Spartans never die. Shadows are never seen.
Uzamaki, this pic’s for you. I’m at my desk, out of fight. It's finally here.
I’ve put a ton of words on here and it’s difficult to say how I feel about saying this is the end for TFS. Saying Goodbye... it's harder than I thought it'd be.
How do we send this off? I debated doing some elaborate artwork to leave a final landmark of where we stood or something. It’s really strange… TFS feels like it died long ago on Clan Battle #330. It was, at the time Halo Reach’s final clan battle for TFS. As fate has it, I’m going to look up the links for our battles and 343 has now broken the links finally, making it impossible to view much of our history. Funny thing though, the old bungie links work but waypoint ones don’t. Shows you where gaming is headed. Also shows you how much momentum was lost with the launch of Halo 4. 330 battles between Halo 3 and Reach and 52 total in Halo 4 and 5, the bulk of those years of our lifespan belonging to 4 and 5 as well. Staggering.
The last battle was an 8v8 if I’m not mistaken. Paradiso was the map and it was a dominating win for us. Again, somehow I won one of my only MVP’s on that battle. It was my last one though. May that game last forever!
Few of you will remember in Halo 3 we actually had several photo days. We tried a few in Reach but the most organized ones were on Standoff. I have many screens still saved from our Halo 3 and Reach days. Hundreds even. Early on the smaller group was so easy to organize. Our skill as a whole was lesser but the heart was always just as strong. As the group got bigger, the organization became more challenging.
I’ve put a ton of words on here and it’s difficult to say how I feel about saying this is the end for TFS. Saying Goodbye... it's harder than I thought it'd be.
How do we send this off? I debated doing some elaborate artwork to leave a final landmark of where we stood or something. It’s really strange… TFS feels like it died long ago on Clan Battle #330. It was, at the time Halo Reach’s final clan battle for TFS. As fate has it, I’m going to look up the links for our battles and 343 has now broken the links finally, making it impossible to view much of our history. Funny thing though, the old bungie links work but waypoint ones don’t. Shows you where gaming is headed. Also shows you how much momentum was lost with the launch of Halo 4. 330 battles between Halo 3 and Reach and 52 total in Halo 4 and 5, the bulk of those years of our lifespan belonging to 4 and 5 as well. Staggering.
The last battle was an 8v8 if I’m not mistaken. Paradiso was the map and it was a dominating win for us. Again, somehow I won one of my only MVP’s on that battle. It was my last one though. May that game last forever!
Few of you will remember in Halo 3 we actually had several photo days. We tried a few in Reach but the most organized ones were on Standoff. I have many screens still saved from our Halo 3 and Reach days. Hundreds even. Early on the smaller group was so easy to organize. Our skill as a whole was lesser but the heart was always just as strong. As the group got bigger, the organization became more challenging.
I made a lot of friends over the lifespan of TFS. They are different friendships over xbox live. I feel at times the clan was a bad thing that kept me from being a better ‘gamer friend’ as the invisible structure we tried to lay out often complicated things. But the friendships I had were sill great ones I feel and many of the friendships wouldn’t have happened without TFS existing. Some friends I’ve heard families spring up around them (literally) over the years, it’s been a great thing to see/hear happen. I hope everyone gets the chance to do that. And for our children to maybe forge our own clans later on! Or… maybe our children are evil spawns and they rebuild EXO Delta! (*gasps*)
I do hope in the years that pass that everyone that was here realize in some form of how much more fun they made games while playing alongside me/TFS. It’s part of the light of my teenage-hood I’ll look back on and smile over. Even the bad days I had when I raged, the light outshines those moments.
A bit of personal stuff quick. Before I started TFS with Pharroh, my confidence was shot. I was a stereotypical gamer that had zero shots with the chicks and had zero leadership skills. Believe it. Building TFS I believe helped me realize that leadership in life, isn’t a big leap for anyone to make. Absolutely ANYONE can do it. Yes, some can do it better than others (looks at Rizx, Uzamaki, Vergil, Jedi, heck the whole VET list!) but yeah, anyone has the ability to do it. That’s probably TFS’ biggest thing that it taught me. Many did a doubletake when I stood down right around when Uzamaki became Co Leader. I didn’t want this place to be a clan where only one guy would be the leader. Everyone does deserve a chance to be one. I did always try to support everyone though.
It's funny the clan’s name gives you a feeling of darkness yet it brought such a light to everyone’s days gaming. I say that not because I assume it, I’ve heard on many occasions that TFS got people through some tough days. By tough, I mean tough and even the darkest of days. I never thought that a clan could or would have done that for people and it’s really amazing to know that today it did that for people. Unintentional but welcomed.
Will TFS will ever be back? I never say never but the plan is no. This is it. I will say though that TFS will always exist as long as someone believes in the ideas we stood for long ago. Organized friends wanting to grow into a bigger group and dominate the games they love. If someone contacts me in a year, ten years from now and asks to rebuild this, I’d say yes to do it. Don’t ask me, just do it. You will get none of my help but have my blessing. Lay every new brick yourself so it’s your own. Steal ideas, borrow, reimagine but make it yours and do it your own way. Getting any of my help means it’s less yours, that’s why I refuse to help. It needs to not be mine. As big of a success TFS was, it did end. It didn’t last forever. So the fact it failed, means I failed. Someone out there is better at this than we were and I do believe it is possible that all it takes is someone that cares. I doubt any clan actually is able to live forever but I think TFS probably went as far as that could have. So bravo everyone. What a job.
Even playing this last night, I have that desire to see the numbers gather each night once more. It’s so much fun! But I know it isn’t sustainable anymore. It just isn’t…
I will say outright if Reach gets a remaster though… Oh hell yeah…
I’ve said my thanks to everyone in the VET sections but I really have to pause here in my last words on the site here and say that again. Thank you. I feel I could say ‘especially to’ to literally ten or so people so I’ll stop myself there. There was SO much help from you all. Really, there was. I'll also give one last shout out to Rockhound, Pharroh, Warstar, Lemon, Rusty, and KrazyMoeFoe for coming out the last night here. I know others wanted to come.
How to send this out. It’s really tough. There’s no final boss, Achievement unlocked or anything like that. Something epic! Maybe tacky but… still TFS.
Here lies the halls where gaming legends once stood. As war was raged, it was also eventually won. We were never seen, never killed but are also gone now, somewhere into the shadows. What lies before you is the memory of a great legacy. Lying on the cold icy floor are pieces of the swords and shields very special people defended an idea with. Remember who they belonged to. Remember The Frozen Shadows.
I do hope in the years that pass that everyone that was here realize in some form of how much more fun they made games while playing alongside me/TFS. It’s part of the light of my teenage-hood I’ll look back on and smile over. Even the bad days I had when I raged, the light outshines those moments.
A bit of personal stuff quick. Before I started TFS with Pharroh, my confidence was shot. I was a stereotypical gamer that had zero shots with the chicks and had zero leadership skills. Believe it. Building TFS I believe helped me realize that leadership in life, isn’t a big leap for anyone to make. Absolutely ANYONE can do it. Yes, some can do it better than others (looks at Rizx, Uzamaki, Vergil, Jedi, heck the whole VET list!) but yeah, anyone has the ability to do it. That’s probably TFS’ biggest thing that it taught me. Many did a doubletake when I stood down right around when Uzamaki became Co Leader. I didn’t want this place to be a clan where only one guy would be the leader. Everyone does deserve a chance to be one. I did always try to support everyone though.
It's funny the clan’s name gives you a feeling of darkness yet it brought such a light to everyone’s days gaming. I say that not because I assume it, I’ve heard on many occasions that TFS got people through some tough days. By tough, I mean tough and even the darkest of days. I never thought that a clan could or would have done that for people and it’s really amazing to know that today it did that for people. Unintentional but welcomed.
Will TFS will ever be back? I never say never but the plan is no. This is it. I will say though that TFS will always exist as long as someone believes in the ideas we stood for long ago. Organized friends wanting to grow into a bigger group and dominate the games they love. If someone contacts me in a year, ten years from now and asks to rebuild this, I’d say yes to do it. Don’t ask me, just do it. You will get none of my help but have my blessing. Lay every new brick yourself so it’s your own. Steal ideas, borrow, reimagine but make it yours and do it your own way. Getting any of my help means it’s less yours, that’s why I refuse to help. It needs to not be mine. As big of a success TFS was, it did end. It didn’t last forever. So the fact it failed, means I failed. Someone out there is better at this than we were and I do believe it is possible that all it takes is someone that cares. I doubt any clan actually is able to live forever but I think TFS probably went as far as that could have. So bravo everyone. What a job.
Even playing this last night, I have that desire to see the numbers gather each night once more. It’s so much fun! But I know it isn’t sustainable anymore. It just isn’t…
I will say outright if Reach gets a remaster though… Oh hell yeah…
I’ve said my thanks to everyone in the VET sections but I really have to pause here in my last words on the site here and say that again. Thank you. I feel I could say ‘especially to’ to literally ten or so people so I’ll stop myself there. There was SO much help from you all. Really, there was. I'll also give one last shout out to Rockhound, Pharroh, Warstar, Lemon, Rusty, and KrazyMoeFoe for coming out the last night here. I know others wanted to come.
How to send this out. It’s really tough. There’s no final boss, Achievement unlocked or anything like that. Something epic! Maybe tacky but… still TFS.
Here lies the halls where gaming legends once stood. As war was raged, it was also eventually won. We were never seen, never killed but are also gone now, somewhere into the shadows. What lies before you is the memory of a great legacy. Lying on the cold icy floor are pieces of the swords and shields very special people defended an idea with. Remember who they belonged to. Remember The Frozen Shadows.