Josh retreats from Newlands / SIN's players seem divided

Josh has come under fire from both SIN and YARR! in the Newlands, leading to him withdrawing from the region.
Reportedly, there were a number of sieges on his towns however, only two were successful. The siege which caused TUF's declaration of war with SIN on 3 - Legion! Legion who? was razed by Deo Volente on the 27th June at 12:44. The second successful siege was by Ranalos on  bb Assimilated Corpse on the 29th June at 08:04.
Sieges on cc Nightmare Lemonade, bb Assimilated Corpse and cc Default Dwarf were broken by TUF
Although YARR!'s and SIN's sieges have been very close to each other, it appears that they have not been coordinating with one another. With the raze report on bb Assimilated Corpse, Ranalos gave this comment: ' I had concerns, because a Sin siege landed after we launched, and I didn't want to hit that, but Josh cleared it before we got there.'.

It also looks like many SIN players are not involved with the SIN/TUF conflict. According to a source in SIN, the actions which lead to TUF declaring on SIN are not representative of SIN as a whole but instead of a group of rogue players. So far, the rogue players seem to be: Ron Fay/Odoacer, Deo Volente. Elanderrich and Bulani. When asked about the players, Jejune issued the following statement:
'I can confirm that the attacks on Josh were initiated by a few of our members. There is a high level of animosity toward him among many in the SIN ranks for a wide range of different reasons. I cannot confirm any specific motives for some of our players finally deciding to move on him at this juncture, though, because I really don't know exactly why. You'd need to speak directly to the players who were involved in the sieges.
As a policy, SIN believes in pvp and in the sovereignty of players to deal with conflicts in a matter that suits their own gaming objectives. SIN players are in command of their own destinies and are not subjects of our leadership. I don't make any apologies for the actions of my fellow players, and remain steadfast in my support of them. They have done so much in the past to make this alliance what it is today.'

At the same time as a group of SIN players have gone rogue, Goldy1 has left SIN and joined TUF. Before joining TUF, Goldy1 created an alliance called 'SIN HATERS'. Goldy1 was a highly active player for SIN in the Second Newlands War with a number of sieges and siege breaks. Losing him is a real blow to them. Since leaving SIN, he has launched a siege on Eldrathin's town of Alyria. Spektor, Unbow's former general, has also been added to TUF's roster
However, Goldy1 is not the only departure from SIN recently; Kaggen Deimo and Den both dropped out of SIN in the past week and Janadorf and Tink XX have both abandoned as well. As a result of these leavers, SIN has gone from being ranked 10th to 15th in terms of land.
Jejune has been promoted to leader of SIN, a position formerly held by Chandrian. When asked about it, Chandrian said that it was 'merely time for me to pass the torch on to a very capable successor. '. Jejune confirmed that the change of leadership was not to do with the recent events, saying that in SIN 'the top leadership position is a fluid one'.

The recent leavers and the rogue players do raise questions about the stability of SIN and it will be interesting to see if Jejune will be able to restore SIN back to it's former strength.

YARR! have also had a notable account leave them. Drax the Destroyer has been abandoned by Duran. Drax, who previously known as 'The Reaper' and 'Honey Badger', was involved in the current YARR!/TUF war as well as the Stomps/Claimers war and NW2.

Author: Eowan The Short