Nominations

[Quebecshire]

The 2023 Defender Awards

Nominations Thread

Open October 23rd - October 30th

Closed.

[Banexet]

Defender of the Year: Westinor, Quebecshire
Anarchtopia Award: The Grey Wardens, League Defense Force
Sir Lans Award: Kotoha Tanaka
Operation of the Year: Far East Oriental Federation, South Pacific, Magna Aurea
Newcomer of the Year: Westinor, Concrete Slab, Kotoha Tanaka, Kivu, Aura
Lifetime Achievement: Numero Capitan
Karputsk Award: Westinor
Worst Invasion/Worst Operation Award: Yessssss
Belgium Award: Westinor, Quebecshire
Worst Invader Group: The Militia
Eluvatar Award: Pronoun, Luca
Blackbird Award: BOM
Mentor of the Year: Concrete Slab, Westinor

[humansanity]

Defender of the Year: Quebecshire
The main person driving most defender politics, a huge defender military, public relations, and pulling lots of strings on significant operations.

Ananke Award: Drew Durnil, New Makasta
Drew is newer to defending but has done a huge amount of spotting, whereas Makasta has held it down more consistently at a more moderate level of spotting. Both are good picks.

Anarchtopia Award: TGW, RRA, LDF
We haven't done the best on defenses this year, but these three orgs and their officers have led most of our successful defensive efforts.

Sir Lans: Westinor, Kotoha Tanaka, Varax, New Makasta
These four are the most consistent mainstays of day-to-day defending operations.

Newcomer of the Year: Kotoha Tanaka, Drew Durnil, Concrete Slab, AurA, Anjan
There's a dense field for this award this year. No offense, but I think Westinor doesn't count, as she was around previously for defensive operations and brought a lot of talent in from the start. By comparison, all five of these saw their first R/D operations this year, and have shown immense talent and determination.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Kanta Hame
This has been a long time coming for a while, and with his retirement this year, it's finally time.

Numero Capitan Award: Numero Capitan, Quebecshire
He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good.

Karputsk Award: Westinor, Quebecshire, Varax
The first two have done most of the logistics/project management on basically all of our liberations. Varax gets a nomination too for having a lot of good tactical ideas at update time.

Belgium Award: Quebecshire, Westinor
They wrote all the SC stuff.

Eluvatar Award: Pronoun
No duh.

Blackbird Award: The Brotherhood of Malice, Lone Wolves United
TBH is a husk and The Communist Bloc are glorified mega-pilers and pretend they aren't raiders.

Mentor of the Year: Quebecshire, Grea Kriopia
There's been huge growth in the officer corps of both LDF and TGW and these are the two people responsible.

[westinor]

Defender of the Year:
Quebecshire - This one is pretty obvious. Quebec has been behind every bit of action in defending for the entire year - he's what makes this machine work.
Grea Kriopia - GK may have been afk for part of this year, but when she's around you can feel it; and when she's not, you can feel that too. Maybe it's just me, but GK has been an incredibly important factor in defending when she's been around and is probably an incredibly underappreciated force at the higher echelons of defending, while remaining a powerhouse in the day-to-day when she so chooses.

Ananke Award: Not going to nominate for this one as I don't have strong feelings. There have been some good spotters, but not really any standouts, and in a year where spotting has been tough it's hard for me to come up with true successes. Makasta, Hame, and Takka have all been great contributors throughout the year, though.

Anarchtopia Award: TGW, LDF, SPSF, RRA. No doubt about it.

Sir Lans:
Vincent Drake - Feels like we've forgotten... basically the first six months of this year. I think what's important to me about this award is that some defenders didn't just show up and do their own thing - there are plenty of fantastic players who did exactly this, and were perfectly consistent chasers or detaggers or liberators that I could trust to hold their own. But some players simply contribute *more* to an operation, and the definition of that this year was Vinny. Trust me, there were times when I was making the update marathons where it was literally just me and Vinny - without him, I'm pretty sure there'd be quite a few updates where I'd have literally been solo-chasing, particularly in the dip pre-and post-England where pretty much everyone seemed sleepy/burnt out. Vinny provides incredible wisdom whenever he's been around to update, and otherwise is literally a guaranteed updater + tiebreaker in any chasing operation. When I was starting to get the hang of leading updates, he was incredibly key in teaching me how to go about best doing things, and without him I personally would not be as engaged in defending particularly in the day-to-day, as I would've been. While he hasn't been around in the most recent couple of months, he's been enough of a powerhouse for literally the rest of the year to deserve at least some recognition.
Varax - Varax has been a strong and consistent updater, and while the back half of the year has been sleepy update wise, Varax was incredible early on and was right next to Vinny in being a solid and powerful presence day-to-day. Lest we forget that during the incredibly chasing-heavy three months of the year, Varax was probably the most consistent chaser around!! She also has, as HS has pointed out, a particularly bright mind for tactics - and this includes mid-update, be it in a chasing sesh or otherwise. I recall the early-year shotgun runs where I had to split people into groups, and some of them would have been unmanagable without Varax (and Vinny too, at times). Particularly around March-May, Varax and Vinny where such powerhouses that to me, any name with a V got me excited cause I knew update was going to be solid.
I think Quebec and GK deserve nominations too, though perhaps regular attendance-wise they aren't as spot-on as Vinny or Varax were. But both met the criteria of being superb and outstanding updaters in whatever update they were in.

Operation of the Year: I think there are several that deserve contention!! This year has had a bunch of great operations, win or lose, that deserve remembering. I'm lucky enough to have helped lead the five that I feel had the highest impact on defending as a whole, so I want to go through each one and touch on what I felt like were the most important aspects of their time so we can remember some of our greatest efforts this year
England - Our first massive operation this year, it stands out sheerly for the incredible energy and sustained strength of the faction for its (at the time, before being broken by Magna Aurea) record-breaking siege length. I woke up/came back from school every update to see anywhere from 40-60 updaters every update based off 5 pings and relatively casual pushing, which is absolutely incredible (and in large part thanks to great leaders like Concrete Slab, Tim, Quebec, HS, GK). The utilization of del-bump strategies literally pushing half of the raider RO force out of the game completely nullified any chance they had of burning a historical region down, and there were so many incredible stories to tell - from the first weekend's incredible energy, to the time Quebec and I triggered Thorn into TRR and caused him to lose all of his endos, and the final Friday push where we amassed 130 updaters in a coalition that would foreshadow the impending relevance of the NPA, ERN, and TWPAF later in the year and was only finally topped in FEOF - I still remember literally working a full 9 hours to make that one happen :>
South Pacific - Our first true "win" of the year, and the cleanest one to date. South Pacific had probably quite unmatched energy, and to me, holds a special place in my heart because for months after England I was itching for a chance at a win - and after having foiled the Raidercon raid only to get hit in South Pacific while at work, I personally didn't think that this was going to go well. But to me, the MVP of this liberation was Tim - his energy literally got me out of the shower in one minute to start full whipping the entirety of Libcord offlines and despite being WA-locked, his energy completely fueled the rest of the officer team. It was a particularly tough ask because the introduction of Frontiers meant that there were a lot of larger regions that complicated triggering - meaning I had to set several triggers that guesstimated at where we needed to be, and with the help of Makasta, managed to set a solid trigger that scored us a win 113-108. South Pacific was probably sold/particularly memorable as a best operation especially for its nail-biting margins - until the final hour, we didn't think we would have native FPM, and even when it came down to the trigger, South Pacific took a very long time to update and for a moment, we thought we had lost. But it holds a special place this year as the win that would fuel our momentum in the far crazier three months that would come.
The International UN - Probably the weakest contender here, but it was a wild three-update frenzy that was incredibly exciting due to close margins and we ended up winning in part due to a strategy where we pulled out several FPMers at once so that raiders couldn't ban all of them, allowing us to leverage close beachheads into a victory. Unfortunately, it wasn't as clean we would've wished, and a lot of aspects of TIUN were reflective of weaknesses we had in our operational structure, but I think being given a chance to reflect on that after our mistakes had nearly handicapped us out of what should have been an easier win allowed us to truly come back in full force towards the end of the year.
Magna Aurea - This one took out all the stops. Magna Aurea was never supposed to be a win - it was coming off the back of a really tough blow in Yessssss, and what seemed like a tough task to manage native coordination with and very, very poor odds, alongside a dearth of officer and liberator energy throughout. We were forced to play full attrition to stall for the passage of the SC Liberation, after failing to stop a queue-stuffing proposal from getting to quorum, and for a week we played strong defense in the region with the help of Pronoun's influence math and Kivu. Magna Aurea was a particularly young frontier, making it very easy to refound with the pile that raiders had, and troubles with getting the natives on board with trying to save their region made it quite possibly the most frustrating operation of the year. Combine that with the unveiling of Brimstone, which at times annihilated our sieges (which were paltry in comparison to England but kept afloat thanks to a determined few) and we had the hallmark of a lost effort.
The true shining aspect of Magna Aurea as an op, though, was Team A. After we stopped active sieges, having managed to get enough influence to send the Liberation through (alongside mixed messaging from the natives who were just... in a wholely different dimension of confusion at that point), I organized and coordinated a team of what apparently ended up being fifty operatives to watch and be ready to snipe a refound attempt, laying in a strategy in which we would both attempt to seize the region and intercept its refound via refound sniping. For two whole weeks I watched every update as anywhere from a dozen to nearly the whole damn squad woke up again and again to make sure any attempt at a refound was intercepted, creating golden memes and an immaculate sense of community in the process, and after three cumulative weeks of watching and waiting, we intercepted the refound and against all odds took a win in Magna Aurea. Magna Aurea was unparalleled in its display of this faction's unwavering commitment to defending the regions we swear to protect, and our ability to push back against any odds that were otherwise against us. I've never felt as proud of our faction as I did at five in the morning when we took that delegacy.
Far East Oriental Federation - The Operation that kicked off the awards, which decided to one-up MA in the record-breaking category. FEOF is fresh on all of our minds as a fantastic display of incredible work and energy, and I don't need to remind you all of how it went - but it was basically South Pacific 2.0 in its execution, and then turned up an extra notch. We pulled similar levels of liberators for both Major and Minor update, and once more indie militaries like TWPAF and NPA shined while our usuals dropped casual thirty-bombs through both updates. Tim once more brought back the immaculate major update energy that drove our incredible beachhead, and Quebec and Walrus were fantastic in wrangling the natives. What should've been a one-and-done like South Pacific turned into two, just because of an unlucky GA night timing alongside a massive region update time that meant raiders were able to ban our absolutely overwhelming stack. Add on the fact that they literally update-bended and still got whipped by 11s and 10s triggers, and we pretty much had a well-oiled and stellar liberation on all fronts that displayed exactly just what the defender faction can do - and I hope that this is a sign of what's to come, because FEOF was absolutely fantastic on all accounts :>

Newcomer of the Year:
Aura - My first nomination for this. Aura came in this year eager to learn and as a bright, interested player - and he's shown time and time again that he's got what it takes to contribute and be part of the team. He's an incredibly well-rounded player, which is difficult to find, and very friendly too. If he wants, he can go so much further; but he's already been an incredibly valuable asset on and off update, and I'm excited to see where he goes.
Kivu - The second superstar of the year. Kivu has made an incredible rise to the top, and his enthusiasm and willingness to participate and help out wherever needed came at a great time. Particularly in liberations, Kivu is almost always first to step up and help, and he's so damn good at training new LDFers and enabling the LDF's incredible turnout that, right next to Quebec, the LDF turnout machine is literally defined by his presence. Kivu is also yet another super well-rounded player, and is a standout to me in terms of liberation command.
Concrete Slab - Our third superstar, who made a name for incredible outreach, community-building, and whipping during England and has proven that he's near Tim-levels of energy on that front ever since. He's enthusiastic and he's got the energy to push forward ops that is necessary for so many liberations to succeed, and has been a key part of pushing forward the SPSF this year. Most liberations probably wouldn't have been won without his presence, and I'm incredibly glad he's shown up to help us out - and while his talents are incredibly well used to get out incredible amounts of liberators and induce sugar-high levels of energy in them, he's still great and willing to take the time to try and learn how to fill in wherever else needed, be it in the day to day or in other parts of the liberation machine, and I think that's what makes a true defender leader. He's got a great future ahead if he wants it.
Takka - a quiet contender but a contender nonetheless. Takka isn't your most outspoken liberator or commander, but at the same time, he's just under players like Varax for update consistency and, speaking from experience having run probably over a hundred updates this year with Takka in them, is lowkey one of your most consistent updaters that you can be confident to slot in wherever you need. At the same time, Takka has done well in his recent ascendence to command, already having been very great in dealing with more day-to-day operations and liberations, a role that is sorely needed. Takka can shine when needed, but otherwise is incredibly proficient on his own just getting all the needed things done.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Kante Hame, NuCa, Vincent Drake. Not enough energy to type out long posts for each because everyone already knows the case

Numero Capitan Award: Numero Capitan, Quebecshire

Karputsk Award:
Quebecshire: Duh. He's the driving force behind successful operations. He, alongside Kivu, are the motor in the liberating machine that is the LDF. Personally having had the pleasure of running every liberation this year alongside him, his advice is invaluable, his direction is always key to winning any op, and he knows how to get things done when he feels like it. I have a mental checklist of "what needs to be done before an op can be successful", and let's be real, a key part of it is having Quebec taking charge front and center. Perhaps the only successful liberation where this wasn't necessarily the case was Magna Aurea, which was on its own a three week slogfest that unfortunately I took center stage (and ugh look how that turned out), but at the same time, I still remember his voice messages post-update being key in formulating the strategy going forward in the coming week.
Tim: The other key person in my "successful liberations checklist". Ever since South Pacific, I'm convinced that Tim is just some kind of magic. The man can pop in out of nowhere and double your turnout, bring out a different energy within officers, and make liberations easy. When you look behind the scenes, update command is just different when Tim is around. He's sorely unappreciated and his energy is just so incredibly necessary for these massive turnouts that we see in liberations like South Pacific and now Far East Oriental Federation that he deserves at least consideration here.
I'd like to nominate Concrete Slab and Kivu for consideration as well, just because while they haven't taken center stage, both of them have been very important parts of key operations as well. Concrete Slab for reasons mentioned above (literally a fucking proto-Tim at times) and Kivu for probably being one of the best liberation-leading partenrs around. Just stop sending the early movement orders!!

Worst Operation Award: 
Yessssss - Our worst loss this year, and the only refound we've let occur. Yessssss, to me, was the signal that something needed to change - it took us all by surprise, and even seeing it while in a tag run, we didn't know how to respond. But the anger and spite off the back of Yessssss completely motivated what would be a stunning and determined comeback in Magna Aurea, and we got some splendid Wardens out of Yessssss - including the Crackerish Legion, the former del, who has been fantastic in Libcord so far - so as much as this was a hard loss, I think more than anything, it shows our ability to bounce back and learn from what went wrong.

Meltdown of the Year: I really don't know what to put for this, though some of the complaints about natives in England and MA were pretty ridiculous.

Belgium Award:
Quebecshire - Quebec deserves it. He's taken point on writing Liberations and Injunctions, and has been key in spearheading each one for operation after operation. He's the key point person in whipping support for necessary endeavors and knows how to get the job done.

Worst Invader Group:
The Militia - Please, oh my god, I really don't mean to be rude, but I'm still waiting for your jump from like three updates ago.

Eluvatar Award:
Pronoun. ew

Mentor of the Year:
Grea Kriopia - laid the foundation for the huge growth of TGW leadership this year, and frankly, one of the best mentors ever. Some mentors will try to boost you up in a sense as an extension of themselves; others simply aren't present enough, or aren't cognizant of how to best guide and teach you in a way that will allow you to be an independent and capable leader in your own right. GK, personally, perfectly managed the balancing act between all of those and more. You're wonderful gk :>

Edits because I forgot there were operations!!

[witchcraftsorcery]

I have several submissions for defender quotes:

- blatant self nomination but Mak suggested it shortly thereafter - Souls was a baka

[9:40 PM] (Makasta): souls was a baka and let most of his rwby puppets cte
[9:41 PM] (Makasta): "thats the only reason I support the repal"
[9:41 PM] (WS): "souls was a baka" could be followed by anything... or nothing at all... and i would agree

- The day we learned that Westinor does more than beat people with her femur:

[7:52 PM]west: this is why i love defending
[7:52 PM]west: to specify, the drugs part, not the fast part

- Makasta's spelling truly knows no bounds:

[9:28 PM]wyn tao (WS): new "somehow spells worse than 9003" makasta
[9:28 PM]Some stranger (Makasta): 90003 walkerd soo Newe Makastea Cuold Rune
(in another server shortly later)
[9:52 PM][LDF/TGW] Quebecshire: First ping at 11:00 or do we want to wait?
[9:54 PM][LDF] New Makasta: go fo tit

- Treason:
Quebecshire: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic...#p40424999

For the others I'll have to think a bit.

[AurAKlimaX]

Defender of the Year: Quebecshire, Westinor
Anake Award: Takkaviita
Anarchtopia Award: The Grey Wardens, League Defense Force
Sir Lans Award: Westinor
Operation of the Year: Far East Oriental Federation, Magna Aurea
Newcomer of the Year: Westinor, Concrete Slab, Kotoha Tanaka, Kivu/Anjan Kloss
Lifetime Achievement: Numero Capitan
Karputsk Award: Westinor
Worst Invasion/Worst Operation Award: Yessssss
Belgium Award: Westinor, Quebecshire
Worst Invader Group: The Militia
Eluvatar Award: Pronoun, Luca
Blackbird Award: LWU
Mentor of the Year: Westinor

Defender Quotes:
"replanning my gender to fit in the refound" - Nakari
Luca it's Halloween season and that means my body part collection grows. - Salem
im here, was busy fighting a rooster. - Wolflandil
YES THE MOUTH MEAT IS KILLING ME - Minskiev/Walrus
Eepers will have their kidneys stolen. - Sir Merlin
there's not a single race i haven't been discriminatory against - Westinor

[Concrete Slab]

Defender of the Year: Westinor and Quebecshire are the two clear frontrunners. Both are titans of consistency, planning, and rallying that one of them not getting the award is a tragedy. 
Anake Award: Drew Durrnil, Kotoha Tanaka, and New Makasta are the names I see the most in spotting. 
Anarchtopia Award: The Grey Wardens, League Defense Force
Sir Lans Award: Westinor and Kotoha Tanaka have really separated themselves from the pack by coming to almost every update for the entire year. Seeing their names in staging is a comfort. 
Operation of the Year: England, Magna Aurea
Newcomer of the Year: Drew, Kivu, Aura, and Kotoha. Couldn't have asked for a better rookie class for my defending career. 
Numero Captain Award: HumanSanity and Quebecshire. Why? That's classified. 
Karputsk Award: Westinor and Quebecshire for similar reasons to DotY
Worst Invasion/Worst Operation Award: Yessssssss
Belgium Award: Westinor and Quebecshire lol
Worst Invader Group: The Militia, love that chasing though.
Eluvatar Award: Pronoun my goat 
Blackbird Award: Lone Wolves United
Mentor of the Year: Westinor and Grea Kriopia are always there to lend a hand

[Quebecshire]

The Unfathomed Expanse Beyond of Hulldom
23 hours ago
Hi Q,

Nominations, at least on the categories I am capable of being aware of!

Defender of the Year: Westinor
Blackbird: does Carcassonne count? If so, Carcassonne's RDF.
Sir Lans/Updater: Takkavitta
Operation: Solidarity
Best Newcomer: Aura if he counts, Fiji if he doesn't
Worst Invasion: Far East Oriental Federation, vaunted numbers and we still won
Lifetime Achievement: Hame, if he doesn't have it
Meltdown of the Year: Technically not defender, but Sleet @ TNP
Belgium: Commend NC
Worst Invader Group: PRAF
Karputsk: Takkavitta

[Quebecshire]

The Democracy of Merni
23 hours ago
Hi, here are my nominations:

Defender of the Year: Westinor
Ananke award: Anjan Kloss, New Makasta, Takkaviita, Kanta Hame
Sir Lans award: Westinor, Varax
Operation of the year: South Pacific, Magna Aurea, Far East Oriental Federation
Newcomer of the year: Concrete Slab, AurAKlimaX
Lifetime achievement: Kanta Hame
Karputsk award: Westinor
Belgium award: Quebecshire, Westinor
Eluvatar award: Pronoun, Haku

Best defender quote:
[TMG/TGW] Wolflandil: Just a polite reminder that we are 'fendas here and we do 'fendin only! (at least here!)
[TGW] Luca: I, for one, am not a car part.
[TGW/EU] Vincent Drake: I brake for fendas
[TGW] Westinor: wait. WHAT. luca i can’t believe this. have you been lying to us this entire time?? my world (and my car) is crumbling. what will i do without my fender? am i to drive into pedestrians without any regard for my own safety?? ram into terrible drivers without the assurance that my car can smash a great big dent into their door??? i’m devastated at the loss of luca (or perhaps never being) as a key component of my automobile, and will be taking 6-7 days of leave to adjust. thank you luca, for your service to the motorist community, you will be missed
--------------------
[TGW/EU] Vincent Drake: I hate shoving Quebec up my ears
[TGW] Luca: :widethonk:
[LDF] New Makasta: its very relaxinf. Gets the morolism straight into your head much faster

- Merni

[Quebecshire]

The Totally Presidential of Ostrovskiy
23 hours ago
Ostrovskiy's nominations:

Defender of the Year - Westinor
Ananke Award - Takkaviita
Anarchtopia - The League Defense Forces
Sir Lans - Kotoha Tanaka
Operation of the Year - Magna Aurea
Newcomer of the Year - Westinor
Lifetime Achievement - Vincent Drake
Best Defender Quote - N/A
NuCa Award - N/A
Karputsk Award - Merni
Worst Invasion - Yessssss
Meltdown of the Year - Liberate Alternate
Belgium Award - Westinor
Worst Invader Group - The Communist Bloc
Eluvatar Award - N/A
Blackbird Award - The Brotherhood of Malice
Mentor of the Year - Concrete Slab