I do remember that, Tyr. Was it 5 zip or 6 zip? I think it was 6. Not my biggest-ever comeback, though. Voyager got up on me 8 to 0 once and I came back.
I did a LOT of that. It's one reason I never got attracted to Case's Ladder for anything serious. A game to ten? Heck, at six points I may be just getting warmed up finally.
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
I preferred the longer games. The more time I had to get inside your head, the worse it was for you, no matter who you happened to be. I spotted folks 5 to 0 leads at least a dozen times. Not on purpose, mind you, but every level is different and every player is different. A new level OR a new player and I needed time to collect data on the opponent's strategy. Then it would be my turn.
My trademark was steadiness. No such thing as a bad game for me. A bad run, yes. A bad game, no. I gave up runs during games, too, on rare occasions. A third of my UT losses came from falling into a bad stretch. Thing is, I was better at making others have a bad stretch than I was prone to having one myself.
If I hadn't played you before, falling down 0 to 5 was no big deal to me. I wouldn't get mad at getting killed. I WOULD LEARN. I would learn your strengths, then take them away from you. Lean the game plan to something you're not so strong at. The only folks who ever beat me consistently were those who had a very deep bag of tricks to draw upon.
It was really hard to rattle me. Only a few ever managed it. Sometimes someone else was just hungrier for it than I was, but it doesn't mean I was rattled. Some levels and weapons didn't lend as well to my strengths. That was IDL Upper Tier level competition, though. I never lost an exhibition match to the Lower Tier because folks in the Lower Tier were stuck down there FOR LACK OF a deeper bag of tricks. I could try four or five strategies and fail at them all, then pull out number six or seven and start whomping.
Descent was the most intensive strategy game that I ever played.
I beat Jedi in Nysa by refusing to chase him on his terms. Made for long games. Two hours the first time, hour and a half (on my modem dime) the second time. He had all these Jedi mind tricks, playing around in the reactor area, in the lower area. I would sit and watch sometimes for minutes as he ran through his scripted dances, the moves so familiar to him that they had their own rhythm. Doors would open and close, and Jedi is shooting at ghosts, laying traps for suckers. I was not a sucker. I was sitting in the main room sipping on a soda for minutes on end. Not that I got too relaxed. Nor was I camping and waiting for him to come out. I went on offense, sometimes very aggressively, but only when I saw an opening. VERY hard to find chinks in that armor -- he must have had five times my experience in the level if not more -- but eventually I did. He had a lot more defense than offense. I didn't beat him by that much either time, but the second time... Well, during the game he said I'd taken his home away from him, that he didn't have a home any more. It really wasn't that bad, but he was NOT used to opponents being completely unimpressed by and unmoved by his lures, traps and games.
Sometimes I miss the intensity of an IDL UT match. Here's a little known fact. Nobody would talk more trash to me in games than Karash. Even when he knew I wouldn't rise to the bait, he'd still try. He'd find ways to turn his own frustrations with me into taunts. Whatever he didn't want me doing, he'd try to pressure me out of it. I ate that up. It's too bad we never demoed our IDL matches. Some of the things we'd say to each other... We wouldn't have said such harsh things to a lesser friend.
- Sirian