During the election, it was a fiercely played election, with new people popping in that made people suspicious. Everytime someone saw a user with 6 digits, they immediately became suspicious. Yes, this was an intense rivalry between the Burg and as dark33 was known as then, dork33. After the votes were in the 30s, dark33 decided that he’d do ANYTHING to keep Whitesburg out of power, and the third-place contender, just barely keeping up with the two powerhouses, maxw101 and his partner, MikeRoch. So, dark33 pulled out of the election, and told everyone that had voted for him to vote for maxw101 causing a frenzy that is unmatched, in my belief, up to now. There were furious arguments over whether this was legal or not.
Legal or not, maxw101, boosted by the support of the President, became uplifted and surpassed Whitesburg to become the President of LTU. This set of a furor of pissed-off people and flaming, before modding was a serious offense. However, wishes were wishes and maxw101 and MikeRoch was sworn in as the new Prez. It was because of this election that Registration was created, so Whitesburg and people like him in the future (coughreedsinghamattcough) couldn’t complain about such things as this. This was the most explosive election I’ve ever witnesses, and probably will remain so.
However, immediately after the election ended, maxw101 disappeared from the boards, never to return (although he returned in late 2001-early 2002 to create the RVDC, then disappeared again), and left MikeRoch with the job. He did a sub-par job, and after his term, faded from memory. To this day, I bet you that Whitesburg will still contend that he should had won the election fair and square, to put it in his words. It was because of this election, that many events were either created, or never happened at all. LSA vanished from view, damaged by the exit of the former and current President, and Neo-LSA was never put in existence.
To relate to the LSA’s vanishing, one must backtrack to a time before I arrived to the boards, where Vegetaman, then a newbie, created the army, The Legend of Zelda Army, a legendary army for sure. During the turmoil of the election, Vegetaman apparently had some backdoor talks with dark33, and eventually merged with the LSA, being one of the first faction in memory to have cross-membership. The LZA, boosted by this merger, suddenly soared in terms of members, knowledge, and respect. They were still looked upon as a new faction, but they were a contender, due to some talks and some luck.
However, what turned out to be the LZA’s fortune was the LSA’s downfall. Hurt by the LZA’s rise in power, and also by their leader’s vanishing, the LSA slowly grew cobwebs, and faded, like MikeRoch, from memory. They had been dying for a long time, but dark33’s persistence kept it alive, until his vanishing. With the LSA’s death, this was when LZA was finally seen as the Resistance’s main competition, new or not. Despite facing some harsh criticism, the LZA continually grew, gaining some valuable members in the spring of 2001: Limit Break, DaShortyLeon, DarkPaladin126, GamingManiac, gamegirl_x, and many others. Spring 2001 was the well of hope, in which many other LTU legends sprung from, such as: Singha, Sabre216, thebrain31, and countless people.
Slowly but surely, Vegetaman’s faction rose into power, and became the long-standing threat they are. Many wars were fought, including many names that most people here do not remember, such as BlaXar, Overmind, CyberFrieza, Frostbyte, Choculink, and many other people. To be able to list all the people that have fought back then would take an entire page to count. Wars were a big thing then, and it was fought as if it was life and death. Back then, cheezing abilities were admired. Many oldbies has expressed their sorrow over the old days, such as Whitesburg, dark33, Sabre216, myself, Limit Break, thebrain31.
Wars, back then, were unknown when it came to who won and who lost, but it didn’t matter, because all that mattered was we took pride in the faction. Two months of this passed, and eventually we all became bored of the same old, same old. Yes, even we were bored back then, and it was before the era of brain’s scheming livened up the boards every once in a while J. After a while, the Resistance started to gain in power, as the LZA’s super-structure began to weaken. DaShortyLeon was banned, Frostbyte left, gamegirl_x lost interest, Limit Break didn’t like the faction, and graeme, ever the faction hopper, kept leaving. Vegetaman almost became so frustrated with the comings and goings, that he officially handed over the position of leader to GamingManiac, the first time someone other than Vegetaman had the reins to LZA, around late-June.
It was a very awkward week for me, and I was already considering leaving the faction myself, until I was suddenly dumped with this massive responsibility. Luckily for me, Vegetaman snapped out of his shock, and returned to the boards. Immediately upon his return, he took back the position of power, which I handed back to him gratefully. Things returned to normal, and the usual grumblings about being bored continued, until the big heads of the board decided to have a little discussion about the factions.
I wasn’t in the conversations, but I had heard word from Vegetaman himself, that everyone was discussing an alliance between the LZA, Resistance, and a new faction on the scene, NNA from the Harvest Moon Board, which hosted many familiar faces today such as Pulse and Bubba. We were considering taking over other boards, spreading our reign of power to boards such as The Couch, C.E., and other boards. People couldn’t hold their mouths, and rumors floated around. Soon, everyone was ecstatic about what was to happen. Then CjayC landed upon us what would had been a K.O. in boxing. He made a TOS rule that board wars or invasions were disallowed and that if it happened, the users involved would be banned. Worried about the loss of their accounts, the Tri-Alliance, as they were known, had broken up, leaving behind what probably could had taken over RP/FF and many Rping boards.
This time period, of March through July was considered to be the era of promise, of rebirth. So many legendary events had occurred that remains stuck in the back of our minds even today. While we certainly can’t bring back the past, we certainly can remember it, and recall all the great names that were born, that lived, that faded, and that died. It was, in my opinion, the greatest era ever for LTU, in the years of 2001 and 2002.