Counter

Counter is the April Event of 2024. Although made by reddit developer Rgood, it was not an official reddit event. It focused on a number that could be increased by pressing a button. Originally, the number could only move upward. Later a button appeared to move the number down. Eventually a second number was added, that could be moved left and right.

Mechanics

The interface started with a single number, and a blue button that said "count". When a user pressed the button, the number went up by one, and the user was given a flair with the current number. The color of the flair was determined by the last digit of the number. Each account could only press count once.

Shortly after reaching 10,000 the button changed to "Uncount". After this pressing the button made the number go down. At this point, users could press the button multiple times. Users maintained their original flair.

After the count reached 0, the button disappeared, and the message "Thank you for counting" was shown.

A few minutes later, both the Count and the Uncount buttons reappeared. Both buttons maintained their respective functions, and could be pressed multiple times by users.

About an hour after this, a second number was added, along with a leftcount and a rightcount button. Pressing leftcount moved the second number down, while rightcount moved it up. The count and uncount buttons were also renamed upcount and downcount, respectively.

History

Note that this history is told with a focus on the April Knights.

Early hours and the Count

The early hours of April First had no signs of an April Fools event. Although it is uncertain what time counter was first launched and found, an announcement in the April Knights discord was made around 1:40 PM EST. By then, the mechanics of the flairs had been discovered. Grandmaster LadyVulcan declared the April Knights goal to be pushing the count as high as possible. Knights were instructed to aim for whatever number appeals to them. Some battalions coordinated to attempt to have members have matching flairs.

10k was reached around 11pm EST. The counter continued as normal until around 12:00pm EST on the 2nd. At this point the counter was around 14k.

The Uncount

At 12:00 pm EST, the count button became the uncount button. Everyone could press this button as many times as they wished. Within 20 minutes, the counter reached 0. At this point, many assumed the event had concluded.

Battle of the Upcount and Downcount

Within a few minutes, the Upcount and Downcount appeared. The April Knights continued to count up, attempting to reach 100k, while The Swarm fought to bring the counter to the unholy negatives.

The April Knights reached their goal of 100k at 1:12pm

2 dimensional counting

At 1:20 the event updated to have four buttons and two numbers. At this point, many groups aimed to bring the counter to (0, 0). The April Knights mantained their goal of counting up. When manpower could be spared, the Knights helped maintain the X balance, but they could not give ground on Y. The knights had information that the counter would ascend at 250k

Around 6:30 pm EST, as the counter approached 250k, it reversed direction and began falling. The knights put every resource they could into counting up, but by the morning of the 3rd, the counter had descended. The counter remained in this state for many hours. As such, the event was declared finished, and preparations for the 2024 election began.

The Counter's Return

On April 4th, around 3:40 pm EST, the counter returned. The Knights continued their relentless pursuit of ascension. The election was temporarily paused until the event could safely be declared finished.

Unfortunately, little progress was made, as a giant botnet trapped the counter in a box. The counter remained in this state for many days.

On April 15th, around 4:15pm EST, it was discovered that the botnet was down. The knights immediately roused their forces, turning everything they could to the Upcount. Swift progress was made, coming within 5k of the goal. However, the botnet returned quickly extinguishing all hope of success. Within 30 minutes, the botnet pulled the counter to the bottom, causing it to descend once again.

The counter reactivated by 12:00 pm EST on the 16th. Although it was slow, the knights began to make steady progress. On April 17th, at approximately 12:20 pm EST, the counter ascended, returning to the depths.

Factions

Factions based on flair number/color

• Scarlet Zeros
  

The Scarlet Zeros were made of those who had a scarlet flair, or a number ending in zero. They valued peace, and stayed out of conflicts. The exception to this was the non-counters, as zeros believed they must count to create more zeros. The zeros goal varied between counting up, and balancing the counter at 0, 0.

• One

• Two

• Three

• Four

• Five

• Six

• Seven

• Eight

• Nine

Trophies

Because counter was not an official event, no trophies were awarded.