(Original post 5/24/2000)
Well, it's been a fun ride. Especially waiting until the Web page was able to
accept a news post this big. :)
You may have noticed in the news that we've been having attendance problems in
our last few matches.
In reality, it's been going on for much longer than that--months,
actually--and we've had a very long string of inactive players. It happens.
Games are games, and we don't expect people to play Tribes forever (though it
would be nice. :p) So other games have been eating away at our active
membership.
Boredom is another factor. The year-plus of competition on the OGL ladder
has turned just about everyone, myself included, off to CTF. The balanced maps
are fun, but still the same old. I was hoping that the composite ladder and
the VIP tournament would get people's interest back, and it did, but when it
takes seven months of pushing to get the comp ladder back...
While I could try to recruit other players, I just feel that it
wouldn't be worth the effort at this point. That's not meant as a slight to
the talent of the applicants--it's merely that we would need so many that it
wouldn't look like our 'team' any more. NOPE is a closely-knit group of
players, and our absurdly-long probie periods are meant to bring players
together as friends as well as teammates. Having so many probies (probably at
least 8) would completely change our Tribe, and as the acting leader I don't
want that to happen. When Tribes 2 rolls around, I foresee most of our core
team coming back to play, and I would like to build from there, not from two
half-teams that don't know each other.
So, last week we decided to remove ourselves from competitive play for the
foreseeable future. We left the OGL
CTF ladder with a final record of 23/19 (I think). We've been as high as #6 on
OGL CTF, #1 on the old composite ladder (and the new one, though we never got
around to playing our match--good luck, TF), #1 on the D&D ladder, and #6 or #7
in the composite league. Not a bad run for a bunch of guys.
I'd like to thank, in no particular order:
- Dynamix - Enough said.
- Our opponents - Take a look at our Battles page. We've played over
80 matches on just about every map on the Tribes CD. Almost without exception,
all of our opponents have been great sports and great players. It's good to
see that Tribes has fostered such an excellent community.
- OGL - For the best damn five-day-a-week ladder in existence. :p
Joking aside, though, they're the ones who set the mark for competitive Tribes
play, and all of us teams owe a great debt to them.
- Strategic Alliance - For distancing yourself from that welch
Voodoo. :D For the record, he still hasn't admitted that he can't give the
contest winners their servers. Wish he would...
- Hurricane - Words don't need to be said--he's our leader-man, the
Supermonkey, the guy who wakes up at 4am to play matches with us (well, one of
them, but he's the leader), a great player, and a great guy. All this
you see before you is his.
- Me - Because I've already spent an hour writing this, and a week
waiting to post it. :)
- ...and all our players - And I do mean all of them. Everyone
with us now, everyone who started with us, everyone who's come and gone--all of
you have left your mark on us. (Interpret that how you will. :D) You're all
fantastic, and I've appreciated playing with you over the course of this game.
Good luck.
...that's about all I have to say. We're all free now, for people who may want
some of our guys. I'm free too, but nobody wants me. :p People are still
asking to join us, even though we aren't competing any more--I'll decide what
to do about that shortly. Maybe make NOPE a guild? We'll see...
Go.
NOPE.
Go.