A factual account of the creation of this online gaming community
How did BCS start?
BCS was created by its founder, Santino way back in 2006. It started with Santi going to a LAN event in Tunbridge Wells with several friends who used to play Starcraft Broodwar and the team then spawned from there. I remember playing a wacky racing game at the LAN which was free to play and from that point I was hooked... All I could think about after the event was that game and I knew I had to get it downloaded to my PC and find a server to play on.
2006-2007
Starting BCS was easy, buying a dedibox and trying to configure it all myself was going to be a nightmare, as I am not a programmer and I do not try or pretend to be one. Luckily for me I made friends with a member from DFA (Death From Above), Most of the members were nice people, some were not, but hey, thats gaming, you will never get a team where everyone gets on with each other all the time. I then recruited a few members which also included Rayes, Quaker, Third-Eye and a few others who have now been forgotten in the realms of history.
I also befriended DaveDread who taught me how to do Trackmania cams, intros, outros, MT, music etc.... It was a real eye opener. I then found PF tracks and adored them. I had a dabble at making a few which were only 45 seconds long.... I wanted something insane and started on my biggest trackmania project to date which was - PF Spin Doctor. It is still on TM-X picking up awards... at 121 so far. Credits to the track also go to Fluffski and Firestarter.
2007-2008
This was a difficult year for BCS as we had to make a decision to stay on nations or move to United which was the new game in the series. Trackmania was still our main game so I decided to move us over, in the migration we lost 80% of our members as they were not willing to buy the new game as it would cost them money, it made us stronger as a team.
DFA-Sloth helped configure the servers for TMU (Trackmania United) and after a few days we were ready to rock and roll. The new team slogan was also created - Best Car Shaguar - making BCS stand out from the crowd and we also had a brand new website which I had developed, helping more members join the group. We also had a group of gamers join our team from vG (Vanished Gaming), a nice group of friends who joined us for two years or so.
2008-2009
Big Decisions for BCS. We had £700 in the coffers from donations from members through the year and we wanted better servers. So we had a management meeting and decided to use one of the best gaming servers available - 4U Servers. I paid them upfront as I didnt want a monthly direct debit coming out of my bank every month, and 1 week after we paid them - We were told that the company had gone into liquidation. We had lost all our money and we were never ever going to see it again. The vG team up and left completely after an issue with one of our members! In hindsight I would rather be a poet sitting on the South Downs than a BCS admin for 2008-2009. Mutiny on the Bounty.
I paid for the servers again out of my own pocket that year and kept the team alive. The only good thing to happen to BCS that year was when [Z] Cars clan asked to merge into the BCS community and it was the best thing to date that has happened. We got 4 superb members. Kickker, Stickyz, T.C and D3monstrate. All four are still in the team! So Respect to [Z].
2009-2010
BCS had three LAN events in one year and it was a great year for the team. The servers were upgraded, more members joined and the commmunity was linked to many different teams and forums due to its work on PF tracks made by Santino. We also got an excellent american trackmaker called HappyBrad who took PF tracks to a new level and surpassed my own skills for map making on Push Forward maps. BlamM (Trackmaker) also joined from France.
2010-2011
Rayes returned and got the team back to where we needed it to be. He sorted out the frigging forums with proper group permissions ETC. Job well done.
- The Future is not written.. So we wait for the past to catch up..... Santino will return in 2012 to play Trackmania.
