Sapphire
 | |
| Industry | Internet, eSport |
|---|---|
| Genre | Gaming |
| Founded | Hollywood, FL, United States September 20, 2011 |
| Founder(s) | |
| Headquarters | Hollywood, FL , United States |
Key people |
|
| Products | Media |
| Services | Game Servers, Tournaments |
Number of employees | about 14 |
| Divisions | Dirty Players Gaming (dissolved) |
| Website | http://sapphiredev.org |
Sapphire Development is a group of gamers and content producers. It is a social organization of mainly friends and it is structured and known as the Staff.
Founding of Sapphire
Sapphire started as a small project on a sandbox game called Minecraft. The original project name was “Redemption” and was a custom Minecraft client designed for personal use. The name evolved to Sapphire as they began a Texture Pack project to go along with the client. Diamonds were changed to Sapphires. Eventually, the second part of the name, “Development”, was adopted to signal that the group will expand into more projects and have “developers”. Sapphire today is composed of the group of friends that met on the Minecraft server in which Project Redemption started on. The main goal currently, is to travel and experiment around games, gaining or losing members.
Culture of Sapphire
Since the whole Sapphire team talks to each other throughout the whole day, and virtually every day, a distinct 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.
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.
Regular Crew
The regular crew is composed of friends or friendly people associating or directly employed at Sapphire.
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.
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
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
Sapphire has a facebook: http://facebook.com/sapphiredev
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...