Tight games, and a great view. Monkey Island played well at parts, and >:( played well at parts. However, >:('s previous excellent play pulled their fat out of the fire on this one

Game One - Capture the Flag on Caer Cadarn (light)

Few interesting chat lines early on from this game that I'll relate now.

*Papascrub: ok, so mi used their restart already

*RattleSnake: Strat= camp and let them push(tm)
*naelot: don't 'tm' things, you look like andir

Pap's statement confuses me, Rattle's declaration makes my job easy, and naelot's phrase made me chuckle. This match already has it all.

Trades go down in pretty similar fashion, exceptions being >:( gets more archers, mi nabs more warriors. Game on and both teams make note of opposing personages percentages. In a nifty fashion, Rattle predicts a southern rush. As he finds out later, he was close!

Pretty much 3 semi-equal flanks (although mi has Marty sitting in back to reinforce when necessary) and no one moving. Sure, pus is trying to find that opening but so far nobody is having any of it. Including Pirate LeChuck who, with a stroke of genius, leaves two of the big pus at home!

Eventually Rattle sneaks a pus into the middle set of mi's army, causing enough confusion for naelot and Odin to flame the living hell out of Rapp Scallion.

Now, remember when I said Pirate left 2 big pus at home? Well, it turns out Papa steals them and goes apeshit on mi's forces because, hey, free pus.

Unfortunately for >:(, Elaine pusses Odin's mid dwarf, causing >:('s mid to fall back. Marty begins to reinforce with warriors and a rush takes place mid. Within the next two minutes however, >:( pusses mi's entire mid causing it to become all but worthless. Also around this time, Myrk and Henry have utterly dominated their opposition on the flanks.

Near the end the only thing worth noting is Myrk flaming satchels left by mi while Murray was on top of them. Heh! Nothing left but for >:( to clean up and take it home.

Big Game Dude? Myrk for the satchel flaming, and also for effective captaining throughout the game.

Game Two - Capture the Flag on Caer Cadarn (light)

>:( sets up for a heavy south rush with smaller holding forces middle and north. Mi is doing a triple dong but at least they have assloads of thrall.

As a note, Pirate once again leaves pus at home.

Myrk's first order was for Kap to kill the poor fisherman up north, which Kap does with ruthless efficiency. Tragic. About then, Myrk takes a ghol pack across south and up towards the mi flag. He picks up the pus left by Pirate, pusses all of mi's home thrall, then kills the jman left at the flag. Great move!

About 13 seconds later his ghol pack is decimated by one pus shot and three cleanup hacks from a mi ghol. Whoops. :(

Shortly after Myrk's trip, mi pusses and flames naelot to hell (payback for game one), opening up the path to >:('s flag, and eventually, the victory.

>:( tried to scrounge up a rush, but it wasn't enough to do anything. You could almost hear mi chanting "FREDRICKSBURG! FREDRICKSBURG!"

Big Game Dude? Sure as hell not Kap, he killed that fisherman. :(

Game Three - Flag Rally on Lichen Unto Your Death

Teams are trading almost the same and both put about the same units in the same damn places. However, Regulus is the first to the smiley face on the middle of the map, and this causes me to predict >:( as winning this game.

In and of itself, this game was odd as hell. >:( makes its way through openings without getting any flags. Kap does end up taking the mi home flag in the southwest corner, but not before Pirate LeChuck nabs the >:( temple flag.

Myrk and Regulus, who lost a hard battle for mi's north flag (they were about one foot from tagging it), are laughed at by mi. Sweet. I point this out because I'm sure >:( eventually laughed all the way to the next round in the top bracket.

Later, at mi's temple flag, Odin rocks the living shit out of his opponents at Papascrub's behest. I'm not kidding, Odin basically beat him like he was the skinny dude beating up the blonde guy (mi) in that one bloodyass scene in Fight Club.

At the end of the game, Kap puts up a valiant effort for the last mi flag, but can't capture it without mi capturing >:('s last flag first. Kap walks off to assure the >:( victory.

Big Game Dude? Odin for trouncing the mi temple like Mike Tyson beats up random motorists.

Game Four - Flag Rally on Lichen Unto Death

Similar trades again, except this time mi is doing heavy N flank, melee rush mid with pus, and a small holding force at their temple.

Humorously, Palido points out to "get all the big pus :)" after watching Pirate NOT do that very thing for two straight games. Also of laughter value, DrunkGhost reaches the smiley face in the middle of the map first, causing me to predict mi as the victors of this game.

Not much happens for a while really, but when Kap shifts to help Odin out, Papa tells him he's doing a really keen job. Not thirty seconds later Papascrub throws a pus at Kap's dwarf (ok, at mi's melee, but it kills Kap's duff) and then proceeds to apologize. Poor Kap, can't catch a break. LIKE THAT FISHERMAN YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!!!!!!!

...

Anyway, mi begins an assault on >:('s temple flag, and while >:( defends, Papa prohphetically announces for Odin to once again do what he does best, and that's rape the mi temple flag.

Unfortunately for >:(, Papa is a false god's prophet, and Odin gets jumped. It's really unsettling what happens to poor O, and I'm pretty sure earth and her true Creator weeped at that one.

Not much left except for the mi cleanup crew, and mi takes it 5 flags to 3.

Big Game Dude? The smiley face in the middle of the map because, as proven here, whoever touches it first wins the game.

Game Five - Assassin on If I Had a Trow... (NUT)

Since both teams get the same setups, I watched to see who would give out units first. It was Myrk, who at 19 seconds into the game, detaches 17% to RattleSnake. YeeHaww Myrk!

Both teams do almost identical splits, and there's lots of "absolutely nothing" happening for quite a while. Eventually, naelot kills Elaine's warlock down south. This allows >:( to press just about everywhere.

Bad luck for >:(, good defense for mi, and a few minutes later, and the game ties.

Big Game Dude? No one really stood out so I'll say Santa Clause because he brings presents to poor starving German kids in shoddy orphanages. Yey for Santa!