About the team
1. Where does the name ITF IMDB come from?
After ITF's last time playing together, in s12, we faced a 4v1 gang-up, which unfortunately prevented us from winning. So we decided this round to go 'undercover' and hide the ITF name to avoid a planned gang-up v2. Then, after a long discussion, we agreed to do movie names, and LewL came up with the idea of calling it IMDB to make the theme make sense! Of course, the undercover went down a few days later at Arkheim Official Discord but hey! IMDB was super fun till the last day of the server. And even though no one could use their own nicknames, all players were able to choose the movie name they identified the most, keeping it still personal.
Ok ok, we have to talk about our black sheep that either added their name after the movie (Nalka) or chose a movie name that had their name in it (Mark)
Hello Jovinus? Can you help us?
2. About your team, how did it form, how much of it was formed before the round started? How was it composed?
ITF is an ‘old’ realm with its core composition of the supreme leader Khrawn and its emperors. But, as in all rounds, there are always new players because forming a 15 accounts roster requires new blood due to the difficulty of always getting the 15 players to be available for that server duration. But we did not have any new players to the game; instead, some that hadn’t played with us previously.
3. How did you organize communications and coordination within the Realm?
Communication is always done through Discord. The main reason is that we can send images to facilitate strategy planning (and execution), tag players, chat individually, and search history. Unfortunately, Arkheim's in-game communication tools are to be improved, and it doesn't offer the possibility of leading a competitive realm from within... yet!
4. Did you have clear habits or principles all your Realm members stick to?
The most important thing is to have a team mentality. Of course, we all want to succeed individually, but that cannot come at the realm's cost or block your teammates from achieving. So, there is a very thin line between accomplished players in the stats ranking and the success as a team because one thing is to have a realm formed of several strong players, and another is to have a couple of outstanding players at the expense of 13 others. That's why the team mentality is key, and proudly, the majority of players had that!
5. Did you have "less experienced players" and how did you educate them?
We had a Discord channel in our server called ~Hall of Shame~, where we would post 'oopsies' there for some fun. It's a way of making each player more attentive to avoid having a screenshot of wrong moves ending up there. Deepstrike funnily mentioned that this is how we educate new players, saying that once it is posted on that channel, there is no turning back! It is ten weeks of suffering and persecution. Haha But really, the openness of everyone in daily discussions is by itself how we can help each other. And in reality, it is not much about being a less experienced player, but considering that the game is constantly changing, there is always something new, even for veteran players. We learn together on each server as long as there is a nice flow of communication within the realm members.
What about the game round, how did it go?
6. Were there unexpected events or surprises this round?
In fact, there was. We were sure that we would face a 3v1 – that, remarkably, was not planned since day one, thanks to our super strategical idea of going undercover (don't go back to the first answer of this interview to find out how long our undercover identity was kept, please). But turns out that there were discussions of a team up against us, which failed in the end. It was both a good and bad surprise at the same time.
-> Good because it is difficult to assess how active and organized a team-up will be. And there may be the case that if the 3 realms are invested in the activity, and therefore even with the current defenders' advantage, it would be less likely that we would win.
-> Bad because not having a challenge can be why some players lose interest in the server. So, even very active players can take it for granted and stop connecting that often, so it is important to have an active round, even if that means we are walking on a tightrope. That's where lays all the fun and excitement!
7. What was your biggest challenge of the round?
The endgame is too long, with no ability to ascend earlier and no incentive to keep up with the activity. This is very dangerous because not having the activity needed can ruin a server. In this game, sometimes not having the 120 warlords available can hurt. Those two weeks of endgame get boring very fast - especially since the anvil is no longer a challenge to keep, as you can replenish warlords and send them back. The shield of anvils is too powerful now. It was essential to have a 30% boost to FS in the past, but since you can now refill and send it back, it is overkill. Plus, the ability to place and dismantle towers makes the endgame nothing special, so it turns out that all the strategies and plans for the endgame are no longer needed. Instead, we can continue the game as in previous moons and adapt to what comes next, which does not bring any challenge, therefore losing its exclusive (or unique) characteristics.
8. When did you know you were going to win this round?
We knew the chances were high, considering our performance compared to other realms, during each island, but there is no such thing as a guaranteed win. This is a dynamic game, and everything can change if circumstances change.
9. Did you notice any special tactics or moves your competitors used against you?
Well, SuVa used all the cards available in the game. Any possible mechanical feature that there is they squeezed out of that server, as long as it could benefit them. Seeing friendly wars happening with the sole goal of enhancing WP wins is a bit frustrating when smaller realms already get a super-powerful modifier for fighting a stronger realm. In our opinion, there is no real need to add up to that, but we can’t deny that it is strategic and clever to use all the possibilities the game offers.
10. Who are the heroes of your Realm, any special mentions?
Everyone in IMDB is a hero! Every single member working and playing the game contributed to the end result! Though, I must put forward Jiav and Pinkosa for keeping track of the team, plans and making everything run like a heated knife through butter!
11. Will there be IMDB realm next round? Will the Realm members stick together and continue playing/chatting together?
Those 10 weeks that we spent together help creating good friendships. Most of the members are/will still be in touch, and we will surely play together again. But we cannot tell you when or if it will be ITF, IMDB, or something else. Otherwise, our next tentative of going undercover can be ruined…
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