Msh100 in the spotlight!

Sitting down with Msh100 also know as Marcus from YCN-hosting. You are a known face around the crossfire community as being the man behind YCN,Crossfire Administrator and GamesTV site supervisor.



How did this all start? Did you find ET(and other online games) and decided to start a hosting company or the otherway around?

Now this was a long time ago, I have no idea what year it was but I do know it was ages ago. I used to play random public servers, and was probally my first online multiplayer game. There was a large gap where I did not play ET because I sort of switched and began playing CS:S, I had a couple of CS:S servers and I got asked to join YCN by Starzi in 2008, this is when I sort of returned playing ET again. Before I joined YCN, I did have my own GSP which was specifically for ET however this was of course no where near the scale of YCN. After CS:S and ET, I mainly played COD4, and had played quite a bit but in recent years I have stopped playing so much and this is why I am bad now! (except for ET, I was always bad at ET)


As asked in all interviews, How does an average day for you look?

Recently, quite dull. I have spent a lot of time finding a new job. Recently I am planning to move house so things have slowed down a little. Regardless every day I will do typical checks of servers (quite dull). Again, recently all work has slowed down recently for reasons I will not mention here however my usual plans before this I would spend days developing and working on YCN which I hope to resume normally soon.
Asides from work, I will spend time on games occasionally, however not too much. Also typical duties on GamesTV and such.

I guess you have been to school or are you a dropped out wonder kid?

I completed school as usual, and then moved on to a vocational Computing course, it was extremely terrible. There was a unit called "Software Installation and Upgrade", and considering I have worked with other developers in places such as Google, I am sure you can understand this was far too tedious for me.
The next year I decided to change to a more typical course selection, I went with Computing and Physics. I completed the Computing course in 1 year and I finished the first part of the Physics and could not resume at the college at that point. So I have these qualifications however I am not resuming education at the moment.
Everything I learnt in computing, I learnt by myself.

About YCN, is it your company? Are you the founder? or how did you get invovled? tell us a bit about the structure of YCN and who you work with.

I got into YCN from my knowledge of CS:S servers and also from knowledge of a past GSP I had. I am not the founder, many of you will know the founder however. Eyjohn. He has worked on ET bugfixes and you will most likely know his name from there or from YCN in general.
Evgeny still runs everything however a lot of his time is now occupied by his main job and other commitments. Ryan (h3ll) and I tend to run everything but recently he has been running alone due to my lack of input which again I mentioned above.

Since you are working for a hosting company you will probably get some critics from time to time. Some years ago YCN was infamous for their lag and even ‘YCN-lag’ was going around Crossfire as a term. Let’s clear this up, is that fixed now? And how do you usually deal with criticism like that?

Well this is an interesting one, people claim on crossfire and such about lags but we rarely get any complaints or proof in comparison to the numbers which say this. We assume it is from the past but we should not have any problems. Recently we expanded both our UK and NL datacentres, so if you had lag before it may even be gone now. If there is significant proof there is lag then there is not a single reason why we would not help you resolve the issue, that's what the support ticket system is placed there for after all.

Do you make a living out of hosting server or do you have a more regular job next to it?

At the moment, YCN is my only work however I am looking for a fulltime job in computing/IT. I will never leave my position at YCN though due to work, not everything is about money, but of course it's essential that I get a job at this time.

I’ve been doing some research and found out that you like dogs better than cats?

I am sorry to inform you that your research is wrong! Cats > Dogs. I have lots of kittens!

Are you actively playing any game? I know that you play a match in ET from time to time but not really active. Any other games you play?

Now, no. I used to actively play COD4, and CS:S but I am not really in the mood to waste all the time on these games, but a game every now and then can be a lot of fun.

Quoting Seanza “YCN keeping ET alive”, most of the community will agree that YCN hosting does a lot for ET in one or an other way. Is this the only community you support like this? And a part from the bussiness side, Spreading the YCN brand through ET, is there any reason you do it?

Yes, ET is the only scene where we really continue to push support despite rapidly growing in other games. I guess it is because all the admins at YCN are from ET at some point, I mean as I said before it was my first game! As you know, Starzi used to be an admin here and was also on YCN. And now we have Ryan (h3ll) who is also an admin on crossfire and gamestv.
We will never forget you ET :)

A slight peek behind the scene, last year in the spring you hosted a very successful cup called YCN Spring Challange. The cup even had some prize money and server prizes. Are you planning to do something similar this year?

Yes. Without a doubt! Last year was successful and I think we NEED to do it again!

You have been to serval crossfire LANs and last years SAGE. Are you planning on attending this years Gaming event “Adroits ET Masters” by Seanza?

Do you even need to ask? Of course I will be there, representing YCN as always and bringing you the greatest games!

If you are not behind the computer, what do you usually do? Any hobbies?

Photography I find quite fun, however most of my hobbies are tech based so a computer really helps!

Judging from the LAN pictures you shot, you probably have a more than decent camera. Is photographing an hobby of yours? Perhaps you want to share your favorite work with us?

Yes. I have a Canon EOS 1100d, it's a lowend range Canon DSLR. I got this Q4 2011 as I missed having a decent camera. Before I had a Canon EOS 350d which was stolen :(.
As for examples :



I don't say I am good, I just like taking photos!

You seem to enjoy traveling, you have been to sweden recently and visted the infamous Robaciek last year? What are the places you visted and which did you enjoy the most? Travel plans for upcoming year?

A lot of Europe. I have no other plans yet however, except from LAN in NL. I would like to return to Slovenia again this year.
My favourite has to be Germany, in particular Berlin. A very nice city and I was lucky enough to visit there during the Football World Cup and watch the England vs. Germany game in a public viewing with our good friend w0nd3r.

Apart from traveling the whole world where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In a good job position, that's what I need at this time. Maybe a house? I have never really thought about it.

Quick Question Conner

Favorite Movie?
I don't watch enough movies to be able to answer this.

Favorite Song?
Ohh hmm, maybe Betrayed by Avenged Sevenfold?
Again I have never really thought of this.

Favorite Program language?
Interesing question, I like writing PHP however not sure if you consider that a programming language

Favorite quote?
I will have go check gamestv quotes for this!

<random black people in the train actually sitting behind Msh100 and me>
*Anaconda`M17xR2 yells to Msh100 : What's up niggah!?*
*Msh100 laughs histarically & Anaconda`M17xR2 looks akwardly*

Favorite crossfire user?
I love you all <3

any shoutouts?
h3ll - without a doubt! YCN would be in a much worse position at the moment without him
Evilynn - A great person to talk with and lucky, good luck with the baby <3
arni & skooli - the two main people at GamesTV, a great project!
Sean - The man that makes things happen! :D
ALL crossfire admins - as much as you may hate them, they're here to keep this alive!
And a few other people, you know who you are ;D