H2H6 / Kumba's Thoughts...

So there was no threepeat, oh well. Cant say we did not try. We just did not have the luck we did in past seasons. First we run into SoS and then DAW which ended our championship run. I guess we had some luck in facing increasingly weaker parks after week 1. That sucked because our parks could have beaten somewhat better parks.

After the draft I was thrilled by our roster and fairly sure the threepeat was going to be entirely possible. I got my right hand man, J K with the top pick and then one of the all-time RCT legends in RRP. Six Frags slipping to the end of round 3 was a massive fuck up by every other captain. SF is the Rodney Dangerfield of NE, he never gets any respect. I had my eye on two young stars who I hoped to take at #18 and #19 (the robbie spot in H2H5). Pacificoaster and wheres_walto. Seeing as Liam just took pac I was more than happy to take SF and walto. Levis was imo a massive steal = to SF at 18. I loved all the rest of my picks, Josh a local player with a high skill level, JDP with sick coaster skill, Comet with a wonderful natural building style and Goliath a great realistic parkmaker I pictured working perfectly with RRP. We had everything and I even made sure the team was half American/non-American to take full advantage of the time zone differences.

Not much point hiding this, so here is my draft list I used while picking at the lovely FIU PG5 food court:

Kumba's H2H6 Draft List:

1. robbie92
2. geewhzz
3. J K
4. 5Dave
5. Turtle
6. RRP
7. Six Frags
8. Steve
9. disneylhand
10. pacificoaster
11. wheres_walto
12. Cena
13. Tolsimir
14. Belgian Guy
15. In:Cities
16. JDP
17. dr dirt
18. cocoa
19. comet
20. Loopy
21. Roomie
22. Levis
23. fr3ak
24. that_guy
25. disneylandian192
26. Fizzix
27. prodigy
28. sssammy
29. Gwazi
30. turbin3
31. dimi
32. goliath123
33. chapelz
34. Camcorder22
35. wicksteed
36. Colorado-Fan
37. Jonny93
38. ivo
39. coupon
40. AvanineCommuter
41. FK+Coastermind
42. fisch
43. trav
44. casimir
45. airtime
46. fredD
47. pierrot
48. Milo
49. Faas
XCars
highroll3r
CCI
Nokia
Xtream97
Djbrace1234

So weeks 1 to 5, we go 3-2 and make the playoffs. The key problem during that timespan was the loss of RRP. He did post a few screens, but refused to post a DL. We could not really see what he was doing, or have his partners work on the park. This fell under a gray area in the rules and posix helped by asking him to post the DL. Still nothing even tho he stayed active on the NE forums. Frustrated by his refusal to post a DL and posix being unwilling to late me replace him I pretty much nagged RRP into quitting. FredD stepped in and did some decent work on what would be a nearly finished week 5 park. JDP was bit of a pain during the season, I think he just tried to do to much with to little time. The guy was working 3 part-time jobs, so his time was limited. Comet did not have access to RCT until July, so he was also pretty limited. Goliath got really busy after week 1 and asked not to be put on anything else. Same with fredD, it was planned that he work on the finals park too. Levis had some issues during the season and basically just surfaced for one week and built the awesome sky duel on Avatar. He would have been the third builder on Rowling vs. Tolkien... how sick that park would have been with some Levis magic...

Josh, Hans, Walt, Jonny and myself were the team, but still just half a team. That's not easy to work with.
_______________________

I was fairly happy with the management of Posix (with the help of Liam and Louis). Each season I grade every player on my team (it's coming soon guys, pretty busy these days) so I think I'll go ahead and grade you too...

Posix: B 86 of 100

Good job managing the league fairly. You followed the basic H2H rules quite well and we had no DQs. What I did not like was the constant waiting for parks. Next time, NO AERIALS PLEASE. I did like that most of the times you would apologies for the waits or explain what was going on. I did not like how the sign-up rule was changed right at the start. That's a pretty big damn change and keeps you from getting an A from me.

Still, I cannot see myself doing H2H ever again, at least like this...

Just to much work with to many limits. No back to back building, no building with the same player, 3 player max per park, 2 weeks between round robin rounds... all those rules need to go or be changed.

I want to see H2H7 be a TEAM contest. This is just mini teams with a lot of restrictions. If I had it my way all those rules would be removed or changed. I would hold the draft next Summer and start the season in the Summer of 2014.
______________________

Here is where screens will go when I have more time, also reviews of each team.

For now I'll just talk about the new champs... Liam you guys did a FANTASTIC job this season. It was really something to see everyone of your park, tho yeah I did think very little of your week 1 park

I really wanted Turtle and pac on my team, but there you were to fuckin grab them right before me in the draft... they were both amazing. In the end you had the best season of H2H I can recall.

Best team ever? Nope, that's still my Hurricanes. Just if you have another season like this it will be hard to deny that Heaven's Kitchen is the top force in H2H. You did it once, can you do it again Laim?

For me, the MVP of this season was... Turtle

Pac in a close second place. Liam also close. Pierrot was downright amazing. The other teams is tricky... 5Dave perhaps and off my own team... maybe walto and J K since they went 2-0. I went 1-2, but did produce three darn good parks. 1 and fuckin 2... that's worse than I did in H2H3, 4 and 5... COMBINED... ended my 5-year contest winning streak too... I'll be stewing over this for a while...
_________________________

So yeah, I think that sums it all up for me. Still, I really do intend to add screens from every good park made this season. I will do that, but another day. Sadly since that playoff lose my RCT peep balloon has deflated. That's likely more due to my Fall Spanish class, my last college class before I get my BA and will really start feeling old when I turn 29. Also I am pretty obsessed with fantasy football and fully engulfed by it right now. Sorry, but it tops RCT. I win $ at it and in some cases get to actually interact with friends and family

Logos will be my next release. It's basically my only project on an actual RCT map right now. A full solo was announced, but I am tossing around the idea of breaking it down into a few designs...

Anyways, that's all from me for now. Will have screens posted later this week I expect. It was a fun season, but also very draining.

Thanks to everyone for another great season of H2H,

Kumba

Nice little read there, Darren. I'd planned on doing something similar, but more in depth about what went on in the Dog's warehouse during the season (I kept detailed notes from the day I was announced as captain). From losing our #1 pick almost immediately after the draft to our unraveling at playoff time. But...since I informed all admins while I was in AZ this weekend, that my next post (which is this one) would be my last post unless my post mod was lifted...it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon.

Nice read there, hope we'll get to read some more inside info as you get more time 'cause your team and accomplishments this season were quite intriguing.


@Kong: Oh please, one only gets what one deserves. You're responsible for your own actions and ignoring warnings, not the admins. No need to keep whining 'bout that.

Great read Kumba, i'd like to see every captain do such an honest review, and not worry about pissing people off. Fantastic.

Thanks for naming me MVP, also. Needless to say, I agree with you. If only Pac hadn't gone and made one of the best parks ever completely solo it might be clearer cut.

I hope you don't mind me taking your topic for this Kumba, but creating a new one seemed so silly. Your read was great, I hope I don't spoil the topic with my asslicking and basic english ;p. So I wanted to give my thougts on H2H as well but I figured I have some time now. I had thougt about giving my commentary week by week but I think doing it team by team would be easier for people to find themselves I think and it would make this asslicking, what it practically is, much easier.

Heaven's Kitchen (Curryhanes):
When I heard Liam would become a captain I already had thougts he would be a good captain. And after the draft you had a list of people of whom I didn't know their work mostly. After checking up on some of these players your draft was brilliant. And the loss of highroller and sephiroth didn't seem to hurt you at all.
Round 1 came up and The Atlantean Ark was released, I wasn't and still am not a fan. The work is brilliant, the concept is brilliant but you took a risk with this and it was a hit or miss and as reflected by the scores it was a miss. An honest shame. After this round I got the idea that your team might be one of the weaker teams but then again you were put against one of the best parks this h2h.
Round 2 you came up with monstrocity which was brilliant. Really Turtle you've not only shown that you are capable of taking different approaches to the game but also that you are able to guide two draftwise weaker players. Both good players from before I joined, I guess. The park was brilliant and actually a great resemble of what I've always considered h2h parks before this had really begun.
Round 3 Lijiang. Today Sulakke posted something about lijiang being a real park and I felt like such a moron, because after I googled it your park was instantly twice as brilliant. Keeping in mind that it was already one of the most beautifull asian themes I've ver seen. Liam, pacifi and Sulakke, your work blends so well and it could also look as if one player had build it.
Round 4 Le Rêve, brilliant. Reading back on my comments I was a bit skeptical about this park but the more I viewed it, the better I liked it. Funny thing, were most people seemed to like the part with the glass castle more, I liked the other side of the park better and the most I loved the entrance. Amazing how much things you can put about umbrellas in one park!
Round 5 Colorflood. I still don't get this but it looks pretty cool.
Semis: DAW. Pacifi, words can not express how much I love this park. This is wat perfection looks like I guess.
Finals: Another great park of which I was a bit sceptical. But in the end I loved it and it's one of those parks I'll probably look back on whenever I'm on NE and stumble on this. No time wasted though. It's beautifull

In the end I think you were the perfect team to win this. You had a great lineup of superstars and used them all to their fool potential, except Steve which still makes me sad. It's funny how I only once voted for a park of yours but have never really disagreed with any of your wins.
You deserved the win to the fullest, everyone of you.


The Replacements:
I loved your team and everything you have done. I think I have voted for about all of your parks, with no shame. In the end you were the perfect underdogs and deserved the finals place a lot.
Sea of Sagas made me instantly love you, because at first I wasn't sure what your team was gonna bring to the table this season. But Dimi is brilliant and Fisch is about my favorite parkmaker on this site ever. Whenever I have nothing to do and sometimes out of fun I even delve deep into your unfinished works because they're awesome. Great team. trav basically did nothing but congrats on working on this park though ;p
Tivoli was also amazing and it's kind of a shame that you have used your best players against the germans, although this was one of their best fights. Three of your best builders together was just the sex.
Worlds of fun was also great. and I feel bad that you had to go up against lijiang as you could've beaten so many parks this season with this park, but hey, story of your lives. Seriously though, Cocoa is also one of my favorite current builders and he worked together with trav who I also adore. It's an honest shame that 'that guy' didn't do more this season. I love his work and had expected more from him!
Kim Jong Il was great but too bad it wasn't finished. It had great potential and a great lineup. Ivo as a creative mastermind together with Fisch and Jonny as superstars! Great job !
New Fantasyland is amazing. I wasn't sure if Ruben would have done much on this but he has stepped his game up so much on this park! nin and trav you guys have already gotten so much love this post ;p
Neverland is my favorite park by your team and just was so beautifull it never bores me!
Your finals park was a bit of letdown compared to your season but I expect to see that one continued. If it turns out to become what I think it will be it will be pure awesomeness.

Funny, I wasn't planning on doing a week by week recap of your teams work because everything was great but I guess I did in the end. Seriously though, in the end your team roster contains like 10/10 awesome players who I all adore!


Hurricanes:
I have always been and am still sceptical of your team and your work. Your work is technically very good and on a very high level but for some reason it never gets to me. The thing I loved most about your team was how different most of your work was.
Kumba for example, week 1 you bring out this tarmac journey of zombieland. Which I liked at least thrice at much after seeing the movie. and a couple weeks later you give us Terra Progressia. Near opposites, only thing in common that they are both great.
I think my favorite park by your team was Mythos or London. But overall none of your parks really struck me, unfortunately. Can't wait to see more work of any of you guys!
Especially Goliath. Best round 10 pick and one of my favorite players on this site.
I'd also like to give a shoutout to In:Cities/Josh. 1) you stepped up your game so much 2) you came out massively with 3 parks.

Reservoir Dogs:
I had no idea what you guys would produce this season but with K0NG, bg, prodigy and originally Gee. It had to be good.
Then you started with Frankenstein which you were unfortunately unable to surpass. I did like about all of your parks. I hope to see your stuff finished in a while K0NG!
I do think it's a shame that prodigy did so 'little' in this contest, seeing as you are quite a fast builder.
I'll keep it short; great parks but a shame you had to end with a forfeit.


RevoLLutionists:
In general I'm not a fan of LL and I guess to me your ideal succeeded because I do like LL more now. I wasn't a fan of Carsland at first but I do like it a lot now!
The Lost Samurai was really cool as well. Not that much of a fan of Concrete Jungle. And I still don't really get the fuss around the siege but it looks cool, I guess.
I can't go too much in dept on this but I would've liked to see more rct2 by sammy though. You're great!

Flying Germans:
Round 1 made me think you'd be my personal winner. Adventure Isle for best park ever? Kinda.. I reeeeeally love it. With all my heart!
Round 2 great work by you robbie, your work gets me every time and I hope you'll finish more of your 1000 projects soon.
Round 3 and 5 were a shame since they had amazing potential.
And the classic has already gotten all the love I could give it in a comment I think. Fizzix you're awesome ! and whilst le reve was better a shutout wasn't deserved anyway. Your park could have won your guys a match I think but le reve was obviously stronger though.
I do hope that all you guys aren't dismotivated and get your games up again. You have some really great players in your team and whilst your captain didn't live up to you. I hope to see more work from you.


H2H6 in general:
Brilliant, amazing, awesome, beautifull, <3.

Adventure Isle for best park ever? Kinda.. I reeeeeally love it. With all my heart!

Really?

Nice to hear good thoughts on the Replacements . Good read, chorkiel (and Kumba).

@Kong: Oh please, one only gets what one deserves. You're responsible for your own actions and ignoring warnings, not the admins. No need to keep whining 'bout that.

@ Ruben: You don't know shit. So, until you do...kindly shut the fuck up. Okay?


God, it's nice to be "free" again.

I'd just like to put out a little mention to 5dave.

A couple of times during the season he made me laugh so goddamn hard. Thanks for that