KSI Sasayuki

KSI Sasayuki General Information Xbox Gamertag KSI Sasayuki 7 Gender: Male Location: Japan Community Info Date Joined: December 23rd, 2006 Divisions Lost Empire Highest Known Rank: Co-Clan Leader Status Current Status: Retired

[Source]

Clan Operations

"My birth name is Tenshu Nomato. I was born in the village of Kitanakagusuku in Okinawa, Japan. I was forced to part with the Nomato family and came to the US when I was 4 years old and have been here most of that time. Before I had legal power of attorney, I was given my father's last name and a first name of his choosing. I am now Vincent Knapp: a Senior Airman in the United States Air Force. I won't discuss my travels or profession in this verbage, but perhaps in the future.

My history with KSI lies with very few. I met Deadmeat and Syrus in UT99 for the PC on server Killing Services 02. Back then, KSI was just a single-digit number of rag-tag gamers looking to knock someone's head off. Naturally, I wanted in. "KSI" in name originated from the name of the server; Killing Services Incorporated. (In 2007, a marketting decision was made by KSI SE7EN 7 (and I think maybe Warpath?) to stray from that name due to the implications it may have. No one wants to sponsor Killing Services Incorporated for their charity event. KSI became Knowledge, strength, Integrity).

Other than matchmade games, much of what was discussed was the release of Halo 2 in 2004. Online console gaming with clan features? Who wasn't excited? Your dead aunt, that's who. The switch from PC to console didn't bother anyone. We all knew that console gamers were easier to please. The number snapped up to about 900 in no time. I was a bit of a nog at 15 then, so I don't really remember much of clan-ops (and we didn't call it clan-ops) other than being a fresh Private with no KSI tag in Oblivion XK. Yes, Xiled Kings was a division back then. Not even a year had gone by and my squad went dead after it'd been hit, and that's when I motioned to make the switch to Lost Empire. We didn't really have rules about squad-hopping in 2005, so... off I went.

I huddled in Lost Empire - still with no KSI tag - for a good 6-7 months until 2006 when I started a really great job at Windstream. 17 with a little bit of money rolling in, I got myself a KSI tag AND a second gamertag, which I put in another clan named FSI. Those gents in FSI were high-class and I give them my best. Two clans at once: how was this allowed? When asked, I simply lied. I said that FSI was contemplating a hit and I was using every bit of diplomacy I could to keep them allied with us. FSI went down around 2009, but had always been in alliance with KSI. A little white lie did us some good.

I brought a few members over from FSI, namely FSI Munkey and Erbs. Erbs won't admit it because he likes to claim that he's his own man and that he only does things that he wants to do, but yes, I drew him here. Munkey isn't the same as Munkee, so we'll just clear that up. However, he IS essential to part of the story. You see, he stepped on my toes. FSI was on the down-slope in 2006 at the time, and we promised to bring a few members over. Not entire squads for merging or poaching, but we had the intention of bringing over strong leaders. I managed a few myself, namely KSI Savate/Savate V and FSI Kuvoh/KSI Kuvoh, and Munkey brought nobody. But that was okay, because we were friends. It mattered. For that, we were promised Co-Founder positions. I was a Captain at the time, and he was a General. Major didn't exist in KSI's rank structure yet, but that was still a hella-sweet deal. Munkey went behind my back and complained to MaTriX, Lost Empire's Clan Leader (now called Division Leader) that we didn't need two Co-Founders. I was told that I would receive no promotion until I hacked up the information that I did the work, and Munkee did the sitting. We argued a bit, and he was moved to Krime Syndicate so that he couldn't be a pain in the butt.

I took Lost Empire on as a challenge. Other divisions had 800, 900, maybe 1,200 members. I didn't care about those numbers. I knew a lot of them were fudged a bit, but what I really knew was that there was no way that those divisions could educate and tend to those members. Most of them were just people that were asked, "HeywannabeinKSI? Kacceptinvietplzkthxbai." The members of several other divisions knew that they were in KSI, and that was basically it. As a Co-Founder, the squad that I front-lined was Maya LE. It stayed above 90 members and I knew every member in that squad by first name, last name, hair color, etc. You couldn't sneak anyone past anyone else. It was a squad of gentlemen, really. I made sure that everyone from 2LT and up was at least 21+ years of age. Was I a bit of a hypocrite? Yes, I was only 17, about to turn 18.

Did I run a fine-butt squad? I had four main members that helped me shape Lost Empire: KSI Apollyon (not to be confused with FS's former KSI Apollyon 7), a 39-year-old Java programmer with two kids. KSI Apokalypsis, a 32-year-old night club bouncer. KSI Salu2 7, a former Marine. KSI Goliath 7, a 21-year-old C++ programmer with a knack for always being online, always being punctual, and making sure that new recruits were acquainted with the entire squad. These four would eventually run the squad themselves as I moved up to Founder, Goliath being the Co-Founder. He had the longest time in with an equal understanding of what we wanted on a daily basis, and was online the most frequently.

Aztec LE was led by KSI Kuvoh and KSI Savate. There was another Aztec squad, but it was highly inactive. Apoc had a dead tag in there. We tried to get him online, but he would never budge. He had a MaTriX connection and we sort of biased our judgment of Apoc based off of the fact that MaTriX really tried to keep us down. There was a long period of time where we actually held a grudge against him for being lazy. Things turned around, he's a great guy, and we moved as many members over as we could. Really, it was MaTriX putting unnecessary pressure on us, trying to force us to merge, and threatening us with punishment that grew our brotherhood in Lost Empire for the first time. I don't credit him. I credit the potential we had. I don't know what he's doing now, but I'm sure that he would think this was a bit ridiculous if he had read it.

Our third major squad was Carthage LE, led by KSI Stark 7 (FSI King VL) and KSI Clash 7. Carthage was an instant hit. Stark/King was a former Battalion Commander in FSI which is Senior Director equivalent in KSI. Tensity LE and required effort were very similar in both clans, so the experience, for him, really was already there. Clash was pretty close to us as well. When he joined, he really had hopes of being put in Maya, but we were actually full at the time. I felt a little bad, but he got the point. We were all still one division.

After I made Clan Leader (Division Leader), our fourth squad, Empirium LE, was formed. It never really got off the ground at the time. It was generally always below 40 members, so we used it as a member overflow. It helped us maintain our 300 total. The number 300 was purely a coincidence, but it was still symbolic. While other divisions had massive numbers of new members, we had Shere Khan, an already-seasoned veteran in both the clan aspect and US military aspect with 80+ US military members. For our small numbers through the years, we were often threatened to be merged with Last Strike or Fire Storm. Those divisions were great and I really got along with all of their leaders, but we had dignity. We worked hard to keep what we earned. MaTriX was still pushing us towards that point. When L3gacy, the original creator of Lost Empire, stepped in to try and shut us down for suggesting that some of our programmers run the Lost Empire website, MaTriX defended us. I never thanked him for that, but he helped keep us afloat.

I used to but heads with KSI Warpath 7. He really was an angry guy. Just like everybody else, I've been 2-day banned, kicked out, etc. Warpath made sure that I was at least knocked down a notch. He ended up as not one of my favorite KSI members. I didn't really remember seeing him rise through the clan-ops ranks, and I got on Billy's **** list for a minute after mentioning it. Lost Empire was still at 300 members, so the targeting continued. Finally at Clan Leader, I could maintain as a true shield for the rest of my division. At any cost, I made sure that no one from Director and onward tried to challenge my members or damage their self-worth. We were contained, and all BS rolling downhill stopped at me and me only.

KSI Tactical 7 came into play. He wasn't too amused that I was willing to take a proverbial bullet for my division. He assumed that, if that's the case, then everyone in my division must all have done something that totals a demotion on my part. I didn't like his logic, but he stripped me of Clan Leader regardless of the fact that my 300 members were still highly-educated individuals that I knew as if they were my next-door neighbors, ready to raise a squad in a day like the Amish raising a barn. I'll spare the details: I fought it and won, but as Founder under my my own men. I was okay with this. My teachings were running the division, so it was like I was running the division. I just had a different job now.

KSI Tactical 7 phased out of the picture and R3X came in. He made fun of Lost Empire for the fact that other divisions had people up in the Senior Director spots, but Lost Empire didn't, even though they've been around forever. This goes back to when I made Co-Founder. KSI R34P3R2K 7 was a Senior Director presiding over the Director for Lost Empire. I'm not saying that he was supposed to grandfather us into glory without us doing all the work, but other divisions clearly had a hand-up from the fact that the Director/Senior Director slots were filled with members of their divisions. Naturally, when you're promoted out of clan-ops like that, it just happens. I was okay with R34P3R being gone, even though he was a friend of mine. We could manage clan-ops on our own. What I could NOT manage was R3X being obnoxious. He fought me return as a Clan Leader as hard as he could. Surprisingly, Erbs and the rest of the Design team backed me up on the forums. More so, they revealed R3X for being a stooge and it nullified any statement R3X had made about me. I just never understood the profound hate that Senior leadership had for small numbers, no matter how strong.

I made Director myself in 2011 and that was basically where I capped out. I held that position for a little over a year until my first deployment came up, and then I had to resign. I've held other titles and positions such as Graphics Artist/Trial Artist, Global Moderator, and Court Judge. My entire focus on educating KSI members throughout the years has basically been one FTLA-equivalent after another (before FTLA existed). Each time I leave and come back, there's at least one improvement that I can say, "I'm familiar with these leadership techniques. I'm glad this is the norm now."

I used to be bitter about coming back to KSI. I know the above story may sound like a whine or a sob, but that was my experience. The part that upset me the most was that my 300 members were being oppressed by the Senior leadership. I didn't care that they were threatening me or pressuring me. Clearly, as a shield for my members, all I cared about was their integrity. It got to the point where there was nothing I could do for my members. Eventually, R3X and the gang got to them and they started to leave one-by-one due to poor treatment. I never threatened to leave KSI. That was always a terrible argument. I made sure that if any of my original Lost Empire members still remained in the division, if I had no pressing responsibilities, I would have to stay as Lost Empire's Director to make sure that I could still be the last line of defense before Lost Empire would be hit with pressing obstacles.

In recent years, the members that had caused the storm against our division faded away more and more until the only members that were left were familiar Admins. JT keeps the site and forums too sharp for anyone's taste to dislike, and he's a true sport for not kicking my head in. I'll always miss Spider. He was truly a peoples' champion and there could have never been a more just KSI member.

So after running a division for 6 years, being a Director, a Global Moderator, a Graphics Artist, and a Court Judge... where do I go from here?"

Awards & Achievements