CommunityFortress

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.

The team met with me in a Mumble server to interview them. They were extremely worried that I was the police (no lie).

Meet the Police Injustice team after the jump!

Could you please introduce your team (Names, Positions, Roles,etc.)?

Wejen - Team "Manager" Doesn't like the name team leader but manager because he makes sure people are on at the right time for scrims and matches. Wejen has played all classes during this CEVO season but mainly plays demo. Wejen put together the team because he had no league experience and found several people with little exposure to league play. They wanted to get accustomed to competitive Team Fortress 2 and grow as a team.

Knat - Scout He is on the disabled list as medical issues have kept him out for much of the playoffs. Wejen has assured us that he will be fine.

Icosahedron (Ico) - Pocket She helped get Naru on the squad. I asked Ico to give advice to other female gamers entering the competitive scene. Her advice, "Just play the video game and refrain from having fun, I think."

JJ - Medic New addition to the roster. JJ is new to the 6v6 environment and is appreciative for the opportunity to play with Police Injustice. Although JJ started as ringer, his flexibility allowed him to play so much with the team that they made him a starter. As medic, he makes sure to deploy his ubers but has the occasional drop to a sniper. The team has supported him as he gets better as a competitive player.

NekoNaru (Naru) - Scout Started off on the team as roamer and then switched to scout. He does switch back to roamer when needed.

Sweater - Soldier Played demo for ESEA and was a member of the invite squad, Blight. He plays whatever the team needs which is usually soldier. Sweater is the main caller for the team given his previous competitive experience. He enjoys playing with the team and the overall progress that the team is making.

Frugal - Scout or Soldier Joined the team to fill in for scout. Does not know if he will be a starter with the team next season but will definitely be a backup. He has played tf2 for a while and is familiar with all the classes.

How did your team form or come into existence (Explain the history of your team)?

Wejen decided to put the team together a week before ESEA season nine but did not have enough time to make ESEA that season and was glad they didn't try. The team started off as Wegen, Naru, Ico, Cat, Square, and Wolfy. Their first scrim did not go well and cost them two of their players who decided against competitive play.

They picked up another player (Merc) and had cycled through players prior to the CEVO season. They had some personality conflicts and had to further change the roster. Sweater was added to the roster at this time, he was previously the team's mentor. The roster solidified and was not changed until the playoffs when Knat could not play. Wejen was pleased with the success that the team has had this season.

How did you handle the members who didn't mesh personality wise?

Wejen admits in retrospect he didn't handle the situation the best. One of the scouts was a friend and he didn't want to cut her. She would be extremely critical of the team whenever they weren't winning. The player's aggressiveness caused conflict. Wejen responded by approaching the person privately and asking them to calm down during scrims. Eventually, the player realized things weren't working out and left on their own.

The team's philosophy is have fun while playing and thinks it is a waste of time to stay on a team you are not having fun with. Wejen understood that personalities don't change that quickly and would have approached the player sooner and asked them if they would rather play on a team they didn't enjoy or find a team they could enjoy playing on.

What do as far as practicing and getting ready for matches?

Police Injustice scrims four nights out of the week except for Friday. Teammates live across all time zones so getting together isn't always easy but they make time. The team organizes scrims through GameSurge (An IRC community) attempting to play on the map their future match will be on. However, getting a match on the desired map isn't easy because of players for different leagues. The team was unable to scrim during the week that cp_follower was played and also when cp_standin was played in ESEA.

The team has tried to come up with new strategies to play a map especially to capture the middle point. They test this with trial and error during their scrims. They have attempted to use a mini sentry or pyro. This method has helped them to understand why the classes were selected for competitive play. The team understands that you must be willing to learn from your mistakes or you will be bound to repeat them. The team religiously watches demo videos especially JJ. Wejen suspects that he even watches pub demos although JJ denies this. JJ stated "I think watching your own play or having one of your teammates watch with you, that is really important for self-improvement."

Regarding scrims, do you schedule teams above your skill level, around your skill level, or below?

The teams plays people around their skill level with the occasional team above their level (Superior Posterior or i6). This allows the team to see if opponents are doing anything of note outside of winning the death match battles.

When you scrim you said you like to joke around?

The team is more about positive reinforcement as opposed to negative reinforcement. Wejen stated, "we won't hit somebody because they did something wrong, we'll pat them on the head for doing something right." Wejen believes it better to reward people for doing something right as opposed to punishing mistakes.

Who is the funniest person? Who keeps the team focused?

Sweater, hands down is the funniest person on the team. Amp keeps the team motivated. The team thinks of Amp for further motivation.

What are your future plans?

Police Injustice would have problems playing ESEA because they have a couple players on other ESEA rosters. If they do go forward Wejen would definitely would have an extensive screening process for adding players to the roster. The team would want to find new players that mesh well before getting further involved in competitive play.

What have you enjoyed best about CEVO?

The team enjoyed the map selection of cp_follower. Wejen appreciates that the Sydney Sleeper and Sandvich are not banned (although I think this answer was tongue-in-cheek). Naru appreciates that CEVO bans two engineers which ESEA does not. Ico was able to use sandvich heavy and didn't die during a match. They unashamedly use unlocks in match play.

What would like to see improved in CEVO?

Wejen would like to see the website revamped. Features that are not implemented make it difficult for scheduling purposes. He could not adjust the roster easily without having to contact the league admin. The possibility of adding or removing players without approval would be much easier for the team leads. Also, he would like to see the team lead to be able to delete comments in the match thread.

Better scheduling for the playoffs which do not include matches so close to the holidays (Dec. 26th). Ico added, "It's kind of unrelated to the site I think, just the holidays, but the playoffs were somewhat confusing at first because of the week delay. The dates weren't updated, so there was a lot of guess work." Also, the team would like to see CEVO support updated as you have to login to access it but the issue was logging in. The leader had to come up with another login to access the site.

What do you guys like to do when you are not playing TF2?

DOTA 2! Ico, Wejen and the rest enjoy playing it. JJ does not have a dota 2 key yet but he enjoyes RPGs.

What do you guys like best about playing tf2?

Playing with Sweater! Playing against new teams (Mad Monkey Maniacs) that helped build their confidence. JJ enjoys being able to game with friends.


Anything you guys would like to see changed about with competitive tf2 play?

Gun boats, "It's running the game." The team would like to see more thought and testing put into banning unlocks. PI doesn't think Sandvich should be in CEVO play. Sweater noted that the Battalion's Backup ruined the viaduct week in ESEA and then they removed it from play afterward.

Shoutouts:

JJ gives a shoutout to The Overseer
Naru gives a shout to Squid for "sleeping through ESEA matches."

 

 

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I had to reassure the team that I was not the police just a reporter looking to inform the competitive community of CEVO play. Although, I would not be shocked if CEVO forever bans the sandvich.

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