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A brief note from GATO


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Today GATO reached our 11th anniversary. As in recent years we are celebrating it quietly among ourselves but we shall proceed to get white girl wasted as is our tradition.  All of us will make obligatory cat references in our posts for this special day. Together we shall smoke cat nip from the community crack peace pipe made from the Kaos emeralds. We will then start rubbing the royal cream on our paws and whiskers, this is to find suitable mates by choosing the member who is most hot in the face. All of this is within tradition. 

 

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Dre4m did his best "cat in heat" impression to attract a mate this season. Alexio was clearly overwhelmed by the display, which was certainly not tradition. Worst yet during our pre-celebrations someone knocked over our eternal litter box of oldness, which is completely not according to tradition, and if it is not picked up soon I believe tomorrow will be a stinky day for GATO and therefore the world. 

 

Either way, at least today we're old, drunk and... maybe with a slight touch of dementia. 

 

GATO has been blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people from within and outside this alliance. Thanks to all of our friends and allies for a wonderful year and we hope to share even more with you. To all the other alliances who have anniversaries coming up remember that we're old first! :awesome:  Cheers! o/

 

[/don't forget we're old it's the only thing that keeps us semi relevant]

 

-Crv24

 

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Congrats  to  GATO!!!!   And  I must  say  I   LIKE  your way of celebrating  and  partying :D   Since it is  legal in  the  state I live  in  I will smoke  an extra large  "fatty"  in  GATO's  name  tonight--   Regards 

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This year's member who is most hot in the face was Overlord Wes,  happy mating bud!

 

1 hour ago, Master Hakai said:

WAE still chuggin along

 

We have a reputation to keep.

 

2 hours ago, Blackatron said:

On a related note the oldest nation; Fine Arts of the alliance Old Guard, will be 11 years old in 4 days.

 

RIP Das_girl <3

Edited by Masterchief777
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I remember when I first joined GATO back in the bad old days of pre-GW2, when the rivalry between the GATO and NPO spheres was at its height. This place was full of propaganda from both sides and internal politics were .... interesting, to say the least. I was young and fiercely idealistic, but still dealing with my own demons at home at the time, so I burnt out fast despite falling hard in the love with the ideals and values of the Global Alliance and many of our allies at the time. That was the first time I dropped out. The second time was after all the fun of GW2 & I think 3. This time, I took a more active role in running the alliance, ultimately becoming BarbulaM1's deputy chair man. The revelations regarding Chris Kaos and BarbulaM1's knowledge of it blew up the alliance politically and the start of Pacifica's retribution for it blew us up pretty literally. We were in chaos, scrambling to put up some kind of fight while figuring out what the hell was going on.

 

I'll never forget those who fought beside us in that war. The Imperial Assault Alliance, the Commonwealth of Sovereign Nations, United Sovereign Nations, and of course, the Commie Volunteers have places of honor in my memories, even if CSN and USN were a little bitter about it afterwards. We fought fiercely, all of us, some nations fighting all the way to nonexistence and the IAA ultimately dissolving as the terms that Pacifica demanded were deemed too severe. As Deputy and then Assembly Chairman, I remember long nights and discussions on how we were going to pull ourselves out of this fire even remotely intact. Our enemy seemed implacable, their numbers beyond any means of countering effectively, and their combined strength too much to stand against for an extended period of time. And of course... Lizardo's large number of private messages telling me how I ought to run the war. 

 

We were not without victories, both personally and on the international stage. OFS's decision to attack Arciel was puzzling and we quickly secured a win there since they thankfully realized they were being beyond stupid. Several of us were able to organize into raiding teams where we focused on looting Pacifican tech dealers freshly funded for cash and spread out the gains as much as we could. Camaraderie was high, activity within the core strong. None of it was really enough. I was getting warnings from senior members that they were cash-locked and unable to do anything but watch their country burn. Our resignation thread saw a surge in activity. Many just simply disappeared as if ghosts. We had been fighting for a couple months now and it was clear we were getting to be nothing but scrawny tomcats too weak to do much. I forced members to be polite on the OWF or be quiet. We made the decision early on not to use nukes as this was prior to them being basically considered more powerful cruise missiles in wartime and we were concerned this would harden Pacifica's stance. I contacted MooCows regularly or pretty much any senior Pacifican that would listen - what would it take for peace? Haven't we already had enough suffering for one man's sins?

 

When the answer finally came, it was a surprise and a disappointment. Our complete submission to the Pacifican machine was demanded. I told him we needed to discuss this, to vote. This was a term too severe to ask of our Congress but one that needed the input of our entire remaining General Assembly. I was told we were being given 24 hours or else we would face certain eternal war. So that was the choice we were asked to make in a 24 hour time span - Subjugation or eternal war. We still have the thread up in our archives and the resulting vote. I argued for the peace - better alive to recover and move the fight of survival to a theatre we were better prepared to fight than to keep up a losing fight and consign ourselves to complete irrelevance like FAN. As history notes, we ultimately accepted the offer. Hindsight being 20/20, maybe we oughtn't have but it seemed the best in a bad situation. I wasn't there for much of the viceroy as a hurricane ended that phase of my career pretty solidly, but I can still see the fight we fought to not only remain alive but to remain true to our founding ideals and values even as we were all exhausted from the earlier fight and just wanted to sit there and rebuild for a bit.

 

As we are celebrating our 11th birthday this month, I feel that we made the right decision. We are still, in a sense, traumatized from the experience. The alliance was in basically survival mode for years afterwards, including when TimLee & co advocated for us joining CnG (which I argued against) and allowing us to be more ... adventurous (which I was also not a big fan of at the time). The alliance is still basically the same beast it was before, if a little softer and more scarred. I'm proud to be a part of this community. Some of these people are real friends now. Some are still asshats. We're all still loyal to the alliance and willing to do what's necessary to see it succeed, at least in some fashion. Hopefully, the new blood will help out more there - Alexio and the rest of Atlas are fine additions to the alliance. Here's to another year.

 

o/ GATO

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