[Report] The Great Gate Race 2010 (Sunday 14th)

[Mapper]

We waited at the Counsellor's Hall in Britain a little excited for what may be occuring tonight.

EM Emile Layne and EM Sarakan arrived at half past and began stating what would happen.

Across Trammel 5 gates would appear, We would be gated to an area and once we found a gate we would enter, find another, and so on until we arrived through the 5th and final gate where an EM would be.

Round 1 began in Nujelm.

About 10 minutes into the first round we were called back to the Counselor's Hall. EM Sarakan had slipped out our grasps like a slippery fish! We would move right on to Round 2 with no winners so far.

This time the second round gate went to Zento!

After a short while we were called back to the Counsellor's Hall, The first 3 winners had found the EM! They were whisked off as round 3 began.

This time we were in a dungeon, After a little confusion figuring out if the black dungeon moongates were in fact the EM ones we were once again called back to the Counsellor's Hall, At this point I hadn't even saw 1 green EM gate.

No one had found the EMs in round 3 however the final round, Round 4 was about to begin.

We entered the gate and arrived in Delucia.

After running around the city for ages I managed to find my first EM gate! It took me to Papua, However after running for a while around Papua I failed to advance any further in the competition.

We were called back to the Counsellor's Hall and told 4 winners would progress onto a secret 2nd round, For the rest of us, We could collect a gift in the Starroom.

We went through a moongate and to the Star Room, There we double clicked a statue to receive a white sash with the engraving 'Great Gate Race Competitor March 2010'

The winners of the second round arrived back at the Counsellor's Hall, They were:

Winners:

1st: Traveler
2nd: Cyantific
3rd: Aron Swordmaster
4th: Alaster the Mad

2nd, 3rd and 4th place got the following sash:

Whilst Traveler for winning 1st place got the following sash:

Here is Travelers report from the 2nd secret round:

2 part was fighting monsters in small room, simple rule - last alive is a winner. Was busy running and casting, so only final screens:

2nd place

1st place

reward itself

 

[R Traveler]

As for lost lands: delucia-papua-terra sanctum-cyclops valley-cos heb

 

[Adol]

So the event then! Mapper has already described the basics, and as you may have guessed, I didn't see anything after what was technically the second race, as I won that one

But not before getting hideously lost on the first one(s)... The EMs wanted us to wait until they said "Go", but with all the spam no one could hear them, so everyone just bolted at the first gate, to Nujelm. So we were called back for another start; This time officially going as soon as the gate first popped. Notice the accidental but auspicious mouse-over!

And I take an early lead, partly due to connection, partly due to being on a fully trained Mare... for now anyway!

But could I find the gate?! Could I heck! Rumours were swirling all over the place that the gate was to the north west of the island, but I only ever found the normal moongate there, with options to go to all of the others. My Guildmate, Voran said he'd found one going to Moonglow only, but later someone claimed that someone else had been casting that to throw people off the track. All I know is after running all over the island there, we got called back to the Guild as the EM had escaped us...

On to the third, although only officially second race; As mentioned, it started in Zento, and I got lucky by guessing it would be within the city walls. I took no screenshots for this as the lag had lowered, and I was desperately running for victory.

The first Moongate was in the south-eastern corner, on one of the ornamental gardens by the wall which exits the city.

The second location was a closed off desert somewhere, one with spiny fingers between the mountains pointing south... I think but am not sure it's one one north of Ter Mur, the Gargoyle City. I didn't recognise it, but I've not been to all the areas in the game; however I guess again correctly that it would be near a landmark, and ran around the cliff faces, picking it up near the Eastern edge.

The third location was, if I recall correctly (it was all so hectic!) was just a small island with the gates at either end of the map. No time to look for it's context, run, run, RUN!

The fourth, or maybe third location was another closed of area, this time of ice fields. One of the Samurai lands? Again, don't look, just run dear Ilona the mare, RUN! The gate here was also near the Eastern cliff faces of this zone somewhere.

The fifth was on the volcano near the Tsuki wolves. Someone popped through this gate at the exact time that I did... it was someone with "Pi" or "Pie" in their name, and we both bolted to the right, out of the two possible exit paths. At the bottom, he went north whilst I went south... it quickly became apparent to me that the distance covered was already more than the previous gates, so again I logically deduced it must be out the other exit. I ran around the south of the volcano to avoid the spawn, and found the final gate at the left hand exit... Success! And I won the second race!

It was Cyantific second, and Alastar the Mad third... I think? I was too buzzed to recall after the event who popped through the gates next, but they were very close behind me. And our prizes?

Entry to the second round; The EM then took us to the Naughty Corner, and left us there whilst they ran race 3 and 4. No one beat race 3, and we got very, very bored and resorted to stealing each other's underpants, and having a picnic on summoned food...

Eventually the winner of Race 4, Traveler came to join us... just as I was marking and handing out runes in case we could get back into there! Fortunately, the EMs didn't seem to hear what I was up too

As you can see, the final event was to be "Last Man Standing". At first, I thought it was going to be us actually fighting, so I used my Pet Summoning Ball to bring in an also fully-trained Rune Beetle too, and grabbed everyone's health bars. But it turned out to be monster spawn; Balrons at first, then Dragons and the Sphinx, then the Phoenix turned up...

For a while, we were actually fighting close together, a sort of unspoken camaraderie, but shortly we split up, and I lost people's health bars so couldn't see who was still active. The spawn started out relatively low, and I even managed to loot and carve up a few dragons for gold and scales too! But as things got more dangerous, and after my damage-high but hit-point-low pets had been killed a few times over (which I'd needed the mare to get here in the first place of course), I realised that every creature I was killing was actually helping the others rather than me... so I went and hid in a corner instead, where I intended to be the Last Man Standing!

And then, thinking that just in case the others started casting reveal, I left the dead beetle in one corner and hid in the other... Yet I made the mistake of saying "he he he" in Event chat, and commenting that I had a bit of an unfair advantage here as I seemed to be the only who could hide... hide that is until an EM came into the arena and told me to get out and fight. Which, within 10 seconds of doing so, Coil spawned, killed my mare with unshiftable poison, and then Area of Effect killed me trying to heal from under the runie. Bah!

But the other's genuinely deserved their win, as they bravely went toe to toe with some horrendous spawn I didn't even see from my sneaky corner. Here are the award ceremonies;

First, for being the first to fall, Alastar The Mad; I didn't see if he died before I started hiding though.

And then, with perhaps just a hint of acknowledgement that I probably didn't deserve it, my awarded sash...

I missed out on a screen shot of Cyantific getting his sash, so apologies for that. But I did get the eventual winner... the heroic... TRAVELER!

Although in an example of outright cheekiness, none of the sashes were blessed, and so the EMs had to tell us to insure them before we left... WE HAD TO PAY FOR OUR OWN REWARDS!

And post competition, Europa Trader showed little interest in buying any of them, as none have the "Europa" tag which would have made them really valuable, he he he!

 

[Mapper]

Nice screenies Aron, Looks like that 2nd round was a blast! Would have been fun to allow spectators to cheer their winner.

 

[Flame (DrR)]

Congratulations to winner and runners up, and thanks for showing us the last man standing event. Things went quiet well last night seeing as so many attended and the EMs had to keep on there toes. The sash hand out was a nice touch and also went well. I would be interested to know if any of the finalists were useing the 2D client.

 

[Adol]

I've had time to study the maps since last night, and during the second race it was Zento, the Desert north of Zento (with the gate being to the left of the big lake), the Florida/Wang shaped island to the West of Makoto, the snowy wastes north of Fan Dancer Dojo, the volcano as mentioned, and ended on a small island I can't now locate.

 

[R Traveler]

I would be interested to know if any of the finalists were useing the 2D client.

I used 2D

 

[Mapper]

I've had time to study the maps since last night, and during the second race it was Zento, the Desert north of Zento (with the gate being to the left of the big lake), the Florida/Wang shaped island to the West of Makoto, the snowy wastes north of Fan Dancer Dojo, and ended on a small island I can't now locate.

I believe it was this one: