This year’s international qualification server is perhaps just as interesting as the last. It’s too early to name a favorite. There are at least two coalitions in every quad that are potential WW builders and mutual enemies. This is maybe not the case not in SW, which gives them more time to prepare. A lot will depend on where the artifacts will go and whether the owners can hold them. I think there will be more fights for artifacts than normal. Most importantly, it will be interesting to see if lessons have been learned from Russia’s exhibit in the last finale, when it becomes time for building plans. According to the maps drawn Turkey is going for the building plans, HellasDT has also settled close to that area, but it’s not too late for the others to take part in the hunt.
The basics about the international qualification server
The 1st month has past and alliances have merged. We have 7 larger metas (~200 accounts or more) that will fight for dominance in their quads.
The international qualification server had 10,000 accounts when I started this research. One week later, we are down to 7,500 accounts (the MH has been busy). I have been able to assign 2,638 players to alliances/metas up to rank 150. I didn’t count them all between 100-150, as many had too few members. That leaves 800 alliances, most of them consisting of a single member. 4,000 players are still left. Some of them have names that indicate their affiliation to an alliance. 2,600 villages have been turned into Natars. The maximum number of accounts was 13,000.
But all in all, there should be good opportunities for farming. This is much better than in the finals, where I have to count alliances up to rank 200 and check them up to 300. In the finals, you can estimate the active players to around 80% accuracy. That doesn’t make many farms per raid; you’d be happy if you got more than 10 resources per raid, especially in the beginning.
Auctions
Over recent years, I have noticed a reduction in auctions. They are no longer as popular as they used to be. There are always the insane bids in the beginning but the bids fall away very quickly after the first few days. When we had 15 qualification rounds, it was easy to sell items and acquire silver to buy Gold packages and also enough for the Plus Account; these bonuses were a big part of the server, at least on most servers. I don’t think that will work as well any more.
The most popular items on the international qualification server for now are scrolls (30/900), artworks (4000), buckets (3000), small shields (1000), and cages (30/600).
