AV Alliance Strike...

[NiteFox]

I ran a couple of successful AV runs today (Misery-EU), both fairly close with the first one won with a mere 63 reinforcements left and 10 AFKers, and the second won purely because we decided to attack Vanndar while he still had three marshals alive and kicking with almost a minute left on both the Dun Baldar bunkers (Since the Alliance had effectively managed to shut us out of Icewing Bunker), which was close because the silly Alliance managed to reset Drek'thar while Vann was only at 50%. A good time was had by all.

So I brag to a friend of mine on chat, who informed me that the Alliance on his battlegroup (Stormstrike-US) were boycotting AV.

Curious, I decided to do some investigating on the official cesspit- I mean, forums, to see what kicked all this off. From the first few posts I found, I surmised that an adjustment in AV had all but made the battleground unfair for the Alliance, and they were sulking, and losing games with 0 honour, and were taking the ball with them and going home. So rather than listen to this any further, I looked as to what the adjustment was...

...And found that it was a health buff for Belinda and Vanndar. A kick in the pants for the Horde. Now, imagine my surprise at this: I accept that Belinda was hardly a speedbump in the Horde offensive, though we did somehow wipe on her during my first match (Mainly due to five Alliance defenders) and recovering from that wipe made the battleground as close as it was (We all spawned in Frostwolf Relief Hut, with a zerging Alliance offensive blocking us in). I never got to participate in the second Belinda assault due to modem issues (And hunting down a lone Alliance player in order to get rid of my Idle report with a mere six seconds to spare), but apparently the slowness of the Belinda attack in that run contributed to the Alliance being able to shut out Icewing. But Vanndar is a different kettle of fish altogether, I had always been under the impression that he was the harder of the two Generals despite Drek topping the "most kills by an NPC" some time ago.

So, as far as I could see, Horde gets an even tougher ride through AV, and the Alliance winds up boycotting. This couldn't be the real reason, so I delve deeper into the flamefests and find out that the reason the Stormstrike Alliance are boycotting. It turns out that the health change to Belinda and Vanndar means that, at least according to theorycraft, if both sides simply do the standard race to kill all NPCs and raze all bunkers/towers, the Alliance would win every time with the HP boosts slowing the killing time significantly.

So the Horde started playing to shutout the Alliance completely and allow the offense a greater chance of killing the relevant NPCs. This is attained through (Gasp) taking the Stonehearth Graveyard (Which was always, always ignored beforehand. I've seen BG leaders plotz just because one player decided to click the flag) and use that as a chokepoint. Y'know, just like how the Alliance would use the Dun Baldar bridge, NPCs, and covering fire from the bunker sharpshooters to try and shutout an offense. The net result of this is that Alliance were frequently losing games with 0 bonus honour (Excluding that through player kills), and frankly got sick of it.

So they boycott. And then several other battlegroups followed, lemming-like, through the same procedure of a handful of Horde shutout victories and Alliance boycotts. Horde waiting times for AV are escalating into the hours (Yes, I am fully aware of the irony, but the long Alliance wait times were never the fault of the Horde).

Part of me sympathises. I've been on the receiving end of a few shutouts in other BGs (AB premades kinda make this inevitable in most cases), and I can imagine how nutcrushingly bad it could be to be in a 30 minute BG for only just one Token as a reward, but on the other hand... What the hell is wrong with these people? The Horde actually grows a brain, bring in a tactic that increases their chance of victory in a battleground that was notoriously unfair to the Horde, and the Alliance responds by throwing their toys out of the pram ad refusing to play? Again, I'm somewhat amused and sickened by the fact that a hotfix to make things a lot harder on the Horde results in widespread childishness from the Alliance.

The Horde response is somewhat typical: Learn to break the turtle, it can be done, it has been done (Funnily enough, there was one report of the Horde pulling the turtle in the lower-bracket AV, and the Alliance completely smashing through it. It seems topping the experience meter doesn't automatically make you a better player), and for the Alliance to stop expecting battlegrounds to be free honour of any sort. Stop treating them as a source of welfare honour and actually work for it. Alliance invariably retorts by pointing out that the Horde did a lot of QQing about AV until recently and they should shut up.

Nobody has been smart enough to mention that while the Horde did cry a lot about AV, they never stopped playing it. Never stopped playing it to spite the other side, which is exactly what the Alliance is doing.

Maybe this is just another bout of eDrama, and hopefully should blow over soon; but part of me worries that this could spread across the pond to the EU battlegroups. Right now, all we have to do is worry about rampant AFKing (You'd better be moving by the time the gates go up, otherwise if you're still in the cave in thirty seconds, you'll be reported by the rest of the raid), but we all know how big a bandwagon stuff like this can be.

So can anyone here from across the pond (Most of y'all, I should think) give me any insight on this state of affairs? Is it really as bad as the forum drama is making it out to be? And, is the Alliance right to do this?

Thanks.