Show icons for specific usergroup (threadstarter) in threadbit?

[kpmedia]

For whatever reason, this just does not work on vB3.

How would I go about creating a plugin to grab the post starter usergroup?
I'm really rusty, but something like:

if ($vbulletin->userinfo['userid']
 AND $vbulletin-> stuff
 AND $something == 'thread')
{
 this is the icon?   
}