As the last season of ENSL has finished, at least the last season as far as 9L is concerned, it’s time for a quick recap. Once again, we were enticed to rejoin the dwindling Natural Selection community, for one last kaboom. At first I was skeptical, I doubted we’d even be able to get six 9Lers to return. I was wrong. It didn’t take long before old friends started mysteriously connecting to IRC and announcing their returns. How they knew we were even making a comeback, I will never know. After our miraculous Season 10 comeback, expectations were high. Too high. The competition was fierce and our chances slim, but we threw ourselves into the fray.

 

 

…mop’s back — HELL YEAH!? :D

 

 

ENSL Season 10 was a once in a lifetime event. So unlikely, so ridiculously unlikely, that I personally feel that expecting the same results this season — with even less time to practice — is strange. So many different and even in themselves unlikely events conspired to make that victory possible. I’d be surprised if anything like that ever happens again, to any team. Still, I can’t deny that I’m a little disappointed. Not with our results, they were quite decent considering our inactivity and short time to get back on form. I’m disappointed with the fact that we didn’t even really try. Still, playing without having any real ambitions was relaxing in its own way.

 

 

Cue five weeks of “wltrs gets a shotgun” predictions.

 

 

I must also take some of the blame for our mediocre performance. While I was able to effectuate some clever strategies, they were symptomatic of our condition. I’m not entirely sure why, but I just haven’t felt comfortable leading the team this season. As a result, my performance as team leader slumped. Badly. We used to be the most professionally organized NS team around, but this season we were one of the least. Poor motivating, in game leadership and roster management failed to give us the solid foundation we’ve had in the past. It could be time to recruit some new leadership talent — or maybe I just need a break?

 

 

Oetel decides to take justice in his own hands when sherpa jumps the CC.

 

 

That said, I still had a lot of fun playing and talking shit on vent. The screenshots in this news post don’t even come close to representing all the hilarious moments we had. Coming one red bar away from taking Saunamen to a tie breaker map in the semi final certainly isn’t anything to be ashamed of. Neither is taking a shared third place with take over. The rage levels were also almost non-existant, surprising considering our history of rage — even when we were winning! Big, big shoutout to b1, dux, evilness, JustMe, morphz, mu, Oetel, pantsu, sherpa, Sublime, vax, and wltrs for making our last NS tournament a very enjoyable one. See you around in NS2 yo!

 

 

Sublime eats nade, blames friends for “shouting in my ears”.

 

 

As this is the last time we’ll ever play NS together, let me take this opportunity to say thank you. Everyone. Thank you for all the matches, the great laughs and the camaraderie. Thank you for the memories.

 

 

9L has gone back into hibernation. Hopefully, we’ll be back for NS2, but the future is hard to predict. Some of us are still playing NS however, for different teams. Wltrs has joined the Tuxedo Men and I’m playing with take over. The community may be in a sorry state, but playing NS is still fun!