In the beginning...

Blaze was actually started around 4 years ago, under the tags of •ы• by some unknown player. It mostly consisted of Teesside players, and there was no clear structure, just the tags. I was asked to wear the tags by NAV, who was one of the original members. No-one had any clue why we wore them, or what that actually meant. Time passed, and more people saw us playing and asked to join. Eventually, and here my memory gets a little fuzzy as to how exactly this happened, I came forward as the leader of this band of merry nomads.

The origins of the Blaze name is actually thanks to a steam conversation between NAV and myself (Those really old school Blaze members will remember NAV, who is still around these days, hiding somewhere) We discussed that, due to the increasing popularity of the •ы• tags, that we should really make a community so all the players could get to know each other. We discussed names (which ranged from Blazing Legends, to Blind and Lame, to Bitching Lesbians.) Eventually, we settled on Blaze, and a forum was setup for members to sign up and meet each other. Some members who didn't sign up and didn't actually fit in with the ideals we founded, were removed and gradually, more and more guys and girls came to the forums to say hello, and often found themselves sticking around and eventually joining. Nox was in fact, the very first person recruited by NAV and myself.

Anyway, the rest, as they say, is history.

The growth of Blaze was greatly helped by the merge of Fury-Css under Blaze. Kaizer, as the old leader of Fury-css, was promoted to help me with the increasing workload of running Blaze. With the help of generous donations, Blaze has managed to host a wide variety of servers over its lifetime, ranging with mods such as Italy 24/7, Zombie Escape, Prison Break, Minigames, GunGame, VIP rescue etc. We have also gone through a variety of domain names and website designs, as well as continued recruitment.

Blaze took a big step forward in 2008 with its popular Italy 24/7 server, which ran successfully for many months, before coming down in an ill-fated attempt to merge Teesside back together. With the collapse of the old Teesside servers, and the failed attempt to revive a new Teesside, Blaze had lost a founding part of itself. However, special mention must go to Skael and Dean, who both put in a lot of time and effort to create new servers for Blaze members to play on. Our Zombie Escape has grown in popularity despite its unscheduled host change in mid 2010, and we continue to create new servers and ideas to maintain a home for the members.

Around late 2009, Blaze entered its first competitive CSS team into ESL. Consisting of DucHuy, Skool, Neebo, Bird and myself, with appearances from AJ and Antipop, the team enjoyed success in the ESL open ladder and cups. It also had the opportunity to compete against some of the best sides in the UK and abroad. However, in earlier 2010, the team folded, although many of the members continue to mix together to this day.

In May 2010, with the Zombie Escape going from strength to strength, and Kaizer getting married, Blaze was indebted to Reaper101 (Now called Lena) who was asked to help lead the community. He stepped into a position that required a lot of technical and financial commitment, but without a doubt, has been a blessing to Blaze. His ability to completely design our new website, customise the forums, fix the servers, and generally clean up the technical mess that I make has been invaluable.

What exactly is Blaze?

We often get called a clan or a community, but it is tough to find the right word to describe exactly what we do. We are certainly not a Zombie Escape community, nor are we a community defined by a single mod, or a single game. Blaze can best be summed up with the idealogy that is at the core of this community. In simple terms, it is a lot of fun to play video games. However, it is a lot MORE fun to play these video games with people that you get on with and can have fun with. Blaze was founded, and is still run with the mentality to bring like minded players together to have fun. I can honestly sit here and say that my enjoyment of playing games has been greatly increased by being apart of this community, and meeting people that I now have the privilege to call friends. Blaze is a relaxed and friendly place to spend time, and to meet people who will improve your online experience, often without knowing it.

So, what is in the future for Blaze?

Well, we will continue to do what we have always done. Keep having fun, whether its ingame, on forums or on teamspeak/mumble/vent. We have always kept a light hearted attitude to the fundamentals of what Blaze is, and that is why we have continued to flourish. Because we don't take things too seriously, instead of being a group of players, we are in fact, just a group of friends. I much prefer being in a community where I know, I can ask any Blaze member to play CSS/L4D(2)/KF or any other game, and that the atmosphere will be relaxed and fun. It is something I have prided myself on that the Blaze members continue to uphold this truth.

Rob
(THE Rob of Rob's)