Special Edition: Behind the wheels of sc2sea with xpaperclip
by deL
xpaperclip with his best friend - and some people too.
In this weeks Get To Know Your SEA series by deL, we move away from the players, admins and sponsors and looks at what goes in to running the #1 SEA community site. This man is constantly cleaning up and contributing to the technical aspects of the website that we love, such as the fan favourite chatbox, and without their help SC2SEA wouldn't be what it is today. John "xpaperclip" Li is always at the hand ready to give tips and advice on anything website related and for this we thank him! He isn't the only contributor of course, but he does this in his own time without an affiliation to the site and it's people like this that help sustain sc2sea's atmosphere!
1) While you're not in the spotlight as some of the previously featured members have been, you've been behind the scenes contributing a lot to the website sc2sea.com itself. Can you tell us a bit about what you do and which aspects of the site have been your creations?I wouldn't say anything on the site has been my *creation*; I more or less do fix-up jobs for when things break or aren’t quite right. The most visible things which I’ve contributed to are making tweaks / improvements to the new chatbox and the livestream widget. Otherwise, I mostly lurk
The face of a lurker.
2) How much time do you dedicate to following SC2? Do you study or have a job?
I'm a full-time Engineering postgraduate student. I haven’t been able to find the time to play a whole lot, but I often have TL open or a stream going in the background while working or doing other stuff.
3) Is StarCraft II the first game you're majorly interested in as a competitive event?
I did follow Brood War, although not nearly as closely as I follow SC2 now. The content was obviously not as abundant or accessible as it is today. Nor was my Internet as good!
4) Give us a brief history of your gaming background
My gaming background pretty much consists of RTS only. Brood War was the first game I really got into and kept at, although I was pretty rubbish at it (not much better at SC2 really!).
At the start it was mostly rushing for 200/200 Battlecruisers on Fastest Map Possible or Zero Clutter or some other similar noob-friendly map.
I also dabbled a bit with Red Alert 2 and Command and Conquer: Generals, which are, curiously, both Dustin Browder games. Looking at it know, you can really tell he likes the hard-counter philosophy to game design.
5) Are you at all named after that horrendous paperclip character in MSWord help?
LOL
Actually, yes. In particular, see here (jump to around 1:05).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa4YKZB6jG0
6) Do you have any favourite players - local SEA or international ones?
Internationally – ever since I saw professional Brood War, I’ve been a fan of SlayerS_`Boxer` and that has been the case until this day. Almost by default, I continue to support SKT1 (Boo, go KT! -deL) in BW and Slayers in SC2.
Local SEA – it’s really hard to say. With the relatively small size of the SEA community, the local players are comparatively so much more involved it’s hard to find favourites. I guess I have to say I especially enjoy those that regularly stream coaching like PiG or with commentary like iaguz because such streams I can just put in the background and listen to and still enjoy. But I love all the SEA guys, it’s really amazing that we can have a community where the pros frequent the community as much as they do.
Paperclip's face when someone's ID ruins the chatbox format.
7) Have you or do you plan to attend any of the major offline events happening around Australia this year?
I'm going to try and make it to some of the Melbourne events this year (to spectate, obviously, not compete, because I suck ).
I did want to go to the Melbourne WCG qualifier last year, but it was the same weekend as Manifest (the Melbourne anime festival), where I normally compete in the Iron Chef AMV. I had even arranged my Saturday so I could do both, but on the way from Showgrounds to Hawthorn, I started feeling really sick and ended up having to go home and spend the rest of the week in bed. Probably the most disappointing weekend of the year for me.
We thank xpaperclip for his time, and hopefully you have gained some new appreciation for the kind of people who help sc2sea to run smoothly!
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Brendan "TAdeL" Ferguson Clan TA | Twitter | YouTube
Last edited by deL; Tue, 31st-Jan-2012 at 9:54 AM.
This is awesome i always thought of paperclip as that guy on chatbox who somehow knows everything. like wheneer anyone asks anything obscure you'll get an incredibly detailed and correct answer from paperclip! cool to read more about someone who contributes their own time for no personal gain. paperclip hwaiting!
Thanks xpaperclip for making this sc2sea.com more awwwweeeeessssoooommmeeeeee...
Cheers,
Doctor
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"Don't let anyone tell you that u can't do something." - Will Smith
"Never let yesterday use up to much of today." - Will Smith
I'm a Player ; Sometimes , sometimes , sometimes , just have fun !!
It's a game , it is made with the purpose to bring happiness to people !
Cheers
you guys! Thanks to deL for the interview and a shoutout to VBsirhcle who supplied these photos of me, some of which I didn't even know had been taken.
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