(Player Event) ECL season 3, 27 June!

[Aurelius]

Despite popular demands, we're coming back!

After the intriguing (and expensive!) finale of last season, where we had a three way tie for the title between Lightning, Quicksilver and Sky, we've recovered from the excitement and are just about ready to kick off Season Three on Monday 27 June!

As ever, we'll be at the O*T Arena in Zento, matches beginning at 8PM UK time - all are welcome to bring along battle chickens to fight, or just bet on the outcomes of matches!

One slight change from last time, some of the RP guilds had expressed an interest in the event but it's tricky for their folks to drop out of their guild for an evening (Trammel rules meant you had to be in ECL guild for your pets to actually fight each other!), so I've trimmed down the existing ECL membership and we'll set up warring status against any of the RP guilds (and ONLY the RP guilds, before anyone asks!!) who want to compete. Of course, that would mean combat would be possible between those folks and the ECL members at any time, as well as during the matches, so I'll be clearing out the ECL membership lists after each evening to avoid any accidents - stray EVs at EM events would happily target members of warring guilds, for example... It's quick and easy enough to enlist folks who need to fight into ECL on the night, so that seems the best way to go - of course, if we find it's problematic for any reason, we'll find another way!



One warning for those attending - my typing at speed was always a bit eccentric, one of the reasons I have been missing from UO for a few months is I was quite ill just after the last season final and although I'm pretty much recovered, my typing is a bit worse than it was before - so as well as chicken fights and betting, you'll have the occasional word puzzle thrown in as well to keep you busy!

 

[Bobar]

That is good news!. Same as before I have trained up 2 new contenders to take part leaving my old birds to a restful retirement.

Glad to hear you are somewhat recovered now, hope it stays that way.

Being the Summer period there will be a couple of Mondays I will be away (a trip to Italy is on the cards amongst other things) so I will just hope I am around on the relevant fight nights.

I had ISP problems at the end of the last seasons fights, whilst it is still not 100% it should be adequate now, keeping my fingers crossed.

All being well Diddles will be there on the 27th.

 

[Irvyn]

Excellent news I've got Rachel training some new birds, so we'll see what happens with them.

Nice to know you're getting well again Look forward to seeing you and everyone else on Monday.

 

[Heimi]

Can't believe I missed this

 

[Aurelius]

No wories Risso, there's the whole of the season yet to come, and missing one match by no means spoils your chances of your pet winning the league! We've never yet had a champion who attended, and won, every match.

 

[Aurelius]

And a truly bizarre night, even by our standards, duly followed...

Starting with :

Boadicea versus Noir

Another exceptionally strong and fast bird from Diddlysquat's stables, against Noir, one of the 'house' birds, slightly lower stats but equal in skills - so should have been a close match! However, on their first try, things went rather strange, the entire world stopped for several seconds, people were seemingly disconnected - and when we got back, the fight was still going on, but with very little effect! A short pause followed while we got things back in order, and the rematch commenced.....

Second try, all went well - and also went against the predicted outcomes, as Boadicia built a reasonable lead only for the (on paper!) weaker Noir to fight back, overtake and eventually win!

Siegrune versus Camo

Two closely matched in stats, similar in skill, and a close fight should follow - except, first, Siegrune vanished on the walk from the waiting area into the arena! One swift relog for her owner and she was back, and we got her in the ring with no more strangeness, and the fight was on!

Siegrune rushed in fast but Camo was a very effective blocker, and for a little time neither bird was managing to land any telling blows. Gradually though, Siegrune wore down Camo's defences, and after a hard fight took a convincing victory.

Frosty versus Lethal Weapon

Long time veteran Frosty is well above average in stats, but Lethal Weapon (another of Diddly's monsters!) is much stronger, and slightly faster... something about Europa means we get exceptional quality fighters (Still think Pecky Balboa from last season holds the record for sheer power though). Perhaps our birds are just too strong, because - we sort of broke the world again.

At the command 'all kill' the world stopped again. At least this time, when we were all back and able to watch, the fight was still ongoing and although Frosty had landed a few hefty hits, Lethal Weapon was well ahead and cruised on to victory!

Yin Versus Sky

Both fully trained, and raring to go, Sky probably held an edge in experience but Yin was certainly keen to have a try! A close beginning to the fight saw both birds landing small hits, but no spectacular breakthroughs right through until the end - a real tough bout ended when both birds were totally redlined, but in a last effort Yin landed the winning peck on Sky to get an extremely hard-won victory.


And now we interrupted proceedings for a little while .... the explanation for which follows later in this post after the last two results!

Dopey versus Grimgerde

One newcomer and a returnee from season One, both still in training but closely matched and ready for their debut! Unfazed by the crowds, the oddness happening through the evening, and the traces of blood from earlier fights, these two piled in enthusiastically, and although close Dopey took an early lead and hung on to it until the end, slightly outclassing Grimgerde this time - but I'm sure there will be a rematch later in the season!


And the final novelty bout - Soba and Udon, two almost identical bake kitsune! These are VERY noisy, flashy bouts, lots of yelping, snarling and spellcasting.... and they can go on a little too, as these have a habit of sneakily healing themselves when they feel under pressure. This time they fought hard, and as expected it got very close a couple of times, but the losing fighter pulled back with a healing spell or two - until both decided to poison the other when they were both at almost no health! Udon wasn't quite fast enough to heal herself, Soba did with only a tiny sliver of blue on
her health bar, thus avoiding our first ever 'tie'!

So, results for the evening :

1 point each for ; Dopey, Yin, Lethal Weapon, Siegrune, and Noir.

Nice start, small crowd but still plenty of things to keep people occupied, so it's shaping up well for the rest of the season! And for once, the house almost broke even on the betting...

Our next match, back to the two-weekly schedule, is on Monday, 11 July, 8PM UK time - as ever, at the O*T Arena in Zento.


And the promised explanation for the oddness, and the big delay - whatever was happening to cause the big lag spikes, delays and general strangeness was only affecting the sub-server holding Europa's version of Tokuno, but it was having such an impact EA noticed there was a problem, so first Mesanna appeared to have a look at what might be going on, followed shortly by Supreem to monitor the technical side of what was happening - and the result, after a few tests, was to flag up a potential issue that's now being worked on at EA, and a recommendation that for future evenings, owners only bring one bird at a time to actually fight - if that's an issue for anyone just let us know and we'll set you up with a coop at the arena so you can bring all your birds, and stable the ones not currently needed to fight until their turn comes around, then take them home at the end of the evening. Apologies to those folks who spent a while either repeating fights, or watching repeat fights, while we tried to duplicate the problem - but eventually we got it, and EA have enough data about what was happening to work on a fix - and we are not likely to be plagued by strange lag spikes, or even worse lost pets, at future bouts, so I reckon the time was well spent!

 

[Mapper]

My screenshots from the evening.