| The IDL War Journal recognizes that not all big games fit our criteria for publication. Yet some stories are simply too entertaining or too special to relegate to the dustbins merely because the games were not played in someone's home level. We have set this page aside as a repository for quality stories from First Tier members that cannot be posted as normal journal entries. |
| If there is a story you would like to tell
that does not meet eligibility requirements for the main Journal pages, yet
depicts a game that is memorable to you in some particular fashion, either for
extraordinary accomplishments, unforgettable incidents, or personal
achievements, or for noteworthy events that may be of interest to others, then
your story is welcome and will be published on this page.
For a story to be eligible to be posted here, it must concern an officially recorded IDL match. Players are encouraged to honor their opponents or focus on their own accomplishments. Please limit stories to games that were meaningful to you, and if possible, explain why this particular game or accomplishment or incident stands out in your mind. |
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New Stories added in recent updates denoted by the word 
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This match has to go in the memorial matches bin for this reason: It is
by far the best comeback match I have ever had. We started this LAN game
and I was sure I was gonna clean house, because we had played the same
level a day or two earlier and I beat VaiN 20-8 or some ridiculous
score. It wasn't pretty to say the least. Well in this game, it was HE
who surprised ME. My strategy this game was to keep him at bay with the
vulcan, and when he was weak, charge in and surprise him for the kill.
Well dammit, you need vulcan to make something like this work and I just
couldn't get it. I got the first kill with vulcan, then he killed me.
Ok no problem, he started outkilling me 2-1 after that. Every time I
kill him, I fly through his spew and go to change to the
vulcan...then...WTF??? Where is it? HES GOT IT ALREADY! I don't know
where the boy was spawning but he was always back in his spew before I
could even get to the gun. Over and over I tried to get the
long-distance guns from him, and it just didn't work. He got spread and
vulcan kill on me so many times, and this is absolutely true, I got so
mad this was the first time I actually hit a piece of my computer
hardware when I slammed my fist down on the keyboard. VaiN told me
later that he knew he had me frustrated when he heard the noise.
I was thoroughly phucked, in a major way and I knew I was going to have
to do some serious battle plan changeups if I wanted to keep my d1
streak versus VaiN alive. So thats what I did. I stopped trying to get
the vulcan and spread from him, and that confused him a bit, I know. He
was half expecting me to come charging into the room after him again,
but I never did for the rest of the match, I let him come to me. And
while I was waiting I would go gather missiles :)
The turning point for me was the proximity bombs. I had a really well
placed cluster of them in the chimney room and he flew face first into
them and I got my first pbomb kill in longer than I remembered. This
was good because it got him jumpy and less agressive. VaiN also made
several of his kills on me by camping in the second room, not the
chimney room but the grate room. Well, I would gather homers, and go
into the grated-chute and fire them through the grating into the next
room and take him down about 50 shields and flush him out. With his two
biggest tactical advantages (raping me with vulcan when I would charge,
and camping) nullified, VaiN didn't have any existing tactic which would
work on me. I know I had him more confused than anything and thats when
I let him have it. While ratting around the tunnels and the exit door,
I got some good fusion and plasma kills on him. I made sure to try and
kill him a second time very quickly if possible, to further hurt his
confidence. Once I had gotten 4 out of the 5 most recent kills, he got
scared and fell into a more predictable pattern.
At that point I knew the game, which had appeared to be a blowout at the
start, was winnable. Point by point I took him out using tactics that I
had never yet used in IO, but was inventing on the spot, and they
generally worked too! Its always great to invent a tactic on your own,
and have it give results. Well I eventually overtook him 18-17 and
thought I had him, but then disaster, I suicided when a conc hit his
ship too close to me and I had 2 or 3 shields left. Back to 17-17, I
was determined to not lose after the comeback I had waged. VaiN was
sitting tight in the chimney room, so I had to go after him the rest of
the match. Lucky for me I had the fusion! I got him with some
well-placed door shots and then quickly on a respawn. I heard him
respawn up in the reactor and I was covering both exits, so it was going
to be tough to get out. Unfortunately he managed to swipe some quad 4's
from the base of the chimney while I was turned away, but he couldn't
get out into the room. So a vertical firefight up the chimney ensued. I
nailed him with a fusion, so I knew he was down to 40 or less shields,
and all I needed was a way to get him out. While firing at the chimney
I flared the tunnel door and spied some pbombs. If only I could reach
them I could plug up one end of the tunnel and drive him into them. But
I never made it there, the second I turned to grab them, VaiN made his
escape into the main room, but I caught him trying to turn back and come
in and robbed him of the rest of his shields! It was by far the most
intense game, and the HARDEST I have ever had to work to EARN a win. I
was in such a bad predicament at the start I had to pull out all the
stops and even re-invent my strategy for that level in order to
succeed. But that is what makes a good player great. They are the ones
who can have a bad game, regroup, comeback, and still come out on top -
and I feel I'm getting better at that every day.
|
-LordDeath
| "This was the first title match between kufyit and me. He had still been LT the other times I was defending #1. Anyway, we had agreed to play each other's homes and I had already played my half in his home. So he owed me a game in my home, but he wasn't up for at this time, and being that he's always cool about level picks, I said OK and we agreed on D2, which was what he really wanted to play. I had not been feeling well all afternoon -- not sick, just dragging, and not mentally sharp like you need to be for Descent. But after dinner I felt better and wanted to play, so we played. We started out really tight, just like I expected, then kufyit reels off three respawn kills. I mean he really annhiliated me. And he stops the game and offers to postpone, if I am not feeling sharp enough to play. This is one of the most sporting things I've encountered in a match; it was very noble of him. But I wasn't looking for an excuse; I knew I was sharp enough to play. I really did feel better. So I told him so and we continued. RIGHT after that, I ate a smart in the tunnels. I mean I gulped it down big time. Felt like I was in deep deep trouble. Even in his win on me in his home level, this kid never led me by more than three points, and now he was up on me 7 3 and totally on fire. But this was a modem match, not a lag fest, so if I was going down, it would be because I got outplayed. Early leads on me don't always hold up anyway. I've been down by as much as 7 to UTs before and still won. So I just buckled down, and slowly made my way back into the game. After I got the lead back, kufyit went to more of a hit and run game, trying to use the guided missiles more, and to try and corner the respawned missiles. The last half a dozen kills were extremely intense, and I made a few excursions into the tunnel areas where he was hiding out just to try and catch him napping or at least let him know that there was no place he could think of as entirely "safe" to hang out in. This match ended his largest UT win streak to date -- and it was one tough match. I wish all IDL players were as good sports as kufyit. He is truly a class act on the IDL." |
-Sirian
| "Since our first match, I've pretty much had Tubby's number. I remember commenting to Sirian on his first loss to me, saying something like, "I played some guy for an IDL match earlier that I've never heard of named Tubby. He was VERY good, but every shot I threw up seemed to hit him. It was a strange game." Most of our matches have been like that -- Until Io. He started out with Vengeance on his mind for his previous losses. He was tearing me up with the Fusion. He was aggressive when my back was turned and cagey when I wanted to press him. I was down by one of the worst margins I've had in recent memory: 11 to 5. I'm not normally the comeback kid. If you get me down, I tend to get annoyed and play worse. In this particular case, I was to the point where I wanted it to at least look like I tried. I had cycled through every other weapon in my arsenal and decided to give the Purple People Eater a try. I don't usually put much faith in it, but I know it's devastating effect on morale having been on the receiving end many times. I fired one shot, *blam* got a kill. How's that for an ego boost? :) I managed to get a fusion hit on him when he came back to rearm. I knew he was low on shields and finished him off with spreadfire. After that, I felt more comfortable. I was still down by 4 points, but that was a more manageable margin. I hid a lot. I teased him near the energy recharge and managed to get a kill with plasma while he tried to slip a fusion shot in. It was cat and mouse for the rest of the game. I had little faith that I would win, but my stubbornness was my salvation. Tubby still had the lead at 18. I was in dangerous territory. I had retreated into the reactor room to escape his plasma fire. I was trapped. I waited for 30 seconds, fired a smart down one hole, ran as quickly as I could to the other exit and came out blazing. I managed to sqeak out with 50 shields. Tubby stopped to comment, "Well, I blew that one." I had noticed a pattern that he used throughout the game and had made him pay for it a couple of times. I made sure not to punish him too much for using it lest he stop. It was time to make him pay. 2 of the next 3 kills were gleaned from his pattern. Final score: 20 to 18. Tubby had been promoted to the UT the day before this game, but I told him that if he hadn't been I would have nominated him on the spot. He may have lost a large lead, but he fought like a champ all the way." |
-ENDER
| "This was a revenge match for me, with the lead in our rivalry on the line. My revenge on Chip needed to happen. We were tied at 6 to 6 in our match history after my loss to him in the vendetta, so why not try it while we were on the LAN? Chip just finished playing a game with Igloo in Kiln's Fusion Farm...and thats the level we decided to play. So of course I was a bit worried. He had 20+ kills of fusion warm up under his belt. We started out and played that level how it was supposed to be played: dogfighting with fusion in the main room. Chip threw his Pyro in front of quite a few fusion shots in order to save the walls. =) Definately one of the fastest paced and funniest matches I've played." |
-Xciter
| "Ender has tried more ISPs than any three other human beings combined. He has literally signed up with every ISP in his area, something exceeding 40 different providers. He has laid out big bucks for ISDN only to have his provider stop offering unlimited accounts. And his cable company may be telling him "Next month, next month" until Hell freezes over. hehe. So he has ISDN, at the time of this writing, and it's just the tiniest bit lossy, just enough to affect games a bit. Well, we decided to play a match, and last time out I had done one of his picks and come up short. So we decided to do my latest release for D1, The Blues. This level is tiny, has only spreadfires, fusions, two homers and a bomb pack. I had played it twice, him none, but he looked it over and it really is pretty simple. The layout makes for a complete peekaboo experience, and Ender is renowned for his love of missiles. But with only two homers in the level, I figured I could cope. Then at 2-1, I picked up three homers on my way through one of the red access corridors. Ugh. "Already?" I thought to myself. I had made an "EH" (extra homers) version of the Blues for those boater types with slow PCs. And I got the ugly feeling that it soon start to look like we were playing the EH, not the standard version. Ender told me after the game that he kept expecting me to use more fusion, and it disturbed him some when I stuck endlessly to the spread, just because he so much expected me not to. This game was very intense. You couldn't have cut the tension in the air with a knife; you'd have needed a machete. This level is FAST. Not as fast as Rose, because there is more ratty area, but darn close. I made the decision early on to boat as much as possible. And sure enough, the missile count kept rising steadily. I had 7 at one time halfway through, and by the end I was carrying ten and running over spares. It really WAS like playing the EH, all the while going up against one of the best missile users ever to play the game. All pretense of dogging was gone by the time there were 5 homers. We ratted the whole rest of the game. And there were some sweet kills on both sides. I got three clean kills with correct predictions. Also got pasted a few times when Ender did the same back to me. He did a great job with the hit and run. I paid more often than not when I tried to pounce on him before he could get to some weapons. I'd eat a homer or two while he had only laser 1, and sometimes not get hits in return. :( I hated that. This was a big time UT rat fight, and it was played at breakneck speed: engagements and disengagements and reengagements coming by the dozen within spans of seconds. This was a memorable match for me for several reasons. The slowly rising homer count forced constant change-ups in tactics on both sides. I got one, only one fusion kill, but it was near the end and it was a total wipeout for Ender, probably the winning blow. I got Ender to actually run into some proxbombs on some occasions. I had the winning homer in flight and locked on to him in a tunnel and he suicided by mistake milliseconds before it could strike him, and the game dragged on another five minutes. And I still won. It was, more than anything, a contest of wills, and I survived." |
-Sirian
| "Can you say run over by a freight train? I certainly wasn't ready for the task at hand when I played Sirian in IO NH for the number 1 spot. I was feeling pretty good about playing him...and within 5 minutes, with the score at 4 to 0 him... I got a rude awakening. A few minutes later... the score was 7 to 0 him... and I was saying to myself, I am not about to get shut out in a UT match! That is when I picked up on his game plan somewhat, and slowed down, but Io can be a level that drags out if played where one person sits on one end, and the other in the larger room. I managed a few times to make him come to me and dogfight me, and landed at least one good one-shot fusion kill another time...but that still wasn't enough to pull anywhere near the lead. 20 to 11? Ehh...not a great score by any means, but when playing Sirian, I'm happy with it." |
-Xciter
| "I was hanging around #300baud and decided on a whim to ask EgaD for a D1 match. I said, "Lets play something new." We settled on Necrotic. EgaD and I had only played one other D1 match. It was in his home, and it went into overtime 23 to 21 (his favor). I was hoping that since this wasn't his home that I'd be able to pull ahead. Things started off badly. I was playing as "Lucky" and he was playing as "LagnLoss". I was beginning to think that both of our names were apt. Me for bad luck, and him for the obvious reasons. :) The Lag/Loss during this game wasn't too bad (thanks to D1X) though its a good excuse. :P He pulled ahead pretty early on. I believe that the score was 7 to 4 at one point. He was using the Fusion exclusively and I was mothing consistently. At this point, I gave up trying to go Fusion v Fusion with him. I switched up to Plasma. I quickly came to the conclusion that I wasn't doing much better there. I finally hit on a weapon that actually seemed to hit him with some consistency: Quad 4 lasers. I had had success with them against Dramu in Get Smart, so I figured what the heck. I had a run of good luck and managed to somehow tie it up at around 11. I remember it because I wound up with 13 shields or so. I was hoping that he didn't know that. A tie is a tie mentally until the other person gives away that they're hurt by their actions. In this instance, it didn't matter. He stomped on me as soon as he found a weapon. He was still mainly sticking to the Fusion, me at the Quad 4's. We would both switch to other weapons to break up the monotony of NOT hitting each other. Somehow I managed to get ahead at 19 to 18. One point and I would win! I knew that this was a dangerous line of thinking and consciously quelled any thoughts of going out and walking all over him. I played cautious. I died. Tied at 19. From here on out, the lead was an elusive wraith. EgaD would get one point ahead and then hurt me badly and die. There were 2 instances in overtime where he was 1 point ahead and I had less than 10 shields. Each time I managed to somehow get a kill. There was a time where he was a point ahead and I managed to kill his spanking new Pyro with a one-shot fusion kill. From our post-game conversation, I gather that it pissed him off a tad. Good. Payback is a bitch. :) At this point, were both being pretty cautious. We'd roam around for missiles. They usually appeared downstairs. He laid a trap for me. I went for the goods, and what do I hear behind me? A charging fusion! I managed to drop a couple of smarts at just the right time and Blam. Tied it up at 24. I don't remember the 25th kill, but I'm pretty sure it was a Plasma kill. On the last kill, I was down to about 40 shields. Enough that I don't have to be TOO cautious, but I knew that any kind of fusion shot would do me in. We both skulked around and hid at the top of the big dogfight room waiting for the other to show his face. We crossed paths in one of the corridors near an energy recharge and went at it. Two smarts later I had my win. :) Final score: 26 to 24. I didn't find out until later that if we could've stretched it out one more point we would have tied for first in the UT stats for the longest game. Oh, well. There's always the rematch..." |
-ENDER
Journal Note: There have been two matches played to a score of 32-30. The first was Descentile over Baywatch, the other was IM_GOOD over SoniC. But at the time of these matches, one or both players were in the Second Tier. Only official UT vs UT matches are counted toward the First Tier Records.
| "Best game I think I've "ever" had in my Descent career was a modem game against Jackhammer. D1, Nysa LH. We had played a D2 game at the NY fest in a level I never saw before, and he wooped me 20 to 14, and we never got the rematch in at the fest (which was a good thing, cause I went from hating Nysa to loving it, thanks to Glock showing me a few tricks). Well...the game was tight all the way to the end... I was catching fusion like a good moth does... and using my new found tricks against Jackhammer to keep the game close...really close... I ran out of energy with only 2 shields left...with the score 19 to 18 me...and I was stuck on the bottom of the ramp with only 2500 rounds of vulcan ammo left. He tried and tried to get down that ramp...and with less then 200 rounds of ammo left... he died. Talk about a sigh of relief!" |
-Xciter
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