Well, folks, we're all pretty amped about this war. We've been declared on, and since I haven't gotten to write a declaration I figured I'd do it in this format. And while I know some passions are running high, lets try to put that aside. We can all point fingers at things other people disagree with, but lets try to put that aside for a minute and examine why someone plays this game. Hopefully you guys, whether you're in THE, BD, Phoenx, DECIDE, or another tribe, will join me in this little examination.
Many of us play for social reasons; we love our teammates and we love working with them, so we stick together. Many of us play because they want to win – they're out there to take someone down. Then there's the guys who play just to be a thorn in someone's side; they might be going down, but they're gonna get someone special before they go. There are also those who play for the challenge; they don't care if they win or lose, they care about having a go of it. There's also dozens of other reasons people might play, but those cover the broad spectrum of it. As long as you're getting what you want out of the game, that's your "victory" – that's why you play.
Me? I'm that latter sort. I love my team, and I love victory. I have my rivalries, but in the end it comes down to the challenge. I have a great real-life example of this, in fact, but it means going back in time. From 5th grade to 10th I played Lacrosse. I was really, really eh at the game; I had my moments, but most of them were achievements in the noble field of warming benches. Maybe it was competition with future NFL All-Pro classmates, maybe it was an early inability to catch the ball, but I really only got my chance to play when the game was over. I played for nothing but the fun of playing. Now, I've got a bum knee; had it since a 9th grade football injury, and I wore a knee brace that squeaked, earning the ingenious nick-name “Squeaky” to go on top of dozens of others I had.
So anyway, this one game I'm playing Attack, and I see the ball on the ground and a Defensemen is going to grab it. So I line up a nice hard shoulder check on him, and as I'm getting ready to lay him out...He's laid out, alright. On top of me, by my teammate. And this big, 200 pound mofo is on top of me, and my bad knee? Totally shot. I got up and had to use my lacrosse stick as a cane. I remember looking to my right, seeing my coach screaming at me to “get off the field!,” and I...I laughed. I was limping, I don't know quite how, but when the pass came to me I put the ball in the goal. My teammates cheered even though I couldn't really walk, even though we lost the game something like 12-4. It was my only goal that year, and my last Lacrosse game – I spent a good chunk of the summer laid up after knee surgery to fix the injury. And we loved it.
Y'see, I got a trip to the OR, my team lost, and I suffered a great deal of pain...But I'd given all I could. The challenge was greater than me, my team didn't win or lose because of it, but I felt like I'd accomplished something. I'd taken lumps and I'd come through and done something. Of course, after I recovered I took up Tennis and from being a newbie in 11th grade I finished All-Division in 12th, signaling that I should have just played -that- the whole time, but hey! I can safely say that I got the daylights beaten out of me and that my team went home beaten, but not humiliated, because we proved that win or lose we're not going to knuckle under – we're going to play for the sake of playing.
That's me. That's what I try to bring to THE. With this war, win or lose, there's going to be a fight. The stats are bad right now. I'm not blind to the fact that our enemies performed an excellent strategic move. I give them credit! We can argue about ethics, but logistics are less forgiving – we left ourselves exposed and we're paying the price. But where countless tribes were counted out (Phoenx and Decide being two of them), now THE is being counted out. All I have to say to this thought is simple: Even if we end up needing some season-ending surgery for it, even if the victory isn't ours to take, we're gonna go down swinging and we're gonna enjoy the fact that someone came around that was able to out-play us. To us, I think that's our own "victory."
, I say we are looking far better in the pnp than ever before.... 
