[ QUOTE ]
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 
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thats was my first offical i was just 2 steps behind and it was a little overwhelming. i just kept showing up on test to be a target and well... you guys know what happened.
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tribute went out undefeated,
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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.
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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
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You're right. I totally forgot that we did used you for a little while on the scrapper, before switching you to the rad/psi.
Hans and you on rad/psi's, Shawn and Foo on ice/nrg blasters, Aura and Auttie on emps, and Kyle and me on the kins. Fun times! 
HVND used 2 rads and 3 blasters against Freaks dual sonic team.
[ QUOTE ]
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.
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I don't remember IOs being available then. I was still on my lolIce/EM and I'm pretty sure IOs didn't hit test until some time after my Fire/EM hit 50.
I could be wrong though, I know Ownage and 6 both had fully IOed builds very early on in I9 beta. I know I didn't have any IOs on Cold Spyke for that match though since I never bothered to IO that toon at all.
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A couple things.
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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.
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Hoj says: Biased stories are biased and he legit DC'd.
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True. Why I said controversial. Still the most fun match I have ever been in though.
Avid: Was it? I remember 5 offense, thought it was 5 blasters. Was a long time ago so meh.
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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.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't remember IOs being available then. I was still on my lolIce/EM and I'm pretty sure IOs didn't hit test until some time after my Fire/EM hit 50.
I could be wrong though, I know Ownage and 6 both had fully IOed builds very early on in I9 beta. I know I didn't have any IOs on Cold Spyke for that match though since I never bothered to IO that toon at all.
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I'm quite certain.
Issue 9 went live May 1st, so we would've been IO'd from beta before then.
I also remember having an internal debate (at least with 6, Ed and r0x, not sure if we brought it before the whole group) about whether or not IOs counted as legal since it wasn't live yet and we hadn't made any arrangements with OS about them.
you guys pulled a jal on os? cheaters
No, I remember asking OS if they wanted to ban IOs and veng in that match and them saying no.
Yeah, you're right. I do remember the conversation now that you mention it.
I can reminisce about the early days and my time in Penance. Past I7 or so into to the "modern era" of Test PvP, I'll have to defer to others' experience. Warning: This is a very long ramble with a few matches detailed.
Issue 4 test
-----------------------------------
Very few people had any idea what they were doing when the arena was released on test. Since most of them were dabblers looking to try something new, things like insp management in a duel weren't even considered. Game mechanics like the ToHit equation were still being figured out, so perma Elude/MoG had few counters and were wildly popular. Between sheer inexperience, random builds, no travel suppression, and lots of bugs, and the arena hopping any time of day or night, it was a fun time.
Various things that come to mind are:
- Defenders were widely disparaged due to their perceived fragility and lack of damage. Even blasters were often overlooked in favor of the "stronger" melee types.
- Observer cameras were visible, targetable, and destructible. They could also pass insps to players.
- This was the heyday of HOs, back when they were 50/33% instead of 33/20%. Blasters (with a 400% cap) could cap their damage via slotting alone. Boost Range and Dmg/Range HOs would enhance the range of melee attacks, so TF was easy to trigger and Headsplitter 6-slotted with dmg/range HO was, to use a quote from Patient: "like swinging a telephone pole".
- Howling Twilight was mag 30 stun
- Due to a bug, if you died while Taunted you would remain Taunted for the rest of the match.
- Due to another bug, Speed Boost would act just like Siphon Speed, so friendly players even in PvE would get slowed to a crawl
- The devs held several sponsored events on test. One in particular had over 60 players, which drew the Office Map.
- Brawl had a 33% chance to drop *all* toggles
- Blaster toggle drop in general was extremely easy. Bone Smasher for example had an 100% chance of dropping one toggle, 75% chance of dropping a second toggle, and a 50% chance of dropping a third toggle.
Before this issue, there were no such things as player Perception or even Break Frees. Instead there were two insp types, one that protected from Stun/Sleep, the other from Hold/Immob. They could not be used while under a mez effect, except for immob.
Issue 4 (Patch notes)
-----------------------------------
With the release of I4 to live, arena test died out until the tail end of the issue. Duelers came to know each other on their individual servers and started forming SGs, with Freedom being a hotspot of activity. Eventually people began to start meeting on test for duels.
Some of the more potent dueling builds at this time were Ill/Storm, Spines/Regen, and */Rad. Player names included Epik, Forum Troller, Johhny Priest, TerpMan, Peritus, and many others that slip my mind.
More fun facts:
- Nerfs in this time frame include travel suppression and the reduction of HOs to SO levels
- "Squishies" like Controllers could easily cap out their S/L resists, and Inv tanks could cap res to all but Toxic/Psi via toggles/passives alone.
- Flamethrower could one-shot most people
- Superior Illusion didn't suppress
- The Troll Caves map was "removed" from the arena map rotation
- Controller containment was 3x base. At damage cap, Controller Mental Blast could do over 700 damage in one hit.
- Transfusion, Transference, and Twilight Grasp all had an extremely high-mag immobilize that was not affected by mez suppression. Given 3x containment, it was possible to one-shot a player by casting Transfusion/Transference and immediately following up with Hurl Boulder.
Issue 5 (Patch notes)
-----------------------------------
With the greater activity on test, SGs started challenging each other. With the exception of Tribute the SGs were still inexperienced as far as builds and tactics went. Lion's Den had a 16v16 match (or possibly 12v12, not sure) vs the Sitting Ducks in which LD had a total of 3 Defenders: a flying Sonic/Sonic, a Kin/Elec damage dealer, and a pure Emp. One strategy attempted by LD was having a Claws/DA scrapper suicide rush the opposing spawn and use Soul Transfer to stun the entire team. It didn't work, but LD still won. Top kills in the 20-minute match was 18 and went to a Fire/Kin controller.
As Ajax said, Tribute on the other hand were the pioneers. Nilhilaa introduced the Ill/Emp build and Johhny Priest and Chris Havoc demonstrated what properly buffed Ice/Eng blasters could do. They steamrolled anyone they fought, and so eventually got bored and temporarily moved on to Guild Wars. By the time they left, other SGs had started learning from their example and began to bring more buffers/blasters and focusing fire.
The arena was extremely unstable, almost to the point of being unusable: it would randomly kick players out of matches, and crash when an observer left map. This caused a "No observers" rule in most SG matches. This wasn't fixed until relatively recently.
Notable happenings this issue:
- The Sonic powerset was introduced. Before this, players had no targetable resist buffs.
- Whirlwind came into heavy use since it prevented animations from rooting players
- Taunt had no ToHit check, but did have a set 50% chance of success. It was unresistable.
Issue 6 (Patch notes)
-----------------------------------
CoV was released, and with it came ED and a few VGs, like LotD. With the introduction of zones many more people started PvPing, although only a few of them made the transition to the Arena. The boards were full of "advice" to players about PvP builds. One bit of advice in particular that I remember came from a player with a BS/Regen scrapper and Fire/kin controller, who advised other Fire/kins to take Teleport/SJ for travel instead of IR. Ajax has come a long way since then .
During this issue Nihilaa started up the first Test PvP league. Although short-lived it introduced new players and showed the potential of new builds, particularly rad/psi in the forms of Peritus and Chris Havoc (on Rad Hawk).
Controversial issues around this time included caging, targeting macros, tier3 inspirations, and questionable/timely disconnects that could force a restart.
During this issue several LD members split and created Penance. One of our first matches was against the old-school Freaks with characters like Relativator, -Annoyance, Blind Sight, Duff.Chick, Tera Winters, Rain, counterfeit. I unfortunately don't have any screenshots of the scores, but I remember it fairly well:
Match 1: Lab map. Penance brought: 2 emps (ill/ and earth/), 2 kins (fire/ and grav/), a Sonic/Sonic (Lab, I think this was his first official with the Sonic), an Ice/Eng blaster, an Ice/Dev (who really, really, wished he had BU), and a BS/regen scrapper. FoL brought a storm-heavy team. Although the Freaks got the early upper hand, after the Penance scrapper tagged a one-shot crit against one of the Freaks the match tilted in Penance's favor, ending in 36-17.
Match 2: Perez map. Penance switched out the scrapper and grav/kin for two Storm controllers and the Freaks switched their storms for more blasters and a scrapper. I remember this match because shortly after after we started with 18 minutes left on the clock, my mouse died. I had to use Q/E to turn and shift+#/Follow to buff teammates. I've never scrambled so much in an any other arena match, so it remains one of my most memorable. Penance won this one 65-0.
After a few other matches, Penance fought HVND in a 10v10. This was the first heavy use of the turtle, and we couldn't break it. With our lack of both damage and debuffs, we weren't able to hit through their high defense. We tried dual Infernos in the second match, but between Detention Field (I think Lab managed to get 3 DFs on his Fire/Eng at one point) and the fact that it took 4 IDs to break through Force Bubble, Penance lost hard to this tactic.
Tribute came back for a short time to fight against the HVND turtle team. They brought spikes back from their time in Guild Wars, and used it to great effect in this match. This marked one of the first times that SGs would practice for matches: before this SG practices were practically unheard of. The Freaks began to practice pretty hard and beat HVND in their next match.
Penance waned after this due to an unwillingness to practice and players leaving for WoW. After losing to the Freaks and HVND again, we called it quits.
-----------------------------------
There's my roundup, based on memory, patch notes, and old forum posts. I'm sure I left many people and events out, and if I did please don't think it was intentional.
issue 4 = DM/DA ftw, son
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...VsPositron.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...yuVsElated.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...LRisbroken.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...Pickupteam.jpg - DM > Ice/NRG 
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...ezingninja.jpg - ice/rad
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...RyuuVsSoul.jpg - vs the best duelist on like 20 diff servers
ED = RIP dm , it was actually a good set when you could enhance up to 200% dmg
I miss PLing like this too :*( Soul drain + exploding shuriken ftw lmao
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...l1/rikfarm.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...hoopassjoe.jpg
possibly the first genericvillain on freedom
I got to play with SoE once in some 2v2 tourny..made it to the finals, and lost against HP and some Rad/Psy, but I'm pretty sure it was just SoE beasting it on Emp than the both of us :P.
whirlwind was a huge factor back in the day.
This thread is really bringing back the memories.
My first match was the day I4 hit test and was against Positronbot. He kicked my butt someting like 11-4.
After that I was hooked and would log on to duel other blasters mostly. SnipeFu, Positronbot, Polarbot, Citizen Zero and sooo many others.
I remember fighting Foo En/EM vs En/EM on Liberty. There used to be a time I could keep up with the guy. (It didn't last long)
I remember fighting Duff.Chick and losing by 1 kill at the last couple seconds. That stands out as one of the best matches I ever played.
I liked that many players didn't realize Power Boost would affect To-Hit buffs like Aim.
Back then Tankers were all but unkillable. The only thing I found that worked was throwing Char then joust them with Brawl. If I got lucky I'd get the Toggle drop, if not...well, it was over with quick either way.
In the second attempt at a Test League (Arena Battle League if I recall correctly) I tried a No Empath, No Blaster team. It was successful then but I highly doubt it would make it in the heavy traffic that is Test PvP today.
I was never that good a PvPer but I'd log into test and spend hours watching matches.
From my perspective...
Before there were ever SG v SG matches, there were whole server fights. Server v Server was the original standard and the matches were basically scaled down to whatever side brought the least people. Virtue and Freedom dominated these, with Freedom being the top dog. Virtue had the numbers, Freedom had an extremely buffed Johnny Priest. With multiple emps backing him, he literally could tear through anyone with ease.
Aside from the server matches, several SGs started to show promise. These included (ranked accordingly)...
Tribute (originally called Top Ten) - Freedom
Hell Raisers - Protector
Lions Den - Victory
Bots - Justice
(LD did beat HR in an official match. However, the match was 14v10 with 2 HR DCs making it 14v8. HR never had a big roster and Rift, leader of LD, refused to sit anyone)
Tribute simply dominated all comers. Like it has been mentioned, they were just leagues ahead of any other team. The only loss Tribute ever received was not in an official, but just a random scrim on test. The opposing team was myself and Krole on empaths, ReMix and Ice.Master on ice/EMs, and for the life of me I cannot remember the 5th person. Aside from that, Tribute never lost on an all Tribute team.
After awhile, Tribute became bored with the game and the lack of competition so most left for Guild Wars (not WoW). After Tribute left the dominate SGs were
Penance - Victory
Freaks - Liberty
HVND - Champion
HVND was a very secretive SG that never ever appeared on test. When they fought Penance using their turtle strategy, nothing like it had ever been seen before, and Penance was no where near ready. After HVND's win, some of their members became very vocal about being not only the top SG at the time but ever. This prompted a Tribute reunion for one last match. Tribute won 2 rounds to 0.
It was around this time that the Freaks started the whole concept of practice. Before this, practices just didnt happen. Due to hard work and dedication, Freaks ended up with solid wins over both Penance and HVND to take the top spot during this time.
-- Currently Playing --
Dexter Labrynth (SS/FA Brute)
Former member of Tribute and Victory Reborn
In the beginning, there was darkness. Then Ajax said "Let there be pvp", and it was so....and there was much rejoicing.
[ QUOTE ]
From my perspective...
Before there were ever SG v SG matches, there were whole server fights. Server v Server was the original standard and the matches were basically scaled down to whatever side brought the least people. Virtue and Freedom dominated these, with Freedom being the top dog. Virtue had the numbers, Freedom had an extremely buffed Johnny Priest. With multiple emps backing him, he literally could tear through anyone with ease.
Aside from the server matches, several SGs started to show promise. These included (ranked accordingly)...
Tribute (originally called Top Ten) - Freedom
Hell Raisers - Protector
Lions Den - Victory
Bots - Justice
(LD did beat HR in an official match. However, the match was 14v10 with 2 HR DCs making it 14v8. HR never had a big roster and Rift, leader of LD, refused to sit anyone)
Tribute simply dominated all comers. Like it has been mentioned, they were just leagues ahead of any other team. The only loss Tribute ever received was not in an official, but just a random scrim on test. The opposing team was myself and Krole on empaths, ReMix and Ice.Master on ice/EMs, and for the life of me I cannot remember the 5th person. Aside from that, Tribute never lost on an all Tribute team.
After awhile, Tribute became bored with the game and the lack of competition so most left for Guild Wars (not WoW). After Tribute left the dominate SGs were
Penance - Victory
Freaks - Liberty
HVND - Champion
HVND was a very secretive SG that never ever appeared on test. When they fought Penance using their turtle strategy, nothing like it had ever been seen before, and Penance was no where near ready. After HVND's win, some of their members became very vocal about being not only the top SG at the time but ever. This prompted a Tribute reunion for one last match. Tribute won 2 rounds to 0.
It was around this time that the Freaks started the whole concept of practice. Before this, practices just didnt happen. Due to hard work and dedication, Freaks ended up with solid wins over both Penance and HVND to take the top spot during this time.
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No mention of JAL?
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http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...RyuuVsSoul.jpg
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I miss SOE :c
Very good summary of the early days by Demon Sorcerer (F22Major).
Yes...I do remember the days of me using TP on my fire/kin. Hehe
I also remember some epic fire/kin vs fire/kin fights with you on test a long time ago, although I don't remember what issue that was. You were the best fire/kin player I've ever saw, even to this day.
The lost to Penance on our first encounter shocked FoL, who up to that point had been undefeated both on our home server, and test. I clearly remember Foo saying that we were not going to be caught unprepared again, and that's what started FoL on a path to regular practices, first on live server, and then on to test server.
I remember one shotting Lab on his emp with my bs/regen scrapper in a PvP league match. Ahh the days of the 50/33 scale for HO's, and a 3 nucleous, 3 centrioles headsplitter.
Cuddles from Lions Den, Lab from Penance, and Relativator (Dave) from Freaks were the first 3 players I saw on test using sonic defenders. After watching Dave and Shawn (Ghost Sage/ Artic Strike) fight an epic match on the finals of a 2 vs 2 tourney on Liberty vs Hans and Kyle (sonic/rad corr and rad/psi) I knew I wanted to have one of those "cagers"
This thread should have more than enough info for Neuronia's scoop article.
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In the beginning, there was darkness. Then Ajax said "Let there be pvp", and it was so....and there was much rejoicing.
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Amen!
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Yes...I do remember the days of me using TP on my fire/kin. Hehe
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Don't misunderstand, at this point you're a far better player than I am. Just poking a little fun when I can.
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I also remember some epic fire/kin vs fire/kin fights with you on test a long time ago, although I don't remember what issue that was. You were the best fire/kin player I've ever saw, even to this day.
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Likewise. That was a great duel. I *think* it was issue 7. On our first attempt, we zoned in and I was really sluggish in my movement, and wasn't doing any damage. After a minute or two and a few deaths I decided to pull up my enhancement tray and realized that I'd logged in the wrong character and was dueling with a build that had no enhancements. I switched to the correct build and we tried again. I definitely remember that during the real duel I was wishing I hadn't spent so much time in zones forgetting how to conserve BFs.
[ QUOTE ]
Don't misunderstand, at this point you're a far better player than I am. Just poking a little fun when I can
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think I'll ever agree with that statement. I'd much rather agree to say that at this point I am a little more practiced, since you've been off the test scene (at least regularly) for some time.
I have no doubt whatsoever that if you were to make an effort to get back in top shape, that you would be among the best players in the game.
Much respect! and salute!
Wow, those DM pics bring back memories. Still have my DM/Reg in the closet but I remember clearly herding up Ninjas, Soul Draining and one shotting them all with Shadow Maul. Didn't have as much luck in the arena with it, always got chewed up by Controllers. Nurses Ill/Rad was always fun 
[ QUOTE ]
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.
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Hoj says: Biased stories are biased and he legit DC'd.