Clan Spotlight: BULBA

We interviewed these players to learn more about the history and future of BULBA:

_Shrew - Glorious Supreme Leader. Does everything except chip movements, calling, and recruiting.
GabrielAngelos - Primary caller. Second in command after Ox.
Oxmathus_PRO - Chip movements. Helps Gabe not lose battles.
Ant_PRO - Treasurer. Steals ants.

What's the story of BULBA?

Oxmathus_PRO - It’s actually a pretty good story. The clan was first made back in 2013 by Aquavolt, but was essentially started by Gold League players foodie and Unnomable from RBIS (Romantic Bulbasaur Iguana Squad). It came from when foodie and Unnomable always used to say “BULBA” because they liked Bulbasaur and thought it was kind of cute. While they were still in PBKAC, a friend came into their channel and said he was going to take the name BULBA and make a clan out of it. Aquavolt freaked out and said, "You're not going to take that name" or something and the next day made the BULBA clan itself.

So it was originally started as a joke so the other guy couldn't take the name, and essentially sat as a dead clan for the next 8 or so months until a group of people left -G- and various other clans to go and start our own clan, which became what BULBA is today. That was about a year ago.

What are your goals?

Oxmathus_PRO - A fun social clan that doesn’t require people to be serious, but still be good.

_Shrew - BULBA started as a clan where Clan Wars was the least important objective. We didn’t even think about it, but now it seems we’re one of the biggest powerhouses on the whole server, which is funny because we still don’t require Clan Wars or anyone to show up. It’s all voluntary: If you wanna do it, you do it.

Your Clan Ratings definitely show more Skirmish battles. Are Strongholds that much more of a focus for BULBA?

Oxmathus_PRO - Originally, the only reason we sat on the Global Map was so that I could do payouts for Strongholds.

_Shrew - Yes, and when we want to test ourselves. For instance, people used to never attack -G-, but then Strongholds came out, and we’re like “We’re a Stronghold clan, so why don’t we try ourselves against -G-?” We ended up beating them a few times. Really, Strongholds is the biggest thing for BULBA, maybe more important than Clan Wars. It’s just right now, we can’t do both.

How do you keep your members motivated?

Oxmathus_PRO - I’ve had multiple people tell me they were going to quit the game, but came back because of the community that we have, so I think BULBA itself is what keeps people playing.

_Shrew - Definitely what Ox said. Again, we don’t require any activity, but people come to hang out on TeamSpeak, whether for an anime club meeting or just talking about random stuff. For instance, when the boxing match was happening, we had like 40 people just group watching the stream. It was pretty interesting.

GabrielAngelos - That was Puncho vs Mayflower, right?

_Shrew - Uh, Gabe is really bad at names. You should definitely write that down.

Oxmathus_PRO - We had a guy change his name because Gabe kept calling him by the wrong name, so he just changed his name to help Gabe be able to say it.

What makes BULBA different from other clans?

_Shrew - Everyone’s from different parts of the world. We have Chinese, Japanese—

All - Russians.

_Shrew - Lots of Russians. We have a few Finns, few Italians, few Germans, a British guy who hangs out—he’s not quite in BULBA but he thinks he is—everyone, everywhere. Lots of Brazilians as well.

Ant_PRO - Mexicans.

GabrielAngelos - BULBA’s the melting pot of unicums. That’s basically what we are.

_Shrew - We could possibly be the most diverse clan out there.

Does BULBA have any interesting traditions?

GabrielAngelos - Thunderdome.

_Shrew - We don’t do team trainings, but when we do, we don’t practice Clan Wars. The only team trainings we do are Thunderdome and other fun stuff.

Oxmathus_PRO - Something we used to do is group watches of movies or anime club meetings. I actually don’t even watch anime, but we’re not an anime clan. No one’s required to like or even watch it, but it just so happens that a bunch of the best players on the server happen to like anime.

_Shrew - Really, the anime club meeting isn’t about anime. Usually it’s just polls like “Who’s your favorite platoonmate?” or “who do you hate the most in the clan?” That’s pretty funny because it’s always me. It’s really nice because it breaks the ice and it lets people bash each other without taking it seriously. You can pretty much say what you want on these polls and a lot of times it’s pretty funny. It’s good to hear feedback.

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened on your TeamSpeak?

_Shrew - Not the craziest, but our TeamSpeak owner dropped off the face of the planet, and we had to find a new one. At the time, our only ally clan was CHAI, and I asked Ox, “Why don’t we talk to HoHoHaHee? So he let us join his TeamSpeak, and originally our channels were below CHAI’s because we were new, and we challenged CHAI: “Hey, if we beat you in a Stronghold Raid, will you let us be on top of the server?” and we won.

Oxmathus_PRO - HoHo agreed and then we got moved to the top of the server above CHAI.

Ant_PRO - Another pretty crazy thing that happened, and it wasn’t strictly BULBA, but for Chinese New Year, there was a channel with literally over 100 people in that channel singing and talking, having a good time.

Oxmathus_PRO - Karaoke.

_Shrew - Carbonward sang. HoHo sang. It was beautiful. tomhwk sang.

GabrielAngelos - JackQueRudo.

Ant_PRO - Everyone sang.

What’s the recruiting process for BULBA?

Ant_PRO - 10k Personal Rating.

_Shrew - Yep, Personal Rating is the most important.

Oxmathus_PRO - Actually, it’s called Personality Rating, thank you very much.

GabrielAngelos - After Personality Rating, we take a look at your stats, and you’re either a yes or a no, unless we’re unsure.

_Shrew - If it’s close, often times we make them have a 1v1 against diastant in his Batchat. If they can beat dia in a 1v1, they can join the clan most of the time.

Oxmathus_PRO - Most of the time.

GabrielAngelos - Or they’re forced to platoon with Jojo_PRO.

Oxmathus_PRO - Sometimes dia throws.

What would you consider to be BULBA’s greatest achievement?

_Shrew - Probably not disbanding so far. When Ant and I were in NTR, we messaged our good friend NOTsillyputty about BULBA. He was like, “It’s probably a bad idea. Not gonna last a year.”

Ant_PRO - PURPL 2.0.

GabrielAngelos - All I’d like to say is reaching super purple overall.

_Shrew - Highest recent WN8 in the whole world.

Oxmathus_PRO - In the last Campaign, we won the medal for winning 30 battles in a row, so I have to say that we’re all right at Clan Wars.

Is there any advice you’d give to an upcoming clan?

_Shrew - Make it about the community, and not about the Clan Wars.

Oxmathus_PRO - It’s not a fast process. It’s something that you have to work towards. You need to have a reason for people to join your clan, not just “I’m recruiting”. You have to have a clan atmosphere that people can attach to so those people will never leave, and people will join for it.

What’s next for BULBA?

_Shrew - Find a peaceful position on the Global Map where we can be next to our friends in CHAI and PINGU.

Oxmathus_PRO - Have a break from fighting people.

Ant_PRO - Continue our ongoing quest to—

GabrielAngelos - Improve clan stats.

Ant_PRO - No, to not implode.

Oxmathus_PRO - Not disband is a pretty high priority.

Is there anyone you’d like to give a shout out to?

_Shrew - Huge shoutout to CHAI and PINGU for being by far the best allies possible. They have great COs that really care about their members and allies. And I’d like to shout out to lozarus. When I first started doing diplo, he really understood that Ant and I didn’t really know our way around, and he was really kind and really generous. More generous than we were expecting and I definitely appreciate Loz, even if he’s on the enemy team of this war. Big shoutout to Hoho. It’s a smile and laugh I want to protect. Shout out to _vode_an_.

GabrielAngelos - I love you Hoho and RyanGetzlaf. You’re amazing people. I’d also like to keep fighting THUGZ up north.

Oxmathus_PRO - Everybody we’ve been fighting in this war, or who we’ve worked with. I’d also like to thank Allurai for helping us map PBKAC in our earlier war.

Ant_PRO - You stole my line! I’m done. Also, since he’s dead and gone now, shoutout to Carbon for getting the clan going.

Oxmathus_PRO - Carbonward came in about 3 months late, but this was before Gabe joined, and he basically helped me run the clan during the last campaign.

Ant_PRO - Also, a shoutout to all of our allies! You guys played even better than we could on certain nights! #HOHO #CHAII #MAHOU #PINGU

All - We’d also like to thank Wargaming for giving us a Spotlight.

Any last words?

Oxmathus_PRO - We’re always recruiting excellent players.

_Shrew - Be on the lookout for a giant anime meeting that anyone can join. It’ll be posted on CR/D, hosted on CHAI TS. It’ll be a great chance for people who like Japanese cartoons or just wanna vote on random stuff to join us. And Brettk42O2 is the best 4202 player in the world. That’s all I have to say.

Stronghold Skirmish Details

What: Absolute Stronghold Skirmishes
Who: [BULBA] and WGA employees
When: June 17, 16:00 PT (19:00 ET) to approx. 18:00 PT (21:00 ET)
Where: NA East server

If you face off against our Spotlight Skirmish (must contain WGA employees), you'll have a chance to win Gold prizes!

If you are streaming on your own Twitch.tv channel and you send a link to your stream with the time at which you face us, your entire team will double their winnings! This link must be sent in a PM on the forums to veganzombiez by 09:00 PT (12:00 ET) the following Friday morning.

If you have any questions you'd like us to ask [BULBA] while on the stream, please leave them in the comments thread for this article or you may also ask them in the Twitch chat!

Gold from this event will be distributed by Wednesday, June 24, 2015.