Other Random's Rewind: A Year in Tanki

[Person_Random 4,991]

It’s probably been a whole year since I rediscovered Tanki. Let’s take a look at my journey, from the moments of re-learning the tank controls to who I am today.

If you had asked me about Tanki Online, say, about three and three-quarters years ago, then I would have made a face.  No offense to Tanki, but if someone is singing about Tanki, it doesn’t sound as appealing as everyone’s view of actually playing the game. Especially when the teacher thinks the kid is crazy. Then, you kind of don't want to get on that side. So I steered clear of Tanki, only to cross paths with it a while later.

Then, after a year, a few months, a bridge, some Hershey’s with Almonds, a broken clarinet mouthpiece cap, a red envelope, a poam (Flexoo, this is how I spell poam, so please don't correct it), and a few pieces of binder paper later, I found myself watching Tanki, observing my brother while waiting for a turn at the computer. Initially, I despised the game because first, I wasn’t the one getting computer time, and second, my brother was a noob. However, I began to think that maybe, just maybe, I could be better than him. Finally, I joined Tanki.

As everyone started off back then, I had a normal Smoky-Hunter, which I was advised to use by a friend,@percy67. At the ripe old age of Private, my account was brushed aside as an afterthought or even a failed experiment, but I yearned to play instead of watching @percy67 demonstrate ‘Railgun Skills’ and show me that I was doing everything wrong. Fortunately, there came a day where I could experiment on my own, and I soon explored around with my first few purchases, a Wasp, which I had always wanted, and a Firebird, which was cheap but effective.

Firebird’s quick attack made it a versatile turret when most of the team was mults, and Wasp was ideal for capping flags without being chased down, especially in cluttered maps, where you could get lost on. Together, they made a cool combo. However, what I wanted most was Isida. My prize was a good rank away. Being a young Private, I could only wait forever before anything happened, especially since I kind of sucked at anything except capturing flags.  Finally, after several Cross CTF battles, I emerged as a Gefreiter, ready to purchase my Isida.

Once I used Isida, I fell in love with it.  Its charge wasn’t the best, but the attack and healing powers really were something I enjoyed using.  It also made me feel like I was actually making a contribution to the team, instead of being lost and sitting on the flag base along with a throng of other noobs while the true pros carried the team.  With it, I started to succeed in battles score-wise but I saw my K/D slowly drop. Actually, no that didn’t happen.  I didn't really mind about the score or K/D at that moment.

 

Soon, I was again “advised” to buy a kit, and since this was before Tanki decided to stop scamming newbie noobs, I was kind of forced (somewhat in the manner of a boxer at the edge of a ring) to give “Commando” Kit a try because @percy67 wanted me to try out Railgun and Thunder M0.  Needless to say, I took a spin with everything, except the Viking, because I liked Wasp better. Overall, there isn’t much to say on these turrets, and I guess that I can’t really rate Viking, but overall, the kit was honestly a good waste of a thousand hard-earned crystals.

Speaking of more items I was forcefully compelled to buy, we have one last stop: Ricochet M0. Can’t really say much for it, because I basically let @percy67 manage it so I could “learn by watching”. I never got the hang of it, so I’d say it’s probably another waste of crystals.

 

Finally, on my day off, I did something against the “untold rules”: micro-upgrading. My brother had warned me on how they were both useless and costly, but in reality, they improved my tank without having to wait for the next modification to unlock. That was probably my best discovery in Tanki, as most games I had played just went by “Upgrades” without a certain modification. My dream was to have a complete Isida M1, but that dream died a quick death when I realized that Isida’s upgrades were near the ballpark of a thousand crystals at 4/10.  Ditto for Wasp. So I just decided that I had to work on my willpower skills and try my best to save.

Around that time, I saw a powerful tank in the lower sergeant ranks with a Freeze M0 4/10, and I wanted to emulate him, so I bought a Freeze M0, and then gave up yet again because I was too poor to afford the almost one thousand crystal price tag on the second micro-upgrade. Since it was the third time I’d failed, I quit trying to explore garage options and tried out new maps. Then I went back to just upgrading my Firebird, which was finally beginning to become something useful at M0 and a good 6/10 at the end of the day. I was starting to get the rhythm of the game, and I continued to play nonstop for a few more hours, earning more and more experience. Just as I was getting to exploring the fun maps, like Rift and Esplanade, my parents came home and banned the game, thus ending my day-long adventure in Tanki.

Almost a year later, I discovered that Firefox had Flash enabled and I set out to pursue a dream that had never died in my mind: Bloons Monkey City. Yes, that game I discussed in my recent guide. (Bet you thought I was going to say Tanki, didn't you?) After Bloons failed to load several times (blame Firefox), I went to my backup plan… Tanki!

 

The first thing I noticed was that while my “all-powerful” build (Firebird/Wasp micro-upgraded 6/10 and 4/10 , respectively) was quite dominant, others had also begun to discover the wonders of these upgrades, so they were able to catch up. Others had kits, primarily the ponderous and annoying Keeper Kit, which kept my advantage to a minimum. Plus, they still had their Beginner’s Pass, and I didn’t, so I was also earning fewer crystals per round, making my life harder. As soon as I ranked up to Master Sergeant, my first goal was to reach the Firebird M1. Since my Firebird was only 8/10 at the time, I still needed more crystals to go before I could get my first M1, but halfway to the next rank, First Sergeant, I had claimed my free turret.

Firebird M1 gave me new confidence, and with the helpful advice of @Zenyth about proper spending, I frugally devoted my crystals to advancing this turret to M2, saving the occasional gold box for the further development of my new M1s instead of creating a second hope for Isida M0.  But I hadn’t forgotten about my favorite hull, which I would unlock a quick two weeks (and rankups) later.

With generous consideration from a friend, I made sure I could advance this one up as well, and I brought it up with help from ambitious and eventful Highland CTF battles during English class and some gold boxes caught during the May Day Celebrations. Every day, I played more and more, gaining more insight on over a year’s worth of updates that I had never seen take place. I was ready to dominate, and I was already on my way to break even that 0.7 K/D. But soon enough, I hit a pretty terrible issue: the Empty Wallet.

My Firebird needed 10,500 crystals to upgrade and my Wasp, somewhere near 7,000. No way could I afford it. At the rank of Sergeant-Major, I battled with all my might and willpower to reach one of those goals. Rumor has it that instead of studying for finals, I played Tanki. I was in a Forest CTF, capping flags and playing a huge role for the team, and I was earning about 500 experience per game, while most of my classmates were either cramming or playing loud music and eating food. I ranked up to Warrant Officer 1 less than a week before school was about to end. It felt like a major achievement, but finals were still ahead of me. Not to worry though, I ended up with an 84 out of 85, and that’s my least favorite subject: Biology.

A Forest CTF (MM edition)

Plus, as a Warrant Officer, I started to explore outside the realm of the game, and that’s when I found the forum. Once I found out that Tanki had a newspaper, it became my goal to be a reporter. Except there were at least two problems that would hinder me from becoming one.

1. I didn’t meet the age requirement.

2. I didn’t meet the rank requirement.

3. I didn’t know how to write like a Tanki Reporter.

Because I ended up reading the “Contests” section of the newspaper, I just decided to enter “Tanki Horoscopes” at the last moment (*cue slideshow of me frantically searching up names of the horoscopes*), even though I had denied horoscopes a while back. I overcame my fear of the Taurus to clinch a consolation of 10,000 crystals. Did I mention I was afraid of the Taurus?

My first post

 

Meanwhile, in the last second of that minute, I saw the contest that would ultimately bring me to fame: Continue the Story (CtS). Thinking that it was a little like the writing I did in classes, I thought maybe this time I would at least succeed more than I’ve done in real life. I whipped up a broken plotline (*cue video of me frantically scribbling ideas down while setting up chairs for our school’s graduation ceremony*) and took third (along with 30,000 crystals), which was probably just Flexoo encouraging a Random newbie who had only made a grand total of two posts.

My second post

 

Once I got back onto Tanki, I experienced the world’s most infamous update, Matchmaking, otherwise known as MM or MMS. I was able to rank up to Warrant Officer 2 in the first few days of Matchmaking, but I was in need of a new upgrade. With the extra 40,000 crystals, I got scammed once by Tanki when my Firebird upgrade didn’t process, but I ended up getting a refund and upgrading my Firebird three times and my Wasp, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR times, from an M1 3/10 to a 7/10. These expenses pretty much shot my equipment levels up, but then left me with fewer than a thousand crystals in my account.

 

With my wallet emptied again, we have story time. Sorry, it’s just that I didn’t get anything else new at all. Alright then, you’re all in for quite the wild ride. While I was learning precalculus (Algebra 2 with Trigonometry), I typed up Tanki=Life for the Amateur Writing Section I and soon a sequel. Note to future writers: if you ever fail once, it’s a terrible idea to add in a sequel! With the great help of @KillerGnat and @LOLKILLERTOTHEDEATH, two of my best mentors throughout my early writing career, both of whom provided encouragement and advice through the ups and downs, I was able to improve. Soon enough, I unleashed a second set of articles: Financials, which got the mighty lord of the AWC, @Magenta, to turn and give it a glance, and Tanki Personalities, a poorly written article with a relatable concept.

 

That’s when the Grand prize came in. CtS IV Finale… probably the last CtS in the history of Tanki’s newspaper. This was where I could probably be destined to overtake the all-powerful @GrandExecutioner, who had been the reigning champion of most of the Newspaper contests. There were so many entries aiming for the top prize, but I had mine planned out from the moment the contest started. It took only a few days before I found the time to type it out in one sitting.

My 101st post (see here for full story)

 

The tension was growing… and we were still waiting for the arrival of Grand’s entry with anticipation. We’ll get back to that in just a second. Yes, the tension was still growing.

 

And of course, writing for the Tanki Newspaper. It was the hottest contest out there, both since it was summer, and because many people were participating. Well, you know that I lost. If you were there, you also probably know that I get salty when I lose. Yay… because that’s where I got all my inspiration for "Gaining Popularity on the AWS" (Amateur Writing Section). I suppose why they say “You can never succeed unless you fail.”. So, with my hopes dashed, I would have to start over again. I had no self-confidence at all.

Fortunately, @thethiefofvictory was a kind soul who reached out to me and showed me (and @P.4.R.K.O.U.R) the way. Plus, I wrote a short little three-thousand word speech accepting everything that I was. That would soon be my rip-off idea inspiration for the “Give a Speech!” Contest.

Here's an excerpt from “The World’s Longest Textwall which I wrote on an iMac”:

I promised to write more.  And I will. Then I should begin at the beginning this time...

 

*timeskip flashforward to Tanki*

 

After some time, I discovered the Tanki Online Forum, where I thought I could make an impact. After all, I was still a good writer when it came to writing class assignments, right? Even though I couldn't earn the grades I wanted when it came to essays, I could improve on those too. I had gotten better quickly under the guidance of another tutor. So I thought, "Being a good writer on Tanki Forum?  Easy".  But it wasn't at all.

 

I published my first article after my recent successes in the newspaper contests. While I was deciding what to write, the first thought that popped up in my head was my parents telling me to stop writing stories. "Stop writing about what isn't even reality." So I decided not to write stories. Instead, I went with a half-comedic op-ed article comparing Tanki to life. To make a long story short, I'm pretty sure not many people read it, just looked. "A new author" was probably all they thought. I'm pretty sure 99% of the readers left, disappointed in me.

 

While I thought of this, I looked back on all my creative writing pieces. All comedy. All disqualified. Then I looked at the winner's entries. All of the pieces were tragedies.  I saw a pattern. Readers used to like comedy. Now they preferred tragedy. But I can't write tragedy!, I protested against myself. Until CtS Finale.

 

I finally learned about my shortfalls. But I continued to write in the same way I had. Leaving me no chances to win anything.

 

It isn't about winning. It's about trying your best.

 

Contest Entry Speech:

I have no idea how many posts I had made, so let’s just say 200th?

Soon after that, the second War started, and I quickly ranked up to Warrant Officer 3 on the first day and earned five stars in thirty minutes. It was a great start to a new event. I was psyched for the rest of the war, even though I didn't have too much time to complete my missions or stars.

But as the days wore on, I grew quite irritable with the lack of good matches and the inability to earn enough stars before my Tanki time ran out. Instead of playing Tanki, I was forced to quit and had to watch my brother gain up on me… again. Before I could make a return, the War ended, leaving me with just eleven containers, four of which were from daily missions streaks.

 

By the time school started up again, I had basically taken a leave of absence from Tanki, partially because I was getting terrible matches on the MMS, and a threat that I wasn’t supposed to get ahead in experience, courtesy of my brother. Instead, I devoted time to the AWS, where I unleashed the first two chapters of a new story, Untreated, and one of my favourite, but forgotten pieces: Hope and Disappointment, which I actually stayed up and wrote before that first day at school.

 

Even though I did not reach the desired publicity, I was still being carried by my recent success in CtS IV Finale, so I didn’t take it out as much. Maybe. Let's just say I was compelled to give them a piece of my mind. Luckily, nobody was extra crispy with a side of fries, so I was fine for the most part. With the “Give a Speech” contest in the bag with a wonderful second place, I was ready to spend the 150k crystals I had accumulated after weeks of inactivity on my account.

Sorry, @Zenyth.  I may or may not have bought a ton of stuff.  This calls for a bulleted list. P.S. it was Tanker’s Day, the last 50% off that stingy old Tanki had, so…

 

Here is a compilation of my purchases:

- Hammer M1 (now M2)

- Viking M1 (now M2)

- Protection Modules (Fox M1, Falcon M1, Badger M1)

- Oh, wait… that wasn’t too much. It just cost a lot more than it seemed.

With Hammer M1, I was finally able to join my parkour mates in battles, and I started to pick up some new skill sets. The springy recoil gave me a good amount of lift and flips when I fired a shot, and I was soon able to learn a few basic tricks. But because of rank limitations, I didn’t learn as many dual or team tricks, reducing my parkour cooperation ability. However, since this turret was barely upgraded, I hardly used it in Matchmaking, preferring to use Firebird M2’s deadly afterburn to end enemies. Nowadays, though, Hammer and Wasp is my preferred combo for a quick and easy assault on foolish Hornets and Wasps trying to net an easy kill.

Viking is much of the same situation. I originally wanted it to match the success that most of my friends had in Tanki. However, when I got it, it was un-upgraded, so it did not have much of a desired effect. Because I didn’t have many more crystals left after this massive shopping spree, I couldn’t upgrade the Viking, and so left it to rust. It lacked the agility of the high-speed Wasp and did not give me that much of an armor boost because of the low upgrade level. The main reason as to why I usually refrained from using Viking was because it was kind of unstable and usually resulted in mult-like awkward moments where my tracks were facing the air after a leap of faith from atop the bridge of Magistral. However, with the help of sales and the introduction of its new overdrives, Viking is making a slow but steady comeback. Of course, now that I need to save batteries, I’ve reverted to Wasp in the meanwhile, but Viking is seriously impressive with the help of the Driver drone.  Of course, let’s not forget about those extremely expensive modules.

 

 

 

Using my new protection modules, I was able to face off against annoying “drugger Firebirds” and beat out the power of the Freeze, as well as survive a Railgun shot long enough to finish off my foes. The Tanki fun was just starting. Now I just needed to rank up to join my friends. However, my pace just wasn’t fast enough. I still had decent battles, though, and I was having fun.

Soon after, Conq was going to leave Tanki, and I was scared that the club would soon die. I needed to rank up if I wanted to be a full member of the club, so I started to play more. Even though I had almost made it there, it soon became evident that I wasn't suited for parkour. This was probably the extent of my parkour 'skills'.

 

As I ramped up my playing pace, I was getting ready to rank up to Warrant Officer 4 around the end of September, with the generous help of Star Weeks, and of course, the occasional container incentive. With the speed increased, I did not devote as much time to earning a good score, just more into getting into battles fast and earning stars, and that was a major mistake. With annoyance caused by playing the game, I grew increasingly distant from the forum and my fellow writers. Still, yet again, I was fortunately spared the lecture from any annoyed fellow, because I was a little obnoxious with the callings for attention. So, Tanki.

Yes, I was getting annoyed with Tanki, too.

 

Rankup to Warrant Officer 4

 

 

While I was dominating on the battlefield, the news back in the AWS and newspaper team would soon bring me away from the game and bring me down to earth.

This following part is a mostly accurate documentation of my fails.  Please send me angry PM’s if you find any error.

 

Heh… this is where I totally tanked. (Sorry about the bad pun.) (I guess.) First, it’s always a bad day when you unsuspectedly walk into a Discord server and find out that about half of the other writers have miraculously turned into “Guest Writers”, and second, it’s a terrible idea to um… get upset over it. So yeah, long story short, I got mad, and there was no one but Grand to bring me back down to earth.

 

I soon was quite upset, and a story idea popped into my mind. I was almost like forget it, but when I fell asleep, it was all I could dream about. I dreamt about being left behind and never having this story done. So the first thing I did was write this tale down on paper. Soon, this became the article that I had always hoped for, and I was proud of myself. And, of course, waiting for the call to come in. “Hi there, please join us!” or something of the sort. But it never came. Instead, I was going to unleash my full power on them, and set my guide, running it through the finishing touches.

 

I was getting set to release “Gaining Popularity on the AWS” but then I heard that a good friend, @JAGMAN2468, had gotten accepted into the editorials program for his piece, Fallen Flower. I had no idea what it was about, but seeing that the space was already filled, I thought that all hope was lost. I was pretty much devastated at that point, and I almost stopped writing. Instead, I turned to playing Tanki to cope with the troubles on the forum. With the addition of Halloween celebrations and a new Star Week, I decided that my troubles on the forum were not worth losing the time to gain stars in exchange for a container or two.

I was having a much better time playing Tanki as well. I had more time to play, and since my grades were doing well, I had a good amount of free time. My K/D was on an upward rise, heading to 1.1, and I was getting my first Kit: Avalanche. Check out the review http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=380104. It's hardly ever read, but it has an awful lot of tips for gameplay. Soon, I ranked up to Warrant Officer 5 during the Halloween celebrations.

 

Rankup to Warrant Officer 5

And we’re right back. After my quick and uneventful rankup, I continued to play Tanki, occasionally doing a minor little bit of checking up on the community until a slight problem on Discord. I guess I should quickly tell you this little bit of background info before we get to the full story.

 

Have I ever told you that I can’t really take a joke? Yeah. I’ve been through plenty of light scuffles in younger grades, and I’ve always been the gullible one. (Remember that kid you tricked into jumping into an algae-filled lake, telling him/her it was grass) There's also Lzer fighting, which we'll get to later. Long story short, I can't really fire back a retort to save my life unless you give me an open book exam and five days to think. Yeah, I think you're prepared. Let's start the story. So one day, I was supposed to work on a story plotline analysis for a storybook in English, but instead I was on Discord.

 

Don’t deny it, as we all have those days.

 

And this is where you can say the “curiosity killed the cat”. I was looking at a screenshot and wondering why the people were laughing at something. Don’t ask don’t ask don’t ask, I told myself, but fingers beat me to the task. Yep… that hurt...bad. I spent hours in anger learning that people had called me a DJS and other things that I feel like I shouldn’t say, because that’s all behind me. It's not what I am anymore. I tried to retaliate, but then all my angry and confused retorts made no sense, and the gang was treating me like Lzer, a bully at my summer camp, had done a while back.

 

It only hurt me more and brought myself down. Darts were being thrown at me from all directions, with few people to help me bring myself back up. I even thought of quitting my account and starting a new one to write about everything. Even with friends advising against this, I was about to end it all.

 

Until Sunday. It was around Thanksgiving, and I was scrolling through on the same iMac I wrote the world’s longest textwall on. I was checking “Updates”, which were mostly colleges, and then I saw a forum notification. Once I read it, I was hooked to this story: 999 [Part 2]. I don’t know if this was the description, the plot, or anything in specific. It just inspired me to write again. I put in a new article for approval, but soon fell behind when my parents told me to study for finals - Tanki was a more viable option. Still, writing was ingrained in my head, and I was not ready to stop. I would start work on Requiem. And a new opportunity was coming just my way. A shared anthology, which I would love to work on. It would give me the feeling of working together with companions, and a way to start over again.

 

Then came the angry PM, which wasn’t my fault. I was just whistling the day away and reverting back to my Pre-Tanki self when I noticed the Yesterville Anthology idea being posted.   had tried for days to get contacted, and yes, you guessed it, the angry PM. When you ask for things, you sometimes don’t really get them.

 

With an angry PM, a nice bucket of cold water hit my head, which made the whole place super cold, dark, and empty. Because I was a void without friends, I turned to Tanki. During that whole time, I hardly thought about writing. Instead, I was focused on grinding stars for the first Challenge. It was a lot better than that letdown of a forum. The inspiration I had from that cold, gray Sunday was long gone.

 

Soon enough, I took a vacation to recuperate from Challenges and finals. I spent the time enjoying the scenery, adapting to freezing cold environments, and taking a load of pictures. During my fine trip, our parkour club shut down without my vote or even a single word from me, mostly because we were busy walking around and eating. This anger, combined with the annoyance I had already had in reserve for everyone else for not acknowledging my secretly nonexistent skills, combined to form resentment against everything that wasn’t in my favour. Seeing that I was feeling down, Conq gave me a nice wake-up call several times throughout that period of time, trying to warn me before it was too late.

 

I guess one day I was being a little too salty about all this and crossed the line, and BAM, I was demoted. And I got a full on “angry older brother who’s all grown up and in college talking to younger siblings when their writing teacher breaks the bad news to them” kind of lecture, and I was done. I hated being yelled at. I mean, it’s okay when my parents go full on Jacisse Mode and chew me out for not doing homework or something of the sort, but when you’re being yelled at by friends? No way. I had to change. No more pity. No more anger. It’s time to start over again.

 

 

If you have ever played a sonata, the recapitulation is after the development, and we return to the original melody, though with a twist. As I was shaken awake, I kind of slowed playing Tanki and started to write again. First things first, I decided that I was just going to publish “Gaining Popularity on the AWS” because it had been sitting there for months, collecting invisible dust on the cloud, and I really wanted to keep going. I wanted to write!

 

I was on a roll. Within that day, I had sent in five articles to be approved. These were all small stories of little merit, but that was okay. It takes small steps to become a winner, I told myself, and one day, my new motto was answered.

 

During chemistry, I was checking the forum when I received a new message, telling me that I didn’t meet the word count for a story, so I got it back, ready to revise. I started to work on the new issue of Untreated when another message came. I had made editorials. I couldn’t believe it. The world was starting to fall back into a recognizable order.

 

 

In Tanki, I was also doing well.  Despite taking a few weeks and days off, I finished the challenge with a respectable 226 stars, earning a 100 supplies kit to satisfy my drugging addiction. I also earned back a few gold boxes and grinded a good sixty stars on the last day to reach the desired tier. Once this was over, I felt content with what I was doing, but so sick of playing for stars. Still, I played Tanki, because I had no idea on what to write.

 

Right after the challenges, I soon ranked to up to Third Lieutenant, where I am now. In the meanwhile, I started to observe the well-known writers and tried to emulate them. Because that’s how we grow.

 

I was going to be a new writer. Not so much of a new tanker, as I was pretty much devoting all my time to writing that I had probably lost a lot of skills. In fact, I was so busy, Tanki had to bribe me back on with new challenges and the Product Kit Rotation so I could buy Simoom, the next kit on my list. The kit mostly stayed unused, except for parkour purposes, which I had mostly given up after the death of my free time and club.

Around that time, I was working on professionalizing my writing, adding in banners, signs, formatting, the works - including a signature. As I was running short of ideas, a contest I swear was there to mock me came up: The Ultimate Guide Maker.

 

If you haven’t noticed, I’m terrible at writing guides and articles in general, like this one! I go off topic, I tell you stupid stories about me and my run-ins with people, and I make messy, ugly font choices and bad art, of course. It’s bad enough being a bad artist. I was thinking… hmmm, nice, good prizes, but I suck at guides. Still, I thought, maybe I’ll give it a shot. I gathered all of my resources, and it was time to get to work.

 

First was to start playing for challenges. The first day turned out okay, with me calling it quits at ten stars, and then the next day I was starting to work towards stage two, or twenty-two stars. However, once I got to about fifteen, I ran into a streak of bad battles and accidentally embarrassed myself in my Spanish class. Some kid yelled at me, and then the class made me a laughing stock in front of the substitute teacher. I quickly regretted playing in class. This brought a quick end to my Tanki playing and I started to focus on writing the guide.

 

Instead of guessing what I had to write and putting it all together, I made little sections and subsections, organizing my work and taking in loads of advice from friends and past works. Using a lot of help from reading the newspaper’s archived works and advice from Conq, I was able to send in a workable entry, though with ugly art. I sent in the entry feeling ambiguous: both hopeful that would win and with a twinge of that queasy feeling that I would fall to a far better guide that blew mine out of the water and suffer the consequences that I had taken a good eight or nine months back. Whew... that was a lot to say in one breath. Once I sent the thing in, there was no turning back. It felt like I was getting seasick, tossed between waves of confidence and regret. Finally, when the results came, I felt my knees shaking and my fingers struggling to press the “Sign in” button. As soon as I entered my account, I felt a deep sense of foreboding, like I knew I had lost like that last time. Then… the PM.

 

Unlike the first PM that we had discussed, this one was here to inform me that I had placed on the top three.  I could not believe it. NO WAY. Hands trembling, I clicked on the webpage. I had won.

 

 

Yes, I know, this is not an epilogue.  But it’s kind of where the story really ends. I still have just under a month left in the year that I promised to cover. If we end on a sour note, we end there.

 

 

I sent in a Kit Review of the Avalanche kit, which you can find here, and waited for my prizes to be delivered. After getting my free Driver drone, ten containers, and a hundred and twenty grand, I was set out to battle, along with my three-day premium promo code from the Question of the Week. Once I entered in the code, I was on full battle mode, grinding an average of thirty stars a day considering the lack of free time needed to study Calculus I FRQs.  Even better, I caught three gold boxes, one of which added two more days of Premium to force me to play even more and stop studying FRQs.

 

With more sales and everything, I managed to make the most of my Tanki time. On Monday, when I got back from April Fool’s Celebrations, I took a short break. But soon enough, I got the little bonus from Tanki, which included the two-day premium package. And once I reached fifteen containers, I got three more days of Premium, which, in combination with grinding relentlessly, upped my star count to five more than my previous record, 226. Now I had finished 231 stars, received rewards for Stage Fourteen, and I was done for the day.

 

A somewhat inaccurate representation. I was kind of numb from sitting on concrete, so I forgot to take a screenshot.

 

No, this is not the end of my playing days.

 

For all you tankers who have been part of this journey.  Words cannot express the gratitude I have, but I don’t have a video recorder camera.

 

@KillerGnat.  The first person I should thank. He was probably my first role model when I was writing in the AWS, and he really helped me re-learn the fact that I should have a unique style and voice in my piece when I returned to guide-writing and review-writing. The encouragement I received with the publication of each of my AWS articles really helped me grow into the writer I am today.

@LOLKILLERTOTHEDEATH I remember him critiquing me on my AWS article Tanki Personalities. At that moment, my fuzzy brain could not comprehend how I could have so many mistakes that I would later condemn future writers on.

@kaisdf for being a helping hand through times of trouble. And of course, for helping me see that I was screwing up major big-time on the forum when I was overreacting.

@thethiefofvictory for helping me stretch past my comfort zone. At first, I was scared of writing stories because in writing class, my stories were often more of a laughingstock then something to be proud of. But he helped me realize that I could write better.

@Flexoo for helping me stretch past my comfort zone. First, CtS, also by helping me transition into a story writer. But later on, I was so into stories, but with The Ultimate Guide Maker, I was able to see that I was also able to write a workable guide.

@Viking4s For teaching me life lessons and allowing me to getting developer’s secret info proofreading his articles. Also for encouraging me to take part in The Ultimate Guide Maker.

@C.O.N.Q.U.E.R.O.R Conq was probably one of my first writing and parkour mentors, despite the fact that I was absolutely hopeless with parkour. Plus, he’s the one who got me so annoyed I decided to publish my AWS guide in the first place. And also for giving me the idea for my signature.

@Nemesis_Pro_TO_2.0 Nem has been by my side since the day I dropped into the MoF Discord chat without a warning. He’s a good friend to have around, although I haven’t seen him around much.

@JAGMAN2468 Jag is probably one of the best writers I have seen. Along with Conq and Nem, the Triune have provided encouragement and a little *cough* demotion discipline to allow me to see that I can be the person I am today.

@Hazeral For the tough love (key word being tough) that eventually helped me become a better writer and person.

@pythor20000 For giving me a leg up and opportunities when I greatly needed it and keeping me entertained with great ideas and stories.

@Lose On a cold, sad Sunday, I was being depressed.  Then I read one work from him. The hope in me that I could write again started, and I picked up my pencil and started to morph into the writer that I am now.  I can never thank him enough.

In the short course of a year, I emerged as a new and better tanker, the Random you know. But deep down, I’m just an Almost who wants a couple more views.

 

Other Random Works

Gaining Popularity on the AWS

Kit Review: Avalanche

Cremate

Challenges Conquered!

Tanki Personalities

Hope and Disappointment

Edited June 24, 2019 by Person_Random

[Adab 2,896]

Great job! That's a really nice & long article I have ever seen, lol.  ^_^  :ph34r: 

[Lose 881]

Nice job as always!

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Didn't make it into the acknowledgements cri cri

[Pythor 1,354]

No shout out for me PR  :ph34r:

[arrow99theboy 0]

hey i want to join

 

[Master_of_parqour 2]

Wew Lad

[r_Given6 859]

Wow, behold a great text wall.

I like it that it's more of a personal and emotional journey rather than only a garage review. Great job.

 

 

On a side note, the link to the Avalanche kit review below the pic of crystals, containers and driver drone isn't hyperlinked; and the picture right above the Acknowledgements is just some [imgx=800]https://i.imgur.com/0a85rGt.png"/>stuff.

Most probably a result of Forum Bugs.

 

Edited July 19, 2019 by Given

[Person_Random 4,991]

Great job! That's a really nice & long article I have ever seen, lol.  ^_^  :ph34r: 

Thanks a bunch!  I do tend to write on the longer side.

 

Great great job. I'm looking forward to joining your legend rank up party. Hopefully by then, I'd have made brigadier :ph34r:

Glad to see you back on the forum!  Hmmm... about that, Cedric, mind keeping Tanki alive for another fifty years?

 

Nice job as always!

Thanks!  Can't wait for 999 Part 4!

 

Didn't make it into the acknowledgements cri cri

Sorry sir, I can add you in, what would you like?

 

No shout out for me PR  :ph34r:

Heh totally sorry.  Adding you in as I fix errors.

 

hey i want to join

AWS?  Go right here.  If not AWS, then I dunno what you're saying.

 

Wew Lad

Was it really that long?

 

Wow, behold a great text wall.

I like it that it's more of a personal and emotional journey rather than only a garage review. Great job.

 

 

On a side note, the link to the Avalanche kit review below the pic of crystals, containers and driver drone isn't hyperlinked; and the picture right above the Acknowledgements is just some [imgx=800]https://i.imgur.com/0a85rGt.png"/>stuff.

Most probably a result of Forum Bugs.

 

Yeah, the forum kept dying and all my links just kept unlinking....  AGHHHHHH I didn't procrastinate but I failed to forum... criii.

Edited June 24, 2019 by Person_Random

[Person_Random 4,991]

Okay, sorry for the doublepost, but this will probably be my edits changelog.  Just so you can keep up, there's a lot of forum debugging to do.

Edits: 6/24/19 22:18, fixed the links (pieces) and added @pythor20000 to the acknowledgements list.  Don't ask for your name unless I kind of know you, then we'll talk.

Edits: 6/24/19 22:30, fixed images and all the links.

Edited June 24, 2019 by Person_Random

[Guest]

A great read as always! Thank you for mentioning me! I hope to one day hopefully see you join the reporter team!

[Person_Random 4,991]

A great read as always! Thank you for mentioning me! I hope to one day hopefully see you join the reporter team!

Thanks, and you're welcome!  Your suggestions had taught me to make my writing more sophisticated.  If I join the reporter team, though,you'll be surprised who I am.  

[Sacrifice 2,278]

Why aren't you in the reporters team? I mean you should be!!

 

 

A great article. I have only read half of it and am still reading the rest. But trust me, during the first half, I realised that it was an amazing piece of writing, couldn't stop myself from complementing. Anyways, gonna continue reading it.

 

 

[Person_Random 4,991]

Why aren't you in the reporters team? I mean you should be!!

 

 

A great article. I have only read half of it and am still reading the rest. But trust me, during the first half, I realised that it was an amazing piece of writing, couldn't stop myself from complementing. Anyways, gonna continue reading it.

 

 

rank, and it's 'complimented' lol

[maryam98 1,171]

Somehow I didn’t find this until now... Honestly this is one of the best things I’ve read in a while.

[Person_Random 4,991]

Please do a guide on how to get to WO2.

Here we are:

How to get to WO2.

Step 1: Log in to your Tanki account.

Step 2: Sigh when u realize that everyone's a buyer, and then complete your missions every day, and then play some more, despite wanting to throw your computer out of your house.

Step 3; Repeat steps 1 and 2 for a long long time.

Step 4: Enjoy your new insignia!

Good luck!

[Viking4s 10,791]

Here we are:

How to get to WO2.

Step 1: Log in to your Tanki account.

Step 2: Sigh when u realize that everyone's a buyer, and then complete your missions every day, and then play some more, despite wanting to throw your computer out of your house.

Step 3; Repeat steps 1 and 2 for a long long time.

Step 4: Enjoy your new insignia!

Good luck!

1- set an account

2- play

3- rank up

4- repeat 2&3 until W02

5- post screenshot on the forum

[r_Given6 859]

4 Steps are too tiring...

 

1- Spam "Cedric Make Me WO2 pls".

2- Repeat 1.

Done

[Merovingian 656]

4 Steps are too tiring...

1- Spam "Cedric Make Me WO2 pls".

2- Repeat 1.

Done

He can make you legend too...

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Enjoyed the read!

 

 

 

 

Like what you did there  :ph34r:

 

 

That’s when the Grand prize came.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2019 by GrandExecutioner

[Person_Random 4,991]

Enjoyed the read!

 

 

 

 

Like what you did there  :ph34r:

 

 

 

hehe... cant pun well.

[Merovingian 656]

hehe... cant pun well.

He is good at executing wordplay. Edited August 19, 2019 by Merovingian