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Three time champion claims he won't participate in Dog Tag event. Other high profile players set to miss out too. Duke to employ new tag return strategy.
Next month's Dog Tag competition will be without three-time winner Kniv, who has indicated he will miss the event after reportedly becoming bored of his own relentless success and the serious neck trauma the wearing of 1,773 metal necklaces inevitably brings.
For those of you who are new to our fair city or who have drunk away what miniscule brain capacity you once had, the Dog Tag competition sees Torn citizens attempt to collect as many tags as possible, with each tag worth a certain number of points, and the aim of the game being to gain as many points as you can.
The points value of a player's tag depends on their level. For example, a spindly little runt like myself on level 21 will have a tag worth 21 points. Meanwhile, a handsome, thunderous tank of a man like Bodybagger will own a tag worth 100 points, since he is a level 100. Simple - at least you are if you still don't get it. Tags can be taken from your fellow citizens through various violent acts, as each time you mug, hospitalize or leave an opponent on the street, you have a random chance to acquire one of the tags they possess - be it their own, or one they've stolen.
There are many fancy things to be gained by entering this competition, with awards given out to those who collect 50 and 250 individual tags. You can also win competition tokens depending on where you finish in the rankings at the end, with those in the top 10% taking ten tokens, players in the top 20% receiving nine tokens, jerks in the top 30% getting 8 tokens and so on and so forth.
The top three players also receive gold, silver and bronze dog tags, with places 4 to 25 being given a metal dog tag item too. However, in recent years, the gold tag has been hogged more than a mother sow in heat, with Kniv emerging as the winner every year since 2015. Last year he was in especially good form, romping home with a record 35,924 points, a full 9,768 ahead of his nearest rival Ofgortens.
This time it will be a different story. Kniv has elected to step away from the event in order to "let someone else win this year." Many might call this decision rather hubristic, others may commend Kniv for his charitable nature, and some are likely to question Kniv's motivation for announcing his non-participation entirely. When I pressed him on his super secret reasons, Kniv gave me a most curious response:
"I'm not allowed to discuss why I'm not entering."
Interesting. Has Kniv been paid off by a rival, or is there a bigger fish involved? It is well known that one of Kniv's goals was to become so dominant that he would one day receive a message from Chedburn asking him to back down to let someone else win. Has this dream come true? Did our city's leader ask our triple tag champion to bugger off and stop being all winningy? The short answer is no.
Chedburn's suggestion that Kniv may be lying is something my naive mind had failed to contemplate. Is Kniv merely attempting to deflect attention away from himself in the early days of the competition knowing that he'll have a target on his back? Perhaps, perhaps not. But if this is the thing that he's doing - the thing that Chedburn suggested - then this wouldn't be the first time a player had done such a thing.
Back in 2017, Td3h sought to put the pressure on his rival for 2nd place, Ofgortens, by publicly outing him and his score in the Torn City Times. Td3h's efforts were in vain, though, as Ofgortens stormed home to 2nd more than 6,000 points ahead of him. Kniv named Ofgortens as his favourite for the 2018 title, but before Td3h starts preparing another article I should warn him that he needn't bother, as our 2017 runner-up also claims he won't be entering the event this year.
"I'm not participating this year as I will be traveling for work for 2 week of the month and in order to place it requires constant vigilance to stay hospitalized if you have a target on your back. Placing 2nd b2b will
likely mean I'll be sitting in the hospital for most of the month."
Ofgortens went on to tell me of the great respect he has for Td3h, and that he thoroughly enjoyed the banter between them last year, even though he did have to block his messages and ignore his parcels throughout the event. He says he'd put his money on Td3h winning the 2018 crown, since he is known to be one of Torn's most active players, and therefore eminently capable of gaining a good headstart.
I guess that means Td3h has a clear run at the title then? Nope, because he's not entering either.
"Defininitely wont be participating again. Last year was fun but the rewards for the top places just are not worth putting in the effort. For anyone serious about participating I recommend stacking job points in companies with an energy special."
Pictured: The 2018 Dog Tag podium.
If these three players aren't lying - and that is big if - we could be in for a very exciting November indeed. In addition to marking out Ofgortens, Kniv also pegged Bruce-LeeFFS as a potential title winner, and this was before he knew Td3h and Ofgortens weren't taking part. Bruce-LeeFFS was one of the young overachievers in last year's event, and intriguingly, he is yet to reply to my messages regarding an interview. Is he attempting to keep a low profile? With a name like Bruce Lee For F***s Sake, I wish him the best of luck.
Other big hitters like Bodybagger and Christmasbazaar will likely be there or thereabouts come the end of Dog Tags, but perhaps this is the year a complete unknown takes the crown instead? If they do, they'll need a damn good strategy if they are to muscle out the big boys. When I asked Kniv what young players could do to emulate his success, he said that attacks against NPCs were often fruitful, as Td3h showed last year. He also indicated that the first few seconds of the competition are the most important, and this was certainly true in 2017.
Six days into last year's competition, the Torn City Times published the anonymous leader's total as 9,651 points. Ofgortens then asked me to double check my numbers, as he simply couldn't believe that anyone could have so many tags so early in the event. Kniv could, and this early start meant his rivals stood no chance of catching him. Flying under the radar, especially early on, often means you'll have too many tags come the final week for even your most active rivals to catch you.
In addition, Ofgortens suggests that going into the competition stacked and ready to take high value tags is your best chance of victory. However, he also believes that Kniv owes a big part of his success to his faction, making the unfounded claim that our three-time champion did not work alone.
"He has some factionmates that also try and target those that are ranked and likely funnel tags to him later in the competition. (I'm not confident this takes place but imagine it does considering the amount of times I was hit last year from his factionmates)."
As for Td3h, he would warn players off from making newspaper pieces, as he believes that his article last year probably hindered his efforts more than helped. See also, Nasty Surprise. This year, Td3h plans to make money from the Dog Tag event via an undisclosed method, and suggests that he would also be willing to hire himself out as a hitman for the right money.
One player Td3h won't have to worry about hitting is Duke. The loan shark hoovers up a huge number of tags every year through his ordinary daily activities, and in 2015 he finished 17th in the standings despite not actually trying to take part. Last year, Duke elected to return all of his acquired tags in the final week of the competition, with some players criticising this as being far too late to be of use to anyone.
But in 2018's edition, Duke will be restoring all of his tags to their rightful owners at regular points throughout the event. This, combined with the absence of last year's top three, means that the 2018 Dog Tag event should prove to be a closely run affair. You know, like if two sprinters cheated on their wives or something. That makes sense. I'll leave it in.
Dog Tags begins on the 5th of November.
For those of you who are new to our fair city or who have drunk away what miniscule brain capacity you once had, the Dog Tag competition sees Torn citizens attempt to collect as many tags as possible, with each tag worth a certain number of points, and the aim of the game being to gain as many points as you can.
The points value of a player's tag depends on their level. For example, a spindly little runt like myself on level 21 will have a tag worth 21 points. Meanwhile, a handsome, thunderous tank of a man like Bodybagger will own a tag worth 100 points, since he is a level 100. Simple - at least you are if you still don't get it. Tags can be taken from your fellow citizens through various violent acts, as each time you mug, hospitalize or leave an opponent on the street, you have a random chance to acquire one of the tags they possess - be it their own, or one they've stolen.
There are many fancy things to be gained by entering this competition, with awards given out to those who collect 50 and 250 individual tags. You can also win competition tokens depending on where you finish in the rankings at the end, with those in the top 10% taking ten tokens, players in the top 20% receiving nine tokens, jerks in the top 30% getting 8 tokens and so on and so forth.
The top three players also receive gold, silver and bronze dog tags, with places 4 to 25 being given a metal dog tag item too. However, in recent years, the gold tag has been hogged more than a mother sow in heat, with Kniv emerging as the winner every year since 2015. Last year he was in especially good form, romping home with a record 35,924 points, a full 9,768 ahead of his nearest rival Ofgortens.
This time it will be a different story. Kniv has elected to step away from the event in order to "let someone else win this year." Many might call this decision rather hubristic, others may commend Kniv for his charitable nature, and some are likely to question Kniv's motivation for announcing his non-participation entirely. When I pressed him on his super secret reasons, Kniv gave me a most curious response:
"I'm not allowed to discuss why I'm not entering."
Interesting. Has Kniv been paid off by a rival, or is there a bigger fish involved? It is well known that one of Kniv's goals was to become so dominant that he would one day receive a message from Chedburn asking him to back down to let someone else win. Has this dream come true? Did our city's leader ask our triple tag champion to bugger off and stop being all winningy? The short answer is no.
Chedburn's suggestion that Kniv may be lying is something my naive mind had failed to contemplate. Is Kniv merely attempting to deflect attention away from himself in the early days of the competition knowing that he'll have a target on his back? Perhaps, perhaps not. But if this is the thing that he's doing - the thing that Chedburn suggested - then this wouldn't be the first time a player had done such a thing.
Back in 2017, Td3h sought to put the pressure on his rival for 2nd place, Ofgortens, by publicly outing him and his score in the Torn City Times. Td3h's efforts were in vain, though, as Ofgortens stormed home to 2nd more than 6,000 points ahead of him. Kniv named Ofgortens as his favourite for the 2018 title, but before Td3h starts preparing another article I should warn him that he needn't bother, as our 2017 runner-up also claims he won't be entering the event this year.
"I'm not participating this year as I will be traveling for work for 2 week of the month and in order to place it requires constant vigilance to stay hospitalized if you have a target on your back. Placing 2nd b2b will
likely mean I'll be sitting in the hospital for most of the month."
Ofgortens went on to tell me of the great respect he has for Td3h, and that he thoroughly enjoyed the banter between them last year, even though he did have to block his messages and ignore his parcels throughout the event. He says he'd put his money on Td3h winning the 2018 crown, since he is known to be one of Torn's most active players, and therefore eminently capable of gaining a good headstart.
I guess that means Td3h has a clear run at the title then? Nope, because he's not entering either.
"Defininitely wont be participating again. Last year was fun but the rewards for the top places just are not worth putting in the effort. For anyone serious about participating I recommend stacking job points in companies with an energy special."
Pictured: The 2018 Dog Tag podium.
If these three players aren't lying - and that is big if - we could be in for a very exciting November indeed. In addition to marking out Ofgortens, Kniv also pegged Bruce-LeeFFS as a potential title winner, and this was before he knew Td3h and Ofgortens weren't taking part. Bruce-LeeFFS was one of the young overachievers in last year's event, and intriguingly, he is yet to reply to my messages regarding an interview. Is he attempting to keep a low profile? With a name like Bruce Lee For F***s Sake, I wish him the best of luck.
Other big hitters like Bodybagger and Christmasbazaar will likely be there or thereabouts come the end of Dog Tags, but perhaps this is the year a complete unknown takes the crown instead? If they do, they'll need a damn good strategy if they are to muscle out the big boys. When I asked Kniv what young players could do to emulate his success, he said that attacks against NPCs were often fruitful, as Td3h showed last year. He also indicated that the first few seconds of the competition are the most important, and this was certainly true in 2017.
Six days into last year's competition, the Torn City Times published the anonymous leader's total as 9,651 points. Ofgortens then asked me to double check my numbers, as he simply couldn't believe that anyone could have so many tags so early in the event. Kniv could, and this early start meant his rivals stood no chance of catching him. Flying under the radar, especially early on, often means you'll have too many tags come the final week for even your most active rivals to catch you.
In addition, Ofgortens suggests that going into the competition stacked and ready to take high value tags is your best chance of victory. However, he also believes that Kniv owes a big part of his success to his faction, making the unfounded claim that our three-time champion did not work alone.
"He has some factionmates that also try and target those that are ranked and likely funnel tags to him later in the competition. (I'm not confident this takes place but imagine it does considering the amount of times I was hit last year from his factionmates)."
As for Td3h, he would warn players off from making newspaper pieces, as he believes that his article last year probably hindered his efforts more than helped. See also, Nasty Surprise. This year, Td3h plans to make money from the Dog Tag event via an undisclosed method, and suggests that he would also be willing to hire himself out as a hitman for the right money.
One player Td3h won't have to worry about hitting is Duke. The loan shark hoovers up a huge number of tags every year through his ordinary daily activities, and in 2015 he finished 17th in the standings despite not actually trying to take part. Last year, Duke elected to return all of his acquired tags in the final week of the competition, with some players criticising this as being far too late to be of use to anyone.
But in 2018's edition, Duke will be restoring all of his tags to their rightful owners at regular points throughout the event. This, combined with the absence of last year's top three, means that the 2018 Dog Tag event should prove to be a closely run affair. You know, like if two sprinters cheated on their wives or something. That makes sense. I'll leave it in.
Dog Tags begins on the 5th of November.
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