As 2009 began, the realization of our slow decline during the final months of 2008 set in, with the scars from months of gradually losing members starting to appear. At one point, there were barely 70 Gladiators still wearing the green cape, and with Neohot Blaze, our mighty War General, retiring, the outlook wasn't particularly bright. However, the Winter Warrior training competition began at the beginning of the year with the goal of improving the quality of all Gladiators, not the quantity, and thus would continue as planned. With a colossal effort from many Gladiators, our combat average climbed and climbed until it reached a peak of around 121.5 F2P combat, which reflected the tremendous efforts provided by all Gladiators. The outlook also brightened after one of our greatest leaders, Ninexblue, returned to the clan as an Elder after several months away from Gladz.

Gladz was still strong, but nothing compared to our strength from years gone by. A goal would be required to unite the mighty members, but even though the leaders believed an official war would be enough, we were declined on numerous occaisons by all but the highest ranked clans in the newly reformed RAW. Nonetheless, our options slowly grew and our memberlist, too, thanks to efficient recruiting styles and a few vital victories which grabbed some of the public's attention towards The Gladiatorz once more. We broke through the worst of the storm with a large amount of core members still riding in green, which lead to the reformation of the Cavalier and Elite Cavalier ranks on March 19th, 2009. The ranks, now entirely time-based, were designed to recognize those members who had actively served the clan for an extended period of time, thus causing the removal of the Venerable Gladiator and Elite Gladiator positions in what was the first change during a serious rank overhaul within the clan.

Further updates occurred within the ranks, mostly caused by the changes to Elite Cavalier. To distinguish retired Riders of Rohan, the Retired Rohirrim rank was created and for members who still wished to maintain some activity within Gladz (primarily for wars), the War Veteran rank was created, so that some members would be able to attend the occasional war, even if they had largely left Runescape behind them. The first opportunity for this new rank change was in Jagex's Clan Combat Cup, where we fought Genesis Knights in the first round. With one of the highest turnouts (73) since our last official war against RSD, we quickly eliminated GK's members and finished with 65 members remaining. Sadly, we then lost to Chivalry Legions in round #2 in a late night fight, but the tournament still showed glimpses of our former power, and that the true Gladiator spirit wasn't lost, simply misplaced.

To reward the efforts of several members during those tough times, Hobbitt222 was promoted to Advisor and a month later, Lineskier12, Nakusai and Sir Jake 14 were all rewarded with the Rider of Rohan rank because of their hard work and dedication towards the clan. In the following weeks and months after these promotions, Jagex made several changes to alter PvP'ing for clans. Firstly, quick prayers were introduced which allowed several prayers to be turned on within one click. Secondly, an update to run removed agility's positive effects on energy restoral when in F2P worlds, but a rest option was introduced that allowed energy to be rapidly restored when stationary. However, the most important update was that of Bounty Hunter. Although PvP worlds allowed PK'ing, there were large amounts of critiscism regarding the new drop system, which meant that loot was often unpredictable. Bounty Hunter, which only included the Wilderness, had increased drop rates to replicate that of the old Wilderness and bring the game closer back to its former self without giving real life trading an opportunity to take place.