Section One: Operation Twilight Ripples Results!

The session has finally come to a close, reports have been tallied, and the results have come in. First, deserving of an honorable mention is the closest runner up, Red Squadron, at 285.5 points. Pulling out all the stops in the last week of the competition and after an incredible display of dedicated gaming, Resurrection Squadron has secured the lead as Top Squadron for Operation Twilight Ripples topping the charts at an ominous 666 squadron score! Congratulations, RZA, for your hard fought victory!

It should come as no surprise then that the Top Gun for this operation hails from Resurrection, clocking in with a personal score eclipsing that of all but two of the other SQUADRONS. FA Michael Raven scored a highly respectable 229 activity points this session, and has earned the Activity Top Gun medal. Congratulations, Admiral Raven!

In addition to the activity leaderboard, members of the RS competed to complete the objectives set out in this Operation’s briefing document in the ITOD. Not only will your ITOD score carry over from session to session and give you an idea of your participation over the coming months, but the information is used in determining the fictional fate of the RS as well! Our Logistics Office has been hard at work examining the results of this session and will be incorporating it into the RS storyline as we move forward.

The last of the reports have been tallied, and can be found here: (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10cbGupLBKLms6YvM5DMI8yFS7RbjXUieQiAXE_0szMA/edit?usp=sharing). Again we find that FA Michael Raven has seized victory by achieving 18 of the possible 27 ITOD points this session, earning the ITOD Top Gun medal. In a very close second was BGN Kimiao Quinal at 16 points. Excellent work, gentlemen!

Section Two: Promotions and Commendations

Note: The RS Top Gun SP and RS Top Gun MP medals have been retired, and replaced with the RS ITOD Top Gun and the RS Activity Top Gun medals, respectively.

Nicolai Ginofev, Danny “David Lee Japan” Qatar, Lucas Benoit-Stark, Eric Skrevski, Teu Veld, Patrick Blastfire, Michael Raven, Joshua Hawkins, Markus Jarnhann, and Wookieejedi have been awarded Squadron Top Gun for participating in Resurrection's victory in Operation Twilight Ripples.

FA Michael Raven has been awarded Activity Top Gun for acquiring the most activity points in Operation Twilight Ripples.

FA Michael Raven has been awarded ITOD Top Gun for earning the most ITOD points this session.

Raven, don’t go anywhere. Since my installment as Fleet Commander, you have shown tremendous dedication to your roles in the RS executive staff, and they are many: Arbitrator, Logistics Officer, RPG Coordinator, and d6RPG TFL. You have shown a particular excellence of duty in each and all of these tasks, and with that in mind it is my pleasure to award you the Kessel Cup.

ADM Joshua Hawkins, front and center. The Internet Office is a generally an aspect of the RS which, I feel, goes under appreciated. Despite focusing the majority of your efforts on developing a BRAND NEW SITE for the RS to use and enjoy, and the countless hours that entails, you have been highly responsive to my requests for edits and updates to our existing domain. I hereby award you the Merit Commendation for your continued service.

Earlier this session, ADM Lucas Benoit-Stark was awarded the Iridium Spire for his impressive efforts to encourage and coordinate RS activity in his squadron.

LCL Jalen Ramz, please step forward. For your exemplary efforts in supporting the resuscitation of the RS presence in The Old Republic and the guild therein, it is my pleasure to award you the Alvace Star.

2LT CrazyCarl, front and center. We had several excellent fiction entries this session, but yours in particular seemed to strike a chord with our fiction task force leader. At his behest, I hereby award you the RS Mission Report Medal.

Major Wayne77177, you’re on deck. Allow me to read from the report I received from your commanding officer. Ahem. “Why wouldn’t you promote him?” Excellent question. Congratulations, Wayne! …… In all seriousness, your regular activity and consistant participation since joining Red Dragon Squadron has earned you a promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Cheers.

Section Three: Staff Vacancies

Real life rears it’s ugly, demanding head and has claimed two of our own. Daryus will be stepping down as Modern Gaming PC, and Sconn will be stepping down as the fiction Task force Leader. Nicolai is still filling in as a Temporary PC, soo…

Now seeking applicants for the Platform Coordinator position for both the Legacy or Modern Gaming platforms! Primary duties include:

• Participating in a monthly skype/google+ meeting of High Command to discuss the state of the club and your platform
  
• Communicating with and organizing the task force leaders associated with your platform
  
• Monitoring the leaderboard / ITOD reports for your task forces and providing a monthly (mid session and end of session) update to the Operations Office.
  
• Creating an ITOD Objective for members of the RS to participate in and earn ITOD points!
  

Accepting ALL applicants. This position places you on High Command, the supreme authority of the Rebel Squadrons, and gives you a first hand look at how the club is run at the highest levels.

We are also seeking a new Fiction Task Force Leader. As Fiction TFL you would be in charge of determining the writing prompt for the RS each session, keeping track of who has contributed and passing this information to your platform coordinator twice a session, and determining who submitted the best work of fiction over the course of an operation. Ideally, you would spearhead a forum-based RP group (previously called “Zealot”) via providing ongoing writing prompts / storyline guidance.

All applicants can reach me via e-mail (fc@rebelsquadrons.org) or on IRC (RS_Cyrel).

Section Four: Status of the RS, upcoming plans

Whew, now that we’ve finished that up, hello RS!

This past operational session we’ve seen a huge resurgence in activity across the board. Opening up the ability to report participation on multiple forms of RS activity has clearly shown that we are still here, still strong, and still playing games together. In particular, World of Tanks has utterly dominated the scoreboards this session, being singularly responsible for RZA’s truly massive showing on the activity leaderboards. Earlier in the session we saw a great deal of reporting on Minecraft as well.

In addition, recent efforts by our new TOR TFL, BGN Ray Djo, have opened up our presence in that game and I have received reports of a great influx of new members. I’m looking forward to seeing these members on the RS site and a great deal of reporting from them in this coming session.

The extensive activity we’ve seen this session has brought to light a few changes that need to be made in our scoring system to provide the most competitive and fair setting moving forward:

• ‘Standard’ matches are now assumed to last between 5-20 minutes for 1 AP (Activity Point).
  
• Anything longer than that should be reported as a ‘duration’ match, which will now give 1 AP per 15 minutes.
  
• Scoring for the d6 RPG division will be brought down to be in-line with these two benchmarks. In addition, the scoring for being a Game Master will be reduced to 1.5x the normal rate (down from 2x).
  
• The individual TOR reporters will be disabled in favor of using the standard activity reporter used for all other activities, found on the left-hand nav bar on the RS main page. The scoring for all TOR activities will be the same as any other event: 1 AP for a standard match, 1 AP / 15 minutes for any duration based report.
  
• Going forward, we wish to encourage players to demonstrate quality sportsmanship and adherence to H.E.I.R. principles in any game that they play, in addition to acknowledging the effort put in toward meeting ITOD objectives. To that end, limited singleplayer activity can now be reported on during an operational session, with the following restrictions:
  
  
  • The total Activity Points achievable from Single Player activity will be capped at 20 AP.
    
  • Singleplayer activity includes playing multiplayer games with an RS clan/guild/group tag, or participating in a clan based game such as Star Wars Commander
    
  • In addition, submitting a mission report for a singleplayer ITOD platform will now also award activity points, up to the 20 AP cap.
    
  • An announcement will be made in the future when this new ‘singleplayer’ reporter becomes available. (Thanks Josh!!)
  
  
• It is generally assumed that players will make every effort to submit their reports within 72 hours of participating in a gaming event. Withholding reports for an extended period of time and then uploading them all at once will be considered Abuse and dealt with accordingly.
  
• Changes to the composition of a squadron that would reduce the number of participants during an ITOD session are to be performed at the BEGINNING of a session, preferably before the next session begins. Attempts to mark squadron members as AWOL or encourage mass LOAs at the end of a session to inflate a squadron’s ranking on the Leaderboard will be considered Abuse of Authority and dealt with accordingly.

It is our hope that these changes will increase transparency regarding where player’s, or squad’s, scores are coming from and encourage additional activity in future sessions.

The next Operational Briefing will be released this weekend, but the new Leaderboard session is already up and running. Keep flying, keep fighting, and stay safe.

":)
ADM Cyrel Vandroth
Rebel Squadrons Fleet Commander