Below is the story of one of those aforementioned Epic Battles. It was a fight between two Divisional Champions. Exiles Legacy which was the defending champion of Division 7 had been lowered to Division 8 for this war. The Gold Medal Round featured them up against the 99th Chessmen[RND], long time Champions of Division 8.
This story was originally published on June 19th, 2015 by our comrades in correspondence, A.N.N.
Here is how the Battle unfolded:
Division 8 - Gold Medal Round
We were not expected to win. Not this round. So far as I’ve known, never in the history of Mecha Galaxy had a higher Division Champion lost to a lower Division Champion.
There they were in the distance, marching to the battlefield, banners held high, clouds of dust streaming away to the side.
Exiles Legacy, Division 7 Champions
News from intelligence was despairing. Mighty indeed were their armies. Discounting their 3 decoy formations, their lowest fighting formation outranked ours by 11 levels. Their highest formation outranked ours by 17 levels.
Shall we fold then? Curl up in the corner with hands over our heads and wait for it to end? Or charge forward, hit any and all in blind defiance?
No, we shall fight! To the bitter end! For legends will be made if we did the impossible!
Comms channel was a hive of activity:
Brandon Cascio
“Do test runs. Watch previous rounds fights.. do not engage if you are not sure your gonna win.”
Joshua Magsino
“xxxxx masks his formation, his ants are at the back of his aspis”
“they are literally ants”
Debbie Cole
“I had a few hits yesterday, i can post if you want to see.”
Brandon Cascio
“Do you think we could have 2-3 people hit off at.the bat and then have everyone else hit until there's 3 hours left ?”
Daniel Chung
“Important is we MUST maximize our points on the bottom 3 guys. Everybody must hit them 2x”
Debbie Cole
“Have posted the 4 i had a go at in CCC, not good for me”
Daniel Chung
“Damn... the way they massacre the 35 tonners, I'm freaking out myself lmao”
“Round 2 is ours”
Brandon Cascio
“Gratz guys”
“Now to prepare for round 3”
Debbie Cole
“Seriously not looking forward to that”
We had exactly 24 hours to sort things out, making strategies, last minute adjustments, or even redoing entire formations.
Brandon Cascio
“okay im here i will be revamping all my specialists”
“did anyone do the math to see Avg. ?... thats a bunch of folks above 55+”
Michael Telladira
“brandon can u hit me? ill put my normal formation in, testing the skriag placement”
Brandon Cascio
“gimme a second to save this double rainbow im working on and sure.”
Roger Poulin
“there s 2 line of thought.. 1 , put your best early to kill as much as you can, but that can be counter by crit kill and attrition”
“2, put them for last, wipe out the left over”
Brandon Cascio
“xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx are missing half or more Hg.”
Debbie Cole
“What are the specialists for them?”
Debbie Cole
“Brandon do you have a 50 T i can retest my line up?”
Brandon Cascio
“okay 50 ton revamped. 10 ton revamped.”
“okay.. so i dont have alot of confident with my double rainbow beating there guy... the 900 im 50/50. on the weaker one.”
Michael Telladira
“Win or lose they woke me up, last clan to wake me up was Macleods”
“I actually re did my spec line ups for them”
FORWARD CHESSMEN! GO NOW TO YOUR DEATHS, GO. DIE IF YOU WILL BUT DIE WITH YOUR JAWS IN THEIR THROAT!!!
…………………………………………………….
0000 Hours
News from the front was grim.
Exiles began their offensive with twin pronged assaults from their top and bottom formations. The score was 10-0 before the Chessmen could make any response. Adam’s formation heralded our counteroffensive, decimating the decoy formations, but alas, was stopped by the third decoy formation.
Adam Bensley
“I lost against the bottom 140 tonner. I was mortified!”
Even the gods of RNG were conspiring against us.
Brandon Cascio
“im going after that 10 ton, hes got very few HG right now.”
“might be my only chance for an easier win.”
“Nope.”
Joshua Magsino
“i think i exhausted my attacks for this round”
“well, its the first time i've seen us losing in the first hours, hmm, the tides will come!”
Brandon Cascio
“its not over till the fat lady sings... that why we duct tape her mouth shut until we are winning”
David King
“want me to put together someting and try?”
Daniel Chung
“Defensive losses 5-1. We are giving way too many.”
Joshua Magsino
“just an update, we gave them 7 points”
And Chessmen pressed on desperately with the battle, trading shattered mech for shattered mech. The night danced, lighted by bright flashes of laser fire criss-crossed everywhere. Like a f**king disco of death. Missiles slammed into armoured torsos and erupted in a shower of sparks and flames; some of the missiles slammed into the mech beside the target, ruinous double hit with one salvo. Cannons blazed, firing way above the safety rate, racing against time to deal as much damage as possible before the mech became another casualty. AP rounds smashed into enemy mechs and punched through its back to hit the rear ranks. 90 ton monsters staggered and moved onwards from hits that disintegrates anything lighter than 50 tons.
Formations rushed into battle throughout the night, their banners held high, only to be struck down in flames, and rise again drenched in blood.
We were desperate. Desperate enough to detonate our mechs in suicide attacks to bring down the bigger mechs.
Holmes08 fires a Diablis Nozzle at Dante
163% damage
Hit for 1118
Dante Destroyed!
Shield absorbs 35 damage
Fire % shield blocks 76
2X DAMAGE
3X DAMAGE
Kickback! 3354 damage
MECH SHUTDOWN
…………………………………………………….
Morning came.
In less than 12 hours the score was 76-51, more than our entire Round 2 fights. Somehow, amazingly we held the ground. It may be a feint by Exiles before made their all out assault but for now we held the high ground. Many of our heavy formations were spent, most had very little reserves, perhaps good for another sortie or two. And, our defensive losses were grievous. We gave 10 losses to Exiles’ 7.
Daniel Chung
“i still refuse to believe you lost to him”
Brandon Cascio
“IT HAPPENED MAN, WE ALL SAW IT! IT FRICKEN HAPPENED!!!”
Daniel Chung
“he must hv sacrificed his sperm sack“
“def losses 10-7. thats 10 precious points we can't afford to give out. Do not hit unless you're 90% sure you can win”
Michael Telladira
“I got 4 wins Daniel”
“I was saving them for later to kill a momentum shift”
Daniel Chung
“cool “
“their top 3 guys havent make a move yet. thats what worrying me”
Jeff Kirk
“i have only hit 1 attack this round so still lots left for me”
Daniel Chung
“thats great guys. hold them for now. we currently have 22 points lead. if exiles start hitting, do not let them get lower than 10 points lead”
“xxxxx just lost to joshua and fransiskus. we MIGHT pull off a miracle here”
Jeff Kirk
“tried xxxxx and lost”
“sorry”
Daniel Chung
“damn... he's tough”
David King
“this is my match from last night against the 140 tonner. it is a edge of ur seat fight”
https://www.facebook.com/l.php…
Jeff Kirk
“86-60 now”
…………………………………………………….
1645 Hours
A message from the Exiles congratulating us for the Gold. Is it real? Or is it a trap to lull us into complacency?
“Welp, congrats on your gold. It was over as soon as we gave up more than a few offensive losses. You can't give away points like that when you're already assuming you've given away free points with the low level guys.”
Jason Smith
“I'm not buying it”
…………………………………………………….
1750 Hours
Brandon Cascio
“103 79”
David Feagle
“well here they come”
Adam Bensley
“exiles are on a bit of a run”
Debbie Cole
“Will we hold them off?”
Brandon Cascio
“depends if they keep giving defense wins.”
Debbie Cole
“I see their top guy with 1 left with Jeff, 2 with me, 1 with Mike and maybe 1 with Frank”
Jason Smith
“Damn, if xxxxx had waited just 1 more hour, I might have had him.”
The second Exiles offensive came close to breaching our lines. Only the tired formations of Debbie Cole, David Feagle, Adam Bensley and Jason Smith managed to make any counterattacks. The score was 109-92. We had only a dangerously thin lead of 17 points.
…………………………………………………….
1945 hours
Finally some good news from the front! Michael Telladira’s formation launched a mad suicidal attack on the enemy positions and gained us additional 5 points lead!
But there were not much joy in the celebrations, for our reserves were seriously depleted.
Michael Telladira
“who else has points for us?”
Brandon Cascio
“No more sure wins but might have 2.”
Joshua Magsino
“sir jeff hadnt made his runs didnt he?”
“oops, he did”
And then we noticed Exiles were making mistakes. Was it desperation? Or carelessness? No time to waste! Strike now!
Michael Telladira
“they gave us 3 more def wins”
Michael Telladira
“GUYS”
“XXXXX”
“OUT OF FORMATION”
Joshua Magsino
“COPY!”
Michael Telladira
“HURRY BUT DOUBLE CHECK BEFORE”
Joshua Magsino
“shot!”
Daniel Chung
“dammit he switched back”
Joshua Magsino
“hes planning to attack some 50 tonner”
Daniel Chung
“take note of xxxxx, he might switch formation again.”
Daniel Chung
“damn... he did switch but got back into formation”
“is michael/jason/debbie/chad/jeff around?”
Debbie Cole
“iM HERE”
“ooops.”
Tensions were getting impossibly worse.
Brandon Cascio
“DONT ENGAGE HIM”
“hes got hoplite lead... but tones still 1600”
“i almost fell for it.”
“and its changed back to ammo”
“F**K he just had ammo lead for 50 ton missed him again”
…………………………………………………….
2100 hours
Both armies stood their ground, exhausted, hated glares to each other across a battlefield littered with broken mechs and broken guns and broken corpses. Not an inch of ground was visible. There were still opportunities to attack but all are risky with the outcome very much in doubt. Both sides watched each other like hawks.
One Exiles was caught in wrong formation! Like a pack of savage dogs, the Chessmen descended on him and tore his formation to pieces, netting 8 precious points. But then a Chessmen’s formation was also out of sync! And Exiles tore into him netting back the 8 lost points.
…………………………………………………….
2230 Hours
136-129.
7 PRECIOUS POINTS
1.5 hours seemed like forever that day
Brandon Cascio
“Do Not Engage Without Clearance ,To Do so Can and Will Result In Reprimand.”
Brandon Cascio
“they getting desperate. i got a def win.”
Jason Smith
“I'd be sitting a little easier if we had another 10 points on them.”
Debbie Cole
“I still have may be 3, then the 50-50”
Jason Smith
“Where's Chad? I only see a few attacks from him. Is he done?”
Daniel Chung
“I'm at -2. Already stretched my luck with xxxx just now”
…………………………………………………….
2330 Hours
141-131
10 points. If the last big push is to come, it’ll be now.
Debbie Cole
“What or why are they waiting”
Joshua Magsino
“they got xxxx to attack, why didnt he attacked?”
Brandon Cascio
“How we doin?”
Jason Smith
“We're down 7 Brandon.”
Joshua Magsino
“wtfreak!”
Jason Smith
“Oh . . . wait. . . wrong game.”
Some jokes to relieve the tension. It didn’t help much…
A plan was then hatched by Jason and Michael. We must be prepared of Exiles launching a surprise attack to snatch the lead in the final seconds of the Round. And thus, they will initiate an attack themselves with their final reserves.
…………………………………………………….
2357 Hours
Daniel Chung
“Come on come on come on”
Brandon Cascio
“I thought we were down 7, someones getting a kick in the d**k... hahah”
Jason Smith
“That'd be Michael”
Daniel Chung
“132-144 I think we got it”
Joshua Magsino
“29 secs”
David King
“145-132”
Joshua Magsino
“its over!”
Jason Smith
“147-132 final”
Michael Telladira
“damn we owned it”
Jason Smith
“I took xxxxx @ 57% mecha health. LOL”
Brandon Cascio
“Gratz gentlemen”
…………………………………………………….
And so it ended. 147-132
Few would have guessed the result. Did we just made history as the first clan to defeat a higher division champion? Maybe yes, or maybe it has already been done before. But for sure this is the stuff of legends in the chapters of the Chessmen’s annals.
And 99th Chessmen R&D banner flew yet again, its tyranny over Division 8 unbroken.