2008

December 2007 proved to be the worst month in Runescape history. The removal of the wilderness brought great alarm to everyone. Even though Gladz was not a pk clan, our performance in the wilderness was still a major source of our identity. From the Karamja wars, to our 600+ opt turnout against Dark Slayers, to our war for rank nine in November 2007, our history is dotted with some of the most memorable wars in Runescape. No one was sure how the new year would work out, but everyone stood loyal to the clan, ready to overcome any obstacles thrown at them.

Jagex had introduced two new mini-games: Bounty Hunter and Clan Wars. The two games weren't the best substitutions for the wilderness, but like most other clans, we used them. It was much different than what Gladz was used to, but we adjusted to this new environment. To start off the new year, our great Neohot Blaze called an unexpected Muster. Not knowing what was to happen, Gladz mustered its warriors ready for what was about to happen. As it turned out, The Alliance was being called upon once more to fight Collision and The Titans at bounty hunter in a Pk run-in. Mustering up a healthy 230 options to CT's 200 options, we were ready to start the year off with a bang. Both sides did amazingly with KO after KO. Although being out-organized, The Alliance continued to return. After two hours of fighting, it would seem the fight would be a draw, but with some confusion, Collision and Titans had won by a few people. It may have been a loss, but the fight itself showed the public that Gladz and The Alliance were ready for the new year.

Throughout the month, we continued having our f2p and p2p bounty hunter trips as well as our fun events. Gladz was also participating in a Runescape Community tournament, so we had many practice events with our Allies as well. Although it seemed January may have been a dull month because of the removal of the wilderness, we were actually active with run-ins and mini-wars during the month.

February came with some changes to the leadership. Wkd Tyger, who helped lead the clan for a solid year during 2006-07, in addition to holding the council advisor, council, Rider of Rohan, and elite ranks over the preceding years, had taken the elder rank. With this sad news brought forth, we also had Neohot Blaze and Deathstar99 promoted to advisor to help in the leadership. The Runescape Community tournament also was a challenge for Gladz, as we didn't do too well in most of the categories. But with a stunning performance in the p2p 15vs15 section, against some of the top clans such as Corruption and Divine Forces, it seemed we were the favorite in winning.

We weren't at our high point, but we were doing well. Suddenly the entire clan community as well as Gladz would be shocked to hear our Ally, The Mighty Red Dragons, would be stepping away from the warring scene and become a community clan. Tmrd wasn't doing too well, but this sudden changed greatly effected The Alliance as it left Gladz and 'The' Clan as the only warring clans. When it seemed things couldn't get worse, Jagex introduced another update, which would once again upset the clan community. Fearing people would use Bounty Hunter to transfer items, they made it single, which ended Pk run-ins. It was a tough month, but we found some enjoyment celebrating our seventh birthday with the public in a series of events.

Gladz wasn't doing well in mini-wars as it seemed hybriding had became very popular and the key to winning. Determined to improve our binding skills and make Gladz a competitive clan again, Neohot Blaze and the Pk team worked on stressing the importance of binding and held many practices. As the RSC tournament came to its finals we would be facing Chivalry Legion. It was our last chance to win a category and we were ready. The fight proved to be completely controlled by Gladz as we only lost one person and won the p2p 15vs15 category. This showed Gladz had overcome being a strictly f2p clan and moved over to the p2p side.

After many mini-wars and practices, Gladz had begun to win again. We doing very well and our activity had picked up. The Pk team knew it was that time again. Runescape Dinasty had declared on Gladz for our RAW rank. Busy at the moment planning a RAW war of our own, we declined, only to accept a few weeks after being declined by The British Elites. This brought high morales for our members and much excitement. Bespinman73 brought back the great War Machine to get everyone training as well as new promotions. We had numerous practice wars and everyone was training hard, ready to take on RSD. As the war day came, we had our war spam put up and massed to the meeting spot. Ready to take on Rsd with an army of near 280 options, we would be forced to let many of our retireds go to comply with the four retireds only rule. Being left with 234 options, we knew we could still win. RSD entered clan wars with 165 options. As the timer ran out, Gladz death dotted behind a wall, waiting for RSDto charge. The fight was intense as both sides were able to KO each other at exactly the same speed, but as RSD's numbers slowly died down, our members were able to effectively tank, while we were able to still KO them. Gladz manged to successfully defend their RAW rank with 135 options remaining.

After winning our first RAW war of the year and pulling outstanding options, the leadership decided to enter another tournament that was set up by RSC called the Clan Wars Premier League (CWPL). Everyone had high hopes that we could win our bracket, although we were facing many strong clans. Ready to take on the CWPL, the leadership once again announced some changes. Neohot Blaze would be promoted to the respectable War General rank. He would be the thrid person in Gladz' history to ever hold this rank. Knightmare25 would also be promoted to advisor and becoming a part of the upper leadership.

Ours wars in the CWPL didn't seem to help the clan much. Our first fight was with Shadow Elves. We massed up an impressive 249 options to their 213 options. Despite out-numbering them, SE's organization proved to be great as they managed to win. The other fights seemed to go the same way as we lost week after week. As the week we were to fight BK crept nearer, morale shifted. We would be fighting our long time rival, The BlacKnights, after we stated we would never fight them again. We had decided this would be the only exception. Suddenly, activity rose again, as it did for the RSD war. Sign-ups looked promising and even the clan community was looking forward to this fight. As the war day came closer, the CWPL pulled something again that would ruin our war. BK had been dropped to a lower bracket and was forced to cancel the war to fight a clan in their bracket. Once again Gladz was down after building such high morale for that war. The CWPL proved to be a mistake for Gladz as the officials weren't helpful and didn't enforce the rules. We decided to make sure we won our last fight against Collision before leaving the CWPL. The turnout wasn't great, but we managed to outnumber Coll to take the win in the full out and later on win the matched option fight.

Although Gladz didn't perform well in the CWPL, we had our high points in activity. The rest of the summer many have been considered a high point as well. Gladz were doing great in mini-wars as our organization had vastly improved war after war. August was a month to be impressed by as we were on a roll with our wars, losing only two or three mini-wars, while dominating the rest. Summer may not have been where our activity was at its best, but our organization sure was.

During September, Jagex finally released their anticipated clan wars updates. Instead of a single clan wars arena, many new arenas could be chosen with a multitude of new rules with many various combinations that could be chosen. Also, Jagex released two extra free-for-all arenas; one safe, and one dangerous which allowed clans to fight in a PKRI style war allowing tactics such as returning to make an impact on the game once more. These changes were eagerly anticipated by The Gladiatorz and welcomed with open arms as elements of the old Wilderness returned to Jagex's game.

Following these changes to the game, both Hobbitt222 and Atanas were promoted to Rider of Rohan because of their fantastic contributions to the clan. In the midst of the promotions, the clan embarked on a new adventure in the form of an official P2P war. Organized against Fatal Death, a pure P2P clan, the war was set for September 27th, 2008. Since it was our first P2P war, many members would be learning entirely new skills required for P2P action within a week, while Fatal Death's members would have been used to the styles of combat that would be involved for far longer. Unsurprisingly, Gladz were not properly prepared for the fight and were quite simply outclassed by Fatal Death, whose experience shone through. Despite outnumbering FD, our lack of experience allowed Fatal Death to claim a quick and decisive victory in our first official P2P war. Shortly after this war, RAW was reformed but since warring was not the only form of fighting anymore (because of FFA's introduction), there was little desire to re-enter the RAW list and a majority of clans refused to sign up, thus forcing RAW to lose all of its credibility.

Even though clan wars had been drastically changed recently, even more radical changes were made to Runescape in the months that followed. The updates to clan wars were quickly followed by something of a much larger magnitude on October 15th, 2008: the re-release of PvP in the Wilderness. With several worlds dedicated to PvP (even in cities such as Varrock and Falador), the PvP update allowed PK'ing to return and for the Wilderness to return to a moderate degree. With PK'ing available for the clan world once more, the Wilderness burst into life (despite mixed reviews on the drop systems in place) as clans removed the shackles of CWA and entered into a PvP environment not seen since December 2007.

As the game changed dramatically, so did Gladz internally. Although many members may have been in the clan for a long amount of time, it was often troublesome to praise members for their dedication and loyalty, thus leading to the creation of the Venerable Gladiator rank. This rank was given to all members who maintained their activity for a prolonged period of time, and was only available for members of the clan who had stood the test of time through their strong sense of loyalty and determination to succeed. Alongside these promotions, V Essiah was also re-promoted to Rider of Rohan. As a former rider who had previously retired, V Essiah earned his promotion thanks to his stellar leadership skills and thoroughly deserved his second time at the rank.

Despite people moving up the clan's ranks, one of our Leaders, Knightmare25, decided to leave the clan in early November because of mounting real life responsbilities and a desire to try out other areas of the clan world. This, in combination with other components such as a lack of PvP, slowly caused our numbers to drop down from significantly over 120 members, to below 100 active Gladiators and it was vital that the clan found a fresh desire for life if it was going to succeed in the new PvP worlds. This motivation was found, however, through a combination of challenging fights which utilized the core strength of Gladz - a fullout war. As confidence grew with more victories, it looked like the slump that took place was only a minor blip in the clan's plans for the future, which involved victories too numerous to count. With Bleedblack recently promoted to Advisor, thanks to the combination of a strong upper leadership, an indestructable core of members and Gladz preparing for 2009 through methods such as Winter Warrior (a training competition), the sky was the limit for the following year.