This will be a series of articles featuring the teams that makeup the CEVO 6v6 League. Please enjoy and rest assured that if you compete in CEVO, I will be interviewing you.
I had the priviledge of interviewing Cranberry, team leader of Immortal 6.
Meet the undefeated Immortal 6 team after the jump!
Could you please introduce your team (Names, Positions, Roles,etc)? -
SolidMetalSnake - Medic
Cranberry - Demoman
R1CKY - Soldier
Huey - Soldier
Spadez - Scout/Soldier
emperor - Scout
beat - Scout
Cranberry - I have come a very long way since the start of my competitve league play but have shown great progress from last season to now. I really had troubles last season being TOO aggressive. I have learned a lot from my first season of ESEA, causing me to take a look at myself and correct the mistakes I made which including being too aggressive which sometimes caused us to lose rounds and being too pushy in times when we could have played passive leading to us winning rounds.
Beat - Beat is a very good scout, playing the passive role on our team. He sticks close to our medic when needed and really does a good job of protecting. Besides his scout game, he is included in the group "Auto Aim" --- a group for the top snipers in the TF2 community. His skills on sniper are truly unbelievable. He can single handily turn a round from a loss to a win with a pick on the medic which allows us to push back the opposing teams with little to no contest. I am very pleased with the work he has put in this season, I've noticed a huge difference in his scout game. Last season wasn't the best for his scout game but he has shown drastic improvement.
Emperor - Our newest addition to our team but has by far exceeded the expectations I had for him when he was added to our roster. He has shown me he is able to call strats which allows me to focus more on my game instead of being so overwhelmed with calling for the team. He is a solid scout with great aim and plays smarter than any scout I have ever played with, including Intermediate and a few Invite players. I have little to say about him other than he is truly great at the position he plays, as I mentioned he is new to our team but I feel he will be around for a while.
R1CKY - By far one of the greatest roaming soldiers in the Team Fortress 2 community, his style of play is unmatched in our division. He either sets us up with a medic pick, or cleans up all of our kills at the perfect time. Nothing less than spectacular. Fun to watch and great person all around. His jumps are perfect, timing is perfect, rockets are perfect and shotguns (when he's not running gunboats) is perfect. I have played over 3 seasons along side with R1CKY and he seems to be getting better and better. We know each others playstyle and we have already built great chemistry with one another. I am looking forward to going farther into higher leagues of play with him, though we have had some tough times in previous seasons; sticking it out together was obviously the best choice as we are dominating anything coming our way.
Spadez - Spadez is known by everyone in the North American TF2 community. He's known as one of the best snipers in North America. Like beat, he is included in the group "Auto Aim". He is also a top Intermediate caliber soldier. Spadez plays very well with the entire team and has proven to be exactly what was needed on our team to complete our roster, with his amazing consistency in every aspect of the game. Spadez has been around for a long time and has played in almost every division of skill there is. He is one of the true talents in the game and he honestly could do anything if he put his mind to it.
SolidMetalSnake - Like R1CKY, I have played several seasons with SolidMetalSnake. He first started as a soldier back when I first started competitive play. He has progressed to be a great medic, knowing how to play solider gives him a bit of an advantage playing medic. He's very good at taking direction and although he doesn't call as much as the rest of the team...the communication we do get from him is crisp, to the point and very on target --- very excellent for directing our team when need be. He has shown great improvement with his timing on ubers as well as keeping note of uber advantages, heal advantages and knowing when to fall back; a little something he had some trouble with earlier in the season. With a little more dedication, I see SolidMetalSnake being a top medic in the North American league if he plays his cards right.
Huey - Huey is definitely one of the top soldiers in our division right now. He is known as the best pyro in competitive Team Fortress 2, I must say...the class is really under rated but in the right hands pyro is very over powered. Although we still have some trouble dealing with his schedule, he's been a part of Immortal 6 since its the start. If he communicates with our team properly there is no stopping our medic/pocket combo.
What has been your teams thinking through this season (CEVO)? Biggest moments? Worst?
Well we really only did CEVO for extra practice, we were really disappointed that CEVO-M pretty much died half way through the season forcing the admins to throw us into the open division. We feel as if it was kind of unfair to some of the teams competing in the lower division, seeing as we have much more experience together as a team. Our biggest moment definitely has to be our match versus Lonely Hearts for the last week of the regular season. We were down 2-0 and ended up coming back to win 5-3. I believe we ended up capping their last right before half time to give us the lead 3-2 with literally 3 seconds left on the clock. We haven't really had any bad moments this season besides having a slow start against Lonely Hearts.
What type of preparation has your team done as it advances in the playoffs?
Like I said, we have been together as a team for more than 2 seasons and we do have a good practice schedule...we practice Sunday-Thursday but our main focus has been ESEA. We take our practices very seriously and aim to correct our mistakes during matches.
Any times of team adversity? How did you handle it?
We really haven't had any troubles this season. I really enjoy the time I get to spend playing with my teammates, we have a lot of fun just playing the game and that's really what it's all about. Our team has stuck together for so long because of the players on the team, we all have great personalities and we all get along perfectly fine.
Cranberry, what has been some of your toughest challenges at team leader?
I think the hardest challenge for me is pleasing our team, we've had a few ups and downs with our pocket (Huey) due to his schedule and him being EST time but I try to work with him as best as I can. We have had a few minor problems but we are always willing to work with our players because that's what a team does --- sticks together when times are tough.
What are your future plans as a team?
Well right now we're very focused on getting into a higher division, we are currently 12-2 in ESEA Open with a very good chance of taking 1st place. We want to move up to Intermediate and show everybody our talent.
What do you guys do when you are not geared up for a match?
Well we play our best no matter what, but when one of us is having a bad night we make sure they don't have a negative attitude that will affect the rest of our team. That's the last thing we need. We encourage our players to have positive attitudes regardless of how bad they may be doing.
Who is the funniest member of the team? Who is the serious member of the team? Who is the most likely to be gone on a Saturday night date?
Well I gotta give the funny award to Huey, he is by far one of the funniest people I have ever met. He has a great sense of humor and has the ability to lighten the mood if we're ever in a funk. The serious member has got to be me and/or Spadez. We don't like wasting time, during practice we encourage everybody to play their best as if we're playing in a real match. Although we don't practice Friday or Saturday, I gotta give this one to R1CKY. He's always out and about doing his thang on the weekends. Here's what he had to say about that:
2:30 PM - crossfire R1CKY: RICKY SAYS HES SINGLE AND ANY GOOD LOOKIN GIRLS, HOLLA AT HIM!
What advice can you give for other players and clans looking to enter competitive sixes play?
All I can say is don't be discouraged. If you get rolled, the only way to get better is to keep trying. You have to remember there are some players that have been around for seasons...tf2lobby.com is a good way to start. Although it's not the best, it's something to get you on your feet. I encourage anybody looking to get into the competitive aspect of the game to start there as I did when I was just starting in 6v6 format.
What do you love best about competitive Team Fortress 2? What would you like to see improved?
I love the fact that the game is so dynamic. There is no other game like TF2 in my opinion. Sure, people can say "well it's not anywhere near competitive CS" and although that maybe true, you have to look at the bigger picture. Times have changed, this game is so well put together for competitive players that it keeps evolving. New strategies, new maps, new players all putting in their effort to make a impact on the community. I love games that are so close, win or lose the adreniline that pumps through my body when playing in matches (especially close games) is unreal.
What do you enjoy best about CEVO? What would you change?
Well I have played several seasons of CEVO, but I think they really need to improve the Main league. I have seen the Main league die two seasons now and it's very unfortunate. I think it's unfair to the players in the lower divisions when a the few teams that are left just get thrown in. I've seen teams and players quit because of this and that's the last thing I want to see.
Just a few shoutouts:
Cranberry: shoutout to my team (of course), Big Poppa Vhalin, Eulogy, my NSFL group:www.notsafeforlan.com, Redrum and Sizzle from SPaG, Blueberry and SYOPs (GL to the rest of your season) and all the people who have helped us with map strats and calls. I appriciate it!
spadez-AA-: ikpure zaxx bloodsire eulogy
crossfire R1CKY: LAZKY,BRIAN,HAKU,LANDSER,AUBURN,J4SON,SHITONMYCHEST
hooey: shoutout to smnc for making me better at tf2
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Look for more exciting 6v6 competitive action as CEVO launches the very first North American Vanilla tournament: http://www.cevo.com/index.php?page=event&id=231
Comments
Sorry about the collapse of CEVO-M, I was not happy about the decision to do so.
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