N.C. State students are mounting a comeback against UNC, Duke, and the nine other ACC schools in one of the fastest growing online collegiate games.  Gocrosscampus.com currently hosts an online rendition of risk that pits students from NCAA schools against one another in an effort to prove which college is truly dominant. Through well-timed tactics, cunning leadership, and alliances with other universities, a college can hope to gain total supremacy as ruler of the world, or in this case, the ACC.”It’s of the utmost importance that we defend our honor in the ACC Championships,” Thomas Mason, a 2007 graduate in engineering, said.Mason is the commander of the N.C. State team.The game, which was developed by four Yale University students and one Columbia University student, premiered in 2007 and has since grown to include more than 100 universities.  ”It’s growing very rapidly because it is such a fun game,” Brian Parris, a freshman in paper science and engineering, said. “My roommate and I even spray painted the free expression tunnel to get more people involved.”After a very slow start, N.C. State has mounted a surprising comeback, being dubbed as “ridiculously impossible” by Parris. State players attribute the rapid growth of the team to concerted recruitment efforts via flyers, Facebook and The Wolf Web.”Recruitment is huge. It was a really big deal early on, because I’m an alumnus and it was hard to get the word out,” Mason said. “We barely survived the first few turns, but since we had such large numbers of recruits we’re doing much better as you can see by the map.” As part of the team’s strategy, State is involved in alliances with geographically local teams – teams that would typically be deemed as rivals. Currently the Wolfpack are in an alliance with Duke and are in non-aggression pacts with UNC and Virginia Tech.”At the moment it continues to be to our advantage to work with Duke as they expand more so that we can claim the south,” Mason said. “Being in such close proximity to Duke and UNC, fighting at first would’ve ruined all of us early on.”Initially, N.C. State looked like it wasn’t going to be a major player in the game, controlling only seven territories by the end of turn 11. The red and white (or gray in this situation), now have offensive campaigns stretching from Florida to Boston while controlling 16 territories. “We’re doing pretty well right now,” Chris Mills, a sophomore in environmental technology, said. “Before, we were on the ropes and we were about to get conquered, but because of the recent surge in N.C. State participants, we’re now one of the major power players.”N.C. State currently has the most number of participants of all ACC schools with 80 percent of the 319 players participating on Monday. “I like the idea that we have the most participants, but at the same time, the University of Maryland is catching up to us,” Mills said. “We still have the potential to get a lot more people and wipe out the competition.”According to Mason, one of the integral parts of any successful team is effective leadership. By having a set list of orders for each day of action, students are able to act in unison – a necessity for a victorious team.”The number one component of the game is activity and the number two component is diplomacy and strategy,” Mason said. “Obviously to help with diplomacy you need leaders, but they also need to be able to help organize, coordinate and mobilize the team.”Through e-mail, Mason is able to keep State students well-informed of each day’s orders. Mason also encourages students that aren’t already involved to join in the ongoing conquest. The most updated orders don’t involve attacks on either of the remaining N.C. schools, but Mason admits that in the long run, State will confront its rivals.”We’ll have to turn on Duke eventually,” he said. “You have to have allies that can help you hold fronts that you can’t hold fronts on your own.”N.C. State currently sits in third place, just behind Duke and the University of Miami.