Well there you have it - the story of Omniscient’s creation. In actuality, it was perhaps slightly less dramatic. Detta and I met through a mutual friend (insert joke here at own risk) due to our prowess in a game called Heavy Gear 2. This friend was curious as to whom had greater skill with the game’s lasers and railguns, and so dragged us into an MSN group chat. While the debate (Detta: Pffft!) has never been resolved, the chance meeting resulted in a (very heterosexual) friendship which has lasted through the years (“lasted through the years” sounds more impressive than “five or six years” IMO).
You might think that two friends who enjoy online games would play said games together; in this case however, you’d be mistaken. It would be some time before Detta and I found a game which appealed to us both. While I preferred the
fast-paced reflex lame action of the UT series, Detta hailed from the speedy, yet very
linear awesome, Tribes. Of course, neither of us would admit the merit of the other’s favourite game, resulting in many hours of (in retrospect, rather pointless) argumen . . . intelligent debate. Despite the differences in opinion, there were many similarities in our gaming lives: both of us played games primarily for the challenge, both of us were top ranked in our respective games, both of us were (and still are) dashingly handsome, and both of us passed up numerous opportunities to join top ranked clans. It is perhaps this last similarity that’s most responsible for the formation of Omniscient.
I was hesitant when Detta announced he had found a game for us, (Detta: ''wrongly'') believing his taste in games to be akin to Richteralan’s taste in fashion; i.e., very homosexual. I politely listened to him rant about this Unreal 2 XMP, however, and agreed to try out the demo. I was extremely impressed. For brevity’s sake, I’ll not rant about how awesome XMP was/is and instead, save the space for ranting about the awesomeness of Omniscient. Suffice it to say that XMP is the closest I’ve seen to the perfect competitive FPS, combining class and map strategy with sheer speed, skill, and reflexes.
We saw XMP as an opportunity to both play a challenging game and bring together an elite team of players. Our primary reason for refusing to join elite teams in other games had been the desire to form our own clan, rather than to become a member of an existing powerhouse (Detta: what satisfaction is to be had in joining a team already ranked #1?) . . . that, and in my case, an unwillingness to follow orders. The name Omniscient was quickly decided upon though we spent a good hour and a half on the colour and lettering scheme . . . *cough*. The fact that myself and Detta were constantly at the top of the XMP pub scoreboards made recruiting easier than it is for most, but as we wanted to put together a tightly-knit group, recruitment was a very selective affair. Omniscient members must be excellent players, yes, but they must also be good people. I almost typed “decent people”, but then I remembered Whacked. Potential members were observed for both playing skill and their attitudes within the game. Perhaps the most telling indication of a personality is the attitude that emerges when a person is beaten. Do they bitch and moan? Do they accuse you of hacking? Do they give up? Do they get progressively worse? Or do they buckle down and attempt to improve? With these criteria in mind, we set about building the team that would come to dominate XMP.
I believe the first member was choke. I might be wrong - it may’ve been Alan, but we’ll go with choke for now. He rarely spoke - as a matter of fact, he still rarely speaks - but was/is a deadly ranger. He’s also a deadly driver. As in deadly to himself and everyone around him. Don’t drive choke. Next, came Richteralan and his Snipershotty. 69!111. Then followed either the southern trio of Warmart, Whacked, and Gunnar or Sketch (OMG A GIRL) and Angry, Angry Filter. Puppets and Chiron rounded out our techs, Kenshin the rangers, and Jimmeh and Riznat the gunners. And of course, we can’t forget Sagara, our resident Japanese Omni. I’d write more about the individual members, but that’s the reason we have the members section.
As Omniscient was in the midst of its formation, the top teams in XMP were the North American vD and the European 12m. Both had noticed the performance of Omniscient members in pubs and both challenged us numerous times to scrims. We, however, were adamant that Omniscient wouldn’t be competing until it was prepared. That, and at the time of the first such challenges, we had four or five members. Approximately a week after its formation, Omniscient scrimmed an NBK team that would afterwards be deemed a much stronger opponent than either vD or 12m. Omniscient won all three maps, with its members displaying remarkable skill and teamwork. Shortly thereafter, we began progressing on the North American XMP ladders. While most of the game results will be viewable in our screenshots section, it is sufficient to say that Omniscient didn’t lose so much as a map in its entire XMP ladder/scrim career. In fact, only a handful of artifacts were ever captured against us - I believe the exact number to be three.
12m soon got their wish for a scrim and would end up losing four straight maps: two on our server, two on theirs. As for vD, aside from defeating them in a few scrims, we were never able to play them “officially”. Why? Well when they were challenged by us on the ladder, they opted to retire their position and go dormant rather than to play. The games with NBK continued to be fun and friendships between the two teams were made. Lei smells. Later, Omniscient would defeat the top-seated euro team DCSB over four maps; again, two on their server, two on ours. I must, for the record, also mention our record-setting 40 second defeat of [pet] on the map Nakoja. Having reached the top of the North American ladders and having maintained our undefeated record against the top European teams (and with the XMP master server failing . . . thanks Atari. Morons.), Omniscient decided to move into, of all things, an MMORPG: Lineage 2.
So how did Omniscient become interested in an MMORPG? Do you really care? Well, if you’ve read this far, you might. By this time, we were playing XMP sporadically, returning for matches and scrims only. Looking for a new game, a few of our members gave the Lineage 2 beta a whirl and enjoyed it. Was the game skilless? Essentially. Compared to games such as XMP, UT, and Tribes, all RPG’s are essentially void of skill. There are elements of individual skill and of teamwork, but they pale in comparison to anything you’ll find in the aforementioned games.
In any case, there was a political aspect in Lineage 2 which provided for a memorable gaming experience. When Detta and I decided to continue on in Lineage 2 after the beta, we also decided to become the first to conquer and own a castle on our server (Devianne). To those unfamiliar with Lineage 2, this is no small feat: it required literally hundreds of players working together to overcome both the castle defenses as well as the opposition from rival clans. In order to achieve the power required for this goal, Omniscient began recruiting and forming “Sister Guilds”. In essence, these guilds were extensions of Omniscient and were led by friends we had made during our time in the game. Fletcher, Haggen, ScottyG, Kenshin (Zixax), SingaShillien, Shaggy, and Finjool led the Guardian, Guardian 2, Wartorn, Providence, The Old Code, Instant Karma, and Tiembre Sister Guilds, respectively. Within the Omniscient Alliance, we also made such friends as Kaden, Syxx, Exeye, and Alabastier, who would be given Omniscient Core status regardless of the fact that they had not played XMP with our team. The Sister Guild strategy allowed a group of relatively small, yet powerful guilds, under the guidance of the Omniscient Core guild, to quickly attain the status of the most powerful alliance on the server.
Unfortunately, there was a falling out with two of the Omniscient Core members: Kenshin (Zixax) and Jimmeh (Thraxis). A difference in goals resulted in Providence’s allegiance with a Dragon - a rival alliance who would be attempting the first castle siege on the server. The Omniscient Alliance, partly out of a desire to be the first and partly out of irritation, decimated their siege attempt. The incidents in Lineage 2 would result in the removal of Kenshin and Jimmeh from the Omniscient Core.
Needless to say, the rapid rise to power made the Omniscient Alliance a target of older alliances who had sworn to be the first to attain castles. None of these alliances would last, however, and the Omniscient Alliance captured Dion, becoming the first castle owners on the server. Subsequently, a decision was made to grant a rival alliances leader’s (Morlek of Fate) request to permit them to siege. Fate made their successful siege attempt on Giran the next day. Having attained our goal, and planning to leave the game, the Omniscient Core was content to overlook past rivalries. Cocky we may be; jackasses we are not. The Core members soon left for World of Warcraft and the Omniscient Alliance was disbanded. As a side note, the Sister Guild left in charge of the castle, Instant Karma, withheld Fate’s siege attempts for a solid few months with the aid of only a tenth of the original Omniscient Alliance force.
After having experienced the turmoil of leading a 400-man alliance in Lineage 2, it was decided that the World of Warcraft Omniscient would be restricted to Core members. Having no interest in endlessly running instances, we focused on the PvP aspect of WoW; this lack of instance interest, however, had us competing against Warsong Gulch (WoW CTF matches) teams with vastly superior gear. Nevertheless, in an impressive display of coordination and team strategy, the Omniscient PvP group would come to dominate Mannoroth Warsong Gulch matches with green and blue gear (that’s impressive to WoW players).
Unfortunately there was no clan ranking system while we played WoW (in fact, that has yet to be implemented), so we’ll let the screenshots do the talking. Our most challenging matches were with the Alliance-side super power Macabre due to their players, teamwork, and top-end gear. I consider it rather sad that Omniscient was the only team to regularly beat them, especially considering our poorly geared players. Shape up horde-side Mannorothians. My succubus loves you Randawl. (Detta/Exalted: <3 Macabre) Shoutout to Toxic! It should also be noted that many of the first High Warlords on Mannoroth (I believe 3 of the first 5) were regular members of our PvP groups.
With the passing of the summer months, and with Blizzard’s failure to introduce worthwhile PvP content into the game, Omniscient left WoW.
It has been a long time coming (we can be a fickle bunch), but we have finally found a ‘new’ game that rewards individual skill enough to hold our interest; we're back to our FPS routes and playing Fallen Empires: Legions.
