First I nerf Cluster rewards for the new Battlefront game. Then announce my planned retirement date as Fist (Spoiler: February 1st). Finally I reminisces about my time on the Dark Council for the rest of the report, which is most of it. That's really about it.

And when Val throws his mighty Nerf hammer!

I couldn't resign without one or two more nerfs.

• Fighter Squadron CFs are being reduced from 2 CF per match to 1 CF per match. After extensive testing by Pravus' 7 year old son and myself we have determined that the initial value was set too high. We also both agree that we are better than Pravus in Fighter Squadron.
• The time period where a PC Cluster Bonus is available for Battlefront has now concluded. This option will be removed and all platforms will now earn equal Clusters in the game. There is no more "master race", there is only the game.

This concludes any actual gaming information for the remainder of this report, so I will leave Mjolnerf on the ground for the next Fist to pick up.

Farewell Introduction

Welcome to the Fist's Final Countdown. First, a message from my corporate sponsor:

If you're a retiring Dark Councilor you write a report about stuff you did and why you're leaving. It's what you do. If you want to save 15% or more on car insurance, you switch to Geico. It's what you do.

Now that my plug is complete I want to thank a few people who have helped me through my time on the Council.

• Muz and Raken took a chance on bringing an Equite 2 to the head table, I appreciate being given that opportunity more than you both realize.
  
• Everyone who's been on my Staff over the last few years has done great work helping to improve gaming by bringing forward and supporting new ideas, also they had to talk me down from a few crazy ideas. Together we accomplished more than I could have ever done alone, thank you for your patience and putting up with my, at times frustrating, approach to solving problems.
• All the members of the Dark Council I've had an opportunity to work alongside. Each of you have worked to improve your area of the Club from the place you found it in when you took office. I'm a competitive guy, so seeing the improvements in other areas of the Club has made me look harder for areas that Gaming could be improved. There is one of you who stands out though...
• James. The talent and dedication you bring to coding the website for this Club is nothing short of amazing. You've found a way to code every idea we bring to you, and do it in an amazingly fast manner. I brag about you to my wife when she tells me a project at work is waiting on the coders. In my mind there will always be a short list of individuals who have made this Club into what it is today, you are at the top and I have no idea how anyone could surpass what you've done.
• The most accomplished member of the Club who hasn't seen all the Star Wars Movies (since he was a kid) that I know, Montressor. Monty became one of my go-to gaming buddies over the years, and someone who probably heard more than his fair share of my gripes. I can always count on Monty to give me candid feedback on an idea I'm looking at or respond to my complaints with a humorous, "%&$* those guys" when I need a laugh the most.
• My brother-in-law and one of my traveling companions to Star Wars Celebration, Zednich. Zed's lighthearted humor and positive attitude make him one of the people I really enjoy being around. I don't really remember how or when I found out he was a big Star Wars fan, although it was related to him talking to me about some SW Trivia item. At that time I had no idea then that we'd be spending three days at a Star Wars Convention in Anaheim and racking up a huge bar tab. Still waiting for him to change his character to a wookiee named Chuktukkaluktuck though.

Through the years I've had my fair share of moments of rage and frustration. There's been one person in the Club who has done more to help me refocus to what matters than any other, someone who has been a friend of mine for a long time and I continue to look up to in the club and real life (even though I'm taller than him). Of course this is the current Grand Master. Thank you Matt, I never would have been able to finish this Fist marathon without you.

Finally, even though she'll probably never read this, I need to thank my wife. Who put up with me spending hours writing my "Star Wars Manifestos" (reports / proposals) upstairs in the office instead of watching (girl) movies with her downstairs. Even though she's a huge Star Wars fan (nerd) too I doubt I'll ever be able to convince her to join the Club.

Did work son

On February 1st (or later if the GM/DGM don't have my replacement nailed down yet) I'll be stepping down as the Fist, that puts me at a grand total of 941 days on the Dark Council. As that time approaches I've found myself looking back and reflecting on what the Fist Staff has done while I've been leading it and if I'm happy with what has been accomplished for the gamers of the club over that time. I broke out an old copy of the application I sent to Muz years ago for this position to see how my initial goals measured up to where we are now, originally I was going to summarize parts of it, but thought some folks might find it interesting to see what was actually written in this thing. So instead I'm linking a copy of it, some items have been redacted because I don't feel they need to be public knowledge.

So does that mean I'm done talking about what the Fist Staff accomplished? Nope, this is my last report after all and you can always decide not to read it.

• GMRG Revisions: Removed SA requirements from GMRG Ranks, returned the monthly Gorefest. Later initiated GMRG 2.0 project which introduced permanent ranks and a quarterly ranking for DC Accessories,
• CF Balancing: Probably my was both my first and final act as Fist. So many reviews and revisions... so many...
• Cluster of Earth: Created and balanced to CFs.
• ROC Streamlining: Removed redundant stuff. Created Tier 1 and Tier 2 Gaming Platforms wiki pages. Later removed the JA Swaying rule.
• Mobile Gaming: Introduced it as a legitimate platform to the club, with Cluster rewards. Star Wars Assault Team, Star Wars Commander, Star Wars Galactic Defense, Star Wars Uprising, and Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes all included in this realm.
• PVP Score: Implemented this and changed from old straight win % system (12 wins in 12 matches = 100% best score with no incentive to play 13) to this to put more emphasis on how many matches were played while still factoring in amount won. Later adding a weighting option to account for faster (Pazaak) and slower (X-Wing) games.
• Fist-O-Matic: Worked with James on what this Bot needed to do to help prevent Match Dodging as a potential ROC infraction.
• Weekly Pendants of Blood: Returned to the practice of awarding these. Later broke them out to include an additional PoB for Saturdays. Reduced required participants from 10 to 5 to earn them. *Gamer IDs & Groups: Initially set up Forums for people to share gamer tags. Later worked with James to add these to the Contact Methods on Dossiers. Set up multiple Guilds/Clans/Cartels/Squads across several platforms to allow members to find each other easier.
• Gaming Platforms: Added Battlefront, Star Conflict and Destiny as supported platforms. Returned X-Wing games as an option to play also.
• Club Wide Events: Supported the Dark Crusade (a dark and busy time for all of us), Fading Light events, and one Great Jedi War.
• Star Wars Celebration: Twitter announcements, bought business cards and T-Shirts to try to promote the club. Unfortunately net gain of zero members from these efforts. Learn from this and don't do what I did, I still have ~$200 of DJB T-Shirts sitting in my closet because I was dumb.

Over the last two and a half years I've written 46 Reports, 97 other news posts, and either organized or co-organized 259ish competitions. Overall I'm happy with what we've done during my time on the Dark Council, I hope you all are happy with the changes we've made too.

Adiue, adiue. Parting is such sweet sorrow

I'm not sure I could think of a more appropriate phrase to convey how I feel right now. I'm excited to see what the next Fist will bring to the Club and I'm excited to be able to just play a video game, instead of balancing awards for it, for the first time since the summer of 2013. At the same time there are projects that the Fist Staff have in the works and ideas they've talked about that I'd love to still be able to help direct, so its hard to step away.

Other than a few words in that last paragraph I guess I really haven't explained why I'm stepping down yet. I'm going to defer back to the Internal Report I sent to Pravus, Mav, and Jac in August 2015:

In a week or so I'll have been Fist for 26 months. That's a pretty long time in DB terms. After the upcoming GJW I think that I should step out of this position and let another member have the opportunity to lead our Club's gaming efforts. This isn't related to burning out, I could continue on as Fist easily enough. It also isn't related to me having fulfilled all of my personal goals or gaming system goals for the club, there's more I'd still like to improve with the gaming arena and more things I'd like to earn. However I think its important to get fresh blood in every once in a while, especially in an Office that doesn't require a specific skillset

Note: The GJW I referred to was the one we had originally planned to run last month.

So that's the end folks, no rage quit or epic rant in this report. I hope you all enjoyed the ride. If you actually read this whole thing, thank you. I'll be around the Club someplace, probably on staff for a DC'er or maybe in a Clan somewhere. I haven't decided yet. I'll figure it out after I finish getting my Platinum PS Trophy for Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and kill the Taken King in Destiny (again).

-Val