Short Stories: The Satisfying Burn of a 29 Bil Player

The Backstory

EuE and 77F always shared dominance in K214 (Europa), with opposite playing styles. EuE being chock full of high power players has, more times than not, always been the more dominant force. 77F was seen as the red-headed stepchild by Europa’s inhabitants, very international and often misunderstood, but with “crazy” players whose gambles didn’t always have a payoff, oh… but when they did....

Enter Rush Kingdom (Rush), an American player, who quickly discovered that he prefers to play GoW by pushing the envelope and seeing what is possible. So he joined 77F despite their rep and the trials that happen with the game’s translator, because their goal was to unseat EuE from their power perch. He also had formed the opinion that 77F had the best players in Europa, interested in the fighting aspect of the game instead of gossiping about “Brenda’s new avatar”. Rush quickly became a leader and his game play thrived in 77F.

77F had a brief golden age but the group started to decline after the departure of a few key members. Peace between the top 4 alliances in Europa followed the 77F decline who on were on friendly terms with EuE members. To become a stronger fighting force for Europa in KvK KE, the remaining 77F leaders decided to merge with 99z, a neutral alliance and family to EuE. This created U97 and U79. Despite EuE leadership being cordial at the time with 77F and family to 99z, the merge attracted a dangerous rival who began to pick at the newly integrated group to break them.

Their tactics culminated in a failed attempt by EuE R5 Bebobiddy (Bebo) to zero a U97 R4 (formerly a 77F R4). A culture clash between old 77F and 99z players became apparent, as the newly formed group was split between people calling for blood after the unprovoked attack and others merely frowned at it since EuE claimed to be KvK KE focused and uninterested in kingdom wars.

The Formation of (buRN)

Soon after the 99z/77F integration got fed up with EuE’s attempts to dictate rules to all, yet break them when they wanted, Rush, IAmStan and Malady broke off with a combination of old 99z and 77F players and started buRN- with the sole goal of warring against EuE and being independent of their “rules”.  99z continued to be neutraland absorbed the players who didn’t want a kingdom war.

It was then announced that Europa would be in a merger KvK KE with K302 Theano. All players put aside the war and prepared to fight for Europa. Bebo and Rush, despite being on opposite sides of wars, had always been on friendly terms and remained cordial.

This would not remain true for long. At the end of the merger KvK KE, Bebo would make a move that made sure his friendly relationship with Rush would turn to dust.

Bebo buRNs Rush

EuE decided to secure both wonders at the end of the merger event. buRN, just a week old at this point, decided to go for one of them. Rush was to lead the attack on the enemy Wonder and set it at 15 minutes.

Bebo ported in and set on Rush. Believing it was fake (because they were friends) or that he would eat Bebo’s hero if it wasn’t (he was 10B with 187M T4), Rush was unfazed and continued his preparation of buRN’s attack on the Wonder, while safely pulling his car to the curb in a rainstorm that turn a legitimate street into a river. GoW sometimes takes precedence over getting home, after all, and safety first…

But then Bebo launched his rally on Rush with 1 minute left for buRN’s attack to land. The hit was a legitimate one and burned Rush, at the same time cancelling his attack and porting him out of the forest, wasting a beautifully crafted ED set.

This move by bebo was totally unexpected, since an understanding was in place (so Rush thought) that no one would rally the leader of an enemy Wonder attack to keep things simple and fair and not set off a deadly precedent ....and also Rush considered bebo a good friend despite the roles they play in the game.  Given the betrayal that Rush felt, the trust between the two giants which had built over the existence of the kingdom began unraveling.

KC was soon dominated by concerned EuE players trolling with questions to Rush like, “Hey Rush, need some buRN cream?” Their trolling continued for about 2 weeks. Rush’s ego took a turn for the worst and he soon switched to revenge mode.

Part One: Sweet, Sweet Revenge

Let’s fast forward now to a couple weeks after the kingdom merge. Theano was integrated into Europa, buRN aligned with DT^, whose leader is an amazing player named Choo Choo, and EuE aligned with NQ who was DT^ ‘s rival.

Boogyman (Boogy) of EuE, also a former 77F R4 with Rush (and another formerly trusted friend of his), had been particularly annoying to Rush with his trolling and insults, then got into a heated argument with Choo in Kingdom Chat (KC). Rush usually avoids KC, but felt the need to address Boogy now. When Boogy replied with more taunts about being burned by Bebo, Rush was determined to burn him as soon as he got the chance.

The very next day everyone was at the Wonder, fighting. Boogy equipped some Cores and started to Rally people sitting around the wonder. He ended up burning someone but also landed himself in a DT^ player’s jail.

Rush’s hands shook with excitement as he verified that yes, it was true, he was going to get his chance to mess Boogyman up sooner than he thought. He had never soloed a player at 6B power before – Boogy was just shy of 6B power. Rush wasn't sure if Boogy would burn, but Rush had recently soloed a 4.6B in research gear and won, so why not try?

The timing was perfect.

Rush had a nice custom 4k range set all queued up and gemmed. He was anxious that Boogy didn’t port out of the wonder and shield, so he quickly equipped and then launched a solo attack. Boogy lit up like a Christmas tree.

Vengeance was delivered and karma was served. To add icing to the cake, the member of DT^ who held Boogy’s hero changed the name to "RushBuRNdMe" – RIP.

Here's the Core set used to burn Boogy:

Part Two: Even Sweeter, Sweet Revenge

Over the next week or two buRN/DT^ continued to battle EuE/NQ. One day Rush was holding the Wonder, but got double rallied. Rush and his friend decided to pull out their troops but before Rush could, his phone battery died. His friend pulled his troops and left Rush alone to fend for himself.

Ack!

He lived through the first rally, and was eaten by the second.

Upon losing his hero Bebo immediately set on Rush (who had grown from 10B to 19B)...but cancelled.

Given the feelings of being stabbed in the back being still fresh in his mind and the reminder just then by Bebo's attempted Rally,  Rush started to taunt Bebo to Rally him.

Bebo proclaims in KC that he would rally Rush in just a little while. Although, after a couple of unfortunate test rallies against a hero-less EuE member at 26 bil, Bebo declared in KC that he wouldn’t Rally Rush anymore.

Choo and Rush decided to conduct their own tests that night, however, away from EuE eyes. Choo rallied a heroless Rush and lit him up with his cores. Rush shielded, took a hemlock, and looked forward to better days.  Choo, looking to capitalize on bebos bad luck,  immediately rallied EuE's 26B named Aero, burning him where he stood, right next to Bebo.

The very next morning the wonder battle continued and Choo sported greek gear for the occasion. Bebo tried to solo the wonder and lost his hero. Now with his resurrected hero, and the chance of a lifetime, Rush made a custom set to zero out Bebo’s stats and hopefully set him ablaze.  Despite his close friend Aero being burned the night before,  Bebo elected to stay at the wonder heroless, possibly thinking that no one had the balls to hit his 29B Stronghold. 

After some quick brainstorming and a nervous T4 roll call, Rush gathered his alliance and troops and launched a "hail mary" Rally towards Bebo. To his surprise, he got the 4th of July in November and Bebo went up in flames!

Woooooweeeeee!

To add to how great this was, GoW has an announcement of which he was unaware of – any time a top 10 player burns, it is declared in a banner on everyone’s screen as well as with a system message in KC.

Rush had gotten revenge on both enemies and former friends that he felt he was eventually betrayed by, leaving him quite satisfied with the experience and feeling like he was able to get the last laugh (...for now anyway).

Here's the Cores used to burn Bebo:

In conclusion, I have a question for EuE, "Did you ever find that buRN cream?"  Sounds like you could use it 😉

Short Story contributed by Rush Kingdom