Season 14 powered by Twitch: Premiership Playoff Interviews #2 Zebbosai from Broder

Admirable: Welcome one and all to the second of ETF2L’s four-part interview series focusing on the Season 14 powered by Twitch Premiership Playoffs in which we are granted a rare audience with the figureheads of Europe’s elite teams. But don’t just believe my hype! If you don’t come away from this interview with a profound new insight on competitive Team Fortress 2 then Broder’s own Zebbosai will refund you from his own pocket. Isn’t that right Sebastian?

Zebbosai: Yeah sounds good! Hello.

A: Haha. Hello! I suppose at this point I should make it clear to the uninitiated that I am Admirable and in addition to my Premiership Ambassador duties here at ETF2L, I also play medic for Crack Clan and they are competing in these playoffs. OK! The conflict of interest has been dealt with, but don’t be fooled, this will most definitely be a combative interview. I am going to verbally kick you in the nuts. Repeatedly. Does that sound good?

Z: You told me before. I’m ready for it. Bring it on!

A: Well I hope you don’t mind me saying, but I think you may be suffering from schizophrenia. There seem to be two Zebbosai’s playing TF2.  The general public have encountered the quiet, reserved young man from Sweden who is polite to a fault and always respectful of his fellow players, but those who have played with you know another Zebbo; a master of trash talk, supremely confident, and imbued with a charming arrogance and irreverence in the face of his opponents. Bearing in mind that these interviews are all about strong opinions and speaking your mind, can you guess which Zebbosai I am hoping to see today?

Z: Well I dunno, I think I’m pretty polite all the time, but of course I’m confident!

A: OK! He’s not going to give much away, folks. Let’s get down to business though. Let’s look a little bit at the game; we’ll talk about Zebbosai. Much has been made of your heal statistics throughout the season, which are more often than not in excess of 50%. You have been described as a North American style pocket, but for the benefit of Europe maybe you can explain why you have implemented this play style for Broder? Is there more to demanding all the heals than your own ego?

Z: No, I dunno. I just play pocket the way I think is good. The first few PCWs I told Mirelin “heal me more!” and he did that and I got more heals, but recently if you saw the logs versus BFF I didn’t get that much as I usually do. So I think that we are spreading them around a bit more now.

A: Yeah! You’re jumping the gun here. I was just going to say that in your last official against BFF over two maps you had 36% and 38% on the heal spread. Should I be reading anything in to that or was it just because you died so many times?

Z: I dunno. It felt like I got the heals when I needed them anyway, but I didn’t build that game. Usually I build all the ubers, but this time we had a scout building them. So I think that change a lot and ryb is doing a lot better now, so he needs more heals and he uses them very well.

A: Yeah considering that this was sort of the… the game where you had less heals and perhaps the first one this season where ryb actually stood out as playing particularly well. Is it possible that your heal requirements have been forcing him to take a backseat? Is that even a bad thing?

Z: I dunno. I think like, I’m not saying ryb has been bad this season, but the last few weeks he has really been stepping up his game. So I think like just giving him more heals is good now, but before maybe I had to force some plays and make more room for him to work with.

A: Yeah I think I can agree with that. Honestly, I think my analysis is sort of flaky at best. When we consider that the healing statistics from that Supplementary Stats plugin don’t account for overheals, it’s hard to really make any conclusion other than say you get a lot of heals in combat situations or you build a lot where you are under 200HP. For example, against BFF if you look at Granary logs on logs.tf says Mirelin’s heals were 7500 and yet his screenshot on ETF2L it was around 31000; like that’s about 75% that’s just being ignored. Can we really put any weight in to stats?

Z: I dunno. I think the damage stats are really good, but I never really look that much in to the healing ones. I just look if he dropped ubers or if he died a lot; that’s all that matters really.

A: Yeah I’m just a medic nerd. Haha! I’ve mentioned the BFF game a few times already. I think you guys managed to set the record straight from your main season slip up, this time taking both maps and really exorcising your demons on Badlands. Yet, my own team mate ipz expressed some surprise at how close the score line was, particularly when they were missing Hocz. How did you feel the fixture went?

Z: Well, we practised Gullywash the entire week; we expected them to pick that. So when it Badlands we were a bit surprised, but still managed to win it. I think Granary, like even if the score was kinda close, we still like had the game in the entire way, in everywhere, like we always had the lead and they never had a chance to beat us there.

A: Yeah casting it I did feel you were in control most of the time. I think maybe the score line was a bit misleading and I think maybe kaidus would say otherwise, but anyway! In about ten days you will be facing off against Crack Clan in Round 2 of the Playoffs. Building on the Round 1 victory against BFF, what lessons will you be taking forward or do you think a different approach is required against each of top four teams?

Z: No, no really. Like, we have to practise Process, like really hard. That’s it about cc// but we’ve got more time to practise now than we did versus BFF, so I don’t think cc// should be a problem.

A: I get the impression that Broder seem quite terrified of TviQ. Does the thought of being headshot keep you awake at night?

Z: Not TviQ! Like, snipers in general are strong. Like, TviQ is a good sniper, but we have, in my opinion, better snipers. So if we had to counter him, we can.

A: Fair enough. I was tryna troll you there, man. Trying to a reaction out of you, but you’re giving me nothing today Zebbosai.

Z: Hehe!

A: We’ll just keep it boring then! Eh… I can say with a fair degree of certainty that Broder have come out on top in the majority of their PCWs against Crack Clan. However, that has yet to be converted in to any wins on ETF2L? Why is this?

Z: I dunno, we played kind of bad in the officials. I think like most of it is down to me. Like, I’m the caller of the team and like if we do good in PCWs and then suddenly changes in officials, it must be down to the calling; I can’t see any other reason.

A: Do you think you put too much pressure on yourself, though? You’re saying you’re the caller, you’re also the guy that’s leading the pushes, you’re taking the ubers…

Z: Naw…

A: I mean is it too much based on whether Zebbosai has a good day?

Z: No, not at all. Like, I don’t think so. I should be able to manage that kind of stuff. It shouldn’t be a problem.

A: Ah you mentioned it yourself, but I think the public conception seems to be that Crack Clan will be picking Process; it is our home map, after all. What are your thoughts on the potential map selections and the loser’s pick system in general?

Z: Well, like if cc// don’t pick Process, they’re fucking stupid! Cause that’s the only map they really beat us on, and that second map they will pick I have no clue, I’m guessing it’s going to be like a stalemate map. Gullywash. Snakewater. Maybe Granary, but we’re quite strong on Granary, so it would be stupid for you to pick that one.

A: OK I’m just going to bite my tongue there!

Z: Haha!

A: On that, Sebastian, I am going to bring things to a close. Thank you for taking time to talk to ETF2L and put up with such an unprofessional interviewer. Everyone else, make a note in your collective dairies: Round 2 of the ETF2L Season 14 powered by Twitch and Club3d Premiership Playoffs should be happening on Thursday 28^th March 2013, but keep an eye on ETF2L.org, VanillaTF2.org and TeamFortress.tv for the most up to date information.