Here's something that took longer than Apex trying to win. I know this post is very late, I was going to be on time, but then I decided I didn't want to, some things need to sipped slowly to be truely enjoyed.
Why did I join elims 2026?
Power, Connections, Fame, Glory?
Honestly since day 1 of playing Torn I told to stay clear of eliminations, my faction leader at the time didn't go much into detail other than it being a waste of energy. P.Dad wanted us to focus on training and doing hits, as a newbie who barely understood torn I followed blindly, all the way until last year, where after I have made my own Faction, Lumina Guards, and have developed the biggest thing I have been proud of in Torn up to that point. Along with the new faction I developed a new love for Torn, and this made me look into min/maxing some events. After reading about last year, I had a bit of regret not taking part. Then this year came rolling around and Goodfellas Inc. needing a few more connections in town, I could not turn it down. I made up my mind, I was ready to get pumpled into the ground, as long as I could make new connections for the faction I have devoted myself to...
Did I achieve my goal?
Yes but also yes and yes in unexpected places.
I learnt pretty quickly that the imaginary banner I placed between "Big Shots" and myself was just that, imaginary. After having to miss out on the most important bonding first 2 days of elim discord chat because of a war I decided needed a full 36hours of non-stop focus and looking for opportunities to steal hits (Thank you Larches and Danpo <3), I felt like an inexperienced noob within an inexperienced situation, but with Sparklez and Lou pushing for leads and comms I felt a bit more certain how I was going to tackle this elims. I immediately signed up for pushing, afterall that's what I've been doing every war so far, it wouldn't be that different, right? Yeah kinda. Sparklez tried her best to explain everything in detail, over and over, since elims vets were a very scarce resource for 9 lives. Sparklez luckily appealed to the one way I NEED things to be done, physical practice runs. We all came together on a big ass vc and comms cleared chat and handled explaining to everyone not on the vc that we're practicing (and unlike sugarvalves reporting it was well communicated, if someone didn't see it, they didn't read in a reading game) we lined up our very advanced buttons and ticked down once we pushed EVERYONE'S messages came flooding in, prob like 20 pushing messages at once, no I've never done elims but if 20 people sent the same message I would not know what to do, and hence not attack (just saying it was pretty obvious practices) After going through the push practices once I was ready, I felt confident and my name was on the spread sheet, I specifically signed myself to be a back up first then after observing the primary I was planning to be main pusher after, I felt very impressed with myself planning my time like that to ensure I have a refresher before everything OwO
Oh fuck, our schedule was layed out the whole day's time and the actual hits only starsts at 12pm? Okay.
Ohhhhh fuck my primary push starts at 12pm as well? So no refresher course?
Just thrown in the deepend?
And not only that FIRST 9 LIVES PUSHER OF THIS YEAR?!
**PANIC**
"Yeah I'll do it, Sparklez, don't worry."
**PANIC**
Nah, it was fine honestly, I had the support of OhWhatsUpDuck, SirXanax, LouWho, IceCreamHacker, Friddles, Fatnutz_69, Sparklez, DonSombrero, Envy-, Raccoon, Basic_Ash, Sundew and SirlcyDragon UwU
I also got some advice from outside of Push like RebelOnline and Roxy, helping me learn on the go. Thank you <3
What Happened?
We were doing really good with AiR having secured alliances and us following their orders, a very well developed team, yeah there were bumps on the way but with great team work we quickly got everything sorted as problem appeared. That's until the fire nation attacked, once the 10v2 alliance turned on us, I was pushing, we kept on listening to orders and kept on doing our best, it was tragic seeing thw betrayal right infront of our eyes, I didn't even need to look at the revenge list to know we're being betrayed by almost ever other team. For a long time during that struggle we could have joked that I was the only push where we haven't lost a live, we tried different tactics sacraficed some lives, fought until our medcooldown was too red to even self hosp. Then we took a break...
I'll probably never forget this tragic moment....
We were communicating to the group to stay in the hospital and recover medical cooldown, we were all taking 1 hour of no pushing....
Just as everyone settled down Sugarvalve entered like a michevious villian. (I know it's your job but I lost a lot of respect for you because of that single newsletter)
"Don't expect Nine Lives to be in the competition this time tomorrow."
I don't want to say more about that. For me the newsletter was our turning point, and just like the AiR nomads our numbers dwindled, one after another taken out, those who remained fought with every last life...
Do you wish for anything to have been different?
Hmm, honestly I didn't care if we won, like I said before my goal was to make friends, so I guess I just wish I putted myself out there earlier, get to know more people in the general instead of sticking to the push leads chat. Else all I really wanted was to hear more from our Captain and Vice Captain. Personally the only communication I had with any council was just Sparklez, and me trying to give leaks to HT. I can fully understand wanting to keep things a secret so it's not leaked, but if I as the statting pusher finds out who our target is 1 second before the whole team gets told.... why am I even here? Honestly I was SITTING IN THE CALL, waiting for the information, how tf was I going to leak shit while I was prepping to push... I know the Captains were busy doing alliances and stuff but to this day, I've never heard any of them on call (Please AiR, we've been begging at this point for that promised call) we as non-council members didn't get to see or hear much from the Captains outside of the newsies ^^"I feel like especially after the newsletter a call of motivation was needed, and you can't expect comms to do that, that needed the Captains' voice.
Overall though I truly enjoyed my first eliminations! I would definitely recommend to a friend! So I hosp them when we're not in the same team hehehe
Then Finally some thank you's and bragging screenshots from all over UwU
Congrats on the Win Anonymous! I hope you made lots of friends like I did ^^
TLDR:
idk, something about the friends you made along the way.
We're looking for people to join us. We are still a growing faction, built from scratch to what it is today. 
Our requirements for you is:
come join us
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