My SINoALICE Experience
Since July 2020, I have been playing SINoALICE on a daily basis. When my friend introduced me to the game, she said “lol its a grindy game, you might not last.” In response, I said “oh watch me.” Three months go by and I proved myself correct — I outlived my friends in this gacha game. It was then that I realized I wanted to be something more, that I wanted to better. It was then that I left my G ranked guild “Weebs” and stepped foot into the competitive world.
Shortly after I quit my G Ranked guild, I found a new home in an S Ranked guild, “Otaku”. These peeps are fascinating. Everyone was very high leveled, had good gear, and grinded the game so well. I wanted to be just like them. Colosseum battles were the best experience for me at that point. Our Guild Master would give vocal orders through Discord. He would call who to target, what to summon, and it was fascinating to see the coordination of the guildies. Sadly, after our first Gran Colosseum, we suddenly had three members ghost us, and by the second Gran Colosseum, it was clear that we couldn’t survive. We dropped from S to A during the recruitment phase, somehow got back up to S Rank, then we disbanded honourably as an S Ranked guild. Overall, I spent just about a month with “Otaku”.
Feeling like I was up to the challenge as a competitive player, I found another S Ranked guild, “Blackbox”. Luckily for me, they too, had their auto accept turned on and so I was quickly welcomed. As the new guy, I was the second strongest of the three minstrels in the guild. I was shy, a bit quiet, and spoke only when spoken to. But after a month or two, the ice was broken, and I started to contribute to discussions about nightmares, weapon choices, and overall strategy. At that point, we had a designated shot caller, who gave orders through chat. We were a successful guild. For me, everything changed when the shot caller decided to quit, in favour of a guild that worked better for her time zome. During the week that she was gone, I recall asking myself “who will take the new role now?” Little did I know what was coming.
One day, after colo, I was invited to talk on Discord. But then, this was one chatroom I did not know existed! It was their leaders-only chat room and I was invited. What did this mean? Well, turns out I was promoted to Sub Guild Master. Why was I promoted though? I was merely a mid-tiered minstrel with no performance worth as a Sub Guild Master. According to what I read I was promoted because of my engagement in the guild and how I was reliable in colo. Makes sense I suppose… As the new SGM, I ended up taking on the role of a shot caller. Damn… that was one of the craziest tasks I’ve ever took.
Being a shot caller wasn’t easy. I had to consider so many things before, during and after colo. Before colo, I had to know who had what nightmares, who used what elements the most, what our members grids looked like, and scope out the enemy and make predictions. During colo, I had to type commands by hand, maintain AP levels, make plans that are 1–3 minutes ahead, find time to purify, target specific enemies, call nightmares, do management of who uses which nightmares, counter enemy nightmares, give more command and more stuff. After the colo comes to debrief and discussions, so we talk about what went well and what could be improved. In short, being the shot caller was the same as being a tactician in a battle. I even started to log daily colos — who we fought, who were the highest threats, tactics used, general observations, and the outcome of the colo. It was very very very tedious. But as a serious tactician, I felt it was my duty to be as prepared as I can when leading my guild into battle. Somehow, I gained the trust of my fellow guildies in colo and I appreciated how they would even listen to me. Best guildies I’ve ever had.
At one part, we become a pretty strong S Ranked guild. We one day got to GC Finals, a major milestone for us. After a few of GC Finals, we finally had our first GC Finals win. We started to place higher, and higher in the GC rankings. It was an amazing experience to know that I played a part in that. We just kept on winning and winning… there were times in which we would be neck to neck in colo, with the win being decided in the last 30 seconds. Crazy battles that I will never forget. Colos were fun. Guildies had fun. And we were winning.
After a number of gran colos, after numerous guild promotions and demotions, I felt that my motivation waned and I simply stopped wanting to play the game anymore. The story became super boring. There was little opportunity to gain free TC. Increasing grid power became reliant on Limit Breaking (very hard to do) exclusively. The game just got boring. And so after a messed up train wreck of fights that demoted us to B Rank, I officially stepped back from my role as SGM and shot caller. It was a wise decision as it would not have done the guild any good to take up a spot that someone else can thrive in.
After a few more grindy banners that got me no where, I almost stopped playing the game entirely. I stopped grinding, I stopped doing daily missions, and I stopped caring. No more paid subscriptions and services. No more pulling. And no more simping over SINoALICE PNGs anymore too. All I do is log on daily to do colos and maybe do a few verses here and there. In other words, I have retired from the game and I am playing it only for the guild, as they still need me to buff them.
“BlackBox” has been an amazing group. I dare say they are my friends now. We have all been together for almost a year now. We know each others likes and dislikes. As long as they are around, I don’t plan to quit the game or guild. I quit when they disband.
Anyways, here you have it! What a crazy experience though. From free-to-play G Rank guild to S Rank, to becoming GC Finalists, to wining GC Finals, to demotion to B Rank, to my retirement. What a blast. SINoALICE will always have a special place in my heart, not because it is a good game, but because of the people I have met through it.
