A Riot is an inferno, an angry, ugly beast,
a short-lived disturbance.
And it's quite alright--Hagop abroumian is a friend of mine, or at the least an acquaintance and I don't hold grudges.
Two For Flinching, his alliance, gave me more grief on these forums than anybody deserves but that's what alliance leaders do, and I've never shied from a propaganda war.
Riot has come to an end; this was not caused by me being rimmed, as some are wont to believe-- Riot had other issues which I've explained to alliance members. Our alliance picture is fitting on two counts: we were always outmanned and outgunned and the authorities in O54 elected to take down the one fermenting the riot.
Things I am proud of:
-Riot fought against 8 or 9 alliances, I lost track between a lot of mergers, disbands, and the fact that the names kept getting changed, but in general we were warring about 400-500 players in the end that had no enemies except Riot. In particular there was a confederation of three alliances that coordinated closely with each other against us led by Two For Flinching-- currently there are over 250 players in those three alliances. Riot got up to 85 members at one point but generally stayed around 70. After Thresher123 and I went to town making cuts, we were down to around 60.
-We scared a lot of people too! I am honored. On a slightly unrelated tangent, we had 4 people leave and join our enemies because they "couldn't take the heat." We rimmed the largest of them--his city belonged to Riot.
-We had an original name (I never played Evony, and I assure you when I thought of the name, it derived inspiration from the world around me). What's more, according to Grepostats there are already at least 4 copycat alliances with variations on the name as of October 14, 2 weeks after the alliance was founded. I consider this the highest of compliments.
-We had between 3 and 10 spies for other alliances at some point in Riot, depending on how loosely you define the term. Not sure I ever got around to catching the last one, but that is a job for another day. I might even start a public blacklist of known spies... like this one:
-We took on about 15-20 players that had never even played Grepolis before, and many of them (like Silistra) are now better players than a lot of "veterans" of the game.
-I had the opportunity to meet up again with a lot of old acquaintances and some true friends, even if only for a short time because not all of them could commit to Athens to keep up with the core.
-What's more, I got to work with some old enemies, and truly understand that alliance nationalism is a silly thing.
-I was the only member of Riot to lose a city, ironically enough. And in a sense it is fitting that Riot's failure should result in my rimming. I figure at this stage of the game the conquests are pretty much free, because everybody has more biremes than light ships anyhow.
Because he is scared that Riot os going to lose.
Ahhh, hogmos, let us not forget how you have been fighting lately!
I'm pretty sure he went after the ships next too.
-Morale was high, right up to the end. I need to apologize to a lot of players I've let down, but I think there is something to be said for how many people resisted our merge. I simply gave them no choice.
Perhaps Riot will come again, perhaps not. If it does, Athens had better be prepared to subdue another Riot because the next one will rage even more.