The birth of the club

Anton Trubnikov: «Every active stretch is followed by a slump. One way or another. The end of 2000 was that slump for us. Although… I now remember we did have an epic photoshoot on horseback in the forest. We didn’t go to a game, but we organised a team-building day in the woods. We drank, shouted our chants — and rented horses for four hours. We came back with a stack of photos; those photos later became the basis for our first promotional flyers.

Then in 2001 we decided that the work had to continue. And we started looking for a venue.

At School No. 131, where we were trying to negotiate a gym, they met us halfway but asked us to bring a letter showing we were affiliated with some organisation. That building used to house the «Variag» club — an iconic spot we couldn’t afford to lose.

So we began the club registration procedure. We came up with a new name — I came up with it personally. We gathered the documents. The registration procedure required three signatures; in our case they were mine, Oleh Yurchenko’s and Sviatoslav Malanov’s. And I was elected chairman.

I remember it as if it were yesterday — we registered «by notification»; we spent forty hryvnias at the notary. On 19 March 2001 Knyaz Club was officially born.

We brought those papers to the school together with a petition from the Committee for Family and Youth Affairs — and got our gym.

We even made our own advertising — two-colour flyers announcing the club recruitment. Then we held our first meetings. It was a huge deal — young guys taking over the old school where the influential «Variag» club had once met. Everyone was thrilled. It was the alma mater of the movement.

We started training, doing things. But it didn’t last long, because nobody was paying for the gym, and I was going through a difficult period — after about three months the unpaid bills got us kicked out.

The winter of 2001–2002 went by quietly, and effectively we dropped off the radar.

But in the spring of 2002 there was a game. It was called «Dolomeyn-2» and it was held at a tank training ground somewhere outside Kharkiv. We pitched our camp next to the young «Yoms». It was actually a patchwork team. From my old line-up only Oleh Yurchenko remained, plus a couple of others. A lot of people were just going through a personal crisis.

At «Dolomeyn» we had a great time, although the game wasn’t really a club outing — not much of the core was «in the ranks» anymore. Some had left for other teams, some had dropped everything. It was complicated. Knyaz Club existed essentially on paper; there were three active members, and even then I was the most enthusiastic. We didn’t really show off the club name. On the other hand, at «Dolomeyn» I took a whole team prisoner. About forty people. It was the team of a player known as Kelt. By trickery, of course. We invited them as guests, took their weapons at the gate, then put them to the sword. At the same game I also captured Zotov… The game was fun, low-pressure. But without an army it’s hard — no discipline at all. The club is only indirectly tied to it, although by then it existed — there was the will to develop it; what we seemed to lack was the means.

Autumn–winter 2002. I’m coming back from a hobbit-game gathering. I got on a trolleybus and two guys and a girl sat down next to me — and started talking about role-playing games.

I realised they were in the scene and decided to get to know them. I sounded them out, found out what they knew about me — talking mostly nonsense, listening to gossip about myself. Then one of them got suspicious and said: «I think it’s actually you!». I offered to teach them how to fight, and it ended with them inviting me to their training session in the forest. As it turned out, the spot was the very same glade where I’d held training with my own team when they weren’t yet in the movement.

«The glade!» — I said. «Did you ever hear how many stories used to be told about it?». It got interesting.

It was interesting, although I didn’t really believe in it. There turned out to be a lot of very different people on the glade. I started correcting their mistakes, helping organise the training…»

Ihor Hrankov: «In our team almost everyone was half-punk back then, running around in the bushes. We watched Anton (Snayper) from the sidelines. I remember on the first evening at the glade some guy tried to show him the mantis style — and caught a shield-edge to the face for his trouble. He didn’t try again. We had our ups and downs. And then this same Snayper started training us. «What?! He’s such-and-such!» people would tell us (laughs). But it felt fine to us. So I came to my second session with Khabibullin (the first was led by Oleksii Perekhidnyk), and Anton said: «Fifty squats!». We did. He said again: «And now another fifty.» We started getting annoyed. We weren’t beginners — we’d been running forest tournaments, we even had some kind of helmets. Later Anton asked us what we could do and offered us some options.

The most memorable thing from my first training session was how, after the drills, we all sat in a row on a log; Oleksii Perekhidnyk was to my right. From the left someone started passing a bag of clothes, and Oleksii refused to pass it on. «Take it away!» he says. I tell him: «Pass it!» And he replies: «Take it away, or I’ll punch you in the face!». So my introduction started with Oleksii Perekhidnyk wanting to punch my face in.

Anton told us so many things — what could be done, how to weave mail better, what could be made nicer. After that we didn’t train in the forest for much longer…»

Anton Trubnikov: «Autumn 2002 was effectively the second birth of the club. I’d just started training the guys in the forest, and I already understood it would all fall apart. That’s normal, that’s how it usually goes — but these guys were committed. The same thing had happened to me — most of those who came into the movement the same year I did were already out by then. Falling apart is the norm — but I didn’t want to fall apart. And I didn’t want to just hang around with the «Yoms». And here were these guys — they were 15–16, I was 21–22 — wonderful timing, great potential. I understood we needed a gym. So I started walking around my neighbourhood, came across School No. 99, and reached an agreement very quickly. By 15 December we had a gym, and we started raising money for the cabinet we still use to store our gear to this day.»

Valentyn Kalin: «We carried the front panel of that cabinet on foot! You should have seen it from the outside!»

Anton Trubnikov: «That’s when the active phase began. My knowledge and experience — and their youthful enthusiasm, our shared ambition. The combination worked out really well. I remember our most epic session had 35 people at once. Of course not all of them stayed. Only four of those veterans remained in the club, but we worked very hard, trained, made gear. The next game we were preparing for was «Hardarika». At the time we even bought helmets with aventails and chrome-leather boots centrally. We ordered axes and swords.

In winter 2003 we also competed in our first tournament under the Knyaz Club banner. It was a tournament at a school in the Saltivka district — full-contact, but still with wooden sticks.

I remember it as if it were yesterday — every morning we’d come in and work on something. The whole place smelled of burnt rubber and leather. We were nervous, we wanted to do everything right. And then the time came and we went to the game.

It was the spring of 2003. Poor Oleksii Perekhidnyk had woven mail for everyone, but couldn’t go himself — he got sick. We had Ihor Pernyk, Sviatoslav Malanov, Puzyr, Volodymyr Budko, Oleh Yurchenko, Sviatoslav Malanov and other guys — eleven of us altogether. And we also brought along the tavern.

At «Hardarika» the rule was that nobody under 16 could take part in combat. Minihan was head GM, Iryna Chorna was the organiser. Well, basically you could — the main thing was not to be too brazen about it. Everyone just said they were sixteen. Although some of our guys were just plain scared of Minihan — he always walked around with a pistol… «Oh, I’m afraid of him. What if he shoots!»

We also had a long-standing rule: anyone whose face wasn’t epic enough — too friendly-looking — wasn’t allowed to take his helmet off in public. We had one guy who’d walk around in costume and helmet even with guests around.

What we stood out for was that everyone noticed how strict our discipline was. A serious army.

There were a lot of funny moments. We’d all picked historical names for ourselves and everyone used them. It was incorrect to respond to your real name while you were in the game. So someone calls out: «Anton! Anton!» — I stay silent. «Snayper!» — I don’t react, waiting to be addressed properly. The lads start coaching them: «Tell him ‘Knyaz!’». So I hear: «Knyaz, hand me that rag!». I handed it over — what else could I do.

The war was interesting too. At «Dolomeyn» we’d already figured out that a fortress doesn’t really decide anything. You have to play offensively. So we decided to put that strategy into practice. We didn’t build our own fortress — we decided the best move was to take other people’s down.

We started with a night raid. We stole the gates from the «Ratybor» team, which was camped in Novgorod. In the morning they came over to settle the score. Ratybor walked into my tent with a drawn bow and an arrow on the string. I told him there was no point killing me inside a tent — who would see it?

But after dawn, the fight began. We clashed with «Ratybor» before they even reached Novgorod. They retreated right away. That was our first time advancing in formation! A more serious, real battle came the next day. A proper take-down of the fortress.

The plan was this — to come supposedly for negotiations; when the enemy lowered the gates, the whole team — not just the negotiators — would charge inside. To do that we had to hold the gates open. When we managed it, the fight began.»

Ihor (Tiulen): «There were also model boats at the game. So we went at night to steal them — the whole young line-up. On the way we ran into the older lads, who were going to drag away the gates of Novgorod. And on the way back we met them again — when we were running with those «drakkars»… and one of us fell.»

Anton Trubnikov: «I remember the roads there were rivers. We’re sitting on the road, a «drakkar» sails past, and they shout from it: «You’re sitting on a river!». And we shout back: «And you’re sitting on heroin!»

Ihor Hrankov: «There was another funny moment. We’re walking down a road, and three guys in kilts come at us. «Who are you?» — «We’re Scots!». At the «Hardarika» game! We charged at them — and they unexpectedly committed a triple in-game suicide.»

Anton Trubnikov: «There was a funny moment tied to the tavern. We hired people serving time in the «country of the dead» (the «mortyak») to work there. Since the tavern was ours, they worked in our camp. We treated them well, but they worked. I remember once I pulled a guy out of the mortyak who’d refused to be taken prisoner and slit his own throat. So one way or another — he ended up working for us.

The game was fun and epic. We played beautifully, talked plenty. I had a good duel with one of the Belgorod players.

One of the fun moments of that game was the «five minutes of anarchy» we held in our camp. We shouted, threw rags and eggs around — basically «let off steam» completely.

That same time we ran our own small festival. There was an evening feast, a tournament during the day — everything as it should be.

Then came the summer of 2003. And it was the summer of revelations. I had a job, and my boss had a laptop. The laptop had dial-up — the most advanced internet access of the day. Hard to believe now, isn’t it? I went on Yandex for the first time — I didn’t even know what it was. Yandex took me to TozheForum — and there I saw stacks of beautiful photos from «Vyborg». I was in awe — what fights, everyone in beautiful armour. We had to go!»