review 2020: An Unpredictable Year

[Pythor 1,354]

To say that 2020 was merely an eventful year in Tanki Online would be a gross understatement. Some pessimists may say that 2020 was the year Tanki officially died. Others would argue that recent changes have actually benefited the game in more ways than one. What everyone will agree on, however, is the resounding impact various updates and alterations have made on the game in the past 12 months. 2020 really does have it all. The introduction of the epitome of hateful augments. A complete modification and graphical rehaul including the standardization of skins. The end of flash and the demise of the greatest esports team in the history of the game. The fabled climax of the single most controversial and widely criticized esports player. The retirement of legendary admins, the appointment of new helpers, and the beginning of the hovering hull age. Before 2020, many would scoff at ideas such as Skin Containers, hull augments, and jumping overdrives. Terms like strafing, Armor-Piercing, and Ultra were not in the common tanker’s vocabulary. 16v16 gameplay seemed like a figment of the imagination, and the concept of receiving stars as mission rewards would be fantastically inconceivable. Was 2020 a detrimental year for the game? Maybe. Was it monotonous? Far from it.

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- JANUARY -

 

January 1st dawned bright and clear for Tanki Online. A new year promised unlimited possibilities, and no doubt many tankers felt a certain sense of pervading optimism about the game. What milestones would be achieved in the next 365 days? What groundbreaking updates would be released in the near future? What popular events would send community gossip abuzz? One had, in fact, just concluded - the bitter taste of defeat still tangibly evident within the Santa and Elf factions. In the holiday-themed “Christmas War”, the Snowmen had managed to pull off one of the greatest upsets ever, coming back from dead last to gain a ceremonious victory. As a result, each active member secured the exclusive war paint - a stunning blue-grey wrap with a metallic hue. (Rumor has it that this was an unfortunate turn of events for Jay, who had allegedly placed an enormous bet on the defeat of this faction. Pay day was certainly sweet for his anonymous casino opponent.)

In lou of this victory, a special “Catch the Snowman” event was held the first week of 2020, running from January 3-8. All participating helpers were given a themed paint, and if players could “catch” the snowmen by screenshotting appropriate tanks, they received a handsome reward of 5,000 crystals per unique account. The destruction of a mutant snowman - admins equipped with the "Lord" protection module - triggered a glorious cascade of ten gold boxes. It was in this fashion that the 2019-2020 holiday experience came to a close. Everything was right in the world. Happy tankers wallowed in satisfaction at the serendipitous increase in their bank accounts as admins grinned smugly at recently bolstered K/D’s. It was now time to settle down and watch 2020 unfold. 

The next week or so was fairly quiet in the Tanki realm. Apart from the normal Matchmaking skirmishes and trash talking in the esports discord server, everything seemed relatively serene. The storm broke on January 17th with the release of Update 586 - an update that would forever alter the equipment in T.O. The old M0-M3 modification feature was replaced with a new, more elaborate system of Mk0 - Mk7. According to the developers, this complete revamp was meant to address the problem of unbalanced mid-ranked battles. Regardless of the motive, many players were immediately up in arms at this sudden end of a system that had existed since the beginning of the game. Even now, nearly a year later, a large percentage of the “O.G.”s still have negative feelings regarding this update. Some other notable changes 586 brought about include the addition of skins to the HTML5 showcase and the limitation of format battles to mk7 equipment exclusively. This, of course, meant that official, formatted XP/BP matches were only available to high ranks. The Dictator Overdrive and Mechanic Drone also underwent some major alterations. The exp per teammate affected by the overdrive was decreased from 25 to 10, and exp per teammate affected by the Mechanic drone was decreased from 10 to 7. This effectively ended the “Dictator-Isida-Mechanic” age of late 2019/early 2020. Update 586 still had one more release in store - the launch of the new downloadable HTML5 client. This was just one more step in the direction of Flash’s demise. 

Tankers only had a week to absorb the impacts of 586 before another update hit the game on January 24th. 587 wasn’t nearly as influential, but it did mean some minor changes to Gear Score calculation and further optimization of the HTML5 client. On the same day, the new “Dragon Treasure” bundle was available in the shop in celebration of the Chinese New Year. The bundle contained the exclusive “Oriental Glam” paint, an XT container, and 3 days of premium. Exactly how many tankers invested into buying the offer remains a mystery, but you certainly don’t see the Oriental Glam paint every day. Whether this is an indication of bundle sales or the general ugliness of the paint itself is also unknown. The third and final announcement published on the 24th involved the parkour community. Avid parkourists had one final opportunity to “Rollback” their Wasps to a Mk1 modification. One can only assume they were delighted with this prospect. 

January 29th heralded the opening of 2020 “The Game” registration. The contest itself began on the 30th and ran through February 4th with the winners announced on the 5th. A player by the name of Doomby secured the top prize, which included 50 containers, a dream tank, and a Nokia smartphone. He was definitely one happy tanker that day.

 

 - JAN. ESPORTS -

 

By the time January 2020 rolled around, the annual Clan Championship was gearing up for the playoffs. The four contending teams in the twelfth installment of CC were Can’t Stop, Penguins, Go Pro (now known as Revenge), and the winner of CC Xl, Eternity. These teams had already been through a grueling journey to get to the playoffs of the most prestigious tournament of the year, and now faced the challenge of winning three more matches to claim the title. Hundreds of fans tuned in to watch the first match of the playoffs on January 13th. Eternity, led by the veteran LBJ-6, claimed the 2-0 victory after a hard fought total of five rounds. The second upper bracket match consisted of Go Pro vs. Penguins, the latter having accumulated a whopping 30 points in the previous second group stage. Most eSports fans came into the 14th expecting a blowout, but Go Pro played extremely well, limiting Penguin damage to a 2-1 final score in favor of the antarctic club.

Unfortunately for them, GP was promptly eliminated the very next day by Can’t Stop 5-0. Following this dismal loss, Mr.BaHbKa123 left the squad and founded the modern reincarnation of Team Pointers, the current eSports powerhouse. On the other end of the spectrum, the roster of Can’t Stop must have been elated at their utter trouncing of Go Pro. They played extremely well, using coordination and precision to keep their season alive. This blowout also raised a disturbing question: If the Penguins only beat Go Pro 2-1, did Can’t Stop technically have the superior roster? As if to remove all doubts regarding their dominance, on January 16th, the Penguins beat Eternity in the upper bracket finals to secure a spot in the championship. The PenGs 5-2 victory against the former CC champions was definitive enough for them to regain favoritism. 

The final two games of CC Xll were both determined by a single round. Eternity and Can’t Stop were now pitted up against each other to decide who would advance to play the Penguins in the grand finals. At one point during the game, Can’t Stop was up by a score of 4-1. However, Eternity wouldn’t go down easy, and surged to win the seventh and ninth rounds in Parma Setups and Iran Medium respectively. This forced a 10th round - one in which Eternity nearly pulled off one of the most daring comebacks in eSports history. The score was tied 0-0 with less than two minutes left when Makxxe, armed with a Rail-Wasp combo, managed to pull Can’t Stop’s flag into the centre of Iran. In a desperate attempt to stop comeback reality, the whole CS squad converged on Makxxe, who was quickly eliminated. Avetis was able to pick up the flag, but was killed moments later - a few seconds short of a capture. Can’t Stop gets the return, effectively ending the round and the entire match. Eternity wouldn’t threaten again. CS won the match by a total score of 4-3. 
 

The championship of CC Xll was held on January 18th. The first four rounds, held on Forest, were dominated by Can’t Stop. They were in a controlling 2-0 lead going into the fifth round (Light Kungur). A CS win in the sixth round almost spelled disaster for the Penguins. However, the latter had a last second cap courtesy of MVP to even out the score 1-1. Barda Medium came into play for the seventh and eighth rounds - resulting in the first and second Penguin victories. Just like that, the total score had changed from a commanding CS lead of 2-0 to a neutral score of 2-2. A ninth round (back in Forest, of all places) ended up in a tie. The grand finals of CC would be decided in the tenth and final round. Can’t Stop was no doubt hungry to secure their first major tournament win and disrupt the historic win streak of the Penguins. The Penguins, however, had momentum. A combination of teamwork and adrenaline served them well and ultimately resulted in a 2-0 victory for the PenGs. Their streak would be upheld.

 

- FEBRUARY -

 

February first meant the beginning of a new, month-long event advertised as a “conflict”. The Yin-Yang conflict was a star-based contest between two factions, Yin and Yang. Players only had to purchase the special distributor paint, which would then, in turn, assign them to one of the two factions. Throughout the entire month, tankers on both sides accumulated stars in an effort to earn the exclusive Yin-Yang paint, weekly containers, and regular containers. Due to technical problems, the winner was never officially announced. Instead, the developers made the rare, benefactory decision to distribute prizes to both factions. To this day, the debate over which team actually won still remains. Feb 1st also marked the beginning of bimonthly challenges. For the first time, tankers had the opportunity to procure one standard skin container per two-week challenge. Up to this point in time, the only containers that promised skins were labeled XT containers. With the addition of skin containers, both Prime skins and Legacy skins could be obtained via these special black and yellow crates.

The first major announcement of the month had to do with Tanki Online parkour. Information regarding the annual Masters of Parkour contest was released on February 7th along with the new 2020 version of the MOP paint. Video submissions opened the next day and ran up through March 3rd. This heralded the busiest month for the parkour community, as teams like Fly To High and The Flying Parkourists prepped for a run at the parkour crown. 

From February 13th-17th, the Valentine's Day celebrations were held in the game. This included 30% shop and garage discounts as well as a special Barda DM game mode with increased gold box drop rates. Two themed contests were also held, promising some juicy rewards to all participants. The Tanki Couples contest involved taking a screenshot of you and your “better half” wearing either the pink holiday paint or the Yin-Yang paints. Each eligible submission netted 3,000 or 5,000 crystals for each member of the duo. In addition, ten random participants were awarded with special prizes (premium, shot effects, containers). Another contest, Catch the Heart, was held, in which tankers needed to snap screenshots of themselves taking the holiday themed Valentines Day goldboxes. Fourteen entries were awarded with 14,000 crystals and 14 containers. 

Four days after the celebrations concluded, update 591 was released. It was this update that catapulted Vulcan into the “OP” range and resulted in the inevitable increase in turret usage. This marked the beginning of the age in which machine guns ruled the matchmaking battlefield. Instead of the previous system of damage per second (DPS), Vulcan pellets were now individually treated - each projectile dealing a set amount of damage. The damage itself was also dramatically increased. An increase in firing rate and a decrease in the annoying barrel startup time only served to further buff the turret. It would now take a mere second to prep Vulcan before initiating a destructive sequence of projectiles. As if this wasn’t enough, the “Big Freaking Gun” bundle containing the brand new Vulcan Ultra, ricocheting Rubberized Rounds alteration, and Mysterious Red shot effect became available for purchase in the shop for a limited time. Vulcan enthusiasts and hardcore buyers immediately gobbled up the offer, and the Vulcan Ultra skin with its sweet bullet cosmetics became a common sight.

The very next day, February 21st, signaled the beginning of the annual Iron Days celebrations. 30% discounts hit the game for the second time in less than a week along with a special Solo Juggernaut mode on Lost Temple. The Crystallizer contest spanned the duration of the event and promised crystal, tankoin, and container prizes for the top ten crystal accumulations in matchmaking battles. Additionally, a small giveaway was held in which shot effects, premium, and containers were distributed to a few lucky tankers.

The last release of the month, while at the time seemed trivial, proved to be one of the most influential of the entire year. On February 28th, the special missions tab was added to the game. Tankers would need to wait less than a week before the first set of these new tasks were implemented. There was a catch, however. Special missions could only be accessed on the HTML5 version of the game, adding an extra step for Flash users to activate and claim mission rewards, a clever move by the developers in their quest to expedite the migration over to HTML5.

 

- FEB. ESPORTS -

 

With the conclusion of CC Xll still fresh in everyone’s mind, the new season was poised to get underway. MotS (Masters of the Swords) Solo registration opened on the last day of January and remained so until the 6th of February. A whopping 759 tankers signed up for the tournament, and the first round, hosted on Sandbox, was held on the 10th of the month. The defeat of Spy in the second round and GG_Reg in the fifth round left some fans in disbelief, and by February 27th, the last day of the first stage/single elimination part of the tournament, MVP had joined the list of the defeated.

Quite unknown at the time, the future winner of 2020 MOTS solo, File_104, barely secured a spot in the playoffs after a harrowing 2-1 victory over 1x1 (currently FirstAid-Champ) in the 1/32 round. This match, however, was overshadowed by the legendary face-off of Bravo and Lellek, who had miraculously advanced four rounds, on the same day. This game, of course, received prime-time coverage on the EN eSports YouTube channel and ended up attracting over 100 eager viewers.

Considering that this was a pre-playoff match of MOTS solo, the large live stream viewership would have been confusing had it not been for the reputation of Lellek. Could his bottom dwelling years finally be over? Could he possibly redeem himself in the xpbp format? The giddy livestream crew certainly hoped so. Unfortunately for “The Donk”, a poor showing in the first round resulted in an embarrassing 3-7 loss, which involved a streak of five consecutive missed shots by Lellek himself. The fans and commentators cited the loss as proof of Bravo’s dominance. Lellek, however, blamed his poor choice of music. Between rounds he quickly switched playlists, assuring the audience that his performance would improve drastically.

Fate had other plans. A Round 2 result of 8-5 in favor of Bravo elicited a spam of disabled emojis in the livestream chat - one that mods struggled to suppress. Chaos ensued, and soon, the stream had spiraled into a commentator laugh track and constant wheelchair spam. Amid these trying times, Lellek regrouped and focused on his gameplay. To the surprise of many and to his credit, Lellek managed to beat the future MotS Solo runner-up by a score of 7-5 in the third round. Hope had barely been kindled before it was put out. After a brief struggle in round four, Bravo took a commanding lead of 6-3 before Lellek left with roughly a minute remaining in the round. Donkey’s 2020 MotS journey had come to a dismal end. Bravo, on the other hand, won his 1/16th matchup and thus secured a spot in the playoffs, which began on March 4th. 

MotS CLANs began in mid February with the qualification matches for all 16 Second League teams. The clans were split up into four groups of four, with two teams advancing to the first group stage from each group. After three matches for each squad on Feb. 12th, 14th, and 17th respectively, the teams were decided. Control, Cadets, Deffence, Bizzaro, Karma, Invincible, Unstoppable, and Globals would join the eight First league clans in the group stage of the tournament. This stage began on February 21st and ran through March 6th, during which each clan played 7 matches. Eternity, desperate to redeem themselves from CC, and Knights Advanced dominated Group 1, with both teams amassing over 30 points each. Over in Group 2, the Penguins and Cadets topped the leaderboard. What lay in store in the second group stage and playoffs, nobody could guess.

 

- MARCH -

 

Spring was just around the corner, which meant that Women’s Day in Tanki Online was nearing. On March 6th the festivities kicked off with the release of the first set of special missions. Four missions offered a collective reward of one container, 30 repair kits, 50 batteries, and the unique City Dweller paint. Again, 30% discounts graced the shop and garage, causing some to wonder at the sale frequency. The special event map was Koholz DM, and the two contests this time around were titled “It’s a Woman's World” and “Paint the Tank 2020”. The former was a semi-cringey contest which required participants to post a job that “women can do as well as men, or better” on one of Tanki’s social media pages. Continuing the date based reward system, eight random entries received 8,000 crystals, 8 containers, and 8 gold boxes. The 2020 version of the Paint the Tank contest was similar to the previous editions, with two separate categories (digital coloring and hand coloring) and two XT containers up for grabs. Volturo employed his famed artistic skills and walked away with the top prize from the coloring by hand category, while a player by the name of nidjo won in the digital format.

On March 7th, the MOP finalists were announced: The Flying Parkourists, Fly To High, HTP, Fight & Flight, The Flying Parkourists 2, Legacy Parkourists, Fly To High 2, and Alolaa. The grand finals were held on March 12th and were live streamed on the EN TO Youtube channel. After a tight race of gravity defying stunts, in air propulsion, and conquered buildings, The Flying Parkourists were chosen as the 2020 MOP victors. Each member of the club received a piece of Tanki apparel, a XT, LGC, or PR skin of the player’s choice, a shot effect of the player’s choice, 200 of each supply, 50 containers, and 500 tankoins. A hearty congratulations to them for getting the fruits of their labor. 

An interesting addition to the line of Tanki loot boxes came with a discount weekend on March 20th. Pit Stop Boxes were now a way for players to accumulate quick supplies via opening containers. It didn’t go over so well. Most tankers avoided wasting tankoins on these crates, and pit stop boxes soon became synonymous with “worthless”. They’ve been available for purchase intermittently throughout the year.

 

It was about this time that COVID-19 became a global pandemic, and it’s presence soon became evident in T.O. From March 23 to April 12, the first lockdown event was held to alleviate some of the boredom felt by everyone. Increased battle funds and xp in all matchmaking battles lasted for twenty days, as well as a super special mission that challenged tankers to earn 100,000 battle points in the next three weeks. Anyone who was able to complete this task received ten days of premium. 

 

- MAR. ESPORTS -

 

The first round of the MotS solo playoffs was held on March 4th. File_104 and Bravo both won their matches 3-0, sending edy and Legion Of Kings member Clip_Maker to the losers bracket. Clip_Maker proved his own ability by winning his next two games 3-0 until eventually meeting his demise at the hands of kennya (under his previous nickname of pixel) in the losers bracket semifinals.

The upper bracket semifinals was comprised of two nail-biting games. File took the 3-1 victory against a player by the name of 6eJlblu_TTNcToJleT while Bravo managed to continue his win streak by defeating S-N-I-P-3-R by a score of 2-1. It would not be the last that these two skilled duelists met. S-N-I-P-3-R and 6eJlblu_TTNcToJleT both promptly won their matches in the Loser's bracket and came face-to-face on March 16th.

Now, there were only four games left to play and four players left in the competition. All had their eye on the prestigious Impulse paint and craved the ultimate bragging rights that winning this solo tournament would bring. Unfortunately for 6eJ, his claim to the MotS title was ousted by S-N-I-P-3-R after losing three rounds and only winning one. That same day saw the inevitable meeting of File and Bravo in the upper bracket final.

The match didn’t quite live up to the hype, however. At the end of the day, the scoreboard read a final of 3-0 with File on top. Bravo’s rhythm had finally been interrupted, sending him down to host a rematch against S-N-I-P-3-R. The first game between these two players had been insanely close but had resulted in a victory for Bravo. There was only one difference this time around. S-N-I-P-3-R had the momentum leading into March 18th, while Bravo had just suffered a humiliating 0-3 defeat.

Both players were undoubtedly feeling a certain amount of pressure as fans tuned into the LB final live stream. Winning the game meant joining File in the grand finals, while the loser would have to be content with third place. The first two rounds were held on none other than the duelist haven known as Zone. Controlling the drops in this combination of map and format is crucial to success, and Bravo demonstrated his talents by winning the first by a score of 7-5, and the second 6-5. The close scores were only further evident on the next map, Station, where the first round resulted in a 5-5 tie. S-N-I-P-3-R then decided to turn his performance to the next level, cruising to a 9-3 lead while playing on the red side. A victory by Bravo in the following Boombox round put his opponent in a must-win situation.

It was in this final round that things really turned crazy. At the moment when it looked as if S-N-I-P-3-R would pull off a close call, he got cornered by an aggressive, gutsy move by Bravo. The score was 4-3 and there was 20 seconds left on the clock. All S-N-I-P-3-R had to do was drive around the building and avoid a fatal shot. A game of tag ensued, during which Bravo attempted to chase down his enemy. With 10 seconds on the clock and after missing two shots, Bravo’s third discharge found its mark. If this encounter had happened at any other point on the map, Bravo wouldn't have had time to capture the flag. It just so happened that fate was with him. In a true last second cap (possibly even milliseconds), Bravo dashed S-N-I-P-3-R’s dreams. This marked one of the most exciting endings to a solo eSports match in the history of T.O. 

Bravo carried his energy into the grand final two days later, and won the first game against File 3-2. However, the reminder of his own unsatisfactory second place finish in MotS solo 2019 helped drive File ahead, and he swiftly regained the lead and carried it into the sixth and final round. It was Boombox again. Where destiny had favored Bravo on this particular map before, it betrayed him now. File_104 took the 9-8 win and received the undisputed title of 2020 MOTS solo champion. 

Meanwhile, the clan variation of the MOTS format was in the tense second group stage. The teams that made it this far had received a full ten days off, and they came into the first round on March 16th feeling rejuvenated. From the 16th to the 30th, each clan played one another exactly once, coming out to a total of seven games. The results as of March 30th clearly showed a superior duo of clans, this being Knights Advanced and the Penguins (no duh).

The Knights had performed far better than their tandem command of Homs and Spote could have imagined, racking up 36 points. In fact, in all but two matchups, they didn’t log a single round defeat, beating Eternity and Just Passing 4-0 and Go Pro, Globals, and Unstoppable 3-0. A 2-2 tie against both the Penguins and the upstart Cadets gave them an impressive total second group stage record of 12-2. The Penguins finished close behind with a total of 33 points and also beat Eternity 4-0. Nonetheless, Eternity somehow squeezed into the playoffs behind Go Pro as the 21 point fourth seed. The Cadets (modern day Legacy) had failed to secure a spot, finishing in fifth place with 19 points. A 1-2 loss to Unstoppable and a 0-1 loss to Globals (who accumulated a mere 7 points, only winning one match) sealed their fate. Their poor showing against two comparatively weak teams remains a mystery. How could the Cadets have tied Knights Advanced 2-2, routed Go Pro 3-0, and yet lose to some of the weakest clans at this stage? If anything, it was a subtle sign for the Knights that they weren’t leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else not named the Penguins. This would come back to bite them sooner than later. 

I’m not going to spend too much time discussing 2020 TOF Tandem if only because of the utter domination of “Glava I Zam”. The tournament began on March 3rd, and the single elimination stage ran from this date to the 11th of the month, while the playoffs began on the 18th and concluded on April 5th.

Some notable performances include Brzeczyszczykiewicz (Handsome & Relax), Tochka (IdeaTe & beleka), and Doublefaced (Marekos1111 and Deluxe) who would go on to play Glava I Zam in the grand finals. Unfortunately for nearly everyone in the tournament, the Glava squad made up of Yarik and CJlA6 (currently ServerBot1) put together one of the cleanest tournament runs ever, going undefeated throughout the entire playoffs. Not only did they win every game 3-0, they utterly destroyed many of their opponents and put up some outrageous scores in the process. They only encountered one hiccup in the form of Double Threat (MVP and Wryx) during the 1/32 match. A final score of 3-2 leaves one to wonder whether the second best tandem didn’t even make it to the playoffs. 

 

- APRIL -

 

Arguably the busiest month of 2020 in the Tankiverse, April was kicked off by the annual April Fools Day celebrations running from the first of the month through the sixth. The main draw is the holiday event mode of Gubakha DM with increased gold box drop rates. As in previous Fools Days, all gold boxes dropped during the celebrations are announced by the special “Is it a bird? Is it a train? No, it's the super gold!” text instead of the normal “Gold box will be dropping soon”. The jester themed gold boxes themselves contain one of four different effects. These include 1,2, or 3 days of premium (given in total seconds), 1K, 5K, 10K, or 50K crystals, a bomb that destroys everyone within a close proximity of the drop zone, and the triggering of two additional gold boxes.

 

Along with 30% shop and garage sales, tankers also had the opportunity to complete another set of special missions. For an extra devious April Fools joke, the developers decided to fake a new Juggernaut mode in which the Juggernaut is commanded by two separate players. Information regarding this mode was released on March 31st. The announcement outlined certain features of the mode such as the double tanker control system and a suspicious voice chat option. Players were left in the dark for a full 24 hours before the devs released a follow-up announcement explaining that the new mode was a clever hoax to commemorate the season. 

On April 4th, registration for the third edition of the community Tankiball event opened. This was a great opportunity for tankers to gather for a light-hearted tournament, showcase their rugby skills, and work in perfect coordination with fellow team members. All matches would be held in the Stadium RGB 5v5 format with the tournament proceeding in a single elimination style bracket. In addition, all players were required to use an Isida-Wasp/Hornet combination and needed to follow a detailed match procedure available on the official Tankiball forum page. The object of the game was to use teamwork and synchronization to throw the rugby ball through the goal “arches” on either end of the Stadium match. However, goals were only counted if the team had successfully passed the ball twice without interruption leading up to the scoring maneuver. One point was awarded for each goal scored.

17 teams registered, ranging from the pious “AFewGoodMen” to the underage “Kids Club”. (Sadly, both these teams lost in the first round). On April 23rd and 24th respectively the semifinal matches were held, and the championship occurred two days later on the 26th between “Remove Magnum” and “Noone”. The latter, composed of players Cee, tanker-4321, Mr.Perfect-Skill, rollo0, A_D_A_M, Solved, goldy_73, and MR.S_H_K_S_B_E_R took the hard earned victory by a score of 11-7. Each member of the team received 100,000 crystals, 10 gold boxes, 2 weeks of premium, 6 containers, and 300 tankoins. 

Only four days after the conclusion of the Fools Day celebrations, Cosmonautics Day hit the game. Gold Rockets on the old space Madness map were available to enjoy from April 11th-13th, as well as yet another set of special holiday missions, 30% sales, and the return of coinboxes. On the 13th, a live giveaway was streamed for the public, awarding 30 lucky tankers with crystals, premium, containers, and gold boxes. One extremely fortunate player even received a free skin container.

Coinciding with the Cosmonaut missions, two special Easter missions were also available to complete from the 12th-20th. They promised two holiday paints, a pink and a blue version, as the rewards. Apparently not convinced that two sets of missions was enough, the developers added more to the bucket list when the Lockdown 2.0 event was announced on the 13th. They had upped the ante this time, offering a juicy XT container for tankers who had the nerve to tackle all four new missions. These involved accumulating 200,000 points in matchmaking battles, activating Wasp’s bomb 300 times, dropping 100 gold boxes, and using 1000 speed boosts. Players had until May first to complete this feat.

In keeping with the pandemic theme, a special “Kill the Virus” event was hosted on April 15th. Loosely based on the “Catch the Snowman” event held in January, participating helpers were equipped with Juggernaut and could be identified by the recognizable "Virus" paint. Players who managed to kill the ubiquitous viruses were awarded with the "Sanitizer" paint. By the time the event had concluded, enough hand sanitizer had been distributed to disinfect an entire neighborhood from the Bubonic plague.

 

Following the virus event, the Tankiverse received a much needed respite for about a week. Update 599 was released on April 24th and completely revolutionized the world of hulls. A total of eight “Hull Alterations” were added to the game on that day, all available via the new Ultra Containers. For now, these alterations were exclusive to Hunter, but they would soon become standardized across the entire line of hulls. Not only did this dramatically increase the importance of hulls, but it also inadvertently nerfed the effects of Freeze, Fire, Hunter’s stun overdrive, and Gauss’s Electromagnetic Salvo. Another hot item only available in Ultra Containers was the newest addition to the Ultra line of skins - Hunter Ultra. Finally, Update 599 brought about some minor changes with a couple specific overdrives. Titan’s overdrive now disabled Wasp’s bomb upon activation, while Hunter’s overdrive disabled enemy supplies for 5 seconds instead of the previous 3.

A week later, Update 600 built off of 599’s releases. First off, alterations were renamed to augments, causing both a general confusion and some jeering. This reaction quickly turned into hysterical screaming and uncontrollable sobbing after players finished reading through the patch notes. In one of the most unpopular updates ever, the developers decided to remove all turret alterations/augments from the garage and make them exclusively available via containers. The community was rightfully outraged, many tankers making their sentiments known through forum posts and youtube comments. These posts did indeed make their desired effect, as we’ll see in the May section.

 

- APR. ESPORTS -

 

The MotS CLANs playoffs began on April 3rd with a Penguins vs. Go Pro matchup. This was the final leg of a tournament that had begun nearly two months ago, and all four competitors were hungry for the ultimate prize. Not that it would come easy. The teams would need to execute their plans to utter perfection, and the first game set an early precedent of just how close playoff matches can be. Tanki is similar to baseball in that it is a game of inches. One miscue, one hasty shot, one accidental drift could have a monstrous effect on the outcome of a round.

A 3-3 tie after the first 6 rounds meant that the teams would be going into overtime, playing a sudden death, tiebreaker round in a 2v2 MotS Tandem style format on the map Boombox. The Penguins put out Champ and Fear, two players known for their skill in the format. Going against this duo would be Repartee and lose. They managed to keep the score close during the first half of the round, but were unable to quench a Penguin surge in the last few minutes. An 8-3 victory for Champ and Fear sent Go Pro down to the losers bracket. Advancing on to the grand finals, not to mention winning the championship, from the LB is extremely difficult. Getting knocked down to the losers bracket after the first game is similar to getting stuck in quicksand - once you’ve entered, it’s nearly impossible to get out. This was especially true in the case of Go Pro. They were promptly eliminated four days later by a score of 0-5. 

The counterpart to the Penguins - Go Pro game was held on April 4th between Eternity and Knights Advanced. It’s impossible to know the morale and general feeling in the Knights clubhouse leading up to the game, but their 4-0 win over Eternity in the second group stage was no doubt-rattling around in the mind of more than one of the members. Thus, a 2-1 win for Eternity came as a shock to both the fanbase and the Knights themselves. Sure, Eternity was a top tier team, arguably the second best overall clan in the game, but their relatively poor showing in the previous stage and the Knights utter domination in that same stage seemed to indicate KA’s superiority. Whether the Knights mistakenly underestimated Eternity’s prowess or whether Eternity themselves succeeded where they had previously failed was hard to tell, but it was probably a combination of both. Regardless, the Knights took out their anger on the unfortunate Go Pro in the first LB game, absolutely slaughtering them 5-0. It was now a waiting game for them to see who they would play next. Would it be Eternity or the Penguins? Let me tell you now that history does indeed repeat itself. 24 hours later it was settled. A rematch of Eternity vs. Knights Advanced would take place on April 9th. The Penguins had won by a score of 4-3 yet again. 

The losers bracket finals played out in a nearly symmetrical manner. Whenever Eternity would win a round, the Knights would answer with a victory of their own. After a tie in round 1, Eternity won round 2, immediately followed by a Knights win in round 3. Staying true to the pattern, round 4 ended up in a tie again, succeeded by an Eternity win in round 5 and a Knights win in round 6. Almost as if by divine intervention, the same exact playout occurred for a third time, bringing the total score to a 3-3 tie with only the 10th and final round left. The map was Kungur and for both teams the time was now. According to the pattern curse, this next round should have been a tie, but neither team wanted the inevitable outcome to be delayed. The round began slow; all attempted pushes were rejected in the first couple minutes. Then, with roughly 7:30 minutes left on the clock, Eternity executed a terrific dual pronged assault on the Knights base involving both of their hunters, semgrand and I_Live_Without_Laws. Semgrand was able to pull the flag from the red base to the small bridge while I_Live_Without_Laws stole the enemy double armor. Semgrand is quickly killed, but not before pulling the flag a noticeable distance and acting as a great distraction for his teammate. I_Live_Without_Laws, now equipped with a “da”, was still at full health when he picks up the flag. Absorbing 7 shots, he makes his way over the bridge and across a wide expanse of open ground before finally getting destroyed at the far line of buildings deep within the blue base. A few seconds later, the capture was finalized (incidentally by I_Live_Without_Laws himself after respawning and calling off semgrand). Eternity was in the lead 1-0. It was now a matter of holding off the vicious Knight attacks. For the remainder of the game the defense upheld, carrying Eternity to the grand finals of MOTS clans and invoking a nasty stream of trash talking in the battle chat. It was a hard loss to swallow for the Knights, especially due to the previous results against Eternity. This loss proved to be the undoing of Knights. Homs and Spote were both banned from eSports soon afterwards, and the clan was subsequently disbanded. It was a broken end to a team that had such high potential. 

And so, the two most decorated teams meet yet again. The setting this time was the MotS CLANs championship. The date is April 12th. The rosters included Penguin veterans FinalStage, GG_reg, and Caleb, and Eternity superstars Marekos1111 and avetismergelyan. The stage was set for greatness to go down, and the fans won't be leaving disappointed. Eternity is the first to log a win, taking a 1-0 victory in round 2. The Penguins respond with a win of their own in round 3, then another in Round 5, and another in the sixth. Things were looking pretty bleak for Eternity, who would have to win at least two of the next four rounds. However, a tight dub in Round 7 closed the gap and dramatically increased the chance of a successful comeback. Rounds 8 and 9 both resulted in a tie, a 2-2 affair followed by 0-0. Once again, it would come down to Round 10. If Eternity could pull off a victory here, it would force a tiebreaker. In a truly team oriented fashion, Eternity did come together to win the 10th by a score of 1-0. Their one flag was initially pulled at 2:03 and captured at 0:55. In the process, it changed hands a total of seven times (I_Live_Without_Laws, Salvator, AAoE, semgrand, Salvator again, Salvator a third time, semgrand). 

The tiebreaker match was played on the duelist map of Station in the MotS Tandem format. The Penguins dispatched their tried and true combo of Fear and Champ. Eternity sent out an interesting duo of I_Live_Without_Laws and ZI0nZ. I wish I could say this match was extremely close and came down to the last seconds of gameplay. However, for once in 2020, the match wasn’t decided in the final seconds. Fear and Champ took a fairly uneventful 5-2 victory and added just one more trophy to the Penguins great hoard. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, this would mark the last time the legendary antarctic squad would win a major tournament. But for now, they had completed the circuit and done the impossible - win an entire season of five consecutive tournaments. This was the climax of the Penguin dynasty. They would go down in the eSports annals as the most successful team of the modern era. 

 

May is on the horizon and summer on the verge of blooming in its full splendor. The season where school is ditched for less academic focused activities involving the slaughter of juggernauts and epic gold rains. At this point, 2020 isn't even halfway done, yet so many exciting and memorable events had already taken place. The Tankisport fan base had gotten to experience firsthand one of the most exciting seasons in esports, and it was far from over. With setups just around the corner, there was no telling what the future would hold. 

 

The second installment of this complete 2020 recap will be released soon!

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