, and he especially didn't like it when I made a troll report, that ended in a 60 day chat ban for his ass... That was funny.
Faction Life
I've had a pretty basic bitch faction life - I was in Little Stompers on my Vexxed account before I got kicked for being too mouthy in faction chat - they have gone to shit since I left. I left LS, and found myself in the ELITE family, and they loved my chaining skills on the old system, and I found myself in the ELITE Inc (the big boy faction) within a few weeks. This was meant to be my home, until a little troll of mine got out of hand. There had recently been a scam within the faction of about $400,000,000 by a fella named SportyOh, and he had been chained on by the entire family for a good while. I decided to tell the leader, in my youthful idiocy, that I was SportyOh's restart as an offhand joke... Found myself kicked from the fac and permanently bountied, so I chose to restart. On my restart I was in One Punch for most of the 400 days, but my trolling and bad mouth got me kicked again in the end, I also had TRT on my ass for the fact I was cybering LadyFox - chit wasn'tpleased either xD
CharacterEvolution
My character evolution in TORN has been an interesting one. When I very first started, I was nowt more than a starry eyed innocent kid, I barely understood the game, I only really played it to pass time, I was fairly estranged from the other players. It wasn't until I got kicked from Little Stompers that I really began to develop my character. As I have already mentioned, I used to play the character of this innocent little boy, which was then broken by the sex fiend - Kinkerbell, and led me to my cybering stage, my body count is currently 12, not bad for a kid, eh?
I moved on to trolling when I was maybe, 17, and i had just developed what I call my "troll sense". Through hill's constant bitter whining, I learnt to develop a troll sense, a sense of when was the best time to interject into a conversation with a cancerous comment, just with the objective of triggering someone, and I have honed that sense over the past years, until I discovered DUDE's discord server, where I found a final home.
Here my body count doubled from 6 to 12, cybering Lilly, Clem, LadyFox (I regret this after she cybered Chit and sent him her nudes [:sick:] , but oh well), and a couple others who I don't gotta expose like that. My body count isn't what I found best here tho, here is where I found my best trait with trolling - my ability to fake a character and use it to wind up a whole load of people. I realise, TORN don't like change much. I found my forum style too, my forte seemed to be normal seeming posts, with a deceptive, trolling underline.
Hazy: What did you first think of me for starters? TheLuvlillypink: A wannabe kid trying to fit in with the famous trolls, trying too hard to impress people
Trolling
Much as I hate to admit it, I am a troll, and I always have been. My personal troll highlight is trolling my way into getting Lane his 60 day chat ban - I am proud of that, and always will be, seeing a shit stain get a temporary polish is always nice.
My trolling style has always been mass wind ups, nothing gives me a giggle better than seeing some pathetic loser in the community (mostly in global chat) start flaming at me for nothing more than greeting them after a couple of minutes of previous wind ups - its a satisfying feeling.
Something else I find entertaining is the way that certain players (with high DEXteritY to get up hills) decide to try and play mature with trolls, telling others to "stop feeding the trolls" or to "ignore the trolls", and calling out certain players as trolls, acting as if they are trollproof. They are not. End of story. Especially after cybering one of these trolls....
Bans? Fed?
Despite my disgusting flaming habits, regularly calling out certain players as pedos or other dumb shit (I'm not proud of it, but it is what it is), I have only ever actually received 2 bans in my life, 3 day chat bans, both for extreme flaming/obscene content.... Somehow, I have also only ever had one account fedded (I'm not counting restarts, those are by choice), which was when I made a multi account on day 1 of this account, and was made for the sake of flaming Lane after my restart - again, it was a stupid decision, but thankfully the staff member who dealt with me was feeling nice, and I instead got an official warning, because the account was not used to obtain any funds, and was not with malicious intent.
Leaving?
In reality, I don't intend on quitting TORN any time soon. I just made this thread in hope of you guys finding it interesting to see into the mind of a teenage troll, maybe it was a longun', but I'm trying to work on my writing skills to apply for reporter, do I apologize xD
Closing Statement:
Thanks everyone if you made it this far, this was fun as heck to write, and I y'all enjoyed. Thanks for resding again,
Hey all, my name is Hazy. I am a 17 year old kid, getting back into TORN after a little while, looking to make a little bit of money to pay for Xanax and stuff.
I decided, why not combine something I love with something else I love, and sell some hand drawn images!
As for what I charge... There is no set rate. I don't want to ostracize people, so I am letting the customers decide what to pay. Hell, if you feel really stingy, pay nothing at all, I'm just a noob what can I do about it!!
For those who read my previous post - so most of you, this is a follow up post, centric around the most impressive aspect of my TORN experience. That, of course, is cybering. This thread, unlike the other one, will not be about naming and shaming, instead more about my experiences in the ring (literally, and figuratively) and my feelings about it as a more mature man.
What is Cybering?
To avoid getting struck with a PG-13 edit, cybering is, in short - the use of an online messaging platform such as Discord to discuss, roleplay, and generally converse in a sexual manner. You may refer to it as "cheeky fun time" or, in the words of a no name in a Discord server: "sneak peek games".
Why do I care so much about it?
I have spent a large part of my torn career involved in the sex cult that runs with in TORN's hidden cavities. Therefore, I have learnt to have a love/hate relationship with the ring, I find that I enjoy how tight and closed it is. The way that you can slide in and out of the circle effortlessly makes it an effective guilty pleasure, one which should be done in anonymity. I engaged in coitas with a culture that would clamp down on me until part of me fell off. In short, beyond all the metaphors, I became addicted.
How big really is this ring?
Ever seen Nicki Minaj's ass? That's pretty big, right? Think bigger. Kim Kardashian? Bigger. DJ Khaled? Almost. There are HUGE players cybering on a regular basis, whether they are married, single, underage, retired, even the clinically insane are involved in the ring. The ring is tight as hell, but once you get in, it just gets deeper and deeper.
Am I a professional?
No. There are many players with a significantly higher body count than I, even with my highly respectable count of 15, I'm pretty sure that there are players *AHEM* CHIT *AHEM* who must be verging on triple figures by now. Despite my youth, however, I have had women four times my real life age drooling over me - one went so far as to call me "The best I've ever had".
How can you acquire my services?
Now is as good of a time as any to announce... I am retiring from the cyber game. It is time for me to pull out of the ring. It's been a wild ride, and despite finishing several times, the game has only just begun for me. Saying that, I will make one off exceptions - birthday parties, weddings, other special events, for a small fee. PM me for details.
Closure.
Thanks for reading the closing chapter in my cyber saga - it's been good fun, both to play, and to write. I wanted to say thanks to all of my bodies, and apologies to all of the spouses I have left jealous of my skills.
Thanks again for reading, this has been the main man Hazy.
Hi all, my name is Hazy. You may recognise my name from other forum posts, most of which are shitposts, acting under the influence of trolls. Those days are gone.
I am recruiting a crack team of people to help me build this foundation in TORN - a group of people, with a collective enjoyment of the game, and a group aim to help make everyone else's playing experience better, and maybe put some smiles on a few faces.
My aim in creating this foundation, is to form a beacon within the game, to which anybody who needs support of any form, whether it be IRL problem that they just need to talk about, or an in game problem that they need advice, or if feasible, aid with, we will hopefully be able to offer some help, if not, then just a friendly shoulder to lean on and a face to talk to.
I am looking for volunteers - people who are willing to help with this project I am working on. Please PM me, or reply to this thread if you are willing to help. :)
For now, the communication around this will probably be all within this thread and my PMs, however I am working on a discord that will offer private voice chats to talk about things, private chat rooms if someone needs it, as well as a general chat, and positive vibes!
So if you have a problem, TORN related or not, hit me up, and I'll do my best. To reiterate - I do need help with this myself, if anybody wants to sign up to lend hand, PM me, or say so in the replies section down below. :)
The basic concept of Schizophrenia is enough to send a life spiralling into decay, whether living with it inside your head or inside your life. The word strikes agony into anybody affected by it, even simply the fear caused by being a carrier of the gene that causes it. Just being in possession of the risk of losing everything on the outside, and breaking everything on the inside is enough to want to end a bloodline. My grandmother is a schizophrenic, and that, in turn makes me just that – a carrier. At aged 16, I am at prime age to start losing everything on the outside, as a explained earlier. This is terrifying. I live in fear of my own potential, of the damage I could end up causing everybody around me, losing them, and having to watch them lose me, stuck inside my own head. No, I am not a sufferer, and there isn’t a chance in hell that I could ever understand the true suffering at my age and experience. However, I have spent a lot of time close to sufferers, and have spent most of my life having to listen to my parents discussing in agony and misery, of the declining state of my Ajji.
On an even more personal level, my own battles with depression and emotional instability have been running rampant inside my head recently, causing rifts in friendships, instability in relationships, and fights at home, often ending in explosive rage or uncontrollable depressive episodes on my part. I have spent the best part of two years suffering from random onset depressive episodes, which happen on top of a consistent lack of self-esteem, self-respect & constant self-beating. By self-beating, I am referring to the manner in which I refuse to allow myself any positive emotion in regards to myself, an achievement I may have earnt, and reject any compliments sent in my direction. Often I try and explain this behaviour, and fail. The closest I have come to explaining it is as a form of self-harm, to remind myself that I am only human, one in eight billion, and of the overall insignificance of my life. However much this may be harsh or untrue, the numbers can’t be disputed, and that’s enough justification for me.
When it comes to my relationship with my mind, I have been unable to find a middle ground between stability (which seems virtually unattainable by this point) and being completely unable to control my own emotion. This leads to very stressful episodes, in which I am losing grip, but am still in complete control. Sounds oxymoronic, and in many ways it is. To put it simply, I find myself being in complete control of my emotions, but very forcibly, and stressfully so. After no more than a few minutes of control, I very quickly begin to weaken, and my grip loosens, and these supressed emotions come out twice as strong as before, and twice as uncontrollably. This is all on the inside though, I have learnt to forcibly create an image of stability on the outside, which has led to many damaged relationships because of the nature in which this faux-stability can very easily be mistaken for isolation and coldness. The issue with this is that it causes arguments, which is usually enough to push that external control into submission, and allow the inner violence to spill out. This ends in the argument escalating as all my internal fire is released unto whoever falls victim.
When I lose control, it always seems that everything that could possibly go wrong will go wrong. No matter how hard I try, I seem unable to avoid the fact that whatever is going on inside me is inherently trying its hardest to end me and everything I have ever loved. I even scare myself, it’s like there’s a second me, a Hyde to my Jekyll. I’d like to think that most days I am inherently a nice person, I try my very hardest to love and care to the highest extent of my abilities, and I find that I am most satisfied with myself when I am told that I have made someone’s day. That’s why it hurts me limitlessly to find that I hurt people when I’ve lost control. I think the most shameful of these losses was the time that I gripped my girlfriend by the neck when in bed with her, because she refused to stop saying something that I didn’t want to hear. No pressure was applied, but even that snap movement was enough to prove to me that I was a risk to not only my own safety but other’s around me. My girlfriend is the most loving, caring & harmless creature in the world, and I would never do anything of that nature in my full state, hence why this has haunted me non-stop since, giving “the monster” more ammo to hit me with, and more reason to hate what I’ve become. However, I will get to my girlfriend later, she is the happy ending to my dark tale.
The depressive episodes themselves are sure something to think about. For the past 16-18 months I have been getting episodes of severe depression and anxiety, sporadically, maybe every 3-4 days, just feeling this dark force take over my body. I lose all energy and will, and it's like the life has been sucked out of me. I lose all will to live and love and I usually stop what I'm doing and just end up slumped in a corner. In this state I am easy to anger but also incredibly closed and volatile and incredibly easily hurt. I become susceptible to tears and thoughts of suicide and self-harm and I have on many occasions turned to drink to try and clear it or to forget. In these situations, I can genuinely feel all of the warmth be slowly drained from my body before the full onset of the episode hits me, as in I literally feel my body go cold. I have had girlfriend for the best part of a year, since my 16th, who I love with all my heart, and who helps me tenfold when we are together, but she can't always be there to help me, and she can't completely fix me. There will be times when I will go dark for half an hour, times when I can be like that for days, sometimes up to a week.
The hardest part of being stuck in this state of mind is the fact that my mind likes to take the tiniest things I do and use them to hurt me and mess with me, often to the verge of insanity. Sometimes, I attention seek, I fake things without feeling a thing, I lie & manipulate people for my own personal gain, or in some cases, simply just for fun. For me, this has never been an issue – it is what it is. The issue is that now, it got to the point that I can no longer separate the false from the real, and even worse so, my mind tells me that something is fake when I want it to be real, and then makes a fake episode feel like a real one for the sake of punishing me. At times, this internal conflict leads me to physically say aloud “I don’t know if this is real or not… what is going on with me?” and then burst into tears. When my mind is feeling particularly traumatising, I will be saying something, usually expression how I feel, and find myself physically having to hit things to tell myself whether it’s real or not. It’s awful, not being able to separate the real from the fake, and that’s just on a behavioural level. On an emotional level, my instability is so bad that I can also not separate my false emotion from my true emotion, and that makes for some serious internal warfare. I fake emotions with total ease, and tend to do so for fun, but now, every time I feel anything beyond my usual slight misery, I end up questioning it, unable to tell if it’s real, and therefore causing myself to become stressed, and on a few occasions, to have panic attacks.
On a similar wavelength to my difficulty to grasp my own emotional realities, I also tend to struggle a lot with my own self-image. My goals are constantly changing, what I think of myself and what I can do, what I want to be has never been a consistent image. Ever since a very young age, I have never really BEEN anything, nor have I had many consistent, long-term friendships, I think until aged 13 my longest true friendship was a year. I kept changing what I identified as, at one point I was an athlete, at another time a gamer, a scientist, a hacker, a performer. Everything I could possibly want to be I tried to be, and never stuck with any of them. To this day, I still find myself unable to envision myself doing anything in the future, nor can I set myself in the present as being anything, I am simply a nobody trying and failing to be a somebody in my eyes. I hate how I look, I hate how I’m built, I hate how I speak, how I write, what I write. I am a trained singer, yet I hate how I sing and keep damaging my voice trying to sing in ways I can’t. I want to learn to dance, but convince myself I never will, and with good reason. I want to train my sprinting abilities even more, I want to get fitter, yet as soon as I design myself a training regime, I stop doing it within a few days. I’m sick of trying,
To be completely honest, I just want it to stop, I feel like I'm completely out of control of my own moods and emotions, I sometimes spontaneously verbally or physically attack someone who I care about and then break into tears straight after, for the absolute dread of losing them. I seem to have a problem with attachment. I get easily attached to people and then these unstable relationships cause me total suffering when the time comes to break them, I will do anything in my power to avoid losing people, to the extent of causing myself mental trauma.
In terms of triggers for these episodes, they are mostly random, but there has been a few triggers implanted into my psyche, due to being bullied for most of my childhood years, which has led to things like being called weird, or a freak, or having someone make a joke/insult my Ajji becoming minor things that can send me into an uncontrollable rage, or a state of depression darker than anything that could possibly happen on it’s own. I have another set of triggers too, due to having someone play with me into falling in love with them, and playing with my self-esteem, to the point where I had convinced myself that I had saved a life (sick joke, in reality.)
Therefore, story time. Picture this. I am aged 14, miserable, lonely, tired of living, on the edge of my own downfall. One night, I get a message from a close friend, let’s call her Charlie for privacy’s sake. She messages me begging for help, because her friend is deeply suicidal. I ask her for her friend’s phone number, and I dial the number, and a voice answers, sounding like it was barely able to speak due to choking back tears. The voice on the end of the line was Charlie’s friend, let’s refer to her as Abby. I engaged in an all-night phone call with Abby, who was telling me all night that she wanted to die, and had had enough of living, and that tomorrow she was going to run away from home & end it all. As a 14 year old boy, I had no idea what the **** I was supposed to do, so I did what I do best… I talked. All night I was there, trying to get my head around this girl, her reasons, etc. The next morning came, and I asked her what she was going to do. She thanked me, and said that she was going to stay, at least just until tomorrow. I felt on top of the world…. I had just saved a life! I kept this up for weeks, talking to her every night, until she decided one night to tell me she “loves me”. I was… shocked, to say the least. Bare this in mind, I am a 14 year old depressed loner, convinced that I would never be loved in my lifetime, and that I would die alone. Those three words were enough to send me into absolute ecstasy, and I told her, in the heat of the moment, “I love you too”. It felt real. She had introduced me to all her friends, and I had been messaging all of them for weeks. She had even got me to have beef with her “ex-boyfriend”. This was all fine and dandy, I really felt part of her world. It was amazing, until this “world” started to burn gaping holes in itself. To cut a long story short, I had it revealed to me that it had all been a game. A ploy for attention, a way to satisfy Abby’s sociopathic need to feel like she’s in control. So, how does this relate to my triggers? Well, the fact that I have de-sensitized the story a little to avoid rambling means that it may have been lost in translation, but this was probably the most traumatic experience of my life. This girl has had me in tears, in laugher, in depressive episodes, in fear, in panic, all for attempting to neutralise the threat of a “suicide” which was never even a threat full stop. The trauma of hearing her beg me to let her die has scarred me to the point where simply hearing somebody repeating the words “please, please, please” is enough to send me into an episode, and generally begging is even worse. When I am being pleaded for things, no m matter by whom, I usually have to either ask them to stop, or I have to walk away, even if it is mid-conversation. People who try to use these weaknesses against me usually tend to end up triggering a fit of rage, rather than a depression, and usually ends in a fight, verbal or physical.
Rage. Where do I begin with this, the bruised knuckles, broken pencils, things that I throw, people attacked. I can’t explain why it happens, nor can I control it. Much like the depressive episodes, the more I try to supress it, the more damage it causes when it finally blows, both to me & those around me. I can feel this tension start to build up in my core, and this spreads to my arms, fist and jaw. I try my hardest to stay calm, but this feeling just causes more tension, more fire. I start by lowering my voice to a passive-aggressive snarl, but it takes nothing for it to build up to a yell, and a scream, which leads to swearing, insulting & eventually hitting something. If the people around me are lucky enough for me to be able to isolate myself in a room before I meltdown, then I of course have to take it out on myself. If there is a sharp object nearby, it goes into my fingers and/or wrist, if not then the nearest wall will take quite some abuse, punching, kicking, screaming, objects thrown at it, enough to make sure I feel it for a few days at least. There is no way for me to calm down, other than to beat it out of myself and then wait a little. The closest anyone can some is my girlfriend, who is at least able to subdue me with words of love and care, which to an extent makes me feel like hurting myself isn’t necessary.
Escapism is a game that is easy to play, yet difficult to master. I can find a way out, at least for a moment, which is better than nothing, except of course for the fact that it will always hit back harder, it’s simply delaying the inevitable. What works is escaping reality altogether. The obvious answers are alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, but these are pretty hard to come by aged 16, and when I do get my hands on it, my binge drinking attitude means it just ends in sickness, blackouts & panic attacks… god damn it feels good though when it doesn’t end badly, being able to feel invincible, like everything is okay. Well, feel invincible until I start to come down, then I get hit with a knockout depressive episode, but it feels good while it lasts. Drugs & I have never exactly had a good relationship, so I avoid them as much as possible. I have had asthma attacks smoking weed, and as self-destructive as I am, I don’t particularly want to die from smoking weed, its not even particularly effective. I have suffered from a paracetamol addiction in the past, stupid as it sounds, that stuff can do some serious damage if you take just the right amount. It saved me from insomnia, gave me a way to black out every night, became my best friend, and my bulimia’s best friend, strengthening the coffee which I used to drink every night (coffee makes me very sick), and adding a banging headache to go with it. It took all my strength, but both those issues are held at bay (not quite gone, I still get the urge, but I use everything in my power to supress it), which leads me to the only ways out I have left: Forming my own realities, and trying to drown out or hide what is already real. The way I formed my own was simple – the internet. Online I can be whoever I want, whatever I want, and it can’t do anything to hurt me. I can troll, I can have “friends” who I’ll never meet in real life, and who will never know who the real me is. I play roleplay games (RPGs, nothing kinky sadly) so that I can do just this, and live a second life vicariously through my character, being who I want to be without there being anything there to knock me down. Of course, there have been times when real life & the games cross, and at this point I have no choice but to do the usual; run & hide.
That leads me on to the best escape I’ve ever had – my girlfriend. The love of my life. Calling her an escape is doing her a massive disrespect, its more like a cure, an antidote. She found me when I was at my very very darkest point, and in the year that I’ve known her, she’s helped me stop drinking, stop taking paracetamol, stop being sick, and has helped reduce my episodes down to the lowest amount I have ever had them. When I do hit an episode, I can call her, and just the sound of her gentle, loving voice is enough to make me heart overflow with love. Love seems to be the only thing strong enough to overpower this dark force, and thanks to her I have love in abundance. I would go to the ends of the earth for her, and she would be there to carry me back if I have an asthma attack getting there! She is my cure, my escape, and everything I could possibly have to live for. Her and I both come with baggage, but we do our best to be there to carry one another’s, and to help eachother lighten the load. Maybe this dark tale has a happy ending after all.
The game has moved on, old man! Catch up or get left to drown....
Jokes aside, I had similar struggles a few years ago but to be honest it's just a change in environment, the game's development over time and new faces changing the landscape. It'll take a while, but throw yourself in like you did the first time round - find some of the joy you found as a new player; rebuild your network, train up your stats, become active in the forums again, join events, join a faction.
There are plenty of reasons why this game maintains such an absurd active player count, you just need to find yours.
that was not all that fun - had you actually paid attention, reptiles were farming off of their allies and being allowed to pre push 50-100 tickets uncontested while CT and Surgeons were kept at 0...
like winning a race against an opponent in concrete shoes
hey, at least Nightwing and MeanMike get to go to their hotel room early. they're the real winners here
worth the wait, damn good read and really insightful for any future captaincy delegates should any of the same names come up - which they inevitably will
I was wondering why this was taking so long.... Let me read and get back to you but sounds like the same story as the rest of us, alliances got scared and you got fucked.
Unlucky, and good showing while the grass was still green.
While flawed in many ways, the ticketing system allows for teams to execute targeted strikes on specific opponents and other strategic maneuvering outside of just "go kill". Removing that would simply be kneecapping the strategy and political aspect of the event - this dynamism is what makes it interesting year-in-year-out, apart from this year which has been a perfect demonstration of the biggest flaw this system carries.
That being, it's users - the system isn't broken, the users are breaking it. It's plain to see that the biggest flaw of Elims is also the aspect that makes it the most interesting to observe when it's going well. Alliances and politics are inevitable in a 12-team fuck-fest like this, especially when every team has the power to individually suppress another. It's the repetitive leadership, lack of fresh faces and the dominance of the HoF Families in controlling narratives that's been causing the event to go stale.
It's never about the team, it's always about someone's personal drama or hurt feelings; and it's not fair that 2,000 randoms have had their experience blown up on account of that. Prime example being Loose Cannons this year on account of Nightwing and MM's boylove novel or whatever the fuck is going on there.
Solution wise... I'm not sure, since changing the scoring system would be highly likely to kill the strategic element of the event and ruin the chaos that SHOULD ensue.
Stopping repeat captains would be a potential option, especially winning captains - it sank Zuni's team, sank Cheb's, Stretch last year, so on so forth. That said, repeat captaincy also offers interesting dynamics in revenge runs and "coming for the king" etc, so there's limitations there also.
When it all comes down to it, I don't think that Eliminations as a game mode or the systems within it need "improvement", rather we as a playerbase need to wisen up and stop making the same mistakes in the way we play and run it.
Hopefully the predictability and how generally uninteresting this year's event has been will encourage the playerbase next year to vote for captains who won't be setting them up to get victimised just with name value alone.
No shade at any previous winners or this year's captains, Zuni for example did the absolute best he could to take us all the way, but the powers that be decided to rig the system and target him because of history. Was it logical? Yes. Does it suck, since it set a precedent of Xv1 dogpiling for the rest of the event? Even more so.
Realistically, the system won't change so it's best that we change the way it operates from within.
![[image: media.tenor.com]](https://media.tenor.com/3fQpK58MOJ0AAAAM/drinking-pineapple-juice-jeremy.gif){kind=link}