Defender Olympics: Wrap Up, Results, and Getting Involved!

This weekend, defenders from 10 different regional militaries came together in the spirit of friendly competition for 2021 Defender Olympics.

In eight different events, defenders competed against one another in tests of skill, speed, organization, and creativity over the course of the extended weekend, with at least 64 different competitors taking part. Events ranged from spotting (where defenders attempt to identify a raid in progress so it can be defended) to a flag and theme design contest (where participants showed off their creativity by creating group themes for their nations and flags) and showcased the variety of ways individuals can get involved and contribute to the cause of defending. Defenders from a variety of organizations, philosophies, and traditions came together in this year's Defender Olympics in the spirit of friendly competition.

The results for each event can be found here and a medal table can be found here. Additionally, after the results there is a section on defender artwork in the flag and theme design contest and information about how to get involved in the cause.

Throughout the course of the weekend, the Defender Olympics shone light on a part of defending that is often not given due credit, the act of spotting invasions in process. The Defender Olympics featured three separate spotting events this year. The first focused on identifying an awoken raider "sleeper" in a founderless region, helping train young defenders in identifying a frequently used tactic for raiders starting a large occupation. In this event, the Ten-thousand Islands Treaty Organization (TITO), the defender military of 10000 Islands swept the podium, with a gold medal going to Moonflower, silver to Tactical Officer Sulenia, and bronze to TITO Knight Thedairos.

The second spotting event featured a small off update occupation attempt. While the majority of strong raiding activity comes from raiders operating during the twice daily update (occurring for between 45 and 90 minutes starting at 12 AM and PM EDT each day), some raiders operate off of update and fighting them is just as essential to our cause. In this event, two "fake raiders" moved into a region in the middle of the afternoon to simulate an off-update raid attempt. The first to spot the raid, and earning the gold medal, was TITO Tactical Officer Sulenia, followed by Fauxia of the Rejected Realms Army, and in third TITO Knight Thedairos. Congratulations to the medalists!

The final spotting event featured a simulated attempt at a stealth raid. In this event, spotters didn't look for the raid itself but rather the nations that would be used to conduct the raid so that defenders would be able to follow them into the target region. This twist on a traditional spotting event provided a slightly different challenge for defender spotters. For being the first to spot all 3 hidden raiders, Numero Capitan of the historic region 00000 A World Power's Regional Defense Force (RDF) took home gold, TITO Tactical Officer Sulenia took home silver, and Grea Kriopia of The Order of the Grey Wardens took home bronze.

Chasing refers to the practice where defenders follow raiders into a region they are attempting to raid at a moments notice. Often, raiders operate using "triggers" to ensure they move into a region mere seconds before it "updates" in order to maximize their chances of launching a successful invasion and minimize defender chases of responding.

In the chasing competition, defenders followed around a fake raider nation to test their reaction times and speed. This event saw a strong finish from The Order of the Grey Wardens, with Chamberlain Deadeye jack taking home the gold and Warden-Commander Haku earning silver. Further, this event saw the first placement for the South Pacific Special Forces (SPSF), the military of feeder region The South Pacific, home to the oldest existent democracy in NationStates along with sandy beaches and fine ice cold S.P.I.T. (not as gross as it sounds!). Congratulations to Refuge isle/Luca on their bronze medal!

If an initial chase or spotting of an invasion doesn't work, defenders are able to engage in what is known as a liberation to retake the region from invader control. Due to the way update mechanics work, defenders have to jump in an incredibly small timeframe to attempt to resecure the region or risk being banned by occupying forces. The Liberations event tested the ability of defenders to quickly move to a target region and endorse the native Delegate. Liberators participated in 10 rounds of competition, with times averaged accross those instances, to determine the champions.

In first was Warden Haku, once again exemplifying what thorough practice can accomplish for the cause of defending. Red Dusk of the Dragon Knights of Aenaroth stepped up from his retirement armchair in order to claim silver alongside Sweeze of Lily. They were followed by South Pacifican Refuge isle / Luca with the bronze.

"Triggers" are how defenders know when to jump in liberations to avoid all being banned by the existing occupying forces. "Calling" a trigger, meaning giving an order to other defenders to "GO" move into the liberation target is itself an activity of quick reflexes and skill. This event tested the skill of the participants in calling triggers.

Westinor, the newly minted Minister of Defense of The North Pacific brought home the gold. While the North Pacific Army (NPA) is an Independent military that engages in offensive or defensive operations to match its foreign affairs goals, we were happy to have their Minister of Defense join us for the Defender Olympics and look forward to working with the NPA in the future. With the silver medal was Tactical Officer Controlitia of TITO and with the bronze was Rejected Realms Army High Commander Frattastan iv. Congratulations to the medalists!

A "pile off" is a contest to compare the organizational capacity of different organizations, specifically how many WA nations (i.e. members) they can deploy to "pile" in a specific region. "Piling" is useful in defending because it helps us gain influence in order to ban raider nations from the native regions they occupy. A total of 60 pilers deployed in the pile off competition from five different organizations. The strongest showing came from The Order of the Grey Wardens (TGW) who deployed an impressive 24 pilers for the event and took home the gold. They were followed by the Ten thousand Islands Treaty Organization (TITO of 10000 Islands) with 16 pilers. In third was The Rejected Realms Army (RRA) earning the bronze medal. Congratulations to all participants!

Each participating organization was also invited to submit a flag and theme for the nations used in the pile off, encouraging some creativity and community-building in the process. Each organization brought a slightly different flag and theme to the table. More on this can be found below in the defender artwork section. Congratulations to The Order of the Grey Wardens and their casino theme on taking the gold, The Rejected Realms Army (RRA) and their Mario Kart theme on silver, and TITO and their warships theme on bronze.

First of all, all of our medalists have earned a fancy medal icon they can put in their forum signatures or just show off at random at their choosing. See pretty medals here...

Gold Medal

Silver Medal

Bronze Medal

Second, the overall medal count table. Congratulations to TITO on the lead in overall medals with 9 and congratulations to the Order of the Grey Wardens on the lead in Gold medals with 5.

We wanted to take a chance to recognize the phenomenal artists in the Defender faction and how they help reresent their organizations with pride and skill. For the pile off, we asked organizations to design custon flags and themes for all of their nations that they would use in the pile off. Here, we present their themes.

The winning theme from the Wardens was a casino. Their flag consisted of a set of five Olympic colored poker chips emblazened with the traditional Grey Wardens' Gryphon logo. Additionally, many of the Wardens used themed puppets, such as Casche out (a pun on "cashing out" and the name of Warden Aschente's nation) and House Always Wins (the nation of Warden House of Cards). The combination of a well designed flag and themed nations was enough to secure the Wardens a gold medal in the event.

Warden Casino

In close second was the Rejected Realms Army with their theme Mario Kart. Featuring their "lead" nation of Banana peel, all the other pilers each had flags similar to the traditional RRA flag (a black background with a purple center with a unicorn, surrounded by a wreath) except with the unicorn replaced by various Mario Kart characters ranging from Pink gold peach in a kart to Baby daisy. Ultimately, the RRA was bested by the Wardens due to the extra finesse put into the Wardens flag design, but the RRA brought a special flare of Reject fun to the table as always.

Rejected Mario Kart

In third was TITO with their theme of war ships. The TITO War Flag was used, unaltered, for TITO Members with their nation names being taken from war ships, such as the Bonhomme richard ii or (somewhat satirically) Ever-given. While TITO's theme is creative, it placed third due to not having an original flag of its own. Still awesome.

Finally, we want to give due attention to the military of The Free Nations Region. While not typically considered an active military power, FNR's military the Free Nations Defense Association (FNDA, pronounced "fenda") had a solid showing in the pile off with a total of 6 endorsements. It's great to see an old defender military having a solid revival, and we look forward to see what more FNDA will have to offer in the future. FNDA also produced the following excellent fire and Olympics themed flag, a variant on their more traditional symbolism.

Fire Nations Region

Reading this and thinking "dang this sounds like a cool part of NS, I want to learn more!". Well, you can.

Defending brings together a great diversity of players with different backgrounds, motivations, and from different communities attempting to meet a common goal. Some people defend purely as a game, some were introduced to defending by a friend and never left, others connect their defending to broader ethical or moral convictions, and some even think back to times their regions were ransacked by occupying forces. No matter our differing purposes and beliefs, defenders come together as one to accomplish their goals.

If you'd like to join The Cause, it's easy to get involved. Below is a list of Commanders of militaries involved in the Defender Olympics. If you individually want to learn more about their militaries, feel free to reach out to them via telegram or Discord message about joining their military. If your region is interested in joining The Cause, you can also contact these Commanders about the possibility of joining Libcord (the joint operations server used by many defender organizations) and securing training for your military's officers.

Most defending occurs at 12 AM and 12 PM EDT during designated "update times", but there's plenty of work outside of that spotting invasions, piling to fortify potential targets, politically fighting for the cause, and running community-building events for defender regions (like this one!). No matter what your interests and skill set, there's a place for you helping the cause of defending, you only need to reach out and start the conversation! Defending will welcome you.

Potential Contacts:
Founderless: Executive Director Velvet elvis
Ten thousand Islands Treaty Organization (TITO) (10000 Islands): Field Commander Kanta Hame
The Free Nations Defense Association: Minister of Defense The python ii
The League Defense Force: General New Makasta
The Order of the Grey Wardens: First Warden Tim-Opolis
The Rejected Realms Army: High Commander Frattastan iv
The South Pacific Special Forces: Minister of Defense Witchcraft and Sorcery

A massive thank you to the following Defenders who helped put on this event:

A Leaf on the Wind (Lead Organizing Bread)
HumanSanity (Maker of this Pretty Dispatch)
Grea Kriopia
Matthew the Man
Numero Capitan
Alfonzo
Tim