This is my official resignation from any and all positions of leadership in BBF. I had originally unofficially offered to resign almost 12 months back but due to a lack of viable leadership choices, I stayed on. Now however it looks very unlikely that I’ll ever have time to rebuild BBF on the Xbox 360 Console. In this resignation I included a bit about BBF’s history that goes back further than anyone left in BBF, besides DK. I also included Xbox history & Accomplishments. While I'm not leaving BBF, I may become pretty inactive.

BBF’s History

Ra2 History, DK, Smron, and my beginnings
Red Alert 2 skyrocketed under DK’s leadership. He was at the time a great negotiator. The man could recruit well, organize well, and as hopefully some of you know. He started BBF down the right track. After a few months DK had an Asian division going. BBF at one point was truly a 24 hour a day clan. When the American/Canadian players went to bed the Asian players took over. This lasted at least 5 months before DK resigned leadership of the game.

Originally I was recruited by Dark Knight on what was officially BBF’s 2nd game as a clan, a game still in its first month. Our first game was Armada, still it seemed DK rebuilt the entire clan on Red Alert 2. I joined in November of 2000. At the time I was a very immature (easily goaded) 13 year old. A fellow member and future leader Smron who was young himself, loved to instigate conflicts. To top it off, Ra2 chat rooms were dominated by young egoistic individuals. This made Ra2 chat rooms very volatile. Smron loved this fact. He would purposely start an argument that involved fellow members, BBF, and/or me. Then Smron would step back and watch the fireworks. I the fool I was would immediately step up and defend my friends or myself. Looking back… its actually pretty darn funny… he was quite the instigator and he loved constantly starting trouble. If for nothing else because he knew I was stupid enough to jump right in.

Under DK BBF experimented with multiple divisions and they worked up until a point. After 5 months of Red Alert DK announced he was retiring from Ra2. DK’s first replacement pick for leadership of RA2 retired shortly after being promoted. Around this time our European/Asian division was on the verge of retirement. So DK made a questionable call by promoting a young 14 year old kid under the name of Brimston8.

After DK retired and our Asian division died. I took over a Game Commander of BBF’s only game. Being as active as I was, I actually did a great job. Our ranks filled up and we began competing at a higher level. Out of 150 to 200 active clans (1-2k total clans), BBF stabilized as a top 20 clan. Ra2 ladders reset every month and every month we shot up to the top 20, sometimes the top 10. Then as frustration arose due to our inability to break the top 3, our minimal recruiting standards disappeared. Members at the time would recruit anyone who could help us take first place and hold it. This lead to our first ever clan split.

Ra2 History and BBF’s first ever split
It was going good, we had three divisions. An elite BBF division, a mid-level BBF-Terrorist Conscripts division, and a Training division (members were required to go through two weeks of training in this division before placement). I participated in our elite division on only a 2v2 or 3v3 capacity. Jonross and Firefox we’re lead members, two local buddies, very skilled, and an amazing team. They pretty much were the lead force behind our elite group. Though there came a point when these guys became tired of being 2nd best. They wanted to take and hold first place. See at this time BBF could get to first place but we never could maintain the rank for more than a couple days. All it took was a single loss and we dropped 8 to 10 spots.

It was at this time Jonross and Firefox recruited a very skilled one mapper in Pyymp. The problem with many skilled free agents is maturity. This Pyymp was a very young 13-14 year old who loved to antagonize and insult members in our lower divisions. Firefox and Jonross were good individuals but they didn’t care how Pyymp treated members as long as he could win.

Pyymp was asked many times to treat our lower skilled members with more respect and time and time again he wouldn’t. It came to a point where Pyymp began to openly pick on a single member, a Mr. BBF Tank on our forums. I warned Pyymp to stop or he would be removed from the clan. Jonross said he did not want Pyymp removed from the clan. Jonross & Firefox were good guys but they still needed people talented enough to help us control the ladder.

In the CLB I asked DK how he wanted to handle the situation. DK said “it’s your call”. DK knew what the stakes were and so he put the decision on my shoulders. I had to take the high road. Firefox and Jonross held no grudges but they said they wanted to form a more competitive group and so they did. There clan lasted a good year in RA2 and it did very well. As for BBF losing two of our most skilled and active members meant that those who were allowed to follow them did so. Some followed and some moved on. Those next few days we heard a lot of apologies on our forums and in the game. The funniest part of all this was that the member who had been picked on so much, left.
(FYI last year DK recounted this event pretty much exactly the same as I just did. Including his somber comment “it’s your call”)

BBF Ra2 breath of new life
With only a few members, friends, and a new recruit turned leader we rebuilt BBF into a 3 division powerhouse in weeks. Dell4 became a co-leader equal to me. He was a guy a lot like MrMiller. Dell and I were average players but together we beat some of the best, helping BBF become a top 10 team again. Yuri’s Revenge came out and BBF stayed active and strong for at least another year+.
Summary of Ra2

After DK stepped down I took over as leader of BBF’s only game In December 2000. By early to mid 2001 we lost a majority of our members to multiple other clans. It took us no more than a month to regain our numbers and our rank. BBF lasted on Ra2 and Yuris Revenge until late 2002 we never fell out of the top 20. Sometime in early 2002 Tiberian Sun came out and it became BBF’s 2nd active game. Through 2-3 years of Red Alert 2 and its expansion Yuri’s Revenge BBF was the longest lasting and biggest clan ever on ra2. We usually were only a top 10 clan but we had our moments. We had multiple divisions and you can bet every hardcore Ra2/Yuri’s player remembers us. If they only remembered a few clans they all would remember BBF as the longest lasting, most stable, and biggest clan on that game. Members from Ra2/Yuri’s went on to play and lead BBF on Dune 3D. Over my Xbox years BBF made “many” two to four month long reappearance on Yuri’s Revenge. In those times it was always me and an elite player that wanted to bring back BBF. A number of those times BBF took first place for days or weeks. Reviving BBF was always pretty easy due to the name we had built over the years. Ra2/Yuri’s revenge was the most active and longest living game I’ve ever experienced. I can also tell you through the years and the many “bad” versions of CnC games, I’ve met back up with many of those old “ra2 legends”. They all remember BBF and remember being a part of it at one time or another. Those Ra2 legends who still reappear around BBF are the following: UMD, Steelcrtn, SolidSn8ke, Grim Reaper, SpecialOps and there are others…


Xbox
In late 2002 when Microsoft officially launched its Xbox Live services, I with the help of my neighbor Zepher, officially brought BBF into Unreal Championship. It took a month and a few skipped school days but BBF had finally found its first group of gamers. Sometime into our third month we recruited Chumley and MrMiller, two great individuals. It was at this time we began our first clan matches. We shortly after formed our first group of Clan Leaders: Zepher, Chumley, MrMiller, J HY, myself and 3 months later Jano.

BBF Xbox and BBF PC Merges
During 2007, much like the PC forums, the Xbox forums were being overrun by spam bots, maybe even to a higher degree. Things got to the point where we needed a new forum. DK made it clear that if we wanted to stay with BBF we would need to merge forums with our PC brothers. While I had a past which intersected with the beginnings of BBF, my fellow members & leaders did not. They liked their independent control and didn’t want to change. We ran things in a way that little disagreements ever happened and we always came to an agreement without ever having to vote.

The Xbox leadership followed this new development with a number of discussions. We did have a general tide pulling for separation over a merging. Both the DC and the CLB leaned toward independence but at the time no leaders were completely against “attempting” a merge. Being on the ropes about this issue Miller, Tico, OC, & Jwriter were willing to give it a shot and I asked them too. After a discussion with the other Xbox clan leaders and leading members, they voted yes with stipulations. Those stipulations were mainly that we would run things no different than we’ve always done.

We recruited 60+ MW2 members, expanded into BF2, and held multiple tournaments. That was all good and dandy but what doomed this resurrection attempt was a lack of quality leaders such as Tico, Miller, or other such individuals. So despite reviving a Ra2 division multiple times and building the Xbox division from the ground up, I’m just too old to do it any longer. There came a time I contemplated the question if I would lose more by proving a previous leader right and letting my 8 years go down the drain or would I lose more by investing all my free time into Black Ops. Well the answer was easy.

In MW2 I did my best to find leaders to replace me. We had a few potential leaders. The most promising was a guy who may have been a mix of Miller and Sticky. The man had members flocking around him. He turned out to be a great leader in game but when it came to his own house, well that wasn’t in order. He allowed his inexperience with outside social life to interfere with his leadership position. He was a great guy but a young guy. Due to a severe lack of information and no ill feelings between parties this situation was handled as well as possible. Hisgun was kept aware and it ended. However shortly after this individual sold his Xbox and resigned. Add a “support” type leader that was only semi-active and a Black Ops that only a 1/3 of BBF members transferred to BBF Xbox survival came down to me investing extra time. I decided not to reinvest that time and what active US/Canadian members we had dispersed. After I went inactive the sole remaining leader of the BBF Xbox European division must have decided to cut ties. He still plays with many of those European members he recruited, however with nothing but him left on the Xbox division representing BBF, he probably didn’t want to carry on the clan alone. A clan he was only distantly associated with.

Brim I have never had the honor of talking with you in person never knew the honor of playing with you in any games but your reputation has always preceeded you and I have grown to respect and honor you more then you will know. My life in BBF has been long and now that I have returned it truely saddens me to see you step down I know you will still be a member but not having you as a DC member seems like a hole has been placed at the heart of this clan your input and advise will certainly be missed and I know your role that you have filled for so long will be truely hard to replace....

I salute you sir and I hope we honor and maintain a clan you helped build and put so much effort into.

See you around the forum mate

What an incredible insight to the history of the clan. You were a huge part of making this clan what it is today. Thanks for all the great years leading BBF. We are definitely grateful for all of what you have done.

Till All Are One!

WOW! what a history. I never did get to play any game with you. But after reading all this, all I can say is... Thank you. Thank you for all of your hard work, dedication, and friendship. You helped make this clan great, and supported it through some really tough stuff. It's inspiring. Take care, and happy travels to you. I hope we see you around

Brim, I am glad that I have had a chance to work hand and hand with you on making the clan what it is today. You are a great leader and sometimes RL comes around and takes most of our time. Since bringing xbox and pc to one set of forums I have seen your great leadership skills and your willingness to make it all work. You have showed us (the pc guys) we were not the only BBF people. Maybe one day you will have the chance to be able to come back to a leadership position. Glad you are not leaving BBF and your input will always be needed. Good Luck Brim.

Interesting

Looks like you will be a big part of the clan going missing

Without you Brim, we wouldn't have had the Xbox section we did. I did keep hoping you'd be able to put in the time to make it happen again, but I totally understand.

We have a few guys ready to play MW3, so I'm hoping some leaders step up to make that happen. We already have one GC application.


Brim, you're still going to stick around and play games right? I didn't get a chance to read the whole post yet, but I will this evening. I have to get to work.

Brim, thanks for giving me some reading to do while I'm at work..lol...nice to see that side of the history of the clan...I think with you leaving the leadership role that makes me one of the oldest dogs left around..lol..Seriously, while we've been running seperate divisions we've always seemed to see eye to eye in high level clan discussions, and I for one will miss your cander and well thought out opinions.

Now stick around and play some games with us!! (bf3 and SWKOTOR!!)

I salute you sir!

[quote="[BBF"]Crimson Ghost]
Brim, thanks for giving me some reading to do while I'm at work..lol...nice to see that side of the history of the clan...I think with you leaving the leadership role that makes me one of the oldest dogs left around..lol..Seriously, while we've been running seperate divisions we've always seemed to see eye to eye in high level clan discussions, and I for one will miss your cander and well thought out opinions.

Now stick around and play some games with us!! (bf3 and SWKOTOR!!)

I salute you sir!
[/quote]

Yeah if the game has a strong leader I'll certainly become a core member but just a member. I don't want the stress or the work of worrying about game activity. I'm glad to not have that responsibility anymore. Over time I'm sure many individuals will attempt to rally back if they are wanted or needed.

That last post didn't seem as long on Word... i even deleted a sizable portion about the split... to cut it down and better focus it...

Thank You Brim, you have always been a big part of this clan and I know whatever you do BBF will be part of you.

It looks good for this upcoming game so I hope you will be part of it and have fun as just one of the guys (you'll never be just one of the guys 100% because your more then that your "[BBF]Brim"). /-_-