Featured Clan: The Specialist Global Tank Academy (SGTA)

iScending: Greetings everyone,   To kick off the latest Clan initiative we had a chat with the The Specialist Global Tank Academy (or SGTA for short) and you are welcome to read the interview here:   Q1: How, and when, did you create the clan? What was the motivation behind the creation of your clan? What was the biggest challenge for you and how did you overcome it?   The Specialist Global Tank Academy (SGTA) was founded on the 6th of May 2012 by a well-known member of the WoT community, Ding 760. It all started from a topic on the official forum, where Ding thought that the best way of helping new players grasp the mechanics and techniques necessary to perform well in the game was to actually create and manage a clan specifically dedicated to this purpose. SGTA was born! After a few months, Ding stepped down from being the commander of the clan and acted in the forums as well as various other forms of the meta-game as the representative of SGTA.   Command was relegated to a seasoned clan commander, EUROBrit, who together with Vallu01 and Wasp_RA as deputy commanders, were running SGTA on a day to day basis. Today, Wasp_RA is commanding the second branch of SGTA, whereas Vallu01 is the commander of the whole of SGTA.   From the very beginning SGTA was a clan open to all and we are all working hard into keeping it that way. The biggest challenge arose from the success of the clan, when the 100 member limit of the clan was reached, and applications for new members where piling up every week.    The decision was taken to launch a second SGTA clan, as a mirror of the first, in order to create the enough space for everyone that wished to join. This did resolve the space issues, but the staff paid a dear price as it was way overstretched while trying to cope with the increased demand.   Today, things have become much more structured and professional, and has started to resemble work on a massive scale, rather than the bunch of friends that it used to be, which was fine for 80-100 members, but beyond that this model did not seem to work anymore.   Fortunately, many people have put a lot of time and effort into this endeavour, and this transition has now been completed successfully. Rationalising and further organizing the curriculum, as well as hosting our clan activity in a new website (many thanks to IronClaw for that) optimized and fitted with tools specific for clan management, made this a lot easier for us.   Q2: How do you go about running your clan? How did you create the organizational structure and what are the key parts of this structure?   Initially the clan structure was very simple. There were the commanding officers of the clan (namely Ding760, EUROBrit, Vallu01 and Wasp_RA), the instructors and the students. Classes were not really planned beforehand and they were either made on demand, or on the initiative of each individual instructor.    Nevertheless, the clan was always and still is run “democratically”. Decisions are still discussed and taken in regularly held staff meetings, where all the staff members are present and have an equal voice.   Today things have changed a bit. The clan structure is a bit more complex now, as SGTA activities have since grown significantly:      ·       Commander of SGTA ·        Right below there are three deputy commanders: EUROBrit (former commander), Wasp_RA (commander of      SGTA2) and BehemothNL (link between students and staff) ·        Instructors of the Academy ·        Academy staff (Admissions Officer, Clan representatives, Lead Guides, webmaster,) ·        Academy guides (experienced students that introduce all newcomers on the functioning and social aspects of SGTA)  ·        The Students   The main characteristic of the clan is that all of this structure is vertically permeable, and only applies during the tuition or any other official SGTA activity. Outside of official SGTA activity, there is no distinction or segregation, and from day one, any student can find himself platooning with instructors, or even the commanders of the clan for that matter. Everyone is here to learn, and we were all newbies one day, and glad and grateful that better players were willing to play with us and teach us a couple of things. We have not forgotten this and we do the same now.   Q3: Do you have an objective as a clan and did you achieve this objective? (If you did, what did you do to achieve this/ if you didn’t, what are you doing to achieve this?)   Our objective is not quite achievable, since it is more idealistic than quantifiable. Our objective is to help as many people as possible to become better players and thus enjoy the game more.   Our main challenge now is to provide quality tuition for the largest possible number of students, without compromising on quality. After the clan restructuring, we are now seeking to expand our pool of instructors, and we are working towards finding the necessary resources in order to do so.   Indeed being an instructor in SGTA takes a particular mindset and willingness to help people and sharing your knowledge and experience with others. While there are people that are willing to do this, they may be unaware of our initiative, hence our efforts to increase the exposure of SGTA.   Q4: How often do you organize training's and what is the focus point of them? What are you aiming to achieve with your trainings?   Training in SGTA is an ongoing process. There are many ways a student can train in SGTA. We usually hold two to four classes per week as far as basics and techniques are concerned. We also hold Team Battle/Tanks Company sessions twice a week for the students to participate in. We also hold pre-arranged dedicated platoon sessions with students and provide them with feedback after every battle.    In our forums,  we have gathered a considerable database of guides, links and various other resources available to all our students to research on their own time. We also have a dedicated section on the forums where students can upload their replays and get feedback from instructors or other members of SGTA. There is also the possibility for students to have their replay uploaded and analysed on YouTube for further reference, if they so wish.    SGTA, as its name suggests is an Academy, it is not a school. As much as we monitor class attendance, the general idea is to provide to the students as much material as we can, and it is more or less up to them how much they are going to benefit from it. After all, different people have different needs and different goals in the game. Some want to join competitive clans and have a lot of time to put in the game, while others may have very limited time and only want to get better at it.   As far as our curriculum is concerned it is structured as follows:      ·        Basics : The Basics cover an introduction to all tank types available and how they should be played, Camouflage and spotting mechanics, Shooting, artillery safety, game types, optimal ingame settings and crew skills and consumables.   The aim of the Basic course is to familiarise the students with the basic mechanics of the game. This also serves as a foundation for the techniques.   ·        Techniques: This section focuses on the many different techniques you can use during the battle, such as Angling and Sidescraping, Close Combat, Peek-a-Boo, Circling and Counter-circling, Terrain Usage and how to play against Autoloaders.   The techniques are taught once the basics are mastered, and after this section is complete a student is usually ready to cope well in most random battles.   ·        Teamskills and Situational Awareness: In this section we teach techniques and tactics in order to give students a perspective of the battle not only from their own vehicle, but also of their surroundings in all situations. These skills will come in handy both in random battles with platoons, as well as in team based game modes (Clan Wars, Team Battles and Tank Companies). The main focus here is for students to understand the differences between the random game mode mindset and playstyle, and the team modes' playstyle and game flow.   This is the most advanced section of our curriculum, and once mastered, a student is competent in team game modes, as well as more proficient in randoms as he will inevitably adopt a more “heads-up” style of play.   ·        Map Tours: Every map is different and unique and that's why SGTA offers detailed map tours, showing useful spots and positions to the students.   These are optional, but very useful, especially after a new map has been introduced.   What we are aiming to achieve through our training is turning average and below average players to competent ones, both in random battles as well as in organised teamplay. In any case, once a student enters and graduates from SGTA, you can be sure that he will always contribute towards his team’s victory be it in randoms or organised teamplay.   Q5: How do you make your tactics for each map / (province in Clan Wars)? What are the key points you keep in mind when making the tactics?   One of our goals in SGTA is to teach to its students the principles of teamplay. Initially, with our map tours we are giving students a general idea of where to position themselves in each tank type, in order to make the most of each available position on the map. Once this is understood, most of the tactics are laid out by our instructors and Field Commanders, with one principle in mind: there is not one single failsafe tactic for any given map, and there is no tactic that cannot be countered by a competent FC. What we also try to pass on to our students is that a battle plan is not engraved in stone, adapting is as important as preparing.   Given that most of our students have not yet reached Tier X vehicles in the game, we do not participate in Clan Wars. It would be rather pointless too, since we cannot be a competitive clan. This is not our mission. Nevertheless, we can prepare someone to join a competitive clan. However, the Clan War campaigns that where implemented for lower Tiers a while ago was a good opportunity for our students to experience Clan War battles and their particularities.   Q6: Diplomacy! What are your opinions on this? Is your clan on the side of one hand washes the other or is it more a "lone wolf” clan?    We are not closely affiliated with any other clan as our students have diverging aspirations as to what they are willing to do after their graduation. However what we are doing here serves the whole game, as well as the more competitive clans. Therefore, I would not qualify our clan as a “lone wolf”, but rather on the side of one hand washes all the others.   Indeed, as the game progresses, there is an increasingly growing gap between very experienced and elite players and newcomers. We serve as a bridge between these two, as we offer the possibility for average and inexperienced players to benefit from our experience and receive high quality training, which they would never receive from one of the elite clans, since they would only fulfil their increasingly stricter criteria very late in the game.   Q7: What are the main points for you when it comes to diplomacy? Do you plan our diplomatic endeavors short team or do you have long term goals for diplomatic alliances?   I am guessing that this question applies more to clans active in CWs, but I will still try to provide an answer from the SGTA perspective. The main interaction we have with other clans is through our graduates. We are not considering affiliating ourselves with a competitive clan in order to prepare players for them as this would hinder our independence and inevitably will turn us into a selective clan, which would be against our core philosophy.   However, we have graduates that have joined more competitive clans that are either still keeping in touch with the clan, or directly involved in it, as external instructors. The main focus of our diplomacy is to cooperate with players or clans that are willing to contribute to the improvement of the playerbase in general and our students in particular.    Q8: How are you overcoming internal clan problems such as disagreements and problems between members? Are some of your players more important than the rest of the clan or is everyone equal and responsible for their own actions?   While we all share the same philosophy, disagreements from time to time are inevitable. Our method of dealing with this is through discussion. We regularly hold staff meetings, where all issues are debated. Most of the decision making is unanimous, but there are times we do not reach a consensus. In these cases we follow the opinion of the majority, while trying to find ways of integrating any concerns or reservations the minority might have into the decision taken. We rarely, if not at all, use hierarchy only as a decision making tool, we are what one might call a “democratic” clan.   We have also created channels with our students, as well as promoting the principle of no hierarchy whatsoever outside classrooms. As a member of SGTA, your platoonmate can be anyone you enjoy playing with, including your instructors.   Another channel of communications is our forums(link). There is room there for any member of SGTA to express his views and opinions, and not one post goes unnoticed or unanswered by the staff. If the issue raised is a serious one, we often include it in our next staff meeting and discuss about it. All clan decisions and policies are announced in the forums and are open to critique and debate by everyone.   We consider that every member of SGTA is representing the clan in all aspects of the game. Therefore they should keep up the clan’s good reputation.    They will have to treat their fellow-students, their instructors and all other players they encounter ingame or in forums or in any other game-related activity with respect. We have a zero tolerance policy towards bullying, insulting of other players, provocative attitude, racism or any other type of abuse.   Q9: How dedicated are you to being a successful clan and what kind of sacrifices did you have to make? Is responsibility shared equally among clan members?   Dedication is a prerequisite in order for SGTA to work. Indeed, there is a lot of effort the staff is putting in the clan, for little to no reward, other than the satisfaction of helping others. The instructors at SGTA are not giving only of their time to their clan. Let’s face it, most of these guys could very easily be part of a competitive clan, only platooning with players of their own or better level. Therefore the instructors are giving away part of their stats, w/r and any other vanity indicator out there. In other words, they are sacrificing a small part of their success in order for others to be more successful, and only for this they have my respect and recognition.   SGTA is all about giving; therefore we all used to making sacrifices. For us it all comes with the job and we accept it. That been said, myself and all the members of staff are trying to find ways to reward all contributing to the clan for what they do, because quite frankly they deserve it.    Q10: What are you doing to keep the morale in the clan high and what is more important for you; having fun or being successful?   The morale in SGTA can only be high, as long as we keep doing what we do. Our more relaxed core mentality does not put unnecessary pressure on people, since everyone is learning at his own pace. We do not demand results, all we ask for is a minimum of commitment and participation. After all, our members are here to receive what is offered to them and make the most of it for themselves. Another point that keeps morale up is the fact that all of our decision making process is based on one principle: the benefit of the students.    In SGTA we cannot conceive someone playing the game without having fun. Being successful is a positive thing, but it cannot be above having fun.   Q11: Finally, what do you suggest for new clans to be successful?In your opinion, what is the key to a clan becoming successful?   There is no "recipe" for a successful clan, since each clan defines success in a different way. I think before you launch a clan you must clearly define your goals and take it one step at a time. The first question to ask yourself is "what do you want your clan to become?".   Once you have your goals set, in order to be successful, the key is to enjoy what you do. The next step is to find dedicated players who share this vision with you and are willing to invest a lot of time and energy into what will become your common project.   ----   From us here at Wargaming we thank you for taking the time to give us all an insight into structure of your clan! Hopefully others can learn something new and use it to great advantage!