The Myth World Cup has finally run its course; after three months of fast and furious gameplay, Civil Order have carried home the Cup. But this is only the public side of MWC99; behind the scenes, the MWC staff have been working to build the tournament for almost six months.

A lot of the Myth World Cup is my work. But right from the first email I sent on the 25th of February calling for volunteers, there have been scores of people willing to give up their time and invest some effort into building a great tournament. I'd like to take the time to thank each and every one of them for their help.

Firstly, the web-design team. Chia and Cataclysm helped intermittently with the initial site design before moving on to other projects, but in the end most of the credit for the web layout is due to Hoder and myself. Over probably fifteen to twenty iterations, Hoder reworked and refined his ideas to accomodate my (usually demanding) wishes. Thanks to him, the MWC website has its clean form and structure.

The original artwork that graces the MWC website is perhaps one of its most outstanding features. CheezeFist offered to help with illustrating the story section but never really settled in; Danteshade did some lovely 3D mockups of the Field of the Dawn; but far and away the most impressive work is that of Rust Dragon. His brilliant characterisations of the Myth races grace the Story section in many places, and nobody could forget the grinning ghol that perches on every page. In his own words:

It seems like forever since I joined the MWC Crew. Secret preparations were underway well before the public site went up, with Butcher ruthlessly cracking the whip on the writers, web-heads, and yours truly. A lot of people worked incredibly hard to bring you the Site and the Tourney. I'm very proud to have my illustrations accompany the talents of the MWC team. Thanks to all who put in their time, especially Butcher for taking the weight of the world on his shoulders :) Regrets? I only wish I had more time to spend on rendering the illustrations. I busted my ass juggling freelance work, my full time job, and actually playing in the Tourney as well, but it was all well worth it.

I personally enjoyed playing in the Tourney for a number of reasons. The primary reason is that my Order became rejuvenated during the MWC, shaping up like never before. "Snap, Krackle, Die!" put up the fight of its life, adding some fantastic players to its ranks. We bumbled through some matches, waltzed through others, and in the end, we were all better players for the experience. We reached the peak of teamwork during the MWC, and I think I speak for all of my Order members when I express thanks to all those we fought against. Play hard, play gracefully, play honorably, and go out for a drink once and a while!

::holds his gin-and-tonic high in salute::

No web design is created in a vacuum, however, and Noctavis and Imperator lent their insight to the task of making the MWC website the best it could be. Thanks for your helpful comments and criticism, guys.

Our story writers have also poured their heart and soul into the Myth World Cup, to the obvious enjoyment of a number of readers. As it grew, the story section really took on the shine and sparkle that I was always hoping it would. The characters contained therein truly took on a life of their own towards the end of the project, and we have our writers' skill to thank for that.

Mandrake helped with a few stories, while Mystik, Ned Hamfist and Logoth were there in the beginning to bat around ideas for the main story arcs and write the articles all the way through the main section of the story. In the end, as everyone else drifted out of sight, Cap'n Carnage and I carried the story section over the finish line with the final few rounds of articles, but it was a team effort right from the start. My hat's off to your depth and breadth of vision, people.

Meanwhile, the whole effort was being backed by our sponsors. The Mac Observer were good enough to believe in first me and later the whole team, and they have put their resources behind us to help us achieve all we wanted to with this tournament. Bryan, Dave, thanks very much for all your support. With over 580,000 page hits and 35 GB of data transferred off the MWC99 website, it's obvious that we couldn't have done it on our own. Thanks also go out to all of our sponsors... MacTell, Bungie, Diamond, XLR8, Powerlogix, Mac-O-Rama, TransIntl all chipped in to donate part of our marvellous prize package and deserve a big round of applause.

Herding around 900 players on bungie.net is a tough job, and I knew I didn't want to try it on my own. Pele, Zeronova, Hoder and Black Death all helped with organising players into their games during the hectic fallback times. Like Pele says, "I never knew how much work and effort the whole team had to put in before. I'd just like to thank Butcher for letting me be an assistant judge and for running this tourney."

Our hosts gave freely of their time to let others enjoy themselves; Woden, Tor, Daksha, Temuut, Moliere, Death Dealer, Ballistik and many, many others all helped by offering their services as neutral hosts for critical games. Special thanks go out to Xmeat and Sloth for donating their superb connection and so much of their time over the finals weekend.

One of the great strengths of this tournament has been the depth of coverage that we've been able to offer. To no small degree, this is due to the efforts of our match reviewers. Once again volunteers giving up their time to create content for others to enjoy, all of the reviewers (I think) are listed on the MWC99 Team Page and I won't repeat the very long list here. The range of review styles has been truly amazing, from Ananab Tilps' abridged film scripts to Jonny Rocket's humorous recounting to Rolling Rock's acerbic analysis. Every one of you has helped make this a great tourney to watch as well as play in - thanks.

The Highlights section has been crammed full of great play and amusing anecdotes for all of its length, and this is due mainly to our Highlights Coordinator, Kith-Kanan. Reviewing a good fraction of the films every week, selecting the highlights from each, and then having to put up with my editorial changes is a hard task to keep up with, and Kith has done a brilliant job.

The Triumvirate have been there since the inception of MWC99, first designing the structure of the tournament and pounding out the rules, then selecting the games, handling teams' entry, processing matches and taking charge on bungie.net, dealing with disputes and basically doing everything. Woden, Carnage, Imperator and Cap'n Carnage have all done very well to last as long as they have; in particular, Cap'n Carnage has been like a man possessed at times in his efforts to be everywhere and do everything to ensure that it all comes together smoothly. It's been a bumpy six months, Leland, and I hope that your fiancee will forgive me. In his own words:

First, thanks to everyone who participated, by playing, reviewing, officiating, contributing to the story, or just keeping the forum interesting. I even appreciate the annoying or insulting people, in an odd way -- you've given me lots to laugh at in the future.

Despite the hassles and annoyances, it's been a lot of fun these past few months. I exercised my creative writing skills AND my rules-lawyering skills, made arbitrary decisions that ruled the fate of many, exchanged 1244 tournament-related email messages, had an excuse to stay up late Sunday night, and got to know some new folks. Be friendly, and I'll see you on b.net!

Finally, a huge thank you to all 900 of the people who have entered in this tournament as players. "If you build it, they will come" ... well, we've built MWC99 and you have come in droves. Without you, it would have been nothing but an empty website and some good ideas. It has been my great and profound pleasure to know the overwhelming majority of you; I won't begin naming names because there are hundreds of people who have brightened my day in one way or another.

Of course, things haven't always run as smoothly as they could have. I'd also like to thank everyone who taught me valuable lessons about what not to do, ranging from issues that we really could have handled better, to insights as simple as "be careful who you invite into your tournament". Here's looking at you, guys... may history remember you well.

In summary, then, it's been a hell of a ride. Looking back on the last six months, I can say that I've achieved everything I set out to do with MWC99 and had a lot of fun doing so. Certainly the bar on Myth tournaments has been raised again, to the level where it seems pointless trying to jump it. I don't foresee myself running any further tournaments for Myth or Myth II; there was some discussion of an order league, but events over the last few days have thoroughly killed my enthusiasm for that. Thank you to everyone who's helped create or participate in MWC99. It's been a blast.

Butcher
Tournament Manager
Myth World Cup '99