First on our list from back in the mists of July is a Community Spotlight with renowned sail scrapbooker Captain Butterfinger! Alongside his efforts to catalogue the wonderful and varied sails of the Sea of Thieves, he took the opportunity to tell us about his favourite moments from playing the game and his excursions into a certain series of simian-themed ’90s point-and-click adventures.
For our first Creator Spotlight of this batch, we decided it was our turn to dig into the details with notorious nitpicker and quirky content creator, TheGeeNee. He ran us through some of his crazier stories in trademark chaotic style, from pig heists to hidden images, interspersed with some genuine advice and notes on the importance of criticism. Also doonaggles, whatever they are.
In August we followed up with another Creator Spotlight, this time with lore aficionado AShinyRay! Known in the community for his story musings and unwavering love of Captain Flameheart, he guided us through his journey from playing Spyro the Dragon on the PlayStation to producing Gears 5 content, all the way to becoming a quality-focused player in the Sea of Thieves community.
For our next Community Spotlight, we chatted with renowned pirate Sally the Swishing Slasher – or, more accurately, the shoutcaster behind Sally, Woodrow Jenkins! It was great to hear more about his history of Rare gaming, his Hide and Seek adventures and his tremendous passion for music. We didn’t even have to bribe him with extra shark content to talk to us. How lucky we are!
Next on the list was a coveted Legend Spotlight as we checked back in with the subject of our first ever Community Spotlight: IOnEI_Falcon! As one of the first people to play Sea of Thieves, he had lots of stories to share about his time on the waves and how he grew into the role of a trusted Deckhand for players worldwide. Not to mention those apparently stellar Guitar Hero skills…
Our next participant as we continued through September also landed a Legend Spotlight, as we caught up with crafty connoisseur Lizalaroo. One of the driving forces behind the ever-popular SoTFest convention, Liz recounted tales of her journey to Pirate Legend, her joyful discovery that the Legendary set matched her colour scheme and, of course, some of her phenomenal creations!
October beckoned and by this point it had been a little while since we hosted a Creator Spotlight, so we raced to catch up with famed speedster YooKay to fill the gap. A record holder for the fastest race to Pirate Legend – under five hours! – and creator of an array of video guides, he was kind enough to take a break from dispensing helpful hints and tackle some of our questions instead.
For our final Community Spotlight on this list, we wanted to go out in style, so who better to talk to than competitive legend PeiRei? Surprisingly for a winner in both the Notorious Arena League and Sea of Champions, he maintained that his fondest Sea of Thieves memory was buying the deeds to Mermaid’s Hideaway and Imperial Crown Fortress. Our estate agent isn’t quite so sure.
Our penultimate entry of this catch-up batch is the Creator Spotlight for real-life fisherman and PvP veteran, CJShiz! From starting out in the Closed Beta by sinking everyone else he came across, to catching some real-life Treacherous Plunder, his Spotlight walked us through his journey to becoming a Sea of Thieves Partner and offered tips for anyone thinking of following in his footsteps.
Taking us into December and the final Spotlight of 2023 was a Creator Spotlight on one of our newer Partners: Toxie Sinclaire. A meme queen and menace on the seas, she explained her approach to the ‘wild ride’ of content creation and the importance of being inventive, but our biggest question remained unanswered: what on earth is going on in that picture with Pendragon?
And we’ll leave it there for now! We hadn’t meant to leave you hanging for quite so long, and the eagle-eyed amongst you may notice that there are a few more recent Spotlights not on this list. Never fear, we haven’t forgotten anyone: the next Showcase will include all the remaining interviews as well as a few yet to come. No one will be left behind!
In the meantime, why not pick some of the interviews above and click through for a complete read? Or, if you’ve already made it through the whole lot, you can check out all our historic Community, Creator and Legend Spotlights via the News page, or of course the previous Showcase round-up. There are always more sides to see of the incredible Sea of Thieves community – delve in and find out!
