Season 13: Premiership Interviews #4 Stark

Interview Transcript

Admirable: Hello sports fans and welcome to another ETF2L Season 13 interview with myself, Admirable. This is number four and as such represents something of a midpoint in our series, so let’s have a little cheer!

A Young Girl: Yay!

Stark: Yay!

A: What better way to celebrate this glorious occasion than with a celebration of the meteoric rise of Team Decerto’s star scout, Stark.  Are you ready to be celebrated, Stark?!

S: Ofcourse, I’m ready to be celebrated.

A: Before we get underway I must confide in you that the main objective of this interview series has always been to attempt to cultivate an interest in fashion amongst the Premier Division.

S: Mwhah!

A: All that nonsense about teams and competition is in fact a cunning ruse; what the people really want to know is what hats and miscellaneous items will you be equipping for Season 13?

S: Well I was watching the other interviews and it seemed everyone else was a fashion disaster! So I’m gonna… I’m gonna ramp up the fashion level with… on scout I’ve got a black… wait no it’s no black… a Vintage Tossle Cap, Earbuds and black Essential Accessories.

A: All black?

S: Eh no. The hat isn’t.

A: OK I’m liking it! It sounds sleek, it sounds very hip, very trendy, but…

S: I spent ages as some kind of keen trader and then I never did any… like as soon as I got all the items I wanted I got this plugin that turns off hats, so it seems a bit useless to me, but whatever!

A: Do you, ah… synchronise your hats with your scout partner or anything… anything keen like that?

S: Oh no… I think you have to be good before you do that!

A: Oh! Self-deprecating humour. OK.

S: Haha.

A: Now!  Let’s get down to business… I’m going to start you off with a backhanded compliment. You recently won the ETF2L Nations Cup with England in addition to graduating to the Premiership with Decerto… and yet even now there are plenty people in the scene who don’t really know who you are.  Why is it when I mention your name people are still asking “who”?

S: I guess it’s because aside from Div 1 and Prem I’ve only been in Div 4 and 5… and 6, but I dunno I got to a decent level before and then my computer started breaking horribly so I kind of took a break for about 3-4 months and then someone built my PC for me, I came back and I was much better and advanced very quickly.  So I wasn’t really around in the scene for a while for people to recognise me.

A: Maybe we can get BoneS to make you an overly flattering movie? Like… you could be the next Dr.Justice! You know what I mean?

S: Mmhmph! Ofcourse.

A: You first came on to my radar in last season in Division 1, a fixture that sort of stuck in my mind because it was also the first game I casted with djc on VanillaTV.  It was against The Justice League… you guys were a map down, you’d lost Granray, but you’d managed to bring Snakewater to a Golden Cap and then this Stark kid shows up and just goes berserk with some snick… sick sniper play, snatches two points for his team.  Would you say that was a breakthrough moment for you? Page one of the “Legend of Stark”?

S: Eh maybe! Ehm… I dunno, I’d say I was overrated because the occasion… like in that game I didn’t play so well. It was more just in the end I did, I think it was 3-4 headshots in a row, which kind of as it was at the end of the game and it won the Golden Cap it meant people rated me better than I actually was, but I dunno, I wouldn’t say I was that great!

A: Yeah I’d probably agree with you, it wasn’t really an amazing performance, but just you sort of came out… that was maybe part of it, that you came out from nowhere like… having played ah… maybe in the shadows for most of the two maps, you just came out right at the end and we were like “wow”.

But at that time the team was still sort of reeling from the Exodus of p0le, Tarkus and ReveraL. You came in to a shell of a team, mid-season and somehow managed to finish second in Division 1 and earn promotion to the Premier Division. Not bad for some scrub who had spent the previous season in Division 4 like. How much has the Stark we see is Season 13 grown over the last two seasons? What in particular have you tried to improve upon?

S: Ehm! I’d say it was mainly my DM really. I mean I don’t go on DM servers that much but I really started to think about how I was dodging where I was aiming, because before in Division 4 all you really had… I didn’t really think about what I was doing, I just kind of ran at the enemy and I didn’t really have to think about my aim either…  but then as soon as I get in to Div 1 it’s just like… I start running in to people and then they kill me and I kind of had to rethink about a plan for everything, what I have to think about before I go in to fights, but I didn’t watch my demos or anything it was more just thinking during the game “Oh I keep dying in this particular situation, I should probably stop doing that!”

A: So you took the Mike route? You went MGE all the way?!

S: Ofcourse! Actually I don’t really like MGE as scout… no airshots.

A: You prefer deathmatch?

S: I play a bit of deathmatch, but from time to time… excuse me while I cough… I play a bit of deathmatch from time to time, but most of the time the server’s full so I just go and play some pub.

A: Pubstar? Interesting! So eh… that would be your advice then to any budding scouts, just work on your aim and the rest will follow?

S: Yeah. 24/7 Badwater as scout is the best way to train your aim.

A: Do you feel like you are all aim, no brain?

S: I wouldn’t say so, because my aim isn’t that great. You see it’s not bad, but when people play against me I doubt they think “Oh no! It’s Stark! He’s like cookye or stefan or something…” I don’t think I give people fear, but I wouldn’t say I was bad.

A: I’ve seen you hitting quite a lot of meatshots… I mean… I guess maybe in the Premiership you don’t stand out so much, but coming up in the last season or two your aim or your damage has been fairly prolific?  But maybe you’re just being modest, ya know?

S: It doesn’t feel like when I run in to a scout v scout, it feels like I’ve got a decent chance but it doesn’t feel like I’m gonna win this easily and then rush on with full HP.  So I’m very weary when I play against scouts like cookye who will hit the meatshots, so I kind of have to sit on health packs and pray.

A: Well you know maybe this is a bit of sports psychology for you, but if you go in to a battle thinking “Oh maybe I’m not going to win” a lot of the time you’re not going to win, man! You need to be like “I am a badass! I’m going to wreck everybody!”

S: Mmpheh.

A: But, maybe that’s not your style… I mean… recently… moving on, your team has been struggling to deal with Tack’s injuries and I guess his aspirations to become the Karate Kid. This has led ah… directly I guess to Decerto’s acquisition of former Monster Munch and England scout, Arx.  What do you think he brings to the team?

S: I’d say what he mainly adds is a kind of stability in the comms. When we play with Arx and when we play with Tack there is a noticeable difference in the comms, because Arx kind of calms everything down. He calls quite a lot but he doesn’t overpower the comms and… also what he adds is he makes plays, which no one in the team seems to do as much as he does.  Usually they’re in the form of suicides but they’re not stupid suicides, he’ll say… I dunno… “I’m going to suicide in, I’ll spawn in time for the next fight” or something and then half the time he’ll just die and half the time he’ll get a med pick or something.

A: Do you see him as direct upgrade from Tack? What would your preference be in terms of scout partner? I want to know… is Arx been stealing away your sniper time?

S: I actually prefer when I don’t go sniper as much, especially in officials, because it feels like people go… people think I’m like a big sniper so it kind of puts a lot of pressure on me because I don’t think I’m as good… I have my good moments but I’m not very consistent I’d say. So when people see me go sniper and say a caster was watching it they’d say “Oh Stark’s switching up to sniper” and then I’d miss every shot, it’s a bit… I dunno… but he’s much better at sniper than me I’d say, because he played sniper quite a bit more, so I tend to let him do the sniping.

A: That doesn’t bother you at all then, you’re just gonna give in and assume the position?

S: Yeah, but as to whether I prefer Tack or Arx, I’d say Arx at the moment definitely, because Tack’s not played in such a long time and we seem to work better, me and Arx.

A: Is Tack ah… is he out of the roster or is he just sort of sitting there inactive?

S: He plays… woah eh… he doesn’t do karate every single day, so it’s like he plays Sundays and he plays a few other days because Arx prefers not to play every single day.

A: OK that’s interesting; I’ve also noticed that you have recruited Kastos as a backup medic. What’s the situation with your terribly maned… terribly named first choice medic, ilike2spin?

S: Ehm well it’s just because spin wasn’t here for a few PCWS, so we got Kastos to merc for us and he was alright but he wasn’t looking for… he was looking for a team sorry, but there were no teams searching so he just said “Could I have backup and play for you a bit more?” and he was good enough so we said “Yeah! Go on!”

A: OK well like we are three weeks deep in Season 13, you’ve already suffered a defeat to The Last Resort who I would say are one of your closest rivals. Have these roster issues with Tack and Spin already taken too heavy a toll on Team Decerto’s campaign or do you think you can bounce back and finish strong?

S: Eh we did have a bit of roster trouble but… I’d say so yeah we didn’t have the teamwork really, if we’d had a few more weeks I think we would have fared quite a lot better in the season but I think we are gonna end up about sixth I’d say.

A: Do you feel Decerto can contest the playoff spots at all or are you literally battling to avoid relegation?

S: I doubt we can make the playoffs, if we could it would be fantastic but I just don’t really see how it would happen.

A: Wow! You’re just too much of a realist, man! You’re putting a real dampener on affairs here, I want you to come out and talk trash but you’re just like “Oh no I’m scared to go in against scouts” and “I think we’re gonna lose the season”

S: I don’t think we’re gonna lose…

A: You’re not gonna win, I’m gonna win man!

S: Do you want more aggression?

A: Hahaha… yeah!

S: Yeah it was a shame we lost to Nitrose (now The Last Resort), they’re baddies.  We are gonna win every other game though so it’s going to be fine.

A: Nice! Nice! That’s what I’m talking about… but… beyond Season 13 do you see yourself staying with Team Decerto? Is this more of a stepping stone to greatness? I hear Byte is making shadowy moves, assembling a roster for Season 14. Might we see TCM Stark in 2013?

S: Ehm! He did ask me on IRC…

A: Oooh!

S: But I wouldn’t leave Decerto unless they folded, obviously. They’re nice guys and I like hanging around with them. I don’t… also TwistedPlay asked me as well, but unless Decerto fold I see no reason to leave them.

A: See! You’re a man in demand, you’ve got all this hype around you and you are just so modest, playing yourself down there, man! You need to step up, you need to get some attitude; become a badass!

S: Eh…

A: Ahaha!

S: I don’t really think like that, I don’t think of myself as good as everybody else thinks I am, because for example they’ll see a game I did well such as the Nations Cup Final on Snakewater… I think I got 39 frags? But then I have just as many games where I get 20 or something in 30 minutes, which is quite low for a scout… so ah… I dunno?

A: Do you think you would benefit from being in a… I’m going to say a higher skilled team, ya know a team with more collective experience like say… like I said you know playing for Byte or playing in BFF or Epsilon or are you just too down on your own ability? Do you think you’ll never be at cookye’s level?

S: I think I’d definitely approve… approve? Improve! If I were in a more experienced team, but… ah… I just… if I’m playing in a team in TF2 it’s not because I want to be the best, it’s because I wanna have fun playing games. I wanna get better obviously, but I prefer to be in the less experienced team that I enjoyed than playing in a more experienced which… they didn’t have a laugh after games or anything… and I’ve heard a few horror stories about people in Byte’s teams where they don’t want to play with Byte any more…

A: I thought that was everybody in TF2?

S: I don’t wanna be getting to the point where I’m not looking forward to playing games with my team because I’m gonna get shouted at or whatever.

A: Hahaha! Oh wow! I hope that doesn’t affect your application to TCM 2013… but eh I’m very conscious that my previous interviews have run over in to very long times so I’m gonna wrap things up. I’m gonna thank you for taking the time to talk to ETF2L and wish you the best of luck in Season 13. I’ll give you an opportunity to shout out, ya know, sponsors, teammates and even me if you like?

S: Shout to my friends. Woo. Anyway thanks for having me.

A: No shout out to me? I set you up there, man, you were supposed to sing my praises?!

S: Thanks out… er… shout out to Admirable, he’s the best!

A: Yeaaaah! This has been Admirable once again for ETF2L, stay tuned for more.