Week 1 (2019-01-28)
Rankings: Melody, Impetus, FullMoonCafe
Impetus gained an early lead this week because they were willing to start on Boruta before any other guild, a showing that surprised even themselves. Melody came in and pushed out Impetus while Forbidden showed up occasionally to cause trouble. Forbidden held third for a while until FullMoonCafe sneaked in late in the week after things quieted down (around the 4th day).
During this week Impetus tried to reach out to Melody to see if some sort of truce could be established just this week because it was unclear that Boruta could be defeated at all. Constant crashing and health regen made it appear as if no progress was made on the dragon during the middle days. Melody rebuked this offer, saying that Impetus just wanted to win trade. The relationship between Melody and Impetus rapidly became a fierce rivalry in the coming weeks.
Week 2 (2019-02-04)
Rankings: Melody, Impetus, Forbidden
Towards the end of last week Melody started adopting strategies that made killing Boruta far easier. Using revenged sevenfold to reflect the boss’s high damage back upon itself, Boruta was killed in half the time.
The pieces leading to alliances or truces started falling into place this week. Melody reached out to Forbidden, Dynasty, and FullMoonCafe in order to establish a coalition to completely snuff out Impetus. Melody asked for just one of item from the rewards granted to second and third place in exchange for working together. Dynasty and FullMoonCafe declined, opting to stay neutral in this conflict. Forbidden struck a deal with Melody, but it is a secret what the terms and conditions were.
Outside of Boruta, emotions ran high as the controversy behind “Bokor botting” built up. Taking advantage of a safe spot in Baubas cave in conjunction with how Bokor-based builds behaved allowed some players to generate income with little-to-no-input. Members of Melody and Forbidden were condemned on the forums for using this method of generating silver, with many players believing that it will contribute to the decline of Tree of Savior.
Week 3 (2019-02-11)
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, FullMoonCafe
The dynamic of Boruta changed drastically this week as Melody firmly established its control. Having Forbidden’s backing, Melody succeeded in its goal of completely forcing Impetus out. Smaller guilds would help in that effort, afraid of also being ousted from the dragon’s lair.
The third week also had the freak incident where Boruta spawned in the middle of the day after maintenance. Melody and Forbidden clamored to kill Boruta before the rest of the server realized he was up and could organize to stop the effort. Without hesitation, they asked everyone that showed up to help with deflecting dissidents. There was some disruption, but nothing could effectively be put together with so little notice.
By this point in time, the alliance between Forbidden and Melody was firmly established. Melody would kill the dragon and Forbidden would keep other guilds out. FullMoonCafe held second place for a short span, until Melody got involved in the fights, saying that FullMoonCafe was killing their alts and slowing down their progress on Boruta. This ensured that Forbidden would get second place.
Week 4 (2019-02-18)
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, FullMoonCafe
The strategy using sevenfold revenged was removed by the third week, but Melody somehow managed to defeat Boruta faster than ever. Boruta was defeated within the first day. For the time being, people attributed this to the lack of guilds contesting Melody, but in later weeks people started wondering if there was more to it than just that.
The fourth week is a low point for server morale outside of Melody and Forbidden. Impetus seemed to have abandoned hopes of getting into Boruta while other guilds (Dynasty, FullMoonCafe, and Yorozuya) just scraped by. FullMoonCafe attack Dynasty and Yorozuya out of fear of losing third place. Melody largely left these guilds alone in order to focus on defeating the dragon and avoid crashing the channel. Forbidden would occasionally attack these other guilds, saying that it was to make space for Melody’s damage-dealers and alt accounts.
Week 5 (2019-02-25)
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, FullMoonCafe
Territories: Melody (Genar Field), Impetus (Aqueduct Bridge Area), Dynasty (Baron Allerno)
This week hit the server as rude awakening with the end of the Boruta opening event. Not only did players stop getting free Urbas seals, entry into the lair cost a normal Urbas seals for every single entry. It wasn’t the one seal per day that players expected. To add insult to injury, seals were consumed when an attempt was made to enter the dragon’s lair even if the lair was full and the player failed to actually enter.
The problem with Urbas seals stifled many attempts to get into Sullivanas Lair for many players, leading to an underwhelming number of personal rewards sent out this week due to many players’ inability to participate.
We saw the true introduction of Guild Territory Wars this week, the night before Boruta. Forbidden attempted to acquire Baron Allerno, but lost it to Dynasty. The ensuing arguments between Forbidden and Dynasty has since destroyed any hope that these guilds would work together. Dynasty accused Forbidden of failing to hold Baron Allerno despite getting help from Melody while Forbidden accused Dynasty of succeeding only due to the help from Yorozuya and Infinity. Melody, Yorozuya, and Infinity deny any direct involvement, with Melody saying that they were merely checking the area out.
By this week, a certain misunderstanding came to light. Multiple guilds were under the impression (FullMoonCafe, Dynasty, Yorozuya, and perhaps a few others) that they would be allowed to have third, or at least be left alone as long as they keep other guilds out. This didn’t make sense, as these unrelated guilds would end up having to fight each other.
Although some of these guilds expected safety, this did not stop Forbidden from killing most every other guild outside their alliance. They only spared a couple of individuals from small guilds, while spawn camping everyone else.
Week 6 (2019-03-04)
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, Impetus
Territories: Melody (Genar Field), Impetus (Aqueduct Bridge Area), Dynasty (Baron Allerno)
The server decided to shake things up with a second alliance between Dynasty, FullMoonCafe, Impetus, and Yorozuya. The week’s Boruta started particularly peacefully, with Melody on Boruta and all other guilds inside hardly fighting at all. Suddenly, the second alliance guilds inside attacked Forbidden, causing a channel crash. At that point, the rest of the second alliance flooded in as the channel recovered and the first alliance tried to regroup. This resulted in extended fighting for over three hours, during which no progress was made. The second alliance could hold off the first alliance, but could not achieve a decisive victory.
The second alliance eventually ran low on resources and was forced to back out. On the second day Boruta was defeated with little issue.
Building resentment came to a head this week. Melody’s monopolization of Boruta’s rewards paired with their brazen approach to dealing with other guilds has drawn a lot of scorn towards them. Forbidden holds onto pride in their own strength, despite a number of guilds believing that they succeeded only with Melody’s help.
Regardless of their exact reasons, a number of guilds have now banded together to shatter the status quo. Despite not succeeding entirely, a number of small victories were achieved. Many players obtained personal rewards, and a lot of people had fun trying to defeat their oppressors. Only time will tell if Melody’s reign will continue, or if they can be overthrown.
Week 7 (2019-03-11)
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, Tornado
Territories: Melody (Genar Field), Impetus (Aqueduct Bridge Area), Dynasty (Baron Allerno)
The second alliance attempted an immediate attack this week. Unable to get enough people into the channel as soon as Boruta spawned, they were unable to gain enough momentum to hold their ground in the dragon’s lair. The guild Tornado snuck in this week. Although the first day began with some fighting involving Tornado, it would appear a deal was quickly struck as they were allowed to stay. This guaranteed them a third place finish this week. Due to an early maintenance on Monday, Boruta was not killed the first day. However, the second alliance left the first alliance alone on the second day. The first alliance made quick work of the dragon on the second day.
This week’s Guild Territory Wars was an unusual mix of sideshows and back-and-forth fighting. With Forbidden nowhere to be seen in Baron Allerno, the location was unusually quiet for the first half of GTW. The only action to be seen was the siege tower racing that Infinity was conducting. On the other side of the world, Impetus and Melody fought over Aquedeuct Bridge Area and Genar Field. The maps changed hands twice, with the ownership of the territories ultimately unchanged compared to last week.
Week 8 (2019-03-18)
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, Tornado
Territories: Melody (Genar Field), Impetus (Aqueduct Bridge Area), Dynasty (Baron Allerno)
By this week most of the interesting action has stopped happening in Boruta. The second alliance didn’t bother attacking, hoping that it would leave the remaining people to fight over themselves over who would get top-70% rewards. Granted, there might not be too much to fight over as long as some alts pad the lower echelons enough.
For a brief moment it looked as if the first alliance was having problems since Boruta did not die the first night. It was later revealed that Boruta experienced a sort of perma-enrage bug in which he wasn’t taking very much damage but also dealing a whole lot. That probably resulted in comical moments where all sorts of guilds were getting crushed, especially after Melody gave up for the night and some of the lower guilds made an attempt on the dragon. This ultimately didn’t change anything, as the dragon was immediately defeated the next day, with no problems encountered.
Over in Guild Territory Wars, Impetus and Melody swapped territories a couple of times, with the territories ultimately unchanged by the time the fighting stopped.
Week 9 (2019-03-25)
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, Tornado
Territories: Melody (Genar Field), Impetus (Aqueduct Bridge Area), Dynasty (Baron Allerno)
Boruta was defeated at a record-level pace this week. No confrontations. No bugs. He was defeated in about 1.5 hours.
Guild Territory Wars continues to be more of the same. For a brief moment every week Melody attacks a territory and seizes it, only to lose Genar Field. They then go back, and reclaim that territory while returning the territory that they had taken moments before. At this moment it appears that Melody is the only guild willing and able to attack other territories while Impetus and Dynasty have resolved to just hold onto the one territory they can get. However, in order to attack a second location, Melody must split up their forces. So while Melody is the only guild able to threaten taking two locations, they have yet to succeed in defending two locations until the end.
Week 10 (2019-03-31)
Note: This week I’m going to start doing things differently. I’m going to change the date to be the Sunday of that week instead of the Monday. Also, I’m going to write about GTW first.
Territories: Melody (Genar Field), Forbidden (Aqueduct Bridge Area), Dynasty (Baron Allerno)
Many smaller guilds have give up participating in Guild Territory Wars. Apparently unable to affect the outcome while also receiving nothing for participating, it was seen as a pointless endeavor. Things took a surprising turn this week with the return of Forbidden to the battlefield.
With the help of Melody, Forbidden acquired the Aqueduct Bridge Area from Impetus. It was a hard-fought battle, with the territory switching hands at least three times in the last half hour. Forbidden got the territory in the last 20 seconds.
Impetus was unable to receive help from Dynasty while Dynasty remained in Baron Allerno to defend against Tornado (or maybe someone else; this requires verification). Participants have said that Tornado “was a free agent… blowing away any in their path.” No one can seem to agree whom Tornado was attacking, so that appears to be true.
Baron Allerno crashed towards the end of the hours. Despite holding ownership of Baron Allerno, Dynasty’s icon was not on the map once the dust settled. Currently they have no ownership over the taxes in Orsha, even though they were the last to hold the territory.
Additional Note: Apparently Dynasty is supposed to receive the silver they would’ve gotten for holding Baron Allerno. This will happen during the next maintenance.
Rankings: Melody, Forbidden, Tornado
Boruta was defeated in a little over an hour. It seems that very little trouble was had, and defeating Boruta is only getting faster.
Week 11 (2019-04-07)
Territories: Melody (Genar Field), Impetus (Aqueduct Bridge Area), Tornado (Baron Allerno)
This week’s action is prefaced by some bans that have led to numerous disputes on the forums. A couple of members of Melody have been banned (among other players), leading to outcry from friends, allies, and sympathizers. Players on the side supporting the banned are now calling for action taking against the IMC staff involved, going as far as demanding that staff member be relieved of his position because of his unprofessional behavior. These players are even suggesting that the staff is colluding with opposing guilds to give them in advantage in game.
Players supporting the staff’s actions argue that he was justified in his behavior, and that the player in question was rightfully banned. The dividing line between players in the forums closely aligns with the rivalries in game, which would lead most to question how unbiased anyone is in any of these conversations.
This week’s actual Guild Territory Wars were mired with channel crashes as well as both clashes in the battlefield and in the shout chat (moreso than usual). Impetus was able to reclaim their old territory of Aqueduct Bridge Area. Forbidden almost claimed Baron Allerno, but this was taken away from them by Tornado in the last two minutes. This was met with a flood of “BRBRBR” to mimic the sound of a tornado plowing through GTW.
Throughout GTW, both sides were accusing the other of deliberately crashing the channel. It is unclear if at any point it was deliberate, since Tree of Savior has had a history of unstable servers.
