The State of the Art

Take a walk with me. Forget your name. Forget your rank. Forget your titles. None of it matters where we’re going. In the Antei Combat Centre, the only thing that matters is skill.

Welcome, brethren, to the first report of Battleteam Arete.

Arete is a Greek word, often translated as excellence but meaning so much more. It means striving for greatness every moment of your life. It means overcoming a dangerous and hostile world by the strength of your own qualities. It means being all that you can be. In Arcona, that quality is as common as tigerbloood, and it is one I mean our Battleteam to exemplify.

For our members, Arete will different from the other teams you’ve been in. It will be the same, in that it’s going to be a group of people united under a BTL that will cooperate in runons, kick ass in Vendettas, and function as a general sub-unit with its own backstory, storyline and culture. Where it’s different is that Arete boasts its own specialty: the soon-to-be-reopened Antei Combat Centre.

Yes, that’s right, the ACC is going to be reopened soon and when it does, we plan to be front and center of it. Arcona has a history with the Center; the ACC website’s predecessor was called the Krath Combat Center, and that was based on another website…called the Arcona Arena. When people jokingly call the ACC the Arcona Combat Centre, most of them have no idea how right they are. We have dominated the Center for years, continuously breaking people’s faces ever since 2009. We have also swept the top 3 placements in all three of the last Brotherhood-wide ACC competitions. As Arete, it will be our job to inherit, perpetuate and enhance this (duh) winning tradition.

What does that mean, for those of you who join us? The moment the ACC starts, we will hit the ground running, and we will never, ever stop. Like sharks, we know that to stop moving forward is to die, and so we will never cease trying to improve ourselves. You’ve all been selected to join, which is good, but staying in will require work. You will be fighting all the time. You will type until your fingertips are calloused things that you can jab through a glass window without feeling so much as a prick. If you have no match, we will arrange to get you one. You will know every corner of the ACC because you will be fighting the best the Clan has to offer again and again until every trace of weakness has been purged.

We will be a tight Battleteam. If a fellow member asks you for help or advice, you’ll give it to them. You will work together with each and every one of your fellow members over your time in Arete. Spending your time with us means that you have chosen not only to take a responsibility for yourself and your own skill, but for the skill of every Arconan. We will, of course, be proofreading and criticizing each other’s fights all the time, but we will also take it upon ourselves to be the guardians of Arcona’s martial traditions. That means that if another Arconan needs a sparring partner, we will give them one. If an Arconan needs a proofer, we will give them one. If an Arconan needs an opponent to help them qualify, we will give them one. No exceptions, no excuses.

We are Arete. We will live, eat and breathe excellence. Run before you walk.

The State Of The Team

This is where I’d normally talk of team promotions, medals, activities and so on. However, since we’ve only gotten together recently I’m a skip all that in favor of introducing the team to the rest of the Clan. Not that most of them require an introduction, but I do like forcing my team members to march across the catwalk. :P

Socorra Erinos: One of our newer members, but still one that’s made quite the splash in her time with Arcona in general and the ACC in particular. She first came to my attention when she joined and immediately tried to qualify within less than a week. More impressively, she was successful at this in a time when, in to steal a matrix quote, no one ever made their first jump. She then exceeded expectations by participating in the ACC and immediately jumping into the GJW’s ACC event and winning fourth place as a Protector, ahead of a dozen veterans. She’ll be serving Arete as my executive officer.

Invictus: The name here more or less says it all. Invictus is one of the Brotherhood’s ACC veterans, having served as Judge and Combat Master, fighting the rest of the Clan. Since joining us in Arcona he’s served in numerous positions, often using his skill with analysis and coding to help the Clan. He took third place in the last Great Jedi War and has never really slowed down since. On some occasions, he is stricken by madness and denies being my clone. Most of the time, his denial passes quickly. :P

Shi Long: The fighter formerly known as Sai (and, in our hearts, better known as the AfroJedi), this is another one of the Brotherhood’s ACC veterans. Already a skilled combatant, he joined Arcona specifically to improve his skills with the ACC, and we’re glad to offer him the opportunity to do exactly that within Arete. He’s also the man in charge of creating the new Lightsaber Guide, and hasn’t flinched at all at rumors that the entire project may be cursed. :P

Sanguinius Tsucyra Entar: Another fairly young member (what? 2009 is totally new!), and another member who achieved significant things within the ACC within weeks of joining. Sang is particularly known for making a play at being the Brotherhood’s Elder Slayer. I’m serious; not gonna fight this guy. :P

(Wait what’s that? I dedicated the team to having everyone fight everyone? …Fuck.)

Verse Theris: The newbie of the squad and as such, our first major project. Verse is going to be the focus of our training efforts in the new future. I’ve seen her writings, and I think she’s got the potential to do very well indeed. Expect to see her in a Venue near you and when you do, don’t be surprised if she turns out to kick all kinds of ass. :P

Activities and other stuff

There’s several competitions going on at the moment. I’ll talk about the ACC-specific ones in the next section.

First, I’m running a small fiction competition for the team itself. This will serve as the start of our fictional development and the lead-in to our Team run-on, in which we will properly establish Arete as a Battleteam with its own history and fictional events going on. I’ve already told you that the fifth-level Crescents here are mostly just for show. You shouldn’t participate because of them. You should participate because it’ll help establish us fictionally and it will give me an idea of your qualities as a combat writer.

Second, Andrelious has restarted his popular Dozen of Games competition, in which all Arconans battle each other for supreme domination of the ultimate gaming platform! Which is to say, the flash game. His first choice is the Helicopter game, which, I am told, drives people absolutely batshit.

And last but not least, we have a wedding going on, involving none less than our XO, Socorra, and my own dear little sister (or is that daughter? I’m not sure :/), Atyiru. This competition has five events, ranging from honeymoon pictures to murder mysteries, each of them ridiculously fun and geared towards comedy. If you need something to wind down from the Crusade, this is an excellent choice.

The State of the Centre

This is another thing I expect to become a regular feature of my reports. In here, I’ll be throwing all sorts of news regarding Battles, the Character Sheets, and everything else ACC-related. Right now, with the ACC not even in open Beta yet, there is of course a dearth of things to report about. But there’s something!

First, and most importantly, the open Beta is almost upon us! For us, that means it’s time to get our Character Sheets in gear. The actual beta testing will be done on our staging site, and Mav has already floated some interesting things with regard to its use. More importantly, we want to have character sheets ready because as far as I know, the opening of the Beta site is the cutoff date and participation will require having a valid character sheet at the time it starts. I’m expecting all of us to make a good showing once it starts. If we’re going to dominate the platform when it returns, we might as well start right now.

Second, there’s a Venue Creation Competition run by the Voice. Another thing you don’t want to miss, since these will be the location we’re going to fight in, in the future. The opportunity to create one’s battleground…tell me that you wouldn’t kill for that.

(If you won’t, that’s fine. It’s the DB. You’ll be wanting to kill for plenty of other reasons :P)

ACC Advice

When I was Quaestor of Galeres and later Rollmaster, I always enjoyed writing little bits of ACC advice. Mostly, I ruminated on the flaws of the character sheets, ways to sway the Judges to your favor, realism and a variety of tricks that, more often than not, helped me win my fights. This column will be similar in nature, trying to analyze the renewed ACC as details to its functioning become more and more clear. It will not, however, just consist of me hurling wisdom at you from the clouds like a celestial pez dispenser. All of Arete will have the opportunity to share things that will inform us, amuse us, and ultimately make us better ACCers. The first round, however, will be mine, and I’d like to focus it on three principles by which I mean to operate Arete.

First, change is inevitable. It’s a new ACC, with new rules, guidelines, and operating principles. That inevitably means we’ll have to unlearn some of the lessons from the past, and master new techniques and ways of thinking if we’re going to succeed. There is no pause in this, no gradual evolution from an old style to a new one. If Arcona is going to retain its position as the Brotherhood’s dominant ACC force, we are going to have to learn, and learn fast. Run before you walk.

Second, excellence flows outward. It cannot be contained. Try it, and it’ll slip through your fingers. Where there’s skill, there’s teaching opportunities, and once knowledge has entered a Unit, it rarely if ever leaves. Arete is meant to be the vanguard of Arcona’s ACC team, not its entirety. We will master the new ACC and when we do, we will help the rest of the Clan master the ACC in turn. Safeguarding Arconan ACC dominance through combat and teaching is going to be our primary purpose.

Finally, tactics is the name of the game. Some people in the Brotherhood are incorrigible cynics where the ACC is concerned. Changing the ACC’s rules to prevent exploits rarely works, they say. In my view, these people are hopelessly naïve and wrong. It doesn’t ‘rarely’ work. It never works. There’s always going to be tricks that the enterprising combatant can exploit. I’ve published several of them myself, and I have no intention of stopping.

So, drop any expectations of fairness or a level playing field. Our banner prominently features 8-bit Theater’s Red Mage for a reason. War is not fair. We are not our Judge’s keepers, nor are we responsible for ensuring fair fights. That’s the Staff’s job. Our job is to represent our Clan in the ACC, and any cross, bar or impediment to our foes is acceptable to that end. Should we find a legal means to gain victory, we will exploit it without mercy or the slightest regret. We will publish it in this section, and teach the entire Clan to use it. We owe Arcona no less.

This is not to see that everything we plan to teach about will be deeply unfair. In fact, most of it probably won’t be (I’ve already slated a few essays on things like “losing in-character battles”, “metagaming and the ACC”, “combat flow” and other subjects). With the ACC out of commission so long, however, I consider it necessary to point to a lesson that people might have forgotten in the hiatus: in many cases, you are playing against the Judge as much as you are against your opponent.

Ask the Tim

Hey, look, a bandwagon! Jump!

Yeah, apparently it’s all the rage to answer people’s questions these days, so I’ma do the same and give you the opportunity to ask me whatever comes to mind.

Ood asks: ”Tim, i did this chick, and now i have this odd itch, what should i do?”

Anything you want. Except for Wally’s sister.

Seneschal James Arconae asks: “Who would be victorious in a fight between a hundred duck-sized horses and one horse-sized duck, and which of the two options would you prefer to fight?”

Hmmm...honestly, I would expect the duck to win the fight. Ducks have pretty strong beaks. If it were somehow motivated to start a fight, it could probably snap the horses apart with it. If this were an ACC battle, I’d still choose to fight the duck, though. A single duck would be pretty easy to decapitate. The horses would probably scatter in all directions and make a huge hassle.

Andrelious asks: “As BTs are supposed to be free to join, can anyone join Arete regardless of ACC interest/skill?”

That’s an interesting question, and not an easy one to answer. Obviously, everyone’s just been assigned to teams, and Arete is very, very experimental both in its setup and in its status as a Houseless Battleteam. So, I don’t see any openings for the moment, at least not until everyone has settled in.

Over the long term, though, a Battleteam’s composition must eventually change. When that happens, I’ll gladly accept new members and indeed, ACC skill will not be particularly important there. There is no ‘you must be this tall’ sign to become a member. If you’re willing to learn, we’re willing to teach (and that’s true whether you’re in Arete or not). Interest, however, is another story. Arete is an ACC Battleteam, and will be ACCing more or less all the time. Why would you want to subject yourself to that if you have no interest in the ACC?

Uji asks: “When it comes to the ACC considering you have a hand-picked unit of ACC writers, are you intending to run events just for your BT when it opens, or will you be dishing out training to youngbloods using your folks to help people learn?”

Arete, as I’ve alluded to in my opening speech, will be your go-to ACC solutions provider, and when there’s a full ACC up and running, we’ll gladly work with others to help them maximize their potential. Everyone in Arete will eventually meet my standards as a qualified ACC teacher, and their skills will be put to use for the benefit of the entire Clan. While our fictional background might describe us as being mostly aloof from Clan events, the real-life team will stand at the heart of our tradition of tigerblood, and all of Arcona will benefit from that.

Parting Words

Well, that’s it for this time. The report turned out a lot bigger than I expected, mostly because I apparently don’t know when to quit (Socks edit: Admission is the first step :P ). I’ll leave you all with a question.

Intro fics, yay or nay?

My mouse has a scroll button. And, most of the time, I’m never so happy to have it as when someone decides to spend the first half of their report writing about in-character stuff that I couldn’t care less about. So, obviously, now that I have the opportunity, I instead chose to deliver a bombastic and over-the-top speech instead.

But for next time? Well, I’d like to hear your opinions. We’re a fiction-focused Battleteam, so eventually, someone somewhere is probably going to have to write something. There’s several options here that I’m considering.

• I could just suck it up and write something. That won’t make me happy but screw it. If I wanted a carefree DB time, I shouldn’t have chosen to be a BTL.
• I could make Socorra do it, because apparently her job as XO means I can make her do stuff (she tells me that I can go suck a big one on that).
• I could intro with something else. One of the thing I’m considering are brief, in-character snippets between Battleteam members (Socks and I accidentally wrote one a bit ago, tentatively titled “Socorra and Timeros on cuddling”).
• I could just leave it and focus on stuff that matters.

What say you guys?

Either way, that’s it for the first report. For next time, expect more ACC news, actual ACC advice, tales from the ACC Open Beta’s front lines, and more!

All the best,

-Tim