Hannibal LW: A Brief History and Insight

Hi everyone. For those who don’t know me, I am KSI Alley aka AlleyCat. I amA?a former GeneralA?of LW,A?from a squad known as Hannibal. This article is one to express the history and theA?rise and sad fall ofA?this great squad.

When I had first joined Hannibal, it was a good-sized squad with good people and activity.A?Hannibal was based on Destiny, which was still a new release at the time. Just like every other squad,A?Hannibal hadA?issues that needed to be faced. For us, the obstacles were finding the next line of leaders and to succeed in being our divisiona??s only Destiny squad.

After a while, things started to decline. Leaders left, which caused members to diminish and activity to dissolve. During my trip from lietenant to captain, I always worked my hardest and strived to be the best. Eventually, another CPT moved up and that didn’t see eye-to-eye with me on what was most important to focus on.

TheirA?focus was more on increasing the numbers and getting the squad to split. I was more dedicated to improving activity and engagement within the squad. In turn, the recruiting worked out number, sky rocketing our squad to splitting numbers. However, there wasn’t enough activity or upcoming leaders for the squad to grow.

Finally,A?my leaders decided to promote meA?to General over Hannibal. It was well deserved as I had been the acting general for quite some time.A?The first order of business was to diminish the fluff.

I started off slowly to ensure the squad did not shrink. Basically, add oneA?recruit, remove oneA?fluff member. My leaders advised meA?to take a different course ofA?action, toA?just to remove all offline and inactive membersA?at once andA?begin building up again. The squad numbers plummeted to dangerously lowA?levels and in dire need of help. I spent time reaching out to other generals andA?captains to get support with recruiting and including the squad in more games. Unfortunately, Hannibal did not receive the help that was necessary.

A little while passed with myself as General leading a squad that was neitherA?improving nor diminishing. My divisional leadership eventuallyA?delivered news that literally shattered my heart. I actually couldn’t reply, asA?I was in tears. After all the sweat, tears, time and effort I had put into trying to keep the squad going, nothing was enough to keep the squad.

The effects of losing a squad:

I was drowning in my sorrows. It had honestly felt like I had failed everything, that I would never be successful leader or member of KSI. Truthfully, I felt that I never was anything to anyone, really, and the realizationA?tore me in half. This realization left me feeling alone and betrayed by the squad mates I had once called family.

I could have done nothing more to save Hannibal. In reality, it wasn’t only my baby, my squad,A?failing, it was Destiny as well.

Insight from Hannibal:

Afterwards, I still had emotions and thoughts about what I could have done and how I hadA?failed. I learned a lot about the people around me and experiences as a leader. After the squad shut down,A?IA?needed to make a choice: leave KSI completely andA?allow this situation control how I felt about KSI, or I could pick up the pieces I had lost andA?help a sister squad grow. I’m grateful to the leaders and dear friends who were there to help me get back to who I was. This event affected how I not only viewed myself, but also the leaders in the community and how I write articles now.

Ideally, the message behind this personal story is we can’t let rough patches or emotions control how we feel. We need to pull together and support each regardless of division, squads or ranks.