Elate: Hello, Nirs. Don't you mind if I interview you for rubash?

Nirs: Hello, no, surely. You're welcome.

Elate: Well, let's start then. What's your name in real life?

Nirs: Alexander Shilov.

Elate: So I've heard that you were a Promo Team member, is that true? How did you get there, were you invited or did you decide to go there by yourself?

Nirs: Speaking shortly, I became a part of PT only because of my nationality. I.e. I was Russian who was rather well-known in a community.
But if more details are needed, it was gman80 (ex-director of strategic planning in Nabi) who was trying to regularize the approach to Toribash development, which was (and is) "We are developers only", which means that from Hampa's point of view community should entertain and develop itself. That's why PromoTeam was international for maximum effect since the beginning.
So. There was a quota for a Russian player and I was chosen. Nothing special - they invited me and after the second invitation I agreed. At first I was just a member, later became pt-lead.

Elate: And what for do hosters need this "internationality"? Tournaments are being hosted in English anyway.

Nirs: You shouldn't think of PromoTeam as of an org for tourney hosting. Even from the title it's clear that it was created for a different type of work. For that matter, at the moment when PT appeared, old good GameKeepers who were creating all the events in Toribash still existed.
PromoTeam was thinking about Toribash promotion. Tournaments were some kind of advertisment of a new for those times "knockout" mode. That's why in the beginning there was a clear separation: PromoTeam makes only Small Daily Knockout Tourneys, whereas GameKeepers host Big Epic Classic Events.
Anyway, PT had a wide range of tasks: from making mods to uploading Toribash videos on YouTube.
But to be honest, at the end it all "shrank" and PT became just a next organisation for tourneys. But this is a bit different story.

Elate: Wait, what story? Continue, we're all interested. Why did PT die?

Nirs: Well.... I don't even know how to properly answer this. If we speak about PT closure, then, once again, I can be short - PromoTeam was closed because of the conflict between Gman and Veb. Surely, I can say that, for example, notorious "promotion" was obviously the thing that PromoTeam members didn't actually care about and this was the main reason to decide whether this group had to be deleted or some radical changes had to be made. But in general, the cause of all the troubles of PT was just the same as this of other groups of Toribash. And of Toribash itself.

Elate: What was it?

Nirs: What was it? Sounds fun, but the thing that Hampa considers to be the main positive feature of Toribash I see as the biggest mistake. I'm now speaking of the fact that the game is being made and developed by non-professionals. Not even non-professionals, the game is being developed by dropout schoolers. Starting from the game and ending with forum support and power-groups. Everywhere (absolutely everywhere) there's only apathy and disorder.

Elate: So PromoTeam turned out to be a failure and it was closed, right?

Nirs: Hm, not exactly. No, even absolutely not.
PromoTeam was a usual Toribash group - with tons of inactivity, dozens of unnecessary people and excessive pathos. But. During its existence PT managed to gather a number of enthusiasts who really wanted something and really did useful stuff. Why, what was PromoTeam closed for? Veb simply got butthurt after Gman's leaving and removed the group, destroying all the efforts and projects of the previous one and a half years. Reasons? There were no reasons.
Of course he had to say something. Stuff like "PromoTeam was bullshit and it caused inflation in torieconomics". Funny to hear.
Regarding the inflation, I responsibly declare that a month's PT budget was equal to one day of a mediocre farmer's work. Money that was given to host tournaments and pay for members' work was just a drop in the ocean compared to those tens of millions TC which were being farmed weekly.
And with that idea of "PromoTeam being conceptually flawed", just look at what has "good Kitfox" done later. Later there were GameKeepers, who were doing nothing at all for the first two months (!!!), trying to understand how they should differ from PromoTeam. And as a result, they ended up doing the same stuff, simply copying almost everything.
But a number of PT "stars" got offended with such attitude towards them and left the game forever. Those who were the best were gone. People who quitted were those enthusiasts, those who had been doing everything before.
Anyway, I guess that's already more than enough. Let's finish with PromoTeam.

Elate: Okay, but tell me please who are Veb and KiTFoX since you've mentioned them. And we'll pass to next questions.

Nirs: Veb was the second figure in Nabi in past, responsible for forum and community. Little kid with megalomania and ugly disposition. Kitfox - his close friend with even a bigger ego and mess in the head. This pair messed so many things up here that who knows what would've Toribash looked like without them.

Elate: Hmm, as far as I know, you were a Smod and Admin. How did you get those positions?

Nirs: Analogically to getting into PT - a guy was needed to operate with the Russian segment of the toricommunity. And here there were just no other options except me as since the PromoTeam times rucommunity thought that it's me who should deal with different problems and be a sterling support in all the questions. But as I didn't have enough powers I had to spam smods and admins. Generally speaking, they made me a smod and, later, an admin just to get rid of me
Honestly saying, it's hard to get a position only if nobody knows about you. When your name is on the lips, all the doors are actually opened.

Elate: And what did you have to deal with?

Nirs: Supermoderator's work is pretty sad - you can ban, you can unban. That's all - smods cannot do anything serious. Being an admin is much more fun.
But anyway, it's a difficult everyday work. If you're taking responsibility, of course.

Elate: RuKeepers is your "child". What prompted you to create rk?

Nirs: The idea of RuKeepers (with no proper title at those times) crossed my mind when, due to some reasons, Taroni wasn't accepted to PT.
I don't even remember how did I jump from necessity of Taroni to necessity of an organisation for Russians, but it's not important. What is important is that suddenly I realized how enormously we could profit from this idea.
I initially was aimed to high standards, and that's why I first chose 10 best-respected and known Russian players, discussed support with them (at least verbal) and Rukeepers were opened as an assosiation of ten:
- Ash - sponsor, ideas creator, hoster, active member
- Bes - writer, ideas creator, manager, hoster
- Ckytoh - newbies helper, hoster, ideas creator
- Hector - sponsor, translator, active member, lobbyist
- Korvin - rucommunity founder, ideas creator, active member
- macPerfect - artist, manager, hoster, pt-member
- Major (FighterKHV) - translator, active member
- Nirs - writer, translator, ideas creator, hoster, manager
- SL1234 (Hehebugaga) - programmer, support, lua-expert, active member
- Ticux - writer, active member, newbies helper, manager
After that dozens of other people were added. And the work started.
Our start was extremely cool - we were spoken of, people knew us and we were very respected. It seems for me that we became an official organisation in only a pair of weeks (now it's already hard to understand, but back in 2009 that was nonsense).

Elate: And what was the purpose of this organisation? What did you do?

Nirs: We did almost the same as today's rubash, but the scale was much wider. We did really a lot, you can see a bit shortened and sleeky list here: http://forum.toribash.com/showthread.php?t=148387.
As for the aim... once again, I can just copypaste the official RuKeepers' manifesto.
"As it was written above, the main goal that rukeepers set is to embody big projects in the life which would cardinally better the life of Russian players.

Main spheres of our activity:
- organisation of events-catalysts
- creation, translation and systematisation of the knowledge of Toribash
- lobbying of Russian players' interests
- attraction of new players and retention of old ones
- integration of the rucommunity into the toricommunity
- improvement of the image of Russian-speaking countries

Rukeepers does not pursue selfish goals in its activity and we're open to everyone who wants and can be useful and necessary to their compatriots".

Elate: Was it hard to control RK?

Nirs: Yes, very hard. There were more than enough executors, but finding a well up coordinator and responsible people was very problematic. That's why I had to do loads of work myself. Well, it was hard, really hard. And it was taking lots of time.

Elate: Why did RK collapse?

Nirs: Firstly, RK didn't collapse but was forcibly closed by me. The reason was simple - I got tired and couldn't find a substitute for myself. Actually, there was Stazis, but he once took offense at me because of some trifle and quitted. It isn't important now. I could just let things take their course but I didn't like such outcome both at that time and now. Obviously, it wasn't an easy decision, but I regret nothing.
I lacked people who could cover me and take a part of work on themselves. If only I had sir in companions, then probably (even definitely) everything would've been different. We could've done much more and the success would've been greater.

Elate: During your progression in Toribash, what clans have you been a member of? In which, at those times, you weren't but wanted to be in?

Nirs: I have only been in [Hack]. And I always refused all the offers to join any other clans. No, I never wanted to be somewhere different. There was a periodic intention to quit and be a "lone wolf", but I think that everyone has such urges.
If we look at clans without paying attention to "whether I would like to join them or not", then, surely, there are clans which are worth respect.
I always sympathized RelaxAll (of Sahee times, of course). Guys were clearly ahead of their time, it's a pity that they've became shit. Impossible not to mark Alpha with their ideology and unity (even though they've probably died already, too). Among Russians I, oddly enough, respect USSR - or rather the way how Taroni is keeping the clan afloat, almost an ideal clanleader. It's also necessary to pay tribute to BtC who managed to become more than a "clan of one game".
But if we'll speak about good people/players who're making clans better and more attractive, then this list could be continued further and further.

Elate: Well, go ahead then :]

Nirs: So... here the main thing is not to forget someone. Unfortunatelly, I don't know any new players, but from the "oldbones" there are people to mention.
Firstly, undoubtedly, I always think of the whole [Hack] with warmth. People, whom I entirely trusted in game and, if needed, will trust anything in life. Hep (hepukt4e), iLL (iLLepidus), Pofig, Engr (Engraze) - I love them all and don't want to lose contact with them. At all, there were enough interesting people here during the last 5 years.
TIcux, for example - "daddy" of all the skilled players. Quite peculiar in communication, but ingame he's genius. Just unbelievably genius. Among the younger ones it's hard not to mention Leyz - a taking-money-away machine - no matter who the player is, newbie, pseudo-pro or even really pro.
Continuing with the ingame skill, I can say that during all the time I've seen only two true improvisers (not those whose improvements end after random clicks at opens) - it's andreyoshi and Biaker. Biaker is the only player for me who provokes me to "do something" so that not to darkle behind him.
In my time, I was wrong about Tarlan - I've always been confused by his, how to say, fluffyness. I didn't take him seriously - but in reality he turned out to be over purposeful and responsible. If you are reading this - excuse me, this was my mistake.
Curiously enough, I was very impressed by Slko - devilishly clever and perspicacious. This, surely, doesn't anyhow connected to the game, but he'll go far - I'm more than sure in it. I always sympathized Fizik. People like Fizik - that's what rucommunity lacks today.
Hmm, well, I always liked people who are seriously involved in something apart from the game.
Brrr, I'm sure that I forgot someone deserving and important. Well, anyway. If I were given a week, I'd be able to increase tenfold this list.

Elate: Hm, I'm interested how did you manage to get into the Default Replays?

Nirs: Through connections. There's nothing to say here.

Elate: Why did you decide to leave Toribash?

Nirs: There's no faith in this game anymore. I cannot ignore tons of drawbacks which Hampa doesn't care about. Damn, we believed in Toribash so much - it had all the chances to become a cybersport discipline, become popular and universally recognizable, but as a result even 4.0 looks like a quickie. Toribash has no future.

Elate: Would you like to come back, remember your old times and help rubash?

Nirs: Not planning to do this in the near future.

Elate: It's a pity to hear. Anyway, here the questions and the interview ends. Thanks for your patience, attention and time.

Nirs: It's my pleasure, thank you too. Goodbye, Max.