Community Spotlight – Hans Sprungfild

While out on your social travels across the Sea of Thieves, you may have encountered the Faces of Open Crew. If not, then perhaps the surfing pineapple #SoTShot winner rings a bell? Both are the creative brainchildren of one of the more prominent (and unique) in-game photographers that we have on the seas. In our latest Community Spotlight, it’s time to talk to Hans Sprungfild!

[Q]: Can you tell us a little about what got you into gaming?

[A]: I’ve been playing video games as long as I can remember. My grandfather was big into computers. He was insistent that computers were the future. When I was five, he gave me a Commodore 64. Someone at my dad's office gave him a floppy disk with a bunch of games on it. I was hooked. After that I got a NES, then Sega, and later PlayStation and Dreamcast.

As a teenager I spent most weekends at the mall arcade playing Street Fighter. In high school it was StarCraft and Diablo II. After high school, my interests shifted to collage skateboarding and partying.

[Q]: Were you a Rare fan before Sea of Thieves? Do you have any favourite Rare games?

[A]: Absolutely, some of my best childhood memories involve Rare games. The SNES Donkey Kong Country games were some of my favourites as a kid. I also had a love/hate relationship with Battletoads. When I got older, GoldenEye was a staple at sleepovers, we used to stay up all night playing. Nothing beats camping your friend when he spawns in the toilet stall.

[Q]: What other games are you currently playing? Any favourites?

[A]: I enjoy playing Lethal Company, Last Train Outta’ Wormtown and Phasmophobia with my wife and Sea of Thieves friends. Every now and then I will hop on World of Warcraft for a nostalgia fix.

[Q]: What brought you over to Sea of Thieves and its community?

[A]: During Covid, my girlfriend (now my wife) wanted to build gaming PCs. Once we finished them, I was using mine to play Diablo II. She suggested I try a modern game on my new PC. We downloaded Sea of Thieves, and the rest is history!

[Q]: For those who are unaware, can you explain Faces of Open Crew?

[A]: Faces of Open Crew is a recurring post I make where I share a portrait-style photo, taken through the spyglass, of a different pirate every day. It started off as all Open Crew pirates but later I also started featuring community members, streamers and friends. You never know who will show up.

[Q]: What made you start Faces of Open Crew?

[A]: The first time my wife and I joined Open Crew we met Protoman (Day 112) and Captain Chantey (Day 85). Proto is a day one player and Captain Chantey is a professional voice actor. We tried to steal a Fort of the Damned. It was chaos! We had so much fun between Chantey singing and shouting taunts in a pirate voice and Proto carrying us, I was hooked. I ended up meeting all my core crew members in Open Crew. When I decided to post on Twitter daily, I knew I wanted to feature it as my favourite part of the game.

[Q]: Do you set sail with them and go on adventures? If so, which has been the most memorable?

[A]: I usually load in Open Crew and ask the players if they would like to participate. After the pictures are done, it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes people leave, sometimes I leave to hop for more pictures and sometimes we sail and have adventures.

Most memorable is a tough one. I have met some characters! Days 82 and 105 stand out though. They were brothers who were brand new to the game. We ended up getting a second boat on the server with some of my friends and sailing for the whole day. One boat stacked Fort of the Damned and one did World Events. We sank every ship that came our way. They were having so much fun. It was great to be able to be a part of that experience.

[Q]: Thinking back, are there any standout moments for you in Sea of Thieves since you started playing?

[A]: That is a tough one. This past year I have had the opportunity to meet so many amazing pirates. It’s very hard to pick one moment, but top of the list is when I got the other daily Twitter posters together on a private server for a group photo. It was so much fun having all those guys in one place.

Sea Clues was fishing up Indigo Splashtails, Warsmith Graves took over a Burning Blade. Bosscoe lit literally every campfire on the map. It was surreal looking out and seeing plumes of smoke coming from all the islands. Skipper Jimi never did find any Dodos, but we sure did have a ton of owls flying around. The owls kept stealing Sea Clues’ fish when they held them out for the picture. Buryin Ben buried everything in sight. I have never had so many maps in my radial. Ben is genuinely one of the funniest pirates I have met on the sea. It was a great evening of sharing stories and goofing around.

[Q]: What are your favourite recent additions to Sea of Thieves?

[A]: The Quest Table was a game changer. Being able to hop servers with the Gold Hoarder dig is epic. It’s so much faster than the Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life Tall Tales.

[Q]: What are your greatest achievements in a game, Sea of Thieves or otherwise?

[A]: Winning #SoTShot with the surfing pineapple picture is definitely first on the list. After that, reaching Guardians of Fortune level 1000 during Season Nine would be second. Going into Season Eight, my PvP skills were not the best. I owe a big shout out to guys like Mafia Shrek, Captain Tuck and Snootch for playing Hourglass with me. We had so many epic sweaty fights. Season Eight and early Season Nine were the most fun I have ever had playing a video game. It really brought us together and was the start of the Sword Sandwich crew.

Outside of Sea of Thieves, probably my career in project management. The past few years have been really good. My wife and I just bought our dream home this summer. It was actually built for a Navy Admiral in 1946. Seems somewhat fitting!

[Q]: If you had to choose a pirate and ship name, what would they be?

[A]: My flagship is the Sword Sandwich. A few years ago, someone boarded us. The whole crew ran at him from all sides with swords and killed him. As we were slashing, I shouted “Sword sandwich formation!”. Everyone was laughing, even the boarder. It kind of stuck after that.

My pirate is named Hans Sprungfild. I got the name from an old episode of The Simpsons. In the episode they find out the town’s founder was a murderous pirate with a silver tongue. Had I known I would be playing this game three years later, I might have tried to come up with something a bit more creative!

[Q]: What kind of other hobbies do you enjoy outside of gaming?

[A]: I enjoy cycling and freestyle skateboarding. I also restore vintage scooters and bicycles from time to time. A few years ago, I got into building custom keyboards. I recently built a custom Sea of Thieves keyboard. It has nautical keycaps, and the SoT logo laser-etched into the bottom.

[Q]: Share a fun fact about yourself. Anything is fair game!

[A]: I have a Bengal cat named Rudy. If you have ever played Sea of Thieves with me, odds are you have heard him meowing into my microphone.

Thanks to Hans for taking the time to talk to us. We hope you all enjoyed the latest Spotlight, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of the faces that he meets (and Rudy greets) on these Open Crew adventures!

If you can’t wait to hear more from our community, you can check out our previous Community, Creator and Legend Spotlights. Or to see what else our players have been up to and some of the wonderful creations they’ve been making recently, head over to our Community Hub. Until next time!