Hello everyone, and welcome to an old Forgehub tradition in which we decide to highlight the achievements of an individual within our growing community. It is a small way for us to give a shout out to people being awesome members of not only Forgehub, but the Halo community in general. In this interview, I had the pleasure of virtually sitting down with xdemption to spam him with personal questions. For those of you who do not know, Demption is a successful forger who's map, Shurima, has recently been included in the newest matchmaking update for "Community Doubles." He also holds a reoccurring lobby for testing maps every weekend. Demption has proven to be a great guy time and time again, and I felt it was time to bring that to light!

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Given To Fly: So Demp, how long have you been playing Halo, and when did you join this community?

xDemption: "I have been playing halo since it first came out on xbox, playing with my best friend on campaign legendary while eating potato chips and getting our asses kicked all the way back to the start of Two betrayals. Building on those days where we had huge system link parties playing halo 2 were an absolute blast. long after those days, after graduating from high school and living on my own, I Entered the community near the end of halo 3 but hardly ever forged seriously.
Halo Reach was the start of my forging career, where I went on to create anything and everything I could.

To be truthful, I think my ability to design was mediocre at best. but over time I learned to take feedback and adapt my design principles. I have been forging and been a part of this community since."

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Given To Fly: Your map Shurima was crafted for a Forgehub 2v2 tournament, but just recently made it into match making, could you tell us a little bit about the map's inception and how you feel about its current achievements?

xDemption: "Originally built on the similar concept of aegis from halo 4, using spherical flow to create vertical combat situations and line of sight control. Shurima was my first halo 5 map, it was a taste of what was to come for all my future endeavors. It gave me the privilege to know what was possible artistically. The design while simple, has it's moments in my heart where I am proud of what it has become.

However, it has left me wanting more. Shurima was merely a stepping stone, and for my first map in halo 5, I will only get better and build more."

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Given To Fly: Besides being a successful forger in Halo 5, you have also dedicated your weekends to helping other members of the community strive for greatness. You hold testing lobbies on Saturdays and Sundays for roughly 2-3 hours each. Could you please share what your drive is to help people get their maps tested and improved upon?

xDemption: "I started my Lobby "Into The Forge" to use my abilities as a forger to give back to the community that has helped me grow as a designer. Since then, I have been working with the Alliance Testing Network with various lobbies and individuals to help build a quality assurance pipeline to help get maps to a state of matchmaking quality. Since my joining of ATN I have continued to help it grow and bring our work to the attention of everyone within the community. My hope is to get help from the Pro community and to help maps get the attention that they deserve."

Given To Fly: You've just recently held your biggest testing lobby ever, 8 hours! How did you find the time? And what was the goal here?

xDemption: "Well the goal of the lobby was to actually accommodate doing 10 maps that weekend because of my busy schedule. I would argue doing 8 hours of gameplay is ill advised, but the experience was certainly enjoyable. Getting feedback and making sure to do 10 maps a week has been my main focus within my lobby to make sure everyone gets a fair amount of testing."

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Given To Fly: You have also been streaming your official test lobbies on your twitch account, please explain why you chose to do so, your follower population, and where you plan on taking this channel you've built up so far.

xDemption: "I chose to do this for the sake of transparency and to give live interaction with the community. This also allows me to record my streams for later review of the feedback said so forgers can better understand what is going on during these lobbies. I plan to take further endeavors into streaming my forge sessions and creating lesson streams for forgers to educate themselves with on methods I use to builds maps I prepare for matchmaking."

Given To Fly: Lastly, I know Shurima was not your final project, could you share any details of your latest creation(s) with us all?

xDemption: "Fullmetal has been my recent project which I plan to post very soon. Constant testing has lead me to believe it is ready to go and I can reveal it to the world. I have many projects I wish to do . . . so I will state this: You haven't seen nothing yet."

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Given To Fly: Thanks for virtually sitting down with me Demp, I hope to see your success grow as we move forward in the Halo community!

xDemption: "Thanks for having me Given, it is a pleasure to speak to Forgehub and as always be a member of this community!"

Follow xDemption on Twitter: Xdemption