Was Ballista Your Favorite Thing To Do In FFXI?

*Troy McClure voice*

Hi, I'm Zirk, you may remember be from such commentaries as "DRK vs DNC" and "MNK vs NIN".

Did nothing rival the thrill of a well played Ballista match?
Have you stayed up way too late or woken up way to early just to participate in a match?
Did you always strive to improve with each match you played?

We play everyday, come and play with us!



If you're interested, check out our blog or some more of our Ballista videos.

http://vyiv.wordpress.com/about-ls/

http://www.youtube.com/user/vyiv
http://www.youtube.com/user/deshi0
http://www.youtube.com/user/Evviva3980
http://www.youtube.com/user/Zirk1337
http://www.youtube.com/user/AcornFFXI

Some of the JP players from our server have videos, as well.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Prejdent
http://www.youtube.com/user/ValvosaZero
http://www.youtube.com/user/javierjavierism
http://www.youtube.com/user/irvineffxi
http://www.youtube.com/user/NordalxFFXI
http://www.youtube.com/user/BaosBering

;_; tear. sooooo many memories. we should really try and get more ppl into it.

When are you going to finish the videos!

Does this mean we have to come to Lakshimi :/. But I like Fenrir's ballista community.... it's so butthurt.

I miss doing ballista so much

They need to revamp pvp and make cross server pvp possible i miss balli but not enuff to move anywhere, if you know what i am saying

Hello!

(*** you guys; you know who you are D:)

<3

I wish ballista had its own server that everyone could go to, no one does it on this server :( i miss the official matches from 2004-05, like 40 ppl or more.

Exactly. We shouldn't have to server hop just to enjoy an event in the game that is a basic staple in most MMO's.

Not for me. (Just kidding, I MISS YOU SO MUCH IT HURTS!!!)

Ballista started dying around the time CoP came out... and has since spiraled into an infinite pit of doom, leaving the few who still cared, and enjoyed this event, to fend for themselves and survive.

This is my story.

Like most FFXI players, I cherished the many challenges of the game since I first started playing, from completing the subjob quest to limit breaks. After hours upon hours and days upon days of tedious play, I finally reached the maximum job level, found myself a loving linkshell, and was able to participate in the endgame events in which I always dreamed of doing. However, those endgame days were short lived and slowly faded away, as I found a new purpose of playing FFXI.
I found Ballista.

When I first started playing, it was a blast, killing friends and foes on the blood-stained battlefield. It was an experience like no other. Of course, it wasn't always fun and games. I had my share of the bitter taste of defeat several times, but that didn't stop me from playing. In fact, those defeats motivated me to improve as a player. Over time, though, as new features were introduced to the game, the majority of the few who played Ballista gradually returned to endgame. I admit that even I did. Soon, the thought of Ballista escaped my conscious mind, but I always had a feeling that it was still lurking somewhere within my cloud of thoughts.

I was bored one day, browsing through many different sites on multiple windows of Google Chrome: Facebook, Gmail, Youtube, Redtube, etc. Somehow, I ended up doing a Google search for Ballista and came across a variety of Ballista videos. Most of them were of seemingly senseless '1 on 1 duels', but I stumbled upon some that just blew my mind away. They were from a Ballista LS known as BallistaRevolution, and from there, I was linked to their LS website. I discovered something completely out of the ordinary. Ballista teamplay? There are actually people who do this?

Immediately, I became a fan of their work and wanted to join their Ballista community. Although we were on different servers, I paid the transfer fee and hopped over to theirs without any regret. At first, I was a bit hesitant to speak with them; they seemed to play at an entirely different league than what I was used to. Eventually, I summoned what little courage I had at the time and went for the touchdown. Talking with them turned out easier than I originally thought. After introducing myself, my motives, and goals, my chances of joining their LS seemed more than likely, or so I thought. My Ballista aptitude was tested... rook guard, hyper, third eye ws dodging.. sprint ws dodging, poison>sleep timing.. communication... it was like a game within a game, but rather one so much deeper.

Currently, I'm a proud member of BallistaRevolution, a well-respected LS within the Ballista community.


I just wanted to share with everyone my passion for Ballista, and how those varieties of events influenced me.

I realize that this post is fairly long and completely understand if it was skimmed, but regardless, I humbly thank you for your time in hearing me out.

Also, thank you Zirk(Zirkk now ***) for making this thread~

/cpr


All updates "needed" for ballista aside - and the lack of "rewards" (stop having fun ***, how dare you), seemed to have put the nail in the coffin for the most unpredictable "event" this game has to offer.


Is there any interest?


60 cap ballista team play: http://vyiv.wordpress.com/
1v1 uncap ballista: http://www.ffxiah.com/player/Phoenix/Urteil

I'm actually in the works of lvling a mule and jumping him to a ballista server after I get all the gear I need for ballista.

Wonderful =) best of luck!

I miss the Ballista Royale matches. Those were tons of fun (and cross server too! So much fun messing around with the GMs on the test server- they'd turn us into HNMs and we'd stomp around Ru'Lude Gardens when the cameras were off). Still wear my Stars Cap around with pride. Have yet to see anyone still around on my server with one (all my friends who were on my team have quit).

I/we love uncap team ballista too!

Though it is fun testing your own ability against people who claim the prestige of their peers and hide their failures under the carpet of teamwork.

He who can stand against all, will benefit his allies far more than someone who can hardly stand on their own two feet.

Tarutaru wearing a Laurel Crown.


Imagine how proud you would be to have one of these extremely rare pieces of gear? Only 20 have ever been rewarded, and only to 10 JP and 10 NA players on the Siren server.



Ballista Royale.

The ultimate Vana'diel tournament that pits adventurer against adventurer.

1350 people (252 teams) took part in this event, and for three months fought heated battles to become the first ever inter-world Ballista champions. In the end, it was the Siren World representative team "Lovehame" that emerged victorious.

Lovehame (Siren)

Leader

Suteki (RDM)

Members

Seraphy (WHM)
Barlog (RNG)
Slayer (DRK)
Yosyua (MNK)
Rael (BRD)

Tournament Record
Final 33 vs 0
Semifinal 42 vs 0
D Block
3rd Match 41 vs 16 / 2nd Match 25 vs 15 / 1st Match 45 vs 33

I am seriously thinkin serv Xfer cuz Ballista I had Galka ballista char in Fenrir few years ago but after lvl cap update came I moved back to Vale... well now my chars are both 99 and both have decent gear so my question is which servers have daily ballistas? my 1st option will be Fenrir ofc I hope there are still few old ballista friends of mine.

Should have been a crown, Ogier's would never come off to wear a hippie-hat.

I miss this ;( Had so many awesome screenshots but not quite sure where they all went...

official team ballista 60 cap were the best ones and missing em so much ._.

^

Fenrir ballista seems to come alive every... summer I want to say?
But, would need more confirmation from someone on Fenrir~

Carbuncle official matches happen during jp time only, so if you're unable to stay up that late/early.. might not be the place for you.
Lakshmi official matches go around the clock, sometimes we get canceled during na time unfortunately~
Shiva... I believe it's dead now, need confirmation;

These are 60 cap only official matches.


Likewise, we replicate ballista royale almost daily(with a few tweaks of course) - no parading around as HNMs after tho..

Hako(literal translation: box).
Our version of ballista royale~

I will say that although Ballista Royale was fun (ie- messing with the GMs, meeting/playing with cool people from other servers and such) that is was EXTREMELY poorly ran. It was an organizational mess!

First the (lol)prizes... My team actually got to 3rd place in the tourney (TeamEcho from Leviathan - only lost to the team that got first place. Would have liked to fight the 2nd place team) and all we were offered was free tickets to fanfest. I gave mine away to an LS mate so he could go enjoy it because I wasn't paying plane, hotel, etc.. to go there! First and 2nd place also ONLY got free tickets and got to fight it out live for free Alienware PCs (only got the PCs if you showed up in person and rules said 50+% of your team had to be there live - again, they had to pay for their own airfares, hotels, etc... - 2nd place won nothing iirc).

Then there was the matter that SE screwed up transferring my teams characters so we had almost none of our gear compared to other teams and how strict they were about some things. You logged-in in Mordion Gaol, waited like 30 minutes for a GM to come pick you up and teleport your team to Ru'Lude where you'd wait like an hour or so while they tried to setup their cameras, then were told you can't leave Jeuno AT ALL. Of course some people broke that ban - that's how Voluptuous Vilma was first discovered.

Here's some SS I found from a teammate Piper took when we did Ballista Royale (ya ya, my name was slightly different back then).

The GM/Supervisors gear...

Us messing around selling items for absurd prices. The matches were 60 cap and character/gear were reset every match. Couldn't use KC anyways.

Blast from the past!
Nice pictures.. oh the memories;

To quote Vyii:
"Throughout my many years of playing the game, Ballista is the only part of FFXI that I still play. Ballista has been and will probably remain dominated by JP because almost all NA don’t understand the game well enough to stand even the slightest chance against them. Although the Ballista Royale in 2006 didn’t reflect the “standard” Ballista form, it showed that the JP annihilated the “top” cross-server NA players with a final score of 44 – 0, verifying JP supremacy."
http://vyiv.wordpress.com/about-ls/


He really hits the nail on the head.... even true to the fact 6 years later~

Unfortunately, if Ballista Royale were to by some miracle happen once again... the end result would sadly be the same;

Looking into potential ways to use the test server~

Every JP I've found, has been crushed under my boot. And believe me I look.

The mythos is annoying.

Team is vastly different than 1v1 though, I'm sure you know that.