Breaking Free

The guidance and trusting of the strong experienced players from last season taught her a lot but it did not prevent her from experiencing the harsh side of lifesteal, the deaths destruction exploits violence. This season she decide things trusting herself. Her decisions have gain her hearts, her paranoia has kept her alive, and she doesn't need to consider the approval of anyone, even the people she has s6 affection for. Even if on the surface she really wants an ally ship, in reality, she won't trust people who won't actually commit. She's reaching out first but if the hands unlock midway through, she'll be sure to let go without falling.

Bing betrayed and the relations have turned to kos, so she is gauging the potential allies but isn't solely relying on it. She's making plans to utilize the end items as much as they can before they lose value before SB gets to the end somehow.

Also as more and more ppl are getting elytras/shulkers we are seeing less different methods of travel & transportation. It was fun seeing how people adapted and a lot of interesting & beautiful scenery were seen from boating, walking, tridenting, pillaring, and ghast traveling. I know Pili still like traveling even without using the elytra, and not everyone has elytras still, but hopefully the other modes of transportation don't become a thing of the past once ppl have end items. The lack of elytas has made so many epic bucket clutches, funny fall from high places, and many fun beautiful happy ghast scenes. Seeing people traverse a cratered spawn on foot, walking by builds on foot. Walking next to each other. It was fun seeing how ppl adapted and also made me wonder what the server would be like if it was truely endless, like with restock barrels instead of shulkers, lava buckets in place of chorus/water bucket in nether fights, and more nether travels and what not.

One of the reasons why I felt Zam and Yungy work well together is because Yungy is very very decisive, has a lot of confidence, & comms really well. Once he wants to do something he will act on it right away. Zam is always someone with big goals, but working out the details is something she works on along.

Its interesting that they came to similar conclusions separately about having to not hesitate or worry about feel bad about killing. Aside from vitals goals, they both have urges. Zam inciting Derap to kill Jepex, Yungy's bloodlust is getting him more & more antsy. I think the difference is Zam will do something, and then regret or feel bad about it right afterwards, where as Yungy is very quick to act upon things, reflects quickly and moves onto the next. The thing they both have in common is the majority of their searching patience was used up during the osc search bc there was something definite to search for. Another thing is when their opinions clash, for example, the lava casts. Yungy thought they were cool but Zam hated them, at first Yungy conceded but afterwards acted on his own. Zam is similar in that, if her teammates do things she doesn't like, she will concede but will act on her own more afterwards. Zam's solo frustration spirals have are self-destructive, at least from what we've seen from past season. Yungy's so far has been outwards destruction. They both play with fire a lot too. Like Yungy getting down to half a heart cuz he was bored so he roleplayed betrayal and almost died to iron golems or when he flew on the netheroof and divebombed full speed at cobwebs on the ground. And both of them want to get jumped. Zam intentionally fighting with heart disadvantage.

Considering how many heart trade Jepex has done, its possible he knows he will be fine w/the way Zam/Mapicc helped him last season and now Bing have helped him. Because of this, he can very much take advantage of Bing's generosity and just keep trading hearts away for stuff, and it might not even be intentional. In a way, helping chunges with hearts is detrimental to Vitals, I wonder how long until they realize how frequently this could happen.

They have started to do/consider things like getting Derap(8 heart?) to kill Jepex(11 heart?), potentially tnt trap Bacon, or using VIP's to void hearts, but this so far have been towards the weaker above 10 heart players.

As for the high heart players/pvpers they really want fights but in order to achieve vitals, they may have to consider using more traps or lures, bc they haven't been able to see the ppl they want face to face, but Pili(Apoc) and Jepex/Bacon(DI/Daycare) have been able to. In a way they are playing a balance game of their own without realizing it, whats more important the thrill of battle or achieving vitals with means that might not create satisfying fights and make them feel bad. This has been the cause of some of their hesitations so far from killing ppl.

Meanwhile Divine Intervention's experience is somewhat similar to Pangi's events from S6, yet at the same are the opposite. The similarity is attendance, getting people to show up to the events. How they are the opposite however is Pangi's events always were held with intent of people not having to fear for their lives, and if losing anything was a risk to factor, he would let them know beforehand. Pangi also spent a lot of time preparing for them with test runs and custom builds for each event. Even with assured safety, he still also had to spend a lot of time to schedule according to ppl's avaliablity and lots of dms to have enough participants. Divine Intervention's two events so far have felt very short notice as well as unexpected. In the first event, Woogie killed Jepex & DI helped kill Daycare despite being the organizers of the event. The first event they had, had people dying even by their hands, with their allies winning all the items, which have set a tone for the future events even if that was not their intention. And one of the reason why Bing got most of the rewards is that there were not that many ppl participating in all stages of the event. For the second event, because "Zam(actually Steve Duo)" already had end items, despite spending the most hours and effort in the build, were purposely placed low. This event had only three teams participating. If the same group of people show up and win (Bing) every time, the end items don't get distributed very much. So they have a conundrum where they want to give out free end items in events but the events they hold might have to have predetermined winners. The scales are in their hands to balance, but its hard to balance if the other side is not even there.

Lifesteal is a very grindy, high effort, high risk, for high rewards, which is why a lot of people tend not to log on unless they have projects or ideas on the server. Lifesteal has a basic level of grinding required bc every time a player logs in they risk dying and having to grind a heart or gear set. If a base is griefed its even worse. If a big project is halted or griefed, its exponentially worse. But these things are part of the server. Its why after spawn was blown up in S6, people halted their builds/projects in the three giant plots of land cleared out. The risks was too high. Another reason why people dont log on is because they don't want grief the players that are active or become heavily involved in whatever the plot currently is, or are busy irl , editing, or are working on other content on other servers.

Secret Bases Found so Far:

Day Care 1 (grief by Jepex)

Day Care 2

Leo (Day Care) 1 (Leo killed in by Apoc)

Poafa 1 ( become Spawn Arrow by SteveDuo/Zam)

Poafa 2 (Stolen by Yungwill)

Jumper 1 (Birthdayed by Squiddo)

Rek 1 (known by DI/VLC/Bing - stronghold trapped by Woogie)

SB737 1 (killed in by Dtowncat)

Steve Duo 1 (Mapicc nearby, Averted via moving)

PrinceZam 1(via comman/invalid Poafa- already moved)

Wham/DI 1(viashort/invalid Rek - found legit by Squiddo)

Spec/Jepex/Red Base 1 (filled in by Jumper/Yungwill - Birthdayed by Squiddo)

Ragebait 1 (trolled trapped by Zam/Pentar/Jumper)

Ragebait 2 (known by Steve Squad)

(Squiddo knows pretty much everyone's bases)

Farms Griefed so far:

Apoc Disk Farm 1 & 2

Apoc OSC 1

Wham! Creeper Farm 1

extra:

Team APOC gather as much netherwart as possible which forced other teams to search further in the nether for them. Wh4m! found all the strongholds.

Pili ran into Clown, and in those moments was able to catch details other may not pick up on. This led to him and Yungy finding the enormous disk farm 1, discover Apoc were building an osc. This led to soooo much of the overworld map being traversed at a very fast pace even without elytra's. People filled out their map with tridents, and sooo much more manual base hunting activities. Long long streams, multiple people brainstorming, and searching and a lot of discoveries. People are tracking each others via achievements. Track bases down via kelp, furnaces, sugar cain, jungle leave growth, item drops, fire spread, & signs of player ativity in the area.

Perhaps more bases and farms have been found at a faster rate this season than the last even without both pie charting and elytras but with overworld map mod instead; mystery border bed, Daycare1(griefed), Daycare2, PangiDerap1(griefed), PangiDerap2, Zam1(via command), Poafa1(above and below), Poafa 2, Rek stronghold base, Rek Iron Farm, APOC Disk Farm 1 &2, APOC osc(via command), 4c/Jaron land, Red gunpowder farm, Red/Jepex/Spec base(filled in), Wh4m! gunpowder farm1(mined away), wh4m! gunpoweder2, Wh4m! drown farm, Daycare gold farm, Daycare drown farm). People gear up fast and made bases, farms, and osc super fast. In contrast to heading to spawn in S6, people are meeting places through the whole map. From the player perspective it probably sucks a lot having to traverse so far and search for so long, but from a viewer perspective, its pretty interesting trident boat ghast traveling & nether travel meta.

The early game pvp kit is also interesting. Boat being an item in the kit. Windcharges and maces, vs sword, vs carting. Its more diverse than S6 where people primarily fought with the same kit. The map is super diverse in biomes and terrain which in turn cause dynamic affects in fights; unlit spawn meaning mob affecting night fights, people falling though powdered snow, chasing each other with boats, chasing and fighting through heavily forested jungles, fighting in heavily exploded spawn. The terrian also cause people to have to land some very amazing clutches.

Spawn is already nuked by Apoc beyond view and there's already nether hidden nether tunnels. People already found things that resulted in heart penalties. The end is GONE. All items looted by Divine Intervention, this affects the pvpers, the builders, the chungies, active players, less active players, anyone who is banned, the heart economy. No shulker farms, no obsidian farm, no concrete/sand farm, revive becon materials controlled by one single team.

Zam: Zam initially wanted to be less active in S6, ended up rebuilding spawn more times that people can keep track of, giving hearts to players on the verge of being banned (this included hearts she wouldn't be able to craft back) while also fighting the strongest players on the server on while on low hearts. The majority of the server felt safe around her. Her public base and farms (shulker, concrete, wool, etc) were heavily used, so many people would respawn in her pink house bed, or hide in her pink house if they spawned at spawn. Despite all this, through most of S6 she didn't feel appreciated for those things. Some would admire and appreciate her, but she didnt get to feel it because for more people, it became expectation. People would joke "oh we can just leave that for Zam to rebuild" "oh, they can just get hearts from Zam" and what not.

Everyone she allied/team with could not for their lives work with one another against their common enemy. She played a role where she was willing to lose to protect spawn and weaker players, but somehow at the end only her long term enemies regarded her as the hero. Did she ever even found out that Mane regarded him the hero when blowing up spawn that final time? She somehow became the villain/enemy in a lot of people's POV, including people she helped, people she she gave gear to, people she's saved, people she gave hearts to. In the end it was Flame and Mane who she fought all season long and Woogie, that gave her their blessings with their deathbans.

She had multiple opportunities to obtain an easy win, but she did not as she was anti-exploit (learned duped methods early season for revive mats, completely dropped it and decided not to use them, was going to be given the choice to leave her enemies chunk banned, decided if it were to happen, she would save her enemies, even after her enemies try to obbybox her in a chunk ban, still fought against Spoke not knowing if he would be turned on after Spoke was defeated.

She rebuilt spawn while being hunted and built a shield for spawn while being hunted. She went into S6 finale thinking it would be a 1v6, willing to go out with a bang. She could have just logged off or ban herself with all those hearts, but she fought so her enemies could have their ending and to prevent spawn from being unapproachable due to chunk ban pots. Being villainized/judged/teased after all she did in S6, is something that bothers her greatly and plays a role in her no longer holding back on killing people and her desire to play less of a "role" or more as just a player.

Her experience with Atlas(minus Pangi) def left her with a vendetta, the team wanted to work but were dysfunctional. She wants to hunt each one of them(minus Pangi) down and they know it. They all have this spitefulness towards each other minus Pangi. Being questioned for her actions more greatly than others also plays a part in her desire to be solo player. She has a goal of a season long cleansing, another reason for solo. She also wants to be less active this season(how realistic is this really...) and have more fun this season. She subconsciously started placing dirt even though she said she didn't care. She can't ignore her feeling that something is wrong even if its something she can benefit from. Will she be able to not fall into a heavily invested role again, not repair and actually edit/upload S6 videos because she ends up super active S7 anyways, we shall see.

Mapicc: Mapicc spent a ton of S6 with inactive teammates. He gave the most to his team with very little in return. Every time Jepex was banned, the person to revive him was Mapicc. There were times throughout the season, where the team was ready for a fight, but the moment a fight starts they were no where to be seen. Mapicc was very much on his own, but his loyalty was always with his team. Aside from that, he fought the strongest team while having to be the tank, the 20 heart player. The one willing to initiate, to kill, to play the role as the bad cop to do what needed to be done, but he was never recognized playing that role. He was sleep deprived fighting wardens & Subz and then hunted by Flame/Mane/Clown for having the mace. He could never exploit or cheat as an owner even when he knew how others may have done so (focus/spoke/SB). The burden of being an owner made him disadvantaged as a player. He made a ton of traps and attempts. He uploads every two weeks, so he would upload even if he didnt have a winning pov, and whether or not he had a w in the video, the youtube responses were not kind to him. He had a lot of hatewatchers on streams and videos who would rage bait him whenever he fought the blindfold bandits, or viewers who only saw his actions as wrong/evil/unjustified. He often told people not to hate on his opps, but he often received hate himself. In lifesteal, its not about who is evil, its about who is more evil that determines the villain, Mapicc fullfills the role of a bad guy unapologetically on lifesteal, a role very much needed, but he is often disrespected for the willingness to take fights he could lose. And very often he is characterized as more evil than he actually is.

When he no longer teamed with Zam, everyone from chatters to teammates would advise him to ignore his own feelings and opinions. There were times where his chat was so bad, he asked chat if they were even watching him for him. Mapicc is one of the best teammates to have, he was active, he was the bait, the sword, the tank, the provider, the guardian but in S6 he was all that and his opinions and feelings were ignored by his teammates repeatedly. If his team weren't inactive, they were unreliable. He had people he would risk dying for but none that would take that risk for him.

In S7, being team with inactive players again while dealing with ragebaiters aggravates him further. All the burden and blame without respect is what he experienced throughout S6. Although his teammates and team dynamics are not exactly the same, having inactive unreliable teammates that ignore his opinions is not really something he wants or is willing to tolerate all over again, at least so far. Mapicc and Zam are trying really hard not to team/ally this season. If his teammates leave him, what will he do next? If his team stay, can they become the force they were expected to be?

Hannah: Last season she was mainly teamed with the owners who could not exploit/rule break. One thing I realized watching LS for the first time in S6 is that, a lot of people or at least one person on every team had dabbled with rule breaking. During early season, people were loop hole crafting hearts till Bacon found out. People duped god apples, ppl used prot4/sharp5, used map mod underground, crafted hearts to 20, replay modding not for video purposes, duped maces, were susly in other people's streams (ppl that may not have been their teammates), elytraed to combat, attempted chunk bans and so forth. Its not about whether a rule is broken or not, its about whether people get caught doing so. Hannah experienced a lot of these directly; she was elytraed on, maced on w/ a duped mace, scammed by duped maces, oneshot mace hacked on, attempted chunk ban on. In S6, her goal was 20 hearts, and she almost lost that due to Sb's scam. Because of these experiences, she refuses to be the victim of exploiters and rule breakers, and has adapted to doing what needs to be done for her and her team. Rather than react, initiate.

She also felt the need to prove herself with regards her attributes to a team. She is not someone people can ignore, belittle, or disregard, and she would prove so with or without having stronger pvpers in her team. Hannah is a good pvper, teammate, planner, and has leadership abilities, and she will no longer be underestimated by audiences and server members alike. Its not just the exploits/pvp/grinding experience she learned to use, but being able to deceive. A lot of people see lifesteal as just pvp. Anyone who watches lifesteal long enough will learn its pvp, grinding, redstoning, trapping, building, storytelling, planning, trial and error, adaptability, so forth and the most deadly of all manipulation. Every life stealer at some point learns how to deceive one another. Sometimes they lie to one another casually without even gaining anything just cause it was fun at the time. They lie with big things and with small things, and being able to tell if someone is lying or not is also a skill. When people saw Hannah and her team as naïve or inexperienced, she masterfully used that against them. There are audiences that blame and insult her for every action that scrutinized far more heavily than if done by someone else, and she knows this more than anyone, but she still bravely does lifesteal things on lifesteal. People can cry all they want, but lifesteal is unscripted, not everyone's ideas or plans will be successful, people have had to scrap videos ideas and brainstorms because it didn't pan out, and Hannah was simply able to successfully execute her plan. A plan that has a tremendous effect on the server. And if there is a rule next season created by this, then she will have joined all the lifestealers that did something a rule needed to be created for (for example account sharing S5, inactive heart giving S6, piecharting bases S5/S6, etc, etc). Where she takes things from here, and whether things continue to work as she intends it and their effects on the server is something we will see.

Jepex: He got banned in S6 so many times, often due to mobs. He wanted to prove himself in S7. Things are not going well for him. Will he be able to escape being killed by a random mob every time he logs on, we shall see~