I was in the office on a Saturday to particularly witness a first in the world of GE, and that of course was the War of The Factions. IP-Interactive, the premium brand under IP e-Games and the exclusive distributor of Granado Espada in the Philippines, was the one who hosted the event. So that meant it was me,
pCM Veya, ninja GM Wisschenschaft and GE Product Manager Ivee who were the only noisy souls in the office that day. Naturally, we were as psyched as all GE gamers who expressed their excitement over this in-game event.
Basically, the War of the Factions was conducted with 15 of each Faction’s best representatives pitted against another Faction of the same number of members from all servers. Imagine the tall order we had on our hands, but we delved into the nitty gritty part of coordinating all Faction Leaders into organizing their teams before entering the battle arena (well, that was GM Wisschenschaft’s job, but I was an avid spectator nonetheless).
The 15 v. 15 matches were held in the Liberty Colloseum, which was with the City of Auch’s PvP Officer. The area itself was quite spacious and has a lot of room to run around (and hide XD). The place reminded me of the Colony areas wherein the main objective was to eliminate all enemies and at the same time grab as much Colonies as one can to provide the necessary buffs. Getting all Colonies without bringing down the opponents won’t help much though, so really, the real deal here was massive enemy wipeout. Plain and simple.

A tiny angel passed by, and stars lit up the sky.
The first match was held in
Vivaldi, which had 5 participating Factions. The first few matches seemed like a blur to me…people were dying by the score by the time we got to where the action was. Some Factions, such as the
Republicans, quickly wiped out their opponents in less than 5 minutes. Some opted to spread their troops around the area instead of meeting their contenders head on, perhaps hoping to score a few buffs by conquering Colonies. Some waged war the old fashioned way, that is, meeting the wave of enemies smack in the middle.
The battle in the
Pachelbel server was not that taxing compared to the first, for there were only 3 Factions who joined. Despite the server being a non-PK environment, we had to hand it to these brave families who took on the challenge and gave a good fight.
However, it was probably at the start if this match where we saw that some groups had incomplete members. For instance, the
Nemesis™ Faction had to make do with only 6 members, whereas their opponent,
†PINOY†ALLSTARS† had twice their number. Naturally, the one with the most number of troops vanquished the other. However, the
†PINOY†ALLSTARS† Faction were not able to stand up to
Destroth, who strategically went around to enclose the enemy, then proceeded to decimate their troops by the score. That was one cunning move if I do say so myself.
Meanwhile, we had the most number of participating Factions in
Caravaggio, which totaled to 8. The first match was interesting to watch, as the Families from
PasawayProphecy Faction did the unthinkable—sacrificing a few of their members, and then resurrecting them all when the
IAMVIETNAMESE Faction thought of going in for the enemy Colonies. When majority of then were revived, they turned the tables on the enemy, thus rendering the remaining
IAMVIETNAMESE members at the mercy of almost 40 opponents.
Some Factions were actually a tough nut to crack, even with the full force of an opposing group.
TheCore, for instance, lost only 2 members battling against the
Unholy.
EpicSynx Faction meanwhile, baited a lone Fighter against the rampaging
Rebirth Faction. This was actually an effective strategy as the other Faction members went in for the kill once they spotted
Rebirth right where they wanted them.
The final match between
TheCore and
Reborn was a fast one. As previously mentioned,
TheCore was an impenetrable wall, but nevertheless,
Reborn did not go down without a fight. The match was short-lived, but exciting nonetheless.
Over at
Carracci, we had 7 Factions competing, and perhaps this was the server with the lowest turnout of Faction members, that being the
ScotlandWarriors who only had 3 members when they fought against
TITANS who had 10. Regardless of their number, the
ScotlandWarriors were aggressive in their fight to even push the
TITANS to defend their home base.
On the other hand, there were also even-matched battles, one such thing was the
GodLike versus
Merlion. These two groups went for an all-out attack, killing quite a number from each contesting troop. In
GodLike’s other matches, some of the group’s Scouts were on an enterprising mode as they set traps in pathways leading to their base. I believe
Council and
Honor had a roll when they stepped into a virtual landmine of sorts, but then again, some people from
Honor actually weaved past the traps to confront
GodLike at the end of the road.
Last, but definitely not the least, was the
Cervantes server, which was participated by the popular Factions such as
Yakisoba,
Vradical,
GoD,
CARNAGE and
Dominion.
Yakisoba took down
GoD quite easily during the first match, leaving 13 people versus an army of 43.
CARNAGE Faction was likewise quick to conquer some of
Vradical’s Colonies, thereby providing the much-needed buffs to their allies, while they quickly decimated their opponents without much ado.
One of the more interesting matches happened with
GoD and
Dominion, with almost each Family having skirmishes of their own.
Dominion spread its troops, while
GoD took them on equally and with much force.
Still fresh from their first victory,
CARNAGE had to deal with a loss after getting pummeled by
Yakisoba. Subsequently, they lost to
GoD after meeting them head on in a deafening clash of swords and magic.
The last match saw
Yakisoba and
GoD face to face once more, with the former living up to its reputation of dealing fast blows and swift attacks.
GoD put up quite a fight, but had to concede as their numbers lessened.
Whew! That was one rundown that had me reliving the action once again. We’d like to thank all Factions who participated, as well as a big congratulatory whoop to the server champions of War of the Factions!
Vivaldi: IntrudeRz
Pachelbel: Destroth
Caravaggio: TheCore
Carracci: GodLike
Cervantes: Yakisoba
As for me, I’ll be posting the details of yet another in-game happening—the first official Colony Wars event!
Stay tuned!
P.S.: Here are some last minute screenshots I took (most of them were matches from Cervantes ^^). Not to worry though...videos will be up soon!

CARNAGE takes a beating out of GoD

Infernalz Family pummels Vradical base

Sweet victory for GoD
===
On a side note, some great news came to the office in the form of a package.
CM Veya and I were giggling like a bunch of school girls over these:

GE Doorhangers! FTW!
Of course I felt the overwhelming need to decorate my bedroom door with my personal pick from the lot...

Get out of my fantazzzies!!!<<--winning line ever!