» Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:05 pm 
http://www.wethegamerz.com/2012/06/12/clan-spotlight-ceph-gaming
Tell me a little bit about Ceph to start us off.
Ceph was formed about a year ago, shortly after the release of Crysis 2. At the time, I was looking for some skilled players to enjoy multiplayer with, and happened upon Seth (who now leads our clan). He introduced me to a few other really guys, and after become close friends, we decided to form a clan. Today, it has formed into much more of an online community for 360 gamers, with the clan at the core.
Crysis 2? That’s an odd choice to start competitive gaming on.
True enough. To be fair though, it wasn’t really about the competitive aspect to begin with. It was just a very fun game (not counting the terrible matchmaking) that very few people played. The core group of us that started Ceph were really just looking to have some good times playing with a good team. After a while, we realized that we were pretty much whipping the floor with all challengers, so the idea to form a clan was formed. Competitive gaming was never the priority however. We just wanted to represent ourselves as an identifiable entity.
What games are Ceph competing in at the moment?
I guess we made a good impression. Since losing our first game to what is undeniably the best team in the league this season, we’ve been undefeated since.
We started competing in the WGL just several weeks ago. Battlefield 3 has been our main game for most of the year, so we decided to give the competitive leagues a go. We were put into the premium division of Conquest to boot, which came as a bit of a surprise considering that we’re newcomers, but at the same time it was very exciting. I guess we made a good impression. Since losing our first game to what is undeniably the best team in the league this season, we’ve been undefeated since. In the future, we’re looking forward to playing more games competitively.
Aside from the WGL, have you played in any other competitions up to now?
There was some thought of competing in team events on GameBattles for Crysis 2, but at the time, we decided it would be better to focus on building up our community first. Plus the game wasn’t exactly thriving, so competition was scarce. Some of our member have competed in events on their own however. On of our founding members, Ceph Saint, was undefeated in a 1v1 competition for Crysis 2, and he was also undefeated 1v1 in his days of Halo 3 competing, before having to go on service in Iraq.
Would you be looking to expand on to PC games given the recent rise of free to play games?
Several of our members do actually own high end PCs, and some are currently building new rigs. It’s definitely not our main focus, and I doubt it ever will be, but we dabble in all platforms a bit. We do try to be multidimensional. At the moment we’re hard at work on building a new website for our members, to provide a richer user experience, and we’ll also be doing a lot more of our own writing. We really want to try and build a friendly, and open environment where all gamers feel welcome. The clan at it’s heart, is an option for more dedicated users.
Would you say your friends with the people in the clan?
Yes, the core group is very close. I consider some of these guys as the best of friends. They’re a bunch of characters for sure, a lively bunch, and very diverse. Most importantly though, they’re just very friendly people. Sure we rage sometimes while gaming — who doesn’t — but really it’s a very relaxed environment. We goof around, and just focus on having a good time. Obviously the community has grown quite a bit over the last year. Especially over the last few months, we’ve been getting a lot of new members from all over the world, and you can’t get to know absolutely everyone on a deep personal level, but we make the best effort, and nobody gets excluded. I think that’s the only way a clan or community is really thrive to be honest. You have to feel connected. If you’re not friends, and you’re not invested, you eventually lose interest and move on.
From all over the world? So you recruit outside of Europe?
We didn’t want to at first. In our Crysis 2 days, we actually turned away several US players, and recommended different clans we respected for them to join. We were smaller then, and with the time difference, we couldn’t assure these guys that we’d be able to get much time in together. Now things are different. We’re bigger, someone is always online, and the interest in other countries has been big, Enough to warrant a change, Our biggest user base is still Europe, but we now have several players from the US, quite a few from the Middle East, and Thailand makes an appearance in our roster.
What would you say is your biggest success as a clan?
I think the biggest success so far has been creating our community and staying drama free.
Hmm… that’s a tough one. We’re still fairly new, with just under a year and a half under our collective belt. I think the biggest success so far has been creating our community and staying drama free. A lot of clans go through power struggles, because of leadership issues, or arrogant members, and so on. We experienced this first hand with another Crysis clan; they anted to merge with us, and because they had several excellent players, we were going to go through with it. Unfortunately their leader wanted to take over of our group completely, and become very disrespectful towards us, as well as his own team. In the end, he lost the respect of his whole clan, and they joined us instead. I’ve seen clans fall apart time and again because of people like this, and it’s a real shame
I’m extremely proud that I can be co-leader of a community like Ceph, in which everyone gives each other their due, and everyone contributes to improving .
That’s all for my questions, anything else you want to add?
Thanks for taking the time. You can look for Ceph to expand quite a bit in the future, both as a community and competitively. Chances are we’ll have a team for the just released Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, and I’d be shocked if we don’t have at least one team competing in Halo 4. Obviously, Crysis 3 is a huge game for us next year: the community is already buzzing over it. Our new website should be up and running by the end of the summer, so we’ll have a lot more on offer for any visitors. We’ll be doing reviews, news, blogs, videos, and more, so I urge anyone with interest in those things to check it out. Like I said, we welcome everyone with open arms, you don’t have to be a hardcoe competitive type to come hang with us.
So that’s it for Ceph Gaming. If you’re interested in signing up, head on over to http://www.CephGaming.com. If you want to get your own clan or guild featured on clan spotlight send us a message at ClanSpotlight@wethegamerz.com.
Special thanks to Ceph Angelus, and Crytek for making a game which I met all these wonderful people on, and all of you who are reading this for making this a truly awesome community, I've had many great memories playing Crysis 2, and I hope I have many more on Crysis 3 with all of you.
I wish I could name you all by names but the list will be to big, you know who you are
P.S see you on Crysis 2 machmaking or Ghost Recon
-Seth Walka the proud leader of Ceph
more info below
http://www.cephgaming.com/mobileold/m/2059068/viewthread/3327921-clan-interview-by-wethegamerzcom
