Head-2-Head-X / The History of H2H: H2H5

 

One of the reasons H2H4 was a (partial) failure was because of a passing of the old guard, which also became clear in the ownership of the site, shifting from iris, to caretaker Kumba, and to the stable long term management of posix and geewhzz in 2008. The three year intervals between seasons was not established yet, so a sequel to H2H4 was not at all guaranteed. There was some demand, especially among the new cohort of upcoming players, but there were also many reservations from the members who participated in the last edition. In February 2009, you could see the groundwork being laid by this admin-initiated poll and discussion, which steered towards H2H the longer it went on.

 

On March 4th, H2H5 was announced and was met with enthusiasm. Eight members volunteered as captain, and a further seventy-five signed up as a player, comprising of most of the then active player base. Notable abstainees were 5Dave, RCTNW, Cedarpoint6, and in hindsight Cocoa too. The draft happened quite suddenly on March 11th, and it was only when the teams were posted that JKay found out he wasn’t captaining - what a way to retire from the game. The team roster topic saw some interesting activity in the following days, as the rosters were heavily altered by intense trading between some of the teams.

 

Of course the Hurricanes were back, and of course Kumba was captaining, and of course they were instantly one of the favourites to win the whole thing. J K returned to the team as well, as Kumba's second in command. The rest of the team mostly consisted of promising up and coming players, the most prominent of which was disneylhand. Fisch, nin, Casimir, JDP and Gwazi, known as a mostly LL-player, all joined during or after H2H4. Robbie92 was the newest of the Hurricanes members, having joined only last year. He had made enough waves with his advertised project to get Kumba to draft him in the fifth round already. The last player on the roster was dr dirt; an unknown player who initially wasn't drafted; experts knew he had talent though, having seen his work on other RCT websites. Dr dirt was brought on board later as a replacement for thorpedo.

 

The Whzz Kids were captained by geewhzz. His top player was Fr3ak, a highly talented player struggling to release anything significant, and egg_head, an experienced parkmaker who was at that point very close to being made an NE parkmaker, lacking only a proper solo release. Further down the roster were the new players: Tolsimir, Bacchus, jusmith and zburns999. ][ntamin22 had been active on the site since the very first year of NE, but he was never quite as active as he was now, also making him a new player, in a way. K0NG hailed from RCT communities outside NE and was known to be a good player, but with a big mouth. StormRunnerFan was brought on board later to replace JJ.

 

The Alpha Legends was one of the most experienced teams in H2H5, with captain Six Frags having participated in the previous two editions as well. With Loopy, surprise sign-up Twisted, and layout-genius Panic, the Alpha Legends were probably the team to watch for some Loopy Landscapes action. All three players were in both H2H3 and H2H4; Twisted's H2H history went back to H2H2, even. Ride6 was the top RCT2 player (with LL capabilities). Like Robbie92 on The Hurricanes, Sulakke was a highly sought after new player that likely every captain was chasing, but only Six Frags managed to get. Zodiac and RCFanB&M had been around producing some well-received solo content for a couple years. Werner was a succesful player without NE-roots from the Dutch community. Maverix was brought on board later as a replacement for LLoyd.

 

The Minutemen was another experienced team, helmed by chapelz. He chose Turtle and Steve, a duo that seemed somehow inevitable, as his top players. He also gambled by picking the inactive Metropole, a gamble that didn't pay off, and Metropole got replaced by the unknown Dutch player Marino. FK+Coastermind was solid number three pick. The new generation was represented by Comet, DelLagos, Dimi, Cena and Nokia. A good team on paper, but top heavy, and as illustrated by the Metropole situation, possibly an unreliable team.

 

Levis, hackmaster and advocate for pure fantasy RCT, assembled The Elementalists with the clear intention to produce fantastical parks. LL-veteran Roomie and idea machine XCoaster were drafted quickly, as well as another well known LL-player Milo who was then know as OLE. Camcorder22 was THE controversy of last year's Micro Madness, a nobody who skillfully elbowed her way into the final four and a Parkmaker position out of a pool of 64. JiMeMo also had a nice showing with fantasy creations in Micro Madness, although not going as far as Cam. H2H-veteran Micool, newbies ivo and turbin3 (then known as Yannik) completed the roster. Oh, there's also RCTMike, who is possibly the biggest question mark to ever participate in RCT. We don't know who he is or why Levis picked him.

 

The sixth team were The Flying Germans, going by the name, the champions from H2H3. Looking at the team roster, no players from that team were actually present. The only H2H3-Flying German in H2H5 was Ride6, who was on the Alpha Legends. However, captain Magnus actually being German still gave him some right to revive the team name. Magnus proceed to draft the extremely talented but hardly proven RCTFAN first, and the legendary RRP second. RRP had been present in H2H ever since the very first edition in 2002, and was known as one of the best LL players of all time. However, he was now playing RCT2 and was new to this game; his showing in Micro Madness was laughably poor. From here on it was all eager but inexperienced players. Sey, Louis, yours truly Liampie, Colorado-Fan, Luigi, Portuguese mascot X-Fusion, and WallyWorld, who dropped out to be replaced by an estimated three year old SSSammy (he was young).

 

Thorpedo and Metropole dropping out were significant disappointments, but in retrospect, the replacements that were too mediocre to be picked in the first place grew into major players years down the line, and perhaps them being given a chance in H2H5 motivated them to keep improving their game. It’s hard to imagine StormRunnerFan, Maverix, SSSammy and dr dirt going unpicked nowadays…

 

NE was under new management. During the last H2H4, ownership passed from iris to Kumba; and in 2008, ownership transfered to posix and geewhzz, who would take an entirely different approach to managing the site. They had seen the previous managements and had an opinion, and now they had the opportunity to put their money where their mouth was. The result was a revised contest format, with a more professional and streamlined process, though no longer having Corkscrewed's website was a minor loss.

 

For the first time, Round Robin was reduced to five rounds, divisions were a thing of the past (at least until H2H9), the Grand Final became a single match, and a 3rd place match was introduced. Another new rule stated that up to three players could work on a park, as opposed to the previous limit of two. When the first matches were posted, it became clear that this would be the most professional H2H edition thus far, with a beautiful and carefully put together HTML presentation, and an ingenious system to ensure that no one could vote after having opened the parks in game. To be able to vote, you had to enter a 'vote code' on the site. The vote code could be found in an in-game message. These codes were personalised and could not be shared. It gave some people trouble, but generally the system worked beautifully.

 

Round 1 started with a bang, as reigning champion Kumba and his Hurricanes went up against Levis's Elementalists, a team that appeared to be more fantasy-oriented right from the draft. The Hurricanes' World Showcase was an instant heavy hitter, combining Kumba's sense for density and fun details (note the epic fireworks show upon opening the park!) with the architectural skills of robbie92 - an up and comer and potential steal of the draft; with solid supporting work from Gwazi as well, which must be noted. Any match involving an overly cocky Kumba was potentially a controversial one, but it was the park from the opposing team that gave the contest the first real controversy, as the Elementalists' Art of War was themed to... war. Classical naval warfare, trebuchets slinging projectiles over a castle wall and spaceships flying through the void are fine, but an invisible airplane ride picking up guests and throwing them onto the beaches and trenches of Normandy was deemed tasteless by many. Partially because of this, the Art of War lost the first battle, but it made for a memorable match as a whole. The match topic has 182 posts in it, to illustrate this point.

 

The other two matches saw the Alpha Legends submit an Efteling inspired fantasy park called Eftelrama, largely speed-built by captain Six Frags, facing a generic American realism park (Kidderbrook) by the Minutemen, featuring mainly work from Comet, as well as Dimi and Steve in his only H2H5 appearance. Eftelrama narrowly won. Match 3 between the Flying Germans and the Whzz Kids was less close. The Flying Germans had a promising park in the works, led by RCTFAN and supported by Louis; Vampyre. Sadly, and somewhat predictably, RCTFAN had a hard drive crash that made him lose a lot of progress. Louis did what he could, but the unfinished map that was submitted was only a shadow of what it could've been. Yet, the coaster layout was so incredibly strong that it managed to take a few votes away from the more well rounded (but somewhat eclectic) Land of Wonders from the Whzz Kids, with solid teamwork from egg_head, zburns and Tolsimir.

 

World Showcase by the Hurricanes	Art of War by the Elementalists
Kidderbrook Amusement Park by the Minutemen	Eftelrama by the Alpha Legends

 

Round 2 again started off with a bang. The Elementalists submitted The Afterlife, with again a few elements that could be considered tasteless by some - demons, graveyeards, and some signs of torture - however the overall park remained whimsical and creative. A worthy park in any H2H5 match. The Afterlife, an RCT2 park, was led by LL-veteran Roomie. Ironically it went up against the geewhzz-led Sea World Sydney, a groundbreaking piece of LL coming from an RCT2-titan. The Elementalists didn't stand a chance

 

In the second match, the Alpha Legends offered a realistic park with a twist - a boardwalk park on a drained dam reservoir in the Western US; Pueblo Canyon Boardwalk. The Hurricanes once again comfortably won with the somewhat disjointed ImaginIt, with JDP and Fisch in a somewhat awkward collaboration. Fisch's Chinese area is still impressive.

 

The Flying Germans once again did not manage to finish their park Calypso Quay, by RRP and Liampie, but this time it was complete enough to comfortably win against the Minutemen's BioShock - Welcome to Rapture; an underwater fantasy park that was brought down by being too much roof. Water parks had never been taken to this level of detail and functionality before, and RRP came up with a clever way of peepable ticket booths - though there was no time to make the necessary ride huts invisible, because this was still a difficult-to-learn HEX editing trick. In true Kumba fashion, Kumba used this 'opportunity' to boast about a water slide he made in a H2H3 play-offs park (Aviara Cove). The following exchange resulted in one of the most famous NE mantras, authored by RRP.

 

Sea World Sydney by the Whzz Kids	The Afterlife by the Elementalists
Calypso Quay by the Flying Germans	Pueblo Canyon Boardwalk by the Alpha Legends

 

Round 3 gave the Elementalists their first win, despite further references to death and misery, with The Testament beating the Alpha Legends' South Park Studios. With references to homosexuality in the animal kingdom, a giant mecha Barbara Streisand, and Canadians farting lifted from the cartoon, this was the Elementalists' chance of making the more tasteful park of the match, and they took it. The Testament was an impressive collection of stories and references to Judeo-Christian mythology, often cleverly turned into theme park rides. Xcoaster did what made him famous, and ivo proved to be the perfect partner. The Testament was one of the masterpieces of H2H5, and South Park Studios one of the incredibly rushed Six Frags-led parks, a disservice to both the team and his own reputation as an experienced parkmaker - though him jumping on parks in crisis and dragging them over the finishing line is without a doubt praise worthy captaining.

 

The second match in this round provided a good amount of drama. The Minutemen did not manage to submit their park in time, which resulted in their (completed) park 7 Days in Prison! to be disqualified, to the disappointment of many - hard work from Cena, Comet and replacement Marino down the drain. The Whzz Kids received a win by default, their third in a row, essentially qualifying them for the play-offs already. Their park, Whzzfest!, showed a traveling funfair and German beer hall in an unprecedented amount of a detail. However, the park also had its flaws, and we will never know which park of the two would've won, had it been an actual match. K0NG, one of the Whzz Kids, had been one of the strongest personalities on the site for a while, and somehow he appeared to be more frustrated than the Minutemen.

 

The third match was also memorable. Flying Germans captain Magnus led Park Asterix, with the center piece ride SPQR which is still (anno 2024) regarded as one of the best wooden coasters ever designed in RCT. Despite some rough edges, it beat favourites Hurricanes and their well made Spider-Man themed park from nin and J K, putting the two teams level in the standings.

 

 

The H2H3 standings after Week 3 were as follows.

 

	1	2	3	4	5
Hurricanes	W	W	L
Whzz Kids	W	W	W
Alpha Legends	W	L	L
Minutemen	L	L	L
Flying Germans	L	W	W
Elementalists	L	L	W

 

The Testament by the Elementalists

Park Asterix by the Flying Germans

 

More war and death came from the Elementalists in Round 4, with a LL park set in space (Assault on Earth Base Gamma Gamma) from Micool and Milo, which received some criticism for not having a coaster. It narrowly lost to the Minutemen's Red River Delta, led by Turtle and captain chapelz, a park whose legacy has grown considerably over the years, into one of the most well regarded parks of H2H5. After three losses in a row, this was a welcome morale boost for them, and a crucial blow to the Elementalists - especially Micool took the loss hard. The match was not only a clash of LL and RCT2, but also a clash between non-park fantasy and a more traditional RCT park. Tensions were very high during the match, and everyone took everything personally.

 

The third and last LL park of the contest came in the form of Xlapak by Alpha Legends Loopy, Panic and Twisted in their last RCT appearances ever (in the case of the latter two); it was a surprise to get new LL work from Twisted at all. It went up and comfortably won against the Flying Germans' biggest fuck-up, Aquatica. A confusing concept of giant reverse aquariums with three random/unrelated themes was made more confusing by unfinishedness. Out of respect to the creators I will not mention their names, though Liampie, Louis and Luigi may have been involved.

 

Xlapak could've carried round 4 by itself, but the Whzz Kids redefined what a 'best park of the round' looked like when they submitted Belmont Shores. To say Geewhzz was on fire would be an understatement, and to the outside world the drafting of K0NG finally made sense. Belmont Shores was without a doubt one of the most realistic and immersive parks to ever grace the site, and that is putting it conservatively. This was also the first park that showed new hacking methods invented by geewhzz, with invisisble tracks and half height paths to allow for features and custom rides that no one had conceived of before. The Hurricanes tried their best with Dinotopia, from Casimir, Fisch and disneylhand, but it made no difference.

 

Red River Delta by the Minutemen	Xlapak by the Alpha Legends
Belmont Shores by the Whzz Kids	Dinotopia by the Hurricanes

 

H2H5 had been full of controversy and shit slinging so far, and some members' patience had been wearing thin. Little was at stake in round 5, so maybe this was a chance for the community to regain its calmness and maturity? The uninmportantnes showed in the quality of the parks, but the shit slinging continued.

 

The Minutemen made a strange non-park called Delta Desert Base, mainly by FK+Coastermind, that in hindsight may have been ahead of its time. FK+Coastermind was a hot name back then, being tipped as potentially the next NE Parkmaker. This park was regarded as somewhat of a disappointment from him. The Hurricanes beat Delta Desert Base with Renaview Bay Park, a unique take on a realistic park, by making it entirely abandoned. Partially collapsed coasters, serial killers, drunk teens, sludgy stagnant water and camping vagrants made for a strong and moody atmosphere. Peeps named after Minutemen players drowning in the stagnant pool upon opening the park sparked some heated discussion on tastefulness and the limits of trash talk. Some strong opinions from non-player Dr Dude about losing respect for the parkmakers of Delta Desert Bay also added further flavour to the match topic, and Dr Dude said something unfortunate that K0NG was not going let him live down. In the end, the most important takeaway from this match was that dr dirt, being a replacement, turned out to be a force to be reckoned with, being the mastermind behind Renaview Bay Park.

 

The Elementalists and the Flying Germans both submitted unfinished and heavily rushed parks respectively. Car Park won, but again it was a shadow of what it should've been. In a finished state, Devils and Demons could've taken the win though, with impressive tyandor-esque architecture and sculptures made mainly by ivo. Hacked rides by Levis were too unfinished and confusing to make any impression.

 

The third match of round 5 featured a donut shaped and Alpine themed map from the Alpha Legends, with a disappointing Sulakke appearance and yet another case of rushed Six Frags work - completing his trilogy of disappointments. It lost against the Whzz Kids' Atlantic Realms by Bacchus and Tolsimir, which was mostly carried by the extensively themed river rapids ride featuring a vertical lift - a rare hack that barely anyone had dared to try for themselves ever since geewhzz gave us the first proper use in a realistic park in 2008's El Encierro design. In the post-match discussion, Six Frags revealed that Schweizer Valley Amusements was a last minute build to replace another finished park that the team felt was not strong enough - this was later released as the bronze-winning Krustyland.

 

Renaview Bay Park by the Hurricanes

Schweizer Valley Amusements by the Alpha Legends

 

The H2H3 standings after Week 5 were as follows.

 

	1	2	3	4	5
Hurricanes	W	W	L	L	W
Whzz Kids	W	W	W	W	W
Alpha Legends	W	L	L	W	L
Minutemen	L	L	L	W	L
Flying Germans	L	W	W	L	W
Elementalists	L	L	W	L	L

 

With only a single win under their belt, the Minutemen and the Elementalists were mercilessly eliminated from the contest. Recently, Levis shed some light on how his team experienced this.

 

 

 

Both teams had some (backup) parks in the works. Some of these never saw the light of day, such as a steampunk park Xcoaster was working on for the Elementalists. His teammate Roomie did end up finishing another park, which was released in October: Kaleidoscope Canyon, a very colourful and dense map with a ton of coasters. it was awarded a high silver accolade. Would it have saved the Elementalists in the play-offs, though? Doubtful, against what we were about to see. More impressive, a contender against any semis park, would be the Minutemen's Myst - although Turtle finished it solo after the team was eliminated. It was released in February 2010 and scored 81.15%.

 

Going into the semi-finals, the Whzz Kids and the Hurricanes were the favourites against respectively the Alpha Legends and the Flying Germans. On July 3rd, the Germans flew out into the storm. Thanks to a great late push by Louis!, they had managed to finish Southport Pleasure Beach - with good base work by masters of detail (but not speed) RRP and Sey. It was one of their stronger parks of the season, with a good selection of classic coasters inspired by Blackpool. The Hurricanes easily made their best park thus far - a classic Kumba park showing him at his best: Roman Vice is extremely idea dense; ridiculous at times, but also full of interesting pieces of history. nin also helped out, and disneylhand contributed a great set of dueling coasters called Jupiter vs. Apollo. Southport managed to rally a reasonable amount of support, but a third of the voter base is not enough - and as many suspected, he Hurricanes proceeded to the Grand Final - Kumba's third in a row. RRP was not pleased with the end result, and vouched to release his own version of Southport. A lot of work was done over the next year or so, but the park remains unreleased as of yet. Kumba considered this semi-final a grudge match for the loss he took in the H2H3 finals, but it must be noted that the H2H3 and H2H5 Flying Germans did not have anything in common.

 

In fact, the only H2H3 Flying German still active would be Ride6, who featured in the other semi-final under the flag of the Alpha Legends. Joining forces with RCFanB&M and Loopy in a rare RCT2 appearance, they created Alumwell Bay. The park had some good ideas, such as a hang glider type custom ride, and there were cool features such as a cruise ship and a pretty strong B&M Flying Coaster. However, we'd already seen a seaside type park this season in Belmont, and the quality difference was rather large, in addition to the park looking quite rushed. That didn't bode well when they were against the direct successor to Belmont Shores: Lenox Mall. Geewhzz took the lead again, with some help by Fr3ak and egg_head, to create probably the most immersive and detailed park we'd seen to date, inside or outside of H2H. Great coaster ('Nebulocity'), brilliant new hacks, and most of all, a lot of highly detailed and recognizable shopfronts and interiors. This semi-final was a blowout. A landslide. A massacre. Lenox Mall received 100% of the votes, something that had never happened before in H2H history.

 

Roman Vice by the Hurricanes	Southport Pleasure Beach by the Flying Germans
Lenox Mall by the Whzz Kids	Alumwell Bay by the Alpha Legends

 

With the two undoubtedly strongest teams making into the final, and the teams looking very fit, expectations for the final were high. Add to that the egos of the members on the teams, among them the captains... Kumba's unconditional Hurricane propoganda machine was running, and K0NG had been proclaiming himself to be the best thing since sliced bread for weeks now. Aaand... it all came crashing down. The H2H5 sure was a climactic end the season, just not the climax everyone expected nor wanted: the perfect season Whzz Kids did not submit a park.

 

So what happened? K0NG had been building on a solo park called Disney: Ozark Hills for weeks now. Three days before the deadline, an error trapper occured that made him backtrack a lot, leaving him only three days to rebuild multiple weeks of work. Then, he decided he was not going to waste his hard work by having his park lose to the Hurricanes in its unfinished state. This decision lead to a lot of strife, also within the Whzz Kids. K0NG didn't blame anyone but himself, but he also blamed others for not helping. Others blamed him for not accepting help. Spectators were mostly supportive and understanding of his decision at first, but K0NG also had to endure taunts and call-outs, which were hardly undeserved considering K0NG's attitude and unprecedented self-hyping. Among the supporters was a rare Coaster Ed sighting, who pleaded his case more eloquently than anyone else could. It would be tragic to cut his post into smaller quotes, because he captured the H2H experience so well.

 

 

 

Ed was right - and it applies to these write-ups as well. A lot of words have been spent to describe the course of the contest, more so than on the actual RCT. Is the RCT an instrument to have a contest, or is the contest an instrument for producing good RCT? In that spirit, it is time to talk about the Hurricanes' park: Worlds of Tim Burton. Tim Burton is of course one of the most popular film directors from the 90s and 00s, known for his whimsical 'dark' aesthetic. It was good material to base an RCT park on. Kumba's right hand man and top J K, and everyone's favourite rookie robbie92 took the lead, later joined by miracle replacement dr dirt. The park followed a Disneyland type layout, with a centerpiece castle surrounded by weirdly shaped trees - in this case trimmed by Edward Scissorhands. From the center, multiple different themed lands radiated outwards. Notable areas were Planet of the Apes, Nightmare Before Christmas and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but most of Burton's other movies got their own areas as well - and each area was full of little details and references that brought this park to the next level. It was one of the best parks of the contest, in fact it got second place in the eventual H2H5 awards 'Best Park' category. It was also a worthy park to end the season with, and a worthy park to win the championship with - Kumba's (and J K's) second.

 

Well, it wasn't really the end. For the first time in H2H history, a match to determine the bronze recipient was held, featuring the two losing semi-finalists. Magnus pulled a disappearing act, leaving Liampie alone for their intended duo. Contributions from RCTFAN and SSSammy (coming in clutch) helped Liampie to narrowly finish Dream World Indoor, a Toverland-inspired realism park that may have been one of the best indoor parks up until that period (conveniently not counting Lenox Mall), with realistic touches such as a functional ropes course, functional RC boats, and a detailed buffet restaurant, as well as several coasters. Zodiac and Sulakke ended the season for the Alpha Legends, in a minimalistic style that was kind of fitting for their team. The Lake and the River didn't feature a lake nor a river, but there were two good coasters and some nice architecture. In the end Dream World Indoor received the most votes, because it just had more content to look at.

 

Worlds of Tim Burton by the Hurricanes	Disney: Ozark Hills by the Whzz Kids
Dream World Indoor by the Flying Germans	The Lake and the River by the Alpha Legends

 

As is tradition, H2H awards were held at the end. New management resulted in new award categories that were more balanced than before, preventing a boring geewhzz sweep. Of course, geewhzz did win MVP of course, having (co-)built three of top five parks in the Best Park category, and Lenox Mall and Belmont Shores both featured multiple times. The Hurricanes were represented by winning best replacement and best rookie, and the Flying Germans did live up to their third place ranking by sweeping up the Best Wooden Coaster category with Magnus's SPQR (against strong competition!), and Louis!, Liampie and SSSammy taking votes away from the best rookie and best replacement awards. From the other teams, not much scored highly in the polls with a few exceptions: The Testament from the Elementalists mostly.

 

Best Steel Coaster Best Wooden Coaster Best Water Ride   Best Non-Coaster Ride Best Park Best Idea Best Match Best Replacement Rookie of the Year Most Valuable Player

Nebulocity from Lenox Mall S.P.Q.R. from Park Asterix Dyseria from Atlantic Realms (tie) Master Blaster from Calypso Quay (tie) Shooting Star from Lenox Mall Belmont Shores Rent-a-Bike from Belmont Shores Park Asterix vs. The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman dr dirt robbie92 geewhzz

 

At the time, H2H5 looked like a step up from H2H4 and it was regarded a successful content (despite the incidents). It was a revolution in the way the game was played. Realism had become the dominant genre on NE, with players like geewhzz, disneylhand and Cedarpoint6 having pushed boundaries for a few years now. This alone made H2H5 completely different from past seasons, but the competitiveness of H2H also brought out further progress, most of which can be attributed to geewhzz. It was also during H2H5 that a large group of RCTFAN-made custom objects came to circulate, originally made for his lost Project Toucan/Forbidden Kingdoms park. Most notably: his trim pieces, as well as diagonal walls and a set of decorated arches - these would help shape the RCT aesthetic for the next decade. Like Vampyre, Forbidden Kingdoms was lost in a hard drive crash. It's a miracle we got the scenery pieces at all.

 

H2H5 was also the first H2H to be this formal, it determined the contest format for the future as well, and it was the first H2H for an entire generation who would stick around long term. If H2H4 was the passing of the torch, H2H5 was the receiving of the torch.

H2H5 Statistics

 

Players: Participation

Players: Performance

Matches: Outcomes

Matches: Parks

This is wild. It looks great, and it's so wonderful we are able to have this kind of data.

 

Sometimes I struggle to find access easily. Most of this is quite specific that without reading up on what you have analysed, it needs a good moment for me to comprehend. But that might just be me also.

H2H5 was crazy fun.  It was tense and intense but I look back on it fondly.  Micool was tons of fun to build with and it was cool to play with a (then) old head as a rookie so it did indeed = jizz everywhere.  I envy the folks getting to experience their rookie season as it was a formative experience even after being a part of the community a while.  Watching people like Roomie,  Levis and Xcoaster build was quite novel even if it was within forum topics and text chats.

Notable just how many great wooden coasters there are in this season: SPQR in Parc Asterix; Talisman in Pueblo Canyon; Giant Dipper in Belmont Shores and Southport's Cyclone - all are excellent in different ways.

My feelings for my h2h5 experience is mixed but Liam summed it up well enough in the recap. The top people in our team really let us down in terms of unfinished work and then disappearances, but I'm proud of the work me, Liam & Sammy put in to clinch a 3rd place. I think the productivity of me & Liam shows how hard we worked as mid-pick rookies. I will always regret how the fuck up of Aquatica came about, I take partial blame for that, however I think Magnus also takes partial blame for choosing who was going to build that round in the first place.

 

In the end, it was an enjoyable but stressful experience (having to attempt to finish 2 entire parks by myself after RCTFan, RRP & Sey all disappeared as soon as they realised the respective parks were going to lose due to not being finished to their standards), and then in the end it was literally just Liam, me, Sammy & X-Fusion left to either build or cheerlead in the 3rd place match as everyone else jumped ship. 

 

Interestingly I think it defined the way I approached RCT. If I'm building, I'll build a lot of work in a short space of time or what I can produce is very minimal. And that the satisfaction of building a great coaster layout (Southport Cyclone) is more important to me than actually building anything else. 

 

I also vowed to always be a better leader and captain than Magnus (which worked for most of my tenure as Admin and my H2H6 captaincy), unfortunately that didn't go to plan H2H8 onwards...

Very interesting H2H personally to look back on... it seems our team did pretty badly. I got a win, though, building a park that I really like with chapelz and Dimi, who were both great. I would have had a solo in the semis with Myst, a park that's still one of my favorites I ever built. It was really the first time i'd strayed away from mostly realism, or at least possible-in-real-life, and it definitely paved the way for some more creative work in the future. 

 

I remember being pretty annoyed that our team didn't do that well, but I wasn't pushy enough to really get involved and do something about it. In hindsight, definitely a regret that I would try and rectify in future contests. 

 

Liam it's so great to be able to relive these, loving the writeups and stats. Much appreciated. 

myst would have been the GOAT h2h park, i think i've spent my entire rct career trying to get there

What a nice memento, thank you so much for the write-up! The first real NE contest I participated in, back in the day. Good lord, 15 years ago.

 

Some bittersweet memories though, as the finals sure turned into a controversy around K0NG. Still thinking about him every now and then, how he managed to push all of teenage-me's buttons, and how I couldn't understand yet where all of it might've been coming from.

I do hope he's in a place that's less painful for him now, wherever that may be.

Great overview! I joined after this happened but people were always referring to several of these events. It's very nice to read this story to give it all context.

Quite a lot of the parks featured in H2H have gone on to become just part of the NE story and get referenced back all the time. It is awesome to see a summary how these have actually come to be. Love these write ups Liam, bring em on!