Fortress Forever - View Single Post - Note to the pro's and old school clanners.

o_darthgreg · 02-27-2005, 03:10 AM

Here's my story, mostly for the "newbies" and those unfamiliar with the community.

Well-a-well, my name's Greg and I'm in my 3rd year at Erskine College in Due West, SC, despite having started playing TFC in the middle of my high school years. I picked it up for the first time in the summer of 2000 and never played a day pre-TF 1.5. I loaded it up out of curiousity after seeing it in my Half-Life mods list one day after getting bored of playing UT and Q3 offline, typed in my baddass-sounding name (DarthGreg, lol), and was instantly hooked.

Unlike many others, I had no online history, TF or otherwise, before TFC - it was my first multiplayer game. At the time I was still on the family PC on AOL 56k dialup, and TFC was the first game that was playable, thanks to the TF 1.5 netcode. That whole summer I played as much as I possibly could, which wasn't much due to having to share the PC with my brother, 2 sisters, and each of my parents. In September I started looking into the clanning community, and eventually found Clan =1='s website. I told the recruiter that I was interested in joining as a HW, and when he asked for a secondary class I told him I could play a good scout, but I couldn't conc jump. When the time had come for my tryout I had started another class, and so I made it into my first TFC clan as a high-ping offensive soldier.

All of the people in that clan helped me form my idea of what a clan ought to be, and when things in [=1=] started going south in February of 2001, myself and 3 friends founded a new clan, mH (Misdirected Hostility). Aided by a recent family upgrade to DSL, I set about building that clan from scratch, with no contacts. 3 months later, we entered a then-new 5v5 league as a way to market ourselves to potential recruits, and at the end of 6 months we entered our first 9v9 league.

5 months ago, in September of 2004 - 3.5 years, 62 players, 1 disbandment/reform, 13 titles, and over 250 matches later - I finally closed the doors on mH permanently. During our time we competed with the best, and players from mH have gone on to play with the best clans in the game, past and present. We, and I personally, have forged friendships that will last well beyond the life of this game and the next. We made our mark on the community, with an initial core of nothing but the hopes and dreams of 4 newbies. I made it into a soldier guild that distinguished the best in the game from the rest, and almost exactly a year ago played with team USA in an international tournament between countries in Europe and North America. Right now I'm playing more casually with friends in [TDA] and waiting on FF.

It sounds crazy, and even fanatical, but not until the past few years, when I got my own computer, was I even able to play more than an hour or two per day. Anyone can do what I've done, and this great community makes it possible. I've lived in 5 different places in the last 5 years, and throughout that time this community has been like a home away from home for me. I can't say enough good things about TFC, and I have full confidence in the FF team to not only faithfully translate what makes TF and TFC awesome into the new game, but also to fix all the imbalances and bugs that have gone overlooked by Valve for so many years. If anyone can do it, they can.

02-27-2005, 03:10 AM	#96
o_darthgreg Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Due West, SC Posts Rated Helpful 0 Times	Here's my story, mostly for the "newbies" and those unfamiliar with the community. Well-a-well, my name's Greg and I'm in my 3rd year at Erskine College in Due West, SC, despite having started playing TFC in the middle of my high school years. I picked it up for the first time in the summer of 2000 and never played a day pre-TF 1.5. I loaded it up out of curiousity after seeing it in my Half-Life mods list one day after getting bored of playing UT and Q3 offline, typed in my baddass-sounding name (DarthGreg, lol), and was instantly hooked. Unlike many others, I had no online history, TF or otherwise, before TFC - it was my first multiplayer game. At the time I was still on the family PC on AOL 56k dialup, and TFC was the first game that was playable, thanks to the TF 1.5 netcode. That whole summer I played as much as I possibly could, which wasn't much due to having to share the PC with my brother, 2 sisters, and each of my parents. In September I started looking into the clanning community, and eventually found Clan =1='s website. I told the recruiter that I was interested in joining as a HW, and when he asked for a secondary class I told him I could play a good scout, but I couldn't conc jump. When the time had come for my tryout I had started another class, and so I made it into my first TFC clan as a high-ping offensive soldier. All of the people in that clan helped me form my idea of what a clan ought to be, and when things in [=1=] started going south in February of 2001, myself and 3 friends founded a new clan, mH (Misdirected Hostility). Aided by a recent family upgrade to DSL, I set about building that clan from scratch, with no contacts. 3 months later, we entered a then-new 5v5 league as a way to market ourselves to potential recruits, and at the end of 6 months we entered our first 9v9 league. 5 months ago, in September of 2004 - 3.5 years, 62 players, 1 disbandment/reform, 13 titles, and over 250 matches later - I finally closed the doors on mH permanently. During our time we competed with the best, and players from mH have gone on to play with the best clans in the game, past and present. We, and I personally, have forged friendships that will last well beyond the life of this game and the next. We made our mark on the community, with an initial core of nothing but the hopes and dreams of 4 newbies. I made it into a soldier guild that distinguished the best in the game from the rest, and almost exactly a year ago played with team USA in an international tournament between countries in Europe and North America. Right now I'm playing more casually with friends in [TDA] and waiting on FF. It sounds crazy, and even fanatical, but not until the past few years, when I got my own computer, was I even able to play more than an hour or two per day. Anyone can do what I've done, and this great community makes it possible. I've lived in 5 different places in the last 5 years, and throughout that time this community has been like a home away from home for me. I can't say enough good things about TFC, and I have full confidence in the FF team to not only faithfully translate what makes TF and TFC awesome into the new game, but also to fix all the imbalances and bugs that have gone overlooked by Valve for so many years. If anyone can do it, they can.