<KoS> - "We're the best and we're sure gonna tell you about it."
The slut group - Xearoii, Daryus, Melkorai, Gannondorf, Romulous, Halfdane, Skeltah and people too old school for even me to remember - I'm sure Skeltah could name a few that I never even knew about. They ran 8 when albs ran 80. Literally. They showed hibs that teamwork, dedication, and radar (lolz <3 xearoii!) could even the odds when outnumbered greatly. At first, alot of hibs disliked the idea (as we were already getting destroyed as it was), but eventually, guilds came around to the idea.
A player from bedevere, Mistwraith, came over to lancelot during the time of alb dominance. Mist ran in all sorts of groups while in <HALO> and eventually joined <KoS>, where the groups just - exploded. There was friction and drama, as it continues 3 years later, and that basically resurrected another powerful guild, <Devils of Camelot>, led by Wrap, Krups (Translyre) and other talented players. <HALO> still had a good crew that roamed, but it was basically based on 5 people, whom Nimm was the leader of.
Backing up a little bit to the first alb guild to really run 8, <Iron Monkey> was formed when a few members left <The Chosen Ones>, which was like the alb guild back in those days. Players like Nima, Ubu, Kibar, ace (original ledark) did well, but never really got alot of recognition because of the zerg (they had so little to fight). Not all, but a few, either rolled or bought hib toons and joined up in <KoS> for a short ride, but quickly moved on to Midgard to give the first real 8v8: <KoS> vs <Virus 23>
<Virus 23> - "hi, we just ruined your relic raid."
IM ~~~> KoS ~~~> V23 was the path that some took. A few were already mids. Whatever the route that was taken, they argueably made the biggest impact on the server - ever. Not only were they the best at blowing up forces 6 and 7 times than them, they gave <KoS>, the first consistent 8man, their first consistent fight. Mostly their groups revolved around pbae and bombs, but they did run some RM's and started the Zerker craze (HI EVILOVENBAKED, MEMBER OF EVERY MAJOR MID GANK GUILD UNTIL NF). It didn't matter what they ran - they owned.
So there's one mid guild and one two hib guilds that really fight each other - the only real 8v8 to date. Rest of it is farming zergs and zerglings. Albs cried perpetually on these boards about not being able to compete on a smaller scale.
Enter: <Knights of the White Wolf> and <Templar Knights>
KotWW started running groups that beat most hib groups and competed with the KoS and DoC groups. They won a few versus v23 as well. They showed that albs could truly compete without having to have greater numbers. They didn't stick around too long, though, unfortunately. Fortunately, another group of albs were ready to show that albs could not only compete, they could dominate.
<Templar Knights> - "If you don't want to hear us talk, stay out of our IRC Channel"
Attitude. Arrogance. Aptitude. Awesomeness. Alb really was gimp back in these days, but they made it work. I remember my first fight against TK. It was near Crimthain in old breifine. We were on our way to emain and all of the sudden, here comes a single alb group from our flank. I'm like '
AY RP'S' because albs are all pushovers, right?WTF - I never lose mez. Who is "willmez" ? Wow, these tanks sure do hurt. WTF? We just got tooled.
The second fight was pretty damn similar, only it was in the gorge. After that, it was more even, as they were really just getting started as an 8man guild (they were really gung-ho about keep defense along with Firestorm), but they started off with a bang and they sure didn't just fade away. History shows that.
Not long after v23 started running, several mid guilds started immitating them with pbae groups - though they all pretty much sucked. But they were running 8, so there were more groups out to fight. This wasn't an 8v8 era at all, but it was part of the evolution of it. At somepoint in hibland before this, an old guild, <Chosen Ones> was revitalized and started running hib versions of pbae groups, headed by Stormcastor and (I can't believe I forgot his name omg - another enchanter - started with an R like Ravyn or something)
<The Feared> - "We invented the RA dump."
So, <The Chosen Ones> (the alb guild, no relation to <co> from hib) was dying out, but they started running an 8man toward the end. Most of the people in that 8man didn't adhere strictly to 1g, as most from the era didn't strictly adhere to it, but it was a start. Also, most of those ended up going to a new guild, <The Feared>, which after some time started strictly running 8man. They were really good when they got the jump on you, which started happening more and more as a certain notorious Armsman became prominent. I'm moving ahead, though.
At some point, hib lost a ton of people. <DoC> died out. <KoS> left the server. <CO> disbanded and formed a new guild with basically the same people called <Mirage>. They did well, but after SI was released, the server (and the game) was changed forever.
<Lagged Again> - "No, you have to earn OUR respect."
Xarrio. Alfy. Olympic. Asharod. Xerxxes. Ramtoo. Maxius. Zeath. E-Leidan. EoB. Don't remember the exact first line-up but it had one healer, one shaman, and a whole lot of hurt. Savages were new and nobody had any idea of how powerful they were going to be. This was during the 'hey, we have end buff now and it's overpowered' and 'hey, zerkers' styles are ridiculously broken' phase, so put it altogether with a group running a specific 8 and you have Lancelot's first true gank group.
They had as big an impact as <v23> in their own way. Many of you were around for the end of it. A few of you were around for the beginning of it. Their legend is engraved in the server's history, as much for their egoes as what they did in the game. But their egoes were deserved. Along with LA came another guild, <Release> who also was based around tanks in a caster era.
They changed it to a tank era.
Copycat groups galore - mid tank groups became flavor of the year. A couple of guilds that are worth mention later really started 8manning during this time. <The Dirty Hand> and <Beware of the Penguins>, for example, though neither was ever a serious 8v8 type guild.
Around this time, <KoS> returned to the server. Many of <Mirage> had joined my guild, <RHE> and were doing well when this occurred. Somehow, I let Skeltah hornswaggle me into merging into <KoS>. Those were good times, but this is about 8v8, not about me.
Also around this time, a few albs from various zerg/carebear guilds got into the idea of 8v8. They were mostly vn board trolls with a great sense of humor, and they formed <Warder Zerg>. The guild ran with a gimp set-up 90% of the time and did really well, without ever bragging about it. Unfortunately, the alb zerg still made it difficult to really get alot of actoin as an 8man group in alb, so some of them rerolled. Others ended up in TK.
To mid.
But they ran Warriors. It was a shame they played so late - most of the guild groups to fight were close to logging by the time <Deleted> was ready to rvr, but nonetheless, they came out and rocked.
Along with this new resurgeance, a former zerg overlord decided to try his hand at this '8v8'. Ahamade (aka Xiem) had left <TCO> before <The Feared> was formed and joined <Paradox>. dox/DoTC started running 8man groups, though they didn't adhere to strict 8 much at all back then, though they did attempt it, and it was a start of something.
To encourage them to not zerg or hit our fights, I started avoiding their fights. If I saw dox/dotc spam, we (kos) avoided the fight and let them clean up. We started doing that to other guilds with similar mindsets, too, though we never really talked about it or cried about it when someone did hit it. The only exception was <Release> who, despite their talent, had a tendency to brag on the boards about farming people when alot of their "farming" was hitting people mid-fight.
The getting raped by mid groups, whatever the reason, and by alb groups using SoS and BoF effectively got to <KoS>. At some point, we decided to try out mid on another server. Many in <KoS> had already left the server due to a certain few running a set group that excluded guildies. It was bad mojo, but those in that 'sect' went to a realm opposite the others on the same server. That was pretty much the deathstroke for KoS and all it's 'splendor', though many revitalization attempts have been made (and almost successful at times).
Midgard didn't last for <KoS>, and many of the players began filing back. After a failed attempt at rebuilding, people went their seperate ways. Right before we left the server, a guild from Galahad called, <The Knightwatch> rolled here. That didn't last too long, and most left. But right when <KoS> was about to really, really die, some remaining members of KW made a new guild.
<Free Rps> - " 'What is that, like 90?' '
eah, about that ... well, we almost had them.'"Composed of members from KW, CO and <KoS>, hib's first real set 8 started and well, there's little need to go into detail about how dominant they were. They cycled through people to flesh out the group, but the core remained the same for the time they were here.
At some point, LA had died. But some good new players had appeared in other guilds, and they rebuilt and went crazy. It makes sense that the two most dominant 8man guilds in the server's history would set the precedent for the 'golden age of 8v8'. As a nod of respect to one another, these two guilds took my intent of trying to influence certain people to not zerg to another level, and didn't do it to anybody. Right about the time I quit hib and sold my accounts, the term 'assjam' was coined. People started immitating LA and FRPS, as you would expect, and it was a good thing.
It seems like 8mans started coming out of the woodworks. <The Nameless Ones>, a guild that had rolled on lance as a 'FOR THE REALM!!!!' type guild, got into the 8v8 thing. A guild of people brought together by their love of farming VN, <I H A T E Y O U G U Y S>. Guilds from other servers were rolling on lance (Hungry Hungry Hippoes, r3z, Mostly Harmless). And some players were even buying guilds of their own (<3 Carnage!). In alb, TK and TF were still going, but guilds like <o.O>, <Zeal> and <Dark Valor> had appeared and were getting into the 8man thing, even if some had misconceptions. Old guilds that had broken down were rebuilt. New guilds were made out of old players.
The time from right before ToA came out until NF came out was *the* era for 8v8. During NF, groups came and went, and while 8v8 had great surges of popularity, not real guild has been a constant the entire time.
But there have been alot of them! In Mid, <Virus 23> came back and did extremely well for a while. <Carnage> actually became alot better than decent and could have been really good had they had some challenge. <Lagged Again> sort of half-way got back together for a week or so. <Okaa Inc> became the fotm @posts on VN. Some guys from other servers rolled here and made a guild in which some old lancers got in, and became probably the premier mid guild since LA (ie <Suzerain>
. <Lemmings> was a collection of players deserted by various 8v8 guilds that left who did really well. <Its Jeebus LOL> was along the same lines. <The Dirty Hand> re-emerged.In Hib, TNO started off strong, then broke down for various reasons in various directions. <Weaksauce> was a result of that, and they, at various points, were probably the premier Hib guild in a collection of many good ones (Hype, F8, Charlatan, Silence, KoS resurgance, Legionairres who quit zerging, The Answer, Last Defenders).
In Alb, TK and TF were still the main course, though TF alliance mates AD and my guild, <Recoil> were really like one big guild for much of the time. <Ineffable> did well and had alot of fun. Members of <Sauvage Guard> that were interested in 8v8 eventually formed <Save Ferris>. <Zeal> changed names a few times. Some members of TF split off and became <Fusion>. Some members of <Fusion> later became <Apathy> and picked up a few others. <Relapse> made a guest appearance. <Stigmata> is a recent addition.
8v8 isn't dead, as there is alot of potential groups out. However, there isn't an LA or a <Free Rps> that drive everybody to keep pushing to get better. Maybe someone will emerge. <Suzerain> looked to be the best out of everyone, but without a counterpart, it doesn't seem like they'll stay. Clusters hurt lance, but the way this server is, it's always worked in cycles. The good times will come again, and when they do, maybe it will become THE server again. It once was.
Many people will point to Mordred as *the* old server, but they often forget, Lance was here far before mordred and 8v8 was in the works at that point.
So, this is my salute to everyone who has ever done 8v8 on lance: To the godfathers to the guys just getting into it now. I /salute you!
