Community Management: Clan Submissions Page

Hey, guys, and welcome to our third edition of the Clan Submissions Blog! We�ve all been very busy over the past month with the Clan Celebration Month and planning for lots of projects including the next Jagex Cup. I�m very excited for clans in the coming months, as there are a lot of cool things planned for everyone and some interesting rivalries coming to a head! As always, if you have something that you�d like to feature in the Clan Submissions Blog, ping me and email at postbag@jagex.com with �Clan� somewhere in the title so I can find it. :)

Mod Timbo

This month, we received an interview from one of our clans: The Gladiatorz (Gladz), who had already written an interview full of interesting questions and intriguing answers. Not to upstage an already prestigious (and old) clan by interviewing a different clan, we thought it�d be a great idea to showcase their interviewing techniques instead! The interviewee for Gladz was Rafi, former leader and current admin. Enjoy!

Gladz: When was Gladz founded and why?

Rafi: Joe Jenninz, Jerico and Blaze Mace founded the Gladiatorz clan on February 15th, 2001. As to why we were founded, it had everything to do with fun, friendship, and mutual protection - a necessity in a time when the whole world of RuneScape was open to player vs. player combat.

Gladz: What have been the hardest obstacles to overcome since the birth of Gladz?

Rafi: Around New Years 2007, the clan nearly met its demise. In fact, if it wasn't for our most dedicated core of members, it very well might have. Over the preceding months, rifts that had formed between groups within the clan, combined with the actions of some 'bad-apple' ranking members, and some bad decisions by the leadership of the clan, caused a chain of events that led to a mass exodus of members. Most of the clan world thought that The Gladiatorz had finally met their end, but, on the inside, we did everything but give up hope.

At the time, the situation seemed miserable, but, in retrospect, it was a huge opportunity for the clan. Under leadership both new and old, and with the support of our core of truly loyal members, we remodelled the clan. Making it through the darkest time in our history and coming out on top made us a stronger clan. We wouldn't have made it through had we not bonded together and worked toward a common goal - the preservation and betterment of our clan, our home, our family.

Gladz: What is Gladz really about? Warring? Its members? Other?

Gladz: What are we really about? Friendship, fun, community, loyalty, honour, respect, fighting, joking around...the list goes on. There is no one aspect that drives us forward. We are a collection of people from all over the world who have found a mutual place to call home. Some of us shine on the battlefield, while others are masters of the art of brewing. I like to think that our versatility as a clan makes up some of the glue that has held us together and shown us so much success over the years.

Continued further down...

The �Clan Celebration Month� has been running for the duration of February to help celebrate and promote the clan community as a whole. To try to encapsulate all of the aspects of clans, we held a number of differently themed weeks - which were 'Introduction to Clans', 'Skilling', 'Specialist' and 'Combat' - and a number of different events for each week. There was a lot of fun had by everyone who attended and a lot of unique events happened, like Live Action Roleplaying battles from the God Wars and rediscovered activities like the Blast Furnace.

A big thank you to everyone involved and to those that attended all of the events. A big shout out in particular to The Caped Carousers, Obliviion, 99 Agility Club, Neitiznot & Jatizso POC, United Kingdom of Catherby and Kingdom of the North.

In other news, we received a report from Exodus about their recent PKRI (player-killing run in) with Crimson Raiders. The fight lasted 10 hours and is a testament to the dedication and commitment of both clans for holding such an epic battle. Here is the report in full from Exodus:

Late last month, we approached True 2k8 as usual, asking Crimson Raiders (CR) for a week�s prep and, after weeks of begging CR for a fight, we finally got what we wanted. Both clans prepped extremely hard for the fight and I haven't seen as much motivation for a Saturday fight in a long time. After the first day, we had the majority of our members signed up, including numerous retired/probation members, our Inner Clan Discussion was full of CR-related pump-up topics, and you could tell each and every Exodus member was determined to win.

Our amazing sign-up was mimicked by our in-game starting options and, as soon as we saw the options were similar, we knew it was only a matter of time.

Exodus starting: 240 options - 80 people
Crimson Raiders starting: 261 options - 87 people.

From the get-go, we immediately took control. With the numbers being virtually even, we knew we could afford a large snipe unit, so we sent out 25 of our best tanks to go to work on their pile. Our main pile was doing extremely well, killing everything, while our snipers were managing to tank all over the map. After about an hour in, we had CR regrouping and, from then on, it was clear we were in control and CR were going to have a very hard time coming back.

Nonetheless, I think we must have forced CR to mass log-in on at least 10 separate occasions, and after the first hour of the fight it was just a matter of hitting their regroups. Regardless, CR had our main pile nervous a few times, but I can confidently say that there was no time where I believed CR's main pile was stronger than ours. In my opinion, the fight went on a lot longer than it should have, but that was to be expected, being such a heated rivalry for both clans. After 10 hours of fighting, we ended with 58 people in-game at 3AM.

Exodus ending: 168 options - 58 people
Crimson Raiders ending: 0 options - walked out

Good fight, CR! I had around 10 deaths and I'd say 50+ kills, being a sniper for 9.5 of the 10 hours. It was a lot of fun and, while it lasted longer than I would have desired, it just goes to show the level of dedication within both clans. I'm extremely proud of the dedication and commitment shown today; amazing effort and performance, Exodus.

As a regular feature, we�ll be spotlighting a few of our clans from the community in different categories. Don�t worry if you�re clan doesn�t appear here and you think that it should; let us know via email at postbag@jagex.com with �Clan� in the subject and we�ll see what we can do.

Some of our highest levelled clans:
Supreme Skillers, RuneScape Elites and Divination

Some of our oldest clans:
Green Bandits, Dark Disciples and RuneScape Dinasty

Some of our more unusual clans:
The Pizza Bandits, Family Unity Network and Warrior Cats

Some of our newest and upcoming clans:
The Last Brotherhood, Fiery Souls and Crimson Darkness

That�s right, YOU! If there is anything that you would like to share with Jagex and the clan community here on the Clan Submissions page, then do let us know! The way in which you can do this is by sending us what you have, preferably as an attachment if it�s any artwork, to postbag@jagex.com, putting �Clan� in the subject somewhere. We�ll take a look at what you�ve sent us - be that clan facts, interviews, articles, artwork and much more - and then pick out what people would like to see and put it on the page. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Clan Submissions page!

To read the previous Clan Submissions page, click here. To find out more about clans, check out our knowledge base article about them. To see what�s happening in the clan community, check out the clan forums.

Gladz: What is so special and unique about Gladz and what makes Gladz one of the longest lasting clans in RuneScape?

Rafi: Aside from our solid core of "Gladz for life" members, the main reason that we have remained a consistently large, successful clan over the past 9 years is the fact that we are always changing. Like most clans, we have a constant influx of new members that add their personalities to our mix, but at the same time, our clan has been able to evolve with RuneScape and the desires of our members. We evolve so much that people who come back after only a year will find themselves as part of a new experience - except for one thing...

That one thing, that thing that has been constant through our long years, is our strong sense of friendship and fun. We have members that come back after years of absence, and even if it takes some time to acclimate to the changes, they are able to immediately step back in and assimilate into the community. This is what keeps us strong. This is what makes being a Gladiator something special.

Gladz: What have been some of the most special or amazing moments Gladz has ever had?

Rafi: Every generation of Gladiator (and there are a lot of generations) would no doubt give a different answer to that. We all have memories of posts, people, and events from the clan that we will carry with us for years to come, if not the rest of our lives, but the 'moments' that everyone can generally agree on are the time leading up to official wars and then the wars themselves. I only wish others could experience the clan as we did leading up to and then the post-DS war period, where we took our place as the number one warring clan in RuneScape. It doesn't get much more amazing or special than that.

Gladz: What is the most epic win Gladz has ever had?

Rafi: Without a doubt, the most amazing war we have ever had was the war against the Dark Slayers in 2006 for the #1 warring rank. They were the number 1 clan at the time. They were unbeatable before we warred them, and unbeaten after, all the way until their closure. Once again, we were predicted to lose, but when the war commenced, there were 160 DS members facing an unprecedented 220 Gladiatorz. The Dark Slayers put up an amazing fight and kept the war exciting until the end, where The Gladiatorz stood victorious. We had taken our place as the number one warring clan in RuneScape.

Gladz: How does Gladz handle flaming and/or other types of negative situations?

Rafi: We have a strict warning/punishment system that helps us weed out the undesirables. Offenders either learn to control themselves or are shown the door. We pride ourselves on having a positive community.

Gladz: What is your main message to the community regarding Gladz? If you could tell the community anything to help them, what would it be?

Gladz: There is no victory without sacrifice, no success without failures. In the words of J. K. Rowling, "We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided."