Cutthroat's 3rd 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 the first year back training their accounts from scratch, and 2014 brought 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 uphill battle of moving 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 true 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.  Despite this, and with no anticrash 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 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 per 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 below 30.

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.

Part 7: A New Enemy

As always, the summer brought amazing growth the clan world as clans such as Sovereign and Anonymous Community began pushing themselves and new clans such as 420 and Revenant opened their doors.  Having secured their position as the best mid sized clan, many took aim to try to claim Cutthroat's spot.  The challenge was gladly accepted and Cutthroat had more than a dozen 5+ hour fights, taking the victory in each one.  Many were anxious to join in on all of the success, and Cutthroat applications were booming as clans like Tuf and Veng closed and wanted to join.  

Ancient Fury had quietly watched throughout the summer as Cutthroat grew and as Fall came, they decided to make their move.  Having a memberlist twice the size and almost a decade of experience, they sought to overwhelm Cutthroat with leaks and hits.  While Cutthroat would continue to fight back and achieve victories over Brutality and the newly reopened Infliction, Ancient Fury would remain a challenge.  Their onslaught would lead to many members, even some of the core leaving the clan.  At the end of 2016, having battled with multiple enemies against them for months, Cutthroat found itself at a low point and with an uncertain future.

Part 8: A New Cutthroat

As a result of Cutthroat's hard fought battle throughout the end of 2016, it found itself in a new place.  While the memberlist had shrunk, Cutthroat now consisted of only the best, most loyal members that they had ever had the privilege to call their own.  The beef with Ancient Fury had battle hardened their core and made them better than they ever had been before.  This loyal group was dead set on rebuilding Cutthroat in their image and went on to layout a set of high goals to achieve.

So, Cutthroat began participating in clan wars to hone their quality and individual skills.  They also began participating heavily in single spells fights, focusing on precision and spam.  The clan world had thought Cutthroat had seen it's peak and fallen, but to their surprise in just 3 short months Cutthroat had rebuilt itself to be stronger than it had ever been before.  It became a powerhouse in clan wars, securing a surprising 3-0 victory over Sovereign.

As Cutthroat achieved more and more cwa and wilderness victories, Ancient Fury saw their campaign had failed and as Rot pressured them they eventually closed their doors in April.  

Part 9: The Surge

Cutthroat had been reborn in the Spring and this fresh energy, excitement and buzz around the clan pushed them to want even more as summer neared.  The boldly entered the CJ Tournament on Zybez while many others were afraid to put themselves on the line.  To their surprise, their long time rival Brutality who had all  but closed in 2016, had seen a new revival with an influx of former Ancient Fury members and they entered the tournament on the last day.  In a twist of fate, Cutthroat and Brutality were matched against each other in the very first round of the P2P Full Out 100v100.  This fight would be the final conclusion to a rivalry spanning more than a year and the entire clan world had turned up to watch.  Cutthroat would pull an amazing 100 people while Brutality pulled 96.  While the crowds had fully expected an intense, close showdown, Cutthroat once again surprised everyone by stomping Brutality and claiming a 50-0 victory.

With Brutality quickly fading, a new clan decided to take aim at Cutthroat's success.  Revenant, a former zerk/tank clan gone main, had begun taking plays from Cutthroat's book in an attempt to climb the ranks.  However, they got ahead of themselves and began to take shots at Cutthroat's success.  After taking several losses in uncapped and capped single spells fights, frustrated Revenant members began 1 iteming and ragging Cutthroat.  This would lead Cutthroat to retaliate tenfold and would spark a new, intense crash war.  Throughout the spring and moving into summer Cutthroat and Revenant would clash repeatedly with wars that raged on for hours.  Cutthroat's quality consistently outmatched Revenant's and forced them into a position of outlasting in tank gear into late GMT hours.  As this rivalry heated up, Cutthroat pressured Revenant, taking win after win while also beefing up it's clan wars presence making it to the semi finals for every 2017 CJ Tournament category they entered and holding an 80% win rate in clan wars. They were poised and ready to make the summer of 2017 their most dominant summer yet.

Part 10: Distractions

Summers had always proved to be a peak time for Cutthroat and summer of 2017 was no different.  As Cutthroat peaked, Revenant grew weaker and weaker, a shadow of the clan that challenged Cutthroat in the spring their trips grew smaller and smaller and wars became less and less frequent.  Looking to other places for action, Cutthroat competed in Jagex's PvP Tournament in August.  Jagex streamed this tournament to more than ten thousand people and featured Cutthroat's calling letting those unfamiliar get a glimpse into the intensity of clanning.

While they did not win the PvP Tournament, these brief glimpses into Cutthroat had captured the hearts and support of the OSRS community.  Over the following months this new found popularity would only grow as they competed in Jagex hosted Wilderness Wars with Knightenator, coordinated a Wilderness War with Mog Time and had many other events with well known streamers and their viewers.  Cutthroat's friendly community and dedication to honor in keeping their rivalries in game made them an ideal clan for the community to support and with time Cutthroat opened a public Discord and began a Twitch stream that was quickly granted a sub button.

While Cutthroat enjoyed these fun events and turned their focus to growing the pvp community, a mistake was made.  They had left Revenant for dead, assuming they would die a slow death and eventually just fizzle out like their former rivals.  Revenant's hatred ran deep though, their members coming from other clans Cutthroat had closed were determined to not suffer the same fate again.  As Cutthroat used their success to give back to the community through events and tournaments, Revenant changed.  They switched from being a clan to a team, they spread their small member base out in a half a dozen different teams and communities.  They began recruiting ex Ancient Fury, shared members with these new teams and slowly began to infect these communities with an anti Cutthroat ideology.  Finally, in November Revenant paid nearly a bil to a rag clan Jaja to aid them in targeting Cutthroat.  On Thanksgiving of 2017, Cutthroat began fighting Jaja and Revenant arrived in full force bringing all their new friends with them.  Cutthroat expected Jaja to team to clear the crashers but this time they did not and both clans spent the next 10 hours teaming against Cutthroat eventually defeating them.

Part 11: Alliances

Over the next 5 months, Cutthroat would realize the full scope of the plan Revenant had enacted.  Every war they fought would be against overwhelming odds with as many as 6 teams against Cutthroat at a time.  Revenant, Jaja, Playdead, and Chivalry Legions would became the main actors in the anti-ct alliance but others threw their members in as well.  Occasionally, Violent Resolution or The Storm would throw in, taking shots at Cutthroat's success.

Looking back to the Fall months, Cutthroat had been shown a hint of what they could achieve and how much they could help the clanning community grow.  As Winter came in full force, the members and leadership made a decision that everything Cutthroat stood for was worth fighting for and that even if they could not win against such odds they would fight anyways.  And so they did, facing up against the alliance in war after war, most of them lasting 6+ hours or deep into the night.  While Cutthroat took its losses, it slowly grew stronger and stronger.  The Anti-CT Alliance was baffled.  They asked themselves how a clan could become stronger from losing, how Cutthroat could slowly build towards major victories against such odds.  Angry, Revenant began lashing out at it's allies, blaming them for their inability to close Cutthroat.

Playdead would be the first to tire of Revenant's arrogance and left the alliance.

Part 12: Revenge

As Cutthroat continued to fight outnumbered, things were changing.  They began to take more and more wins off of Revenant's weakening alliance.  As teams watched Cutthroat's unbreakable resolve, one by one, they abandoned Revenant.  Desperate, Revenant took aim at clans who still stood neutral, such as Unknown and Evo attempting to recruit or pull them into the alliance.  Their leadership saw through Rev entirely, and in the spring they closed and joined Cutthroat right as Revenant's first and last ally, Jaja abandoned their cause.

Right as Cutthroat gained this huge influx of members, Revenant found themselves alone again.  While the winter months had hardened Cutthroat members, they had made Revenant members weak.  They had grown complacent, used to depending on their allies for help.  Now they found themselves facing an angered Cutthroat, one they had used every pitiful method they could think of to team on and to attack.  This new Cutthroat was merciless in their renewed attacks on Revenant, hitting them every single day.  They destroyed Revenant's attempts at gwases, they demoralized them in crushing defeats and ended their pk trips.  Oddly enough, Cutthroat missed their winter challenge and looked for harder fights challenging Reign of Terror more and more frequently making the caps longer.

As summer neared, Cutthroat found themselves once again stronger than they had ever been before and with a new ferocity to achieve their goals.  They knew summer of 2018 would be one to remember.