Broder – Torden:
Dear Power gaming. You are going down, bitches.

All the best,
Team Broder

Powergaming – Hocs:
Challenge accepted

Vi önskar båda lagen lycka till!

Could you all please introduce yourselves briefly for the readers?
Extremer: – ”Hi, I’m Extremer from team I Don’t Know? and I play to win. That’s why I use the Gaming Glove© to provide me with the necessary conditions to win.”
F2: – ”I have played medic for 3 months in idk now. I also played medic for 6 months in Imperial but that’s a long time ago!”
Shintaz: – ”Hello, I’m Shintaz. I’ve been on and off TF2 since the release and I scout for the lovely team idk?”
wai: – ”Hi I’m wai, I’m 23 years old from Wales and I play soldier for idk?”

Since you were going through lineup changes before and in the beginning of the last ETF2L season, what were your expectations on yourselves in that season?
Extremer: – ”We had a really tough time in Season6 with all the lineup changes. We tried fixing that before Season7 started and I think you could say we succeeded. With the new stable lineup we expected to be around the 4-5th place.”
F2: – ”Last season we struggled a lot with lineup changes so I hoped we could do better this season. Last season we got 13 points and after our first 4 matches this season we had 15 points so by then my goal had been reached. Anything higher than those 15 points would just be a bonus. I never expected that we’d end top3. But when we won the ESH cup mid-season our expectations got higher.”
Shintaz: – ”Technically, I am a lineup change. After Slick persuaded me to come back full-time (around half way through Season 7) I don’t think anyone had the expectation that we were going to win.”

At what point did it cross your mind that it was actually possible for you to win the highest and most competitive division in Europe?
Extremer: – ”I think it was after the tie against Power Gaming. At least Shintaz kept popping up in our channel saying ”win s7 k bye” every few days after that.”
F2: – ”When we won both maps vs dignitas. This was a big surprise even to ourselves, and then all we needed was to win the remaining 4 maps. We knew this wouldn’t be impossible.”
Shintaz: – ”Our ESH cup wins or when we beat dignitas in ETF2L – history in the making.”

No disrespect but do you think the new maps in the map-pool caught the ”usual” top-tier teams with surprise? Giving you a slim chance to grab a spot in the top as you seem to be more flexible than e.g. dignitas.
Extremer: – ”The only two new maps were obscure and gorge. We didn’t play gorge against any of the Top4 teams, however we played obscure against both TCM and Dignitas. Obviously some people think we practiced that map 24/7 but we didn’t. We played it no more than 3-4 times before playing against TCM. Since the Dignitas game was on the next day, we only played it once more in a PCW. Dignitas on the other hand, probably didn’t even play it before playing us. So I guess you could say Diggy’s carelessness oppened up an opportunity to win and we took it.”
F2: – ”I don’t think that the new map pool gave an advantage to us in particular but of course if some teams chose not to practice the new maps then they had a disadvantage.”
Shintaz: – ”I don’t think many were bothered about making tactics and thought deathmatching alone would’ve done it for them.”
wai: – ”Regardless of how ‘flexible’ we are, each and every team had the same amount of time to practice the maps that where fixtured. Maybe they dropped the ball who knows”

Should people have been more cautious when Shintaz became Scout of the Season? Why did they keep underestimating you as they clearly have?
Shintaz: – ”The main reason for the underestimation (in our opinion) would be the fact we’re trying to fight for the top spot without any MGO support. Caution wasn’t really necessary, seeing as I didn’t even expect to get scout of the season.”

What is the key to your immense success during these last three months and how will you follow it up the next season?
Extremer: – ”We started using the same lineup for every game.”
F2: – ”We have brains. Our players think before they act. Many teams have suicidal scouts or soldiers that can’t predict where scouts are gonna hide. Additionally our players’ aim match those of the other top teams which really is needed for us to compete with them.”

Anders

What would you say are your strengths as a team?
Extremer: – ”Deathmatching plays a large part in our success as a team, although we try to have at least a few set tactics on different maps.”
Shintaz: – ”Our main strength would be that we can name tactics better than we execute them.”
wai: – ”I don’t think any team has cube’s ”FUCK YEAHHH” or our ability to think up great names for tactics.”

Rumors are going around that you have now lost your motivation, now that you are on top, can you confirm or deny that?
F2: – ”Winning ETF2L is the ultimate goal and we have reached it – so what now? It seemed like there was nothing more to do which did make me unmotivated for a few days. But we are playing this game to have fun and there are a lot of other tournaments to look forward to, like EMS, ESH cups, Ubercharged cup, and i40 of course. In the upcoming time we will be a bit inactive though because of exams and that will affect our performance but we will be back on track!”
Shintaz: – ”It’s only motivated us more!”
wai: – ”Not lost our motivation, we just took a little break after the ETF2L. We have been trying a lot of new stuff recently as well, so that has obviously effected some of our results making people maybe think we lost some motivation.”

How will you follow up last seasons success next season?
F2: – ”If we stay together and stay active then we could place top3 again. But when you look at TCM, dignitas and PwR they have all revamped their rosters so I expect next season to be more competitive than ever before. ”
Shintaz: – ”By winning Season 8, hopefully. That’s the dream!”

Since I know many clans struggle with communication; could you explain your communication during a game, is it very detailed or how does it work?
Extremer: – ”I wouldn’t say our communication is any different from any other top team. We try to keep it cool and focused, but there’s a fair share of occasional vittu’s and whine.”
F2: – ”No, it is not particular detailed. In the beginning of a round we call a tactic so everyone knows what they are doing on middle. Then we call weak targets so people can focus fire them. After the middle fight what seems most important is to keep communication up between the scout pair and the main team so everybody knows what’s going on. ”
Shintaz: – ”It’s hectic. There’s rage in every team, but we don’t let it get to us seeing as most rage comes from Jh and is directed at himself.”
wai: – ”Our comms are great to be honest, we call a certain tactic and everyone knows what to do. It can be colourfull at times just like any other team :)”

When shit hits the fan, who takes command to sort out the situation?
Extremer: – ”F2 tells everyone to be cool and cube tells us what we did wrong.”
F2: – ”If we are losing we just stay cool and try out some alternative tactics. There isn’t one person in particular that takes command.”
wai: – ”cube or F2 followed by Shintaz saying ‘be cool be cool’”

What is your secret to staying together? I know many people associate most of your players with their deathmatching skills rather then their teamwork-abilites.
F2: – ”It is because we are friends outside the game as well. And of course Slick also plays his part in keeping up the team spirit.”
Shintaz: – ”After every night, win or loss, we usually have a massive group discussion about our faults in the game we had just played. Most of our IRC talk is casual and non-TF2 related, which kinda helps too.”

You have been the top clan in TF2 for over two months or so now, how come you are basicly the only top-tier team without a gaming-organisation?
F2: – ”Joining an MGO comes with pros and cons, and so far we haven’t had an offer that outweighs the cons. Currently there is no pressure on us but if join an MGO we are expected to deliver results which might ruin some of our fun. So we don’t really want to join an MGO unless we get an offer that we just can’t reject.”
Shintaz: – ”As far as I know, Slick has had the idk? name for around 10 years and wouldn’t give it up easily now that we’re playing with the big boys.”

I have heard that you are going to i40, even Extremer is going. How have you financed this, any secret sponsors or is it solely money out of your own pockets?
F2: – ”Partly money from our ESH win, partly from our own pockets and partly from Slick’s pocket.”
wai: – ”F2 and I paid for ourselves, then the legend that is Slick paid for the rest.”
Massive kudos to Slick!

What made you take the decision to attend i40? Prove yourselves offline as well?
Extremer: – ”We decided it’s time for idk? to rape some face at LAN.”
F2: – ”Most of all we just want to participate in the biggest TF2 LAN as of yet. And especially if coL are going, we want to be there to fight under the European flag.”
Shintaz: – ”I think we’re all quite keen to see Extremer in the flesh. He never shares his pictures and we’re all pretty certain he’s batman. Meeting everyone else seems pretty cool too.”
wai: – ”I’m mainly going to meet this lot and to enjoy the atmosphere that was at i39, other than that just enjoy the tournament and see what comes of it – nothing to prove.”

Efter de lite mer närgående frågorna blev det lite mer övergripande frågor om TF2-scenen.

Are you guys positive about the new maps that the communities (North American and European) are trying out?
Extremer: – ”Not really, I don’t think we need more than 6-7 maps.”
F2: – ”I think ETF2L did a good job bringing some new maps to the mappool this season. For a map to be properly tested it needs to be in ETF2L where everyone will have to practice it and play it. However 9 maps in the mappool seems like too many – we just need 6-7 good maps that teams can focus on practicing.”
wai: – ”I’m happy people are going out of their way to add variety to TF2. If the map works in a competitive environment I dont see why it shouldn’t be considered into map pools.”

How do you think ValvE will follow up with all the class-updates. It has come down to the engineer-update, what do you think they will do and what will happen after it?
Extremer: – ”Maybe they’ll start optimizing the game. Anyway, I don’t think the engineer update will change the way 6v6 is played, might make the pubs a little unbearable for a few months though.”
F2: – ”They have already had other kinds of updates than the class-updates, like the classless update and the 119th update. They will probably keep doing stuff like that.”
Shintaz: – ”Hat update #>9000.”
wai: – ”HATS NEED MORE HATS! I’m not sure, really not sure. Just fine tune the game fix the bugs. I haven’t got a clue, maybe host a BBQ somewhere? xD”

What ValvE- and custom-made map is your favourite and why?
Extremer: – ”My favourite Valve map would be cp_badlands. It’s very versatile, there’s just so many different possible tactics. Just look at how it was played over a year ago, and how it’s played now – completely different. Now my favourite custom map would be cp_gullywash. It’s a nice map even if the last point is broken.”
F2: – ”Badlands is my favourite Valve map – it is fastpaced, it has closed and open areas, it has height differences, it has good forward spawns, it really has everything. My favourite custom map for competitive play is cp_hillside_b6b. It is a fairly small map which makes it fast and you are rewarded for pushing (whereas on other maps like cp_well you usually are punished when you try to push). Although it was never picked up by a league it is probably the map I have had most fun on in pickups.”
Shintaz: – ”Valve – pl_badwater. I’m a pubber at heart, and still play public quite often. Custom – Yukon. Again from my pubber-heart. Nice and open to just run around and deathmatch without any real thinking.”
wai: – ”Badlands would be my favourite ValvE-made map – it’s just a great stock map, can’t really say anything bad about it.
Obscure_whateveritisthisweek would be my favourite custom-map – Enjoy playing this map, has alot potential to be a great map when it’s finished.”

Who do you think is the most overrated player in TF2 and why?
Extremer: – ”appe from Team Dignitas – just another top soldier. Lan hero until proven otherwise.”
Shintaz: – ”I don’t particularly want to slate anyone, but I’d have to say Extremer. Not in terms of skill, by all means. The amount of fanboys he has would half if they actually played with and listened to Extremer’s comms. LOVE YOU EXTREMER :)”
Oh no he didn’t.

What is your general opinion on allowing unlocks?
Extremer: – ”I think we should just allow the medic, heavy and pyro unlocks and a few other ones like the bonk drink, cloak & dagger.”
F2: – ”The reason TF2 has become so popular is because of its original gameplay – that is the original weapons and classes. When introducing new weapons we have to ask ourselves ”will this weapon make the game more fun and interesting to play?” and for the majority of unlocks the answer is no.”
Shintaz: – ”Certain unlocks do suck, it’s true. However, whenever the competitive scene decide to restrict an unlock from its leagues, the public community just sort’ve look on and sneer.”
wai: – ”I could do with or without them – really couldn’t care nor understand all the drama over them.”

Where do you think competitive Team Fortress 2 will be in a year from now?
Extremer: – ”Looking at the current LAN prize pools I think TF2 will just keep getting bigger and bigger.”
F2: – ”The number of teams in ETF2L has increased. The coverage has increased. The number of players on SourceTVs has increased. The number of LANs has increased. I believe TF2 is more alive and kicking than ever before and still will be in a year.”
Shintaz: – ”Whatever I say here will get shot down by CS/Starcraft fanboys, so I think I’ll have to move on.”

Thank you for your time, good luck in the next season or wherever your might move on to. I only have one question left; Where do you prefer your ABBA, in your speakers or on Gravelpit?
Extremer: – ”YOU KEPT MAKING ALL THE STOPS?”
F2: – ”You are the danciiing quuueeeen, lalala!!!”
Shintaz: – ”The ”American Bed and Breakfast Association”? That question just doesn’t make any sense.”
I bet you listen to George Michael.
Shintaz: – ”Don’t we all.”
wai: – ”Speakers buddy, speakers.”

Att bedöma vem som är årets värvning kan vara ett ganska tufft jobb, men rimligtvis måste man räkna in Sebastian ”Numlocked” Barton som en av de starkaste kandidaterna till denna okända utmärkelse. När han den 1. mars i år flyttade från Division 1 till Divsion 5 var det mer än en som blev förvånad.

This interview in English

Orsaken var ganska enkel. Numlockeds uppkoppling kan räknas till en av de mest oberäkneliga. Mitt i matcher kunde man se honom plötsligt stå stilla och tyst. Sen kom han tillbaks… och sen borta igen. Detta gick naturligvis inte an i division 1 och dunc anlitade Bash som backup-demoman. Kort tid senare var Bash main demo, och numlocked var backup. Detta ville han inte finna sig i, utan lämnade promt laget.

Sedan hände det oväntade. Först utannonserade Onlinegamer.se sitt mycket ogenomtänkta Onlinegamer Olympics där alla klasser skulle ha en egen tävling, samtidigt som riktiga OS utspelade sig i Vancouver. Numlocked anmälde sig till soldiercupen, och kom därmed i kontakt med undertecknad.

Ungefär samtidigt sökte undertecknads lag ”Team Onlinegamer” efter en ny demoman för att ersätta den hemske tonåringen traget (<3). Listan hade precis krympt samman till en ganska liten samling kandidater, och när en pcw skulle spelas fanns plötsligt ingen av dom där. -”Jag frågar numlocked” sa jag, och resten av laget höll andan. -”Sure” sa numlocked. Två dagar senare tillfrågades han om att gå med i laget i en vecka. -”Sure” sa numlocked. Det upptäcktes då att enligt ETF2L’s regler kunde han inte byta lag igen den säsongen, om han gick med oss. -”That’s ok” sa numlocked.

Snacka lite

Hello Sebastian, and thank you for letting us interview you. I understand you are not particulary keen on being interviewed? Stagefright?

SUPERNUMLOCKED

-”I just don’t like being so.. ”out there” and everyone watching what I do/say.”

Let’s begin at the very beginning. Where did you learn to walk? Where did you learn to blow stuff up, and where in Gods name did you buy that internet connection of yours? (literally!)

-”I started tf2 with a group of friends from cs and started out playing soldier. Coinz was the first player I ever spectated, and he made soldier look fun. I eventually saw byte’s frag movie and knew that class was for me. The first team I joined was coolclan so big thanks to them for putting up with me.”

-”Blame my parents for the Virgin Media connection.”

So you are 17 years old, you live in England – with your parents, your connection is shit. What else can you say about your life, outside gaming?

-”Not much really. College takes up most of my time outside of gaming, but I write the odd column for a local newspaper here, along with a little bit of web design/coding on the side.”

-”…and arguing with friends about why pro gaming rocks!”

You team history reads: scream2frag, Execute, coolclan, TCM, then TCM again, Team Romania, Team England, Atomic, scream2frag again, Team Numlocked, Team Onlinegamer, and now finally, TCM for the third time. Can you in painstaking detail comment all these teams?

-”scream2frag wasn’t really anything. me and some cs friends liked tf2 and played a few games. we were told about ETF2L and decided to sign up, but that’s where it ended. they all prefered cs but my love for tf2 continued. Atomic was the 2nd incarnation of scream2frag I made, just we chose a shit name.”

-”I made a recruitment thread over-rating myself at mid skill (at this point I had only played for a couple of weeks :D) and the only two teams to contact me were coolclan (or as they were known as back then, the welcoming committee) and execute. execute were the first to trial me and for some reason said they needed to add me to the roster. being new to tf2 I just went along with it, but after a few days of trialling they weren’t for me. they ended up folding a couple of weeks later. I spoke to coolclan again, played some games with them and got in :D great decision by me. the team that created top players such as wltrs, vaxjo, cube and admirable.”

-”After a great period of time they decided to kick me because I had an attitude and obviously internet problems.”

-”Vale then invited me to trial with them. I was incredibly nervous about playing with them :D we only played one game vs TmGamers, winning 4-2 on badlands and losing 2-4 on granary. after that game I was invited to join and the vale reform was complete. me, springer, arnold, skinnie, boomeh and riemu. one of my favourite teams that I had played in.”

-”6 months later and we were in YoYoTech, one of the top teams in Europe and had recently come off a UKeSA win and I decided to leave. The famous 3 games a night was just too much.”

-”Straight after I had left YoYoTech, dunc invited me to join TCM (Ubersexuals). I couldn’t refuse and joined without hesitation. unfortunately I joined when everybody was deciding to go inactive – we only played 3 games or so together before not playing for 2weeks and folding.”

-”The team romania thing was a huge fuck up :D me and dny were bored and decided to convince Nightbox we were romanian, although I’m pretty sure he knew we weren’t anyway :D We got in and dny started to get worried, so he sent a message to an etf2l admin (kop) asking if it was in the rules that you can’t fake your nationality. kop decided to be a dick and play with us a little :D He told danny that we would be banned for joining Team Romania so he panicked and left.”

-”I was then asked to play for both versions of Team England. Ehere was a dispute between dunc and appz at the time over who should run Team England. Both felt confident they could win the Nations Cup so they were both fighting for the same players – dunc obviously got them all :D”

-”www [Team Numlocked, and various other names] started because I mithered dunc a lot about how TCM shouldn’t have folded and we could start a new team with some of the players. He eventually said okay and spoke to some of the old TCM, I recruited members outside of TCM. It was more of a joint effort than dunc’s team.”

Demoman in all teams?

-”All except for scream2frag, I was soldier then.”

Now obviously, of all these teams, all-swedish Team Onlinegamer is the most odd. Explain the reasons that made you accept our offer to join our team.

-”ahhhh OG :D it all started when I met ulv when I entered the Onlinegamer.se 1v1 soldier cup and talked to him for a while after it. He asked me if I’d be interested in joining them for a season to help out and I couldn’t refuse, they’re such awesome guys :D”

before joining OG I was thinking about quitting tf2 – there were no div1 teams looking for a demoman and I wasn’t interested in switching class at that time. I played a couple of games with OG before joining them and things went swimmingly :) I enjoyed playing with them and thought it would be a great excuse to learn a bit of swedish :D

You were worried about the language barrier at first. Was it actually a problem? From our point of view, speaking english is quite easy. Sweden is nearly bilingual with swedish and english, but out of all people, actual native English people are the hardest to understand.

-”Yeah I think it was a problem. When I call in tf2 I call everything as fast as possible, like I’m reading out a list. It gets even worse when I’m telling people what to do, and it was quite problematic for you guys sometimes. I could understand you guys perfectly fine, your English is great. Learning new calls was pretty weird too, although I still use some of them which confuses the shit out of team mates :D No one knows where trash or finland is :D” [Trash is the corner area between spire and lobby at Badlands, Finland is between 2nd resup and the main door to lobby, also in Badlands.]

You took some initiative to improve our team tactics during your stay with us. How do you rate our tactical evolution during season 7?

I’d say you guys have improved a lot. when I first joined the playstyle was a bit random and people did as they pleased (correct me if I’m wrong :P). everyone was willing to learn something so we all got on the server and went through all the maps we would have to play that season, one by one. I definitely think it paid off. we should have won the season, or at least come 2nd, but we were slightly unlucky with certain things (SUP MB?)

When you joined us, you immediatley explained that you would leave after the end of the season. Was the season in Team Onlinegamer worth the time and effort, even though you knew you were going to leave?

-”Definitely. I had a lot of fun playing with them and it was nice to have a laid back season. we learnt a lot during that season and I’ll be taking that back with me to div1. hopefully you won’t have any issues next season and will get the div4 spot they deserve. :)”

Now, the moment of truth. Teach our english readers the one Swedish word you know, and what it means.

-”Val. It means whale, choice (?) and election!”

About TCM-Gaming

Now that our readers are enlightened, we move on to your new team. TCM-Gaming. Formerly known as ^wotr^ and Team CoolerMaster. There have been three editions of teams here. The classic one being the one based around players like Byte, Evil, TopGear and Xman himself. Then there was the Übersexuals edition with dunc, weqo, haza, and the likes. Now it is the old Vale-based team, with Skinnie , Coinz and Haunter being core players. Last season, while you were in Team Onlinegamer, Byte was demoman for the team.

You are now taking over the position of demoman from Byte, who is moving into a new position as Medic. Can you explain this switch to us?

-”Basically Springer has less time to commit to TF2 so he’s had to take a step back from playing as much. Byte also had an increasing workload so he wished for a more laidback class. He switched to medic and they took me on.”

You have played for a week or so with TCM now. How do they compare to your past teams in terms of play style and player chemistry?

-”The player chemistry in TCM is great since the core players have been there since the start. I enjoy playing with TCM though, it’s very relaxed. With haunter and byte in the team it also helps stop me making stupid mistakes.”

How good of a feeling do you have regarding your teams chances in Season 8?

-”I think we have a good chance. Time will tell.”

Which is your strongest map right now?

-”I think it’s a bit early for me to say that, but we’re playing pretty well on all of them. I’m just gonna go with turbine, my favourite.”

Byte is known as a very defensive demoman, how would you describe yourself?

-”Stupidly aggressive.”

…and how is your connection doing?

-”Surprisingly well. Haven’t timed out once since I was in OG :D”

One place where connections don’t matter is a LAN. You were most recently at i39. You played with some friends of yours there I believe. What results did you achieve?

82 frags

-”We beat mmv3 (I think, can’t remember their name too well. It was a mix of two teams) 30-0 on turbine which is the only cool one I remember :D. We played nvc’s team too and defended pretty well, but lost 3-0.”

How was i39 overall?

-”Lots of fun :D I didn’t really drink much after Friday night. me and the rest of my team bought loads of cider and stella and went back to our hotel. we smoked and drank a lot and I was sick all over the bed, floor and bin :D I passed out near my sick :( We played a game called ”I have never…”, basically you say something like ”I have never won a season in etf2l”. if you have, you take a drink. we found out danny masterbates to loose women, sonixzr gave a friend a highfive whilst his friend was receiving a blowjob (we don’t know if sonixzr was giving the blowjob, should ask him) and I got my tummy rubbed by crzy and plumbed (it was good) and you can’t fit 6 gamers into aveng’s peugot 206.”

Do you find you play better, or worse at LANs? Concidering things like stable connection, people watching you live, not being in the comfort at home, and so on.

-”Hard to say really. at UKeSA I was incredibly nervous – I had ryb and hymzi watching me at one point and that got me a little shakey :D I think I play better at LAN, especially when using one of the sponsor’s computers. No fps lag and a stable connection = win. As for people watching, that really gets me nervous, but it’s fun to play under pressure – that’s the point of lan.”

Whats your greatest tip for someone who is going to i40?

-”Bring lots of money for drinking, sleep as much as possible before the event and keep evil the fuck away from your shirts or he steals them”

About being a demoman

Following the theme of great tips. Whats your greatest tips for someone who wants to become an awesome demoman?

-”God, tough question. Utilize your traps well, but don’t rely on them too much. Watch demos of multiple players and watch what they do right and wrong and use it in your gamestyle.”

-”Don’t waste time practicing 1v1s, it’s useless considering it’s nothing similar to 6v6 situations.”

One more. Your greatest tip for someone who cannot stop himself from changing his steam nick 50 times a day? [One of numlockeds trademarks]

-”Join an org that makes you have one nick.”

On a very serious note, could you rank the top demomen in the world, say top 5, and explain to us what it is that makes them great?

#1 is ryb. Everything about him is near perfect. His movement, his deathmatching, his abilitity to correctly play aggressive or defensive. You’d be stupid to think he wasn’t top.

#2 extremer, without a doubt. Watching him when he’s on form is lots of fun because of his deathmatching. His pipe aim is incredible.

#3 has gotta be byte even though he doesn’t play it anymore. Incredibly intelligent gamestyle which benefits his team hugely. His unpredictable sticky traps were always annoying.

#4 is bash, I’ve always found him hard to play against. When he was in wotr I always found myself raped at middle or in duels with him. Quite sad to see him leaving the scene for sc2.

#5 is hymzi. Love his aggression, quite an inspiring demoman :) I love his deathmatching and the amount of damage he can output.

What is the Golden Rule for a demoman? The first thing he must learn in order to be a proper demoman?

-”The rollouts to mid. The faster a demoman can get to mid, the better the chance his team have of taking the round.”

On the flip side, what must he never do?

-”Play too aggressive. I know that’s kinda ironic coming from me, but you shouldn’t over-do it.”

Looking at the game as a whole, as a professional gamer, what do you think TF2 is lacking, in terms of what Valve can, should, and perhaps wont give us?

-We need less maps. It’s so annoying to see everybody trying to make new maps when all we need is like, 6 at maximum. Look at other games and the main maps they have, we have like 10 wannabe main maps. Recently the Natasha has come back into play, I’ve seen a few top teams start using it again. In my opinion it’s overpowered. I’d love to see Valve tone that down, or stop it slowing them down as much as it currently does. Giving heavy some runningfastgloves would be good too.”

-”It’d be nice if top tf2 players could help Valve with making the new unlocks. like, tell them what competitive tf2 needs or doesn’t need.”

-”Valve should make a promod sort of thing where when in tournament mode, you receive all unlocks (or legal-to-use unlocks) for the duration of the game.”

Can professional TF2-gaming continue to grow? Are we still growing, are we at the top of the wave, or are we on the decline. Is TF2 even dead, as some like to say?

-”It’s on the grow, definitely. we’ve got so many good LANs coming up: dreamhack, i-series, assembly, and then there’s the smaller LANs in France, Russia and Germany. With all those you can hardly say tf2 is dead.”

We thank you for taking the time to answering our questions Sebastian, and we really hope you and TCM will do well in the coming season.

-”Shoutouts to sam, danny, toby, dougie, adam, ben, dan, greg, cobby, josh, woody, faint, jabba, browns, steve, chris, plasma, jono, steveyjj, vazzan, xavier, dave, arcy, lawrence, gibbz, tpk, edd, mathis, no0, nos, spanna, squeak,  inuy, all of coolclan/wotr2, www/team numlocked/team dunc, all of TCM and of course TCM’s sponsors – www.TCM-Gaming.com – and of course Team Onlinegamer and Onlinegamer.se, and you for letting me write so fucking much and having to edit it :D”

Dom coola länkarna längst ned

• TCM-Gaming – ETF2L-profil
• TCM-gaming.com
• Numlockeds hemsida – med download av hans egen HUD
• Artikel på Onlinegamer om när numocked joinade Team Onlinegamer

GO TEEN WONDER!!!

Frågan är om man kan göra något? Går det att lära gamla hundar sitta? Finns det hopplösa fall?

Eftersom min dator har varit ganska seg sista tiden började jag med att formatera den, under installationen upptäckte jag att min gamla CRT hade konstiga ”mönster” och var antagligen på väg att gå sönder, en ny 21.5 tums TFT 2ms inhandlades, dock inte en 120Mhz, så nu har jag ett ganska genomsnittligt system, varken top of the line eller segt som sirap.

Efter formateringen och byte av skärm upptäckte jag ingen större skillnad i aim, vidvinkelperspektivet blev givetvis bättre och det gick att förutse vissa rörelser hos fienden lättare, men eftersom det ibland ”känns” som att man träffar och ändå inte gör det kom jag att tänka på vad Spankstarr sa en gång, ”prova mores config, det känns som att gruset i ögonen försvinner”, sagt och gjort, mores fpsconfig(inte high) lades in och samtidigt mores hud eftersom det är den enda jag trivs med som medic. FPS:en ligger runt 100.
Resultatet var inte överväldigande men en viss förbättring kunde märkas, jag anpassar även cl_interp efter pingen för att inte bli lurad av hitboxar som är felaktiga.

Vad är det då som gör att en spelare har bra aim? reaktionstid, förutsägelse, timing och finmotorik?

Reaktionstid är en enkel sak att testa, hittade en tråd på ETF2L om detta, hade 0,2133 som resultat vilket pekar på en ganska normal reaktionstid, alltså inte det som är problemet.

Förutsägelse, en ganska individuell skill som antagligen får nötas fram, får bli en del 1vs1 och dm framöver, samma sak med timing.

Finmotorik, något som förmodligen är medfött men kanske kan tränas upp, har läst om att många lirar guitar hero, kanske värt att prova. Här spelar ju även valet av mus/musmatta in.

Med detta avslutar jag del 1 och kommer i del 2 bl.a. prova utan musaccelaration.

GameSports välkomnar åter igen Team Fortress 2 och slår upp portarna till myTeamFortress. Tyskarna slår på stort med en turnering för max 512 lag (!). Det låter kanske som mycket, men tittar man till priserna som utlovas lär platserna fyllas.

Vinnarna får sex stycken Razer Imperator, sex stycken Cooler Master Excalibur CaseFans, sex stycken Teufel Concept E 100 samt sex stycken GeIL D3 Black Dragon 2×2 GB Kit. Imponerad? Det kommer mer. Platsen som ingen vill ha genererar i denna turnering sex stycken Cooler Master HAF Mini RC-922M-KKN1-GP – black och likt vinnarna får även tvåorna sex stycken GeIL D3 Black Dragon 2x2GB Kit. Bronspengen består av sex stycken Cooler Master GX650 Power och sex stycken Razer Sphex.

Turneringen kommer spelas med direkt elimination vilket betyder att förlorar du en match så är du, just det; ute. En matchdag sträcker sig två veckor i turneringen vilket arrangörerna hoppas kunna gynna lagen i form av att det inte kommer krocka med andra turneringar. Matcher spelas som vanligt bäst av tre kartor. Turneringen kommer att streamas från tyska n2o.tv men även av engelsk-talande lvlup. Enligt utsaga utlovas ”exiting and nail-biting matches”.

Nyttig information

Turneringens hemsida
Sign-up: 12/05 kl. 18:00 fram tills 30/05 kl. 12:00
Check-in: 28/05 kl. 12:00 fram tills 30/05 kl. 20:00
Turneringens start: 31/05 kl. 12:00
Första speldagen: 31/05 kl. 12:00 t.o.m. 13/06 kl. 23:59

Om frågor uppstår, kontakta ledningen via cups@gamesports.net eller titta in i deras IRC-kanal #Ubercharge på Quakenet-servrar.

Onlinegamer föreslår att alla signar upp sitt lag snarast.

Twitchskottets urfader, Den Galne Exfanen från Holland

Såhär skriver han på ETF2L.org [länk]

Sometime last year this dude with a weird name added me with to his friends list. Despite me otherwise not going around adding random strangers I thought there was something familiar about this guy coming out of nowhere, and thus added him. The next day Exfane messaged me. I was a little confused as I couldn’t seem to recollect any memory of ever talking to him before but gladly accepted his idea of making his next frag movie.

After a long time of Exfane dusting off old demos, and me starting editing, getting a creative breakdown, starting editing again, remaking a large part from scratch, editing some more, demos starting to crash all the time, rollback versions of TF2 stop working completely, me improvising a little and finally we have something that closely resembles a frag video. It’s all been very fun for me, I’ve learnt a lot on my way and hopefully I haven’t given Exfane any mental illnesses by extending my deadline a couple of times.

Because me and Exfane are elitist bastards we decided to roll with a high quality, high bit rate 60 fps video for the final render. If your PC isn’t quite up to scratch, consult your nearest youtube for advice.

Mark ”The Insane Exfane” de Ruiter

Exfane at i39

This is of course a bit unusual. A whole interview on glorious Onlinegamer.se just for the sake of a fragvid. But hey, this time its none other than the twichlord cooperating with one of the many talented Swedish fragmoviemakers.

We can not let this go past unnoticed, so, first of all, how come you chose to contact Q for this job?

-”I collected all the demos i needed for a fragmovie and was looking for a good editor. Luckily that time around the Pldx TF2 movie competition was reaching its end, i looked for a good ”unkown” editor. It didn’t take me long to decide that iQue was my man. I recorded some of the frags with fraps and redered the most hidious TF2 movie ever. With this movie I contacted him on irc and just asked him the question, basically i had nothing to loose, you always have a ”NO!”

How old are the oldest clips in this. Some really old team tags can be seen. TCM|Xman even.

-”Pffff i have no idea. Looking back at this video i took a bad decision in picking and collecting the demos before the fragvid. Then looking for an editor. Then giving him his time to create a vid, when he has a life going on with exams etcetc. You can understand it takes alot of time, especially if you wanna create something of quality when your busy.”

Very notable in the video – your twich-aim is remarkable. Is there some secret we should know about this dicipline of aiming?

-”You know the answer”

Turris?

-”Vitamins!”

Ah, dutch vitamins?

-”ZING!”

-”I can give you another answer tho.”

-”Very early in the game i found it very pleasant to play with a high sensitivity. This basically causes weird movements as you are able to look around really fast. Everybody has his own style of aiming, i basically learned to aim when i started to play tf2. This probably has a huge effect on the way i aim, as i basically never played with a low sensitivity.”

-”How the ”twitch” works tho, i dunno, come check it at i40!”

How often do you say ”basically” on an average day?

-”Woops! I’m high :D”

When is the sequel coming?

-”Sequel?! i think i would cause a heartattack if i talked with iQue about a sequel. He put in alot of hours in this video and it definately shows. Eventhough there are alot of other great and renowned producers/editors,in my opinion there is only one guy to produce a sequel, iQue.”

Sounds good. We look forward to it. Any sweet shoutouts?

-”Mirelin for healing me, making it able to play like i do. Torden for making a sweet intro, and well……….iQue DUH!”

Curtains up!

• Cadred snackar med Exfane och gänget på i39
• Exfanes profil på ESL
• This whole article in english

Se filmen

• PldX: [Link]
• Youtube: [Link]
• FB ftp: [Link] (recommended)
• Megaupload: [Link]

Ända sedan TF2 drog igång, hösten 2007 har ett lag, en dynasti, varit ett av de tre bästa i Europa. Först hette dom CurseD, sedan Four Kings, och nu heter dom Team Dignitas. Mängder av mäktiga namn har passerat genom detta lagmonster: Riemu, Hymzi, Abomination, Masiina och Mick är några av dom. Fram till den 29:e mars i år var de obesegrade i ETF2L genom alla tider. Med undantag av Season 3 har de vunnit division 1 alla säsongerna, och man har inte varit mycket sämre i de andra ligorna.

Men i år föll alltså stjärnan ned, åter igen. Precis som i season 3, hamnade man på en tredjeplats i ETF2L, och många undrar kanske varför. Det har ju snackats en del om att laget har legat på latsidan, appe på sjuksidan och allt vad det kan vara. Hur som helst var effekten att man förlorade sin första match i ETF2L någonsin (mot idk) och hamnade under idk? och TCM i tabellen.

Detta har man tydligen uppmärksammat inom ”klubben”. Det har noterats att laget börjat träna stenhårt igen. Siktar man på toppen igen? Det är vad vi hoppas på i alla fall. Men låt oss inte sitta här och spekulera när vi kan fråga lagets dryckesmästare Darn direkt. Han har dessutom en ganska spännande nyhet att berätta!

Den stora intel.vjuen!

Darn

Introduktion: Rauli ”Darn” Savela är 23 år gammal och kommer som alla vet från Finland. Han är soldier i Team Dignitas och det finska landslaget.

You have just come off an ETF2L season which can only be described as a letdown for you. A third place, and the first red result entry in the entire ETF2L history of Four Kings/Team Dignitas. Was it in any way symbolic that the pre-season underdog idk? was the first to beat you in ETF2L, and also becoming champions? What did they do right and you do wrong?

-”If you count our previous results, yes its a letdown but I really dont see it like that. For me atleast it has given the motivation to start practice again and also given a nice breath of fresh air in the scene. Now there is proper competition and almost all of the division 1 teams are on the same level.”

-”I wouldnt say we did anything wrong, it was just lack of motivation and we werent prepared at all for the season. Thou not to take anything off from idk? they could have still taken the title. They’ve been playing really well especially against us. So in the end im quite pleased that we still managed to finish 3rd and only lost one game.”

In an interview with myTeamFortress2.de, agron explains the issues which have led to your recent fall from invincibility. He cites both lack of motivation (to practice), as well as both him and appe being unable to play much more than in the past. What is the main cause of this waning interest in the game he speaks of, and how does it express itself?

-”Work, boyfriends etc. So we were able to field our actual lineup in only two ETF2L games. Lack of motivation/practice purely comes from the fact that there was not much TF2 was able to offer us. 7th season of etf2l and 6th pair of headsets isnt really the biggest motivator. We did not have any real objectives except to defend the title.”

-”We could not bring that ”fire” in our games anymore, and felt that every team that played us were really fired up. Which eventually led to us not playing that much.”

Is it also possible that you outright underestimated the other teams abilities this season?

-”We did underestimate teams, no doubt.”

Your team has won all ETF2L seasons except for season 3 and 7. Is there any similarity between what went wrong in these two seasons?

-”We lost season 3 purely because I played the first game in TLR and we beat 4kings in cp_well.”

Oh was that the double sentry thing? [The famous double sentry on Well]

-”Yea!”

How much pressure do you feel from your MGO to keep winning?

-”I don’t think anyone from us really feels any pressure from dignitas, they handle things really professionally and understand that you cannot win every single game. Of course we need still keep up certain standards and not lose all our games.”

-”I think its more that we want to prove ourselves to dignitas more than we should, so if there is any pressure it comes from ourselves.”

How will you come back from this situation you are in, and get back to the position of being the undisputed top team – which you undeniably have the potential to be? What is the motivation you’ll need to get the ”fire” back?

-”In the past we have been in similiar situations, but we just did not have any officials so no one knows about it”

-”Back then we switched few players and got the motivation back, this time the decision to get some fresh blood in was alot harder. Since we kinda felt that we had almost the perfect chemistry going between us. As in the past we just felt some players would be alot better for us. Hopefully lineup shuffle will work like it has worked in the past and of course there is great LANs coming up. So we feel really motivated right now. Will we be able to take the throne once more? Only time will tell.”

So you are actually changing a player? Who?

-”agron”

Why are you replacing agron?

-”It will be answered shortly in our statement but basically his motivation has been gone for a long time and mostly spends time with his new boyfriend fabio. (Google for a pic).”

-”Intentional or not agron hasnt been ”in” the game lately when we have been playing. He is prolly relived that he doesnt have to carry us in every single game anymore.”

This a bit of a scoop, I assume this will be published on the dignitas page quite soon. Who will be your new medic?

-”The geordie no one likes, dunc.”

How was he chosen for this position? Seeing that nobody likes him?

-”There is not many top medics available and when it comes down to it, dunc is one of the best eu medics and very eager to play with us. And that nobody likes him is bit, well, more of a joke, doubt no one takes him seriously. Atleast I don’t. Uh, paavi was also available, but too bad that I cannot stand his room-mate so I did not even ask if he could play with us.”

How much will this change your team tactics? Dunc perhaps being a less suicidal medic than agron?

-”‘Perhaps’ :D”

-”I hope it doesnt bite us in the ass and it was all because of those agron suicides that we were able to be so aggressive. But yes it will most likely make us play bit more defensive than we are used to. Then again I think TF2 now days has evolved to the point that it is necessary to be defensive now and then.”

Will dunc fit into your famous team chemistry?

-”Im always bit wary when gettin native english speakers in the team, since they quickly fill mumble with nonsense midgame. That said ive played more than couple games with dunc and he has always been very focused and hopefully he will fit in nicely.”

Was that also a bit of the secret behind your successes. The feeling of perfect chemistry in your line up?

-”Yes I truly belive so, when I secretly took over 4kings and gained the ”leader” spot. My only goal was to have a team with good chemistry, of course the obvious skill had to be there. But we rarely had any sort of arguments nor whining.”

Any risk this will change now?

-”Sure there is always a risk like that when you have a geordie onboard :D”

Give some protips for how to get the most out of your (a teams) line up.

-”People tend to say that just stick together and in the end it will come ”look at vale, idk? etc.” Its not really true. Both teams did some crucial lineup switches which helped them to make the leap to div1.”

-”Not sure what kinda chemistry they have but id like to think that you have to ”click” with every person in your team. and have atleast one or two core players to keep all it together. So dont be afraid to try and find the ideal lineup for your team.”

How do you value your opponents for the coming competitions? Power Gaming has a brand new line-up with lots of well known old faces. How will they fare?

-”At the moment I would rate Power to have the most potential to be the #1 team in the world. Sure I’m bit biased due to been playing alot with their players. But just look at them on paper. Two number one soldiers of the season. Medic of the season. Vallone being a great scout and cookye with his aimbot should be devasting. People have been speculating about how mafu will fill in for hymzi but for me atleast hymzi could either win or lose the game for your team, and mafu is a really balanced demoman and will most likely support punpuhocz supersoldier combo more than well.”

Can idk? keep up the steam for another season?

-”Can they produce great results? Absolutely. Will they win a 2nd season in a row? Mmm.. gonna go ahead and say no. All these LANs coming up and the amount of motivation TF2 scene has at the moment, i’ll predict the next season being the best by far. idk? are ofc capable of taking the title but, thats just my prediction.”

TCM has done some changes, Byte is trying out a new job and numlocked is putting up the traps. What do you think of their chances?

-”Byte is a great medic, though I felt Springer being one of the best medics last season. Dont know the details why they switched but for their team it means more power in attacks and less in defense imo. So just have to wait and see. Numlocked is one of the top demos, if something it wont effect their team in a negative way.”

What are your thoughts on the newly built norwegoswede-team ”broder”? Are they a serious challenger to the top teams, or will they get stuck in the lucky-maps-with-weird-tacs swamp with FakkelBrigade?

-”Now that wltrs has joined their ranks im expecting them to be the underdog of the next season. I doubt they are yet ready to challenge the big four but are definitely on the right path. I hope they will keep playing together and give the hippies something to root for. The same goes for FakkelBrigade btw. ”

Rebeli

Now a little touch on your squad. You have now played for some time with Rebeli, who is the latest addition to your squad. How do you rate his contributions to the line up the past season? What specifically does he contribute to your team?

-”To put it blunt, rybben not being at their topform I think rebeli carried us. He is definently a valueble player for our team and if you happened to spectate any games from i39 or assembly. Bybben and Rebeli just destroyed everything. What he specifically contributes for our team? Imo we used to have two great scouts who played well on their own. Now that rebeli has joined I’d say he has made us more team oriantated due him being one if not the best team player as a scout.”

What is next for Team Dignitas? EMS? ESH? I know you are headed for all the major TF2-LANs coming up.

-”All of the above :P? Well first and foremost we need to get our act together, basically play alot more.”

Do you know if appes work situation will ”improve” in the future, or can we expect the same problems as the previous season? We would ask him directly, if he hadn’t been at work right now!

-”Hard to say, hopefully we’ll find a solution to it. Im not really sure how much he can play in the future. At least he has a new pc! 40fps to 100!?”

Any other problems we should know about?

-”Not that I can think of, we are going to start tearin up tf2 once again.”

How much StarCraft 2 will you play this summer?

-”Space elves. None. I truly despise the game, might play the single player once or twice.”

Then you certainly have no problems. We thank you for this nice talk and wish you all the best luck in the coming competitions, and we hope that the jewel of European TF2 will continue to glitter. Now, bring me those shoutouts i know you wanna give me.

-”Uh, the obvious thanks to all diggy sponsors ea, intel, logitech.. Go check em yourself www.team-dignitas.org theres so many awsum peeps helpin us out. Then, well, to all the great
people involved in european TF2 scene. Hopefully we never be like the yanks.”

Så var det med det. Eftersom vi har lite plats kvar här på internet så kör vi en kort frågerunda med Team Dignitas ägare, ODEE. En kille som snuddar vid 40 bast och kommer från Surrey, England. Vad vill han få ut av sitt lag? Vad tycker han om tredjeplatsen? Vi frågar:

ODEE

Michael O'Dell

As a background story, how did it all go down when Team Dignitas picked up the best TF2 team in the world (?)?

-”Simply put we heard that 4Kings at the time could not help them, so we stepped in to bring them on board for UKeSA initially. Since then and getting to know them we of course understand how important they are to the community so we support them as much as possible. The team reminded us of the original Battlefield 1942 team that formed Team Dignitas, severe talent it was not a hard choice to sign them.”

Did you set down any guidelines to what they were ment to achieve, or did you simply pick them up because you knew they would achieve great things anyhow?

-”We do not set guidelines on achievements, for us that is obvious we want teams who want to win and will put effort in to do that. Teams and players that do not never last long in our organization. If we have a bad LAN or tournament, well shit happens we move on to the next, our management style is very different to a lot of big organizations past and present.”

This season they finished 3rd in ETF2L, with clear underdog idk? on first place. The same idk? also broke the 31-game streak of not losing, dealing the first actual lost game entry to the squad since the start of ETF2L. What are your thoughts on this?

-”As I said shit happens, you need to look at the circumstances around any squad, the past few months have been hard for the the team o practice properly. It is an online league also so we do not read too much into it, well done idk. It would be a bit boring if we kept on winning, a loss has happened and the unbeaten streak has gone, i40 here we come.”

What are your expectations on the team for next season, and the other competitions outside ETF2L which Team Dignitas compete in?

-”Our expectations have never changed with this team, they are fantastic, if they cannot motivate or push themselves then something is wrong. We are in a great position to understand where they are right now as again I refer to that original BF42 team, we went unbeaten for 11 months and over 100 officials.”

Will we keep seeing the black and yellow on all future TF2 LANs?

-”Yes”

Senaste säsongens resultat

• Team Dignitas (officiell)
• Lagprofil på ETF2L och på ESL
• De berömda videobloggarna från Assembly
• Jättegammal matchsida där Kompaniet krossade CurseD med 15-0 på Granary.

Imorgon spelar broder uppvisningsmatch mot ett metsadels finskt lag från publicservern Lokalen. Laget i fråga är därmed det så kallade nooblaget, eller publiclaget, som med sina 9 man (1 man per klass) ska försöka övermanna det ganska väloljade proffslaget broder.

Än en gång letar vi upp brorsan vi alla älskar, Sneis. Med sin övernaturliga karisma och infödda hat mot Lokalen (hans karriär började på S^O) kommer han självklart ge allt för att krossa pubhjältarna. Uppvisnigsmatch eller inte, denne naturlige karriärist som vid flera tillfällen försökt elitsatsa, och nu äntligen lyckats (efter bara 2 år) missar såklart aldrig en chans att få glänsa inför publik. Men vet han egentligen vad han ger sig in på?

Sneis / broder

El Sneis

Om jag säger: Hurr, Zoob, S3, J0rmund, Fraggen, Blanket, Mente, MrLate, SabaSaba. Vad säger  du då?

-”Dom jag känner igen mer än till namnet är Zoob, s3, Fraggen & Mente. Zoob spanade jag in någon gång när jag behövde spelare till något lag. Han hade naturliga movements på både demo och solly, men tyvärr var han finne som rökt weed på svenska-lektionerna så det gick inte. s3 och fraggen är väl den där heavy medic combon som jag alltid försöker döda med djuriskt hat. Mente ofc från Sdx98, hej igen!”

Om jag säger Sneis, Codcrille, Wltrs, Fanva, Macisum och Torden istället. Vad säger du då?

-”Sneis, mannen myten den snygge legenden. Stabil rage-rantande om han inte fått äta eller är trött. Codcrille så jävla udda kille men underbar. Han är bättre medic än Torden med. Wltrs slaktar otroligt mycket och går kanske lite för aggresivt ibland, men det gör honom bara till en publikfavorit!

Hörde just att fanva har typ 2000 timmar scout så han e g33k. Vilket han håller med om. Macisum pratar mest med vokaler vilket kan göra han svår att förstå för svennebanan. Otroligt bra på dm, kanske dör lite olägligt ibland :D. Torden manager och rising star i community-ego-eliten. Stabil medic som gillar att lira solly. Broder skulle inte finnas om Torden inte fanns. Much love.”

Ni ska spela Badlands och Badwater. Ena kartan utpräglad 6on6 som alla klanlirande teamfortare spelat miljoners miljoner gånger. Är det självklart att ni vinner den?

-”Badlands borde vi vinna, som du säger är det en karta vi spelar nästan varje game night, och med rutiner & snabbhet på mid så tror och hoppas jag vi rullar banan ganska snabbt, speciellt när dom bara har en scout och jag tror att maci är mycket snabbare till mitten. Men man vet aldrig, inte rutin att döda 9 stycken istället för 6.”

Badwater är det omvända. Inom tävlingsvärlden tävlar den med Hydro och ctf_well i obskyritet medan den är välnött i den publika sektorn. Kommer ni ha en chans här med färre man?

-”Tveksamt, det var kanske ett halvår sedan jag senast var inne på banan ens. Stora ytor att täcka, snipers spies, pyros och lvl tre sentries bakom varje hörn kommer inte göra det lätt att avancera. Lyckas vi hålla medic i liv har vi dock en chans, fast den utmaningen kan bli för svår :)”

Karl ”weqo” Terävä lyser med sin frånvaro i laguppställningen. Är det sant att han kommer spela StarCraft 2 istället för den här uppvisningsmatchen?

-”Weqo ska inte spela sc2. Han ska göra något som bara jag trodde gjorde i broder. Weqo kommer gå på en färja österut. Supa sig otroligt full, handla tax free för 3000 kronor under en fem timmars minneslucka, spy på dansgolvet sen hamna i bråk med någon stöter på i trappan. Allt med sina jobbarkompisar. Som vi vet brukar sådant leta till weqolång (jag e så rolig) gemensam ångest och pinsam tystnad på jobbet. Glöm inte fisherman och godiset fanva ville ha!”

Har ni något att bevisa med den här matchen? Kommer ni att spela helt seriöst?

-”En av sakerna jag gillar med broder är hur vi taggar till inför match. Jag tror vi som vanligt kommer ha sex vinnarskallar kl 16.00 imorn… i alla fall till en början. :) Det kan bli svårt att hålla uppe serious face när man möter engies och skit men jag har inga planer att torska mot några public nubs. Så jag ska i alla fall kötta.”

Vad blir slutresultatet?

-”Vi vinner badlands, sen vinner colony badwater men jag tror vi kommer ge dem en god match. Vet att några av dom har grymt aim men lyckas vi hålla medic i liv på badwater kan det gå vägen. Jag tror jag får gå pyro för å hålla SabaSaba borta ;)”

-”Vad e det egentligen för unlocks tillåtna imorn?”

Dunno. En fråga till bara. Några tips till Jazzman inför morgondagens casting?

-”Ja, gör den på engelska och prata med Exfane & FB om att få göra mumble casten på deras mumble. Prata mycket och tänk hela tiden på senaste gången du pussade en tjej så du låter du glad, le hela tiden är ett annat tips för att få ut energi genom micken. Ta för övrigt inte in Dave eller Byte som guest star dom pratar för mycket.”

Då tackar vi dig för pratstunden och önskar dig lycka till i matchen. Shoutouts?

-”Shoutout to maciawsum. I wish i had some sponsors to highlight but sadly i have non, ryan air demand me to pay for two seats cuz im big boned and all the mgos we talked to so far rejected us cuz of that”

-”Eh, varför vart den på engelska, och fel?”

Ja du Sneis, jag vet inte. Kanske för att det är halv tre på natten. Vill du ha ett nytt försök?

-”Joooo, stryk övre, nu vet jag en sak att shououta!”

-”http://utopia-game.com/ För du var mitt liv i typ 7 år. Tack för allt Mehul <3”

Zoob / Colony

Eftersom Onlinegamer.se’s utsände aldrig har hört talas om någon annan än Zoob så passar vi på att fråga just honom samma saker som vi precis frågat snygge Sneis.

Colony?

Tell me about your line up. Hurr, Zoob, S3, J0rmund, Fraggen, Blanket, Mente, MrLate, SabaSaba.

-”Well, pretty much everyone of us comes from Lokalen servers. Core group of us has played hundreds of hours together. Most of our players are Finnish, but we have a few from Sweden. Mente will be our ETF2L buddy for Community Challenge (although he never has played an official). He will be playing medic in this match. Blanket (engi) is a newcomer to our team.”

-”Our heavies J0rmund (demo), fraggen (heavy) & s3 (pyro, only swede) are some of the top players I’ve seen with their classes. MrLate (sniper) hasn’t played sniper as much as other classes, but his aim is good. Hurr (scout) is one of top scouts on Lokalen  and SabaSaba is our career spy.”

Why so few swedes in a team based on a swedish pub-server?

-”I’m not really sure. Some of our Finnish players have been steam friends for longer time, so that has probably influenced the distribution.”

How well do you know your opponents?

-”Players from broder have played 600+ hours on Lokalen servers altogether, so we recognize some of their players. Most of us didn’t really know much of their competetive side though. I’ve been personally following competetive scene and efforts of their team for some while though.”

Badlands is an immensly well tested in 6on6 competitive TF2. A map which in public often turns into… crap. How do you expect you will do against broder on it?

-”There’s no doubt that Badlands will be more challenging map for us. Not only has broder played it 1000s of times, they’ve got their 6v6 setup as well. They have better mobility and more firepower.”

-”I really don’t know what will happen. I think we have some invidual skill, especially with our heavy classes. I think it all comes down mostly to teamwork and strategy. If we execute everything right, we might win. Or get rolled. I can’t tell.”

Badwater is as rarely played as Badlands is often played. In fact, much more so. For clanplay, Badwater is almost unheard of. Do you think you will be able to pull some classic pubtrics on a team which is so used to playing tied to well rehearsed 5-point-map tactics?

-”Badwater has been our strongest map in our 9v9 matches, but this time it’s quite different. I think this time highlander setup has really an advantage. But they’re a top team, maybe they can pull something off.”

Hopefully broder will take this game seriously, as it would otherwise turn into quite a sloppy slapstick of a game. But how serious will you take this game?

-”We’re now a group of friends who play for fun together. But we play to win, always 100%. Hopefully broder has the same attitude.”

Are any of you looking to be spotted by talentscouting competitive 6on6-teams in this game?

-”Tricky question. I guess most of us really don’t think of that. Most of our players aren’t that fond of 6v6. But I really can’t speak for them. Opinions can change.”

What will the end result in the game be?

-”As I said before, I really don’t know. Previous 6v9 matchups have always been mixes, but now it’s a organized team vs highlander team with their main line-ups. There’s really no reference. It could be a total roll either way or really close. I’ll still bet: badlands for broder, badwater for us.”

Thank you Zoob, and good luck!

-”Phew!”

Vi tar en fråga till. Men vem ska vi fråga? Vad ska vi fråga. Jo, vi frågar Torden nånting.

Torden / broder

Hur tror du Sneis kommer klara sig mot spelare på hans egen nivå?

-”Beror på hans blodsokker. Om han hinner baka morots-kaka innan matchen kommer han spela ace. En annen utfordring er hur han skal ha sine fötter. Sokker, slippers, bare foot, eller variande under matchen.”

Relaterat

• Broder
• Colony
• Läs mer om matchen här
• Matchen kommer att livestreamas här

OnlinegamerTV kommer casta den här matchen, både via stream och via mumble. Casten kommer vara på svenska för det mesta men kan innehålla lite norska då Dr Leon från division ett laget Fakkelbrigade kommer vara gästkommentator med Jazzman som caster. Som sagt finns det två alternativ för att lyssna på just denna cast. Det första alternativet är att kolla på streamen, som visar bild och ljud från matchen. Det andra alternativet är att ni ansluter till OGTVs mumble server och lyssnar på casten medans ni sitter i Source-tv och bestämmer själva vad ni tittar på.

Mumble Cast

• Source TV ip: 79.136.122.7:27026
• Mumble information:  Adress: mumble.onlinegamer.se / Port: 64738 / Password onlinegamer

Stream

(spelaren är mutad)

Ni kan även titta på Onlinegamers TV-sida: Här

Uppställning

Broder:

• Sneis – Soldier
• Codcrille – Soldier
• Wltrs – Scout
• Fanva – Scout
• Macisum – Demoman
• Torden – Medic

Colony

• Hurr – Scout
• Zoob – Soldier
• S3 – pyro
• J0rmund – Demoman
• Fraggen – Heavy
• Blanket – Engineer
• Mente – Medic
• MrLate – Sniper
• SabaSaba – Spy

De med gott minne för laguppställningar i TF2 minns säkert den majestätiska klanen Crack Clan, som för nu ganska länge sedan var obestridda tvåor bakom då fortfarande oslagbara Team Dignitas. Gänget som leddes av Juho ”Moose” Pättö innehöll många stora namn. Medicen Kyynel, idel prisad, och belönad med utmärkelser som säsongens medic. Soldaten Punpu, scoutparet Jambo och Glufse, samt demondemon Hymzi.

Denna krutdurk av kvalitet vittrade dock bort. Först försvann Punpu till den finska armén. Sedan Hymzi, som först slutade, men sedan började igen, men då i ett helt annat lag. Glufse och Jambo slutade med TF2, medan Moose själv suktade efter pension, då han själv, liksom vår egen weqo, är känd TF2-hatare. Laget reparerades först genom att limma in Snifz som solly, Bash som demoman och scoutparet wltrs + pizza från coolclan, samtidigt som man lämnade Crack Clan och blev Power Gaming.

Laget höll dock inte, och foldade till slut en vacker dag. De flesta storspelarna från det klassiska Crack Clan var borta.

Men det tog ändå inte lång tid innan vi fick höra talas om Moose igen. I samma veva som finlands näst bästa lag ”Illegal” blev det nya Power Gaming, hamnade även Moose i deras lineup, fast inte som spelare, utan som ”Team Manager”. Det är exakt detta som leder till temat för den här artikeln, nämligen det nya, gamla, talangfulla och lysande-framtids-havande Power Gaming.

Det nya Power Gaming består nu av: Moose (manager), vallone, cookye, haza, kyynel, punpu, mafu och hocz. De enda som återstår från förra säsongens spelande lag (dvs. laget Illegal som spelade under PwR-taggen) är vallone och hocz. En kort genomgång av nyförvärven här. Cookye hämtas från Special Attack. Ett lag som för inte så länge sedan kämpade i Division 4, men nu plötsligt befinner sig i toppen av division 2. Att detta till stor del beror på finske Cookyes omänskliga aim säger sig själv. Kyynel och Punpu kommer som ni redan vet från det ”klassiska” Crack Clan och mycket lite behöver tilläggas om dessa eminenta herrar. Haza är för närvarande halvt inaktiv, men kommer närmast från de oräkneliga namnens lag, dunclaget. Lagets doldis, trots att han är en erkänt duktig demoman är mafu, som inte varit aktiv i ett lag på snart 2 år. Senast det begav sig var det katastrofala lagförsöket Oslo Lions.

Vi frågar Moose några frågor

Moose

What is power gaming (the MGO) and what do you do in it, and what do you do in the squad?

-”Power Gaming is a multi-gaming organization that supports several games simply for the love of esports and the games themselves. We are backed up by a private investor so right now we don’t need to rely on sponsors as much as other teams. That also leaves us free to support smaller games like TF2 fully.”

So its actually a private person paying for everything?

-”Yes”

-”Personally, I played for this org for two years or so, and the people behind the scenes wanted to keep me involved even after I  stopped playing actively. And so, right now I’m one of the managers for the organization, though so far my involvement has mostly been with the TF2 squad.”

-”So far I’ve handled many of the responsibilites that any team captain would do, without actually playing myself. I’ve also tried to help the squad with my tactical experience. In the future it would seem that I’ll be travelling to LANs more often to help our different teams on them and when our homepage is finished, I’ll be writing content on it for various games.”

Would I be right to assume then, that you are the engineer beind this recent, huge, team reconstruction PwR has undergone?

-”Well, the team would have completely crumbled down if I had not acted. Both hymzi and fluffy would have left in any case. It was not entirely my decision to cut olliii and paavi as well, but it surely seemed like a smart thing to do with kyynel and Punpu being available.”

What goals are you trying to achieve with this team construction?

-”Our goal would of course to be the best team around. There’s a lot of work to do to reach that with a completely new line-up, but I think it’s entirely possible considering how talented each of these players are. The second goal from the organization is to make TF2 more viable as an esports game.”

I would love to go further into the topic of how to make TF2 a more viable esports game, but to stay on the topic of the article, on a more player-individual level now: compare Hymzi and mafu. Pros, cons, etc.

-”Hymzi was a super aggressive player, who sometimes went huge, and sometimes let the team down completely. I’d say it’s probably easier to play with mafu as a team, but hymzi’s raw skill was next to none. I’d rate mafu’s defensive play highly. It’s very hard to get close to him, something that is completely different from hymzi. All in all, both are great players and I wouldn’t settle for any less.”

If hymzi magically came back from the army in 1 month, would you put him back in?

-”I don’t think so. Not unless something weird happens with the current team. I also built this team with the personalities of each individual player in mind and mafu fits in there perfectly. Hymzi… not so much.”

So what about Haza. Since you added him, I guess he fits, but will he play? When?

-”Haza’s our backup. He’ll play when someone from the main line-up is missing and he’s happy with the solution because he wouldn’t have the time and motivation for more.”

Cookye

Moving on to the new kid on the block. Tell the story of how Cookye came to PwR.

-”Well… before we considered cookye, my plan was to have Haza scout with vallone. However, when Haza told us he doesn’t have time to play as a starter, it became obvious we’d need to find another Finnish scout. We considered maybe three or four different players, but in the end cookye felt like the strongest player by some margin. He first caught my attention with the accusations that were raised against him after he released the famous frag movie. I remember thinking then that this guy is either a real talent, or a cheater. But unlike many others, I didn’t draw any conclusions from just watching one frag movie. Instead I followed some of his matches with SpA, and asked to see a collection of his PoV demos before we made the decision to recruit him. This convinced me and the others strongly enough that we took him in and at least right now I’m glad we did. It is my opionion that he is a genuine talent, and hopefully he will continue to grow as a player in this more experienced company.”

I was now hoping to get at the issue wether it was somehow harmful to a lot of teams when you formed this one. How many teams got robbed of their key players. I’m not sure how valid the question is, but isnt it so that Blood Pressure, SpA and illegal are now pretty much gone, or were they going to be gone anyhow?

-”I’d like to think of it as me forming a new team, in which I preferred to have kyynel and Punpu instead of kicking these two. I have nothing against them and I think they’re great guys, it’s just that it’s also that I think kyynel and Punpu as maybe the best players with their respective classes.”

-”Illegal and Blood Pressure wouldn’t have lasted alone in any case… at least not as any kind of serious team. BP just played a few matches per month for fun and Illegal had already decided to only finish ETF2L when I started sorting out the new line-up. About SpA I don’t know. If cookye himself wanted to join Power and we definitely needed a top level Finnish scout, I’d say you can’t blame us for taking him. Of course, I don’t like to take players from other active teams but in this case I don’t think we had much of a choice if we wanted to create a team with a fighting chance against the top conteders. Hopefully SpA doesn’t die because of it, at least I’ve heard their remaining members saying that they agree that cookye deserved the chance to shine in a top team.”

How important is it to have this finnish top team, to the finnish community, and to the TF2 community as a whole?

-”The TF2 community would definitely benefit from having more teams consisting entirely of players from a single nation. It gives other players from that country something to cheer for. I’d say the Finnish community is generating so many talented players today because we have two excellent gather channels, one for the experienced players and one for the players of maybe division 4 level and below. Of course the experienced players often play in the open gathers as well, and that has helped the newer ones to develop their skills hugely.”

-”We’ve also had two very successful LANs as well, and both Assembly Summer and Winter brought in a lot of new players from other games.”

I’d love as always to get deeper into the issue of developing new talents and strong communities, but to round up this interview about the PwR lineup, I’d like to play a little game of comparison. For one, could you rank 1, 2, 3, the three scout pairs from Crack Clan and the current PwR. Jambo-Glufse, Wltrs-Pizza and now Vallone-Cookye?

-”I haven’t played with or seen vallone and cookye play together enough to make such comparison. But I definitely preferred playing with Jambo and Glufse to Wltrs and Pizza. Jambo was such an intelligent player and a great caller. It’s rare to see such ability for a scout to control the flow of the game for the entire team and he’s the only one I’ve seen to do it to this level. Vallone is pretty good with that aspect of the game but both Wltrs and Pizza lacked that part.”

What about solly pairs? Moose and Punpu or Hocz and Punpu?

-”Heh, Hocz is the better fragger, and I was the better caller. Hopefully others will take my role as the main caller now. I think it would be for kyynel and vallone to do that, and also Haza when he’s playing. If they can manage that, then hocz and Punpu is definitely the optimal choice.”

On demo and medic positions we have already compared enough for today, but on a full squad basis, how do you rank this one, compared to any TF2 squad, current, or long gone, european or american?

-”I think that the players are skilled enough to be the best team in the game. It will just take some time to find the team play. That’s never going to be an easy task when you have a completely new line-up, no matter how experienced the players might be.”

Efter dessa utfyllande svar finner vi det gott och riktigt att bespara våra läsare mer läsmaterial, då ögonen säkert gnuggas (tåras) redan. Moose behövde dessutom sova, så nog får vara nog, och vi tackar herr Pättö för hans engagemang, men vänta nu. Finns det inte andra som har åsikter om den nya lineupen?

Vad tycker motståndarna?

Bybben från Team Dignitas, av många ansedd som spelets bäste scout (kanske med undantag av ej längre spelande Fojji) blir först lite förvånad, då han ännu inte uppmärksammat vilka förändringar som skett i Power Gamings trupp. Efter några små tips om vad som faktiskt hänt, avslöjar Bybbe-Björn sina farhågor om den finska faran:

-”Jag tror att de kommer prestera ungefär lika som tidigare, kanske lite bättre. Att förlora hymzi är såklart en nackdel, trots att det är mafu som ersätter honom. Sen kommer jag grina när jag möter hocz + Punpu, tror inte det finns så många stabilare soldater än dom två. Ska bli kul att se hur det går för dom att spela när de sätter igång.”

Extremer från ”I don’t know?” och Litauen, nybliven ETF2L-mästare och demoman är först motvillig, men ändrar sig sedan och skriver en wall of text åt oss.

-”First of all, I’d like to say that I saw nothing wrong with paavi or olliii, they seemed like really good players. But I guess to make this soldier all-star combo true some sacrifices needed to be made. Next, the demo – mafu. I didn’t play TF2 back when he was in his prime, but from what I’ve heard he’s got what it takes to replace hymzi. PwR’s success depends on him getting his old form back. Cookye definitely seems like a good pick-up, after all, making the most of the American community believe he cheats is quite an achievement. Kyynel – another TF2 star coming back to the game, often considered one of the best medics in the game. As long as he stays motivated, he’ll be the backbone of PwR’s success.”

MVP (från TLR) är en spelare med lång erfarenhet från TF2, och fanns med redan i Chodes gamla storlag Fracture. Här är hans syn på nya PwR.

-”Overall, I guess the new PwR lineup definately will be a contestant for the title next season. With Punpu, former soldier of the season, made a comeback on the side of hocz. Let’s see how hocz will handle the situation of not being the superstar anymore. vallone and (in the states very famous) kookye will surely be one of the best scout couples.”

-”The only problem I see for PwR is the position of the demoman: with the departure of hymzi, mafu has to proove himself as a good successor.”

Onlinegamer önskar Power Gaming lycka till i den kommande säsongen.

Merläsning

• Lagprofil på ESL
• JimmyBreeze om lagförändringarna på Cadred.org
• Amerikanerna är säkra på att Cookye aimbottar