In December 2003 the MechWarrior 4 division of the Freedom Fighters was shut down. Here follows its history...

In October 2002 Microsoft released the 4th episode in the MechWarrior series. FF-Nemesis was quick to get a Freedom Fighters division started, initially consisting of FF-Nemesis, FF-TempIIC, FF-Jackyl & FF-Ironman. Not much later the Dying Star Alliance, a well known adversary from Freespace 2, joined into the division bringing Ethari, Sir Fett, Rachy, James and Thyrael to the Freedom Fighters. The division rapidly got up to speed and joined the MechWarrior 4 Vengeance League (VL); a ladder-league with 3 month cycles and over 5000 players and over 200 teams.

Playing through several cycles FF grew in ranks and experience, ending higher in the ladder every cycle, both individually and as a team. As a result of this climb up the ladder the desire grew to reach the top 5 in one of the award winning categories. The first time this goal was reached was at the end of cycle 4, in December 2001, when the MechWarrior 4 division managed to reach 3rd place in win percentage out of over 250 teams. Although ambition is a good thing it also resulted in tension between some members. Some of the crack FF players preferred hiring ace-mercenaries to play games rather than playing with Freedom Fighters that were online in order to prevent loosing games which might damage the Divisions win percentage. As a result of these tensions FF-Nemesis, the founder and CO of the division, left to join another VL unit, the Blackstorm Mercenaries.

 

Despite the tensions within the Division the results were good. At the end of cycle 5 the Freedom Fighters had won 3rd place in the overall ladder (of around 250 teams), and FF-Farrman had ended 2nd in win percentage (of over 5000 players), while FF-Ethari laid claim to the 5th position in win percentage. By this time Ethari had grown to be one of the best payers in the world, if not the best, winning practically every game he played even against seemingly impossible odds, always leaving the battlefield with insane kill/death ratios. Teamed up with Farrman and the ‘VL-Monster’ Thyrael he was truly unstoppable in VL.

At the end of cycle 5 Nemesis had worked out a merger between the Blackstorm Mercenaries and the Freedom Fighters which enabled the FF to become a mercenary unit; a long cherished wish by some. The merger brought the ranks of the Division to around 60 and with a new CO, FF-DopeZ, at the helm the Freedom Fighters managed to repeat the masterpiece of cycle 5 in cycle 6 and once again ended 3rd in the overall ladder.

In September 2002 the end of cycle 7 again yielded success as the division ended 4th overall. Cycle 8 yielded only personal success, but plenty of it, as FF-Foehammer managed to become 1st in Resource Credits and 1st in the total number of battles played. Meanwhile FF-Ethari managed to come 1st in win percentage.

Cycle 9 was a bit of a strange cycle, as more of the core FF-players quit MechWarrior 4 to play other games. The Freedom Fighters became a home for unit-hoppers in the Vengeance League, few of these members actually stayed for the duration of the cycle. Despite this the division still managed to end the cycle in March 2003 as 4th on win percentage. Sadly cycle 9 of Vengeance League was the last time anything noteworthy was heard from the Freedom Fighters in MechWarrior 4. The division dwindled on a bit, until it was finally shut down.