2017 Defender Awards - Congratulations to the winners!

Hello everyone, and welcome at last to the awards ceremony for the 2017 Defender Awards! Before we begin though, I’d like to give a shoutout to a few people without whom these awards could not have happened at all. Firstly, I need to thank all the people who contributed artwork to these awards, and helped me finish and edit the design of the awards themselves. That includes Shizensky and Charles Watson-Turing for designing the banners, and Nakari who used her vastly superior image editing skills to help me get the awards together. Really the entire Warden leadership team helped in some way or another with the awards and they all deserve a huge thanks.

Additionally, I have to thank everyone who gave their input on the awards themselves this year, especially Guy, Benevolent Thomas, and Sauron. These three FRAers provided me with input and history that I had no idea about, and their ideas went a very long way in getting this thing rolling. Thank all of you so much.

We only had 44 votes cast this year, which is a lot less than in some years past, but it’s likely due to the voting timeframe being reduced from two weeks down to one, and the lack of a defender awards being hosted last year, but all things considered I am very happy with the turnout. I hope the awards can be as much of a success next year as they were this time around, and here’s to another great year of defending!

And now, at last, the awards.

Throughout the process of voting there was little doubt as to the favorite for this award. Given to the player who has contributed to the most to the defender cause in the last year, this is a guy who exploded onto the scene last year and is widely respected for his leadership, tech skills, speed, mentoring ability, and just about everything else related to defending. A huge congratulations are in order for ROAVIN!

Next is the WASC Award. A returning award from Defender Awards of years past, this award is designed to recognize someone who over the past year has . I doubt there’s anyone who knows the Security Council better than this guy. His skill at writing and passing resolutions is very well-documented, and there is no one particular resolution or SC-related action I could point to in justifying his receipt of this award. That’s right, it’s TIM! Congratulations!

There was quite the battle in voting for this award before a very clear winner emerged. Given to the player who has helped the intelligence cause the most in the past year, our winner went undercover in a place few defenders would willingly go and spent three months rising through the ranks of the Invaders before taking off the mask and revealing that she was a Warden all along. She has since become an incredibly valuable member of the Wardens’ leadership, and it is my great privilege to present this award to NAKARI!

This award is presented to an outstanding invasion-spotter, someone who tirelessly watches activity feeds, dossiers, reports pages, you name it. This guy has an absolutely MASSIVE dossier of raider puppets that he tracks everywhere, and across blocks of time that I can’t even fathom. Many of the off-update defenses and liberations that defenders pull off nowadays can be credited to his unrivaled ability to spot and track raids in progress. He’s also just a blast to have around during updates. I am incredibly proud to present this award to my long-time colleague and mentor, KANTA HÄME!

And now for some spicy awards. There was many a meltdown to be had this year. Presented to the player or group which imploded (or exploded) in the most spectacular fashion over the past year, three leading candidates emerged and several lead changes ensued, but the sudden and dramatic springtime collapse of the region named after one side of the gameplay spectrum emerged as the winner in the end. “Congratulations” to THE INVADERS!

“Presented” to the raider group deemed by defenders as the worst overall, whether that be annoyance factor or just generally being awful at raiding, this was a very close battle. In yet another race decided by a one-vote margin, US Military was narrowly edged out by an org that you might recall from the previous award. Yes, this one also goes to THE INVADERS!

Given to the raider group deemed by the community to be the best, the nominees for this award are always interesting. This year they ranged from “real” raider orgs like Lily and the Black Hawks, to independent orgs like the JTF, to Hakketomat, whose persistent desire to hug everyone in sight landed him among the nominees. Those four all remained in contention for most of the voting period, but a clear winner emerged at the end. Many congratulations to the Wardens’ favorite child, LILY!

This award recognizes the best operation of the past year. When defenders stop one big raid in an update, it’s considered a huge success. But give yourself two, and you’ve got a candidate for best operation of the year and, as it turns out, a winner. One was apparently leaked, the other was just one giant fail due to extreme security measures and a wider trigger, and defenders won both. This award is presented to THE DUAL EUROPEAN UNION-EQUESTRIA DEFENSE! Congratulations to all involved.

This award is presented to a player who is a steadfast and reliable presence at updates, and who can be counted on to . Yet another newcomer who burst onto the scene and has made waves with his skill across multiple facets of defending, there was no doubt as to the winner for this one. He’s the fastest of the fast, the jumpy-switchiest of the jumpy-switchy, he’s everything one could ask for in an updater. Congratulations to VINCENT DRAKE!

This field was stacked. There are so many defender veterans deserving of this award, and many people, myself included, noted this in coming to decisions on who to vote for. An incredibly tight race ensued between two players who made their stamp on defending history in the FRA and Rejected Realms. Wopruthien/Sauron and Frattastan both held leads at different points in the competition, and the final margin was just two votes. A huge thank you and congratulations go out to FRATTASTAN!

A new award, this one recognizes an outstanding liberation leader from the past year. Once again we had a race with multiple lead changes and a one-vote margin of victory. There was very strong support for all four candidates, but what at the start was a definite three-man race narrowed to two as Vietnam and I battled back and forth, trading leads almost every day. I came up short on the last day, and it’s my pleasure to present this award to the guy who leads a ton of liberations and is almost robotic in his triggering accuracy, UNITED STATES OF VIETNAM!

This award is given to the organization that was most successful at preventing invasions in the past year. All four nominees had good showings, and TITO definitely made a run for it as they always do, in the end it was a decisive home-team victory. Congratulations to THE ORDER OF THE GREY WARDENS!

Yet another contest decided by one vote, this “award” goes to the biggest defender fail of the past year. Dozens of defenders were crossed up and ready to liberate, the triggers were checked, double-checked, triple-checked, and then, among several other unfortunate occurrences, a last-minute mix-up of what trigger did what caused mass confusion as defenders slowly trickled in two minutes early. Every single defender was banned from the region and the raiders kept piling to a point where there was no hope of another attempt. Femdom Empire kept the race very close from the get-go, but this “award” goes to SOUTH PACIFIC!

A returning award from years past to recognize that organization which has done the most to keep free regions free, we only had one nominee in this category, and it’s no surprise that the vote was a runaway in its favor. Definitely most deserving of this award, it’s a big congratulations to SOLIDARITY!

It was noted many times how much crossover there was between this award and others, and given the impact that so many of our newcomers have made, it’s no surprise that this individual has already won another award. This is yet another race that came down to a single vote. All candidates had very strong showings, but one emerged victorious. He’s been around NS for a long time, but ever since he got involved in R/D last fall he’s been forcing raiders to tighten their triggers and still somehow making it in on time. It is my pleasure to the present this award to VINCENT DRAKE!

There were a ton of deserving candidates for this one, and the voting reflected that. There was a three-way tie for this award. Given to the player/s who demonstrated skill, patience, and willingness to teach new defenders the ropes, all three winners are incredibly deserving. But what’s even more amazing to me is that two of them were also candidates for the Best Newcomer award. In their first year of defending, two of these winners were already leaders, passing on their knowledge to new defenders. For the other, it should be no surprise that he’s on here. He was my mentor back when I first started defending, and I’m proud to recognize him for all the work he has done here. A huge thank you and congratulations to our three winners, ROAVIN, UNITED STATES OF VIETNAM, AND BENEVOLENT THOMAS!

Named for the now-ascended mastermind behind some of the most widely used defender tools today, the Eluvatar Award, new this year, recognizes that player that has done the most to advance the technology available to defenders. The award’s namesake staged a late comeback but fell one vote short, and I’m pleased to present this award to the lightning-fast man behind NSBreeze++ who now recieves his third award this year, VINCENT DRAKE!

We all know NS players don’t get enough sleep. Especially those that are consistently updating, spotting, setting triggers, planning ops, working intelligence, all those things we do to stay ahead of raiders. Maybe that’s why this quote became so popular. This fabulous video also might have something to do with it (and a region to go with it!) so check that out, and also give your hearty congratulations to NAKARI!

Play this on repeat as your eyelids get heavy and the lull of sleep slowly overcomes you

Or just go the f*** to sleep. I’m sure she’d be okay with that too. :P

And that wraps things up! I really missed the awards last year and it’s been absolutely amazing to have the opportunity to bring them back and host them this year. Here’s to another great year of defending.

Thank you all for coming, and I hope to see you all at the 2018 Defender Awards!

Now please. Go to sleep.