Wow stotzi! I'm impressed that you were able to remember so much of the story!
However, I will clarify a few things:
Falkomagno and I are the last two original members still in RA. When the RA/War split occurred there were 8 original members left:
jsnyder, gabriel, shm, answa, falko, vaz, roks, Violet
Also two more players, who weren't original players, but had been in RA for awhile:
mrpipes, stevenshome, elmerfudd
When the others left, they gave no notice, so we were all shocked. It would of been much more tactful if they had said, "Hey we are thinking about leaving and forming and new clan and here is why..........."
I just literally logged onto CC one day, and saw they were gone. These were people that I had played with for two years and considered to be friends. Never did I think they would just up and leave like that. Especially being that half of those members, I had recruited myself, so I'd think they'd have a better sense of loyalty, or at least the decency to say something to me. Well, at the time, it surprised me. In retrospect, it doesn't. It's kind of ironic how many players I recruited that ended up in War. Good thing for me though, was that I was even better at recruiting the second time around
So on with the story- of course, we are all shocked and angry in for forums. The reactions amongst the remaining members varied. I found stevenshome's reaction to be the most humorous.
He basically says to me, "Yeah, how dare they do that. Yeah that is too bad. Well, you know, I think I'm just going to leave clan life for now and go back to playing my singles and standard games. I want to enjoy some time being clanless."
I say something like, "While I am sorry to see you go; you are a great player; but I understand. Best of luck to you! Maybe reconsider some day."
Not even five minutes later, he messages sdh and says, "can I join War?"
Next thing you know, he's in, and I'm like, "You really think that I wouldn't have found out?"
To be honest, I didn't get that mad. I just laughed at his attempt to be sneaky.
Vaz and roks also quickly left to try to join war. Once I found out, I immediately dropped both of them.
Some other interesting stories happening around the time:
Keefie had left RA about two weeks before this all happened, which was probably good timing on his part. He went on to start HH, and the rest was history.
GeneralRisk told me that he would join RA after his recruitment process. So then I go to add him, and to my surprise- I see that he is in The Pack, which had just started around that time.
I go back to him and he's like, "Oh, I can't be in two clans." Yeah right, like he didn't know
He should've just been honest and said, "I decided to join The Pack instead." I completely understood, as Pack was a MUCH better clan at the time. They might still be.
RedArmy left shortly after Keefie and remains clanless to this day.I assumed she left because Keefie did, but I was surprised that she never joined HH.
Jsnyder, who I have nothing but the highest respect for, was also shocked and angry. He refused to join WAR, but decided to join ID. I have a lot of respect for ID, and many friends in that clan. I wish him all the best! He's one of the few that truly left RA on very good terms.
Anyway, after the above left, I had the following members left:
gabriel, shm, answa, falko, mrpipes, lildanbassman, judahslion, Violet
This was only 8, and not enough to keep RA open. We all had a thoughtful discussion of whether or not we should disband. The other 7 said, "Vio, you are our sole leader now and we look to you to rebuild us." I was pretty much moved to tears by that comment. I told them I was up for the job and together, we would rebuild RA to a clan better than ever before.
I sent a desperate message to fuzzy316 and imstillurdaddy. I had been playing team games with them for awhile, and knew they were interested in a clan. They were lifesavers at the time, and agreed to join RA. I now had 10, so no danger of closing.
I then started the Attacker's Academy. I had wanted to do that for a long time, but sdh and gradybridges were not supportive of it. Now that they were gone, I had the full power to make all the changes that I knew needed to happen with RA.
In the meantime, I frequented LiveChat, and told everybody, and their mommas, cousins, etc. the story, and many volunteered to help me. IcePack was a great mentor. Members from KORT and ID offered to either be teachers, or just assist me with games, scrimmages and events in the academy. Now since when do members of one clan help to rebuild another clan? This was pretty much unheard of and completely selfless of them. I had people during my CC career who have either helped me learn how to play teamgames, certain maps, given me general advice or clan advice. I am extremely grateful for this, as it helped to make my CC experience SO much better!
Many thanks to Bruceswar, josko, Merch313, janeaustin, rodion,
MudPuppy, phastscotty, ebconqueror, namlian, dazerazer, masterchief, and I'm sure I've left some off the list. Oh, I can't forget ViperOverLord. He was a fantastic help!
GallantPelham and even Bogan (cough cough) were actually great mentors to me and RA in our very very early days. They were extremely helpful, I will always give them credit for that. I can elaborate more on that later.
So basically, I had a lot of support, motivation, recruiting, timing, and of course, lots of luck.
Unfortunately, gabriel, shm, answa, elmerfudd didn't make it through the Academy. As I stated before, I am actually pretty tough to play under, and not everyone can handle that. I am not just tough concerning play skill, but with behavior as well.
Mrpipes completely went MIA on us. I was very fond of him, and I hope he returns to CC and RA someday. Peanutman is another great member who went MIA earlier this year.
lildanbassman and judahslion had to leave due to real life issues.
That leaves me and falko as the only two original members now. Everyone else was recruited through our Academy and the rebuilding phase. Some have even joined us within the last few weeks/months.
As stotzi already mentioned- Janomike was the KEY recruitment. Through him, a lot of things fell into place. He recruited people, I recruited people and then our recruits started recruiting people and so on.
In the old RA, I was always trying to recruit, but many didn't beleive in us and left. The second time around, I had MUCH better luck with recruting. Our players were loyal, faithful and determined to stick around and see RA succeed.
Hopefully now, after putting both stozi and my stories together, you all can get a better sense of RA's history.
I could actually go on and on, but this post is already so long. I can elaborate more in another post, if more are interested in learning how RA was rebuilt. Sorry for the long post. I can be quite chatty when talking about a subject that I enjoy, such as RA