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Hey there everyone, STAR_ here, what is going on?

"STAR_" or "Ster" (real name Steven Serge) is a YouTuber and Twitch streamer. He is best known for his Team Fortress 2 videos, ranging from tips and tricks to casual live commentary to edited comedy videos, though he has since moved on from TF2. He also made videos featuring other games, including Tribes: Ascend, Grand Theft Auto IV, and more. He has several non-gaming related series as well, such as "Basically" where he takes a broad look at random media including movies, TV shows, and the odd video game, or "Story Time" where he doodles in Photoshop and tells casual stories from his life.

STAR_ was a frequent collaborator with fellow TF2 YouTuber Jerma985, and the duo became well-known through videos such as the "Jerma is Mad" series. Their shared misadventures in various games were uploaded onto either his channel or Jerma's channel, resulting in twice the content starring the pair. They still occasionally stream together on Twitch today.

For many years, STAR_ was also a fairly active competitive TF2 player, first for the 9v9 Highlander team named The Syndicate as a Heavy, then as a Sniper, Engineer, and Pyro at different points for Gangster Gang Gaming. They went on to win multiple Platinum games. He also played Scout for the 6v6 team Budsquad, and was backup for the Highlander team MURDERFORCE9000.note  From 2016 until 2020, he streamed Overwatch under Luminosity Gaming, and played for the US in the Overwatch World Cup 2016. Currently, he is working on The Myriad, a computer Role-Playing Game meant to streamline Tabletop RPG mechanics taking place in his own Constructed World, while also streaming Myriad development and test sessions as well as whatever else he feels like on Twitch.

His main YouTube videos can be found on his main channel, and his alternate channel consists of random videos and Twitch highlights. His Twitch channel can be found here.


STAR_ provides examples of:

  • Achilles' Heel: Mini-sentries, to the point where any YouTube video involving mini-sentries will have at least one comment referencing his hatred of them. As revealed in his Discomfort Zone videos, he doesn't even like using them himself purely because it makes him feel bad for other people. Lampshaded with this quote, said after seven minutes of owning most of BLU Team with just one life in the 'Full Speed Distraction' video; he turns one corner too many and...
    "Mini-sentries! MAH WEAKNESS!"
    • Mini-sentries are banned on his public server.
  • Affectionate Parody: After STAR_ was done riffing on the show 'Sweet Genius' and particularly their host/judge/demonic overlord Ben Ron Israel, STAR_ stated seriously in the end that Ben Ron Israel actually carried the show and made it interesting enough for STAR_ to continue watching the tv series and made an MST-ing review out of it.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Played for laughs in TF2: Spooky Demo Arms, where TrukTruk tries to do the spastic demo arm glitch with a Claidheamh Mòr but doesn't trigger the glitch. STAR_ notes that he therefore isn't cool, and Seanbud beats him to death for "just ruining it."
  • Angrish: STAR_ has a knack for driving Jerma into this.
  • Arson Murder And Jay Walking: In the 'Bone Zone' video, when Ma3laa brings kids to the "Bone Zone" in the zoo for a school project, 4 kids ended up playing with a plastic rhino's dick, there were Bone Zone fights between the kids where they threw dirt at each other or straight up punched each other in the face, and finally an old lady complained to Ma3laa to control 'his' kids.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!:
    • This quote:
    (after talking about how Call of Duty: Black Ops II ruined his life) "So, I feel bad-" (notices Pyro corpse sitting on the ground) "Ooh! Pyro! Ooh~"
    Ma3laa(after being bolted dozens of times by STAR_'s crusader's crossbow): I like how you didn't charge your Kritz at all. *chuckles*
    STAR_: Oh, oops! *Gets out his Kritzkrieg* I was too busy bolting you.
    "I just hide in this crack. Forever." (immediately gets out of nook to kill a sniper)
    (Caption) Attention Span
    • If STAR_ feels even the slightest bit bored and he has access to console commands at that moment, he will instinctively summon a bunch of large vehicles. In the GTA videos this was called the "truck punchline".
  • Artistic License – Economics: In "TF2: The Duel" video, Lange jokes that they solved economics when STAR_'s reward for winning a dueling minigame was another dueling minigame key.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: In "Sock'em Bopper Hevies" video, Jerma and STAR_ used this trope to say 'Buffalo Steak Sandvich' into 'BUFFALOLOZENGELOSCHEESE' with a bit of mexican accent.
  • Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Played for laughs in the 'The Diablo 3 Incident' video where Jerma tried to get STAR_ but STAR_ scared him away by summoning monsters and hallucinations. Then Jerma tried to get back in to get STAR_ but got scared away yet again. This is repeated hilariously several times.
  • Author Filibuster: In the middle of a Rescue Ranger video, STAR_ complained about how broken the red tape recorder is, even as a guy who generally hates sentries. He has to snap himself out of it to continue the review.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: "Monoculus Mayhem": Using the Beggar's Bazooka on a x10 server, allowing it to shoot up to 30 rockets and, given a pair of Gunboats, rocket jump all around the map by rapidly overloading the barrel. Yes, it looks awesome. It also takes about 15 seconds to reload, and STAR_ struggles to kill anybody with it because of both the massive projectile deviation and the spontaneous nature of the Bazooka's misfires. He even manages to miss MONOCULUS! (a fairly large boss) from about ten feet away, the rockets going absolutely everywhere else.
  • Awesome Mc Cool Name: When STAR_ killed a player named Roasty My Toasty in the 'Going Ham' video with a stock shotgun instead of the ham, STAR_ immediately regretted killing him so unceremoniously solely because his name was cool, saying he deserved the ham.
  • Back to School: STAR_ dropped out of high school, wanting to become a professional artist, which apparently does not require a high school diploma. He gets his high school diploma later.
  • Bat Deduction: In "Jerma Is Mad, pt. 3", Jerma complains when STAR_ suddenly leaps around a corner to Market Garden him despite seemingly having no idea he was there. STAR_ responds that he did deduce that Jerma was there, because he saw rockets shooting from his left (he knew Jerma was playing as a RED Soldier) and he heard Jerma saying "Get him off the point, get him off the point..." (referring to a BLU Scout capturing the control point.) Jerma still doesn't take the explanation, claiming STAR_'s tactics are like cheating.
  • Banned in China: Invoked in the 'Equally Randomized' video when STAR_ noticed that there was an unusual skull floating around everyone's Boston Basher, he predicted that it would not be allowed in China. He was making a reference to China's noticeable aversion to skeletons in media.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty!: In 'Garbage Guardians', STAR_ invoked the trope when he thought The Rock announced his finishing move 'The Rock Bottom' before slamming them down.
  • Blatant Lies:
    • In his Hightower Shovel Showdown video:
      Obviously underage kid: My mic is broken, I am 18 years old.
    • Also, in the TF2 Servers video:
      STAR_: [checking the bots in the server lists] Bots... no bots. Sounds like a good choice—
      [cue the next clip showing the "players" in the server acting suspiciously like bots]
      STAR_: No bots? ...no bots? ...YOU CALLED THIS NO BOTS?
    • In "TF2: The Duel" video, when Lange made a high-pitched grumble after STAR_ killed him, Lange said it was a 'war cry' to intimidate his foes. Subverted the very next clip when Lange jumped onto STAR_ and made a more manly version of the same grumble as he swung his caber at STAR_.
    • In "Homing Crit Rockets" STAR_ claims "Schwicky Swag" is an anagram of Liberty Launcher.
  • Blood Sport: STAR_ likes to think that a cooking show 'Sweet Genius' is this trope, with three of the failed contestants being killed and the winner eaten by Ben Ron Israel to absorb their cooking genius.
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: STAR_'s a boke to Jerma's Tsukkomi. Especially prevalent in their GTA4 videos.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • Among all the modified weapons STAR_ tried out in the 'Multiplied by ???' video, the default Scattergun works the best for him.
    • When STAR_ discussed the top tier weapons in the 'Top Tier Scout' video, he recommended the default scattergun for building the most effective loadout, similar to how he recommends the stock rocket launcher for Soldier.
    • In the 'Loadout (beta) Now With Hats!' video, STAR_ finds that the assault rifle in Loadout is the most effective out of all the weapons he created from the game's massive variety of weapon mods like homing missiles, multiple rockets and incendiary ammo.
    • In "TF2: 21 vs 2", despite the massively overpowered powers and weapons STAR_ has given to himself and Jerma, the 21 sides won both of the matches.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In 'TF2: Jiggly Jello Cartoon People', after hearing a clip of Jerma from a mod he's using (replacing the Scout's voice lines), STAR_ comments that the mod is "defamation of character; you've defecated on him; it's defecation of character."
  • Brick Joke: In the 'DoD of Defeat' video, STAR_ was excited with his killstreak and called it 'schwiggy swag', then preemptively told Jerma to shut up about it. In the 'Homing Crit Rockets' video, Jerma asked what the 'schwiggy swag' was. Apparently, it's an anagram for Liberty Launcher.
  • Broken Record: In the 'Equally Randomized' video, STAR_ still has the 'Great Job' hitsound (appreciate it), from the 'I Main Budsquad 6v6' video. Combine that, with the crusader's crossbow's modified to have bleed damage and it produced this trope with STAR_ just playing along and saying 'Good Job' along with the hitsound.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, he is a very capable TF2 player, winning multiple platinum games with Gangster Gang Gaming.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When asked about his future concerning TF2 and if he was going to go more competitive or going for fun and casual, he said that competitive TF2 is fun and casual to him, contrary to the usual "Stop Having Fun" Guys mentality that lurks in the competitive scenes.
  • …But He Sounds Handsome: From "TF2: Ruiner of Fun" after undercovered STAR_ killed Jerma by airblasting him to a level 3 sentry:
    Jerma: There is a Pyro, just airblasting me in the air, over and over again. (STAR_ laughs) I, I really checked and thought, that's STAR_ and it's not you.
    STAR_: I wanna add him to friends, who is he?
  • Butt-Monkey: Jerma for STAR_'s various antics, ranging from anonymous trolling to becoming a near naked millstone whose only purpose was to annoy the shit out of him to just effortlessly outplaying him.
  • By the Eyes of the Blind: In the 'GTA: Ghost World Insanity' video, STAR_, by some odd variations of glitches, managed to enter the ghost world version of the fast food restaurant and can't see anything within the kitchen. Jerma can see him, as well as several old ladies surrounding him for some reason and asked STAR_ to punch in thin air for him to know where they are.
  • Call-Back:
  • Calling Your Attacks: In 'Garbage Guardians', STAR_ thought that The Rock called out his finishing move 'The Rock Bottom', pointing to the crowd and then slamming them down.
  • Cannibalism Superpower: In 'Basically-Sweet Genius', STAR_ theorized that after Ben Ron Israel killed 3 of the failed contestants, he will then consume the winner of the episode to absorb his/her cooking knowledge.
  • Catchphrase:
    "I'm STAR_, ya know me?"
    "Hello everyone, STAR_ here, what is going on?
  • Captain Obvious:
    • Occasionally STAR_ became this trope, which overlaps with Deadpan Snarker.
    STAR_: Eh, you don't even have a head, Pyro. He just not have a head because...pretty sure you need that.
    • In the 'Depths Of Fear' video, after reading that he needs to put out a torch and hide from the satyr guard.
    STAR_: Oh, really? You don't say?
    • After he finds a couple of weapons in the same video:
    STAR_: This is a sword, this is a sword. We also have a quiver. And a club.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Especially in more recent videos.
  • Characterization Marches On: Initially, STAR_ seemed like nothing more than an average TF2 commentator. As time went on, his humorous and sarcastic personality became more apparent.
  • Cherry Tapping: STAR_ encounters numerous examples, the most common being "butterknifing," or attacking someone head-on with the Spy's butterfly knife. The most egregious example of this was in the 'Trade Ban Viaduct Demoman' video, where he stopped the commentary on his questionable ban on trade server to show and talked about 2 spies who had trapped an enemy sniper in the corner and were trying to butterknife him to death.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: In the Ruiner of Fun and the Jerma Is Mad pt 2 and 3 videos, Jerma drops this trope for just about half the video.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The sacks in the 'Bone Zone' video. Green sacks gives buffs like Ubercharge, red sacks gives debuffs like Jarate, and the black sack is random.
  • Combat Pragmatist: When it comes to playing against Jerma, no trick is too dirty for STAR_ to try. Highlights include feigning diplomacy, lashing out when actually losing by way of killtaunt, spawn-camping, leaving the game to go on spectate to find invisible hiding Jerma (who himself was spawn-camping at the time), and constantly proposing duel-like engagements only to break the terms of the deal before he's even done talking. Jerma has learned to fight back along these lines, however, with a particularly brilliant bout of Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • Comically Missing the Point: In "Go! Go! Nippon" challenge video, STAR_ walks in on a completely nude Japanese girl, who was conveniently censored exactly where you would expect, and was very surprised to find that she has a laundry machine in her bathroom.
    STAR_: I actually never even thought about doing that, but that makes complete sense. You don't need a hamper to put your clothes in, 'cause the laundry machine is like right there! Japan is so advanced.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
    • Invoked and discussed in his Mann vs. Machine Metagame video. In the gameplay itself, this trope is averted since he is playing Spy in MvM, and very well at that.
    • Invoked by STAR_ in the 'I Main Demoknight' video in that he did not get much practice on demoknighting on 6v6 scrims because teams do not want to fight against a team member who was breaking the meta.
  • Constantly Curious: In the 'Australium Sniper' video, while STAR_ is dead and spectating his teammates, he encounters a scout who seems to be this, puzzled at the sight of sentry guns and rocks.
  • Crazy Enough to Work:
    • Double subverted in the '#HeatBringer' video. STAR_ sees the silhouette of the enemies at the spawn gate and figures he could just use the Kritzkrieg as soon as it opens and have his pocket Soldier Ma3laa kill them, only to be foiled by the enemy Medic who Ubered his pocket Heavy right out of the gate.
    STAR_: Oh God, they were even dumber than we were!
  • Crippling Overspecialization: STAR_ occasionally brings up that his profession of playing video games and doing commentary has left other areas of his worldly knowledge... lacking. Such as areas of economics, geography, non-Internet pop culture, common sense, and thinking David Bowie saved the Alamo.
  • The Cuckoo Lander Was Right: In Ask Nicely for Kritz, STAR_ decides to scream at the top of his lungs whenever he wants Jerma to activate his Kritz, all while Jerma is begging him to stop. The logic being that sometimes you can miss when somebody calls for the uber, so STAR_ decided to make it as unmistakeable as possible. Near the end of the video, however, Jerma mistakes his asking "can you use it?" as meaning that he wants Jerma to use the Kritz right then and activates it prematurely, leading to no kills and Jerma dying.
    STAR_: What I want to say is that you used it at a time that was not opportune for me, and it was because I didn't scream, and you were unsure if I wanted it. See, that's why the Scream Method is 100% flawless.
    Jerma: You know crazily enough, like really, truly crazily enough, you were correct.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Most of STAR_'s TF2 commentaries taking place in a pub server will have him achieving a respectable to high KDA, oftentimes picking off players who are lacking in situational awareness or just bad. Sometimes this happens even when he's using underpowered weapons or loadouts that he's not as experienced with.
    • The final round of the 2013 TF2 Mixup involves Team STAR_ completely demolishing Team Yogscast 7-0 (not counting the two rounds where the latter used dev cheats), with one notable round where STAR_ killed 3 opponents by himself as Sniper as the last man standing. Based on STAR_'s commentary for the previous rounds, one gets the impression this is the first round that STAR_ began to try somewhat especially considering his team was unexperienced.
  • Curse Cut Short:
    • In TF2: Spooky Halloween 2013 Spells:
    STAR_: Give it(the spellbook magazine) to pyro. Pyro, you probably have like firenote  in your hand, it fit-nope, fu-*abruptly cut to the next clip*.
    • In the Upgraded Short Circuit video:
    STAR_: (after dying trying to zap a heavy to death): 16 health? You piece of shi-.
    • In the 'Tip of the Hats' video, after STAR_ explained that Jerma does not actually live in Boston.
    STAR_: You lying piece of shi- (video abruptly ends)
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: After spending a length of time playing only Orcs Must Die!, he mentions in one commentary that he tried to sprint in Team Fortress 2 (a mechanic which the game doesn't have)
  • Deadly Dodging: Taken to its logical extreme in the 'Equally Randomized' video with the 'death stick', a Boston Basher modified to One-Hit Kill anyone(see One-Hit Kill entry below to see how it does so), including the wielder itself if he missed, so if the enemy dodged a single swing from you, you're dead.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Of course. The most prominent example is in '#Heatbringer' video:
    STAR_: Did you see the sentry nest?
    Ma3laa: No...?
    STAR_: Most intelligently designed sentry nest.
    (cue a shot where Ma3laa saw a nest containing 3 sentries, all side by side) Ma3laa: PFFFTTTTTTT
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts:
    • In the Multiplied By ??? video, he encounters a Spy that stabs him rapidly until it registers as a backstab and kills him. Later, STAR_ attempts this himself.
    • STAR_ also does this many times in 'Upgraded Short Circuit'. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and when it doesn't STAR_ blames the weapon instead of himself.
  • Deconstructive Parody: 'Basically-Gorbo Grandman' deconstructs the idea of someone not having self control or free will. Gordo does the same thing everyday, but one day, he decides to spice things up a bit and explore the neighborhood. The end result is not being able to make friends and letting his house, along with himself, burn. It also deconstructs Narrators in stories by having Gorbo do everything STAR_ tells him to do. In the end, Gorbo can't decide what to do while his house burns down because someone's not telling him what to do. Which leads him to killing himself to escape it all. It's very similar to The Stanley Parable. What makes it a parody is that everything is Played for Laughs in a darkly humorous sort of way.
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    • Invoked in the title of his Day Of Defeat video: DoD of Defeat.
    • Invoked again in the title of the 'Insurgency Rebellion Uprising Revolt 1.6' video.
  • Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: In the 'Truck Punchline' video, he sees a car that he likes about a hundred feet away. However, he is so used to cheating in GTA that, instead of simply running up to the car, he spawns a motorcycle and then speedhacks up to the car to acquire it. Jerma lampshaded it.
    Jerma: Let me explain to you what you just did. You just legitimately saw a car you liked, so you cheated to drive... a hundred yards in front of you, 'cause you were too lazy to walk the one hundred yards. (...) Cheats have really corrupted you, STAR_.
  • Didn't Think This Through: In 'Homing Crit Rocket' video, STAR_(as Pyro) and Jerma (as Soldier) try to launch homing missiles (Makes Sense In Context, see Homing Projectile below) by standing close to each other but separated by a window and having STAR_ deflect Jerma's rockets. They didn't think that the first rocket would go straight for Jerma.
    Jerma: Why did we not think that was gonna happen? How did we not put the pieces together on that?
  • Difficult, but Awesome: STAR_ enjoys using weapons and tricks that can be classified as this, such as the Market Gardener, the Sandman-Flying Guillotine combo, and the Loose Cannon.
  • Disney Death: Lampshaded in the Checkin' out that New Game! video:
    Newscaster: [STAR_] was hit by multiple trucks, and died. We expect him to make a full recovery and have another video in a week, or something.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In 'h1z1 the game', What does a guy do after he get flipped off by STAR_? Why shoot him, of course!
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": He prefers being called "Ster" to "STAR_", at least partially due to his Old Shame with regards to his older videos.
  • Double Entendre:
    • In "TF2: The Duel" video, after STAR_ market gardened Lange from below, Lange commented how he can't caber below himself and said that STAR_'s shovel poked him in all kinds of places he does not want to be poked.
    • In "TF2: Sock'em Bopper Hevies" video, when Jerma suggested to go from behind, STAR_ lampshaded it by saying it was too sexual.
    • In the into of the "Equally Randomized" video:
    Jerma: Hold on, lemme swallow this banana.
  • The Dreaded: In the 2013 TF2 Mixup charity match, every other team (justifiably) feared STAR_ and played around him as best as they could. Amusingly, on Team STAR_'s own commentary, they are largely goofing around, even when they are trying.
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • In #Heatbringer video, STAR_ refused to heal a soldier who had only 8 health for shits and giggles, despite Ma3laa's suggestion to do so. The soldier appeared gradually more desperate as the setup timer counted down, and eventually killed himself.
    • In the 'Bone Zone' video, STAR_ and another soldier spawned facing each other, making it a duel. The soldier yelled for help and then almost immediately jumped off the platform to his doom.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?:
    • In the 'I Main Budsquad 6v6' video, even after STAR_ got a market gardener kill on the enemy medic or his rocket launcher's rank reached the rank of 'Totally Ordinary(999 kills)', no one complimented him for achieving this accomplishment. Justified in that they were a bit too busy engaging in a fight with the opposing team.
    • In the 'Depths Of Fear' video, Thessius, the player character STAR_'s playing, was pushed down a hole while being unarmed, then forced to buy weapons with the gold he did not have. Despite being a son of Poseidon. STAR_ called the game out for it.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the 'Delete This Idiot.mp4' video, STAR_ lampshaded this trope while briefly post-commenting an old clip of him playing a full Saharan Spy set, back when it gave full cloak silent, right down to pointing out that his Steam name was actually STAR_ and not some random names he come up with. He later warned that if a player was named STAR_, that is not him because he always change up his name.
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • The mods that deform the player models into Noodle People that he installed for TF2 during the recording of 'Deformed Flying Mercenaries' video certainly qualifies, more so for some of the models he looked at than others.
    • What STAR_ viewed a rocket jumping soldier with a Your Eternal Reward knife as in his 'Spy Soldier Abomination' video.
  • Eldritch Location:
    • In the 'Australium Sniper' video, after he was done demonstrating what Australium weapons looks like with mat_phong 1 and 0 on cp_cloak, a test map, he mentioned that he finds it very spooky. Cue the next clip with his sniper running around helplessly with spooky filters and music as the camera zooms in on the Heavy's Thousand-Yard Stare.
    • In 'TFC Team Fortress Classic' video, Jerma and STAR_ entered a map called 'Bananaland'. My God, puke green textures almost everywhere, nonsensical design and gameplay and in-server mic spams, couldn't get anymore eldritch than that.
  • End of an Age: STAR_ sees getting a new HUD as this, and the various HUDs he's used as eras - the PV HUD era, the KN+Garm3nHUD era, and now the BroeselHUD era.
  • Epic Fail: Jerma's final attempt to get revenge on STAR_ in "Jerma is Mad pt.2" has him attack STAR_ head on... with the harmless Sticky Jumper. Jerma leaves the server in shame soon after.
    Jerma: Hey, STAR_, watch your head! *cue Huntsman arrow flying past harmlessly, a centimeter away from STAR_'s forehead* FUCK!
  • Establishing Character Moment: Lampshaded on his channel trailer.
    STAR_: So this is a trailer for my YouTube channel but, uh, how do I describe what I do here on this channel in a short video? How do I do that? (STAR_ rockets jumps across half of Upward all the way to RED spawn, Market Gardenering a Demoman) Aaand that actually summed it up pretty well.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • In the middle of his Rescue Ranger review, he complained that the Red Tape Recorder is too good, because it almost instantly delevels a Sentry if its Engineer isn't babysitting it constantly.
    STAR_ : You know how much I hate sentries, and I am defending it against something which destroys sentries. It's that annoying.
    • In the 'Troll Demo' video, he used the pan instead of a Ullapool Caber even though the latter is more suited for jumping around and killing with only melee weapon, as he said he hated the weapon.
  • Evolving Credits: His original title card is simply titled 'STAR' then disintegrates into blocks. Then at one point he decided to reverse it so that the blocks converge together into the title 'STAR_'. He changed it again in Whatmgonnaget video where he claimed that no one cares about the intro, and from then on the video's intro gets distorted in different ways.
  • Excuse Plot: His reason to review Sweet Genius? 'Without really knowing why...' Cue PLOT caption across the screen and the review continues.
  • Eye Scream: In the 'Equally Randomized' video, Jerma pointed out to STAR_ that there was a crusader's crossbow bolt that goes right through his eyes and exited out the other side of his head. STAR_ taunted to see this.
  • Fang Thpeak: Whenever STAR_ made an amazing play(excluding the examples from the Flat Joy entry) in the I Main Budsquad 6v6, whether he kill almost the entire enemy team or sniping a scout coming at him at close range, the team cheered "OHMERGERD STER".
  • Fantastic Fighting Style: In the Aggressive Duck Style, he says that his play style in TF2 (or at least during the duration of the video) is Aggressive Duck Style and his fighting style is Gandhi.
  • Foreshadowing: He shows what has becoming smart has landed Donatello in his Basically TMNT video: doing office works. In GTA IV. This is a foreshadowing of his own ending of the TMNT game.
  • Find the Cure!: The entire premise of Curing My Sickness is that STAR_ was coming down with an actual pneumonia and he plays Hospital Tycoon to try and find the cure for himself. It didn't really work out too well.
  • Flat Joy:
    • In the 'I main Budsquad 6v6' video, after STAR_ managed to get a pick on the enemy medic with a market gardener, no one even said anything since they were busy dealing with the rest of the opposing team. After STAR_ asked where is his respect, one of his mates just says "Great Job" monotonously. STAR_ even made it into a hitsound. Appreciate it.
  • Follow the Leader:
    • After STAR_ releases a video of him doing some odd tactic like uberchaining or long-distance Spy sniping, expect to encounter hordes of his fans on servers trying the same thing, often times less skillfully.
    • On a bigger scale, Muselk claims he was inspired by STAR_'s videos when starting his own YT channel.
  • Formula-Breaking Episode:
    • The "Basically" series, wherein STAR_ plays and reviews newer games in the best way possible. Grand Theft Auto IV also reappears once in a while.
    • Basically-Sweet Genius, which focused on a cooking show rather than a video game.
    • In terms of comedy style, STAR_ goes for more Cloud Cuckoo Lander comedy in the Strange Pan video and Spooky Halloween 2013 spells video.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • In the Scout Pan video, when STAR_ came out of the spawn at the last point, he witnessed 2 engineers trying to desap the teleporter from a persistent spy at the other side of the teleporter, STAR_ went away. Now pay close attention to the kill cam; almost immediately after he left, the 2 engies were telefragged by the same spy and the spy sapped everything.
    • In 'Moron Medic', Jerma, playing kritz pocket medic to STAR_, deliberately walked off the edge of the cliff, dropping the kritz in the process. It took STAR_ several seconds to realize what happened.
    • Toward the end of Jerma is Mad pt.2, three RED Spies all uncloak in front of STAR_ (also on RED). What's more, they all occupy the bottom of the scoreboard.
    • In Jerma is Mad pt 3 video, a random Sniper goes up to a Heavy head on with a kukri. It goes as well as expected as the kill feed indicates.
  • Gilligan Cut: In "TF2: Robotic Boogaloo Update", after opening 25 crates:
    STAR_: You know it's addicting, and I almost want to buy like 25 more, but... (cut to STAR_'s inventory after buying 25 more crates)
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: STAR_ demonstrated the glowing eyes effect of the killstreak weapons in Full Killstreak Loadout and Killstreak Huntsman video.
  • Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Apparently made items shiny enough to emit light even in total darkness in the 'Depths Of Fear' video.
  • Good Bad Bugs:
    • Invoked in one of his video featured a demoman arm glitch, where if you crouch and tap the W or S key repeatedly as a demoman with a shield and a one handed melee weapon, his left arm would move back and forth.
    • This is also what half of his GTA series of videos contains, alongside hilarious hacks and mods shenanigans.
    • In Basically: All-Star Racing video: STUN-STUN-STUNT FAI- while the vehicle continuously flip back and forth.
  • Gratuitous English: STAR_, Ma3laa and Seabass parodied this in 'Harry Potter Dately Whispers a Spellu' video.
  • Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: In the 'Depths Of Fear' video, STAR_ has more trouble dealing with a satyr than with the bosses themselves including the minotaur, the freaking final boss of the game!
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: In his video called TF2: Bone Zone Smash Bros, STAR_ at one points switches to Soldier (previously seen in another video to be an absolute war terror in STAR_'s hands) and has to fight a Sniper, one on one. With each and every rocket, he effortlessly juggles the Sniper - who promptly whacks him with the Bushwhacka exactly one time and instantly kills him. STAR_ is understandably outraged.
    • Just to add insult to injury, he also goes toe-to-toe with a Scout while carrying the Direct Hit. He empties his entire clip into the Scout, landing enough direct hits to send the Scout flying through the air at Mach 12. Despite that, the Scout somehow still lands and whacks STAR_ twice with a ham. As if that still wasn't enough, the Sniper from before comes back and delivers a Huntsman arrow directly to his face. STAR_ lost it.
    "And he's still in - he's gonna come hit me one time and I'm gonna go out! No, t-this isn't happening...! GOD DAMMIT!" (sounds of STAR_ throwing his headset at the wall)
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Ma3laa, justified since they played in a Highlander team called 'Gangster Gang Gaming' and to a lesser extent, Seabass, the medic and team captain.
  • Historical Character Confusion: STAR_ mixes up Jim Bowie and David Bowie.
  • Homing Projectile: In the appropiately named 'Homing Crit Rocket', in the server where STAR_ and Jerma was playing in during the recording of the video, apparently the projectiles homes in on the target after a pyro reflect it. They had fun experimenting with it and witnessing its ridiculousness like the rocket making sharp turns to kill its target.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Star_ stated that when he was recording "Jerma is mad pt. 2", Jerma hadn't yet realized that Star_ was a huge tryhard.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: In 'Garbage Guardians', STAR_ proposed a plan to Jerma that he, as a pyro, distract the enemy team and Jerma, the pirate spy, backstab them. A few moments later, STAR_ killed a demoman with a crit flare and compliment Jerma for that good backstabs, then just proceeded to W+M1 half of the enemy team and killing all of them.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In "Jerma is mad pt. 2":
    Boo: Ohhh shit!
    Jerma: Y'know, don't... say... sw-swears.
    Boo: I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
    '*Jerma gets killed by STAR_ a bit later* How the FUCK did you do that?
    • STAR_ also taunts every time he kills Jerma, even though he mocked this specifically in "Sniper Stomper".
    • Subverted in "First Person - No Going Back". After a Medic who kills him jeers "You are also ugly!", STAR_ claims he would never call his victims ugly. He then tries and fails to kill an enemy Pyro, admitting he would have called him ugly once he killed him, but failed to complete the punchline.
  • Inherently Funny Words: For some of his videos but usually not does not run long and within its own original video:
    'Strange!' (from Strange Frying Pan video)
    'Spooky X' (from TF2: Spooky Halloween 2013 Spells video)
    'Oh no!' (from Basically: All-Star Racing video)
    'Pumpkins!' (Again from Spooky Halloween 2013 Spells video)
  • Insane Troll Logic: In 'Basically-Sweet Genius', STAR_ theorized that, since Amos Hayon stated that he left Israel two years ago, he was actually a failed clone of Ben Ron Israel and left him two years ago, who somehow came back to compete in 'Sweet Genius', rather than the much more logical 'He left the country Israel'.
  • Improbable Weapon User: He has videos dedicated to having stipulation with joke weapons like the Ham Shank and the Frying Pan with various classes.
  • Implausible Deniability: In "MvM Diaper Teleporter", STAR_ denies using his teleporter to troll his teammates, even as it becomes more and more obvious that he actually is.
  • It Makes Sense in Context:
    • Many of his quotes:
    "I'm gonna take this ridiculous sword and turn into a truck!"
    "I'll milk you. Now your bones are stronger."
    • In-universe in the 'I Main Budsquad 6v6' video. STAR_ kept muttering that he was the 'new Powah' as a sniper, the prove it by sniping a scout in close range to cap the last point. STAR_ put it into perspective by showing an old clip on Twitch of a player named 'Powah' sniping a medic in close range, then the scout who was shooting him, goes afk in celebration for a while, then came back and momentarily kill the medic again.
  • I Was Just Joking: During his stream of the Overwatch closed beta, STAR_ jokingly states that the game is terrible and says "better luck next time, Blizzard". Keep in mind that at the time he was mostly being watched by people who have never heard of him or his sense of humor and were only watching for the game itself, so following that little gag several thousand people abandoned the stream all at once. Acknowledged later, with one of the mods saying "Remember guys, he's serious about everything".
  • Jerkass: In Sock'em Bopper Hevies video, it was a Demoman called 'Obamacare'. For starters, he called STAR_ 'noob heavy' after killing him, apparently ignoring the fact that STAR_ was just playing around with a KGB. Several clips later, Jerma was wrecking the RED team with a Buffalo Steak Sandvich-KGB combo, only to have his streak stopped by a sentry gun, and Obamacare still called him a noob. Then there are numerous testaments to his jerkassery on Youtube comments and Reddit thread...
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Invoked in Basically: All-Star racing where he only recognized Sonic and the TF2 characters (Heavy, Pyro, and Spy) and not the rest of the cast.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • After all the trolling STAR_ subjected to his teammates on 'MvM Diaper Teleporter' video, he was eventually punished...by receiving a professional killstreak huntsman kit fabricator.
    • All STAR_ does in the 'The Diablo 3 Incident' video was annoying Jerma with his witch doctor, yet he managed to get a legendary item. Not to mention STAR_ rubbing this fact to Jerma's face by dropping it and picking up repeatedly to show its legendary status.
  • Klingon Promotion: In Live Bingo Night.
    STAR_: I got killed by the Fake Ster, so now, he's the real Ster. That's how it works. Congratulations. It's...promotions.
  • Large Ham: It's rare for a video with Jerma in it to go by without the scenery getting chewed. Star himself engages in some ham sometimes, as well. He also wields one in the Ham Shank video.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • Right after he kills Jerma in Jerma Is Mad pt. 2, he was stabbed by Boo while he was taunting. Twice, at the same spot.
    • In TF2 Sniper_Stomper, one of the raging enemy Snipers called STAR_ a noob. Cut to a clip where he taunt killed him and another oblivious sniper with an Equalizer taunt kill, dominating the Sniper in the process.
  • Left It In:
    • At one point "Jerma Is Mad pt 3", Jerma rants about STAR_ killing him again by headshot as soon as Jerma left spawn, yelling "Let's put cigarettes out on my dick!" In the very next clip, Jerma begs STAR_ to not include that line in the uploaded video. Obviously STAR_ listened to him.
    • In the 'Upgraded Short Circuit' video, Ma3laa celebrated his MVP of the match status by uttering nonsense, then the clip cuts to black, with Ma3laa requesting that the part will not be in the video. STAR_ is a very good listener to his buddies.
    • Subverted in 'Homing Crit Rocket' video, where Ma3laa asked if some unknown incident will go in the video. STAR_ left the question in, but edited out the incident itself.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: He calls it "tryhard mode", but the effect is the same: He's goofing off until he decides it's time to get serious, and that's where things start dying.
  • Loads and Loads of Loading: Seen in both 'What Game Is This?' and TF2 Servers videos, where STAR_ tried out multiple servers and many of them failed to impress.
  • Literal-Minded:
    • Exploited in 'STAR_ #1 TF2 coach NA'. STAR_ was asked to coach a player, he accepted, but noticed that the map he was loading into was an idle map. STAR_ just rolled with it and teach the player how to idle.
    • In 'TF2: I Main Demoknight 6v6' video, after STAR_ managed to get a medic kill as a demoknight, Lange said that the play is going into his folder. Cue the clip itself shrunk and being tucked away into a folder.
    • In 'Basically-Sweet Genius', one of the contestant claimed he is going to bring his A-game against the young cats, cue the next clip showing a (presumably young) cat in a suit with a birthday cake.
  • Macross Missile Massacre:
    STAR_: THIS IS AN AIRSTRIKE.
    • It's also present in 'TF2: Monster Mash' video, from (initially) a ridiculous amount of Monoculus and (later) from a modified Flare Gun.
    Jerma: You know what you successfully made? You have successfully made a Bullet Hell game. This is a bullet hell game. One hit and you're dead, and you have a ridiculous powerful shooting-gun.
  • Made of Explodium:
    • Seems to be for the vehicles in Basically: Ravaged video, where a simple collision with other vehicles or rocks can caused the quad to explode.
    • In the 'Depths Of Fear' video, apparently you only need to stab a barrel with a dingy dagger to light the barrel on fire and explode.
    • Made of Iron: In the 'Depths Of fear' video, the satyr can take a spike trap up it's butt or a full frontal explosion from the barrel and it would still be chasing after STAR_.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: STAR_'s reaction after Jerma told him that there was a bolt that goes into his eyes and sticking out of the other side of his brain in the 'Equally Randomized' video.
    STAR_: Ow, it is.
  • Makes Just as Much Sense in Context:
    • Invoked in his Oddjob Scout video, he attempted to explained who Oddjob is by showing a clip of James Bond fighting against Oddjob, inputting his own lines to it:
    '''STAR_(voicing James Bond): You threw a hat? Well I'm gonna throw gold at you. HEURGHH (throws a gold brick)(deflected off Oddjob's chest) Oh, Crap! I'm outta here.
    • He then lamented immediately afterwards that it does not explain as much as he hoped so he just straight up tell the viewers who Oddjob is.
  • Manipulative Editing:
    • STAR_ theorized in "Basically: Sweet Genius" that the gargoyles in charge of editing Sweet Genius were trying to hide that Ron Ben-Israel is a demonic overlord, but have a tendency to slip up. Same goes for one of the contestants, Amos Hayon, in that the gargoyles tried to focus on his Star of David necklace to show that he is from the geographical location of Israel rather than being a clone of Ron.
    • In one of the alternate realities in "TF2: What Really Happened?," STAR_ edits Jerma to make it sound like he concedes his "duel" with him.
      Jerma: STAR_,- let me- tell- you- something.- You are such a- good- TF2- player-. Y'know- you- won- the duel- That I'm gonna shit my pants- So you don't have to show any more footage.- You win!- IT'S OVER!!
      STAR_: Yeah... It was that easy.
      Jerma: Are you kidding me? That isn't what happened!
  • Meaningful Name: Combined with Bilingual Bonus, He jokingly has a DJ name as DJ Ster, seemingly look like a derpy spelling of star. However, ster is actually dutch for 'star'. Furthermore, his old channel name, niichts, means 'nothing' in German
  • Metagame: The subject of his TF2: MvM Metagame video, where he discusses both the good and bad aspects of the one for Mann vs Machine mode in Team Fortress 2.
  • Metaphorgotten: A very long example:
    STAR_: (Talking about confidence)You know, imagine this, where I just go pick up the phone, I'm calling somebody I need to inquire about some form of insurance, and I pick up the phone and I say, "Hello, who is this? I don't know who I'm calling," and they respond, (in a deep and scratchy voice) "Hello, I am just a lonely farmer." I don't know what just happened, I am really uncomfortable with this situation because I have never heard anybody introduce themselves like that, EVER. I don't know what to do, and that's the same thing with Demoknighting or whatever...*two minutes later* This example died two minutes ago. We're moving on."
    • Jerma gets another one, in what seems like a more ideological form of Angrish
      Jerma: Now where are you...? (In a mocking voice) Just jumpin' around the map! I'm just gonna jump around and... no, I jump around the map, just flying around... yo, where's my fuckin' boarding pass? Need a flight attendant on that one. Are we getting an in-flight meal, 'cause all I fucking do is jump around in a circle!
      Star_: (Through text) ??????????????????
  • Mighty Glacier: In the 'Delete This Idiot.mp4' video, STAR_ and TrukTruk had an idea of pushing forward with both of them being a brass beast heavy facing each other with their minigun revved so that they protect each other when they were slowly moving out. It did not work out too well. The very next clip, however, has the almost entire team as brass beast heavy revved forever, shredding down anyone in their line of sight.
  • The Millstone: STAR_ willingly becomes one in The Diable 3 Incident video, wearing little to no armor so as to die to basically anything, and wasting mana on randomly cast spells while making plenty of noise.
    Jerma: I'm glad I have, like, Anchor Star_. It's like driving around a ship with the fucking anchor down.
  • Mind Screw: "TF2: What Really Happened?" starts out like a "Rashomon"-Style video and then it screwballs into this as the video continues.
    • In "TF2: Taken Too Far," he installs so many GameMods that the game he's playing is barely recognizable as Team Fortress 2. He can barely stand playing the game for two hours without being Driven to Madness.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: One of the clip STAR_ shows in STAR_ Channel Trailer video was not found anywhere in his video archives, dubbed 'total conversion mod'.
  • Mondegreen Gag:
    • A minor one in the Double Donk video, when he go crazy with his choppas(an AK-47 reskin of the SMG), he briefly sang the chorus of "Where Da Hood At" by DMX but sang it as "Where mah hood, where mah hood, where mah hood".
    • In his video of his gameplay of Tactical Intervention 1.6:
    Civilian: Why did I go to work today?
    STAR_(in a mocking tone): Why did I come here today?
    • STAR_ intentionally invoked the trope in 'Basically-Sweet Genius':
    Ben Ron Israel: And something else to consider? *press button, the light dims*. DUCKNESS(followed by 2 pictures of rubber ducks at the bottom of the screen slowly ascending.
    • And in another clip in the same video:
    Ben Ron Israel: And I have WEAKLY calculated the variables.
  • Money to Burn:
    • The background of "Strongbox Crate (Remix)" depicts money burning, pretty much what STAR_'s doing by purchasing so many crates.
    • A clip in "These Crates" has him delete an Australium Sniper Rifle. Cue mass panic by his fans in the comments.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: In 'Move/Hidden gameplay' video, he called a mattress company to inquire when his mattress going to arrive for the last time, he was greeted by a man with a strange accent, similar to Bane from the Batman franchise. When he told Bane about his circumstances, the Bane sound-alike said "Ah yes, your mattress delivery. My hope to have you sleeping soundly soon..." That made STAR_'s day to say the least.
  • Murder by Mistake: Happened a couple of times in the Killstreak Huntsmen video.
  • Never My Fault: After a failed push to a last cap in the 'I main Demoknight 6v6' video, STAR_ figured that they failed to because one of his team mates is a sniper. Another one of his team mate called him out on that, to which STAR_ tried to justify it by saying that him as a demoknight and the sniper are both 'pick'(or assassin) classes and you can't have more than one pick classes in a 6s team.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Played for laughs in 'TF2: Surgeon Simulator 2013' video:
    STAR_(after sawing into the heavy's belly for a bit): Is this turning anyone else on?
  • Noodle Incident:
    • He tells a story about how he ended up in a mental hospital for the weekend in one of his "Story Time" videos.
    • What joke does Jerma wanted to show STAR_ initially in the 'DoD of Defeat' video? We will never know.
    • What about the thing Ma3laa does in 'Homing Crit Rockets' video that STAR_ left out?
    • All we know about the Bone Zone mentioned in the 'Bone Zone Smash Bros' video is that it was an attraction at a zoo and has a plastic replica of a rhino with a plastic dick, beyond those details it was rather vague, like why does the Bone Zone have a bad reputation and what kind of school project Ma3laa has to justify bringing the kids there.
    • In 'Basically-Sweet Genius', STAR_ was scared of reviewing the show because he thinks Ben Ron Israel might kill him...again. What happened at the first time, or was it the first time, and how was he alive?
  • Noodle People: STAR_ used a mod that changed the character models into this. Hilarity, and probably nightmare fuel, ensued.
  • "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: He uses this after he showed a clip of the strange Sonic & All-Stars Racing commercial featuring NASCAR driver Danica Patrick.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Jerma uses this tactic in Jerma Is Mad Pt. 3 as a Heavy by wearing a Ghastly Gibus, wielding a Brass Beast, and revving it at subpar timing to catch STAR_ offguard and finally kill him.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the Moron Medic video, STAR_ repeatedly mentions that the previous round before the video was apparently quite hectic, calling it the "craziest server I've been on for a while" and is disappointed at how lukewarm the current round is in comparison.
  • One Bullet Left: More like 6 bucks in a shotgun but the principle still applies in the 'Equally Randomized' video when everyone got randomized into heavies with only a shotgun and a KGB.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • In Discomfort Zone: Soda Popper and Winger video, an enemy spy was holding on a high-five taunt during humiliation, when STAR_ and his team goes in to spawn to clean up, the spy was distraught. STAR_ then repeated, zoomed in and slowed that clip twice, both for showing the audience the face and as a stinger for his video.
    • You can practically hear STAR_ saying this trope during the intro of the 'Aggressive Duck' video
    STAR_: Hey, everybody STAR_ here, how's it going today we're gonna be fighting TWO HEAVIES AT ONCE note  I GOTTA GO BYE EVERYBODY!
    • In the 'Depths Of Fear' video, STAR_ was making fun of the floaty walk animation the satyr guard possessed when it spotted him, STAR_ was startled and yelled "Oh shit!" Later in the video, he was practically scared shitless when he realized that neither spike trap nore a couple of barrel explosion can kill a satyr on their own.
    STAR_: Holy shit! He don't care at all!
    • As he narrates in Having a Crate Time, he had one IRL when he had left with his brother to watch a meteor shower in a secluded area, and suddenly saw headlights shining on them in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, it was just a police car, but he described the feeling thusly:
    I really am not in the mood to get raped right now
    • In the 'Delete This Idiot.mp4' video, this was Seanbud's reaction when rocket jumped up to the roof only to find countless brass beast heavies gunning him down.
  • One-Hit Kill: In the 'Equally Randomized' video, when everyone got randomized into a scout with a Boston Basher, the Boston Basher was modified so that it took about half of your health immediately if you miss your swing, launched you to the air due to the high damage and if the bleed damage doesn't finish you, the landing will. On the other hand, if you did land the hit, it'd send the poor victim into the nearest wall with a 180-damage blow, so, basically, every swing was a One-Hit Kill, it'd just kill you if it missed.
  • One-Liner: He does one in "Basically, Sniper Elite", when he's surrounded by a big group of enemies and no one manages to actually hit him.
    STAR_: It's not that hard! Look, you point, you aim, you shoot. Sniper Elite!
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the Basically video of Scarlet Blade, STAR_ actually loosely based around basic review format, with sections on character decoration, gameplay and the story, unlike his other Basically videos where he just messed around and talked about the game in general, and in all of those sections, he finds that Scarlet Blade failed in all of them. Then he concludes the video by stating, without exaggerations, that Scarlet Blade is the worst game he ever played and not in a traditional technical and gameplay sense like Superman64, the game works but he'd rather be glitching than witnessing the game in all its misogynistic form.
    • Ma3laa gets to be the one going into this in the Diable 3 Incident video. Both Jerma and STAR_ had their chats connected with his, and, while usually quite a chill guy, he was definitely not enjoying their shenanigans.
      Ma3laa: *while Jerma and STAR_ are yelling at each other over things* Can I not be involved- SHUT UP! Shut the FUCK! UP!
      [...]
  • Orphaned Punchline: In "Double Donk (Live Commentary)", STAR_ says "Better Nate than lever", adding that Nate is a snake who wrangles levers. This is the punchline to "The Longest Joke in the World".
  • Out-Gambitted: In "Jerma Is Mad Pt. 3", Jerma tries to get revenge on STAR_ by hiding outside of BLU Spawn as a Cloak and Dagger Spy. STAR_ figures out where he is by going to Spectate, then returns to the game and kills Jerma immediately.
  • Overly Long Gag: Jerma985 sees STAR_'s "Truck Punchline" (where STAR_ spawns a bunch of trucks) as this, along with his "car cheese grater" (where STAR_ causes a car to speed back and forth repeatedly).
  • Poke the Poodle: In the 'I Main Budsquad 6v6' video, STAR_ trolled his own medic by stealing a health pack, even when said medic is badly hurt and healing STAR_. Under normal, more serious circumstances, this would be more of Kick the Dog but in this case, the enemy team was nowhere to be found and the match was a half-serious scrim between friends and acquaintances who knew one another.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • Before Jerma Is Mad pt 2 made STAR_ more lenient towards swearing in the video, STAR_ does not usually swear during his recording of his videos and if he does so, most of the time it censored by a duck sounds. So the ones that does got through is pretty impactful:
    STAR_(having an epiphany after wondering around aimlessly on the fields in Basically: Scarlet Blade video): *chuckles a bit* What the fuck am I doing? I gotta stop playing this game. I just- sorry. I just had the realization of what's going on here. I just really- *sigh* close the game.
    STAR_(after seeing a watermark at the bottom left corner of the screen in the 'TF2: Servers' video): Cut it out, that's bullshit.
    Jerma(After briefly threatening STAR_ by saying that he will uber a random scout before the match began proper): Hey STAR_, I'm kritsing this scout, go fuck yourself. *Krits the scout.*
    • And from DJ Ster-These Crates:
    STAR_: Remember, don't say swears// FUCK you Jerma, I don't care (Jerma moaning clip)
  • Pun: a lampshaded example in Basically: Black Ops 2:
    announcer: Friendly UAV inbound.
    a literal friendly UAV: (in a Barney-like voice)Hey there buddy, how's it going?
    *JOKEZ caption appeared across the screen*
  • Pyrrhic Victory: In the beginning of the 'Go! Go! Nippon!' video, STAR_ wondered if it was even worth it to go through the game so that he can win a title of being a winner of the Go! Go! Nippon! challenge. He still went with it anyways. YMMV if he even won or not.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: STAR_'s Team for the TF2 Mixup for Charity. Though he himself is an excellent player, 3 of his teammates have never played the game before (Ridgedog, Trottimus, and alsmiffy), and the other one [kaz], while having played the game before, also is a low-level noob who is usually the first one dead. But they all get a lot of practice as the games go on and ultimately win in the finals. Hell, they don't just win the finals, they sweep 7 - 0 against Robin Walker, the game's head developer. It gets so lopsided that Robin's captain orders him to cheat just to "win" a round.
    STAR_: Wow, we've sure grown up from our days in the tunnel with the wheelbarrow. I feel like this team's progression over ten minutes has been phenomenal.
    [Later]
    Ridgedog: We did it. This could be made into a story... a story of growth. Five unlikely friends struggling to make it through.
    alsmiffy: Working out how the hell to play Team Fortress 2.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:
    • In terms of comedy duo with Jerma, STAR_ tends to be a blue oni (observational comedy, Deadpan Snarker) and Jerma tends to be red (more vocal, very upfront comedy).
    • In terms of gameplay with Ma3laa, STAR_ is a blue to Ma3laa's red, with the former playing supportive and/or flanking classes in competitive environment like sniper, pyro and engineer in highlander and a scout and engineer in 6v6 while Ma3laa plays the more tanky classes like heavy in highlander and pocket soldier in 6v6. Even in pub servrs, this still applies when they play together, as STAR_ usually plays medic pocketing Ma3laa while Ma3laa plays demoman.
    • Yet in terms of personality, STAR_ is a red to Ma3laa's blue, as the former is more frantic and the one calling the shots while Ma3laa was more laidback.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Both videos where STAR_ and a co-conspirator stand out in the open as undisguised Spies and just headshot any enemy that appears with Ambassadors. It probably helps that their aim is solid and their Plan B is just to cloak and run for it, but this ends up working far better than it really should work.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: At first in his "TF2: Australium Sniper" video, STAR_ spent thirteen minutes alternating between raging over 2 engineers camping on last point and trying to accomplish as much as he can as a sniper until the engies inexplicably disappeared, just as the enemy team pushed to the point. STAR_ straight-up flipped out, switched to soldier (claiming it's technically within the video theme of austrialium weapons) and dominated the enemy team. And as if that's not enough, one of the video's last clips shows STAR_'s killstreak in the corner to be SIXTEEN. Then switched back to sniper.
  • Rhyming with Itself: From DJ Ster-Strongbox Crate(Remix):
    Jerma: YO WE GOT THIS CRATES HERE COVERED IN GLUE // WE GOTTA OPEN THEM UP WITH SOME SUPA GLUE!
  • Roboteching: As stated in the Homing Projectile entry, reflected missiles in that particular server provided large doses of this, including following foes into water pipes, turning 180 degrees more than once when their original target died, and one particular example in which the rocket left the CP-Orange central tower's window, turned straight up, and then turned back inside to kill someone in the upper floor.
  • Running Gag:
    • Intially, his deep Mako voice's purpose was to fill in the dead air in the editing process, started in when he was concentrating in TF2: First Person No Going Back video. Then it somewhat evolves into full on gag What Game Is This.
    • From the 'Jerma Is Mad' trilogy. Y'know, don't... say... sw-swears...
      • From the same series, "counting cards".Explanation
    • From 'Basically: Sega's All Star Racing' videoOh no!
    • In Dark Souls 2: Prepare To Buy Edition, it's jerma walking off cliffs. It would have gone into Overly Long Gag if it weren't for the fact that ALL of the falls were unintentional and weren't meant to be jokes for the video, much to STAR_'s increasing irritation. And to a lesser extent, enemies walking off cliffs as well due to some faulty AI pathing.
  • Sanity Slippage: In the Go! Go! Nippon [Challenge Accepted] video, which is about ninety percent this, and ten percent STAR_ poking fun at the usual 'KAWAII DESU UGUUU ANIME BOOBUFESTUU!' moments.
  • Sassy Black Woman:
    • In "Hawkeye (Commentary)", STAR_ recounts watching The Avengers with someone like this in the audience. At first he found her annoying, but then felt she livened up the experience by hyping up every moment. She even yelled out: "Oh No You Didn't!" when the Hulk grabbed an ejecting pilot she had been yelling at to eject for the past half minute.
    • STAR_ posts the stock photo from the trope's page image during his video for the 2013 Halloween Event, as the servers kept crashing the day it opened.
  • Say My Name:
    • REFLEX!!!
    • DAVID F**KING BOWIE!!
    • Invoked in Spooky Demo Arms where fans held up a placard saying 'STAR_, say my name' with the fans and friends creepily asked that to STAR_ repeatedly. STAR_ did eventually say someone's name, "TrukTruk", after Seanbud smacked him for using the sword, which doesn't induce a twitchy demo arm glitch like the rest of the demo arm gang.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: In 'Go! Go! Nippon!' video, STAR_ pronounced tide(~) punctuation as squiggly lines.
  • Screaming Warrior: In this video whenever he signals Jerma to Kritz him. All the screams are lowered to 5%
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
    • When Jerma kritzed the scout in the 'Moron Medic' video, STAR_ stared at them, at loss of words, then turned around and walked away. Subverted the next clip.
    • Jerma used this trope in the 'Diablo 3 Incident' video when he realized he was walking backwards and have made little progress with STAR_, a near naked useless witch doctor millstone, around.
    • In the 'I Main Budsquad 6v6' video, after Powah made an amazing play, he threw down his headset and went afk to celebrate it.
    • In 'Garbage Guardians', when STAR_ sees that Jerma was playing as a pirate pyro, STAR_ backed up a bit then just ran away from the pursuing Jerma, claiming that they'd have done played the game and wanting Jerma to go away.
  • Self-Deprecation: In the Fully Charged interview, he said he was surprised by how popular his channel has become when he barely likes himself.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge:
    • In this video, STAR_ purposely equips the worst loadout he can think of: Rocket Jumper (Rockets do no damage, and at the time, doubled vulnerabilities to almost all damage), Gunboats (reduces self-damage from your own rockets), and Pain Train (10% weaker to bullets). Naturally, he doesn't do very well.
    • He'd done "Discomfort Zone" videos where he uses weapons he dislikes or never uses.
    • He's also made a video where he binds "S" to "explode", preventing him from ever moving backwards.
    • In a later video, he takes W+M1 up to eleven by typing +forward and +attack into the console, forcing him to constantly attack and run forwards as Pyro, without using his keyboard at all. He gets the second-most amount of points on his team that round, and isn't far behind the one who's above him on the scoreboard.
    • The entire point of 'Go! Go! Nippon!' video was to see if STAR_ can make an entertaining video out of playing a typical visual novel. YMMV if he succeeded or not.
  • Ship Tease: It's more of a tease towards Jerma rather than the fan's hilarious STAR_xJerma ships but, nonetheless, in the 'The Diablo 3 Incident' video, STAR_ typed to remind Jerma of their 'honeymoon' and have been sweet talking him to play Diablo 3 again.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Shoot the shaggy Ma3laa: In the 'Delete This Idiot.mp4' video, STAR_ pumps Ma3laa full of Crusader's Crossbow bolts, easily saving his life from an enemy Pyro about four or five times over. Ma3laa then turns a corner and dies instantly to a headshot.
  • Signature Laugh: Ma3laa's high pitched 'He Huh!' laugh is strange and cute. Even STAR_ took one instance of it and made it into a hitsound, though it Came Out Wrong.
  • Sock Puppet: STAR_ will often use these for popping achievements and/or trolling Jerma985.
  • Sole Survivor: During the third heat of the TF2 Mixup matches, STAR_ ended up the last player left alive on his team four times. Unfortunately, he usually ended up dying afterward rather than Conservation of Ninjutsu kicking in. Except in the fourth and final heat, where he singlehandedly took down a Demoman, Medic, and Heavy as a lone Sniper.
  • Special Edition Title: Instead of the regular title for Bonk Atomic Taunt, he uses a subpar 3D title card, complete with flaming letters and xxX, to further parody the trend of Overly edited Call of Duty montages. It popped up again for the X-Com: Declassified Basically video, which forshadows another montage later in the video.
  • So Unfunny, It's Funny: In the 'DoD of Defeat' video, Jerma done something funny to warrant STAR_ to come over and see. The problem was that STAR_ was on the other team, to which STAR_ provided a solution of killing the whole team except Jerma who was holding the shovel. After all the work STAR_ went through to see the joke, Jerma forgot how it goes and shoots all over the place with a machinegun in frustration. STAR_ said that it was not funny, while trying to stifle his laugh, then Jerma just killed him in confusion of what to do next. STAR_ finally begrudgingly admitted that it was funny.
  • Speech Impediment: Jerma does this a bit, like in 'Kingdoms Rise', 'RIPD Pizza Department' and 'Go! Go! Nippon!' videos.
  • Spell My Name With An S: STAR_ is sometimes referred to as STAR (without the underscore).
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: STAR_ occasionally runs into players he was unsure where they come from.
  • Stone Wall: In the 'Equally Randomized' video, STAR_ and Jerma as Heavies decided to munch on their Dalokohs Bar as long as possible, which was modified to have as much as health as the player have the patience to eat it. STAR_ and Jerma left with exactly a thousand health. Unfortunately, the enemy Heavies also had the same idea, and since all of them only had a shotgun and Eviction Notice to fight with, it meant battles could go on for quite a while.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "TF2 Servers," the first server STAR_ picked has a server that claimed outright that it has no bots. A few clips later, the 'players' acted very much like bots.
  • Take That!:
    • In the Strange Pan video, after racking up a couple of kills on his Strange weapons, including the Strange frying pan, he goes into the loadout menu and checks up on the kill stats. As it turns out, none of his weapon he's holding are Strange, stating that it makes no difference, and nobody cares.
    • He also did a parody on a typical Call Of Duty skill montages on his Bonk Atomic Taunt Kills and a the last quarter of his Basically video on X-Com: The Bureau.
    • In 'TF2: Surgeon Simulator 2013' video, after he see that the heavy's own lungs fit perfectly on his head, the next clip consisting of checking out a typical Steam Workshop comments section and mocked the people who simply called the item in question epic with no real comments to add to it and only begging Valve to add it in the game. With a sad puppy sliding up from the bottom right of the screen.
    • Also, in the same video:
    STAR_: Activating the Quick-Fix, trust me, it'll be useful this time.note 
  • Take That, Audience!: In 'Basically-Scarlet Blade' video.
    STAR_: So, wait, what you're basically trying to tell me is that this game is essentially every other MMO that's ever being made, right?
    STAR_(in a deep, hoarse voice to represent his viewers who wants to know more): YEAH BUT I LIKE IT GIVE ME SOME MORE! All while a clip of a fat kid pouring milk all over himself was running.
    • Basically-Warframe boils down to STAR admitting he really enjoys the game and finds it fun, before discussing how people take his word on games that he purposely shows as being shitty and broken. STAR notes that he is condensing the time he played in the game down from 20 hours to 5 minutes, not showing all the good the game had to offer, and that people who take this as a legitimate demonstration of the game are naive. In his own words, "I'm totally an experienced and serious review channel".
  • Tantrum Throwing: Of the three, it seems Ma3laa is the only one whose keyboard doesn't get the tar beaten out of it at some point. With one particularly brutal instance in the 'How to Sawmill Rollout' video, STAR_ smashed his keyboard so much because a mini-sentry killed him the second time, Windows popped up a Help and Support screen, which is about as close as you can get to a cry for help in this kind of situation.
    STAR_(in the description of the above video): Forgive me for over exaggerating a bit...but....do you understand how fun it is to just throw your keyboard? I wouldn't recommend it.
    • Subverted in the Diable 3 Incident video, where Ma3laa eventually gets tired of STAR and Jerma's nonsense and screams at them both to shut up.
    Ma3laa: Can-can you like, mute me in Mumbl- SHUT UP! S-shut the FUCK UP! I need to know where the guy is! HE'S FUCKING HEAVEN! ALRIGHT I GOTTIM! GOD I'm deafening you guys I'm fucking-
  • Team Power Walk: Parodies this in Spooky Demo Arms where the Spooky Demo Arm glitch was exploited to become a surreal instance, complete with fade out of black and lens flare in the beginning of the clip.
  • Tempting Fate:
    • In DoD of Defeat video, he said that every FPS game should have at least one map named after banana, the video after this, TFC Team Fortress Classic, has a jump map that is called Banana Land that STAR_ and Jerma enters. Most of its texture is just puke green grass, hurting the eyes of Jerma, STAR_ and probably the audience.
    • In R.I.P Geetz 4, when Jerma called STAR_ out of for using the truck punchline in the beginning of their session, which was usually reserved for when they have no jokes left, STAR_ spawned in tons of boats and the caption read boat punchline.
    • In Australium Sniper [Live], STAR_ played on a Skial server, noting that usually he avoids them but just wanted to play cp_Snakewater, as it had just been made an official map and wasn't widely spread on other servers yet. His team soon proves to be incompetent, and STAR_ proceeds to have an utterly terrible game before he snaps, goes Soldier, and promptly flattens the entire enemy team.
    • In 'h1z1 the game', after the guy threatened to kill STAR_ for flipping him off, STAR_ thought he was bluffing because bullets are rare in this game. He then proceeded to get shot.
    • In the same video, STAR_ saw a bear on the roof of a furniture store and assumed that the bear can't get down and hurt him. Cue the next clip, and suddenly a bear comes in and scared the living shit out of STAR_, complete with an over-the-top editing to show said spookiness.
  • That Came Out Wrong:
    "I love the sound of someone smacking away on their arcade stick... That sounded really wrong."
  • Themed Aliases:
    • STAR_ has used several different themes for aliases:
    • Food names in Leet Lingo: P4ncak3, W4ffUl, St34k, Ch33zBuRg3r, F1SH, f00d n4m3, T4ST13, P1ZZ4, etc.
    • Names in all-caps, with or without underscores: FRAUD, SMISSMAS, ENGIE, JUMP, EFFORT, BOMB, ODDJOB, QUACK, STRANGE, HAM, SCARY, etc.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: One of the main premise of 'TF2:21 vs 2' is that Jerma and STAR_ was armed with ridiculous arsenals against 21 players with the usual weapons.
  • This Is Gonna Suck:
    • Paraphrased almost perfectly by STAR_ on his video as he played 'Go! Go! Nippon!' as he was playing about an hour. Again, YMMV whether the whole video sucks or not.
    • When Jerma summarised STAR_'s plan of annoying him throughout his gameplay and make it into a video called 'The Diablo 3 Incident' video, Jerma simply said that the video's gonna suck. YMMV yet again if it's true or not.
  • Title Drop: Dropped by Jerma, no less, on Jerma Is Mad pt 2 and 3
    (From Jerma Is Mad pt 2) Jerma(in a mocking tone): I can't wait to make Jerma's mad tea ice(?) fuck you part 2. JERMA IS MAD, fuck him and yey, I hate him.
    (from Jerma Is Mad pt 3) Jerma(after being headshotted by STAR_): Can't even play the goddamn game. (in a mocking tone again) Hey I'm so good I play sniper I headshot everyone. OH YEAH, JERMA IS MAD PART 3, well we'll put cigarettes out on my dick!
  • Toilet Humor: In "MvM Diaper Teleporter", STAR_'s teleporter is continually compared to a diaper. Because it comes from under you and occurs when you least expect it.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • At the end of "Sniper Can WASD", STAR_ spots a scoped-in Sniper who clearly does not notice that he's on fire. As he disintegrates into a little pile of ash, the camera zooms in to a health pack just a few feet away.
    • Several players in the Double Donk video, who keep walking right into the massive, spinning, noisy saws near the control point in Sawmill.
    STAR_: I feel so bad getting killed by people like that!
    • The entire BLU Team in "TF2: Taunt Kill Bullies", on the receiving end of an Uberchain spree by STAR_ and Tagg. Many of them continue to play Heavy and shoot at the invulnerable duo, making them easy prey for the two stabbing Medics. Only one BLU has the clarity of mind to try to break the chain, first by stunning Tagg with a Huntsman taunt kill, then by airblasting them as a Pyro.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Cheeseburgers. STAR_ frequently shills burgers from hometown restaurant Uburger on his Twitter, and occasionally nods to it on his stream and videos. When meeting during PAX 2015, Muselk claimed on stream that STAR_ ordered a cheeseburger for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  • Trail of Bread Crumbs: In the 'Depths Of Fear' video, STAR_'s player character leave behind a trail of twine for some reason. STAR_ sarcastically noted that the enemies won't find Thessius now since no one has ever seen a trail of twine before.
  • Turncoat: If STAR_'s team is stomping the other team, he'll take a chance to switch over to the other side to help them out, mostly because he thinks a Curb-Stomp Battle is too boring to watch.
  • Understatement: In 'Delete This Idiot.mp4' video, after STAR_ realized that his 'Ma3laa's laugh' hitsound was way off(see That Came Out Wrong example above for explanation):
    STAR_: I might have set the hitsound up a little bit wrong.
  • Unfortunate Names: According to the Fully Charged interview, despite loving the weapon, STAR_ thinks the Market Gardener has one of the worst original name among the TF2 weapons.
  • Verbal Tic: In the 'Go! Go! Nippon!' video, STAR_ intentionally said some of the most popular verbal tics in anime and manga like 'Uguu~' and 'Sugoiii~'
  • Victory Is Boring: In the 3rd heat of the 2013 TF2 Mix-up, STAR_ is supposedly in "try-hard mode", to make up for the goofing off he did in the previous heat that caused his team to lose their lead. After several matches where they hold their own against Team Cpt.Sparklez, STAR_ starts getting bored and begins slipping into "goofy mode" again. STAR_ then comes to his senses, saying "This was supposed to be the try-hard round!" His teammate Ridgedog then jokes about how STAR_ gets bored of winning.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Jerma985.
  • The Voice: While there are a few photos of him (usually done for interviews) floating around, and even an old vlog in which he appears in full glory, most of the time he's very reluctant to show his face.
    • He has started sometimes using a facecam in his Twitch streams.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Shown a couple times in his video of Tactical Intervention 1.6, then repeated in randomly throughout the video for the heck of it.
  • Vulgar Humor: Jerma can have some....interesting mental images when he's flustered:
    "Oooh, Jerma's Mad part 3, let's put cigarettes out on my dick!"
  • Waxing Lyrical:
    • In the Truck Punchline video, Jerma tries to sing the lyrics to Still Alive when STAR_ is trying (and failing) to kill him. He begins to forget the lyrics along the way.
    Jerma: This was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success. Anyway, this cake is great-and I'm thirsty. Aperture Science. We stay al- (snrk) - do what we must, because we can.
    STAR_: I'm gonna get you!
    Jerma: I am still alive because you are horrible! *gets run over by an NPC-controlled ambulance*
    STAR_: What's this? A DUN DUN DUN DUN! What's this? I don't know the words! A Bum bum bum bum!
    • While getting shot at by a Scout using the pistol in 'Bone Zone Smash Bros'
    STAR_: No! You stop pistol-ing me! I been pistol poppin since 1999, I was 10, maybe 9, then again.....never mind.note 
  • We Need a Distraction: In "Annoying Spies" and "You Shouldn't Be Here", the unconventional strategy of two undisguised Spies standing out in the open headshotting people had the side effect of attracting a lot of enemy attention. Even while the point somewhere else on the map was being contested, several enemies would waste time searching their backlines for what amounted to two nuisances.
    STAR_: This has really escalated! I mean... you can't just let two spies that you know are gonna be somewhere live. The point doesn't matter anymore. You gotta kill those spies, 'cause f*QUACK*k spies.
  • Xanatos Gambit: In #Heatbringer video, Ma3laa tricked an engineer into walking into his sticky trap by purposefully place the stickies visible to him, allowing him to shoot it, then replace the stickies further back. Once the engie thought it was clear and he hear Ma3laa taunting, the engie walks into the trap, dominated by Ma3laa in the process.
  • Yandere: Played for laughs at the end of R.I.P Geetz 4 video:
    STAR_: Is that your new friend? note  While I was gone you got a new friend like you replaced me that easy?
    Jerma: Yeah, I did. You got a problem with that?
    (STAR_ then proceeds to stab the new friend repeatedly with a knife)
    STAR_(after the NPC dropped dead): Don't get new friends Jerma.
    Jerma: I'll find another!
  • You Are Already Dead: In the 'Equally Randomized' video, after STAR_ died to Sharpened Volcano Fragment, he spectated his allies named Deadly Hornet, who is running away while burning at low health. STAR_ declared that he was dead to begin with. Same with the sudden death ending of that match, and yet both spies still ran away from each other, causing a stalemate.
  • You Are Too Late: Played for laughs in the 'Moron Medic' video, where, after the kritz was wasted, Jerma and STAR_ sat on a crate waiting for the next kritz, in the meantime, STAR_ looked out of the window, only to find his sniper was about to get stabbed by the enemy spy. By the time STAR_ got out, the sniper was killed and berated Jerma for that.
  • You Keep Using That Word: In the 'Depths Of Fear' video, STAR_ pointed out that the game he's playing categorised itself as a roguelike game when it does not have the hard elements of it as it has 'restart a level' option and the ability to retrieve back the lost weapons easily from a wall.

Alternative Title(s): Ster

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