To really understand my plan and what happened this elims you must first look back to last year's competition.
First little note though because I don't want it to get buried in the following yappening, please Ched next year make two teams be named "Dumb" and "Dumber". I think that would be very funny, maybe even MM and NW get on those teams and then have to ally.
Anyway's here is my inside scoop post :) check out Kwack's too tho (link at very bottom). Took me a bit to write so sorry for being late :)
Prynce (High Voltage) and I (Reptilians) met last year while Breakfast Club was trying to save my team (Punchbags), from our 1v5 (eventually 4v2 with BC's help). As both our lives fizzled we became good friends and realized we should make a pact to eliminate ne'er-do-wells from Elims this year. An alliance upon those truly willing to stab backs for the sake of a merit instead of playing elims as it could be played, with sound mind or even, maybe, potentially, dare I say, honorably. This same bond between Prynce and I was also built between Pinguux and I. Unfortunately though he sadly was not able to find himself leader and also happened to be found a target by every single team due to their strength. Many teams wanted Touching Grass out first instead of 9L.
Which is how we get to September 5th when I made my 5 attacks, joined elims, and made my post running for leadership.
HV and I did not speak much during our elections and during the initial diplomacy that followed as more and more leaders looked to build ties to all teams. This was pretty much to plan, needing all others to presume us fairly distant so to not arouse suspicions that we were actually the closest of any team allied at that point. Neither of us would have given each other the win though, lets get that straight, we both wanted the merit.
9L and IO were the first to go. Partly because one of the members they brought in was HV and as stated, was not truly aligned with 9L or IO but me and Touching Grass. When I told HV that they were going to eventually be on the wrong side of a 9v3 they swapped to NightWing's (Loose Cannons) side. Somehow 9L and IO thought that HV was the first to swap but tbh they were not at all. Somehow I also got moderator perms in their alliance discord when the turning shit show began and got lots of juicy screenshots of their special channel that us peasants without mod were unable to see.
You better send me 1b AiR as a thank you for not leaking anything but this /s
The same applied to BS and CT, whom in trusting HV let us know that the Reptilians were going to be BS and CT's first target to be eliminated.
At this point every other team except for BS and CT was allied with me and A) Wouldn't let us get targeted simply because they thought we were the weakest team and a good team to bring into the final 3 as we could be easily killed thereafter. And B) Had thought I was an open book and a friendly face to talk to (I was). I went in saying I would not tell lies and I did not tell lies at all. I like to think leadership of other teams acknowledged it and I gained some bonus points for that lol. I never once betrayed an ally even if SS and Apex yelled at me for not obliging with their Snake of my own team and HV.
The next to go was sadly Touching Grass. TG was a team I was close to. Pinguux is another of my good friends I met last elims and would have loved in the final 6 though it would have came at the price of HV not being included. After getting them not targeted for 4 eliminations already there was little I could do to stop Apex/LC from wanting their head whilst TG also did not want my own ally in their communicated top six (that TG and Apex had cooked up in secret). It included RS, SS, RE (us), Apex and TG. (I believe that to be the list but Ive been playing torn 24/7 for 2 weeks straight so please don't mind the tad bit of fogginess).
One of the flaws of Elims is that among the twenty four thousand people to have registered for it this year. Only about 12 know the true reasons for why teams are getting out. In the forums, one might assume LC got out because of NW's forum drama, as that is mainly what the actual participants of elims have for info on the events that occur (I do not count the newsletter because it is just so plainly wrong at all times on the events of this year's elims). I want to clear up NightWing's name.
Loose Cannons got out, simply because the other teams had no use for them any more. In elims, the biggest target comes from being able to decide who gets out next. If you go into debt in this diplomatic currency, by deciding who gets out next so many times, you place yourself in such a huge position to be a diplomatic threat and thus, out next, over and over again until you finally are. Nobody else wanted that burden/debt and let LC take it themselves, ultimately they were used by those not wanting to place targets upon themselves by getting 9L and many others out. After Grass, teams did not need them around any more and decided to gang up on them. This was regardless and predicted, well before the forum drama between NW and MM had even happened the day before.
Now onto the top six, which is what KillerCareBear (one of my council members) states, is "when elims actually starts".
In my plan, I knew that as long as I got to top six with HV or TG in it, I could have at least one ally among the rest and thus have a great chance of winning.
We got that top six achieved and so after SS frequently told me they hated the thought of Andrew on RS getting even the slight smell of top 3, I figured if I got people to attack RS instead of us, I could maintain the entire alliance and not fear for my team's livelihood.
This was not the case and it ultimately became a 4v2 (or 3v2v1 because nobody knew what the fuck GD was doing while they were apparently without orders for 40 minutes straight at one point). Apex wanted High Voltage gone (strategically as HV was the only contender in a 1v1 against Apex). LC dumped all their energy on helping us zero RS, this was so if Reptilians were to then subsequently be zeroed in retaliation, we would just need to stay afloat instead of having to now zero someone else while being zeroed ourselves. All that only to then be able to fight for tiebreakers. It was just easier to already have a team on zero.
Crucially, TAG, Andrew and I had no beef with each other (I am also a vegetarian too so no beef with anyone regardless, but I digress, shitty joke) and they were only dragged down by us because SS had told me they wanted them out. I would have had Apex or Gold Dust dragged down had I known they too would turn on us as Apex was (as I'll get into later) the head of the top 6 beast and Gold Dust was the weakest team in Elims by a far margin and would have been very easy to win tiebreakers against.
RS and I spoke often during those tiebreakers between us. We spoke about how the tiebreakers were stupid but it would be hard to trust one another to truly drag someone else down while we were both at each other's throats to stay alive. I could eventually trust them though as they realized LDP's negotiating strategy for Apex this year was to essentially groom all teams into believing a 1v1 with them was plausible, and that Apex was their only ally. Especially that Apex only had that deal with them. When in reality it was with all. The dude is nice tho, just its a very scummy tactic.
As RS realized Apex's deals were never going to come true they flipped and we dragged down the next best candidate SS. Who like RS just got caught in the crossfire, SS was a cool team too. We believed though that if we were able to bring them down and eliminate them, we would have secured a 2v3 and eventually my alliance of RS HV and RE would become our top three. What we see in the actual ending right now is just the inverse. The other side was able to get RS out first before SS fell because HV and the Reptilians had already gotten RS down in lives for them when RS was on their side (also in spite of all odds in a 4v2 which is pretty cool of us). Also I genuinely have no idea what GD thought was going to happen in this current 1v1. I believe I even told them they weren't going to win any other 1v1 unless it was against us.
We truly tried to get SS out before RS. Spending 1.3b on hostile revives on select SS members with a list of those to be revived given to our newbs for push purposes during every single tick to hold them down every single tick. Ultimately though we could not keep pressure even once SS was out, as 10b of Monarch Mercs from Apex stomped our med cooldown into oblivion. And so with wings on fire, we still fell.
I do not think I will run next year, I doubt I have the time nor energy to do this all again for my merit. I will most likely join a team but just try and get in as many hits as I can and help out others actually in leadership. I wont take 2 weeks out of my life and work, to then be on 24/7 and be woken up in the middle of the night about alliance stuff lol.
I could not have wished to be on any other team this elims. I went in with the most rag tag group, won an election that came down to a margin of 10 whilst a woman named Vanessa_McPussy took 33 votes, and managed to along side my various incredible co-leads, council and push captains, create an elims force so good at pushes, other leaders even told me they were heavily impressed.
With many things in life we almost always regret any outcome, whether that be for spending time doing it or not spending the time to do it.
I knew for Elims there would only be regret not doing it.
I am so fucking proud of you all, you mad mad reptiles.
(Also that one typo in the newsletter was because after spending ten hours referring to both SS and RS as enemies and allies, at one point one is bound to mix up typing SS and RS)
To credit them, and for record keeping:
My wonderful Vice-Captains were Belle, Brad0812, CAV, FidelCashflow and Kwack,
My Council was Fogest, KillerCareBear, Lewwer, Paul, Tim and Hat,
My push captains were CapWckG, Clubs, CousinShiggy DailyTheft, han22, Lezen, Lord_Voldemort, NARO, pickledog, Ploppi, R1NGOosey, RT0, RubyFalls, The_Lone_Hunter and WanderingOwl97.
My Armorers were CousinShiggy, MrArdor, ORION and TexasTornado.
All these people made my team such a wonderful one. We had the greatest pushes of all teams and my push captains were at the top of their game so often. I hope to see all of you guys in future eliminations and hopefully not on other teams XD.
On top of incredible pushes, KillerCareBear (KCB) educated the most noobs out of anyone I have ever seen. She prob had more dms from people than I did (and some particularly not cool ones either).
If any of you all need some sort of referral for anything torn related I will happily do so, maybe even irl too.
And one final note to all leaders of teams, I loved meeting you guys and talking with you guys for hours these two weeks :) It was really neat making more friends even if some were angered or puzzled eventually by my siding with Prynce to the death. Made for a fun fight and the best time in elims Ive ever had.
Link to Kwack's forum post: https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=2&t=16602724&b=0&a=0 
Thank you all for your time and faith in me to be your leader,
Starkiller
Ps: if you haven't already put a banner in your profile description :)))