God said, "Let there be UGA," and there were, and they were GOOD.
In August 2000, Cobol was playing on a server called Seattle T1, later known as Darkman's Server. This was a hang out for the Half-Life Jam Empire [HJE] clan. One day Cobol just happened to be in the zone, not like that happens often. He was making everyone look like a newbie, except for one guy, [HJE] Viper. Viper kept joining Cobol's team, and Cobol kept joining the other team for the competition. Cobol didn't realize that Viper was closely watching him play. Viper ended up recruiting Cobol into the [HJE] clan.
At the time, [HJE] was going through a sluggish phase, so Viper and Cobol started up a practice-strategy team. They called it Death Squad. It wasn't a very original name, but they didn't care. Cobol and Viper originally chose 12 members for the squad, but soon everybody in [HJE] was knocking on the squad’s door to join. Viper and Cobol were both running the show, and enforcing the rules. Gant and Slick backed them up as command staff. After a few months, Cobol was made Admiral, in charge of the entire squad, and Gant ran the division. The [HJE] Counterstrike Platoon had over 50 members and was very active.
[HJE] started promoting their web site, with the help of the very talented [HJE] Rook. They also started promoting Custom Map Nights with other clans. Cobol spent his time acquiring servers around the United States. He spent hours searching through forums, and talking to various clans about their servers. Soon, Cobol met a few really great contacts: Xavier, who hosts servers from Ohio; Falcon, who hosts out of Silicon Valley; Smiley, who used to host out of Seattle; Milkman, who hosts out of California; and Numbnuts, from Colorado. Soon [HJE] had Counterstrike servers all around the United States. [HJE] then merged with a small elite clan named FireSpawn lead by Aubdogg. In a short time, [HJE] had a very elite set of Counterstrike players, and their league standings started making headlines.
In order to make a success out of [HJE], Cobol had changed a lot of the clan rules. Unfortunately, he no longer saw eye to eye with the rest of [HJE] on how a clan should be run. About sixty members of [HJE] split from the clan to form -=UGA=- United Gaming Alliance, a name suggested by Cardo. UGA kept the same form as HJE. In April 2001, UGA merged with a Fire Arms clan called M4D, lead by Stryker. UGA started to thrive over the next few months, expanding into new Mods, such as Fire Arms, TFC, Day of Defeat, Diablo 2, Global Warfare, Ghost Recon, and Jedi Knight 2. The clan populated to over one hundred members.
======================== 2001 history ========================
Counterstrike has been the main UGA mod from the beginning. UGA expanded to four squads, which were led by some dedicated UGA members. Jamone, Fire, Hussler, Peter Jennings, Lard, and AoP became some of the best squad leaders in the UGA. The Alpha squad moved to number three of the West Open of OGL, with an 8-0 record. The ThUgZ squad was ranked in the top ten of the Central Open of OGL. The UGA Counterstrike squad also ranked number 62 on CLQ, which was a big accomplishment for the clan.
The Fire Arms squad became very popular, and gained a lot of respect. The division moved to number one on OGL and CLQ. However, the division was at a loss when Stryker left to re-join M4D. Losing Stryker was hard on the UGA Fire Arms Division. It eventually led to the closure of the entire division for a few months, until a new version of Fire Arms was released. The division was then led by some great members: Ashman, Netforce, Black, and No1SOB.
The Day of Defeat (DoD) squad has gone through some rough times as well. In October 2001, Samus, AoP, and Animal stepped down as leaders of the division, and Iceman, Diablerie, and TheBiz took over. The division struggled for a long time, because there was no dedicated UGA DoD server. It wasn’t until version 2.0 was released that the division started to thrive. The squad moved up to the #1 rung on OGL, and also ranked #3 on CLQ. Great leadership and dedication from Iceman, Yon Dogg, and Siren helped keep the UGA Day of Defeat division alive.
Diablo 2 looked to be a promising game for UGA, but never got going. The two dedicated guys that remained, Samus and OLSM, decided it was best to close down the division. These guys still remain dedicated, and were heading up the newly formed Jedi Knight 2 division. This squad got off to a great start, and was picking up new members every week. Many were already UGA members.
======================== 2002 History ========================
UGA has also participated in many LAN events, UGA events, and UGA gatherings. UGA placed fourth in the CompUSA tourney in 2001. The events section of the UGA website has photos of members at recent gatherings. We hope to continue moving in this direction.
In 2002, some great players retired. Gant retired out of the clan life lurked around throughout the year, giving UGA political speeches. 8-ball, Cobol, and Neon Wraith remained, supporting the clan as command staff. Aquadog was appointed to help the command staff. His dedication to UGA in many different aspects has earned everyone’s respect. Iceman also joined the command staff. He helped the Day of Defeat division survive, worked on the new website, and kept it up to date. He worked with the rest of command to keep UGA going strong.
Every large clan has uprisings, people who break away and attempt to create their own clan. UGA had a few people leave, and create a clan called SWAT, which was unsuccessful. Many times, splitting involves elite members. Some of UGA s elite players decided to make a clan called High Rollers. Another group of UGA elite members decided they wanted their own set of rules and formed HRC, Hell Raising Cacks. This put another large dent in UGA talent. In 2002, a rather large group of well-known members decided to leave for reasons that haven’t fully been understood. This faction formed a clan called Gamers Underground Network. These changes happen to every large clan, but UGA moved on strong, despite it all.
======================== May 2003 Update ========================
Out of all the breakout factions this clan has had, the GUN clan is the only faction still around. Jewels is the only original UGA member left in that faction. Most prodigal members returned to UGA over time. Ex-UGA member Peanut left GUN to create her own clan, but that ended up breaking up as well. (She was busy being pregnant.) HRC lasted for one CAL season, then broke up. Robdog spent a long time after that with the FOZ clan, which we were all impressed with, but he was recently forced out. The only successful breakout from this clan was Lord Ansel with bravo squad in 2001. His clan is still alive, and managed to keep the oringinal members with him. That deserves hats off respect.
UGA had a breakout faction at the beginning of 2003. Our DOD team left earlier this year, and became D3k during DOD CAL finals. They became DOD CAL Champs undefeated, and pretty much wiped the floor with everybody, including CAL-I teams. Iceman put together a successful winning team, but the team was full of egos and attitudes - which in the long run NEVER WORKS. D3k died off after two months, which was not very surprising.
Stryker, from the UGA old Firearms days, left to join the firearms and ECK clan. Slick, Gant and Rinoa left to create the ZTA clan, which has had a very rocky start.
In the mean time, UGA has had a lot of command changes. Samus, Stick, and OLSM were given command posts. A new recruit named Legolas was also appointed. The only other person to move up to the ranks of Clan command that fast is Aquadog.
Aquadog, who spent seven months in Kuwait and Iraq, returned to help lead the clan for another successful summer. Another member was lost to the historical happenings of the year. Randy is in Afghanistan as a writer.
The clan also sponsors social events. Gman plans a lot of UGA paintball events and quite a few people participate. In June UGA had a large BBQ and LAN event.
In July UGA lost a group of members so they could form a new clan called nXc. Delta Squad Leander Jamone, and a few others, decided it was in their own best interest to do this. The split caused the majority of UGA's Delta squad to leave. Their presence will be missed.
So, what’s happening right now?
Koolio is still keeping the NS Squad tight. They are back in OGL and, with new server release, were actually able to afford a server.
DOD squad is off to a slow start, but is slowly working its way up through the ranks of OGL.
Weekly custom map scrims with brother clans Kort and CTR run continuously each thursday and friday night with great enthusiasm from a variety of different UGA members.
UGA has decided to form Custom Map Gaming League in order to continue the spark in CS. Cobol, Raggety, Cracker Stealth, OLSM, and :B: Rex have been taking the leads on getting this squad going. The clan has been exploring Battlefield 1942 and its variety of mods. Because of its success, the clan leaders are considering the creation of a BF squad. UGA continues to move on...
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