Hey Rexi! Thanks a bunch for being willing to participate in the upcoming guild spotlight. Here’s a list of questions that will really help out in the writing process for a guild spotlight; the more thorough the answers the better.

Guild Spotlight: FINSTACK

Questions:

Q: When was FINSTACK first created?

A: If I remember right it was around 2006-08 or so when Me , Trixi, fragi and some other fellow Finns started playing competitive Dota and we had different names for our Teams, but at some point I decided to go with FINSTACK.
Trixi used to whine for me “why isn’t it “FINNSTACK” like it supposed to be written, but I thought it looked stupid and decided to stick with the FINSTACK. Later on we got quite famous in Dota2 pub games and others started to call us FINSTACK as well. These days I pretty much use it everywhere and people actually know us *Smiles*.

Q: What made you decide to create a guild?

A:  Well first of all what got me into Albion Online > I was streaming and playing some games with friends. We were all pretty much bored to every game and mmorpg out there so I just decided to google “best mmorpg 2015” as a joke, we have this inside joke when we used to have lan parties and we were trying to decide great coop games, we would just google and it usually ended up to Lord of the rings 2 towers or some shi* :D.
Anyhow So I googled and found a review about Albion Online. First I was like “Damn this looks just like ultima online/Runescape”, which got me like really going. I watched the whole review about it and I was really hyped. I told my friends about it and asked them to watch the review. They watched it and they were kinda hooked, but it wasn’t the cheapest game at that time so someone had to take the first hit and it was me. So I bought the game, started streaming it from the beginning, first people were making jokes how bad the game was and how bad I was in the game but when I progressed and started to create items, adventure all over the world and farm fame, people started asking a lot questions about Albion Online. Then I decided to create a guild and invite everyone from my stream and any Finnish player I could find. Here is a video which I made after Winter Alpha it’s purely from my stream and I made it as joke, rotating_skull.gif and sick lightning fire effects as you might see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7g9IPMv3Zo

Q: Do you have any key members in your guild that really hold the system together behind the scenes? (talk about them in detail if you wish).

A:  Yes, No leader can handle a guild without great officers or in this case I’d call them Co-leaders. Guys who had most impact early on were, Donoke/Snowman/Maste, because they had played earlier alphas and they taught us the ways of Albion.

Donoke is easily the most dedicated player I know, when it comes to giving everything you got for a game or actually for anything. When Donoke decides to do something he does it 110% and the work is just brilliant.
Snowman isn’t as dedicated and “nolife” :D as Donoke but Snowman tends to plan out everything and he is really great asset and I really appreciate his opinions in everything. He is also ex-pro gamer from LoL so you know he has passion and talent.
Then there is Maste, well Maste feeds. Kiddings Maste brings in the table all of the above as well but not in as hardcore way, since he has somewhat life.
Then the new found players that became the core of FINSTACK and actually really great friends of mine.
Eedeni I found earlier from my stream when I was playing Dota2 or CS:Go and I asked some people from my stream to join us for some CS. He was really good and then he started coming to mumble and play with us more and more, from there he followed me to Albion as well. Talented and dedicated player.

Cykameister, Cyka also found his way to Albion through my stream(I think :D). Honestly I don’t know if he knew me from somewhere or watched my Dota2 streams but later on he has become one of the topdogs in FINSTACK really talented when it comes to gaming, mobas especially and also dedicated!
Perttu, Perttu is our young talent, I think he is the youngest player in the guild, yet he is on the same par with us all. There is no age racism in FINSTACK, if he has an Idea we all listen even though we could easily just ignore him due to his age. This is something that happened to me a lot when I used to play vanilla wow. I learned from there. He has so much potential ready to be unleashed, he is already as good as I am in most games even though he is just 16 years old. Real rising star!( Also known as one of the meme masters with Createk)

Createk, Createk is sometimes bit lazy when it comes to gathering, but has the skills to cover it up. I think we started playing Dota2 first and from there we just became friends and then he moved to Albion with us later on. Our hated/loved meme master and main warlock :D.

Juskaliini, Found his way to FINSTACK from my stream! Juska sent me a real letter through mail which had hand drawn dickbutt and some gungho energy thingies. He just played a lot with us, became solid member and later on good friend and dedicated gamer. Fun guy to play with. He is also known as our guild narc, AS A JOKE No Idea where it started but dank den is his fame farming slot.
Malle, I somewhat knew him from HoN and later on from Dota2, found his way to FINSTACK from my stream. One of the most hardcore gamers in our guild and really talented as well. Not much to say, he is really solid player and a great guy, have met him IRL couple times also.
Kyljys , one of our youngsters, he joined from my stream and was known runescape player. Cool guy overall, dedicated and hardworking and obviously talented! Haven’t seen him lately that much though, I guess he comes back to next test.

Leka, He might not be our brightest minds but has heart made of pure gold. Hard worker and helps people out whenever they need. Great asset to have and a great friend to have! Might not be the flashiest player, but gets the job done.
Nikker , Donokes brother, talented gamer and dedicated. Shame he has to work quite a lot so he can’t be as hardcore as he would probably want. Great guy over all!
Whated One of the nerdballers like the rest of the crew, quite young as well but has talent. Tends to sometimes go egotripping all over the place but so did I when I was his age, so we can forgive him :D.
Somnic he is geart person and great player. Tends to be our healer and easily the best one! Also dedicated gatherer, so bit of everything. Has not been around as much lately but I hope he gets back to this test.
Siankusiharri / Trixi / Steelrasp / pauli / Leipis
There are even more notable players in FINSTACK but these are the corner stones. I know I could leave the guild in their hands and it would be a successful guild! Sorry for those who I didn’t mention, these are just the guys I actually hangout daily basis and if I wrote something about everyone in the guild the post would be way too long.

Q: What was the guilds original goals in Albion? (Did those goals change as the guild developed more?)

A:  Original goal was just to have fun, for once everything was knew to us! We didn’t plan anything or make any spreadsheets for maximum efficiency, we just had fun. Later on as you might know, everything changed. We met Donoke/snowman/maste who taught us and took us under the wings of Vendetta. We became mercenaries pretty much, we brought in the silver and they gave us gear. After all that we became powerhouse and people were actually afraid of us, it was fun. Later on we decided to part our ways with vendetta, talking about the next test. We just wanted to try our own wings and in the end it worked pretty well.  Yeah the plan did change, we want to be the most feared guild in Albion. I love pushing myself to the limits and go full hardcore. Best feeling ever when you get server firsts, high tier items, kill PVE bosses, anything on that regards.


Q: Who are a few notable rivals of FINSTACK? What have they done to make things challenging for your guild?


A:  This is though one, since I didn’t play that much last test, but Vendetta earns a spot on that wall, Hammer and sickle! Nilfgaard and Black Cocks. This isn’t really rivalry but we had the best fights versus these guilds I think. Vendetta was the one I ever was somewhat afraid to go GvG.
Well last test vendetta was super annoying with their ganking squad for example, but overall if you want to challenge us, you need to be organized, dedicated and talented. Once again I know there are guilds I should be mentioning but I just honestly don’t remember them all :D


Q: What have you done to counteract your rivals?

A:  Well, we did ally with most of them at some point so that could work, but like stated above, dedication > more hours means higher tier items and experience in the gameplay, so you get better at the game. I think me and our co-leaders do fine job leading the fights and staying calm so strategies shouldn’t be our issue at least. So basically, play hard go pro :D!


Q: Which guild has given you the most competition during closed beta and why?
A: Vendetta for sure. They had their guild isle in the city and they just ganked us constantly, but we survived and it was nice strategy from Vendetta, I would say bit OP and that’s why they are nerfing it a little.

Q: If you’d had any good alliances, talk a bit about the guilds involved (very brief history between your guild and theirs, and how they helped you achieve your goals).
A:  Winter alpha, Vendetta. They took us under their wings, we didn’t know anything about the game. We were just good players without any of the knowledge. We were like mercenaries, we brought in silver they gave us gear. Later on we allied with them at summer alpha and it was fine, we were just too op so it got bored fast.
Horrible alliance examples: We mixed our economy with Black cocks and none of us or them were happy and in the end some of  their players destroyed our whole market , happens.

Q: Are you accomplishing the goals you set out during closed beta? Are there any obstacles in your way? (In this case, did FINSTACK achieve the goals they set out for during Closed Beta?)

A: Well early on we did, we were a powerhouse. I just lost motivation to play the game due it lacking any purpose (Most of the FINSTACK lost their motivation for same reasons). Like PvP wasn’t rewarding because every guild had 10000x stock of all the items and well I play the game for PvP pretty much. I used to get adrenaline rush every time I went to black zones or red zones, because I had something valuable with me. Last test if you died, you didn’t actually lose anything valuable so I just lost interest. Someone could argue Killfame is decent motivator and yeah it could be but it is way too abusable at the moment so no, the leaderboards don’t quite work.

Q: What are a few noteworthy goals that FINSTACK has planned for the future?
A: Getting back to the game and becoming one of the top tier guilds again! We did kill some of the PVE bosses first on the server, so that’s there as well. Being feared and being successful is fun, so I guess that’s our goal.


Q: Any further information that you would like to be included in the article can be detailed below

A: Well since we left last test quite early, most of you don’t probably know us or you might know the FINSTACK that Haamu led, but that’s not the real FINSTACK. If and when I get my boys & girls back to Albion you will meet the real deal. Be afraid be very afraid!


Looking forward to hearing back from you, as the information provided will be a learning experience for myself as well .

Luci