I have played with a multitude of players in my time in this game. Ruthless cutthroats, clueless idiots, prideful little bois self conscious about the size of their little nobleman, I've seen it all. Or so I thought. On w97 I met a leader unlike anything I'd ever seen before.
The world started off same as usual until things got spicy. We went to war with a tribe named S-Rank led by atmoshperecf97 (now named atmospherecf1). We took a clear early advantage over this premade when suddenly our duke decided we should merge tribes. I didn't really know anyone in my tribe. It was a grassroots tribe full of randoms and we were surprisingly doing well. After the merge our duke decided to co-duke with atmos. We called ourselves AA
(aegis and akastuki). Eventually atmos ended up being our only duke. He was a leader unlike any other in a way I could never truly process.
Atmos was a man of his word. He rewarded players for hard work and he worked hard to ensure all accounts were situated during wars. You'd think this would make him a good leader, which I would not object. However, there was something quite...strange. It all started when we began our first major war with IL. But before I get to that there were many, many clues.
It was clear early on ronnie, like myself, was a weeb. I don't believe all weebs are strange, but it is always a red flag. We joked a lot in our chat rooms and were all getting along well. Eventually things got more serious into the midgame and we began to realize we were somehow endgame contenders. Once the attitude became more serious, so did atmos. He created a video for us to watch. It was only a few minutes long, but it was clear the instant I heard him speak he was a special individual. I have no hard feelings for atmos, but these videos were brutal. They were long, they beat around the bush, and they had absolutely zero point. He would spend like 5-10 minutes pointing out stats and maps that could be covered in 30 seconds. He would pointing out strange details like my COA on my profile, or what he did over the weekend. It was a hilarious train wreck I couldn't stop watching.
Once the war with IL picked up the videos grew exponentially. He would make them weekly and the length grew up to 30 minutes. During this time he also introduced his notorious ebay store. I've never seen someone use tribalwars as a platform for advertisement but I respect the hustle. Eventualy IL and Creati decide to both declare on us which was the beginning of the end. My time in the military became too demanding in Korea and I was struggling to keep up. I was hardly active and reached out to atmos, which was met with a sincere response which turned into...another push for his ebay store! That's when it hit me. Atmos was a marketing genius. His entire purpose on 97 was never victory, it was generating traffic on his store and brainwashing us into advertising for his up and coming juggernaut front.
He cleverly generated hatred for himself in previous worlds culminating to the eventual 2 on 1 war between the top 3 tribes. This stressful environment created a situation within the tribe where people reached out to their leader, atmos. I never realized the subtlety of his propaganda until it was too late. His videos referenced his store regularly, but very discretely. Once I looked back at it all it was abundantly clear. He was using the combination of stress, trust, and kind gestures to brainwash us into visiting his ebay store. Without realizing it, he was conditioning us to view his ebay store as a sense of safety and security. He was a modern day Hitler. A propaganda machine and utter genius. We could never stop talking about his ebay store. We told our friends in other worlds about the store as a joke. Even when we bashed it in secret, we were advertising it, and he knew it all along. Before I knew it, friends I had told of this store were browsing it! The mad genius generated enough publicity to retire permanently from TW after 97. Legend has it he still profits heavily off of his actions in 97 to this day. Even now, here I am buried in the midst of grinding league and studying for exams discussing his store. He is the ultimate entrepreneur.
W97 was a great world. I met great friends, and the worlds greatest businessman. I know you're out there, somewhere, ronnie. Your memory will live on forever, as will your ebay store. Godspeed my friend, god speed.