Ground Zero is NOT retired. Ground Zero is STILL undefeated. Ground Zero has beaten Flying Aces in every game they have played against them. Ground Zero has invited Flying Aces to play a stock game, 5 man BYOC, on a v1 server and KB has declined to accept. So no, I don't beleive that Flying Aces are even any where close to the best corp.
As far as the 5k sectors in a tourmament, the idea was strictly brought on by Helix because he doesn't know how to datamine. GZ had no problem finding the enemy in a 10k or 20k sector universe even when other corps did try to turtle.

Helix started a monthly thing, so what? Games have a decent turn out, and hopefully some of the newer folk are able to learn a thing or two. I mean the Corp size is set to '8', so what if you take on 3 noobies and loose? I would think that with your playing experience and skill-set, that I woul dbe hard pressed to find an Edit you know nothing about. Seriously?

I can't see how this game is helped when someone sleeps with their Trophy and refuses to play with anyone, anytime, unless the playing field is set to their exact specification. This is very Bobby Fischer like.. eventually no one will care about your historical Wins.

Taking on noobs wasn't the issue. We had already accepted that the corp size would be larger than 5. However, we said that the edit used had to be released 2 weeks in advance of any game we would play. Helix refused, so the best corp won't be participating. If no one cares about our history as an undefeated corp, then by all means they can keep beating up on noobs.

Well, I feel that this is tantamount to my creating a Perma Corp, and declaring a perfect Win/Lose record because I refuse to play, therefore my corp is actually the best. We could argue back and forth why my logic is flawed, but in the end games are not played and our wives are getting jealous of how tightly we hold onto our plastic trophies. in bed at night.

I'm not suggesting that you participate in the Monthly thing Helix started,.. but for the love of gawd, do something constructive and setup your own 'Training Camp' or whatever (yes, yes, I know about the 2014, 2015, 2016, thing).. There's plenty of Sandboxes around for everyone; does Ground Zero actively play any games? Why not take this fletzer guy under your wing and train him up (in a slow game) .... not telling you what to do, just somethings I would do if I had the time.

Question to anyone: When did it become standard procedure to release edits for tourney games before the game started?

I don't remember that happening but once back when I was playing - and that one time turned out to be a disaster. I believe it was an HHT where one guild took advantage of their rehearsed starting strat and blew SD on the first day leaving only them access to resources for 7 days while everyone else waited for SD to respawn.

Seems to me like you remove the skill of being able find the best way to play an edit away from the tourney if everyone knows what the strategy should be 2 weeks ahead of time. If you want to show your skills - jump into a game where nobody knows the edits and figure out the best way to play it before your enemies do.

Just wondering when/why that practice seems to be the norm now.

It started back when a few less then honorable sysops passed out the edit to specific people while others remained in the dark. It keeps the game fair and above board. Besides, it's not the exact seed that is passed out, but everyone knows in advance what the planets and ships are.

If you use any of the updated twa files for v1 or v2 you know what the planets and ships are since all of them have had makeansi run on them.

Duh. You have to have access to the TWA to run that script. ROFL

That's too bad, it removes a lot of good strategy from the game. You'd think with the age demographic in this game you'd have a more mature player base. I can understand now why it's so hard for new people and old players to get into the game.

I guess some people never grow up.

I agree... Part of the challenge is not knowing everything in advance.

I agree... Part of the challenge is not knowing everything in advance.

I agree... Part of the challenge is not knowing everything in advance.