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Howdy Boom Jockeys!
How did MAHOU first start?
Banana: MAHOU began with a small group of friends like most any other clan. We were a handful of teal and blue WN8 players in 2013 who recruited random people from team battles, mostly that watched anime. We were there to platoon, share experiences, and earn credits in together. Prior to the 3rd campaign we had a core of friends that would have left if we didn’t try to compete for the new Object 907, and the fire of the stress and excitement fighting other clans smelted us into a Clan Wars clan. People emerged to call the battles, and players felt accomplished for earning rewards and beating other clans while screaming over each other. We have been a Clan Wars clan ever since.
What is your clan’s vision?
Banana: MAHOU has always been about the battles above everything else -- since its early days. We would pull off of gold to fight other clans around or above our level so we could let our main caller prove himself or try new strategies, and we’d motivate our players with wins and knowledge. We care more about improving each other as players than farming lots of gold income, but that eventually came with the package. There were definitely times we weren’t able to fight as well, but we have always pushed our limits in that direction.
What is your greatest accomplishment(s) as a clan?
Banana: I’m just glad we’re not dead yet, and we overcame some hard fights along the way.
Stuka: We’re the only clan to fight off a coalition of essentially the entire NA server alone (we did have some minor assistance) and win convincingly.
Banana: Yeah, there was a time when we had 4 or 5 teams and most of the top talent. Rather than slowly bleed activity without much to do, we basically picked a fight with the entire server at once and worked our asses off throughout Season 8 and 9. There were a lot of good battles on both sides, and partial or temporary truces, ridiculous relandings and offsets to force or defend from too many simultaneous battles. It was pretty crazy for officers and players the whole time, but it at least got all the clans fighting again.
Night1Rider: When we fought the entire server in that “kiddie pool” war with so many players, we held a very high win rate. I’m also proud of the last Clan Cup tournament, where it was two-cap attack/defense WGL format with 14 players. We placed first in that tournament.
Banana: Both seasons of Clan League and then Clan Cup were really memorable for me also, with live casting on Twitch and really hard fights. We placed first or second in all of those, and we have also worked hard to win a majority of the recent Global Map campaign events. Win or lose, we just love to go head to head with the strongest clans we can. It’s rewarding when you put so much effort into something and win, knowing the other guy is working hard to beat you, too.
Skytrain: The greatest achievement I believe is that we provide a friendly environment for people all over the world to have fun together. We have clanmates playing from Canada, China, Mexico, Panama, United Kingdom, United States, etc.
How is MAHOU set apart from everyone else?
_Perfect: Consistency of our core over a long period of time.
Stuka: The power of anime compels us~!
Banana: I’ve helped build clans, been around lots of clan leadership at every level, and counseled clans on the brink of collapse. There really isn’t that much of a functional difference between the best and worst clans except player expectation and the demeanor of the officers. We have gone through so much turmoil stubbornly for so long that it has made our core officers and players very stable. When we were growing we fought plenty but we always set ground rules and let our opponents know we weren’t playing vindictively, and gave land back generously after a string of victories on agreed terms. That fairness and generosity was a mainstay of why were so respected when we were still emerging, and recruits would flock to us because they’d find problems in their old clans but not have anything objectionable to say about MAHOU. Now that we’re on top, it’s been unavoidable to make some enemies, but I still think those shared experiences have made us very strong.
Night1Rider: The dedication of our main officers and old guard players.
_Perfect: We haven't gone 5-2 to 6-7.
How do you keep your members motivated to show up every day?
Banana: The job of a clan officer is to make sure there is something for clanmates to do every day, and with one of the most active rosters it’s important to field daily Advances even in the off-season. Humans are habitual and if you can simply motivate people to be on every day they’ll tend to always be there and snowball more activity. If you can offer people friendship, wins, and interesting battles, then they’ll want to be there for them. It’s sometimes hard, especially when there isn’t much to do and people play for different reasons, but there are usually events running that we can experience together. It helps that MAHOU has the best Stronghold on the server with many thousands of clan reserves, so we run credit and crew experience bonuses constantly during the active hours.
Skytrain: We win games and beat competitive clans which make all our clanmates enjoy playing this game in MAHOU. We incentivize people to get tier ten tanks we need for a reasonable amount of gold, rewarding them for continuing to play and grinding the try-hard tanks (e.g. Obj. 277). We distribute gold equally based upon the number of battles people participate in, regardless of a member’s status in the clan. A commander or officer earns the same as a private as long as they show up and play. As long as people can enjoy the game with us and get what they want, people are motivated to show up as much as they can to keep. That has kept our clan active over the past 6 years.
Night1Rider: A lot of people only show up to play if I am there to call the battles. So having active callers motivates others to show up. It’s important to be aware of that and promote people who will be around regularly.
Your clan is part of a community of clans. Which clan(s) makeup that community and what is your relationship with them?
Banana: SNPAI is our competitive subclan, and we mentor them to increase their ability and interest in clan wars. They were a top ten clan statistically some years back with some of their founding members going on to build other clans, and reformed recently with a mostly new roster. They’ve recruited rapidly and performed well in this recent Fire Trail campaign, earning 67 reward vehicles for their players and 560k bonds (the fourth highest bonds of any clan on the server for the event). MAHOU also has a veterans clan called MAHOV for our players that barely play anymore but still want to retire as part of our community. SHOJO used to be a thing, and their core became YOUJO.
If you could change anything about the competitive scene in WoT, what would it be?
_Perfect: Make it so clans can be as active as they want and the reward is scaled appropriately for both skill and activity. Bring back the weekly Call To Arms tournaments, and Clan League -- the things every top clan begs to bring back.
Banana: Yeah I miss Call To Arms tournaments and all the little clan events. There isn’t any way to supplement clan reserves, and since you can only make three per day we backlog them in the Stronghold for months in advance. The break between seasons and events is also way too long now. While the break is nice for some, those off-seasons make clan activity slowly wither as they lose players to other games.
Night1Rider: I wish there was a way to have cross server events or competition more often than there currently is. For individual players I’d also want an actual ranked battle mode with ELO that was based on some metric of skill with no ceiling. The recent iterations of Ranked Battles aren’t really a ranked mode, since they are about getting a certain amount of wins and then it caps off so people just mess around at the highest level. It basically is glorified pubs.
Speaking from your player experience, what differences have you noticed by going from a player not in a clan to being in a clan and then being an officer in the clan?
Stuka: Being in a clan just adds so much more significance to playing the game. Being an officer allows you to pay the clan benefits forward. You can help manage, shape and improve it into being the best that it can be.
_Perfect: Being clanless or in a clan are two completely different experiences. If I wasn't an officer in MAHOU I would’ve probably stopped playing this game, or not nearly as invested.
Banana: I’ve pretty much always been in a clan, but when you’re starting out it’s mostly just a place to make credits and find platoon-mates. There are just so many benefits to being in a clan -- gold income, credit and experience bonuses, free styles and rewards, and most importantly a community of people to play and learn with. This game has such a huge learning curve and playing with friends is the best way to enjoy conquering it. I’m still learning new things every day. Being in even a casual clan with a few friends is worth it, because you really aren’t pressured to achieve anything and it’ll keep all of you more engaged.
Night1Rider: I've been an officer in MAHOU for most of my relevant WoT career, so it is hard to remember. I will say being a main caller is very stressful because 95% of the time when you lose, you regret not calling something better or differently and that becomes the main reason you lost. To have other officers who can help call or share those burdens really is a relief. It’s also important that one person doesn’t end up doing everything, because then others can improve at those tasks as well.
What is your favorite Song?
Stuka: I’ve recently been enjoying listening to various selections from the K-On! OST.
Banana: I don’t have a single favorite song. I was going to say “I’m Gonna Win” by Rob Cantor as a good theme but since we’re being weebs anyway... a favorite on my playlist recently has been "Crying for Rain" by Minami. It was an anime opening a few months back and has a great music video on her official channel. The romantic frustration that comes across in her vocals are breathtaking and honest, and the melody just envelopes all of the contradictions, desires, and eventual acceptance as she matures to find herself by the end. It’s great.
Night1Rider: It is a super hard thing to pick, but if I had to pick 1 song it would probably have to be Metallica's song “One”. The song itself was inspired by the book/movie Johnny Got His Gun, which is one of my favorite anti-war movies. Metallica bought the rights to the movie just to use it in the music video. https://youtu.be/WM8bTdBs-cw
I'm also looking forward to Slipknot's newest album coming out in August. It might already be out by the time this article is published.
Any last comments?
Night1Rider: We play for fun. 
Stuka: Many people like to talk about how the NA server either is dead or is going to die. But all of us, inside and outside of MAHOU, are the NA server and in the end that decision falls upon us.
BananaCannon: I don’t think NA is anywhere near dead or what that actually means, and it will persevere for many years. It is sad, however, to see the number of end game players dwindling. Like Stuka, I hope that we can work together as a community to keep players engaged and continue to make suggestions for improvement when we can. It’s hard to parse through the vast feedback Wargaming gets from players, so I can at least understand how difficult it is. We all still enjoy this game despite whatever frustrations we have, and that brings us together as friends and a community.
MAHOU will be doing their Event on the weekend of 10Aug - 11Aug
Edited by KRZYBooP, Aug 01 2019 - 23:08.
who really just paid the Gold necessary to make the Clan. The second commander was 
