Interviews

Swiftz catches up with the best in AusCOD.

See what the top teams have to say about COD4 in 2012.

Hey guys, been a while since my last write-up due to some real life commitments, this week I've decided to interview hektik, due to some of the awesome work he has done this season for the AUSCoD community, i hope you all enjoy.
This one is 2 pages, due to some of the pictures making the article look much larger, so don't forget to read both pages

An introduction article where Blitzy and I interviewed 10 teams we believe have proven themselves over past few weeks to get a little bit of insight into their team, and how they are feeling leading up to the “Pro League”

Cujo undoubtedly the undisputed call out king has come out in fact in an interview. you will get an in depth response on his teams mechanics; attitudes towards players, teams and the competitive state of Heroes of Newerth.

Interview with Vincitori SpachalaBio:List of achievements • 2010 - SGL 4.0 CoD4 LAN - 1st (.winrarz)
• 2010 - CyberGamer BFBC2 OMGWTFBBQ Competition - 1st (Team Immunity)
• 2010 - SGL 3.0 CoD4 LAN - 1st (.winrarz)
• 2010 - CyberGamerBFBC2 CCL - 3rd (Team Immunity)
• 2010 - SGL 2.0 CoD4 LAN - 1st (.winrarz)
• 2010 - SGL Resurgence CoD4 LAN - 1st (.winrarz)
• 2009 - CyberGamer Call of Duty:World at War Invite League - Season 1 -
1st(eXile5) (9:1 W/L Ratio)
• 2009 - CyberGamer Call of Duty:World at War Open League - Season 1
1st(eXile5) (Undefeated)
• 2008 - World Cyber Games Australia CoD4 LAN - 2nd (eXile5)
2008 - SGL CoD4 LAN - 1st (.winrarz)
• 2008 - NewSchoolGamer Thermaltake Call of Duty 4 Ladder - 1st (eXile5)
• 2008 - GoodGame CoD4 6v6 Sabotage Competition - 1st (eXile5)
• 2008 - GotGames Beyond Internet Gaming Call of Duty 4 LAN - 1st (.winrarz)
• 2008 - GotGamesiStarZone Call of Duty 4 LAN - 1st (.winrarz)
• 2007 - Cybergamer Call Of Duty 2 Open League - 1st (teaminq.)
Name: Achala "Spachala" Mataraaratchi
Age: 20
Location: Sydney, NSW
Main Game(s): Call of Duty: Black Ops
Current Team: VincitoriQuestions:Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Hello all! I have just completed my third and final year studying Bachelor of Computing at University of Western Sydney. Now that I've finally finished, I'm hoping to get into the computing industry; specifically the networking field.When did you first start your gaming career?
My gaming career started in 2005 when I was in Year 10. At the time, a close friend of mine (In-Game name: Impalist) was playing Call of Duty 1, and was telling me how fun it was to scrim and war on GameArena against other teams. He came over one day and let me try out the single player and as CoD1 was my first FPS game, I was absolutely horrible at the game. Despite that, I loved the game and after that day, I really wanted to play online. I managed to get a CD-Key from a friend of a friend of mine and I started playing multiplayer. I joined my first team (Soldiers of Sin) and my journey began.
Although I had played other games casually in the past, I really owe it to my friend for introducing me to the Call of Duty series and competitive gaming. At the time, my friend was a decent player and after playing for a while, I learned many things from him. There is one thing he told me that I will never forget; "One day, you will surpass me". And although I wrote it off at the time, surpass him I did.You've seen a lot in your time of gaming, what...

[HoN] Insurgency` from Sublime tells all...
Bio
Name: Alex aka InsurgenCy` Captain of Sublime
Age: 19
Sex: M
Location: Perth, WA
Nationality/Origin: AustralianFavourites
Game: HoN
Hero: Pebbles/Pharoah/Soulstealer/Nighthound/The Balpha/Devourer
Match ID: 18954970
Book: Redemption of Althalus
Person: Trent from Punchy
Place: Cervantes
Movie: Anchorman
Music: Electro-House/Dubstep/Rise Againts/Muse/Kasabian
Food: KFC
Sport: AFLThe audio of the rest of the interview with Insurgency` gives his views into the Oceanic HoN scene can be found at the following link: File Download and is worth a listen if I do say so myself. The transcript for this interview can be found bellow.
Shinkz: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Insurgency`: I've been playing HoN since beta release. There's not much to tell here but I am sure everyone already knows that I've got 19 inch biceps and I like to banter talk a bit. But yeah there is not much to talk about here.
Shinkz: What about your clan?
Insurgency`: We were Jersey Boyz and I've been with yourself Shinkz since beta release so we've been playing together for quite a while now. We've recently remade into Sublime PC Gear of which is currently number one on CGo and are doing very well on the Fnatic Msi PLAY tournament so hopefully should be good from now on.
Shinkz: What do you think about the Oceanic HoN Scene?
Insurgency`: To be quite honest I don't think it's that big at the moment. There is a lot of 'Manhouses' going on at the moment. But the competitive scene is lacking, there would be TPG, SLx, tSFg as well as WASP. Scrims do not happen often enough in my opinion but if all those teams such as qmX and stuff were to scrim occasionally it would much better.
Shinkz: Do you think that increased Australian Servers would increase the Australian HoN Scene?
Insurgency`: Yes definitely. It's the most annoying thing to spam refresh to try and get the servers and then the people that are playing the 'manhouses' get really annoyed when you steal the servers off them.
Shinkz: What do you think about HoN's progression and what changes would you like to see in the near future?
Insurgency`: Well I'd like to see a lot more competitive DotA heroes ported in. The changes I would like to see would just be definitely getting rid of the tri-lane metagame at the moment. I don't like playing the trilene but competitively we are forced into playing the tri-lane if you want to do well. You could run a 2-2-1 set up but whoever is in the 1 will get completely dominated by the tri-lane and normally they pull out of the 2-2-1 or just completely lose...

The stage I choose – a subject fair and free,
'Tis yours – 'tis mine – 'tis public property.
All common exhibitions open be,
For praise or censure to the common eye.
- Charles Churchill, The Rosciad, 1761
Yes what an absurd word. But it has PRO in it, so I thought it would be an (un)suitable title for this collection of statements, theories and assumptions about the Competitive Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare scene here at Cybergamer, and the CoD4 Draft Competition.
CoD4 2010 Has been pretty good has it not? It all started with that One Day Comp that Arseynimz (and perhaps ViroL) organized on January 31st. Man that was fun. I only got to participate in Shoutcasting a few games (the Frenetic Array vs Qlimax Crew was one of the best games I've watched in a while at the time). Sure it wasn't the highest caliber of play displayed from both teams but it was a close, close game.
Then we had the MSI Summer Cup. That was a great competition. Single Elim MR15 - really good idea Arsey! I thoroughly enjoyed the longer matches too, even if it was a strange sidestep from our usual mr12 format. The only unfortunate thing about that competition was the seeding (a bit jumbled from 4 downwards) and the amount of forfeits. Other than that it was a fantastic competition and probably the best online competition I have played in.
Then we had the Alienware Clan Challenge. The Online Qualifiers were heh, interesting. However CEVO/GotGames/iGames got us there in the end and the LAN was the best experience I've had yet in Call of Duty. I thought I'd never go to a LAN as good as the QLD LANSMASH 2 in 2008, but it happened!
The question is where are we now? MSI and Alienware are gone and off sponsoring other games. And here we are back at square 1, organizing our own comps with our own prize money. Personally I can't guarantee that there is a future in Call of Duty competitively, but I am trying my best as Head Admin of CoD here at CG to take it from where Asterix started it back in 2006, to a better place.
Hopefully you guys think I'm doing a good job. I know I do run things quite tyrannically but it is of my opinion that too many opinions cause too many problems.
The Draft Competition is basically a midway competition to sort out which teams are fit for competing in the upcoming CGi League and CGm League that will start up just after the mid-year. I have word down the ladder that there will be some sort of sponsorship for these ladders, so there will be some big money involved (rather than just playing for bragging rights or free copies of Activision's next dud of a game)...

2010 has already seen the unexpected resurgence of Call of Duty 4. Whilst the previous year held no competition of notable worth for the game, 2010 has already seen the One Day Competition and MSi Summer Comp played out where both competitions saw the rise of newly formed teams unexpectedly take out these events and the prizes included. In the One Day Comp, Frenetic Array comfortably secured 1st placed whilst auRa, a previously unheard of team upset the seasoned Qlimax-Crew to take out 2nd position. The MSi Summer Comp presented an interesting complexity, not only did it include these newer sides in terms of both the age of the teams and the point from where the players had started to play the game, it also saw the return of the veterans and in most instances retired CoD4 teams in the form of Team Immunity, [0utKasT], Sequential Gaming & clicK!.It was the results of the MSi Summer Cup that have re-defined which teams and which individuals are perceived as the best. The Grand Final of the Summer Cup saw Archaic Esports accomplish a milestone that no other team had been able to do in three seasons of CGi, and that was to defeat Team Immunity at an online level. In the same competition, Archaic Esports managed to also take down the team most thought to be their main competition, Frenetic Array, and it is for this reason that Archaic Esports are undoubtedly the team to beat, and for their successes in the MSi Summer Cup they are described by many as the best in Australia.Whilst each member of Archaic had played CoD4 actively at some point in the past year, Team Immunity were only given a few weeks to firstly find a 5th player and then attempt to achieve a level of playing ability that can match that of their past. The upcoming CyberGamer Draft Competition provides Team Immunity with a chance for redemption if they are both active and committed.
This is however by no means a two team competition, by the time the competitions start 32 teams will have payed up $50, and especially for the newer mid-range teams they will all be scrimming and practicing hard in an attempt to regain and make on their money. Besides the two favorites, the competitions roster contains very capable teams in the form of GGunit, dEMiZE & resistaNce , all of whom have the capability to push the top teams. I have also conducted basic interviews with 2-3 of the top teams from each group which will be presented over the next few pages which have allowed the team captains to introduce themselves, their teams and discuss how they think the competition will pan out.
It is as always qui...

Dallas is 23 and lives outside of Brisbane. He has taken the reigns of AU Xbox shoutcasting and brought it to another level of entertainment and professionalism for the community. Acid's been active for around 6 months on CG, but has given a lot over this time, and advanced through the staff ranks. He has some great plans and ideas to improve the competitive scene, which we will get to.
How did u get started in gaming?
It's hard to say exactly when I started playing a console, I remember when I was 6 years old I spent most of the year in hospital for kidney operations. The best thing I remember about all that was in the room before I went into Surgery each time. They had a Sega setup in there for the young kids (myself) and of course it had Alex The Kid built in, so I played that so much through out that year as I was going to be in hospital for awhile.
As the years went on we got a N64 and Mario Kart become one of my favourite games that myself and my brother played. We then finally got our hands on James Bond 007 : Golden Eye and played it none stop. We played it that much that when we used Proximity mines whoever died first would lose the game as we knew all the exact spawn points on each map. I guess that due to the N64 Controller and the controlling for Golden Eye it is why I play on "Legacy" controlling layout now, as it just feels so right to me.
Ok, and you advanced to Xbox?
After the years went by my friends got an Xbox and Halo CE, I went over to there place all the time and the game came natural to me. I would dominate all of them during out LAN's we played so I figured I might as well get an Xbox for myself and get even better at FPS games on Xbox. I guess you could say this is where I became an Xbox Fan and never looked back. Well I'm not 100% sure when exactly I got my first Xbox I think I might have been around 14 / 15 at the time but could be wrong. I played it none stop ( Halo CE of course ) and continued to enjoy it more and more.
So how long have you been on XBL and the 360?
I didn't get XBL until after the 360 was released and I believe that was around 2005,correct me if im wrong. Of course the console came with 1 month free of Xbox Live so I hooked it up to my Dial Up internet at the time and played some Halo 2 online. Once I found my first online match I couldn't stop and I ended up playing for 2 nights straight without sleep then slept for about 24hrs after a big session of Xbox Live. Xbox Live was like a drug and I just couldn't get enough of it, I guess to this very day I still have a bit of addiction to it and of course my GF is...