Developers and their Hobbies (Updated on July 31)

[semyonkirov 29,038]

Hey, tankers!

 

We are starting a series of short articles about hobbies of people that work in AlternativaPlatform. Here we'll be posting pics of the developers alongside with short description of what they do in their spare time. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

 

Community Manager and video blog host Maksim Khusainov is a good shot not only with Ricochet or Thunder. One of his numerous hobbies is airguns. His current weapon of choice is a 5.5 mm EdGun Matador R3M that has already fired more than 2500 shots!

 

 

 

You can read about hobbies of other devs under the spoiler.

 

 

 

 

A while ago, we told you about three programmers from our team, and about their achievements in competitive programming in Russia and worldwide. Today's story is about another one of our programmers, Pavel Ponomaryov. Like his three colleagues, he takes his craft on the job and carries it over into his free time. He is into competitive programming and his biggest accomplishments by far are as follows:

• 6th place in Topcoder 2008.
• 27th place in world programming championship among students.
• 9th place in Russian Code Cup 2011.
• 5th place in SnarkNews winter series 2013.
• 1st place in the first round of Yandex.Algorithm 2014. Pavel is going to take part in the finals that will take place in Berlin on August 1.

Pavel's current rating is:

• 62nd place in Russia according to codeforces.ru.
• 19th place according to acm.timus.ru.

More importantly, Pavel is 51st best programmer in Russia and 220th worldwide according to topcoder.com.

 

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Our art director Ivan Zykov once decided to combine his two great passions — motorcycles and traveling — and went on a very special journey. Ivan and his bike drove through 11 countries! The total length of the route exceeded 12 thousand kilometers. Over a span of 3 weeks, our art director visited Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland and Belarus. Now he's thinking of going on a round-the-world trip on something more exotic.

 

 

 

 

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Our chief editor Irakliy Shatirishvili is not only a master manipulator of words; he is also into sports. Irakliy is a basketball fan and spends hours running with a basketball every Saturday. And because of his enthusiasm for it, some of our guys here at Alternativa have also taken to heart this wonderful sport.

 

 

 

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The hobby of our programmer Anton Bragin is rather unusual for Russia. He is a huge fan of archery. His favorite bow is the classical Korean Cartel Sirius 68".

 

 

Here's a recent video of Anton and his bow:

 

 

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For today’s installment of Developers and their Hobbies, we will be taking a look at the artistic talents of Pavel Gorbunov. We've already told you about him, but this time it's all about his life’s main occupation — drawing things. Yes, Pavel draws and paints in his free time. How amazing is that? Doing something you really love, all the time, both at work and at home. Pavel is living the dream!

 

Today, Pavel will be sharing with us a time lapse video of one of his cool creations. Watch as he produces a stunning work of art from scratch.

 

 

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Our programmer Vladimir Beletskiy is a long time fan of LEGO. But he is not just into constructing things using little bricks.

 

 

In January of 2014 he won the first prize in the "Silent Movies" LEGO animation contest with his short horror film called "Heritage". Vladimir spent more than a month preparing, shooting and editing his small but very immersive masterpiece.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

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Our programmer Ivan Repin is a passionate fan of Blizzard games. Some of his achievements are 11 legendary cards in HearthStone, Gold League membership in StarCraft II (used to be Diamond League) and two level 70 heroes in Diablo. But his main interest outside Tanki, is World of Warcraft. Ivan is the first level 90 warlock on his server and is a member of a World of Warcraft clan ranked #43 worldwide!

 

 

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Our financial manager Vitaliy Mikhailov is a real adrenaline maniac. One of his many passions is bungee jumping. Spending free time jumping from bridges and buildings? Why not!

 

Tricks shown in the pictures are made under the supervision of professionals. Do not try this yourself!

 

 

 

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The hobby of our programmer Olga Stepanova is not the most typical one for a girl, and certainly not for a person of her profession. She's fond of parachuting and has already made 23 jumps! The highest altitude Olga has jumped from is 4000 metres.

 

 

 

 

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Quite a lot of guys at Alternativa are real fans of cycling. On a warm day around 10 of them commute to work by bike.

Of course Tanki Online team couldn't miss the annual cyclists' meeting in Perm that took place on May 18. Here are some pics from there.

 

From left to right: a player, Dmitriy Pobegaev, a player, Maksim Khusainov, Aleksander Barshevskiy, Igor Altyntsev, Semyon Kirov, Ivan Repin, Anna (wife of Aleksander).

 

 

The meeting place was an old stadium. Try to find me on the pic ;)

 

 

Maksim Khusainov and Dmitry Pobegaev (a guy wearing green shorts) also took part in a 60 kilometres race that took place right after the meeting.

 

 

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Our server programmer Dmitriy Sergeev plays badminton for more than 3 years. He took part in several official tournaments, including Perm Badminton Championship 2014.

Some say that badminton is a simpler version of tennis, something grannies play in the yard. It's quite the opposite actually, a very dynamic and demanding sport.

 

 

 

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Our artist Andrey Kozlov is fond of various outdoor activities. But his main passion is camping. Andrey has been to many truly picturesque places of Russia, the most famous of which are Lake Baikal, the deepest and the oldest lake in the world, and Kola Peninsula (that thing is to the north of the Arctic Circle by the way).

 

 

 

 

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Our analyst Vasiliy Sabirov is a real fan of ping-pong, a truly exciting game. He's been playing table tennis for nearly 2 years now.

Vasiliy uses the same racket as Zhang Jike, reigning World and Olimpic champion in table tennis from China. Moreover, our analyst is left handed, which usually gives him 1-2 extra points when playing against an unfamiliar opponent.

 

 

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Our game designer Vladimir Kovtun spends a huge part of his free time playing video games (as a true game designer should). In particular, he is a fan of indie platformers. His collection includes basically all games of this genre that Steam has to offer.

Just some of his achievements are: fourth level of difficulty in Rogue Legacy (for those who can imagine how hard that is), speedruns in SuperMeatBoy and Hotline Maiami, fully completed Binding of Isaaс and Don't Starve and more than 50 of other ultra-rare achievements completed by less than 1% of people on Steam.

 

Here's a video showing Vladimir's walkthrough of first 10 levels of SuperMeatBoy.

 

 

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Stanislav Manturov, our technical support specialist, is not just a skilled tanker (he actually won the Rusty Barrels super finals) but a real athlete as well. He is into powerlifting for nearly 2 years now.

While being 85 kilos in weight, his personal records are 160 kilograms in deadlift and 127,5 kilos in bench press.

 

 

 

 

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Pavel Vakhrushev, Aleksandr Shafer and Dmitry Pobegaev (in the photo from left to right) are three of our youngest programmers. This trio works closely with the community management and marketing teams.

 

But here’s an interesting fact - these guys love what they do so much, they spend their free time… programming! Dmitry, Aleksandr and Pavel are into competitive programming and have already taken part in numerous competitions and championships.

 

The team’s highest achievement is a prestigious Second Degree Diploma in the World Programming Championship. Moreover, Dmitry earned himself a place amongst the TOP-3 in the Russian Java programming competition.

 

 

 

 

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Our game designer Semyon Strizhak has a slightly weird but exetremely exciting hobby. He's a true master of Pump It Up, a famous music video game.

So far, Hazel-Rah's highest achievement is 3rd place at Russian Pump It Up Festival.

 

 

 

 

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Our technical support specialist Artyom Fomichyov and his wife Ksenia have a quite interesting hobby. They make jewelry: earrings, pendants, necklaces and many other things.

Here are some examples of their hand-made stuff.

 

 

 

 

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Valery Schumann, community manager of the German version of the game, spends his free time... playing Tanki Online!

Yes, that's the rare case when a person's job is also his hobby.

Valery has been playing Tanki for several years now and is one of the best players in the office.

 

 

 

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Igor Botov, our new system administrator, is a real biker. He has been riding choppers for 3 years now.

His current bike is Honda V45 Super Magna: 4 cylinders, 750 cc, 88 horsepower.

 

 

 

 

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Hobby of our CEO Alex Karpovich is rightfully considered to be one of the most unusual occupations among members of Tanki Online team. He is a freediver. Alex is capable of plunging to depths of up to 20 meters and holding breath for up to 2 minutes.

When not moving, our CEO can hold his breath for 4 minutes and 3 seconds!

 

Attention! Never dive alone and without preparation.

 

 

 

 

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Our technical support specialist Julia Gilyova has a rare and beautiful hobby. She performs various tricks on aerial straps.

 

 

 

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Our artist Pavel Gorbunov likes to draw not only when he's at the office. He spends his free time making tattoos. Several guys from Tanki Online team have already been "marked" by Pavel's hand:)

 

 

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Aleksandra Volkova, coordinator of Combat Sector (another game of AlternativaPlatform), is fond of making Kanzashi, ornaments originally used in traditional Japanese hairstyles.

Of course, it's still far from making tanks from ribbons and silk, but we'll get there eventually.

 

 

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There are different kinds of sports. Community manager Maksim Khusainov and CEO of Tanki Online Natalia Zhabyko spend their free time doing trampolining.

It may seem that this kind of activity is not that serious and difficult, but it actually requires coordination and is actually a very difficult physical exercise. Anyway, jumping on a trampoline is a very interesting and exciting pastime (at least that's what Maksim and Natalia told me:D).

 

 

 

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Our German community manager Mariya Trusevich and financial manager Vitaly Mikhailov are fond of snowboarding.

By the way, the ski resort that you can see on the pics below is located near the city of Gubakha, which also served as an inspiration for one of maps in Tanki Online (guess what its name is).

 

 

 

 

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Andrey Lagunov, our system administrator, is a passionate fan of hiking and caving. He's been to several big caves of Perm Region in Russia, including the well-known Kungur Ice Cave.

 

 

 

 

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Our programmers Aleksey Khusainov and Maksim Osin spend their free time playing cards, but not the ones you are all used to. Maksim and Alexey are fans of Magic: The Gathering.

If you've never heard of it, you definitely need to check it out. More than 20 years of history, regular tournaments, thousands of fans all over the world... epic.

 

 

 

 

 

So, now we all know that there is some magic in Tanki Online.

 

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Our community manager Nikolai Kolotov and analyst Evgeny Gilmanov play in an Alternative Metal band called Greenpills.

They and two other guys decided to start making music in 2005. 8 years have passed since then but Greenpills are still keen on composing new songs and doing gigs.

You can check them out here.

 

 

 

[flae88 948]

Interesting

[Redwall2 18]

2nd!!!! and weird

[I3loodShot 3,119]

Lol this is gonna be interesting...

[GoldRock2 290]

OK, so I clicked that link, clicked play on that song, turned up the volume... and literally dropped my phone.

[Meliora 1,652]

I hope at least for variety.

[Akeal 10]

nice

[MusicJam19 737]

Interesting :)

[JL6H 1,220]

Hardcore,nice!

[icerugby 1,886]

Great :D Looking forward to further interesting 'articles'

[rocas02 21]

i want hear them play

[slash1524 74]

Pretty nice.

[MassHelper 0]

Nice! Play for us!

[r_CHAMPI0N0 1,129]

Nicee

[RampagingVenom 554]

Ahhh  good :) 

I always have much respect for artists that can ACTUALLY play their instruments as opposed to miming like MANY bands do today. 

[I-Iero 823]

cool

[meronnatu 151]

C00l

[SonofDeath 512]

NIce

[Atakhan 1,229]

\m/

[HeroPlayer 797]

Nice, but weird.

[Ar7b 35]

mice!

[Libyan1 377]

:D Dancers

[Eragon 13,876]

cool, wat you do semyon? 

[semyonkirov 29,038]

cool, wat you do semyon?

Some guitar, some cycling, nothing special ;)

[semyonkirov 29,038]

Our programmers Aleksey Khusainov and Maksim Osin spend their free time playing cards, but not the ones you are all used to. Maksim and Alexey are fans of Magic: The Gathering.

If you've never heard of it, you definitely need to check it out. More than 20 years of history, regular tournaments, thousands of fans all over the world... epic.

 

 

 

 

 

So, now we all know that there is some magic in Tanki Online.