Clan Spotlight: -BTU-

We interviewed these players to learn more about the history and future of -BTU-:

sWhOeLeFp (Wolf Among Sheep) - Clan commander. Oversees administration and some calling.
KILLAJAMEZILLA - Executive Officer. Former CO. Additional guidance and calling.
Zoogoong - Executive Officer. Original CO. Helps out where he can.
Violent_Pacifist - Executive Officer of Strongholds. Gets boxes.
SgtAnubyss - Executive Officer. Battle caller.
LORDZOGAR - CO of Auxiliary Clan. Gets members what they need.

What’s the story of -BTU-?

Zoogoong - Me, Kill, Zogar, and Wolf came from our old Clan, which was like a dictatorship. The CO ran everything, and if anyone did something he disagreed with, there was hell to pay. We didn’t like that, and a lot of our top players were bailing out, so a group of us got together and tried to make something of ourselves, make it big, make it competitive. We also didn’t want to just have one person running the Clan, but a group. That’s kinda what we’ve developed so far.

sWhOeLeFp - We tried to get the other Clan to become more competitive, and all we wanted were some requirements to join the Clan. They wouldn’t add any, so we split off to become more competitive and see where we could go with it. That was the big thing for me: The entire Clan Wars team of that Clan asked for requirements, and they refused.

Are there any immediate goals for the Clan?

KILLAJAMEZILLA - World domination.

Zoogoong - Boxes.

sWhOeLeFp - Ever since the Global Map 2.0 Beta, we’ve been trying our luck on the Tier VI Front because we really like, and do well in, tier VI skirmishes. We’ve been having a lot of fun playing on the new map, but it’s also easier to field teams on Tier VI, especially during the summer. There’s nights where you’re not as active as you’d like to be because people are out enjoying the weather and such. Lately we’ve been dropping on the Clan Ratings, so our immediate goal is to bring those numbers back up and work our way back up the ranking list after the new map launches.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - Our previous goal was to become Top 100, and we met that within eight months. Then our goal was Top 50, and we made that. I’m guessing our next goal is Top 25 once we get back to more active times.

LORDZOGAR - BTU-A has about the same goal. Right now we’re hovering around 300, and since I moved over with these guys at the very beginning, I try to follow the model as much as I can. We’re quickly moving up. We’ve managed to pull in some higher skill players lately, and we’re able to field two teams regularly, sometimes three, so we’re hoping that very shortly we can hit the Global Map as one unit. In the last couple months in BTU-A, we’ve been really pushing and achieving that active core group.

Violent_Pacifist - We’re currently one of a handful of Clans that have a high tier Stronghold as well.

sWhOeLeFp - That’s the immediate goal. We’re leveling it while taking a break from the map to raise the buildings up and get bonuses going for our members.

What’s the culture like in -BTU-?

Zoogoong - Loose.

sWhOeLeFp - A fraternity. It’s like a men's locker room.

Violent_Pacifist - We are the Belligerent Tankers.

Zoogoong - Yep, we are the Belligerent Tankers Union.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - When it comes time to get down to business during a serious Clan Wars battle or Raid, everyone knows how to put on their game face.

How does someone join -BTU-?

Zoogoong - We kinda just invite people over here for Platooning.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - It used to be a long, hard grind of sending out messages to people in game who you thought were good. Since we’ve gotten a little better, our name’s a little more recognizable, so it’s not as hard as it used to be. We’ll reach out to somebody in game and try to Platoon with them. If we like the way they play, we ask them to stick around for a couple days and hang out. If they seem to click and get along well with most everybody, then we give them a shot, and from there it’s up to them if they want to stick around. Basically, just follow the very loose rules that we have for not offending anybody past a point.

sWhOeLeFp - One of the things I stress is that we have requirements, but we’re not focused on any one of those numbers as we are on the whole package. If somebody’s recent or overall isn’t what we want, but the other is really close…

LORDZOGAR - The best new tool for recruiting is the Dynamic Platoon from the last update because you can look for somebody who’s not in a Clan who has stats in the range you’re looking for and invite them to Platoon. If they’re at least interested in Platooning, that’s a step in the right direction, and then you go out and work together in that battle. As you run another battle or two, it’s like “Game chat’s hard to work with, so come over to TeamSpeak,” and once they’re in the there hanging out and listening to everyone, they want in.

sWhOeLeFp - Dynamic Platoons definitely help eliminate that cold calling feel when you’re a recruiter and trying to send messages out.

What’s been your most memorable battle?

Zoogoong - When we fight OTTER, personally.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - We beat OTTER once in a Raid, and that was very memorable. They even did a write up on how we reacted and everything

sWhOeLeFp - We only beat them in one battle out of the four. Not the whole thing, as they were attacking us.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - We had a really good battle against SIMP during Twilight of the Gods where we beat them. The next night they came back and beat us. We tried new strategies to try and catch them off guard. We had another one in the same campaign where we beat BULLS and the same thing: they showed great respect that we came at them and took the fight to them instead of camping somewhere.

SgtAnubyss - We seem to get that a lot when we face one of the Top 10 or 15 Clans. We’re not one to turtle; we take the fight to them, and a lot of times it’s close. We always get kudos for not camping or turtling, but taking it to them head on, face to face. Even if you don’t always come up on top, you get a lot of respect for giving a good effort.

LORDZOGAR - We’ve been getting a lot of that in BTU-A as well. A lot of bigger Clans come at us in Strongholds every two weeks, and they respect that we give them a good fight. That’s why they come.

SgtAnubyss - -G- and OTTER regularly attack our Stronghold, and we give them a good fight. And they always keep coming back.

Zoogoong - We must be doing something right.

sWhOeLeFp - I encourage the guys not to be disheartened when they see someone from the Top 10 list attacking our Stronghold. That’s a sign of respect because they know we’re gonna bring a good fight to them, and it’s gonna be a good, hard fought battle. And they know there’s going to be a good sportsmanship about it. At the same time, we use it as training. When we fight these Clans, we pay attention and see what they did to beat us and learn from it, see how we should be focus firing, see how we should be using each other’s HP to cover each other, what did they do to counter our strategy so we can counter they next time they come, so on. That’s the most important aspect to it, and the best part of it, and that’s why I’m never upset when we get attacked by someone in Strongholds.

SgtAnubyss - I just want to mention that a lot of people don’t think about it, but when you’re doing regular battles, purple and blue players usually get focused a lot. If you come up and you take a shot for them when they’re tracked, and then you push forward together and win the battle together, you gain a lot of respect because you should you know how to play as a team.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - Other than good leadership and lots of committed, loyal people and friends, I would say that the biggest reason that we became as good as we are, and why we’re still gonna improve, is that when we do lose, we take time to reflect on what happened, why it happened, how we can fix it, and what the other team did and how it was advantageous for them.

With your experience playing against Top 10 Clans, have you exchanged information with them as well?

Violent_Pacifist - Any of them that will give us pointers, we’ll take.

Zoogoong - A bunch of our friends are members of those Clans, so they’re always coming over to platoon. We’ve also filled a lot of tournament teams with some of the members from those Clans. They’ll help us out by looking at how we play a battle and say, “You should’ve had your heavies do this instead of that”.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - For the longest time, wolf’s been our diplomat. He regularly goes to Clans that are ranked higher or that we consider to be better, and get any feedback they’d offer: What we did right or wrong, or talk it over with the person we fought. We have no problems sharing information; we’ve given out lots of strats to other Clans just to help them out.

What approach would you suggest for Clans that wish to ask for advice from another Clan?

sWhOeLeFp - Be respectful. Whether you view them as better than you or not, if you approach anybody in a respectful manner, and you validate the fact that you want to share info with them, generally people will work with you on that thing.

Violent_Pacifist - Honest and direct is the way I approach everything.

KILLAJAMEZILLA - Violent’s definitely one of the most direct people you’ll ever talk to.

Violent_Pacifist - I’m too old to beat around the bush.

Who gets your shout outs?

KILLAJAMEZILLA - Stronk_scout.

sWhOeLeFp - On my end, I was the head diplomat for a good portion of our first year. There’s so many people that were helpful. Gerlach2 from Kevlar back in the day; they were the first substantially big Clan to give us a shot.

Zoogoong - That was way back, dude. OTTER for keeping Strongholds in check.

LORDZOGAR - MEN that I worked with on the tier VI map. Also shout out to balgondo, my top XO. He does an incredible amount of work for the Clan and is a phenomenal caller.

SgtAnubyss - There’s a lot of people. Detroittigersfan, he’s the one who recruited me and taught me a lot about playing tanks. I’m an older guy and didn’t even think about Clans until about a year ago or know what WN8 was; I just played for fun. One day I was just messing around, and he was like “Hey, wanna join a Clan?” Since then, my WN8’s gone up a little over 2000 because I’m playing differently and learning strats, and he was a big part of it.

Do you have any last words?

KILLAJAMEZILLA - We appreciate the opportunity to be on the Clan Spotlight, and we look forward to growing bigger in the future and getting better..

sWhOeLeFp - You asked us about traditions earlier. I’d like to start a tradition of winning in -BTU-, including in our World of Warships community, and newly formed group in Blitz.

Violent_Pacifist - Stop camping in Strongholds.

Associated Clans

Stronghold Skirmish Details

What: Absolute Stronghold Skirmishes
Who: [-BTU-] and WGA employees
When: August 26, 16:00 PT (19:00 ET) to approx. 18:00 PT (21:00 ET)
Where: NA East server

If you face off against our Spotlight Skirmish, you'll have a chance to win Gold prizes!

If you are streaming on your own Twitch.tv channel and you send a link to your stream with the time at which you face us, your entire team will double their winnings! This link must be sent in a PM on the forums to veganzombiez by 09:00 PT (12:00 ET) the following Friday morning.

If you have any questions you'd like us to ask -BTU- while on the stream, please leave them in the comments thread for this article or you may also ask them in the Twitch chat!

Gold from this event will be distributed by Wednesday, September 2, 2015.