Faction Play: SiegeQuest 2 - JAN 15, 2021

SiegeQuest 2 has officially ended, and Faction Play is immensely grateful to all of the Illyriad players, alliances and factions that made this 100% player-run event a major success!

• First Place goes to Love and Freedom [Laugh], with 52 points.

• Second Place goes to Skeleton Boar [SkB], with 51 points.

• Third Place goes to Illy Training Ground [ITG], with 4 points.

A big congratulations to Zolvon and his group at Laugh, who truly punched above their weight class and eked out a decisive victory in the final hours of the event. It was exciting and affirming to the Faction Play event series to see how a smaller alliance can prevail in this gaming system.

Second, congratulations and sincere thanks goes to the members of Skeleton Boar, and especially Thirion and KILGORE. SkB is the gold standard in Illy -- incredibly classy, professional players who are incredibly passionate and creative. They brought their competitive gaming style to SQ2 and substantially contributed to its success. Faction Play will never forget the investment they made into helping legitimize our gaming circuit simply by being willing to compete in SQ2 so fiercely. Immense thanks!

Third, I congratulate Lupia and ITG for getting into the mix over in Gremont and capturing the points needed for third place. Along with ITG in third place, there are some honorable mentions that need to be highlighted:

• Dwarven-in-Law [DiL]: DiL managed to capture two buildings, and apparently attempted on a third. They scored 3 points in SQ2.

• The Calaquendi [Cala]: Cala played a major role in the endgame of SQ2. Having expressed interest earlier in getting involved, they made a big play for the Tor Carrock building on the final day of the event. Cala earned 2 points. Special thanks to Mistery.

• The Pirate Hordes [YARR!]: YARR secured the building in the Pirate Isles, and had to do some fighting to keep it. They earned 1 point in the event and kept the Pirate Isles secure. Thanks to Solanar especially for jumping into the action.

• Uruk Bashkaum [URUK]: URUK came into SQ late and fought fiercely in Westmarch against both ELVES and Laugh. They put up an amazing fight. A big thanks to Skorg who made it a lot of fun.

All in all, 11 different alliances participated in SQ2, which includes the alliances mentioned above, plus MAIAR, HECU, Absa, and RUM. Thank you for your support and participation -- it is what made this event the success that it was.

Alliance prize details can be reviewed here, and will be distributed as soon as possible.

Faction Participation

We also received a high level of engagement from the player-led Factions. The following Factions were involved in SQ2:

• ELVES
• Dlord
• HUMAN (prior to switching to becoming Ta2in)
• MERC
• ORCS

ORCS formed literally in the middle of the event, and managed to be involved in several key skirmishes in eastern BL. In total, the Factions were involved in more than 200 battles throughout Elgea and the BL.

Even though HUMAN dropped from Faction Play midway through the event, they heavily defended their three buildings, and member Joey Macaw launched several major attacks on other Factions before leaving and joining KELTS, which is Faction Play's newest player-led Faction. Thank you to HUMAN for their participation -- especially Snagglepuss and Josh.

Faction Player Prizes

Prizes will be awarded to the top-3 Faction players based on the total number of military engagements (attack and defense) that they accrued during the event.

The following players are awarded the top prizes:

• First Place: moo -- 25 attacks, 7 defensive battles for 32 total battles.

• Second Place: Boldog -- 9 attacks, 2 defensive battles for 11 total battles.

• Third Place: Montrésor with 6 attacks and 3 defenses for 9 total battles.

Prizes for the top-3 will be distributed accordingly.

Benefactors

Faction Play received generous support from several benefactors, who we would like to thank:

• Grombrindal and TCol: Grom has been an avid supporter of Faction Play since its beginning, and generously doubled the silversteel prize purse.
• EE reached out early on and doubled the iceheart prize purse.
• Dlord also made a generous donation to the prize purse, adding in materials for both the alliance and Faction player prizes.
• Thirion and SkB made a generous donation of prestige, which will help the minting and distribution of medals.

If anyone was forgotten in this list, please IGM Jejune so that he can add them to this list.

SQ2 Stats

SiegeQuest 2 stats and scoring is archived at this link for anyone who wants to review the leaderboard.

Additionally, the stats for combat reports will be pinned to the #siegequest-2 channel in Slack for review. The stats provided in the pdf include all received combat reports that involved Factions. There are likely more alliance v. alliance combat reports that are not recorded in the data.

Conclusion

Faction Play has come a long way from its start 13+ months ago. Over the past year, we've grown the Faction player base and begun to bring in alliances and players who are interested in participating and enriching the gaming circuit. With the success of SQ2, we believe that Faction Play is on its way to becoming a new gaming option in Illyriad, similar to siege warfare, tournament play, city building, and crafting/trading.

The only reason why Faction Play is the success that it is today is because of you, the players, who are choosing to invest your time, attention, creativity, and passion into its success. Without your input, all of the programming and developing would mean nothing.

Thank you, everyone, for your contribution, and rest assured: the Faction Play community will continue to strive to enhance the Illyriad gaming experience in new and unique ways.