BEAST - Bannerlord Early Access Skirmish Tournament

BEAST is the first Bannerlord Skirmish tournament in Europe.

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? MEET THE TEAM - Keyboard Warriors [KW]

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Welcome to our next interview, this time up is the “most toxic” clan it appears there has existed in Bannerlord. KW made a progression from a 3-team clan to a single-roster Skirmish team quite quickly. While some players like Einar, Siberia, James, and Death have been around for a long time, the rest of the roster considerably shifted over the time. With their recent additions Sarranid and Obelix KW appears to be arming up for winning Division B.



Tell us a bit about your journey, KW changed a lot over the last two years.
KW was started by Luca in 2020 to continue the competitive history of the community that they had in War of the Roses (an old game that is like Bannerlord). Him and Sharky did a lot to build up and grow the community to the point where KW had 3 teams. However, things started to change quick. In BEAST 2 and 3, KW Light was able to win the bronze medal in division A and we had 2 teams in division A (something no other clan has achieved). Then slowly KW started to lose a lot of players. I was not happy with KW accepting weak players into their ranks, so I am responsible for a couple players leaving the community. Then Rangah, GTX, William, Zippo became good friends and started to enjoy playing other games apart from Bannerlord. They stopped communicating with the other 2 teams and Rangah invited them to hang out in his discord. The former KW Light didn’t want to be a part of the KW community – it’s not what they wanted so they created SGM with Sharky being the only one who decided to stay. Despite the events that took place in BEAST 4 KW was able to sign up 3 teams for BEAST once again. However, BEAST 4 was a terrible Season for all the teams. There was one major problem, and that problem was that there was not diversity in the KW teams. After BEAST 4 both teams (KW Dark and KW Light) had to play in division B so to make things work we decided to unite the 2 teams to form what KW is today. The weakest team of KW called KW grey was aimed towards the casual players who were a part of the KW community, but nobody wanted to recruit and maintain that team so most of them quit the game or joined VW. I suggested for some of our Players to join VW as they are a good community who offers place for both casuals and tryhards. Thus, what was left of KW was only tryhards and now all the players in KW are good enough to play in division B or A.

Your Roster now, who will you field for BEAST 7? Tell us a bit about your players!
The current KW roster didn’t change much in the past 2 BEAST seasons. It’s my pride and joy to have such unity and play with the same players for such a long time. Our newest additions are Obelix and Sarranid (who are ex-KW members who decided to return and good friends of mine). Our archer is of course Einar, and he is not your ordinary archer because he is also our IGL for the upcoming BEAST season. Our cavs are James, Siberia and Elwaen. Siberia is a flex and can also play as infantry very well. All 3 of them are good cav players and James was even MVP player of division B last season. Our main infantry roster is Sarranid, Lammelot and Obelix. I consider them to be better inf players than me and can hold their ground well. However, it’s a very rare occasion for all 3 of them to attend so me and Demochi get to play as well, and we are also pretty good infantry players and won’t disappoint our team.


You guys also signed up for the Winter Cup – tell us a bit about your participation in this tournament.
Einar: We were originally not going to play, we didn’t like the name, some of us didn’t want to play first.
Siberia: It’s been called Destiny Cup.
Einar: Then we decided to play because we thought we can win, then we didn’t win.
Death: We were disappointed that there were no badges and no game for third place. We were looking forward to play against RMS.
Siberia: Didn’t you not want to participate in the Cup?
Death: I didn’t, but then I came to help. We did win 2nd place in Groupfights though.

You were the only one to hand defeat to Apis Europae in Division B last season. When I inquired Death about his reasoning he stated, “It quantifies your skill, look at the likes of Hairless etc.”. How do you feel with this rather unique achievement last season?
Death: We had a couple of trainings with them before the official. And I did make some good calls during the trainings, I knew they’ll go light units and I told our team they’re going to play these units and we countered it. We had also excellent teamwork in the match. We knew their tactics and their playstyle because we trained extensively with them.
James: We beat AE and lost to VW due to the same reason: Against AE we had the main lineup and no one made mistakes, all warmed up, that’s why we won.
Obelix: It must have been special to play against dinosaurs like AE.

Einar is your shotcaller now and I remember that it used to be Demochi if I remember correct. Archers seen in this position are rare, often it is infantry doing the leading, how did he come to be the one leading? Are you enjoying it?
Einar: I was forced to, our infantry are bastards for forcing me to lead.
Death: Demochi used to be the IGL but the team felt that Demochi was underperforming due to the IGL, I also underperform when leading. Einar claimed he can handle the pressure of IGL and shooting people. I can say for myself I am losing concentration on the infantry engagement.
Einar: Obviously it’s a detriment. As Infantry Captain you can lead the infantry (they’re following you) and be communicating. As Archer you are usually separate from the crew. Just tell them to stand in the corner, go with cav, let the infantry be quiet. That’s the best way, I think I improved on my leading.
Obelix: You are alone.
Einar: Yeah, I always am alone in matches. And then I call for help. And sometimes they come and help me. But I think it works nicely, I’d appreciate if someone else would do it, but currently there is no alternative.
Death: Einar is like “help me guys, help help!” and then the others are forced to help him. He is a juicy steak of an archer for others try to take a bite.
Siberia: Ideally, we would have an infantry doing it, but we unfortunately don’t have an infantry able to do it on the level required.
Death: We kinda have an agreement if we have Infs attending and we have Sturgia, I take over the IGL and we take advantage of the infantry classes.
Einar: Maybe, Sturgia Light Archer got a buff, it sucks still though.

You guys are the terror of the public lobby though. Notorious for being toxic as well. While I do not seek you to justify it, the KW stacking in lobbies was quite like Div. Just comment on it, your stage.
Obelix: We are unlucky, because there are people who crash and leave and that just is how it is, I guess. Sometimes we must kick some AFKs too.
Death: I don’t remember how many AFKs I kicked yesterday, 40 for sure.
Obelix: There is a pandemic of AFKs. And so many people crash, for no reason.
Einar: TaleWorlds has not really given a guidance how it should be used. Some people think it should be never used; some other people think it should be used way more frequently.
Siberia: The community is very small and tryhard. And when someone new is joining who is AFK, it is ruining the fun for 11 players.


Before the interviews mainly featured Division A teams. You are the first ones from Division B who agreed to an interview with me. Can you tell our readers about the quirks and specialties and the competition in Division B?
Einar: The matches are usually very close. We have usually two teams which are the pigs in the slaughterhouse, but the rest used to be equal and competitive.
Death: Too bad they’re disbanded, haha. (laughing)
Einar: It usually was a tight finish every season.
Obelix: That’s what she said.
James: For us it used to be that our cavalry used to be superior. The infantry usually makes or breaks the match, depending how well they perform.
Obelix: I think the biggest difference between Division A and Division B that the Division A teams have usually one superior cavalry more and one choker less. We are yet to find out who the choker in KW is.

What are your plans for Division B in BEAST 7? You upgraded your roster with incorporating Obelix and Sarranid. Do you think you will come first with AE out of the way and the VW roster less powerful or will there be a stop sign?
Death: Pretty much there is no challenger in Division B right now. We are not going to win based on teamwork, we are confident that we outskill most of the opponents. I mean it’s DR2, VW – MoB and HV appear to be disbanding, let’s add TCV and RMS…
Einar: HINQ2?
Death: Yes, maybe them, but
James: RMS?
Death: I don’t think that RMS will get the RM players to the rosters. Carnifex is going to choke there because his PC is trash. RMS can be a good if they find a good substitute for Carnifex.
Einar: VW and DoF both got defaults, which is unfortunate for us, since the other teams get 12 rounds.
Death: We had to play all our opponents, it just seems unfair.
Obelix: The oven will be hot, the sun will rise, the rekt will come. Whoever we will beat in Division B, KW will not provide tissues to wipe the tears away.

With Obelix and Sarranid you incorporated players into your roster which others would describe ‘gifted, but difficult to handle’. They are certainly an upgrade to your team. Are you confident they will be productive members of your team?
Death: I am confident. I think Obelix is - despite being hard to control - a good addition, he has good awareness, he has the best infantry awareness in our roster. And he is playing the javelin meta or using pikes, he is one of the few players being able to play this properly and he is the best support infantry in this case a team can have. As for Sarranid, he is pretty good, but having connection issues.
Siberia: Technical difficulties.
Death: In the match against HINQ he had high ping, but when his ping is right, he is smacking and topscoring.
Einar: They can be a bit anxious with their shock infantry.

Explain to us how KW transformed into a single-roster Skirmish team. You used to field 3 teams with huge rosters, with BEAST 4 creating a split when SGM left KW Light.
Death: I did it.
Einar: The Dark Team played in Division A. Very frustrating experience. Everyone but me and Elwaen and Siberia left.
Death: It felt toxic, when I helped KW Dark, Sharky insta-quit after the match and no one wanted to talk about why we were losing.
Einar: Aela was a light there, it’s sad she left. I wish her good luck in her future teams. She was the only positive and then she left.
Death: In KW Light we lost to BROs. The main reason we lost is that they had glaive cav and we didn’t have a good archer to counter it, but the glaive cav was destroying everything.
James: I didn’t play then as well.
Death: We had some people which committed and people which were underperforming. I wasn’t that nice to some people which clearly underperformed.
James: It has been a harsh but right step, it led to us becoming a stronger team.
Death: Both teams were failing and falling apart so the merge was the only right direction. We will not erect a second team anymore, unless someone brings 10 people which want to join our community, then he is very welcome to do so.
James: SGM left because of Death, at least they claim that.
Death: That’s not true though, they said the clan was getting too big for their liking and I think I’m used as a scapegoat here. Gray team also expected me to recruit people for their team, but that is not my job.
Einar: That’s the problem, they never had a stable core lineup. I’d like to have more teams inside the clan, but that seems to be impossible.

Do you think single-skirmish teams are the way forward or is this temporary?
Death: The first team is always going to woo the best players from the second teams. The bottom teams soak in what is left. Good players in the lower teams will get frustrated and just go somewhere else. You always have clans pretending to have three teams. The more people improve the more they advance in the team hierarchy or seek chances elsewhere.
James: The only way it can work if one major team is incorporating another team as a spin-off. But still, it must be separate. The only way it could work, not the way most teams handle it currently. Six people and no custom servers are quite limiting. Like, the better team will recruit from the second team, and it will cause resentment and then it will not work, it’s a system designed to fail long-term.

Did you already contract a zookeeper for Obelix and Sarranid or is someone in the team taking care on the side of them?
Obelix: I mean, it’s a zoo anyway. Einar is our zookeeper.
Einar: You could take anyone as example for this. I even took Siberia as infantry and it worked out.
Death: Siberia is infantry main.
Siberia: I’m a flex, I can flex inf and cav.
Death: He can flex as archer!
Einar: Certainly… I can lead from the discord stream then.

How do you guys feel about the changes NIN3 introduced to the game?
Death: People are crying on the forums about maces being broken, I already got used to the meta and it’s very strong. But I already said: if Aserai and Vlandia maces are not broken, the other ones are broken and need a damage nerf (Battania and Khuzait) – for these two factions the mace appears broken indeed.
Obelix: In the previous patch I used to be a shock and nowadays it’s useless, dies in one hit, worst is Berserker and Battania Shock. I never liked to play with shields, hence I am now playing a pike. I more or less made a transition from shock to anti-cav and support infantry and I like that, but I think the shocks are too weak.
Einar: I think it is a good thing that NIN3 is making light archers more interesting. In the previous patches heavy archer just felt better, now if you have between 330 and 360, I believe going for triple light archer is viable. It’s an interesting choice going for the risky double spawn or the reliable double spawn. Hunter perk is silly that you could use it in melee, but I feel you need OP stuff against Cav. You must be careful to not nerf anti-cav too much otherwise Cav will be going to dominate again.
James: Cav is now the least enjoyable class to play.
Siberia: Heavy Cav is unenjoyable.
James: Heavy Cav is useless, especially on Empire, you can just go for the money perk on Light Cavs. Every Class has a counter to cav now, each patch we get a new counter mechanic, people will still go and cry in the forums. Right now it is Cav is the highest skill ceiling class. Especially in cav fights the hitboxes are screwed. You can release first, aiming for the head, and the other cav hits your finger and you get 130 damage from your hand and that is I believe wrong.
Einar: I feel the speed multiplier is too high in this game. It’s coming down to one shots, either I kill the cav or the cav kills me.
James: Maybe cap it for certain parts of your body, like your arm.
Einar: I can agree on that.

Your chance to roast someone, free pick. Who shall it be?
Obelix: All those people who play range and s-key. Cringe.
Siberia: It will be shameful if RM would not form a team and put all their players into RMS to ez-stomp Div B.
James: Varadin is a dog.
Obelix: Varadino, he’s a dinosaur, like AE. But we love everyone. Not RMS though, we are coming for you.
Death: Everybody hates us already due to the unfortunate events in the random lobbies of Skirmish.


Siberia and Einar have been nearly unfaithful though I heard. In the end they stayed here though instead of going to Vineyard Workers.
Einar: We were just trying it out! Trial period! In the VW discord I told them “Put me on friend, not trial role”. I just wanted to try out another team and people were like “oh no, you can’t do that.” Then I figured out that we achieve more here, and we stayed.
Siberia: It was nothing about appreciation, just about forming a stronger team. It’s like finding better job.
James: Siberia apparently has no loyalty.
Einar: Obviously, he is disloyal, he has been here for seven years.
James: The obvious reflex is it though, if you cannot improve within your team, you go somewhere else.
Einar: It’s a big hassle to move clans, you must become friends with people and there is different IGL and I was like, oof, I prefer Demochi to shotcall. Then I became the IGL, jokes on me.
James: We had to promote them to make sure they’re loyal (laughing).

Is there something I missed? Do you want to send a message to any of our readers?
Death: If you have less then 100 hours, please don’t queue for skirmish, thank you.


Thanks for speaking to us!

Next up will be Deutschritter Furor! The topic of Dinosaurs have been brought up in this interview and therefore it is just fair and square to talk to one of the remaining dinosaurs of the Bannerlord Community before they all die out.
 
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