GtkG - SimonKinsler

Here he is, the first pick of the "Getting to know the Game...r" -serie. The rising star of community, mainly known from his many contributions and recent promotion the staff of the cf-site. Here he is, SimonKinsler, or as we know him... Well, just as SimonKinsler, who you really are?


I’m 18 years old and live in the Netherlands, surprisingly close the old home of the ET LANs Enschede. It’s about 10 minutes driving with a car. Finished my high school last year(HAVO). I have been studying Engineering physics (Bachelor degree) after that but that didn’t really fit me so now I’m looking for a new study and It’s probably going to be Technical Business Management. Of Crouse I’m not sitting in my chair all day, I work as a waiter and this makes my schedule pretty unreliable. I’m an atheist and love science. I also have a passion for almost anything with technology. I’m addicted to a lot of tv series. And my favorite music genre is classic rock, but I listen to all kinds of music. At the weekends I’m either working or going out with my mates.



I myself haven't known you for a long time, what is your history with gaming and what brought you into crossfire.nu? I did some stalking found only follow.et from your history, what else has there been?

I got introduced to ET back in 2006 by my brother. Played it for like a year without anything close to decent English so I couldn’t really do anything besides where most of us started, pubbing. My friends at school told me about clans and such and how they joined one on SoF II. I wanted something like that. I joined up with the NL4U clan since my English was still too bad as I couldn’t have a proper chat session yet. Had a great time there and probably some of the people I played with are still around here.

After about a year or so I to a break from ET. Played a lot of other games mainly single players and some console games. Let’s fast forward a bit here, I returned to ET in 2009 and soon found my home ETpro public server from the guys over at eft-clan.com. I’m still in touch with some of the guys but the public sort of died. Anyways those guys introduced me a bit to competive gaming and crossfire.nu, I lurked around a bit and watched some ETTV matches and as you can see on my profile page I registered on the 12th of October 2010. Still didn’t post that much but I was staying quiet and figuring things out like how it thing worked around here and in the competitions scene in general.

My second clan was Controlled gaming. Those guys got me into what you could call my first scrims and wars. Had a great time over there with most of them and still play with some of them. I mainly thank Ryan(Equanimity) and Gnome for that. Around this time I also started to appear on crossfire and later on what you could call contributing.

I decide I wanted more, I wanted organized playing, well at least some tactics and people that listen to each other a bit better and started looking for a new team. Popped into LeFrancis. At this time (not so long ago) He was reviving/rebuilding his team Follow.et. I managed to score myself a backup place and started playing with them and having even more fun in this game. I’m still new to follow.et but already had countless laughs at TeamSpeak, got to give it to them, A bunch of entertaining guys!


And what drives you to contribute your own free time to this often quite, hmm, frisky community we got?

I don’t consider my contributions as a great effort but yet I do consider them better than anyone not even trying, I’m not saying all contributions are good but you can just pop by anyone(that ran a cup or has written content) on irc in this close community and get involved! I’m always pleased when people tell me that I did a good job, you should have seen my smile when TosspoT gave me moderator rights so I could edit SPU9 news and help him out

The negative side with what you call as a frisky community? Most of the time I simply ignore the comments that aren’t that positive unless they have constructive criticism in them that I could actually use to change something.

That still doesn’t quiet explain why I’m trying to contribute I guess. I will be honest with you besides just wanting to help out and keep this game alive I like the ‘fame’ and recognition and that’s probably the main drive behind it.


What other games have you played, anything serious?

I’m going to give you a big list with anything that pops into my head. My first games beside bord games where on the Gameboy color It all started with Pokemon Blue and for your information I choose Charmander. After that I had a game cube and played Medal of Honor my first Shooter. Played almost all flashgames on the web back in 2008/2009.

At the moment I’m playing lots of single players on their hardest mode, so it’s a bit challenging. Here we go: GTA II GTA vice city,GTA IV,Godfather I/II,Mafia II,The sims ;), Jack jazz rabit, RTCW single player,SoF II, Simscity 4,Starcraft II,Hitman, Rollercoaster,Saints Rows III, Age of Empires I/II,Deus ex Human Revolution(finishing this at the moment), A lot of Need for Speed games. This is what I can come up with for now probably forgot a lot. Anything Serious? Well I played them all serious but not competive if that’s what you mean


What do you do with your life at the moment? What is a normal day for you?

I work as a waiter and don’t have a normal day because of that. I got weird and unreliable times to work on but I love my job. At the moment I’m searching for a new study and planning to start in September again. Even though I like this job a lot like a mentioned above I’m considering quitting it mainly cause of the schedule it forces me into. It fits perfectly into a student’s schedule but since I’m "free" for like another 6 months I might get a regular 40 hour job so I have a more scheduled life and can party more in the weekends.

I usually sleep late and wake up around 12 o clock but that doesn’t necessary mean that I’m a no lifer, you could call me a workaholic since I quiet often I make days of 14 hours+. I still live with my mother and brother and try to help out around the house as well and I’m probably just forcing myself to do that to get away from the computer.


So, what are your long-term-plans, if you have made any.

Getting a bachelor degree and maybe a master/PhD. And perhaps find a girl to engage with. I would also like to stay open minded and keep happiness as my number one goal in life. Owyeah and travel, I want to see the world so more traveling is definitely on the list.


You got free time, don't feel like nerding, what do you do? Any hobbies?

Once a week I go to the gym and might start doing this more often, I’m a typical skinny nerd at the moment but of course I need to be ready for LAN ;). In the weekends I mainly hangout with my friends grab a beer or two. We have our own ‘pub’ and you can find us over there most Friday evenings. Saturday is either a big party or club. Sunday is either a movie or a pub if I’m not suffering from a hangover.


I was about to forget, what / who is Simon Kinsler? Why on earth would you pick a nickname like that?

SimonKinsler is anagram to my real name Niels Morsink and I’ve been using it for a good year now. I used to be known as Nielz or Learning and perhaps a lot 1 day names. I got into anagrams after watching The davinci code and thought it would be cool to have an anagram of my own name. It’s a bit long but I can short it down to smn knslr. Most people call me Simon on TeamSpeak and I’m perfectly fine with that.

You have been watching the games & community pretty closely for past few months, what are you thinking about the current state? Are we dead yet?

We aren’t dead, the fun for me just started! To be honest I can’t really judge I never known anything else than this. A fresh bunch of players wouldn’t be a bad thing and I think our chances are the best at converting Jaymod players into ETpro players. I’m hoping CF4.0 will bring some new players into the scene.

As for tournaments I can tell you from behind the scene that a lot of people are currently putting effort into this and with the upcoming LAN that Seanza announced I think that we have a good upcoming year. I also want to leave here that if you are willing to contribute you can always contact me on IRC you might be surprised how easily it is to get involved.

And to the on-going Nations Cup, any thoughts about it? Who seems to be the strongest, any disappointments there? How are you expecting it to end, got any personal favorite? And why?

I’m putting my money on the Germans. We have some great matches coming up with teams like Belgium, The United Kingdom and Finland. Team Netherlands isn’t build up out of the most known old school players but I think they have a fair chance to kick out some teams and surprise people. I don’t really care who wins thought.


You have done a nice job promoting matches and events, what else is there, where can we see SimonKinsler next? At Adroits ET Masters perhaps?

My plan is to visit the LAN and would love to play. If I don’t manage to join a team I’m probably going to grab my camera and buy a photo camera and be some kind of coverage guy, might even do both who knows!

As for the competive scene online I don’t think I have potential as new mystic. At the moment I would rate myself as med- skilled and maybe med on my best(you could call it luck as well) moments, I still have a lot to improve on but I don’t expect to be in EuroCup, ever.

Since Adriot’s is coming up R0SS contacted me and a bunch of other guys to help out with hosting more regular tournaments to get more stable teams. As you can see we already announced the Crossfire Community Draft Tourney and we are also planning to help out any team that is going to LAN maybe even get a few sponsors to support ET, I guess I will be busy with that the upcoming months. For the rest I will see what comes up for ET and I’m probably trying to be a part of it by helping out.

Fast ending!

Your favourite song at the moment, gief!
Homeless Mustard Sings "Creep"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXlzci1rKNM

If you weren't Niels, who would you want to be?
I don’t really have an idol perhaps Good Guy Greg.

The best animal ever?
Panda’s closely followed by sloths

Blond or brunette?
I don’t really care to be honest but just for the sake of picking Brunette’s!

Thompson or MP40?
MP40 because I’ve shot with one of those babies at a shooting range.

Why are dogs better than cats, two reasons!
I’m allergic for some cats and dogs are a way more loyal. Would rather have a sloth or panda as pet though.

And finally, thanks for the interview, got more and better stuff than I
expected, it was pleasure to get to know you a little bit. Whom would you
like to see interviewed next, got any suggestions?

I guess SPU9 since I’ve been writing news with him lately and because he’s an awesome guy in general.