Sapphire
  | |
| Founded | Hollywood, FL, United States August 2011 |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | |
| Headquarters | Hollywood, Florida, United States |
Number of employees | See Demographics |
| Other names |
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| Website | sapphiredev |
Sapphire Development (more commonly known as Sapphire Dev or simply Sapphire) is an organization formed in 2011, notable for its eccentric community. The idea of Sapphire was initially set into motion by the formation of a modding duo, which shortly turned into a small group of six founders, all from the ArmiTunes Minecraft server. Since its beginning, Sapphire has always been rooted in gaming and creative work, which has included fields like software development, video production, live-streaming, and professional gaming.
The History of Sapphire
The Backstory and the Founding
October 2010 - August 2011
Everything began with Bryan and Emanuel (also known as t3sla) playing Minecraft for the first time in October 2010, after having discovered it through SeaNanners' Minecraft series. In one video, he gave a tour of the "Sexy Town" server. Bryan and Emanuel became intrigued and sought out the server, although in a very Columbian fashion, they came up with a server called ArmiTunes Freebuild, which was in fact not Sexy Town.
ArmiTunes was an open freebuild/creative server, which was the same type of server as Sexy Town. Despite being deceived about the true identity of ArmiTunes, Bryan and Emanuel proceeded to play on ArmiTunes.
Months passed as the two logged on to the server daily, working 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 friends and notability.
For a while, Bryan had dreamed of starting an online community. Then, in January 2011, both Bryan and Emanuel gained interest in Minecraft modding and programming in general. Bryan handled branding and marketing while Emanuel worked on the technical end. They briefly worked under the gag names Team Cake and Team Redemption. The team only released a few mods during these days.
One day, the ArmiTunes server fell victim to griefing, the intentional destruction of other players' buildings. As a result, the server administrator restricted building privileges to those willing to prove their building skills on the "Proving Grounds".
Bryan and t3sla, now moderators of ArmiTunes, held the responsibility of scouting the Proving Grounds and reporting talent back to the administrator. While patrolling, Bryan and Emanuel befriended Funky, Caleb (known at the time by his handle Slar3xSpr33), Cydax, and Mike (thus making the original founding six) and then later Sarim, Sindre, Jack, and James, most of whom were worthy candidates from the Proving Grounds. This pack blended with the modding team and formed the early community of Sapphire Development, a brand new organization based on gaming, creative work, and Internet culture.
In August 2011, the Minecraft griefing team Team Avolition (AVO) became popular within Sapphire after upon discovering the AVO YouTube channel. Feeling inspired, t3sla began working on the SapphClient, which became Sapphire's first major project.
The Early Minecraft Era
August 2011 - December 2011
Just around late August 2011, Mojang had released a significant update for Minecraft, breaking ArmiTunes' freebuild plugins and configurations. As a result, the server had to be put into survival mode temporarily. At this time, the community of Sapphire did not yet have a central gathering place for voice communications. Bryan and Emanuel huddled with Caleb, Funky, and Mike in a Skype call while Cydax stayed with his friends Sarim and Sindre (the Sapphire Norwiggas) in another call. A third call also ran, which consisted of Jack and James. Sarim was the one who initiated the motion for a merger between the calls, in order to improve communication within the community. One day, his efforts paid off as the Norwegians' call merged with the main call. The third group eventually merged as well.
Together, the early Sapphire community collaborated in order to construct Keldagrim, a complex underground fortress protected by a fake fortress on the surface. Keldagrim became Sapphire's first Minecraft building project. In order to boost manpower, Funky introduced his friends lilfizzhead and Alexander into the community.
Keldagrim's fake base was intricate. It had shops, farms, and a large wall. The front gate was equipped with a defense mechanism designed by Jack and James. The real Keldagrim was excavated from two intersecting ravines, which contained a half-water, half-lava river.
Aside from the Keldagrim project, members would often assemble teams to grief random Minecraft servers with the newly developed SapphClient. The one server safe from these raids was ArmiTunes, the home server of early Sapphire. One day, however, the administrator of ArmiTunes deleted the world containing Keldagrim. Out of spite, a few members bitterly griefed the new world that had replaced it (this is known as the Punishment). For unrelated reasons, the ArmiTunes server shut down and never came online again.
Sapphire's members experienced confusion, anger, anxiety, and remorse. After taking time to reflect upon their time on ArmiTunes, in November of 2011, they decided to start the first Sapphire Minecraft Server, in order to commemorate ArmiTunes. The community also started a YouTube channel project, using it to advertise the server. Initially hosted by Bryan, the server responsibility was reallocated to Cydax and Sindre, who split the cost of a dedicated server in hopes of increasing traffic.
The server was often predominantly populated by the members of Sapphire and rarely gained public players. When JokarGirl randomly joined the server, she was, nearly on the spot, given the rank of Moderator on the server. Interest in the server eventually declined after a few weeks, which ultimately led Alex and Ethan to stray away from Sapphire. The Sapphire server remained online for quite a while longer, however, interest eventually completely died out. During these times, members would often resort to griefing other servers for amusement.
After a series of successful griefing raids, the group eventually stumbled upon the seemingly "ungriefable" server: Darkholm PvP, considered "ungriefable" because its format was hardcore survival, which incorporated griefing itself. Darkholm had now become the new home server for the community of Sapphire.
The Dark Ages
December 2011 - May 2012
When members of Sapphire initially began playing on Darkholm, they created a faction (a team that can own land and invade other factions), composed of Bryan, Caleb, Cydax, Sindre, and Sarim. Emanuel spent some time away from the group while Mike and Funky were dealing with real life issues. Jack and James rarely played on Darkholm.
The faction's first leader was Cydax, the first to obtain the rank of VIP by donating a certain amount of real money to the administrator of Darkholm. The faction was named Void, as suggested by Bryan. Void quickly grew in power and reigned fiercely, consequently gaining notoriety and adversity. After many relocations, Void had finally found a temporary sanctuary for its Headquarters.
Darkholm was known for its Player-versus-Player (PvP) combat. Darkholm had a PvP-designated zone just outside of its Spawn location, making it difficult even for new players to set out. Often, experienced players would go there equipped with disposable PvP gear. One day, Void PvPers attracted the attention of a devout warrior known by the Creasingwolf (Nick), who became an enemy of the Void faction and brawled with its members to no end.
Making enemies with Creasingwolf only brought more trouble onto the Void faction, as Creasingwolf was backed by a faction of glory-seeking PvPers. As a result, Void began fiercely destroying opposing factions in order to send a message to its rivals. On its conquest, Void picked up displaced individuals from annexed factions whom were considered valuable assets. Tybljo, a player with the ability to pinpoint enemy bases, was one of these additions. Meanwhile, in real life, Bryan had recruited a classmate, Jerry Plasker, into Void and brought him into Sapphire.
Following that, Void had been forced to re-settle on a remote island. The faction, now led by Caleb, as apart of his plan, strategically renamed to RedStoners in order to create a diversion against enemies. At this point, Cydax, Sarim, and Sindre forked off their own small faction from RedStoners in order to restore the true Void faction separately.
Shortly after, the true identity of "RedStoners" had been discovered by a spy from Creasingwolf's faction known as SpecialK (Kenan). RedStoners' base was subsequently raided and destroyed. An individual, Dakota (known as hyprman33 in-game), was revealed to be the one pulling the strings behind both Creasingwolf and SpecialK. These events marked the decline of RedStoners.
Afterwards, Darkholm's VIP system was revised by its administrator. The original three-tier donor rank system was replaced with a five-tier system that gave donors several game-breaking 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 kid known as 741 became infamous for lending money to everyone he knew. He was used by all, even RedStoners, to gain power.
After countless trials and tribulations, the RedStoners faction eventually succumbed to the enemies' pressure. Caleb stepped down from his position as leader and started a new faction called Onyx. In parallel with this, Caleb took a hiatus from Sapphire due to criticisms he received from fellow members over Skype.
Cydax reached out to Bryan in order to reunite the original Void faction. He agreed, merging RedStoners back into Void, while Tybljo and Jerry followed Caleb into Onyx. There were often feuds between Void and Onyx, which was reflected in Sapphire's out-of-game interactions. This went on for months until the tension eventually reached a breaking point: Caleb allied Onyx with Dakota's faction, the former faction of Creasingwolf, and annihilated Void once more.
Outside of Minecraft, Caleb and Dakota (hyprman33) began playing League of Legends together. While they were away from Minecraft, Void seized the opportunity to rebuild its faction. Void recruited legendary mercenaries Creasingwolf, Specialk, Woods, and weyrt to help create the first superfaction, the Void Empire, appointing Bryan as its Emperor.
The Void Empire required its members to at least have the Baron rank ($50 VIP rank) or preferably King ($100 VIP rank) so that their VIP care packages could be pooled together. The Empire's Headquarters were located just outside of Spawn, in a massive obsidian box that contained all of Void's resources and valuables. The Headquarters were surrounded by a lava moat. HQ and its moat were both contained within yet another obsidian box.
The primary anti-Void forces were the followers of Glen, a rebel who was tired of being oppressed by the Void Empire. One night, the anti-Voiders aligned and marched towards the walls of the Void Empire determined to bring them down. When the battle began, Bryan went to HQ to hold the fort. But suddenly, hyprman33 appeared inside the base, having entered via illegitimate means. From here, Bryan made a difficult decision to initiate a self-destruct sequence in order to ensure that Void's resources would not fall into the wrong hands. Thus, the Great Void Wars ended and the Void Empire began to decline.
After all of these events had transpired, Nick (Creasingwolf), Weyrt, hyprman33, Specialk and Woods became members of Sapphire, the latter two of which did not remain active for long. Furthermore, Caleb made his return to Sapphire. Some members continued playing on Darkholm, focusing now on getting staff positions. Caleb and Cydax both became moderators, however, due to the corruption in the server's management, Sapphire decided to cease relations with the server. During this time, the group made a transition from Skype to Raidcall, an early iteration of voice-over-IP for gamers. Caleb and Dakota persuaded the other members to play League of Legends, which eventually caught the interest of the long-missing Emanuel. Finally, Jerry introduced two of his friends into Sapphire: Jimmy and Jessenia, whom he had already played League of Legends with previously. With these events, the community of Sapphire moved into its next major phase.
The Golden Age
May 2012 - May 2013
In May 2012, League of Legends became one of Sapphire's staple games. Caleb spent more time away from Sapphire, again, but eventually came back. As soon as June came around, many members left on holiday trips. This was a new experience for the community as it was Sapphire's first summer.
In July, when everyone had returned, the community began playing a new game called DayZ, which was a zombie survival mod for ARMA 2. The community, along with its newest members, had experienced what some would call the Sapphire Golden Age.
In DayZ, Bryan and a few others encountered El Saviour, an armed rescue ranger vehicle that appeared all over the DayZ map, saving many members of Sapphire from certain doom. El Saviour became a mythological and legendary figure to the community.
With the start of August, grade school began again and everyone went back to playing League of Legends. Throughout the school year, Jimmy began to establish himself in Sapphire. He brought in his younger brother, Johnnie, sometime in late 2012. Around this time is when Caleb made his third hiatus.
As 2013 approached, Bryan upgraded the community of Sapphire with the opening of the Sapphire TeamSpeak server. During this time, Jimmy brought in a new friend from school named Ryan who only talked but did not game with the community.
Jimmy began playing League of Legends professionally and by this time most of the community had also developed decent skill. During the months of March and April 2013, Sapphire started its own eSports program, Sapphire Gaming, organized a League of Legends team to play in tournaments. Members of the team enjoyed practicing together, however it became painfully obvious that the team was dysfunctional, and it eventually declined.
Callisto Raid
April 2013
See Callistostarianism and Callistover for the full articles.
On April 20th 2013, the Sapphire Gaming League of Legends team finished a practice match against an amusing opponent team, whom they had subsequently invited to speak on the TeamSpeak server and play some casual ARAM matches together.
Out of nowhere, a figure named Callisto, whose voice can only be described as angelic, joined the TeamSpeak server for an hour and held a Q&A session. These events led to the establishment of Callistostarianism, and from then on, every 20th of April was known as the Callistover, because Sapphire had been visited by the great philosopher Callisto.
At the request of Callisto, the server became ceremonially known as the People's Republic of Callisto (of Sapphire). A few members were not present during the first Callistover, and refused to accept Callisto's teachings.
After the day ended, all of the members of the opponent team left TeamSpeak, except for one member stuck around for a bit: Brandon. He was interested in playing League of Legend with Sapphire's team, however, Sapphire itself began to lose interest in League of Legends.
A New Age
May 2013 - December 2013
The Sapphire Gaming League of Legends team, led by Jimmy, was disbanded when Jimmy and co got into a big argument with the rest of the group. Afterwards, Jimmy, Johnnie, Jessenia, and Ryan all left due to differences. With the fall of Jimmy and co, some room was cleared for new members. The coming of a new age caused new memes to arise in Sapphire, such as Dis Dik.
During this time, Funky brought a new member, Usama, while Caleb introduced his friend, Chase. Chase quickly passed his Initiation, which involved a lot of DIK. Over the Summer of 2013, the group took interest to online Poker as well as an MMORPG called Haven and Hearth. After the summer holiday trips occurred, the community saw the miraculous resurrection of Nick and Weyrt, the latter having become a cool kid (420).
During Fall 2013, all of Jimmy and co, except for Ryan, returned. Furthermore, they resumed playing with the Sapphire Gaming crew to warm up for Season 4. The TeamSpeak server, at the time provided by GameServers, crashed frequently, and many exploits were found. Jimmy took over the server, with everyone else's help, and trashed it. These events are known as the Happening of Jimmy. This prompted Bryan to seek out a new host, MainVoice.
During a fateful One For All match in League of Legends, Bryan, Jimmy, t3sla, and Johnnie met Blood1310017. Half of the lobby wanted to play Fiddlesticks, and the other wanted 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 dedicated to the events that occurred with Blood.
Sometime late during this year, Sapphire started a rivalry against TitanClan, previously known as Mantis Clan. Members of Sapphire used to go on Titan's Counter-Strike servers, but intolerance for 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 a ceasefire occurred. Ever since these events, Sapphire held a negative view of Titan, with exceptions such as Jerry (because he was a member of both communities).
During the Winter of 2013, the group briefly played Dota 2. Mike and Emanuel played Dota 2 exclusively, while the rest of the active group members either juggled playing both games or exclusively League of Legends. Around this time, Bryan invented a new hit meme,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 community began to diversify its gaming interests. t3sla harnessed his old Counter-Strike skills and focused on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, re-entering t3sla mode in the process. He single-handedly initiated Sapphire's interest in CS:GO.
Jerry began to frequent TitanClan's TeamSpeak, although he often split his time between the servers. Meanwhile, the Norwiggas (Cydax, Sindre, and Sarim) reserved a channel on TeamSpeak to hangout with their real-life friends, and less with the core community. Mike and Funky brought their real-life friends, the DirtyChinx, into the TeamSpeak server, also reserving their own channel.
Caleb and Chase went on to introduce some friends into the community: Ben, Ryan, Greg, and Garrett. The active members of Sapphire at this time were Bryan, Caleb, Chase, Funky & Mike (with the DirtyChinx), Ben, Greg, Garrett, Creasingwolf & Jimmy (semi-active), Ryan, and Emanuel (occasionally).
Ben was one of the most controversial members to join the group. He was the first member from the west coast; a pioneer, even. Another problem was that everyone in California blazed. Yet, Ben claimed he was "clean" of drugs.
With this new phase, an opportunity to start new memes has opened, especially since DIK had slowly died off. Nick (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 Caleb took the jinxing game to the next level. A jinx, as referred to by the cool kids (and fifth graders), 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 Caleb 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 community, shifting the culture slightly. Among these was swag, bought in by Jimmy and Funky. Sapphire began incorporating teachings from resources such as HOW NIGGAS ACT AT SCHOOL, which essentially became a textbook for the community of Sapphire. Not only does it cover swag, 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 went on hiatus from Sapphire) by Bryan, Caleb, and Pasta. On the third day, Ben was resurrected from the dead (he came back).
It was around this time that Caleb became an active member of Andy's Twitch Group, meeting people such as Andy, Adam, Aerius, and eventually Anna. Caleb also introduced this group into Sapphire sometime later.
The Summer had begun and once again it was a summer of inactivity. However, Jose (check0ut) randomly joined the TeamSpeak and befriended members, despite him seeking people that played League of Legends (which at the time, Sapphire did not have).
At this time, Caleb brought Brad into the TeamSpeak, which revived Sapphire's interest in playing RuneScape (lasting only a few weeks, after which Brad became inactive). Emanuel had once again returned from hiatus in t3sla mode and became more active in the TeamSpeak. Jimmy also turned up every now and then.
Later, 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 Sapphire Norwiggas became less active. Garrett and Jose also both began/resumed college around this time. Ryan, ever since graduating high school, went straight into the work grind. The rest of the members were now beginning high school.
As the school year continued, most members became inactive for at least some time. Caleb and Bryan were always in TeamSpeak, except, Bryan was AFK all the time. By the end of the school year in May 2015, Chase had graduated and also began working.
An Intermediary Age
June 2015 - February 2016
About this time, TitanClan was reorganized into an uptight community, RGN Community, which eventually shut down, causing Jerry to become more active in 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 briefly.
Bryan, Caleb, Jerry, and Jimmy briefly brought League of Legends back, even getting Emanuel to play, which was yet another miracle. Simultaneously, Jimmy also led the community into playing Battle Royale on H1Z1. At the same time, CS:GO and League of Legends were still strong second-choice games.
It was a relatively successful time period; a fair amount of TeamSpeak activity was maintained. Furthermore, this was when Chase first began playing League of Legends and when Jimmy first tried CS:GO, improving the gaming dynamic in Sapphire.
The Dank Age
February 2016 - December 2017
Beginning with 2016, many members of Sapphire had decided that CS:GO has reached a point where it is simply not playable anymore. However, the TeamSpeak server saw record-high numbers of activity with many Sapphire members, old and new, uniting to play video games together, namely League of Legends.
With the introduction of dynamic queue, playing ranked games together was only made easier, and was therefore done several times nearly every day. The community also began playing Black Desert and Stardew Valley as side games.
By Spring time, League of Legends was once again declared a cancer game by the active members of Sapphire. The community sought new games to play, and as a result ended up playing a bit of Minecraft - Feed the Beast: Infinity Evolved.
Later, when Overwatch came out, nearly every active members of Sapphire began playing it, anxiously waiting for the release of the ranked gamemode. Around July, a quintet composed of Bryan, Emanuel, Jerry, Caleb, and Jimmy began unironically playing World of Warcraft. By the time Fall 2016 came around, League of Legends was declared tolerable once more.
In late 2016, TeamSpeak activity boomed again, with the addition of George along with his friends into TeamSpeak. Meanwhile, the Sapphire Trip Committee was established in order to organize a Sapphire trip to PAX East 2017 and future events, although it was extremely difficult for the details to be ironed out.
In March 2017, a group of members of Sapphire took a trip to PAX East 2017. This was the first large-scale interaction between Sapphire's geographical subunits. Through the first quarter of 2017, the TeamSpeak server maintained usual activity in both early and late hours. By this point, Sapphire lingo had become very colorful due to the changing dynamic between new and old members.
In June 2017, Caleb and Chase drove down from Tennessee to South Florida to attend the graduation of Bryan, Emanuel, Jerry, and Komal. This was the first time Emanuel & Komal physically met Caleb & Chase. They hung out and made many memes together. Shortly after Caleb and Chase returned to Tennessee, the Sapphire Trip Committee continued planning more trips.
On June 11, 2017, Andy recycled his garbage in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and revived his Prime (ain't talkin' Amazon). Upon finishing his plop, he was enlightened, and he revealed his experience to the Fiendship of Sapphire. Shortly after, Bryan departed for Romania to begin a month-and-a-half-long trip. During his hiatus, Kyle was initiated into Sapphire and was taken under Caleb's wing.
In the Fall of the same year, many of the lads began their first official semesters in college. Emanuel and Komal moved in together in Orlando and both began joining TeamSpeak more frequently than they previously had. They also invited Vincent into the TeamSpeak to play CS:GO. Overall, at this point, the TeamSpeak's traffic had reached its prime in terms of consistency. Furthermore, the next Sapphire Trip was confirmed for PAX East 2018.
Transitional Age
January 2018 - January 2019
Over the course of the years, the community of Sapphire experienced fragmentation with some members occasionally needing to put some space between each other, and 2018 was no exception. Nevertheless, the beginning of this year seemed to be promising as it started off with fairly spicy memes. Fortnite briefly became a popular game in the community, lasting quite a few months.
In February, as proposed by Bryan, the community observed Black History Month and Homie Month. During this time, Caleb perfected his trifecta.
On the creative end, many members of Sapphire either began or resumed streaming on Twitch. Andy blessed the Andy Fan Club by bringing back his stream and then briefly rebranding as BestWithCoffee. Among others, Caleb, Adam, Jimmy, Jerry, Ryan, and Kyle also streamed during this time.
During Spring Break 2018, Nick came down to visit the Florida Boys. Shortly following that trip, the events of the Sapphire PAX East 2018 Trip happened, which are detailed in its respective article. At PAX, talks of more trips in 2018 were brought up, which included visiting Andy, the Tennessee boys, and Kyle & Jon.
Sometime later, the community began using Discord in parallel to TeamSpeak, some creating servers to complement their respective stream brands, such as Caleb's Red Lotus Discord.
In July 2018, Andy went to Comic Con San Diego. After that, Bryan, Jerry and Anna made their way to visit the Tennessee boys. Needless to say, afterwards, many suffered from Sapphire Post-Meetup Depression.
Through 2019, the community of Sapphire continued congregating between the Sapphire TeamSpeak as well as members' Discord servers. Despite this diversification in gathering places, active members still manage to communicate effectively, using means such as the Sapphire Snapchat group.
In January 2019, Chase flew into Florida to meet up with Bryan, Jerry, and Emanuel.
Another New Age
February 2019 - present
Another Sapphire Trip occurred in Boston in 2019, once again for PAX East. This time the trip was done by Bryan, Jerry, Ryan, Chase and his brother Tristan. At the end of April, Bryan and Jerry traveled up to see the Tennessee boys once more. In July 2019, Andy made his annual pilgrimage to Comic Con.
During August 2019, Bryan enacted his plan to travel on the Sapphire Grand Road Trip, making stops in Tennessee, Indianapolis, Washington DC, and Orlando. During this time, Jerry also moved into Orlando to attend the same school as Emanuel, leaving Bryan to become the last Florida Boy in South Florida.
Demographics of Sapphire
Members of Sapphire
| Name | Joined |
|---|---|
| Bryan | Founder* |
| Emanuel | Founder |
| Ole Martin | Founder |
| Caleb | Founder |
| Funky | Founder |
| Michael | Founder |
| Jack | 2011 |
| James | 2011 |
| Sindre | 2011 |
| Sarim | 2011 |
| Ethan | 2011 |
| Alexander | 2011 |
| Ellen | 2012 |
| Jerry | 2012 |
| Nick | 2012 |
| Weyrt | 2012 |
| Dakota | 2012 |
| Jimmy | 2012 |
| CobraStrike | 2012 |
| Jessenia | 2012 |
| Johnnie | 2013 |
| Ryan (New York) | 2013 |
| lekk | 2013 |
| Brandon | 2013 |
| Chase | 2013 |
| Usama | 2013 |
| Ben | 2014 |
| Ryan (Tennessee) | 2014 |
| Greg | 2014 |
| Garrett | 2014 |
| Brad | 2014 |
| Jose | 2014 |
| Swydo | 2014 |
| Adam | 2014 |
| Aerius | 2014 |
| Andy | 2014 |
| Anna | 2015 |
| Jason | 2015 |
| Trees | 2015 |
| George | 2015 |
| Tafari | 2016 |
| Komal | 2016 |
| Kyle | 2017 |
| Vincent | 2017 |
| Tristan | 2019 |
*As well as the original (and current) Proprietor
Subunits of Sapphire
Committees
- Sapphire Trip Committee
- Sapphire Fair Play Committee
Programs
Clubs
- Sapphire Movie Night
- Sapphire K-pop Club
- Sapphire X-Fit Club
- Andy's Fan Club
- Sapphire Proud Boys
- Sapphire Fiendship
- Sapphire Anime Club 「サファイアアニメ部」
Geographical Units
- Sapphire Florida Boys
- Sapphire Tennessee Boys
- Sapphire DC Area Boys
- Sapphire Norwiggas
- Sapphire Gentlemen
- Sapphire Canadian Boys
- Sapphire West Coast Boys
Religion
Most members identify with Edginess, while many observe (or have observed) cultural Christianity.
Politics
Political opinions in Sapphire vary on a grand scale, however, without a doubt, most members will tell you that politics are busted, and not in a good way.
Ethnicity
Sapphire's members ethnically consist of Europeans, Hispanics, Asians, and Africans.
Culture of Sapphire
| TRIGGER WARNING!!1 This section may contain surreal, unserious, and/or potentially offensive material. Read at your own risk. |
The community of Sapphire is officially headquartered in its dedicated TeamSpeak server, although it has other de facto quarters. Sapphire culture (also: Circle culture) developed in parallel to Internet culture of the 2010s and is internally renowned for being "ahead of the curve". It consists of memes and ideas brought in from all corners of the internet as well as the real world, adapted to fit Sapphire's eccentric and edgy vibe. Sapphire culture has three basic tenants: it's fast, fun, and easy. It also tends to be rich in folklore (see Sapphire mythology). The unique patterns of speech used in conjunction with Sapphire culture is known as Sapphire-speak or Sapphire lingo.
The following are notable examples of Sapphire culture:
Bad manner
Within Sapphire, a concept of wrongness exists: it's called "bad manner" (shortened: BM). It is a term Emanuel introduced to Sapphire long before it became mainstream. Sapphire defines BM as actions that are annoying, harassing, making fun of, flaming, pestering, etc. BMing is usually punishable by roast session.
"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 something is not BM if it is true.
t3sla exception
Credited to Emanuel (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.
Caleb's trifecta
Caleb's trifecta consists of:
- "nam jeF" (a second-hand bastardized meme)
- "you tryna buss"
- s's whistled through the teeth
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, Sapphire is largely undecided on Cok or Lelsi (meme terms), but some can agree that Dr. Pooper is master race. Other popular beverages in Sapphire include tea, water, and others.
Dank memes
420 memes are some of the greatest in Sapphire. The most important components are 420 and Blaze it 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.
"Death" & Mike's Grandfather's Funeral
When a member is away for significant time (announced/unannounced) they are said to "die". Nick and Will Messick are two people who often "die" and "return to life" months later. Mike and Funky 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!"
DIS DIK
Just before Sapphire's golden age came around, 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, , eventually xDIESELFUEL, etc. DIS DIK is also used as a response to most sentences. For example:
- What is the time?
- It's, uh... DIS DIK!
- *haha*
"DIS DIK" has become one of the most renowned memes in the history of Sapphire. So great, that it was heavily involved with the initiation of Chase, 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, also known as a DIKmix.
DIS DIK: THE FRANCHISE
As Bryan foresaw, the "DIS DIK" 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 scheduled to be released in waves. The alpha will be released in "8 months", the beta in "16 months", and the full game in "24 years" (all the timeframes being relative to an unspecified date). |
| DIS DIK: THE NOVEL | On September 21, 2013, Bryan announced a new product of the DIK franchise called DIS DIK: THE NOVEL. It was later scrapped. |
| DIS DIK: THE MOVIE | Has not been announced. |
| DIS DIK: THE SHOW | Has not been 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.
Hall of Memes
Some of the greatest visually represented memes in Sapphire's history.
|
Holidays
The community of Sapphire observes a set of cultural holidays.
Black History / Homie Month
The month of February is used for observing African American history as well as homie culture.
4/20
Callisto visited the Sapphire TeamSpeak for the first time on April 20th.
Pride Month
The month of June is used as an extension to Homie Month.
Anniversary
August is the anniversary month of the Sapphire organization.
No Nut November
A month dedicated to honing non-ningen skills.
Norwegian Day
The fourth Thursday of November is a Thanksgiving substitute holiday for Cydax and all Norwegians.
Jerry's Law
Jerry's law states that two gays can cancel each other out, however, this theorem lacks a proof.
Jimmy's microphone
Jimmy often eats things loudly, and it often sounds like either soup or something very crunchy.
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.
Sapphire mythology
Sapphire mythology is a rich aspect of Circle culture that is inspired by the wide imagination of Sapphire's finest memers. It depicts a pantheon of figures each renowned for their unique aspects.
Saints
In Sapphire mythology, saints are the most highly regarded mythological figures. They have been significant enough to inspire several conversations in TeamSpeak.
Legends
Legends are mythological figures that have done epic deeds in the eyes of the community.
- El Saviour
- Bobo
- Blood1310017
- Singed420
Dummies
Sapphire trip
The Sapphire trip is a rare event where a large amount of active members of Sapphire gather in real life. Throughout the history of Sapphire, the idea of a Sapphire meeting was frequently discussed; in the past, the plausibility of such an event was debated heavily. In 2012, Cydax planned a campaign to South Florida, although it was never executed. In 2016, the Sapphire Trip Committee was created in order to attempt to organize Sapphire meetings at events such as PAX East and later TwitchCon. Check the aforementioned article to read up on the details of Sapphire trips that have occurred.
Sapphirization
Sapphirization refers to the natural adaptation process of memes and material in order to align with the established culture of Sapphire. Sapphirized material is meme in nature and has the tendency to meme on things or people. Most material that cycles through the community is sapphirized material from various parts of the Internet. When a meme is somewhat cancerous but still salvageable, it is sapphirized so that it can be used to meme conveniently. An example of this scenario is the word troll, which was originally a very cancerous term, was sapphirized to le bait for more optimized memeage.
At some point, sapphirization also began affecting the context of material. This is because Circle culture now involves a distinction between ironic and unironic actions. For example, now, the word "troll" is being used as much as "le bait", if not more, due to the breakthrough of ironic memeing. This line, however, was blurred during the Post-Ironic era of Internet memes.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a mobile application in which users can take snaps (called snappers by Bryan), 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 create and share original memes. They take bizarre pictures and usually exploit any opportunity they have to get a kek out of something. In an incident, Cydax got mad at everyone for screenshotting his snaps and sending him "retarded" snaps, and therefore blocked Bryan. It has since turned into a meme, for example: Playing CSGO Don't shoot Cydax, 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
From the founding of Sapphire, until the Summer of 2012, t3sla never spoke a word over the microphone; he was in 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 eating his microphone too much and breaking it.
Times Caleb has taken hiatus
See three times for the full article.
Caleb, a founding member of Sapphire, has taken hiatus from Sapphire more than 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. Ever since these incidents, he occasionally took breaks to recollect himself when overly stressed out. In 2018, he took more space in order to rebrand his Twitch as Red Lotus.
Truth
Truth is a philosophy developed by Bryan and Adam (the latter having done so ironically) which proposes that "truth" is subjective to the perceptor and that there isn't always an objective truth. A popular phrase from this development is used as a response to people making a claim: "Well, [that's right,] if that's your truth!"
The Sapphire Dictionary
| Term(s) or Phrase(s) | Actual Meaning |
|---|---|
| acquiesce | Kyle says this |
| ahp, ehp, nahp | Clicc this |
| anime | an adjective that means "Japanese" |
| autism, autistic, acoustic, artistic, autist | silly |
| bad manner, bm | to annoy, harass, make fun of, flame, pester, etc. or something that causes annoyance, harassment, etc. |
| bent | banned |
| banana | see meme |
| black | an Andy-Bryan meme |
| book club | church |
| broken | something that is overpowered, underpowered, or dysfunctional |
| bryan | hill |
| bus(s/t) | see plop |
| 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 |
| dingus | silly or <censored> |
| dis dik, deez nuts, etc. | See Dis Dik |
| default, default computer | office/prebuilt computers |
| dimagglio | damage |
| doge | See shibe and |
| down's syndrome, left's syndrome, etc. | See autism |
| ecksdee, xD | a very funny ironic meme |
| edginess | a phase in ones life manifested as edgy tendencies and edgy music |
| fiber | One day Bryan got into an argument with others in TeamSpeak over whether or not fiber has an effect on constipation. |
| fiending | lurking |
| flip, fast, frick, eff, frank | meme alternatives for swear words |
| gag | See cancer |
| gat | "God" or "gun", depends on context |
| gay, being gay | to be heterosexual |
| hella | something Ben says (see gay) |
| hella noise | Illinois |
| homie | a really good friend |
| hue, huehuehue, kek, kekeke | chuckles |
| inb4 | in before |
| -ino, -ito, -ado, -oonie, etc. | makes a word cancerous |
| (nam) jeF | an Emanuel-Caleb meme |
| 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 |
| meme, memeing, memer | you should know what a meme is |
| mfw, tfw | mfw, tfw |
| mining | to mine bitcoins, litecoins, dogecoins |
| ningen | 人間, A Japanese word roughly meaning "human", popularized by Bryan after he was 2D-ized. |
| ninja | a homie |
| Norwegian Day | One Thanksgiving, Cydax was sad that only Americans get to celebrate. Bryan saw this and decided to declare Norwegian Day a holiday for all Norwegians to celebrate alongside Americans and their Thanksgiving. |
| ooo, kill'em | See swag or this |
| pedonia | <censored> |
| plop | an ambiguous verb or noun, mostly open to interpretation |
| proud/unproud | abstinence from illicit activities/lack thereof |
| 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 |
| rap game | a transition used to drop mad rhymes |
| rekt | destroyed See also bent |
| riot runes | secret runes in League given to players by Riot |
| run that back | to restart something |
| ruse | a good meme, or to meme good |
| rustle | the act of upsetting the jimmies See jimmies |
| sapphirization | process of adapting something into Sapphire's style or according to its needs See Sapphirization |
| scale | noun. a scale is used to measure something Example: the rage scale, ranging from one to Caleb, etc. |
| shibe, so shibe | 
|
| shots fired | phrase indicating that shots have been fired, used literally or metaphorically |
| smol | small |
| snap, snapper | an image on snapchat |
| succ | another term that lies within ambiguitiy |
| t3sla mode | phase where a person strictly communicates through typing, and not via voice chat |
| technique | a method of doing something, usually ironically, attributed to a person or thing |
| thiccc, thicque, thinn | an ironic meme in reference to the thicc meme |
| thumb | only Caleb and Andy know the true meaning and origin |
| TRIGGERED!!!!!!!!! | Jerry yells this when Bryan upsets him |
| unironically | as opposed to ironically |
| 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 |
| 2D | Any realm that is two-dimensional, even if it contains three-dimensional models. Some examples include anime, cartoons, and video games. |
| 3-2-1 | watching a video at the same time as someone else in order to gain a more dynamic experience |
| 420 blaze it fgt, x20 blaze it fgt | Dank memes |
| 9GAG | something that is vile, disgusting, and/or cringe-inducing |
Game Timeline
The history of all games* played in Sapphire's community.
*almost all known gamed
| Game | Introduced to Sapphire by | Importance | Time span (or earliest date played) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minecraft | Most early members of Sapphire | Monumental | since 2011, since 2012 (with mods) |
| Runescape | Most members | Major | since 2011, since 2013 (OSRS) |
| Terraria | Many members | Seasonal | since 2011 |
| League of Legends | Jerry Plasker, hyprman33, Slar | Monumental | since February 2012 |
| ARMA 2 | t3sla, Cydax | Major | June 2012 - 2013 (DayZ mod included) |
| 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, Sarim, 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 |
| ArcheAge | Slar | Minor | 2014 |
| 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 | ||
| World of Warcraft | Caleb, Jerry, Jimmy | July 2016 | |
| Castle Clash | Adam and Caleb | since 2017 | |
| PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds | Caleb, Emanuel, some others | March 2017 | |
| Kritika Online | Andy | May 2017 | |
| Mortal Kombat X | Caleb, Adam, others | June 2017 | |
| Fortnite | Caleb | Major | September 2017 |
| Divinity Original Sin 2 | Garrett | 2018 |
Media
Sapphire produces massive amounts of media. Some members of Sapphire each have solo or partnered projects on YouTube.
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 |
| Caleb's Channel | SlaresProduction |
| Ryan Costa's Channel | OfficiallyBeastly |
| Andy's channel | andyoclock |
Twitch
| Channel | Link |
|---|---|
| Sapphire Main Channel | Sapphire |
| Bryan's Channel | amBryan |
| t3sla's Channel | thestreamscribe |
| Caleb's Channel | Red Lotus |
| Jimmy's Channel | Jimmyooo |
| Funky's Channel | funkykong245 |
| Cydax's Channel | ShinyPaperClip |
| Mike's Channel | xICExFROZEN |
| Chase's Channel | OMGitsMorganHD |
| PASTA's Channel | OfficiallyBeastly |
| check0ut's Channel | check0ut |
| Andy's Channel | andyoclock |
| Adam's Channel | Okuda |
| Kyle's Channel | Kyle |
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 |
| 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. |
Servers and Services
Bryan's Server
This server runs anything at any time, per request.
| IP Address | Availability | Location | Operator | Running |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76.26.34.174 | Per request | Ft. Lauderdale, FL | Bryan | Check in TeamSpeak to see what game is being hosted |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ts.sapphiredev.org | 24/7/365 | Dallas, TX | Bryan | 32 Slots |
Discord
Jerry's Discord and the Red Lotus viewer Discord server are available as backup for any unanticipated TeamSpeak connection instability.
League of Legends Club
The community club is called "Sapphire Dev", and it is operated by Caleb.
Community Smurf Accounts
Members of Sapphire can check TeamSpeak to find the link to the community smurf list.
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 | 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 |
- |
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 |
|---|---|
|
Never occurred |
- |
Fantasy Basketball
Starting with the 2016-17 NBA season, Sapphire started a fantasy basketball league for its members.