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  1. blak

    Balion Mercenaries - Official Clan Thread 2.0

    Balion Zero said:
    Balion now plays Overwatch Stellaris add me if you want a carry VAC to be assimilated.
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    Peas concurs, true Balions play Stellaris and only the undesirable rift raft play such pleb games like Overwatch.
  2. blak

    DOWN WITH LEGACY PLAINS!

    Mad Dawg said:
    Aura (Zaffa) said:
    Ballion is probably the only team that thought ground games worked on the map which probably contributed to their lack of success on the map.
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    I'm bad at Plains maps, that is all.
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    I'm trying to figure out who this guy is and it's not coming to me. I looked back at the quoted post to make sure this was actually typed and to my surprise it was. Would someone please inform me of who this dumbass is and why is he commenting on something he clearly knows nothing about?
  3. blak

    Balion Mercenaries - Official Clan Thread 2.0

    RoBo_CoP said:
    Click to expand...


    I'm not gonna lie, that is disturbingly accurate.
  4. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Cute
  5. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Rhade said:
    It's interesting people bring up metrics.

    You can't quantify cohesiveness, adaptability, versatility, presence and other intangible factors. Using K/D is not always the best option.

    Is it a metric? Sure.

    Is it the main metric? Debatable.

    I remember people mentioning K/D's in matches and I would always have the same response: That is irrelevant. What matters is the effectiveness, overall, as a unit. Often times you need to actually take that death to give your team two kills, and while some would think that you sitting at 1-3 means you're not the most influential for those three rounds, in reality, your trading and overall game sense is what frankly gave your team those rounds. It's a very out-of-context statistic that I think is very inaccurate in measuring quality of a player.

    What's most interesting, to me, isn't individual stats or even "who" is the best at X, Y or Z.

    This is a team based game. What's more interesting to me, is what team had the best infantry core? Ranged? Cav? Which had the most innovative playstyle? Which was most adaptable? Most aggressive? Most passive?

    I think people make a lot of accurate points here. One that doesn't seem to be really getting very highlighted is the "power vacuum" point. Imagine you have ten teams playing basketball, and you have ~4 teams that are clearly the top level with the rest at the bottom. Eventually, three of those teams are gone and you then have the one team from that original top tier attracting all the free agents and players from other teams because there's no competition about where the "place to be" is if you want to be successful. If I have learned anything from leading a clan in both Darkfall and Warband that were, without any dispute, the best at the time we played, it's that people are attracted to success. Most don't want to work for it, most don't want to show up and put in the time and build something. But when you build something and you start doing well, when you make it to the top of the mountain, everyone wants to jump on with you and share in that, even if they didn't exactly deserve the spot.

    It used to be ridiculous the amount of PM's I got every day from people I didn't even know, begging for a chance to tryout. My response was always the same, I eventually wrote it out in notepad and just copied and pasted it to them: "We don't recruit like that. I appreciate the thought and intention, but if we're interested in you, we'll come find you. Building the team slowly is more important than grabbing up a lot of people who may be good and throwing them together."

    I'm sure other teams had people coming to them as well. However, eventually, when there's only one place to be, you find yourself in a drought of viable opposition. I've always held to the idea that when you're attracting people, you're doing something right. You can't  be faulted for it, and in no way is that the spirit here. But it is an important consideration to remember that not only are results important, but so are the context of those results. Boxing a man with no legs and only one arm isn't exactly a victory, while losing to a world champion isn't exactly a loss. Context is important, and I think that's what gets lost in translation.
    Click to expand...

    It has already been made clear that some people here think UNAC 2-5 was loaded full of World Champions and that NASTe was a group of legless, one-armed boxers.
  6. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    22nd_Can said:
    @blak and all the old players in his list that would totally rek us if they come back !!111!11



    2zisr44.png

    21e7uch.jpg

    I wasn't going to say anything since these are all-time lists and is pretty much biased from player to player on their experiences and can't really be measured. But you're throwing **** to the wall that really doesn't stick. Easy to talk but it's hard to prove your point. Come with some proof then speak.

    I have great respect for some of the older players in Balion whom I had the honor of playing together at the same team, such as Peasant and Mad Dawg, so I hope the Balion community doesn't get me wrong, you are a good clan that has achieved a good amount and proven yourself.

    Feel free to come back(once again) and prove your point though Blak of how godly players all you guys are in face of new competition. I argue that the latest KoB team would steam roll any of the old teams at their peaks and that finals between KoB and wK was the absolute peak quality of warband between two teams NA has seen. You clearly won't agree to that. So come prove me wrong, until then all you say is just hot air.
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    The game isn't fun anymore, the map rotations on POM are **** (unfortunately that has been the case for a while). No matter how much I would try to care about Warband it would ultimately fall flat. I made a list from my personal experience in the competitive scene (some of which a lot of the people here have never played against much less in there prime). Unfortunately it makes me an ******* for not including 10+ wKs and 10+ TMWs. You guys impressed in the time I played...just not enough to make my top 5 all-time.
  7. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Calamity said:
    Fair enough.

    You can create fairy tale experiences in your brain but the competition has gotten significantly harder for clans and everyone else. I long for the day for more Balion/BkS matches but we never got the chance again. See you in Bannerlord friends.
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    WilySly said:
    TBH Blak, we (wK) aren't looking back on the UNAC tournies as the pinnacle of competition either. 
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    Might want to get your narrative right with Wily, Cal. The only fairy tale here is that wK had 2-3 of the 5 best cavalry players of all time. You benefited from a power vacuum, truths can be inconvenient.
  8. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Calamity said:
    blak said:
    Look I don't want to take away anything from wk, by all accounts it looks like you've plowed through the opposition you've been given in recent history. I know you can't control your opposition, but at the same time I am looking at these rosters for UNAC 2 and later and I am just not seeing quite the same caliber of competition. It's like back when I was in nK and we would fight the hoboknights, yeah I could go ranged and look god-tier, but was I really? It's impossible to say, if all of Balions finest stayed active and motivated maybe wK would've beat our ass regardless. Either way the best players I've ever played with/against are on my list.
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    S2 - Balion, You're on the roster.
    S4 - 11 players from Balion. You're on the team.

    Not seeing the logic here.

    wK major finals history -

    NASTe -  S2 - wK lost to balion
    CJTT - Wappaw (wK won)
    UNAC 1 - BkS (wK won)
    UNAC 2 - TMW (wK won)
    UNAC 4 - TMW (wK won)
    WPL - KoB (wK won)

    You compare these to Hoboknights?
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    Didn't play most of the matches in UNAC 2 or 4...MD would add me to the roster as a formality...in case he needed me (our activity was scarce to say the least). And no the competition wasn't as bad as say the hoboknights, but Balion and BkS were winning when TMW often times wasn't even the third or fourth best teams in the pool, much less the clear cut 2nd best team.
  9. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Lack of streams of older matches also a huge factor.
  10. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Look I don't want to take away anything from wk, by all accounts it looks like you've plowed through the opposition you've been given in recent history. I know you can't control your opposition, but at the same time I am looking at these rosters for UNAC 2 and later and I am just not seeing quite the same caliber of competition. It's like back when I was in nK and we would fight the hoboknights, yeah I could go ranged and look god-tier, but was I really? It's impossible to say, if all of Balions finest stayed active and motivated maybe wK would've beat our ass regardless. Either way the best players I've ever played with/against are on my list.
  11. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Juvenile said:
    blak said:
    Juve, your talking about SF_Tesla right?
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    Yessir. Maybe not the most consistent player, but he could really throw down when it counted.
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    I'm really sorry but I don't even have to go that far back to remember Balion dumping on SF in scrimmages, and he didn't really stand out.
  12. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Ok then there are 2 balions on my cav list? Anyone here with actual experience in the competitive pre-UNAC 1 would know that claiming Marnid and Tesla were top 5 all-around players in history is just lunacy. Marnid is an extremely accomplished "ranger" though and an extremely accomplished rager  :lol:

    Juve, your talking about SF_Tesla right?
  13. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Calamity said:
    blak said:
    It's hard to take you seriously when you have Marnid and Tesla as your best all-rounders (sorry Marnid I love you buddy, you were a fantastic archer).
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    It's hard to take you serious when you have 3 Balions as the best Cav who ever played in NA.
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    The major difference being that I can make coherent arguments for them being there...kids these days.

    Edit: Why is it that Scott is only considered a Balion when it fits someone's narrative? Not too long ago I remember having to hear about how Balion "outsourced our cav" when we brought in Akmar for one tournament. My how things change.
  14. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    It's hard to take you seriously when you have Marnid and Tesla as your best all-rounders (sorry Marnid I love you buddy, you were a fantastic archer).
  15. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Rhade said:
    Says the kid who jumped from TMW to wK to ride their coattails. **** your mother.
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    Ouch
  16. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Wonderful insight, 10/10 quality response, clearly you are the intellectual in wk.
  17. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Roberta_Baratheon said:
    Said things were; consistency, impact, achievements, and opposition faced.
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    I'm looking at UNACs 2-6 and I am just not seeing the same depth of competition. wKs would definitely be better represented if I did 6-10. TMW maybe not as much, a lot of their more prominent members were European. Shout outs to Mike, Unicorn, and Kherven...they were studs too.

    Edit: I would say 6/20 are non BkS or Balion. Akmar played one tournament as a merc for Balion and Joe was more KoA than BkS. Dman, Clock, Lagstro, Akmar, PPK, Joe is more like 6.
  18. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Here is my list...spam MD and Peas if you want theirs...if they consent I will post.

    1. Tyrian - dude was a brick wall everytime we played against him. Great awareness and ability to support archers. Really hard to put down in a 2v1 or 3v1. Was an absolute force when he was the aggressor.
    2. PPK - a lot of the same traits as Tyrian but didn't seem quite as effective when going on the offensive. This could be due to the meta changing as Infantry seemed to be used less and less as a primary offensive force by the time UNAC 1 came around. Still was a very tough dude in UNAC 1 and I was impressed.
    3. Kaiser - to me Kaiser and Kherven come to mind as infantry that absolutely mastered anti-cavalry and support play. Kaiser was also an extremely effective offensive infantry on the rare occasions he was used that way (meta). PPK is ahead of him because when it came to a 2v1 or 3v1 PPK seemed a little better at surviving and pulling out a strong trade/dealing damage before going down. Kaiser played a little riskier and would sometimes get the 3v1 but often times also went down quickly.
    4. Angus - I can already hear the claims of Balion bias incoming, but Angus was the best offensive infantry I have ever seen. When he wasn't playing cav he was an absolutely whirling death foot soldier and often left a bloodbath in his wake. The 3 in front of him were more well-rounded and benefit from the fact Angus didn't play infantry as much as he did cavalry.
    5. Joe - very well-rounded like Tyrian but to a slightly less degree. No major weakness in his game.

    *Probably the most notable exemption of my list is Oodle. I essentially stopped playing after UNAC 1 because the game was just not fun for me anymore. I have almost no experience to guage Oodle on but I assure you MD, who has experience playing against him, holds him in high regard.

    1. Vanidar - best light cav/skirmishing cav I have ever played against. The tip of the spear for BkS' random plains style. Despite very little exposure as a closed map cavalry, when he did take on the bump cav role he was excellent at it as well.
    2. Angus - It still amazes me how people have forgotten how ****ing scary and intimidating Angus was. He was hyper aggressive and so many more times than not he had rolled over the enemy cav and made picks before the main engagement had a chance to begin. I know I will be called out as biased for this but it is tragic how quickly he has faded from memory on this forum. His only weakness is that the most elite teams could on occasion exploit his over-aggression. More times than not it prevailed however.
    3. Scott Ray - as I have already stated previously, it is known that Scott Ray would sometimes be just above average on open maps and was much more comfortable on a heavy horse on a closed map. As a guy who often rode as 2nd cav behind Scott and spent equal time as an infantry in Balion, Scott made everybody better on closed maps. He covered up so many weaknesses for such a long time, especially towards the latter parts when Balion no longer had elite talent at Infantry save Kaiser. I think it was the Malions who started the whole "oh we didn't lose to Balion, we just lost to Scott Ray" memes. How did we go from Scott Ray BEING Balion to ridiculing him as a vastly overrated cavalry player?
    4. Akmar - I will pardon any plebs who don't remember Akmar at his peak but I won't apologize for your ignorance. Akmar was THE cavalry player for an extremely deep nK roster and absolutely wrecked people in every facet of play. The majority of nK's kills during their undefeated streak came from our infantry play because we were extremely deep at Infantry and Archer but Akmar always found a way to carry on horseback. Well-rounded on open and closed map prowess and a very solid "smart-aggression" playstyle.
    5. Rhade - similar story to Vanidar but maybe slightly less effective on open maps, I imagine part of this is the pressure of play-calling.

    *Largest notable exceptions from other lists would be Calamity and Vinny. If my list extended to 10 Calamity would 100% certainly be on it. I felt Cal was an extremely balanced Cavalry player that may not have been as dominant in particular areas as my first 5. Problem with Vinny is I rarely (if at all) played against him. I assure you MD holds him in high regard.

    *I understand discrepancies with this portion of the list. I never played ranged competitively so I might not be qualified to weigh in on this. This list will be from my perspective as a cavalry/infantry player.

    1. Lagstro - incredible awareness, incredible accuracy at all distances, despite a relatively aggressive playstyle (for an archer) he committed very few TKs. He was incredibly hard to target and kill as a cavalry player. Best bow shot I have ever seen.
    2. Peasant - it is my theory that the only reason peas is consistently ranked lower is because of his playstyle. Peas always aimed for the body and rarely went for the headshot. Peas and Lag to me are 1a and 1b when it comes to awareness and ability to hit shots at long distances. If we had data for all of Peas' competitive teamkills, I could probably count them on one hand. Peas has probably assisted more kills then just about anyone in competitive Warband. Another thing about peas, I believe he was the best shot with an X-bow in NA warband history.
    3. Harn - I'm sure BkS guys will say Peers is better, but Harn was the absolute best at self-sufficiency. Harn is probably a little behind Peas and Lag in pure shooting but Harn seemed like he never needed protection. I recall countless times when BkS would make a run on open plains and leave Harn isolated only to have him pull out kills against any counter-aggression. The amount of times I have personally witnessed Harn clutch a round at a disadvantage seems countless.
    4. Clockwise - if I had not played in UNAC 1 there would be no way Clock was on this list. Clock for the longest time seemed to be just an above average productive archer for TMW. When TMW began importing Yuro-trash (jk love you guys) something changed and he became a carrylord for TMW during UNAC 1. Only weakness at that point was he was a little easier to pick off as a cav than the other players on this list. I think Clockwise improved more than any other player in Warband between BiT and UNAC 1.
    5. Peers - the perfect foil to Harn, Peers was about equal to Clockwise in terms of how "easy" (everything here is relative) it was the pick them off in a match. When he was protected and allowed to shoot, he could begin to decimate an enemy team.

    *Notable exceptions on this list would seem to be Achilles. I don't want to be mean but Achilles was often an afterthought when it came to how we gameplanned for wK. Lagstro was always the largest threat and drew most of our focus. I can say that Zero holds Achilles in high regard and had I played in the later UNAC seasons I am sure I would be impressed.

    *To me, qualifying for this list means you have proven the ability to carry your team from all 3 classes.
    1. Rhade(sorry Mad I love you) - during the pre-tournament era Rhade could hang with the best in any class. When BkS came back for UNAC 1 Rhade didn't seem as stalwart as an infantry but there was a time when he was dangerous at all 3 classes.
    2. MD - yeah I don't have to spell out his name because, because. MD became excellent at all three classes because he wanted to be ready to fill in any class we may have been short on. While excellent at all three, I would slightly favor Rhade's cavalry when comparing "primes."
    3. Harn - I feel like Harn played more ranger than anything else but Harn was a monster at all three classes. Similar to MD except I would give the edge to MD's infantry play. Also Clutch.
    4. Dman - although I have less personal experience with Dman compared to the rest of the list, I didn't need much exposure to know Dman was special. I couldn't begin to claim to know his "main" role because he was so adept at all of them.
    5. Ron Burgundy - what amazes me about Ron is that compared to the rest of Balion he pubbed very little. Ron would dissapear for many days and show up for a match by all rights "cold" or "rusty" and dominate in whatever class MD plugged him in. Notably weaker at ranged than everyone else on this list but still very strong.
    I don't get butthurt at criticism so critique away.
  19. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    I will link if they want me to post them...the list was for ****s and giggles and they didn't seem to want to post them.
  20. blak

    Top North American Players of All Time (Fun Poll #3 Is Up)

    Calamity said:
    Juvenile said:
    Decided to give a shot at my own all-time list. Only spent a bit under an hour on it, so I'm sure if I thought about it more it would shift around a bit (especially the all-round list), but here it is:

    1. Oodle
    2. Tyrian
    3. PPK147
    4. Unicorn
    5. Mok
    6. Joe
    7. CravenKaiser
    8. Tito
    9. Troubadour
    10. Kherven
    11. Letholdus
    12. Beer
    13. Ghaern
    14. Kelquethas
    15. Mike
    16. Aporta
    17. Cradoc
    18. Suriell
    19. dman
    20. Max
    21. Duke
    22. Creed
    23. Reapy
    24. Warpath
    25. Ordyn

    1. Calamity
    2. Vanidar
    3. Scott Ray
    4. Vinny Pooh
    5. Redknight
    6. Angus Burger
    7. Akmar
    8. Cru
    9. Gelden
    10. Pierce
    11. Rhade
    12. Can
    13. WilySly
    14. Boogy
    15. Gravish
    16. Hero of Hiroshima
    17. Brave
    18. Blade
    19. Blak
    20. Heat
    21. Nevino
    22. Red
    23. Insane
    24. Alec
    25. Ron Burgundy

    1. Fidel Lagstro
    2. Achilles
    3. Peers
    4. Harn
    5. John
    6. Chewbacca
    7. Clockwise
    8. Zero
    9. RobertBruce
    10. Marnid
    11. Jeffrey
    12. Peasant
    13. Littleguy
    14. Scope
    15. Phoenix Gold
    16. Liegraf
    17. Death Angel
    18. Quantum Matrix
    19. Rhadagast
    20. Juve
    21. African
    22. Fatso
    23. Harald
    24. Graive Digger
    25. Fritigern

    1. Fidel Lagstro
    2. Rhade
    3. Rocky
    4. Mad Dawg
    5. Calamity
    6. dman
    7. Juve
    8. PPK147
    9. Clockwise
    10. Quantum Matrix
    11. Rurin
    12. Ron Burgundy
    13. Harn
    14. Oodle
    15. Fortinbras
    16. Brave
    17. Cru
    18. Suriell
    19. Vinny Pooh
    20. African
    21. Max
    22. Paxman
    23. Captain
    24. Mafioso
    25. WilySly

    I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've included myself in any sort of list I've posted, so I can't help but feel like I'm kinda rating myself too high. But anyway, I'd appreciate any criticism or suggestions anyone might have to offer.
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    Good list overall. A little Balion bias here and there, Scott Ray is most definitely not number 3 cav of all time. Cru better than Gelden makes me cry a bit.
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    As opposed to the atrocity that is the OP
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