We need a thread to debate this, you find many great alliance in 035 but it isnt the first for oceans that are filled, very odd!
I have noticed, over time, that the best place to start is one ocean away from the core (defined and 44,45,54,55)
Conventional wisdom says "Set down in the core! Thats where there will be all this bloodshed and action! We will control the core and win!"
Well, maybe. What you really get is your growth stopped while you fight nonstop. Very glorious, but not great for a fast start or building a position that will be safe for WW. the metacore, as I call the ocean surrounding the core but not one that will wind up being the true rim, are filled with good players so you can recruit a capable allinace. Anon was not a premade - in fact I don't think the 2 original founders even knew each other beforehand.
Coupled with my belief that how people play world to world is determined more by interest than skill, there is just no advantage to setting down in the core, or even doing so with a premade.
I have also noticed that the game increasingly attracts sprinters. These are guys who start, spend a lot of gold for 2-3 months and sit way up in the rankings, and then just disappear and start another world. The metacore does not seem to have this population of players the way the true core does
Let's have a big round of applause for the metacore Folks - where dreams come true and fake crowns are won....
ME-TA-CORE!........ME-TA-CORE!...........ME-TA-CORE!.......