UVM formed on the 14th of March in 1997 under the leadership of lil duce, Kenneth, and Iridante, making it one of the earlier clans to enter and remain a player in the TF scene at the time.  A week older than DoS and a  lot younger than CE, UVM was somewhere in the middle as far as clan age at the time. We made our home on irc.cts.com with Marauder, Clan Erinyes, Wolvesmoon, and the Green Panthers.  With such amazingly fertile grounds, UVM blossomed into a great clan.

The Emory boys--Rand, Chiqi Monkey, Algorithm, and Hawkslayer, were UVM's hardcore LPBs. Grifter, with his chesapeake.net server (which would become known as the Slut Hut in later days) also helped UVM become a force.  In fact, UVM played its first 19 consecutive matches without suffering a single loss. That first loss came after Shadow, Puffs, and Smith all decided to leave the clan and go elsewhere. Marauder, a new clan, delivered UVM a harsh blow when we were weakened by the loss of a few core members. After this, Kenneth renamed himself and joined CE as Draven, and Chopin (a recruit from back in April) was left to lead the clan in his place, with iri and duce at his right and left hand.

It was also about this time that UVM developed quite a reputation for trash talking. The FDT, Fortress Devastation Tournament, chaired by the infamous Venom, removed UVM from the league on the grounds of unsportsmanlike conduct.  By that time in the tournament, UVM had only lost a single game to OSKI on well6. We were on a roll--playoffs for sure--until a few of UVM's members took exception to the words of a llamaclansman, and verbally scathed him during the course of a match. Venom promptly took UVM from the tournament (did I mention that Venom was GREAT friends with the OSKI guys?) and it was all for naught. At the same time, UVM was involved in the DW2 tournament.  With CG and DV busy battling it out, UVM couldn't seem to get a playoffs spot in edgewise. CG and DV had a grudge, and they took it down to the wire when they battled for the title or the wildcard.  DV won. :\

This is when MyKe came to UVM.  DW3 was just starting up, and the FDT had just ended. I mosied on in from BK (sorry to include my OWN history in this, but fuck you, at least i took the time to write it :), and was a great soldier at the time.  My first game was against a clan called WT (results at the bottom of http://www.bck.org/uvm/results/archives/resultb.htm), and I only played a few more before my computer decided to break. While I was away, some monumental things happened.

Algorithm, Sagan, and Grifter had always been a bit pissy after losses. They complained about Chops' leadership (although he was one of the best leaders TF had to offer), and always talked of better ways. UVM hadn't suffered a loss in weeks, but CE ousted us on Rock1 to end that streak. Sagan was pissed. He decided to form his own clan, and Alg went with him. Where Sagan goes, Grifter goes.  And so BrB formed.

UVM lost a lot of members with BrB's formation. Two of the founders were kicked out of the clan with the explanation from chops left at: "Everyrone. I am kicking Il Duce and Iridante from the clan. This might cause them to say that we can't kick them because they founded the clan, but they have no respect for us, and seem to only occomplish driving friends mad. I hope you all support me on this. If they say "if we go we take UVM with us" we will  be renaming to "UvM" which is Undique Venit Mors (the proper wording of what they had formed anyhow). Their behavior has gone too long."

A number of excellent recruits departed, and a lot of core players went to the new clan. When I returned from my hiatus, I found myself needed. Pepto, Magicman, Fire, Superthug, and Slayer were all recruited at about this time (yes, I voted for our soon-to-be-leader's entry into the clan). UVM was trying to bounce back, and we did a good job of it.  In DW3, we were the only undefeated clan going into the playoffs. We were also situated in perhaps the best division the tournament had to offer.  SoC, .M, WM, BK, and nWo were all in the same DW3 division as UVM.  We had a mailing list that went to the leaders of each clan (I had been representing BK before joining UVM, so i was on the list) and we all got together weekly to play spaz4 and 4f4 games.  Everyone was friendly to each other, and UVM was according much respect by the other clans.  The closest any clan came to ousting us was when .M took a 3 cap lead after one round towards the end of the season.  This is Chopin's writeup of that game:

"It's funny. Seldom do you here of a clan coming out of a 3 cap deficit against a clan of such caliber as .M, but then again, this is Undique Venite Mors we're talking about here. Inspired by the IRC somantics of myself (little self imbelishment perhaps?), the troops, revitalized, charged to battle, and with the aid of my spying, chaos' soldier/scouting, rand's RL of DOOM, Reddawg's dodging of ninjaness, Kain's skippy scouting, Boo420's sentry distruction and flexibility, and Magicman's truly magic foot and rocket  work, we pulled 6 of those babies home to daddy. Of course, these seven caps would have meant very little if it were not for the didactic and dynamic defensive (and although somtimes drugery) workings of BoT's flame thrower, Ratbert's exploding shafts of scout penetration, Daedalus' LPB pipes of quickness, Superthug's overworked, underpaid engineering skillz, and our newest recruit Pepto's snipin. 20 Minutes through the game the server ended because it had reset its timelimit somehow, so we had to finish the round with a short game to complete it. We pulled in 1 more cap. We remain undefeated in DW3."

Great things came out of the tournament-most notably the acquisition of Murphy, JT, and Vertigo.  These three players helped UVM to stick together in later days.  The tournament seemed ours.  Hell, we thought we were going to win it all.  We were on our way to doing so until BH decided that they had to smack our sniper-less asses around (see, rand had kinda left for BrB :\).  That loss was a big one, and it sucked hardcore balls.  Again, a truckload of people took leave of the clan.

UVM was invited to the Apocalypse tournament, and we graciously accepted even after the caps-only ruling was overturned.  The clan went through many troubles during the tournament, but we eventually managed to make our way into the playoffs and even the quarter finals.  UVM lost to CE for the right to enter the final apocalypse game, but we were named Pestilence--one of the four horsemen given special acknowledgement in the tourny.

UVM still had troubles, despite our winning record and dedication.  In fact, UVM was always plagued by some sort of problem or another.  Every clan seems to be.  Our leader became a UO addict, and the clan felt the neglect.  Games were scarce, less than once a week.  Recruits were leaving.  In fact, Pepto had left to join BH, and I to DN.  Something had to be done, and it was a late night IRC meeting from which the decision to nominate Pepto as UVM's leader came.  Pep accepted, and Chopin didn't even know for a few days.  We all felt horrible; Chops was one of the best, but it had to be done.

UVM moved from teton (cts) to gamesnet, and went through some huge recruiting.  Without telling them, I left DN and rejoined UVM (shhh, DN still doesn't know...).   GP, which had previously been a longtime UVM ally, decided that without Chops, UVM was no more.  Dabum took over their channel, and GP rarely if ever associated with us again.  We began having weekly practices with CG, until they broke up a few months later.  We joined the IGL and started to try fragging on for size.

We sucked at it.  Badly.  UVM was a caps only clan, and the IGL was tough on us.  Recruits came and went, but UVM always lacked a sniper except for our brief forays with clockwork and scarecrow.  As our membership began to dwindle, we paired up with ATF.  They had some great servers, players, and snipers.  Conflict arose, however, almost immediately.  The elder ATF members, now using the UVM tag, were accorded as much or more respect than many of the veteran UVMers.  In retaliation, the veterans added the tag -v- to the end of their names( I was one of these).  This act was supposed to give us consideration as elder members of the clan, but the other members came to resent the mark and it was dissolved.  Steppin Razor, the former-ATFers representative, was quite insulted by the mark, and the ATF merger almost didn't go through.  We were the IGL Western Division champions for a week.  Ups and downs.

UVM was invited as a top seed for the new Apocalypse tourny just before our departure from TF.  It was a nice gesture, seeing as how we were nearly dead at the time.  We never made the top10 list, despite all our efforts to do so.  UVM didn't live or die in obscurity, but perhaps we didn't get all that we deserved.  On 10/21/98, it became official that UVM was no longer a TF clan with this simple message from our former leader:

"HOI! Hey guys, I'm sure you've heard the news by now. I wanna let you know I'm looking forward to fragging in TF2 with you! At least I hope to! Let us know if you're gonna be fraggin in the new era. It should be a damn good time! This message is only to my favorite of fraggers, so feel special. Yer the creme de la creme in my book!
-CHoPs[UVM]"

No matter what the word was from pepto, it was really chops' homely little statement that made UVM a bona fide fuckup.  It was a horrible thing, and none of us will ever know just WHY it happened.  I guess we just wanted to be known, but weren't. For all my TF days, I'll still be a UVMer :) I made some friends in this clan, I had some fun.  UVM was a great thing, and a better clan than anyone thought.  I'll miss it.

That's our history.  Some of it has GOT to be wrong, but I tried my best. We did a lot, and I didn't give it all justice.  There are things that I know I should have said, but I didn't.  Since I'm speaking for UVM, I just want to thank a few people for all the effort they put into the clan, and all the time that they have devoted.  Thank you Kain, Pepto, Murphy, JT, Chopin, Algorithm, Sagan, and Rand.  There were so many others that did so much, but I think those people know why they're on that list.  Thank you Kenneth, Basenji, Evangelion, Icehawk, and Cold Fusion for all your support and kindness over the years.  (years? months :) Thank you to all the clans we've played who have shown us respect.  We love you guys.

GL and GG in advance

-MyKe[UvM]