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[AOD] Angels of Death |
Throughout this week we'll have a special edition of the Clan Spotlight, taking you back into the early history of Clan Wars. This was a time when a few Clans could hold down large portions of the Clan Wars map, when an alliance could take in over 85% of the entire map's income, and then right near the end, they painted the map blue. This is the time of NASA, and we'll be bringing to you insight from some of the leadership of these Clans every day this week.
Next up on our list of NASA Clans will be AOD. In the early days of World of Tanks, AOD was one of the top Clans on the server. They had talent in addition to numbers, and they were always someone you'd want on your side. Despite a large falling out, this community has kept calm and carried on, still serving as a great community for players of many different games to call their home.
We interviewed these current and former AOD players to see the Clan's history:
Oogieboogie [AOD] - The current leader of AOD.
Friction [FLCRM] - A former officer and primary battle caller in AOD, now a member of Fulcrum Gaming.
Lex_ [LOCKD] - A former officer of AOD.
What brought your clan into NASA in the first place?
Lex_ - AOD was in an alliance called "The Northern Alliance". This alliance was started by Iron Raiders. AOD found out that "Carl", the leader of Iron Raiders was dealing under the table, so to speak, and was not honoring his agreement as a member of the Northern Alliance. Once AOD had proof, we quit the Northern Alliance, and attacked Iron Raiders, removing them from the map in around 5 days.
Friction - AOD was brought into NASA with the fall of Iron Raiders. This was at the end of the Northern Alliance vs Southern Alliance war. The turning point in this war was when AOD and ROTA switched from being part of the Northern Alliance to joining the Southern Alliance as it was proven that Iron Raiders had been conducting what we considered under the table deals. When we got enough proof, we gave Iron Raiders a 72 hour period to prepare for war with us then we spearheaded the assault and eventual removal of them from the map and relevance in Clan Wars.
What was your favorite part about being in NASA?
Lex_ - I really enjoyed the Clans and members of NASA. They were funny, friendly, and very honorable. (Most of them anyway lol)
Friction - As the primary battle caller and strategy leader of AOD the biggest thing I enjoyed about being part of NASA was border security. Having consist allies you could count on really helped make my life easier. However it also made things a bit boring with no real war to fight.
Oogieboogie - Being a major player within the largest ever alliance brought with it quite a lot of prestige. Everyone knew of our success, and everywhere you went people wanted to join us. The best of the best would come through our doors daily and share their experience.
In your opinion, what was the main thing that led to the collapse of NASA?
Lex_ - Greed. NASA was in the process of dividing all the land that they owned to all members of NASA. Too many Clans became greedy. MLP and AOD decided to start our own alliance and left NASA. Remember, MLP and AOD were the 2 most powerful Clans at that time. MLP had 4 battle teams, and AOD had 16 battle teams.
Friction - The primary reasoning for the collapse of NASA was MLP and other Clans' greed. AOD could also be considered greedy from a certain perspective, however MLP was the primary cause in my opinion.
Do you think it's possible for a NASA-like alliance to exist today, even in scaled down form?
Lex_ - Anything is possible, however, I don't think it will ever happen again to the scale that NASA was.
Friction - I feel like alliances like NASA could develop at any time. It really only requires dedication and teamwork for the different Clans to lock the map down. Some things have made this harder however I do not feel like elaborating further.
If you had to guess which Clans could make up the current-day NASA, who would be a part of it?
Lex_ - All the powerful Clans could get together and form a current-day NASA, but I really don't think that will happen.
Friction - I have no idea I do not keep contact with the current map politics.
What was your proudest achievement for your individual Clan during the NASA era?
Lex_ - When we took out 3E and Iron Raiders, almost single handedly, we owned more territory than any other Clan in the history of Clan Wars. The gold income per day for around 3 days was approximately 38,000 gold per day.
Friction - I think our proudest achievement was removing IR from the map in a roughly two week period. This was spearheaded by AOD.
Oogieboogie - Some would hail the extremely large territory and daily income as the proudest achievement. However I see a large Clan that was able to reach success while maintaining its respectful interaction with other players and be true to our word, despite the many challenges we faced.
What was the thing you hated the most about being in NASA?
Lex_ - I actually loved being in NASA. But at the end of NASA, the arguing and egos became too much for anyone to handle.
Friction - I disliked the fact that it required so much politics and the endless meetings and negotiations made it unbearable.
Oogieboogie - While being one of the most significant Clans in NASA brought good points, there were many negative aspects to daily experiences in WoT. The AOD tag brought with it consistent team-kills and harassment from other players. From my perspective, even though AOD-A had relatively little involvement in CW the AOD name brought a lot of unwelcome and disheartening interaction with the haters and trolls. I hated to see so many of our members experience this, especially for the new and casual players in AOD-A.
What kind of reputation did your Clan build for itself during that time?
Lex_ - AOD, at that time, was an "Honor Clan". We always helped small Clans when they were being bullied. We used to take 1 stack of chips and run through Africa and take out the bully Clan and allow the little Clan to follow us and take the territory we left behind. When we were finished, we would pull our chips off and leave Africa.
Friction - AOD was considered by some as the best Clan on the map. This was debatable when compared to MLP however as I have asked several different opinions from other Clan leaders at the time, AOD was truly the best at the time and though I was not the Clan leader I was the battle leader. I was responsible for strategic development through the era and had only lost roughly 10 battles in my Clan Wars history leading AOD with roughly 450+ wins. Other people considered us greedy and arrogant but for the most part the Clan was well respected and treated people with respect. We had a zero tolerance smack talk rule which helped keep peoples opinion of us rather positive.
Oogieboogie - To this day we still encounter those players that remember the legacy AOD established during the early days. I feel some pride when an unfamiliar player defends us from someone mouthing off, or comes to us saying something to the effect of "AOD is a good bunch of guys, and I respect that, can I join you / help?".
The "Tiered Income Proposal" near the end of NASA was a very controversial topic... what was your Clan's stance on it?
Lex_ - AOD had always given land to other Clans. As a large Clan (four 100-man Clans), we needed more land than a Clan with just one 100-man Clan. However, other Clans that thought they were very powerful wanted more gold and the less powerful Clans were getting less and less gold income as the talks went on. The tiered income proposal could never work. And that, coupled with what Wargaming did to the landing zones (can't attack a landing zone if you own land) is what killed NASA.
Friction - We felt it was a poor decision and really didn't like it nearly as much as others but with the majority of the Clans wanting something to distribute gold at different tiers we only insisted that we would be considered a top tier Clan if that was the approach we would take.
What decisions do you think would have needed to be made to save the alliance?
Lex_ - For some of the stronger Clans to have just allowed the smaller NASA Clans to have a little more gold and not have been so greedy.
Friction - Greed would have needed to be resolved, MLP truly caused the conflict insisting and pushing they would receive the highest amount of gold per person while doing the least amount of work.
What Clan would you say was your closest allies/friends during NASA?
Lex_ - There were so many close friends. Panzac, MLP, SG, Iron Wolves, Rota, Havok, Red Sky, BG, and so many others.
Friction - AOD was very closely allied with Iron Wolves and ROTA.
Why did you choose the side you were on following the dissolution of NASA?
Lex_ - Some of the Clans in NASA were very unhappy that MLP and AOD were to get more gold than any other Clan in NASA. So it was the logical thing to just leave NASA with MLP and remove any problems that we were causing. I think 2 or 3 other Clans came with us.
Friction - AOD decided to side with MLP because we honestly underestimated the resolve of the other members that separated and we also over estimated MLP and our other allies. Eventually we would be put into a war on multiple fronts with our allies becoming less and less reliable and almost a total collapse after my departure.
How much have you worked with other former members of NASA since the split?
Lex_ - Not much. I decided to stay away from alliances and just be on our own. Less drama.
Friction - I have not done much of any Clan Wars leadership after NASA split and the immediate war that resulted from it.
AOD had a very public meltdown after NASA, what was the story behind it?
Lex_ - The CO of AOD was promoted and moved to another game and left World of Tanks. That is when I became the CO of AOD. The former CO was a very good CO and many people wanted to still be with him, so many people moved to the new game that he went to. Many of the very skilled players left and there was a very big hole AOD had to fill. The players that stayed became frustrated that we were not as powerful as we once were and the drama started to increase. To make the story short, over 100 AOD members left the Clan and started their own WoT Clan. Unfortunately that new Clan didn't last much more than a month, but it crippled AOD's WoT division to the point that more and more of the skilled players wanted gold and left for other Clans.
Friction - Lex was made the leader of the Clan, he was in my opinion a very poor choice for leadership and I had heard he was shady to deal with. I was removed from the Clan during a short break over Christmas vacation while the map was inactive which led to my frustration and eventual departure from the Clan. This of course had a very traumatizing effect on the Clan as a whole. People underestimated how much I had really been doing and took it for granted until I was gone. I was also the primary battle caller and with my departure the Clan eventually fell apart. Being a soldier for a Clan is very simple but battle callers and people who actually develop strategies that are effective are very rare.
Oogieboogie - Much of the bad-blood from the event has faded over the years, but there will likely be some differing accounts of this from the many people involved. I was not directly involved in the decisions and events as the nature of AOD-A insulated it somewhat from the meltdown. It boils down to a member who repeatedly broke the Clan's rules and was removed. Friends followed, the all too familiar story was spun and the community ate it up.
How has AOD recovered from this?
Lex_ - AOD's WoT Division really never recovered from this.
Oogieboogie - While AOD has not returned to the size and CW success it once had, we haven't given up and shut down. We've pushed to rebuild, retrain, and re-enter Clan Wars. One must remember that first and foremost AOD's goal is for the guys to enjoy themselves as a family of gamers in our multi-game Clan, not necessarily be #1 on the CW map - we happened to build great group of very driven members that pushed us to the successes we had.
What has AOD been up to lately?
Lex_ - Oogie can answer this question, but if I might give my reason for leaving AOD? The main leadership of the Clan became corrupted and began to not follow their own rules, which caused so much drama and BS that I left AOD. One of my main Sgts left as well and we started a new Clan called "LockDown".
Oogieboogie - Our current focus is rebuilding our competitive teams. While we have a number of experienced members in our upper ranks, we have many newer recruits who need development. Currently we are working to capitalize on the new Clan Wars campaign for our newer members to experience Clan Wars. We're also looking forward to the new team battle mode to provide a more enjoyable and productive entry point to our up-and-coming battle leaders.
This was part 2 of a mini-series of Spotlights on NASA Clans. For the forum discussion about this mini-series, click the button below.
