So I didn't exactly "own", although it was a moment of awesomeness, and while I started it, it was really everyone else that actually made it so, but here goes:
So we're doing badly. A griefer on our team was knocking down all our defences and by the time everyone voted to have him kicked the damage had already been done and we were down to a courtyard, if you could call it that. Our reinforcement count had been absolutely decimated as a result, and many people were rage-quitting. It was not a fun game, even some of the enemies on the Blue team agreeing so. There's me, spawned as a knight with hordes of Blue battering away at fortifications on the edge of my screen, fellow Reds hanging around the flag, a few sallying forth to try slow the Blues down. Knowing that our loss was imminent, and with the alternative being to join in raging, I hit caps lock and bellowed:
"HERE WE MAKE OUR LAST STAND! LET US MAKE OUR DARKEST HOUR OUR MOST GLORIOUS! SURRENDER NO INCH! GIVE THEM NO MERCY AND PAINT OUR WALLS RED WITH THEIR BLOOD! FOR THE GLORY OF THE KINGDOM OF RED!"
Silly, over-the-top hamminess that would make Shatner proud. Some people laughed. Some people ignored it.
Then a teammate responded, crying out with his own silly speech. And then a few more. And then a few more. Then some of the Blue team started responding, and soon we were all making speeches, shouting to charge and hurling insults in hammy glee. Of the forty players, easily over half were joining in this spontaneous role-play.
And we started to push back. I like to think that all of us, combined, now having a laugh instead of complaining about griefing and losing, was a massive morale boost to everyone, and we just started sallying forth en mass, crashing over the Blues like waves.
For the last fifteen minutes or so of that game, we didn't care who would win or lose. We were characters, stars in an unfolding story. We weren't griefed: the treacherous Blue Republic had planted a saboteur within our ranks. The ragequitters were instead shellshocked, hiding inside our castle for fear of dying. We struck back, marching in the name of King Redginald (that pun was my doing, I'm afraid) for the glory of the Red Alliance. Pirates, Vikings, Knights and Geordie Brickies fighting side by side in a battle of hammy speeches as they traded blows.
We grabbed victory by the skin of our teeth, seizing their flag in a daring raid carried out by the SCAS (Special Catapulted Air Service). There were heroic after-speeches, cries of victory and congratulations from many of the defeated Blues. It wasn't the victory that was important, not for that round.
Then the next round started and it was business as usual, our glorious 15-20 minutes just that, a random moment borne from a silly speech I made that quickly snowballed into a server-spanning joking game.
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Topic: How did you last *own*? (Read 1333837 times)