PiNeRs

I had a very suspicious 2v2 series a few weeks ago where in 4 out of the 6 games, I found one of my miners AFK. I do not make mistakes like that very often, so to me, 4 out of 6 games was alarming. I was not convinced but I heard about the unit control hack being out there.

That being said, recently I have been conscious of who im playing and what happens to my miners in game. I had a recent set of games with SiR Alex-- the person who created the Psychicc radar hack. In these games I was very aware of the possibility that one of my miners might be going afk for no reason, so I kept checking them. And low and behold in game 3 I found myself low on funds and checked my miners. One of them somehow managed to go AFK despite my intense care and 300 APM.... I clicked the miner and put it back on gems where it should have been. 'Nice try alex' I thought to myself, thinking im slick. At that moment, I made a mental note that this was the last time I touched any of my miners.  But, just a minute or so later I found myself unbearably low on funds. I immediately sold my conyard so I wouldn't die and checked my miners and.... not one of them but TWO of them were afk.

*****The follow up game was even more suspicious.

I don't know if Alex created the hack, hell, I don't even know if the hack exists. But what I do know is that I have never seen such witchcraft in 400 trillion games.

 The Edd vs Piners allied-sov challenge is back! as 2015's winter classic.  l0l

--Josh (rumblesum) will be recording the series live on his stream @ twitch.tv/distantq

--Dec 19  (sat)  Exact time TBA

--Format: first to 10 wins. Alternating map picks

Some background

As most of you may know, Edd and I had a debate about the balance between allies and soviets awhile back. I claimed that the soviets are OP, while he claimed that that is bibblebabble, and it's simply a matter of who outplays who. To prove his point, he challenged me to a series with the condition of us playing off-faction; myself using the soviets, and him allies. I was defeated in that series, officially owing him a beer... and granting credence to his point too.

We have decided that it's time for round 2 and I must say, it's saltier than ever!      . No reason to hide it folks: there is indeed a rivalry between us. The origin of which dates back to 2005 when I defeated him gg no re style on Golden state freeway in a pivotal tournament game, preventing him from achieving rank world no. 1 HOF.

Since that game, we have not once teamed up in 2v2 cm, always anchoring-up on opposite teams trading off beatings. And in 1v1, there is a long history of epic-game madness with gimmicky preparation and innovative strategic meta-gaming resulting in, again, a lot of tradeoffs. Our thoughts are often unaligned, which has lead to many debates about ra2. We both also have  a semi-professional halo background, which spwaned quite a bit of trash talk as well back in the day....We even had philosophical debates a few times.

It all leads up to this. Hailing from opposite sides of the US....who will take it down: the best from the west or the beast from the east?

EvP live december 2015

An interesting thought for you guys. Indeed, some maps are better than others-- and by better I mean more competitive. What makes a map competitive is how dynamic, skill-based, hard to cheese, and balanced it is. Isle of war, for example, has none of these qualities, whereas snow valley has all of them.

In 2v2 this is much more apparent due to the additional players on the map. Naturally, majority of the maps are not so good for competitive play. The following is a tier list of what I consider the playable 2v2 maps. Each will be assigned what I am now calling a "piner- power-rating", which is an arbitrary bs #  given simply to point out how I perceive the severity in the difference of competitiveness between the maps. Worth noting that majority of maps would get darn close to 0.

Tier1: Ace maps                             PPR

1. Heck freezes over corners          13.89
2. Jungle of Vietnam                       12.43

Hands down the best maps in the game. If u want to test who is better and you want the best quality games, these are the maps to play.

Tier2: Competitive substitutes
 

3. Desert Island                              10.57     
4. Coldest Peak                              9.77
5. Divide and Conquer                    9.50         

Although there is nothing like heck or jungle, ya gotta change it up sometimes. These are the go-to's. Desert the clear #3.

Tier3: The Change-ups

6. Caverns of Siberia                    9.00
7. Snow on Fire                             8.75
8. Snow valley                               8.29

9. Tour of Egypt                            8.24

Still legit games on these maps, but the quality begins to dwindle at this tier.

Tier4: For LoLz, but still competitive

10. Alaskan Outback                          8.03
11. Bull Run                                        7.61
12. Klondike Gold                               6.44

Tier5: worthy once in a blue moon

13. Montana DMZ                               6.13
14. The green Mile                              5.46

15. South Pacific                                 4.88  

16. Hammer and sickle                       4.82

 the guy complains non stop about how every1 maps, and clearly maps himself and admits to it? Between the bitching, the laming and the cheating... WTF is this guy doing on this server? seriously...

Upon looking at the ladder, I was appalled and deeply saddened to see that there are only 4 allied players in the top 36. And felt compelled to help the allied cause by offering this prize, adding to the November madness. The challenge is to be the champion of the ladder (rank 1) by the end of the month, using allies only. 

You have to qm! I will disqualify you if you keep setting up tournament games to play your best maps. I do log on to ra2 several times a week and will check specifically for this as well as look for overly repeated maps. Ill be sure to confront you with a warning ofc before your disqualification.

The prize:

- $100 US

- A box of homemade cookies of your choice with my autograph on the front of the box. 

- A personally written congratulatory  letter from me addressing your achievements as an allied commander.

If no one wins the prize in Nov, it will be up for grabs in December as well.