The History of The International Ultimate Lightning Association

The original idea of forming the International Ultimate Lightning Association (I.U.L.A.) came in August 2005, just after the very successful "Tri-Stratego Tournament" which incorporated all 3 Stratego events. (Classic, Ultimate Lightning and Barrage)

I came up with this idea, as a way of increasing the popularity of the game and hopefully encourage the "International Stratego Federation" (I.S.F.) to include U.L. into its plans for future tournaments. I talked to "Baffi" and "skywalker", who both agreed to be on the steering committee for the proposed organisation. Unfortunately a combination of work and social commitments meant the idea was shelved until early 2006. Instead I concentrated on building up the U.L. following on Metaforge. By early 2006 Metaforge had nearly 50 U.L. players ranked in the U.L. rankings.

In early 2006, work began again on formulating plans for the future of U.L.

We contacted the I.S.F. with regard to: How U.L. could be incorporated into the I.S.F.? Obviously we would have much preferred the I.S.F. to take control of promoting and running U.L. tournaments. They have a good record of organising and running Stratego tournaments and if the I.S.F. wanted to help promote the game, we would have stepped back and let them.

Unfortunately the I.S.F. had no future plans to incorporate U.L. Stratego into their organisation. The I.S.F. receive sponsorship and support from "Jumbo" and in doing so......this limits their support for "Other" Stratego games that are NOT made by "Jumbo".

The I.S.F. promotes the "Classic" Stratego game, but does not support other forms of Stratego due to their links with "Jumbo". In my opinion this is wrong. The I.S.F. should promote and encourage ALL Stratego events. (Not just "Classic")

Upon receiving the news about the apparent lack of support coming from the I.S.F. , we decided to form the "International Ultimate Lightning Association" (I.U.L.A.)

Our aims were simple:

 Above all, we wanted to create an organisation run by the "players" for the "players".

With this in mind........ we recruited some of the most enthusiastic and skilful U.L. players in the world, to our management committee. Our "Original" 3 members, quickly increased up to the desired 7 "Senior" members for our management committee.

In May of 2006 the "International Ultimate Lightning Association" was finally formed.  

In August of 2006 our website was officially declared open.