The RA25. Positions 25-21

 Congratulations to everyone who has made the RA25. The Ranking of my strongest 2v2 opponents in over 10 years of playing online Red Alert. I am now happy to release the first wave of players...

25. Robskate (USA)   39/50

Robskate is a very strong tanker. Congratulations on making the RA25! What brings Robskate down is his lack of ability in medium-long games. He excels in ore maps and is very strong on maps like crush's basement or spacecraft but on p4 2v2 or tdawg you can forget it. The players higher up the rankings exhibit a wider range of skills. 

24. Lordy (England)   39.5/50

Lordy is solid and the same level on all map types. His main skill is good at tactics and sneak attacks and he is capable of often pulling off upset wins. His level is consistent and his gameplay is versatile which is why he ranked higher than Robskate as he has more range of skills. However Lordy lacks the innate strength of some of the players higher up the rankings. 

23. Kobra (England) 41.5/50

Kobra is a strong player with his best categories being 'teamwork' and ore maps. Perhaps his only shortcoming is that he's fairly predictable and one dimensional so he lost points in tactics and unlimited ore maps for me. In my experience I did always find it easier playing against Kobra than some others higher up the list because he was fairly predictable and I felt like my win ratio against him was quite high as a result. Overall he is a strong tanker who deserves his place and is slightly better than the likes of robskate and lordy but he's just not as strong as some of the higher ranked players and I think this is a fair assessment.

22. Muad Dib (Romania) 41.5/50

I scored Muad very highly on unlimited ore and quite high on gem maps. However I simply had to put him lower for ore maps and tactics. He's obviously a very formidable opponent in long games and is also a competent tanker but his adaptability isn't the strongest. He often loses to rushes or off-beat tactics eg Tanya sneaks. He's a strong player but he's not the full package and so not as skilled as those in the top 20. Kobra and Maudib worked out on the same score in my mathematical rankings but in my personal experience I found Maudib to be overall a more formidable opponent and so I have ranked him above Kobra.

21. Yuzgen (Turkey)  42/50

I scored Yuzgen one of the highest in the whole rankings on the Tactics category. Yuzgen is a very smart player and he is obviously very capable on gem maps and cying games, and on tanking and ore maps he is better than he is given credit for. Overall he is definitely a stronger player than 25-22 in 2v2 format and deserves his place in the RA25. He narrowly missed out on the top 20 because you will see there's a lot of strength in depth in these rankings and Yuzgen is a respected foe for anyone in 2v2.

The next post will feature ranks 20-16 so stay tuned...

Judge Crush.

The RA25. MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

 The RA25. A major project announcement. 

Well this is the start of a series of posts you have all wanted to see for a very long time. 2v2 is by far the most popular game type in Red Alert 1. I guess it's a combination of 1v1 being pretty one dimensional (better tanker wins 90% of the time) but also 2v2 being more fun and maybe requiring a greater range of skills. Being the wise owl that I am I will try my best to take away any bias, personal grudges and give an accurate fair assessment of the top 25 2v2 opponents I ever encountered in my 10+ years of experience on Red Alert. I feel having played 1000s of games against the vast majority of great 2v2 players in the CnCNet era, winning many games and losing many games, that I'm in a decent position to offer a consensus on this. 

The criteria

1) I will only include players whom I have a decent sample size of games with (25+ seems fair).

2. I have rated the players I think could be on the list and have narrowed it down to 25 (started with 32)

3. Obviously not including myself or rating myself.

4. 1v1 level is completely irrelevant and not factored into these rankings - it's a different game type. 1v1 rankings would be completely different.

5. Players who ONLY play P4/Rasta cannot qualify for the list as I can't assess their gem/ore play.

6. Grading out of 10 on 5 categories to find a total net score in order to categorise the players. The 5 categories I settled on are as follows:

1. Unlimited ore maps

2. Gem maps

3. Ore maps

4. Teamwork

5. Tactics/Awareness

It goes without saying that this is my personal point of view from what I've personally experienced so please do not feel offended if I rated someone higher than you or you did not make the list - perhaps said player performs better against me than you do and you may well be stronger than them overall. After all - styles make fights. Given it's over many years and my playing level has fluctuated significantly over the years (depending on how actively I was playing, how much I was drinking etc) it is also obviously impossible for me to give a completely accurate assessment. I will try my best.

I will first give some honourable mentions. My next post will feature rankings 25-21 (I need some more time to analyse and make the rankings as fair as possible). Then I will release these in batches of 5. To keep you all excited and give a fair game biography of each player who made the list!

On a side note, if you enjoy my journalism and want to support/motivate me then please consider donating via PayPal in the top right hand corner of blog. I have decided to disable ads on the blog to make it more user friendly at some personal cost (the ad revenue did bring some reasonable side income). I would appreciate any donations or suggestions - feel free to comment on email in the PayPal link if there's any topics you wish me to cover in future.

Naturally there have been 100s of players I've played with over the years so I think to make the list is an achievement regardless whether you are 2nd or 25th.

Before I complete the first batch of rankings I would like to give some honourable mentions to players I have excluded and the reasons why.

•  Kr0nic. Was obviously a phenomenal player and tanker especially, however he played during an era I was not very active. I only ever played a handful of games with him (less than 10) therefore i cannot include him based on the criteria. Impossible for me to rank him fairly. 
• Pinky323 and Yaunger and other Chinese superpros. Some of these players were very strong but unfortunately there was often bad lag in the games and I did not get to play with them as much as I'd want to.
• Katsh and Blank - both very strong 1v1 players. Have not played enough with them 2v2.

So I  hope you are all excited. I will release the list in batches of 5 and you can all speculate and predict who will make the official RA25. Given this blog now receives over 100,000 page views per month this can be considered the OFFICIAL list.

Thanks for reading. To be continued...

Oracle Crushy 

The return of Faust: The RA Pandemic Era Legend

 That little minx, Mr Anonymous, appeared in my Inbox yesterday evening linking me to YouTube footage of an eventful 2v2 match in the scene. Faust - the man who outperformed everyone during the pandemic era team tournaments - has returned. Mr Anonymous encouraged me to report this pro match to my audience and to offer my thoughts. It features Dynamic (BigD) and Beast (pizzaboy 🍕) Vs Faust (Fuhrer) and San (HappyPrideMonth 🌈) in a best of 11 series.

For those wishing to watch, the returning German bull, Faust, recorded the games and posted them here:

*thoughts and spoilers below*

The biggest takeaways from this series for me are as follows:

1) San is clearly now one of, if not the best 2v2 players in RA in 2025. He held or even outplayed beast in most games. A very impressive 6-4 win for Faust and San, well played all.

2) Faust was an excellent 2v2 and team player during the pandemic years of 2020-2021: his performance in tournaments in those years was the best of anyone and he had enormous success in team format.

3) 2v2 and 1v1 are clearly very different games. Dynamic is one of, if not the best active 1v1 players but this series showed him to probably be the weakest of the 4 players in the series in the 2v2 format. (no shame in that). They are 2 different games. Dynamic is pretty much just a better version of robskate  - good at low tank battle micro and Q but lacking in elite team play and game awareness. Faust completely outplayed Dynamic in most games and was the main reason his team won: Beast and San went 50-50, maybe 55-45 for San.

4) I would like to see Beast partner with a stronger 2v2 player and ask for a rematch with San and Faust. It would be interesting to see how Beast and H3zb or Beast and Rushy would fare against them: better team synergy I think they would have a chance to win. Get it set up !!!

5) Could Oldpro take Dynamic to one side and offer him some free 2v2 coaching and help him get to the same elite level that he is in 1v1? Maybe Lauta could help coach him in P4.

Thanks to Faust, hope to see some more videos on your channel in future. Give him a subscribe.

Crush Belichick.

RED ALERT NEWS 25TH MAY 2025

 Your favourite uncle crushy checking in here with some fresh content for you. It's been over a year since I've played Red Alert but Mr Anonymous continues to flood with my inbox with some messages 😂😂😂😂😂 so I'm here to feedback with some of the current affairs within the RA community.

1) Yuz is BACK! Rumour has it that some X-rated Lordy bathtub pics were what seduced the Turkish Rambo to come back from the abyss and get pumping oldpro on 2v2 BOs again.

2) Oldpro still getting pumped and Maud Dib everyone's favourite Romanian Chihuahua still barking in lobby after every loss. Somethings never change. "You can polish a turd but it will still smell"

3) Kickn still missing! Has not been seen since his previous ventures Yuzcoin and Ehycoin failed spectacularly. Rumour has it he was last seen in Thailand trying to pedal his new cryptocurrency "Ladyboycoin". What do I think has happened ? I reckon he's been thrown in a Thai jail and is now being passed around like a blunt! Any sign of our favourite big Aussie strip club bouncer ? We love you Kickn come back so Oldpro can get some wins again!

4) BigD still lurking putting on a brave face but we all know he's gagging for a bit of Gganbu. Unfortunately our favourite elusive autistic savant Mr gganbu is nowhere to be seen.

5) Kobra raising money for a lordy rehab session. Get in touch with him if you want to help a good cause

But overall scene still pretty boring since none of the absolute legends of the game like Crush, Ehy or Spockab have been online.

Take care

Am still am still crushy from the block!

Ooooo Yuzgen

 Blog update 12th March 2025

I've been asked why there's been no hardcore blog action for a few months. 

The reason my writing has been scarce is because there's simply nothing to report on.

Let me make it clear...

NO YUZGEN = NO RED ALERT

Yuz was the whole ecosystem for competition in the game. 17 hour streams, 1500 ladder games every month, 2v2s, pumping Lordy in best ofs etc. Without Yuz there is no RA. He is the most important player in the game by far - the communal spunk bucket if you will.

So, if you want more blog action and you want to save the game then you best get Yuz back addicted again. Get him proper hooked like a crackwhore relieving a sweaty tired trucker just for another hit. It's the only way. Do what you can to get Yuz back proper addicted.

Yuz: if you are reading this: OldPro says you are ez as fk and smashes you 10-0.

Thanks for reading.

Hollywood Hulk CrushyBoo.