UKTerrorist

Staying Power?

The idea for this article came to me after reading a news post about the current happenings in CSGN and how Forsaken, Intrigue and Atari Crew have all recently folded or gone inactive. This got me thinking about what it means to be a successful clan, and more importantly, a long-lasting one. This is the area I wish to focus on for now however given my usual rambling style I'm sure I'll probably touch on a few other topics along the way.

These days, if you take the legitimate approach to CS and clan play, it takes a little longer than a couple of weeks to gel effectively as a team. When I started playing five years ago, match tactics were almost unheard of and very rough and ready affairs, today however a lot more sophistication is involved. The more complicated something becomes, the easier it is for it to go wrong, so naturally more practice is required to master it. Let's take a quick look at some stereotypical clan types and my idea of how they'd attack the problem I posed above.

The 'Young' Clan

Typical membership, 6-10 people of ages between 13 and 16.

These are people taking their first tentative steps into the big, bad world of competitive gaming and are probably playing in Enemydown and/or Clanbase.

This type all congregate on MSN having not been exposed to the seedy IRC world of the hardcore gamer just yet. They generally play on publics together and don't really play PCW's, the only time a match comes up is after a squabble with another clan on a server or they're playing an official ladder game. This type enjoy playing, consider it fun and aren't overly concerned if they lose. Some may even cheat, as to them it really isn't a serious affair. They'd likely call me nuts for considering the 'problem' above to be a problem.

The 'Old' Clan

Typical membership, up to 40 people of ages 21 and up.

These people discovered CS, usually through a mate, and enjoy playing the game in much the same way as the type above.

Essentially treat as you would the 'Young' clan. On balance, probably less likely to cheat.

The 'First Real' Clan

Typical membership, 6-10 people of ages 14 to 17.

Your average clan made up of people who've been playing for a little while and are attempting to take the next step in terms of success, possibly having entered the lower divisions of a competition such as CSGN.

Made up of people who've been playing for a short while and feel they have what it takes to play at a better level, often made up of the best players from a circle of clans who all meet up to play on the same servers. Some success would have been had in ladders previously so with the new team made up of the most amazing players they know, how can these people fail to get to anywhere but the top?!

There you go, expectations are high and apparently justified after they've creamed all their old clans and friends so the push for the top begins! Practices and games are played more often, and IRC in all it's esoteric glory has been discovered. The likelihood of malicious cheating is now greatly increased however this type are starting to discover the importance of good teamplay and so will spend maybe an hour or so trying out ideas every week, some of which will work. The learning process begins!

The 'L33t' Clan

Typical membership, 5-6 people of ages 15 to 18.

Probably the most common type of clan on Quakenet, and likely to be active in every competition they hear about.

This is the first type of clan we're probably all familiar with, and indeed most of us have probably been in one at some point or other. These boys live and breathe CS, they probably spend a lot of their time at school staring at a plan view of Dust 2 trying to gain inspiration for some new super tactic. Playing CS for around 8 hours a day each assuming they occasionally have other things to do, if not, it's likely to be more. These are the people spamming for a PCW every hour on the hour, every day and so on believing teamplay will gradually form.

The 'Experienced' Clan

Typical membership, 6-12 people of ages 18 to 30.

Probably the second most common type of clan on Quakenet and likely to be competing in a select few competitions against people they've known online or at LAN for a while.

People that realise going pro just isn't a realistic opportunity for them. These are your SCEE's and your Meatyballs types (oh sorry, forgot Wrinklies!). Most have played for donkeys years and maintain a decent skill level by playing intelligently as opposed to having the aim and reflexes of Puss in Boots on speed. This type have also met each other at LAN's several times and probably socialise together occasionally as they are all genuine friends.

There you go, an extremely broad sweep of some of the types of clan you're likely to come across in your CS wanderings, but how likely are you to actually get to know them because the clan survives longer than two weeks?

Well, in all honesty the people who frequent this website aren't likely to have too many dealings with the New and Old types of clan so we can discount them. The First Real type then.

This bunch have been probably been playing together on publics for a while anyways so chances are they already get on. They don't play an excessive amount of CS and probably enjoy moderate success somewhere in the middle of a CS ladder, depending upon individual attitudes within the team, I would expect to keep coming across this side every now and again. So the chances of them staying together, albeit with the odd roster change, are quite good.

The next step up then is the L33t clan, who I think we're all familiar with. The single biggest factor in deciding the longevity of this clan is individual attitudes, particularly that of the leader. The second biggest factor is the age of the members. Thinking back to when I was this age, my friends and I used to spend lots of time together playing football and whatever else, and if we got narked with each other, we'd go off and sulk for a while before making up and carrying on as normal. If you go off and sulk for a day or two and you're a member of a L33t clan, BEWARE! Chances are your 'unprofessional attitude' and 'immaturity' will have got you kicked from the clan, or worse suspended for a few matches! Which causes another cycle of bickering and sulking, repeat ad infinitum or until someone quits.

The Experienced clan then? Typically made up of people who've experienced most of the clan types mentioned, have played at a decent level both online and at LAN and have probably enjoyed some form of success at some point in their history, along with some form of notoriety (eh DK?). The realisation that you're not going to go to the CPL finals, ever. And the realisation that it is after all nothing more than a game is the primary factor in moving to being 'experienced', and not really age although most people who you could lump into this category have probably been playing CS for at least 3 years and are likely to be over 21. As said before, these guys are friends away from CS aswell after having known each other online for a few years and having met at LAN events, they probably even throw fireworks parties for each other! This clan has already survived for a couple of years, the chances of it going under due to anything other than personal commitments taking priority over a game, are slim.

The more shrewd among you have probably grasped the point I've been making throughout, and the less shrewd are probably laughing at the more shrewd for being so slow, but I'm still going to make it anyway. The key factor is for people to be friends and get along, and up to the age of 20 or so, this will be helped significantly by members being of a similar age. Above that age everyones starting to lose hairs and turn deaf anyway, so generally people get told to shut up and stop being a whining fairy.

When you think about it, the amount of time you will spend playing CS with your teammates once you get sucked into the community is, for the pro's among us, almost equivalent to a full-time job. Couple this with the pressure (due to desire) to succeed and become a 'name', the relative immaturity of people at that age and the instability of their personal lives (family, education, girls or whatever) and the reason why sides in the UK struggle to maintain stability becomes clearer. Maybe if the side were based around a LAN cafe things would be different as in Scandinavia, but in the UK we don't have any suitable cafes and the ones we do have are of a pitiful standard in comparison to those abroad. So (the younger) people try and maintain everything online and by text message, and given many people's eHero attitudes in IRC and ingame, exacerbated by strange things happening to testicles and voices, and the reason for folding is pretty much there. Whether this is a UK phenomenon or not I'm unsure, but personally I'd be surprised if the average age of successful clans in any country is under 18. Obviously there are a few exceptions, but in the main I think that's a fair comment.

Now before anyone starts, I'm not criticising any of the clans I mentioned at the start of this article for their inactivity, I don't know the reasons however they are probably valid. A lot of the examples I've given have been extreme in order to make my point, but I hope I've got it accurate enough that a lot of you will be familiar with what I've said.

Be realistic with your expectations of yourself and your team. If you're under 16 you ain't going to the CPL anyway, and if you are 16, chances are your parents won't be too keen on you going to UK competitions let alone Dallas. Chill out, be friends and try to enjoy it.

Make love not war, unless it's a practice clan one! (For that I'm truly sorry, awful, AWFUL pun)