Season 14 powered by Twitch: Premiership Playoff Interviews #4 Mike from Epsilon eSports

Admirable: All good things must come to an end, and so it is with this ETF2L Season 14 powered by Twitch Premiership Playoffs interview series. We have been working our way up through the seedings from four to one, under the steady hand of everyone’s favourite Potatohead Ambassador. Joining me for one last attempt at making competitive Team Fortress 2 barely interesting is the man, the legend, the Season 13 Soldier of the Season – it’s Epsilon eSport’s Mike.

Mike: Yo.

A: Mike I remember when you were just a young boy from Wales with a unicycle…

M: I still am!

A: …and a dream of being the best damn soldier in the world. Now you’re here being interviewed by your idol: Admirable. This must truly be a high point in your gaming career.

M: Yeah I never even wanted to win. This is it for me. This is it, man!

A: You don’t even need to show up to the Grand Finals.

M: Haha! I’m just going to quit after tonight. End on a high.

A: Well I will remind you that you must speak your mind in this interview, Mike. We want drama. We don’t want you to be nice. We want you to slate people. Throw some punches.

M: That’s why I’m here!

A: Nice! Nice. Did you hear ipz’s interview? What did you think of that?

M: Yeah. Ah I dunno it’s just uh… I remember him and Broder not being on the best of terms and suddenly they’re best friends… it’s just a bit funny to me, but… yeah.

A: Mmm! Delicious! Delicious! Let that be the tone for the interview. I mean it’s two seasons in a row that Epsilon have managed to go undefeated. You’re pretty much on the verge of claiming another title; you just have to beat Broder. And yet this season saw a couple of major changes to your roster with GeaR and wltrs sort of benched for Mitsy and basH. The knock on effect was obviously that you were shifted from pocket to roamer, and I know you’ve played roamer before in Infused, but how did you feel about reclaiming the role, particularly in light of the new unlocks? How have you felt about your sort of performance this season?

M: At first it was… it had been ages since I’d played roamer, but I used to think I was quite good as roamer.  So I was quite positive going in to it, but then uhm… at first it was like because I use shotgun mostly for a while and I just didn’t really, I’ll admit I didn’t know what I was doing, because I was kind of used to the heals but all I thought in my head was that I need to be on the flank, so I was on the heals with no flank… haha I mean on the flank with no heals, ah doing nothing and then after a while I kind of realised that I thought I was just distracting or doing damage, but then I realised I wasn’t doing enough. So I did watch uhm… a few… like I spoke to some of my American friends, I watched a few VODs of their roamers and they just jump around so much more. I didn’t watch harbleu though.

A: That’s quite a difference from the sort of style of GeaR who is like a very low maintenance, obviously he didn’t have the gunboats and maybe that was part of the reason he left, but he really didn’t take many heals from the team at all. He always just seemed to have great timing and was he like a very low economy roamer. Do you see yourself as particularly different from that or have you tried to emulate GeaR’s style at all?

M: Uhm… well GeaR’s… his style was a lot more passive and now in this season with these unlocks I don’t think you could be like that anymore. So no. I mean I play very different to how GeaR used to play, I think if he played right now then he’d have to play different too. Like it’s just how the game is, it’s so much faster now I feel anyway, especially as roamer.

A: Has that been a change for the better? Are you happy with the unlocks this season?

M: Yeah! This season has been a lot more fun. Like I remember playing roamer before, it was very passive. It was OK back then, but if I had to still play like that now it would just get mundane and repetitive. So uhm… yeah it’s… unlocks are such… was a really good idea. It’s a move forward, really.

A: Alright well let me flip it up on you then. I asked you about your performance but, how well do you think Mitsy did at filling your sizeable shoes on pocket? Did you offer him any like pearls of wisdom there or did you just let him do his own thing?

M: Well it was like I found out like halfway through the season that this is the first time he’s actually played a season of TF2. Like I thought he’d played before like ages ago, but he hasn’t! He’s always been a backup. So at first it was hard I think. I found it hard to play because I was like “If only I could be pocketing, it would be so much easier!”, but he didn’t want to roam and KnOxXx really wanted me to roam. So I was just like “I’ll just have to stick with it”, but he’s definitely got a lot better and I think it’s working really well now. So yeah! I mean at first it was hard, but luckily we started off with easier games in ETF2L. Like we didn’t have any tough opponents in the first few weeks. So it’s good now. I think he’s like… I couldn’t do much better if I was pocketing right now, I think.

A: Could I push you on it and ask you do you think this sort of version of Epsilon is better than the one that won last season?

M: Uhm… after playing with wltrs again recently… I mean he’s actually been doing pretty good. Especially now since he started practising again, but like it’s a lot better with basH. I’m not sure if that’s because basH is better than wltrs, but stefan and wltrs are both aggressive scouts. Before we used to have stefan pocketing and now… well he wasn’t really… he didn’t… he doesn’t even… it’s not in his heart you know? He doesn’t want to do it really, but basH just loves it. So it’s been a lot better this format with stefan aggressive and basH defensive. So in that aspect it’s a lot better, but I wouldn’t say there’s much difference between me and Mitsy because even when Mitsy has been away and we’ve had GeaR mercing for us as pocket and it’s been just as good. So I think between the three of us it doesn’t really matter, but overall the team is better than it was last season I’d say.

A: Well like help me out a bit here, Michael. I mean I’m struggling with a question: why is it that Epsilon never lose? I mean can you put your finger on why exactly you have been the dominant team in Europe since i46, even though you’ve changed rosters? Is it just that you’ve got a better system than everybody else or is everybody else terrible?

M: Uhm… I dunno we just… it’s like the confidence… like because we haven’t lost game and we’re aware of that. It’s just like we go in to every game and we don’t expect to lose to anyone. We don’t really… we’re not scared of anyone and like we’re not being cocky. That’s just generally how we feel when we’re playing, but other teams like I remember when I was in Infused I’d always be scared of playing Epsilon. So I can imagine other teams feeling that against us and that gives them the disadvantage I think in big games, like as we saw versus Broder in ETF2L. We played well, but they crumbled a bit. So I think that gives us like the edge; just the fact that you’re playing against Epsilon and you’re like “Oh my god! You know they haven’t lost at all” etc.  Because apart from that I can’t… it’s not like… ahem… we’ve got a very, very good roster, but it’s hard to say if it’s actually the best roster that you could have in Europe… but… yeah.

A: Yeah there’s obviously something more to it than just the players on the team sheet. Like it’s something KnOxXx has talked to me in the past about, he’s wondered if it’s the players that make the team or is the team good because of the way you play. But looking at another team that has a lot of great players on its roster, we have to discuss Broder; of course your opponents in the Grand Final.

M: Yup.

A: What are your thoughts on them? How do you feel about their sort of rise to stardom?

M: Well as soon as they made a team they were going to be good. Well, surprisingly at first they weren’t as good, they sort of didn’t meet peoples’ expectations; like they lost to us and Crack Clan during the regular season. Then everyone sort of doubted them a bit, but I knew… I’ve played with some of their players before and I know they just got like such a good line-up… and ryb and bybben… like that’s the thing with older players coming back is that everyone thinks they’re really good, but if you noticed during the first sort of earlier days for them that ryb and bybben… especially ryb… weren’t that good. Like they were getting carried by the rest of the team, but they’ve definitely got a lot better now. Obviously we can see that in the finals, so uh… yeah.

A: Yeah I think that’s very true. There has definitely been a real sort of growth. They’ve learnt from mistakes and Zebbosai said it himself in his interview that ryb has really started to step up his game and play more and like you even see him in pickups and stuff, which just shows sort of how keen he is and stuff…

M: Yeah!

A: But like let me ask you real quick, would you have preferred to play Crack Clan in the final or do you think Broder will give you a better game?

M: Uhm Broder uh… obviously you were saying about the pickups like their team is pretty… they’re not like a lazy team that just doesn’t play at all outside of PCWs and they care, but Crack Clan is a lot more keen in my opinion. Like about TF2 in general, like to have your own TF2 website is so keen. I’d rather play Broder, I think. Yeah, because Crack Clan, as I was saying, they’re a lot more keen and they’ll be unpredictable between… they really work on stuff between games to win the next games. That’s how I feel about it personally, for me I don’t think Broder look in to it as much or they put a bit of time in and they think that’s enough and then they’ll just play the next game.  So I feel safer playing Broder and we were kind of maybe rooting for them in the playoffs… maybe!

A: Ooooh! So you think ipz is a bigger nerd than Zebbosai then, basically?

M: Heh! Yeah! I know! I know.

A: Well just talking about the man himself, he sort of made a fair point and you touched on it as well, about this wltrs versus basH; you know the idea of there being this synergy between basH and stefan that just isn’t there with wltrs these days. How are you going to counteract this? Like do you have a game plan? Are you just going to practise and hope that you hit your stride in time?

M: Yeah. Hmmm. Stride in time and we’ve only got like two days! I mean they used to play together and we won last season. So how hard can it be like? BFF is kind of the Broder of last season or they were meant to be and that turned out OK. At our best wltrs and stefan still works well, it’s just not as good as stefan and basH. Uhm… wltrs, as I said, he’s only been playing a few games but he’s actually getting back in to it really quickly. He hasn’t been away for that long, but he’s still been away. So ah…

A: Well like let me suggest to you… you’re saying that basH is happy to play this defensive role. So one thing you’re missing from that is that maybe KnOxXx is going to die a bit more or there is going to be fewer frags cleaned up, but on the otherhand you’ve wltrs who is quite a prolific sniper and he’s very keen to snipe. Are you going to play off that? Are you going to find yourselves taking a lot slower pushes with the sniper? Things like that?

M: I think we’re going to have to because we don’t even tell wltrs to go sniper, he’ll just go sniper whenever he wants and we just have to play with it. Like I noticed recently our game style, yeah, has been a lot slower because of the sniping, but it’s still working it’s just I wouldn’t say it’s as good though as with our two scouts ways. But we can still win, it will just be a closer game versus Broder.

A: Yeah having a sniper on your team is maybe a bit more ah… unpredictable; you either hit those shots or they don’t and you get pushed back?

M: Yeah and also we’re just primarily an aggressive team. Most of our line-up is just very aggressive. Especially our combo and me and stefan, like that just leaves wltrs. So having a sniper just doesn’t mean that we can be as aggressive because we have to work around him, you know just hang around and wait for him to left click. It’s not as good for us, but we’ll work with it.

A: I’ve got ah… I’m gonna test your knowledge a little bit. I’ve heard the maps are going to be Granary and Process?

M: Mmhmm

A: …and a third map which I forget. Do you know what that is?

M: Snakewater is going to be the decider.

A: OK. Then can you tell me who picked which maps?

M: We picked Granary and Snakewater, and they picked Process.

A: That’s interesting that you picked Granary. It’s a map, maybe, that they’ve been strong on this season? That uhm… Broder seem to be decent at? Is there any reason behind that? You just think you’re good at it?

M: Yeah well, we think we’re good at any map, man! I mean it was hard to just pick… honestly it was hard for us to pick the maps apart from Process because we feel pretty good on all of them, but in the Granary week when we played PCWs… not the last two weeks… we played Granary and got 5-0’s. So it was just like, even though we hardly played it, it was just like “Aw yeah this is easy!” and we knew we were good on that map. I guess it’s because we played it less and we played Badlands more. So obviously we’ve had a few worse results on Badlands, but that’s probably just simply because we played it more and that would happen if we played Granary too.

A: Well I mean like, consider, thinking back to the season Epsilon [versus] BFF we saw kaidus outrolling numlocked all the time on Granary, you guys adapted a little bit to sort of play a slower middle, but equally then we saw ryb in the playoffs just rolling out faster than kaidus and shutting him down and deny teams that aren’t able to compete there. Is something you’re worrying about, that you might even have middles lost before you even get there? Are you just going to hold on two with a sentry, Mike?!

M: I did practise engi one time, after seeing ipz do it on TviQ’s stream. But gotta be honest, demos are faster than Seb [numlocked] on every map and it’s not a problem for us. Like I think sometimes because ah… it must be something like it gives Seb a sort of space because like the demos can’t waste all their time just waiting for Seb and they have to focus other players. Then when they’re turned to focus another player Seb comes out with more heals and he can do damage and he’s got that window of opportunity.  So we’ve always worked around that, but yeah demos have always been faster than Seb and he knows this himself. So it’s not something we’re worried about. I am surprised though that ryb was faster than kaidus on Granary.  Even though at the beginning Granary, you know, you can die as demo. It’s is one of the only maps I really think it happens on, but it’s not really a worry for us, no.

A: And ah, people often say Granary is a soldier map… because it is! Is this a favourite map of yours? Do you feel very comfortable on Granary?

M: Yeah it’s such a great roaming map because I love the garage area of second; you can do so much and get so many picks. It’s like a very scout unfriendly map because of the height advantage on middles and obviously the tight spaces of the second. So yeah, I’m feeling very good on this map.

A: Did you have any say in the map picks or was it up to KnOxXx and Seb to sort that out?

M: Ah we all had a say, yeah, because we’d just finished our games and Seb was like yeah I’m going to speak to Zebb… haha… numlocked said to Zebb, because he wanted to sort it out straight away after hearing that the maps would be picked on the night and Seb was just like “No! Let’s not do that.” So we were all on Mumble and he was just like “What map do you think we should pick first?” etc. So yeah everyone had a say in it and I think Granary must be our best choice if everyone wants to play it.

A: Is that just because you’re lazy bastards then? You were like “Yeah we don’t wanna practise five maps, give us three”?

M: Ah well we couldn’t really pick five maps? But uhm… oh! Yeah I think it’s not about practise, because we’re quite keen right now, but we just wanted to… you can make tactics up outside of the game for the maps as well; we’d have to do that for every map. So it’s a lot easier. I wouldn’t say “lazy”, it’s just avoiding unnecessary… like it would be annoying because we would be pretty sure that they pick Badlands. So we would have probably practise Badlands a lot and then if they wouldn’t have chosen it, it would have just been like a waste of time. So, yeah.

A: Yeah. Let’s sort of wrap things up a little bit. Can you confirm the date for the game? I’m pretty sure it’s Thursday, but I haven’t heard official word yet, Mike. Can you help me out?

M: I can’t, because KnOxXx is really mad about he sort of rotation of the playoff date, especially because it’s such a big game. So we’re trying to push it back so that we can play with basH, still! Even though the deadline is pretty soon. So hopefully we can push it back to next week, and we’re still working on that right now.

A: Really? Wow! I didn’t even know that. I thought it had to be played this week? I’m not going to get in to admin business here, but that’s opened my eyes anyway! We’ll see what happens… but ah… thanks for your time, Michael and may your rockets be true and your frags plentiful. One more thing though, I’m going to let you play me out here: tell the people why they should tune in for the ETF2L Season 14 powered by Twitch & Club3D Premiership Grand Final… whenever it happens!

M: It’s gonna be off the chain! The maps… I can’t really say… it’s going to be exciting though because the maps themselves are slow, but Process will be probably a very interesting map for everyone. Especially our teams… I don’t wanna say we’re going to lose, but it’s going to be interesting regarding our “no map loss” history thus far and it might even go to a deciding map. So a first time for…

A: … and you’re forgetting the most important reason… I’m casting it, man!

M: Heh… are you?

A: Yeah will be! I haven’t decided who for yet

M: But it’s such a big game?

A: I hoped I was playing in it, but it didn’t work out that way!

M: Haha!

A: Oh well! Too bad! But thanks again and… well this is the last interview, see you in Season 15, bitches!

M: And you! Hehe!