Posts from Favorites in battle! - 5 The Battle of Favorites! - 5 Auto-translated

the memoirs are interesting

and when will the next installment of the "favorites" series be released?

Templates: 2sm4d(3) - 52 games, 8mm6 - 8, Panic - 4, balance - 2, Jebus - 1.

PREDSo and I played on Jebus :cool:

When will the "favorites-6" be released?

Traditionally in the fall.

Apparently, it's my turn to reminisce. :)\ Favorite Players in Action! - 3\ \ The tournament was an instant hit, as the guys already wrote, and after a successful second iteration, it could be considered traditional, and traditionally, it should have been held in autumn.\ Pit contacted me in the summer of 2010 and suggested that we hold a tournament together, which came as a complete surprise to me, since I had no experience at all, and this tournament is by definition one of the largest and most important. Nevertheless, I agreed because I always enjoy trying something new. Pit took care of the brackets, and I was responsible for overall organization and communication with players. Looking ahead, I will say that all this organizational work made a rather negative impression on me and significantly diminished the Heroic romance, but on the other hand, I gained good experience in this regard.\ \ Even at the stage of forming the first post, it was decided to make some changes:\ 1) Panic was removed from the list of templates and replaced with Mini-Nostalgia. It so happened that around this time, Panic began to transform into an undesirable template, largely due to the promotion of HL builds as "true" templates, but 6LM10 and 8XM12 were almost not played at that time, so Mini-Nostalgia appeared, if I'm not mistaken, from Portal. This seemingly insignificant change fundamentally altered the principle of the draft: the dominance of CM balance-Panic was eliminated, and it became possible to reliably choose one of three "true" templates - Jeb, 8mm6 or Mini-Nosta, which opened the way to the tournament for some who had previously been excluded from the old trio.\ 2) A list of banned players was added to the first post. This minor innovation simply aimed to show players who was accepted and who wasn't, without unnecessary questions. There were more and more players, so we started introducing a practice of filtering newcomers, and some who had committed offenses. It seemed like that was all, except that PReDS (who, by the way, won the CIS Championship the following year) ended up on this list. He got there because of his rather inappropriate behavior in one of the previous tournament games (we won't remember what exactly happened), and the fact that a strong player was banned from the tournament not because of cheating or map hacking, but simply for his behavior, was new.\ 3) Our rules included an addition about the game version - "...or by mutual agreement WT, TE, or TE Light". WT... The WT version was already gaining popularity and was declared as an alternative version "at will," while the previous Favorite Players tournaments only featured TE. WT was a pleasant alternative to TE, and some true SoD players began playing it, which simplified the integration of this version into tournaments, but at the same time brought considerable negativity to the tournaments being held at that time, fueling the growing WT-vs-SoD conflict. By chance, I was destined to be immersed in all of this. The essence of the problem was that the balance of castles in SoD and WT is significantly different, and if in SoD, for example, Swamp and Barbarian are middle-tier castles, then in WT they are top-tier. The point of Favorite Players is to play with one castle, and therefore, in pairs of versatile players (playing on both versions), conflicts were inevitably bound to arise – each would pull the blanket towards the version most suitable for their castle, which often ended in misunderstanding. Well, never mind, bygones are bygones, and we nevertheless learned a lesson from this, as did the players: when signing up for Favorite Players, you need to be ready to play SoD and only SoD, and choose your favorite castle to play on this version.\ \ The tournament started. The distribution by castles turned out like this:\ 1) Swamp - 7 pcs.\ 2) Rampart - 6 pcs.\ 3) Castle - 5 pcs.\ 4) Conflux - 5 pcs.\ 5) Inferno - 4 pcs.\ 6) Dungeon - 4 pcs.\ 7) Barbarian - 3 pcs.\ 8) Necropolis - 3 pcs.\ 9) Tower - 3 pcs.\ \ That is, the future winner was Swamp, and it also had the largest number of players. There were no real outsiders in this regard; at least 3 players were registered for each castle.\ By the way, it's interesting that the winners of the previous Favorite Players tournaments, Dudge and Pit for LM, did not participate in this tournament – the first has long been inactive, and Pit decided to take a break.\ \ The group stage went quite smoothly. From the top spots came: Kluka (Rampart), RomarioGrom (Conflux), Keba (Dungeon), Mizrael (Castle), Medium_HP (Swamp), OUTLAW (Rampart), Alone (Necropolis), Satir (Swamp) and they immediately got into the 1/8 playoffs. The second and third places went to 1/16 and had to play against each other for a place in 1/8. I remind you that the playoffs were played according to single-elimination rules, i.e., one loss meant elimination from the tournament.\ Of the outsider castles, Inferno performed best - 3 players made it to the playoffs - LeBron, Wic and FireToSky, but the first was eliminated already in 1/16, and the other two were drawn together in the first round, where the future Player of the Year 2010 won - Fayer.\ Barbarian performed worst of all, not making it to the playoffs at all. And Tower, thanks to rebellious, managed to reach as far as 1/8!\ By the way, Necropolis and Elemental also lost in 1/8 – bad luck. But Rampart continued confidently. All recognized veterans were eliminated even before 1/2, and less well-known players reached the semi-finals: Satir, Kluka, Keba, and OUTLAW - 2 Ramparts, Dungeon, and... Swamp! Satir was relatively new - winner of "Rookie-2009", Keba is a fairly strong player from Portal, little was known about Kluka, because he played rarely, and OUTLAW, for whom participation in this tournament became the most successful throughout his playing career (2nd place). As a result, Satir with Swamp honestly won the tournament, immediately establishing himself as a top player, which he later confirmed by winning FB-5.\ \ Here are some more interesting facts:\ Perhaps the most important one: according to the bracket, Satir was supposed to play against Fayer, but it turned out that they simply couldn't connect with each other (they couldn't set it up), and they decided to flip a coin, since time was running out, here is the report. Sometimes a coin toss can turn the tide of an entire tournament. :)\ Fayer, by the way, had to flip a coin in another round - in the match against Medium - report, quite funny. :)\ Wlk777 also played in this tournament – it was one of his last tournaments on this resource, after which he fell into disgrace and was banned.\ And Favorite Players-3 also became one of the last straws for the player SEM_56, who always took this game very close to heart. Here is a report about his defeat, full of emotions. By the way, few people probably know that with his departure, Sem disbanded the "Knights of the Apocalypse" clan, where he was then the leader, and "Knights" at that time was one of the strongest clans on this resource; it included: Gomunguls, GoD, numOne, OUTLAW and several other good players.\ \ That's all, folks. The tournament ended, and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. :)

For placing third in our General tournament ranking, players add the following to their profile: Now it's the turn of the leading participant in "Любимчики-4", R55Max, but he has a Jebus Cross draw…

The Battle of Favorites-4. This is Denmark.
- Gentlemen! I have gathered you here to deliver some most unpleasant news. A report on the fourth tournament needs to be made. Its organizer is currently busy. - NomerOdin turned his head and pointed his beard at R666 lying on the floor, who was drawing a table on a large sheet of Whatman paper. - I looked at the results and found that the winner was a certain Datchanin. It's not the first time we've invited Varangians to rule. But I want to figure out how this happened.
The advisors fearfully lowered their eyes.
- I was fulfilling my civic duty, - MisterLeFish was the first to find his words.
- What kind of duties? Poker debts? It's not debts you should be paying, but defending HW's honor.
- Uhh... and I was taking a vow... - his twin brother GryaznyFish muttered weakly.
- It's not time for lunch. And you, Pit-trolleum? Since when did alchemy become more important to you than Heroes?
- On the French side, on a foreign planet... - he mumbled, - I tried to turn black powder into the most precious nanotubes, but only got useless diamonds...
- Getting married, getting married, what games could there be?... - another one joyfully declared.
- Well then, who is to blame? NO ONE. So let's put him on the Black List. Next question – what do we know about the Danes?
- Niels Bohr and Tycho Brahe are Danes, - the Alchemist recalled.
- They had a Danish prince and his father's ghost, - Per'yaN confidently stated.
- Oh, don't start about Hans Christian Andersen, I know that myself, I have a daughter growing up. Anything sports-related?
R666, a biathlon specialist, looked up from his drawing and recalled Laudrup and Wozniacki.
- No, the best Danish athlete is Gus Hansen, - said LeFish.
- Yes, not much... And perhaps in your photo archive, Mr. Alchemist, something useful can be found?


Amalienborg Royal Palace in Copenhagen, the main residence of the Danish Royal Family. Consists of 4 identical buildings located around the perimeter of the square. As I was explained, the Queen is in the palace above which the flag is raised.

And this is not a safari in Africa, it's a park next to the Technical University of Denmark, a few minutes' drive from Copenhagen.

The Little Mermaid sculpture - a symbol of Denmark with a very difficult fate - has been repeatedly subjected to acts of vandalism. Not long ago it was in China at an international exhibition. They say that during its absence from Copenhagen, a monitor was installed that showed the Little Mermaid to the capital's residents around the clock.

And this is some kind of composite artifact, possibly a Legion entire. A small part of this statue is very popular among the Danes.


- Oh, there it is - the key to the Datchanin's success. Henceforth, every participant of The Battle of Favorites must rub their monitor in the right place and at the right time to equalize the chances of victory.

Do you think Maretti will appreciate it? (=

We're almost there – just a little bit left until we can “breathe a sigh of relief.”
If R55Max finds the time, we’ll gladly read about his impressions of the Lyubimchikov-4 organ. And here’s what the L-4 leaderboard looks like:

The news that a tournament needed to be held didn't hit me so much unexpectedly and sharply as it did gradually. And here is how it happened.....

Dirty_Player messaged me on ICQ, said there was some business, intrigued me, then he had to go somewhere and suggested continuing the conversation in the evening. I was intrigued all day, and then in the evening came the proposal to be the organizer. I agreed and promised that everything would be top-notch, but my experience was exactly 0.0 :D I had absolutely no idea where to start or how to even begin, but with my characteristic maximalism, I started reading about past tournaments and trying to figure things out.

What followed were very, very many questions for Pit and Dirty; the entire tournament was conducted in close contact with them. I received a lot of help—too much to list—it was simply always there and felt, and that is what matters most!

Now about the tournament:

1. For the first time in Favorites, HD-mod was officially used; this was progress.

2. Probably for the first time on ХВ in tournaments, players were given the right to choose their favorite templates, which would then be used for the tournament itself. Kostya proposed this feature, and I accepted it with enthusiasm because I had been searching and searching for something that this particular tournament was missing, and here it was... just what was needed! I carried this idea forward to my next tournament "One for All and All for One"

3. For the first time, strong official recommendations were made urging players to give up autosaves; over time, it is evident that the understanding of the uselessness of autosaves is strengthening in the minds of players.

4. For the first time on ХВ in tournaments with a group stage, a rule was applied where group winners immediately form the upper winner's bracket, and those who took second place form the lower loser's bracket in the 2nd stage of the competition as Double Elimination. This rule reduced the number of games without incentive, because there became a big difference between taking 1st or 2nd place.

5.For the first time on ХВ in our forum's internal tournaments, progress was made in relations with our friends and colleagues from other countries. Excluding Russian-speaking participants, there were 6 people, all high-level players. By the way, not a single foreigner had participated in the first three Favorites. It's a pity that one of them later turned out to be a maphacker, but that is another story. Since the tournament began to take on an international character, Pit for LM added a post in English. This added seriousness and officiality to the tournament. In my opinion, it was this year that the tournament became even more beloved, popular, and larger in significance and scale.

6. A small innovation was made in the form of an additional post on the 1st page of the thread with headers of participants' reports and links to their full descriptions. Later something happened to the forum—apparently, the creator changed the number of messages per page and they got shifted—but the essence stuck and is now used in almost all tournaments.

7. And finally, this tournament became the most visited in the history of ХВ and remains so to this day!!!

GoedenDag, please do not mislead people :)

In Favorites 4, 80 participants started, 5 players entered the battle instead of those eliminated, and 8 players who officially applied remained outside the tournament because there was no room due to the regulations. Two players were denied participation. Total: 93 official applications from players who were not denied play, but they were full participants; however, due to the regulations, they were not admitted and remained in case of replacements.

In Favorites 5, 80 players also participated at the start (including tie-breaker games, another 4 players), then 3 more players came as replacements during the tournament, and one remained in reserve (I am counting only official tournament applications in the threads). Also, two players were denied participation. Total: 88 players participated in the tournament.

All conclusions were made based on personal available facts; if I was wrong in any points—let me know. If some points were not "for the first time," then I apologize for my ignorance, we will correct it if necessary

And what about the tournament itself?

There were many sensations in the tournament. Starting from the first results, players considered a priori "weaker" began to win against their more renowned opponents. At that moment, it was noticeable how the average level of players had grown, and it became clear that recognized TOPs would not have it so easy.


The registration was proceeding in its own way, but toward the end of the registration "abnormal activity" appeared :D and Maretti, who had registered, jumped onto the step of the departing train; then, as the train began to gain momentum and the conductors threw coal into the furnace, another player—Tiamath—grabbed onto Maretti's "trouser leg." At the next stations, new passengers joined, having been late to buy tickets on time, while meanwhile the train had already gained speed and could not be stopped by the remaining people wishing to get on. These were 8 players whom the engineer also wanted to take, but stopping such a heavy and powerful machine with 85 people was no longer possible....

The train moved on, and the passengers who jumped onto the step gradually began to push others—those who had taken more comfortable seats—and having gathered at one table in their own general-purpose carriages, they began moving toward business class through plackarta seats, not even stopping at comfortable compartments....
Passengers who gave way to them not of their own free will tried to understand who these people were, what were their names? But no one could see their faces to understand, only a torn trouser leg was remembered by some watching the unknowns step over the thresholds...

Meanwhile, one of the regular clients of this train and route, who at the time was stunned by the audacity and pressure of the "upstarts," did not think long but went head-on via the most difficult path. He understood that he would no longer be able to catch the enemies directly by their tracks because the door latch was tightly locked from the other side; perhaps he had already lost hope...

but he did not give up, he saw a glimmer of fire through the metal floor covering and descended there... Here, the stoker awaited him and said the passage was only over there, pointing with a dirty but firm finger to the side. Looking in the direction of the finger, passenger J saw many people and even his acquaintances, and he realized that almost all of them were here for the same reason as he was. And he understood that they had the same tasks, the same position. And the SLAYING began! The days when one could relax a bit were forgotten; the time for heavy and harsh struggle had come....

While battles were being fought in the narrow, dark, and damp basement, the interests of the train's punishers crossed. They stopped, looked at each other, and at that moment everyone recognized them—Maretti with the torn trouser leg and Tiamath with a piece of fabric in his fist. They stood and watched, they waited, but did not know for what, and then they heard approaching footsteps beneath their feet; who was striking sparks with spurs against iron, they did not know, but they understood that it was better to find out later... Soon everything was decided...

The basement hatch is kicked open, Mr. J emerges, exhausted from the heavy journey, and before him is another opponent, transitioning into a mathematical infinity; it no longer matters what his name is, for he has traveled so far, the battle simply continues, Tiamath is defeated, and the scrap of fabric falls to the floor. Then things got hot—oh, if only there weren't such trials... Weakness takes over Javdeta's body, emergency brake, desert 2sm4e3, Maretti emerges alone, he is met by an archangel and lifted to the summit ...

Now it's all over; was it all for nothing, thinks Mr. J... And only the recognition of individual fighters, the engineer, and the stokers faintly soothe his vanity, but together they make him stand up and move toward a new path, stealing glances at the horizon....

P.S. Present days.
GoD vs Javdet

Last time in the final battle, the archangel of the human Castle took Mr. J's opponent to reap the rewards. Now the lord of the heavens himself has descended to earth. But why??? To reward??? or once again subject him to the trial of time???

The tale is coming to an end soon…

Meanwhile, the deadline for the first game in the final series passed 2 days ago.
GoD, when will the report and saves be available? Please take a few minutes to do so.
The deadline for the second game is May 1st.

This includes players who participated in more than 2 tournaments. The top 3 results were counted. As we can see, the six players at the top of the table (places 2-7) have very close scores, with only a difference of 5 points.

Each player on the list has the opportunity to improve their position next time; those who participate in L-6 for the third time will make it into the list, and some of them are contenders for high places.

07/04/2013 GoD (Blue, Rampart, Clans, Moandar) def. Javdet (Red, Rampart, Clans, Clans) h3dm1 212

Thank you for the game!

I will explain everything in detail today, I promise...)

07/04/2013 GoD (Blue, Rampart, Clans, Moandor) def Javdet (Red, Rampart, Clans, Clans) h3dm1 212

Thanks for the game!

I'll explain everything in detail today, I promise...)

The Gods have a slightly longer day than humans...:smile16:

07/04/2013 GoD(Blue, Rampart, Clancy, Moandor) def Javdet(Red, Rampart, Clancy, Clancy) h3dm1 212

Heroes were so-so. I took a long time messing around searching for crystals to build Pegasi - in the end, my native secondary town was only taken on day 117, where I immediately built Elves. Before that, Dungeon and Necropolis were already taken. The only highlight was Moandor, who immediately got Earth Magic and in the Dungeon at Mage Guild level 2 got Slow. End of the first week - Centaurs in the Citadel, since gold wasn't great.

In the second week, Moandor fights into the capital, immediately takes a 100-stack of Dwarves with a grand stack and on the guard of a Griffin Conservatory with 20-49 Elves levels up Earth Magic. Next turn with Haste I easily take a level 3 Griffin Conservatory. Moandor fights into Necropolis to take a Dragon Fly Hive; Clancy hangs around in the area of the native secondary town near a Dragon Fly Hive guarded by 10-19 Wizards. Moandor takes the Dragon Fly Hive for 6 Centaurs; right there scouting heroes spot an overview showing that the nearest Treasure on Swamp is nothing. The main army goes to Clancy, who also takes a Dragon Fly Hive for 6 Unicorns; Moandor with Lords runs to explore the Treasure on Lava and check teleports onto the red player's plane. Clancy enters the Treasure on Stone.
There he takes a chest for 50-99 Medusas with all Earth Magic, but Wisdom is only Basic; however a Dragon Utopia is spotted, which Clancy breaks at 125.
A level 2 Dragon Utopia - gave +5 and +4 to all - I lost everything except 14 out of 15 Centaurs. The main army goes to Moandor, who found an exit into a similar Treasure on the opponent's plane. There a chest with Earth Magic is taken, but now with Expert Wisdom, and right after, with Resurrection and Animate Dead, the Dragon Utopia falls.

In the third week, non-stop main army maneuvering: Clancy runs around with the entire main army in one direction, collecting Dragon Fly Hives and other goodies; Moandor with singles goes into the Treasure on Snow next to the Dungeon, where using summoning of crap he breaks several Dragon Utopias. Another Dragon Utopia is visible next to Clancy beyond the mountains, but without Control it can't be reached. Lucky with building the Mage Guild in the Dungeon - got Town Portal on the second try, Dimension Door on the first. Moandor with Expert Scouting fights into the Dungeon, where he learns all this, and runs to take the inaccessible Dragon Utopia = I take it both on my side and the opponent's. I was sorely lacking a Town Portal user with Fire Magic - no one wanted to get it, but in a prison a mage prisoner was found with all the needed skills - life became much easier. That same prisoner found another Dragon Utopia in the Snow, which Moandor consumed next turn through 2 Dimension Doors - there gave the Sandals of the Saint. On the next turn, a previously revealed chest +1 to all and the Angelic Alliance assembled - a corresponding artifact was also picked up against Dispel - Centaurs are gathered, and along the way the Castle, native secondary town, and Necropolis are built up to level 6.

At the end of the first - beginning of the second month, on day 147 I take 3 out of 4 of the red player's towns, leaving the opponent only Dungeon. I rest in the enemy's capital. The day was spent on full buying and upgrading, and on day 212 I attack Clancy, who is sitting in the Dungeon. Meanwhile, my Clancy with 500 Skeletons and single grand Pegasi, using Death Wave, drives off Luna with a large Spell Power, who apparently wanted to meet me with Armageddon on a couple of K.
Next is Fireball.

Advantage in all indicators, especially in mana - Moandor with Expert Intelligence and the Vortex from the Dungeon had over 1000 mana.

MOANDOR 32 33 35 32(1300+) 2 Angels, 30 Necromancy Unicorns, 24 grand Pegasi, 76 grand Unicorns, 227 grand Centaurs, 182 grand Dwarves, 141 Grand Elves

CLANCY 22 25 22 17(460) 60 grand Unicorns, 23 grand Pegasi, 12 Necromancy Unicorns, 3 Angels, 144 grand Centaurs, 25 grand Dendroids, 90 Grand Elves

The gates are locked and the Grand Elves with Golden Bow and through Clone shoot everyone down.

Thanks for the game!

Unfortunately, the first four days of the game were overwritten by saves from another match, but I think Roma can fill them in with his saves.

http://www.zalil.ru/upload/34467037

The GoD vs. Javdet match will begin in the next few minutes. I will be streaming both players on my channel: http://www.twitch.tv/sheezohrennik

3rd game m93-399-715

07/04/2013 GoD(Blue, Rampart, Clansy, Moandor) def Javdet(Red, Rampart, Clansy, Clansy) h3dm1 212

20/04/2013 Javdet(Blue, Rampart, Clansy, Clansy) def GoD(Red, Rampart, Clansy, Clansy) h3dm1 137

05 2013 GoD(Red, Rampart, Clansy, Moandor\Clansy) def Javdet(Blue, Rampart, Clansy, Clansy) h3dm1 135

Looks like karma for 2nd place))) Already the 5th lost final. And no matter what anyone says, I didn't deserve the defeat this time.
I'm not ashamed of the 1st game at all; perhaps my best in the season.

In the 2nd one, I played a bit clunky, but scouting and Kirryushas decided it; I found a Dragon Utopia with control and visited just in time.

In the first and last games, even Zhenya's main heroes coincide, as does what happens in the match. Twin-games — I scout more profitable directions, choose what seems right, move with foresight, while Zhenya blunders blindly and skims the cream off the top))

The starting army was as bad as it gets — 4 elves and 34 cents; I had to run carefully with them without getting into dangerous battles.
At the start, I scouted 2 more Dragon Utopias, which has already become a tradition; Zhenya hadn't found any by that time. I decided to play via the near one, since it would take about 3-4 days to get to the far one. In general, by 126 I have the minimum taken, and Town Portal in the tower. 127 is another two-star Dragon Utopia. Zhenya has nothing like that to boast about, and he didn't even start upgrading the tower, which I suspected since there are only 2 cities where it can be placed, and if he did place it, only in his home city, but then the house would be without upgrades. On the other hand, he ended up in a Dragon Utopia treasure zone — 4 on one respawn and 2 on neighboring ones.
131 some loser on the 3rd front eats the max-utopia, good haul — full control. Clansy, after stables and with boots, almost reached the far Dragon Utopia, right in the area of the same cluster. The opponent, however, gets a cap, shackles, and comparable stats thanks to the teapot in one turn.

And then color decided it — I was a day late for two strategically important Dragon Utopias, maybe even 3.
I was 100% sure he didn't know about the existence of the max-utopia because the passages in its area weren't cleared, and you can't see it otherwise. I rush toward it at full speed and see a miracle: Clansy is hanging out near it with power. I got flustered and instead of portaling home, in the final seconds, I started changing gear after an inconvenient VT-style artifact transfer. In the end, I didn't manage either. And obviously, I got wrecked.
But there were chances to fight; despite the difference in stats, I could have had a decent impl, which Zheka never foresaw, and 10+ archs.

Thanks for the games and congrats on the trophy!!!