Clan Spotlight: [TTIME] 11/10/2014

HBFT: Tankers!   This week we are taking a look at TTIME, a Clan originally focused on bringing Korean players together and has now opened their doors to all.  As a competitive Clan who prides themselves on conducting themselves with honor and in a respectful manner, TTIME continues to create friends both in-game and out.   Holyheaven – Commander, controls and makes decisions for [TTIME] Reshiken – Deputy Commander, handles diplomacy and supports Holyheaven Memoryleak – Personnel Officer, handles battle-calling E63M6 – Combat Officer, helping other people with all things Clan Wars SHADE11ce – Recruitment Officer, focuses on recruitment and general assistance DMan360 – Recruitment Officer, focus on English-speaking recruitment   When and how did [TTIME] form? Holyheaven:  When?  I remember exactly when [TTIME] started because it was on my birthday – March 2nd of this year [2014].  The basic core members of [TTIME] came from the Clan - [BOX].  We used to be staff at the [BOX] Clan and then an incident happened where old and new staff had some tension built up and the new staff left the Clan to create our own Clan so that we can do whatever we wanted.   How did you come up with your Clan emblem and your motto (because it is definitely unique)? Holyheaven: When we created this Clan, obviously we tried to come up with a good name that everyone would recognize.  It was really hard until E63 came up with the name [TTIME].  Sometimes World of Tanks is a really frustrating game, so we thought “Why don’t we just name our Clan “tea time” so that we can calm down a little bit and have “tea time” even in the middle of a war?”  That’s why we named ourselves [TTIME].  Everyone in pub games ask us, “Are you British?”   No, not really but…that is why we named ourselves [TTIME]!   It sounds like your name and motto has a positive psychological effect on your Clan.  Could you describe the environment in your community and what sets you apart from other Clans? Holyheaven:  We’re all grown-ups and we have jobs.  Some of us already have a family!  For myself, I already have two children.  After we finish a whole day of working, we come to Teamspeak to talk to our game buddies and get rid of stress that we’ve been accumulating over the course of the day.  We’re friends getting to know each other and some of us even met in real life.  You could say that our Teamspeak and our Clan functions kind of like a “Man Cave”.  We’ve known each other for a long time and everybody keeps up on how each other are doing.  We all have really great bonds!   I noticed on your Clan roster that you have a Subclan listed [TT1ME].  What can you tell me about that? Holyheaven: Well, we just recently started it. It’s nothing big.  When we started [TTIME], we didn’t expect that our members would reach 100.  Well…it did that in six months.  Thankfully, a lot of people who had interest in joining [TTIME] joined us.  After that we finally felt like we needed a Subclan for people that didn’t meet our requirements, but had a great interest in Clan Wars.  So we put them in [TT1ME] and see how they’re doing.  If they keep playing and showing up every day, then we move them over to [TTIME], the regular main clan.   So [TT1ME] acts a feeder for the [TTIME] main?   Yes, it works as a filter too.  Some people just join a Clan and never show up or just once in a while, lose interest and never show up again.  [TT1ME] works as a filter to keep our active roster active.   What have you learned about Clan Wars and maintaining a Clan that you wish you knew when you started?  Do you have any advice for newer Clans that want to get onto the Global Map? Holyheaven:  I think “diplo” is a big part of the game. My policy is: “what goes around, comes around.”  We are very careful about what we say.  If we cannot keep our word, then we will not promise anything.  In general, when we say something then we do it.   Reshiken:  If we cannot keep our word and guarantee what someone needs, then we would rather not do that.  That’s basically one of our Clan mottos.  As far as diplomacy goes, we’re very simple.  As I go and do diplomacy with other Clans, it’s a very simple policy (as Holyheaven said).  We do not backstab.  We try to protect our friends and land because land is nothing without your friends.  We’ve held to that from the beginning.  We have worked with a lot of Clans, and we still have the same allies from the beginning until today.  That’s how we keep building up our Clan’s reputation.  I believe that process has been working for us, so we will probably continue to do the same thing as long as everything works fine.   Holyheaven: When we were growing, a lot of big Clans had interest in working together.  When they would offer us an arrangement if we could not meet their offers, we just simply said “No”.  We don’t want to disappoint them.  Our reputation is more important to us than any other thing.  We want to keep our good reputation throughout the whole year. When people talk about [TTIME], they say, “Oh that’s a good Clan. They are standing on their own two feet and they are so trustworthy.”   That’s how we run our Clan right now.   E63M6: As long as we continue to enjoy Clan Wars, keeping your word is the most important thing for our Clan.  We used to have more than 9 provinces.  Although we only have 4 now, I think we are in good shape and we are doing what we can.  We keep our word and have good relationships with other Clans.  I think that is the most important thing.   SHADE11ce: That’s one of the things that drew me to [TTIME].  When I decided to part ways with [-J-], (I was a Commander there for quite a while) my prior relationships with some of the members of [TTIME] drew me here.  I found [TTIME] to be a group of professional, respectful, honorable, and just generally great people.  When you’re looking for a Clan, you can have a good Clan, a lot of good players, and it all means nothing unless you can be there with good people too.  I find that that’s what makes a good Clan and it’s been a pleasure.  Just like everyone has been saying about diplomacy:  “what goes around, comes around.”  [TTIME] keeps their word and they play the game the “right way”, I think.   It really seems like your word is your bond.  Whenever you say something, you do it.  With that in mind, how much of TTIME’s success would you attribute to diplomacy versus just pure skill? Holyheaven: I would say about 70%.  You still need good players to defend and attack, but I’ve seen a lot of Clans coming and going just because they’re not really involved with diplo.  They say one thing and do another thing with their other hand.  I think diplomacy is about 70% of the success of the Clan.   DMan360: I definitely agree with that.  If you have good diplo and strong players, other Clans will see that and recognize that they can’t just push you around.  Some Clans will backstab and what not, and a lot of the top Clans will see that, they’ll form alliances, and gang up on those Clans that go against their word.  I think if you’re honest, trustworthy, and you have the backing of good players and other good Clans, other Clans will see that and will respect you and say “Hey, let’s leave these guys alone.  They know what they’re doing.  We respect them and they respect us.”   A lot of people will say, “Don’t get involved with diplo immediately.  Try and establish yourself as a Clan that is worth doing diplo with first.”  How do you establish yourself as a Clan that is “worth” doing diplo with and how do you know if you’re ready? Holyheaven:  If you are able to hold land for a long time then your neighbor can kind of know, “Oh, we can start ignoring each other because they have been here long enough.”  It’s not like, you land somewhere one day and do diplo and say, “I’m your neighbor.  Can I talk to you about our whole plan and future together?”  Most likely the other guy says, “Why don’t you stay there for more than a week and then we’ll talk about a plan.”   A lot of small Clans when they are first starting will try to get a gold pot.  They try to prove that they’re good enough and that they’re strong, but if you cannot defend your land for more than a week or two then people will just assume that you’ll only be there for a few days at most.  If you’re going to go away soon then there is no point in doing diplomacy.  Diplomacy is basically being there long enough so that it may be worth something to talk about.   Memoryleak:  You don’t usually talk to weird people in public right?  Same goes for Clans where you don’t talk to somebody that you just met and try to establish a relationship between them.  You talk to them, see them a lot, get to know each other, gain their trust, and then do something together or fight each other.   SHADE11ce:  I have a lot of past experience with that from starting out and growing in [-J-].  I find if you’re going to start a Clan, you gotta know your strengths and you have to know where you stand with other Clans.  You gotta be able to judge yourself.  You can go ahead and do landings, test yourself, see where you are, but you don’t want to overstep that.  If you want to gain respect and trust then you play the game the “right way”.  You don’t talk crap to people.  You show up and you fight battles out and even if you lose, it is Clan Wars, right?  If you think you can take that land and you deserve that land, there is nothing wrong with trying to take it.  As long as you do it the “right way” and you don’t go in heavy-handed.  Just be up front and say, “Listen, we’re coming at you” or whatever and if you deserve it and you’re good enough, then you’re going to be able to hold it.    That’s kind of how you build up a name for yourself as well.  With diplo, it’s all about respect.  Often times, people overreach or overextend and that’s where I find that they get themselves into trouble.  Then they start to try and diplo their way into keeping their land by making false promises, and everything else.  I would say for a new Clan, really focus on what you can do and what you can accomplish.  You know what you can do.  If you’re just sitting in one spot for too long, that’s not good either.  Getting on land is important, but trying new experiences and fighting different Clans respectfully is really going to get your name out there.  If you do it the “right way”, “Good luck, have fun, good game” at the end of a battle, then it’s going to go a long way.   That is definitely good advice and I’m sure that [TTIME] had to go through that process themselves.  When you were building a name/reputation for yourself, what were your first Clan Wars battles like? Holyheaven:  It was probably during the World on Fire campaign with the T23E3 when we were a new Clan and people were trying to take us out and we were able to defend the Texas area for a long period of time.  We almost occupied that area until the end of the Clan event.  Some of our best players were very high in fame points.  People started wondering, “Who is [TTIME]?” and when we were there our neighboring clans were talking to each other and they would come in and talk to us and say, “Why don’t we work together?  It seems like we could make a good team.”  Friendships from that time lasted until now.  That’s how we built our name.   Reshiken:  Even though we are not together, we do go and talk to our friends on their Teamspeak and see how everything is going.  That’s what friends do, right?  One friend might be in Korea, one friend might be in Canada.  Even though we are not together or close, we still check up on each other.  That’s what friends do and that’s what we have been doing with our allied Clans as well.   Memoryleak:  Of course diplomacy is a very important thing.  Beyond that though, you need to have a really good team.  Without building a good team yourself, it’s going to be really hard for you to build a good Clan.  It doesn’t mean that you have to have all of the unicum players, but you need to have a player that knows what they are capable of and use them as a good soldier in any battle.  Know yourself first, practice with each other, and then focus on beating other Clans.   You obviously have a tight-knit group.  Any interesting stories about how you got to that point and do you have any interesting traditions? Holyheaven:  There were some growing pains, I suppose.  Ever since Wargaming started the Korean server a year ago back in Korea, all of a sudden we lost a lot of Korean players because they obviously wanted to play on Korean servers because the latency is much better there.  So, we lost a lot of good Korean players and we were having a hard time finding new ones, so we decided to open our doors to English players.  There was a bit of tension when we made this decision because for more than a year, we were an all-Korean clan.  This decision was hard for some people to accept and it was a little bit of a growing pain, but so far everything worked out well.   Reshiken:  We had a lot of Korean players who were actually in Korea.  So there were a lot of language barriers there so a little bit of controversy about whether to accept English players or not. Right now, we try to make the environment as comfortable as possible.  For example, when Memory or E63 give orders, they do an order in English and Korean.  We have Korean players who do not speak English so we try to make things as comfortable for Korean players and English players.  It’s been working fine.   E63M6: Of course, we have seen some failures and we will see more failures from losing battles in important Clan Wars.  Even though we have these barriers, we have to trust our members and respect each other.   Memoryleak: We rely on each other and we know each other well so after a battle we will stay even when we lose.  We sit down together and discuss what we did well and what we didn’t do well.  We evaluate our failures and improve upon them.  That really helps.  Some other Clans that I belonged to before…if we lost, some players will just leave right afterwards.  We don’t do that. We sit down together and look at how we can be better the next game.   E63M6: Our Clan is like a group of family members or real-life friends, so even if we lose or do not have a province with a lot of gold, we still stay together in this Clan and hang out as a member of [TTIME]. SHADE11ce: Also, as an English-speaker, I’ve been really surprised by our Korean music channel.  Everybody has heard of Psy, but there is a lot of music out there that has really amazing beats! Maybe I can’t understand what they’re saying and maybe it doesn’t make sense to me, but it’s really cool to sit down and hear a bit of culture like that.   One of the things that SHADE11ce said is that you try to battle call in both English and Korean as much as possible.  Would you say that [TTIME] has a general playstyle and if so, how would you describe it? Memoryleak: When the battle comes, we play our best tank that we can play on that map.  We don’t let people play some weird tanks that they don’t like or don’t know how to play.  We let them play what they play the best and we come up with a strategy after we choose our tanks.  If you’re talking about battle strategies, we work together to see what our opponent is doing and attack their weaker side.  It’s a really simple strategy, but simple works for us.   What was your most exciting battle or war that [TTIME] has fought in? Holyheaven: I think my most memorable war was [TTIME] against Walletwarrior.  I think they’re Fusion now. That battle was SO intense!  It took us three weeks to win it and every night when we lost, we had such a huge feeling of disappointment.  I’d say it was even worse than losing your job or something.  It was a really long battle and now we’re friends.  I still remember a couple of days where we didn’t win the last of their territories and every night we failed on the attack.  It was such a big disappointment. Every time we didn’t win, everyone had a huge sigh that could “blow the whole house down.”  We won the first then lost the second war later.   Memoryleak: I remember we were basically back and forth against Walletwarrior.  It was so close in winning and losing over the course of two weeks or something.  Everyone was exhausted after that and we learned a lot from it.   Holyheaven: One thing I don’t really like when we are doing Clan Wars…some Clans do “dirty talks”. They swear and make fun of us just because they lose.  They might make fun of us. We just want a clean and good fight.  Walletwarrior did that for us.  That’s why, even though we fought for a long time, we consider them our friend.  Once in a while, we still talk!   How does a big war like that change a Clan? What’s different about [TTIME] when you went into the war and when you came out?  Holyheaven: Before we started, we were just a bunch of skillful players, but throughout the battles we worked heavily on our teamwork.  Without teamwork, Clan Wars is no different than a pub match.  We were getting better and better.  That’s what the game is for.  If you play at an intense level then you get better and better. We earned a lot of confidence after we won the war.  “We are able to do it. We can do it!”   Reshiken:  I think big wars make a lot of friends.  As long as you keep your word and do what is right, everything will work out.   SHADE11ce: I think in big wars, you learn a lot about each other too.  It tends to bring out some stress and some emotion in a Clan.  You really create tighter bonds with all of that going on.  I think it’s a good test for a Clan and also it’s a building block basically.   Who would you say is your greatest ally right now?  It sounds like you’ve met Walletwarrior/Fusion and a number of others. Reshiken: The greatest one?  They’re pretty much all our friends.  We’ve been talking a lot with [CHAII], and [CHAI], and all of those guys there.  We have other Mexican Clans that are our friends, but they’re all up on the other timezone.  We’ve been working with them in campaigns and stuff, but other than that it’s [CHAI] and [CHAII].  Those will be the guys who have been working with us for a very long time.  As larger Clan Wars go on, we learn our limitations:  what we are bad it, what our Clans need more work on and all that kind of stuff.  That's where we learned all of that.   If I’m interested in joining [TTIME] what are your requirements, what do I need to do, and what is your recruitment process like? DMan360: First off, you gotta have the stats and the skill.  Right now, we’re really trying to work on that and just recently we have opened things up to not just Korean speakers, but English speakers and generally other languages as well.  We focus a lot on just getting to know the player, so platooning is a big thing.  What it really comes down to is playing with that player in platoons and running Tier Xs.    Just recently some of the players that we recruited, we had them join us in Strongholds as a Legionary to see how they work with the team.  It’s a great way, to get, rather than just two [TTIME] players platooning in a random battle, we can have 13 or 14 players working with this one player that is interested.  Then we can all get our opinions on them and get a really good sense of his ability.  Yeah, it’s pretty straight forward. Just contact any of the officers on the forums or in-game, what not.  Hop on our Teamspeak, just ask any of the players if they want to platoon up, or just ask me.  It’s a pretty simple process.   SHADE11ce: Since [TTIME] has opened up to English-speaking players, both me and DMan came from [-J-].  I personally had prior relations with E63 and Memoryleak, where I knew them from the Canadian team that went to the World Cybergames in China.  When looking for a Clan afterwards, it was all about talking to them and knowing them.  Cool_hammer came from [-J-] as well.  Having good friends here, we decided to come here and it has been our home.  It’s been absolutely great.   As far as recruitment goes, we’ve been basically looking for people who have decent stats, can play the game, but in the end we’re looking for people who are people.  We’re looking for good quality, respectful, and honorable people.  We’re looking for good players who can play with other people.  We want people you can rely on and people who will try different things.  There are so many different things that you can try, that you can support the other person, know what the other person is going to do.  You want that kind of relationship with the people that you play with.  You want to LIKE the people that you play with! (Laughter) It’s very important!    DMan360: I definitely agree with SHADE’s point there, about enjoying the company of your Clanmates.  Just from experiences with talking to friends and players from other Clans, there definitely are a lot of problems between players sometimes.  A lot of people will leave even places like a spot in a Top Clan because they have problems with other players.  I think that is what is strong about [TTIME], we have good relationships between our players and our members. We want to keep a friendly environment as well as a competitive environment.  I think a lot of Clans sometimes only focus heavily on the competitive aspect and I think that hurts them in the long run because they may lose a lot of players in the process.   You mentioned the use of legionnaires, how does [TTIME] view Strongholds and how do you use it? Memoryleak: We use Strongholds as a place for people to practice group work.  Also we give out gold based on what they’re making in Strongholds.   Holyheaven: My policy of running a Clan…the gold goes to whoever does something for the Clan.  Gold is not just for good stat people.  Even if you do not have really good stats, you can participate in Strongholds and earn a “cube” [industrial resource] for us.  When you get a “cube” for us, it’s basically good for everybody in [TTIME].  The whole Clan deserves it.  That’s why we are paying out gold for participation.  One “cube” = one gold, at the moment.  Who knows?  As long as we are holding land and getting gold, we’re going to keep paying out in this system.   Did you have any shout-outs or last words that you’d like to make? Holyheaven: I really appreciate Wargaming making World of Tanks.  I meet such great people just because of this game.  It’s really a great game. I never played an online game until World of Tanks and I kind of never met people the “cyber way”.  I do make friends in real life, but not really the “cyber way”.  People who met in Clan Wars actually became friends in real life.  So, I really appreciate Wargaming making this game.   DMan360: To go off of that, I think World of Tanks does a really good job at making connections between different players.  Look at a lot of other games and people just play, but with CW / Strongholds / tournaments / skirmishes…this game is so focused on teamwork.  Even with random battles, there needs to be some teamwork there.  Especially in Clan Wars activities, it’s all about teamwork.  I think that’s what is really nice about this game.   SHADE11ce: [TTIME]used to be an all-Korean clan, and now that [TTIME] has opened the doors to pretty much anybody. Whether you are Korean, from Korea, speak Korean, it doesn’t matter now.  Going off of just what I have experienced at [TTIME] is great. It’s everything you want in a Clan. It’s full of respectful and honorable people and it’s an all-around amazing Clan.  That’s basically why I’m here.   Memoryleak: There is a lot of content in World of Tanks and there is definitely more content if you play as a group.  If you play as a team or as a part of a Clan there is going to be more content than just random battles out there.  I’ve been enjoying all of the content and it’s been nice.   There are a lot of updates and a lot of new things going on.  We all as a group, and as a team, love to play.  We love the challenges going on.  It’s all nice!   Holyheaven:  E63, Memory, and me…we actually all know each other in real-life now just because of this game.  I heard great stories when E63 came from California after a couple of trips.  I thought, “Wow, it must be really fun. You have a lot of fun there.”   Besides just playing a game, it’s more than that to me now!