Image credits: Clash of Clans game (background) / Lootcakes LLC (character)





How do the world's best trophy clans dominate? Find out from the legendary MEGA USA - currently ranked #2 on the U.S. trophy leaderboards!

With 'Clan Masters', our goal is to get personal - with the top performing clans in CoC! Each edition we an interview a highly successful clan to reveal their unique personalities, tactics, motivations and opinions on the game. For information on our criteria and how to get your own clan interviewed, please click here.









All questions were answered by clan co-leader REDBIRD:





1. Describe your clan in three adjectives!

Fun, Active, Tenacious.









2. Tell us about the founding of your clan. Who founded it, when and why? To what extent did your founding members know each other from outside the game?

Kathy started the clan about 2 years ago. Kathy was a long-time Mega player and wanted something different and to just enjoy the game again. The clan quickly took off due to a relaxed culture and everyone's commitment to teaching and developing its clan members. Also key was super fast troop fills (rarely more than a few seconds; new members are overwhelmed by how fast people donate), very active people, and down to earth very funny folks - no thin skinned folks need apply. Very few people knew each other outside of the game but now [we] are all family!





3. Describe your clan's leadership structure. Are you ruled by an iron-fisted dictator, or is decision-making shared among several members, and if so, how?

Kathy is an iron-fisted, no bullshit, total bitch. Only kidding. While Kathy is our founder and leader, she always uses diplomacy and tact and most major decisions are discussed with clanmates and in MEGA USA family of clans Leader Chat. We have had some lively discussions but what is best for the clan family always serves as our common ground.





4. Describe your clan's overall trophy pushing approach. What do you use to communicate (in-game chat, other chat apps, forums, etc)? Do you coordinate your pushes, or do you let each member do his/her own thing?

We all challenge and push another to be the very best, and are always working on new skills and techniques. We all take major pride in being one of elite CoC clans. We use [the Line] app to communicate with other clan members throughout all 5 MEGA USA clans. We have never really forced trophy pushes. We don't have to - we just naturally want to remain at the top of the leaderboards!





5. When it comes to pushing trophies, what’s been your clan’s biggest challenge?

As everyone in Legend League knows, the clouds are one of the most difficult parts of the game. We all push and encourage each other to have the Never Give Up attitude after a big loss [on offense or defense]. We support each other to get back in the game and to get those trophies back.

I'm around 5,500 trophies 3 weeks into the [June] season but I've been stuck for some time not making much progress. The higher you push the smaller the cup value you find and at the same time, when you go on defense the more you can lose. Sometimes losing over 30 trophies might take you all day to make up. In an average 12-hour session you might find 0-4 bases to raid, most being worth 6-15 trophies on average. Weekends are the worst time to search by far. Update after update the clouds seem to get worse. We all love a game that is almost impossible to play because of the ridiculous amount of time spent in the clouds... Seen many great clan mates quit the game for this very reason.





6. You recently defeated U.S.A (the top-ranked trophy clan in the US) in a clan war. Take us through the war and how you felt after winning! How much emphasis do you put on clan wars versus trophy pushing?

Our war with U.S.A was completely at random. But before the last update when CoC started using the Win-Loss ratio, I would try to arrange wars with other 100% fair play clans via another Line app group in which I'm also a member. It worked very well; we have had many great wars with other well skilled, anti-mod clans.

Every victory feels good, but in our win against U.S.A was just a little sweeter! As far as all our wars go, we don't have all the crazy rules that I hear with so many other clans do. At this level we all can 2-3 [star] every base on the map. I serve as MEGA USA's War General. All war bases are approved by me before [the clan member is] put into battle. It's up to our members if they chose to participate in wars or concentrate on trophy pushing. Most do both.









7. Take us through your typical member recruitment process. What do you look for in a new member? Do you only recruit members who have high trophy totals, or do you take a more social approach and tolerate those with fewer trophies?

Our typical recruiting process is accepting folks who request to join and folks who have been with us awhile bringing over a close friend. We get so many requests each day, [so] we are not actively out recruiting. While we occasionally may recruit someone in global, that is not the norm but we are certainly open to it. We spend much more time developing people once they join and building deep relationships and learning from each other. Anyone wishing to join [should have] 5,000+ trophies, combined [level 70+] Heroes, near max troops and a strong Friends In Need stat. We hate moochers but that is really not a problem here. Most folks have been here a long time and donations may fluctuate season to season. All good. The most important thing for a long time fit is to be active, have fun and enjoy the game. We will not burden you with a lot of stupid rules and other people's agendas.





8. What's one piece of advice you'd give to a clan that is considering a leaderboard push?

It's all about your core group. We all strive to be one of the best [clans]. Don't have all kind of crazy rules; just have fun and enjoy the game. Everything else will come with time as long as you have great leadership.









9. What are your opinions about the game's current features and functionality? Is there anything you’d like changed, added, or removed?

As a 100% Fair Play clan, the steps SuperCell has taken in removing and eliminating the use of 3rd party mods, bots, and every other method of cheating has been a great improvement to the game. The challenge feature is also great fun and a great way to test new bases and army compositions. If I could change anything about the game for the better, it would be the ridiculous amount of time spent in the clouds. It's almost like you are punished for being good at a game we all love!





10. In your opinion, what are some good educational resources to learn how to push trophies? How diverse are strategies - do most players use the same troop combinations and base layouts, or is it varied?

When I first started over 3 1/2 years ago I watched a lot of YouTube videos, but for the most part I think it's just hands-on experience. The people you play with help you more than anything. Some people are strong with air attacks but I'd say over 80% of the attacks are [ground-based]. One of my favorite things about updates are new troops and learning new troop combos. In our clan almost everyone has max troops, so a lot of attacks are very similar.





11. Do you have a message you'd like to send to other clans? To potential recruits? To anyone else in the Clash community?

Anyone looking for a great clan: I would highly recommend giving MEGA USA a chance. [In] the 2 plus years I have been here, I've learned and become a much better player as a result. Currently we only accept people with more than 5,000 trophies in [their main account. We're] trying to remain as one of the few elite clans in the game. We also have MEGA USA 2, 3, 4, and MINI'S all under great leadership [and] all filled with great players with various THs and skill levels.

And if you're going to play the game, play fair! If you have to cheat it's because you lack skill! Let's do THIS! MEGA USA 💪





Note: Thanks to Tony for coordinating and REDBIRD for answering the questions. Quoted stats are current as of the interview date.





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