Clan Leader's Perspectives on the 2006-10 Clan World

I thought it might be a nostalgic and unique idea to bring together clan leaders from the 2006 through 2010 time period to answer the same set of questions, getting perspectives into how clans operated, perceptions of rivalries, and the state of the pre-OSRS clan world.  I chose the 2006 through 2010 time period to examine for a few reasons:

1.) DS disbanded in 2006 (or possibly early 2007), whereas DF, EH, and VR were all created into 2006.
2.) Though DS and DI had some quite long pk run-ins, almost no other clans were having very long pk run-ins prior to 2006, therefore, there was a transition during this period to a different style of clan fight.
3.) DI, EH, and SE all died in 2009 (possibly 2010 for SE), with a deterioration in the number of active clanners post-2010.
4.) 2007 to 2010 was a period of great competition, with clans rarely retaining a rank 1 position for more than a few weeks (in 2006, DI was quite dominant for a prolonged period following DS’s closure).  A case could be made for every clan on this list that they were dominant at one point during 2006 to 2010.
 

Note that the survey is largely focused on F2P multi.
 

The participating 2006-2010 clan leaders in this survey were:
 

3lite (Eternal Honour)

Bishinmo (The Titans)

Bountyhuntur (Divine Forces)

Cera S6 (Violent Resolution)

Ghjjf (Damage Inc)

Icedrop (Runescape Dinasty)

Mr Nickos Jr (Echo of Silence)

Robtokill (Corruption)
 

I’d like to say thanks to those that participated - I really appreciate the time spent on this project and the thoughtful answers provided.
 

Questions:
 

1.) Could you provide a short introduction to who you are and when you were involved in the leadership of your clan? 
 

Robtokill: My name is Rob, My in-game name was Robtokill in Runescape. I led Corruption in some capacity from 2004 until 2008.
 

Mr Nickos Jr: I’m Nicholas, Mr Nickos Jr from EoS circa 2004 onwards. Was in leadership capacity of some sort (council, leader, webmaster) since 2005.

Ghjjf: RSN Ghjjf but equally well known by my real name Brian. Leader of Damage Inc from mid 2004-2009 and again from 2013-2017. 

Bishinmo: Most of you know me by my RSN Bishinmo. I was a high ranking official in The Titans for a long time. I joined TT in late 2005 (if my memory serves me right). I first became a PK leader, than co-leader and eventually El Commandante. Led the clan to #1 during this time period.
 

Bountyhuntur: I'm Bountyhuntur (Bunty). Joined Divine Forces in 2005 and became leader towards the end of 2006 after Death240 called it quits. I led until the end of August in 2007, retired, then had a short stint at leader again in early 2008.
 

Cera S6: Cera S6 - Violent Resolution Leader. Was Officer/Head Warlord rank from 2006-2010
 

3lite: I am 3lite and I joined Eternal Honour as a Pk Leader in 2006 as it was forming, and was a leader of EH from approximately 2007 through 2009 when it closed.

Icedrop: I'm Icedrop.  I joined RSD in 2003 and was a member of the RSD leadership team from 2005 onwards.

2.) What do you think made your clan unique in the clan world, what was it that drew members to your clan?
 

Robtokill: When I took over as leader I remember it was a numbers game at first. That slowly evolved into stricter and stricter requirements over the years. We existed to be powerful in the game but constantly looked at ourselves as underdogs.

Some unique things that brought in members would be recruitment drives with real life rewards. We managed to run a very minor profit off the clans website / forums. Those funds in turn were put into a pool to pay for prizes such as Xbox's that would be given out as prizes. 1 Recruit = 1 entry into the draw.
 

This definately wasn't the only way we gained members, a large amount joined for the power, many joined for the friendships and some joined for the content we provided.
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Early on in our growth to prominence we were smaller, but made our mark with PKing frequently and short prep/mini warring. We were known for challenging clans who were supposed to be better than us, and not being afraid of losing when a lot of the clan world liked to play it safe. As time went on and our pulls were stronger, we started making bigger splashes showcasing our organization. We’d frequently beat clans that vastly outnumbered us, and that reputation drew people to us.

Also, the “don’t give a shit what you think” attitude we had pretty early on helped. Honestly, I think most clans that were successful and survived long-term had this mentality going forward.
 

Dropping all our alliances and becoming our own clan brought a lot of pride and draw to us. If you are winning but have someone holding your hand, no one cares. We were ruthlessly independent.
 

For much of EoS history we didn’t pull the numbers you saw from other clans. We didn’t have the levels that other clans had. And yet, we would make our presence known and had a number of highly successful wars, mini-wars and highly active/successful PK presence. We weren’t turning down a challenge and did not fear failure. It became amusing to us how often we’d ask “top clans” to fight us and they’d rather sit on their hands, being afraid of the optics of losing to EoS. Short preps were what we were about. We were always about spontaneity.
 

Ghjjf: In the beginning what made DI unique was we had all the high levels and most well known pkers. What made DI unique throughout it's tenure in the pre-OSRS run was we were the only clan to complete and were successful in all fronts in the game (F2P, P2P, Single) when other clans generally only attempted to compete in one of those.
 

Bishinmo: We were obviously #1 P2P clan. Jokes aside. Somehow we became an elite squad in the 2006-2007 period. Good tanks, good organization, high levels, high requirements. We had the highest agility average which carried over to F2P. In the later years we also had incredible callers. People also knew I kept things clean and didn't allow clanmembers to take things out of the game. So definitely organization and an honorable clan reputation. Our name was also kinda cool and we wore yellow. We also had Kate Beckinsale in our forum banner. 🙂
 

Bountyhuntur: I think we had a highly competitive group of people who also were not very well known. There was always a drive to prove ourselves as underdogs, because most of the time we were outnumbered and/or outleveled in our fights. I also think we were a pretty innovative group of people who figured out new ways to beat our opponents. I think a combo of those things primarily drew new faces to DF.
 

Cera S6: Fun environment. Laid back rules. Willing to PK all day, any timezone for the most part.
 

3lite: I felt that EH offered a few things that were different to other clans.  We were focused not only on PKing, but we also had a strong following of members that regularly attended in-game skilling, fun, or PVM events.  Another thing that set us apart was that we appealed to a slightly different crowd.  EH had some pretty strict guidelines about flaming on RSC, with it often leading to us kicking members from the clan or suspending members from events. This style appealed to some, but definitely wasn’t for everyone.  While I wouldn’t say that we were as successful in recruitment as clans such as VR, DF, or DI, I felt we maintained a really consistent core of folks that remained with us from the inception of EH until closing.

Icedrop: RSD was traditionally one of the oldest and most prestigious clans, having been around in one form or another since 2001.

Particularly during the peak of the clan world, we always made sure that our focus was on quality over quantity.  As time went by, that was evidenced by the fact that we would almost always win unless we were outnumbered.

We always strived to maintain the highest standards and aimed to be the best at what we did.  We maintained strict entry requirements throughout our existence and required strong commitment from all RSD members.

We were also a relatively mature clan and we didn't tolerate personalities that detracted from that.  We prided ourselves on having a close-knit community and on having clan mates that would strive to be their best and support each other.  Many close friendships were made over a number of years and we maintained a very solid core of members over the course of many years.   We attracted like-minded members that wanted to be part of that.

3.) As a leader, you were responsible for reprimanding or kicking members, as well as making tough strategic calls for the good of the clan.  Describe a particularly memorable decision you had to make in the 2006-10 period.
 

Robtokill: Honeslty, the dramas of managing a large clan were endless. A large clan requires a large leadership base and the fact that most people in the guild were either young adults or teenagers led to alot of in-fighting and immaturity over the years. I remember us having to make alot of tough decisions over kicking people from the guild due to disagreements with the direction we were heading. I cannot remember how many falling outs we had or with who but there were alot.
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Strategic call, I think one of the most important decisions I made early on was declaring war on WG. They were known for huge numbers compared to us and we were still small. That got us on center-stage like “shit, they are organized.”
 

I also  think dropping all our alliances was one important decision I made for EoS. It became an untenable position to have to argue the worth of alliances. Why were they necessary? They just made you look weak.
 

I can’t recall many specific kicks honestly. Part of my return to leader in 2006 after stepping away from the game was due to a split in EoS due to some of our members being “dishonorable” in their p2p PK’ing and other members who cared deeply about that. Huge names left our clan, including Prannoy (who would later return and become leader). I did end up kicking some involved in the p2p PK’ing that people had issues with. A large portion of our p2p members left to create another clan, but a big portion of the core members that had left during that strife returned. We were down to 55 members at this point (latter 2006 I think), but they were highly active and dedicated, and this was the beginning of our biggest growth to prominence. A lot of those that returned helped to drive EoS to what it later became, the PK powerhouse it was known for.
 

Ghjjf: An early one was having to kicked our head warlord (MTA) for logging from a rival in single. Not following through on this would of undermined everything about DI's reputation for being an “honor” clan. 

Later on difficult decisions had to be made around balancing out recruitment around F2P and P2P. As previously mentioned we were competing on all fronts and we had different groups who were only interested in one area of the game. This led to a lot of older members who only had a fleeting interest in the game and might only show up for very important fights having to be removed. Probably led to a lot of them quitting the game forever.
 

Bishinmo:  I kicked a lot of people and probably demoted each member like 5 times. So nothing memorable there :). Biggest decision was probably the revamped application process. I put a cap on the number of members that could join per month and the total cap of FAs which we could have at a particular time. This saved the clan because we were growing too fast and it was destroying the community. At one point I had no idea who was in the clan so I had to make changes. The system stayed in place until the end.
 

Bountyhuntur: When DS closed in 2007 we had an influx of people introing intending to join. I had kept up good relations with DS once Death240 retired, so we were on good terms with them. DS and DI also had a really intense rivalry back then, so a lot of those members just didn't want DI to take the #1 spot once DS closed. In working with our FA manager we decided to let about 20 people intro then close our intro section. We felt we had grown so quickly primarily because of the specific culture we had in DF, and thought letting anyone intro and try out for the clan would dilute what we thought brought us success.
 

Our clan had never seen that level of people interested in joining. Members were pushing to leave intros open because it was an easy way to complete domination. And we definitely took in our share of people to take that #1 spot, but long-term stability for DF was my primary goal, so finding the right personalities to keep that competitive nature was the most important thing.
 

Cera S6: Decision to merge Awaken and Hostile to make Violent Resolution in the first place is for sure the most memorable. To this day VR is going strong with 70+ members and having some great fights in the current wilderness.
 

3lite: As with many clans, we had a rank for new members called “Future Knights” which had a limited capacity to see forums, but could attend all events.  One day I logged into the forums and noticed that one of our members had posted a picture of his bare ass with the words “Hello Future Knights” written in sharpie to the Future Knight forums.  I think it was one of the only times I heard Islamia curse, and I vividly remember me telling him about it and him saying “3lite...what the fuck.”  Islamia and I had a hard time trying to figure out what to do about the situation because we hadn’t encountered anything like it before and we were concerned about violating the forum’s terms of service.  We hid the post, told the guy not to do it again, gave him a short suspension, and all was fine.  The member remained a good member until EH closed.

Icedrop: Week in, week out, a lot of difficult decisions had to be made.  In order to maintain quality, we had to uphold our strict requirements and rules.  That often meant turning down a lot of good applicants (despite the benefits that having those extra numbers would have brought us), and it also meant punishing or kicking members that were good on the battlefield and/or well liked within the clan.

In terms of specifics, it might be surprising looking back, but as late of 2006 RSD was still a dual skilling/PK clan where PK trips were not strictly mandatory.  Despite that, we had still pulled 399 options and won some multi-hour PK run-ins during the first half of 2006.  However, as the likes of DI and DS grew stronger it soon became apparent that to properly compete in the new and evolving clan world we would need to completely drop the skilling side of the clan.

We decided to take the drastic move of making everybody in the clan re-apply.  Those re-joining would be doing so knowing that they would be expected to PK with the clan regularly and attend fights/wars as frequently as possible.  That decision created significant division in the clan and resulted in a huge hit on our numbers - to the point we were down to around 50 members during early 2017.  However, those 50 members formed a diamond core of the clan and we built from there throughout the year to re-emerge as a very strong force in the clan world - competing for the top spot in late 2017 around the time of the removal of the wilderness

4.) During the 2006-2010 period, what victory was most memorable to you personally?
 

Robtokill: To name just one? Beating Divine Forces after 14 hours of fighting. 14 Hours guys! How insane is that?!?!
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Our war with WG in 2005 was pretty memorable. Their prior war they had pulled 140 and our best pull at that point was 75 I believe. Winning that handily was quite fun and really put us on the map.

Also not a single ‘victory’ but crushing Exercitum’s every PK, after they hacked our forums, to the point of them closing to fix their “outmasphere” was more than satisfying to everyone in EoS.

Our 10+ hour run-in with RR (former ally). I think at the time it was the longest run-in by a bit, and a bit absurd looking back. But given our former ally (RR) had gotten close with Corr, this beef was inevitable and we were dead-set on not letting up.

Ghjjf: Probably the most memorable was the 13 hour fight against EH sometime in mid 2007. I wouldn't say there was any real malice in the rival but it was our first serious challenge since DS closed.

Bishinmo: Probably the first Jagex Cup. I had a huge mutiny in the clan right before that tournament. Lost more than half the officials. Regular members stepped up to organize and call during the fights. We smoked everyone. 62vs88 against DF in clan wars run-in was also a great memory. Defeating DF and VR in the same night. We lost to some RSB clan later that night/morning because people refused to mass up for a 3rd time.
 

Bountyhuntur: My favorite victory was in 2006 when we beat DI in a miniwar on even numbers, even though they have a 10 combat level advantage on us. But I was council at that time.
 

My favorite fight as a leader was when we beat TRWF in February of 2007. When Death retired a lot of people in DF didn't think we were going to make it, so that win was our springboard back into our winning ways.
 

Cera S6: Violent Resolution vs Runescape Dynasty fight that lasted something like 32 hours.

Violent Resolution vs The Titans for the unofficial number 1 spot.
 

3lite: The one that stuck out to me personally was EH versus Corr in 2009.  Corr seemed to perform particularly well against EH and we had been on a losing streak against them.  There was a lot of build up for us because we were considered pretty even in power with Corr and saw them as one of our main rivals. 

Icedrop: Following on from the previous question, I really enjoyed it in late 2017 when we pulled 270 options in a fight vs DF's 330 options.  I think the fight lasted around 14 hours and during that time we gradually managed to grind DF down to the point of no return.  The fight was perhaps not the most memorable in of itself, but at the time it was considered to be the battle between the top two clans and to finish it as the winners after a year of rebuilding and regrowth was a big reward reflecting all the hard work that everybody had put in.

5.) During the 2006-2010 period, was there any defeat that hit you particularly hard?

Robtokill: I believe we lost to Divine Forces in a different 12 hour fight. To devote that long to one fight and come out empty handed.. It was truly gut wrenching. I think some of these fights triggered alot of members on both sides to re-evaluate their life choices in regards to Runescape.
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Honestly my memory fails me. EoS was a clan that often had runs of crushing it then runs of not pulling as much. We were often known as doing better in the summer with our more consistent pulls for PKing. There were a few times where we beefed with a clan that just took off and started pulling way more than us, I’m sure some of those losses were disappointing. Corruption was one of those clans that rose up and started pulling a lot more than us for a while. But we had our moments later on.

Ghjjf: Losing the first Jcup final to TT. We should of won it. At the time I was already considering closing DI and that would have been the perfect time to end it.

Bishinmo: Second Jagex Cup to RSD. They changed their names because VR changed theirs in the previous fight. We practiced for about 2 weeks every single day. Our callers had to make calls based on location and gear... Basically pile to the north, 5 steps, pink boots. We barely lost. I felt bad because we put in so much effort and took our organization to levels we never had before... Was still very proud of everyone.
 

Bountyhuntur: There was a fight with DS back in August of 2006 that sticks to me. It was a pk run-in, which we would do with them every once in awhile for fun since we knew we weren't on their level but always liked taking our swings at the top dogs. We felt pretty strongly like we controlled that fight for a few hours until they reached a timezone advantage due to their much larger member base, and our members weren't able to stick around to fight anymore. It was frustrating to lose that fight, but also a good learning lesson that we needed to broaden our horizon as far as recruiting people from all timezones.
 

Cera S6: Not really. Every fight was for fun and every member enjoyed themselves.
 

3lite: We once had a Pk Run-In with DI that started off rocky, with us on the back foot for the first few hours.  In my opinion, things started to shift mid-fight, with us taking an advantage and holding it for several hours.  Approximately 10 to 12 hours into the fight, we had a strong pile and were hitting small DI regroups - it looked like we were close to winning.  We got rushed by 180 options of RoT, who only targeted EH and allowed DI time to regroup.  We ended up losing that fight and it always stuck as particularly disheartening because I felt like that was a win for EH that was stolen from us.

Icedrop: The 24-hour VR fight was fairly difficult to swallow.  We ended up losing, but in retrospect we should have declared victory earlier on. For a significant period, around the 16 to 20-hour mark, we had reduced VR to barely having a pile and were just constantly chasing them back and forth.  We were determined to finish them off, so continued this for longer than we should have.

Eventually VR's numbers went back up and they got back in to the fight, eventually leading to them winning. After this fight, other clans would face this sort of "tactic" and simply declare victory. It became reasonably established that you needed a bit more than simply having somebody somewhere on the battlefield to still be deemed to be "in" the fight.  We kept trying to stick it out and force VR into submission, but all they had to do was keep a small number of people returning scattered across the battlefield, even if they were not really causing any harm.  Ultimately, I feel like this was a loss that rested solely on us as leaders for failing to declare victory when we should have.

6.) Between 2004 and 2006, the clan world saw a transition from clan strength being determined by wars, then to short pk run-ins that lasted for a few hours, then to progressively longer pk run-ins.  Do you think the increasing length of fights was a good or bad thing for the clan world?
 

Robtokill: The ability for clans to drag out fights for such a pro-longed period was certainly not healthy. You could have a clan that was absolutely dominating 10 hours of a fight but then at the end of the day as long as the other clan could somehow keep in it for longer. They would come out the victors. I think overall it was a bad thing for the clan world. That said it was certainly an experience!
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Honestly probably didn’t help, but also inevitable. Early on in clanning for EoS, say 2004-2005-2006 even, there were so many smaller clans out there (including EoS at the time). A lot of them were not very well organized, easy to hunt and lots of fun to crush. I think as time went on, smaller clans disappeared. We ended up with larger, more organized, more dedicated clans. Part of the fun of clanning, at least for EoS, was having intense beefs with a clan that lasted months if not years and making it a goal to crush them. There were so many clans we took out on our journey to the top. But what ends up happening is you have a smaller number of clans, with highly dedicated members, that thirst for getting 1 over their rivals. We were at a point in the clan world where you had to beef with other highly successful clans with a lot of pride. People were not going to let up, and the rush of beating your opponent drove us to longer run-ins.

On top of that, everyone recognized there wasn’t new blood in the clan world. We were just cannibalizing each other. Also we were all getting older and more mature, losing wasn’t about to destroy our clans like it did some of these smaller clans in the past. That plus more publicized beef, and people generally just having the funds to keep returning just led to the inevitable long PK run ins. I think few liked the journey (hours of fighting) when it got out of hand but all were addicted to the rush of winning especially given the intense beefing these clans had. I think it was maybe bad for a number of clans that just wanted to exist, and didn’t want to beef. It was maybe a doomed dynamic, but a lot of people in it were addicted to it.

There were a number of things that occurred outside the game that definitely made things a little nastier. As our webmaster, dealing with DDOSing and getting dropped by hosting, members getting doxed, etc. Things got a little crazy there.

Ghjjf: Longer fights started the decline of the clan world and the end of the “golden era”. This killed off the casual players interest. It became way too “niche” after that and made clans a lot smaller. The removal of wilderness and EoC finished off the clan world but it might have been a lot more active and competitive up until the end. It did feel great winning an extremely long fight, but it came at a cost.

Bishinmo: It happened because players got richer in game. In 2005 you could only afford a few rune sets. In 2010 everyone had 100+. So if you died, that was it for the night more or less. It had it positives and negatives. It brought in more variaty to the clan world but at the same time it opened things up to endless fights which were simply not healthy. Eventually it just became too "elite" and it was impossible to recruit new players. Most clans had very high requirements to join. How would a new player who is lvl 80 join the clan world? It just didn't work anymore.
 

Bountyhuntur: Bad, it was also one of the many reasons I initially retired. It eventually led to clans not being able to determine winners/admit defeat, and I always thought it was important to have a structure to determine winners/losers for the people involved in clanning. You can't learn from losses or truly celebrate victories if you don't have that foundation. I've heard others claim the opposite, but to each their own.
 

Cera S6: I think out-returning was a terrible way of showing the strength of a clan but, it seems to be what most of the clan world wanted. I always preferred no return wars but it was too easy for people to cheat or others to affect the outcome so I understand why things changed to returning.
 

3lite: I feel like a lot of really good clans ended up getting left behind with the transition from warring to pk Run-ins.  BK (please have mercy on me Vanzant), Gladz, TRWF, LF, THE, and RDC were all clans that I had a great respect for and that EH fought frequently in capped pk run-ins or wars.
 

I think the transition to long pk run-ins was both a good and bad thing for the clan world.  I think many that have left the community would attribute the fights being too long as a primary reason for leaving.  Additionally, long fights were not equally fair for all clan members, with European members often getting the shaft and Australian members having an inherent advantage.  However, I think that the long fights helped to harbor a sense of accomplishment, clan pride, and foster dedication.  I think the long fights helped to create innovation in the clan world (do folks remember when “dragging” away from the members gate was considered “dishonorable”)? And caused the development of new tactics (use the GDs for tanking but keep the pile around members' gate if possible; snipers).

Icedrop: My recollection is that in 2004 and 2005 the era of substantial/lengthy PKRIs had not properly got going.  It was really in 2006 and 2007 where you saw the length of fights going to 5-12+ hours.

I think it was both good and bad.

It was good because the substantial PKRI era represents the most fun and enjoyable era that the clan world saw.  I am sure a lot of the people reading this will agree with that.  A 1-hour skirmish here and there simply would not have been as enjoyable.  The emergence of PKRIs also led to the need for clans to develop tactics such as sniping, which added an extra layer of complexity to fights that you hadn't previously seen.

Of course, there is nothing healthy about staying on your computer and playing a game for 12+ hours straight.  Where do you draw the line – 6 hours?  12 hours?  24?  36?  At the peak of the clan world you would have 100+ people for multiple clans willing to go for hours and hours on end.  Those involved would be willing to do so because they had grown with their clan and were dedicated to them.  It was always going to be hard for the clan world to replace those people when they moved on and long PKRIs were never likely to be sustainable for more than a few years.

7.) Describe something that members of your own clan would be surprised to learn about their clan if they had access to the leadership forums/chats.
 

Robtokill: The lengths all clans went to in order to spy on each other was pretty extreme.

The lengths one particular clan (RoT) would go to in order to dismantle people they don't like (DDoS attacks on forums / websites using botnets) and the efforts we had to make to keep things running when we at times would experience these attacks for days.
 

The tracking of how active members were was very interesting in the background.

Mr Nickos Jr: Honestly specifics here, my memory fails me. But basically, EoS had two “levels” of leadership discussion forums. Members voted on Council positions, and Council voted on High Council positions. There were a number of people that cycled into Council positions over the years. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if spies made it into our regular council forums occasionally too. Maybe members would be surprised to know the extent to our efforts of spying on rival clans, granted we never discussed specifics on forums. Also given the nature of our leadership, anyone really could end up in Council at some point if they became prominent in the clan and esteemed by members. Some people definitely had tiffs or arguments in there, but usually people could work it out. And at times we had some strong-headed people within leadership that had to work together with completely different ideas.

Ghjjf: There was a period where I'd say some officials were very “loose lipped” about current members. Openly flaming them in leadership forums/chat. I think if members saw this they'd be highly surprised at it and it would of led to a lot of trouble.

Perhaps also some of the “out of game” tactics we used against other clan forums to gain access. Though I think members wouldn't of had a problem with this.

We also worked together with the Plazahitman version of RoT, which a lot of members probably weren't aware of.

Bishinmo: 95% of what happened in leadership forums/chats was plain bureaucracy. Basically paperwork being filled out to keep the clan running. So nothing exciting really…
 

Bountyhuntur: I don't think there is anything that would have particularly shocked members, at least none that I could remember; we were actually fairly open with our members.
 

Cera S6: Not sure.
 

3lite: In 2009, Islamia, Broski, Grug, and I had been discussing and planning the closure of EH for several months.  I was moving onto my post-graduate studies, Islamia was going into med school, and Broski was already effectively retired.  However, at the time, EH was doing extremely well - with recent consecutive wins against RSD, VR, and CORR and pulls upwards of 120 members to planned fights.  At the time, DF was considered to be the #1 clan and our leaders felt that we could defeat DF in a prepped fight.  Our members really wanted to fight DF and DF really wanted to fight us.

EH members will recall that a few of our members out on a pking trip got into a fight with DF on a weekday.  It escalated into a large fight.  A lot of our members will remember that I was quite angry that that fight began.  On the surface, I told members I was angry because DF was an extremely active clan and that we stood a better chance at beating them in a prepped fight.  However, on a different level, I was angry because I felt that defeating DF in a weekday fight wouldn’t necessarily be considered a decisive victory to determine the stronger clan.  I wanted to get that decisive victory so that we could close EH afterwards, at a point where we felt like we were #1. 

We ended up winning that fight.  Afterwards, Islamia and Grug had second thoughts about closing and EH stayed open for a few more months.

Icedrop: I like to think that we always conducted ourselves in a fair and respectable manner, so clan members would be unlikely to find anything particularly "juicy" or controversial.

However, I think they would be surprised to see the level of detail in which everything was discussed by the leaders and other clan officials.  For starters, if you ever applied for RSD there would be a topic where leaders (and often former leaders) discussed you and your application between themselves.

We were quite meticulous as to the detail and always strived to do what we could to edge towards perfection – the question was always "how can we be better", even if just by a little bit.  I remember discussing trying to make it mandatory for members to wear things like boots that give +1 defence bonus, or ensure they wear the same cape so nobody stood out to the opponent.  As time went on we were able to implement things like that as we had a group of members who were on board with getting everything as best as we possibly could.

8.) Was there any clan that was a primary rival to your own clan that you had particular respect for?
 

Robtokill: Divine Forces. We flat out hated each other at the time but I can respect how they went about their business. They were committed to the bitter end but also were careful not to cross certain boundaries that clans like RoT and VR had no issue crossing.
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Probably Corruption. They were one of our first serious rivalries, and I don’t think we were ever on good terms with them. But at the same time, so much about each of our clans was similar. That rivalry, especially early on, was also a lot of fun.
 

Ghjjf: The rival we always had most respect for was RSD. Their members were fairly “like minded” to DI members and didn't resort to childish flaming etc.
 

Bishinmo: I would say RSD and Corr. However, most of our large fights with RSD came at a later stage when RS and clanning was dying out. They kept fights clean and had good gear. Corr was another clan which we could collaborate with easily. Neither of these 2 clans were really our top rivals, but they were usually around our strength and we tried to keep it clean between each other.
 

Bountyhuntur: Honestly the only serious rival we had during my time in DF was Corruption, and I was not a huge fan of them. I always enjoyed our fights with Sacred Templars, Eternal Honour, and The Titans though.
 

Cera S6: All of them. Every clan gave us awesome fights over the years with us having rivalries with pretty much everyone at different points.
 

3lite: Even though they were our primary rival and very different to EH in many ways, I always held a great respect for VR.  VR played by their own rules, not the clan world’s, and they didn’t pretend otherwise.

Icedrop: As time went on, my respect for DI grew.  We had some significant differences and disputes in the past, particularly around 2004-5, but as more disrespectful clans came about over the years I learned to appreciate that DI generally overall conducted themselves in a reasonable manner.  They were also one of the few other clans that would compete in both F2P and P2P.

I also never had any material issues with EH or TT and they tended to give us clean and fair fights.

9.) Was there a clan that was considered to be on good terms with your own clan that you disliked?
 

Robtokill: This is something we did not do. We did not maintain alliances that wern't respectful or harbored ill will. So I can't say I disliked any clans that we were on good terms with.
 

Mr Nickos Jr: We went in and out of being on good terms with a lot of different clans. I think for a short while we were on good terms with VR, and I never really liked them. I think especially as time went on, most top clans didn’t really like each other very much. Or maybe that was just EoS and us not liking everyone. I think we often had times of temporary reprieve, especially as crash wars started happening involving multiple clans. But that was more of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” than anything else.
 

Ghjjf: Again probably the Plazahitman era RoT. Me and him had a good understanding, when our members didn't really like each other.

Bishinmo: DI. We had ok relations with them. However I never trusted them. Always thought they were sneaky bastards. Plotting in the darkness.
 

Bountyhuntur: We went through ups and downs with so many clans, but generally if we had clans that we were close with (Valor and DS are a couple of examples) we enjoyed their spirit of a good fight regardless of the outcome.
 

Cera S6: VR + EOS for a while

VR + DF for a while

VR + EH for some fights
 

All these clans joined us in a few different battles over the years.
 

3lite: Throughout most of our history, DF and EH were on good terms, but there were a few short periods of intense rivalry between EH and DF.  I wouldn’t say I ever disliked DF, but there were periods where a rivalry with DF made sense, where I disliked being on friendly terms with DF because it was more difficult to motivate members to defeat them.

Icedrop: No clan specifically.  If we were considered to be on good terms with a clan, it is probably because they conducted themselves well which in turn means that I liked them more than some of our other rivals.

10.) Is there anything else of interest you’d like to tell to the clan world, either about yourself, your clan, or the clan world in general?
 

Robtokill: From what I remember the changes in the wilderness and clan support were brought about due to Jagex having major issues with credit card companies and fraud.

Real world trading resulted in card companies threatening to no longer allow Jagex to process payments through them. This in turn meant Jagex had to implement the mess of removing the wilderness and drop trading.

Mod Mat K did an amazing job in listening to the community and doing the best he could to keep clans going through these changes. From what I've seen up until his recent departure he continued to do an amazing job for Jagex. I hope they paid him well.
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Not particularly. I sincerely hope most of you dickheads learned how to be decent people after all that wretched nonsense that went too far during all that clan beef. Have fun, be safe; now yall old.

Ghjjf: Likely massive overlap with this so I'll just leave this here: https://tempest-rs.net/topic/196-i-am-ghjjf-ama/

Bishinmo: Jagex sucks
 

Bountyhuntur: Nope I think that's it. It's a shame that the clan world had to go through some down times, then continuously get kicked while it was down, but it's pretty clear that we all had a hell of a time while it lasted.
 

Cera S6: Unlike some of the clans named during the era, I believe only VR and DF are the remaining clans going strong to date.
 

3lite: After creating this survey, I realized that I have respect for all the old clans for various reasons.  Corr - respected that they performed so well against EH and that I saw them as our most difficult rival. DI - respected their continued power and positions of dominance during periods of RS2, likely held the longest period of dominance of the clans on this list. DF - respected their community and the positive impact on the clan world through anti-crashing. EoS - respected their high levels of activity, especially during periods of strength. RSD - respected the tactical intelligence of their leadership and power man-for-man.  TT - respected their organization and ability to stay out of drama in the clan world.  VR - see above.

Icedrop: I'd like to say a special thank you to all former RSD members out there for being a part of the clan, and a wider thank you all former clan members, who all (in some way or another) contributed to making the clan world a fun place.

It has been pleasant reminiscing whilst responding to these questions.  Hopefully wherever people are these days they carry with them some good memories of the clan world, that they might have learned some things from their time in the clan world, and/or that they might have made some friendships that have lasted until the present day.

11.) Rank the 2006-2010 clans on 1.) the difficulty for your clan to defeat (not necessarily who is strongest), 2.) overall organization in fights, 3.) highest pulls throughout the time period, 4.) ability to keep members returning, and 4.) the order of which you considered the clans to be your rivals.  Rank 1 is the highest and 7 is the lowest.  Please don’t rank your own clan.
 

Robtokill:
 

Mr Nickos Jr:
 

Ghjjf:
 

Bishinmo:

Bountyhuntur:
 

Cera S6: (No response)
 

3lite:
 

Icedrop:
 

12.) Would you like to provide any contact info for old folks from the clan world to contact you?
 

Robtokill: (No response)
 

Mr Nickos Jr: Nicholas#9958 on discord.
 

Ghjjf: Always contactable at http://www.di-rs.com or brian#7795 on discord.
 

Bishinmo: (No response)
 

Bountyhuntur: If you want to reach out just bug some DF/Ex-DF members, I'm in pretty much every DF-related discord.
 

Cera S6: https://discord.gg/6mbPfs8 Or Mike-Cera_S6#7397
 

3lite: 3lite|Jethroll#2166 on Discord

Icedrop: I'll be sat in the RSD Retirement Discord!

Always enjoyed the rivalries over the years. 2006-2012 or so pre eoc basically was the best years of RS IMO

5 hours ago, Mike-Cera said:

Always enjoyed the rivalries over the years. 2006-2012 or so pre eoc basically was the best years of RS IMO

nice

fun times, definitely memorable. 

VR was the GOAT clan mate

greatest era ... funny how we said the clan world is dead in 2012-2013 and look at it now...

I yearn for the pre-EoC days.  The clan world is the only thing that kept me playing.

Mike giving 1 line answers whilst the rest write paragraphs, so useless

2 hours ago, Thedynasty88 said:

I yearn for the pre-EoC days.  The clan world is the only thing that kept me playing.

relatable 

13 hours ago, Rj Deathlord said:

VR was the GOAT clan mate

Honestly joining VR when DI closed start of 2009 was the most fun I ever had on this game 

First crash War, VR vs World - pulling 100 niggas no prep flash2:spaget

It was good of you to actively participate in this Mike. I really enjoyed reading your in depth answers 😃

The only person who would have been able to give more analytical answers would have been the man Tyler11 himself (he would probably answer with a link to a youtube video of a farting noise)

11 hours ago, Diegosage said:

The only person who would have been able to give more analytical answers would have been the man Tyler11 himself (he would probably answer with a link to a youtube video of a farting noise)

😂😂 Very true.

Hello Diegosage hope you are well! 

8.) Was there any clan that was a primary rival to your own clan that you had particular respect for?
 

3lite: Even though they were our primary rival and very different to EH in many ways, I always held a great respect for VR.  VR played by their own rules, not the clan world’s, and they didn’t pretend otherwise.

3lite giving the only honest question to this answer.  VR Rivaled with a clan. Killed the clan. Then moved onto the next clan, with the final clan we closed being RoT.  No one had the balls to step to us, and those who did ( Even with EOS+DF+COR teaming up on a week prep to fight us 1vs3 and still losing after 6 hours... ) was terrorized into submission and forced to not plan events just to avoid us.

It didnt matter if you hated us. If you were in a rivalry with us, we demanded your respect by pounding and preventing you from doing anything until your crybaby bitch leaders quit your clan ( cheesy from eos, to TR,  The cor idiot leaving for df etc ) or you pulls dropped from 80-100 to 15-25 and you were defined as dead. 

Mike should of taken a stronger stance and barked with an alpha voice putting his dominant roar on display for all. Shame on you for being a nice boy, with your 1 liners.

Back when DI and COR were considered " dominant ".  DI planned a week prep vs us, and on the day of the fight decided to fight cor because they thought cor would be a stronger opponent.  What did we do? We fucking rushed that fight like mad men and forced both of them to fight us for hours. Displaying our strength as a clan and letting the clan world know not waste our time or fuck around with us. Soon after we got into a crash war with Cor. COR cycled through something like 13 different leaders. Blazer obtaining cor forum leadership accounts, VR terrorizing any event they ever tried to plan...

Bishinmo's bitch clan died when VR defeated them in an uncapped PKRI.  TT pulled 120 that day, and after a defeat to the likes of VR ( who were considered the most unorganized clan of all time - ye write kids ) they never pulled 80+ again. Their bitch leader quit for collision ( LMFAO ) and TT spiraled until death.

COR - as previously mentioned ( Robtokill was never a leader btw, they had like 20 different leaders in their lifetime, you couldnt find just one to interview? ) was next on the list. After running their mouths on RSC like the keyboard warriors they were, VR took it straight at them and made them eat every single word they ever typed on that shitshow of a fan site. Soon their leadership " quit for irl "  - left for DF/Solace etc. Clan was a joke. Trying to give away xbox's to retain members and halt the bleeding.

DI - Rot killed you in p2p. VR killed you in f2p.  Back then RoT/VR swapped intel and we harassed you anytime you tried to step foot in f2p. Ghjjf is the weakest leader to ever grace this game and the only reason people know his name, is because the dumbass wore a runechain instead of a rune plate. Rune chain sucks bro, its the inferior version of the runeplate, just like Ghjjf is the inferior version of an Evizu. 

EH - Didnt have the stomach for a VR rivalry. When your dipshit leader Islamia DQ'd vr from an RSC tournament because one of our 147 members was a spare account being controlled by an outsider while we vs'd a clan with 71? man pull ( coincidentally it was vs EH - If you cant beat us, DQ us, right? ).  Once you did that, it was all over. You guys should of never poked the bear, you arent cut from the same cloth.

DF - osrs saved you. Your pulls were reduced to mid 20s. You couldnt fight med size clans such as exodus without getting your dickstomped after we were done with you.  OSRS gave you skilling nerds a few years to max combat and survive. If you were forced to pvp, you wouldnt of lasted. You owe Jagex a ton for still being alive today.

EOS - The only clan I have a very tiny ( and i mean VERY TINY ) amount of respect for. Eventually you saw the light ( copied vr ) and stopped playing by legolas clan rules.  but each time you stepped to vr you went from #2 to #20.  I had fun shitting on you and forcing your leader ( Cheesy ) to quit for TR, to escape the drama. 

RSD - LMAO the only clan who would only pk on sundays, literally.  Week prep events only. Did you know your best caller was a VR member on an alt account? ( godsmoke ) He learned from the best, and did his best to carry you guys. You guys had your moments, but by the hand of VR - you guys were forced to close months before OSRS was released. We took you the distance after 30 some hours, never losing control of the fight. You guys tried to fight fire with fire, but couldnt grasp the fact that you had no fire. You walked around for hours getting slammed/chased. When you got tired of deathmarching, you literally sat DD at RDG. Any vr member from that era can pinpoint the exact square you guys stood on and did nothing for 14 hours at a time. A joke of the clan community. A clan with 120 members who had no leadership to direct them.  We would even toss you guys some free " wins " to boost your confidence, because VR understood that if you couldnt compete with us, then no one could. and VR craved competition. 

ROT - Round of applause for killing p2p on your own.  ( all 2 pvp teams ) But when you stepped to f2p you were nothing but a fucking joke. Mass sniping, only. Main pile? You had no clue what that was. And after a 5 hour beat down on what will forever infamously be known as Mikes Hill, you closed. Mattbrazil sent me a long message saying thanks for the rivalry, but we arent cut out for this type of gameplay. Its not fun for us blah blah every bitch type excuse he could think of as to why ROT could not compete. - Lets get these facts straight. VR killed a dozen clans. When osrs came out, all those clanless dipshits needed a place to go and you capitalized on it - Bravo.  You clan is full of Anti-VR.  If Anti-VR wasnt such an enormous group of players, you clan would not exist today. 150 people joined up for the sole reason of fighting and defeating VR. You guys are fortunate that only 60% of VR restarted on osrs and the rest of us quit. Otherwise, we would of put you in the dirt, again. You guys will forever be shit in my eyes. Bitch made clan.

TJ going in hard 😃

Rod brought ddos in to the clanworld and paid to have VR ddosed until our members started to get tired of it and bailed. At the time it was unheard of for everyone and we had to learn how to be a community without forums, teamspeak and our members being hit offline all day. There's never been enough focus on this because everyone disliked VR and wanted us dead. No clan would have resisted as strongly as VR did given the sheer scale of ddos attacks against us. We were basically ddosed in to the ground until they were able to compete with us in game.

In looking back, the rest of the clans on the list I have different degrees of respect for, through the rivalries we had and the wars we fought against each other. There aren't many clans on this game that haven't had a history or rivalry with VR which is very indicative of how much of an impact we made on the clan world. We are/were almost everyones enemy #1 and we loved it.

Yes ^^

On 8/27/2020 at 8:18 AM, Evizu said:

It was good of you to actively participate in this Mike. I really enjoyed reading your in depth answers 😃

😂 it should have been you, P! 

I was in EH before VR. 3lite you had my favorite name of all time in Runescape. You, Islamia, Broski, Ect. did a great job leading EH. Uber Nooblet was a beast but never trained passed level 116.