Legion of Doom

HISTORY:

Early days:
Legion of Doom was originally formed in October, 2005 as a result of collaboration between Oujo Tenshi, Grandmaster Merlin, Black Lanner, Renesis Ex, Hells Guardian, and Laura of Oxbay. They started out as a small PvE guild known as Morador’s Assassin’s (MA). The guild was active in most PvE areas and an atmosphere of friendship and relaxation was the main character of these early days. Soon; however, GvG became one of the main activities of the guild and started happening on daily basis. As the Guild grew in numbers, it became more PvP oriented to the dissatisfaction of main people in its leadership who always considered themselves to be PvErs. It was soon obvious change needed to happen, and change took the form of the creation of Pee Wee Playhouse (PWPH). Although most of the original MA crew migrated to the PWPH, it was soon obvious that the guild was a failure due to acute mass recruitment efforts that filled the guild with new players who were not used to the original MA way of play.

The Move to TnE:
Less than 1 month after the creation of PWPH, a decision was made to migrate to another guild. The guild that was chosen was The Noob Elite (TnE), lead at the time by Kratos Kang. All the original members of MA moved there, however; only Oujo Tenshi and Grandmaster Merlin would rise to the officer ranks. It was in TnE that 2 main pillars of the future LOD joined the ranks, Salsa con Queso and Snail from Hell. It was there that Salsa and Snail became among the closest friends of Oujo Tenshi.
Things were great at first in TnE, the guild was active, friendly and organized. However; chaos soon ensues when Kratos designated one of his RL friends Minyona Mastier as GL, Minyona was deeply unpopular among the members of TnE due to his arrogant attitude and poor quality as a player. The MA crew together with their new found friends in TnE once again found themselves at a crossroad, and radical solutions needed to be implemented again.

LOD, a giant reborn:
The decision was made to leave TnE. Hells, who was a founding member of MA and had not joined TnE when MA/PWPH fell apart, had instead started a new guild: X Legion of Doom X (LOD). It was a very small guild at that time with fewer than 20 members. Merlin got in touch with Hells and preparations were made to move to LOD. Within less than 24h, 76 members left TnE to LOD, including Oujo, Merlin, Lanner, Oxbay, Gwen Poisonshaft, Snail, and Salsa. And LOD went from being a small GvG (mostly) guild to a large PvE one. The huge success that LOD experienced amazed all those involved, even Kratos (the GL of TnE) joined LOD for a brief period of time before he quit GW all together. Oujo being the richest player in LOD was soon to spend over 200k in the first few days to boost the recruitment effort and upgrade the GH. A question came to surface about who should be the GL of the new guild, and it was decided that Hells shall remain the GL with Oujo and Merlin as his co-Leaders. One month later Hells decided to step down as a GL to focus on improving his PvP ranking and was soon to leave LOD to start an exclusive PvP guild, and with the consent of Oujo; Merlin became the GL with Hells and Oujo as his co-Leaders.
This movement coincided with the release of Factions, and quickly the guild became immersed in Urgoz upon its release.
In Urgoz, Oujo often on his BiP Necro (Touji Goshou) met some of LOD most leet future players, Seth Deven, Weenis Ash, and Kirsten Crystals. It was also at that time too that one of Oujo’s main future officers (Cloud Firemaster) would join LOD.

Peaceful Times:
The summer of 2006 was a very active and peaceful era, LOD was in an alliance that used to faction farm often and soon had more than 5 Million in faction points and came to own Vasburg Armory and then Tanglewood. Faction farming, alliance battles and Urgoz were the main guild activities at that time. Soon, a new member by the name of MrSinister was to join LOD and to be promoted to an officer rank with the agreement of Merlin and Oujo and the recommendations of Snail and Salsa.
LOD was soon to leave its old alliance and to join the UCW alliance where many of Oujo’s Urgoz friends were located including Weenis Ash, however; it soon became obvious the LOD was the largest guild in the alliance and soon LOD became the alliance leader, and the alliance grew to become a huge and active one.
Nightfall was soon released and everyone in LOD rushed to get their characters across fast. LOD members enjoyed NF greatly and guild runs through missions were very common.

Plots, treason, and counter attacks:
Major disagreements and splits were soon to surface. Old MA members like Oxbay and Hells were soon to notice that the officer list was expanding too fast, it was also noticed that all of the new officers were close friends and allies of MrSinister, both Hells and Oxbay complained to Oujo repeatedly. However; it took a major argument with MrSinister for Oujo to decide to fix the situation. Argument broke out between Oujo and MrSinister regarding demoting one of MrSinister friends for breaking the guild rules. Oujo’s views were that a demotion must happen, at least temporarily. MrSinister view was the he would not let that person be demoted at all. Many interventions by other people in the guild like Salsa and Snail failed to quench the fire. Merlin decided to kick MrSinister and his friends from the guild after he was asked to do so by Oujo. However; the very next morning Merlin invited them back and promoted them to the dismay of Oujo. When Merlin refused to demote the officer that Oujo wanted to demote in the beginning as compromise, Oujo took a very drastic action. Oujo Left LOD, and soon so did Oxbay, Hells, Seth, Gwen, Snail, Salsa, and all the original MA members. The officer list went from 19 to 5. Cloud, who was still a member at that time, stayed behind; however, he was soon kicked by MrSinister for defending Oujo.
When Merlin logged back on he realized that this would mean the end of LOD. So he asked Oujo to come back. Oujo agreed only on the condition that Merlin designates him as a GL. Merlin agreed. So Oujo came back, and as his first action as a GL kicked MrSinister and his allies from the guild, invited all those who left back, and promoted Cloud to an officer. This was just after Christmas 2006.
However, MrSinister and his group were not satisfied with the results and attempted to steal as many as possible of the LOD members, however; after 1 week of constant plotting and scheming, it was obvious to all that MrSinister and his allies have lost. LOD was unaffected by the drama and was back to the same level of members and activities within days.

Peaceful Times, take two:
2007 started of very peaceful and active, guild activities were mostly Urgoz, DoA, and AB.
It was at that time that Dante Feedmenow joined LOD and soon became one of the officers most dedicated to LOD as a guild. Shortly afterwards, and during an Urgoz run, Alice Wears Ribbons joined and brought her RL BF Inouva Chan with her, and soon another member of their old guild Rihanna Icestriker joined LOD as well. In early 2007 these 3 became regulars in the guild activities, Inouva was the first to be promoted by Oujo of the 3, followed by Alice and then Rihanna. At that time first half of 2007 LOD was a massive guild running above 90 members most of the times and the leader of a huge alliance, their allies at that time included UCW, CCCP, STAR, IMP, BZN and THUG.
Later on in February of 2007 DOA quickly became the guild activity of choice. Foundry runs were happening on daily basis, first in conjunction with CDXX where Weenis Ash moved to after he left UCW, then as an exclusive LOD activity. Interest in Urgoz became very minimal at that time.

The UCW Dilemma:
The relations with UCW kept fluctuating, at first UCW decided to join the LOD alliance, then UCW left and started a 2 guild alliance which quickly failed. The leader of UCW at that time, Platinum Soldier, continuously declined calls by his officers to join the LOD alliance. However; by June of 2007 it was obvious to Platinum that UCW will not survive on their own as he saw the numbers and quality of UCW members go down the drain, especially with the split of many of his officers to CDXX. So finally UCW came back to the LOD alliance, however; due to continued disagreements, the guild split into several guilds including PACK lead by Sonja Whitefox who remained in the LOD Alliance till they left in 10, 2007, due to their level of inactivity. Finally, and without any notice or explanation Platinum decided to leave the LOD alliance for the last time, knowing that he will never be allowed back in now that UCW is a fraction of what it used to be. Up till the time of writing these lines, it remains unclear why UCW, one of the smallest guilds in the LOD alliance decided to leave, a move that clearly would hurt UCW almost exclusively.
CDXX was also going through a lot of inner turmoil at that time and was soon experience some major splits. Weenis Ash moved to LOD and brought with him a few of UCW old members. CDXX was to join the LOD alliance in 2, 2008.

The Urgoz Golden Era:
By summertime 2007, DoA lost almost all appeal to the LOD Alliance, primarily due to the fact newer farm builds becoming available to do DoA instead of going through the missions. With the introduction of the new end chest in Urgoz, most of the LOD players moved to Urgoz and nightly runs there took place. The new end chest in urgoz dropping inscribable Zodiac weapons among others brought insane amounts of gold to LOD members, and the nightly Urgoz runs became an eagerly anticipated guild activities. At first full alliance teams did Urgoz every night, then enough people were available for 2 simultaneous teams. Urgoz was popular, and very profitable.
Towards the end of May 2007 LOD members met Eve the Enslaver in an Urgoz run. Eve quickly became one of LOD’s favorite people. Eve would even briefly join LOD where she was immediately promoted to an officer on joining, a move that created some jealousy and bitterness among some other members and officers.

The plots resurface:
However; drama was soon to break out in LOD. Friction between Alice Wears Ribbons and Inouva Chan on one hand and Eve the Enslaver on the other, lead Eve to leave LOD much to the dismay of Oujo. Eve went ahead to start her own guild SCAR which was to join the LOD alliance immediately on forming. However tensions continued to grow inside LOD, the most obvious of which was the recurrent arguments between Alice Wears Ribbons and Kirsten Crystals. Alice and Inouva thought Oujo was siding with Kirsten during a major argument in an Urgoz run. Soon after that incident. Alice, Inouva and Rihanna were to leave LOD and start ICE.
However; the break up was anything but friendly. Alice tried everything in her power to steal LOD members. Rihanna talked one of the guilds in the alliance (WOCH) to leave with them and start their own alliance. However; despite all these attempts only 4 out of the 15 officers of LOD left to join ICE and none of the rest of the guilds in the alliance left. As a matter of fact of few unwanted members in LOD that Oujo called the officer wannabes left, a move that was welcomed by most of the officers remaining. The total number of members in LOD never went down below 95 through out the entire incident. And as a show of force LOD continued their daily Urgoz runs with an exclusive alliance team. Not only did life go on as usual especially when it comes to Urgoz runs. But the alliance came up with new builds that made the runs go much faster.
However, ICE and WOCH members got bitter that they could not affect the LOD alliance, and started a series of attacks on LOD members in Urgoz and DOA. Kirsten Crystals was the one subjected to the most personal and vicious attacks. Oujo responded by promoting her to an officer. Oujo then, with help of U J J Jezebel, one of the WoCH officers and a close friend of Oujo fought back by completely destroying the WoCH alliance. Jezebel was to leave WoCH and take most of her friends with her to SUN, her old guild. WOCH lost most of their regular players and soon the guild broke up and their GL quit GW all together, followed naturally by the disbanding of their alliance. ICE found themselves without an alliance or an effective base of core players.
However more drama was to take place in the anti LOD alliance. The 2 main conspirators behind ICE, i.e. Inouva Chan and Rihanna Icestricker were to get into an argument followed by Inouva and Alice being kicked from ICE. It was obvious that ICE was no longer a threat or even a nuisance to LOD.

Final Act of Cleansing:
The final stages came to pass in decontaminating the LOD roster of traitors in August of 2007. Oujo and many of the LOD officer have always had issues with Black Lanner. Being a founding member of LOD and a RL bestfriend of Merlin, he was expected to be an example to the rest of the members and allies. However; due to his continuous inappropriate remarks in the AC, LOD was kicked from 2 alliances in the early days. His behavior continued when LOD had their own alliance. Members and officers often complained about him and asked for action due to the inappropriate nature of his remarks(often racial in nature) despite repeated warning by Oujo that amounted to demoting him and even kicking him temporarily from the guild at one point. However; Black Lanner continued to be a problem, and appeared to be siding with the anti LOD alliance during the whole ICE/WOCH event. That was the last straw. Oujo Kicked him from the guild and informed him he will no longer be allowed back in LOD.
However; Lanner during one of his boasting rounds, pmed Eve saying he and Merlin were about to take over LOD and "teach Oujo a lesson". This coincided with Merlin asking Oujo to make him GL for a weekend to "get to know the allies better". That was a fatal mistake by both Lanner and Merlin. And Oujo kicked Merlin from the guild in response.
Merlin was able to sneak back into the guild the next day and started to spam the AC with rumors that LOD was falling apart and noone is ever on, despite the fact that LOD was at 100 members during these times.He also said that he and all the officers were leaving to start a new guild and that all the allies should leave with him. When Merlin did that he was immediately kicked by Dante who was on at the time. However; Merlin told Dante he was sorry and that he just wants to be in LOD so Dante invited him back. However; the minute he came back he started making up the same kind of rumors in the AC and Dante kicked him for the last time. Merlin then tried to get Eve to let him into SCAR so he can abuse the AC again, but Eve would not allow him.
Eve was online at that time and watched the entire thing unfold. She got in touch with Oujo about what was going on, and Oujo rushed home to get online only to find that Dante had already taken care of the problem.
It is worth mentioning that despite all these attempts, not a single member or officer left with Lanner and Merlin to start their promised new guild. The number of members remained at 100. Life went on as normal in LOD. While soon later both Merlin and Lanner quit GW. In view of their threat that they would "teach Oujo a lesson" this appeared very ironic.

GWEN
While the anti LOD alliance was self digesting, the LOD alliance itself remained powerful and healthy. LOD was at 100 members most of the time. The alliance was full. And now with the release of GWEN the major guild activity became Slavers Exile. Daily full runs in Slaver's Exile became a daily occurence. LOD members marvelled at almost unbelieveable efficiency in clearing the slaver's bosses all the way to Duncan in record time. Other dungeons such as the Ooze pits were also popular. It was in GWEN where Innocent Gurlo joined LOD and was promoted to officer upon finishing the probationary period

Underworld revisited
It wasnt long however; till ppl got bored with slavers, and that coincided with the release of the new end chest in UW. With rumors about the Eternal Blades selling for huge amounts of gold the guild quickly moved to UW. Daily HM UW clear out runs started happening. The guild was among a few known guilds to be able to clear all of UW including all the quest leading to the end chest in HM and in record time.

Back to DOA
Soon the guild was to move back to DOA again. And full guild teams were running there on a daily bases. this brought huge amounts of gold to LOD members who were able to make 1 armbrace every 3 days due to nightly full runs. DOAs popularity rivaled Urgoz in its golden phase, to the degree that it wasnt uncommon to have 2 full LOD teams running in doa at the same time.


LOD, the giant continues to rise:
By 2008 the guild maintained its massive size, running at 100 most of the times. The level of activity was also unmatched with 30+ ppl present online in the evenings of most days. The alliance remained full and active with old friends from CCCP and CDXX coming back to the alliance. Despite the fact that many smaller guilds were running into trouble as the game was getting older. LOD and their alliance remained a beacon of hope to which many turned.