Clans

Enemy Territory is all about teamwork, and it's no surprise that there are tons of active ET clans. In this section, I'll give you a quickie intro to the world of clans. What clans are, why you might consider joining one, how you could go about starting up your own clan, and then I'll talk a bit about the types of competitions there are on ET.

What is a clan?

A clan is basically a team of players that play together on a regular basis. Members of the clan are identified by a "clan tag" which is often put before or after your name. For example, if you are in clan XYZ and your name is Bob, then your name might be [XYZ]Bob.

Typically clans have their own servers, which they use for practicing with each other, or for hosting scrims or matches. Scrims are informal games you play with other clans, and matches are more competitive. When clans play with each other, games are usually 6 vs. 6 or 7 vs. 7. (Euro is 6v6, and US is 7v7 although we're starting to switch over to 6's). This is somewhat small compared to some pubs, where you might have anywhere from 7-15 people on a team, sometimes more! It leads to games which are more personal and each person has a big responsibility. Also this way you can plan more intricate strategies instead of just having 5 field ops spam the other team!

This isn't to say that clan members don't still go on public servers (pubs). Obviously they do a lot of pubbing, but usually only if the clan doesn't have a game scheduled already.

If you play ET pretty regularly, I encourage you to join a clan. Don't worry if you're not the best player- there are tons of clans which are willing to take on newer players and train them up. This is great for the community, because then the clan scene always has some fresh blood :)

Here are some benefits of joining a clan:

• Get to play with people as skilled as you
• You make friends, have lots of fun together
• It's ET the way it's meant to be: more emphasis on teamwork
• Voice communication is used, much easier than typing!
• Regular scrims (informal matches) and competitive matches
• More emphasis on strategy, more organized
• You learn a lot from your teammates as you share your secrets
• Having clan experience looks good on your "gamer resume". If you ever want to apply to a really good clan in the future, one thing they look for is whether you've been in a clan before.

However, before you jump into the clan scene here are some things to keep in mind:

• If you don't have a headphone+mic headset, you'll need to buy one. Probably $15-25 depending on how much dough you have to burn.
• It can be stressful if you're in a competitive clan because of the pressure to win
• You might be expected to put in a lot of time. It's really not so bad though- I mean, if you're even considering joining a clan, it probably means you already play ET quite often. Most clans will involve a time commitment of maybe 5 hours a week. Less serious clans might have no time commitment, if they never bother scrimming other clans or engaging in competitive aspects of ET. The top competitive clans may be anywhere from 10-20 hours, not including all the time players might also spend on pubs for their own enjoyment outside of clan play.

Playing with a clan is very interesting because you actually plan your strat and "rehearse" before matches, going through all the stages of the map and figuring out what everyone should be doing at each stage. One person (usually the same guy who decides the strats) is usually also responsible for shouting out orders during a match over Ventrilo or TeamSpeak and keeping everyone on track.

Joining a clan

Finding a clan to join is a bit like finding a job. There are classifieds on the forums where people post recruiting ads for their clans. You can also check out the clan websites and see if they are recruiting or find out info about them. Once you get really good at ET, you may also start to get invitations to join clans when you go play on pubs. That's a good sign, but carefully consider a clan before you join it. It's going to take up a lot of your time so you might as well make sure it fits what you're looking for.

When you are thinking about joining a clan, visit their website and see what they are about. If they have an IRC channel, go there and get some info. If they have a public server, play on it a lot so you can see how good they are, and also that way they start becoming familiar with you. This will help when you apply, because if they already know you they're more likely to accept you.

If you decide you want to join the clan, you will probably have to submit some sort of application and then if necessary, they may invite you to join their server and fight with them so they can test how good you are. Usually clans have the information on how to apply on their website, so go there to find out. If you can't find the info there, ask around in the IRC channel.

Starting a clan

Starting a clan involves a lot of work, and in most cases you should just consider joining a clan that's already around. However, it might make sense to start a clan if you have some friends already who aren't in a clan and you want to be able to stay together instead of all splitting up into different clans. It really helps if you already have some people ready to join the clan; if you try to just be a 1-man clan, and then keep adding more members, you'll struggle to find good people who are talented and committed to your clan.

OK but let's assume you DO have a good reason to start a clan, and you know some people who are interested. What do you need?

• Create a clan tag
• Set up an IRC channel and a web site
• Get everyone to use Ventrilo (http://www.ventrilo.com) or something similar
• You'll need a private server for matches and for Ventrilo
• Register for competitions

I'll talk about how to register for competitions in the next section. As for setting up a private server, it generally will cost around $40-$80 a month (quite a lot, if you don't have a job!). The price depends on how many people you want to be able to play on the server at a time. The Ventrilo or TeamSpeak server will cost a lot less, perhaps $5 to $10 a month.

So basically the way it works is you find a company that rents the use of servers for Enemy Territory. (They will often have a list of what games they support). Then you pay a setup fee (generally something like $15 or so). This gives you control and access over some server lying in a building somewhere. You should try to rent a server which is relatively close to where you live so you get a good ping. Within a couple of days after you order it, the server should be set up and you can access it remotely through one or more of the following methods: FTP, SSH, a web interface, and/or RCON Commander. From that point on, you just pay the monthly fee.

Here are some links to get you started on finding a server:

http://www.getserved.net
http://www.ETGameHosting.com
http://enemy-territory.gameage.co.uk/
http://www.ilangame.com

You should also ask around on forums (like www.planetwolfenstein.com) and see what servers other people recommend.

Competitions

Competitions are one of the main reasons that people join clans. If you're in a competitive clan, much of the time you spend with your clan will either be competing, or preparing for a competition.

Clans can register to compete in different leagues. There's the STA, TWL, CAL, ClanBase, ESL, etc. To enter into a league, you need to meet some requirements, mainly filling out some form, having a website that they can look at, have a clan tag and a clan name (obviously), and one or two designated clan leaders, who will be expected to keep in contact with the league administration.

There are different types of matches offered by different leagues. For example, some games might be a 6 vs. 6 stopwatch match. Or, you might have 2 clans play against 2 other clans. Take 6 people from each clan, so the teams are 12 vs. 12. Games tend to be fierce, obviously more competitive than pub play. So, spawncamping is allowed, and boy do people take advantage of it!

When you play a match, it will be at a prescheduled date and time. The map will also be predecided. So usually in the days before a match, you spend a lot of time with your clanmates practicing that map, or scrimming other clans on that map. When it's time for the match, you should have all the players ready. If anyone's absent, it might lead to a forfeit (you lose the match automatically).

The mod which is played in competitions is pretty much universally ETPro. This mod has been tweaked especially for clan matches, in contrast to shrub, which is popular among pub players. It also is probably the least buggy of all the mods. Specific game rules may be changed as well to suit competitive play. For example, on Battery, satchel charges might not work to destroy the assault ramp: only dynamite.

If you do well in the competitions, it will show up on the rankings. It's like sports- each team's stats (wins, losses, etc) are reported publicly, generally on the website of whoever is hosting the competition. Sometimes prizes are awarded but it depends on the league and who is sponsoring.

Here are links to some of the competition websites below. These websites contain useful information such as lists of the clans that are competing and their stats, and possibly archives of match demos that you can download:

STA: http://et.sta-league.org/
TWL: http://www.teamwarfare.com
CAL: http://www.caleague.com/
ClanBase: http://www.clanbase.com
ESL: http://www.esl-europe.net