Cutthroat's 1 Year Birthday

Part 1: The Founding

In 2013, Jagex made the decision to bring back an 'Old School' version of RuneScape.  Many players, both old and new, flocked to this version of the game.  Nostalgia drew pkers who had not played since the end of an era when wilderness was removed from the game.  It also lured new players who had never been able to experience RuneScape in its glory before the updates of EOC forced clanning into decline.  The 2013 update brought new life to the game.  With that new life, clanning found itself a home once more and began to take root.  Throughout 2013, big names such as Reign of Terror and Damage Incorporated made their return.  Many spent the better part of 2013 training their accounts from scratch back up to max, and 2014 saw the return of rivalries, crashwars, and regular wilderness activity.  With the growth of the previous two years, summer 2015 was poised to be the most active summer Old School RuneScape had seen yet.

On June 1st, 2015 Abyss Arr0w, Christy, and Joe came together to create what would become one of the most innovative original clans of its time.  It was named Cutthroat, after the ferocity that they fought with and the intensity of their determination.  They opened as a mid-level, zerk, and tank clan that did not allow multi-clanning and did not participate in any 'out of game' tactics.  The founding leadership included Abyss Arr0w and Christy as Leaders and Joe as Council.  No one could have imagined it on that day, but Cutthroat was about to take the clan world by storm.

Part 2: The Summer of Success

Cutthroat made its footing in the summer by both perfecting old lures and creating new ones.  They became well-known for their portal luring and invented the 'chin lure' that top clans such as Reign of Terror and Violent Resolution would later use.  Word spread as Cutthroat lured godsword after godsword, taking out members of other clans, streamers and being featured many times on popular youtube outlets for their luring techniques.  As word spread, Cutthroat grew.

At the end of June, Cutthroat suffered its first setback.  It found itself the only mid level clan left as many teams and clans such as Valhalla closed their doors, feeling that the wilderness no longer suited their needs.  Cutthroat could choose 2 paths, become the bully of the pure community or face the great odds and move into the main scene.  Their members gladly accepted the challenge of fighting mains and a campaign was launched to make themselves a top contender in the main scene.  They began warring and to the surprise of many, winning, against teams such as Anonymous Community, Silver Bloods, and Infliction.  As Cutthroat became stronger, it found its first rival in Silver Bloods.

In the months to come, this rivalry would give Cutthroat the momentum that it needed to push from a small clan into a mid-sized clan and the experience would shape their attitudes and goals for the following months.  At the beginning, Cutthroat bested Silver Bloods time and time again, winning in Multi, Single, and CWA.  Despite these victories, forcing Silver Bloods into submission would be an uphill battle.  They were a team who shared members with many other teams, among them Yoloboys and Ancient Fury.  Silver Bloods hoped that by inviting these teams to crash or try to end Cutthroat, that they would scrape away a victory.  However, the members of Cutthroat would not give up against any odds and by the end of the summer, Silver Bloods closed it doors for good.  While this would not be Cutthroat's last or even greatest challenge, the success would instill a resolve in its members that would stick with it for ages to come.

Cutthroat went on to have many other rivalries throughout the rest of the summer.  Its members would watch as teams that had stood against them fell.  One after another, Impulse, Bloodline, Influx, and many others closed their doors.  As the summer drew to a close, it seemed only one team was left standing with Cutthroat - Infliction.  These two powerhouses of the summer took aim at each other, having multiple hour-long wars that eventually lead up to Cutthroat's longest fight yet.  A 6 hour pkri inside gdz, a fight that would force Infliction leadership to 1 item for 3 hours, refusing to accept their loss.  While Infliction took the major RSC victory, Cutthroat won the war as RSC made their biggest decision in 3 years, to prohibit 1 iteming 'win' topics.

While Cutthroat and Infliction battled it out in the Wilderness, a new enemy was quietly growing.  An enemy that would feed off the many teams that had fallen to Cutthroat.  Little did they know, but this enemy would one day become Cutthroat's biggest rival yet, Brutality.

Part 3: The Change

As October of 2015 came, Cutthroat approached Infliction for a week prep, hoping to prove once and for all who the better clan was.  To their shock, just days after this request, Infliction closed their doors for good.  Members of their leadership, Rendual and Colin, approached Cutthroat leadership (consisting of Abyss Arr0w and Christy as Leaders, Joe as Council, Dolarhyde as Moderator, and Alex and Blob as Mentors) with an offer and a request.  The offer, to merge its skilled memberbase into Cutthroat and the request, that Cutthroat would begin accepting mains in order to do so.  This decision would forever change the identity of the clan and although there was much division on the subject, the leadership eventually agreed to the merge and became a new clan that accepted mains, mids, tanks, and zerks - the only one of its kind.

This change would lead many future members on a path towards joining.

Part 4: A Fire Begins

Throughout the remainder of 2015, Cutthroat battled its only mid-sized competition left, Brutality.  Their relationship began neutral as many do, with hour caps to short unplanned pkri's.  Nothing seemed amiss until Cutthroat approached Brutality for a week prep full out war.  Both clans pulled some of the most impressive numbers seen in P2P mid-sized clanning in years.  Brutality pulled 54 while Cutthroat pulled 57.  The war kicked off with every bit of ferocity that was expected.  However, no less than an hour in the fight became heavily crashed.  Cutthroat dealt with more than 40 people solely dedicated to crashing them.  These crashers included ex-members and members of formal rivals that had closed and most predominantly, Yoloboys, a rival single team.  Despite this, and with no AC in sight, Cutthroat battled on for more than 4 hours in their hardest fight yet.  Close to the 5 hour mark, a few members of Reign of Terror (a clan Brutality had entered a crash war with) began to arrive, and to Cutthroat's surprise, Brutality instantly fled the battlefield.  Cutthroat claimed their victory and posted an RSC topic as expected.  Brutality, however, unable to take their loss had the topic closed claiming that Rot had crashed, despite the hours that Cutthroat had spent battling with crashers on them.

The members and leadership of Cutthroat could not believe what had happened.  Despite the many fair fights they had given them, Brutality had skirted away with a cheap draw in what was a decisive Cutthroat victory.  This fight would ignite a passion in Cutthroat and give a purpose to the new members.  On October 4th, 2015 Cutthroat vowed to crush its enemies and become a top clan.  The battles between Cutthroat and Brutality raged on into winter, almost all fights being heavily crashed by outside interests.  As the New Year hit, it was still unclear who would be the victor of this intense rivalry.

Part 5: A New Campaign

A new year introduced a new batch of members to Cutthroat as Legion closed its doors.  Many of its former members, hearing that Cutthroat now accepted mains, began to apply for Cutthroat.  For Brutality, however, the start of a new year proved to be a rocky one as their members tired of Richworth's failed promises that Cutthroat would be "just a stepping stone."  Their pulls hit an all time low in January, barely pulling an average of 15 people a trip.  Cutthroat capitalized on Brutality's lack of motivation, dominating them again and again in the wilderness, forcing them to hide in small mans at rune rocks or low wilderness.

In February, Cutthroat launched a new campaign to prepare itself for the summer.  Privately, among the leadership team, February of 2016 was known as 'Cutthroat Pride Month'.  They began bearing down on the newly reopened, Frozen Fury, another team who had vowed to close Cutthroat.  The ex-Legion members had also revived a love for luring in Cutthroat, and were a major part of the clan earning more than 1.2B worth of loot in just under 1 month.  It did not stop there though, as Cutthroat introduced updates to their forums, training competitions, and a new leadership team through March.  The new leadership team consisted of Abyss Arr0w and Christy as Leaders, Scaped as Council, Colin and Blake as Moderators, Jurgen and Blob as Mentors, Holy Quran, Jesterjason1, and MD98 as Multi Captains.

Part 6: The Undeniable Truth

Spring came early in 2016, as Cutthroat saw increasing activity in the wilderness.  New teams were opening and old ones growing including Zero Tolerance, Red Army, Red Blade Hunters, Anonymous Community, and many others.  Early in the Spring, Cutthroat formed a relationship with a new team, Vengeance.  They would go on as allies for some time ac'ing each others fights and having mixed CWA events.  Despite Brutality's efforts at growing after their early year slump, their rivalry with Cutthroat had largely cooled off due to their inability to compete with Cutthroat's growth.  In April, Brutality launched their own campaign to become relevant again, reinforcing their alliance with Ancient Fury, and coordinating merged hits with them.

The frustration of these two clans at their inability to stop Cutthroat was clear as they were forced to abandon all gear standards in efforts to thwart Cutthroat's success.  The undeniable truth was that Brutality could no longer compete on their own with Cutthroat.  As May came, Cutthroat reached back to its roots, welcoming in a section of zerk and tank members that had broken away from Vengeance.  Much like the past groups who had joined Cutthroat, they brought their own energy to the clan as they quickly worked to prove their dedication.

As Summer of 2016 approached, all eyes were on Cutthroat to make the same big impression that it had in 2015 and they were more than ready to accept that challenge.