Dear community, friends, family and everyone else,

I'll be honest and curt with everyone, it's been a tough time working out this Battle Royale. We've been dealt a bad hand and had the carpet thrown up over our head by the time we try to recover. It's been stressful and hard to manage. We've never had the experience of managing streams or preparing any type of content that's on demand, and as such roadblocks stood in our directions and some misdirection was taken.

Around 6-7 months ago I was approached by an individual who seemed to really understand the potential of a livestreamed Battle Royale. I had thought about this since Mk. I - an interactive stream of Civilization Battle Royale with every single moment showcased to the community. The potential of a project like this is insane.

I thought to myself- "Well... currently we just have imgur albums, but with the Mk.3 if we do it right we could essentially do something like the following:

"Official Team of Twitch Clippers" -> "Official Team of Narrators" -> "Main Compiler" -> "Official Weekly Release" -> "Civ information updated on a CivBattleRoyale Wikia"

The best part is - is if we have narrators that narrate the twitch clips - those twitch clips could be given to an audio narrator who could then compile it into a video format. So whether it be an image album, reading the wiki, watching/listening to the history of the world - there'll be multiple ways to consume CBR content.

CBR Mk.2 got into the Guinness World Records. It had only image albums. It was both the subject of University projects and lectures. It inspired an entire team of professional-esque power rankers to evaluate the world and provide expert analysis. Newspapers, art, audio-narrations, flags, rap battles, stock exchanges - you name it, this community made it. As time went on, we were increasingly referenced by the developers of Civ - something that continues to humble me to today.

No longer would there be any delays of new parts as if you wanted to be updated, you could merely go to the stream and watch every battle. It was an amazing idea, and with the server provided to us we thought it was going along swimmingly.

Needless to say, it didn't. Deadlines were pressured by this person who was offering incredibly cheap servers from LiquidSky that offered us anything we needed from native Twitch intergration to incredibly high bandwidth that many people would salivate over. However this individual would remain absent as we worked extremely hard on this project. He'd provide an excuse for his absence, and it seemed like he was going through a tough time - so I worked me and my team overtime to meet a date that he'd push for, but then he'd remain absent and move the date. Rinse and repeat.

We understood that we needed at least 3 weeks of community engagement, and to get everyone on board with this project.

Look... I knew I was being used, but honestly I didn't mind. He wanted to make it the next Twitch Plays Pokemon. Perhaps not in terms of numbers and constant viewership - but something that could stand the test of time. His credentials looked as he could make this happen. He wanted to take an even split. I knew that with my half of the share, I'd redistribute it to the people on my team.

Under his pressure, he pushed for a date much earlier than we desired. We worked out hardest, some people losing sleep as they worked on each and every component from the new AI, new Twitch integration and much more. However, complications came up with his physical health and it was delayed. It gave us more time to customize some elements, work on integrating custom versions of some popular mods, and improve stability all the way around. However, like last time, complications...

We asked for better working conditions. We asked him to be accountable for his actions. We said that we'd consider severing ties. He threatened legal action if we did so. We severed ties.

What is about to happen is the Civilization Series first in-depth ARG (Alternate Reality Game), designed entirely in 72 hours as a response to the rug being pulled out from underneath us. The entire lore around this ARG is designed around the story about how the CBR Mk.3 was produced under:

Extremely rushed, nearly ending with a hostile takeover.

This is our story. One day we will establish a grand empire. But not yet. First -

You need to save Nebuchadnezzar. You need to save the Battle Royale.

You guys have changed my life. And I will continue to work hard for you.

-TPangolin