Well it is time again for another great clan to be profiled. Sticking with the podcast theme for the next 2 weeks, I am profiling the Podtacular community. They not only house an awesome podcast for all your news people on the go, but they also have one of the largest Halo communities out there. For the questions this week, I asked Dialpex. Enjoy and read up.

How and when did your clan start up?

The Podtacular clan started in august 2005 when Foo Mo Jive decided to create a clan for the members of the podcast and the community he was creating at the time. Little did he know that we would have today over 500 members spread out in 8 clans in 2 clan divisions: The Recreational Clans and the Pro Clans.

Podtacular Rec A – F – We have 6 podtacular recreational clans from A through F with over 400 players that are also part of the greater community and listeners to the podcast. Those are players that like the game for the fun and diversity that it brings to every game played online.

Podtacular Pro A and B – We also have 2 podtacular pro clans that house some of our best players. These are the guys that like the game for the competition factor that it brings to every game they play. They’re the core of the podtacular all stars and have games and different form of practices on a regular basis.

Podtacular All Stars – Not an actual clan but a group of players that represent podtacular on matches against other communities and also events that are held in other clans. These are the best of the best players and are trusted on matches that will have the podtacular name on them.

That’s our basic clan system. We have several clans for different levels of involvement to the game. So if you like to play just for fun or just like to get down and play some hardcore competition against some good players we have the place for you.

What meaning does your clan’s name hold?
The Podtacular clan name came from the name of the podcast of course, which is the combination of the words iPod and Killtacular. That is the name of every clan division and segment of our official clans in the podtacular community.

How many people call your clan home?
Over 500.

How do you go about luring and screening recruits?
We don’t recruit actively for the rec clans, we just mention it on the show. If people want to join a hang loose clan where any podtacular listener is welcome, they can request a clan invite on podtacular.com. As long as they play fair and nice then they’re in. It’s a cool way to instantly double your friends list and play some cool customs with the community. For the pro clans we’re more stringent. We have monthly tryouts where representatives from each of the two pro clans choose who makes the pros. Then the recruits are sent evenly to the two clans with a draft system.

What are some unique bylaws that your clan enforces?
Some of the main and unique bylaws that we enforce in EVERY Podtacular clan are the following:

No cheating

No standbying, modding, bridging or any network/game manipulation action.

No super jumping (in matchmaking)

No racism

Respect to clan members and teammates.

Follow all the above rules and be an active member at podtacular.com

No excessive cursing or profanity. We can only do so much about this one but we try to keep a healthy and enjoyable environment to every member regardless of his or her age and maturity level.

What do you do to build camaraderie in your ranks?
We try to foster a fun and friendly atmosphere. We encourage people to play together and meet new friends, and I’d say we’ve been pretty good about being nice to new people and welcoming them to the crew. We all have at least a few things in common: we play Halo and listen to Podtacular, so people generally have lots more in common and friends are made pretty easily. I think people are pretty loyal around Podtacular because they know what we’re trying to stand for: play fair, play nice, make friends.

What is the best way to get booted from your clan?
The best way to get booted immediately from our clans is definitely by being racist. Podtacular holds a zero tolerance measure for racism. We’re all equal and we’re all friends. Nuff said. Cheating is also another easy way out. However we usually warn the cheater once before he’s completely gone from the clan. If his/her behavior changes and the person no longer cheats, which would be expected, then that person can stay in the clans and still be involved with the podcast and the community.

What game types does your clan prefer?
There are several different types of players and preferred game types in our clans. Since we have so many clans and clan members, there are plenty of favorites. But if I were to generalize I would have to say that the favorite game types from the clans are very different from both Recreational and Pro division. The Rec guys are more interested in having fun and playing the game in a less competitive manner. With that being said they enjoy novelty games more like Tower of power, Zombie, Low Hill and games of this type. However the Pro guys like to take the game to a more completive level playing regularly game types such as MLG settings and other equal balance game types. With that being said it does not mean that the Recs only play zombies and the pros only play MLGs we have a great variety of players from both clans that enjoy playing all types of custom games and do play them on a regular basis. Therefore it’s hard to say that we have one type of game type that we prefer. I think this is a great thing to say that Podtacular is a very diverse family of clans that supports and holds a great inventory of custom games and competitiveness.

What is your poison/passion: Matchmaking? Customs? Challenges? MLG?
I, Dialpex, have to say that my passion is really the MLG setting games. The balance set between two teams give the game a great level of balance and competitiveness that makes your enjoy every minute even more. The feeling of knowing that a 45 – 35 game is not lost when everything could just be turned around is a amazing. However I have to say that I’m a fun player and I love to play the typical Low Hill (which is by the way my favorite game type) and the matchmaking setting is also fun when there’s not a lot of people online at times when you want to get some fun games in. Challenges… Those are awesome. I love those for the fact that we’re always meeting new communities and new members that come to become great friends and great contacts within the community. I must say that from all the challenges we’re participated so far, I have made at least 1 or 2 friends from those matches. The atmosphere is great and the game types are always so much fun. This is definitely a great way to spread the word about our communities and make new friends on the game level.

What is the closest game your clan has had in a clan Challenge?
I have to say that the closest match from our challenges was probably a LowHill match that we played against the bungie guys on our Humpday Challenge. The game was extremely balanced and both teams had the time they needed from the hill. Only one player from each team needed to reach the 1:00 Min mark before the game ended. We were all protecting the hill and trying to get those last few seconds in, when the bungie guys totally cleaned up the hill spot and started gathering the last few seconds that they needed to win the game when a “Holy Grenade” from one of our team mates took out their last player at the 59 seconds mark allowing our last player to jump inside of the hill and gather the last 2 remaining seconds to win the match by 1 SECOND! It was a chaotic yet very well played game by both teams that was decided literally in 1 SECOND! It was without a doubt the toughest and closest challenge matches we’ve had since the podtacular guys started their journey against other communities.

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Thanks for all the info Dialpex. I must say that the Gunslingers sure did enjoy our challenge with Podtacular. If anyone out there would like to challenge this audio conglomerate then look no further than the Challenge Board
on their forum. Also drop by and have a listen to the podcast that started it all. Thanks for the great games and thanks for the information Dialpex.

If you know a clan, or are in a clan that would like to be spotlighted in the Clan Profile then send me an email and tell me about it. Hope everyone enjoyed this week’s profile. Stop back next week for another great clan.

Posted by Dweezle