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 the Seattle Sounders FC season underway, Left Field thought it was high time to introduce you to, in no particular order, the various factions within the local sea of soccer crazies. In today’s installment: North End Supporters.

Founded: Two weeks of watching heavy-hitter supporter groups like Gorilla FC and ECS hoist massive banners and lead deafening chants in the south end of Qwest Field was just about all season ticket–holder Joe Thomas could stomach. "They looked like they were having all the fun," he says with a laugh. So from his seat on the other side of the pitch, he started recruiting nearby soccer crazies to amass a rival supporter army. Then he found out via Facebook—where else?—that another fan, Jake Reeder, had a similar idea. "So we kind of joined forces to unify the people who sit in the north end and give the people in the south end a run for their money," Thomas says. NES was officially born into the raucous world of fútbol fanaticism on April 1st.

Website: www.northendsupporters.com

Chant of choice:
Noooooorth ennnnnnd riiiiiiising … Noooooorth ennnnnnd riiiiiiising

Number of members: With about 55 members, NES is the smallest supporter group — reserved seating in the north end makes it harder to gather troops in one section — but like any good upstart challenger looking to annex more territory, it has sleeper cells spread out around the stadium. And Thomas has the lofty goal of eventually enlisting all 1,200 people who sit in the north end.

The war is on … sort of: Thomas likes to joke about the north-versus-south battle that he’s staging with ECS ("I’d love to have a little Civil War in Qwest," he says), but it’s all in the name of amping up the atmosphere at the pitch and making the place inhospitable for visiting clubs. He even got help from his main rival in applying for status as a Sounders FC–sanctioned supporter group. "Our belief is that all of the supporter groups should be more unified."

And by "unified," he doesn’t mean "willing to turn a blind eye to member-poaching": Gorilla FC acolytes have been using the fact that NES hasn’t locked down an official pub yet ("We’ve been meeting at Pyramid, but they won’t let me reserve space," Thomas says) to try to lure away members. "They’re always saying, ‘Hey, come to Gorilla. We have a pub,’" Thomas says. "I’m trying to scramble to get that a little more organized, because I don’t want to lose anyone."

He’s got a good reason to be protective of his fledgling flock: Thomas has already sunk $1,200 into scarves and tifo for NES, and in this economy, you don’t throw around that kind of money if you’re cool with diminishing returns on your fan-experience investment.

See also: City of Rain, Gorilla FC, and Emerald City Supporters