Our history
By DSL (5/4/02-17/1/05), Former BF Division Commander
2002: The Genesis
In August 2002, I had been playing Delta Force: Land Warrior for *AUS* for about 6 months. At around this time the single player demo of Battlefield 1942 had been out for a a few weeks. It had one map, Tobruk, involving an epic tank battle somewhere in the deserts of Africa. The demo probably crashed about 99 times out of 100 in the first 6 seconds of gameplay. On those rare occasions that the game wouldn't crash, I was totally immersed in World War II. It was around this time that I decided to start a clan devoted to this game, I knew it had great potential and what the hell, I was unemployed at the time and had nothing better to do. I had some webspace so I decided to setup a forum and website. Shortly afterwards the multiplayer demo came out, once again, one map, Wake Island, a tropical paradise with naval ships and aircraft. After playing this 24/7 I knew that this game would be very popular and the recruits had already started to come in.
The first batch of recruits were those who I met playing DF in *AUS*, they included Rev, Stiiixy, TheBFG and DropBear. Having not settled on a name for the clan, we sought permission from the Australian Universal Soldiers Delta Force clan founder Camouflage to call ourselves *AUS*. He let us use the name and even hooked us up with web hosting on the *AUS* site. This was the beginning of what is now called the *AUS* Network, which at one stage or another has had 7 divisions since August 2002 spanning Delta Force, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Joint Operations, Star Wars, Vietcong and Raven Shield.
Fortunately for us, Telstra's GameArena decided that they'd host Battlefield servers and run a ladder for teams to compete against each other in Australia. *AUS* have been a part of this ladder since the very beginning, albeit with 2 re-structures! Suffice to say that the team that plays for the current *AUS* Battlefield 1942 team, *AUS*: Kriegbruder, does not contain one single player from *AUS* who has been in the clan since 2002!
Admittedly by the end of 2002, *AUS* BF were not the most successful of Battlefield 1942 teams, we had some issues to sort out and thankfully some of our members got to voice their opinions to me personally when I flew up to Sydney for the first official *AUS* Network LAN. These ideas, over about 18 beers too many mind you, were invaluable to our success in the coming months. Division attendees included Straka, Bigbird, Rev, Def, TheBoy, TheBFG and yours truly. It was at this time that we first decided to re-structure the GA team and have a clean start, already we had a handful of members who had disappeared without a trace, or simply did nothing but turn up to matches. We made it a point to be better prepared for matches and it was from this point on that we adopted a rigorous training ethic. You had to put your name down for matches from now on, nobody was to show up to matches without having attended all the training sessions scheduled for the match. Those who I felt had put in a decent effort at training were the ones I wanted representing us in battle.
2003: The Rise, Fall and Rise of *AUS* Battlefield
We had grabbed the bull by its horns and we were shaking it around the paddock. 2003 should have been our year. Starting fresh from the bottom of the ladder, we managed to crawl our way back with 5 successive wins. We had some excellent recruits earlier on in the year, Deathmonger and DeadManWalkin' spring to mind, they became a legendary force to be reckoned with in the sky, DMW still hangs around today as our treasurer. Other notable early year recruits were Clintcom, Eagle and Stermite. These days, Clintcom is the leader of a succesful gaming clan, Eagle is a leading officer who still faithfully serves *AUS* BF and Sterm served *AUS* for almost 2 years and in that time became, arguably, our most well known player.
By April, our team was making an impact, we had proven ourselves worthy with some big wins and established a good reputation within the community as a friendly team whose members were never afraid to speak their minds. At about this time I had started working night shift 5 times a week. Given that most of our matches and pracs were scheduled at night this meant that I had to take a break till I could sort something out. Thankfully Straka was there to help out as my 2ic, not one week earlier he had become my 2ic, he had announced his retirement, I didn't want to see him go and hence offered him the position of 2ic. Bigbird joined him as a captain and together the two kept the wheels in motion, just barely, not that it was ever an easy task.
By the middle of the year, July 2003 to be precise, we had held another LAN meeting, this time in Melbourne. We had about 17 attendees, Rev even resurfaced after a 6 month unexplainable absence, to the surprise of many, Straka had managed to track him down. Some of the big names were there at the time: Straka, Stermite, Morden, Clintcom, REV, Bigbird, Antsman, DropBear and Widget to name a few. There were some players there that I didn't even know and who didn't even know of me. I had become so detached from the clan at this point, it was a rather awkward feeling. Really the Melbourne LAN was Straka's showcase as a leader, he was the man in charge at the time. I had come to the realisation that although my name was still on the roster as numero uno, it was only there as a token. *AUS* wasn't as competitively successful under Straka's leadership as under mine, but he had still earned the respect of the majority of our players.
The LAN was a big wake up call for me, I knew deep down that ditching the team for a few months was wrong and it was never my intention to let these guys down. I decided to cut down on my hours at work and take charge again. It was a difficult task earning the respect of the players who had never met me and regaining the respect of players who had. Truth beknown I never did get everyone's respect back. Shortly after coming back to take reign again, Straka and Bigbird decided to leave and start their own clan, a total of 10 members left to join them from our ranks. This was probably the lowest time in our history but at the same time, we needed this reality check. Thus began the monumental task of rebuilding the *AUS* BF Clan after being left with just 8 active players.
We were set to play Veni Vidi Vici and we weren't prepared to go down without a fight. All 8 of our active members showed up for this match and to get us through it we used our latest recruits Eldanno, Hawkeye and PsiPhiKul plus a couple of Eldanno's mates, CaptTerrific and Rhodes. I had promoted loyal players Deathmonger and DeadManWalkin to help me captain the team and we were probably the most disorganised we had ever been in a battle, I was embarrassed at the arse-whooping we got but happy just to be able to scrounge together a team. If I remember correctly the scores were 411-0 on El Alamein. It was the same story our next match, we just managed to scrape some members together and lost 324-0 to Iron Blitzkrieg.
The new website that Camouflage had made for us was ace, I credit this as our most successful marketing tool, we began receiving more recruits than I could ever have dreamed of. We had started to pick up some momentum again. Our next challenge came from a team called Drunkards in Combat, captained by none other than Straka and Bigbird and comprising mostly of ex-*AUS* alumni. The map was Wake Island and we beat them 346-0. A very ironic win, DIC, the team that left us in a state of near disrepair had just bent over and felt the full thrust of the rehabilitated *AUS* taking off.
By the end of the season, we had notched up a respectable win:loss ratio, we were unfortunate to finish so low on the ladder even after winning our final 4 matches for the season but such is the nature of the GameArena ladder. Besides, our attention was distracted with the new Desert Combat ladder, we quickly signed up and had a team ready for it. We had managed to coax Clintcom back from DIC to lead our DC team and his brother Edcom was an added bonus too. TheRock and MrPlow also joined us at about this time. Back then we made Rocky trial for 2 months because we were a bit unsure about his odd behaviour!
Our first DC match was a bit of a let down. We lost to skillz killz 918-0. This was some sort of record at the time for the biggest loss but it was also one of the first ever recorded DC matches. We were fairly disorganised and I feel that this coincided with some odd decision making from leadership, myself included. Vanilla captains DM, DMW and myself all decided after the big 918-0 loss that we didn't want to touch DC with a 20 foot pole. Clintcom decided to retire and he named Edcom his replacement captain and Hawkeye the 2IC, now under our rules, another officer wouldn't normally make a big decision like that without first consulting the other officers. But considering that DC wasn't our flavour, we sat back and let the ball roll. Big mistake! Thankfully this situation only lasted a few weeks before Edcom cited differences in opinion, largely mine, as his reason for resignation.
By the end of the year we had a new DC Captain, MrPlow and some great new recruits, Ratty, Isolationist, Fornax and Centauris.
2004: DC Plows Ahead
For the first time ever, the *AUS* Battlefield Division was sailing smoothly. Our DC team was performing above expectations, consistently in the top 8 during season 1 and our BF team was doing okay, hanging around the middle of the ladder, although slowly losing momentum. In a short space of time MrPlow had led the DC team to unparalleled success by *AUS* standards. I got to meet MrPlow in person for the first time at the *AUS* Brisbane LAN in January 2004. This was a LAN that I really enjoyed, CaptTerrific was my roommate during the trip, he had flown in from Perth and I had flown in from Melbourne and we stayed at a place that had a pub, bottleshop, restaurant and nightclub all in one!
I got to meet a whole bunch of guys for the first time (in person) including Eagle, Deathmonger, DMW, Hawkeye, Davaro, DaBing, Centauris, Fornax and Eldanno. This was the first *AUS* network-wide LAN since Sydney 2002 and we had about 30 people attending all up. MrPlow was named player of the year for the BF division, despite only being a member for less than 6 months! After the lan, CaptTerrific and I hooked up with Plow and his Mrs and drove down to Movie World on the Gold Coast. Enjoyable experience except for the fact that I am shit-scared of rides! Highlight of the day was riding on "Spooky", not because I enjoyed the ride, I was petrified, instead because we had a recently departed clan member whose nick was Spooky and we all got to come back saying we rode Spooky, hard and fast and in the dark with 10 strangers.
The DC team ended up finishing the season in 2nd place, this was our greatest moment to date. We ended up losing both our finals matches to relegate us to 5th position but this was still well above our expectations coming into the season with a 918-0 loss and a 2:7 win:loss record. The aftermath of the finals was a busy time for us, many important events occurring simultaneously. Sterm became *AUS*'s first and only GameOp, Battlefield Vietnam came out, and we had yet another LAN! This time in Melbourne.
Attending this LAN: Myself, Stermite, Ratty, The Rock, Silencer (Dr.), Fornax, Davaro, MrPlow, MudMan, CaptTerrific, SnypR, Piss_ton, Eldanno, Isolationist, Solaris (Dr.), Castor Troy, Gaddo, Corporal Punishment (TBI), Major Damage (TBI) and funny man Wolfen (V3). Echo-ing the trend at the time, we mostly played Desert Combat but there was also some Battlefield Vietnam going on. I don't think we successfully got a vanilla match off the ground.
Which is why after the lan we almost decided to chop vanilla out of our lineup entirely because we were faced with the daunting task of having 3 competitive ladder teams at once, BF42, DC and Battlefield Vietnam. With DM and DMW concentrating on playing BFV rather than leading, we promoted Woobee to look after the vanilla team. Then we had the problem of MrPlow disappearing off the radar after the LAN. CaptTerrific took over the reigns of DC and I was concentraiting on getting the Vietnam team up and running. This was a very disorganised time indeed and a stressful time for the leaders.
Even our DC team was having its ups and downs with Plow disappearing, Ratty concentrating on administrative duties, Sterm's resignation, Centauris' departure to TBI earlier in the year and me concentrating on BFV. The BFV team played a few matches, but we never did get it together, it was running at a detriment to the vanilla and DC teams, we just didn't have the ability to look after three teams so we decided to pull out of Vietnam and concentrate on what we did best, DC and BF42. After promoting Fornax to help CapTerrific with DC and TheRock for vanilla, all we had to do now was promote some interest into the vanilla team.
A dedicated vanilla *AUS* player by the name of Timmy was able to get us talking with Kriegbruder about merging vanilla teams. We ended up merging and changing our vanilla team's name to *AUS*:Kriegbruder and beginning our 3rd incarnation on the vanilla ladder. We managed to get a few good recruits out of this, namely Corpse and CrabPeople, although CrabPeople left *AUS* soon after. Only time will tell if this was a successful decision on our behalf. If it gets people playing vanilla, then that's all that counts.
After BFV's demise, the DC team returned to strength, with the leadership of CaptTerrific, Fornax and The Rock and top notch performances from players like Isolationist, Tom, SnypR, Stealth Raptor and NinetyNine. I feel so fortunate to have been apart of this dream team towards the end of 2004. I was able to be just another player and not have to worry about ordering people around, I missed out on such a luxury for too long. I also witnessed, with great confidence, the ability of the leaders of our current team to handle any situation. It was very comforting knowing that, the buck doesn't only stop with me. Late 2004 is when I realised three things. Firstly, we have leaders whose ability and motivation is far greater than my own. Secondly, I noticed the amount of players who have been in the clan for longer than a year, some coming up to two years now. Meaning that *AUS* is maturing as a team. Thirdly, my own usefulness and motivation as a leader and player had, putting it nicely, expired.
2005: DS Who?
On January 17th I resigned from *AUS*. I felt as though I had given it my all. If I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I would have done it all over again because I've made some great friends out of this. Camo and I decided on Fornax to take my place and it'll be his job to write the rest of 2005's history in 2006, or in 2008 if it were me. Things appear to be going smoothly since my departure, it's now March 8 and *AUS* is ranked 2nd on the Battlefield 1942 ladder and 3rd on the Desert Combat ladder. I wonder what trials and tribulations lie ahead?
JBar picks up the storybook...
After DSL left, the torch was handed to Fornax as Division Commander. Under new leadership *AUS* continued to excel in the Desert Combat ladder, winning most of their matches and making the finals. Unfortunately we couldn't quite pull it off in the end, getting knocked out of the finals at the last minute.
Battlefield 2 was released in June 2005 and it received a mixed reception from *AUS*. All of the new members loved it - after all, they joined because they had played the demo. However the DC guys were split - half of them enjoyed the game while the other half couldn't adjust to it after DC. Unfortunately for *AUS*, all of the officers were in the second group and BF2 started slowly for us.
It has often been said by *AUS* members and the wider gaming community, that during the 1942 and DC days *AUS* was one of the best defensive teams around. Because of the huge success *AUS* had during these games, the same sort of strategies were applied to BF2. We scrimmed a number of teams before Season 1 of the GameArena 16v16 BF2 ladder began and got slaughtered every time. Morale dropped, tempers flared and in the end Fornax left and The_Heretic stepped up as Division Commander. It was then that most of the old DC'ers moved on from *AUS* and we finally started to move on with Battlefield 2.
2006: EA And DICE Screw Us Over
On the 30th of January 2006 we played our first ladder match (yes, it took THAT long for the ladder to start). It was against Bushrangers on Dalian Plant. I would like to say that we played well. Hell, I would like to say that we played kinda okay. But no, we were beaten 319 - nil. THREE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN TO NOTHING! To this day, it is the worst defeat we have ever suffered. Needless to say we were rattled.
Our first win didn't come for two months and was quickly followed by two losses. So far BF2 and *AUS* weren't exactly getting along. We were still a very defensive team and we were struggling to realise that our once successful tactics wouldn't work in Battlefield 2.
GameArena Season 1 was interrupted for the launch of the 1.3 patch which brought with it a whole host of problems. Basically, 1.3 broke the game and put the season on hold for months and months, turning a 12 week season into almost 24. It was during this downtime that Bullitmagnet and JBar was promoted to Officers by The Heretic. The clan scrimmed where possible and JBar initiated an *AUS* internal infantry only ladder called the *AUS* Ladder. This was to help develop infantry skills, an area we struggled with prior to the infantry only game mode that came with a future game patch. Data was collected from each of these IO matches and it allowed the officers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each member. Matches with specific kits were organised to help get everyone increase their skills. These turned out to be a huge success and were enjoyed by all members that participated.
The 2006 BF Division LAN was held in Bendigo at the end of September, still deep in the downtime of the Season 1 outage. Mostly Melbourne players went, but some went down from Queensland as well. Soon after, Gemini Wraith was promoted to an Officer and the season got back under way after the 1.4 patch came out.
*AUS* struggled a lot, tensions were high at this point and losses came more frequently than wins as we floated around the 75th spot on the very big 100+ registered teams (that's over 100 16v16 teams!!) ladder. The goal was always a top 40 or top 30 position but it just didn't seem attainable. Despite our struggle we were having amazing success in the smaller XGN Capture the Flag ladder which we entered just for fun. No strats and no prac – just show up and play and we won almost every game. GO GO GO, recklessly aggressive was the game plan we came up with always minutes before each game. This was later to rub off on some of our real game strats.
Despite this happy little diversion, each win in the GameArenaa ladder was a fairly hollow victory and we knew it, defeating teams in close games that we should have comfortably won and the losses were quite devastating. It wasn't long before fights were common place each night after a game in Teamspeak. Everyone would vent and after the inevitable ragequit, the fight would then spill into the forums. It was clear things had to change.
Some very open soul searching went underway in the forums, pages and pages of what each person had to say, everyone detailing what it was that they wanted from the clan and their time in it. No longer were we happy with just a social arrangement - we had talented players and the skills to take us much further up the ladder and so people started saying as much. Some people's feelings were hurt, others were scared they would no longer get games and so some people left - including The Heretic, who went to begin a career in the JungleWraiths clan.
Bullitmagnet, JBar, Lingus and Gemini Wraith, being Officers, promoted Lord_Barra and SVTwin to the officer rank of Lieutenant and the clan began to re-invent itself. It was also decided that there would be no Commanding Officer, whose decisions - being right or wrong, would decide the direction of the clan. Instead officers would discuss and vote on all major decisions. It seemed to work for us right off the bat. Our most skilled players were always picked first for upcoming games, irrespective if they were able to attend prac or not (within reason) which used to be a prerequisite for any game placement. So we went on to win the last three games prior to the season ending and we finished in 29th.
High pub activity, a great atmosphere in the clan and a growing name in the community had applicants flooding in. We soon had to start a 10v10 team in the Gamespace ladder to allow members not getting a game to have a run. We named it the Light Infantry Division and used it as a way of evaluating the skills of new members to the clan in real match situations. Unfortunately this imploded rather quickly for numerous reasons, the primary one being lack of support from players and the passion of those running it far exceeded that of those participating. So frustrations boiled over to fights and it was clear it had to end. Some shaky ground for the new management structure hit and Gemini Wraith left the clan due to a difference of opinion with an officer vote not going the way he thought best. Gemini Wraith was succeeded by the rising star of Rogue who was promoted to Lieutenant. We then tried to get back to business as usual.
Battlefield 2142 was just out and we were just waiting for that ladder to start up. Scrim activity for BF2 was still high as the new officer group set about running internal ladders and organising scrims and developing new strats and a new attacking mindset for the clan. GameArena Season 2 started after 3 weeks downtime and a new 10v10 ladder was added to the menu. This proved to be more of a success with GameArena than it was with Gamespace and many clans who had troubles with numbers dropped from the 16v16 ladder to start again in the 10v10. As a result, the *AUS* 16v16 team started in a revised position of 15th on the ladder.
2007: Rebuilding
We were winning most games and having a ball. Bullitmagnet was commanding and our clan was starting to get the attention of other clans and key figures in the community. The newly forged scrim\big brother relationship forged with the AvA clan helped us immensely and a permanent scrim arrangement was setup with the 3FSJ clan and so we had our hands full each week - playing games, scrimming, practicing and developing skills.
10v10 still struggled for *AUS* though, tentatively being run by Steric and Blacky. It was clear some new leadership was required there. Rogue took control – he was still fairly new to the clan and even newer to his officer role, but took up LiD to continue it as a proving ground for *AUS* applicants.
Back to 16v16, the ladder was locked after a fantastic Season 2 for *AUS*. We secured 4th spot on the ladder and a guaranteed finals placing. Practicing every night for a game and despite ALL expectations (even our own) *AUS* defeated the undisputed season kings of AvA on Dalian Plant by the narrowest of margins. It was a huge upset and all of a sudden *AUS* was re-evaluating its expectations for the season. Securing a ‘free' week, *AUS* trained harder than ever before and defeated =H1I= on Mashtuur City the following week to secure a spot in the grand final! We now had to wait a few days to see who we would end up playing, but it was clear that whoever it was, we would be facing a scrim partner in the grand final - either AvA or 3FSJ. 3FSJ it was, after AvA went down to them on the Gulf of Oman in another upset.
The grand final week was an event all in itself - massive amounts of scrims and pracs and countless hours spent on the Karkand map studying this and that. The clan was alive. Everything was on hold, no 10v10 or 2142 activity for *AUS* - all our energy were devoted to the grand final.
On game night we loaded in as nervous as could be, and the atmosphere was electric. The Harry and Momo live shout cast show of the event had been running for an hour already in build-up to the game. And the game itself was hectic. *AUS* won the first round as USMC but not by an acceptable margin - only 15 tickets. It was a blow and 3FSJ really had the advantage now. A last minute strategy change was implemented and on rollout out as MEC we tried a few new and untested things. We fought so hard that despite the poor first round, we could actually win it in the dying minutes of round two. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and despite our best efforts we went down by 7 tickets. *AUS* fought hard, as did 3FSJ for the closest margin in a grand final in GameArena's BF2 history.
It was a loss that we summed up to countless 'little mistakes' and one or two 'significant ones', but with 7 tickets, any little thing done wrong, if turned around, could have won us the game. Either way, the short of it was that 3FSJ managed to handle their nerves a little better on the night than we did, so the trophy was theirs.
Season 2 down season was a gloomy one. Bullitmagnet quit for a number of reasons, again the primary one being a major disagreement with a decision made by the officers that he didn't agree with. Rogue soon followed as did a few other regular match players - all leaving to go play for AvA. SVTwin also left around this time - issues ranged from a loss of interest, issues with some members and a recently acquired copy of Word of Warcraft. During this time, Helo, still new to the clan took up the reigns of the 10v10 team and was promoted to officer. Ugg, a long term member from the early days of this division also accepted an officer role.
Season 3 was a bit of a blur with many losses as we struggled to find a suitable new commander. Eventually Ugg took up the job after a few others had a try at it. We then had to train new squad leaders up to fill Ugg's shoes and some of those that had left. We didn't know it at the time, but the team was basically rebuilt from the ground up. Some familiar faces from our glory days of Season 2 were still in the line up and only very few of them in the same roles as before. Many new names were mixed in for contrast - most of the new guys came from the LiD team.
The turnaround took longer than we might have hoped, but it was in the down time before Season 4 that it started to come together for us again. Developing new scrim relationships and yet another mindset and playing style for games, the team took hold. Ugg had by now turned into a very competent commander who read the battle well and the squad leaders under him had also found their feet in their respective new jobs. It all just ‘gelled'. On the whole the team was smarter, wiser and much more flexible. In contrast to the 16v16's performance in Season 3, the LiD team was really turning heads under the guidance of Helo. It was becoming clear that we could no longer consider LiD a development only team as it was far exceeding its mandate and surging up the 10v10 ladder to heights we honestly didn't expect possible.
16v16 Season 4 started up and the clan was alive again. With 10v10 firing and 2142 struggling, but still in there, the new officer structure after a few bumps appeared to be working nicely and the 16v16 team has dusted itself off and found new energy to prove itself once more.
2008: Busier than ever
This was to be our most successful BF2 season to date, and possibly the most successful season the Battlefield Division has ever seen. We really up fired in Season 4. We lost only two games all season, both to AvA - one mid season on Fushee Pass and one in the semi-finals where we were soundly beaten on a new and very different kind of map.
The loss didn't hurt badly though - to be beaten in a finals by AvA is nothing to be ashamed of and our very successful season was something all our members were all very proud of. We played some games that most of us will never forget. The foremost of which would be the 2nd finals game we played - it was on Mashtuur against the DnA clan. We won by only 1 ticket! It was the closest game in the GameArena ladder's 16v16 history. We won the first round, but were losing the second round all the way up to the last 5 minutes when we surged back to scrape in over the line. It was the best and smartest 5 mins this team has ever put together in any game and all of us that were a part of it will probably never forget it. Close competitive games is what we are all here for and that was exactly how that game went down. It got the community talking too as you can probably guess!
At the same time, our 10v10 LiD team, still under the guidance of Helo who was really going to town with it, had surged past every milestone, past every goal we had ever hoped they could achieve and still kept climbing the ladder in what was the 3rd season for the GameArena 10v10. 40th spot was amazing, 25th was unbelievable, top 20 had us all stunned. Then top 15, then inside the top 10, then with some 16v16 players thrown into the mix to help the cause, top 8 and a finals placing! Denying entry to some clans who at the start of the season would have had no doubts of a spot in the finals. *AUS* really did wave the banner high in both ladders. Unfortunately for LiD, the team was eliminated in the first finals game they played on Mashtuur city against DcS. They hit us hard in the first round but this only served to fire us up and we hit back so much harder in the 2nd. Unfortunately they managed to sneak a fast attack squad around the back to our main flag as USMC and, because our Spartan like rollout had crushed everything in its path with such efficiency, we had no dead players available to spawn back in defence and so after that flag was put under pressure we lost our others and the wheels fell off.
Here ended our gaming for the next few weeks. Season 4 for 16v16 and Season 3 for 10v10 ended for *AUS* within a week of each other, so we sat in the down time sharpening our knives waiting for the new seasons to start. This down season was a good one in that it saw no rage quits, the first time yet! But Ugg, for real life reasons, stepped down from his leadership role here to focus on his family. Full respect to Ugg - he was a great asset on game night in the commander's chair and a great officer as well. He will continue on though, just in a reduced capacity, to play games under the *AUS* banner that he has worked hard for - since the black and white days of the *AUS* Battlefield Division with 1942 and DC.
Jaydageezer now accepted an officer position and was promoted to the rank of Major. Jay is our community man, well known and well liked around the community and currently holds a role as a battlefield game caster with the netGameRadio internet gaming radio group. Also during this down season the clan restructured a little. Key responsibilities in the management of both the 10v10 and 16v16 teams were handed over to Sychoshreder, Jay and Fatcontroller. Mozz also took up the reigns of the 2142 team that continued to struggle to find a long term leader to really get the team on track, despite some good efforts from Indorat and Systemlord. The team is looking good now though - active both in games and in pubs again. It is showing signs of really getting going under the leadership of Mozz.
So that is about it. At time of writing this update to the history, the 16v16 team is defending 2nd spot on the ladder, two games into the 5th season. The 10v10 team, with new management and new goals and many new faces, has requested a move to the bottom of the ladder and will try once again to find its feet with the new players and see what it can achieve again as our development team. 2142 as I said is looking good too, somewhat further into their season now.
The clan atmosphere is good. We run many little diversionary games and competitions are well liked by the troops. We have run and trivia night and we also run a little in house racing comp based on BF2 using the Battleracer mod. We play this when things arent so busy in the ladders and it's a great way for players from the 3 different teams to get to play together, as their schedules usually keep them busy with different things. We also run a Bounty hunter competition - again in house only - with participating players' assigned 'targets' in the community who must be hunted down in game. This too is getting great support and is another fun thing to keep people interested and motivated in BF2 now that is starting to show its age.
We continue to recruit strongly in an environment where other clans are disbanding and we hope this trend continues for the next few seasons. Battlefield 3 is probably going to come out toward the end of this year so we want to be as strong as we can be to capitalise on the hype and interest when it gets released. We hope to grow the clan and have many teams playing BF3 and really wave the *AUS* banner high.
2009
Coming soon.
2010
Hopefully coming soon.
2011
Hmmm.
Clan awards
| Year | Player of the Year | MVP | MVP Runner Up | Most improved | Rising Star | Iron Man | Mr Consistency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Nvmextc | Gossy | Not awarded | Not awarded | Slayyar | Not awarded | Murray_Cod_45 |
| 2012 | gusrulz | Nvmextc | Not awarded | Murray_Cod_45 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 2011 | Veeks | Hobotronn | Not awarded | Recon_Element | Not awarded | Not awarded | Gossy |
| 2010 | Pyro (BL0CK) | Nvmextc | Hobotronn | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Mozz |
| 2009 | PinkFloyd | KomraDKaDaVaH | Timahawk | Shakezula | Not awarded | Not awarded | Jay_da_geezer |
| 2008 | TemplePilots | Sycho | Blood Raven | Dward | Not awarded | Not awarded | Extractor |
| 2007 | Mozz | Heffolump | Baron-Winds | Not awarded | Jay | (ironchef)spook | Not awarded |
| 2006 | Steric | Darkknight | Whiteman | BulletProof | Rogue | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 2005 | The_Heretic | Not awarded | Not awarded | P0iS0NdaRt | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 2004 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 2003 | Mr Plow | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
