On the Other Side (August 1999)
One day I received an email from Juha Suvanto, aka. ~cHL~Councilor, a Finnish Quake player, who asked if I'd like him to interview some Finnish Quake players. Of course I said "yes" and a day or so later he sent me the following interviews, with four Finnish TF clan leaders, and one Swedish TF clan leader. Team Fortress Clans are always large and the teamwork required at the highest level can get very serious. You can see this from these interviews, where the clan leaders speak of age limits and of not entering their local League until they have their positions and their teamtalk all worked out. I always find information about Clans to be hugely interesting and these interviews are no exception. Thanks Juha :).

INTERVIEW 1: Finnish TF Clan - Fallen Angels - http://angels.klaanit.tf, (13th August, 1999). Interviewed are two of the leaders, Harakka and Ren.

<Councilor> Another finnish TF clan, Fallen Angels, has now been active for how long?

<harakka> Hmm... A bit over one year now.

<Councilor> How have you been doing? That is, how many matches have you won?

<harakka> Not many :) We've played about 60-70 matches, victory percentage is probably around 30%. Good and fair game has always been more important than winning.

<Councilor> There has been a lot of debate about cheating, especially with proxies. Do you think that proxies such as Qizmo or Cheapo are cheating?

<harakka> No, i dont think so... They have some questionable features like skin forcing, but they are mostly disabled on TF servers. Fps also gives a bit unfair advantage by clearing up the screen. But otherwise, no.

<harakka> I don't know about DM that much...

<harakka> But as far as I know cheats are much more tolerated there.

<Councilor> The other clan I interviewed today, Avengers, has requirements for new recruits such as minimum age of 16. Do you have any of these requirements?

<harakka> Yeah... No need to be an lpb, but age limit is 15. Of course, good behaving is also required.

<Councilor> Does FA have any experience of fake players, that are a real nuisance in Finland?

<harakka> Actually, yeah :) Few have tried to join but as far as I know there are no fakes in the clan. Too bad there's no way to be sure :)

<harakka> Btw fakes aren't that much a problem if you choose your opponent clans wisely.

<Councilor> So what will FA do in the future? Will it go for TF2?

<harakka> Nope. We've decided to keep FA in Q1TF. Members can of course go and play TF2 when it comes out if they want, but it's too early to say anything of TF2 for now.

<Councilor> What would you say about the people who want to make TF2 clans even before the game is released?

<harakka> Just plain lame :) There's plenty of time to put the clans up when the game is released and if it is playable.

<Councilor> Is Finnish Quake scene dying?

<Ren> Absolutely, at least it is getting more lame

<Councilor> What do you mean by 'more lame'?

<Ren> There are very much clans that are founded when you don't have other things to do. Then they break down, choose a new leader and are founded again with same crew as the first one. People really aren't even trying any more.

INTERVIEW 2: Finnish TF Clan - Avengers - http://avengers.tf, (13th August, 1999). Interviewed are the leaders, Skithund and MacLeod.

<Councilor> So, Avengers is a finnish TF newbie clan. How has the career started?

<skithund> We (me and MacLeod) just generally got bored with our old clan, due to its inactivity and high rookie count, and after a while Avegers was born.

<Councilor> You have some requirements, such as min. age of 16. Why is that?

<skithund> Generally fraggers below the age of 16, are known for abusive use of MM1 and whining about every little detail (and that counts clanmatches too), and players with age of 18 can get into bar with us :))

<Councilor> Some clans don't take some players in because of their reputation. Are Avengers one of those clans?

<skithund> It depends on reputation, of course we won't take any backstabbers or who are teamkillers, playing on public servers

<Councilor> What would you say about the future for finnish Quake scene?

<skithund> I just hope that the good'ol clans still stay in scene, and probably all "newbie" clans will move on to teamfortress2, due to it's freshness

<Councilor> Talking about TF2, now there have been some people who want to found some TF2 clans even before the game has been released. What do you think of them?

<skithund> There's this old Finnish phrase, "Älä nuolaise ennenkuin tipahtaa", which is something like "Don't lick before it drops" :)

<Councilor> You're the second leader of Avengers. How do you think you have been doing nowadays?

<MacLeod> Well, we've just frozen our lineups, and began our training session. I guess the hardest part is over.

<Councilor> You haven't played any games yet, when will you be ready for those?

<MacLeod> Quite soon I think. We have some excellent individuals, but now we just have to learn how to work together as a team.

<Councilor> I heard that you would've rather set the min. age as 18 instead of 16, why?

<MacLeod> Well that's mostly because we have encountered difficulties with young members in the past, and we're looking for members who know how to behave, do what they are told to and so on. Sadly, age is usually the best way to determine if an applicant can be expected of behavour and obidiance.

<Councilor> You were in the legendary Virtual Troopers for over a year, why did you leave?

<MacLeod> I didn't like the way VT was organized in the end.

<Councilor> How is that?

<MacLeod> People wouldn't show up on scheduled training sessions, dropped out in the middle or just started fooling around.

<Councilor> So, how will Avengers do in the future? Will you go for ITFL?

<MacLeod> Hmm.. I don't know if we're going to join any leagues (we propably will, but who knows), our goal is to have fun playing TeamFortress... We're going for the top of course.

INTERVIEW 3: Swedish TF Clan - Soulcrushers - http://soulcrushers.org, (13th August, 1999). Interviewed is the leader, Svarten.

<Councilor> So, how have SoulCrushers, one of the oldest TF clans in Sweden, been doing lately?

<Svarten> We have been better in the old days. It's difficult to get new people to stay in the clan.

<Councilor> How long have SC been active?

<Svarten> SC have been active since october 97.

<Councilor> What does it feel like that clan Vallasherra is taking off your members?

<Svarten> Of course we feel bad that a damn good players are leaving our clan for another good clan.

<Councilor> How did you get the idea of putting up your own clan?

<Svarten> I was not the one who created SC.

<Councilor> Oh? You are a leader tho?

<Svarten> It was Daredevil, Slaanesh and Astrocreep, but they left SC for Lovely, so I was the only one who wanted to keep SC alive.

<Councilor> Will SC go to TF2, or will it stick to Q1TF?

<Svarten> At the moment we are staying at TF but we will test TF2 too.

<Councilor> You have your own TF server running. Why did you choose maps such as skywardf and scandp4, as no one (at least I haven't) has ever heard of them?

<Svarten> The admins on that server ( Casse and Zui ) thought it would be fun to have a public server for "skills" maps, so they did and it's damn good training.

<Councilor> There are leagues such as ITFL and ETFL running. Will SC take part in them?

<Svarten> Not at the moment. We have so many "new" players so we are playing for getting the teamplay to work. Team talk and positions aren't working at 100% and it's impossible to beat good clans if you don't have it.

<Councilor> What about swedish Quake scene, is it dying?

<Svarten> We dont think so, but you never know. In sweden we have a TF conference where many people are saying "after the summer TF is dead", but they said the same thing last summer too but it didn't die.

INTERVIEW 4: Finnish TF Clan - Hell Legion - http://www.clanworld.dk/chl, (19-20th August, 1999). Interviewed is the TF leaders Samgorod and StormShadow.

<Councilor> So, one of the oldest DM HPW clans in Finland, clan Hell Legion, has expanded to TeamFortress aswell. Who came up with the idea?

<[cHL]Samgorod> Well StormShadow use to be a member of cHL's DM section... and then he left for tf to other clans... And when Warriors of Darkeness broke down, he was an free agent again and some of our players were interested about TF too... So I just think it would be smart to found an section for TF. Thats how it started...

<Councilor> You've had some troubles with getting members. Any given reason why?

<[cHL]Samgorod> Hehe hmm... a Tough one ;) Its not so easy to start a clan after others have played about one year for TF and u start almost with no experience at all and... And perhaps our name is too frightening ;)

<Councilor> Some of the people actually think that cHL consists of satanists and such anti-christian believers. Is that true?

<[cHL]Samgorod> Hell no ! We get bored of thinking an unique name for our clan at 97 and so we just agreed to name it for Clan Hell Legion. It just sound kinda cool...

<Councilor> People of cHL have also been blaimed for not caring about the clan. What is your opinion on that?

<[cHL]Samgorod> Hmm I don't really remember that somebody hasn't cared about the clan. ;)

<Councilor> Your the second in command for the TF section of cHL. Since when has cHL played TeamFortress?

<[cHL]Strmshdw> Since january 1999. After a few victories, the pace slowed down for a while and we started playing matches again in May.

<Councilor> Will cHL go fot tf2?

<[cHL]Strmshdw> Maybe, I cannot say for sure. The game looked great on E3, but the risen hardware requirements will be a problem. However, if the game is as good as it sounds like and the clan is interested, then yes.

<Councilor> There has been speculation that Finnish Quake scene is dying. What do you think about that?

<[cHL]Strmshdw> Maybe not dying, but at least slowing down. Most matches are played on the same old maps everyone knows, and the people are getting bored. New maps would spice things up.

<Councilor> It is true, that in Finland the most usual maps are 2fort5, bases and well6. Any particular map you would like to be played more?

<[cHL]Strmshdw> Canalzone would be it. The main idea of the map is easy to learn, yet the map is almost impossible to master. No clan has enough manpower to guard all possible entrances at the same time. Mobile, squad-based play is the key factor to Canalzone. Most clan games I've seen focus on defence, not on offence and tend to get boring quickly. Canalzone doesn't have this problem, so I think it would be the "ideal" map.

<Councilor> What do you think is the biggest problem in cHL TF?

<[cHL]Strmshdw> Inactivity. It's impossible to arrange any clan activity when you know people just won't show up. We have a handful of active players who are getting bored because we couldn't get more members to play any clan games. Now after our summer vacation, things seem to be improving.

<Councilor> And where are you strongest?

<[cHL]Strmshdw> We've managed to keep the clan clean of lamers and whiners. We won't start whining about ping, our computers, cheaters etc. etc. whenever we lose a match.

<Councilor> Anything you wish to say for the non-Finnish readers?

<[cHL]Strmshdw> No.

<Councilor> Ok then :)