Letters from the Trenches: Pepsi and the Second Soda War.

by Emma Elfeirr, field journalist

It has been very clear that most GXC-ers don't like Pepsi since the first Soda War. Pepsi was simply wiped out, seen as the annoying fly in your room when you're trying to sleep. It can't really do anything to you, but you want that pest dead! Pepsi never stood a chance.

The second Soda War, however, was a totally different story. This fly was not ready to die. I came late to the game to find Pepsi struggling to hold a fort, and not much else. We were surrounded by a great big mass of Coca-Cola who just wanted us dead, since everyone knows that Coca-Cola and Pepsi are bitter rivals. Despite our efforts to ally, they didn't want any help from a team that was sure to die in the next few turns.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pepper grew unstoppable (starting the game with 3 times as many players as the two smallest teams gave them an early edge), and teams either ran for their lives or begged for mercy. Pepsi, however, refused to give up.

By turn seven, we were locked up in our fort, no other territories left. Most would have shielded. We had more faith in ourselves though, and decided to risk dying for a chance to place. Fiercely, the Pepsi team held their fort while Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper both distracted Coca-Cola. And then we struck! With a spur-of-the-moment idea, we managed to cut straight through Coca-Cola's empire and shield, leaving a nice, impenetrable wall between Coca-Cola's rather pissed off forces and their vacant territories below.

Coca-Cola was soon forced to shield, Mountain Dew, overrun by Dr. Pepper (they didn't get a shield up), joined ranks with Root Beer and those struggling to hold anything. It was, very clearly, a fight for second. A fight which Pepsi, the smallest and weakest team right from the start, should never have had a chance to compete in, let alone win.

Yet win, we did. We wiped out Coca-Cola quickly while Root Beer counted the minutes until they would die. Then, despite Dr. Pepper's threats to kill us first if we fought back, we ripped straight through Dr. Pepper, via the Skyway. Root Beer's shield went down, and the bloodthirsty Dr. Pepper-ites couldn't resist destroying them, despite their threats against us.

The game had been over for Pepsi right from the very start. When I joined at Turn 4, there was hope for nothing more than pity. By Turn 9, our only shield was up. At Turn 27, we made our last stand and won the second place we refused to give up on. The credit, of course, goes to the fiercely determined troops of Pepsi.

***If you think your team deserves special mention for a game well played / all around awesomeness, send a field journalist's report to emmanuel@gocrosscampus.com and it'll be up as soon as possible!