Sean Willmon (born: August 30, 1987), better known on the internet as spumwack, also seen as Spumwack, and often shortened to Spum, is a content creator whose work has spanned over the course of multiple channels and a variety of content historically focused on gaming with a more recent emphasis on travel vlogs. Willmon studied Communications at San Diego State University and is a Toastmasters member.
History[]
As of March 2017, spumwack has acquired over 150 thousand subscribers. His most widespread YouTube notoriety stems from his serious and satirical Overwatch content, however he has been known for creating content on a variety of other games and topics. The spumwack channel initially started as a variety gaming channel focused primarily on Minecraft content in a near direct continuation from his previous channel TheMinecraftMuse.
Willmon began his most current content focus of Overwatch in June of 2016, netting the majority of his exposure and influence on the platform. Though never officially retired, spumwack has been inactive since late 2018. Willmon was formerly employed as Product Specialist with NewBlue, where he has regularly appeared in a couple of the company's tutorial and marketing videos[1]. According to LinkedIn[2], Willmon is currently professionally employed as Technical Trainer for Orange Logic.
In 2011, Willmon began posting YouTube videos showcasing Minecraft gameplay related ideas and tips through his first majorly known YouTube channel TheMinecraftMuse. The channel initially solely featured these idea videos, some of which were revolutionary to the community, from June to September 2011. TheMinecraftMuse would then host a new goal-oriented let's play series, Quest for the Golden Apple, or QGA, running from late September to late November. The channel would grow considerably during QGA, leading to the channel's subscriber count and views rising from the low hundreds into the thousands. TheMinecraftMuse would resume posting idea videos, eventually starting a hybrid idea video/let's play series titled Muse Farms, which was also a direct continuation from QGA.
This would later become part of a trilogy with the release of the final series, Facing the End, a series about completing the End dimension in Minecraft, a recently added addition to the game at the time. At the conclusion of the trilogy, he returned to posting idea videos until the conclusion of TheMinecraftMuse's activity at the end of 2012. This would lead to the creation of the spumwack channel, created with aims of diversifying his content and disassociating his channel from being primarily Minecraft focused. The spumwack channel then started its first major Minecraft series: Terra Firma, a series showcasing a hardcore realistic survival mod, which was posted from September 2012 to February 2013. Terra Firma began as a singleplayer series, and later became a multiplayer series through collaborations with Beednox, XiaoXiaoMan, and RiverSimplicity. After concluding this series, Spumwack, joined by Beednox, launched his second major series Facepalm, which ran from February to December of 2013.
Facepalm was a multiplayer survival series in the Mindcrack modpack, which introduces expanded technology and magic systems in Minecraft. During the airing of this series, Spumwack was officially invited to join the Hermitcraft Server in October of 2013. This spawned his Hermitcraft w/ Spum series, lasting from late October of 2013 to late January 2015. While on the server, Spumwack participated in the Hermitcraft Season 2 world, Hermitcraft Season 3 world, Hermitcraft Modsauce, and various other Hermitcraft community events. Spumwack would simultaneously post assorted gameplay series and videos throughout this time, most notably: Terraria, Black Mesa, Cart Life, Cube World, Scribblenauts, Muse Farms Season 2, Starbound, Banished, and 7 Days to Die. In 2014, Spumwack released his acclaimed video The Universe Death Clock.
He would then begin a series of videos with the aim of presenting scientific concepts and theories through the medium of video games. The Universe Death Clock along with his other 'science and video game' related videos helped bring new viewers to the channel and resulted in a major boost of subscribers. He continued to release 'science and videogame' videos until early 2016, where they were split from the Spumwack channel to the since deleted SAV Files channel. The next major focus of the Spumwack channel would become centered around the game Ark: Survivial Evolved. Ark was a multiplayer series that aired from September 2015 to December 2015 showcasing the misadventures and gameplay concepts of Spum in the world of Ark. At the conclusion of this series, Spumwack ceased focusing on a main game for the channel for about 6 months. Multiple miniseries of games like Heroes of the Storm, I Am Alive, Starsector, and an indie game showcase series filled this gap.
Spumwack then began posting videos on Overwatch starting in June of 2016. These video's soon became some of his most viewed content on his channel, and gained him many subscribers due to their mix of information, humor, and satire related to the game. Spumwack would begin to subsidize his content with videos on real life issues with himself and the world, as well as additional indie game let's plays. Spumwack began a focus of content on IRL vlog type videos and sketches by the end of 2018. As of 2022, spumwack has began uploading travel vlog style videos documenting his journeys. Otherwise, Spumwack has seen relative inactivity since October of 2018. The cause of inactivity can be assumed to be lack of financial viability as a YouTuber, and better opportunities developing for Willmon in professional employment Willmon has gained from his experience of being a YouTuber, acknowledging that despite the difficulties of pursuing a YouTube career straight out of college instead of concrete employment, he states that "Now I have a successful career based on the twin passions of my education and experience. I am living proof that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life"[3].