Interview: Team Pandemic COD4

No Page Title

[p]<img src=";http://www.CyberGamer.com.au/users/6988/articleimages/543/nabore2.jpg" border="0" alt="img" width="216" height="268" />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Today on taking it to the streets I requested a challenge from the community, who did they want to see an interview from? Not to leave our Call of Duty guys out I went with the request for an interview with Pandemic, when I managed to track the team down I made my first port of call Joe "Nabore" Amorosa, Pandemics ingame leader for the Call of Duty 4 team. Joe "Nabore" Amorosa is a 23 year old who's hometown is Staten Island New York and he has been with Team Pandemic since September 2006.<strong></strong></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><strong>Joe, we see that you are the in-game leader for the Pandemic Call of Duty4 team, what does your role involve?</strong></span>
<p class="MsoNormal">Being the in-game leader is harder than most people think. As the caller you pretty much have to understand the way you are winning or losing rounds and what is going on outside of your view. You have to try and play cat and mouse with the other team, while trying to keep your own team motivated. A key part of this role is respect. It's like a catcher in baseball, if the pitcher doesn't agree with the pitch the catcher called, he won't throw it with conviction. The same applies to Call of Duty. You're team needs to be able to trust your calls and judgment in order to succeed.
<span><strong>Now the Australian community is very much scattered over the entire Call of Duty series with a lot of the pro teams not really enthused about continuing with Call of Duty 4 and although playing World at War they don't seem to enjoy it much. What is the sentiment to these 2 titles in the Northern American scene? </strong></span>
<span>After 2 weeks of playing World at War, the community decided that it was unplayable for a bunch of reasons and moved back to CoD4: Modern Warfare. We didn't have any problems over here with going back in titles because CoD4 was still the better game of the series and had the best pro-mods at the time. </span>
<span><strong>I have watched the two current trailers for Modern Warfare 2, have the guys at Team Pandemic been following the trailers and keen to see how the game looks? Or are you pretty comfortable with Call of Duty 4 at the moment and holding out until there is any form of competitive leagues for it?</strong></span>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><span>I checked out the trailer and although there is not much game play to be seen it looks promising. You can always count on Infinity Ward pushing out great games with their track record. I am excited about the game and hope it lives up to the hype.</span>
<span><strong>What maps does Team Pandemic enjoy the most in there Call of Duty 4 campaigns? And of course which map do you find difficult to play consistently on? (if any)</strong></span>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><span>I think we enjoy playing strike the most since it is a map that revolves around control. Our team had a pretty good sense of control due to our teamwork, and we always found that strike allowed us to re-invent ourselves if we kept getting repetitive with our strats. I think the most difficult map to master is crossfire. As a team we always found the map to be very one directional with little options in front of us. This lead to our rounds being repetitive and predictable in most cases. The idea behind that map is that even though people know what you are going to do, you have to still stop them, and that just wasn't my style or approach to the game.</span>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><span><strong>In my research of you Joe I found something interesting, it shows that you offer teaching lessons to ESEA players is that something pretty common with Pandemic? I did notice other team members also were listed as instructors do you enjoy that side of your game?</strong></span>
<span>Yea, we started offering lessons based on the demand we had. Basically the market leans towards beginners who want to accelerate the learning process that most of the players went through from experience. We find that it gives us an opportunity to improve the community we are a part of. What we hope to see is our students eventually going on to play against us in a league or tournament. The lessons actually range in type, some people prefer individual lessons, and some prefer me to just feed them strategies. Either or teams benefit from this and that's what it's all about.</span>
<span><strong>Are there any training tips you would like to offer up to the younger or newer players? Basics they can work on to give them a solid base for there gameplay in Call of Duty?</strong></span>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yea, as a young player you need to first realize that you will fail more than you will succeed. All the players at the top were once in your shoes and had no idea what they were doing. You only get better by learning from your mistakes and getting faster with your decisions. Each situation that you get into, believe it or not, automatically gets stored into the back of your brain. So if you ever get into that situation again (maybe a clutch), you will instantly remember what happened last time and how you can win it this time. Keep an open mind about your role as a player also. You may love to smg, but you can also be the best scope in the game. It's a team game and the faster you realize that the 4 other guys aside from you can help you be great, the faster you are on your way to success.
<span><strong>One of our community members who requested this interview had a specific question, Sgt Peppers wanted to know what goes through your mind leading up to a big game and how do you prepare mentally?</strong></span>
<span>That's a good question. If I am heading into a big match, my main question is, can this team do anything to my team during the match that will surprise us? I try to answer no to that question, but sometimes it will take a practice session or a few nights of scrimming to draw that conclusion. I also try to have my own game plan going in, either from analyzing my past matches verse them or devising a new strat that they may not have seen before that can surprise them. Sometimes you play an opponent that you never faced before (when we went to Europe to compete). My approach to those matches were to be as confident as possible in our strats and abilities and trust that it was enough to keep us ahead. In terms of a personal mentality, anyone that tells you they are not a little nervous over a big match is lying. Some people show it more than others, but sometimes being nervous pushes you to perform. The key about big matches is to be ready for the game in front of you, regardless of who it is. Playing any differently because you're playing PlayerX is the worst thing you can do. You want to stick to what got you here and trust in your abilities. Big matches are more about forgetting who is on the other side of the map and more about focusing on yourself. As I became more experienced in big matches I found that nervousness became much less of an issue, for reasons that are natural. I learned that preparation was my most powerful tool in dealing with big matches. The rationale behind that was by preparing so hard, I had this game plan that took control over what was going through my head, and allowed me to focus on my job. I hope that answers your question Sgt Peppers.</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Well that's it for another week of taking it to the streets, a big thankyou for Joe "Nabore" Amorosa and Team Pandemic for making this interview possible and who will it be next week? Stay tuned to find out.</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href=";http://www.teampandemic.net/">http://www.teampandemic.net/</a>[/p]