This thread has taken a decidedly negative turn recently, and as some others have expressed, I’d really like to see it stay positive and constructive. Pursuant of that, I’d like to clear a few things up (and I am saying this as much to my own server as to DR and EBay):
First of all, I’d like to apologize on behalf of Borlis for any chest-pounding that may be perceived coming from us on these forums. You have to understand that we were quite broken in WvW after our last venture in Tier 5, getting trampled by Dragonbrand, Ehmry Bay, and Maguuma and losing two of our prominent WvW guilds in the process. Hence, the little success we’ve tasted so far this time around has been like a shot of “special” Kool-Aid … and that can do weird things to people and how they behave haha
The bravado you may be seeing (possibly brought about by some recent PvD’ing) is not about the PvD’ing itself; it is about getting a point lead and some vindication at a Tier that so thoroughly thrashed us last time around. There were certainly insecurities about coming back to T5 (rumors of throwing the match to stay in T6 abounded last week), and so it is very gratifying / liberating to see that we can have some success here.
The above also explains part of the story as to why we are doing well (band-wagoning), but not all of it.
Let’s be honest, a huge (and perhaps grudging) thank you has to be made to Anvil Rock. The “Brolis Rock” matches that have characterized much of our WvW’ing since release have been a real trip, and when we did fall back to T6 from T5 at the start of the new year, they were there waiting for us with open arms. The familiar opponent we found in AR was a big part of our rehabilitation, though I don’t think either of us will admit to just how much we’ve helped each other learn and improve, especially in the recent matches (I’d expect them to be making an appearance in T5 soon!). I kind of suspect there’s been T5 level-play going on in T6 for a while now, though this has largely remained concealed by Glicko locking us there. Along with NSP’s notorious roamers (here’s looking at you, PAXA and Envy) keeping everyone honest, things were often very intense.
I don’t think that our resurgence can be attributed to any significant guild pick-ups … unless I’ve really been missing something out there, the only pick-up we’ve had was a small guild, TTA, from FC a few weeks ago. Also, I don’t think that spring break plays any bigger role for us than it would for DR / EBay, but that’s just my intuition.
What I think can be cited for our performance is that those left in the wake of the first T5 disaster have stepped up, improved, and worked hard bringing more home-grown numbers into WvW. Just about everyone with an ego that got in the way before either left or has (mostly) gotten over it. Consequently, as a server we’ve become much more cohesive and friendly (generally speaking) through interactions on a variety of extra-Tyrian mediums. Finally, as much as we love (cough) AR, the matchup was a bit tired, and I think the move up to T5 brought back a lot of people that had grown bored of the typical grind in T6.
So again, I just want to emphasize, take everything that is said here with a grain of salt. We are all operating within a different context (server history, personal experience playing the game, preferred experience playing the game, etc), so there are bound to be differences, but I think the fact that we are all here on a forum should guarantee that we are at least open-minded about this and able to discuss it on civil terms.
Also, I would love to learn what I can from those of you on DR / EBay that pride yourselves on playing your classes well (Archer, KStudios, others?). I cannot guarantee you a particularly thrilling or glorious fight (I’m WvW born and raised), but if you see me online, send me a whisper or maybe I’ll whisper you! If I’m not doing guild stuff, hopefully I can join you for some sparring. Yes, I play a D/D – SB thief … but please don’t judge and give me a chance! I can at least guarantee I am not a glass cannon and do not use Basilisk Venom / Assassin’s Signet or other gimmicky 1v1 tricks (though maybe a lot of stealth…).
Anyway, I’ve already probably exceeded the threshold of what people will be willing to read, so I’ll end with a tl;dr:
It is an honor to fight you all, and I hope we can learn a lot from each other this week and in the future.
Always,
Kyle Finnegan
General of [EDGE]
Borlis Pass
Some people like to claim they have more working class citizens in times like these. There is no objective way of measuring it, hence why he said it was speculation. I remember when we beat YB during one of the weeks of Christmas break, they basically speculated the same thing.
