CommunityFortress

Unofficial part three of Kermit's interviews, doing this to get some more interviews up with top players. This time it's A Seagull from Blight Gaming

First, introduce yourself and explain how you first started playing tf2.

I'm Seagull, a soldier for Blight Gaming. I got into TF2 back in beta as a pubber. I liked the way the game looked and I figured it had potential to be a fun game. I got into the competitive community around August 2008ish when I got bored of HL2DM.

In your opinion, how important is a major TF2 LAN like the one in ESEA for the expansion of the game?

I guess that depends on your definition of "expanding the game." If you want more top-level teams then yes, lans support that. I think that if you want to grow a game then numerous lans, not just major ones, are better for the community. Either way I think that lans would happen more if the community was ready for them, we have bigger issues to deal with in the TF2 community.

Going into the LAN, what team do you think you’ll have the most trouble with? For what reason?

coL. They are the best team in the game online.

What team are you least worried about?

I have no idea. All of the teams look fairly equal except coL being a tad better than everyone else.

With all the prize money in the LAN, do you think you’ll practice more in preparation for it or do you think you have a good practice schedule already?

The lan was pretty unexpected so we'll be practicing a lot in the upcoming weeks to the lan.

What map is your strongest going into the LAN, and which do you feel you have the most room to improve on?

I'm not sure, I haven't played enough with the lan roster to tell which maps are our strongest and which are the ones we need the most improvement on

Do you foresee your team playing in a European league or participating in a Euro LAN in the near future?

Nope, my entire team is west coast-ish and we'd all get 200-250 ping - I've handled that in the past with euro teams but it's really annoying. Scheduling is also a huge issue.

Do you think, after a hopefully successful ESEA LAN, we’ll see an increase in players from other competitive games (Quake, CS, etc)?

I doubt it.

With the longevity of most teams in tf2 being around a month, do you see your team competing in the next season of CEVO and ESEA?

It's too soon to say, it would depend a lot on the lan performance and how we blend together as a team in the upcoming weeks to the lan.

What are your thoughts on the banning of the soldier weapons? Are there any that you feel should or shouldn’t be banned?

All of the soldier weapons are downgrades anyway, banning them just makes the TF2 community look bad.

Is there a particular map in this season of ESEA that’d you’d like to see return next season (Yukon, Freight, Follower, Viaduct, Turbine, etc)?

Viadict and Turbine. I like alternate game modes and they allow for teams to come up with original strrats that might not work on the normal 5CP or A/D formats.

Any that you’d like to never see again?

I don't really have a "FUCK THIS MAP" map, but if I had to pick one it would probably be Yukon. Most 5CP maps have "yards" or "connectors" - Yukon has these in a really half-assed way which makes the map annoying to play.

What are your thoughts on CEVO’s recent map rotation announcement (maps like Obscure, Gullywash, Indulge)? Do you think leagues should try and stick to the norm more (more badlands, gravel pit and granary) or do you appreciate the expansion of maps, regardless of how known they are.

I don't know, I've never played any of the maps that are not well known. However, the one I have played (mainline) is amazing and I can really see it breaking into the GRANARY-BADLANDS-GRAVELPIT rotation especially with how quickly swaty (the map maker) can make changes based on feedback.

Which of those maps would you like to see taken out, and what map would you like to replace them?

Like I said, haven't played any of them so I can't say. As long as they aren't completely terrible they will be fine - alternate gamemodes and unknown maps can help deepen the game by catering to strategies and ways of playing that aren't usually used in the normal maps that teams play.

At a LAN, ping difference is nullified and everyone is playing on equal ground. What class do you feel will be stronger with minimal ping, and do you feel you’ll need to change up any strategies or focus more on a certain class now, being at a LAN?

The biggest difference with lan ping is quite frankly that we will all be on equal footing with coL. In almost all of coL's games half of their team will have sub-30 ping (5-10 on the most popular server choice, dallas) which gives them an advantage online that we will see taken away on lan. You can expect soldiers to be stronger on lan as well as most west coast players who have mediocre pings online. I can't say anything about strategies since I will only know what changes LAN can have on them until I'm already there and playing.

Playing at a LAN is a unique experience. Everyone is watching and teammates are right next to one another. How do you prepare yourself for the kind of pressure you’ll face?

Most players who are already top can deal with the pressure. For me, I take the perspective that it is my own opinions about a situation that cause it to be a "high pressure" situation or not which allows me to control how much pressure I want to feel. I trust myself to make things happen when they need to happen.

Any shoutouts?

Shoutout to Velocity Micro, Blight Gaming and Globalfrag. Also shoutout to all the strategists in the TF2 community (Sigma, Jaeger, Pure, Ruwin, and so on - you know who you are)