'Dived' is the traditional past tense whereas 'dove' is a modern invention. Basically, 'dived': real British English 'dove': American English

Or you can just post straight after the previous one and it'll add on automatically. :D

No

He's in the cavemen era. Where's he going to find a better header?

:wub: :wub: Thanks but @Merovingian must take the credit for the signature.

^ On the plus side, at least it's on topic...sort of.

I think everyone more or less saw this coming when the AW tournament came to an abrupt stop. Hope to see it return sometime in the future.

Thanks <3 First article that Gnatty approved. Should have tested him with some mistakes *cough*. Can you expand on that please?

The Medic Hey guys! It's been a while since I wrote the last chapter of this series. I think it's probably time to whip out the next chapter, don't you? For context, I would heavily recommend reading the first 2 chapters which I've linked below. Chapter 1: Fatigue Chapter 2: Decision Or you can live life on the edge and dive in... which also happens to the title. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Preview At around 126 steps, he reached the lake. Perhaps in the day, it was clear blue. But in the middle of the night, it was the same colour as everything else. Pitch black. If he didn't have his torch he had no doubt he would have walked right into the water. It didn't take long for the beam of light to fall on to the half-submerged car in the middle of the lake. It was sinking quickly. Soon only the roof was visible. Alex could feel adrenaline being pumped back into his blood. He had no phone. No emergency services to help him. There was no guarantee when the next car might come along at this time of night. The car was no longer visible and had submerged completely. There was no telling how deep the water was, or what was lurking in there. Alex had a decision to make. And he had to make it now. Chapter 3: Dive Alex had made his mind up. He worked quickly taking his shoes off first. He didn't have a choice. He was a medical student. He had essentially signed up to a lifetime of saving people. He couldn't just pick and choose who to help just because he finished his shift at the hospital. Next came the blazer and finally the tie. No time to look formal. But more importantly than his chosen career- this was his fault. If he hadn't been so careless to fall asleep at the wheel he wouldn't have endangered the lives of everyone in the other car. The car which was now completely underwater...along with its passengers. Alex took his torch and held it against the side of his head with one hand. With his other hand, he looped the tie around both his head and the torch, before finally tying a knot. The torch was waterproof and he needed to be able to see underwater. The make-shift bandanna would now serve as a headtorch. It wasn't perfect but it would have to do. He made one last check to make sure the torch was secure before taking a deep breath. Then he dived into the water. As soon as he made contact with the surface, the icy water sent a shiver through his spine. It felt like needles were being poked straight into his skin. He kicked at the water below and came up taking sharp breaths. He hadn't prepared himself for how cold the water would be. The sub-zero temperature jarred him and his teeth started chattering madly. He could vividly remember worrying about whether he had a concussion or internal bleeding from the crash. Add hypothermia to that list. Without giving it another thought, he turned around and started swimming towards the middle of the lake, or what he thought was the middle of the lake anyway. Alex's powerful strokes were the only thing disturbing the eery stillness of the water. Silently he thanked himself for going down to the pool every week. He tried to concentrate on where he last saw the car. By the time he reached the rough spot, he had already taken a deep breath before submerging himself completely. Alex started swimming down- this time kicking at the water above him. The water was murky and even with his headtorch, he could barely see a metre in front of him. Then metal came into his view. The car roof! He swam alongside it and held on to the wing mirror to try and level himself against the car window. He couldn't clearly see inside but he could make out shadows. He breathed a sigh of relief. Water hadn't filled the car then. He hoped that the light from his torch gave the stranded passengers some hope. That is, if they're alive. Alex tried to yank the door open but the pressure of the water held it tight. Frustrated he swung around the car and perched on the bonnet as best he could. He punched the windscreen but it held and he was greeted with a sharp pain through his fist. That's when he realised he still had his watch on. It was an expensive brand and a recent birthday present from his mum. He took it off and wrapped it around his fist so that the watch face rested on his knuckles. Sorry, mum. Alex punched the windscreen. Again and again, he brought his fist down on to the glass. His knuckles were flaring up in pain as the metal watch dug into his skin. The watch shattered but the windscreen started forming cracks too. All of a sudden- and all too quickly- Alex started to feel the pressure build up in his lungs. He was running out of oxygen. It had only been two minutes or so but he felt as if he'd been holding his breath for an hour. Finally, he was able to break through and he cleared the broken glass away, fully aware that he was cutting his hand and arm in the process. Water started gushing in. The force of the water behind him pushed him through the windscreen and into the dashboard of the car where he was finally able to release his breath and inhale the stuffy air. Or what was left of it anyway. He could feel the water pounding on his back as it started to rapidly fill up the car. He turned his attention to the passenger who he was almost thrown at. The person in the front seat was alive and fully awake. His eyes weren't wide with fear as Alex had expected but rather calculating as if he was trying to solve a problem. He took one look at the water that had started cascading in and, as if in response, kicked away from his seat to go through the windscreen past Alex. Worried, Alex turned around to grab the man thinking he had a panic moment but saw he had already started to swim up. So Alex turned back to the others. The driver was unconscious. His head was resting against the airbag. There were two others in the back seat but Alex's torchlight didn't illuminate them particularly well. They both seemed to be awake but very much dazed. One looked quite young. No older than Alex was. Maybe 17 or 18. The other man was well built and his muscles were clearly defined under his shirt. They squinted at the light shining on their faces. At least they were awake. Sort of. Alex worked quickly and unbuckled the driver's seatbelt. The others were awake which means they could hold their breath when the water starts filling in. But the driver was unconscious so he couldn't. He grabbed the driver under the armpits before making his way out of the windscreen after taking one final breath. With one hand he held the driver, and with the other, he made wide strokes. He kicked with his feet as hard as he could to try and propel them both up. Considering the extra weight and the fact that he was swimming with one arm, he assumed that it would take much longer to reach the surface than it took to reach the car. At least he knew he was swimming in the right direction. Up. When Alex finally emerged out of the water, he inhaled the fresh air trying to get as much of it into his lungs as possible. Swimming with an unconscious person was exhausting, to say the least. He looked around expecting to see someone greet him. Where did the other man go? Why didn't he take anyone? As swiftly as he could, he swam back towards the land where he flopped the driver down on the ground. The man wasn't breathing. Panicking, Alex folded his fingers and dug the heels of his palm on the man's ribcage making sharp compressions. Alex was able to hold his breath for the entire time they were underwater- but the man wouldn't have been able to. Having been unconscious, the driver must have taken a lot of water into his lungs. Alex carried on pushing- making sharp downward movements. Each time he pushed down, the man's chest rose up slightly before descending back down. But no sign that the man was actually alive. Alex couldn't help thinking how closely the man in front of him related to a lifeless corpse. Still no movement... Well, there you go! That wraps up Chapter 3. I'm not sure if anybody is actually enjoying this series so far or if I'm just writing for myself so please comment down below to make me feel better with some constructive feedback if you want to see more. So yeah... Peeeeeeeaaace!

Hmm okay here it is: and @Hate have been in constant with each other. Personally, I back . #@SpreadLoveNotHate

Hate to break it to you bro but there's only two chapters left. But I'm impressed you wrote 8000 words.

I haven't known you as much as some of the people who will inevitably post here and my message probably won't even come on par with tank40 @KillerGnat's above. I have enjoyed your writing in the Newspaper and I can say that I've learnt a lot from it. Same with @tweezers and his epic story-writing skills. Thank you for approving my articles (I know how long that Review was) and giving me feedback to think about in the future. I wish you the best of luck in real life!

No you don't. I just gave you my perspective from where I was going with the story since you questioned it. The beauty of this contest is that it's up to you.

Introduction Right now, the only exercise I get from playing Tanki is occasionally moving my fingers. Some players don't even do that. It's common knowledge that someone with Twins just leaves a brick on their space bar. If you clicked on this article because you read the title and hoped it was some sort of brutal clickbait, then I bring you disappointing news. It's exactly what the title says. I am part of a 1 member society where I believe that Tanki is about to go from an online game to an actual physical game. Apparently, they call it sports. No, you didn't hear me wrong. Tanki will want us to go outside and actually play the game with your body. As in movements and stuff. Yuck! Before you start pelting me with potatoes, hear me out. I've collected solid evidence which I've structured into 10 reasons as to how Tanki are giving us subtle hints that they are moving towards becoming a real-life sport. So let's dive in... 10. Clans v Clubs Remind you of something? Yep. In the real world, we have the professional teams (i.e. the clans) which compete to get to the top. There are also the casual teams (i.e. the clubs) which you can join just to enjoy the sport in your free time with some friends. This system was recently added to Tanki eSports and sneaks into my top 10 on why the eSport is about the lose the 'e'. I liked the post to blend in okay. Don't judge me. So basically the clubs are the Sunday league teams anyone can join, while clans are the competitive teams working their way up the leagues. Which brings me neatly on to my next point... 9. Gotta move up 'em Leagues Hmm, another fairly recent update to eSports. And yet again another striking similarity to real life sports. Coincidence? I think not. Let's put this into sports terms. You're a new team (i.e. a newcomer clan). You've got to win those matches to get promoted to the next League (i.e. the Second League). Are you there? Great. Now you've automatically qualified to play in some of those major tournaments where you can win some big prizes. For football fans, I'm talking about the Champions League. For basketball fans, it's the play-offs. For the Tanki geeks, I'm talking about the International Championship. I know. The resemblance is uncanny. 8. Referees = moderators At number 8, we have the Helpers. At the slightest foul play, they'll whip out a red card and send you off the game with a ban. That's right the Helpers in our community make up the refereeing body. They are not afraid to dish out suspensions to the players that have broken the rules. Maybe it was a nasty tackle (i.e. flooding) and so naturally the ref/mod thought you needed to sit out the game for a while. Some poor chap had the misfortune to be banned for flooding. And no, before you ask, it wasn't me. Yes, I'm sure. 7. @Godmode_ON the streaker! Streakers. We have them in all sports. They run on to the court or the pitch and capture the players' attention until they're eventually chased off. In Tanki, there's one notoriously well-known streaker. @Godmode_ON. He joins a battle with the sole aim of attention-seeking, refusing to leave until he's killed (i.e. caught by those people in the bright yellow jackets). The last documented appearance of Godmode_ON stealing the limelight as usual. There is one key difference though. In real life, these streakers are usually fans whereas @Godmode_ON is not an ordinary player. Wait, hang on! Isn't Tanki working on a new Juggernaught mode where the players can essentially become @Godmode_ON until they're killed? Hmmm, not fishy at all. 6. Transfer Windows At number 6 we're back to eSports. This time it's all about Transfer Windows. From time to time you hear about a sports team making a record signing for a player. Their new signing becomes registered under the new team as part of a contract and will go on to play for them in official matches. Well, I hate to break it to you, but Tanki is doing the SAME! All clans (i.e. the professional teams if you remember from No. 10) are expected to register players in the transfer window if they are to play for that team in official tournaments. Still not convinced? Fine. It's time to turn on the heat and break out the top 5. 5. Druggers ruining the game Lately, 'drugging' has become a major problem in Tanki (actually it's been a problem for a while). Players feel like they cannot compete without 'drugging' themselves which leads to even more 'drugging'. It's a vicious circle. This is a problem in many real-life sports too. I'm sure some of you aren't oblivious to the doping cases that float in and out of the news or maybe you are because, as we've established, Tanki is your entire world. Just like in Tanki, many feel that the players who drug are spoiling the sport for everyone else. So yeah don't drug kids. 4. YouTube Container Openings For a time all I would see on YouTube were “FIFA Pack Openings”. There seemed to be some sort of trend to open these packs and scream in rage or roar in celebration (sometimes both at the same time when it was hard to distinguish between the two). Well, now all the Tanki-related content I see on YouTube are “Container Openings”. Tanki YouTubers make entire videos of literally them just opening containers. Now all that's missing is the overdramatic celebration. Oh wait! To the YouTubers I seem to have accidentally promoted...you're welcome. I'll send you the bill later. Now we know that FIFA is a game based on a sport- which means Tanki is a game soon to be based on a... Oh come on! I'm spoon feeding you the answer here. 3. Admin gold pls Here we go. The top 3. You know all those gold-diggers players who seemed to be obsessed with chanting "Admin gold pls"? Guess what? We see them in sports too. But instead of praying for a gold box siren, they repeatedly squeal "Foul ref" in the hope that a penalty is given in their favor. That's right penalties are the gold boxes in the sports world. Some say they can still hear the faint echo of "Admin gold pls" to this day. What's more is that in "Reason No. 8" we've already agreed that the admins are the referees in Tanki. Yes, we did agree. Yes, I may have forced it on you. So in both cases, the players are irritating the referee/admin to gift them a penalty/gold box. Boom. 2. Introduction of Rugby Mode This entire update screams sports. Various players assumed that the release of "Rugby mode" was just the developers trying to desperately lure players in from the "outside". I don't know what their reasoning behind this was as I can't imagine there is a massive number of fans of both Tanki and rugby. Or maybe the developers were attempting to make the game appealing to rugby fans. So now you could exercise just by sitting behind a screen, right? Wrong. On the contrary, the purpose of this update is to make the transition from an online game to an actual game smoother. If a football or basketball mode comes out you know what's happening. A rugby player who has been struggling to find opponents after recent "drugging" allegations 1. Nives said what? The fact that Rugby Mode only made it to 2nd must mean that No.1 is a biggie. And boy is it a biggie. I'm sorry to say but our beloved Community Manager is in on this despicable movement towards becoming a sport. Brace yourselves. In the Community HQ, you may have already scanned through the FAQ section which consists of questions targeted towards Nives. Now let's take a look at the Sports questions... When asked what is his favorite football club he answered: "I'm more of a hockey guy". That's fair enough. I don't have anything against hockey. He also mentioned 2 questions below that he snowboards. Finally, he stated he supports Zenit- his local club- and will support Germany (besides Russia) in the World Cup. Naturally, we can assume he watches at least a little bit of football then. So here we have him mention 3 types of sports. However, when I asked him what he thought about sports he replied with... Why is it that he talked about volleyball here and not once outlined hockey, football or snowboarding? Why is it in the FAQ section, volleyball was nowhere to be seen? I could only arrive at one conclusion. Nives is keeping up a pretense. And a lousy one at that. It's clear he's NOT interested in sports from his inconsistent answers - especially the way he began talking about the gym. The gym. I mean seriously? Working out isn't a sport ! The only plausible explanation is that our Community Manager has been instructed by his employers (at Tanki Online HQ) to spread the word about how sports are "awesome" and how we should all do them. Why? Because Tanki Online is about to become a SPORT! Closing thoughts Shock! Horror! Now that you've read the 10 reasons I can only imagine your reaction is somewhere along those lines. So you've seen the evidence and you have no doubt that Tanki is becoming a sport. Slowly but surely it is happening. But now you might be thinking why they want the game to become a sport, or when it will happen, or... okay you could be thinking a lot of things. Now in terms of WHY Tanki would want to become a sport, I have not yet reached a sound conclusion. It could be because the developers are aware that their player base is falling. Maybe they've spotted a gap in the market to move away from an online game and bring it to life. Perhaps they're working closely with the eSports staff to make this transition as fluid as possible. Could they be planning on putting us in actual tanks and calling a real-life 'Deathmatch' a sport? Regardless, I believe I may be able to answer WHEN Tanki is going to become a sport. It seems Nives may have accidentally leaked the secret plans in the FAQ section. Oh boy. Quote me in Nov/Dec when Tanki becomes a sport. So what about the other details? Who knows? I'll leave it to you to work that out. Right now I'm off to play some sports, otherwise known as Tanki. [1] Header edited by @Merovingian

Who says Oswald is part of the organisation? :ph34r:

My prediction for next title: Four-Bottle Coup :P

The story developed nicely.

I'm just enjoying the discussion.

Your story was class. You deserved that opening chapter. Hope to read your entry soon! ;)

O_o long time then.

He'll do a good job. Have known him for years now ^_^

Congrats on getting the job Nibbles!

Their whisky never seems to run out... :P

Nice. Great interview!