Guild Wars 2
2012-Present
Jedbacca
The guild slowly separated again until an announcement for Guild Wars 2 beta and the release of Diablo 3. Diablo 3 was a great way for re-rallying us together. We joined an alliance with [Evil], War Machine [WM], Amazon Basin [AB] and many others on Stormbluff Isle. This proved to be quite successful and kept us in the top tier for the rest of 2012. We began to lose a good amount of guilds from the alliance as some guilds lost interest in the game and others were switching servers to keep their competitive interests fresh. War Machine finally cracked from the over abundance of trolling thrown their way and left the alliance as Stormbluff Isle began falling apart. Arenanet announced that transferring servers would cost a fee beginning mid January so we decided to pack our bags and left for Jade Quarry as it was the last opportune chance to get all our members to a different server for free.
At this point, we were one of the biggest guilds during the NA time zone supporting a 300+ active roster, winning our 1st GvG against [Agg] and having one of the most entertaining channels during Friday resets. This would continue until the summer of 2013 as the roster eclipsed 400 members and finally got too big for its own good. Jed became burnt out from commanding too often which forced us to lean strongly on Ravanaz, Vic and Cue Queue as our trio of commanders. Cue Queue wasn't content with our current talent and left for greener pastures. Being very short on commanders but not on players, some would give it a try to fill the void. Lethal and Burt Reynolds both gave it a shot but to no avail as the void was mainly still filled by Vic and Ravanaz.
By the end of the summer of 2013, the roster would shrink to around 300 members and we slowly became more casual with guild missions taking a prominent role in our schedule. Vic would eventually take a break from the game at the same exact time we were hit with an influx of guild mergers in DA and EMP. Decisive G would reacquaint us with the GvG scene that we hadn't been a part of since February of 2013 as well as becoming a main commander for us during the the remainder of 2013. He would later leave to join a more GvG focused guild. Sobe and Amentaa from the EMP merger began leading for us for awhile until we recruited a commander from planet Mars named Lectel. Lectel's commanding style and personality were so unique at the time that it brought in an influx of new members on top of the recent mergers and he carried a large part of the guild until the spring of 2014. This was also around the same time we had our SF Vegas meetup which had around 10 of us trashed in Vegas which was a ton of fun.
Morb + Jedbacca
One of the mothership guilds (HzH) on Jade Quarry began slowly merging with us which brought us a powerful commander in Morb. Around the same time, we also picked up a very young commander in Trembles. This duo became our main commanders for a large part of the spring and summer of 2014. Due to Jed still being on and off with his availability, Morb became the face of the guild for the rest of 2014 and the trio of Lectel, Trembles and Morb kept the guild entertained and actively kicking ass. Trembles immaturity and Lectels racist tendencies would eventually get the best of both of them and they were both bounced from the guild. The transition from 2014 to 2015 was in the hands of a unique commander in Zivt who filled the void with his positive attitude and more strategic focus on ppt vs open field.
It wouldn't be a fall season in Guild Wars 2 without a memorable merger! We picked up QT and their knowledge and latest meta builds propelled us from average to a kick ass wrecking ball through the winter of 2015. We got back into the GvG scene and unfortunately still struggled to really make a mark with the big dogs. Just like all our GvG focused runs, it divided a portion of the guild and we slowly pulled out of the scene for the 4th time.
After a long absence, Vic made a comeback giving us our strongest commanding quartet to date in Jed, Morb, Vic and Zivt. This would stay the same until the mid-spring of 2015 where Morb would part ways with us to give a guild of his own a try. (nim) After the guild split, we were sitting at around 200 members and the commanding of Jed, Vic and the revival of Ravanaz. A weird deja vu from our early 2013 days! This would be added to by another trio of commanders who have been with us forever as members but wanted to give commanding a try in Thorton, Wigglez and Klow. In August, the guild had its 1st get together in Princeton, Wisconsin which saw around 10 members meetup for beer, brats and jet skis. The roster would sit around 130 - 140 and game activity was low until the release of Heart of Thorns.
Thorton + Klow
The Heart of Thorns expansion finally made its debut in late 2015. Along with a brand new expansion and our very own guild hall, we introduced a brand new GM. Jed had lost interest and time in the game and handed the reigns to the outrageous and dangerous duo of Thorton and Klow. Both were up and coming commanders that brought a fresh reboot to the guild with a jolt of entertaining reset nights and a revamped meta put together by long time member Taygeta. Things didn't start the best though. The roster teetered near 110 members and rallies were the equivalent of an empty bingo hall. Fearing the experiment was a bust, Thorton and Klow both increased their WvW rally days and SF private raids took a backseat to the old style of commanding with the Jade Quarry members. This would reap benefits over the course of early 2016 as both Thorton and Klow improved drastically with their WvW commanding as well as getting the SF name back out to the server. By mid-2016, the roster had increased by 30 members and rallies were seeing close to 20 - 30 SF members. A big piece of this coming from the guild merger of SG as well as former members returning. In June, Jed would officially step down as the long time Monday commander leaving Thorton, Klow, Xeeron and SG newcomer Coglin as our front four. In late August, SF set a world record for being the only guild to meetup in Wisconsin not once, but twice! The guild coasted until the end of the year, but not before adding an additional commander in the young and talented Nick. This year was closed off by yet another fall merger with a portion of Evil.
With the start of 2017 and 1 full year of leadership under their belt, Thorton and Klow had a full steam ahead mentality with the guild and rallies were steady with around 25 - 30 members. Our latest commander Nick, needed a break from the game and in stepped Vyro who would lead several raids over the spring season. While still being just slightly under the top tier competitive guilds, the GvG scene was gaining steam again and with our competitive drive back at it, we would make a splash for the 5th time over the course of the year. We started off well with wins against TM, CF, BGA and ONS while also having early losses with BnR and BOO. Our GvG squad got a big boost with DKLT taking a hiatus and us picking up about 10 or so members still looking to stay active. The biggest pick up coming in the form of Nal who also commanded quite often over the summer. We followed up with big wins against BOO, TDS and RISE before closing out with losses against Agg and TDS. By this point, our rallies were hitting an insane 50 people for reset and arguably having the largest challenging guild to fight open field rivaling KnT and RISE. We finished the stint with a 10 - 6 record, our best of the 5 attempts at the GvG scene.
The Path of Fire expansion would release in late September bringing in some fresh content as well as a much needed change to the stale meta existing in WvW. The stability of the guild was very strong at this point with rallies staying over 30+ and the unlocking of our brand new guild hall. Thorton and Klow would still hold the main commading duties with Vyro and Nal filling in sparingly. With both leaders hitting the 2 year mark leading in January of 2018, tensions resulting from burnout and working together for a long period of time were taking a toll and Klow would step down from GM in March on good terms. The void would be filled by Vyro as both he and Thorton would split the GM role over the spring accompanied by a new batch of commanders in Shaka, Sky and Haiku and the continued presence of Nal. Our performance in rallies was slightly decreasing as meta comps were shifting and we weren't handling the losses very well. This wasn't helped by tensions building with members not meshing with the new GM duo and attitude shifts forced an abrupt change. It finally boiled over in late spring with Vyro being forced to step down and Thorton going it solo. Nal and Haiku would have elevated roles in commanding as Thorton and the two would carry the load through a large portion of the summer. Another SF meetup would occur in North Carolina ending the drought that occurred the previous year. It would be 2nd meet up in North Carolina with the first happening all the way back in 2004! Alliance talk started gaining more steam in the mid summer as a lot of guilds were shuffling around pre planning for what many speculate will be a release in late 2018/early 2019. With Jady Quarry feeling as stale as ever and our 5+ year run hitting a dead end on population and morale, it only took 6 times times to pass vote but it finally succeeded with a 95% approval and we finally took the plunge to Sanctum of Roll in late July. A large handful of guilds would join us from JQ as well closing out a long and tiring chapter from the JQ family. The SoR move in the beginning proved concerning as queues were very long and tensions between guilds increased with not being able to play. This would slowly dissolve with SoR being moved to hosting its own link along side a much smaller IoJ. In search of a more competitive and streamlined approach, Nal would leave the guild along with a small handful of others seeking the same goal. Filling the void would be the returning Klow marking the trio of Thorton, Haiku and Klow closing out the end of the summer.
Kiyoshi + Klow
In the early fall, we were presented with the idea of merging one of the larger guilds in the game into SF with [CALM]. A newer powerhouse guild on the same server that we had ran with for about a year. They had the numbers on their own, but were looking to dissolve the leadership struggles of maintaining a larger guild and merge their talents into us. This would double our population as well bring in a lot of younger talent as we were still struggling from the [PMA] split a few months earlier. Kiyoshi was the current leader of [CALM] prior to the merger. He would continue his commander role giving SF another strong presence on the battlefield.
After 2 years of leadership, Thorton had finally had enough and stepped down in the fall of 2018. To continue the duo GM combo, Klow would be joined by Kiyoshi of the recent [CALM] merger as the combo going forward. The guild would spend the remainder of the year and early 2019 trying to build chemistry with the CALM members on commanding style and party cohesion. This would finally be put to the test in the spring of 2019 with SF entering the 2019 NA GvG Tournament. With little expectations going in, we were able to squeeze wins over [MM] 4-3 and [Hate] 4-0 before falling to [BOO] 4-0 in the elimination round. The guild would decrease in size over the spring and summer and a handful of members were exiting the game due to a lack of new content. Kiyoshi would step down from his GM role due to interest in the game as well as not enjoying the leadership aspect anymore. Klow also stepped down a month later leaving the guild in limbo on if we should call it quits or piece together a new council to push forward.
Legoh + Mad
The guild voted to continue pushing on giving the reigns to Legoh and Mad as the new GM’s of Strike Force in the mid summer of 2019. After a few weeks of new leadership and some new energy reengaging the guild, buzz would pick and recruitment would increase pushing rallies from 10-20 to 20-40. Vova and a returning Kiyoshi and Thorton would also assist in commanding duties taking off some of the pressure from Legoh entering the fall.
With the game entering the 2nd year since Path of Fire’s launch, recruiting was proving difficult as well as retaining the already existing members in the guild. This leadership tandem was more relaxed so members could run with other guilds even on our own raid days. Over the spring and summer, [INC] was growing in size led by Kiyoshi and more and more SF members were joining his guild due to it being more active and competitive. Due to this, the guild held a vote for all members to decide on if they wanted to make it mandatory to follow on SF on scheduled raid days as well as cutting the cord from [INC] to make things less complicated. Even though the vote was unanimous with 90% preferring the split, Legoh was reluctant which caused a rift in leadership. The remaining officers would overrule and the guild would take a population hit as a small amount either left on their own or were kicked. With morale low due to the recent split and Legoh losing interest in the game, the guild was forced to move on or shut it down.
LORDLVLUP + Mad
LORDLVLUP would be the next interested in bringing life back into the guild as Legoh’s run was coming to a close. It would start on a positive note as the guild held a meetup in Anna Marie Island, FL which ended up being a blast and a great introduction to the new reign. This would also be accompanied by a shift off the Anvil Rock server as we were looking to increase recruitment as well as distance ourselves from the recent [INC] split. The look for a new server become permanent when we were removed from official AR discord when they heard rumblings that we were looking for another server. The guild would move back to a previous home in Sanctum of Roll in hopes of finding a better place for recruitment.
Things would start slow as LORDLVLUP wasn’t getting the best numbers rally wise which put him in a bad predicament in most fights to not give the guild the best chance to win. Recruitment wasn’t really increasing due to most players on SoR already being aligned with another guild or just preferring not to be a part of one. A recent World of Warcraft expansion would further decrease the numbers as some raids were only hosting 5-10 players. Instead of calling it a failure and shutting it down, the number of raid days was decreased from 4 to 2 which helped with attendance increasing the rallies to 15-20 on Monday and 20-30 for reset.
This would hold through the spring into the early summer. By the start of the summer, LORDLVLUP’s schedule with work and disinterest in commanding would have him step down from GM. Thorton would reprise the role a 2nd time as he had been commanding recently and smoothly jumped back into the swing of things.
Thorton + Mad
Thorton would take the primary commanding and GM role around the early summer of 2021. Additional commanding was done by Peri, Legoh and Seth. Rallies increased back up to the 20-30 range by the early fall due to a small insurgence from the announcements of the End of Dragons release date as well as the alliances beta testing. For the alliance testing, we helped form My Five Hundred Pound Alliance [XXXL] which also consisted of Bana, DENT, DUSK, FLUX, GD, Myst and REN. Outside of a few false starts, the beta test finally launched in the late fall of 2021 to a somewhat stable week of challenging fights and potential promise. Before the end of the year, Seth would unfortunately leave due the guild due to irreconcilable differences in regards to theorycrafting.
We entered 2022 with the trio commanding of Thorton, Peri and Legoh in anticipation of the End of Dragons expansion and official launch of the alliance system. (Will update again in August 2022)