Season 13: Premiership Interviews #1 Darn

(by huhy)

Interview Transcript

Admirable: Welcome to the first of a planned series of ETF2L Interviews which will myself, Admirable, interrogating unlucky members of Season 13’s Premiership teams.  The first head on block is none other than BFF’s enigmatic leader, Darn.  Say hello to your fans Darn!

Darn: Hello… technology!

A: Haha! OK! Let’s get down to business.  The important question first: which hats and miscellaneous items are you gonna be wearing in Season 13, Darn? That’s what the people want to know!

D: Oh shit!  Straight with the tough ones… this is… this is hard for me… like, uh… I think I will be… no… I’m not going to change my hat, I’m going to keep the Towering Pillar of Hats forever!

A: Yeah I think that one’s just infamous with Darn. Good to hear!  Well that little icebreaker went a little better than I expected.  You actually knew the name of some hats; I’m impressed.

D: Haha! Yeah! That’s the only hat I know.

A: I think what the community really wants to know is what the hell does BFF stand for? Best Friends Forever? Big Finnish Faires? Enlighten us!

D: Eh I really dunno… should I tell?

A: You can always keep it a mystery…

D: But I guess we can reveal this… it’s “Börje From Finland”

A: What?

D: Börje… From Finland.

A: Börje?

D: Börje! It’s Björn as in bybben.

A: Ah! Yes!

D: It was our Shootmania team where bybben was playing.

A: Wow… the cat is out of the bag now.  I wish we had kept that one secret… bit of an anti-climax, Darn! I’m not gonna lie!

D: It wasn’t meant for the public… it was just our little inside joke.

A: You just can’t resist me, man! I just drew it out of you!

D: Yeah that’s the thing.

A: We’ll go in to some serious questions here then OK! OK! I’m such an amazing interviewer; you’re going to be blown away by this.  In the last roster you created, Relic which was essentially a reincarnation of Team Dignitas, you opted to recruit some unknown talent in the form of Sweden’s Larsa.  But with BFF you have chosen to play it safe, compiling a roster of elite players, the most inexperienced being actually voted Soldier of the Season not so long ago (so really not inexperienced at all). Do you think it is possible to recruit from outside the Premiership player pool and still remain competitive? And ah, what were your general considerations when assembling this new team?

D: Well at first my plan was to… just like… people who are ah… play daily, but the season closed up on me quite quickly, as in I didn’t realise it was going to start so soon.  Ah, but there is just no time to create a top team who can compete against the best. Also the reason for this line-up is that I heard Epsilon is going to recruit cookye and Zebbosai, so I decided… from them.

A: So you recruited those players specifically so Epsilon couldn’t take them?

D: Yes! Yes and of course bybben and cookye, they like playing with each other and I think they make a good team together… but uhm I just wanted to eh… basically I just wanted to make a team which is completely whine free… as in no Brits… with the exception of kaidus, but he’s a stoner so he keeps quiet, which is fine. Just enjoy the game… like we have a goal to, obviously, to win shit, but also to have fun winning shit… like even if we lose games that we can still find some fun out of it, but anyways just making a fun team to play with.

A: So did you sort of dodge my question about eh recruiting players outside of the Prem or are you you just saying you didn’t bother this time because you didn’t have the time?

D: Yes, that was the plan; that was the answer. I just didn’t have time. I would have probably made a team outside the Prem and just take people… like there are people who can compete in Premiership but they just need a little guidance like how to adapt in to the environment… like the games are way faster than in, let’s say, Division 1 and that’s a tough thing for people to adapt to… you need someone like me to guide these new players, but didn’t have time.

A: Is there any players on your radar that you’d like to just give the recognition to, you say there are players out there, anyone you’d like ta?

D: Mmm nah because I can’t think of any, I’d need more time, but there are players, loads of players, just need to find them.  Basically start off with people who are young, let’s say 18 is a good age and that they like to play… love to play.

A: You want to steal their youth away from them… keep them inside playing video games… I like it! I like it!

D: Yes! Yes! Suck their youth away from them! For my battery!

A: You are a vampire!

D: Their youth! Yeah! Hahehe!

A: OK then!  On to the next question.  As you may be aware, Darn, there is a record prize pool in the Premiership this season with €2,500 anonymously donated…

D: Woop-de-doo!

A: …on top of the Tt eSports swag. Have your team discussed any plans for potential winnings such as reinvestment towards future LAN expenses? Are you looking at this team in the longer term or is it just a sort of one season sort of deal?

D: This is definitely a long-term team depending of course on the European TF2 scene goes… as in if suddenly there’s no activity and no LANs and nothing we are probably going to get bored and stop playing… but uhm this a long team and if we win something I doubt we are gonna use it on our LAN expenses.  I’m hoping to get picked up by an MGO in the future once we have proven ourselves.

A: Yeah that sounds good! Eh, what’s your assessment of the upcoming Season 13 Premiership Division, based on your veteran instincts, PCW results and a general read on scene?  Who do you see as the contenders? Who’s gonna be battling for relegation? Who are the dark horses?

D: I think that us and Epsilon are obviously gonna be the favourites and then it’s really tough to say… like, your team have been doing really well and we actually haven’t really played anyone else; Epsilon and you guys (Crack Clan). That’s it. Nitrose are probably the dark horse, like no one is expecting anything from them, but they are practising real hard and trying properly so I’d put them to be the dark horse of this season.

A: What do you think of the level of competition? Is this going to be a season to forget or do you think it’s going to be memorable? Are you gonna put up a fight against Epsilon?

D: Yeah this uh… I think eh… this is gonna be a… like a… at the moment it doesn’t look like, cause there’s so many new players in the Premier… new teams in a sense not the old faces, there’s no Byte for example.  So it might look like a flakey season as in there’s no big names but there are really good teams and I think it’s going to be a good season and ehm… us against Epsilon is ah, well we’ll just have to see… I think that we definitely need to practise way more but I hope we are at their level.

A: Is the money something that motivates you? You know, you see this prize pool; is that something that factors in to your mindset?

D: I wouldn’t really care unless the prize pool is something like ten thousand… this two thousand… don’t care… it’s gonna get divided by six guys so you gonna get a couple hundred bucks and that’s basically what you spend on one night at the pub!

A: You think team pride is the main motivator here? You just wanna take Epsilon down?

D: Yeah definitely… yeah I think that’s pretty much the goal for every team in this season.

A: Absolutely! Uhm another new thing we have seen this season is that ETF2L Admins have been listening to Premiership feedback in the lead up to Season 13.  We’ve seen a new stricter rule set adopted and more recently the drama of AnAkIn’s Anti Cheat leading to some quick bans. Do you welcome these actions? Do you think this will create a more competitive atmosphere? Would you like to see it taken further?

D: I’d like to see it taken further, I mean… it’s just normal behaviour I think it’s just fine and everyone can live with it. I’d like to see a more professional approach from ETF2L, like proper hype for every single game, maybe add some statistics like how this team has played, player cards, how they’ve played in the past and stuff like that just to make it more interesting. Money isn’t really a motivator for people… at least that amount of money.

A: So you’d like to see more hype, more coverage, more everything? You’d wanna see Darn’s name in lights?

D: Yes I like to yell my own name!

A: Well that’s an interesting segue here Darn, because you know as a Premiership player you will be required to submit your official name for Season 13. Can we expect to see the return of DarnDuck69?

D: Hahahaha! I could do that actually. Excellent name! I never played bad under that name… that was like twelve years ago, but still I never played bad under that name. I might do this name switch!

A: I think the fans demand it!

D: Haha! Well it’s a good name, isn’t it?! DarnDuck69!

A: Sixty nine, dude!

D: It has everything in it!

A: Got a little something for the ladies there with the sixty nine!

D: Or the boys!

A: OK on that bombshell I’ll say thanks for your time Rauli.  I’ll let you get back to watching Zebbosai’s demos and I wish you the best of luck in Season 13.

A: This has been Admirable for ETF2L. Stay tuned for more Interviews in the lead up to Season 13.

D: Yaaay!