Brief Server Rundown
Disclaimer: Not all of this information is 100% accurate or complete.
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Bis’s website provides an updated overview of each server’s Ballista population. From left to right, the titles of each column are “rank”, “server name”, “cumulative average”, “research date”, “number of people”, and “maximum”. I can assume that his tallying of the headcounts was done primarily during JP times, since Ballista matches during NA times could never reach numbers that high and would also skew the population averages, making them seem lower than they actually are.
I have my doubts about Lakshmi’s numbers, though. During my time there, which was only a few months ago, I hardly remember matches breaking 12:12—even during JP times—but Lakshmi is apparently the most populous Ballista server as of now.
Disclaimer: Credit for the research and image goes to Bis (http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~oka.zi-4/)
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Siren: The Gyaiko Days, A Terrorist
Many months ago, Siren used to be the most populous Ballista server until the notorious Gyaiko appeared, causing games to be imbalanced and eventually canceled. Duo-boxing (using two characters at once) is difficult as it is, but this psychopath JP quad-boxes (if that’s even the correct term). He was known for signing up with his multiple characters, sabotaging Ballista from creating lopsided games. Whenever he would join official matches, players would volunteer to monitor match by concentrating on massacring Gyaiko’s characters. Over time, though, people grew tired of playing or having others playing police—it just wasn’t fair—so a new plan was enacted: whenever Gyaiko would ruin an official match, people were obligated to discharge. No one was allowed to play official matches if he was present as a form of protesting his behavior.
Diorama games were eventually hosted in place of the official matches. Gyaiko, however, was quick to notice the change and reserved the Diorama slots for himself in order to prevent others from playing Ballista at all. Therefore, he practically had complete control of both official and private matches.
The lunatic was almost always logged on to ruin matches during both NA and JP times. The only times when matches actually took place were when he was either logged off or afk (perhaps asleep), which rarely happened at all. This dilemma taken to the GMs, but as useless as always, they couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) do anything about it. Other than the usual, devoted Ballista players, people simply don’t care about this aspect of the game. Since even the GMs couldn’t resolve this issue, people began losing hope in restoring Siren’s Ballista to its original state.
One by one, people left Siren to other Ballista servers, namely Sylph, as it was decided to be the new location of a high class (and more importantly Gyaiko-free) Ballista server. Eventually, the server’s marginal population was reduced by over 50%. The players who remained on the server endured the torture with both hope and fear: (1) hope that Gyaiko will eventually become bored of the continuous cancellation of official matches; (2) and fear that the Gyaiko’s new target server would be Sylph.
Many precautions were taken while people forced plans to fend off Gyaiko. Those plans primarily involved the timing of server transfers. The opening of Sylph as a new Ballista server was relatively on the down-low. The idea was that once Gyaiko found out about Sylph, he would probably want to transfer there in order to spread his plague. By that time, people’s server transfers would almost be ready—or at least half way complete. When Gyaiko would transfer to Sylph, others would transfer to another server and ditch him in an empty Ballista server. This game of cat and mouse would continue as long as Gyaiko persevered. That was the plan at least.
Gyaiko was truly an enigma. Even now, no one knows why he was so committed to sabotaging Ballista.
He was also the reason why I got sent to GM jail (https://vyiv.wordpress.com/2010/06/19/so-easy-a-caveman-can-do-it/).
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Siren: The Gyaiko Days, A Terrorist
Pashhow was canceled, and people called a GM in hopes of getting Gyaiko banned for his “crimes.” The plan failed.
Disclaimer: Credit for this image goes to Bis (http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~oka.zi-4/)
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Siren: The Gyaiko Days, A Terrorist
Gyaiko using his multiple characters in Ballista. That is some professional quad-boxing there.
Disclaimer: Credit for this image goes to Bis (http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~oka.zi-4/)
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Sylph: The Xiluxe Days, A Successor
Sylph became the new main Ballista server after Gyaiko conquered Siren. When the news was publicized, people from different servers took this as an opportunity to Ballista with Siren’s experienced players and transferred to Sylph. The server eventually stabilized with a moderately high Ballista population, and with players from different servers pouring in, Sylph opened many eyes. According to reliable sources, the only players that made Ballista worth playing were those from Siren. Players from other servers and especially those native to Sylph tarnished the balance of official matches because they lacked experience and perhaps even skill. Eventually, the number of Siren players on each team determined the victor. The outcomes of the matches were quite predictable, but at least they were able to play Ballista without Gyaiko—or were they?
When world peace was seemingly realized, random duo-boxer popped out of nowhere, wrecking havoc on Ballista as Gyaiko did. At this time, Gyaiko had already disappeared from Siren, so many people assumed that he was behind the scene. As the duo-boxer continued to foil more games, however, people began to notice that he wasn’t as skilled with multi-boxing as the original Gyaiko and eventually concluded that they (the Sylph duo-boxer and the original Gyaiko) were two different people. Since Gyaiko “magically” disappeared from Siren, he was most likely banned—or so that’s what people [would like to] believe.
The duo-boxer eventually stopped lollygagging for unknown reasons, but Gyaiko’s ideals didn’t end there. He had another successor, Xiluxe. Neither the duo-boxer nor Xiluxe were as atrocious as Gyaiko, but they did share a common ancestry of crimes. Instead of multi-boxing, though, Xiluxe would sign up for Ballista with two characters but log one of them off. Therefore, as long as he was present, one team would always have one less player than the other, throwing off the balance of the game.
People grew fed up with the continuous criminal acts and succumbed to reality. The only option was to run. After their server transfers were ready, many players returned to the home servers or continued venturing to others, leading to an inevitable end to Sylph’s short-lived triumph.
Many members of the inter-server Ballista community have ideas of the true identity of this bandit through character model and augment comparisons, but whether their analyses are correct is still a mystery at this point.
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Sylph: The Xiluxe Days, A Successor
Xiluxe disconnecting after signing up for Ballista
Disclaimer: Credit for this image goes to Bis (http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~oka.zi-4/)
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Fenrir: The Legnam Days, A Martyr
Fenrir has been notorious for its barbaric style of Ballista since the beginning of time. Most people on Fenrir don’t play Ballista to win; instead, they play only to kill. SAM/RNGs thrive the land with their Soboros, Haubergeons fly across the battlefield, almost everyone subs NIN, and the endless cursing always adds the cherry on top. The implied motto is “You killed me, so I’m going to kill you—or at least try to for the rest of the match until I do so.” Grudges from the cyclic effect of the motto usually carry on to future matches, and people even make small alliances with friends or acquaintances solely to get their revenge.
One general misconception is that only the NA on Fenrir ascribe to this style of play, but little do people (the NA community) know that the JP have also adopted this behavior. During Gyaiko’s campaign, Siren’s Ballista population was divided amongst many servers, but only two or three players transferred to Fenrir. Legnam, a well respected and experienced Ballista player, returned to his home server with hopes to change the people’s brutal style of play. Since he practically had no allies on his trip, no one knew what “methods” he used to execute his “conversion.” As T would put it, Legnam was a religious zealot who tried to tame savages.
Regardless of how “adept” the JP on Fenrir seem to be [to the NA on Fenrir], reliable sources point out that they’re actually unskilled in terms of true Ballista play (scoring/winning). Legnam stepped on blood-soaked soil when he entered the “dog-eat-dog” world. The JP weren’t aware of the Rooks’ locations and just like the NA, they mainly concentrating on killing. While Legnam was trying to change their perspectives on Ballista, the JP ignored and rejected his suggestions. They had their own pride, too—of course. He was saying that their style was “wrong” while his was “right.” In short, he practically walked into a church preaching Satanism, and thus the JP on Fenrir disliked Legnam for his arrogant and judgmental actions. From other sources, I heard that the NA didn’t like Legnam either for whatever reasons. Thus, his good intentions of converting his home server from an uncivilized land of barbarians to a prestigious Ballista server ended in failure.
Eventually, Legnam disappeared from Fenrir and stopped blogging on his Zoome webpage. No one knows of his whereabouts today; however, it can safely be assumed that he was devoured by the savages of Fenrir and died a martyr.
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Fenrir: The Legnam Days, A Martyr
An image from one of Legnam’s last videos on Zoome.
Disclaimer: Credit for this image goes to Legnam (http://zoome.jp/legnam/)
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Siren: The Recent Days, An Update
Today, Siren’s Ballista population is slowly recovering from the past disasters. People who ventured to other servers are returning to Siren, but although our numbers have been improving, FFXIV, Abyssea, the new Lv85 cap, and other additions have taken many players’ interests over the out-dated Ballista. Over the past few days, matches during NA prime times—and even transition times between NA and JP—have been completely canceled. Supposedly, JP time Ballista matches have also had relatively low turnouts. The only course of action as of now is to wait for FFXIV backlash and people to become bored of Abyssea. Our LS is still interested in new cross-server Ballista players, but unfortunately, people tend to have a stronger attachment to their server than the game (Ballista) itself.
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Siren: The Recent Days, An Update
NA Prime Time 09/06/10
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Siren: The Recent Days, An Update
NA-JP Transition Time 09/05/10
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Siren: The Recent Days, An Update
JP Prime Time 09/11/10
Ballista Revolution 
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