As I re-read my writing from years back it’s hard to ignore the fact that so much of what’s been built and accomplished has relied on other people. I think it’s even more interesting that it’s taken everyone from the keen to the lazy, the betrayers to the loyalists and the lovers and the haters to construct what is now a totally unprecedented foundation.

The whole thing has been a trial by experience, a constant re-discovery of who we are, and, who we aren’t. Just as you can have your eyes opened and your enthusiasm fired up by hungry people that want to achieve something (and actually put the effort in to do so) you can also take a falling out with long time acquaintances to gain precious insight and raise yourself to the next level.

The expected lessons in management and infrastructure I started learning 15 years ago have also been intertwined with less likely experiences that have taught me a set of skills that I never would have predicted; ones that will continue to carry great value and significance in to everything I do.

So, in closing, I’d like to thank everyone involved: my clan brethren, our opponents, the admins, the broadcasters, the fans, the developers and producers, the haters, the splinter groups and offshoots, the returnees and everyone that’s been a part of Crack Clan Ten, Crack Clan Forty Two and Crack Clan — you’ve made this such a profound and satisfying experience for me that I truly feel like I’ve won the best prizes possible and am left wanting nothing else. To see our core values still there, to hang out with like-minded folks from three continents, to win both by score and by everything else while maintaining the integrity of our organization over all this time simply blows my mind, especially when I think back to all those years ago when we asked “what do you guys think about making this a regular thing?”

“Myself and the team are feeling fairly confident about the upcoming semi-final against vb. Recent we have been making great improvements to our game and have been working hard to round off our season to get the results we aim for. On the other side, word is that vb themselves haven’t been practising as of late as well. But who can argue with results? The last time these two teams met in an official vb stomped us 0-5, 4-3 on granary and viaduct respectively. This time around it will be snakewater, badlands and a process decider so it should be a good game.”

I’d like to urge all CC members who are available to tune in and support the guys, we’ll have a mumble bot set up and the game will also be casted on GreaverTV at around 13:00 CET on Sunday 28th April

In other news, the CC Youtube has started to get into the groove of things and is nearing 1k subscribers. Heres a few examples of what we have to offer:

As CC yellow begin to settle into their stride and the Crack Clan Store begins to bubble, it’s a good time for a new addition to the Crack Clan family. The Australian scene is the most vibrant group of TF2 aficionado’s in existence (after Europe & NA), boasting a number of different leagues, LAN’s and events. After months of careful consideration CC have decided to welcome CC AU to the fold, a passionate and dedicated group of individuals who have a lot to give. Here’s team leader Hayze for the lowdown:

“As a close follower of the European scene, I have always been aware of Crack Clan’s existence but never knew how much more there was to the team and what they wanted to achieve for themselves and the community. So we are very excited to become a part of it all and look forward to showing the rest of the world what Australia has to offer” cc//hayze, team leader

CC AU are @hayze @pishk @custardo @Omen @jangbanger @Francis. @Theyleon, a close-knit squad of grizzled TF2 veterans who have been enjoying some hard-earned success in the OWL & ozfortress leagues. The core of the team has been around for just over a year and theres been a recent infusion of new blood to take their game higher. Here’s dox for his motives behind the pickup:

“It’s already hard not to get too excited by the prospect of realizing true ’round-the-clock competitive gaming, but debuting a new initiative on a new continent is just exhilarating. Adding the compound effect of the personalities involved, the effort they’re putting in and the vision we share for involvement in the TF2 community at large makes for a compelling start! I’m really excited and genuinely feel lucky to find that our current campaign to raise the TF2 bar is opening doors to meet people like this; following the global Crack Clan story this season is going to be a handful!” cc//dox, CEO of CC

As much as they’d love to play all of their games in our mumble, 300 ping makes reactive calls difficult and latency/connection issues plain troublesome. I’ve been assured they will pour all of their non-comp time into the CC united mumble, so if you see any of them lurking around give them a warm welcome and get to know them a little.

In other news, ex-CC Blue scout LilCeder has made the jump over to Purple and will be starting for them full-time; with ETF2L season 15 looming just around the corner, it’s never been a better time to bolster their squad and hopefully their cohesion and success will respond quickly. Provisional divisions are out Friday and should give all of the European CC teams a good indication of what to expect over the coming months.

This weekend we’ve got @Admirable and @panzer-xiii ‘casting for charity with the Tip of the Hats fundraiser which seeks to support One Step Camp and give some kids with cancer a friend-filled camping experience. There’s a great schedule of activity and list of giveaways which you can participate in by heading over to their twitch channel all weekend long –- we’re involved even a bit more deeply with our prem squad staging an exhibition match against the newly sponsored North American TF2 HRG squad which you won’t want to miss!

But it’s not all about TF2, we’ve also got a pretty mind-spinning range of activity going on including DayZ which is getting some pretty serious attention from some of our community, @Poncho @killer87 and @FroztyReaper have created a successful service instance which involves a little bit of monsters, a bunch of role playing and a heck of a lot of customization. We launched a DayZ portal that goes in to much more detail and gives you the ability to apply so that you too can participate! Check it out — as seen on thekenburtonshow The Best DayZ Servers!

It’s also interesting how (once most people got Bioshock out of their systems) we’ve returned to taking on titles we’ve really liked in the past and give them a breath of fresh air, this may be the reality going a few months forward without big releases on our collective radars..?

@Essexboy launched a Minecraft / Feed The Beast server which is holding up well and has a fair bit of cc// running around, moving blocks and discovering the amazing things the mod has to offer. We’re always open to meeting more gamers that have a wide variety of interests, including Minecraft, so if you’ve bumped in to our site somehow and are looking for a group to chill out (and/or compete with!) then please read about us and check out the joining page.

A recent deal held on Battlefield 3′s Premium Pack has also had some of us return to trade fire across what is now 29 maps and 15 game modes and the usual cacophony of warfare which has proven to be more enjoyable than it was back when we supported competitive rosters in the area.

There’s still rounds of Chivalry going on though the competitive side of it has been put down, we also laid our GW2 Guild to rest this week after a bit of a mixed experience with the MMO title. Last night I re-visited Red Orchestra 2 across the ocean along with long-time cc//RO members @French and Goal and had a blast with the new game mode and can’t help but wonder where the game would be now if it were released in its current state – it almost seems inevitable that we should organize some kind of RO2 reunion..

Beyond that, there’s some poking around with the Company of Heroes 2 beta and even a bit of a venture in to F2P title Warframe with folks like @Shaddowmaster @Bradders @sh00rs1gn and more ganging up to kills swarms of baddies together.

Last but not least, plans are kicking off for summer activities including another i-series event in the UK and a possible return to Canada for another unique clan Gathering, this time with a wilderness vs urban theme! Along with the usual hilarity, existential discussions and random DJing in our VOIP server I’m glad to say that almost 15 years later it’s still hard to find a dull moment here at Crack Clan!

The expenses at Crack Clan are not unlike most others: web/game/VOIP servers, travel, event tickets, accommodations and so on. When we sat down to explore our revenue generation options we had to ask some hard questions..

..are donation buttons really the only reliable way to pay for things? ..is crowd-funding, the way we see it in TF2 right now, just e-panhandling? ..can we provide better value for contributors money?

Framing these types of questions within our drive to raise the community/e-sports bar in terms of experience and expectation brought an answer we’d like to introduce to you today: it’s not brilliant, it’s not a new idea, it requires more effort than other solutions, but we think it delivers..

It is our pleasure to announce the Crack Clan Store, a way that you can support the organization and also receive something tangible that’s cool or fun and arrives at your doorstep as soon as shipping allows – with 100% of the profit going straight back in to operating budget.

We’ll be trying to roll out quality items as time progresses and are also keen on hearing your feedback and ideas as to what we should/shouldn’t be doing with this! Here’s a few items you can expect to find at the store:

Limited Edition TF2 Mug, featuring headshots of our current prem lineup	Crack Community Mug with every active member represented (as of April 1st, 2013)	Crack Shot Glass for celebrating those wins with your team mates

..as well as hoodies, notebooks and more! We’d also like to invite all of you to sign up for our spam-free mailing list which we will use to occasionally inform you of significant events/items that have to do with Crack Clan!

We hope these find you well and would like to thank you for continuing to participate in our online adventures! Click through the jump to see some more photos!

Crack Clan Yellow is a healthy mixture of West and East coast denizens, each upholding the ideals of the organisation and possessing the kind of ambition Crack Clan have become notorious for. Introducing @ccjjp @kent @panzer-xiii @rabbit @tombom and @cranCARRY:

“Last night, coincidentally, someone asked me about our timeline for getting back to being involved with the North American TF2 scene. The answer isn’t so much a date as it is a state of mind: I believe that the combinations of attitude, keenness and personality take precedence over many other factors when you’re trying to build something contributory, enjoyable, stable and well performing. I’m optimistic about effectively ‘rebooting’ our NA involvement after a few years with this first step; I think these Lemons will be a great asset for our continuing mission to bring some positive effects to TF2″ – dox

And although dox will be keeping a close watch over his new partnership, the team also has an interesting host of personalities and unique things to bring to Crack Clan. Here’s team leader Panzer for his scoop:

“As the leader of the North American team Evil Villain is Lemons, we are greatly looking forward to our new partnership with Crack Clan. We hope to pioneer a new chapter in the North American division of Crack Clan and I’ve personally always liked Crack Clan and am really excited to be a part of this organization moving forward. Hopefully we can be a part of the next fifteen years of Crack Clan!” Panzer

Our first Crack Clan NA team (aka Crack Clan yellow) are a fresh and interesting part of what we have to offer the world of eSports, and their continued success relies on support and interaction from every single one of you. Make it your mission to introduce yourself to them in mumble and show them why Crack Clan is one of the most vibrant and interesting communities around!

CC Prem have had a hugely successful season, earning themselves a first-round BYE in the play-offs due to their second place position in the group stages. My personal highlight of the season was their Week 6 victory, an event that was advertised as the most exciting TF2 fixture in recent years and will be repeated later this week versus  Broder in the semi-finals. CC started their group stage last season from 4th and worked their way up to the final in a fabulous fashion and it really shows progress that they have the privileged of a jump straight to the semi’s. Best of luck boys!

cc//Purple were the only Crack Clan team to place 1st in their division, dropping a single map in 7 weeks of play and buying them a confirmed slot in Division 3 next season. Purple had the following statement:

“The 2 final matches of our season would decide our outcome in it. We figured that if we lost a single map, we would tie with our first opponents ’Icdeadbears’. The teams we would have to go through in order to secure the season win, ’IDK Insanity’ and ’Svamp’, we initially thought would provide a huge challenge.

But on second thought, we might have had to struggle since in both matches we would play Granary, which is probably our weakest map. Luckily for us, but a shame for the TF2 community, ’IDK’ folded and ’Svamp’ didn’t seem like such a challenge, especially since we were going to play two of our strongest maps.

It turned out as expected, with 5-0 on both maps. Although the scoreline doesn’t show it, there were some times where we had to struggle.

A shame about ’IDK Insanity’ folding, but GG goes to ’Svamp’.

Season summary: The season started a bit rough but getting picked up under Crack Clan’s wings and representing as the Purple Squad really gave us the motivation needed for improving like we did and to win the season. And that’s why this season is dedicated to everyone in the Crack Clan community, and to everyone who has helped us along the way.

And to the team we faced, and has survived from folding, during the season: GG and good luck in S15″
cc//ePPz

cc//Blue haven’t had as much success this season, sadly earning themselves a relegation spot after conceding a default loss to knock0ut in the final seconds of the season. dox, CEO of Crack Clan, had the following to say:

Unfortunately it doesn’t always work out as planned; with another season having slipped below expectations for this squad the executive decision has been made to hang up the Blue jerseys and disassemble the roster. I’d like to thank all the ‘keeners’ that helped write the story of this journey and brought us some great times in the past that both made Blue a force to be reckoned with and also propped it up as a great example of our “higher ground” initiatives.
cc//dox

Tune into the CC vs Broder game later this week to cheer on the boys and keep your ear to the ground for future news.

The extended interval has led to significantly more resources to document, so this edition will be comprised mostly of beautiful tables interspersed a few paragraphs of lorem ipsum filler about my favourite colour and which team member I have the biggest crush on. Before we get in to that I should mention that our SourceTV Relay is now at fakkelbrigade.eu:27100 courtesy of the inexhaustible generosity of Arie; our scene is truly blessed.

Whilst I’m in a slightly apologetic mood I should probably shoulder the blame for getting everyone’s hopes up in Battle Report #2 with tall pseudo-culinary tales of unlocking the secret Epsilon recipe for success. The figures below tell a different story of a rather one-sided engagement, but at least we managed to last 30 minutes on Process. And Snakewater? Let’s not talk about that.

Monday 18/02/2013	PCW	SOLAR	Badlands	6 – 1
			Process	5 – 0
	PCW	Broder	Snakewater	1 – 4
			Process	4 – 1
Tuesday 19/02/2013	PCW	Broder	Snakewater	2 – 2
			Gullywash	2 – 4
	PCW	BFF	Process	5 – 2
			Granary	2 – 2
Wednesday 20/02/2013	PCW	SOLAR	Granary	2 – 4
			Process	5 – 3
Thursday 21/02/2013	PCW	Team Doctrinal	Snakewater	5 – 0
			Process	2 – 1
	ETF2L	Epsilon eSports	Process	1 – 5
			Snakewater	0 – 5

As if the crushing defeat wasn’t enough, Epsilon’s Gallic frontman, KnOxXx, proceeded to interrogate me later that week in a pickup, demanding to know if I was serious in what I had written or merely guilty of bull and bluster before the big game? Of course I laughed it off like the coward I am, but in my heart I knew then as I know now; that knockoff Napoléon will taste my Übersaw come the Grand Finals. I fear no baguette!

Well as it turns out, that is not entirely true either. There is one I fear. A baguette so dangerous, his previous teammates all succumbed to a crippling insanity having witnessed his savagery first hand. You all probably bought the ETF2L cover-up about PyRo|GEN folding and you might even think you know Crack Clan’s bench warmer, T-Mac, but I’ll bet you didn’t know the T stands for TERROR! Broder didn’t know and look what happened to those guys? Horrific.

Monday 25/02/2013	PCW	Broder	Granary	1 – 4
			Process	4 – 0
	PCW	BFF	Granary	3 – 2
			Process	3 – 0
Wednesday 27/02/2013	PCW	logs.tf	Granary	7 – 1
			Process	4 – 1
	PCW	BFF	Granary	1 – 1
			Gullywash	1 – 4
Thursday 28/02/2013	PCW	BFF	Granary	3 – 0
			Gullywash	3 – 0
			Process	1 – 2
	ETF2L	Broder	Granary	3 – 4
			Process	4 – 1

Buried underneath the hyperbole there is a thread of truth, our award-winning pocket Jack ‘minimoose’ Hammer has decided his priorities lie in education and successful living. Citing a lack of time to commit to the team he has stepped back from the hookers and cocaine of eSports for now. Fortunately we had T-Mac waiting in the wings, allowing our prima donna roamer, ipz, to step in to the limelight of the pocket soldier position; the lead role in the ever unfolding drama that is Crack Clan.

As it stands now, we must secure all six points from our last fixture of the main season against Quarantine in order to merit the number two seed for the playoffs. Our fellow hopefuls BFF have a chance to snatch second from us if they can take six points from the unbeaten Epsilon eSports. A tall order for sure, but bear in mind BFF have come the closest of any team to upsetting against this Season 14 incarnation of Epsilon, taking the champions to a Golden Cap in the ETF2L Sixth Cup. More power to your elbow, kaidus!

For the record, my favourite colour is crack clan blue and I clearly have a massive crush on myself.

If the theme of last week was getting routinely smashed by Epsilon in practise, then the theme of this week was to try and emulate what they do. The first hour of our Sunday session was devoted to a discussion on changing our style of play. Having watched a few STV demos between us and ipz- even talking at length with Epsilon’s numlocked and Mike, we felt we had deciphered at least part of their recipe for victory.

That evening we tested out our strategic adjustments against Quarantine to produce some fairly one-sided games. Whilst beating on one of the Premiership’s punching bags might be good for morale, it was perhaps not an accurate indicator as to whether or not we were moving in the right direction.

On Monday we faced stiffer competition with fellow playoff hopefuls, BFF and Broder. Unfortunately BFF didn’t seem to be offering much resistance, but Broder were more than up to the task of putting us through our paces in a 60 minute slugfest. Looking back at the games, our play was good but I can see I died far too frequently with Broder’s part-time roamer Jukebox accounting for nearly 50% of my deaths.

But this is good. This is how you improve. I can recognise that I am dying too often on middles to the bombing soldier I can adjust my position accordingly and communicate to my team mates to deal with the threat.  And yet in the midst of battle I can’t always count on my team to protect me or react to my cries for help in time, but I can always just run away. Fuck those guys! Seriously, battling against your desire to support your team and your own self-preservation is one of the hardest aspects of playing Medic, but the more favourable option is almost always staying alive… even if that means death for the rest of your team.

Sunday 10/02/2013	PCW	Quarantine	Badlands	9 – 2
			Process	5 – 0
Monday 11/02/2013	PCW	BFF	Badlands	7 – 2
			Process	6 – 2
	PCW	Broder	Badlands	2 – 5
			Process	3 – 7
Tuesday 12/02/2013	PCW	Epsilon eSports	Badlands	1 – 6
			Snakewater	0 – 5
	ETF2L	Team Doctrinal	Badlands	5 – 2
			Snakewater	6 – 3
Wednesday 13/02/2013	PCW	SOLAR	Process	6 – 1
			Gullywash	4 – 2

Tuesday was to be the real acid test as we had an opportunity to try and out-Epsilon Epsilon in our warm-up game before our ETF2L Week 2 fixture. Needless to say we got smashed again, but we actually managed to win a few middles against them on Badlands, which was something we had really targeted on Sunday. Honestly, that’s a big deal for us and it was a crystallizing moment for me personally where I really began to grasp how we can beat the champions.

The main event against Team Doctrinal was one of the funniest games I’ve played in a long time. It was a fairly reckless performance from us, and we took a few rounds to figure them out. In particular, how deal with Harbleu’s North American swagger (ignore him!) and how best to wind-up our former teammate, Retsh0ck. Badlands started off with a dispute about who got to play BLU which was settled by a brutal pre-game Medic duel. Do you even need to ask who won that?! On Snakewater, banter levels eventually escalated to see an overenthusiastic Harbleu accidently taunt kill himself with the Escape Plan when he was attempting to engage in a battle of words with our own ipz-. Cue raucous laughter on Mumble and a general descent in to madness. Classic stuff.

Epsilon flaked out on our arranged Wednesday practise (happy birthday Stefan!) and we were all much too handsome and desirable to be playing on St. Valentine’s Day. We did, however, play current Division 1 frontrunner’s SOLAR on Wednesday in a game which will linger long in my memory for some explosive rage. Who was I mad at? Mostly myself…

In Premiership news baguette upstarts, PyRo|GEN, imploded after losing to Pokeman. The silver lining being that we picked up their sensational soldier and Ultiduo champion, T-Mac, as a backup. Hopefully we can teach him a thing or two, but either way he is gonna be the next big thing in European TF2.

CC Prem bagged themselves a generous helping of triumph, smashing an inconsolable  Team Decerto into a lifeless pulp, resulting in an overwhelming victory. Their next game will inevitably require more resistance as they are pitted against the “undefeatable” Epsilon eSports, a team that has remained unbeaten for almost 2 seasons. This match will inevitably be covered by TF2′s premier casting outfit VanillaTF2 and I’d recommend you all show up on the day to give our boys the support they deserve.

Crack Clan vs Epsilon eSports

Tuesday Feb 19, 20:30 CET

Crack Clan Blue have had a far less profitable week, suffering at the hands of 4kings1serb & Team Reverto in a couple of closely fought encounters. Their next game is against the prestigious Trick17 Black in an attempt to bounce back and restablish themselves as the powerhouse we all know they are.

Crack Clan // Blue vs Trick17 Black

CC Purple have been on the receiving end of Lady Luck sunny disposition this week, securing themselves a prime position with a victory over the appropriately named Nolife. They are set to start off next week with a bang against their next wave of opponents (the interestingly titled LASERSHARKCATBEAR) and will be hoping to add some more notches to their belt. This is what foreman  ePPz had to say regarding their official triumph:

“Process was slow to begin with, but when the first round ended we gained a lot of momentum and that helped us win. The 2nd map, gullywash, was a bit harder due to the Frenchies pulling out the pesky heavy+sniper-combo, but in the end we dealt with it by utilising a heavy of our own. The best thing of the evening was the mumble, both me and the boys thinks so”

How positive! This is exactly the kind of quote I would love to receive from every one of the Crack Clan teams after an official; purple leading by example