Fútbol Soccer fans aren’t like your average sports enthusiasts. For starters, they don’t call themselves fans … they’re “supporters." (It’s a European thing.) And they also happen to be certifiably insane. They count amongst their numbers face-painting, singing, chanting, flag-waving, scarf-raising, opposing goalie–taunting, megaphone-wielding hooligans fanatics. And those are the tame ones. With Seattle Sounders FC season underway, Left Field thought it was high time to introduce you, in no particular order, to the various factions within the local sea of soccer crazies. In today’s installment: Gorilla FC.

Founded: Two to three months ago, but, technically, Gorilla FC is the reincarnation of a local anti-globalization activist group, Guerilla FC. This time, there’s a little less Fight the Power and a little more fútbol fanaticism.

But that’s not to say its social agenda is dead … The group hosted a benefit for Home Alive in February, and plans are in the works to host one for AIDS awareness. Wait … isn’t this supposed to be about soccer? Founder Kevin Zelko says the juxtaposition of activism and soccer fandom is “just a way that we can still support the things that are important to us and yet keep it related to soccer.” That might also be why the group promotes itself as being “anti-sexist, anti-racist, and anti-homophobic”; Zelko says he wanted to differentiate his club from some of the “boneheads and hooligans” in the supporter community. “I’ve been to a lot of games where you’ll hear homophobic chants, or sometimes you’ll be hanging out with soccer fans and you’ll hear something completely racist,” he says. “So laying that down as a platform really keeps it open and inviting to anybody.”

Number of members: Roughly 100, and growing

Preferred bar: Fadó. Members get happy-hour prices on beer on game days. (Although group spokesperson Naomi D. Sheikin prefers the traditional beverage of choice for soccer fans: Ciroc and soda with a splash of cranberry juice and muddled lime.)

Website: gorillafc.com

Chant of choice:
Better Than You Crew!
Better Than You Crew!
Better Than You Crew!
So Why Even Bother? GFC!

Apropos of nothing: They have business cards.

Supporter philosophy: “In other sports, people are observers,” Zelko says. “Soccer fans have figured out a way to participate in the game the best way they can. It sometimes borders on lunacy, in terms of the amount of their life that a soccer supporter will donate to soccer.” Also, Zelko wears a gorilla suit to matches. So there’s that.

See also: City of Rain