| Bubba: Are there any other games that you play apart from Challenge Promode (CPM) at the moment? |
Apheleon: I play standard Quake3 with my CTF clan XEN (Xtreme Zen), and play 1v1's and TDM practices with my VQ3 clan SNB (snot nosed brats). I am also involved with clan XA (Xtreme Aggression) which is my Unreal Tournament and Tribes2 Clan. I have known people from XA and become friends with them when I started playing Unreal over two years ago, which was my first big online game
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| Bubba: Can you tell us about your clan history? Also, you recently changed clans from SNB (snot nosed brats) to [-1] (Negative One), was there any particular reason for the change of clans? |
Apheleon: I have been in a few clans in my days, all are Unreal and Quake3 clans. Unreal/UT clans [A-Q] - Alpha-Quadrant my first clan I ever joined. I started my online multiplayer carer with Unreal, and joined A-Q. I have just recently left the clan due to inactivity and members leaving. I joined [XA] which has been tightly involved with [A-Q] back in the Unreal days, and now I am playing for them in UT and Tribes2. At the beginning of Quake3, I was a member of some small quake3 mac clans such as HBZ (hot boyz) and BD (bringers of doom), both clans never really had matches or anything, we just played with each other and had fun. I later started taking Quake3 more seriously and joined clan SNB along with my friend Gunmetal who was also in BD. We soon became a top contender in the VQ3 TDM scene and did very well in competitions such as eql, showdown2, and spring survival. At the beginning of 2001 I became bored of quake3 and its limitations, and did not find it as much fun as before so I started to play CPMA Promode which added all new levels to quake3 and since then that is all I have mostly been playing. In the spring I joined clan [-1] Negative One for CPMA purposes. I have not left SNB, I am just inactive in the VQ3 scene, but I still play 1v1s and practice with clan snb now and then. Right now my main focus is Promode and hopefully getting clan [-1] on a TDM ladder, along with some other Promode clans.
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| Bubba: You're in the eastern USA while most of your clan are in the west or in Canada. Is this a problem when it comes to team games, practices and the like? |
Apheleon: None of my clans have been in the east. My main Unreal/UT clan was mostly in Ohio which is right below Michigan, and both quake3 clans [-1] and SNB are located in the Toronto area in Canada, which is a short drive from where I live. I feel all my clans I have been in are located relatively close to each other, but never located in the same state as me, since only 6 people play quake in Michigan ;).
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| Bubba: You have played rat in both the CCC and the CotT. The result was two very tight matches in which you won one and lost one. Please tell us a little about those matches and playing rat with his high ping. |
Apheleon: Rat is simply an amazing player. His prediction and strategy are great. It shows you how smart a player can be and still win at such disadvantages. I feel I won CCC because the maps were good picks (we both threw out each other's best map). I knew what map he would through out and what map I would through out so I had been practicing the three maps for several weeks prior to the match and felt I was prepared. They were still amazing games and came down to 1 frag in over time on the third map, a must see demo for any person who enjoys watching demo. The second time we had to play was in CotT. Rat and I was the first match ever in CotT, and he challenged me the first day. After looking at the people who I was going to play in the future, I knew that the only person that I would probably lose against was rat, so I played the games as soon as possible. I felt I did good vs. him, but I lost the match because I did not practice shovq2m1 nor have any starts for it, since Iv never played q2. He played ztn3dm1 and shov very well, even though I still rapped him on cpm1a. I think both matches were played fair and the true winner won the separate matches.
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| Bubba: Also, in one of the games with rat on cpm11 you were the victim of a telefrag and then something bordering on a spawn frag. What are your opinions on spawn and telefragging? |
Apheleon: I was really surprised how we got a telefrag in the last few minutes, and then I later got spawn raped. My whole mind set and strategy changed in 10 seconds and I just fell apart. I realized I needed frags as soon as possible, so I started attacking with only minute left, so after the spawn kill, I was done for. It�s hard to say who should have won the map skill-wise, but at the end of the day he won it, and I cannot argue with that.
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| Bubba: But do you feel that spawnfrags and telefrags are "part of the game" and that they even out in the long run, and what do you think of the possibility of a different way to handle spawns? |
Apheleon: I guess it�s a part of the game, you go in the game knowing it could happen, but most of the time it doesn�t. It really depends. It�s more of a short-term thing. It can ruin a match, and that could be the difference between a geforce3 and a mouse pad. Hopefully when it DOES happen, you have some frags to 'pad' yourself from the death, so you�re still in the game, but in the rat vs. me, it was too low of a score, and that frag with the close spawn just ruined me. I don�t know about another way to handle spawns. I am against 'furthest possible spawn' simply because if you get a kill in an area, you can guess where he spawned, and where he will go it�s just part of a game. Maybe a way to graph like how many times you've spawned close to him so you wont always get bad spawns. Random is good, so sometimes you get great spawns, another times you may get rapped by them, it all depends.
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| Bubba: The CotT finals were played the latest CPL tournament where cK-czm won and which you were unable to attend. All things being equal, do you feel you could have taken a map or match from czm? Or do you think you could have got slapped about by undeniably one of the current great quake players? |
Apheleon: I had played czm about a month before the finals on cpm1a and beat him by 20 frags or so. I believe I could have taken that map from him on LAN, but any other map would have been tough. He has beaten me on cpm12 and shovq2dm1 on the net, all while he was under aliases. I think I would have given him a tough fight but I think if we picked 3 maps to play, he would still win due to his amazing aim and strategy.
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| Bubba: If CPM was accepted for competitive play in major tournaments, how do you think yourself and other notable players in the CPM community such as, xil-exodus, pF.illusion, [-1]pl etc would compete? Do you think they would be successful or possibly only a mediocre showing due to the influx of any professional players? |
Apheleon: I think players like exodus, illusion, pl and I would do fairly well in a major CPMA tournament, but top VQ3 players would still give some tough matches. You can see in CotT demos that some of the VQ3 players play CPMA like VQ3 in the first early rounds and still did very well. Some of them never really used mid-air control, bunnyhoping or other CPMA only features. Despite these disadvantages, with a week or so of practice you can learn the basics of CPMA and if you already have decent aim you can expect to do fairly well in a CPMA tournament.
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| Bubba: With 6-figure prize money, serious media coverage and even Quake, Counter Strike or the next big thing being considered for the Olympics? Do you think it's possible for fps games to become more accepted? If so, would it be a good thing? |
Apheleon: I think the CPL has done wonders for 'professional' gamers, but it still is nowhere close to being accepted by normal media or competitions. I would be cool to see the CPL host more tournaments then just at Dallas, not to mention their recent tourneys have mostly been Counter Strike, which isn�t a very fun game for non-gamers to watch imo. Having more tournaments held in different parts of America would help, like having one in NYC but promoting it more then they did with Ground Zero 1(that was a bomb). But in the end I think just letting these leagues have more tournaments and in time they will become more noticed as a spectator event and normal non-gamers can also enjoy going to them.
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| Bubba: Back to Promode, there was a bit of a hullabaloo a month or so back with a large number of polish players complaining about weapon cooldown and the removal of fastrail as default. Which side of the fence are you on with this debate? |
Apheleon: I have been playing around with different settings. I like cooldown ON, just because I hate seeing people abuse the LG to rail combo, its too easy and too cheap. I would like to see cooldown to just be for LG to Rail, and not for every other weapon. For fastrail I like it off. It�s too easy to have people just use a rail and then switch to a RL for the kill in less then a second, so some delay is needed imo. The CPMA defaults are good, but some cooldown tweaks could make it even better IMO.
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| Bubba: Would your opinions change from playing at a LAN or online on this matter? |
Apheleon: Not really, I could probably get a higher score vs. lots of people with fastrail on and Cooldown off, but having fastrail off and cooldown on is just more fair for everyone and gives the game a better feel.
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| Bubba: How much time do you spend looking for trick jumps/bugs and the like in CPM? |
Apheleon: I don�t watch many demos so I don�t really look for what other people are doing and just copy it into my own game. I just play around on maps until I find my own tricks or I see what tricks people have done when they play me and I try to improve on them, that�s a great thing about CPMA. In VQ3 you cannot really invent tricks or jumps, you�re so limited by the lack of air control, so CPMA really expands the 'replay value'.
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| Bubba: What do you get from the gaming? What compels you to play so much? |
Apheleon: I just am really competitive and I don�t like to lose at all, so when I do lose a close game, it just makes me want to practice more and find out what I did wrong and how that player exploited my weakness. I also like the community the online games have.
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| Bubba: The Promode community is small, but full of very active and dedicated people. What do you feel you add to the community? Also, what do you feel would help make CPM more popular with gamers? |
Apheleon: I felt I have added to the community is one way or another. I think I have added more competition for people and I have seen players improve since I have begun playing.
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| Bubba: What do your parents/friends/girlfriend/neighbours think of gaming? |
Apheleon: My parents think its very cool, my dad watches over my shoulder when I play my big games such as vs. a|zen, rat, [-1]pl etc. They think I should go do some work and not just sit down playing quake all the time, but they know its something I really love and it keeps me out of trouble and off the streets. My friends think its cool, but don�t understand how I could play the same game for 2 years and still enjoy it. My friends really think its kidna odd that I take my computer and go away for a whole day or weekend to LAN parties or the CPL.
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| Bubba: Favourite map VQ3 and CPM? |
Apheleon: Vq3: ZTN3DM1 or Q3DM13 - CPM: Cpm1a or Cpm12
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| Bubba: Favourite demo (with you in it)? |
Apheleon: Aph vs. Rat on q3aerowalk
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| Bubba: Favourite demo (without you in it)? |
Apheleon: I don�t watch any demos =( czm vs. aim on t4 at CPL Babbages was rad.
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| Bubba: Favourite opponent? |
Apheleon: rat
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| Bubba: Favourite CPM trick? |
Apheleon: Don�t have any fav tricks, but I like some of the runs and moves I�ve done on cpm1a, they look amazing.
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| Bubba: Ever had repetitive strain injury? |
Apheleon: Being that I�m 16, not really.
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| Bubba: Ever broken a mouse or keyboard through frustration with a game or over use? |
Apheleon: I don�t vent my anger or frustration on my hardware. I just grunt and laugh, and act like a jerk online.
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| Bubba: Have you ever had complaints about excessively loud noise? |
| Apheleon: Yea, ALOT on close matches. I seem to yell and moan a lot when I get killed in a close matches. |
