Clan Spotlight: BULLS

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

DennisZodman: Commander; An original founding member (Previously known as VonCurry)
DikembeZutombo: Deputy Commander; An original founding member; Carries out administrative tasks, and partakes in recruiting
G1M: Executive Officer, currently inactive
JayZ536: Executive Officer, partakes in recruiting and handles Gold payouts
Rageous_: Executive Officer, main battle caller
SpunkyGoon: Commander [NUGGS] – Lets everyone else do everything, shows up for battles
GWBIV: Executive Officer [NUGGS], head battle caller and administrative tasks

When and how did [BULLS] / [NUGGS] get started?

DennisZodman: I was in [PBKAC] with a couple of guys who are no longer here. One of our guys is still here though, PhilZackson. There were five of us: ErmahgerdBananas, he used to be LucZongley. PhilZackson used to be Mallak_. MichaelZordan, who is now in [-G-], and ScottieZippen who is now “dead”…well, inactive.

We all got bored in [PBKAC] and felt that maybe it was time to do something fun. We always Platooned together; me, Zordan, and Zippen, and they’re both really good players. We were thinking, “Who were the three really iconic players in sports, or in history?” We thought about that and we thought of Rodman, Pippen, and Jordan. Then we were like, “Let’s change our names to that and make a Clan called the 1996 Chicago Bulls.” Mallak_ was our main caller when we first started and we thought, “He could be the head coach!," so he could be Phil Jackson. Bananas was a friend, so we named him Luc Zongley. Then we needed Ron Zarper so we asked Tuco22 because he was a friend of ours. I actually said it as a joke to Tuco, “Hey, you want to be Ron Zarper?” and he changed his name and we took him in.

We then made the Clan and we started recruiting people “off the streets," so to speak. Then we grabbed enough players and hit the map when the Clan Wars things started just to grab a couple of pieces of land. We didn’t start off to be a Clan Wars Clan -- it was a joke at first, and it just grew and snowballed into what it is now.

As [BULLS] started out as a small core group and grew into a full-sized multi-Clan group, did you experience any growing pains? Did people grow a bit more detached from each other as things grew? What happened to counteract that?

DennisZodman: I’d say Zordan and Zippen. It all obviously started as a joke. Then it became about tournaments…and things started to snowball. They were part of the leadership group with me and Zackson. Myself and Zackson wanted to do Clan Wars and Zordan and Zippen wanted different things. Zordan did recruiting and he had his own standards for recruiting. I had my own standards. He would go for more inactive purples like a guy that might not even play Clan Wars, where I wanted someone who would play Clan Wars. A purple that doesn’t show up and play Clan Wars is useless for a Clan. You can stack a team full of purples, but if they don’t play the game, then they’re completely useless for you on the map. I would take the lesser stat guy as long as he showed promise with his stats.

So, we would butt heads about ideologies of where the Clan was heading. I think Zordan wanted to move to [-G-] eventually. He had aspirations to move to [-G-] before we started this too. Zippen didn’t really have an interest in it and kind of just tagged along. Eventually, we clashed, they left, and I became dictator.

DikembeZutombo: If we’re talking about growing pains, you can be a soldier in a Clan for a lot of years and not have any problems with anybody because there is no pressure on you to do anything. And all of a sudden, all of us from different Clans come together and we’re thrown into this leadership position where 90 other guys are looking at you saying, “So what do we do?” It’s a lot of pressure and it does wear you down. It wore Von [DennisZodman] down. It’s worn me down. It wore PhilZackson down. It definitely wore down Zordan and Zippen. Both of those guys are better off being one of the best guys in a Clan, probably as soldiers. Not everybody is necessarily cut out to be leaders and not everyone wants to be. The group that is here today are some of the guys that are cut out to be leaders, really embrace that role, and can at least identify when they’re going to get burnt out so that they can step back and take a break.

It seems like you’ve all come a long way from when you first started! How did [NUGGS] come about, and do you support each other on the Global Map? What is your relationship like with your sub-Clan?

DennisZodman: I don’t like to consider [NUGGS] a sub-Clan because they’re older than us. When you babysit a Clan or prop them up on the map, then you’re gonna piss people off because you are probably giving them more Gold than they are worth. You gotta let people fight on the map. If [NUGGS] is next to us, we’ll help them out like maybe an offset thing. We help them out a little bit, but for the most part, if [NUGGS] picks a fight, then they have to finish it. If [NUGGS] gets ****ed over, we’ll help them, but for the most part they have to get their own Gold and fight their own battles and they have to grow themselves. I don’t do anything with [NUGGS]. I literally do nothing to help [NUGGS]. It’s all Spunky.

GWBIV: I’m glad you asked about that. I actually recently stepped away from [BULLS] to join [NUGGS] and help Spunky out on a day-to-day level and revamp in a "[NUGGS] 2.0" kind of way. We work on recruiting, help calling battles, putting strats together, and we’re up to 80 members. We’re really pushing the recruiting right now. We just landed in Belize. We’re training the guys and just trying to take some Gold right now and try to really work as a stepping stone to help guys get into a [BULLS] level Clan. We’re kind of working on a [NUGGS] 2.0 kind of thing!

Both [BULLS] and [NUGGS] have maxed-out zones and buildings for this current iteration of Strongholds. How are your Clans involved in Strongholds, and how would you say it has changed your Clans overall?

Rageous_: Strongholds for us is a good way to get away from pubs every now and then. It’s also a way for our FCs to get some of the calling down, learn some of the new players and stuff like that. I definitely like it as an improvement, as the next step up from Tank Companies, because there is an incentive to do stuff like getting extra bonuses for XP and Credits. It is also interesting to fight some of the other Clans that you might not have seen on the map before. Get some of their strats and stuff like that. Stuff that you don’t really know about them and it’s a nice little experience that you can do whenever you want. You’re not restricted by Clan Wars times.

SpunkyGoon: For [NUGGS], we don’t have the people that are so Clan Wars experienced like the [BULLS] do. For us, it’s more of just working on teamwork together. When we lose at Clan Wars, it tends to be when we have guys that aren’t so used to following directions. They’re so used to pubbing it and doing their own thing. We use Strongholds as a way to break that pub habit, listen to calls, and work as a team.

What advice do you have for new Clans that are just starting out?

DennisZodman: That’s a good question. I like to think that we did everything right, but I also like to think that we started the recent influx of new Clans hysteria, such as [-TRN-], [BULBA], [C100] as well as the new trend of posting “starting lineup” WOTLabs signatures in recruitment threads.

DikembeZutombo: There's actually a thread up that DennisZodman made. It's a really good article that is sort of a guide on how to start a successful clan. Diplomacy is so important in Clan Wars. For any new Clan out there, you have to know the lay of the land. Read what is going on in CR/D (don't necessarily post right away) so you can know who is working with whom and who the big dogs are so you can understand the political situation of Clan Wars. If you don't want to get involved in that stuff, I'd recommend staying in Greenland. A lot of the bigger Clans are very good at diplomacy and are friends with each other, but are not afraid to attack each other. Another thing is to stay active. If you sit around and farm for too long, you're going to kill yourself. It almost happened to us, and we're not going to let it happen again.

If someone's interested in joining BULLS/NUGGS, what is the process?

DennisZodman: We're not as hardcore as some Clans with their recruitment process. We look at your stats, your tier X numbers, and we ask people if they can do 3 days a week (which isn't much: we don't want people to burn out). If you meet those requirements and show that you can play the game well, we'll give you a shot.

DikembeZutombo: When a name is given to me, I'll look at his overall numbers. Then I'll look at tier X damage numbers, then tier IX and tier VIII. If you're a really good player and you leave your Clan, as soon as you leave we're going to find you. If we don't find you within the first 24 hours, that's our bad, but you should probably contact us.

SpunkyGoon: [NUGGS] is basically the same. We look at WN8, winrate, and your tier X damage. We'll set you up with someone to Platoon with for about 30 minutes. If you can listen and work together with them as a team, we'll just send you an invite right there.

Any last words?

DennisZodman: [BULLS] is recruiting always. Even if we have 100 players (there are usually inactives to remove, and if not then we'll have one eventually). Shout out to [CHAI] and [OTTER] for investing in us and believing in us as we were growing (as well as all the people who have been a part of BULLS)! One last thing… GET DUNKED!

…also, can you remove my RO?

Hypnotik: No.

Associated Clans

Stronghold Skirmish Details

What: Absolute Stronghold Skirmishes
Who: [BULLS] and WGA employees
When: Oct 22, 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT) to approx. 18:00 PDT (21:00 EDT)
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 HBFT by 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT) the following Friday morning.

If you have any questions you'd like us to ask [BULLS] 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, Oct 29, 2014.