By the 24th, OTK reached 100 members. Christmas then came and things slowed down a bit. On the 26th Munson12 attempted to organize the first OTK organized event, just some friendly customs. However New Years came and went and recruiting quickly picked up again. On January 4th, we reached the Private Group Spotlights for the very first time. Up to date, we have been on 24 times.

On January 4th the results of the first OTK game came in. This was a contest to see who could come up with the ugliest and the best armor combinations. Yours truly won it for the ugly portion. On the 4th I was also banned from OTK, surprising as this may seem. However all was forgiven and I was back within a week. If any of you care to know why there was a post on it. Use context clues to find out where. By the 6th of January we had 200 members. We then had our first Katana of the Month award. It was won by nubyw00tz. On the 12th we got our first group chat box. Things were a bit frustrating though as the majority of our members remained inactive. However on 1/15, King Nikki became an OTK moderator! The date I became an OTK moderator has long been forgotten, but it was after Mepps left.

The 17th was a busy day. On the 17th we gained our first alliance with the group Skill and Goodwill(S&G). However also on the 17th Mepps Minnow 2, an OTK moderator at the time left the group. We also made it on the group spotlights for the second time! By the 25th we had 300 members. February second we put in an Article on Halopedia, but it was kicked out because it was seen as advertising. We posted it on Bungiepedia and stayed in. On the 3rd we gained a new ally, the ExCovenant. An old Katana Nimsaj was, on the 4th, the OTK Clan Official. On the 6th nubyw00tz won the January Katana of the Month. We also reached 400 members. On the 8th King Nikki received his promotion to co-admin of doom, the old co-admin role! Agusta1 officially became an AV Master on 2/10. This job was mainly to do with things technical. On the 15th we had lots of MM games in RBTB, and we were all happy to get RedWolfo his first ranked Perfection. Someone kept charging their laser at him and not firing, scaring him out of his wits. It was all in good fun though.

Around this time, THE VINMAN became our webmaster. As of the 15th the first OTK website was up and running thanks to him. Also on the 15th colors for announcements were…announced. It’s the current setup. On the 16th we had our first OTK Samedi ( which was the name widely agreed upon at the suggestion of nubyw00tz). It was very successful, with almost everybody showing up(My team, red tam, won)! I also wrote a very in depth analysis of all the games played. On the 16th, the shane train came up with the idea to save our classifieds thread, making our advertisement that day our first to be saved upon the threads of interest. This same day we also reached 500 members, and many speeches ensued!

Chapter 2: Progress

The 20th was our 5th time on the Spotlights. On the 22nd nubyw00tz made our zombie survival plan which everyone should see because it’s hilarious. It’s under announcements on page 7 or 8. On the 28th we had our first OTK interview, who was nubyw00tz. On the 29th we had our mini update which said Achronos got married. We also had our first OTK random facts list, including: In Russia kids are given a birthday pie, your brain can survive 3 seconds without blood, and Bungie consumed over 20,000 pounds of Pizza the year before Halo 3 came out. PiercingTiger was also interviewed at this time.

On March 4th, we reached 750 members! It was also this day that Goodeye finally won Katana of the Month. On the 6th we had 777 members. RedWolfo at this time joined Nimsaj as Clan Official, and started hosting clan practices (first one on the 8th of March). The 14th of March was celebrated as Pi day for OTK. I hope you all realize why. If not, back to school with you! On the 21st many people were given the role of Scout. THE VINMAN also created an OTK MySpace. Heroes Genesis also had the first OTK Screenshots of the week on the 21st. On the 22nd, TorqueBowBeast was selected as OTK’s new moderator. On the 26th, we reached 1,000 members, and many more speeches followed that realization.

On the 28th we received a challenge from the popular group The Bungie Community, run by Cryptic Guardian. Spartan 104 S2AM was also given the title of Moderator. PiercingTiger was mentioned in that week’s OTK weekly update. VINMAN also handed out OTK email addresses. On the 28th we also got on the Spotlights for the 10th time. On April 1st many hijinks appeared, including me saying Microsoft sent me in another bum xbox after getting rrod for 5 weeks, and Torque saying he was quitting OTK. Luckily I got my xbox 360 back because the 5th was our scheduled match against The Bungie Community. We had already played three games with them, winning two of them. However that was deemed a practice series.

VINMAN, on the 4th of April, was chosen as the Katana of the Month with 41 whole votes! He sure had mine! On the 4th it was deemed that we could no longer send mass PMs to recruit, and this was followed by a few of us asking around with some mods for answers (if anyone really wants to know details, I still have Yoozel’s message I could copy to you). We had our Match with the Bungie Community. The first was One CTF on Last Resort. We lost 0-2. The second was Multi Assault on Standoff. The score was 1-3 with us losing. I scored the point with much help. The final game was Slayer on Isolation. We lost this 43-75. I went positive, so don’t give me that look. Shortly after this though, was the Dark Ages for burrito. I had no computer for the next 2-3 months.

Chapter 3: Change and Indecision

We had a series of OTK group montages made at this time, and subgroups were made. On the 29th of April we started voted on the OTK logo. On May 3rd, it was chosen. It can be seen on the OTK website(ask THE VINMAN for details). On the 3rd x Spartan J19 x took over the Weekly Screenshots.

The Sunday following the 26th was the first OTK Mods vs. Members humpday. Despite being internet-less, I participated. The OTK site was, on the 7th of May, hosted by IGN Gamespy. Also on the 7th PiercingTiger won the Katana of the Month for April. On the 9th he was promoted to the role Master Ninja (currently Flaming Ninja). On the 20th of May, VINMAN took up mod powers as well as being the Webmaster. On the 23rd the roles were changed for the first time in months. On the 26th the Group Theme was changed for the first time as well. On the 29th we reached 1,500 members!

On June second TorqueBowBeast was interviewed. On the 4th the OTK ‘clans’ Red vs. Blue were created. Announcement colors were also discontinued, giving people free reign. It began to get…very colorful, yet sometimes dull. On 6/7 OTK montages made it to PlanetHalo, (planethalo.gamespy.com) Also on the 7th King Nikki won the Katana of the Month for May! However it was the next week when Burritosenior would return from his computerless-void! I saw a lot of things changed and proposed some changes of my own. On the 19th Goodeye and the other mods agreed that these could be for the better so announcement colors were brought back, and the rules sticky was changed. Not my idea, but it was decided that people shouldn’t post news stories that are already on the Bnet homepage to the announcements section. Feel free to make threads though still! On the 27th of June Goodeye began debating whether or not to change the role titles this was echoed many times. There was also some uncertainty about who would be writing the Weekly OTK Updates. Goodeye also came up with the idea of writing an Achievement Guide as a treat for the community for Bungie Day. Goodeye also proposed changing all our Halo 3 emblems to a 7 or the seventh column symbol. He even got a post on the homepage news for it. Then the roles really were changed.

7/4 the roles were changed yet again. That same day, again. Again. At last something different! The Katana of the Month poll was in, and Goodeye won by a mile! Of course I came in second, so yay. Now you know who to vote for next time ;). On the 5th of July the roles were changed again to what we hope are the roles they will stay at for a while. Bungie Day came and the achievement guide was published. Goodeye also decided to continue the Weekly Updates we’re all so fond of. Noob 4 hire was also promoted to ninja! Noob was the agreed upon candidate.

On the 10th I took to looking through all of Bungie’s announcements over the past few months and saw one where they showed achievement percentages of the community. Only 2.07% back then. We’ve come very far! Torque decided to go on his own and publish some of the things about the secret OTK Ninjas’ Forum. Around 1:20 P.M. Bungie Time, July 18th, 2008, the 2,000th member was accepted and this was published. On July 20th n0va was promoted to the title of Moderator. The roles were also slightly changed this day as well. All roles were given a number of boxes or stars(depending on if you use FF or IE) after the title. This was to identify security roles.