New Guinness World Record!
The Syndicate updated its own world record by proving its continued existence since 1996. The new record reads "First founded in February 1996, The Syndicate had been active for 19 years 170 days, as of 20 July 2015. The Syndicate prefers to only take part in a limited number of games at any time and is currently focused on Ultima Online, World of Warcraft and Shroud of the Avatar. Additionally, they have been prominent in titles such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and EverQuest. The guild is known for its motto "Long Live The Syndicate", often abbreviated to "LLTS"." and can be seen online at the Guinness World Record website.

For us, setting this record is special for a number of reasons. It represents an achievement that is statistically extremely hard to accomplish in the online gaming space. Guilds, in general terms, are so fleeting and so tenuous that surviving a year is a big accomplishment that a community should take pride in. Surviving 5 years is virtually unheard of. If you survive a decade then you are among the oldest guilds that exist. Surviving and thriving for over 18 years is so rare its useful to compare it to things we all know the 'odds' of happening a bit more clearly. By our conservative estimation, close to 75,000,000 guilds have been created and have ceased to exist. The real number is likely much higher but using that as a baseline, and knowing the odds of being struck by lightning, if you live in the United States are about 1 in 1.1 million, then you are about 63 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be in a guild that lasts over 18 years. You are about 6 times more likely to be attacked by a shark or to become President of the United States. So, from an 'odds' standpoint, this record is a big deal to us because of the rarity.