sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
To reach Level 100 in Torn City, a person must become several things; extremely strong, offensively rich and outrageously felonious. Each one of these is difficult to achieve on its own, with many going years if not a decade without ever coming close. But to attain all of the qualifications required for Level 100 status takes a certain measure of dedication, willpower, stamina and smarts. And to be perfectly blunt, not everyone in Torn is up to that task.
Those who have reached Level 100 are our finest citizens, they are beyond comparison, and their feat is made all the more special due to these individuals being so few in number. In fact, only 49 people had ever accomplished this monumental feat as of 15th March 2017.
Or had they?
On Thursday 16th March, Gullis was inducted into the Torn City Hall of Fame as the 50th official member of the Level 100 Club, and so congratulations must, of course, go to him in recognition of his efforts.
However, the problem with marking him out as the 50th is that Gullis was actually the 51st person to reach 100, with the half-century spot having already been awarded to Solaris on 10th March 2017. This discrepancy occurred because those in Federal Jail have their names expunged from the record books, and since the Level 100 Unknown_Element has now been banished from Torn, the number of players to have reached our city's most coveted milestone is now in dispute.
(Pictured: A man capable of causing problems even in death)
To his credit, Gullis has conceded to me that while he did desire to be the 50th, he knows this isn't the case.
"Yes it is right, Unknown fedded right after reaching level 100, I believe he wanted out of the game. I waited to upgrade for 2 months because I wanted the 50th spot, didn't think anyone would notice."
Nevertheless, this awkward situation brings up several important questions. The first of which is obvious - should fedded players be reinstated into the Hall of Fame? Unknown_Element and his ilk have been banned from the city for good reasons, but does this mean we should pretend their prior achievements never even happened?
Let us look to the outside world for an answer. The Olympic legacy of Oscar Pistorius was irrevocably and justifiably tainted when he shot his girlfriend to death while she was on the can; however, his statistical records remain intact. Similarly, O.J. Simpson was convicted in a civil suit for his involvement in the deaths of his girlfriend and her partner, and he is presently incarcerated on a separate charge of armed robbery and kidnapping. But despite his criminal activities, are we just supposed to forget that the Naked Gun Trilogy exists?
(No, I won't be doing that)
If a sportsman or woman is found to have cheated then that is another matter, because in this situation the record books are quite rightly amended to remove those who have gained their status by illegal means. But Unknown_Element was fedded for another reason, he was not found to have cheated, therefore his record as the 44th person to reach Level 100 should surely stand. Not for his benefit, but for the benefit of those whose own status relies on his position.
The second question I have concerns the recent temporary restoration of a self-fedded player, WickedPrincess, whose case almost set a new precedent in Torn City when she was allowed to retrieve her old, supposedly deleted identity. Inevitably, a whirlwind of forum excreta followed this decision, but throughout the torrent of filth, not one person considered the potential impact on Torn's records and statistics.
And if they did, well bully for you. I'm not reading through twenty-six pages of guff to find out.
Thankfully, WickedPrincess' situation was resolved when her old un-fedded account was re-fedded, and this individual now exists as a brand new restart. But can we be sure that future decisions on player identities will preserve the integrity of the Hall of Fame? It is this reporter's opinion that numbers and statistics must be respected, and that they should in no way be modified after the fact if someone is discovered to be a jerk, not a cheat. Therefore, despite Gullis' fantastic achievement, we at the Torn City Times officially hail Solaris as the 50th person to reach Level 100.
"Thanks! Many years ago, level 100 was something that I thought I might never reach. I had been playing for many years already and was not really all that close. So instead of looking to level 100 as my goal, I worked towards lots of other things that were more easily attainable."
"I got all the medals for every crime except drug dealing and murder, and I have gotten a lot of honor bars too, putting me up to 432 merits currently. I also started a TV company and got it up to 5 and then 10 stars. It took me a long time to accomplish all of those other things, but after I had achieved all those other goals I realized that I was actually getting pretty close to level 100."
"It was now something that I felt was within my grasp, and so it became my next goal. Political Assassinations were very helpful in getting me close to level 100, and I think that Duke helped out a bit too. Because of his missions, I remembered that attacking people is actually a good source of experience too, something that I had kinda forgotten about for a long time."
(See, all those Dart Boards and Gimp Masks weren't for nothing after all.)
Hearing Solaris' story intrigued me, so I endeavoured to speak to other Level 100 players to see how they had managed to achieve it. I was expecting to find nothing more than simple tales of grinding, scrapping and toiling. But as it turns out, the history of the first fifty Level 100 players is far more interesting than that. Here is what Madmiketyson - the 38th Level 100 - had to say about his journey to the summit.
"I level held as a younger player and then got interested in the extra life. I never really planned to get this high, I attacked for experience in spurts with the intention of having high life...But then I got offered the double experience gains book as a mission reward during the elimination event and I figured it was as good a time as any. I was relieved more than anything when I got the upgrade button for L100...It gets dull attacking the same people over & over!"
I asked Madmiketyson and others whether those who were the first 50 or 100 to reach Level 100 should be honoured in some way, but he felt it wasn't necessary.
"I don't see why it would need honouring, just a question of timing...If you started playing early enough and were active for most of that time then it was achievable for anybody to be in the first 20 or so people to get there. I barely played for my first year on here...I was probably worth about $5m when I hit my first year milestone! Anybody who set their mind to it could still easily be in the first 100."
A fair point indeed. So, in lieu of official honours, I then decided to investigate the official record books to see if any statistical honours could be handed out. After compiling a list of the first 50 and cross-referencing the data against various other bits of information, I have deduced the following;
Sifonjerce was the fastest player to reach Level 100, doing so in 1131 days.
Easye was the slowest player to reach Level 100, taking 4327 days.
Only 11 players (Bodybagger, L4suicide, Todd, DrGonzo, Aries21, -JAcKsTer-, Robinhood, Belgarath, Abe, Ultraman, Easye) have ID numbers of five digits or fewer.
December has seen the highest number of players hit 100, with nine players doing so in this month over the years. 2016 (23) was the year with the most 100's, but curiously only three people managed it in December 2016.
Most players (22) hit Level 100 between 8pm and 4am Torn City Time. Stylin was the earliest (00:13AM) and Z_Junior the latest (23:58PM)
Those who signed up in 2005 have provided the most Level 100's (16)
Nobody who signed up in 2011 has ever hit Level 100, with the latest being 2012.
The Cheesinater (22/04/2012) is the youngest player by sign-up date to have reached Level 100, and he also did it in the 3rd fastest time (1388 days).
Robinhood is the oldest member of Torn to achieve it, having signed up on 16/11/2004 and reached Level 100 on 01/05/2016.
Players are on average 2977.88 days old when they reach Level 100 (median 3108).
Pand0ra and Solaris are the only top 50 players to identify as women.
Having poured over this data to a reasonable degree, I slung some of my findings towards those involved and received a few interesting responses. Stylin, who was the eleventh to achieve Level 100, was previously under the impression that he held a Torn City record, and it broke my heart to tell him otherwise.
"So I wasn't the fastest to level to 100? Since I reached 100 I thought I was. Other people told me so I believed it lol."
"I started all out attacking for level at about level 60-70 when this slow average joe pace of levelling starting to become boring as ****, so I started stacking all my energy to use for exp attacks, sacrificed a lot of stats but it was worth it. Now I am forever in the HOF for level and rank, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to level up fastto permanently secure my place in the top of the HOF!"
I also had an interesting chat with L4suicide, the fifth to reach 100, who pointed out to me that most of the Level 100 players in Torn have not achieved the top ranking of 26 Invincible. Just 23 of the 50 players hold this honour, with 18 on 25 Elite, five on 24 Legendary, and two each on 23 Heroic and 22 Champion.
It takes a certain number of offences and level of net worth to achieve these higher ranks, and L4suicide thinks that most players are forced to choose between big stats or Level 100, with many giving up on the former either after or before they hit Level 100.
"Another interesting angle might be the stats. Ignoring BB and Sifonjerce you'll probably find most level 100s are under 10b stats, I can't see that info obviously, but I doubt those who bothered to get to 100 trained too hard."
Having recently attained the rank of Army General I did a little poking around, and I discovered that L4suicide might be correct. I have only analysed a few of the top 50, meaning this conclusion is based on an estimate, but I shall attempt to find out for sure and publish the results in a forthcoming article.
I then pressed L4suicide further on why it had taken so long for Torn to enjoy its 50th Level 100, and how long he thought it would take Torn to reach 100 top level players.
"When I got to level 100 I had to spend 4 months whoring attacks on weak high levels to go from level 90 or so to 100. I'm surprised it took so long for others to get there too; as the more who make it means the easier it is to gain XP from those at 100."
"As the time it takes to reach 100 reduces (due to easier XP around) I would guess newer players find it more attainable. It took BB 5 years I think to get to 100? The vets all get to 50-70 and think 3-4 years more...no thanks. But newer players get to 50-70 in half the time and it's only 2 years more to do it."
"I see a lot of JFK/SA starting to gain levels for the HP, whereas previously they warred a lot, trained a lot, and didn't care about level. As players reach ~5-6b stats (which we have 200 of) energy becomes less important for them (using SE instead etc) so they mug or leave more players, plus the missions meaning a lot of players attack more often now."
"Now we have 50 I think we will see 100 by Christmas."
(Will enough of Torn's boys and girls make it to the naughty list in time?)
A bold prediction indeed. But do the statistics back this up? Well, the first two people to reach Level 100 (and we'll have more on this later) were Bodybagger and Sifonjerce, who hit the top spot in June 2010. Nobody else managed it until over a year later, when HT-Supermikk did so on 13th July 2011, and Hydr0 followed in fourth on 10th August 2011.
It was 2013 before fifth-placed L4suicide achieved Level 100 in February 2013, followed by ShuKa, UBIK and 1371383 later that year. 2014 saw four more players added to the list, including DrGonzo and Stylin, with 2015 bringing us eleven additions such as Pand0ra, Kniv, Z_Junior and Tezwar.
2016 gave us the most Level 100's by far, with 23 people including Bogie, Madmiketyson and The Cheesinater bringing us to a total of 46 at the end of that year. 2017 has given us four more so far, with Solaris joined by Drieke, Pluto and Easye. At this time last year. we had four players hit 100 as opposed to this year's five, so it seems entirely plausible that at the very least we'll be in for another large haul as 2017 unfolds.
But to round off this article let us return to the very first Level 100's, Bodybagger and Sifonjerce, and take a look at the drama which marred the first time a Torn citizen hit Level 100. My official records show that Sifonjerce hit Level 100 first at 00:22 on 16th June 2010, followed by Bodybagger at 02:10 the same day. However, this is disputed by both Bodybagger and much of the wider community.
"I was actually the first person to reach level 100, and Sifonjerce was second. Actually, I had non-officially reached it a few months before. Supermikk was close behind. We had both used the "slutting" method to get our last few levels. However, Ched didn't like the method in which we gained our levels. Supermikk and I were taken away levels all the way to level 71, since that's where the third place person was, TheLegend. I was none too happy considering that I only started using sluts at level 91."
Sifonjerce has thus far refused to comment on the matter, so in the absence of his thoughts, we must rely solely on Bodybagger for information.
"I dusted myself off after being reduced 29 levels and started making a run for level 100 again. At this point, Sifonjerce decided to challenge me to it. As per the post in my profile. It was definitely known by both him and I that I reached it first. After I sent Sifonjerce a message congratulating him for also having reached 100 and stating that it was good fun going for that final run. He replied agreeing."
This situation intrigued me. I reached out to HT-Supermikk for comment, and he backed up Bodybagger's version of events.
"That is correct. I agree with bb on thisI don't remember it was a race, but I remember I was hoping that it was possible to go past level 100. Sadly that was the max level."
"Yes. it was unfair. But back in the days everything was total random. You could go to fed-jail for something just because the admin didn't like you. The rules was made up randomly, without informing."
In addition to HT-Supermikk's words, I also have comments from both Stylin and L4suicide which state quite clearly that they too used paid-for slutting methods to achieve their 100 Level status. I wondered if Bodybagger had ever considered his method of levelling unfair in any way; but on the contrary, he believed it to be the best method of achieving greatness.
"I think that it's a more efficient way of levelling. Most people want to keep their energy for training and increasing their stats vice attacking and wasting energy. Hiring "sluts" is limited only to the money the person has, whereas attacking (and leaving) is limited by one's energy."
"To be fair to your readers, I have to preface that there was more experience gained when a player lost to another player in those days. It's still a good method but not as quick as when Supermikk and I were gunning for level 100. Hence, this is why both Sifonjerce and went the attacking method afterward."
So why was Bodybagger penalised? Why were Stylin, L4suicide and the others who partially bought their way to Level 100 not similarly punished? And who was really the first?
There was only one man who could provide the answer - Chedburn.
"Hmm, the awards may have been given manually back then, for those first two, so I'm not sure. Really they (sifonjerce and bodybagger) both achieved 100 at the same time, they both levelled up to that on the same day. This was 7 years ago so I'm really not able to be sure on that."
"The whole situation is kind of lame, I was busy with lots of things and assumed there was many months to go before someone reached level 100. I had no idea they'd hold their level and didn't think to check their EXP. So when it happened, it just kinda made a mockery of the whole thing. This thing that I'd planned for, for 6 years, to be a huge deal, was achieved basically overnight."
"My big plan was for an EXP bar to appear at the top of the page upon reaching level 100, and then once the EXP bar was filled, they'd get a merit. So EXP would produce merits after level 100."
To this day Bodybagger remains dissatisfied at the lack of recognition his achievements were given, as while he admits Chedburn did congratulate him, Bodybagger complains that it was more of an afterthought and that further prizes were promised for hitting 100 which have yet to be delivered.
"Originally, when going for the level 100, I thought the prize would be some amazing weapon of some kind, a unique weapon, or even some kind of cool real estate property. Then, when nothing ever materialized, I thought that he should at least present me with a unique item that best represents me, a bodybag, with some kind of description at the bottom indicating how it was achieved."
"I doubt there will ever be an agreement. I reached it almost 7 years ago and still nothing has happened....it has tarnished it all...I'm not sure there is an agreement problem. It's a unilateral thing on his part and I don't have any say. I'm open to talks but was never even approached about it. I haven't really said anything to Ched about it other than what I indicated in my posts about the unfairness. As indicated previously, I would love to discuss this matter with him."
It is sad that both the first and last entrants into the Level 100 first fifty club are shrouded in controversy and complications, as while it is undoubtedly an honour to have achieved such greatness, the ability to shout "first" is something no man or woman should ever be denied.
But we should not and must not let these incidents detract from what is clearly a spectacular achievement. Bodybagger, Sifonjerce, Gullis, Solaris and the rest have put many years into their work in Torn City, and each one of them stands out as a shining example of what can be done with the right blend of guts, nuts and determination.
Therefore, in no particular order, and including Gullis because to hell with officialdom, here are the 51 people who will be known as the first fifty in Torn to have achieved Level 100.
First fifty, Torn salutes you.
Those who have reached Level 100 are our finest citizens, they are beyond comparison, and their feat is made all the more special due to these individuals being so few in number. In fact, only 49 people had ever accomplished this monumental feat as of 15th March 2017.
Or had they?
On Thursday 16th March, Gullis was inducted into the Torn City Hall of Fame as the 50th official member of the Level 100 Club, and so congratulations must, of course, go to him in recognition of his efforts.
However, the problem with marking him out as the 50th is that Gullis was actually the 51st person to reach 100, with the half-century spot having already been awarded to Solaris on 10th March 2017. This discrepancy occurred because those in Federal Jail have their names expunged from the record books, and since the Level 100 Unknown_Element has now been banished from Torn, the number of players to have reached our city's most coveted milestone is now in dispute.
(Pictured: A man capable of causing problems even in death)
To his credit, Gullis has conceded to me that while he did desire to be the 50th, he knows this isn't the case.
"Yes it is right, Unknown fedded right after reaching level 100, I believe he wanted out of the game. I waited to upgrade for 2 months because I wanted the 50th spot, didn't think anyone would notice."
Nevertheless, this awkward situation brings up several important questions. The first of which is obvious - should fedded players be reinstated into the Hall of Fame? Unknown_Element and his ilk have been banned from the city for good reasons, but does this mean we should pretend their prior achievements never even happened?
Let us look to the outside world for an answer. The Olympic legacy of Oscar Pistorius was irrevocably and justifiably tainted when he shot his girlfriend to death while she was on the can; however, his statistical records remain intact. Similarly, O.J. Simpson was convicted in a civil suit for his involvement in the deaths of his girlfriend and her partner, and he is presently incarcerated on a separate charge of armed robbery and kidnapping. But despite his criminal activities, are we just supposed to forget that the Naked Gun Trilogy exists?
(No, I won't be doing that)
If a sportsman or woman is found to have cheated then that is another matter, because in this situation the record books are quite rightly amended to remove those who have gained their status by illegal means. But Unknown_Element was fedded for another reason, he was not found to have cheated, therefore his record as the 44th person to reach Level 100 should surely stand. Not for his benefit, but for the benefit of those whose own status relies on his position.
The second question I have concerns the recent temporary restoration of a self-fedded player, WickedPrincess, whose case almost set a new precedent in Torn City when she was allowed to retrieve her old, supposedly deleted identity. Inevitably, a whirlwind of forum excreta followed this decision, but throughout the torrent of filth, not one person considered the potential impact on Torn's records and statistics.
And if they did, well bully for you. I'm not reading through twenty-six pages of guff to find out.
Thankfully, WickedPrincess' situation was resolved when her old un-fedded account was re-fedded, and this individual now exists as a brand new restart. But can we be sure that future decisions on player identities will preserve the integrity of the Hall of Fame? It is this reporter's opinion that numbers and statistics must be respected, and that they should in no way be modified after the fact if someone is discovered to be a jerk, not a cheat. Therefore, despite Gullis' fantastic achievement, we at the Torn City Times officially hail Solaris as the 50th person to reach Level 100.
"Thanks! Many years ago, level 100 was something that I thought I might never reach. I had been playing for many years already and was not really all that close. So instead of looking to level 100 as my goal, I worked towards lots of other things that were more easily attainable."
"I got all the medals for every crime except drug dealing and murder, and I have gotten a lot of honor bars too, putting me up to 432 merits currently. I also started a TV company and got it up to 5 and then 10 stars. It took me a long time to accomplish all of those other things, but after I had achieved all those other goals I realized that I was actually getting pretty close to level 100."
"It was now something that I felt was within my grasp, and so it became my next goal. Political Assassinations were very helpful in getting me close to level 100, and I think that Duke helped out a bit too. Because of his missions, I remembered that attacking people is actually a good source of experience too, something that I had kinda forgotten about for a long time."
(See, all those Dart Boards and Gimp Masks weren't for nothing after all.)Hearing Solaris' story intrigued me, so I endeavoured to speak to other Level 100 players to see how they had managed to achieve it. I was expecting to find nothing more than simple tales of grinding, scrapping and toiling. But as it turns out, the history of the first fifty Level 100 players is far more interesting than that. Here is what Madmiketyson - the 38th Level 100 - had to say about his journey to the summit.
"I level held as a younger player and then got interested in the extra life. I never really planned to get this high, I attacked for experience in spurts with the intention of having high life...But then I got offered the double experience gains book as a mission reward during the elimination event and I figured it was as good a time as any. I was relieved more than anything when I got the upgrade button for L100...It gets dull attacking the same people over & over!"
I asked Madmiketyson and others whether those who were the first 50 or 100 to reach Level 100 should be honoured in some way, but he felt it wasn't necessary.
"I don't see why it would need honouring, just a question of timing...If you started playing early enough and were active for most of that time then it was achievable for anybody to be in the first 20 or so people to get there. I barely played for my first year on here...I was probably worth about $5m when I hit my first year milestone! Anybody who set their mind to it could still easily be in the first 100."
A fair point indeed. So, in lieu of official honours, I then decided to investigate the official record books to see if any statistical honours could be handed out. After compiling a list of the first 50 and cross-referencing the data against various other bits of information, I have deduced the following;
Sifonjerce was the fastest player to reach Level 100, doing so in 1131 days.
Easye was the slowest player to reach Level 100, taking 4327 days.
Only 11 players (Bodybagger, L4suicide, Todd, DrGonzo, Aries21, -JAcKsTer-, Robinhood, Belgarath, Abe, Ultraman, Easye) have ID numbers of five digits or fewer.
December has seen the highest number of players hit 100, with nine players doing so in this month over the years. 2016 (23) was the year with the most 100's, but curiously only three people managed it in December 2016.
Most players (22) hit Level 100 between 8pm and 4am Torn City Time. Stylin was the earliest (00:13AM) and Z_Junior the latest (23:58PM)
Those who signed up in 2005 have provided the most Level 100's (16)
Nobody who signed up in 2011 has ever hit Level 100, with the latest being 2012.
The Cheesinater (22/04/2012) is the youngest player by sign-up date to have reached Level 100, and he also did it in the 3rd fastest time (1388 days).
Robinhood is the oldest member of Torn to achieve it, having signed up on 16/11/2004 and reached Level 100 on 01/05/2016.
Players are on average 2977.88 days old when they reach Level 100 (median 3108).
Pand0ra and Solaris are the only top 50 players to identify as women.
Having poured over this data to a reasonable degree, I slung some of my findings towards those involved and received a few interesting responses. Stylin, who was the eleventh to achieve Level 100, was previously under the impression that he held a Torn City record, and it broke my heart to tell him otherwise.
"So I wasn't the fastest to level to 100? Since I reached 100 I thought I was. Other people told me so I believed it lol."
"I started all out attacking for level at about level 60-70 when this slow average joe pace of levelling starting to become boring as ****, so I started stacking all my energy to use for exp attacks, sacrificed a lot of stats but it was worth it. Now I am forever in the HOF for level and rank, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to level up fastto permanently secure my place in the top of the HOF!"
I also had an interesting chat with L4suicide, the fifth to reach 100, who pointed out to me that most of the Level 100 players in Torn have not achieved the top ranking of 26 Invincible. Just 23 of the 50 players hold this honour, with 18 on 25 Elite, five on 24 Legendary, and two each on 23 Heroic and 22 Champion.
It takes a certain number of offences and level of net worth to achieve these higher ranks, and L4suicide thinks that most players are forced to choose between big stats or Level 100, with many giving up on the former either after or before they hit Level 100.
"Another interesting angle might be the stats. Ignoring BB and Sifonjerce you'll probably find most level 100s are under 10b stats, I can't see that info obviously, but I doubt those who bothered to get to 100 trained too hard."
Having recently attained the rank of Army General I did a little poking around, and I discovered that L4suicide might be correct. I have only analysed a few of the top 50, meaning this conclusion is based on an estimate, but I shall attempt to find out for sure and publish the results in a forthcoming article.
I then pressed L4suicide further on why it had taken so long for Torn to enjoy its 50th Level 100, and how long he thought it would take Torn to reach 100 top level players.
"When I got to level 100 I had to spend 4 months whoring attacks on weak high levels to go from level 90 or so to 100. I'm surprised it took so long for others to get there too; as the more who make it means the easier it is to gain XP from those at 100."
"As the time it takes to reach 100 reduces (due to easier XP around) I would guess newer players find it more attainable. It took BB 5 years I think to get to 100? The vets all get to 50-70 and think 3-4 years more...no thanks. But newer players get to 50-70 in half the time and it's only 2 years more to do it."
"I see a lot of JFK/SA starting to gain levels for the HP, whereas previously they warred a lot, trained a lot, and didn't care about level. As players reach ~5-6b stats (which we have 200 of) energy becomes less important for them (using SE instead etc) so they mug or leave more players, plus the missions meaning a lot of players attack more often now."
"Now we have 50 I think we will see 100 by Christmas."
(Will enough of Torn's boys and girls make it to the naughty list in time?)
A bold prediction indeed. But do the statistics back this up? Well, the first two people to reach Level 100 (and we'll have more on this later) were Bodybagger and Sifonjerce, who hit the top spot in June 2010. Nobody else managed it until over a year later, when HT-Supermikk did so on 13th July 2011, and Hydr0 followed in fourth on 10th August 2011.
It was 2013 before fifth-placed L4suicide achieved Level 100 in February 2013, followed by ShuKa, UBIK and 1371383 later that year. 2014 saw four more players added to the list, including DrGonzo and Stylin, with 2015 bringing us eleven additions such as Pand0ra, Kniv, Z_Junior and Tezwar.
2016 gave us the most Level 100's by far, with 23 people including Bogie, Madmiketyson and The Cheesinater bringing us to a total of 46 at the end of that year. 2017 has given us four more so far, with Solaris joined by Drieke, Pluto and Easye. At this time last year. we had four players hit 100 as opposed to this year's five, so it seems entirely plausible that at the very least we'll be in for another large haul as 2017 unfolds.
But to round off this article let us return to the very first Level 100's, Bodybagger and Sifonjerce, and take a look at the drama which marred the first time a Torn citizen hit Level 100. My official records show that Sifonjerce hit Level 100 first at 00:22 on 16th June 2010, followed by Bodybagger at 02:10 the same day. However, this is disputed by both Bodybagger and much of the wider community.
"I was actually the first person to reach level 100, and Sifonjerce was second. Actually, I had non-officially reached it a few months before. Supermikk was close behind. We had both used the "slutting" method to get our last few levels. However, Ched didn't like the method in which we gained our levels. Supermikk and I were taken away levels all the way to level 71, since that's where the third place person was, TheLegend. I was none too happy considering that I only started using sluts at level 91."
Sifonjerce has thus far refused to comment on the matter, so in the absence of his thoughts, we must rely solely on Bodybagger for information.
"I dusted myself off after being reduced 29 levels and started making a run for level 100 again. At this point, Sifonjerce decided to challenge me to it. As per the post in my profile. It was definitely known by both him and I that I reached it first. After I sent Sifonjerce a message congratulating him for also having reached 100 and stating that it was good fun going for that final run. He replied agreeing."
This situation intrigued me. I reached out to HT-Supermikk for comment, and he backed up Bodybagger's version of events.
"That is correct. I agree with bb on thisI don't remember it was a race, but I remember I was hoping that it was possible to go past level 100. Sadly that was the max level."
"Yes. it was unfair. But back in the days everything was total random. You could go to fed-jail for something just because the admin didn't like you. The rules was made up randomly, without informing."
In addition to HT-Supermikk's words, I also have comments from both Stylin and L4suicide which state quite clearly that they too used paid-for slutting methods to achieve their 100 Level status. I wondered if Bodybagger had ever considered his method of levelling unfair in any way; but on the contrary, he believed it to be the best method of achieving greatness.
"I think that it's a more efficient way of levelling. Most people want to keep their energy for training and increasing their stats vice attacking and wasting energy. Hiring "sluts" is limited only to the money the person has, whereas attacking (and leaving) is limited by one's energy."
"To be fair to your readers, I have to preface that there was more experience gained when a player lost to another player in those days. It's still a good method but not as quick as when Supermikk and I were gunning for level 100. Hence, this is why both Sifonjerce and went the attacking method afterward."
So why was Bodybagger penalised? Why were Stylin, L4suicide and the others who partially bought their way to Level 100 not similarly punished? And who was really the first?
There was only one man who could provide the answer - Chedburn.
"Hmm, the awards may have been given manually back then, for those first two, so I'm not sure. Really they (sifonjerce and bodybagger) both achieved 100 at the same time, they both levelled up to that on the same day. This was 7 years ago so I'm really not able to be sure on that."
"The whole situation is kind of lame, I was busy with lots of things and assumed there was many months to go before someone reached level 100. I had no idea they'd hold their level and didn't think to check their EXP. So when it happened, it just kinda made a mockery of the whole thing. This thing that I'd planned for, for 6 years, to be a huge deal, was achieved basically overnight."
"My big plan was for an EXP bar to appear at the top of the page upon reaching level 100, and then once the EXP bar was filled, they'd get a merit. So EXP would produce merits after level 100."
To this day Bodybagger remains dissatisfied at the lack of recognition his achievements were given, as while he admits Chedburn did congratulate him, Bodybagger complains that it was more of an afterthought and that further prizes were promised for hitting 100 which have yet to be delivered.
"Originally, when going for the level 100, I thought the prize would be some amazing weapon of some kind, a unique weapon, or even some kind of cool real estate property. Then, when nothing ever materialized, I thought that he should at least present me with a unique item that best represents me, a bodybag, with some kind of description at the bottom indicating how it was achieved."
"I doubt there will ever be an agreement. I reached it almost 7 years ago and still nothing has happened....it has tarnished it all...I'm not sure there is an agreement problem. It's a unilateral thing on his part and I don't have any say. I'm open to talks but was never even approached about it. I haven't really said anything to Ched about it other than what I indicated in my posts about the unfairness. As indicated previously, I would love to discuss this matter with him."
It is sad that both the first and last entrants into the Level 100 first fifty club are shrouded in controversy and complications, as while it is undoubtedly an honour to have achieved such greatness, the ability to shout "first" is something no man or woman should ever be denied.
But we should not and must not let these incidents detract from what is clearly a spectacular achievement. Bodybagger, Sifonjerce, Gullis, Solaris and the rest have put many years into their work in Torn City, and each one of them stands out as a shining example of what can be done with the right blend of guts, nuts and determination.
Therefore, in no particular order, and including Gullis because to hell with officialdom, here are the 51 people who will be known as the first fifty in Torn to have achieved Level 100.
First fifty, Torn salutes you.
Original article
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