Two people and a game
In 2015, Cooper and Mike started running Arma 3 together, and the first community formed around it: the Chin Sweater Collective. The name is a holdover from the early days. It suits us.
Since 2015
It started with two people and a copy of Arma 3.
No grand plan, no roadmap. Two friends running Arma in 2015, a community that grew up around it, and a decade of the same people showing up to play.
Seal Team 11
An old friend (Wall) got pulled back in for Arma ops, and the milsim nights got serious enough to merge Seal Team 11 (ST11) under the Chin Sweater Collective. Hundreds of coordinated operations later, ST11 still runs real briefings and real planning, most of which survive right up until first contact.
One game was never enough
Project Zomboid, DayZ, Farming Simulator, Eco, RedM roleplay, Palworld. Whatever the group got into, a server for it usually followed.
In memory of
Mike “STEELxSTICK”
Co-founder · 2015
Before Nexus had a name, it had Mike and a copy of Arma 3. Cooper and Mike started all of this together in 2015, and a lot of the friendships here trace straight back to those early Arma nights. Co-founder, teammate, and a friend to everyone who was there.
He loved Star Citizen most of all. Some of the best hours we ever logged were out in the verse beside him, running cargo and trading commodities, the slow honest work of space-trucking he lived for. We’ll carry his spirit on every run from here out.
Losing Mike in 2022 hit this community hard, and it still does, but the people he brought together are still here, still playing.
This one’s for Mike.
2024
In time, it became Nexus.
Life kept moving, the way it does, and the community moved with it. In 2024, CSC, ST11, Hammernite Industries, and a decade of games came together under a single name. A nexus is a point where separate things connect, which is exactly what had happened, and what Mike spent years helping build.
The timeline
From 2015 to now
A decade of it, from the first Arma server to today.
- 2015
Two people and a copy of Arma 3
Cooper and Mike (STEELxSTICK) start running Arma 3 ExileMod together, and the first community forms around it: the Chin Sweater Collective. The name has been with us ever since.
- 2015
Seal Team 11
An old friend, Wall, gets pulled back in for Arma operations. The milsim nights get serious enough that Seal Team 11 (ST11) merges in under the Chin Sweater Collective. Hundreds of coordinated operations have followed since.
- 2016 onward
One game was never enough
The group keeps finding the next thing, and Cooper keeps standing up servers for it: Project Zomboid, DayZ, Farming Simulator, Eco, RedM roleplay in Red Dead Redemption 2, Palworld. Nearly all of it self-hosted.
- 2016
Into the verse
Star Citizen becomes a mainstay, and it never really leaves. We form Hammernite Industries and settle into the long grind of cargo runs, trade routes, and deep-space economy play. Nearly a decade later, we are still out there.
- 2022 In memoriam
In memory of Mike (STEELxSTICK)
We lost Mike to leukemia. Co-founder, the other half of where all of this started in 2015, and a friend to everyone who was there. Still missed.
- 2024
Nexus Gaming
CSC, ST11, Hammernite, and a decade of games become one community under one name. A nexus is where separate things connect, which is exactly what had happened.
- 2026
A proper front door
Ten years in, the community finally has a website. Long overdue... and that is probably Cooper’s fault.
- Next
Whatever comes next
New games, new servers, same people. The games will change. They always have.