Sapphire
  | |
| Industry |
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|---|---|
| Founded | Davie, Florida, United States August 2011 |
| Founder(s) | |
| Headquarters | Davie, Florida, United States |
Key people | Managing Director
Directors
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| Products | Multimedia & Software |
| Services | Sapphire's TeamSpeak3, Game Servers, Tournaments |
Number of employees | See Members |
| Other names |
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| Website | sapphiredev |
Sapphire Development, more commonly known as Sapphire, Sapphire Dev, the Circle, or simply as the group, is a gaming community that was formed in 2011 from the remnants of the ArmiTunes Minecraft server. Sapphire has explored fields such as game modification, video production, live streaming, professional gaming and many others. The community is built around an original group of individuals that expanded mainly through the introduction of mutual friends and by the occasional admittance of random, yet nice people.
The History of Sapphire
Early Days
October 2010 - September 2011
It all started with Bryan Gregory and Emanuel Cicortas (also known as t3sla), playing the game Minecraft for the first time in October 2010. They had found out about the game through SeaNanners' Minecraft videos. In one video, he gave a tour of "Sexy Town", which was on a server he played on. Bryan and t3sla sought out the server address, and eventually came across a seemingly promising find. The server was called ArmiTunes Freebuild. It was an open freebuild/creative server, which was the type of server SeaNanners was playing on. They asked for him, and an individual stated that they were on the server SeaNanners played on. This turned out to be a hoax, however Bryan and t3sla stayed on and became regular players.
Months passed as the two logged on to the server daily to work on building projects. One of the biggest projects was Seaport, a union of cities scattered throughout the server. Through this project, the two managed to gain many followers and popularity. This worked for them, and they became friends with staff members of the server. Bryan was promoted to moderator first; t3sla's promotion came a few months afterwards.
In January 2011, the two gained interest in Minecraft modding. They officially formed a development duo and worked on some small projects, primarily under the name Team Cake and briefly as Team Redemption. Bryan handled marketing and branding while t3sla worked the programming. The team only released a few mods and eventually returned to playing on ArmiTunes.
The server fell victim to griefing, the intentional destruction of other players' buildings. Building privileges were revoked from the public, and instead were given to those willing to prove their building skills on the "Proving Grounds" before being granted access to build. Bryan and t3sla, as moderators, had the responsibility of scouting the Proving Grounds and reporting back to the administrator, Armitage.
While patrolling, Bryan became friends with Funky, Slar3xSpr33, Cydax, Sindre, Sarim, Mike, Jack, and James. Most of them were candidates for building permissions.
In August 2011, Bryan and t3sla became fans of Team Avolition, a griefing group on YouTube, ironically the same type of people that brought problems upon ArmiTunes. The two re-emerged, this time as Sapphire Development. t3sla began working on the SapphClient, which would become Sapphire's first project.
The Originals
September 2011 - December 2011
Just around September 2011, Mojang had released an update for Minecraft. ArmiTunes had a procedure that it followed when a new Minecraft update was released. Since the update would break the server's plugins and configurations, the normal map was backed up and replaced with a temporary map until the plugins were updated. This temporary map was survival (as opposed to the usual creative/freebuild game mode). At this time, Bryan (and t3sla, although he started playing less) huddled with Slar3xSpr33, Funky (and eventually Mike), while Cydax stayed with his friends Sarim and Sindre. A third group existed consisting of Jack and JAmes. Each of the three groups had a Skype call running, although they were not in union, yet.
One day, Sarim broke the ice by pressing for the merging of two of the three Skype calls. Although it was awkward, the group had formed and became closer. The third group eventually merged as well. Together, they all collaborated in order to construct Keldagrim, a fortress on a mountain with an underground base. At this point in time, the group needed structure and leadership. Bryan and t3sla's original organization had now acquired a community. The official founders of the community were Bryan, t3sla, Mohammad Bhatti (Funky), Caleb Duke (Slar3xSpr33), Ole Martin Fiska (Cydax), and Michael McGloin (Mike); they were the ones that became the "directors" of the group. Sindre Boe, Tor Thorkildsen (Sarim), Jack Campbell, and James Lockwood are all considered to be the earliest members. In order to boost manpower, Funky brought in his friends Ethan Schulze (lilfizzhead) and Alexander Thomas.
Keldagrim's construction was going by well. It was brilliantly designed; the over-world fortress was strategically placed within the mountains. It had shops, farms, and a large wall. The front gate was equipped with a defense mechanism designed by Jack and James. All of this was known as Surface Keldagrim. Its purpose was to stall invaders and allow time for the development of Underground Keldagrim, which was excavated from two crossing ravines, with a half-water, half-lava river remaining, resembling the original outline of the ravines.
When not working on Keldagrim, the group watched Team Avolition videos and had t3sla resume the updating of the SapphClient. The group would go on several servers and grief with the SapphClient. They had fun, however they vowed to not grief their home server, ArmiTunes. However, ArmiTunes had changed to a new temporary map, essentially throwing all the hard work put into Keldagrim out the window. This time, Bryan and t3sla, as mods, were given operator permissions. Needless to say, they messed around, since it was a just a temporary map. Bryan performed an act known as "the Punisher", which was witnessed by Slar first hand. It was all pure fun, until ArmiTunes went down one day and never came back.
The group experienced confusion, anger, and anxiety. Nothing was ever said, but everyone knew that after a long run, ArmiTunes was finally gone. In November of 2011, they decided to start their own server, as an ArmiTunes legacy server project. Initially, Bryan hosted the server. This is about the time when the group decided to pave its pathway to success. The group started another project, a YouTube channel, and used it to advertise their server. Cydax and Sindre eventually co-funded a dedicated server in order to increase public interest in Sapphire's server.
The server was mainly populated by the members of Sapphire themselves. It only had a few public players. The group was so desperate, that when JokarGirl randomly joined the server, she was accepted into the group and granted Moderator status on the server. Interest in the server declined after a few weeks, which ultimately lead Alex and Ethan to stray away from the group. The Sapphire server remained online for quite a while longer, however, it was almost never used. Eventually, the group fell back on griefing and watching Team Avolition videos for entertainment.
After a series of successful griefing raids, the group eventually stumbled upon the "ungriefable" server: Darkholm PvP. The reason being because it was a hardcore player-versus-player server, which incorporated intentional destruction of other player's property. This lured the members of Sapphire right in, and thus began their exile and their darkest days.
Darkholm Age
December 2011 - May 2012
The group played as one "faction" at first. It was composed of Bryan, Slar, Cydax, Sindre, and Sarim. t3sla began to stray away from the group while Mike and Funky were dealing with real life issues. Jack and James rarely played Darkholm.
The faction's first leader was Cydax. Only VIPs could start a faction; VIP was obtained by donating a certain amount of real money to Darkholm. Therefore, Cydax, being the rich person, was able to get the faction started. It was named Void, as Bryan suggested it should have been. The faction quickly gained opposition and had a bounty set on them. After many base moves, Void finally found a temporary sanctuary for their Headquarters.
One of the main aspects of Darkholm was Player-versus-Player (PvP) combat. Darkholm had a PvP-designated zone at the Spawn. Often people would leave their most prized possessions at their faction bases, get equipped with PvP gear, and teleport to the PvP Zone. While in the PvP zone, Void attracted the attention of a devout warrior Nick Zaslav whom was known as Creasingwolf. Creasingwolf was instantly declared an enemy to the faction. After much shit-talking, the battle against him ended in a draw.
The encounter with Creasingwolf only worsened the situation as he was apart of a faction of great PvPers who were out to eliminate Void. As more opposition grew towards Void, they decided to fight back by forcefully destroying factions who opposed them. It picked up some lost individuals who contributed greatly to the faction. Tybljo was a great addition to the team, who always located the bases of anti-Voiders. He was picked up after his faction's base was destroyed by Void.
Bryan had met another Minecraft player at his school (in real life) and introduced him into Sapphire; his name was Jerry Plasker. He was interested in Void's situation and joined in to help. Shortly after this, Cydax ceased funds to the Sapphire Server and as a result was shut down due to lack of interest and accusations that it was trying to replicate Darkholm (by using its spawn design and rank structure).
Eventually, Void had to re-settle on an island. The faction was now led by Slar and, as apart of his plan for Void, strategically renamed to RedStoners so that enemies would be confused. Cydax, Sarim, and Sindre split off and stopped associating with RedStoners. They restored the true Void faction separately, just in case it would someday return. Slar's plans did not turn out well as people discovered that "RedStoners" was the new alias of Void. A member from Creasingwolf's faction turned up: Kenan Heath, known in-game as SpecialK, was thought to be a friendly at the time, until it was discovered that he was showing enemies the way to RedStoner's newest base on the island. RedStoners' base was raided and destroyed. One individual, Dakota Warner (known as hyprman33 in-game) was revealed to be the warlord behind Creasingwolf and Specialk. These events ultimately lead to a decline in the RedStoners faction.
At about this time, Darkholm's VIP system was revamped. The original three donor ranks were replaced by five new ones that gave a donor several game-changing abilities. Ranging from the Squire rank (5 dollars) to the King rank (100 dollars), they were extremely over-powered and were in high demand. A ten year old rich boy nicknamed 74 became infamous for lending money to everyone he knew. He was exploited, even by RedStoners, to gain power.
After countless trials, RedStoners barely survived still was on a decline. Slar decided that RedStoners failed and he would step down from leadership and split off making his own faction called Onyx, while outside Minecraft he left Sapphire due to criticisms he received from fellow members over Skype.
Cydax saw this as the opportunity to restore Void in all of its glory. Bryan joined Cydax, while Tybljo and Jerry joined Slar's faction, Onyx. There were often feuds between Void and Onyx, which caused ripples in the group's friendship outside of the game. This went on for months until eventually Slar took it one step further and united Onyx with the master of Creasingwolf and Specialk, hyprman33. Effortlessly, Onyx's new alliance overpowered Void and destroyed them once more.
Slar reduced his Minecraft hours, because Dakota (hyprman33) showed him a new game, League of Legends. While they were distracted outside the game, Void sought an opportunity to rebuild their faction. Void persuaded legendary mercenaries Creasingwolf, Specialk, Woods Connell, and Will Messick (weyrt) to help merge several factions that have power to create one superfaction, positioning Bryan as Supreme Emperor of the Void Empire.
The new superfaction set requirements for recruits: an applicant must have at least had the Baron rank (a 50 dollar VIP rank) or King (100 dollar VIP rank). Putting together all the resources that were collected, the Void Empire was born. The Headquarters was located in an obsidian box which contained all of Void's resources and valuables. The Headquarters were surrounded by a lava moat. Both HQ and the moat were encased in another obsidian box. At this point, Void was the largest faction to ever exist in Darkholm. Meanwhile, hyprman33 kept to the down low while plotting his attack on Void.
The main anti-Void powers were the followers of Glen, a rebel who was tired of being repressed by the Void Empire. Several anti-Void soldiers lined up against the walls of the Void Empire ready to bring them down. When the battle started, Bryan fled to the Headquarters. Just then, hyprman33 appeared inside the base, having entered via illegitimate means. Since the Headquarters were penetrated, Emperor Bryan decided to run a self-destruct sequence ensuring that no one would be able to achieve the glory of defeating the Empire. Thus Bryan ended the Great Void Wars and dissolved the Void Empire by himself. The Void faction returned afterwards, however, it remained inactive in the server-wide race for factional glory and power.
After all that, Nick Zaslav (Creasingwolf), Will Messick (Weyrt), Jerry Plasker, and Dakota Warner (hyprman33) became full time members of Sapphire while Kenan Heath (Specialk) and Woods Connell were around for only a short time. Furthermore, Slar had finally made a return to Sapphire. The group began to focus on getting staff positions on Darkholm and became apart of a long campaign, which resulted in Slar and Cydax both becoming moderators. However, due to the corruption in the server's management, the group unanimously decided to withdraw from the server. During this time, the group began to transition from Skype to Raidcall, in hopes of a better voice communication service. Slar and hyprman33 persuaded the entire group to play League of Legends, which interested t3sla and brought him back. Finally, Jerry brought two new members to the group: Jimmy Hong and Jessenia Otalora, who were already experienced League of Legends players. This marked the end of the entire Minecraft and Skype Era, and began the Era of League of Legends and Raidcall.
Jimmy Hong and co
May 2012 - May 2013
May of 2012 and onwards was spent playing League of Legends, as the group desperately needed to learn how to play, and the time was right. Slar left Sapphire for the second time due to more differences but eventually came back. As soon as June hit, school broke out and people left on holiday trips. This was something new to Sapphire because was their first Summer as a group. Almost everyone had left somewhere. In July, when everyone reunited, the group began playing the newest hit game, DayZ. It was a zombie mod of ARMA 2. The group, along with its newest members, arguably had the most fun ever. One notable figure that appeared in this frame of time is El Saviour which was an armed rescue ranger vehicle, which appeared all over in ARMA, who has saved many members of Sapphire from certain doom.
Eventually August came, giving everyone an unpleasant reminder that school was coming. As soon as school started back up, everyone went back to playing League of Legends. Throughout the school year, Jimmy Hong began to establish himself. He brought in his younger brother, Johnnie Hong, sometime in late 2012. Around this time is when Slar made his third leave, which was thought to be the final one.
Over the new years, it was settled that Sapphire would upgrade to a twenty slot TeamSpeak server, funded by Bryan. As the transition was being made, Slar returned to Sapphire once more, for good this time. In early 2013, Jimmy brought in a new friend from school named Ryan Chabot who didn't do much but talk to the group. Jimmy began to take League of Legends seriously; by this time most of the group has developed decent skills. During the months of March and April of 2013, the group organized a League of Legends team called Sapphire Gaming. The team had fun and practiced frequently, but it was obvious that the team was dysfunctional and at a decline. Bobo also frequented the TeamSpeak server around these times.
Callisto raid
April 2013 - May 2013
See Callistostarianism and Callistover for the full articles.
Sapphire Gaming was scrimming against a team, when they decided to take it outside of League of Legends. SG had the enemy team join the TeamSpeak server to have a chat and play some All Random All Mid games together. They eventually befriended each other, for the day. The whole TeamSpeak was shocked by the following: a figure named Callisto whose voice can only be described as divine joined the TeamSpeak server for an hour and held a Q&A session. Appropriately, this occurred on 4/20. That day, the events of Callistostarianism occurred, and from then on, every 4/20 was known as the Callistover.
At the request of Callisto, the server became the People's Republic of Callisto [of Sapphire] but is referred to by its original name and rarely by its new name. The reason for this is that a few members were not present during these events, and refused to accept Lord Callisto. Callisto still appeared every now and then, but for very few seconds. All the members of the team which joined the TeamSpeak server left, except for one member who grew fond of Sapphire: Brandon Lin. He was interested in playing League of Legend with the group, however, the group itself began to lose interest in League of Legends.
A New Age
May 2013 - December 2013
The League of Legends team sponsored by Sapphire, Sapphire Gaming led by Jimmy Hong, was disbanded when Jimmy Hong and co got into a big argument with the rest of the group. Afterwards, Jimmy, Johnnie, Jessenia, and Ryan all left. With the fall of Jimmy Hong and co, some room was cleared for new members. The coming of a new age demanded for new memes in Sapphire, and as such the usage of Dis Dik started to increase.
During this time, Mohammad Bhatti brought a new member, Usama Riaz. Caleb Duke introduced his friend, Chase Jenkins, during the Summer of 2013. Chase Jenkins quickly passed his Initiation which involved a lot of DIK. Over the Summer of 2013, the group took interest to online Poker and an MMORPG called Haven and Hearth. After the summer holiday trips occurred, the group held a reunion to see each other off to school. This also involved the miraculous resurrection of Nick Zaslav and Will Messick, who became a cool kid, 420.
During the Fall of 2013, all of Jimmy Hong and co, except for Ryan, returned. Furthermore, they resumed playing with the crew of Sapphire Gaming to warm up for Season 4. The group had shifted its focus primarily back onto League of Legends. The TeamSpeak server, at the time provided by GameServers, crashed frequently, and many exploits were found. Jimmy took over the server, with the help of everyone else, and defaced it. These events are known as the Happening of Jimmy. This prompted the group to switch to a better host. From this point on, the server was provided by MainVoice.
One fateful One For All match in League of Legends, Bryan, Jimmy, t3sla, and Johnnie met Blood1310017. Half of the group wanted to play Fiddlesticks and the other Leona. Yet, Blood, a randy, picked Malphite and won over the other two suggestions. From watching him play, the group came to the conclusion that he was the best player, ever. An episode of THE BEST RIGHT NOW, MALPHITE IS THE BEST RIGHT NOW, also known as The Life of Blood1310017, was centered around the events that occurred with Blood. Meanwhile, a large portion of the group got together with a few non-members and played Haven and Hearth once again.
Sometime late during this year, the group started a rivalry against TitanClan, previously known as Mantis Clan. Members of Sapphire used to go on Titan servers, but intolerance of Titan's memes grew and a few shots were fired. This turned into a back-and-forth from one TeamSpeak server to the other, until eventually a ceasefire occurred. Ever since, Sapphire held a negative view of Titan, with exceptions such as Jerry (because he was also a member of Sapphire) and Pandemic.
During the Winter of 2013, the group began to play Dota 2. Mike and t3sla played only Dota 2, while the rest of the active group members either juggled playing both games or only League. Bryan invented a new meme which complemented DIK. The act of making this noise was called thumping. The usage of thumping was over exaggerated and the meme eventually died out.
New Members
January 2014 - May 2015
Over the new year, the group began to spread out a bit. t3sla harnessed his old Counter-Strike skills and one-trick pony'd Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and had re-entered t3sla mode. Even though he went back to t3sla mode, he still made contact with the group and influenced the group to play CS:GO; as suspected, playing CS:GO became a trend in the group.
Jerry began to frequent TitanClan's TeamSpeak, although he often came back to visit Sapphire. Meanwhile, the Norwiggas (Cydax, Sindre, and Sarim) reserved a channel on TeamSpeak to hangout with their real-life friends, and less with the core part of the group. Mike and Funky brought their real-life friends, the DirtyChinx, into the TeamSpeak server and had their own channel created. Finally, Slar and Chase introduced more friends to the group:Ben Thomas, Ryan Costa, Greg, and Garrett Brock. The remaining people were Bryan, Slar, Chase, Funky & Mike (with the DirtyChinx), Ben, Greg, Garrett, Creasingwolf & Jimmy (semi-active), Ryan, and t3sla (occasionally).
Ben Thomas was one of the most controversial members to join the group. So far, all members had been east coast rep'n, but Ben represented the west coast, specifically California. Another problem was that everyone in California blazed. Yet, Ben claimed he was "clean" of drugs.
With this new age beginning, an opportunity to start new memes has opened, especially since DIK is slowly dying off. Creasingwolf was a major force in the revival of necking. He was extremely dedicated to the game and spread it everywhere he went, including school. Meanwhile, Bryan and Slar took the jinxing game to the next level. A jinx, as referred to by the cool kids, fifth graders, and niggas, is when two people say the same thing at the same time without having prior knowledge of the fact that the other party would say the same thing as them. However, in Slar and Bryan's version of this, they would say "Get out of my mind/head!"
On top of these, many other memes have spread throughout the group. Among recent events, the revival of swagfaggotry is one of the greatest things to have happened. The leaders of this revival were Jimmy and Funky, each bringing their own unique techniques to the table. Due to swagfaggotry being integrated into Sapphire, one new graduation requirement of the DIK Academy is to study the HOW NIGGAS ACT AT SCHOOL video, as it is essentially the textbook of Sapphire. Not only does it cover swagfaggotry, it also covers DIK and many other fundamental topics to a certain extent.
On March 10, 2014, Ben was publicly executed and died (in other words, he was votekicked from a CS:GO game and left Sapphire) by Bryan, Slar, and Pasta. On the third day, Ben Thomas was resurrected from the dead (he came back). Ben, at the time only being in the group for a few weeks, had left Sapphire, similar to the behavior of Slar in his early days. Although he had returned, Ben became less active in the TeamSpeak.
The Summer had begun and once again it was a summer of less people. Jose Cruz (check0ut) randomly joined the TeamSpeak and befriended the group, despite him seeking people that play League of Legends (which at the time, the group did not). Slar brought Brad into the TeamSpeak and got part of the group to start playing RuneScape (which only lasted for a few weeks, afterwards Brad became inactive in TeamSpeak). t3sla had once again returned from hiatus in t3sla mode and became more active in the TeamSpeak. Jimmy also began to pop up into the TeamSpeak every now and then. The Dirty Chinx began to interact with the group more often, which meant talking to Mike and Funky more often. Funky took Bryan's old meme, xDieselfuel, and blew it up, eclipsing its previous success. Over the summer, Sapphire became a Meme Factory and the overwhelming amount of memes caused the average life span of a meme to drop to five minutes.
Nearing the beginning of school, Cydax left for college and as a result the Norwiggas became less active. Garrett and check0ut also both began/resumed college around this time. Ryan, ever since graduating, had his work grind on. Everyone else had started up high school again or in the case of Slar, stayed home and played vidyas.
The school year went by as many people became inactive. At certain times, there were a good amount of people, but for most of it, TeamSpeak was a ghost town. Slar was always in TeamSpeak, as was Bryan. Except, Bryan was AFK all the time. By the end of the school year in May 2015, Chase had graduated and also gotten a job.
Developments
June 2015 - February 2016
The summer of 2015 had seemingly marked the beginning of a new age. TitanClan was reorganized into an uptight community, RGN Community, which eventually shut down, causing Jerry to return to Sapphire. At the same time, Jimmy made a miraculous return to the TeamSpeak server, and began frequenting it. Funky also returned to the TeamSpeak server, although mostly only kept up with Sapphire via messaging and social media. Bryan, Slar, Jerry, and Jimmy briefly brought League of Legends back to Sapphire, and even got t3sla to play, which was yet another miracle. Simultaneously, Jimmy also led the group into playing Battle Royale on H1Z1. These were attempts of unifying the TeamSpeak population by playing the same games, but these were games that some did not play. Instead, they stuck to playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a game that was hot with Sapphire for the last couple of years. Over time, playing League of Legends became, once again, a sort of lost art.
This caused a recession back into the previous phase of the Community where most individuals played CS:GO primarily, while a minority existed that played only other games. Although this recession was briefly stopped by efforts of getting Chase to play League of Legends and Jimmy to play CS:GO. Despite all this, the Community went back into its CS:GO phase where they played a few other games on the side. The year was relatively successful in that the TeamSpeak server maintained a decent population of members.
New Year
February 2016 - present
The new year heard a unanimous declaration from the members of Sapphire that CS:GO has reached a point where it is simply not playable anymore. The TeamSpeak server saw record-high numbers of population with many Sapphire members returning to play video games together. League of Legends, at this point, became the staple game that literally everyone played. This time around, even Emanuel and Chase played. With the introduction of dynamic queue, playing ranked games together was only made easier, and therefore was done several times nearly every day. This time around, Adam, Andy, and Jose were also present nearly every day. The group also began playing Black Desert and Stardew Valley as side games.
Culture of Sapphire
| WARNING! This article or section might seem unreal, unserious, and possibly offensive. |
Members of the group are in the TeamSpeak server virtually every day. The distinct culture found in the Community of Sapphire is known as Circle culture. Memes are brought in from all over the internet and real life, which then go through Sapphirization, or accommodation to the group. Circle culture is rich in folklore, which is either adapted or generated in-house. Furthermore, Circle culture can be seen as simply fast, fun, and easy.
Bad manner
Within Sapphire, a concept of wrongness exists: it's called "bad manner" (shortened: BM). It is a term t3sla introduced to the group ages before the term even became mainstream. Sapphire defines BM as actions that are annoying, harassing, making fun of, flaming, pestering, etc. BMing is usually punishable by roast session, ironically.
"It's not BM if it's true"
It's not BM if it's true is a justification of BM which states, quite literally, that it is not BM if it is true.
t3sla exception
Credited to t3sla, the t3sla exception is an exception to the It's not BM if it's true justification. It states that sometimes it is BM even if it is true.
Callistostarianism
See Callistostarianism for the full article.
Callistostarianism is a philosophy based on the teachings of Callisto. A man named Callisto stumbled upon the TeamSpeak server one day and began to answer questions, which are recorded in the Callisto Dialogues and in an episode of the Circle Podcast. During the Q&A session, Callisto recited his epic poem, I'm not Callisto.
Coke vs. Pepsi
One of the most renowned arguments in the world is whether Coke or Pepsi is better. Well, the Sapphire is largely undecided on Cok or Lelsi, but some can agree that Dr. Pooper is master race. Other popular beverages in Sapphire include tea, water, and others.
"Death" & Mike's Grandfather's Funeral
When a member is away from keyboard (announced/unannounced) they are said to "die". Nick Zaslav and Will Messick are two people who often "die" and "return to life" months later. Michael McGloin and Mohammad Bhatti also "died" before, but have since been "resurrected".
"Death" was expanded as a meme in late 2013 when Mike, after a long time of being active in TeamSpeak, had to go to his late grandfather's funeral (may he Rest in Peace Grandpa McGloin). Mike, known for his rugged record of activity in TeamSpeak fluctuating from very active to sometimes off for months, set himself up for a running gag that would run until this very day. After going to his grandfather's funeral, he would rarely show up in TeamSpeak. Whenever he would show up, he would be asked "Mike, are you still at your grandfather's funeral? It's been x amount of weeks!"
Departure of Duke
See three times for the full article.
Caleb Duke, a founding member of Sapphire, has left Sapphire a total of three times. Initially, he made his first departure hoping to fool the whole group. It was such a lengthy vacation that it was considered an actual leave. He returned, but left a second time to start Dirty Players Gaming. Caleb, at this point, transitioned his online handle from Slar3xSpr33 to DirtySpr33 or just Dirty. Dirty Players Gaming disbanded, and Caleb returned due to the fact that he was bored. His third departure saw him focus on making videos on YouTube and streaming on Twitch. He befriended the Solioz Stream Group and brought them into Sapphire upon his third return.
DIS DIK
With the new age rising in Sapphire, the demand for a new staple meme grew. Bryan proposed the perfect solution: DIS DIK, which was the real answer to the mathematical equation 1x/1. Furthermore, a similar solution was proposed also by Bryan back in 2011. DIS DIK began to diversify, as most memes do in Sapphire. From it spawned: DEEZ NUTZ, DIESENUHTZ, DIESELFUUL, SUK MI DIK, SUK MEIN DIK, DISDIK.CUM, DEEZ.NUTZ, eventually xDIESELFUEL, etc. DIS DIK is also used as a response to most sentences. For example: What is the time? DIS DIK!
The use of the meme, "DIS DIK", has become one of the most important aspects of culture in Sapphire. So great, that it was heavily involved with the Initiation of Chase Jenkins, who managed to pass the trials. It is a meme that is frequently exploited and snipped to be used on audio tracks creating what is known as a DIK remix or DIKmix.
Etymology
The phrase DIS DIK comes from the expression, This dick!. After applying Sapphirization onto the phrase, it became DIS DIK.
DIS DIK: THE FRANCHISE
As Bryan foresaw, this meme can be monopolized. He started a franchise which planned to include a game, movie, novel, TV show, and album.
| Product | About |
|---|---|
| DIS DIK: THE GAME | Before Bryan went on vacation during the summer of 2013, he mentioned making a game about DIK, DIS DIK: THE GAME. It was supposed to be released in a day after its confirmation, but rather it was decided to be released in waves. The alpha will be released in 8 months (from any given time), the beta in 16 months (from any given time), and the full game in 24 years (from any given time). |
| DIS DIK: THE NOVEL | On September 21, 2013, Bryan announced a new product of the DIK franchise called DIS DIK: THE NOVEL, a thriller set in high school. |
| DIS DIK: THE MOVIE | To be announced. |
| DIS DIK: THE SHOW | To be announced. |
| DIS DIK | On Hallowe'en of 2013, Bryan published his first mixtape in spirit of the meme. |
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 meme build that most of the time might fail.
Jimmies and Rustling
At a point in time during Sapphire's history, a new meme arose on the Internet: That Really Rustled My Jimmies. According to sources it began as "an image macro of a frowning gorilla with the overlaid text 'That really rustled my jimmies'". It was accepted into Sapphire, as it was an okay thing and not as bad as other things (9GAG). It began to diversify, as most memes do in Sapphire. A hysterical coincidence is that around this time Jimmy joined Sapphire.
Jimmeology
See Institute of Jimmeological Research and Development of America for the full article.
As the jimmy phenomenon was occurring, Bryan and Jerry decided to research jimmeology and start the Institute of Jimmeological Research and Development of America as head jimmeologists, hoping to get government-sponsored. As a result of much time and dedication, Dr. Gregory and Dr. Plasker have made many discoveries about the human JNS (jimmeological nervous system). The JNS is closely related to the nervous system. They often work together. The doctors discovered that while most things are felt by nerves, certain, specific actions rustle the jimmies which in turn stimulate the nervous system in a certain way that the nervous system alone cannot do. The duo created the jimmeological rustle scales which included the rage scale. One of their top experimentees was Caleb Duke, who apparently often had his jimmies rustled.
Mascots of Sapphire
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Memetics
| WARNING! This section has been known to trigger many individuals! |
The study of memes is known as memetics and informally as memeology. A meme, by dictionary definition, is an element of culture that is shared non-genetically but rather through imitation. A meme can also be a piece of (social) media that is replicated (sometimes with slight modification) over the Internet. Circle memetics (also called Sapphirian memetics) is the study of memes practiced according to the standards of Sapphire Development's Institute of Memes.
In Circle memetics, a meme is also a unit of memetics. A dank meme (a good/nice meme), is a meme that is humorous and clever. Through intense recycling and degrading, memes can become cancerous and eventually die. Memes that have become repetitive and tragic are known as cancerous/bad memes (also known as a gag).
Theory of the memosphere
The theory of the memosphere is a memetic theory (proposed by Bryan Gregory) that states that the memosphere is the global sum of all memetic activity. According to the theory, a person's relevance to the memosphere is measured by two spectra, awareness (AW) and activism (AV), where awareness is able to influence activism.
Awareness measures empathy towards the memosphere. From least the amount of awareness to the highest, the awareness spectrum is structured as following:
- unaware (completely unaware of memosphere, almost always resulting in usage of cancerous memes)
- below-average (slightly unaware)
- average (likely to perform neutral actions)
- above-average (fully conscious)
- transcendent (ultimate level of awareness, likely to make many dank memes)
- extratranscendent (incomprehensibly dank level of awareness that makes no sense in reality).
Activism measures the effect of the actions pertaining to the memosphere performed by a person. Memospheric activism can be:
- negative (corrupting the memosphere)
- neutral (indifferent to the memosphere)
- positive (purifying the memosphere)
People that are capable of consistently using or creating good memes due to ranging above-average to transcendent awareness and having positive activism in the memosphere are known as dank memers. Dank memers contribute by expanding the memosphere with originality and creativity.
Memers with overall negative activism typically contribute to the accumulation of bad memes, which is known as meme pollution.
One that kills memes frequently is known as a meme bandit, which inherently labels them as negatively active but at least aware at an average level.
Necking
In real life common practice, an individual who is confronted with an idiotic statement or situation is obliged to respond with "That's a neck!" and proceed to get the neck of the offender. When calling a neck, or getting necked, people have the option to:
- call "no nothing", which nullifies ALL other calls
- call "self-serve", where a person necks themselves in order to avoid an otherwise worse neck
- call "teleport/time travel" in order to call self-serve, which is only overruled by "no nothing"
- call "my big toe". Don't touch it.
- claim "false neck" when a neck is truly unjustifiable. This results in a counter-neck.
Plasker syndrome
See Plasker syndrome for the full article.
For the longest time, Jerry could not play games because they would always crash on him. That was the first known symptom of Plasker syndrome (PS), also known as Black voodoo syndrome (BVS). It was possibly contracted from when a magical African American technician had worked on Jerry's PC, hence "black voodoo syndrome". Besides Jerry, Caleb and Emanuel have also been known to have computers that came down with Plasker syndrome.
Sapphirization
Sapphirization refers to the adaptation of certain material to fit the standards, needs, or wants of Sapphire. Sapphirized material is memeish and memes on things or people. It can also simply be material made more convenient for the members of Sapphire. Most material that cycles within Sapphire is Sapphirized material from various parts of the Internet. When a meme is somewhatcancerous, but is salvageable, it is sapphirized so that it can be used to meme with peace of mind. An example of this scenario is troll: a very cancerous term ,Troll was sapphirized to le bait for more memeish usage. In more recent times, Sapphirization tends to affect context of a meme rather than its literal properties. For example, "troll" is now being used as much as "le bait" if not more. This is largely due to the rising popularity of ironic memeing.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a mobile application in which users can take snaps (called snappers by Bryan, and snapperoonies or snapperinos by others), pictures, and send them to another person or group of people for a limited amount of time. The receiver can screenshot, if they're fast enough. Members of Sapphire tend to use Snapchat as a platform in order to exemplify and share memes. They take bizarre pictures and usually exploit any opportunity they have to get a chuckle out of something. In an incident, Cydax got mad at everyone for screenshotting and sending "retarded" snaps, and therefore blocked Bryan. It has since turned into a meme, for example: Playing CSGO Don't shoot him, he might block you on Steam.
Swag
Swag is the act of having and displaying large amounts of swag. Swag has been integrated into Circle culture due to its comedic value. It is one of the key points taught in the Initiation into Sapphire. A great video demonstrating swag: HOW NIGGAS ACT AT SCHOOL!
Characteristics of a swag are:
- collecting sneakers/shoes/kicks
- using instagram, kik, vine, and/or worldstar
- listening to rap and hip hop
- acting and talking like like dis fam
t3sla mode
Before the Summer of 2012, when DayZ became popular in Sapphire, t3sla never spoke a word over the microphone. Until that point, he was in what was known as t3sla mode. It was considered massive BM and therefore he was prompted to start using his microphone. Jimmy once entered t3sla mode for a brief period of time due to breaking his microphone.
Dank memes
420 memes are some of the greatest in Sapphire. The most important components are 420 and Blaze it faggot which are manipulated at an insane rate. The most popular byproducts are 420 blaze it fgt or 120, 220, 320, 420, 520, 620, 720, 820, 920, 1220, blaze it fgttttt. It is not known how 420 memes became mainstream.
Dictionary
| Term(s) or Phrase(s) | Meaning |
|---|---|
| autism, autistic, autist | really dumb or stupid |
| bad manner, bm | to annoy, harass, make fun of, flame, pester, etc. or something that causes annoyance, harassment, etc. |
| bals dep | deep into a situation |
| bent | banned (See also rekt) |
| bitcoin | See mining |
| blaze | See 420 |
| book club | church |
| broken | something that is overpowered, underpowered, or dysfunctional |
| cancer | something that is unbearable |
| cancer build | a build on League of Legends that is unconventional (which is usually bad, "unless you're Jimmy") |
| clown | a dick, or to dick around |
| cok, pepso, and dr. pooper | soft drinks |
| cuck, (mother)cucker, to cuck, to be cucked | someone who gets screwed over, or to get screwed over |
| dis dik, deez nuts, etc. | See Dis Dik |
| default, default computer | office/prebuilt computers |
| doge | See shibe and dogecoins |
| dogecoin | See mining |
| down's syndrome, left's syndrome, etc. | See autism |
| ecksdee, xD | a very funny meme |
| edginess | a phase in ones life described by edgy tendencies and edgy music |
| flip, fast, frick, , eff, frank | memeish alternatives for swear words |
| gag | See cancer |
| gay, being gay | to be heterosexual |
| hella | something Ben says (see gay) |
| hella noise | Illinois |
| hue, huehuehue, kek, kekeke | chuckles |
| inb4 | in before |
| -ino, -ito, -ado, -oonie, etc. | makes a word cool Example: snapperino, bandito, reportado, blazeroonie |
| jimmies | the gland in the jimmeological nervous system that is "rustled" |
| le | comes before a noun or verb |
| le baited, to le bait | See meme |
| let's roll a bowl | meme of the CS:GO "let's roll-oll" soundclip |
| meme, memeing, memer | you should know what a meme is |
| mfw, tfw | mfw, tfw |
| mining | to mine bitcoins, litecoins, dogecoins |
| ooo, kill'em | See swag or this |
| pulling a bryan | dropping from Bronze I to Bronze V |
| pulling a jerry | performing a sigh that Jerry does and claims to have obtained from a Dunkey video |
| pulling a jimmy | verb. coming back from 3-17 in League of Legends. |
| pulling a pasta | verb. wrapping around/flanking the longest way possible in a CS:GO map, named after Ryan Costa (Pasta) who is notorious for doing the pasta |
| randy | a random person among a bunch of premades |
| rekt | destroyed See also bent |
| ruse | a good meme, or to meme good |
| rustle | the act of upsetting the jimmies See jimmies |
| sapphirization | process of adapting to the style or needs of Sapphire See Sapphirization |
| scale | noun. a scale is used to measure something Example: the rage scale, ranging from one to Caleb Duke, etc. |
| shibe, so shibe | 
|
| shots fired | phrase indicating that shots have been fired, used literally or metaphorically |
| snap, snapper | an image on snapchat |
| swag, swagfag | acting like a real nigga 💯 |
| top kek, top lel | See hue and kek |
| t3sla mode | phase where a person strictly communicates through typing, and not via voice chat |
| weyrt dinner | when someone goes AFK in teamspeak for dinner, but comes back in two minutes |
| worth, el wortho | the positive value in a recently performed action |
| 420 blaze it fgt, x20 blaze it fgt | Dank memes |
| 9GAG | something that is vile, disgusting, and/or cringe-inducing See autism |
Demographics
Religion
Most members identify with Christianity (including Catholicism), Islam, and Edginess.
Politics
Most political opinions in Sapphire are varied. But, of course, most members would just tell you politics are broken (see Dictionary).
Ethnic groups
Sapphire is composed mainly of ethnic Americans (British/Irish), Eastern Europeans, Western Europeans, Northern Europeans, and South Asians.
Members
List
| Name | Joined |
|---|---|
| Bryan Gregory | Founder |
| Emanuel Cicortas | Founder |
| Ole Martin Fiska | Founder |
| Caleb Duke | Founder |
| Mohammad Bhatti | Founder |
| Michael McGloin | Founder |
| James Lockwood | 2011 |
| Jack Campbell | 2011 |
| Sindre Boe | 2011 |
| Tor Thorkildsen | 2011 |
| Ethan Schulze | 2011 |
| Alexander Thomas | 2011 |
| Ellen Hermansen | 2012 |
| Jerry Plasker | 2012 |
| Nick Zaslavsky | 2012 |
| Will Messick | 2012 |
| Dakota Warner | 2012 |
| Kenan Heath | 2012 |
| Woods Connell | 2012 |
| Jimmy Hong | 2012 |
| CobraStrike | 2012 |
| Jessenia Otalora | 2012 |
| Johnnie Hong | 2013 |
| Ryan Chabot | 2013 |
| lekk | 2013 |
| Brandon Lin | 2013 |
| Chase Jenkins | 2013 |
| Usama Riaz | 2013 |
| Ben Thomas | 2014 |
| Ryan Costa | 2014 |
| Greg | 2014 |
| Garrett Brock | 2014 |
| Brad Kenny | 2014 |
| Jose Cruz | 2014 |
| Swydo | 2014 |
| Adam | 2014 |
| Aerius | 2014 |
| Andy | 2014 |
| Jason Rivera | 2015 |
| Trees | 2015 |
| George Cecil | 2015 |
| Tafari | 2016 |
| Komal | 2016 |
Ranks
| Rank | Functions | Members |
|---|---|---|
|
Managing Director |
The most senior officer in the community. This person is in effect the Chairman of Board of Directors, which is the most senior committee in the community. The MD reserves the ability to simultaneously hold any other position(s) (if necessary). |
|
|
Directors |
The most senior committee in the community; it is led by and appointed by the Managing Director. It oversees the activities in Sapphire. A director may simultaneously hold a lower ranking position. |
|
|
Managers/Assistant Managers |
The leader/deputy leader of a Department; these positions are sometimes taken on as a secondary rank by a director. |
|
|
Moderators |
Officers of the Community. They report to their Manager(s). |
|
|
Senior members |
Rank granted to distinguished members. |
|
|
Regular members |
The most basic level of membership. |
Any member that does not belong to the other ranks listed above. |
Associates
These are affiliates of Sapphire.
| Name | About |
|---|---|
| Friends of Funky and Mike that were introduced to the TeamSpeak server. They have their own channel and group. | |
| Group of people centered around Solioz (Andy) and his livestream. | |
| Anna |
Adversaries
These are Sapphire's opponents/rivals.
| Name | About |
|---|---|
| Community of memers which had servers that members of Sapphire used to go on. They became Sapphire's rivals when things got verbal between members of respective groups. |
Figures
The figures of Sapphire are people who are often mentioned as folklore in snapchats or in teamspeak. Some of these people are fake and some are real.
| Name | About |
|---|---|
| El Saviour | A rescue vehicle that occasionally appears in ARMA: DayZ. |
| Bobo | A random African-American that joined the TeamSpeak server. |
| Callisto | A sage-like TeamSpeak hopper. Spontaneously joined Sapphire's TeamSpeak on April 20, 2013. |
| Blood1310017 | A "professional" Malphite player; met a couple of Sapphire members on League of Legends. |
| Gatzi Almighty | A legendary figure that appears in visions. |
| Birdnose | A dumbass. |
| Nolan Duke | The dumbass brother of Caleb Duke |
Initiation
The Initiation into Sapphire is the series of trials (usually different for all new members and last different amounts of time) that a newcomer must pass to get into the flow of being a member of Sapphire. It covers most of Circle culture so that the initiate will be able to assimilate seamlessly.
Structure
| Name | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Board of Directors | Executive committee | Administration and management |
| Sapphire Gaming | Subsidiary | eSports |
| Sapphire Network | Subsidiary with assets | Multimedia production and publications |
| Media Department | Department | Multimedia resources |
| Development Team | Department | Software and web development |
| Bank of Sapphire | Special department | Treasury |
| Department of the Cyberarmy | Special department, two divisions | Security |
| Sapphire K-pop Committee | Special committee | K-pop regulations |
Game Timeline
The history of games* played in Sapphire.
*most known games
| Game | Introduced to Sapphire by | Community classification | Time span |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minecraft & Mods | Most early members of Sapphire | Monumental | since 2011 |
| Terraria | Many members | Seasonal | Various amounts of time in 2011, 2012, and 2013 |
| League of Legends | Jerry Plasker, Slar, hyprman33, Jimmy | Monumental | since February 2012 |
| ARMA 2 & Mods (DayZ Mod) | t3sla, Cydax | Major | June 2012 - ? 2013 |
| Smite | Funky, then later Garrett | Minor | August 2012, September 2014 |
| OMGPOP | Funky | Minor | ? 2012 - April 2013 |
| Counter-Strike:Source | Many people | Minor | November 2013 |
| GMOD | Many people | Minor | Various times |
| Dota 2 | Mike | Minor | November 2012,
December 2013 |
| ARMA 3 | t3sla, Cydax | Minor | March 2013 - ?2013 |
| Grand Theft Auto IV | Slar, Chase | Minor | July 2013 - August 2013 |
| Full Tilt Poker | t3sla | Minor | July 2013 - August 2013,
December 2013 |
| Haven and Hearth | Cydax, t3sla | Minor | August 2013 - November 2013 |
| Battlefield 3 & 4 | Several members | Minor | November 2013 |
| Solstice Arena | Slar | Minor | November 2013 |
| Starbound | Slar | Minor | December 2013 |
| Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: | Many people | Major | since November 2013 |
| Rust | Cydax, Slar | Minor | December 2013, April 2014 |
| DayZ Standalone | Almost everyone | Minor | December 2013 |
| Clash of Clans | Slar | Minor | March 2014 - early 2015 |
| H1Z1 | Jimmy, Chase | Minor | June 2015 - November 2015 |
| Black Desert | Slar | March 2016 | |
| Stardew Valley | March 2016 | ||
| Overwatch | May 2016 |
Media
Sapphire produces massive amounts of media and culture. 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.
Social Networks
Sapphire has a Facebook and a Twitter.
YouTube
| Channel | Link |
|---|---|
| Sapphire Main Channel | SapphireMovies |
| Bryan's Channel | The Notorious B.R.Y.A.N. |
| Funky's Channel | MZAAO |
| Jimmy's Channel | Jimmy Hong |
| Cydax's Channel | Cydax |
| Mike's Channel | Compare To Advil |
| Slar's Channel | SlaresProduction |
| Ryan Costa's Channel | OfficiallyBeastly |
Twitch
| Channel | Link |
|---|---|
| Sapphire Main Channel | Sapphire |
| Bryan's Channel | amBryan |
| t3sla's Channel | thestreamscribe |
| Slar's Channel | DirtySpr33 |
| Jimmy's Channel | Jimmyooo |
| Funky's Channel | Doing stuff |
| Cydax's Channel | ShinyPaperClip |
| Mike's Channel | xICExFROZEN |
| Chase's Channel | FUNTIME!!! |
| PASTA's Channel | OfficiallyBeastly |
| check0ut's Channel | check0ut |
Popular series
Series created by Sapphire members, which might involve other members or might make references to Circle culture.
| Series | Creator | About | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| THE BEST RIGHT NOW | Bryan | THE BEST RIGHT NOW is a series of films created by Bryan from the perspective of t3sla,
called Draven Knoxville in the videos. They are about the meta-games of League of Legends. |
Playlist |
| Animation Adventures | Funky | A series of random recordings by Funky
that are accompanied by animations of sorts. Similar to the Circle Podcast. |
Playlist |
Sapphire Movies
Sapphire Movies is a filmmaking subsidiary of Sapphire that is composed of members of Sapphire. Films produced by Sapphire Movies can be found on the "Sapphire Movies" channel as well as the channels of Sapphire members.
| Series | Director | About | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Circle Podcast | Bryan | The Circle Podcast is a series of random recordings by Bryan. It is focused on capturing great moments in TeamSpeak (see Culture of Sapphire). | Playlist |
| Cooking with Slar3xSpr33 | Bryan, Slar3xSpr33 | Comedic cooking show starring Slar3xSpr33. | Playlist |
Discography
Sapphire Records
Sapphire has its own record label, Sapphire Records.
Bibliography
| Title | Author | About |
|---|---|---|
| Callisto Dialogues | Bryan | The dialogue that occurred on the very first Callistover. |
| I'm not Callisto | Callisto | An epic poem on fraud and egoism. |
| Poetry | t3sla | A short poem about Ole Martin Fiska. |
Game Servers
One of Sapphire's main attractions is its game servers. Currently, all funds are paid by Bryan, and previously were paid by Cydax.
Bryan's Server
This server runs anything at any time, per request.
| IP Address | Availability | Location | Operator | Running |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | No longer operating | Ft. Lauderdale, FL | Bryan | Tekkit, Feed the Beast, vanilla Minecraft, Terraria, Counter-Strike. |
TeamSpeak3
See Sapphire's TeamSpeak3 for the full article.
TeamSpeak3 is a voice communication program that allows members of Sapphire to communicate daily, however, anyone is welcome to join.
| IP Address | Availability | Location | Operator | Running |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ts3.sapphiredev.org:7373 | 24/7/365 | New York City, NY | hosted by MainVoice | 20 Slots |
Tournaments
Sapphire hosts tournaments, though, not all for a prize pool. Some are purely for fun and/or recognition.
League of Legends
| Tournament | Winner |
|---|---|
| Best Jayce SA | Never occurred. |
| Hallowe'en 2013 1v1s | Never finished. |
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.
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
|
1st Place February 2013 | |
| Caleb Duke | 1st Place March 2013 |
| Never occured | 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.
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
|
Never occured |
1st Place May 2013 |
Poker Tournaments
During the Summer of 2013, the group began to play online Poker on programs such as Full Tilt and Carbon Poker.
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
|
To be announced |
- |