I'll return with another topic now to raise some attention and get things rollin' again. I suppose large amounts of text ahead.

What do people know of clans? They're basically teams that duel each other for superiority is the basic jist of it. I'll be going over several positives and negatives that can progress from this. This article may seem a bit out of place since a ton of people are in a clan/team, but they are starting to decrease in size with many new "hopeful clans" and old clans alike disappearing.

With the positives, the biggest one is probably the family aspect. When you're in a team, later down the road you realize something peculiar. It feels a lot like a family. A tightly knit community of familiars. This is one of the biggest things to like about clans. You become so close that you can eventually trust one another as a friend or a trusted accomplice. Your array of close friends expands as you interact and grow with your team. Having people you can trust is an asset that cannot be compared to any other. As you continue to grow in experience with your team, you eventually grow closer, almost into a family.

Another positive goes off of the "experience" thing. There are clans out there that require you to have some level of impressive dueling prowess and obviously a positive attitude is sought after. Once you get in a team, the speed in which you improve (given that you're putting effort into doing this) increases tenfold. You always have someone to duel, someone to bounce ideas off of, chat to and improve. It's one of the other main advantages I see in being part of a clan.

The third advantage would (I suppose) be yer' ego. When you are part of a feared team, respect goes up for you. You're acknowledged. Because you have thousands of opportunities to prove yourself, you can get yourself known. You may have not been well known before you joined clan X, but (along with point two) you continue to improve and show your skills to the public by winning events in your team, or by other means. I suppose you can also get a reputation for leading a team. I'm part of Exiled Hunters, which was basically a fusion of a very old clan known as Bounty Hunters merged with Headcase's Exiles. Headcase is very ambitious and uh... Won't turn down the chance to flaunt the acclaim he's earned. I'm really not as ambitious as Headcase, but he's earned quite a reputation, both good and bad.

PirateYoshi also has quite a lot of notice. Not only for the dueling prowess he possesses, but also because he showcases that ridiculous power comes in small packages. His team is only about four men last I checked? Each and every one of them are "professional" at BC, or as far as I can tell. Mind you my knowledge about all the clans and their leaders is only from what I've seen from my perspective thus far... But PirateYoshi isn't necessarily ambitious like Headcase, but he does enjoy proving over and over how great his team is. I recall talking with him and him telling me that Team Splash is more or less just a small gathering of friends there really showing everyone what they're made of. If dilemmas arose, he'd dissolve TS if he had to since the fame of his team is never before the actual glory he gets from dueling.

Then we have Liliputas and Kyosuke Kiryu who I think lead? Furious Elites. The first thing that comes to mind is easily their head figures. Liliputas is regarded as the best BC duelist with quite a list of victories when it comes to BC tournaments. Then we have DK Administrator Kyosuke Kiryu who can also be noted for dueling prowess. They lead a large team which (judging by their name) is very aggressive. They'll go for the win and give it their all. FE's leaders have gathered a very well accomplished team of members, and lead them with relative organization. Not much else really needs to be said, because Furious Elite makes it pretty loud and clear that they're there to give it 110%, win and have one hell of a time while they're at it.

Obviously the first thing coming to mind when getting to this part of my "blog" is probably the bias I may lead being an EXH member. I'd like to hope I'm not making this blog biased, but I'm taking full precautions that this isn't "biased". The key detail is that I'm aware far more of EXH's history than any other clans, which is a given for any individual and their team. Bounty Hunters was an incredibly ancient KCVDS clan originally founded by Kingdom Knight and Shikamaru. After it seemed to disappear after a long while, Loger took it's brunt, and EX leader Headcase merged the two for the Exiled Hunters. That's the simple way of describing the history.

The current leaders are notable for being different in ways. Headcase has many friends and many enemies. He's known by everyone for his large strides, his rather "I'm the main attraction" attitude. He was the leader of EX, and the clan rode off of his very ambitious actions, but these goals were accomplished since Headcase also happened to be clever. As for Loger_0050... He's seen as more coolheaded, rather secretive. Known for being (one of?) the brainchild of BCTAU. He talks often and gives a logical input, but always has something up his sleeve. The biggest thing to note about EXH's leaders are their contrast.

The point is that the three main teams I'm highlighting are all known for something, each with notable leaders. All famous in their own regards. The teams are also likewise organized and live on today as far as I can tell.

The cons of a team really can hurt though. The member lineup being the biggest. The problem is: not EVERYONE is just accepted into a clan. Because teams are more "secluded" in a way, some may feel hurt for not being in a team. Also considering each member has their own agenda, it's very possible that the clan can go inactive. Reliance on leadership is oftentimes key in teams, particularly teams with larger amount of members such as EXH and FE. Arguments are problems between the two can break a team apart.

Another notable problem which applies to really anything in life is the luster it may eventually lose. Teams are exciting and ridiculously fun for quite a while, but there's always the possibility that a member will begin to think it's losing it's fun. Just having team wars and some odd tourny here and there CAN eventually can get monotonous, which CAN hurt a clan and it's activity.

Really, there's no driving point I wish to point out currently, but simply wanted to elaborate on clans in my own words. I may expand on this topic tomorrow, but for now I leave you DK with this.

EXPANSION ON TOPIC:
You brought up a lot of good points. Now I will expand on my post very quickly in the comments section. Clans AND Academies are starting to lose their luster because the generation before is starting to leave and get tired of this game and so they move on. These are the people who are fantastic duelists and once they leave, if they didn't strive to train and improve the next generation, the next generation looks rather bad.

Kyosuke, imagine it like this. Once you, Suka, Headcase, and countless others move on, who's going to keep it all going? We're not going to be playing this game at the age of 50. The direction of Teams and Academies is to recruit and teach the next generation so to continue the cycle. If we all work to improve a team or academy for our own benefit, then it's also rather selfish, but the future ends up rather bleak.

This is why I'm going to try to raise awareness in regards to the generations moving on and how we must pull in the effort to train the next.