Countdown: The 20 most influential volunteers in the PC era

[AnakinSolo]

#17 Paul Bansal "Darkbro"
Paul has been a mainstay on and leader for proofing for the last five years. At one point, I was preparing a report on activity on various committees within the pc, so I went through and charted every meaningful post from every proofer, developer, and playtester. Over two sets he had made a bare majority of the proofing posts. This isn't to rag on other proofers - proofing is really complicated and hard work (I have tried it and I can't do it), and others contributed 40 or 60 or 80 posts. But Paul had outdone everyone else, patiently progressing through endless iterations of cards. The countless hours that he put into not only proofing cards, but also managing the proofing team, working through administrative work, proofing announcements, makes his contribution truly elite.

To Mr. Bansal!

[clepine]

He's the man!

[patmagroin]

Atta boy Paul!

Paul also organizes all of the Toronto local events and has done an awesome job of it. He keeps us playing, keeps coming up with awesome in game bonus point objectives for us to achieve, keeps bringing in new players, and sometimes he even shows up on time! But seriously, he's done a ton to keep the Toronto scene organized and alive and we really appreciate it.

[gogolen]

very nice addition to the list


I have to say, the one downside to lists like this is the anticipation. This "one a day" is killin' me.

[DarkBro]

Thanks Mark, this recognition means a lot! It's been a great privilege to be able to work with all of the awesome volunteers not only on the proofing team, but also across the PC in general.

New responsibilities have eaten up a lot of the time that I would normally devote to Proofing for the past few sets, but the new team (mostly assembled by Shewski and now a great mix of veterans and fresh faces) has done an incredible job keeping the ship running smoothly, and I think they should be given a ton more recognition for all of the (sometimes tedious, but always essential) work that they do.

Also, it's great to be able to organize events for our local meta, especially when a lot of us are friends outside of the game, but also when we get new players coming out and becoming a vital part of the scene. Running the Thursday and Friday afternoon events for Worlds this year was very cool too!

Overall, being a volunteer for the PC has brought me a lot of satisfaction and pride, but the best parts have been working with the other amazing volunteers and keeping our meta alive and kicking. Thanks again!

[JediJer]

very nice addition to the list


I have to say, the one downside to lists like this is the anticipation. This "one a day" is killin' me.

Yeah, can you just post 16-6 right now, and then take some time with the top 5?

[AnakinSolo]

very nice addition to the list


I have to say, the one downside to lists like this is the anticipation. This "one a day" is killin' me.

Yeah, can you just post 16-6 right now, and then take some time with the top 5?

naw, its more fun to give the fellows a bit of time in recognition I think.

[AnakinSolo]

#16 Tom Hollingworth "Wise"
Tom is one of the most successful tournament players to make this list. He has contributed in several critical ways to the game over the years. He was a valued contributor to, and then head of the competitive balance team, where he successfully worked for several years. He has been a playtester and then developer, and contributed to the game through those efforts. However, his most unique contributions have come as a content creator. As a regular holotable player, Tom was one of the first players to share recordings of their holotable games, sometimes providing additional commentary. As technology has matured, he has become the swccg streamer - someone who has streamed many many holotable games. Other than major event streams, he has been the online play exposure for star wars ccg. While this work is more fun than most, it has nevertheless been a unique contribution that has helped the community.

To Mr. Hollingworth

[darkjediknight11]

plus he's a mod!

unless that counts against him

[AnakinSolo]

gah - I'd forgotten he is a moderator. That definitely counts for something, although the moderators seem to do a lot less than they used to do.

[gogolen]

Wise you are to include Tom.

(see what I did there)

[dorshe1]

gah - I'd forgotten he is a moderator. That definitely counts for something, although the moderators seem to do a lot less than they used to do.

Yeah, they let me roam free. Not cool for everyone else.

Thanks!

[AnakinSolo]

#15 Jim Colson "ShadowLeader"
Jim is one of the original advocates, and has served the PC in some form for over a decade. He has made two contributions that are especially enduring.The first is that he was responsible for much of the early content in the collecting section of the website. He put quite a bit of effort into this, and especially in earlier days it was extremely impressive. Over time, other people have added on lots of information, but Jim's work is still a cornerstone and a bridge between the swccg playing community and the collecting community. The main reason to celebrate Jim however is that after Decipher made a huge "donation" to the swccg PC of cards, packs, and ephemera, Jim graciously volunteered to hold it. The quantity has significantly decreased over the years, and eventually all of these materials were moved to be closer to the PC store, but Jim has still stored most of these materials for most of the PC era. The amount of money that has saved the PC is impressive, not even considering the work that Jim put in to sending out shipments. Anyone who has ever received PC prize support, probably owes a debt of gratitude to Jim.

To Mr. Colson!

[darkjediknight11]

to mr. colson!

[dorshe1]

to mr. colson!

Thanks!

[gogolen]

#15 Jim Colson "ShadowLeader"
Jim is one of the original advocates, and has served the PC in some form for over a decade. He has made two contributions that are especially enduring.The first is that he was responsible for much of the early content in the collecting section of the website. He put quite a bit of effort into this, and especially in earlier days it was extremely impressive. Over time, other people have added on lots of information, but Jim's work is still a cornerstone and a bridge between the swccg playing community and the collecting community. The main reason to celebrate Jim however is that after Decipher made a huge "donation" to the swccg PC of cards, packs, and ephemera, Jim graciously volunteered to hold it. The quantity has significantly decreased over the years, and eventually all of these materials were moved to be closer to the PC store, but Jim has still stored most of these materials for most of the PC era. The amount of money that has saved the PC is impressive, not even considering the work that Jim put in to sending out shipments. Anyone who has ever received PC prize support, probably owes a debt of gratitude to Jim.

To Mr. Colson!

As someone who drove and unloaded that truck in the picture (and has about 10% of that stuff in my own garage), I can definitely attest to the efforts of Jim.

Not to mention he was also the cornerstone of the Dagobah Region for many years, always running the big events down there, including DragonCon for several years. As a much younger member of the Decipher squadron program, there were 2 guys that I thought embodied what a good Decipher volunteer should be and Jim Colson was one of those men.

(for anyone curious, James Van Fleet was the other)

[mikefrench]

to mr. colson!

i think this is the dictionary definition of a $#!& eating grin

[patmagroin]

So #1 is Scott Lingrell. My guess is Shewski's at 2. Other remaining guys will be raith, Jedijer, Darren Pillbeam, and ltpage2 (the holotable creator), but I'm not sure on the order. The Frenchs will probably make appearances too.

I'm really holding my breath for when a controversial guy like Schele or Sonn gets named. Curious to see what kind of can of worms that opens.

[JarJarDrinks]

I'm really holding my breath for when a controversial guy like Schele or Sonn gets named. Curious to see what kind of can of worms that opens.

Pretty sure one of those is a no-brainer to make the top 5 and the other shouldn't be within sniffing distance of a discussion about this list.

[Paul McPherson]

So #1 is Scott Lingrell. My guess is Shewski's at 2. Other remaining guys will be raith, Jedijer, Darren Pillbeam, and ltpage2 (the holotable creator), but I'm not sure on the order. The Frenchs will probably make appearances too.

I'm really holding my breath for when a controversial guy like Schele or Sonn gets named. Curious to see what kind of can of worms that opens.

Chris Menzel will surely make the list (5-8 IMO) and I'd also expect Kevin Shannon (for his hosting of events and podcasting) to be on there.