sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
2019 champ secures second consecutive victory, equals record score. Find out who is selling their silver tag, who wants Dog Tags to change, and which player bought three NPC tags on the final day.
Penicillin has won the Dog Tags tournament for the second year running after finishing with a score of 42,682 points. Astonishingly, this is the exact same score he recorded last year when he set a new Torn record. Congratulations Penicillin on a well-deserved victory!
12,808 points behind Penicillin was Shuka, who finished second for the third year in a row on 29,873 points. In third, Z_junior secured his highest ever finish in the event thanks to a haul of 23,356 points. Here is the final top ten table complete with the positional changes from Monday in parentheses.
1st (1st) - Penicillin - 42,682 points - 1,399 tags
2nd (2nd) - Shuka - 29,873 points - 884 tags
3rd (3rd) - Z_junior - 23,356 points - 698 tags
4th (4th) - Lord_Gorgen - 21,550 points - 756 tags
5th (5th) - Shiff - 16,648 points - 819 tags
6th (6th) - Sky - 16,421 points - 467 tags
7th (7th) - ACWang - 14,229 points - 666 tags
8th (9th) - Kookaburra - 14,003 points - 549 tags
9th (?) - The-Evil-Monkey - 13,004 points - 540 tags
10th (8th) - Bodybagger - 12,403 points - 355 tags
We'll look at the stats, the controversies, and some of the top 25 overachievers later in this article. But first, let's hear from this year's top three taggers, starting with our newly-crowned double-champion, Penicillin.
LATE START, EARLY VICTORY
Penicillin's victory was all but assured from early on in the competition, as every time we tracked the scores we found he had increased his lead at the top. And his win is all the more impressive given that Penicillin missed the crucial first hour of the competition, and thus failed to collect any staff or NPC tags.
When Penicillin realised the event had started, he began to rack up a large number of level 100 tags, but his late start meant he still needed to bulk out his tally with lots of lower value tags - a fact which is reflected in his 2020 collection of 1,399 tags, compared to 2019's total of 1,267.
After last year's win, Penicillin told The Times he was adamant he would not aim for victory again due to the huge effort the tournament requires. His target this year was merely to enter the top 25, but once he realised he was topping the leaderboard after a couple of days, Penicillin's attitude towards the competition changed.
"Given that I was in first place and since I am working from home thanks to covid, it was a lot more feasible to participate in the event than it was last year when I was sneaking in hits from my place of work. So, I kept going. After the first newspaper article update, I figured it would be silly for me to stop given the lead I had amassed."
"However, I decided that if I was going to try to win, I was not going to solicit tags from anyone. I would win it on my own efforts without having tags fed to me. And so, I went about going down that path and finished without soliciting any help or having tags fed to me. I returned a few tags and horse traded for a few others, but overall, those were probably a wash. Basically, it was pure personal effort."
Aside from the lack of bought tags, Penicillin's strategy did not change markedly from last year, and he claims he got lucky with no overdoses, a few McSmoogle boosts, and the fact that his farm managed to retain its 10-star status this time around. His only real concern was avoiding Torn's resident stat-beast Bodybagger, who forced him to fly to overseas to avoid giving him too many tags.
In total, Penicillin only lost 16 tags during the tournament as a whole. When I asked him if he was disappointed to have failed to beat his record point total from last year, he revealed that equalling it was actually his goal, and that this target was far more difficult than it seems.
"During the last week, the only tags available are held by other collectors of tags, and since the tag you pull from them is random, you end up pulling mostly bad tags. My average tag value for the first two weeks was 34, whereas for the last week it was 23. For the same point total, last year I made 1,876 attacks and collected 1,287 tags, and this year I made 2,109 attacks and collected 1,415 tags."
"Theoretically, this number should have dropped due to overall player level inflation, but that is the price you pay during the last week for doing it yourself versus having faction mates feed tags to you."
Penicillin ended our interview by claiming he will not try to win the competition again, and that in future, he will try to help one of his faction mates win. Given that he made the same claim last year, I'm sure he'll forgive us for taking this statement with a large pinch of salt. Penicillin is only the second player to successfully retain the Dog Tags title (in its current format) after Kniv, who won in 2015, 2016, and 2017. So could he be tempted back for a shot at a third title next year?
"I can't rule it out entirely, but I am also cognizant of coming off as looking like a hog on this event. I think I could win it perpetually. I also don't want to solidify the narrative that only the strongest players can win it."
SHUKA'S THIRD SECOND FOR SALE
Shuka's score of 29,873 points would've been enough to win Dog Tags in years gone by, but the modern-day competition is a different beast altogether. Having recorded three second-place finishes in a row you could excuse Shuka for being downbeat, however, he appeared rather chipper when I interviewed him, and was more interested in getting a good price for his runner-up prize than feeling sorry for himself.
"I like to advertise selling silver dog tag for 2B."
In truth, it would be odd if Shuka was regretful right now, given that he is a former Dog Tag champion himself. The Community Center page doesn't show the results of the old Dog Tag tournaments which ran before 2015, but Shuka was indeed champion back in 2013. He describes his three second-places in a row as a somewhat ordinary achievement, although at the same time he feels it's quite a feat given he didn't really give the competition his all.
"I overachieved going half-assed ranked me 2nd, besides you don't really win anything... The only setback I had was during elimination period that's when I lost over 5b at lotto that affected my willingness to spend on a full level. [This year] I did less work and less spending than years before more fiscally conservative this year."
Shuka says it was obvious that Penicillin was out in front early on, but this information didn't make much of a difference to his goals, which were to finish in the top ten or top three. He believes this year's event was different due to the higher tag steal rate, the increasing top-level population, and a lack of broad enthusiasm for the event following Halloween, the mirage tag bug, and the distraction of the US elections.
Nevertheless, Shuka's experience helped him to deal with all of this and take home the Silver Dog tag award for the third time. When I asked him what he had to do next year to secure victory, Shuka was as defiant in defeat as Donald Trump. And much like the aforementioned soon-to-be former President, Shuka also remains keen to use his position to pay off a few old debts.
"Hay I won Mr, I ranked 2nd by a landslide. Did I mention I am selling Silver Dog Tag for 2B?"
Z'S EFFORT PAYS OFF
Z_junior's third-place finish was his highest in the competition so far (not including the old event, which we do not have records for), having previously finished 13th in the 2019 edition. He attributes his success to the fact that he made a conscious decision to participate this time around, despite feeling that the event itself is no more than a bit of fun.
"I actually put an effort in this year, compared to any other years where I just attacked randomly as I normally do. No strategies other than monitoring which players are tag collectors and targeting them."
I asked Z, and indeed all of the top three, whether it was easy to identify who their rivals were at the top of the tag table. Z_junior told me it was quite obvious who he was competing against, as the tools and the data are out there for all to see if you know where to look.
"The number of attacks done in a certain period of time is a public record exposed through the API so you can make a very good guess on who is where."
Despite securing his best-ever finish, Z_junior says he doubts he will participate in the event again as he believes that Dog Tags needs a revamp. His first complaint is that the competition is too close to the newly expanded Halloween Basket event, which he feels put many people off from participating. The close proximity of these two solo attacking competitions alongside Elimination has been noted by the developers, and a calendar shake-up is believed to be on the cards for next year.
"On top of that, I think no single person can win this competition on their own, and it has to be a group effort by several people who pool their resources and feed the one person they want to promote to #1. And in its core this is supposed to be an individual contest and not a group one, so that's where I see it as a failure of design and where I want to see a change in years to come."
It will be interesting to see whether the Dog Tag competition is changed in future to somehow prevent players from pooling their resources or buying victory. Z_junior certainly has a valid point with regards to the impact of tag feeding on the final standings, as we'll find out as we look through the rest of the top 25.
THE BEST OF THE REST
Several players in the top ten managed new personal bests in the Dog Tags competition, with Shiff's 5th place improving on his 2018 result of 6th, Sky's 6th place up hugely from 2019's 17th place, and Kookaburra's finish of 8th marking a massive improvement from his 24th-place result in 2019. ACWang and The-Evil-Monkey also secured their first-ever top 25 placements with their 7th and 9th place finishes respectively.
Elsewhere, Lord_Gorgen equalled his best-ever finish in 4th, a result which he also secured back in 2015. It was also a good year for Bodybagger, who has previously finished as high as third, but has struggled in recent years, coming 18th in 2019 and 17th in 2018. Torn's strongest player put in a much-improved display this time around with a respectable 10th place finish.
Beyond the top ten, there were several notable names from years gone by populating the rest of the top 25. Triple Dog Tag champion Kniv finished in 12th position, with 2019's third-placed player Logiet_is_bige one place behind him in 13th. In 14th was Madbuns, a player who finished 5th in 2018, and in 17th we have Riverninny, who has finished in the top 25 every year since 2016, with their highest finish being 3rd in 2018.
Another interesting name in the top 25 is Wildhare, who was one of the standout players in 2019 after finishing 8th at just 418 days old. Her 2020 finish of 18th is just as impressive, especially considering her exploits last year almost certainly cost her a fair number of tags in 2020.
This year, there were a number of young players following in Wildhare's footsteps, with Uther (19th) and Emmastormborn (20th) performing fantastically well at just 531 and 519 days respectively. Pagey, 916 days old, also deserves recognition for finishing in 11th amongst a crowd of highly experienced and powerful players.
BOUGHT AND PAID FOR
Despite 2020 being an utter s**t show of a year, Torn's three major tournaments have been refreshingly devoid of controversy for once. Nevertheless, as Z_junior suggested earlier in this article, there are concerns among some players that the practice of tag purchasing somewhat undermines the spirit of the event as a solo competition.
Take the top ten, for example. Overall, there was very little movement among these players throughout the latter stages of the competition - the top seven rankings did not change once since our second update on November 17th. Only one player, The-Evil-Monkey, managed to break into the top ten right at the death, and he achieved this by purchasing three 500 point NPC tags from Leafeh during the final 24 hours.
Leafeh sold these three tags for just over $500 million to TEM, and he wasn't her only client either. Leafeh sold a fifth 500 point tag to dontcryy, who also bought a second 500 point tag through her from another player, Skmoonlight. Skmoonlight's story is an interesting one in itself, as this level 17 player was lucky enough to nab a 500 point tag, despite being only 20 days old at the time of writing. Leafeh tells the rest of the story below:
"He [dontcryy] bought one [tag] from me, and one via 2 middlemen, going through me, to then go through EnoD, who then hooked him up with that test dummy noob I linked...This very new player was also lucky enough to get a 500 point tag off of the mission restricted test dummies due to great sign up timing. And I believe he made some decent profit to start his Torn career."
"I believe the middleman I was in contact with took 25% of 90mill. It sold for 100mill, but I took a 10% cut. So skmoonlight should have gotten 75% of 90mill... A very messy deal that eventually paid off, with profit for all involved."
The purchase of two 500 point tags sent dontcryy into the top 25 at the expense of another player, and it was a similar case with The-Evil-Monkey, who had not appeared in the top ten once before he purchased four 500 point tags right at the end of the competition. Those who have been bumped down a place or two by these players are likely rather angry right now, and understandably so.
Yet there are plenty of players who use their factions and bank balances to achieve victory in Dog Tags and other events, so the morality of this practice is still very much up for debate. It would be a different story altogether if we had someone purchase 50% or more of their tag total, but this hasn't happened yet, and players like TEM and dontcryy couldn't have placed so highly without a significant effort being made in addition to their well-timed purchases - TEM was in the top 25 throughout the competition.
And in the case of dontcryy, it appears he only bought his tags to balance out the misfortune he experienced earlier in the competition.
"...yesterday while I was holding 363 tags I get attacked by someone and lose my own tag (Worth 460 score). I was so triggered and mad for about 2 hours ... it was crazy. Basically lost my mind there lol. I had the feeling I was somewhere close to top 25. I knew I had to make progress fast now."
"So I was looking around for any possibilities and found leafeh's thread. I decided to buy a NPC tag off him to make up for my own lost tag. Then today about 1 hour before it ended he offered me another one cheap. I put in so much effort and I felt I was close so I decided to grab another NPC tag. The money invested was worth the Metal dog tag."
DOG TAG 2020 STATS
2020's event saw a new record set for the highest number of tags ever stolen during the competition. The previous record of 511,147 set last year has been smashed, with a total of 527,901 tags being stolen this year. This record is impressive as it comes in a year where participation was slightly down. 2019 saw a record 36,187 people take part, whereas 34,905 people joined in the festivities this time around.
In all, these trends resulted in a more aggressive battle among the very top taggers, with the average tags and points per player raised as a result. In turn, this saw the cutoff figure for the top 10% rise massively. Whereas 2019's players only needed to score 727 points to gain the maximum of 10 competition tokens, this year you needed a whopping 1,043 points to find yourself among the 90-100% bracket.
TALES AND TIPS
Earlier this month, we asked you to send in your stories from this year's Dog Tags tournament. Many players outside of the top 25 have an interesting story to tell, so we'll end this article with a few of our favourite tales and tips from those we received. And congratulations once more to Penicillin, because judging by our first entry, you may need it if you are to win again next year!
A CHAMPION'S ROUTINE
In 2019, a player who wishes to remain anonymous lost her tag to the eventual champion, Penicillin, and was unable to retrieve it. This year, she decided to try a strategy known as anti-stalking to avoid losing it to him again. Her tactics involved monitoring Penicillin’s routine and making sure to avoid him when he was online. If anyone wants to stop him winning three in a row next year, here are anon’s observations.
* He starts his Torn day anytime between 14:15 TCT to 14:45 TCT (means he wakes up here)
* The moment he goes online, I self hosp and wait the hour out. He usually starts hitting top SA members in a row within 5 mins of being up.
* He then hangs around Torn 5-10 mins max before travelling to Cayman Islands (80%) or Switzerland (20%). He spends about 4-6 hours overseas, hitting others I'm sure.
* The moment I see him travelling back, I self hosp and go to bed.
* Sometimes I'm still up waiting out a Xanax or my booster cooldown, I see that he Self-hosps if he's not actively attacking - the hours range from wrong blood bags (1h+), SEDs (4h+) and even failing kidnapping crimes (8h+).
* He sometimes makes a run for it at new day, but as I'm still self hosped it doesn't affect me.
This player finished within the top 10% and managed to retain their own tag.
TO THE LETTER
Scarlett almost gave up on the 250 tag merit when she was hospitalised repeatedly at 50 tags, but in the end, she achieved her goal through the use of an interesting search strategy:
“I typed 3 random letters in (the less sense they make, the better) and most of the low level targets I hit were holding tags. I imagine people are more likely to search an actual word or name. I typed things like zxy, xxz, qzw etc. I was able to finally get the 250 merit.”
Scarlett finished in 638th place, thanks to her haul of 237 tags and 1,628 points.
MEDIC!
SpeedSkateR has been a Torn citizen for nearly sixteen years and decided to take part in Dog Tags for the very first time this year. Her strategy was to avoid inactives as she feels they are boring and offer no chance of salt, so she rather ingeniously went for a different category of player altogether.
“I targeted a lot of healers who I saw attacking people. I figured a healer attacking people is obviously sus. I also targeted people who had low activity but were attacking folks. Surely it's no coincidence that you're active again just in time for a competition."
"After hitting a few of those people, I would fly to UAE or SA. Perfect for not only protecting my tags but also working on travel merits. Once I got to my location, I attacked all people with that green online bubble. Very sus that you're chilling online overseas.”
SpeedSkateR’s goal of 50 tags soon turned into 250, which she also achieved rapidly. By the time she hit the second merit she had also grabbed herself 12 awards; # of attacks, total hits, bounties, double merit off kill streak, level, rank (from leveling), the awards for 50 & 250 tags, plus three token shop awards. SpeedSkateR finished in 224th place, having collected 252 tags and 2,903 points.
CHAIN HIT
Kyozo43 decided to go for the 250 tags merit this year at 900+ days of age. Their mission was successful, but it could have been a different story if they weren't careful during their adventures in foreign lands.
"Accidentally stole a 5k chain hit while abroad collecting tags (oops!) Faction banter around getting attacked/mugged but being happy the assailant didn't get a tag was fun, though."
Kyozo43 finished 291st with 464 tags and a score of 2,618.
MY ENEMIES' ENEMY
AlexeaNikkole was getting mugged for tags repeatedly until she came up with the genius idea of turning her attackers against one another:
“I told the guy who mugged me sorry I don't have any tags. I then get mugged by another guy who didn't get a tag either and I told him I didn't have tags too, but I turned him towards the other gentleman who had previously mugged me so those two could go after each other. I lied as I had 260 oddish tags. I told the 2nd guy to hunt the first guy, and I was thanked and they have both left me alone.”
AlexeaNikkole finished up in 247th place with 356 tags and a score of 2,834.
SUPERB AT SIXTY
LlysheOlenich only turned 60 days old on the final day of Dog Tags 2020, but on the 17th of November, she managed to reach and exceed the 250 tag mark despite her newbie status.
“My faction had warned me that my own tag would likely be stolen pretty quickly and that newbie players were not likely to hit the 250 mark (but to not be discouraged). I was beyond excited to steal my 257th tag this morning. And I can't seem to stop, even though I've hit the goal and achieved the merit.”
LlysheOlenich ended the event in 985th, with 302 tags and a score of 1,188.
THE NUMBERS GAME
MJH found that you had a 90% chance of taking a tag from players who were 150 days old, level 1, with zero defends lost. Once those players had been rinsed, MJH discovered that you don’t always need to use advanced search to find new targets.
“Next, I simply changed the last digit of the player ID in the URL bar, repeating the stat check, attack and then moving on. All in all, it was minimal effort for maximum output and I did this method exclusively on my phone.”
MJH finished in 379th with 242 tags and a score of 2,306.
INACTIVE ACTIVITY
DarthRoco, a player who is just over 200 days old, managed to get both the 50 and 250 tags merits and finished in 266th place thanks to his strategy of avoiding active players.
“People heavily underestimate just how many torn inactives there really are. Out of all my tags, only 10 or so were acquired from actives while the rest I got purely from attacking lv 10-12 inactives. People (especially newbs and those with low battle stats) should really use this feature (advanced search) to at least get the merits!”
DarthRoco ended the competition in 266th with 237 tags and 2,707 points.
BITE BACK WITH BOUNTIES
Chrelle contacted The Times to tell us of an interesting retaliation strategy she’d come across, one which players can use if they are repeatedly attacked by the same people - or if they're not, because nobody would ever know!
“I bounty people with the reason "got a lot of tags" if they hit me around too much - wasn’t my original idea tho.”
Chrelle was 3,555th with 20 tags and 250 points.
UNLUCKY UIARAK
_UIarak_ suffered some terrible luck when one of their faction members attacked him twice, and on the second assault, somehow managed to secure his own personal tag from amongst a haul of others.
“He had a 1/250 chance of getting MY dog tag if he was able to steal a dog tag at all, but he had to steal mine. I've never lost my dog tag before. I had to smack him twice to get my lovely dog tag back. Although I guess I have to thank him for adding 1 point of value to my tag.”
_UIarak_ finished 707th with 242 tags and 1,496 points.
FASTEST 250?
Kivou used the API to achieve the 250 merit by 15:18pm on the 8th of November, just three days after Dog Tags 2020 had begun, and with only 277 attacks made.
“...and a score of 8.5k which I reckon is pretty fast and efficient if I compare to the results you published on the first article.”
Kivou finished in 42nd place with 241 tags and a score of 5,648.
Update: JPills got there at 15:39:40 on the 5th. Can anyone beat that?
PICTURE PERFECT
DarthTom had another clever defensive tactic which seems obvious when you think about it. He simply changed his profile picture to say “I’m not taking part in the dog tags competition”. This, combined with some smart target research, allowed him to get the 50 tag merit while remaining under the radar. And once he’d reached his goals, DarthTom found out a way to make a little cash from the event too.
“As I kept a note of who I had got dog tags from and who I hadn't, I took a page out of Kelsie's book and resold my own targets to other players. By doing this alone, I made over $50m so far - not bad for a player that is less than a year in.”
DarthTom ended up in 1,898th with 47 tags and 611 points.
DOUBLE UP
EagleScream wasn’t participating this year, which is good, as they lost their tag in the first few hours. However, in doing so, ES may have stumbled upon an interesting strategy for identifying players with tags.
“Had my dog tag returned to me and then was hit 30 seconds after... I suspect to see if I had any further tags... An interesting strategy I had never thought of before.”
EagleScream finished 2,541st with 42 tags and 438 points.
SINGING THE BLUES
Blues went for the 250 tag merit by aiming for level 10-19 inactives. Since high levels would be popular due to their high point values, and low levels would be attacked by those going for the merits, Blues figured they would face little competition if they went for these low to mid-range targets. They were correct, and Blues managed to hit 250 tags relatively early. They then read the Newspaper and realised that another goal could be achieved.
“I went to the Community Center and looked at the past competitions which I largely ignored. I pulled up 2019, and saw that 25th place was only about 3700 points more than what I had... and the competition had practically only begun.”
An unmasked attack almost put paid to Blues’ ambitions, but they recovered from a slew of well-paid bounties to find themselves just a few thousand points shy of 10th place on the 17th of November. By the 22nd they had 743 tags worth 8,835 points. Blues finished the competition in 16th place with 857 tags and a score of 9,994.
SSL PLAYER SAYS SUCK IT!
Smallsplat was hoping to achieve top 5% by the end of the competition if only to rub it in the faces of everyone who did worse than him, a player who has never taken any drugs. They finished in 455th with 338 tags and a score of 2,070.
A NEW NICKNAME
1milperhosp has earned themselves a new nickname due to their exploits during Dog Tags 2020, as they’ve been collecting tags with the sole purpose of returning them.
“I have been called Mother Teresa by the new citizens of Torn after returning their dog tags. I have not kept a single tag... but I come equipped with different genitalia than the dear Mother.”
1milperhosp ended in joint last, as they had no tags and no score. What a generous soul.
12,808 points behind Penicillin was Shuka, who finished second for the third year in a row on 29,873 points. In third, Z_junior secured his highest ever finish in the event thanks to a haul of 23,356 points. Here is the final top ten table complete with the positional changes from Monday in parentheses.
1st (1st) - Penicillin - 42,682 points - 1,399 tags
2nd (2nd) - Shuka - 29,873 points - 884 tags
3rd (3rd) - Z_junior - 23,356 points - 698 tags
4th (4th) - Lord_Gorgen - 21,550 points - 756 tags
5th (5th) - Shiff - 16,648 points - 819 tags
6th (6th) - Sky - 16,421 points - 467 tags
7th (7th) - ACWang - 14,229 points - 666 tags
8th (9th) - Kookaburra - 14,003 points - 549 tags
9th (?) - The-Evil-Monkey - 13,004 points - 540 tags
10th (8th) - Bodybagger - 12,403 points - 355 tags
We'll look at the stats, the controversies, and some of the top 25 overachievers later in this article. But first, let's hear from this year's top three taggers, starting with our newly-crowned double-champion, Penicillin.
LATE START, EARLY VICTORY
Penicillin's victory was all but assured from early on in the competition, as every time we tracked the scores we found he had increased his lead at the top. And his win is all the more impressive given that Penicillin missed the crucial first hour of the competition, and thus failed to collect any staff or NPC tags.
When Penicillin realised the event had started, he began to rack up a large number of level 100 tags, but his late start meant he still needed to bulk out his tally with lots of lower value tags - a fact which is reflected in his 2020 collection of 1,399 tags, compared to 2019's total of 1,267.
After last year's win, Penicillin told The Times he was adamant he would not aim for victory again due to the huge effort the tournament requires. His target this year was merely to enter the top 25, but once he realised he was topping the leaderboard after a couple of days, Penicillin's attitude towards the competition changed.
"Given that I was in first place and since I am working from home thanks to covid, it was a lot more feasible to participate in the event than it was last year when I was sneaking in hits from my place of work. So, I kept going. After the first newspaper article update, I figured it would be silly for me to stop given the lead I had amassed."
"However, I decided that if I was going to try to win, I was not going to solicit tags from anyone. I would win it on my own efforts without having tags fed to me. And so, I went about going down that path and finished without soliciting any help or having tags fed to me. I returned a few tags and horse traded for a few others, but overall, those were probably a wash. Basically, it was pure personal effort."
Aside from the lack of bought tags, Penicillin's strategy did not change markedly from last year, and he claims he got lucky with no overdoses, a few McSmoogle boosts, and the fact that his farm managed to retain its 10-star status this time around. His only real concern was avoiding Torn's resident stat-beast Bodybagger, who forced him to fly to overseas to avoid giving him too many tags.
In total, Penicillin only lost 16 tags during the tournament as a whole. When I asked him if he was disappointed to have failed to beat his record point total from last year, he revealed that equalling it was actually his goal, and that this target was far more difficult than it seems.
"During the last week, the only tags available are held by other collectors of tags, and since the tag you pull from them is random, you end up pulling mostly bad tags. My average tag value for the first two weeks was 34, whereas for the last week it was 23. For the same point total, last year I made 1,876 attacks and collected 1,287 tags, and this year I made 2,109 attacks and collected 1,415 tags."
"Theoretically, this number should have dropped due to overall player level inflation, but that is the price you pay during the last week for doing it yourself versus having faction mates feed tags to you."
Penicillin ended our interview by claiming he will not try to win the competition again, and that in future, he will try to help one of his faction mates win. Given that he made the same claim last year, I'm sure he'll forgive us for taking this statement with a large pinch of salt. Penicillin is only the second player to successfully retain the Dog Tags title (in its current format) after Kniv, who won in 2015, 2016, and 2017. So could he be tempted back for a shot at a third title next year?
"I can't rule it out entirely, but I am also cognizant of coming off as looking like a hog on this event. I think I could win it perpetually. I also don't want to solidify the narrative that only the strongest players can win it."
SHUKA'S THIRD SECOND FOR SALE
Shuka's score of 29,873 points would've been enough to win Dog Tags in years gone by, but the modern-day competition is a different beast altogether. Having recorded three second-place finishes in a row you could excuse Shuka for being downbeat, however, he appeared rather chipper when I interviewed him, and was more interested in getting a good price for his runner-up prize than feeling sorry for himself.
"I like to advertise selling silver dog tag for 2B."
In truth, it would be odd if Shuka was regretful right now, given that he is a former Dog Tag champion himself. The Community Center page doesn't show the results of the old Dog Tag tournaments which ran before 2015, but Shuka was indeed champion back in 2013. He describes his three second-places in a row as a somewhat ordinary achievement, although at the same time he feels it's quite a feat given he didn't really give the competition his all.
"I overachieved going half-assed ranked me 2nd, besides you don't really win anything... The only setback I had was during elimination period that's when I lost over 5b at lotto that affected my willingness to spend on a full level. [This year] I did less work and less spending than years before more fiscally conservative this year."
Shuka says it was obvious that Penicillin was out in front early on, but this information didn't make much of a difference to his goals, which were to finish in the top ten or top three. He believes this year's event was different due to the higher tag steal rate, the increasing top-level population, and a lack of broad enthusiasm for the event following Halloween, the mirage tag bug, and the distraction of the US elections.
Nevertheless, Shuka's experience helped him to deal with all of this and take home the Silver Dog tag award for the third time. When I asked him what he had to do next year to secure victory, Shuka was as defiant in defeat as Donald Trump. And much like the aforementioned soon-to-be former President, Shuka also remains keen to use his position to pay off a few old debts.
"Hay I won Mr, I ranked 2nd by a landslide. Did I mention I am selling Silver Dog Tag for 2B?"
Z'S EFFORT PAYS OFF
Z_junior's third-place finish was his highest in the competition so far (not including the old event, which we do not have records for), having previously finished 13th in the 2019 edition. He attributes his success to the fact that he made a conscious decision to participate this time around, despite feeling that the event itself is no more than a bit of fun.
"I actually put an effort in this year, compared to any other years where I just attacked randomly as I normally do. No strategies other than monitoring which players are tag collectors and targeting them."
I asked Z, and indeed all of the top three, whether it was easy to identify who their rivals were at the top of the tag table. Z_junior told me it was quite obvious who he was competing against, as the tools and the data are out there for all to see if you know where to look.
"The number of attacks done in a certain period of time is a public record exposed through the API so you can make a very good guess on who is where."
Despite securing his best-ever finish, Z_junior says he doubts he will participate in the event again as he believes that Dog Tags needs a revamp. His first complaint is that the competition is too close to the newly expanded Halloween Basket event, which he feels put many people off from participating. The close proximity of these two solo attacking competitions alongside Elimination has been noted by the developers, and a calendar shake-up is believed to be on the cards for next year.
"On top of that, I think no single person can win this competition on their own, and it has to be a group effort by several people who pool their resources and feed the one person they want to promote to #1. And in its core this is supposed to be an individual contest and not a group one, so that's where I see it as a failure of design and where I want to see a change in years to come."
It will be interesting to see whether the Dog Tag competition is changed in future to somehow prevent players from pooling their resources or buying victory. Z_junior certainly has a valid point with regards to the impact of tag feeding on the final standings, as we'll find out as we look through the rest of the top 25.
THE BEST OF THE REST
Several players in the top ten managed new personal bests in the Dog Tags competition, with Shiff's 5th place improving on his 2018 result of 6th, Sky's 6th place up hugely from 2019's 17th place, and Kookaburra's finish of 8th marking a massive improvement from his 24th-place result in 2019. ACWang and The-Evil-Monkey also secured their first-ever top 25 placements with their 7th and 9th place finishes respectively.
Elsewhere, Lord_Gorgen equalled his best-ever finish in 4th, a result which he also secured back in 2015. It was also a good year for Bodybagger, who has previously finished as high as third, but has struggled in recent years, coming 18th in 2019 and 17th in 2018. Torn's strongest player put in a much-improved display this time around with a respectable 10th place finish.
Beyond the top ten, there were several notable names from years gone by populating the rest of the top 25. Triple Dog Tag champion Kniv finished in 12th position, with 2019's third-placed player Logiet_is_bige one place behind him in 13th. In 14th was Madbuns, a player who finished 5th in 2018, and in 17th we have Riverninny, who has finished in the top 25 every year since 2016, with their highest finish being 3rd in 2018.
Another interesting name in the top 25 is Wildhare, who was one of the standout players in 2019 after finishing 8th at just 418 days old. Her 2020 finish of 18th is just as impressive, especially considering her exploits last year almost certainly cost her a fair number of tags in 2020.
This year, there were a number of young players following in Wildhare's footsteps, with Uther (19th) and Emmastormborn (20th) performing fantastically well at just 531 and 519 days respectively. Pagey, 916 days old, also deserves recognition for finishing in 11th amongst a crowd of highly experienced and powerful players.
BOUGHT AND PAID FOR
Despite 2020 being an utter s**t show of a year, Torn's three major tournaments have been refreshingly devoid of controversy for once. Nevertheless, as Z_junior suggested earlier in this article, there are concerns among some players that the practice of tag purchasing somewhat undermines the spirit of the event as a solo competition.
Take the top ten, for example. Overall, there was very little movement among these players throughout the latter stages of the competition - the top seven rankings did not change once since our second update on November 17th. Only one player, The-Evil-Monkey, managed to break into the top ten right at the death, and he achieved this by purchasing three 500 point NPC tags from Leafeh during the final 24 hours.
Leafeh sold these three tags for just over $500 million to TEM, and he wasn't her only client either. Leafeh sold a fifth 500 point tag to dontcryy, who also bought a second 500 point tag through her from another player, Skmoonlight. Skmoonlight's story is an interesting one in itself, as this level 17 player was lucky enough to nab a 500 point tag, despite being only 20 days old at the time of writing. Leafeh tells the rest of the story below:
"He [dontcryy] bought one [tag] from me, and one via 2 middlemen, going through me, to then go through EnoD, who then hooked him up with that test dummy noob I linked...This very new player was also lucky enough to get a 500 point tag off of the mission restricted test dummies due to great sign up timing. And I believe he made some decent profit to start his Torn career."
"I believe the middleman I was in contact with took 25% of 90mill. It sold for 100mill, but I took a 10% cut. So skmoonlight should have gotten 75% of 90mill... A very messy deal that eventually paid off, with profit for all involved."
The purchase of two 500 point tags sent dontcryy into the top 25 at the expense of another player, and it was a similar case with The-Evil-Monkey, who had not appeared in the top ten once before he purchased four 500 point tags right at the end of the competition. Those who have been bumped down a place or two by these players are likely rather angry right now, and understandably so.
Yet there are plenty of players who use their factions and bank balances to achieve victory in Dog Tags and other events, so the morality of this practice is still very much up for debate. It would be a different story altogether if we had someone purchase 50% or more of their tag total, but this hasn't happened yet, and players like TEM and dontcryy couldn't have placed so highly without a significant effort being made in addition to their well-timed purchases - TEM was in the top 25 throughout the competition.
And in the case of dontcryy, it appears he only bought his tags to balance out the misfortune he experienced earlier in the competition.
"...yesterday while I was holding 363 tags I get attacked by someone and lose my own tag (Worth 460 score). I was so triggered and mad for about 2 hours ... it was crazy. Basically lost my mind there lol. I had the feeling I was somewhere close to top 25. I knew I had to make progress fast now."
"So I was looking around for any possibilities and found leafeh's thread. I decided to buy a NPC tag off him to make up for my own lost tag. Then today about 1 hour before it ended he offered me another one cheap. I put in so much effort and I felt I was close so I decided to grab another NPC tag. The money invested was worth the Metal dog tag."
DOG TAG 2020 STATS
2020's event saw a new record set for the highest number of tags ever stolen during the competition. The previous record of 511,147 set last year has been smashed, with a total of 527,901 tags being stolen this year. This record is impressive as it comes in a year where participation was slightly down. 2019 saw a record 36,187 people take part, whereas 34,905 people joined in the festivities this time around.
In all, these trends resulted in a more aggressive battle among the very top taggers, with the average tags and points per player raised as a result. In turn, this saw the cutoff figure for the top 10% rise massively. Whereas 2019's players only needed to score 727 points to gain the maximum of 10 competition tokens, this year you needed a whopping 1,043 points to find yourself among the 90-100% bracket.
TALES AND TIPS
Earlier this month, we asked you to send in your stories from this year's Dog Tags tournament. Many players outside of the top 25 have an interesting story to tell, so we'll end this article with a few of our favourite tales and tips from those we received. And congratulations once more to Penicillin, because judging by our first entry, you may need it if you are to win again next year!
A CHAMPION'S ROUTINE
In 2019, a player who wishes to remain anonymous lost her tag to the eventual champion, Penicillin, and was unable to retrieve it. This year, she decided to try a strategy known as anti-stalking to avoid losing it to him again. Her tactics involved monitoring Penicillin’s routine and making sure to avoid him when he was online. If anyone wants to stop him winning three in a row next year, here are anon’s observations.
* He starts his Torn day anytime between 14:15 TCT to 14:45 TCT (means he wakes up here)
* The moment he goes online, I self hosp and wait the hour out. He usually starts hitting top SA members in a row within 5 mins of being up.
* He then hangs around Torn 5-10 mins max before travelling to Cayman Islands (80%) or Switzerland (20%). He spends about 4-6 hours overseas, hitting others I'm sure.
* The moment I see him travelling back, I self hosp and go to bed.
* Sometimes I'm still up waiting out a Xanax or my booster cooldown, I see that he Self-hosps if he's not actively attacking - the hours range from wrong blood bags (1h+), SEDs (4h+) and even failing kidnapping crimes (8h+).
* He sometimes makes a run for it at new day, but as I'm still self hosped it doesn't affect me.
This player finished within the top 10% and managed to retain their own tag.
TO THE LETTER
Scarlett almost gave up on the 250 tag merit when she was hospitalised repeatedly at 50 tags, but in the end, she achieved her goal through the use of an interesting search strategy:
“I typed 3 random letters in (the less sense they make, the better) and most of the low level targets I hit were holding tags. I imagine people are more likely to search an actual word or name. I typed things like zxy, xxz, qzw etc. I was able to finally get the 250 merit.”
Scarlett finished in 638th place, thanks to her haul of 237 tags and 1,628 points.
MEDIC!
SpeedSkateR has been a Torn citizen for nearly sixteen years and decided to take part in Dog Tags for the very first time this year. Her strategy was to avoid inactives as she feels they are boring and offer no chance of salt, so she rather ingeniously went for a different category of player altogether.
“I targeted a lot of healers who I saw attacking people. I figured a healer attacking people is obviously sus. I also targeted people who had low activity but were attacking folks. Surely it's no coincidence that you're active again just in time for a competition."
"After hitting a few of those people, I would fly to UAE or SA. Perfect for not only protecting my tags but also working on travel merits. Once I got to my location, I attacked all people with that green online bubble. Very sus that you're chilling online overseas.”
SpeedSkateR’s goal of 50 tags soon turned into 250, which she also achieved rapidly. By the time she hit the second merit she had also grabbed herself 12 awards; # of attacks, total hits, bounties, double merit off kill streak, level, rank (from leveling), the awards for 50 & 250 tags, plus three token shop awards. SpeedSkateR finished in 224th place, having collected 252 tags and 2,903 points.
CHAIN HIT
Kyozo43 decided to go for the 250 tags merit this year at 900+ days of age. Their mission was successful, but it could have been a different story if they weren't careful during their adventures in foreign lands.
"Accidentally stole a 5k chain hit while abroad collecting tags (oops!) Faction banter around getting attacked/mugged but being happy the assailant didn't get a tag was fun, though."
Kyozo43 finished 291st with 464 tags and a score of 2,618.
MY ENEMIES' ENEMY
AlexeaNikkole was getting mugged for tags repeatedly until she came up with the genius idea of turning her attackers against one another:
“I told the guy who mugged me sorry I don't have any tags. I then get mugged by another guy who didn't get a tag either and I told him I didn't have tags too, but I turned him towards the other gentleman who had previously mugged me so those two could go after each other. I lied as I had 260 oddish tags. I told the 2nd guy to hunt the first guy, and I was thanked and they have both left me alone.”
AlexeaNikkole finished up in 247th place with 356 tags and a score of 2,834.
SUPERB AT SIXTY
LlysheOlenich only turned 60 days old on the final day of Dog Tags 2020, but on the 17th of November, she managed to reach and exceed the 250 tag mark despite her newbie status.
“My faction had warned me that my own tag would likely be stolen pretty quickly and that newbie players were not likely to hit the 250 mark (but to not be discouraged). I was beyond excited to steal my 257th tag this morning. And I can't seem to stop, even though I've hit the goal and achieved the merit.”
LlysheOlenich ended the event in 985th, with 302 tags and a score of 1,188.
THE NUMBERS GAME
MJH found that you had a 90% chance of taking a tag from players who were 150 days old, level 1, with zero defends lost. Once those players had been rinsed, MJH discovered that you don’t always need to use advanced search to find new targets.
“Next, I simply changed the last digit of the player ID in the URL bar, repeating the stat check, attack and then moving on. All in all, it was minimal effort for maximum output and I did this method exclusively on my phone.”
MJH finished in 379th with 242 tags and a score of 2,306.
INACTIVE ACTIVITY
DarthRoco, a player who is just over 200 days old, managed to get both the 50 and 250 tags merits and finished in 266th place thanks to his strategy of avoiding active players.
“People heavily underestimate just how many torn inactives there really are. Out of all my tags, only 10 or so were acquired from actives while the rest I got purely from attacking lv 10-12 inactives. People (especially newbs and those with low battle stats) should really use this feature (advanced search) to at least get the merits!”
DarthRoco ended the competition in 266th with 237 tags and 2,707 points.
BITE BACK WITH BOUNTIES
Chrelle contacted The Times to tell us of an interesting retaliation strategy she’d come across, one which players can use if they are repeatedly attacked by the same people - or if they're not, because nobody would ever know!
“I bounty people with the reason "got a lot of tags" if they hit me around too much - wasn’t my original idea tho.”
Chrelle was 3,555th with 20 tags and 250 points.
UNLUCKY UIARAK
_UIarak_ suffered some terrible luck when one of their faction members attacked him twice, and on the second assault, somehow managed to secure his own personal tag from amongst a haul of others.
“He had a 1/250 chance of getting MY dog tag if he was able to steal a dog tag at all, but he had to steal mine. I've never lost my dog tag before. I had to smack him twice to get my lovely dog tag back. Although I guess I have to thank him for adding 1 point of value to my tag.”
_UIarak_ finished 707th with 242 tags and 1,496 points.
FASTEST 250?
Kivou used the API to achieve the 250 merit by 15:18pm on the 8th of November, just three days after Dog Tags 2020 had begun, and with only 277 attacks made.
“...and a score of 8.5k which I reckon is pretty fast and efficient if I compare to the results you published on the first article.”
Kivou finished in 42nd place with 241 tags and a score of 5,648.
Update: JPills got there at 15:39:40 on the 5th. Can anyone beat that?
PICTURE PERFECT
DarthTom had another clever defensive tactic which seems obvious when you think about it. He simply changed his profile picture to say “I’m not taking part in the dog tags competition”. This, combined with some smart target research, allowed him to get the 50 tag merit while remaining under the radar. And once he’d reached his goals, DarthTom found out a way to make a little cash from the event too.
“As I kept a note of who I had got dog tags from and who I hadn't, I took a page out of Kelsie's book and resold my own targets to other players. By doing this alone, I made over $50m so far - not bad for a player that is less than a year in.”
DarthTom ended up in 1,898th with 47 tags and 611 points.
DOUBLE UP
EagleScream wasn’t participating this year, which is good, as they lost their tag in the first few hours. However, in doing so, ES may have stumbled upon an interesting strategy for identifying players with tags.
“Had my dog tag returned to me and then was hit 30 seconds after... I suspect to see if I had any further tags... An interesting strategy I had never thought of before.”
EagleScream finished 2,541st with 42 tags and 438 points.
SINGING THE BLUES
Blues went for the 250 tag merit by aiming for level 10-19 inactives. Since high levels would be popular due to their high point values, and low levels would be attacked by those going for the merits, Blues figured they would face little competition if they went for these low to mid-range targets. They were correct, and Blues managed to hit 250 tags relatively early. They then read the Newspaper and realised that another goal could be achieved.
“I went to the Community Center and looked at the past competitions which I largely ignored. I pulled up 2019, and saw that 25th place was only about 3700 points more than what I had... and the competition had practically only begun.”
An unmasked attack almost put paid to Blues’ ambitions, but they recovered from a slew of well-paid bounties to find themselves just a few thousand points shy of 10th place on the 17th of November. By the 22nd they had 743 tags worth 8,835 points. Blues finished the competition in 16th place with 857 tags and a score of 9,994.
SSL PLAYER SAYS SUCK IT!
Smallsplat was hoping to achieve top 5% by the end of the competition if only to rub it in the faces of everyone who did worse than him, a player who has never taken any drugs. They finished in 455th with 338 tags and a score of 2,070.
A NEW NICKNAME
1milperhosp has earned themselves a new nickname due to their exploits during Dog Tags 2020, as they’ve been collecting tags with the sole purpose of returning them.
“I have been called Mother Teresa by the new citizens of Torn after returning their dog tags. I have not kept a single tag... but I come equipped with different genitalia than the dear Mother.”
1milperhosp ended in joint last, as they had no tags and no score. What a generous soul.
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