User:Kevin.Gardthausen/Handle with Care (clan)

Handle with Care (HwC) Clan is a popular Namibian StarCraft news website and community, as well as a successful StarCraft team, founded by Kevin Gardthausen, Bernd Blume, Corne Kotze and Corne van der Westhuizen.

History
Handle with Care (HwC) was founded in 2000 as Quake 3 Arena and Counter-Strike Clan by Kevin Gardthauen, Bernd Blume, Corne Kotze and Corne van der Westhuizen in Swakopmund, Namibia. Kevin Gardthausen and Bernd Blume came up with the name Handle with care. The name was chosen as it appeared on many carton boxes readily available everywhere.

Between 2000 and 2007 the main game was Quake 3 Arena. From 2007 till end of 2010 the clan was monstly dormant. With the release of StarCraft II the clan began to become active again. Playing in online tournaments such as ESL and Playhem but never reaching that "big" online success. HwC is the oldest and still active Clan in Namibia.

The clan now has 15 members and plays other games including Call of Duty 4. Many members only play on LAN. With the emergence of always-online games it has become more difficult to play games on LAN as Internet access is not always available, reliable or sufficient in Namibia.

This most prominent member of the HwC Clan is Kevin "OomJan" Gardthausen who became known in the gaming community for his demo playback software Seismovision (http://www.seismovision.net (discontinued)) and his casting of the Namibian World Cyber Games (WCG) 2011 Qualifiers. Seismovision was the unofficial version "downgrader" for Quake 3 Arena at the WCG in 2002 as the latest Point Release was 1.32 but WCG continued to use 1.31. Seismovision allowed users to temporarily downgrade their game to connect to GTV (GamerTV (http://www.geeteevee.com/) used to view Quake 3 Arena matches in game).

Web Site History
The website was founded on November 1, 2001 by Kevin "OomJan" Gardthausen under the domain http://www.handlewithcare.7p.com on a free hosting service. On March 1, 2012 the website was moved to the current address of http://www.hwc-clan.com.

Community Site
HwC has helped in hosting the Namibian World Cyber Games 2011 qualifiers with casting and plans to host the IeSF NESA Qualifiers in 2012.

Current StarCraft II Roster

 * 🇩🇪 Kevin "OomJan" Gardthausen – Playing Manager – Protoss
 * 🇳🇦 Bernd "pointeggs" Blume – Zerg
 * 🇳🇦 Corne "bliXim" Kotze – Terran
 * 🇳🇦 Corne "SnotKan0n" van der Westhuizen – Protoss
 * 🇳🇦 Ruan "PapaTerra" Kotze – Terran