DuRuS speaks to the DnD combo, D1ablo and Duffer

With both teams through the group stages, I spoke to D1ablo and Duffer from Reason and ButtonBashers respectively. We went and found a café, sat down with the microphone, and chatted away for over 10 minutes. You can listen to the audio version in the flash player at the bottom of the page.

Welcome back to the outpost on Fire 3 coverage, I'm here with Tom, D1ablo and Duffer. Right guys how are you finding the tournament?

D1ablo - Apart from the plus 80 degrees, in the core of the earth, I think it’s actually a pretty good tournament. Everything’s going smoothly.

Duffer - Yeah I agree with Tom; it’s really really hot in the basement, but apart from that its going quite nicely.

You've both been playing the tournament in your groups; they've gone to plan, but only just in some cases... We had a bit of a few scares from the both of you?

D1ablo - Definitely in the first game for us, we cocked it up a bit, but since then it was smooth sailing.

And what about you and Button Bashers?

Duffer - Yeah we had a close game against the Croatian team imex, we were down 8 or 9 - 5 but our sniper qwerty, Ralf, he got like 3 1v2s, so thanks to him we won the game 13-9.

A lot of people have been saying those games were almost warmups, especially for Reason, it took you a while to sort of get into it. Do you think you're both starting to find your "top gear" ready for the playoffs?

D1ablo - Definitely, I mean we haven't played since Wednesday becase we came here, actually Tuesday because we came on Wednesday, so yeah it’s been a bit up and down, but yeah, we're definitely warmed up now, we know how the PCs work now so it should be good for us.

Duffer - I don't think we're warmed up enough yet. I still think the PCs are a bit sloppy, my one. Maybe my configs a bit messed up; I'm using nreo's. I don't think we're warmed up enough yet, need a couple more games.

Your next game is against mTw, I wouldn't really call it a warm up game, and it’s going to be a really tough game. How do you think that’s going to go?

Duffer - Ah well we're going to come down at 5 and I'm just going to play deathmatch for an hour with my team. So hopefully we'll be warmed up enough.

D1ablo - To be fair, they're worse than them imex team, they've had a shocker in the groups. They'll be fucking way less off than them.

And if all goes to plan, you two will be meeting each other in the next round; if you each beat you're respective teams. It’s going to be a bit of an interesting game, especially after the last 2 encounters, where it’s been the 3 map specials. They have not really gone Reason's way.

Duffer - I just love playing against D1abloablo, we are D+D combo and now we're going to find out who’s the number one D in the CoD scene. I'm big D he's little D.

D1ablo - Dallow reckons his 10 years experience as manager will come and shine in that game, so I think we've got this one under control.

What do you think will be the deciding factor in that game? Do you think map choice is going to have much of a factor in it? Or could you beat each other on any map?

Duffer - No their best map is crossfire and we're dogshit on crossfire, but crash and backlot we're really strong. They've played us a couple of times at backlot but they haven't seen the proper LAN strats, and I think strike would be pretty close, we've geeked it out the last couple of weeks and I know they're fairly aggressive on attack.

D1ablo - Yeah the maps are pretty hit and miss, depending on which one goes, I don't think it'll make that much of a difference because once you get on the game, that’s the map and you've got to deal with it.

Neither of you have really had your full strength side in the most recent tournaments, Button Bashers have been missing 1 person in each event and you weren't at EPS. Is it going to be a different story now you've both got your full teams out?

Duffer - Yeah definitely. We have qwerty and davy, both the dutch speaking guys, and when they play together they're just amazing so it'll be a lot tighter game for the both of us.

D1ablo - I mean a lot of the community consider these UKeSA LANs and EPS LANs as LANs. For me they're more specialist LANs because not all the teams can go. Teams like TCM; they'll only have a good game against us or Dig, and they'd get, well not destroyed but a lot tougher time against some of the Eastern Europeans and people like that. It kind of showed. I think these LANs where anyone can come with you full lineups, anyone can come and play. They're the proper LANs which show what is going on with the scene etc.

How have you found some of the teams here? Have there been any teams here that you haven't really seen play in the CoD4 scene?

D1ablo - H2K had a bit of a shocker, which I am glad. I think Chef is on another winner, good old Michael has another TLR squad at the top of the group. I don't know these teams have come here that aren't even from Belgium. The Swedes came, a lot of Frenchies came. They all came to prove themselves just as we did in TLR at CDC4. So yeah a lot of new talent is propping up.

And who impressed you?

Duffer - TheImperial and the YoYoTech dutch team will do really well with Aerox and DEKO. I've been watching both of these teams and they're really really good.

What about teams that have played very well online and have come here and failed miserably. Is there anyone here that deserves the "onliner" tags?

D1ablo - There are loads, LINQAN, he definitely cheats online. mTw. TBH. Riza, he is dog s*** on LAN as always. Who else is there... Paradox. He is definitely not legit... ever. He is probably hacking now I wouldn't even know. Yeah I don't know. A few teams. Can't think of any more.

Who do you think is going to be in the final of this tournament? Who is going to step up and win it all?

Duffer - dignitas. They are back on full strength now. When BlackMane calls for them they are just sick. They have got all the individual skill; they can do anything they want. They remind me of the old FatGames lineup, minus JUSZN. Just the DandD combo, no one can stop us. But Lookzor and raz, that's just what it is. Sick players and they have got all the team work. And with Blackmane, the big emo, who just controls them. They can do anything.

Are dignitas are a lot stronger that they have Blackmane in over Mick?

Duffer - Well Mick played really well at UKeSA and EPS. But I think BlackMane is a lot better at sniping. SoCLoN is better at the AK.

D1ablo - They need someone to take the lead really, they are just like 5 kids that just have a laugh and run about. But in proper games Blackmane gets pissed off, and takes charge and saying stuff, which sorts them out. He helps them a lot. Not even because of his sniping ability just in general.

Duffer - He is going to get the CS:S rotates on in CoD4!

How are you enjoying being away from home, being in a foreign country? You been up to much apart from the games?

Duffer - No Comment

D1ablo - Apart from Duffer having a little brawl with a few Turks.... we had a really great night out on the first night we got here. Went to some nice club. Always a good laugh when you go out in a big bunch, hitting the town. It's really good.

What about leading up to TeX? Both teams are going but how do you think it is going to compare to OutPost?

Duffer - I have never been to TeX. This is my first summer LAN. But everyone says TeX is a sick LAN. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just going to steal all the demos when I have the chance.

They're all going to be up on Cadred.org. And how are you looking forward to text?

D1ablo - I think it is going to be really good, last event was amazing, one of the best organised events I ever saw. And a lot more teams seem to be going to TeX, a lot more variety. You have teams here that are going to TeX then you have teams that are just going to TeX. Hopefully it will be the same sort of level as it was last year, if everything goes well. It should be a wicked event.

Is this basically it for CoD4? There is i37 afterwards but not a huge amount of teams are going to this. So after TeX is this basically it for CoD4?

D1ablo - I think if CoD6 happens to be like 5, where they really focus on the pub noobs. I heard rumours that even raf1 who got some of the source code didn't know what to do with it. If it is like that then we could see people just sticking it out. Could see you next summer?

Duffer - I have seen some youtube demos, and it looks the same as CoD4's multiplayer, just with better graphics and a different story line. I hope it is going to be good. I think after the summer LANs, there is going to be the CM Storm Cup, and Infused Cup.

D1ablo - a lot of online stuff waiting. The cups and stuffs are starting up soon.

So are both of your teams going to stay and play online, and keep it going? Or is motivation going to be a bit low throughout the rest of August?

D1ablo - It's normally pretty bad from the summer to the winter period. Every period hits a dead patch and all the stuff seems to change after that. I don't know, we might even take a break and come back after a month or so, give people a holiday and chill for a bit. We don't want to split up.

Are ButtonBashers definitely going to stick together?

Duffer - I don't think Ralph (qwerty) and Davy will have motivation to play online after these events. But if you give them long enough breaks and there are some LAN events, they will still want to play.

Well thank you both of you. Have either of you got any final things you want to say before we wrap it up?

D1ablo - Shoutout to Dallow for losing his Visa card. Anyone reading this, he's actually lost it. Ben Dalloway. If you find that just take it to your local bank. Fat shout outs to Reason and all the sponsors sending us here as always. Big shoutouts to all the fans watching.

Duffer - I just have one shoutout, to Nye Vent. Vanner you're a prick.