Carnage Interview



As there are a lot of new players coming into the community with such a anticipated game, people will be interested as how the Carnage team came too be for Battlefield 3. Can you give us a brief background history?

Carnage was originally a Quake 3 clan that was reformed in 2005 by Quantum/1manarmy to participate in the popular GameArena BF2 ladders. At this stage I didn't have too much to do with the small format team, but played with the guys in the larger 16v16 format under the Delta Enemy Alliance. After the 16v16 scene diminished the remaining Enemy players (and a few dB) moved over to Carnage.

Carnage have always been a team that is based on Battlefield, only expanding into multigaming in the last year or so, we had great success in Bad Company 2, defeating the favourites Team Immunity in the Internode Shock & Awe $4000 competition, losing to the ASUS Super Team by a few measly tickets and taking out Season 2 of the CyberGamer BC2 ladder against Frenetic Array.

The team is extremely excited to compete in Battlefield 3 and sink our teeth into stratting, scrimming - pretty much putting everything we can into being a competitive team. Due to the size of our organisation and our recent merge with Requiem Gaming (Team AvA for those old school BF'ers) we will be fielding several teams in future competitions.

Could you give us a quick rundown of the team's roster? (A brief background of each player)

Darkn3ss – Captain and organisational duties. Infantry player. From Carnage BC2 team.

Ragemachine – Captain. Infantry player. From Carnage BF2 and BC2 team.

Slantski – Captain. Infantry player. From Carnage BF2 and BC2 team. Also played for DnA in BF2. Supreme bench warmer and water boy for the iM cup.

Thrask – Part of our Armoured Warfare Division Unit. From Carnage BF2 and BC2 team. Also played for db, DnA and qmX in BF2.

Baron – Part of our Armoured Warfare Division Unit. From Carnage BF2 team. Also played for db and DnA in BF2.

TetraChloride – All rounder and our main Jet pilot. From SiN and Carnage BC2 team.

Meaphet – All rounder and our main Scout Heli pilot. From SiN and Carnage BC2 team.

Buttersoft – Infantry player. From Carnage BC2 team. BF2142 walking robot specialist.

Refused – Chopper pilot and Infantry. From Carnage BC2 team. Our BF veteran.

Eugenics – Fury Warrior. A former ReQ, AvA, creX and rFire player from BF2.

AdrenalineJunkie – Our chopper gunner and Infantry player. From Carnage BC2 team.

Sgt – Infantry player. A former ReQ, AvA and creX player from BF2.

Aicalas – Chopper pilot and Infantry. A former ReQ and AvA player from BF2.

Winfields – Infantry player. A former DC and cadre player from BF2.

Seventy7 – Infantry player. Played for iB, aK and Carnage in BF2.

Fattat – Infantry player. Leader of Carnage CS:S division.

With Carnage's move into BF3 you have undertaken some leadership changes in the form of Darkn3ss and Ragemachine taking the lead. Has this brought some fresh motivation to the team?

Due to real life commitments some of the other captains and myself haven't had the opportunity to provide the amount of time that is required to maintain a competitive team. Darkn3ss and Ragemachine have stepped up to the plate and I'm really happy with the amount of effort that is going into the stratting and scrimming. Once daylight savings has ended and I can start making the earlier scrims I hope to be able to dedicate some time into helping them. In the meantime I'm very happy with the team they have formed and I think it will do extremely well.

As this is the 1st Major tournament ever for Battlefield 3, do you believe it will be important for your team to prepare as much as possible and showcase some good skills to establish yourself as a top team going into the new year?

At the moment there are no established guidelines of how the top level competition (CGi) is going to be formed, whether teams will be moved in from the iM Cup or whether there will be a CGo ladder to determine the entrants. Either way we believe it is essential to put in maximum effort to establish ourselves as a top team, gain the experience that is needed and continue to perform throughout future competitions.

What would you say are the key Battlefield strengths of Carnage?

The main strength for Carnage as a whole is that we have several players throughout all our competing teams who are willing to put the time in to help one another out. As for this particular team, our biggest strength would have to be the number of very good all rounders we have, guys who are competent in most vehicles and on the ground. Another great asset is that most of the players in the team have been playing together for a few years now, this means that we know each other's play style and can communicate effectively.

If you had to name one of your players as an MVP who would it be?

This is a tough question as we have several superstar gamers, but the MVP would have to go to Thrask. Thrask is often seen in the Tank or APC, yet he keeps telling us he is a great infantry player as well. Whilst he is quite possibly one of the biggest trolls in the team (maybe the community), he focuses when needed and performs extremely well under pressure, often making it possible for the team to succeed. When we asked Thrask for his input, he just said "I refuse to allow you to quote me" in typical Thrask fashion.

Carnage, at one stage, had 3 teams in the upcoming CGo ladder. How have you handled your team selection for this invite cup?

We put forth a team of the guys who could be on most nights and had the time to scrim, pub and strat. We recruited Seventy7 and Fattat for this cup from one of our other teams to boost our lineup.

Now that there is a proper scheduled tournament happening, do you believe you will change the way a normal week goes for your team. Will you guys scrim more, prepare specifically for each match, how will you and your team prepare for this tournament?

Leading up to the cup the team has been scrimming about six times a week, going over each map and figuring out what works and what doesn't. In preparation for the cup matches, we have been scrimming and stratting the maps that are going to be played during the tournament. We've had to work around some of our weekly scrims due to the scheduled matches, however thanks to Darkn3ss' organisational skills we have been able to reschedule and continue to help each other prepare.

With the map pool released, are you and your team confident with the selection of the maps for this tournament?

We can't really complain at the map pool, from scrimming and testing out the different map sizes we figured that these were the ones that were going to be used in competitions. The original maps decided were a little daunting with two rounds on Caspian and the exclusion of Canals, which has been changed due to community feedback. As for confidence it is a bit early to say which our strongest maps are, we're just going to put all the effort we can into each of them and see how we go.

What do you think are the most important things for your team to do to solidify yourself victories throughout the tournament?

The most important thing for the team is to maintain focus and the amount of effort that is being put in. If a match doesn't go our way then we can't be discouraged, we need to learn from the experience and apply it to future games.

Who do you think will be your biggest opponent in this competition? Are there any rivalries between yourself and other teams?

All the teams in tournament are very strong and we are looking forward to the competition, but we would have to say that Immunity will be our biggest threat. As for rivalries, there are none just yet. I think all the teams are just happy to be playing competitively for the time being; maybe this tournament will spur some rivalries though.

What are your predictions for this tournament, do you expect there to be any upsets?

It's hard to say how the competition will go as it is the first one for BF3. We haven't had the opportunity to scrim LG yet, from what we hear though they are a strong team and their spot in the tournament should not be questioned. In saying that, we hope to knock out some of the stronger teams.

How do you guys think you will go in this tournament, what do you expect from your team?

We don't want to underestimate the other teams heading into this tournament; they have some fantastic players and experience in high level battlefield. With luck on our side and with the amount of effort going into the tournament I would like to see a similar result to the Shock and Awe tournament with Carnage coming out with an upset victory

Do you see there being a big future for this game?

The BF2 player inside me hopes so; I still have fond memories of the first season of GameArena. The realist inside me doesn't believe so though. DICE have promised to support eSports and I really hope they follow up on it.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Firstly, we would like to thank Immunity for running the tournament, it's a really good kick start for the BF3 competitive scene. Big thanks to Darkn3ss and Ragemachine for running the team and getting it to where it is now.

Finally a big shoutout to iiNet and AUSPC for their support. I will be cheering the team on from the bench!

Edited once, 28/11/11 - 7:06pm.

Nice

damn right you will be slanty

nah, good job mate

cheers iM

Nice interview, ******* lold at Thrasks comment.

Nice interview, solid line-up


haha priceless

Gj slanty

Hopefully there will be no smurfing shenanigans like the ol DnA days

What smurfing shenanigans

Smurfing is a myth I don't believe anyone has ever actually done it.

Nice write up, Good questions and an informative post

Keep em coming.

Go FattaT

BOL Carnage.

kek

I believe thrask is in exile, a political refugee from Nigeria. I also believe we have never heard his real voice (for security reasons).

Nicely done Slantski!

nice read bol carnage

good luck my number 1 pick

Nice interview,

Goodluck boys from Carnage Ps3.