This document was created on September 1, 1997. The clan just happens to be one year old today. I'll tell you
everything, the high points and the low points, without holding anything back. It's been a long roller coaster
of a ride.
First there was Lag City. It was created to help spread the truth about multiplayer Quake over the internet.
At that time I would guess there were more LPBs than modem players, and some clans would actually brag about the
speed of their member's connections. This did not sit well with me. After the huge positive response I got from
Lag City, I knew there were many modem players who felt the same way.
So Lagitus was born. The initial 2 founding members, Trollop and myself, both live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We
had a long history of 1 on 1 modem gaming with each other and any other victims we could find on the dial-up
BBS I ran at the time. Trollop has long since left the Quake scene because of Real LifeTM.
Lagitus started out as more of a "club" than a clan. To get into the clan, all you really had to do was ask nicely.
We didn't give a shit about skill. We never went overboard with all the "leetness" and attitude bullshit that
many other clans have. All we really wanted to do was have some fun with other lagged members.
Our first match was with the LPB Ruthless Bastards. They extremely whupped our asses, but they were cool and
understanding about our connection speeds, so we had fun anyway. To date we've had over 100 matches with various
clans. We played in the ClanRing Tournament 2, which had a POTS (plain old telephone system) divison this time
around. We made it to the second round when we were defeated by Deimos, who just happened to go on to win the
whole thing.
Anyway, we grew quickly. It was only a couple months before we had around 60 members and had to make some changes.
At that time the only clan bigger than us was Plague. (their masses are long gone, although I hear there's
still a few of them around) Lagitus decided to create divisions. The divisions were much more than some
simple squad setups that some clans have. Our divisions were clans in themselves, with their own leaders and web
sites.
And then we really grew. Around the time we had 150 members, we had some growing pains and I finally had
to kick out a couple members because they didn't stand by our policy of fun and good sportsmanship.
The Lagitus Council was formed, with a New Recruit team. This team was created to help keep the llamas out, and
it suddenly bacame a little hard to get into Lagitus.
We still grew. We peaked out at over 200 members. We still had growing pains, and most of the New Recuit team
stepped down, partially because of the constant bombardment by non-members wanting in. Of course time constraints
due to Real LifeTM played a part for these guys too. At this time, with only myself
taking over the duties of the New Recruit team, membership was closed exept for a few new guys now and then.
As of 07/20/97, there have been approximately 470 applications.
Finally, something happened. I've known for a long time that there were certain members we shouldn't have let
in the clan, and this was painfully proven to be true with some serious trash talk on irc one day. A few of these
guys left the clan before I had the chance to kick them out, but the rest of them got the boot. In addition, we had
quite a few inactive members that we rarely saw, so this was the time when I decided to downsize the clan. The
grand total was about 140 members gone. Remaining are about 60 active core members and 5 full divisions as of
this writing.
Having learned the hard way of the problems in letting a clan grow so big, we are now a comfortable size. Everyone
knows everyone, and I think we are having more fun now than we ever had. Some of us miss the early pre-division
days. Nakedman, one of the "oldtimers", says "Divisions, in my opinion were a mixed blessing for Lagitus. They
saved an oversized clan from self destruction, but they destroyed the Lagitus of old forever."
Somewhere along the line, the guys at Stomped decided to host both Lag City and Lagitus. I knew Lag City would get
snapped up by one of the Quake conglomerates. I've had offers from others, but I was really honored when Stomped
decided to host it. I have to say, I'm really surprised Stomped offered to host the Lagitus page too. After all,
a clan page has no real usefull information other than reports of clan events. Overall, Stomped has done alot for me,
my clan, and Lag City. We're extremely happy to be a part of one of the founding members of the Quake community.
We continue to have our fun. We have our own internal events like the BFFFA. (Big Fucking Free For All)
It's unbelievable to be in a 32 player fragfest of 32 of your fellow clan members. It's about 1 frag per second.
We have Division Wars and other division vs division games. We have a Spank the LPB contest where members
search the servers for LPBs to play against, and after whupping their asses a screenshot is taken to submit for
the contest. Yes, we've got a bunch of pics of members with 300 pings beating the crap out of 3 or 4 guys with
60 pings. :)
That's where we stand today, on September 1, 1997. Our 1 year birthday. I'll aways consider Lagitus to be the
original "Lagged to Hell" clan, the challenged members of the Quake community. I, Zaphoid, have done my best to
be a leader of this lagged bunch, but I'm just here to have some fun with my friends. After all,
fun is what it's all about, right?
Cya in the game,
John "Zaphoid" Krutke
Founding member and Leader