As lots of people are asking, I've decided to try and confirm a start date which is at the moment looking to be the candidate reveal and launch show on the evening of Sunday 29th June with the first task starting on the afternoon of Monday 30th June. If this will be a problem for anyone then please let me know

Yay!

How many candidates do you have at the moment? Do you need help finding any more?

I believe DSA1 had 10, DSA2 had fourteen and DSA3 had thirteen (would have been fourteen, but someone did an Adam Freeman).

Something unexpected came up which meant i wasn't able to take part or come onto the forums for a period of time. But great luck to you in your next venture you choose to take.

Think we have 9 so far, I'm aiming to get to 12 by sunday!

I'd just like to say if there's lurkers or people pondering whether or not to sign up I'd encourage you to join. My own experiences of this game from the previous two series have been mostly positive. I hope the game goes well for you Niall and good luck to the candidates.

I completely second that, Katie. I wasn't going to take part this year, but I said to Niall that I'll do it if he can't find enough people, and that offer still stands.

Hey guys! Really sorry about this but I'm afraid the start date is going to have to be slightly postponed as we've had a few dropouts so need to get some more candidates. I know this is not ideal but it will literally be starting up as soon as it can which should hopefully only be a few days - sorry once again and hope this isn't a big problem for anyone

I highly recommend this game, it's a lot of fun and very rewarding in the end. There hasn't been one past candidate to express negativity on this thread about signing up and that says it all, even though everyone has their ups and downs with the game.

Looking forward to the launch!

LMAO

We had fun last year, didn't we?

Aww, that's a shame. I was looking forward to this starting!

I'll also echo what's been said by George/Louise and urge anyone who's on the fence* to sign up and take part! It's a hell of a lot of fun, a good challenge, rewarding when you do well and a good motivation to improve next time if you don't do quite as well as you hoped. Plus, it's unlike any other game that you can play on DS and is likely the closest anyone can get to the Apprentice experience.

*If you're on the fence because of potential time constraints, I would advise not signing up unless you don't expect to get very far or want a good "fall from grace" arc Just don't disappear!

PM sent

Gutted about the delay. Was really looking forward to this starting.

Seriously y'all should apply!!

Just posting again to encourage anyone who may be on the fence to apply! DSA really is, IMO, the best forum game DS has to offer. All other Apprentice games on here are second-rate knock offs which just fail to live up to the high standards of DSA (I would have called this the original Apprentice game, but I believe there are some equally second-rate versions which predate DSA1).

Taking part, you can make lots of friends, learn new skills (like how to use new software) and really prove yourself. It's a challenge, a challenge that you're not likely to get anywhere else or get much of a chance to experience again (it only happens once a year, after all).

Overall, it's worth it and lots of fun DO IT.

In fairness, I do think the others tend to be second-rate only because they tend to have less people going for them which makes them less entertaining, but I agree with the sentiment.

Hey everyone!

We now have enough candidates to start (assuming nobody else drops out - please nobody do!) so can finally start this! I've told all the candidates about this but just so everyone else knows we're currently planning on having the launch show Thursday 3rd July 7pm (tomorrow evening) and the first task will be revealed Friday 4th July 6pm (the day after) with the task starting straight after that! Any candidate who hasn't send me an intro yet make sure you send me one by tomorrow night - and also make sure you have skype installed and ready for the first task!

Sorry about the delay - hopefully we will be starting for real this time and should be another great series

How many are we starting with? In your last PM to me you said we have eleven... have we got any more, or are we starting with that?

We have 12 now, providing nobody else drops out! (which I'm not allowing any of you to tbh )

Have now received an intro from everyone which is brilliant, so thank you to all the candidates for that - join me at 7pm on this thread for the official launch of Digital Spy Apprentice Series 4!

Looking forward to the launch!

Hello and welcome to the launch of the fourth series of Digital Spy Apprentice!

We have 12 candidates to introduce to you tonight, a mixture of both previous contestants and some new faces, each of them hoping they have what it takes to make it all the way and win the coveted role of Digital Spy's next Apprentice! Firstly, however, I will be introducing you to my two advisors for this series, or the Karren and Nick of this series if you like...

My first advisor is definitely somebody who knows exactly what it's like to be a candidate in this competition, being the only person to have taken part in all three previous series of Digital Spy Apprentice. He's taking a break from being a candidate for this series, and jumping into the role as advisor, where I'm sure he'll use his copious amount of experience and passion for the game to shine in this role. It is no other than Carlisle156!

My second advisor is another DSA veteran, who if I am to believe correctly will now become the first person to have had been all three of the participating roles in DSA! She initially took part as a contestant in DSA1, coming back for DSA2 in which she had possibly the most successful run in DSA history, eventually winning the series and playing the role of LAS in DSA3. I am of course talking about Strictly_Irish!

I hope you will agree that these are two brilliant people to take the role of advisors, with plently of in game experience and passion for the game, and I have no doubt that they will do a brilliant job in watching over the candidates and telling me everything I need to know!

It's now time to meet our candidates! First up we have one of only two returning candidates from last series, it's Naruto (NarutoFan100)!