best way to do it is here

agreed, ive learned so much in just a short time in this ladder

Im still learning and ive been vtpking since like early 07

vtpk history lesson

was originally founded in late early 1.10 as op smite.1337 this was the home of many pre grief vt legends such as (fusa/giovanni/Mak0) The original founders of op smite.1337 which was meant to replace temple as it broke up after grief (grief was not recieved well in those times) were Clos/Nem/Bib

in early to mid 1.11 vtpk moved to the d2gm website as well as channel op vtpk, this spawned an era of new vt duelers now known as legends by some, a few of the ppl on that list include (clos, bib, Immunedvd, One.8, Gtoes, Shib, Seraph, Aube (he started towards the end of this era but made a big impression winning first on the vtpk ladder and placing well in several tournies), Izmini (he was also towards the end of this era and most of the time he spent atop the ladder was during the most inactive periods of this time frame he is worth mentioning but not a true legend imo.) Ekvis (the only v/c to ever be #1 on the vtpk ladder).

after that vtpk slowly died off due to banning etc as we all used bots to lvl our vt's to 96+ and got banned it slowly faded from east as a dueling style and has only been recently renewed through this ladder.

i am mainly sharing this to keep the history of this dueling style in tact as many of the original players no longer play have quit or just simply moved on to something else. To finish things up here is a complete list of every vt to ever be #1 on the vtpk/temple/op smite.1337 dueling ladders. Those marked with a * had more than 1 appearance at #1, those marked with 2 *'s held #1 for 1 month or more with no defeats.

Fusa **

Gio **

Mak0*

Bib **

One.8 *

Gtoes **

Shib*

Seraph (luke) *

Immunedvd *

aube

izmini *

Ekvis

Nem

Clos *

If i forgot anyone or miscounted your time at #1 i truly apologize it has been a long time and im doing this strictly from memory. But i feel this is mainly correct the only person i could be wrong about is aube cause he beat me 2 times back then but i think 1 was for a tourney and the other for the ladder making it 1 appearance at #1 before vtpk broke up after the ban wave.

p.s aube we are still 2-2 in sets we should do an epic rematch for fun sometime to break the tie.

also if anyone would like my old vt's build lmk id be glad to give it out it to help the newer players, i would like to support the ladder however i can vtpk will always be a part of diablo i love i only wish it was as popular as it once was.

Also in response to luke with pb+20 IAS gloves there is no reason not to smite while your frozen you can win smite vs smite vs a axe grief build or a pb build that doesnt use ias gloves pretty much 100% of the time with both players frozen as you are still smiting at nearly full speed while they are 2 bps lower. Phaseblade grief>zerker but you have to wear the ias gloves to.

This post was edited by Jekel on Feb 11 2011 05:14am

Cool post

I do remember giovanni teaching me the ways of vtpk back in 06. Half of those ppl still played then, I do wonder what these ppl r up to now

mak0 and gio actually came back for about a week or 2 in .11 they were both very rusty and not up to par anymore but it was quite nice to talk/duel with them as at that time him fusa and gio were the only vtpk legends as the ones known now were then the current vtpkers The question is which of this new group of v/t's will be worthy of making the list.

This post was edited by Jekel on Feb 11 2011 05:49am

Ud be surprised, there's quite a bit of talent here in this vtpk pool

I have dueled with half the ppl u listed and if I'd say the current guys r just as comparable. R they as revolutionary (as in implementing new strats or gear choices? No. But skill wise its there)

Imo the only thing that matters is that vtpk lives on its much like amapk (or zvz) that has continued from .08

Ps, ekvis, clos, bib, and nemki were around for a pretty long while during .11 too. Actually a long while bc op vtpk was pretty active

This post was edited by ImportAudi on Feb 11 2011 06:25am

vtpk/gm up

im a firm believer the current duelist are the best or at least the most skilled duelists atm, so i would have to agree with this post, but its best for the community to understand its roots. The intresting part that would never happen would be to see all these players compete in there prime legends from each era

This post was edited by Jekel on Feb 11 2011 08:25am

A reunion duel, that would be quite the site to see. Unfortunately most people dont keep their accts when they quit.