After a quiet period of a few months we are continuing the interview sessions that nubonamission started with great success. In these interviews we will talk about the players themselves, their teams, the scene and more. What are you waiting for, read on!
The Ubersexuals, a European Team Fortress 2 team, are currently tied for the first spot in the 3rd ETF2L season, where they will face Team CoolerMaster in a deciding match for the title. Duncan 'dunc' Wraight is one of the players of this incredibly strong team.
Before we start I would like to thank dunc for offering Cadred.org and it’s readers the opportunity to get to know him a little better - and making time for this in-depth interview. I suggest you go get something to drink & eat, because dunc is a man of plenty words. With 18 questions and over 4000 words, this won't be a short read!
Although some people may know you quite good already; could you give us an introduction on yourself, who are you, who do you play for, what is your class, etc...
"LOLZ HAI! I'm dunc. I play medic and run the ETF2L Division One team Ubersexuals. I've been playing TF2 since beta, originally in a small, friendly clan called "fight club United Kingdom". From there a few of us splintered off to form a more competitive 6v6 team "Knights" as the game developed more readily in to that format.”
I think it is safe to say you didn’t start gaming with Team Fortress 2. What is your history in video games, and how do you think your past complements your current TF2 performance?
"A long time ago, when I was only 13 or 14, I played Q2CTF to a reasonably high standard - D1 title holders at one point. Unfortunately, after that, EverQuest grabbed me and I went from MMO, to MMO, to MMO including Dark Age of Camelot, EQ1 and 2, Star Wars Galaxies and World of Warcraft, to name a few.”
"I think the MMO background helps me to play TF2 with a more logical approach - especially as medic. Heal prioritisation, encounter adaptation, general awareness and most importantly teamwork are all attributes which can be found in the MMOs I played - especially when it comes to raiding et al. I did a lot of raid leading in World of Warcraft and those skills directly transport to leading a team in TF2. Obviously it's different, but a lot of the same skills apply - especially when it comes to organising lazy fuckwits like sommie, weqo and treigzak".
What is your attitude towards training, do you really apply yourself to improve or do you just relax and play?
"I nearly always maintain a 40 hour fortnight - and that's pretty much solely TF2. I constantly strive to self improve. It is one of my defining character attributes. Even with 300-odd hours played as medic, I will be the first to admit that there is a lot of aspects in my game which I could improve. My awareness is never what I would label 100% - that can always be improved. I wish I had time to relax.. but between running a team, maintaining a reasonable level of ability, having a social life and an Irish girlfriend.. I find I have very little time for myself. I don't mind, I enjoy being busy!”
”I constantly strive to self improve. It is one of my defining character attributes.”
And how do you train your skill in Team Fortress 2? For example how much time do you spend training, what sorts of game types do you train with, i.e. mixes, 1v1, public etc.? On which aspects does training the medic class differ from other classes?
"I don't play a lot of pickups because of my time/organisational constraints but during the day I regularly play on public servers. I don't play medic on publics, I'm fairly sure most people would agree that's a futile and frustrating path to take, so instead I play my favourite class - soldier. I'm not great by any means, but I enjoy it and keeping my mind in-game really helps with the level I play medic at in clan games.
Well, there's no aiming involved... :) It's a lot of difficult-to-gauge attributes which comprise a good medic. Reliability and solidarity are arguably the two most important characteristics and in TF2 I tend to find high levels of both can be achieved simply by maintaining a good amount of hours in-game each week - in and out of clan games.”
How do you keep things fresh and in the moment when you have played the same map x hundred times, and been through the same movements many times before?
" Yeah, agreed, there's a lot of routine in every game - some clans play the same tactic map after map after map.. but no two games are identical. High level games with equally skilled opponents are what make the game fun - but even vs "lesser skilled" opponents there's always the chance that your team makes a wrong move and gets wiped out. Granary CP3 is a prime example of that - demoman dies, a scout dies, you've lost the round. It's a very tactical game and there's always the opportunity to make/try new tactics during a game, or quickly think up a reactive tactic when the opposition is using a tactic you weren't expecting. I guess, personally, it's the tactical aspect of TF2 which keeps it interesting.”
Do you think you are at your peak in terms of performance at the moment, or do you think you have more to show?
"Well, I've just come out of hospital after having knee surgery, I've bought a new PC, mouse and mousemat so the short answer is "definitely not". It's annoying, I was really starting to come in to form towards the end of the ETF2L season - I played a reasonable game vs k1ck in ETF2L with 9 deaths over two maps, but either way, I haven't yet reached peak potential. Come to think of it, I'm not sure there is such a thing as peak potential. I will always want to improve, always feel like I can improve. When I'm averaging 0 deaths per season I'll be happy... :)”
”It's the tactical aspect of TF2 which keeps it interesting.”
Something people are always interested in, what peripherals do you use,;more specifically what mouse, keyboard and special configs do you use?
"Urgghh don't even talk to me about mice. I purchased a Roccat Kone with my new PC, which cost a lot of money, and I just can't get used to it. Played against Crack! Clan in a PCW the other evening and Moose said to me afterwards "yeah, we found you in a few.. odd places in that game" because I just couldn't concentrate on the important things. I was so busy concentrating on the way my mouse was moving that my awareness and avoidance were nigh non-existent. Small movements around the centre of the screen just felt awful, zero accuracy. Bigger movements were a bit better but still not clean or natural - maybe it's the settings, but I had a play around and just couldn't get it feeling the way I was used to.
In the end I've had to go back to my beloved old Razer Diamondback. I bought it for a fiver second hand and it's the most natural mouse I've ever used. When I play with this mouse, I don't have to think about my cursor at all - I can concentrate on my movement, awareness and team calls. I use a Logitech G15 keyboard, but I'm not entirely sure why - the only thing I use on it other than the standard keys are the media keys. More money than sense I guess!
Config-wise, I don't use anything special other than class-specific sensitivity and unlockable-switching binds for pyro and medic. I still use a FPS config despite running a 2.83ghz Quad CPU, 8gb DDR 1066 RAM and a 4870X2 2gb - purely because that's what I'm used to. I also run 1440*900 res, in a window - I find it the easiest way to run the team, makes alt-tabbing simple.”
A lot of lower skilled players and teams experience rage and frustration when developing, is this still a part of high level play? And if so how do you and your teammates deal with it?
"Haha.. the rage :D Personally I think I never rage, though anyone that's ever played with me might disagree. Of course it's a part of high level play - probably moreso than the lower levels as there's arguably more at stake. At the very least, there's significantly more ego involved. I think every team needs a bit of rage - if there's nobody to point out where things have gone wrong or to make the team realise that they need to take the game more seriously and focus back on the game, it can be detrimental. Naturally too much rage is not a good thing - random wanton rage, especially when directed at teammates, just isn't acceptable. It adds nothing but a pessimistic, hope-defeating aura to the teamplay.
Frustration is something every medic will experience - it's so difficult when you can't really shoot back. The most frustrating example for me is when a solo scout hops amidst my team and kills me despite having numerous players attempting to protect me. It's not always their fault - everyone knows scouts can do ridiculous damage at times - but it doesn't make it any less frustrating. Give me a rocket launcher, for God's sake!
From a team point of view, every defeat is frustrating. I get frustrated every time we fail as a team - when the co-ordination is lacking or people are dying "too easily", it gets frustrating. You HAVE to keep going though. It ruins the community when new teams form, encounter a few inevitable losses and then rage-disband. TF2 is about teamwork and teamwork takes time. Simple as that. Keep going!”
Looking in the past; how have you reached the top with Ubersexuals? Could you explain to us how it all started with this team and what road you have taken? What are the key aspects of your team that make you so strong?
"Dear God that's a long story. I only play competitive TF2 because I injured my knee playing football around three weeks after the game was officially released. Before that, I was playing two or three evenings a week for a clan called "fight club United Kingdom", who are still an active team, competing in ETF2L and WPTF2L. When I started playing more actively, I started to organise the TF2 team for fcuk. After a while it became clear we had a lot of "hangers on" and some players who, as active as they were, simply weren't good enough to play reasonable level competitive TF2.
As a result, 6 or 7 of us splintered off from fcuk to form a new team - Knights, using the "Sir" tag. We recruited Matji from STF, skre from FADER and Swetur from inactivity/real life, though he had previously played for Jagarna - the team he now plays for again. Knights did very well considering the lack of competitive experience the team had. We had no "pro" players, with only skre and swetur having any real experience of playing FPS games at a high level. We were highly active, playing 10 to 15 games per week, with a solid squad of reliable players. We were gifted the chance of playing in Division 2 of the ETF2L, and were fortunate to come in second place at season end.
”I won't lie, we were incredibly close to disbanding.”
Unfortunately during that period we started finding players were becoming less active, resulting in numbers or ability problems. Our ability started to drop and as a result I felt it necessary to try and recruit new players. We trialled a number of players and ended up recruiting hording who left TF2 to play Warhammer Online not long after - and indey who left us for the Cruciamentum (k1ck) reform. I won't lie, we were incredibly close to disbanding. Fracture disbanded about a week before I was contemplating disbanding Knights, and we were fortunate - through skre's Team Norway experiences - to recruit fellow Norwegian scout treigzak.
At this time appe was also looking for a team, albeit as demoman, so I offered him a place and he kindly accepted. I went on holiday for a week and got a text from skre asking if there was room for both weqo and sommie who were both looking for a team after Excello disbanded. Delighted, naturally, I accepted. From there we've gone from strength to strength. I'd love to say it was all my doing, but it's clearly just the culmination of raw experience - every player bar myself and skre from the current lineup has played TF2 at literally the top level. I'm delighted things have turned out the way they have, I love every player in Ubersexuals as players and as people.”
Aswell in the past now are the first TF2 Nations tournaments. We have had the ESL NC and the ETF2L league. The United Kingdom did not deliver the result many had expected. What is your explanation for this?
"Well, there's a few fairly simple explanations. In the ETF2L semi-final vs Belgium we had Wlv with a 150 ping playing as scout, TopGear playing as demoman and Abomination calling tactics. There was no teamwork, no comms and we were two players down. We're not fortunate enough to have 3 or 4 top level demomen/scouts available unlike the top two nations Finland and Sweden. I can't even remember what happened in ESL but it basically comes down to us not having two top level scouts available. Stealthy, AppZ and AcidRenix are all good scouts but for various reasons we never had two that played well together - be it because of the "three from each clan" rule, personality clashes or general TF2 inactivity.”
”We won't lose to Belgium again though, I can guarantee that :)”
"Unfortunately that doesn't look like it'll change any time soon with AppZ no longer playing for TCM and Stealthy being pretty much inactive. I also don't know of any high potential up-and-coming UK scouts, so we're pretty much stuck. We won't lose to Belgium again though, I can guarantee that :)”
Let us move on to the TF2 scene. When looking at the past, the present and the future, how do you compare TF2 to other popular competitive games from the moment?
"This is a question I myself have asked others in numerous interviews, and is a question that is on the lips of many a player in the TF2 community. Does TF2 really have a future? Has it reached its peak? In my opinion, TF2 is the best spectator FPS.. ever. That may sound daft, but what can compare? CSS? No thanks. CS1.6 was an enjoyable game but not the greatest spectator sport. StarCraft is arguably the greatest spectator game of all time, but that's an entirely different genre - an entirely different kettle of fish.”
Unfortunately, we don't have the coverage and we don't have the LANs. I personally think a single LAN would really help to get the ball rolling. A well organised TF2-oriented LAN event with a decent cash prize with good coverage and a number of well known sponsors would really help the community. When this gets off the ground, I think TF2 will get the boost it well deserves. Everyone gets the feeling that the TF2 community is stale now and then, but that's purely because there's nothing on the horizon."
Over the last few months several multi-gaming organisations have established TF2 teams within their organisation. Has this changed the scene and the leagues? Do you think this trend will continue the next months, and push LAN organisations to organize more TF2 events?
"Yeah, it has definitely changed the scene - for the better. Teams are now more serious about their gaming, with fewer lineup changes and more dedication. Unfortunately I don't think many other organisations will get involved at the moment due to the lack of LAN events on the horizon. Fingers crossed, that will change shortly.”
Why hasn't Ubersexuals got a multi-gaming organisation to sponsor them yet?
"We've had a few approach us.. but the team has only been formed for less than a season. I have a dedicated server from which I provide TF2 and voice communications servers which leaves us only two reasons to take a gaming organisation on - LAN financial support or coverage for the community. The latter is the most important to me by far - if a big MGO approached us now, there's little doubt we would happily agree to being sponsored by them, even if it meant no financial support. More MGOs = more coverage for the community. For the time being, we're fine as it is.”
”Coverage, sponsors, casters - that's what we need more of.”
Some people say that a problem for the current competitive scene is that the amount of top teams is not really growing. Some propose to get more public players into competitive play. What are your idea's about how this problem?
"That is indeed the biggest problem the community faces. Players going out.. very few coming in. Public players are undoubtedly one source of potential new recruits, but it's a difficult one. How many teams have the time to educate public players in the ways of the 6v6 no crit format? Very few. I suppose the problem there is that public games are very different to the games played in leagues. Again, I think the answer is more coverage. If public TF2 players see broadcasted games on gaming websites, they'll think "I want to do that". Coverage, sponsors, casters - that's what we need more of.”
Valve has been releasing new maps, weapon unlocks and other features for TF2 over the last months. Now we have heard that the next update will not be released before the beginning of 2009. What is your general opinion about the updates so far, and what do you expect Valve to update in the upcoming updates?
"Hmm. I like the way the game is at the moment. I really can't think what Valve will come up with for the likes of the soldier, sniper and spy and part of me is literally dreading it. Saying that though, thus far, only the medic changes have actually made any difference to competitive TF2 and though I may be biased, I think they were great changes. None of them ruin the state of play, they just make the medic a little more resillient. Scouts know that they should be able to take a medic 1v1, the Blutsauger just makes it more of a challenge :)
I think Valve's statement about not releasing any new updates until 2009 is purely because - just like ourselves - they have no idea what they should use as the unlockable weapons for the remaining classes. It must be incredibly difficult to balance. Let's hope they get it right, or I fear a TF2 pro-mod will be released. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but Valve could avoid it by adding a few server cvars to help competitive play, and by not making the remaining unlockables overpowered. Some change certainly wouldn't be a bad thing - can we tone the demoman down now please? :D”
An issue that has been spoken of since the beginning of TF2 is that Valve supports the "public scene" way better than the "competitive scene". What should Valve do in your opinion, to give the competitive scene the boost that it needs to become one of the major multi-player fps games?
"That is an easy question to answer. It's understandable that Valve support the public players - after all, that's where they make their money, but at the same time, it would be simple for Valve to add some server commands to support the competitive scene. My suggestions would include the likes of "sv_random_damage 0", "sv_setup_time 0", "sv_allow_unlockables 0" etc. They've already gone some way to creating no crit and stopwatch variables, so why not finish the job?”
”Give us honest, critical feedback on our ideas.”
We know your are currently involved in the organisation of a big European LAN dedicated to TF2. What are your plans for this LAN event and how can players, teams and organisations support this?
"Indeed. A few of us from the ETF2L community forums have grouped together to try and organise a community-based, TF2-oriented LAN in Holland or somewhere equally accessible/appropriate. The LAN would probably be towards the end of February or beginning of March, depending on the feedback we get from the community. The idea is to split up the competitions a bit. The main competition would be open to any team but presumably dominated by the top teams in the game, with a large cash prize. There would also be "mid" and "low" level competitions (skill level gauged by admins/trialling/ETF2L S3 standings) with hardware prizes.
We hope to get a large number of sponsors involved and are looking at involving some of the big CoD5 teams - the entire emphasis of this event is to get more coverage for the community and hopefully by bringing some of the MGOs involved in the likes of CoD5 or whatever, we might get them interested in our community. We'll be posting regular feedback on ETF2L once we have a location secured, so the only things I ask of the community are firstly to give us honest, critical feedback on our ideas and secondly to make sure you're turning up!"
Although the demo-limit has been set to 1 by community polls, there are still more than a few people complaining about the demoman's strength. What is your opinion about this matter?
"The demoman is the most powerful class in TF2 at the moment, by some way. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. Obviously it has its weaknesses.. but when you see demomen like Ryb, Weqo and Byte, you understand that those weaknesses can certainly be minimized. Granted, they have no shotgun, but no other class can rival the potentially huge damage output of a demoman - 8 stickies at max damage of 110 each, 4 pipes at max damage of 125 each. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the demoman is an easy class to play; it's probably the hardest class to master, but it's incredibly powerful.
”It's inevitable in class-based games that some classes will be more powerful than others.”
I think that grenades should have bigger trail off - they shouldn't be doing such huge damage at range; when spammed over the boxes on granary CP3 for instance. I also think changing the dynamics a little so that demomen could only put four stickies down at a time (still allow eight in the barrel) wouldn't hurt too much. Naturally all of the existing demoman players will disagree, but I think others may see my point. Saying that though - I think the game works. It's inevitable in class-based games that some classes will be more powerful than others, especially in certain situations. As long as the demoman limit is enforced, the game is alright."
Are there any last notes you would like to add – some shout-outs perhaps?
" Yeah.. can I give a shout-out to the two best medics in the game, Monsieur Agron and Monsieur Lezek. I'd also like to mention Crack! Clan's kyynel - he's such a reliable player.. though, saying that, he does have Moose :D Hi to all of my Ubersexual lovers, especially appe - god that boy is pretty IRL. You should see his haircut. P.S. skre SORT YOUR TF2 OUT FFS.”
Thank you dunc, for taking the time to answer all my questions. I wish you and your team all the best luck in the future!
Related:
4K^Bybben interview &
TCM|Byte interview
FORUM AREAS
Poll
Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:22:50 +0000
Submit news
