Alliance overview

Pizza Dogs Alliance Overview

This is a space for information about the Marvel Contest of Champions alliance, the Pizza Dogs, named after Hawkeye's loyal companion. (Whose name is Lucky, but is nicknamed Pizza Dog.)

We all have different individual goals, and hopefully we can help you reach yours. I don't expect to compete with the top Alliances in the world. They spend large amounts of money and time in order to cement their top status, and we are "normal" players who enjoy the game and want to have a nice collection of Champions.

1/22/17

As the new Lunar Year begins, (fireworks!) it's about time to evaluate how we're doing in Alliance Quest. We've been mostly informal with it, concentrating on War, but with War, we pretty much know what to do. It's a question of executing. Now it's time to fine-tune our Quest efforts if we want to collect better rewards. Although the shards of War are exciting when starting out, many of us have enough 4-star champions that we'd rather rank up our existing ones than get new ones. (Though those are nice, too.)

• Prestige matters. We can win one Quest Group and get the prestige bonus, but then if Group Two and Three don't finish, we get a penalty that is higher than the bonus, and we lose Prestige during the week, meaning lower and lower points. Every Group that starts should be able to complete a map, so we'll try to run only two groups to increase our completions.
• Don't fight powered-up nodes. Seriously. If you don't know what that means, ask, and we'll fill you in.
• Don't throw your Champions away against a Sub-boss. If you're not a Boss Killer (see below), don't keep attacking the sub-Boss. You should finish the first map section with two champions. You should finish the second map section with at least one champion left. Once we reach Kang, go for it, unless the timer is really low and a Boss Killer is waiting their turn.
• We need gold. We ran Map 4 three times and completed it, but we did not advance out of Normal rank. To do so means we'll need to invest more gold to run Map 4 more. We think a fair contribution is whatever you win in Quest. It's about 8,000 gold, times five maps, times 29 players is 1.16 million each Quest cycle, and we don't run Map 4 in Training Tier, so that's enough gold to run Map 4 four times every two cycles.

Running Map 3

We'll be running this consistently if we're in the Training Tier. We know we can advance out of that tier just running Map 3, so we can save our gold then. Each map section has five paths. Each team should have:

• 3 Boss Killers, one for each Groot and Kang. They should have the right champ available, whether War is on or not, and the ability to take out one of these bosses or at least most of their health. 
• 2 Poison/Bleed resistant players to take the consistent Poison and Bleed paths that are always present. Champs like Ultron, Vision, Ms. Marvel, Colossus, et cetera should be in their normal roster. The two Summoners should not both be only Bleed or only Poison resistant.
• Even if you don't have the Champions or skill to fill either of the above roles, we still need you! Since most of us sleep and work, it helps to have a second Summoner running a path so it doesn't take as much energy or having to log in as many times. Plus it helps the Boss Killer if their chosen Champion isn't losing health along the route. As Prestige rises, even the "normal" battles will become more and more difficult and potential Champion killers.

Running Map 4

We spend half a million Gold to run this Map, so we have to take it seriously. Our highest turnout so far is 25 Summoners, and each Map 4 takes at least 9 of them, so we won't be running three teams, which means only 20 of the Alliance are going to take part with this Map.

• See above for roster: Pretty much the same, except we need 9 Summoners to clear the final section of the Map, and they have to stay focused.
• Trust your teammates. If someone has a route covered, trust they're going to finish it. Take an unused route instead, unless...
• Communicate. If you know you won't finish your route due to lack of health or energy, so say so someone can help you. Even if we don't finish 100%, defeating Kang gives us the Prestige bonus we need to stay competitive, so we will sometimes have to chose the path that depowers Kang over a slim chance to maybe, possibly get 100%.

9/6/16

Here is what to expect and not expect if you want to be part of the Alliance.

1. Be respectful. Treat other members and other Alliances with courtesy. We all play for enjoyment (or perhaps addictive personality), and no one wants to be belittled.
2. Be family friendly. We don't know the age or background of every player or whose child just picked up their phone.
3. Be active. We are daily players, and that is the bare minimum. We hope you'll check in a few times a day when you're participating in Alliance War and Alliance Quest. If you'll be out a few days, let us know. It happens.
4. We focus on War. Of the Alliance activities, War is our priority. We are not at the point where we have 3 Battle Groups, but we'd like to get there, so all members can reap the rewards and not have to sit out. We will favor players that participate fully in the War activity. See below for War guidelines.
5. Use teamwork. We will have success in Quest and War by working together. It's more important to clear a path for your teammate than be MVP and leave them unable to advance. We all share the same points and get the same rewards.
6. Communicate. If you're not sure about something, ask. The in-game chat has a few limitations, so we have WhatsApp groups to communicate more fully. I recommend joining them. If you feel you want to limit yourself to in-game chat, coordinate with an in-game Friend who is in the WhatsApp group that can forward you information you'll need.
7. Expect assignments. Especially in War Defense, it's likely you will be assigned specific nodes to defend. If you have a better idea, we can discuss it.
8. It's free to play. You won't be expected to spend money to advance the Alliance. I have still spent $0, so I can't expect you to spend your money. We will run Alliance Quest Map 3 until we have resources to run Map 4, so it's up to you how often you want to do that. In addition, no one in the Alliance has a gifting badge, so you can't expect another member to gift you items. 
9. We live everywhere and sleep at different times. It is an international Alliance, so remember that some members are sleeping while you're awake and waiting for them to clear your path. They're not holding you up on purpose.
10. Be patient. We have found that it's hard to reach the 265,000 points needed to receive Rank rewards in the Summoner Advancement event. To ensure we get rewards, we often will hold off on opening crystals and ranking up our champions for one cycle of this event. Then we can reach the goal the second week with everyone doing two weeks' worth of activity and racking up enough points to get those rewards. Check the General tab of the Alliance section to see if we're holding our crystals.
11. It's just a game. Sometimes it's a frustrating or difficult game! Things go wrong, plans don't work, and crystals give you junk. You can't lose, as there's no end to the game. We will rally and succeed another time.

War Expectations

• We usually run three Wars a week around Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at noon* to start around the same time as Alliance Quest when they are both running. Tuesdays are off for the server maintenance.
• Battlegroups are assigned, so check the General tab in the Alliance section. Most players will usually stay in the same Battlegroup.
• Until we are running three groups, if we have over 20 summoners, a rotation will be set up. Most players will continue to join all three Wars in the week, but the lower-point players will be assigned slots two out of the three Wars and sit out one.
• Players have 20 hours to join the defense and place their champions. If someone assigned to that group is missing at that point and there are reserve summoners assigned to sit out the War, one of them is allowed to take that slot rather than leave it open.
• Since we focus on War, use your top eight champions or at least those close to it. The competition can be fierce! Since teams will be assigned, you don't have to hurry to join, so if your good champions are currently in a quest, wait for them to finish rather than go with lower-ranked champions just because they are available at that moment.
• Your champions for defense should each display as at least 1,000. If you are a developing player and that isn't possible for all five champions, use your best until you've beefed up your roster. They should still be at least 3-stars. If you don't have enough 3-stars for that, stay out of War and develop your champions until you are assigned a spot.
• When it's time to attack, check the War chat. Make sure to scroll all the way up so you don't miss something.
• The ultimate goal of War is not always to defeat the Boss. Plenty of Wars are won through exploration only, so it will be more important to collect a large number of nodes than rush to the end. If possible, create a new path. Don't follow others unless you're asked to do so.
• Avoid attacking a defender that is powered up by a linked node. Wait for a teammate to clear the linked node.
• If you hit a defender that clearly outmatches you, don't keep attacking. The opponent gets points for each champion they defeat, so minimize the points you give them. Our closest War was lost by 81 points, less than the points given from only two extra KOs. It might matter. (But usually won't.)

* Days of week and times based on Pacific Standard Time (aka Kabam time)