CS:GO ALL DAY ERRR’ DAY – AN INTERVIEW WITH TGN PARTNER SPARKLES PRODUCTION

CS:GO ALL DAY ERRR’ DAY – AN INTERVIEW WITH TGN PARTNER SPARKLES PRODUCTION
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Guess what  CS:GO  fans – it’s time for your favorite  CS:GO  player and awesome TGN Partner, Sparkles Production, to sit down with us and answer 42 ultimate questions about Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Nah, we’re just playin’ it’s more like 20. Let’s learn all about  Sparkles Production, shall we?

Q. For gamers out there that are not already familiar with your content, what is your channel all about? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

A. I’m Edd “ Sparkles ” Stanton, I’ve been a keen counter strike player since 2005 and decided to share my passion for the game via YouTube. In the beginning, I was editing my own frags and crazy in-game moments. I then moved onto showcasing my ninja defuse skills to the world. 200,000+ subscribers later, my channel is the biggest community CS:GO channel out there, content driven by you, the viewers and edited by me, aiming to bring a world of amusement your way. From whole length competitive matches to insane shots and situations you never thought possible, it’s all featured on my channel; where videos are posted daily.

Q. What is the video you created, that you are most proud of? Why?

A. It’s very hard to pick a video I’m most proud of, because it’s not always the videos I spend the most time on, it’s the videos that entertain my audience the most. With that being said, I published a video yesterday that aimed to portray the spirit of CS:GO by representing all of my current series in one short clip. People seemed to enjoy it, so here’s the link.

Q. What is your favorite video game of all time? Why?

A. I’m afraid, amazingly, it’s got to be Counter-Strike. From 1.6 all the way to CS:GO, the players and the scene in every Counter-Strike so far have been unmatched by any other game. It takes a huge amount of teamwork, individual skill (aiming, gamesense & movement) and luck. Sometimes luck can be a massive factor in the game, and that’s an element I love about it, the unpredictable nature of a game where highly skilled and experienced players face off against each other in such a tense situation.

Q. What’s your favorite YouTube trending video right now?

A. I can’t tell you about current trending videos, but one of my all time fav’s has to be laddergoat.

Q. How did you get started on YouTube? What was your inspiration for starting a channel?

A. After starting my first channel in 2008 and seeing how many subscribers and views I was getting from my very amateur editing, I knew I was entertaining a small crowd and wanted to expand to larger audiences. I decided to take it to the next level, starting “SparklesProduction” with a friend. Originally it was an editing team, 5 of us honed our editing skills and aimed to compete with the best teams in the Counter-Strike editing scene at the time. We did just that, and soon become one of the most highly skilled editing teams in the game, recruiting a lot of new members and massively expanding into real life editing, other games and general digital art.

The team was called “Sparkles Prod”, and can be found here.

There are still a few newer members struggling to keep the editing scene alive, so support them if you like what they make!

After the “peak” of interest in the Counter-Strike editing world, I realized I could entertain people a lot more often with in-game content, instead of high level game edits. The channel then took a new direction, upping the frequency of uploads. Clips/movies no longer required months of work to produce and the Sparkles community began growing larger with lots more subscriber participation. I opened a system for viewers to submit their own gaming content, have it edited by me and published on my channel for everyone to enjoy. Nowadays the channel is a healthy mix of my own footage, sticking with it’s roots in ninja defuses, and community footage showcasing only the best/craziest moments from CS:GO Competitive Match-making.

Q. What is your favorite video capture program? Audio capture?

A. Honestly, I keep it old school with Fraps. The quality isn’t any lower than what I need, and my computer can record 90fps with it fairly stably. However, I have been playing with Nvidia’s ShadowPlay fairly recently, which does record at a decent FPS and has a smaller filesize. I tend to use this for larger captures, like full length live games.

Q. If you were to become a video game character for a day, who would it be? Why? What would you do?

A. I would be Lara Croft. I’d solve some puzzles, I’d climb up some rocks, but mainly I’d stay at home playing with my boobs all day.

Q. Walk us through your typical work day. How do you allocate your time between playing games, video creation and building your community?

A. My typical work day normally involves looking at my community demo system, accepting/rejecting footage, downloading the game demo, capturing that footage, sorting that footage and then editing that footage. As well as actually producing the videos I answer any questions people have on steam/facebook/YouTube and browse other formats looking for the best footage to showcase. A couple of games of Counter-Strike are usually had in the evening to relax.

Q. For aspiring gaming YouTubers, what is your best advice for success? What are the top things to avoid doing?

A. My piece of advice would just be: be yourself. I know that’s a very cliche phrase to be throwing at you, but just be who you are in real life, on YouTube. Let your audience get to know your personality, your likes and dislikes, and if they don’t like you, no loss. They don’t subscribe, if they do like you, you’ve just earned one loyal subscriber who will hopefully keep coming back for more. Speaking of coming back for more, frequency of uploads is KEY! It’s only when I started taking it seriously and made myself put out one video a day, that I started gathering my following I have today.

Q. Any shout outs for your community?

A. Absolutely, it’s not just me trying to entertain the masses with my CS:GO content! I’d like to shoutout MrTweeday, he’s been a good friend and in the scene for as long as I have. He’s doing wonderful things for the CS:GO scene and e-sports in general. A true legend. I’d also like to shoutout TrilluXe, HattonGames and Rechyyy, all continually pushing the scene forward.

Q. We can see by your recent videos that you are a CS:GO expert. Do you play any other shooter on the side, right now? Or is it all CS:GO, all the time?

A. CS:GO all day, errr’ day.

Q. What was the first FPS you ever played?

A. Doom on the PC, with a floppy disk.

Q. Is FPS your favorite genre of games? Do you have any other favorites that you like to play in your spare time?

A. Everyone needs a break from FPS’s, they are the most intense form of gaming requiring constant high levels of concentration. I have played many games throughout the ages, I even have a degree in Games Technology, but Mario Kart was always a fan favorite when it came to my circle of friends.

Q. Your knowledge of the weaponry available in CS:GO is very impressive. When you’re choosing your weapon set-up, do you like precision over giant explosions?

A. Any decent CS:GO player will pick precision every day over a gun that makes a lot of noise (such as the negev).

Q. If you could have any one of your favorite old-school games remade with today’s tech, which one would it be?

A. Probably metal gear solid, the original, playing as snake in first person mode with the Oculus Rift. That would be epic.

Q. Camping: legitimate strategy or bullsh*t tactic?

A. It’s a legit strategy, at professional level it’s called “lurking”. On terrorist side one player is left behind to “camp” while the other four push a bombsite, in hopes that the “lurker” catches any CT rotators. On CT side, the best strategy is obviously to “camp” the bombsites in hopes of holding off the terrorists. Do what you got to do to win, this is Counter-Strike. Anything goes.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions  Sparkles Production ! Make sure tocheck out his channel for more CS:GO goodness.