Round 9.5
Round Details
Round 9.5 was first pondered by members of PATeam when floods of people complained about the stagnation of Round 9 which was running at the time. The team discussed the idea with many people and eventually announced an imminent end of round date for Round 9.
Shortly after the proceedings that marked the end of Round 9, Planetarion once again opened up. However this time the round was free to everyone. Lots of people returned to the game for a free round as word spread that Pay to Play was cancelled for the short period of Round 9.5.
Round 9.5 was played in random galaxies.
A number of cheaters were caught due to XtoTheZ's actions during this round. In general, partly due to the free nature of the round, it was dogged by accusations of cheating, or at least huge numbers of tiny support planets, particularly towards the winners LDK.
Round Summary
Going into Round 9.5, and after the problems block wars had caused in the previous round and the "fun round" perception it was held in by many, a large number of alliances announced that they would go solo. This list consisted of:
Alliances such as Ministry disbanded and new ones like Seraphim while LDK returned to the fold. The top contenders for this round included LDK, Eclipse and Olympians. Without any blocks in play this round it began in a much more "relaxed" fashion with all alliances attacking for roids without any enemies in play. LDK, who had returned with their full memberbase and had recruited extensively, from members who had played with alliances such as Xanadu and Titans in previous rounds alongside LDK , slowly began to edge away from the other alliances and by the end of the first few weeks of the round had established themselves firmly in the top 50 planet ranks. In response Eclipse and Olympians began to work together to slow down LDK, with NoS, FAnG, ToT and others later joining in. On the other side LDK began to co-operate with the Dragons BG, many of whom had split off from Wolfpack following Jurgen, and Section.
The "anti-LDK" side, despite the apparent advantage numbers wise, was distinctly behind in both activity and organisation against LDK this round. LDK were largely well capable of covering themselves against the block's somewhat haphazard attacks on them. Although the block did not give up and continued to fight LDK until the end of the round, LDK's dominance was displayed in their control of the top 20 planets, with many scattered throughout the t100 and representation in all the big galaxies. The winner of this round was Kaifux of LDK, who went on to create the highly respected eXilition in later rounds. This marked LDK's last round in Planetarion and with their departure the last of the old powerhouse alliances of PA's early years was no more.
Round 9.5 history from Sonnenbomber
Additional Round to keep the players happy till R10 will start. We played it. For fun. nothing special happened (except that it was for free and all cheated like hell).
Winners of R9.5:
--[ToT]Sonnenbomber
