The dust has cleared on Albion's ninth Guild Season - congrats to new champions [b]Elevate[/b] on their decisive victory! [img]//assets.albiononline.com/uploads/media/default/media/2ebbe7f1aab204af599282003f772deac039d41b.jpeg[/img] Season 9 saw numerous power blocks reorganized, with Season 8 winners Sex With Ex and their ARMOR alliance beginning to fall apart even before Season 8 ended. The result was a power vacuum that [b]Elevate[/b], a guild created during the offseason, expertly stepped in to fill. [b]Mamono[/b], leader of Elevate, describes their strategy as follows: [i]The first month of the season was spent building the strongest zerg in the game while fighting the mega alliances of the world against all odds. We did this while also maintaining the #1 spot in the rankings, which was taken in the first week of the season through dominance in both the open world and the Crystal League.[/i] [b]Elevate 3x City Fight:[/b] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI57g1gN570 The resulting boost to their reputation helped them recruit even more talent and placed them firmly into the upper echelons of Albion politics, where they decided to lead a coalition of guilds against the POE Empire. [b]Black Order, Zorn, Violets[/b], and their alliances all joined the coalition, as did many other guilds and alliances, to take down POE led by [b]Crimson Imperium Reborn[/b]. This ongoing battle continued until the final weeks of the season, as massive forces from both sides fought daily over the southern Outlands. Mamono describes their approach to unseating POE: [i]"Just before the first reset day, Elevate, RUCOM, and several of our allies formed a coalition against POE. The war raged on with several battles won and lost by each side daily. The coalition quickly pushed POE out of its former 15 UTC holdings, and began the assault of Rivercopse Fount, the main zone of Hammer and Sickle. This attack was attempted and failed numerous times as POE defended for over a month, but once the Hideout reached its last shield, Elevate and Black Order were able to defeat CIR, SUN, Hammer and Sickle, and ScoiaTael in back-to-back battles."[/i] Once POE and their allies fell back further south, much of the momentum of the coalition's push was halted, and Elevate had to transition from being the underdog to the difficult task of ruling an empire. As far as the season victory was concerned, though, Elevate's lead at the season's midpoint made catching them out of reach, even for #2 guild [b]RANG[/b]. Early in the season, [b]Rang, Native, Final Order[/b] and [b]Last Warn[/b] looked quite strong, and many even picked Native to win the season based on their strong Crystal League play. But Elevate's consolidation of teams and their domination of ZvZs, city fights, and early-season Crystal League battles left other guilds fighting for second-best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA0xaXBWg-c The battle for second place was much closer: in the final weeks of the season, current second-place team [b]RANG [/b]closed up shop. This opened the door for [b]Bloco de Rua[/b], who took to hiring mercenaries to push their season points in the final stretch by scoring massive points in the Crystal League and dominating castle conquest during the double-points phase of the season. Sure enough, on the final day of the season, Bloco de Rua passed RANG and claimed second place. Steinhub, leader of Bloco de Rua, describes facing off against Elevate's coalition from the opposing side: [i]"We fought many battles to assist our EU allies who were facing a mega alliance led by Elevate, but the most important moment was when we helped ARCH against Last Warn. After that, ARCH began to help us in our quest for the top. Seven CTSs per day was a hard time and we were glad to take the extra help from our Crystal GvG allies."[/i] [img]//assets.albiononline.com/uploads/media/default/media/293d77711ea8beb201f401b7c37f319c395f7c6d.jpeg[/img] [h3]Looking to Season 10[/h3] Other notable storylines of the last season include Final Order's war in the north and their subsequent closure as they look to reestablish Seasons 1-2 champions [b]Money Guild[/b], which will be worth keeping an eye on. And [b]ARCH [/b]was drawn into a massive war to defend their homes from the forces of Last Warn and the newly reemerged EOS. Territories fell and Hideouts were smashed but ARCH remained strong, and with the launch of the Rise of Avalon update and the upcoming season many believe their best days are still ahead of them. Season 10 kicks off on Saturday, August 29 - for the complete season schedule, see [url=https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/134086][b]this forum post[/b][/url]. [i]Thanks to Shozen, Mytherceria, Mamono, Steinhub, and others for their contributions to this article.[/i]