Clan Spotlight: Red Sky

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

Frizzled07 - Commander of Red Sky.
Yotaman - Executive Officer.
scharnhorst310 - Former officer and leader.
TomECannon - Former officer and leader.

What's the story of Red Sky?

TomECannon - RS was really competitive in Navyfield before converting to World of Tanks in beta, and went to the first URAL Steel tournament. Scharn and I saw them on the front page, and that's how we got involved. Luckily, we were able to participate in URAL Steel the second year as well.

Scharnhorst310 - We were looking to join a clan that was on the up and up that we could learn from. RS was fairly established at that point and they were on the Clan Wars map. We were part of the big alliance at the time, NASA, as one of the smaller clans just vying for scraps at the table of all the big guys. Luckily, we had a lot of really good leaders and officer who worked very hard, and we had very dedicated players so we could count on the same teams coming on every night. Over months of hitting landing zones, which you could do back then in the day to cover for other clans, we got better. We didn't know how good we were because we weren't facing the top competition, who were all in NASA.

TomECannon - And then NASA broke up... for some reason...

Scharnhorst310 - Long story short, nobody wanted to share the scraps with the little guys. They felt what they felt, and we felt what we felt, and they formed up. It's hard to describe if you're not looking at the old European map, but we were in Northern Russia, right next to SSGS, BPN, MLP, and WOLF. Our position put us in the most dangerous spot, but also the only spot where a clan could hurt them right away. When the war started, no one expected us to do well, not even us, but something just clicked. We got the right maps with the right players and before we knew it, we went from one team a night to two, three, four, then five teams, and we started beating guys up. Eventually, we started pushing out, and probably my favorite battle, we beat MLP and they disbanded the next day. I don't know if that was because of us, but I will say it was an important battle for morale as they represented what we were fighting against. I'd also be remiss not mentioning tremendous help we had from our members: whiskey_dod, absoluteroyal, Boggintuf, just to name a few.

TomECannon - For us especially. Then recruitment just shot up too, that was great. Our domain was Eastern Russia, and no one wanted to attack us, so that was the first farming we'd ever done.

Scharnhorst310 - Before we knew it, we'd become famous, we'd become the big dogs. We were making 18-20k gold a night, and that was our first experience with people saying, "You guys are very good. Oh please, we don't want to fight you." The problem was that our guys weren't the farming types, they didn't care about how much gold they were getting; they wanted to fight. Eventually, our attendance started dropping drastically. It was a delicate position to be in: At one point, we went from Stalingrad to Denmark trying to find clans to fight, not out of malice, but just trying to keep members happy.

Yotaman - That's still the case. If we sit, we lose.

Would you consider your success after NASA to be your greatest accomplishment?

Scharnhorst310 - It's really hard to say which accomplishment we've had is the greatest. There's quite a few that I've looked back on and I'm like, "That's impossible. There's no way". Our joke in RS is that we won Clan Wars. Obviously that's impossible, but in moments like those, we'd all sit back and laugh, "We won Clan Wars."

TomECannon - Every time we were involved, Clan Wars would change somehow: either the rules would change or a clan would disband. We used to be in Russia with -G- when they were first starting up, and we built a good relationship with them. The strong relationships RS built are, to me, RS's greatest accomplishments.

You guys obviously have a lot of success. What advice do you have for clans struggling to find a place on the Global Map?

TomECannon - We found success by being an honorable clan, and figuring out who was really dedicated to the clan and wasn't gonna jump ship when things turned sour. Our players train each other, build each other up by saying, "If you just do this differently…" The members of RS take criticism well. I don't, but RS does. In any other major clan or community, there's like 100 different channels for people to hide in. In the RS TeamSpeak, you're in the lobby or a platoon or company channel. I think the community aspect of the TeamSpeak channel overall is what helped make us successful.

Scharnhorst310 - I help out a lot of new clans, and the big thing I see is that they're cliquey. One group wants to be dedicated and improve as a team in training rooms, and another group won't be as dedicated. That's painful for the group that wants to improve because you're only as strong as your weakest link in Clan Wars, and if you have a few guys who don't listen or do something wrong, it's very hard to compete on a consistent basis. Everyone gets frustrated, and the clan falls apart. My recruiting phrase in RS was "I'm trying to find if RS is a good fit for you, and if you're a good fit for RS." The point is, you can't recruit with mass invites, or be loose with who you let in. You're trying build a strong foundation through recruitment that represents the values and desires of the clan, on top of its personality. If you don't, clans tend to fracture when they experience setbacks or difficulties.

Yotaman - We still say that to every applicant. We make them come and play and spend time. We don't just take somebody; we find personality fits along with playstyle fits. We are as open and upfront as possible so that recruits can make the most informed decision for themselves as to whether RS is a good fit.

How does someone apply to RS?

Yotaman - Applicants apply on our clan website, come to our TeamSpeak to get applicant tags, and then they play with people in the clan. It's not a quick process, and eventually our officers and NCOs vote on you.

TomECannon - There's a lot of trust in the officer core to find applicants that fit. We didn't just recruit based on skill; that was secondary to whether that person would mesh well. A lot of that is due to the maturity of each member to know that the future is really in their hands. The membership would come to me or scharn about a recruit saying, "I platooned with this guy, this is what happened, and here's a vid". We'd sort of gauge who they were as a person, and if you got five votes from any 5 officers, you'd get tagged up. The officer core has the utmost trust for one another.

Frizzled07 - That's basically what I do now. if I'm busy or whatever, I'll have one of the guys who's been in the clan 3-4 years platoon up with the applicant and tell me what they think. The guys have a better opinion of recruits because they're around them a lot more. I always listen to what the guys have to say.

Do you have specific goals as a clan?

Scharnhorst310 - Frizz, you answer. I just work here.

Frizzled07 - It's hard to say. We're really into Strongholds right now. It's really intense because battles are 5 min apart, and they're usually very competitive. We put more focus there, but when we recruit, the first thing we lead with is "We play Clan Wars", so if you're coming to play Strongholds only or tourneys only, then you're probably not gonna fit in. Clan Wars is still our goal. More than anything, we're trying to have fun. It's a struggle for our officers because when we're not fighting every night, the guys just either don't show up or they show up and play really bad, which is even worse. Staying active is the officer's goal. Perfect example: VILIN had us sit on their land while they fought BULLS to keep the flank safe. When they came back, we went and fought, and the clan that we beat on the West Coast? Their subclan beat us like, 5 times in a row on Arctic Region. If we sit still, our guys just get a pub mentality.

Does RS have any interesting traditions?

Frizzled07 - My first Clan Wars battle in RS, we won 15-2, and I was one of the 2 that was dead. I got shot by, I think, everyone on my team. Of course you can't do that anymore because of tank locking. Everybody knew but you, and then all of a sudden, you just got wrecked.

TomECannon - It was more of "All right, whoever kills Frizz right now gets 250 gold." They should bring it back... everyone in RS has so many Tier Xs. They can afford to lose a few extra per night.

Scharnhorst310 - If you're new, we always put you in Clan Wars your first day. It's a trial by fire, and I want to watch that guy, I want to see people's patterns, their strengths and weaknesses, and of course, them dying at the end from friendly fire.

Are there any allies or friends you'd like to acknowledge?

Frizzled07 - Our oldest allies are Dirg and KBEAR.

Scharnhorst310 - Nemesis79 and Yankee from -G-. BBQ_Sub and ACES have been huge. Patreal (now Pine_Sol_2000) and Tzimon from WAR, lots of good times with those guys. There's a lot of memories, a lot of people we've met... SG. We've had a lot of friends. Mako26, sonicmonkey, boggintuf, dmgomes, captjade, whiskey_dod, bdl1000, zakaladas, Ruukil, vect, Ertai, XenomorphZZ, just to name a few. I think Ertai just went on another championship trip in Poland this year.

TomECannon - A non-exhaustive list: OTTER, The SharkTank, HerbalThrill, Vect, Ertai, Allurai, Swolja, brotherbonz, Gyarados, almtree, ToFuSmurf, GrannyW, Havoc, VegasRon, and Pine_Sol_2000... all great guys and Grannies who are the reason why I still play. I always look for the channel with these guys and hop in. Shout out to any place I’ve chilled in after long nights of Clan Wars/diplomacy… you know where you are.

Do you any final words?

Scharnhorst310 - Even though I'm not in RS anymore, I still feel like I'm part of the clan. I'm in their TeamSpeak as often as I am in OTTER. It's a good community, and I'm prouder of RS today than what we accomplished back in the day. It's hard to keep going as an officer for any great length of time.

TomECannon - If you look at the map now, it's hard to name another clan that's been here since the beginning. RELIC, but they've got like 4 subclans they can cycle through. HAVOK, maybe, but they've disbanded so many times. RS has been, and they're always gonna be here. Like scharn said, it's a badge of honor that we were in RS. I was proud to wear Red Sky during Ural Steel in Moscow... I love you guys. *sobs*

Yotaman - Hold me.

Associated Clans

Stronghold Skirmish Details

What: Absolute Stronghold Skirmishes
Who: [RS] and WGA employees
When: May 6, 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 [RS] 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, May 13, 2015.