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"The sensible people that really appreciate what you're doing don't even comment on videos, so you never even know. And that's not just for me. Like, if you appreciate anybody who does stuff on the internet, I guarantee you they don't get enough people telling them that they actually matter. It just doesn't happen. Be a nice person. There's enough mean people. "
―ster

Steven Serge, also known as ster, STAR_, or Niichts, is a YouTuber and Twitch streamer, and has been closely-associated with Jerma for the majority of both of their careers as YouTubers and streamers.

He has made numerous videos with Jerma, such as the "Jerma is Mad" series, and continues to be one of his greatest friends. Among his other chief accomplishments, ster was once considered one of the most - if not the most - influential Team Fortress 2 players on the internet.

History[]

Not much is known about ster's personal life. He was allegedly "born in New Jersey" and currently lives in Texas.[1] He allegedly has a grandfather named Longbeard the Turtle.[2] He dropped out of high school to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.[3] Though he mostly does streaming now, he still occasionally does art too. He is also married to Ashley Lange, who can be heard in some of his old videos from back when they were dating. According to Jerma (as of 2017), ster and Ashley have four children with a fifth on the way, all of whom are named Greg.[4]

Star yt logo

ster's old YouTube intro

The first public video on ster's YouTube channel was uploaded in January of 2011, the same year Jerma began his own channel. At first, ster simply provided tips and strategies for playing Team Fortress 2, but gradually developed a unique sense of humor and personality. His channel thrived on TF2 throughout the early 2010s, and he collaborated with others; such as Ma3la, Tagg, and, most relevantly, Jerma. His TF2 videos typically included casual live commentaries, along with more produced videos, such as the "Jerma is Mad" series. He produced a few "Story Time" videos, in which he would tell personal stories while drawing in Photoshop. Between all of those, he also developed his signature "Basically" series, in which he would take broad and often-satirical looks at pieces of media that vary wildly between each other. For a while, he played TF2 competitively, though his teams never had any notable successes.

After several years, ster began to burn out on Team Fortress 2. In large part, this was due to the state of TF2 as a whole, its less-frequent updates, and the repetitive nature of discussions surrounding it, as he described in his "TF2: Same Conversation 2 Years Later" video. He started making less TF2 content in 2015, stating that, despite TF2 still being his favorite game (at the time) and him loving it, he hated how repetitive and tedious making videos on it had become. Instead, hedging his bets on Overwatch being a game he would significantly enjoy, his focus on TF2 content was brought to an end, leaving off with a series of videos that satirized his prior TF2 content. His readiness to move on to making newer, fresher content was not well-received by his entire community.

ster's transition away from TF2 still bore quite a few videos on his main channel, until early 2016, at which point he switched his focus over to posting his stream-related (and mainly Overwatch-focused) content on his second channel, ster 2. This, along with the stream itself, went on steadily in the two years between uploads on his main channel. He even attempted to stream a return to TF2 in 2018, but was met with DDOS attacks, stream-sniping, and special treatment to the point of turning away from playing the game publicly for five more years.

In 2021, ster uploaded a video answering many questions about both his retirement from TF2 content, and an update on what he'd been up to instead in the interim. He explained the negative effects that YouTube culture and the vocal part of his TF2 fandom had on his mental state, addressed the seemingly-endless number of baseless accusations that had been leveled at him, and expressed that, despite everything, he had come out on the other side of it all confident in his own abilities and prepared to invite people to experience what else he was doing at the time.

ster continues to stream games that he enjoys playing and presenting, as well as working on his own Tabletop RPG system, The Myriad, which he's used to stream three different campaigns played by groups assembled from other Twitch streamers and YouTubers. This has, on one particular occasion, included Jerma, who played "The Redeemer" in ster's "The Fate of Sideways" campaign.

Relationship with Jerma[]

The Beginning[]

ster began his channel shortly before Jerma did. Jerma said that he found ster's channel and was inspired by his videos of Team Fortress 2 and Diablo II to try making his own, resulting in the creation of his own channel. After building up his channel for a while, Jerma reached out to ster and they formed a friendship together.

YouTube Days[]

Jerma and ster's first official video together was of them playing Tribes: Ascend in 2012. They collaborated many times over the years, and became a dynamic duo in the Team Fortress 2 realm of YouTube.

They predominantly played together in TF2 and GTA IV videos, each game respectively spawning the "Jerma is Mad" series and "the Truck Punchline". In ster's videos, Jerma often ended up being the butt-monkey of the jokes, and he seemed like a sidekick of sorts. However, fans loved the two pretty much equally, and their combination made for some great comedy. They also played many other games such as Bloody Trapland, The Duck Game and R.I.P.D. The Game. One can often find Jerma and ster randomly speaking in each other's videos, as the two would normally share a Teamspeak call to allow the other to make random comments on the other's video during recording.

Both ster and Jerma moved away from TF2 and YouTube to focus on Twitch streaming around the same time in 2015. They maintained contact and would occasionally play games live together.

"Falling Out"[]

According to a stream in February 2017, one day ster's wife Ashley cancelled a doctor's appointment to play Dungeons & Dragons with ster and Jerma. However, Jerma backed out soon before to go on a date instead. ster, frustrated, stated that whenever he tried to make plans with Jerma, something got in the way and "somehow makes it as hard as possible for me, so I'm done". ster didn't reference Jerma for most of the year after the incident, and when he did, he mostly insulted him for allegedly ruining their friendship.

Jerma later confirmed that they were in contact since the incident. Jerma also stated the two had "moved on", and he overall behaved gracefully about the issue. Many fans of both creators disagreed about who really was in the wrong, but one thing was clear: everybody wanted to see them back on friendly terms and collaborating again.

Everybody Wants to See This Happen[]

On July 21st, 2018, Jerma streamed Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, a mysterious fan called Jerma's phone and started backseating him live. The mysterious fan was using a voice changer, and passed by the window several times before climbing in. The figure wore a black cloak and a white mask, and hijacked the stream from Jerma and started playing. Eventually Jerma tore off his mask, revealing the perpetrator to be none other than ster. He had come for the $184,000 that Jerma owed him, and the two had a brief argument over the matter before Jerma reluctantly paid him $90,000, but kept $10,000 in his desk. ster then asked Jerma to accompany him to a local water park, and he eagerly accepted, their friendship renewed. On August 1st, 2018, Jerma streamed Human: Fall Flat with Otto, Etalyx and ster - their first stream together since the reunion. They now occasionally stream playing games together.

Ster reterns

The cloaked figure, unmasked

As it turns out, ster admitted here that he and Jerma had made up the same night of the falling out, but never mentioned it publicly. They had also been planning a "reunion" stream for quite a while, but never had a chance to make it work until many months later. It was also revealed that ster's occasional shit-talking of Jerma during this long period was in preparation for the reunion stream, to subtly "hype" it. It wasn't really part of some grand plot - they just kept getting busy and forgetting to get together to do it. However, because the stream was continually pushed back, ster's beef with Jerma began to look more and more sincere, making many long-time fans begin assuming things. But the past is the past - for now, the boys are back in town.

Water Park Twitter Poll[]

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The Twitter poll

A Twitter poll post (after the water park event) was made by ster saying "Should you be friends with someone who sprays sunscreen in your mouth?", and Jerma made a comeback poll saying "Should you be friends with someone that has you go down the water slide claiming 'there's still time, relax', only to have an employee drop a bar in front of you telling you they're now closed, while you watch your friend scream in glee down the water slide?". This is them referencing their aforementioned trip to the water park.

Jerma Watches ster Watches "Definition of a Jerma Joke"[]

In late 2016 - a while after transitioning to mainly Twitch streaming and posting on his second channel - ster set up a "Movie Night" for his long-time viewers, wherein he watched many of the videos he'd posted on his main channel. One video in particular was "Definition of a Jerma Joke", which had previously been hidden in a now-unusable YouTube annotation. At the end of watching it, ster confesses a secret to his chat and asks them not to relay it to Jerma. He proceeds to admit that Jerma's brand of humor was so effortless and nonsensical ("so good at making nothing funny") that, at times, ster was discouraged from making videos, feeling that he couldn't match that humor in his own content. Surprisingly, those who knew of this stream and ster saying this managed to keep it a secret for nearly two and a half years after.

In early 2019, Jerma (while doing a "Movie Night" of his own randomly-selected older videos) decided to watch the video of ster watching "Definition of a Jerma Joke", making two layers of commentary. While watching, Jerma realized that ster would repeat parts of the "Coffee, Cheetos, Chicken" joke to "trigger" Jerma to continue saying it himself. Jerma considered this "enabling [him]", which he treated as a grand revelation at the time. Upon finding ster's heartfelt confession about Jerma's effortless sense of comedy, Jerma retorted that ster's videos have much better editing, and that some of them are "11 out of 10's" and are some of the best videos on YouTube.[5]

In his following stream on November 29th, 2019, ster added another layer of commentary by watching Jerma's reaction to ster originally watching "Definition of a Jerma Joke". He was quick to humorously dismiss Jerma's "11 out of 10" ratings, instead replying, "They're 8 out of 10's and he knows it."

ster's Jerma Impression[]

In 2020, ster did an impression of Jerma on stream. He pretended to seriously injure himself breakdancing on the floor. This, of course, was in reference to Jerma aggravating an existing back injury by breakdancing during the Green Screen Stream, which caused him to take a four month medical hiatus shortly after. Jerma saw the video and responded with, "Yeah, he's a funny guy. Nice form, by the way."[6]

Who Will Replace ME?[]

Jerma Star Panel

ster and Jerma on the Jerma replacement panel.

Due to his long history with Jerma, ster made a perfect candidate for the judge panel during the Who Will Replace ME? stream, along with Jerma himself, Ludwig, and Dr. Shmoixen. ster spent a lot of his part in the runtime making vaguely flirtatious/romantic comments to Jerma while also making some of the most important points about what being a new Jerma would take.

Once #13 was chosen as the new Jerma, ster watched as Jerma fought him on-stage. Supposedly confused in the kerfuffle, ster announced that he knew who the real Jerma was all along, and then proceeded to shoot the real Jerma. ster then dragged him away, allowing #13 to finally take over the channel.

In the Ring[]

The Jerma Rumble[]

ster was present in this Rumble, though he looks absolutely nothing like his real-life appearance. This version is an African gentleman wearing some sweet casual clothes. Jerma used to do this often to play around with the running gag that people didn't know what ster looked like at the time. He does fairly well, and is eventually eliminated by Danny Devito.

Jerma Rumble 2[]

At Jerma Rumble 2, ster had the honor of being the very first contestant in the line-up of wrestlers, and this time entered the ring in an astronaut helmet with a matching white tracksuit and gold chains. He was eliminated by Grandpa about five minutes into the Rumble.

Jermania 2014[]

ster was not a participant in Jermania 2014, but he was part of the audience during Grandpa's Gauntlet match where Grandpa gets angry at him. ster was having none of that, punched Grandpa in the face, and left the stadium irritated.

Jerma Rumble: Live Action[]

ster himself does not explicitly appear, but he plays the role of the Christmas Tree in the Jerma Rumble - Live Action. He is eventually eliminated by the Giant Rat.

Gallery[]


External Links[]

Trivia[]

  • ster started his YouTube channel on May 30th, 2007. The first video on his channel is a tutorial on how to play carefully as the Scout on TF2, uploaded January 22, 2011, although many fans have stated that he had uploaded videos earlier than that.
  • ster is younger than Jerma by 4 years, 11 months.
  • ster once shit his pants live to attempt to win an Overwatch quickplay match.
  • It has been confirmed by that ster indeed played The Christmas Tree in Jerma Rumble - Live Action. He even kept the costume, and has shown the mask on his stream.
  • ster played Dr. Digestion in the first Rat Movie, and played Michael's father and the birthday mixtape voice in Rat Movie 2.
  • ster competed in the Overwatch World Cup for Team USA in 2016.
  • ster is a ping-pong BEAST, and even plays in casual tournaments.
    • interestingly, when ster was visiting Florida he once played a long match with a person only to finish the match and them to ask him if he was ster because they "recognized him by his voice".
  • ster has never played Super Mario 64.
  • ster was once sued by Jerma and lost easily. This was due to ster not having a lawyer.
  • Not many know this but ster is actually short for hamster.
  • ster once said "are you a lobster cause baby u make my lobs ster."
  • ster often "licks his hands clean" like a "good boy"
  • Took the video of jerma being kawaii in a bathtub.
  • ster doesn't have a driver's license, as he himself made clear during Who Will Replace ME?.[7]
    • He implied that because of this he also doesn't own a car.

References[]

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