Union Hispartana Top 8: Congratulations
***FYI, by the time that I wrote this, Nordmann has stolen the number 8 spot from Union, but they were still up there and still at 9th place, so worth mentioning. Probably too late to say anything, but still***
TL;DR: I congratulate Union Hispartana for being the first and only Spanish coalition to reach the top 8, let alone top 15. Yeah, I know, seems pointless writing this, but just wanted to say it
Many people here that have been playing as long as I have, with knowledge of coalitions and how rankings work, were obsessed with the dominant four coalitions - as well as some other coalitions - that seemed to always keep a monopoly and never allow any coalitions to get near the top 10 - at least, coalitions that weren't allies with them already. It was, at the time, Lost Souls, Death Inc, Kracken, Terminators, Rancho Relaxo (R.I.P), Equilibrium, Lost Souls 2, House of Batiatus, and other coalitions like that. and these coalitions were all mainly US or European based. At the time, it seemed impossible that any Latin American coalition, let alone Spanish coalition, would even be able to hold a pantheon. There just wasn't enough Spanish players that were big cash players to actually do real damage to the big coalitions.
At first, before I took a break, many coalitions tried to break the status quo, but it ended up being a failure anyways to hold a pantheon for so long. Other than the fact that the United Nations coal was technically multi-lingual, with Spanish integrated in its ranking, no Spanish coalition could hold a pantheon for longer than at least an hour or two. The only coalition I remember that could hold a pantheon was Enyalos, and that didn't really help their coalition much back then.
I guess when S.P.Q.R took down Rancho Relaxo, it showed coalitions that they could do anything if they put their mind and effort into it...
So when I come back from my break and truly payed attention to coalitions (by now, I have resumed form break in, like, June 2015, but was fully alert on Sparta by January of this year), I was shocked to see some Spanish coalitions have broken the status quo and have been not only to successfully attack and hold onto pantheons, but also move up the rankings to sizable positions. With the introduction of coalition capitals, however, this proved to be a breakthrough for all kinds of coalitions to prove themselves.
With that, having been a powerful coalition finally coming out of the shadows, for the firs time, a non-English based, non European power coalition reached the top 8, having forever spread their influence across Sparta. To them, I say good job!