BLITZ was founded on the 6th of September 2002, although originally under the name Roughnecks [R] by an Aliens vs. Predator 2 player called Pulser. Setting up the clan with ranks from Trial (an initiate member) through a series of cool sounding but unnecessary ranks to Clan Leader, Pulser and the clan's early members such as iiepsakee opened recruiting season on the Roughnecks. The clan expanded quickly, recruiting heavily to bring the wealth of splendid types from the avp2 pool to the clan and define the direction of the clan. Goldfish, Anubis, gtveee, Weed Smoker, Brooker (who provided an excellent T3 server for free), Nexus, Darkowl and others took up the call and designated themselves members of the Roughnecks. AvP2 wasn't old then, but had been out for a few months; established clans existed( such as X-LR, RIP, 360, WPC, HEL, SS, RFA and more) and rightly dominated the game. However, unlike many new clans, the Roughnecks bore personality, a mature sense and honor before frags, and judged harshly on those who applied to join, which fostered an early and important respect within the clan. Exploits were banned outright, along with cheats, hacks and other nonsense. The members ages were of a good, maturer section (though the members themselves might not have been) and a comfortable, adult mood settled on the clan and camaraderie was easy coming.


Within a matter of weeks after its founding, Roughnecks changed its name. 101st Colonial Marines Clan were nicknamed Roughnecks internally; but it was plastered all over their website, and so realizing that this absurd connection must be severed, Pulser convened with iiepsakee, and pondering the renaming of the clan, his eyes settled upon a car poster in his room and the word inscribed upon it. BLITZ.


The name was greeted and so Roughnecks was slain and its bastard child BLITZ arose from the ashes. iiepsakee now joined Pulser as a Leader of the clan, and with his input on the website, artwork and approach to organization, the overall ambience of the site and clan attitude altered for the better. The clan's image became more renegade and original, an uncontrollable domestic within the avp2 landscape, and an identity which would last until its twilight years the clan was finally ready to face the world.


However, all was not completely well within BLITZ. Goldfish (leader of the Aliens) and others left quietly from the clan and many from the game; some merely faded to inactivity. The clan's recruitment stepped up and once again and a wave of new players joined. Stoned Raider, Dace, Paca, Woosh, and a short bit later, Jester_9mm joined. This was fortunate for the clan as many of these players not only developed into excellent players but quickly and above all else, supremely active and involved participants within the clan.


BLITZ consistently had 10+ players in its server each night of the week, consistently raiding other servers and packing its own. This concerted effort paid off, and the clan started to become a strong contender very early on with the larger, more experienced clans and found moderate successes against many of them.


Soon most of its players begun to earn names for themselves, some earning recognition within the community; but more importantly some showed emerging qualities that would benefit the clan through time. All this boosted the reputation and spirits of the clan, along with several clan match wins, and applications soared.
Clouds, however, gathered on the horizon. Pulser left BLITZ. Normally the founding member and leader of a new clan leaving after only a couple of months could crush a clan, but BLITZ was charged with purpose and intent, and with iiepsakee taking on the reigns of leadership, BLITZ forged on stronger.


Iiepsakee redesigned the clan and the website entirely, befitting the change in leadership and identity. Almost all ranks were utterly abolished, and those remaining were made sensible. The clan now consisted of a Leader, Species Leaders, Trainers and Members. Species Leaders were formally set, their squads defined. Anubis led the Aliens, Darkowl took over the mantle of the preds and Dace led the humans. Recruiting continued and BLITZ, playing at least 2-4 matches a week, was highly active and motivated. 2003 dawned and as alway the clan continued to make strides. Having joined the AvP2 League late on in 2002, the new season rolled around and BLITZ met the challenge with rare verve. Members changed slightly, but largely a central base of 10 consistent, skilled and highly active players kept the fire burning bright in the belly of the BLITZ beast.


In a close group with Species Slayers, BLITZ won its division in the league in its very first season. Spirits within the clan were high and applications continued to soar. BLITZ had by now lost gtveee, Nexus, Pulser, Weed Smoker, and soon Paca would be leaving on long periods of inactivity. However, as the clan continued to recruit strong characters and more long standing players such as Jimmy, Craven, Zenio, Devil and Snowchief would find their way into the midst of the bastard clan. Others were kicked for idiocies or pointlessness, some were refused joining.


[BLITZ]Jimmy


The good times didn't falter at first though. The clan still played consistent matches, invaded servers and filled up its own. BLITZ organized fests with up to and over 12 members taking part and there being too many to fit in the server. Spam fests, shotgun fests, predator disc fests and special recognitions on the website for those that won. In all the clan was utterly enjoying itself. There was another reorganization within the clan and humans were separated into Marines and Corps, with Dace leading the Marines and Jester_9mm leading the Corps. Woosh would assist the leadership of Preds with Darkowl.


BLITZ continued to rise in standing within the community and soon started beating the best clans. Scarcely was a match ever lost at one point. There was much paranoia in this time within the AvP2 community concerning skins, cheats and other such silliness. The game was known as flawed and easily cheated at. BLITZ, despite occasional finger pointing, thankfully never embraced any of this nonsense. RuzeRoneR, a potent but volatile alien joined the clan. Another two key players joined,the double French entendre of Hammer and Xander, both would prove invaluable in the power of BLITZ in servers and in running the clan in their own ways. BLITZ at this time probably had the best line up of any clan in AvP2 for humans, and its aliens and preds were both powerful, respected, solid teams. It would be apt to say that this was the golden era of the clan in terms at least of teamwork, unified efforts, active member count and results.


Again another structural change within the clan occurred early in 2003, Dace became Assistant Clan Leader, Jester_9mm took over the unified humans now known as The Coalition. As members left over time, others joined, like the runner extraordinaire that is Asbel. Yippo who would go onto larger things within the clan joined, as did the talented Durandal. As summer dawned, iiepsakee took leave from the clan. Promising to return later in the summer, Dace was charged with leading BLITZ as clan leader for that time. BLITZ fought hard in the ensuing league season which is regarded to be the toughest season in its history, and ended a respectable (if disappointing) runner up. Still, the clan was largely proud of its achievements and did itself more than proud outwith the standards of the League. The members were established with other clans within the community, but mainly they continued to re-establish themselves where it counted; in the servers. BLITZ enjoyed a continual and steady stream of applications and respect, and was now seen as one of the best clans of AvP2. The clan had reached an important milestone.


As promised, iiepsakee returned in August, and Dace returned him to Clan Leader status and resumed his previous post as Assistant Clan Leader, however iiepsakee proposed could lead the clan and thus BLITZ now had 2 co-leaders. iiepsakee instigated several changes upon his return, his break had given him fresh energy and he had many ideas about the clan. Trainings and such were introduced proper. Jester reorganized the humans into teams to incite competition within, one side led by Devil and the other by Zenio. As winter encroached another league season fell upon the clan, which was no big issue as, constantly playing matches, the clan would always be up for a battle.


Unfortunately, BLITZ did not give a great accounting of itself in this season and it was only with a valiant final push did the clan make it to runners up again. BLITZ found itself now in 2004, and little was the major change for some time. iiepsakee and Dace joined the league as official admins, and BLITZ itself was more involved within the community. Not only were its two leaders amongst the new admins of a rebirthed league, but BLITZ itself became more open to "outsiders", as the community shrunk, the forum became further populated by others. The clan was never in any alliance or officially declare another clan a "friend", but there were those with whom the clan associated more than others, such as Army of Rebels, Death b4 Dishonor and a few others, although BLITZ was largely on good terms with most clans. BLITZ held its own tournament, a kind of friendly come grudge setup involving a small number of small teams (very simple). It was mainly organized by iiepsakee and Jester; iiep had left the league after one season as an admin. The tournament proved a moderate success, and was largely welcomed by players seeking for ways to keep interest in the aging AvP2. BLITZ also recruited Warlord, who would also become an important addition within the clan. As noted, early 2004 saw little change in the clan; however yet another hierarchical change would be on the cards. Jester joined the clan's overall leadership as an assistant leader and Yippo found himself leading the tenacious coalition.




Late in the of 2004, Dace and iiepsakee became substantially less active in BLITZ. Dace all but left the clan (at least as leader) having met romance whereas iiepsakee was also in similar woods. Jester (with dramatic events himself) stepped up and with occasional input from Dace and support from iiepsakee effectively led BLITZ through the rest of the year and into 2005. Yippo also acted far above the call of his duty, essentially becoming a vague leader-type but certainly bringing the clan through some difficult periods. This was a particularly rough period, as AvP2 waned so did members interest. Some would leave, others decline their activity; finding other games or commitments, the game's symptomatic demise would impact the clan as all else in its twilight time.


Jester, seeking to leave AvP2 behind and bring the clan struggling and biting into the modern era of gaming, proposed alternate, newer games for the clan. Battlefield 2 was chosen as Jester and Darkowl (who had remained on throughout an extended period of inactivity within the game by being active within the BLITZ council of leadership) spearheaded BLITZ onto BF2, with excellent support from Yippo who juggled AvP2 into the mix and taking on much responsibility there.


Alas, with a seperate avenue taking focus and direction from BLITZ AvP2, the clan's fate was sealed. Die-hard AvP2ers still remain on within BLITZ, however late 2005 had barely a match to speak of. It's possible 2006 didn't have any and there won't be one in 2007 either. BLITZ hasn't had a server in AvP2 for a year. The end of the BLITZ era in AvP2 ended with the game. Recruitment and once iron-clad principles have been set aside for friends and buddies there. If anything, the bastard child of Roughnecks won't surrender easily. The clan has moved on in many ways, but AvP2 is still where it all began and there are those who remember and cherish the highs and lows that birthed the bastard in BLITZ back then, when an indefinable but hungry clan earned its destiny.

- Dace

~

NOTE

This is simply a history of the clan as an overall whole basis and key elements such as leadership (and change thereof) and outstanding members joining/leaving. To write about the members that have had effects (both profound and problematic) would take a substantial amount of time and much more effort. It's almost a shame to leave out the valiant phantom-o-matic head removing beast of destruction that was Hammer's heavy pred or Xander's laser-sharp aim. The lameness of Zenio whenever he was losing or the strength of purpose and teamwork of Snowchief at all times. The battles and rants between Yippo and Ruzeroner. Perhaps this and more will be added to this history of BLITZ in AvP2, with greater concern to members that made the clan what it was. And perhaps on those late nights, after too many beers and a meander through hard drives, screenshots and cyber space, we might find such a tale and lose ourselves in nostalgia for awhile. Before shaking our heads of such things and joining the action wherever BLITZ is battling for the sheer sake of it.

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