The Vicious Vikings

The first Norwegian Quake clan, and one of the most influential. Founded in August 1996.

History

The Vicious Vikings was Norway's first Quake clan. It was formed by a small group of Norwegians, led by BM, most of them had grown up in the same neighborhood. They had been playing Quake via LAN since the test-release, and founded their own clan after hearing about a swedish clan. The Vicious Vikings was never the best or the most successful Norwegian clan, usually it was rated as third best in Norway, but it was one of the most active and influential ones, partly because they were arranging the infamous AskerLANs. VV was also probably the biggest clan in Norway, with more than 30 members at one point.

In the most active period, from the summer of 1996 to the fall of 1998, The Vicious Vikings played around 140 clan matches. VV had the unusual map choice of E4M3, which often proved a big advantage against better clans, as the opponents weren't used to playing it. Their most notable win was against Nasty Beasts Inc, a clan that was well above VV's skill level, but didn't cope on E4M3. The activity slowly declined during 2000 and 2001, along with the general QuakeWorld scene. The clan hasn't been active since, though some of its members - most notably Rikoll, then known as Zyntifox, and Trygve, then known as Leon, made combacks some years later.

The AskerLANs, at one point the heart of the Norwegian QuakeWorld scene, were arranged by The Vicious Vikings in Asker, close to Oslo. The first LAN-party, held from February 14th to16th 1997, (more on AskerLAN I here) turned out to be a huge success and spawned about 10 more LAN-parties over the next couple of years, with visitors also coming from Denmark and Sweden. For more information, see these pages about AskerLAN I, AskerLAN III, AskerLAN V, AskerLAN VI, AskerLAN VII and AskerLAN VIII. (The reports from AskerLAN II and IV seem to be lost.) Most of the participants at the earliest AskerLANs were members from The Vicious Vikings and the other three big Norwegian clans at that time, Carnage Clan, Dead Presidents and Spawn Clan. Members from the latter have also written reports from AskerLAN I and AskerLAN 3.