This is the official closing topic for the Crimson Raiders. With the current state of the leaders and the clan and the clan world, it is time to close. With few members of Crimson Raiders even playing runescape, getting clean fights near impossible, and the leaders needing to move on with life, we made the decision to close. We could struggle and attempt to get back, but with limited motivation, the time is now. Life call's for the remaining leaders and with me retiring almost two years ago and the current leaders not being able to log on for days at a time, the time is now. Below is our history for those who care. Thank you clan world for all the memories. Forgotten Templars, Exodus, Collision, The Moon Clan, The Neggas Clan, The Call of Legends, Wilderland, and all the other clans we fought for many years, thank you for everything.
To the Crimson Raider Members:
For the few of you to join another clan, keep the standard Cr kept high, and live on in the legacy. Thank you for all the years and hours of
toils we spent on these computers. These memories will never be forgotten. Thank you for everything, I will miss every single one of you.
This is our Pre-2005 History: [Written by Blenders]
The base for CR started from a clan called Order of Outlaws (leader - xpkerdude25x). I worked my way up to co-leader in there, partially because of my really high combat (85). We never really got good turnouts, as far as I remember we never had over 8 people at events. He eventually started to get more and more inactive and I was the one doing most of the events, recruiting, etc. His activity kept slipping and I was tired of trying to run a clan as the 2nd leader when I did nearly all the work. After he went about a week without getting on rs or the forums, I finally decided to make my own clan in December 2004, called the Crimson Raiders.
Most of the active members of Order of Outlaws followed me to CR, the only one I can still remember is simon181991 who stayed at my side a good 4+ years. We started as an equally skilling and pking clan with a 60 combat requirement with the promise that it would go up very soon to the 70 that Order of Outlaws had. To recruit more members, I announced on our recruiting topic on RSC that I would have a (300k?) drop party when we reached 25 members. Between the other clan's leftovers and the recruiting topic we shot over the 25 member goal after a few days. In fact, since I waited until we hit 25 to schedule the drop party, we gained atleast another 10 in the next few days leading up to it.
Then we had the drop party on the roof of Varrock Castle, our first event. If I'm not mistaken, I think that's when fire 3lade joined. I think I dropped about 400k in addy armor, rune hatchets, and other random noob things. Then we went pking for the first time and I think the results varied since there was such a huge level gap between the level 50s and 90s. The pictures from the event really helped out our recruiting topic on rsc. Our average turnout was about 10-20 people. We continued to gain more members, and someone named Desolation_X became my co-leader. I started to want a break from the clan world since it took up the majority of my time in Runescape. And my activity started to drop quite a bit. I decided I didn't want to run a clan if I wasn't fully dedicated to it, so I made Desolation_X leader and decided to retire from the clan world.
Since I pretty much dumped it on him, he didn't really want to lead a clan and he gave the leadership to someone else. With each leadership change, we lost some members. From there, CR just tailspinned and closed within a few days.
A few weeks/months later, fire_3lade pmed me in runescape while I was making nature runes (yep, still remember that) and told me that he and Jacksonzhao had been wanting to restart CR. My main concern was how much work I would have to put into it. I didn't really remember Jackson, but fire_3lade somehow convinced me and the 3 of us became leaders of the new CR, agreeing to share the workload.
Quite a few of the old members came back, including simon181991 and that was the base that we started back up again with. We still had the old recruiting pictures that we could use and we just kept gaining members from there, again offering a drop party within the first few weeks. Tj040 was one of the earlier members. As more members joined, we kept bumping the requirements up. Remaining consistently active on the forums and at events he was promoted to Council and eventually General. When Jacksonzhao became more inactive we looked for a new leader, and it was Tj. At first, nothing really changed, but we had just added the most important part in CR's future survival. At this point, I think our requirements were 70 combat. I was probably level 92 or 93 and TJ would have been high 70s or low 80s, the same with fire 3lade.
We continued to grow all around. We had a variety of events including pking, mining trips, combat training trips, wars, skill parties, fun themed practice wars, skill battles (weekly competition with prizes to see who could gain the most xp in a given skill each week), and drop parties, of course. That was pretty much the "golden age" of CR's community. All those events got members familiar with each other and we pretty much all got along great. If a leader ever wants to know how to get people closer those are great ways to do it.
As time passed and the requirements grew, members generally wanted more pking trips and wars. So we began to have fewer skill events, but kept the weekly skill battles competition which most people LOVED. I still tended to like skilling more and rarely trained combat. TJ and fire both trained combat for the benefit of CR and our leadership roles began to fit what we liked. I loved the forums and skilling so I looked after the forums, keeping people up to date, and making skill events. Tj040 and fire 3lade started leading most of the wars and pk trips.
This was probably in 2006-2007 that our different roles developed. My combat was about 98 and tj and fire both passed my level even though I was about 10 levels above each of them and they kept going ever since. In 2008 my activity declined heavily, I would sometimes go a week without making an event. Although it was never really spoken, Tj sort of developed as the main leader and the Crimson Raider's main thing became wars and pking.
I love thinking that I created what is now a top 10 clan and that I had an impact on the world that will last forever, bringing together new friends. But the fact is that CR was destined to happen. It wouldn't be around today if ANY of the main leaders weren't here. With me it is obviously that we never would have gotten started. We wouldn't be around without fire 3lade because of his ability to heighten the community, his desire to restart CR, and his great personality that unites members. Tj would have become a leader in another clan eventually, but we were lucky enough to get him here and I'm sure he wouldn't trade it for anything. He took CR to new heights and from here I'll hand the history book to him.
Sep 2005 – Sept 2009
I took the leadership and within about six months Fire 3lade had to quit for work and Blenders had to quit due to real life issues so I took quick control over the clan and made hasty promotions to help me through the work. The years 2005-2008 have little to no pictures or evidence of our accomplishments besides our war record. We were in the top fifty for clans and concentrated on community and were pretty quit on Rsc fighting old clans like Ft, Bos, Tcc, Ubh, Pe, Dw, etc... These were the best years in Cr's History in my perspective because we were a family and we knew so much about each other personally. Runescape took away the wild and small clans began to die.
We had two choices, to struggle and live or to wither and die. We chose the first and clans around us slowly died away and our clan slowly got better. Our core unit was amazing and we consist of a strong core abott 25 members who have been active for about three years and will never leave this clan. Most clans today do not have this core which is what I love about Crimson Raiders. We care for one another and we protect one another to the end. You flame the clan we don't care as much, you attack a member and it becomes personal. In 2008 we had a good year in the Bounty Crater and we began to grow from there. Early 2009 was our best organization and pulls. We pulled high ops with small ml's and beat clans that outnumbered us because we had all become experienced.
Summer of 2009 was the whole UBH/PE joins which after four years we finally got numbers to win wars. And if you look at our ML we don't have more than 10 Ubh/Cr which for all you people who accused us of mass joins. Summer of 2009 we pulled our first 200 ops, but they were not accurate. We dominated clans and the late 2009 we lost a lot of wars. We kept on warring because we knew we were getting better. Clans thought we would die but yet we got most improved in 2009. It shows how community is how clans stay alive, not flaming or winning wars. You should want to be in a clan to have fun which is the number one thing and thats the image we put for Crimson Raiders. Commitment toward each other.
Now 2009 came to an end and our organization was finally set and in 2010 we wanted to test this organization and see how it goes against other clans and so far it has been going well. Fighting top clans and just going out and having fun win or lose is what's good. Now I don't know how long this clan will be alive but it'll be alive until the community benefits from each other. This clan world is changing and most clans that were similar to us died away and only really two clans remain that emphasize the same points we do and we're fairly close to both of them so it's all good. Would like to say thank you to all the Crimson Raider members from past and present for all the great experiences also. Parsh, Richy, Eddie, True, Morg, Michael, Jacky, Eddie, Takedown, Ryan, Rune, Lex, and everybody else thanks for all your help.
Sept 2009 – Sept 2010
This was probably the prime of the Crimson Raider’s in terms of achievements. We were at our best, battling clans like Corruption and Eos and being able to manage ourselves. We came into the top ten, from being an RSB clan, and being stuck in the higher 30-40 ranks for years, not mass recruiting, not merging, we did it. This was probably the last golden age of clanning as well, when you could go out randomly and find a clan and not deal with the chaos and cluster that happens in today’s world. We had over one hundred members, and had to create an FA and retired list just to make room for our size. We did not mass recruit, but slowly built and grew. As Morg and True morphed into the leading legends they are today, I was finally, after three years of solo work with random leader’s coming and going such as Michael, Jacky, Jacksonzhao, Blenders, Fire coming and going. We rivalries with clans such as Collision, Exodus, Forgotten Templars, and The Neggas Clan, we showed them which clan could take battle time after time and come out with a win. I finally had two leaders who could call when I was dead, Morg and True. Hopefully teaching those two from what I had learned in my experience, I stepped back and used my ample free time to make the community stronger and help with stabilizing our growth, and we did just that. Under a strong leadership including of Luke, Jamie, Fire, True, Morg, Parsh, and I, we achieved greatness in Cr’s history. With strong members such as Uffan, Thiaka, Danny, Mitch, Haley, Dslayer, Esmir, Potato, Topgun, Lexmarkman, Skittle, Azndragonblu, Shin, Takedown, Pure Strong, Darkstar, Juggernaut, Kzero, Bambam, Lorenzeo: You all were the ones who made this clan what it was, our core group, the ones there from beginning to end, who I could depend on to come when I asked. To you all, I bow my head. and so many other actives, we constantly had great pull’s and win after win, continuously surprising ourselves. Unfortunately with the summer of 2010 coming to a close, and many of our members joining college, Runescape became a hobby rather than a commitment, which it should be at our ages. With the average age nearing twenty now, we cannot hold these commitments as real life calls.
September 2010 - Current
With our peak now over, the clan began to slowly fade. We began to lose leaders steadily. I quit in September 2010, shortly followed by True_2k8 and J_Morg_05. With COsta, Skittle, Fry, Suhhus, Luke, and Parsh stepping up we stabilized throughout the rest of 2010 and 2011. However, with the end of 2011 we lost many of these leaders and their activity. Fire 3lade, our other founder, at this point was gone and the inactivity for the rest bega. We contemplated closing the clan in summer of 2011, but dediced to continue the legacy for the members and our leaders struggled on attempting to control members and keep moral high.
With 2012, we began to pull 20-30 people, most of them in Cr for years, and the struggle to go on was fading. Fry, Suhhus, Parsh, and Eddie did their best to continue the clan and keep it a strong community and less of a warring clan. As we went through the year, the retired's began to come on less and less and the active members who wanted more, we could not give to so we slowly lost members. As August approached we knew we had to end it here before school started because with school it would be too difficult to continue this clan at it's current standing.
Earlier, this week we decided to close this Sunday, our last day.
Conclusion
Seven years, one re-opening, three founders, thousands of members who held the Crimson Raiders standard. 95% of members who joined the clan stayed for more than a few months. With most of Cr being in the clan for more than two years, or members like me being the only member, we had a long list of dedicated members who would do everything to help the clan succeed, the only problem was real life, which was too great a threat to prolong any further. After seven years of opening, Sunday, August 19, 2012, is our last day. Thank you for everything Runescape, RSC, other clans, crimson raiders members and leadership. From the first to the last leader, it was a spectacular journey. We made Runescape into something more than a game, and regardless of the wins or losses, we acheived friends for life, now that is an accomplishment to be proud of.
Crimson Raiders Administrator,
Tj