Season 25 has come to an end, and what a season it was! Records were broken, and the Outlands saw some of the bloodiest warfare in Albion Online's history. In the end, three guilds emerged triumphant: PIVAS on Albion Americas, Upper Class on Albion Asia, and Take Care on Albion Europe. So congratulations to those guilds, and without further ado, let's take a look at how events unfolded...
Albion Americas
Season 25 started as many of the previous seasons on the Americas server left off and that's with the coalition war between IFures and HOGs.
The Lonely Men, of the HOGs coalition, began the season with the news that the FAX guild, who had partnered them for many seasons, had closed, leaving the coalition 300 players down and putting them at the mercy of the IFures coalition.
Within weeks of the season kicking off, and with battles raging at 18:00 and 20:00 UTC, it was clear that the HOGs coalition couldn't withstand the massive numbers of the IFures coalition every day and the downfall of HOGs began.
Within a month, Slayahata, the leader of The Lonely Men, called a public guild meeting in which he announced that they would be pulling out of the season race and stop focusing on inner-ring territories. While they tried to keep their Headquarters in Darkbough Snag alive as long as possible, it wasn't to be and IFures massed to deny them Power Cores day after day until the energy level dropped and the Headquarters became vulnerable. Five days later it was gone, and IFures took full control of Darkbough Snag with The Lonely Men relocating to a safer area to restabilize and take a break from the chaos.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and with the announcement that the HOGs coalition was over, Daliuess, the leader of the IFures coalition, announced that they'd also be folding. This meant that PIVAS and Make Albion Great Again were now the only alliances going forward, and this is where things got spicy.
PIVAS, led by Africanow, announced that they'd be going for top spot in the rankings and would attempt to break the all time Season Points record. This was held at the time by One Gin on Albion Asia, but was also being contested by Upper Class on Albion Asia at the same time.
This turned into a massive effort by both guilds across both servers, but PIVAS was not so lucky, and with the coalition over, Make Albion Great Again turned their attention to PIVAS and raiding and territory battles began.
With Make Albion Great Albion attacking daily, they was a major thorn in the side for PIVAS in their push to break the season points record, while over on the Albion Asia, Upper Class faced a much smoother ride, allowing them to pull further and further ahead.
As the season came to an end, with PIVAS and Make Albion Great Again still clashing daily, the final Invasion Day looked very different from previous seasons. There weren’t a handful of territories piled high with Season Points, but instead there were about 20 territories containing between 10,000 and 30,000 points, which led to some great action and battles lasting 30 to 45 minutes for some of these territories, and even saw IFures denying PIVAS some of their key territories.
As the dust settled, and with territories secured, a picture emerged of the the final placements:
- PIVAS (1,256,040 points)
- Make Albion Great Again (679,860 points)
- The Lonely Men (453,298 points)
Although PIVAS was not able to beat Upper Class to the all-time record, they were able to take the Season Point record Albion Americas, toppling the previous holders Paura (1,231,398 points).
So congratulations to PIVAS, and with the once-huge IFures coalition now broken apart, the Season 26 could be very juicy indeed.
Albion Asia
Season 25 started off quietly, a little too quietly some might say, as for Upper Class, who’d helped One Gin push out the PLAC coalition at the start of Season 24 and secure their season victory, this season was their turn to claim their reward.
Upper Class hit the ground running, and within the first 30 days surpassed 500,000 Season Points from every possible source. Such a push has never been seen before in Albion Online, and goes to prove their dedication to achieving a season victory.
As the season unfolded, however, there was an ever growing force emerging on the outskirts of the Outlands, as Peony Flower slowly built up their numbers once again. For those that may not know, Peony Flower were part of the PLAC coalition that once controlled nearly all of the Outlands.
But as time progressed, players began to wonder when 'Fuckcall', the former leader of the PLAC coalition (now known as the HOT coalition) was going to make his move.
It wasn't until the remaining month of the season, after the penultimate Invasion Day, that we saw him strike. As the HOT and Jin alliances banded together into a single coalition, they made their move and took control of the regions from Razorrock Ravine all the way across to Razorrock Verge and up to Mudergulch Divide.
This massive land grab by HOT spelled the end of the period of peace within the Outlands. With all eyes now on HOT’s next move, the ICE alliance (One Gin, TukTuk, and Pioneer) were forced from their homes and had to relocate to Arthur's Rest. That didn't stop them fighting, though, and territory battles began to unfold. With all eyes on Highstone Loch, between JIN and ICE, it was a very bloody end to the season as these two alliances battled it out up to the final day in what can only be described as an absolute bloodbath for both sides.
But it wasn't just ICE who were pushed out of their homes. On the north side of the inner-ring, in and around Drownfield Sink, Malicious Crew also faced the force of the HOT alliance themselves. With JiuGe looking to snatch second place away from Malicious Crew, it was game on.
JiuGe leaped ahead in the final week of the season, gaining control of nearly every single Quality Level 5 and 6 region, allowing them to earn huge amounts of Season Points each day and in turn denying Malicious Crew second place.
But as the season came to an end, Upper Class were able to achieve their goal of taking first place while also breaking the all-time Season Point record for Albion Online. They finished the season with an eye watering 1,437,793 points to their name, cementing their place in the history books. A massive congratulations to them indeed!
The final standings for Albion Asia looked like this:
- Upper Class (1,437,793 points)
- JiuGe (871,926 points)
- Malicious Crew (754,948 points)
With the HOT coalition back in power, what does Season 26 have in store for Albion Asia? We'll soon find out as the season kicks off on February 8!
Albion Europe
With coalitions waging war over the inner-ring and alliances battling for control of the outer-ring, Season 25 was one of the bloodiest seasons in a very long time.
Coming off the back end of Season 24, the YUH coalition was waging war against the GIRTH coalition for control of the inner-ring, and with Take Care declaring their push for a season victory, all signs pointed towards a coalition war the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time.
Take Care was immediately massing huge numbers, with nearly 300 players including their alt-guild Takes All, and the first Invasion Day was a signal that they were here to win. Taking control of their home region and helping their fellow coalition members, like BOBER and Black Order, secure theirs as well, the battle lines were drawn in the inner-ring.
It wasn't long, though, before the GIRTH coalition started to push back. After multiple strikes at 16 UTC onto Skylake Hintlerlands, the home region of Contingent, it was clear that the size of the YUH coalition was too much Contingent alone to handle. At this point the SENT alliance and other members of the GIRTH alliance, such as Heralds of Valhalla, entered the scene. Forces came in to back up Contingent, and the pushback began.
The coalition war began to spread across multiple timers. During this time Black Order declared that they wanted at least third place in the Season Rankings. This drew the attention of GIRTH, as Take Care was already way out in front, so their eyes turned away from Take Care and onto the other members of the YUH coalition.
This is when the major war for Drownfield Sink, Black Order’s home region, began. Forces from the GIRTH coalition started to test the waters, and after a couple of attempts it was declared that the push was possible. And so forces began to amass daily.
Territory battles raged over this territory day in, day out, for weeks, with both sides losing thousands of sets in the process. It wasn't until SENT were able to place their own Hideouts in Drownfield Sink that the tables turned in GIRTH’s favor.
The territory was drained of its energy to deny Season Points to Black Order, while Hideouts went up. At the same time, the removal of shields from Black Order’s hideouts began. It wasn't all smooth sailing for GIRTH, though, as the YUH coalition counterattacked, destroying Hideouts and attacking territories as well. Again, this period saw thousands upon thousands of players dying every single day.
But, after a week or two of constant battles, Drownfield Sink at 12:00 UTC was secured by Heralds of Valhalla. Hideouts were set, giving them a forward operating base from which to regear, and all eyes turned to the region next door – Deadpine Forest at 14:00 UTC.
This region played host to both a Black Order and a Take Care Hideout, so it became another target for GIRTH to clear, removing YUH’s regearing locations. This was another bloody battle that raged on for over a week, with the two sides trading victories.
Within the second week, at 14:00 UTC the cracks began to show, territories fell GIRTH’s hands and Hideouts started to fall. Deadpine Forest fell into the hands of Heralds of Valhalla, giving them another Level 6 territory for Season Points.
As 12:00 and 14:00 UTC fell into the hands of GIRTH, the season leaderboard suggested that it was possible for Heralds of Valhalla to deny Black Order second and third-place, as Contingent wasn't far off either.
And so the push began, and GIRTH turned its attention to 16:00 and 18:00 UTC regions. These were held by BOBER, also part of the YUH coalition. These were Quality Level 5 and 6 with a lot of Raw Energy stored, which was needed to deny Black Order their top 3 spot.
So the third stage of the war began. The push began with a focus on Runnelvein Sink, but as before, the YUH coalition put up an epic defence. The cost of this push for the GIRTH coalition was huge, with bodies piling up day after day, but it turned out to be worth their efforts as, just before the final month of the season, a breakthrough was achieved and Runnelvein Sink and its surrounding regions fell into the hands of GIRTH. As 16:00 UTC was secured, a plan for 18:00 UTC was being drawn up, expected to be one of the toughest pushes of the whole war yet as it was BOBER’s main timezone, and their home region since the launch of Albion Europe. In fact, there were times when the GIRTH coalition doubted whether success here would even be possible.
But just before the push began, out of nowhere POLSKA GUROM of BOBER announced that they were disbanding with immediate effect, sending shockwaves across both coalitions. Taking advantage of the situation, Contingent instantly took control of Darkbough Snag, Thunderrock Ascent, and Thunderrock Draw, along with Rivercopse Fount, all of which are Quality Level 5 and 6 regions, allowing them to start earning a massive amount of Season Points in the final month, and pushing themselves towards Black Order, who at this time still held onto second place in the rankings.
As the dust settled in the final couple of weeks, raids began to hit the YUH coalition, as Heralds of Valhalla looked to maximize their Season Points and deny Black Order as much as possible.
This worked well, taking us up to the final Invasion Day of the season, where all eyes were on Black Order and the YUH coalition. Would YUH gift Black Order territories to help them hang onto their rank? Would GIRTH attempt to deny YUH everything?
With 24 hours until Invasion Day, word went out that Black Order was trying to buy any Season Points they could across the Outlands. Sadly for them, however, they couldn't find any sellers, and with that news they announced that they would close and not contest the final Invasion Day.
As that news spread, both Heralds of Valhalla and Contingent attempted to buy enough points from other guilds to push Black Order out of the Top 3, and as the final rankings show, they were successful:
- Take Care (930,037 points)
- Heralds of Valhalla (576,005 points)
- Contingent (542,976 points)
- Black Order (500,471 points)
Congratulations to Take Care for managing to hold onto first place while also engaging in one of the bloodiest seasons we've seen on Albion Online. Take Care have now announced their closure, but it isn't all over for them as they have merged into Takes All for Season 26, which is shaping up to be another incredible season.
Season 26 Starts Saturday
After all that, things are set up very nicely for the beginning of Season 26 this Saturday, February 8! Check out the season schedule in this forum post, and be sure to tune in to AlbionTV (twitch.tv/AlbionOnline) at the following times to watch the action:
- Albion Asia: February 8, 14:00 UTC
- Albion Europe: February 8, 18:00 UTC
- Albion Americas: February 9, 01:00 UTC
See you then!