Thanks for the recap 5!

Edited 12/3/2023 20:36:45

It's already mentioned on the last few paragraphs. Don't worry.

thank you for another great newsletter!
I appreciate what you do for us :)

Here's some clarifications regarding Harmony story:

Eternity has abused his manager's rights when interacting with a clan member.

The incident involved 0 second mute, after a misunderstanding took place. A player proclaimed that I don't value his words, but I mistook his words as him thinking that his words are unimportant. The intent was to erase old messages and then continue conversation as normal.

There was some (heated?) disagreement about the optimal number of internal tournaments

All tournaments are optional to join and I made statements in tournament chat for players to be careful about how many tournaments they should join. Recently I made these disclaimers even more obvious.

He changes his name from "Eternity" to "Harmony", either as a way to show his dedication to the clan, or as a protest against removal of his manager's rights.

I did it to show my dedication to Harmony clan.

Eternity leaves or is removed from Harmony.

I was removed abruptly without any prior warning being given in advance.

It is rumored that Eternity will be joining clan Blitz as a recruiter.

It was a trolling campaign. I already had things to do on my schedule, so after a few initial exchanges I simply ignored Blitz "recruitment" attempts.

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Now for the "official statement":

Over the course of a couple of weeks the other managers tried explaining to Eternity why his actions were wrong with little success

I made it clear early enough that I was not going to misuse mute button in similar situations again. By the time management decided to remove my manager rights, it was already a resolved issue.

started creating many clan tournaments, 33 in 36 hours

The tournaments originally were planned to be made on a similar manner as 2022 October-November tournaments. There are 11 Clan League templates, so each template receives 1 double elimination tournament for players with less time and one or two round robin tournaments (I can only invite 160 players to 1v1 round robins, so that's why I make 2 of those.)

During October there were 2 delays. One involved my computer breaking and having to find a replacement and another involved hitting maximum tournament limit and having to find workarounds for it. For this reason in order to make all tournaments before November 1st, I had to make a lot of tournaments in a span of 3 days.

The reason Why I wanted to make all tournaments before November 1st was that Clan League roster needs to be submitted before December 17th and after tournaments start, some time needs to pass to get some finished games. One goal with these tournaments was to provide players with extra experience and another goal was to help discover players with better playing talent. During August a large amount of new players joined us, so these tournaments were a good way of better understanding our player skill level.

These tournaments followed a schedule and a tradition set in 2022 October-November. These tournaments were not a response to my manager right removal. I was calm during the whole process. The kick from Harmony came as a surprise as I was doing my normal work routine and at the time was doing another one of my player recruitment pushes.

He was asked again by a number of managers, including myself, to stop.

Although in the past I have agreed to many things when it came to working with other managers, when it came to making tournaments, they failed to provide good enough arguments for why I should stop making them. Only ~5 out of ~350 players asked to stop sending invites and ~150 different players have joined my tournaments during August-November. Some players even asked for more tournaments to be made. Because there is a high demand for tournaments coming from our players, I continue to make them.

He refused and issued vague threats about his taking action when he returned to management.

Blatantly false. I actually said the opposite that I would not go after any other manager and that I hold no grudges. I have no interest to fight Harmony management as that would only cause unnecessary harm for our clan. Also our managers are doing good job and I have no major complaints about any of their work.

The only so called "threats" involved me saying that I will continue to do my usual work, which would involve doing recruitment, training games, game reviews and tournament making. I also made it clear that if managers remove me from Harmony, I will open my own channels of direct communication with players. This was not a threat, but simply an attempt to keep managers well informed. In order to make best possible decisions, I need feedback from Harmony players, which makes it necessary to maintain direct connection with them.

Harmony managers decided (once more after much deliberation and communication) that it would be best for Eternity and Harmony to part ways, he was removed from the clan and THD.

Majority of Harmony players were not consulted about my removal. Also I believe that this had nothing to do with whether I was a net positive (I recruited ~75+% of clan and had many other great contributions), but rather had everything to do with some managers' personal dislike towards me.

Eternity continues to create what look like official tournaments.

My tournaments include disclaimer that they're not official and also anyone joining them already know that to begin with.

act as if he's still a recruiter for Harmony, he is not.

I am still recruiting players. Based on my estimations during November I got ~30-40 new players to join Harmony. I am going to continue my regular recruitment work and if managers try to put more restrictions on it, I will look for alternative ways of getting these players to join Harmony. Based on what I know there's still a shortage of quality players in both Clan Wars and Clan League, so having more players will be beneficial for future seasons of these competitions.

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My overall outlook on the situation is that dramas are like storms, they come and they go. I will keep an eye on this thread and if I see a need to issue any additional corrections, I will do so, but otherwise I will continue my normal work.

I am a player first person and my actions are based on the interests of Harmony players. The amount of games/tournaments/events being made is dependent on how many players show interest in them. I am also open to new suggestions, so if any Harmony player asks for X, Y or Z event, I either start working on it right away or start asking other players to see if there's enough interest in this new proposed activity. My primary goals include helping our clan to do better in Clan Wars and Clan League seasons and also I do my best to ensure that our players can have more fun.

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For the very end I would like to thank 5Smith for providing a professional report on our situation. When it came to his statements, he was fair and did not show any biases.

👃

Warzone Newsletter #14

A recap of interesting stuff of December 2023.

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Clan Wars Season 40 ended – Myth Busters top-1, reshuffle in 101st

The top ranks were as usual: Myth Busters easily got top-1 again and Prime secured their top-2 CW position. Yet on lesser ranks there was more traction.

With almost half of their previous engagement, Optimum eventually dropped out of top-5 and finished as #7. Knyte club returned to top-5.

Both M’Hunters and Polish Eagles, who had been #8 and #9 in season 39, now finished outside the top-9. That’s the first ever time in the histories of the Clan Wars and the M’Hunters, when M’Hunters finished outside the coin zone. Will they get back?

Clans Ving and After Dark finished in top-9. Congrats to them. I would especially highlight the Ving’s, as they are a capped “open page” clan, and this makes that a way greater achievement.

At the end of the season, 9 top active CW players from clan 101st transferred to Harmony (8 players – with their mains, and 1 – with his alt account). From what I know, it was an initiative from 101st (probably from of their managers, who transferred his alt) as there was some dissatisfaction within 101st about their current CW results.

I managed to get a statement on the situation from Texx, a Harmony manager:
- The “chickens” (that is how Harmony refers to the 101st players) came to harmony by their own initiative. It was not poaching.
- According to Harmony management, the reason, why the “chickens” from 101st choose Harmony, is because they find Harmony managers “super sexy”.
- Harmony would accept up to 10 players in order to strengthen their CW squad, and would find up to 15 players from 101st worthy to be accepted into Harmony

A great opportunity for other players: if you feel that you are a chicken, and you find the Harmony’s managers super sexy, or maybe you are just obsessed with feet, Harmony still got a spot for you.

With the leave of a lot of active CWers, 101st will continue to actively play CW, but probably not for top-5 rank. The top-9 is still doable for them. As clan The Last Alliance is on their rise of their CW activity, TLA might take 101st’s spot in the top-5.

Link: https://wz-cw.5smith.ru/season/40

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Nation Cup news

The Nation Cup leadership changed again. Marcus Aurelius is back to manage the final rounds of the competition.

The rules changed again: now basically in Round 5 teams may effectively puppet the accounts of players, who are not able to play the competition.

And for the deep competition analysis, we have Nations Cup Update from LND!

***

Round 4 Final Summary
We last left off near the end of Round 4, where there were a few undecided games whose results could change a lot – the highlight of these was the GER A vs HEL A, which could have decided who would face the leaders GB A in Round 5.
GER A did, in fact, draw with HEL A, however they stalled it long enough that they were drawn against GB A before the final result was determined.
Round 4 thus ended with GB A as the only team on max points (4), with GER A, FRA A and HEL A close behind on 3.5 points. Due to Greece’s withdrawal in dramatic fashion, this left the British, the Germans and the French as the primary contenders fighting for the title in Round 5, Volcano Island 2v2.

However, due to the intricate workings of the Marcus Spontaneous Decision System, this “final” round was declared to be worth 1.5 points; what’s more, it was also declared that to win NC, the leading team must be ahead by a full point in order to be crowned champions. If this was not achieved, the MSDS declared that there would be a 6th and final round. With this in mind, any of the teams on 3 points or more (ANZ A, CAN, or EAS) could theoretically stay in the running for the title, and trigger the largely dreaded 6th round.

Round 5 Update
Almost 8 weeks after game creation, only two Round 5 matchups are yet to be decided.
Heavyweights FRA A punched hard against title hopefuls ANZ A; the disappearance of star player Xenophon mid-round was the nail in the coffin for an already outgunned ANZ side, who had to concede without scoring to the French. This win guarantees satisfaction of Marcus’ condition for a 6th round, and puts FRA A at the top of the table on 5 points – unless either Germany or Britain can claim a victory over each other.
This match is currently one of the last matches of Round 5 that is still undecided, with the scores currently tied at GER A 2:2 GB A – controversial new addition Beep Beep I’m a Jeep has already helped his country to win one of the four finished games, but whether Beep will be enough to seal the deal against a powerful and determined British side (who, let’s not forget, have the support of the NC dictator Emperor Marcus himself) remains to be seen.
Big wins from US A and US B have put them both on 4 points and within title contention, while POL A battles out a tough match against HIS (currently 2:2) to see if they too can reach the 4-point cutoff for title contention.

This last month has seen one of the most engaging tournaments in WZ somewhat fade into the background. Despite what could have been an exciting battle for the Nation’s Cup title, the slow game completion rate of the controversial Round 5 has seen interest in Nation’s Cup wane. Tournament fatigue, discontent with frequent and controversial rule changes, and the imminent approach of Clan League are among the reasons that many players are not as invested as they previously were. Perhaps the 2v2 haters were right to criticize that decision, foreseeing the disengagement that was to come? Or was it an effect of the rule change drama that saw Greece abandon the event in a rage?
Whatever the reason, none can deny that a previously vibrant event has become quite stagnant.
Poland and ANZ have already announced that none of their teams will be participating in Round 6, and it would not be surprising if other nations (or individual teams) followed suit.
The MSDS is yet to decide if Round 6 will include every team, or just those that could potentially win. Whether this final round could revive Nations Cup 2023 is, like the fate of the top teams, still up in the air.

To stay up to date with live results and all the juicy drama, join the Nation’s Cup Discord server!
https://discord.gg/ZXegZUXJG

***

Thanks LND!

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MTL is back online

After the prolonged periods of downtime, the Multi-Template Ladder is functioning again.

It moved to a new domain: http://www.warlight-mtl.com/. It seems that the all the technical difficulties were resolved, and current deployment is expected to be stable.

There has been a change in the maintaining team, and the technical stuff is now managed by JustinR17 (he also does the Clan League and Nation Cup backends).

Good news for the strategic community of Warzone.

Links:
- http://www.warlight-mtl.com/
- https://www.warzone.com/Forum/734956-join-multitemplate-ladder-mtl

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Clan League 17 – rosters and lineups are revealed

Now that the deadline for submitting the rosters and lineups have passed, and those are revealed on the CL 17 official spreadsheet, it is time for roster discussions and predictions.

There is a dedicated predictions thread on the Warzone forums. Also sometimes a dedicated stream might pop up with people discussing the CL rosters online. I have seen that there was a stream by Tac(ky)tical, but no VOD is available.

Links:
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZG0CoSA9RDswzvmYpc3Qtq-NPCtRRiQaXa8_l_jgS1k/edit
- https://www.warzone.com/Forum/734377-clan-league-17-prediction-thread

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That’s all for now. Happy new year!

What event of 2023 was the most interesting for you? Was it the official Ladder revamp, or hunt after NONO’s alts, or Nations Cup revival, or full year CW domination by Myth Busters, or maybe it is the Warzone Community Newsletter itself 😀 ? Post in the comments!

I think the whole Nations Cup thing with management should not have really happened. Leaving management because of unheard things that no one knows causes trust issues in the community believing that Marcus cannot lead Nations Cup. On top of that he came back and switched up some rules after his long period of being MIA from it. This now causes strife between the top teams in the last round knowing that the point difference is switched up and other rules as well like with people sharing accounts which apparently is a thing. Now the strategy mid-round will have to change, and I do not believe anyone would have wanted to change up strategy so leaving the last round or not participating in a potential round 6 was mandatory.

As for CL 17, this event is partly why players are losing interest in Nations Cup. Not because of Nations Cup fallout from management, but more on the lines of a greater competition that needs focus on. At the end of CL when another competitive even comes arise, CL will start to not be focused on until the year 2025 begins. It is just the cycle of life.

When focusing on creating major events, like the one I am trying to do. It needs to have its time limit plus it needs to fit the schedule of all the other competitive events out there. Like Nations Cup I would assume usually happens to start in May? Near the end of CL so where does that leave my league as it is supposed to figure out who are the top teammates in warzone.

What is a MSDS and what is a VOD. I feel old. Am I old?

@Nick Hm... I would say CL would at least be interesting as long the winner of CL is not decided. In NC that doesnt seem to be the case.

Edited 12/30/2023 18:50:12

What is a MSDS and what is a VOD. I feel old. Am I old?

VOD = "Video On Demand", basically "a recorded video of the past stream".

MSDS - probably some Australian slang for "Marcus Aurelius", idk

MSDS = Marcus Spontaneous Decision System

Oh. Yea, that's actually in the text.

Yeah sorry that was bad signposting of mine, I should've bracketed the acronym after the full thing.

Thanks again Fives for the updates on everything!

Edited 12/30/2023 23:38:10

Ah nice.

You may go to twitch.tv/tackyticall to watch the full unfiltered product. You may wish to skip the first 30 minutes, since only my audio was working. There will be an edited YouTube video soon. Thanks for watching :)

Maybe a new stream soon!

The juicy stuff only starts at 40 minutes tho.

Tacky: Yo Texx. Wanna do a trashtalking stream about CL?
Texx: Sure, sounds like fun!
Texx: *trashtalks Plat*
Plat: Real mature, Texx. I thought we were having a serious stream here.

By the way, I can confirm that the statement 5S made is real and true. The Chickens joined us due to WarTog’s charm and my sex appeal.

Yup, that's why I joined Harmony last year,
The Toggy was charming and irresistible!

Just FYI, the MTL is still being maintained by me, JustinR17 is supporting me in this.