NEWS

In the meantime, I may attempt to organize some alternate form of competition between the Legions to keep the spirit of competition and comraderie alive. While I have not exactly determined a format for such a competition, I am considering allowing the Legion of the Damned to participate as well, should their members so choose.

The Warcraft III Legion, The Knights of Valour, has been disbanded due to the innactivity of its Warlord. DE-RivenDellElf was promoted to Warlord and has founded the replacement Legion, Ruthless Chaos. Though only one battle has been fought thus far in this small Conquest, I hope to see more such battles in the future. This is our second attempt at the Warcraft III Conquest and if it fails, then we'll have to scrap the idea until we get a suitable amount of Warcraft III members.

Lastly, I must address the situation regarding tournaments. DE-Slave fully intends to hold his unsanctioned tournaments as a weekly thing. While I personally have no problem with this, I do not wish to hold parallel tournaments and will therefore postpone my plans for the next official tournament until I feel there is enough interest from the rest of the clan for one. Those of you wishing to compete are encouraged to find the time and means to enter DE-Slave's unsanctioned competitions, DE-Probe's public tournaments, or join a Legion and participate in Conquest. The clan is possessed of several forms of competition without its Official Tournaments, so I encourage all interested members to participate in these other suitable competitions. Best of luck to all involved, and good gaming.

The status of the Warcraft III Conquest, however, still causes me concern. It would appear that the Knights of Valour are innactive and if they fail to respond soon, they shall be disbanded. The Dark Hunterz desire competition for Conquest and they deserve it. One of the biggest problems in the Warcraft III division is the simple lack of awareness in the War3 members. They simply don't bother to check the site or message board and don't seem to care about Conquest. As much as I would love to see the Warcraft III Conquest become as successful as the Brood War Conquest, it simply cannot happen without the members' support. Therefore, ALL War3 members interested in Conquest MUST encourage the other War3 members to get involved and stay informed. We need more War3 members to make Conquest happen and we need more awareness from these members.

Additionally, I need ALL Warlords to purge their Legions of members innactive in Conquest. Conquest is the reason the Legions exist and anyone not wishing to participate has no business being in a Legion. If a member does wish to participate, it is the responsibility of the Warlord and Warchiefs, as well as the member him/herself, to see to it that the member is involved in Conquest. If you are in a Legion, you are there to play as part of a team and it is EVERYONE's responsibility to cooperate as such. If I see a problem in the teamplay/cooperation in a Legion's leadership, they shall be demoted. If there is a problem with the teamplay/cooperation of a member of a Legion, do not be surprised if your Warlord kicks you from your Legion into the Legion of the Damned, thereby forbidding you from joining another Legion and playing in Conquest. Ignorance of this shall not be excused.

Finally, I feel I should remind everyone that this is just a game. All rules set up involving the Legions and Conquest are there to provide order to a cluttered and complex system of competition. Conquest is here for the clan to have fun gaming on a higher level. Conquest wasn't my idea (I acredit {DE}~:Athena for thinking up the original concept) but I was the one who had to figure out a way to make it happen. I've been in countless clans, more than I can honestly remember (just ask DE-Goku and some of his friends from $$F) but I've never been in a clan that's had anything like Conquest. Maybe I just didn't join the right clans, but it is my opinion that Conquest is one of the main things that sets our clan apart from others. Participation in Conquest is not required. It is there to give our members an interesting and unique way to enjoy their time with the clan. If you do not wish to participate, that's fine. I simply ask to note waste time and space within the Legions if you are not going to play in Conquest. The ultimate purpose of the clan is to have fun and everyone has much freedom to have fun independently and with each other as members of the clan. Legionnaires that are innactive cause frustration and grief among the active Legion members which is why steps must be taken to see that only Legionnaires active in Conquest may remain in Legions. It is not personal and I hope all involved understand that. We are a clan, a family. A very, very large family. The last thing I want is bad blood and hard feelings, so let us please all endeavour to maintain a decent level of maturity and respect. Above all, let's try to make sure that we're ALL having fun.

Liquid Factors, in keeping with their competitive spirit, have organized their own unnofficial tournament. This tournament is not officially sanctioned byt the clan, however members are still expected to act maturely and not backstab observers. The rules about it have been made exceedingly clear in his post on the forum, so any members not wishing to participate in a tournament that allows the floating of drones or any other unpopular method has been forewarned and may choose to not participate. If you do choose to participate, there is to be no complaining about however method you lost by. As DE-Slave said, anything goes. Additionally, a Public Tournaments section has been opened up in the Tournaments section. I must offcially announce the formal disbanding of the Knights of Ascension. While they did not achieve very much glory in Conquest, they did participate actively under DE-HighKnight's leadership and their Legion shall be missed by many of our members. A Legion simply cannot function with one leader alone. DE-Mudge attempted to do so in DE-HighKnight's absence and failed. While the Legion's lone warchief has since dismissed himself from the clan amid a flurry of immaturity, we await to welcome the return of DE-HighKnight from whatever has kept him from us and his Legion. The loss of the Knights of Ascension reduces us to four Brood War Legions. In my opinion, the number should be five. In the coming days, a fifth warlord shall be decided upon by myself and the Council. Until that time, we shall carry on as normal with Conquest and tournaments.

On a less pleasant note, I regret to announce that the Knights of Ascension have been temporarily shut down due to leadership and activity difficulties. It's future at this time is uncertain and I do not wish to predict a definate outcome. Once the council and I have had a chance to speak with DE-HighKnight we shall decide what is the best course of action for the Legion and its members.

The tournament has moved on to the Quarter Finals round. The final match of the Preliminaries took place at the very last minute (midnight Friday night), but we managed to get by without one forfeit. I hope for this round to advance as quickly as possible so that we may crown a winner very soon. Remaining participants have until midnight next Friday to have their matches. I wish you all the best of luck.

What this means, is that we are now looking for potential Warlords to lead Diablo II Legions, Warcraft III Legions, and Starcraft Legions. DE-Zergy has already been promoted to Warlord to lead his Warcraft III Legion, but we require at least one other Warcraft III Warlords, as well as at least two Warlords for Diablo II and two for Starcraft before we can begin with any of the new Conquests. If you feel yourself worthy of leading a Legion, please speak with DE-Dune.

Our first Tournament since the re-opening. I have not officialized anything yet, but now that Conquest is up and running smoothly, I feel that it may be time to consider a Tournament. If anyone has any thoughts, or feedback on this, I'll gladly listen. Once I feel we are prepared enough, I shall organize the tournament either later this week or next.

DE-Dune has also spent a fair amount of time searching for and selecting our first four Warlords. I would like to also thank him for time, as would the Warlords, I'm sure. We still have three out of four Legions to be filled and I urge any interested in participating in Conquest to quickly join a Legion. DE-Slave has suggested that we wait a month before officially beginning Conquest, however some may grow impatient before then. I would appreciate any feedback any other members of any Legion have as to when you feel a good time to begin Conquest would be.

There has also been much activity in the channel recently regarding roleplaying. Anyone who wishes to officially participate in the roleplaying must submit a roleplaying profile to me via email as well as familiarize themselves with the rules. Roleplaying will always be welcome within the clan, however should it become too prevelent in the channel to the point of interfering with those trying to organize a game or recruit, we will have to find an alternate channel exclusive to roleplaying.

Finally, should anyone have any questions at any time, I ask that you post them on the message board should I be absent or unavailable from the channel. It is said that the only dumb question is the one you don't ask (though I'm sure some of you could find exceptions to that rule). If you ever have any relevant questions are concerns, don't hesitate to bring them forward.

The Brood War Legions shall soon be competing with each other in a competitive concept known as Conquest. The exact details and rules for this have not been finalized and much of the planning is still under way. The idea behind it revolves around gaining control of maps owned or "conquered" by other Legions. Conquest will feature a ladder system for Legions. There are currently two Brood War Legions with a third in the making at the time of this post. It is my hope to have an additional Brood War Legion or two on top of this. Because of that, I ask that all members begin recruiting as much as possible to find worthy members to fill the ranks of these Legions and that High Councillors begin looking for possible Warlords from our current membership to lead new Legions. (The rule regarding whining for ranks will be invoked on members during this time should they begin to act immaturely).

Our member total continues to hover between 125-150. {DE}~WebDemon once said that it was his goal for us to reach 500 members. While I don't wish to put any undue pressure on our members, I do think that it would be nice to have 400 or so more of us participating in clan activities. Any of you who agree, I urge you to continue recruiting. It has also come to my notice that some members have neglected to request a promotion out of fear of sounding like "whiners" despite the fact that they fully qualify. If you believe you fit the criteria for a promotion (especially if you have sufficient wins or have evidence of defeating Mephisto or Diablo) then by all means do not hesitate to post on the forum requesting your promotion (members requesting promotion based on ACTIVE recruits must include the names of those they have recruited). A promotion request based on merit is not whining.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it has come time for our second tournament. Full details for it are provided under the Tournaments section. All who wish to participate MUST either post a message on the forum or email me (always remember to include your {DE}~ name). If anyone has any questions AFTER reading over the Tournaments section, please do not hesitate to ask.

Additionally, the new rank of Squire will allow Warriors to advance beyond their initial rank much quicker. Any Warriors who believe they have qualified for the rank of Squire and have not been promoted are advised to post on the board to have their stats checked or which ACTIVE members they have recruited.

This Saturday is also to be the date of our first tournament. I look forward to seeing as many members participate as possible. It will be an excellent opportunity for Warriors to prove themselves worthy of the Elite Guard and for everyone to have fun. Members who have signed up in advance will have until the end of the first round to show up or they will not be able to participate. Anyone who wishes to participate and did not sign up in advance (before 6:30 pm Eastern time) will still be able to play in the tournament provided they arrive BEFORE the first round begins.