From a joke on someone else's server to a proper clan.
- JANUARY 2004
Fozzie and Dirtstyle, regulars on the Holyland CoD server, set up a "non-clan clan" as a joke to wind up a member who kept kicking them and forcing rifles-only. They copied Holyland's tag style and started recruiting right there on Holyland's own server.
- EARLY 2004
Flava jumps ship from Holyland after less than two weeks as a member. Dirtstyle then vanishes without a trace, leaving Fozzie and Flava to build the clan between them. The first recruits arrive: Masterkiller first, then Ccrash.
- WITHIN WEEKS
Over 30 members. On Holyland's second server there were more [MORK]s than HOLYs, so it was time for a server of their own. Flava and Wooder took on the first one.
- THE GREAT PAYING ROW
Asking members to chip in for the server split the clan. Around 30% left within days. The founders decided they weren't the people they wanted anyway, and the strict paying policy was born.
- FEBRUARY 2004
The VS-UK Total War mod arrives, brought in by Wooder from his days on the {7thAD} server. It made [MORK] stand out from the crowd.
- 2005
Multi-gaming clan with an international member base, playing Call of Duty and Battlefield 2 most nights. Matches in the CoD League and a multi-gaming league, servers hosted by Gaming Deluxe, a custom admin tool called [MORK]Eye, and a Flash site with a D-Day intro.
- JAN to MAR 2006
Big round of promotions, a new BF2 server, and a new game: [MORK] went live on Red Orchestra the night it launched (15 March 2006, 7:45pm).
- APRIL 2006
Before the IP.Board forum there was a phpBB one, skinned by w00der and choppage. On 9 April it held 472 registered users and 2,753 posts, with a record of 16 people online (9 December 2005). Its members-only rooms covered official communications, clan messages, promotions, the Map Making Division ("we model our heads off in here"), a technical forum for PC advice, "Clan Battle Info" for the league liaison officers, and even a Platoon Talk room.
- JUNE 2006
The clan forum opens. The first pinned posts (PunkBuster information, the guest code of conduct, "Introduce yourself") are dated 21 to 23 June, Fozzie joins as member no. 6, and most of the rest sign up on 4 July. It soon fills with banter, server news and rank titles like "Server God", "Website God" and "Spam Master General".
- SUMMER 2006
The front page becomes a big picture of an old military radio with six knobs, one each for the forums, About, [MORK] Wars, the members gallery, kill stats and Join, with looping music playing behind it. By February 2007 it had given way to a black crosshair splash screen. See how it worked.
- SEPTEMBER 2006
Jimbo's [MORK]Eye goes into beta: a free Windows tool that watched our servers' game logs for swearing, warned the offender, and kicked repeat offenders. Its first test ground was the [MORK]NewMaps COD2 server.
- OCTOBER 2006
Jimbo announces new website additions and Fozzie reports that the custom maps are "going from strength to strength".
- NOVEMBER 2006
Stats return. On 22 November Jimbo switches on Statsgen2 (alpha) for both custom-map servers, first updating every 24 hours, later every 12. He plans to reset them on the 1st of every month, partly because one server's 20MB log file produced a 55MB stats website. The forum immediately argues about prizes, and a "commando ranking" is born: the top three [MORK] players of the month would get 3, 2 and 1 bonus points.
- THE BIG SPLIT (late 2006)
About half the members left to start a new clan called Nango, and around the same time another group spun out as ]NAD[. Nango's forum was already busy by early January 2007, and by mid-March it had 171 registered members and over 4,000 posts. The exact date of the split is still to be confirmed.
- JANUARY 2007
[MORK]Depot launches on 4 January as "the one stop shop for all things COD": custom maps, demos, map packs, mods, patches, skins and utilities. A month later it had 60,147 hits and more than 150 new members, about five a day.
- FEBRUARY 2007
The website suffers a run of outages. Jimbo, the "Website God", sets up round-the-clock uptime monitoring with the hosts and posts the daily reports: 100% up for the whole week of 14 to 20 February, 897 checks, no errors.
- APRIL 2007
The "[MORK] 200 Club" thread celebrates the PunkBuster team's screenshot checks catching cheaters on our servers. Call of Duty 4 is announced and the forum immediately argues about modern warfare.
- JUNE 2007
Our own stats site is running on three Call of Duty 2 servers ([MORK]NewMaps, and two [MORK]vWorld servers, all running [MORK]Eye). By 2 June it had logged over 89,000 kills across more than 2,600 rounds, with Search & Destroy by far the most played mode.
- JULY 2007
The servers are busy: Wednesday becomes UO Night on the "Old School" server, there is a custom Search and Destroy with AWE, a [MORK]NewMaps server for all things custom maps, and a rifles-only server. Fozzie calls on all the public players to join in.
- AUGUST 2007
Forum upgrade and scheduled server maintenance at our hosting provider. On 10 August the first [MORK]V-World night is posted, and by the end of the month Fozzie is announcing "[MORK] versus The World" for good.
- SEPTEMBER 2007
The meet-ups multiply. The gallery fills with photos from [MORK]Fest 07 and the Coleford [MORK]Fest (both last updated on 17 September), and on 30 September a gang takes on the Yorkshire Three Peaks: Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, sausage butties and all.
- OCTOBER 2007
"New Map Monday" becomes a regular fixture, and the forum starts hunting for the cheapest place to pre-order COD4.
- JAN to FEB 2008
Jimbo releases a new [MORK]Eye admin tool, the CoD4 modding tools arrive, and a [MORK]NewMaps server goes up with custom CoD4 maps. The seeds of the [MORK]-V-World mod.
- MAY 2008
New recruits keep arriving ("since half the lads joined, I thought I should try too!") and Jimbo's "Where am I?" competition has everyone hunting for a spot on a custom CoD4 map. Accusations of glitching, naturally, are not far behind.
- JUNE 2008
[MORK]Fest: the clan leaves the servers for a real-life trip to Wales. Gazebo, BBQ, dingy racing and a legendary pile-on. See the photos.
- FEBRUARY 2009
The forum portal announces the next [MORK]V-World night: Friday 6th February at 8pm. By now the rules include custom vWorld graphics and messages, a turbo-ranking system, spawn protection with a visible countdown, an artillery delay, martyrdom and sprint switched off, and last stand only when shot in an arm or leg. The slogan: "vWorld... it's a [MORK] thing."
- 2009 to 2016
The forum moves into a grey IP.Board 3 skin, with the gallery, the vWar match tracker and the "Ugly Mugs" photo gallery. The motto stays the same: [MORK] versus The World.
- 2010
[MORK]Fest 2010, with its own camera footage including a song and a Baywatch special. Watch the videos.
- AUGUST 2011
Still going: the forum is buzzing about Red Orchestra 2, with members swapping tips on pre-order discounts for owners of the original Red Orchestra.
- NOVEMBER 2011
The portal lists a Black Ops server, Teamspeak 3, an Xbox room (76 topics) and the [MORK] Realism mod for download, while the forum chatter turns to MW3, Battlefield 3 and Red Orchestra 2.
- TODAY
No longer shooting each other much, but still friends. And, yes, still here.