Quote Originally Posted by Say What? View Post
Okay I'll give it a shot....

TLDR:
1) I was a well known member of the community who was a clan leader for both Knights of the Round and Strategic Insomniacs.
2) I participated in all of the early tournaments but cannot recall the placements. I would defer to a better TAO historian for that, but I did also earn a 2nd Frost Golem on Rev server for my participation in one of the tourneys.
3) I've won and lost at a pretty even rate with players like Bottle, Frylock, and bludhoundz. I will say that there were times where a turtle game between Bottle and I would last hours. I have never played against a stronger and consistent turtle/grey player like Bottle.
4) I had 3 play styles I was best known for; standard gold turtle (with furgon), dropless grey, and legends grey (with double frost golem).
5) I was also an active member of a clan which may touch on some nostalgia for those who were on Banff and remember...but it was called Gold Jumpers. Basically we would look for grey jumping rush noob gold players and jump them instead as well versed greys. I think I remained anonymous mostly and played under the username Reckless_Abandon.


Here is the only snapshot I could find still there lingering as one that is viewable from the TAO web archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040502...ing/banff.html

This was a time in TAO when Banff was by far the server with the most talent and had representation from the 5 original big TAO clans of the time SI, Netjak, Tribunal, KotR, and Bludhoundz. I was 7th overall in this snapshot, and you can see some of the all time greats here on the leader board. The D brothers, Bottle, Twelve, Rantzu, Frylock, Jeffery, Big X, and many others. Many of the names on your list were still up and coming or newly gold like FryLock and Rantzu. I believe I ended up at least in the upper 1500's or lower-mid 1600's before my account went grey and I wiped, going part time to play on the Rev server with friends once and a while and eventually fading into the sunset.

When I look at the list it is hard to place myself. Being that I was never well versed with many of the Legends players, I can't argue against their qualifications. There is clear bias here, and I wish there were more active people who played against me a lot to weigh in. I also played in a time where 1600 was thought of as extremely high, and there was much less rating inflation with less players being 1400+ than later on.

High End bias pick I would say: 23 - I don't know Pikachu, but I know that at this spot there aren't specific tournament stats listed for him, and I can say with confidence that I have won against all players I recognize past this point consistently. I always had great matches up through the time I left the game against Bottle, Frylock, and Blud as previously mentioned. Aside from a few rush games from Blud and Fry, I don't recall ever being blown out in a game against them.

Middle Grade less bias pick I would say: 31 - Being ranked on a top 100 just a few spots after Draquist would be fitting as well to me. I learned a lot from both Draq and Darq as I grew as a player. They as brothers were two of my earliest friends in the game an we played tons of games against each other.

Conservative Pick: ....wait I am Say What? I would never rate myself conservatively. That is completely against my TAO persona. I'm amazing. (but realistically anywhere in the 41-45 mark makes sense for this level. I would never be able to rank myself out of the top 50. haha)

Being a part of the a recognized 100 players rankings of TAO would mean a lot to me. I'd love to get anyone's thoughts or recollections of playing against me. Even outside of just this ranking list. I miss the game, and this is a clear example of not knowing what you had before it's gone. TAO will always be a game that I could walk away from but never speak poorly of. It had ever bit of cool, and variety you could ask for in an online multiplayer turn based strategy game. Even more than that, we had the forums...our signatures...our clans. It is seeing the name Max2k106 and getting nostalgic of your first online friend. TAO was just an Epic time even as such a small part of my life.

-SW
Well shit look at that photo. I remember when Chernz disappeared. Was such a sad time in KoTR!