Sapphire

Sapphire Development

Industry	Internet, eSport
Genre	Gaming
Founded	Hollywood, FL, United States September 20, 2011 (2011-09-20)
Founder(s)	Bryan Gregory t3sla Mohammad Bhatti Michael McGloin Caleb Duke Ole Martin Fiska
Headquarters	Hollywood, FL , United States
Key people	Bryan Gregory (Chairman) Ole Martin Fiska (Vice-Chairman) t3sla (Head of Technology) Mohammad Bhatti (Head of Media & Art) Michael McGloin (Head of Community)
Products	Media
Services	Game Servers, Tournaments
Number of employees	about 14
Divisions	Dirty Players Gaming (dissolved), I Am America And So Can You!
Website	http://sapphiredev.org

Sapphire Development is a social organization associated heavily with gaming and the eSports movement. Sapphire does sponsorships, tournaments, public gaming servers, and game related media.

Founding of Sapphire

A long time ago, on a Minecraft server. Two friends discovered this server which was called ArmiTunes. The date was October 31, 2010. Approximately a year before the founding of Sapphire. Half a year later, these two associates, Bryan and t3sla, met four others: Funky, Slar, Cydax, and JJ Hawk. The next half of the year was rough. Promotions were coming up. Bryan was selected, out of all of them. At this point, everyone looked up to him for guidance. Bryan was a decently humble staff member. He tried his best and managed to get t3sla and JJ Hawk promoted. The rest were upset. Only Slar went as far as he did. He destroyed the server. One awful, lone night. All to his. Destroyed. The group was upset, and needed to unleash the anger. However, they were naive and never expected one of their own to be the culprit. Little did they know they were about to essentially fight a war against themselves.

At this point, the "rebels" were desperate. ArmiTunes was annihilated and had nothing left to destroy even further, therefore it was given much mercy. In fact, everyone felt bad for it. Investing so much time. Having so much fun. JJ Hawk stayed with the ruins of ArmiTunes and helped to repair. The rest of the rebels picked up the local modified Minecraft client and disguised as normal people on a normal server. The server had a problem with them, and began to annoy them. They were already prepared, so they started to redecorate. They were eventually found thanks to the client being more well known and easily dealt with. It was eventually picked up by t3sla who had recently invested into Java development who made it into his own custom client. At this point, the project was named REDEMPTION in honor of the fallen ArmiTunes. ArmiTunes was around, on a new Minecraft map. The rebels took a break from "fighting for revenge" and began to settle down on ArmiTunes.

With the new map, came new opportunities. The rebels constructed an empire called Keldagrim. With this addition, they began experimenting on their own Minecraft server. They had copies of the map and handled it with caution. From this chain of experiments, the members Alex, Ethan, and Mike were introduced by Funky. On the other hand, two fine Englishmen from ArmiTunes begged to join the faction of rebels fighting for revenge on the system. Their names were Jack Campbell and James Lockwood. Appropriately, Caleb Duke (Slar) began to construct a texture pack on the side of the custom client. At this time the truth was revealed. Slar was revealed to be the culprit, but not the only one. Therefore, making them feel a little more motivated to get more revenge. Months later, t3sla consulted Bryan in Hollywood, FL, on September 18, 2011. Days later, Sapphire was officially established and declared and independent group on September 20, 2011. The client was clear to continue development as the Sapphire Client or SapphClient. The texture pack became Sapphire Sight.

Skip ahead even more. Word reaches the group that ArmiTunes was to be shut down because of lack of moral support. The rebel raids with the new client still continued until a fateful night in December of 2011. A targeted server was not what it was expected to be. It actually allowed people to destroy each other's creations. So the group of rebels decided to settle in this server they had found. Now that, is how the rest of the team met. Then, what happened to Alex, Ethan, and JJ Hawk? Well, no one knows. But Sapphire became a more mature group through the months of the immature server they landed on: Darkholm. Sapphire realized its duties was to just enjoy itself as a group, and add more people to its group. Sapphire opened its own server and continued to do productive deeds. And today, it is doing the same. As it will, for as long as possible.

Culture of Sapphire

WARNING: This section might be a little bit unreal, not serious, and possibly offensive. Since the whole Sapphire team talks to each other throughout the whole day, and virtually every day, a distinct, one might go as far as to say phenomenal, culture is developed known as the Circle culture. The Circle culture is influenced by many factors. The highest influence comes from the image board 4chan. The second highest influence comes from news board Reddit. The remaining influence is from random parts of the Internet, and a bit from the real life East Coast culture (all members that live in the United States are located near the East Coast). Sapphire has a filter of culture. Well respected and feared Head of Technology t3sla filters Internet culture and spreads what he thinks is best for the group. A big problem in Sapphire is the overuse of certain trends. t3sla is rather well at controlling this overflow. Nevertheless, each member has a part in the filter. But t3sla is the key person involved in it.

Bad manner

Within Sapphire, a concept of wrong exists. It's called bad manner and the term hails from StarCraft II and related games, thus obviously making it is a term t3sla picked up for the group. Bad manner is often abbreviated as BM. Most Sapphire facilities consider BM a hate offense and is punishable. Sapphire has odd methods of punishment within itself, however, nothing too cruel. At worst, a roast of someone where the entire group gets its revenge for the BM.

Funky's Law

Funky's Law of League of Legends states clearly that:

• To play an AP character, you must build AD.

This law has caused conflict and unleashed massive amounts of BM within Sapphire due to the fact that it is encourage a troll build that most of the time might fail.

"Death"

Every time a member is gone for a while without notice, he is given mercy and is spared from an inactive status for a rather long time. In fact, this time is so long, that the Circle has given it the phrase "dying" and when the member returns "they have come back to life". Weyrt and Funky were the first thought to be dead. Later after their return, Mike and Creasingwolf became the deceased ones. Most recently, everyone has returned and is continuing normal life.

Departure of Duke

Caleb Duke, the previous Head of Community, has left Sapphire a total of three times. Initially, he made his first departure hoping to fool the whole group. It was such a long departure time wise that it was considered an actual leave. The second time was a rather legitimate departure because of the project he started known as Dirty Players Gaming. Duke, at this point, transitioned his hame from Slar3xSpr33 (commonly shortened as Slar pronounced SLEYUR) to DirtySpr33 or just Dirty. This group disbanded rather fast even after being picked up by Sapphire and sponsored. He returned due to the fact that he was bored. The final departure caused him to start his new and success group solely focused on him. He makes videos on YouTube and streams of Twitch. So far he has actually even streamed for Charity. He claims to have "a more successful life" without the group being in his way.

Swagfags

No offense to homosexuals. None was intended, anyway.

Swagfags are those who by definition who...

• buy new shoes frequently.
• play modern consoles.
• use instagram and are males.
• listen to rap music.
• act like a pimp.
• use swagfaggotric terminology.

If a person is experiencing any of these symptoms, he might be a swagfag. The only known swagfags ever to be in Sapphire are Jimmy and Caleb Duke.

Necking

When someone commits a mindless, unintelligent act, or says something unintelligent, a Sapphire member should feel obligated to correct them and proceed to get their "neck". Getting a neck is achieved by playing a flat palm on the other person's neck, and swiping it with a varying speed and force. When calling a neck, or getting necked, people have the option to...

• call no nothing. Meaning a neck is theirs regardless of self-serve or any other call.
• call self-serve. Giving a "baby" swipe to your neck with one finger to self serve and avoid the big thing.
• call teleport/time travel into the past and self-serve.
• call my big toe. Don't touch it.
• claim false neck when a neck is truly unjustful. This results in a counter-neck.

Remember, no nothing overpowers all other calls. Brief history: necking originated in Southern Florida where Bryan, t3sla, and Jeremy all live.

mfw 2stronk4me

Another packet of terms brought by t3sla from (presumably) 4chan, include 2stronk4me and mfw. 2stronk4me can be replaced in the following ways:

• 2spooky5me
• 10sexy1483me

While mfw means My Face When.. usually proceeded by an image on 4chan. According to Meme Expert Jeremy Plasencia, mfw also stands for mother f*cking win. He claims, ">mfw mfw can't stand for mother f&cking win". Mfw has been twisted into:

• tfw, that feel when or that face when
• your feel when, your face when

The Meme Controversy

Most members of Sapphire can argue that meme is no longer a word for a trending topic on the Internet, but rather refers to the unoriginal, overused, and totally drained of meaning content of 9GAG. 9GAGgers are mostly all part of the super social, giant teenager alliance. As somewhat old 4chan users, members have noticed year old content make it onto 9GAG finally, and be totally drained out of juice into a way that only they can find funny. Browsing 9GAG seriously for entertainment is HIGHLY looked down upon. For the normal people who can't risk browsing 4chan, the peoples recommend simply staying away from all Internet sub-culture.

Religion of Sapphire

Most people in Sapphire have some sort of belief. The main identifications in Sapphire are Christianity, Catholic, Islam, and the joke religion Callistostarianism. However, if you ask anyone individually, they would most likely explain how there's a lot more to it then just organized religion presents there to be.

Politics of Sapphire

Within Sapphire, there is a decent mix of political ideas. Of course, there are those who believe that politics are the most unnecessary and useless thing that ever was created. For the rest, there is a blend of Independents, Democrats, and Republicans.

There was a conflict not involving parties, but involving a rather silly issue. Caleb Duke argued with Mohammad Bhatti that talking to their own pets is for those who are insane. Bryan Gregory rushed in with Mohammad and started the Talk To Pets movement. Although this movement only applies to the conflict within Sapphire, it was still taken seriously.

Staff of Sapphire

The Staff of Sapphire is the structure by which the members of Sapphire function.

It goes: Board of directors, officers, regular crew.

Board of Directors

The board of directors hold the highest position in all of Sapphire. They oversee all functions.

• Chairman: Bryan Gregory
• Vice-Chairman: Ole Martin Fiska

• Head of Art & Media: Mohammad Bhatti
• Head of Technology: t3sla
• Head of Community: Michael McGloin

Moderators/Officers

The moderators do what the board tells them to do, and make sure everything is going according to protocol.

• Jeremy Plasencia
• Nick Zaslav
• Jimmy Hong

Regular Crew

The regular crew is composed of friends or friendly people associating or directly employed at Sapphire.

• Brandon Lin
• Will Messick
• Dakota Warner
• Jessenia Otalora
• James Lockwood
• Jack Campbell

Retired Members

Retired members have chosen to leave Sapphire, or have been marked to be retired due to inactivity without warning. This is NOT to be confused with people who are expelled from all Sapphire facilities.

• Previous Head of Community: Caleb Duke
• Previous Moderator: CobraStrike

Mysterious Appearences

People whom Sapphire members have encountered and are considered saints.

• Bobo
• Callisto

Game Servers

One of Sapphire's main attractions is its game servers. Currently, all funds are paid by Chairman Bryan, and previously were paid by Vice-Chairman Fiska.

Minecraft

Minecraft is where Sapphire started. There is one Sapphire sponsored server available currently.

Sapphire's Tekkit Server - 174.48.154.154

• Availability: Up by request.
• Operator: Bryan

TeamSpeak3

TeamSpeak3 is a voice communication program that allows members of Sapphire to communicate daily. Customers, window shoppers, and totally random people are invited!

Sapphire's TeamSpeak3 - ta01.gameservers.com:9241

• Availability: 24/7.
• Operator: Bryan
• Administrators: t3sla, Cydax
• Sub-Administrators: Mike, Jeremy
• Channel Mods: Jimmy, Funky. CreasingWolf

Teams and Divisions

Dirty Players Gaming was a division of Sapphire which was originally created by Caleb Duke. It was picked up by Sapphire a few days after the creation. Days later, it was disbanded and Caleb Duke assumed his normal position in Sapphire.

Later, a League of Legends North American ranked team was formed which is managed by Bryan Gregory. The whole team including the manager and substitutes includes Bryan, Jimmy, Jessenia, Jeremy, t3sla, Czydude, Funky, and Mike. It is on the verge of disbanding, however, is a legitimate team especially since they have participated in tournaments. The team is officially recognized as I Am America And So Can You! which was named by t3sla.

Sapphire also sponsors a European League of Legends team called Team Vision.

Tournaments

Sapphire hosts tournaments, though, not all for a prize pool. Some are purely for fun and/or recognition.

Pool Tournamenets

Pool Tournaments are hosted once per month, and the current Prize is an award-recognition. Actual prizes might be sponsored soon. Pool is played on famous mini-game network OMGPOP.

Winners

• Dakota Warner - 1st Place February 2013
• Caleb Duke - 1st Place March 2013
• In-progress - 1st Place April 2013

Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournaments

Dueling Network tournaments will now be hosted aswell, for similar prizes as to the Pool tournament. It will NOT be on a strict schedule.

Winners

• Starting soon - 1st Place May 2013

Media

Sapphire has a huge part in Internet Media. Some members of Sapphire each have solo or partnered projects on YouTube. This allows for a more diverse source of income and reference to Sapphire. The rest of the members either work for a person with the channel or the main Sapphire network itself.

YouTube

• Sapphire Main Channel: http://youtube.com/user/sapphiremovies
• Bryan's Channel: http://youtube.com/user/ferrariboy99
• Funky's Channel: http://youtube.com/user/MZAAO
• Cydax's Channel: http://youtube.com/user/Cydaxproductions
• Mike's Channel: http://youtube.com/user/xICExFROZEN
• Slar's Channel: http://youtube.com/user/Slaresproduction

Sapphire Related Series

Series directly related to Sapphire that are on YouTube.

The Circle Podcast

The Circle Podcast is a series of random recordings by Bryan. It is focused on capturing the most glorious or dark moments of the Circle (see Culture of Sapphire). It can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXY6arTSaHgpe0V01AGUuLj8DkUxXaTjM

Animation Adventures

A series of random recordings by Funky that are accompanied by an animation of sorts. Very similar to the Circle Podcast. It can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNcy0_vjSCN8LOfLIrxtwPBnGc81yst1F

Facebook

Sapphire has a facebook: http://facebook.com/sapphiredev

Twitter

Sapphire has a twitter: http://twitter.com/sapphiredev

Game Experimentation

Game experimentation is something Sapphire does for two major reasons: getting more members, and aiding the Media department by passing on reviews of games. Through game experimentation, some members were picked up, and many Media posts were created.

Games discovered during game experimentation

• League of Legends
• Civilization V
• ARMA 2 & 3
• DAYZ ARMA 2 MOD
• many others...