For those who know who this article is going to be about, there is no better way to start than this. “Heeellllloooo everyone this is me, Gameslayer989, aka NooBrainer”
This is an interview that I have wanted to do for a while. When I first got into Star Wars: Destiny, like I have said before, I went down the rabbit trail on YouTube. My goal was to find someone that spoke to me. I didn’t want to only be entertained, I wanted knowledge and analysis. I also didn’t know what a Patreon was so that never even crossed my mind. While doing my search, I came across this young person.
His style is infectious. He allows you to see the best and worst of what he is playing. I liked that about this CC. The undeniable fact that both wins and losses were shares. You could see that learning was done in both situations.
The Beginnings of a Slayer
Originally from Derbyshire, England, NooBrainer now resides in Harrogate, where he works. He is just far enough away from anywhere that has local gaming. Because of this, the main outlet for the content is TTS-based. He has been playing since before the first set was actually released.
He watched Tiny Grime’s first game video early on. Then, NooBrainer posted his video on December 14, 2016. He admits that there was a gap between starting to play and the posting of content. He was drawn to the game, however, by a friend. Dan Felder and NooBrainer played a different game together, Faeria, on which Felder was a designer. The mods for Star Wars: Destiny were out on TTS so the two friends tried out the 2-player decks.
“We played the 2-player demo, and we agreed the game was pretty terrible and we weren’t having much fun. However whilst he left the game to try something new, I decided to build my own deck, and my eyes were drawn to Jango (AW21)/Veers (AW4).” NooBrainer said, as he remembered the situation. After that he was hooked.
Why do I do what I do?
We all have reasons we do what we do. I asked what the purpose of his content was and quite simply he answered, “There are two reasons why I make videos of a new game, either because it’s a competitive game and I want to record it, or because I really want someone else to make some content for a game I love, and no one is. I mean someone has to right?“ Short and to the point.
The game hadn’t hit the shelves yet, so after he joined the first TTS league, he made the videos. At first it was so that he could analyze his own play. But he decided to put the videos out and create the content he was looking for, not only for himself but for others. “After the fantastic reception my first few videos got, almost 1000 views in a week, I knew there was an audience like myself and I just had to make more.”
He actually started with Minecraft videos, and based on the people he would watch he decided to give it a go. He had a rough time streaming one weekend and decided that he could do the same thing he was watching. That is what started the NooBrainer brand.
CCs are not Important they are Vital
“Content creators are anchor points for communities. Whether you agree or disagree with a content creator, they can provoke discussion and create a shared cultural backdrop to help facilitate communication between players of any level of skill.” These words are as true today, now that we have multiple CCs, as they were in the beginning.
Not only does NooBrainer believe that they are the anchor to the community; he also believes that there is room at the table for everyone. If you are a competitive player you can learn with the CCs that are more competitive. If you are just starting out or if you play more casually, find a casual CC and follow them.
“They also introduce players to the game by providing an entry-point that the potential player knows they can stop and walk away from at any time if they feel the game isn’t for them, or by allowing them to stop and go back to a previous point that they had missed. The Knights of Ren and Tiny Grimes provided a great introduction for many people.” NooBrainer said about 2 of the older CCs, before he gave a shout out….”If it weren’t for those older content creators and Icekobra, the original TTS mod maker, the game would never have become popular.”
He credits these people at the beginning for building the fire and desire for the game. He credits the ability to have played, thanks to IceKobra, on TTS as the overwhelming reason that the community was already being built.
Find me On the Line
There are a few places that you can find NooBrainer on the line. “I have a twitch channel, twitch.tv/gameslayer989, but it’s incredibly rare I do anything with it, and if I do it wouldn’t be destiny related.” You can also watch him on YouTube at https://youtu.be/NvKf39U_lm0. “I try and upload 2 videos a week, however there are weeks where I don’t upload anything.”
Wherever you find him, I guarantee you will learn a little something. He dissects his plays and is always talking about what the opponent’s possible responses would be. He helps you think the way you need to during your games.
Borrow or Buy
He says that whether you borrow or buy cards, have fun. Try out different decks, the 2-player set, or the starters and once you’ve mastered those then go on to possibly borrowing a deck. “From there I think you should go on the DB and search for a character you might like, and pick a decklist from it. You can choose to make your own deck of course, but if you are wanting to win netdecking is a great jumping off point. Most importantly, join a community, whether IRL or Discord or on Facebook or wherever. Be ready to lose, and lose a lot, but losing shouldn’t be a bad thing. Enjoy the competition in the moment and don’t dismiss your losses as being due to luck, as there is a surprising lack of luck in this game considering it’s dice-based.”
Community feels like Family
“Without the community I would have stopped playing Star Wars: Destiny a long time ago. Obviously all multiplayer games need a good community, but without viewers I wouldn’t have kept making videos on the game once YouTube turned off my channel monetization. For context, YouTube introduced a policy where channels with less than 1000 subscribers could no longer monetize their videos. Despite a dedicated audience with high watch times, I couldn’t get that number large enough. I wasn’t earning much with it, didn’t even pay for the internet, but it was a good incentive to track channel growth and have a consistent upload schedule. It wasn’t a big deal having it, but losing it felt terrible, and for a while simply playing Destiny felt tainted to me, like I should take that as a sign to move onto a different, more popular game. More recently, I took a break from destiny when Across the Galaxy was released, as I felt the card pool had become bloated and the power levels were too strong. I always intended to return after rotation, and by keeping up with the community, watching, reading, and listening to content creators, I was able to return and remain competitive when perhaps I would have otherwise just fallen by the wayside.”
As is custom with these articles, I asked what deck he does not want to sit across from. Being a mainly Hero player, he says he is feeling envy towards the Villain support decks. He loves their Rainbow Removal package. Between that, the health and the overall weighted power of the villain supports themselves, “I don’t like looking up at that mountain and realising I have to climb that.”
Top 5 coming at you
NooBrainer felt that his top 5 cards of the Meta is Vader’s Fist (AG13), MegaBlaster Troopers (CV31), Forsaken (CV9), Easy Pickings (LG117), and Chewbacca’s Blaster Rifle (CV102).
What in the Worlds?
The “how” of the invites for Worlds 2020 is what concerns NooBrainer. “I am okay with it if they’re planning on inviting 300 or so people, or if they want it small but are willing to pay for flights. If they are just handing out invites left and right to the American player base whilst the rest of the world gets shafted, I will be very unhappy, and I’m also someone who doesn’t play or have the ability to travel to a lot of these events when they are more local. Getting an invite will be hard for me.”
Hopefully, FFG will see to it that the invites are spread out. As for NooBrainer, he is an awesome teacher. He helps you in many ways and answers questions. I had contacted him multiple times before the article. He gives you a lot of information and is very analytical. Check out his first article and you will see how his mind works. You can get to it here. http://yourdestiny.dk/blog/exploding-dice
The Chance Cube Universe, if you haven’t given NooBrainer’s channel a Chance, do it today. You won’t be disappointed. And as always – May you always need what you roll and roll what you need.
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