Starstrike
Perhaps the best player to ever play in IC. Was the only player to ever finish first in both net worth and size during the beta rounds of the game.
(Starstrike about his IC-history, from Harkonnen forum Dec 2002, posted in here by Altruist:)
Joined just before the start of Beta 1. Played a completely strategy- less build until I read UniMob's article in the forum, which inspired me to use my brain. Worked my way up from 33rd at the time, to 3rd in B1 (with help from Altruist/Universal Mob taking out two above me, and myself taking out a third), until my war with Altruist, when the right neuron sparked in my brain and I multiplied my NW by about a thousand in a few days. Finished the round with just over 1k planets.
Was invited as the 3rd mod into IC.
Led my family in a more-family oriented strategy in Beta 2, allying with Chili's family and Zane's family, forming the first "official" trifamily. We pretty much were unopposed for that round, with little serious opposition. Topped MW for the second time.
Played Beta 3 as much in the forum as in the game, with major differences of opinion between my family/allies and a new group headed by Evael/Thakender/Nai, with the primary issue whether a family could enforce a "sector off-limits" (which I think I won), and the secondary issue me promoting random attacking taking a few planets here and there, against the few selected targets attacked heavily seen today (which I definitely lost). Left midway during the round (in either spot 2 or 3) to concentrate on exams, finished about #50.
Was largely responsible for changes in science formula, a number of minor changes and introduction of fleet readiness - however I was quick to disclaim responsibility for the latter, since it was only half of the proposal, and I never wanted it implemented on its own. Also campaigned heavily but unsuccessfully for changes to the attacking system and spell/op success rates.
Tried introducing what's now though of as attackers/bankers in beta 4, though in a more limited way than seen nowadays, mostly based on the tactics employed by Steel (a member of my family) in Beta 3. The experiment did not work particularly well, and I made some tactical errors at the start of the round. Did not finish that well.
Played Round 1 anonymously (claiming to have quit publicly) in one of the minor galaxies, leading the galaxy for about the first third of the round, and only being overtaken because the new first-place was my ally, and I couldn't attack him down to size . Eventually took about four days off when massively behind at uni, came back to find about half my planets gone, and quit for good.