Hi Dean,
Here you go mate, just in time for your deadline!! Unfortunately, I don’t have any clan member photos handy, I’ve just included a couple of our logos. Can I get some photo’s to you later? If so, when’s the deadline?
Full Clan Name:
[grrr]
Founding date/year:
The tags first appeared in 2005, but we only became recognised as a clan from 2006
Founder Names & Nicknames:
Jonno “s3xy_j0nny” Wickwar and Gethyn “Megageth” Gilmore
Total Members:
Currently about 18 – I can’t recall the exact number
History behind the clan - if there is any
I guess that the beginning is the place to start. GRRR was founded by J0nny and Mega as a means of showing people that they knew each other. As keen Battlefield 2 players, they often found themselves playing separately in squads on public servers, where their squad members would bad mouth their friend, unaware that they knew each other. They added the tag [grrr] in front of their names not so much as a clan tag, but rather as a way of letting the world know that they were mates. And that they didn’t appreciate it when their mate was accused of being a haxxing mutha****er or some such insult.
Imagine their surprise when, about a year later, someone approached them in-game, and said that of all the clans playing on the local servers, [grrr] was the one that most suited his personality. Astounded that they had actually received an application to join their band of misfits, they accepted the new member, Lawrence “gr@v1ty” McKelvin, and posted on the SGS forums that, after a year of rigorous screening, [grrr] had finally recruited their third member.
A flurry of member invitations and applications followed. Soon to join the clan were Lee “SlipperyDuck” Logan, Jarrod “Dragonne” McElhinney, and Mike “Flycatchr” Fletcher. All were identified as likeminded individuals, who enjoyed the social aspect of online gaming as much as the competitiveness of playing for a clan.
All was not sunshine and roses, however. The informal and easy to manipulate application policy had resulted in the acceptance of Paul “Candidate” DuPlessis, before it was realised by the general membership that he was, in fact, a chimp masquerading as a human being through shaving his palms and temporarily suppressing the urge to hurl dung at everyone he met. Once this catastrophic error in judgment had been realised, and with no recourse for removing Paul from the clan once he had been accepted, it was decided that a significantly more rigorous application process must be followed going forward.
Since that day, members are no longer invited to join the clan, they must first apply in writing on our forum. On application, the potential recruit is subjected to a period of interrogation by all existing clan members, where they are obligated to answer all sorts of questions, from the completely inane, to the downright incomprehensible (thanks again, Paul!!). Only after all members are satisfied that the applicant is a good fit, will they be granted entrance into the hallowed halls of [grrr].
Over the years, we have admitted a number of new members, and have lost a few too. The core of what is [grrr] however, has remained the same. We are a bunch of good friends that meet up on a daily basis to indulge ourselves in our favourite hobby – playing PC games, and enjoying each other’s company. Whether it’s a competitive Battlefield clannie, a psychopathic session of Worms, or some co-op Left 4 Dead or Titan Quest, we all agree; it’s far more fun gaming with close friends.
Games played:
Originally founded as a BF2 clan, nowadays we dabble in all sorts of games and genres. We are more about being a group of online ‘family’ playing games together than being a hardcore competitive clan. That said, we do compete, currently being involved in the Bad Company 2 DoGaming league (although that has now concluded for this year)
Teams per game played:
We only have one team enrolled in the DoGaming BC2 league. Due to the fact that we are an older bunch of gamers (most of us being in our thirties) it is difficult for us to commit to the rigorous plying schedules that the young ‘uns are able to manage – real life, after all, takes its toll. As nice as it would be if our spouses could rear our offspring without our input (particularly between 7pm and 1pm on weeknights and all day Sundays), this is not likely to happen any time soon!!
We have dabbled with competing in other leagues in the past, most notably Call of Duty (both COD4 and World at War). Despite our initial enthusiasm when founding a new team, we have found it difficult to sustain an interest in these games. At the end of the day, Battlefield 2 was the first love for all of us, and we tend to gravitate towards the BF style of play. Having said that, we’re always on the lookout for something new to play, and if a competitive community springs up around it, we’re game to give it a go.
Management staff teams:
[grrr] Management is a real challenge. One of the reasons why our clan works so well is that we are all a bunch of mature individuals. Unfortunately, with mature often comes being opinionated, set in your ways, and stubborn (not to mention the incontinence!!). Managing this group is much like herding cats.
As such, it was decided early on that clan leadership would be rotated between members, on an annual basis. Every year, prior to our annual rAge gathering, we vote in the next clan leader. The only stipulation is that the current leader is ineligible for consideration. Thus far, we’ve had five leaders elected:
2006/07 – Megageth
2007/08 – s3xy_j0nny
2008/09 – SlipperyDuck
2009/10 – Dragonne
2010/11 – Sheri “NiteShade” Buchner
The most recent election of NiteShade as clan leader is notable for two reasons. Firstly, she is (as far as we know), the first female clan leader in South Africa, but also she has had to overcome the handicap of being American!! Something that she’s done extremely well so far
Sponsors:
[grrr] has flirted with sponsorship a few times over the years. This sponsorship has typically manifested itself as contributions towards our annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of South African gaming – rAge at the Dome. These sponsorships have never been large in terms of monetary value, and are most often supplied by employers, clients and or friends of clan members, or raised through contributions of the members themselves.
In 2010 however, we attempted something entirely more ambitious. We were approached by the publisher of a technology magazine, they were looking for a clan to represent their brand – a group that demonstrated an electronic lifestyle, rather than being ultimately competitive. This was an exciting prospect for us. The prospect was there for us to showcase our clan identity, through blogging, product launches, video making and general interactions with technology. Due to our age and demographic profiles, we slotted quite nicely into this magazine’s target market. It was a chance to change the perceptions of the public in South Africa about online gaming.
Unfortunately, after long discussion lasting several months, the magazine in question ceased production. It was a terrible letdown to us, after all of the effort that had been expended in attempting to take the [grrr] brand one step further.
As it stands now, all of the ideas that we had for showcasing a technology lifestyle within a gaming clan still exist. We’d love to talk with any content provider that has the foresight to recognise the potential that there is within such a brand.
Results from previous events
As previously mentioned, competitive results and achievements are not the primary focus of [grrr]. That said, we have still worked very hard to be as competitive as possible an any competition that we enter. Our bet results in the BF2 arena came in 2008, when we finished 2nd in the AGASA league, and 3rd in the rAge competition. Considering that the competitive BF2 community was entirely dominated by FiB for the last four years, coming second in the league was, to us, a tremendous achievement. Until that time, [grrr] had been seen as the party boys and girls of the community (and of course the coolest clan to be part of), but at this time other clans began to take us seriously as competitors.
Photos of various teams and members (logo included etc)
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I attached two logos - the one on the front page of the website, and the original 'Teabag drop in your area' logo>
Website address:
www.grrr.co.za The name - how did you come up with it, does it have any particular meaning?
The origin of the name [grrr] is simple. It’s the sounds we make when another player is consistently beating the snot out of us in-game. It could be because of bad luck, or the other player’s inherent l33tness. It could be that the other player is using illegal assistance to improve their performance, or it could be that our beloved wife, child, girlfriend, dog, cat, goldfish or pedigree Siberian hamster just jumped on us from behind causing us to miss that ultimate humiliation kill. Whatever the cause, the result is the same: GRRR!
Future idea's for the team/clan - where do you see the team/clan in:
1 Jan 2011 – After the inevitable end-of-year cool down and after the holidays, [grrr] will start to get back in the swing of things and prepare for competitive play. At this point, there are various new games on the market that we will be exploring. Our mainstay has always been the BF series, but we hope to branch out into other games/genres.
1 Jan 2012 – Who can tell? As long as we’re mixing it with the SA gaming community, it’s all good. We don’t have huge competitive aspirations, our ideal is more to grow [grrr] as a brand within SA gaming as a whole. We’d like to get ourselves involved more with the lifestyle side of SA gaming – producing video’s merchandise, website content. Who knows where we’ll get to with that?
1 Jan 2013 – World domination of the [grrr] brand, what else?
Your outlook on your team and what you've achieved so far. Are you happy with this?
[grrr] has developed a reputation amongst the BF community for being fun loving, sociable, competitive and a good bunch to hang out with. And this is exactly where we want to be. One of the best comments that is heard from various community members during and after rAge every year alludes to the fact that [grrr] are always there, and we’re always leading the party.
Every year we make a video of rAge, which our resident SlipperyDuck edits, puts superb tunes to, and releases in time for the following year. This video is shared with the community, allowing everyone to reminisce the previous year’s rAge event, and includes footage from the event itself, as well as the peripheral celebrations that occur each year – namely the Friday night community gathering at the Greek Sizzler near the Dome, as well as the Saturday night [grrr] Braai, where we typically invite our friends in the community to enjoy an evening of entertainment and alcohol with us. The Video has proved to be very popular over the years, should anyone like to have a look at last year’s piece, it can be downloaded from our website, at
http://www.grrr.co.za/forum/index.php?topic=2399.0Your biggest competition -- the team you love to beat / biggest rivalry - Who would you play your best to beat, and go the extra mile to beat?
As mentioned on one of your previous clan reviews, BBH is our greatest rivalry, and also the clan that we like to beat the most. It’s been particularly enjoyable in the DoGaming BC2 league this year that we have been in the same division as them for each of the legs of competition. This has meant that we have had a number of grudge match games against them . I think honours have been pretty even this year. We were also in a position to help BBH out in the first leg of the league, when they didn’t have enough players to field a full BC2 team. We were able to provide a squad of mercs to them, enabling them to enter a team in the first leg of the league.
To quote Megageth, one of our founding members: ‘We love to beat BBH, it keeps us warm at night. I am still smiling from our last victory some weeks ago. There is a strong brotherly rivalry between the clans, we are both well-established and consist of comparatively chronologically gifted gamers who have played against each other many times over several years’.
What do you think of South African gaming?
South African Gaming, on the PC side, does not seem to be getting much support. What was disappointing for us, as I am sure it was for many others, was that there were no tournaments at the rAge 2010 LAN for recent titles (and no official tournaments at all!!). The games that we noticed being played were COD4, Counter Strike and DoTA. All fairly old games. We were hoping to see BC 2 and Starcraft 2, what happened there? Until South African sponsors take the community seriously, we will never grow in a competitive sense. Proper advertising, sponsorships and venues are needed foremost. Additionally, a typical misconception is that gamers are looking for major prizes in competitions. From our experience, this is not true. We play for the love of gaming - not a financial payout. Although, none of us would say no to some extra cash in our pockets!!!
What do you think about competition in the country? What do we need to improve this?
SA Competitive gaming needs all the help it can get. There is so much talent in this country and it’s a shame we don't get representation in big international competitions. We have what it takes to beat the best in the world, but not the means (sponsorships flying gamers all over the world). Locally, the only major competition around is the Telkom DoGaming League. The finals are usually played at rAge annually in October. However, this year there was no competition at rAge for any games!! This is our showcase annual event for competitive gaming, and it was simply cancelled. That should give you a good idea of the level of commitment that there is to competitive gaming in SA.
How do you think Console gaming sits against PC gaming? Which do you think is bigger on the competitive and casual scene? Do you feel that PC gaming is dying out for competitions?
I think lately that console gaming is getting preference from software developers. It is becoming more and more common that the PC versions of games are simply ports of the console game. This is understandable in a way, because console gaming faces fewer cases of piracy, hacks and hardware incompatibility. But, until console controllers can compete with a mouse and keyboard for ease and speed of control though, there will always be a market for PC games. We had a look at and tried out some of the console motion controllers at work at the rAge expo and whilst they were quite fun, it’s unlikely that they’d have an impact on competitive gaming. Mouselook FTW!!
Thanks for the opportunity for us to chat with eGamer, it’s been good fun. It’s good to see new independent media covering gamers and gaming in this country. We need all of the exposure we can get!!
