Edit: Rather not get into childish flames.
The Ace team is still one of the biggest providers of drama despite losing both of it's matches lol.
Tell about the 15 seconds with us against PCJL, Kara.
I will.
It's important to give the vets their due, without forgetting the newer folks. :-)
Questions about the game, either side? /t @Neuronia or @Neuronium, with your queries!
168760: A Death in the Gish. 3 missions, 1-14. Easy to solo.
Infinity Villains
Champion, Pinnacle, Virtue Heroes
[ QUOTE ]
Hey guys,
With #50 of the City Scoop coming up, I'm looking to document Arena history from Issue 4 to now.
Specially looking for:
-Colorful quotes and anecdotes from vets
-Team line-ups and their evolution
-Links to scores from matches back then
-Memorable matches/drama
-Teams from back in the day (seem to remember Tribute, Lion's Den, JAL, HVND, etc)
-How organized it was:
TL DR
Vets: lf some info on how it was back in the day, screenies to some scores, info on old teams, quotes, anything will help.
[/ QUOTE ]
here are a few Vids , sorry i dont have any from the older days
Velocity's 1st match
(Silver age) Freaks vs HVND
(Silver age) Freaks vs OS (storm team)
an here are some screenies, im not posting them all
(Golden age) Freaks vs LD
(Golden age) Freaks vs HVND
(Golden age) Freaks vs Penance
this is a few im sure you or someone can dig up others
One of my favorite matches of all time was the 16v16 match JAL had with FOL. The match went the distance with FOL winning the last round. For me, that was the end of the "classic" era, as groups like Lion's Den, Tribute, HVND, Penance, and Sitting Ducks were gone.
The "old" JAL fell apart after that too with about all but 3 people out of that 16-man line-up leaving the game in the span of days. That video Nrgfx posted of Velocity's first match was against a JAL team I pieced together out of friends and some people with little to no PvP experience.
I felt JAL accepted the match and if there was any way we could field a team, any team, we would. I cringe watching that video, lol, but hey we stepped up and fulfilled our obligations. It was after that match JAL officially went into "rebuilding phase" lmao...
remember "Psypunk are you still rebuilding?" hahaha Eventually, it all paid off. :P
I remember the first test league and being given the Targetting binds for the first time. I always thought that was one of the biggest parts of early Arena matches
[ QUOTE ]
One of my favorite matches of all time was the 16v16 match JAL had with FOL. The match went the distance with FOL winning the last round. For me, that was the end of the "classic" era, as groups like Lion's Den, Tribute, HVND, Penance, and Sitting Ducks were gone.
The "old" JAL fell apart after that too with about all but 3 people out of that 16-man line-up leaving the game in the span of days. That video Nrgfx posted of Velocity's first match was against a JAL team I pieced together out of friends and some people with little to no PvP experience.
I felt JAL accepted the match and if there was any way we could field a team, any team, we would. I cringe watching that video, lol, but hey we stepped up and fulfilled our obligations. It was after that match JAL officially went into "rebuilding phase" lmao...
remember "Psypunk are you still rebuilding?" hahaha Eventually, it all paid off. :P
[/ QUOTE ]
for Psypunk 
(Golden age) Freaks vs JAL
that was a fun match for me as well cause if im not mistaken that was the 1st match i went from emping on (Dark Healz an Bad Magick) to blasting on NRGFX
an i think that was the last match that Ry an Shawn was in 
A few things I remember (ignore my reg date, I've actually been here since retail release):
* Flame Thrower being bugged and 1 shotting tanks
* 6 slotted hover - introduced right after they put in travel suppression
* Toggle drops - to help out "gimped" blasters lol
* 6 slotted brawl for melee toons (for the toggle drops!)
* Anyone remember PositronBot and his Bots SG?
* DarthJoe - original hibernoob
* Peritus introduces the Rad/Psy defender - that opened a few eyes
* Peritus introduces the Thugs/Poison MM
* The turtle - not sure who originated it, but one of the most infamous was LoTD Bots/FF turtle
* HVND Acetaminophen team
* Every PvP build having whirlwind
* Cuddles and his obnoxious Sonic defender
Guildportal news archives are probably going to be a big help.
Tribute Archives
LD archives
Freaks and JAL also kept screenies, so those are sites worth checking out. Penance also has some old scores up. VR has screenies from the modern era, and I also have a few random matches in my photobucket if there's anything particular you want looked up.
I haven't been around all that long relative to the Psys and the Ajaxs, but I'll be happy to give you what I know. I started on test around octoberish of '06, and the core that later became NDX started practicing as a team in early December. The last 16v16 was JAL-Freaks on December 10th of 2006. That match is also known as being the definitive cagers > taunters, and was the last time I believe a melee was played in an official until the recent PCJL scrapper incident. There was a good bit of PvP action that winter leading up to LD leaving, which happened when they beat HVND on March 4th. That match is pretty infamous for the Ace team that was run in round two. HVND also departed COH shortly after that match. There were no official matches from then until OS-NDX (archives are being wonky, so round 1 and round 2) on April 28th. That's occasionally referred to as the match that got veng stacking banned, and whether it was or not, it's the last official played where vengeance was legal. It's also the first match that happened with IOs. After that, there weren't any officials until the start of the ladder. The initial ladder ranking tourney happened on Sunday July 29th and Wednesday August 1st. Things after that should be well recorded in the ladder thread.
Some other things that you'll probably want to bring up are the PvPEC events from last summer and the duel ladder, which was started in the second half of June '07 and was incredibly active in June and July.
Some other random arena facts:
Troll caves weren't always universally banned. We banned them for NDX-OS, but I think LD used them as a legal map during their run.
20 minute matches for teams used to be the gold standard, and all pre-ladder matches I saw were 20 minutes. 10 minutes became the standard with the ladder. The 8/22 Vel-Freaks blowout was an exception, and I believe stands as the last 20 minute official.
That's a lot of info for a long period of time, Nice!
COH PvP. The early days:
Teams of this era:
Tribute (Freedom)
Freaks of Legend (Liberty)
Hell Raisers (Protector)
JAL (Freedom)
Lions Den (Victory)
Bots (Justice)
Sitting Ducks (Virtue)
HVND (Champion)
ABH (Infinity)
Tribute was the first truly organized PvP group. They were light years ahead of everyone else. They were the first to understand the concept of balance between support, offense, and disruption. In those early days most teams were made up of whatever 50's every SG had, and were thrown together without much thought about how they interacted with each other.
Because of Tribute being so ahead of everyone else, their players got bored of the lack of challenge, and support PvP in this game had, and most of their players left for WoW. A month after most of Tribute players left, they came back for one epic battle vs HVND, and their famous turtle team. This fight was memorable in more ways than one. It featured the first time a rad/psi defender was used in an official match (Chris Havok on Rad Hawk), and the last time a spines/regen scrapper was used in an official match (Rystorm).
Some internal issues with Lions Den led to their splitting up, and some of their players went and formed a new group called Penance. This new group had players like Demon Sorcerer, Patient V, Lab, Krole, etc, and soon became a dominant team, going on a winning streak, and beating teams like FoL along the way. Around this time, both FoL and HVND were also dominant, and had winning streaks vs all the other groups.
Most notable of the early officials were the Freaks vs HVND, in which HVND used a turtle team for the last time when they introduced their famous ACE team that featured 7 controllers, and 1 blaster all with names like acetophetamin. The Freaks used what today would be called a "jump team", and beat them.
Right after this fight, there was a 3 way tie for the top rank in COH, as HVND had beaten Penance, and Penance had beaten Freaks.
Freaks vs Penance II for the top rank was scheduled, and it was a much anticipated fight in the test comunity. This match had the Freaks bringing double tank taunters that proved very effective in shutting down the Penance blasters. After this win the Freaks were the team to beat, and remained at the top for a while. Freaks were probably the most versitale team of the time, as their lineups changed from match to match. Taunter lineups, storm teams, jump teams, 3 bubblers were among some of them. Other teams never knew what to expect from FoL.
FoL had been gearing up for COV, and all of their players rolled villains on Freedom right at launch. As a result, they became the dominant force in villains from the get go.
Villain teams of the early days:
FoL (Freedom)
LoTD (Freedom)
Outlaws (Freedom)
Legacy of Champions (Freedom)
Original Sin (Victory)
Triage (Victory)
Jagged Legion (Pinnacle)
Psychotic Syndicate (Liberty)
Bedlam (liberty)
There were many other groups that came and went. FoL went on an impressive winning streak with their villain team (57-0) vs all other villain groups that ended when they faced VORI soon after the villain ladder was established.
The Lions Den had been rebuilding, and with players like Sing, and Bignord, they slowly started putting together an impressive lineup. They were the first group to start regular daily practices on test, and their commitment and dedication soon paid off, as they went on an impressive winning streak that spanned several months, and multiple officials vs every organized team of the era.
It was around this time that teams like Velocity (Liberty), Old School (Triumph), and NDX (Victory) came into the scene. These were the days of stacked vengeance, and super high octane offenses. NDX introduced what they called the 4 x 4 (2 emps, 2 kins, 4 blasters), and soon became masters of the stacked vengeance gathers. Some of the early day teams started fading out. Penance left the test scene, and HVND made a few good matches before leaving. They beat FoL in a close match that went 3 rounds. FoL used double sonics for the first time in an official, and then they lost to Lions Den in what was their last official before leaving COH. This was the second time they used an ACE disruption based team, but LD's stacked vengeance won the day, and both HVND and LD faded out of COH test PvP after this. FoL lost quite a few of its veteran players, and although still a force, it was a much weaker team than before.
This were the hay days of stacked vengeance. Teams like Velocity and NDX became experts at this art, and dominated the COH test comunity.
Around this time, in December of 06 JAL vs Freaks had the last 16 vs 16 official match. It was a truly epic fight, and the end of melee in officials, as it was clear tha cager >> taunter. JAl went under rebuilding after this, and they would later emerge as a bonafide dominant team during the early days of the new test ladder.
The OS vs NDX official marked the end of the vengeance stacking days. NDX gave OS such a loopsided beating, that the test pvp comunity soon voted to ban vengeance from test officials.
Other new teams entered test PvP around this time (Whirlgig, PCJL, dUmb, Integrity, etc), and the present day test ladder was created. The initial round robin to establish the starting rankings for ladder was not without controversy, but it had JAL, Freaks, Velocity, and OS at the top 4 positions.
I typed this in a hurry, so I'm sure I forgot quite a few details here and there. There are a lot of inside little stories surrounding each and everyone of all the groups, past and present.
A couple things.
[ QUOTE ]
NDX introduced what they called the 4 x 4 (2 emps, 2 kins, 4 blasters)
[/ QUOTE ]Not quite sure what you meant by "introduced" but that "4 x 4" lineup was used before NDX. It was actually used in rounds 2 and 3 of FoL vs HVND. You worked HVND in the first round with the double cage so HVND loaded up on offense. We practiced that lineup quite a bit as well.
Acetophenetidin- People always get that wrong.
HVND vs LD- This was the last official for both groups. This was so much fun to play in, it was amazing. Round one HVND brought an unpracticed storm team (No idea why...) and drew the lab. This was the days of 20 min officials. The first round ended with 10 mins left on the clock with a score of 57-1 in favor of HVND. The second round was an Ace R&G team against the LD R&G team. I think the score was 31-18, something along those lines. Their vengeance stacking just got the best of us. Credit is due to Mikey Tyse for targeting using HP or End levels lol. The third round was the controversial one, because of "DCs." HVND drew an outdoor map with their storm team and CZ DCd. LD of course thought it was on purpose. Then HVND drew the lab again and LD had 5 people "DC." Then we drew the outbreak map and played an extremely close match that LD pulled a nice win out in the end winning the match by 4. Something like 24-20. Someone has screenies somewhere. This match also was a tier 3 insp match, which I believe was the last one of those too.
For it's last run, which consisted of 10MOP, FoL and LD, HVND banned troll caves. I believe the Velocity FoL and Velocity OS matches had them banned too. Not 100%.
Really good summary Ajax. GJ.
[ QUOTE ]
(Silver age) Freaks vs OS (storm team)
[/ QUOTE ]
lol, I hate you
another thing legacy of champions was primarily a hero team, dont think they ever had a villain match.
nice write up though
Shenanigans
LotD - JaL - POWT/SMD - SoCo - AJs
[ QUOTE ]
For it's last run, which consisted of 10MOP, FoL and LD, HVND banned troll caves. I believe the Velocity FoL and Velocity OS matches had them banned too. Not 100%.
Really good summary Ajax. GJ.
[/ QUOTE ]
You sure about that? I remember we always wanted to reset on it when we practiced with them and they always objected. I also remember banning troll caves was far from certain when we negotiated the OS match, and that when we were trying to set up a freak match before we split up that there was a troll caves "banned or not?" discussion.
Also, excellent history Ajax.
Veng stacking ended when NDX beat OS by like 1000 kills
NDX 4x4 was the shiiiiit. Let's go back to veng stacking and I'll come PVP for someone's test team.
lol with me on rogue blaster? good times.
[ QUOTE ]
Veng stacking ended when NDX beat OS by like 1000 kills
[/ QUOTE ]
I have no memory whatsover about that match, I believe it is simply PVP folklore
Well, I am certain about the HVND part, but not about the Vel OS/Freak matches. They might just not have drawn the cave. Like I said not 100% but I thought so.
And come to think of it, that lineup could have been NDXs. I know we used to run it in practice a bunch, but I think for that FoL match we ran 5 blasters. Our standard was 3 blasters, 1 rad, 2 kins, 2 emps.
lol yeah it was 3 on target and me off target, 2 kins/2 emps. i called the venge gathers lol. those were fun times haha i miss them.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
tribute went out undefeated,
[/ QUOTE ]
I recall Tribute getting beat by a Hell Raiser team, but the HR team had a couple of fillers (which wouldn't fly in today's nazi-ladder system). By today's standards, it would have probably been a (serious) "practice" match.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hell raisers have never beaten us, we beat them 3 matches to 0 (although they were good matches). Only time I remember dropping matches to them was actually when they had a team of 4 set people against PUGs against a random team (me and aeolus and a couple others), we won the first match and then they were like 'heh, switching AT', and they brought an emp and 2 ice/nrg blasters running near-perma FoN. yeah they won that next match pretty heavily against not nearly the same kind of setup 
Granted HR was badass back in the day. During Tribute's run that was the only team we faced that we didn't totally oblilerate and they were actually low scoring matches. It's too bad they weren't more active since I'm sure they would have been a huge force for quite some time, they just didnt have enough people. In our 'official' against them, it was supposed to be 8v8, but i think we had to cut it to 7v7 because of lack of players on their side. One thing tribute had going for it was we had a deep roster of about 20 people, which was actually big at the time for a pvp group. Though in i4 HR was the only SG I saw as a 'threat' until HVND started becoming prominent. Good times though, both matchups against HR and HVND were epic
[ QUOTE ]
It featured the first time a rad/psi defender was used in an official match (Chris Havok on Rad Hawk), and the last time a spines/regen scrapper was used in an official match (Rystorm).
[/ QUOTE ]
actually my spines/regen was used quite a bit on the freaks team, and used in freaks vs hvnd with my triple taunt build Somewhere along the line I got changed to a rad/psi spot because taunters were getting phased out in favor of bubblers or sonics
tupac got droned.