Legend Spotlight - Sir Lotus

Some of us are drawn to the waves from the very start. From that first trailer, that first testing session, that first Forum post, we find our place and never leave. Sir Lotus is one of those – a long-serving Sea of Thieves ambassador in his role as a Boatswain, and a pillar of one of the biggest SoT fan groups out there, bringing players together as an admin for the Sea of Thieves Community Discord – so we hopped on board his ship for a chat about his personal journey from Closed Beta to Pirate Legend and beyond!

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

[A]: Never have I been NOT into gaming, or at least as far as I can remember. The short version is that it’s all my older cousin’s fault. We did everything together as kids and he owned the Amiga 500. I was around four years old at that time, but learned to use joysticks and a keyboard before I learned to read or write. Gaming has been with me since then.

Later I wrote gaming articles for a local website, tried to make my own games (because how hard can It be, right?) and I’ve generally stuck around the gaming industry my whole life.

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

[A]: Gonna be honest here, I wouldn’t say I was a big fan before SoT. My first Nintendo system was a Wii U, so I got to experience most of the early Rare games much later than others. But I am slowly catching up and playing the older titles. If I had to pick some, Donkey Kong Country and Conker’s Bad Fur Day are amazing games even today. I’m also looking forward to Everwild. We know next to nothing about that game, but I’m sure it will be worth a try.

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

[A]: Give me any game and I’ll play it, is what I would say usually. But currently I only play Sea of Thieves, the best game ever! And I wasn’t forced or paid to say this...

But seriously, lately I’ve been playing a lot of Valheim, I love the building system in that game. Also, I'm currently on my fourth playthrough of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I’m a huge Star Wars fan and I love story-driven games. Aside from those two and Sea of Thieves, I try to play basically anything I can get my hands on, from shooters, simulators and strategy games to RPGs and sports.

[Q]: When did you first set sail on the Sea of Thieves, and what was it that attracted you to the pirate life?

[A]: You could probably say that I was always a big fan of the pirate lifestyle in general, just never found a satisfying game about it. And I remember seeing the Sea of Thieves trailer at E3 back in 2015 and thinking “this looks amazing, I want it” and then completely forgetting about it.

It was only a few days before the first Closed Beta in early 2018 when my brother told me he pre-ordered it and that I should do the same, so we could try it out and decide if we wanted to play it or not. I fell in love with the game. I played all the scale tests and the Beta before release, joined the Forums, made a Discord account just because of this game and the rest is history.

[Q]: How did you go about becoming a Pirate Legend? What were the main challenges and highlights of your journey?

[A]: Up until the actual release of the game, I wanted to become a PL as quickly as I could. Very soon I realized that I wasn’t going to be the first person to reach PL, which was originally my goal, so I decided not to grind and just enjoy the game without focusing on it.

The main challenge for me was learning to sail with other people. Since English is my second language, I don’t like to talk to people I don’t really know. It took me a while to overcome my anxiety and fears and even today I’ll probably be the most quiet crew member you can sail with.

[Q]: Can you remember the moment when you became a Pirate Legend and how you celebrated?

[A]: Never would I have expected it to take me so long. It took me over two years to become a Pirate Legend. And by that time, it didn’t really matter that much to me. I had all the cosmetics I wanted to have and because everyone I sailed with was already a PL, I’ve seen all the things Pirate Legends can do.

[Q]: Do you have any advice for other players currently on the path to Pirate Legend?

[A]: Gonna depend on what kind of a player you are. If you enjoy grinding and getting every single achievement and Commendation in games, go for it. With all the current world events and Voyages you can do this pretty quickly.

But if you don’t care about these things, don’t just focus on getting to PL, because I don’t believe it’s all that this game is about. Just slow down and enjoy the ride. Make new friends, play Tall Tales, try out some community-made events like Skullball etc. I can promise you that you’ll have a lot of fun and eventually get to PL even without trying. Unless you’re like my good friend DuMy2008, who is actively avoiding it for some reason and logs out every time before we sell the loot.

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

[A]: Let me say the first thing that comes to mind: sitting. Simple as that. Look, we’ve been sailing around for over four years now, I think our feet deserve to rest for a bit. And if we stretch the meaning of ‘recent’ a bit, then I have to say Tall Tales. All of them. Playing through those is a completely different experience to the rest of the game. Overall the whole game has changed a lot over the years and I hope it will continue to do so.

[Q]: What sort of content would you like to see added in future for Pirate Legends?

[A]: You ask some hard questions. Realistic wishes would be more ship customization options, a personalized customable hideout, more diverse PL-specific voyages. And if we go into a full-on fantasy land, the ability to create our own Companies with custom Voyages and recruit other players into those. It would be nice to create journeys with some small backstory for others to enjoy, while getting a reasonable fee for doing so.

[Q]: Legend status aside, what are your greatest achievements in a game, Sea of Thieves or otherwise?

[A]: Down on my luck am I mostly with any achievements. Still, I don’t want to brag, but I can beat Minesweeper on highest difficulty.

If we’re talking about Sea of Thieves, I have to say I'm most proud of spending less than six hours in the pirate generator before finding my ideal pirate. And with gaming in general, it’s not really an achievement, but I once got to play Unreal Tournament in a movie theatre against other journalists and other local gaming industry folks, and I’ll never forget that experience.

[Q]: You’ve been around the Sea of Thieves community for a long time and no doubt have many tales to tell, but what has been a truly standout moment for you?

[A]: I have so many great memories that it’s really hard to pick one. But if I have to, the one that stands out was with random people I met using the LFG function on Xbox shortly after the game released. There were us and two other Galleons fighting over a Fort. We started around 6pm and kept sinking each other and coming back over and over again. At some point it stopped being about the loot and it became a fight just for the pride and bragging rights.

The fight ended at around 7am. We accomplished absolutely nothing, wasted the whole night without even getting the loot because at some point we lost the key to the Vault while trying to hide it from other crews. And yet it was a night I’ll probably never forget.

And with the SoT community in general, I really can’t pick a single moment. It’s going to sound really corny, but more than a single specific moment, I value the friendships this game and community brought me. Yes, I found my second family because of a silly pirate game. Who would have guessed that, four years ago.

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

[A]: I enjoy all kinds of things: reading, movies, creative work, miniature painting, technology in general, golf, driving and working on cars etc. Too many to list, but gaming will probably always be my main hobby. Gaming itself and hanging around gaming communities. Which sounds very weird to me, because in real life I’m very introverted, but online I’m involved in so many things I can barely keep up.

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

[A]: Finally, it’s my time to set the record straight. I’ve been waiting years for the opportunity to share the real story and I bet you’re now starting to regret the “anything is fair game” part.

Over two years ago, I was publicly humiliated by Triheadedmonkey in his Spotlight interview. Feel free to go read it first, then come back here for the truth. That unfortunate incident with exploding barrels that we’d been gathering for an event happened exactly like he described. Aside from one little fact. It was HIM who blew them all up by accident. We would have all long forgiven him for it, but he keeps blaming me and even goes as far as to delete the video evidence from that day.

I don’t expect his apology or explanation, I expect him to do the only possible right thing here. From now on, we’ll put all of this behind us and we’ll both blame Sshteeve for it, even though he wasn’t there. Sound good?

So ends another Legend Spotlight! A big thank you to Lotus for taking the time to chat and give us a little insight into his long and legendary Sea of Thieves story from 2015 through to today. We have no doubt that many more days on the sea lie ahead, and we look forward to what’s in store for the Boatswains and the Sea of Thieves Community folks in the future.

We'll be back in a couple of weeks with our next Spotlight, but until then you can check out dozens of previous Community, Creator and Legend Spotlights, see some player creations on our Community Hub and keep up to date with everything else going on in Sea of Thieves by keeping an eye on one of our many social channels!