Weekend ClOps

Another successful weekend of ClOpping! Gold medals all around! Thanks to everypony for your hard work and dedication; we're getting to level 50 pretty quickly. We won't level up next weekend since we'll be 500 points and change short, but at this rate, we should be 50 before Black Ops 2 comes out. Not sure what they'll do at that point. Anyway, our excellent leaderboards are after the jump!

Happy Birthday, RenaissanceMan5!

Also catchup on op leaderboards for the last half of June. Everypony's been working hard, banging out gold medal after gold medal, and Elite's finally getting it together enough that we can show off a little. So rock those emblems, rock our pony title, and know that each and every one of us makes this clan one of the best in the world in competitions, and the best in the world for friendship.

The power was out and Dairy Queen refused to put a pony on the cake, so Rarity had to get her hooves muddy.

How to Dominate

Our Stickiest Pony, Punsy Charlatan, has put together a fairly detailed post about how he tops our Domination capture leaderboards. Check it out after the jump!

Future ClOps

So, I've been thinking a bit about the Domination and KC ops we'd like to compete in in the future, and it occurs to me that one crucial, foundational issue is teams and teamwork. For Domination, we will need very tight teamwork because the strategies are so much more involved than other gametypes, and for KC we'll need very tight teamwork because there is zero margin for error when it comes to attendance. Lethal x Gaming is regularly putting up 5000+ confirms, and if we are interested in ever having another champion badge, we'll need all of our collectors in full, six person teams the whole time.

This is why I think it's important that we lay down a more formal team structure ahead of time, rather than winging it for every op. Ideally, we'd have consistent teams of 8 who play with each other regularly and have committed the time to compete in clan ops; it's 8 rather than 6 so that there are some backup members for each team who already know the team members and can easily fit into their group flow. What might be more likely would be that we have several clan teams, including a float team whose job it is to disperse members to shore up other teams (and also play on their own as a team when that's not necessary).

There have been a lot of good ideas about what we can do for upcoming ops, but I think that consistent teamwork and professionalism are going to be the bedrock of any strategy. That means no absenteeism if you've committed to an op (yes, real life emergencies happen, but tell us! Don't just not show up). I know that there are some core groups of friends who already play together; mashing these together may be a good start for some teams. Let me know what you think in comments, but the official assignments later may look a little different: I'm sure o Apple Dash o, REALBAUS, Forsaken Genesis, Swiift v, JiaJohn, and MarsBringer would love to just stomp all over everything as a team, but we do want some semblance of team parity so we can maximize our clan's performance.

Finally, the bottom line is whether or not we're having fun, and the reason for all of this is that some of us have indicated that playing to win is a lot of fun. If it isn't for you, don't feel compelled to play with people or in a way that you don't like.

So if you are interested, let us know your team interests, gametype interests, role interests, and time availability below! I'll start:

Wharrrrrrgarbl
Prefers Kill Confirmed, reasonably competent at TDM, will play Domination under duress.
Have some experience as a tag collector, also interested in playing support killstreaks for backup.
At work from 6AM to 6PM most weekdays and works some weekends, but can give notice. Otherwise available for 1-2 ops per weekend, perhaps 1-2 practice sessions per week.
Have discussed team formation with o Apple Dash o. Left at the team altar by REALBAUS. :'(

ClOpping Furiously

Nice job on the recent Domination and HC Kill Confirmed ops; good to see that even when a lot of us are taking a well-earned break, our clan's foundation is so strong that we're easily taking golds anyway. Here are the leaderboards:

On a related note, I think there's been a lot of interest in trying for a Domination champ badge. It'll be a steep climb, because we're nowhere near as close as we were when we started thinking about getting a KC champ badge, but for RenaissanceMan5's thoughts, check after the jump.

Capping Domination Points

So, I've been thinking about other clan ops we could improve our standings in, and since we've heard rumblings that stuff like 5 riot shields + 1 killer in TDM may be considered boosting, it seems like Domination is the next gametype we can try to work our friendship magic on. Punsy Charlatan, our stickiest pony, regularly comes in 30-50 caps (that's 15-25%) ahead of the next runner up in Sticky Fingers ops, and told me that his tactic is smoke grenade/trophy system, lie down, cap, repeat. This could obviously be improved with pairs of cappers sticking close to each other; one drops the smoke, the other drops the trophy. We might be able to get some more smoke by having someone drop a javelin on the cap site, as well, after the cappers have run out of tactical grenades.

I'll need to test this, but I think points don't cap any faster once three people are on them. I guess this means the optimum group size would be 3 cappers, 3 support? Maybe the cappers drop tac inserts at some neutral point which will make it easier to catch up to the herd if (when) killed and the support guys are tossing smoke/trophy/javelin, as well as playing overwatch and so on? What do you guys think?

Also, Den Kirson's forum is great and I want to lick it. Check out this thread on run speed and domination spawns. Very interesting. Anyway, post your thoughts in the comments!

We are the 0.115% - Sticky Fingers 4-28-2012

A lot of you have already seen this, but our cadre of illustrated equine enthusiasts has performed exceptionally in today's clan operation. For starters, we had excellent turnout; 16 people participated with two full parties and change. Certainly a welcome change to see new faces mixed in with the usual crowd! Also worth a quick mention, well...

We placed 38th out of over 33,596 clans. 

The detailed breakdown is after the jump!

Flagged for Removal

Congratulations to Mars, ImScootaloo, AppleDash, Punsy Charlatan, PenguinEmperor, and PrismaticRope! Gold tier again!

CLAN OPS

Fillies and Gentlecolts, the time has come to show everypony the magic of friendship.
We are enlisted in the upcoming event for most Domination point captures, which starts on Feb. 24 6:30pm EST.  I have directed everypony here for a mission briefing.

First off, some facts about the operation.
1)  How well we do in this competition affects our clan experience, and therefore our clan level, and therefore our sweet unlocks.
2) Time and date of the operation is Friday, February 24 6:30pm EST until 9:30pm EST.  Tomorrow, it's three hours of pony madness!
3) The goal of this operation is Most Domination Points Captured.
4) The scoring is based on the clan's top 6 ponies' performances during the time frame of the operation.

I would like everypony who can to try and contribute to this.  I've always envisioned clan ops as a great way to bring us together and to really have us work as a team and have a lot of fun, and now that it's happening, I couldn't be more excited.  Not only are we competing with all the other clans, but we are competing internally, and it would make me really happy to see us aspiring to higher pony greatness because of friendly rivalries inside our own ranks.  The variety of gametypes and goals make this an excellent way to showcase everypony's strengths, and I really dig that.  I want to see a lot of people contributing to this, so we can have detailed discussions and debriefings over the next few days.

I will be coordinating the formation of several lobbies right before the operation begins (starting around 6:00), so you can message me (MarsBringer) and we can get you playing with your pony brethren.

May her beautiful visage spur you to magnificent glory! 

Detailed operation strategy follows after the jump.