So, I'm going to try to not carry on too much here, but I did want to put up some closing thoughts and "thanks you's". This will be a long, rambling post for many of you, so I won't be offended if you don't read it.

When I heard the announcement of a Forum Battle, I initially decided I wasn't going to join. I figured I was way too new to stand a chance, and I also had no skill with photoshops (as you eventually saw). Seeing all the regulars in the IRC sign up changed my mind, though. I figured I'd join, have some fun, maybe win a match if I were lucky. I'm really glad I decided to participate.

This Forum Battle was really entertaining for me, and I think most of you would agree. We saw a lot of creativity and there were a lot of really funny moments. Everyone who participated and followed the battled helped make it a huge success.

A trip to the Finals was a bit of a surprise for me. Fernin and I obviously would not have gotten that far if it had not been for all the support from our voters. Thank you to everyone who voted for us at any point in the competition.

Also, I've mentioned it in the Final Battle thread a couple of times, but I think my favorite part of the whole experience was seeing so many people vocally support the IRC Revolution in the Final. It kind of blew me away how many people took time to create videos, posters, pictures, etc. to show their support for us. I'd like to give shout-outs to anyone who actually produced campaign materials for the IRC Revolution or were there supporting us from the beginning: Fig (Yay IRC!), TARDIS (The Chatsword of Unity!), ToGdor (explodey pics!), ThunderThief (he made all the gifs for my avatars and that awesome vid), Cam (creepy/hilarious video!), Sehk (Eye of the Tiger, and those awesome comics), Nekky (became our personal pitbull there at the end and I loved it), Lem (very heterosexual vocal supporter!), the A-maze-ing Arlock, InvaderDim (vocal supporter!), aika (brought the Johnny Depp endorsement), Hacker (anything Super Mario Bros. 3 is an instant win for me), Reinhart (he ate brains in a sign of solidarity!), AtmanRyu (great sprite work), snesguy (The Dude abides...and votes IRC, apparently). If I missed someone, I profusely apologize. I know there were several others who voiced their support, and I do greatly appreciate it. Looking back at all of those made it a lot easier to take the loss in the Final to Syd and Knyte.

Speaking of the Champions...Congratulations! Syd, in particular, made me laugh quite a bit throughout the entire Forum Battle with his tactics. I liked the changes he made to the site at different points in the Battle, and his trash talk was top-notch. Looking back, I wish I had just let loose and countered with my own over-the-top bullshit rather than play the 'nicer' guy...that would have been so much more fun. But I figured it would be a really bad campaign technique for a guy that had been around for like 5 months to try to out-douchebag the site owner. Maybe next Battle when I'm more comfortable in my surroundings.

Satsui, thanks for organizing and running this whole thing. Because of the solid planning the Battle was able to be a big success. Great job keeping track of everything, and I hope you decide to do one again in the future. I don't think you get enough credit for the work you did.

I need to say a special "Thank you" to my Tag Team partner Fernin. He and I complemented each other rather well, I think. He was able to put together some great sprite art and gifs, and he developed some great games during the battle. He was a lot of fun to collaborate with, too. He's a great guy to brainstorm ideas with, and I felt that our individual ideas always improved a lot when we went over them with each other. One thing I liked about our team was that a great amount of our stuff was a true collaborative effort. It made producing campaign materials a lot of fun to bounce ideas off of another person. So Fernin, thank you for inviting me to be your partner.

So with that, the Forum Battle is officially behind me. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

PEACE!