Introduction to the AWBW Blog

Greetings, and welcome to the AWBW Blog.

With this blog, we are aiming to provide the best, or at least most convenient, source of news, updates and general information about the site. Along with that, we will shine light onto previously hidden gems of AWBW, bringing much deserved attention to players or maps who may fall under the radar. A short summarization of the main topics:

- Monthly recaps of the biggest events around the site
- The latest competition updates and results
- Insightful game commentary and review
- Spotlights on new maps, players, and map-makers
- Sneak previews of upcoming site events and features

Please feel free to post comments in this thread. We will be updating this first post with the newest posts, and will include an archive of old posts in the future too.

For our inaugural post, let's focus on the brand new competition gracing our site, fittingly named the Global League. The league is still in the beta-phase and is only available through the forum. But barring server breakdowns or other apocalyptic events, it will go public on the main site in the near future as well. Big shout-out to Glenstorm for designing and implementing the league!

Although there have been doubts, we can safely assure you that the Global League in its current state is the pinnacle of the evolution of competitive AWBW. At the beginning of its long history, the site saw a lot of official tournaments. These were eventually abandoned in favour of unofficial tournaments, which had the advantage that they could be run by anyone. There was the speed league, an old, nearly forgotten competition, but the first one which aimed to provide games between equally skilled opponents using several divisions. Later the Ladder appeared, a more casually oriented way to allow people to play against each other. At around the same time the original leagues on the main site were made, but unfortunately weren't able to provide competitive games due to the inherent randomness. As the Ladder began to die and the leagues mostly depopulated of competitive players, the Colosseum was born, trying to provide fair and fun games for all players.

The Global AWBW League is the next chapter of AWBW competition, and it improves on its predecessors by taking all of their advantages, while removing the negatives. Automatically created games free the players from the hassle of doing so themselves, while still allowing the choice of CO. Meanwhile the inbuilt matchmaking system takes care to only pit players against opponents of a similar level, assuring that everybody will play against people with roughly their own skill level.

But the best thing about the new league is that it can appeal to all AWBW members. It is the biggest competition on-site in terms of participants, which gives everyone the chance to measure themselves against all others and fight their way up, contending for top 10 spots. At the same time, everybody who enjoys AW as a fun pasttime has the unique chance to find games against people of a similar level. If you are busy in real life and like to go on vacations, you can still participate easily, knowing that you can simply set your amount of games to 0 when other obligations prevent you from committing as much time to AWBW.

So no matter whether you enjoy AWBW for the thrill of competition or for the casual enjoyment of a good strategy game, as long as you like playing the game it is highly recommended that you give the new league a try. You can find information about the league and how to join here, and you can find a list of all the maps and settings being used here. For those who want to compare a certain e-bodypart already, we have a rough scoreboard here (just note that until more people have finished games, the ratings on the scoreboard won't be an accurate reflection of a player's skill for the most part).

And while the league takes the spotlight for now, that isn't to say that it will be the only source of competition for AWBW. In addition to the continuing Colosseum and Neo Ladder, a bunch of new tournaments and competitions will be coming to the site soon. Stayed tuned to the AWBW Blog for further developments and information.

Signing out for now,

Hellraider and Walker