NrT-Mondragon @ Thursday 22nd July 2010, 6:31 pm
After ToT being around the scene since 1998 while having mostly very good and barely bad times we were struggling a lot since quite a while and eventually we decided to call it a day.
ToT was founded in 1998 by 
ToT)Nightfall(, ToT)Lunatic( and ToT)PureFalcon(. Those names are probably unknown to everyone of you except of Nightfall most likely.
After starting off in StarCraft with mostly BGH games and getting more recognition in the BGH scene ToT slowly gathered low players and switched to the lower scene and started to participate in clanleagues such as stammkneipe, BWCL and whatever there was at that time. ToT)SiLeNcE( and ToT)NoRti( were one of the first members that joined after ToT switched to low maps and they have been a part of ToT until now. Thanks for your loyality and being great members.
First times we were pretty much dominated by [XiC] at those times but after some months (or even years?) we were catching up and defeating them regularly and we started to dominate all the leagues. Especially BWCL we dominated by winning it several times a row that it became boring to us that we stopped playing it and decided to regularly schedule clanwars against Korean teams.
At first we were a German only clan and our first international member was 
ToT)WiLLEt(, followed by 
ToT)Ovvi( and 
ToT)Strafe(. I think ToT)aCe( (nowadays ret), ToT)Twisted( and 
ToT)MidiaN( were to follow. Some time later 
ToT)Ilvy( joined our team and has been the greatest admin, organisator you could have imagined in ToT. 
ToT)SquaLL( and 
ToT)XiaOzI( were one of the earlier members as well while 
ToT)GOsia(, ToT)GohaN(, ToT)LJT(, 
ToT)RauDo( were to come later.
Many more members were to come and to leave and ToT dominated everything from there on until 2007. We won every clanleague pretty easily and even challenged Korean clans where we performed very well and no clan was able to compete with us at all.
As we went back to ToT the Dawn Of War squad of pG in terms of the twin brothers ToT)Left( and ToT)Right( decided to come with us since we were on the same wavelength and I am happy that everything worked so smoothly with them over all those years. The Dawn Of War squad was just the best addition to ToT and the perfect partner to hold up the flag of ToT. Greetings to Santiago as well who has been around with the team even in BW.
The German WarCraft 3 Squad consisted basically of our old BW members at the beginning and many are still part of it in persons of ToT)NoRti( and ToT)DarK( who was the organisator for various ToT lans which were really apperciated by some parts of the German community.
The international WarCraft 3 squad with 
ToT)Boo( was on way to top as well until the good players were bought by other clans and Boo did not see any way to keep it up like that because he lost motivation.
Having those great players we were the clan with the most members participating in the WCG Grand Final 2006 in Monza, Italy. We were at our prime, we had amazingly strong squads, we got a fascinating atmosphere within the team, it was a successful and pleasant time.
Since ToT never had any real sponsors in terms of cash sponsorships it became harder and harder the more time passed to make members stay or attract new ones because ToT’s reputation was not enough anymore if you can earn a decent amount of money in other clans. Big eSports organisations launched BroodWar squads and after years of trying, MYM finally overtook ToT in leagues and rankings. In the end money always wins – that is the rule of the world.
But unlike money, we were friends in ToT. We had the best possible atmosphere a clan can have while still being successful and I do not think that any sponsored clan can ever have such a great atmosphere.
Now I am turning to the actual topic – the current situation. After the SC2 Beta was released, ToT broke apart more and more and members did not stay in contact anymore – maybe because of the rather bad chat system in SC2 – I don’t know, but fact is that none even participated in our forums anymore. To me it was clear that ToT could not run as it worked in BroodWar.
We were the most successful team, the most constant since more than one decade (!) and all this worked without being a real eSports team. We achieved everything with willpower and with little support from some sponsors. Here we have to thank PokerStrategy.com and Razer for their generosity.
Many of our current members joined other teams in SC2 and therefore ToT consists of a few members that do not really play SC2 actively. Our latest active BW players such as Haypro joined mouz and then Liquid. MoonShine entered mTw while ZpuX and Naugrim joined a Swedish which name I cannot recall. Ret has joined LLL earlier already and XiaOzI and LJT play the US beta (I guess ?!). I have no clue about Eriador, aCe and ParanOid if they are playing SC2 at all. SquaLL stopped playing RTS games completely unfortunately. GohaN who has been a part of our team for a very long time stopped playing BW since a long time already and therefore I do not know anything about him in terms of SC2. Nonetheless thanks to all of you for being great members.
Thanks to our admins such as Ilvy, RauDo, 
KaiSeR and yenta. All of you did a great job and it was a pleasure to have you in the team.
Last but not least I would like to say some words to every of our current BroodWar members:
GohaN
Chris, one of the funniest members we ever had in ToT. Being a great 1on1 and 2on2 players he was always up for 2on2, 3on3 fungames and always open minded for jokes. I really like this guy, you can have so much fun with him. Just sad that he fell for poker and did not focus too much on BroodWar anymore.
HayprO
Hayder, one of the persons I risked my ass for … and it was definitely worth it. Great member, rather silent, but always 10000 % reliable. He used to be an autowin until he started to play poker. But he came back being an autowin in the end of the BW times and saved us many wins in various clanleague finals. Was a pleasure to be in clan with you Sir!
LJT
Larry, our best 2on2 players, rather silent towards clan happenings but showing up whenever he can. Great member, very loyal, always winning his 2on2s. Was a pleasure to be in a clan with you Larry.
ParanOid
Rafa, our emo member :D Such a good member is hard to find, reliable, caring about the clan, being a top player, a good friend, and one of the most mannered BW players that the community has. He was one of the best recruits we did. Thanks for being such a loyal Member Rafa.
ret
After you joined the second time you were way more sympathic to me than the first time to be honest :P After meeting you in Cologne it just proved my point that you are a great guy. After leaving to join ESC and then rejoining us again, you did not really want to get back to your former shape where you dominated the European scene. Nonetheless you were one of the most succesful league players for ToT. Keep up the good work and good luck in SC2.
SquaLL
David, the most loyal member together with XiaOzI we have ever had in ToT, one of the best friends I found on Internet. It has always been a pleasure to have him as a member and to talk to him. Especially his football knowledge is amazing which makes it always interesting to discuss about football with him. He could just work on his FIFA skills xD Just unreplacable person in this clan with a huge skill. Unfortunately he stopped playing RTS games completely. <3 David
xiaozi
One of our first international members and the most loyal one. Coming from Fk as Fk.Timothy to ToT as ToT)XiaOzI(, he was more than a reliable player showing up to clanwars and saving many clanwars in favour of ToT. Thanks for the very nice time with you Timmy.
Ore
Eleo has been part of ToT since a very long time and provided an excellent atmosphere to the team. She was the best female gamer in BW and one of the first international members and was always up for internal 2on2s, 3on3s and always contributed to organisational things to achieve the best possible result for ToT. Thanks for staying with us. I am sure you can stay the best female gamer in SC2
DaZe
Was one of the best Terrans back in the years when he decided to leave the BW scene. When he came back he did not reach his full potential but always has been a very skilled and funny member you can enjoy time with. Keep it going Jens!
aCe
He joined ToT when he was close to reaching the skill level of top players. Being in ToT made him a top player and he performed well in many tournaments and leagues for ToT. He was meant to be one of the future top players but as far as I see he does not play SC2 either. Unfortunately I do not have too much contact anymore either, all the best to you Flo!
Eriador
Eri, just Eri! Always a pleasure to play and talk to him, one of the funniest guys on Internet. Unfortunately he either did not seem too motivated to get his top shape back or he just did not have the time for. Anyway Congratulations for your marriage once again although it was a long while ago already ;)
MoonShine
The drunk master in ToT. Sometimes beating the best players and then losing to the worst ones. Very inconstistent and very fluctuant in terms of activity. He has joined mTw in SC2, good luck there.
Naugrim
Same could be said about Naugrim. He was one of the top players at some periods in BW but due to fluctuant motivation and activity he never reached full potential. Tho he saved ToT many wins in the latest period of ToT and contributed actively in winning various clanleagues. Hopefully he is able to be more constant in SC2.
ZpuX
ZpuX has been invited as a potential player and improved rapidly during his time in ToT. Unfortunately he could not be as active as he wanted due to different issues, otherwise I would have seen him as one of the best players in the future. He has already proven his real time strategy game skills in SC2 where he was able to show very great results during the first period of the beta.
Now lets turn to our BroodWar organisational part
Ilvy
She is the mum of Broodwar. She is watching everything. She was head admin of WGTour and she has always been a great admin and was liked by everyone. She helped ToT a lot in organising. I do not know if you continue as an admin for a team in SC2 Petra, but any team would be thankful to have you as an admin.
RauDo
Our Italian Pizza face :) The most dedicated admin we had. He has spent hours and hours to organise clanwars and make members attend our clanwars. Although his temperament is Italian-like where he became emotional and easily provoked, which then turned into a huge hilarious event - it was a pleasure to have you around but you should really think about removing your AC Milan tattoo from your upper arm :D
KaiSeR
Since KaiSeR joined ToT he has helped leading the Team and organising as much as possible. Unfortunately he is a mystery. He strangely disappeared suddenly sometimes and came back some weeks or months later. Overall being a very very nice and friendly guy that did an excellent job in managing clanwars.
Yenta
Inviting Yenta as our last admin was the best thing we could have done. He worked and finished several coding on our website and still helped the organisation to fix clanwar rosters and motivate members to come. He was a well-appreciated admin. Unfortunately he more or less disappeared in the end.
NoRti
NoRti has been one of the first German members of our BroodWar squad when ToT started heading for the top. He has helped us getting on top in Germany and later on switched to WarCraft 3 where he remained until now. Thanks for all the years and your loyalty Christian :)
DarK
DarK was one of the first German members when we started actively competing in German low-map scene. As well as NoRti he stayed with us until now even though he represented the WarCraft 3 squad. Not to forget is that Michi was the organiser of numerous ToT Lans in Oberhaid (Bamberg) which were very memorable each time it was held. Thanks for your efforts Michi! Hope to see you around in Nürnberg since you are going to start working here ;)
FatRandy
FatRandy joined ToT after leaving pG back then. He was considered one of the German top players and decided to help bringing ToT to top in WarCraft 3 as well. After quite some time he became a bit inactive if I am not mistake but nonetheless he has always been a valued member in our team. Thanks for your stay and all the best!
KnowMe
I actually do not have any clue when you joined Steffen. I just remember you inviting us to your home in Berlin for WCG 2006 (was it?) where Simon showed Aces with his first hand :P I’ve always considered you as a very skilled and appreciated member which you have proven in SC2 by being higher in ladder than me ;D
Yooide
Yooide, impossible to exactly describe this person. Just a totally freaked out guy that is always fun to talk to because of his ironic way of expressing things. He has been part of our WarCraft 3 squad for a long time and helped the squad a lot with his skills and presence. Thanks for staying around (First time I am seriously friendly to you even though I will still get flamed by you :D)
Santiago
He has joined us as a Dawn Of War player where he was the very best of the best. He won several tournaments and secured numerous clanwar wins for our Squad. Besides he participated actively in our team and was up for any possible joke - very great and especially skilled person. Hope that you are going to rock as much in SC2 as you did in DoW! :)
Left & Right
The twin brothers that brought glory to our Dawn Of War Squad. Together with Santiago they lead the squad and made it the best possible DoW squad there has ever been. Both were excellent players, team leaders and friends, that made it a pleasure to talk to, organise things and work with. We will probably not see you around in SC2, but good luck for you both in Singapore :)
Lastly, I want to mention the honorary members who have always been around somehow and contributed to the team. Some contributed more, some contributed less, but they have always been great persons: Strafe, Twisted, MidiaN, and last but not least Nightfall and Oceanzerg who have been our website coders respectively website designers for a very very long time.
Thanks to NoRti, Dark, FatRandy, Yooide, KnowMe and whoever I forgot from the WarCraft squad. Thanks to Left, Right and Santiago for leading the DoW squad and being great members and friends.
We confronted some people about the shutdown of ToT before hand and gathered some statement of various people:
PokerStrategy.com – ToT’s sponsor
“Although PokerStrategy.com as a company and as a group of individuals admires Mondragon as a player and is proud to call him a friend, we disagree with his decision to take the site offline - because once in a while, all of us need a little nostalgia.”
Cheloman – LG Team leader and Iccup Senior Head admin
“I started in SC, about 1999. I have never been a good player (maybe because my hands problems or just because I am simply bad), but I always admired the great players.
When someone talks about good players in StarCraft, he always thinks about the tag "ToT". It has not been a major pride in the StarCraft world scene than to use that tag. After some time, people and companies with money, brought money to their team, and could recruit very skilled players. They built good and powerful teams to compete against ToT (And win them, of course), but none of them were able to reach the team spirit that ToT made it, commanded by Dissy.
As head of several ladders over the years, I had to stay in touch with most of the team leaders of the most prestigious teams in this game. I can say without risk of contradiction, that ToTs have always been examples of responsibility and manners.
They will be remembered as the # 1, no matter how much money other organizations can spend. Templars of Twilight have been always the best.
With ToT dying, SC itself dies a bit more, a lot more. Clan leagues will never get the same prestige. Does not matter that you win all your matches, you only can win because ToT has died.
Thank you Templars, StarCraft wouldnt be the same without you.”
Raistlin – Head of Gosugamers.net
“It has been a pleasure following Templars of Twilight throughout the years of StarCraft. Christoph, Nick, David, Rafal, Petra - only to mention a few - have all been professional and easy to work with. With a more financially focused scene today, a constellation such as Templars of Twilight will be most unlikely to see again. For me, ToT was a team that was bound together by friendship and common interests, not money. I hope that GosuGamers, or me personally, will cross paths with any of the Templars of Twilight players in the upcoming future. For me you will always be ToT, no matter your prefix. I would also like to give an extra shoutout to Tobias "ZpuX" Nilsson and Fredrik "TreK" Nelson who I've had the priviledge of meeting in real life numerous times. It was always a pleasure to work with you guys, administer tournaments you were in or just to chat and laugh.”
RaGe – The Belgian TL.net Warrior
“Templars of Twilight has always had its special place in the foreigner scene. ToT) started off as a clan but mainly a group of friends many years ago. The clan was a phenonomon the entire community looked up to. Even when foreign StarCraft became serious business ToT kept flourishing, both skillwise and as a tightly nit friend circle.
You gave our community a mature image to mirror. With op ToT) you gave us a place to meet good players. You gave us millions of replays. You gave us tight clanwars against Korean professional teams. Thank you ToT) for epic moments throughout the years, and may you rest in peace.”
ToT)Santiago( – The Swedish Dawn Of War Viking
“The time in the Templars has been a great one with plenty of laughs and a refreshing lack of drama. The DoW Division was a place that always focused on having a good time yet managed to produce results over and over, our harsh training regime consisted of "Oi, we have a game now! You're playing 1v1/2v2 get into the game.". It was sad to see people slip away from the scene one after the other to focus more on real life and silly things like work and travels but life must go on. I would like to thank everyone for the great time I've had in the templars, especially with the DoW crowd and those who dragged me into WiC as well ;)
Special mentions go out to Chris and Colin, the most awesome twins in existance who dragged me into the templars. I always have a good time when we meet up at live events or just idly chatting with you about some random stuff. P.S: The two of you are the worst air travellers I've ever met, missing flights despite being at the gate, going to the wrong airport and shit, what's up with that? xD
"Dan Dan, he's the Man, if he can't do it OjKa can" also deserves a special mention for getting lost with me in the streets of Milano during WCG and for being one of the most random people around. TrueRandom just for his awesome real name, Juuso Koivuvaara... Just taste that name rolling off your tongue, trading insults while playing 2v2 games with you was great fun even though you are a finnfag and always will be! The rest of the DoW crowd was also a great bunch and I'd like to thank everyone for the special atmosphere we had.
Last but not least I'd like to thank our omnipotent leader and his support staff for keeping the templars alive through the years and giving us a place to call home on the internet. I'd say thank you and goodbye but considering that you're threatening to school me in SC2 I guess I'll hold off on the goodbye and just say thank you for the work you put into this. So long and thanks for all the fun.“
ToT)Left( & ToT)Right( - The Dawn Of War Twins
When Chris and I look back at our time in e-Sport, it will always be looking back at our time in ToT. Yes, there were times in other clans before. Yes, we will somehow still be involved in e-Sport after. However ToT will always be the reason why I enjoyed being in the scene.It all started with Dissy's one and only short attempt to join a so called "professional clan" (pg), where we've met and after the epic failure of that adventure Dissy offered us the opportunity to broaden ToT footstamp beyond Starcraft. Entering DoW was already not like anything ToT would have done before and giving us a free hand with that part of the team was a great deal of trust Dissy had to had in us. Thanks for that!
The best thing about ToT has always been that we picked players for their character, while at the same time somehow being able to stay at the top of the game. There is probably no collection of more random characters than the ToT players. Some stayed with the team shorter than others, but all of them were great friends.
aRRR with his passion for PUAtry has been the first in the bunch. Unfortunately his tenure in DoW did not last long enough. Always enjoyed your stories though!
Ojka & Santi have always been competing for the weirdest conversation or comments, which reflected in their gameplay. It has always been entertaining with you guys online, but our times in Monza, Verona, London etc. are what I’ll remember! Even though Santis needs for physical affection might freak you out at times! :P
I know that a big chapter in e-Sport closes with ToT, but what matters most is that ToT will always count as the dominating SC (and DoW haha) clan. Even though I can’t be bothered playing SC2, I will follow those from ToT who make it there closer and stay in touch with those who matter!
Thanks for the great fun!
iNfeRnaL – The mTw joiner:
“It's a very very sad day for Broodwar, as with the shutdown of ToT one of the best and surely the most traditional team of the game leaves the building. I hope everyone will remember ToT as what it was. All theres left for me to say is good luck to every ex ToT on his future roads, wherever they may”
ToT)HayprO( - The Swedish Powerhouse
“When I joined ToT it was the biggest day in my BW career. During my time in ToT we won everything a team could win while having lots and lots of fun. I wanna thank Mondragon and Ilvy for managing ToT for all these years and I wanna wish them and all the players good luck.”
OctZerg - The Macedonian Zerg
“ToT was one of my favorite non korean team and always wanted to be in, with those great friends and players. GREAT TEAM WITH BEST PLAYERS IN EUROPE!!”
ToT)SquaLL( - Mr. Reliable
“It was an honour to belong to this team. The day I joined it was a dream coming true as a Starcraft player, but what I really couldn't imagine back then it was how close I became with some of the members. It was a pleasure to fight for the win in every tournament all this years. Thank you all for the stay in here, I'll never forget you~~”
iNcontroL - former ToT member
“ToT is and was literally the pride and heart of foreign competitive gaming. Never before has such a storied foreign team so completely marked history in the Starcraft world. Longevity, honor, dominance and prestige are some of the words that come to mind when thinking of ToT. This clan has literally set the bar for what each team and clan should strive to be. I am absolutely thick with pride to tell you that I was a member. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank Mondragon and all those that made this clan what it is today. Forever shall it be remembered as the clan to beat and the clan to be!”
Avi-Love – The Danish Viking
"This is truely a sad day, the shutdown of best and most influential foreign starcraft team will be a huge loss to starcraft fans around the world; I just hope that we get to see our heroes in action in sc2"
It is a pity that the era of ToT has an end in StarCraft 2 right now. I think it is undoubtable that ToT has been the greatest Team in BW history with the most success, the most stability and with the best members and supporters - and all this worked without being a real eSports team – it is possible.
It hurts to see such a team going down, but I do not see how ToT can be successful in StarCraft 2 with the same attitudes. Many members are looking forward to gaining some salary with their hobby which is totally understandable and ToT does not deserve to be a second class team in StarCraft 2. Better close it with a good image in people’s heads than closing it with people having a team in mind that was considered as a second class team that did not know when to stop.
Thanks to our dear serveradmin Mr Mike that hosted our website since quite some years. He has just guarded our website against the flood of visitors. The page is up again and fully working now! Thanks Mike!
We wish everyone the best of luck in the future and thank everyone that contributed to our era in some way - may the Templars be with you!
Templars of Twilight was first lost in Twilight Hall and managed to break out. Unfortunately they got lost once again and the Twilight Hall got closed now. As everybody knows though, Templars can be warped anywhere. Will they manage to break out once again? Who knows …
Source:
Twilight Hall