Ping Pirates!

We now continue our 2 part series of the interview with the ex-Leader of Gambler (since the clan is no longer around), Jingwei.....

Part II focuses more on clan issues so that other clan leaders can see what made gambler successful:

We know that Gambler was a rather selective clan, what did you look out for in a potential Clan member?

Here was the general requirements to join Gambler during our public recruitment process. I looked out for these characteristics while interviewing each applicant. ‘Polite and humble personality, good humour, and one that would endeavour to be active and promote clanship. And of course not part of any other existing clan’. I had also sent out invites to people that I saw in public forums whom which in my eyes deemed fit to be a suitable candidate for Gambler and to people that nagged me to join their clan as they were v.v.keen to join. We didn’t need to recruit strong players as most of my friends WERE the strongest players -_-".


How would you best describe your clan management style?

Gambler was very laid back and more of a social clan. We have a lot of casual posts that aren’t related to Battlestations in the Gambler forum. We pretty much let all the members do what they want. If they needed guidance, they just needed to post up or PM me. If anyone stuffed up(which pretty much no one did), such as in clan wars, the Gambler generals and myself were always there to look out for the clan and fix things up. I guess you can kind of say that many of the members of Gambler were spoonfed by us…until we left hahhaah they’re on their own now and I am very impressed by their performance so far!

With regards to raising up newbies into powerful members, Gambler took in a bunch of newbie players and raised them all up at once. This was one of the many reasons why we didn’t recruit more people as I didn’t have the time to repeat myself giving the same advice each time a new low leveled member joined. We dispensed them techniques on how to level up fast, stat allocation, PvP techniques, and what ships to purchase in relation to their style and class.


How are disputes handled within the clan?

Gambler never had any disputes believe it or not. Everyone took the leaders and generals advice. Gambler tactics were discussed and tested between me and Jonno and the other Gambler generals online on MSN before posted up for the other members. This assured optimum tactics.


How does it feel like to be the number 1 player in the game at one point in time? Was it difficult to maintain your position?

This is a question many battlestations players would be curious about. How is it to be number one? Well, honestly, being number one sucks lolz. Not only do sore losers start speculating that you cheat but being number one also comes with a fair amount of stress in trying to maintain the position. Fortunately, pretty much all the other players in the top 20 were members of Gambler so this took off the stress of losing the top position to another clan. Maintaining the position takes time unfortunately and I definitely spent a lot of time trying to maintain the top position. To other players playing Battlestations, I’d like to tell you guys that getting to the top 10 isn’t hard, its just how much time you wanted to put into it. Many of the Gambler generals started late such as Johnny Lau, Evelyn Lau, James Yek, Samuel Zane and they were able to get into the top 10. With certain tactics (in which one of them was the infamous Obsadian camping), many of our players levelled up damn quick. Those players that complained that just because I and a few of my other clan members started early, this meant that we would always be on top is in actual fact a load of BS, no, not a load of Battlestations. Many of my generals proved this statement false. Another one that proved it false was Gambler’s recruitment Speedy who started a lot later than us. Using Gambler tactics, she was able to get 6 levels ahead of the next highest player. You tell me if that isn’t skill.



We see many new clans forming, how would you advice clan masters to build up their clan?

Here are some of my views that I'd like to share to if any new clans are going to be formed. Hopefully it will give you some pointers on how to run a great clan and enhance your gaming experience.1) In the recruitment process, talk to all your applicants(I have 'interviewed' each applicant before i recruited them). Although it took me half a day solid to do(quite time consuming), it was well worth it. This way you'll know if you're recruiting people with decent attitude/personality.2) Promote clanship in the public threads. You need to know your members if you want a better 'clan gaming experience'. I have seen recruitment posts that just say 'Join this' and the continuous bumping associated with it. When i see it, I ask myself, why on earth would i wanna join that? What makes THAT clan stand out more than previous existing clans? Tell us what makes you different from other ones. You clan leaders should instead make some posts in the public forums so people start knowing who you are. If you ditch out some good advice or if people see you are helpful and with a good personality, the much higher your chances of people wanting to join and respect your clan. With better clanship, it is MUCH more likely your clan will succeed in the WAR.3) The idea of just a Traders Only Clan or Commander Only Clan etc or Dual class clans. Clans should have a diverse range of jobs if you want to succeed well. In Gambler, we had a diverse range of jobs and people with different stats for different types of kills. Just some advice that if you have all the same class, you somewhat tend to have similar weaknesses. Diverse stat allocation between players isn't as good as class diversity.4) It only takes a few members to take down a clan. Me and Eric Brown took down MW Fort ourselves last night. We just kept attacking it, they repaired an odd 100-200K but we didn't want to give up. Eventually their fort was destroyed. Those that believed that the Gambler Fort was extremely hard to take down should be reassured that it isn't. Get a gang of people with 350APs and go trigger happy. Any fort will be down in no time. Just don't catch their clan at full potential!There might be some things you disagree with me but this was the approach I took to form the Gamblers Crew. Hope this helps! For me, it wasn’t about winning, it was about having fun with my clan and building up relationships with my clanmates.



Gambler was the subject of many criticisms by players for hoarding all the top players, hence destroying any chance of competition. What is your take on the issue?

Gambler put clanship as their number 1 priority, not power or getting the highest rankings. Now a question to ponder on for those people that criticized us of being too strong and telling us to disband ourselves and join different clans, ‘Would you disband your clan with your personal friends to join other clans with people you don’t even know?’ I’m sorry but I don’t want to join a clan that is full of strangers, that’s just not on. I want to join a clan with my friends in it.

On another note, we were expecting a very big challenge for the first clan wars. However, after that first war, we realized that most other clans had incompetent members that didn’t know how to defend a fort -_-“. This left us with not much of a challenge. I admit that having a gazillion Royo Lights in the clan while everyone else were still in Overlords and Batte Royales helps a lot but this wasn’t the sole reason why we won the wars so easily. I was very surprised at how low levelled the FEAT fort was. They had a level 23 if I remember while we had a level 65 fort. I overestimated all the clans.



Now that gambler is no longer around, what do you think of the current landscape for clans. Which is the strongest in your opinion, why? And will they be as strong as gamblers or even stronger?

It’s a toss up between EVA and Temasek Hegemon. The remaining members of EVA have learnt many things of Gambler and are still Gamblers at heart. Their coordination is excellent and have good tactics. Temasek Hegemon, the clan created by Kevin Chung, and mainly led by Alvin Yap, are also a very good clan. Both clans have good members and I have had the honour to dispense some advise to both these powerhouse clans. However, will any clan ever be as strong as Gambler? No. Gambler’s fort never sunk. The fort was constantly repaired and our generals always had AP’s to use for the WAR. A clan that wishes achieve what Gambler achieved should try and accomplish the following:-
Have 15 members in the top 20(in which they should occupy rank 1, and 9 others in the top 10)
In a full clan war, destroy all the strong clans and remain as the last fort alive
Have a clan leader that has no more than 5 losses…anymore losses shows that you’re a noob lolz. Jonathan Vuong, the other clan leader was near the top 10 in wins and had 0 Losses.
Get lots of flaming and complaints in the public forums for being too strong.(At the moment, the only other clan that has received complaints is EVA so they are ahead on this one XD)
Most importantly, being part of a clan that has exceptional camaraderie.



Speedy aka Sandra part of EVA now? What have you to say to the new Rank 1 of Battlestations.

Sandra, you have great skill and tactics. Acquiring only 6 losses is quite an achievement (as compared to the other players in the top 10 with so many losses….-_-“). Gambler was proud to recruit you into EVA, even though you once hated my guts for booting you out of the clan(v.v.long story guys)… You have used Gambler tactics to get to where you are and have taken a step further by yourself to get to number 1 and for that we are proud lolz. Remember this thread? -_-“…
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18063885304&topic=5069
For those reading that thread, you guys can see how I allocated my stats. It is definitely a good guideline for Commanders who want a decent stat allocation.



If Gambler wasn’t around, choose a clan to join from the following choices:
1. A weakarse clan led by an extremely attractive girl
2. The most powerful clan within the game
3. A clan with extremely good clanship consisting of a number of people with great personalities
4. The clan with most members

Heck if Gambler was around, I’d resign as leader and join choice number 1. Not only that, I’d nominate myself as ‘clanship promoter’ officer. I enjoy getting to know my members better….for some members….a lot better….

*The interviewer would like to point out that Ping does have some attractive girls….. and one is in a leadership role*