Zak: Okay hi Chris, how are you doing !
Chris: Hey Zak I am doing pretty good, how about you?
Zak: Yea I am doing pretty good, thank you, it's just, I am really happy to have you here doing
an interview, It's been a long while since you've spoken and I am sure lot of the
community are very excited to having you being interviewed as well.
Chris: Thanks for having me
Zak: Don't worries. So I've got a few questions for you anyway and we may as well just jump
straight in. So the first question I've got for you is, It's been a while since I've actually seen
you playing on the AoC Scene, so what's actually made you decided to come back and
take part in the GML.
Chris: Um. well I am always up for a good age of empires 2 Tournament, um back in , I think it
was around march, Tyrant held a Battle for number one tournament where they just had
two players involved and they didn't involved any of the rest of the top players
Zak: Yea
Chris: so when they did that, I made a suggestion that they should have some kind of league
with people in it, like all the top players and seems like that's come to (?)
so I am happy about that.
Zak: Yea, it was something that we actually thought about a long while ago and after putting
on a lot of thought about it we decided, you know what? we just gonna go for it and just
do it and we're very happy that you could actually accept the invitation and join in, it's
great to have you back anyway, so where you've been practicing much before the start of
the tournament.
Chris: Umm.. Probably Not. I am pretty busy in life so I haven't really spend a lot of time
practicing, probably around eight games in the last two months. just on a friend's smurf
account
Zak: ah. okay. so um.. are you feeling confident that you're gonna have the ability in this
tournament to perform well.
Chris: I always feel like I'd perform well, It really comes down to day though, I mean we all have
some good days and some bad days .
Zak: Do you think though that perhaps if you would have put in a little bit more training
before then it would affect the outcome or do you really believe that your ability of AoC is
deep within you and you can just sort of play out at any time.
Chris: Well I am hoping I can pull it out at any time. umm in the past it has been a little on and
off, at least I am playing a bit of Warcraft 3 right now, yea just trying to get ranked on
US East but , it's a tough game
Zak: Nice
Chris: But.. um. they'll always keep my speed up a little bit and my micro.
Zak: Actually while we are on the topic actually of other games, have you ever took part in any
StarCraft 2 for instance.
Chris: ahh, no I haven't, I installed the game, tried it and I didn't like it, so I haven't played the
game ever since but I love almost all the other Real-Time-Strategy games. I don't like
Starcraft series I don't know why.
Zak: I think that the skills you gain through playing one RTS can be quite easily transferred to
another, so as you were saying playing Warcraft 3 could actually really help you out as well
even if you aren't playing age of empire at the time.
Chris: Hopefully
( laugh )
Zak: yea, we'll see how that one goes. So actually how confident are you feeling about the
tournament then, where do you actually think you're gonna finish.
Chris: I hope First, to be honest, but I am not 100% sure of that of course not
( both laughs)
Chris: It really depends on how well I am playing, I mean, I've had indestructible times and I've
had my ass kicked by 1900 rated players eight times in a row before so.. we'll see how it
goes.
Zak: Yea hopefully you're just feeling good on the day and sort of really ready and get stuck in
there really. We'll see. It's good to know anyways, it's good to hear players are really
feeling it up and wanna give a 100% so who do you actually think would be going to the
the toughest opponent in this tournament and why do you think they'll be the toughest.
Chris: I think it'll probably be Darko ( DauT ). I mean that guy has been playing a million
different strategy games for like 12 years along with me, and we've been rivals for a long
time. He's got a lot of tournament experience too which is something the other players
lack.
Zak: okay, well, so in the tourney, it's gonna be the rivalry between you then.
Chris: Definitely. it's been a long time.
Zak: For those of you who don't know, Darko would be referring to DauT of course.
Chris: yes
Zak: yes, and on the contrary to that, who do you think actually gonna be the easiest opponent
in this tournament and why?
Chris: Well. I think that the easiest opponent this time around would probably be FeAge. He's
been a good player in the past, like if you take him a year ago or two years ago, umm.
when he was playing in Legion for World Clan League. He was playing really good, but I
haven't seen him in too many tournaments and he is a bit inconsistent I find.
Zak: okay
Chris: But he might still do very well and surprise everyone so..
Zak: Yea I think a lot of people actually sort of share the same opinion as that. a lot of people
has been thinking that perhaps FeAge won't perform so well and I don't really know 100%
why because he's actually taking part in three tournaments simultaneously and he's been
practicing a lot, it's just that, the community haven't being see that.
Chris: But FeAge it's interesting because he can.... he is able to play really well.
Zak: Yea
Chris: It's just, like his peak skill is really high, but his average skill when he .. cuz he, he plays a
lot, his average skill is little bit lower than I think some of the other players that are in
this league.
Zak: But of course there always has to be the easier opponent and in this situation it could be
FeAge but we'll have to wait and see, but who knows, who really does know.
Chris: Yea it's two games around I mean.
--- ( (?) incomprehensible, volume fades down ) ---
Zak: Okay so, out of the map pool we have 15 maps in the map pool, what do you actually
think would be your strongest map in this tournament.
Chris: I am not too sure, but I will probably pick Arabia quite often just because it's my standard go-to map and if I haven't been practicing, well, I mean that's the Bread and butter of .
(?) I think it'll be my strongest.
Zak: And as to your weakest, what will that be.
Chris: Weakest is, I probably have a few weak maps on that list, definitely, I mean all the water
maps are not my strongest suits. Islands, migration, umm even Nomad to some extent.
you know (?) Even Fortress Regicide against some of the better Post-Imperial players,
might be tough but I think those are the main ones. That give me trouble.
Well we'll see how they go, I am sure if you got that skill, you can pull through anyway.
Zak: So do you actually have any sort of special way in which you prepare to face a particular
opponent, such as watching recorded games of their past games recently or anything else
along with those lines.
Chris: No I don't, ummm. I kinda go with the feeling. Depending on what map I figured I should
choose against them and what I feel like I am gonna be good a playing, but in terms of
preparation, like oh, you know trying to get a good night sleep the day before, you know eat
healthy on the day and stuff like that just so your focus is a little bit better and you know
when you're playing recreationally you usually play music in the background but for
tournaments, it's usually a lot wiser to just stuck with the game music so you can hear
when soemone's attacking you
Zak: Of course yea, would you actually have any tips to any player out there who're looking to
sort of get really serious, for actually how they could improve with things such as that
Chris: Definitely, the best way to improve is through playing people who are better than you, all
the time, and just play one on one against someone who's better than you and after you've
done the game, take five minutes and just think about why you won and why you lost and
what you could've done better and if you just steadily improve those things I mean there's
so many small things in a game like you know, my economy wasn't efficient or I fought on
that uphill there and it didn't work accord, I didn't noticed this, and most times it's pretty
obvious, but if you keep improving these, you're bound to get better.
Zak: Nice, Sage words right there. Have you ever actually played a game where you've actually
thought to yourself, you know what, that was perfect I can't think of anything that I could
have done better that game.
Chris: They're very rare, in fact let's say, well you can get very very close to that, you can never
get ideal. I mean, there, for example. if you're playing one on one Arabia and doing scout
rush, someone else is doing scout rush, I mean, one or two hits here and there might be
the difference between the game, it probably won't, but you know it can be. And you
know deciding weather to put a spearman there because you feel like it, there's
sometime like guessing situation,
Zak: almost like a sixth sense.
Chris: yea you're trying to predict what you're doing, but you don't always think that fast in real
time and even if you do I mean it still sometimes, you've two spearman and three spots to
guard, whatchu gonna do.
Zak: of course
Chris: hehe, we all guess.
Zak: Yea. Nobody's perfect, it's all about finding those little holes in your opponent's gameplay I suppose.
Chris: And abusing them.
Zak: of course, okay so what you actually think is going to be the final order after the last round
of the league,
Chris: Well I am hoping I end up on top, but we'll see about that, and I am just gonna assume
that, cuz you know..I can't say anyone else.. I am just kidding, and well. order from that would
probably be daut, Viper, tim, jordan,oh I don't know .. dogao might,.. I don't know dogao
has an interesting style on so many water maps he might pull something out of his ass and
do well in this.. in this tournament. Good boy is a tough one for me for me to predict, because I've only played around 5 games against him, and those five games were probably good but I haven't seen him around or
anything like that he's kinda one of those chinese players who's often...
Zak: yea often off the radar, yea definitely.
Chris: So normally one doesn't normally expect from him, or what he's good at. I guess I've seen
his Arabia map play before, but I haven't seen him on Islands or any of those ..
Zak: Yea that's one of the reasons we kinda wanted him to be involved in this tournament as
well, we know he's a great player and we kinda wanna get some recordings out of him and
actually see for ourselves in a competitive environment what he can pull out from the
bag,
Chris: yea I'd be interested to see that too, even if I have to play against it.
( both laughs )
Zak: of course
Chris: I think Dogao and.. then probably dogao then good boy and then feage would be my
guess, but I won't place any money on that.
Zak: There's been a lot of discussion on AocZone recently actually and everyone seems to think
differently, there's really isn't no way to tell until it's actually over but of course we can all
try and predict as best as we can.
Chris: Definitely, there's only, I mean it's really it sound like a best of 9 with each player. I mean
it's best of 2 pretty much or you know 2 games, so there's a tunnel lock, especially with
migration on that map list and nomad on there, I mean you can pick one of those map just
to be (?) random lucky map, if you wanna
Zak: Yea of course yea, brilliant.
Also as well I just want to ask one last thing, what do you actually think about the layout
of this tournament, it's actually very different than anything else we had in the past and
the fact that we know there's gonna be only two games per set, how do you think that's
actually doing to affect things.
Chris: Well to be honest I think it's brilliant, because you get to play against everyone, I mean
it's not like a tournament where there's a tough side of the brackets and there's an easy
side. And you know, so you gonna get a lot of good games out of it, and you get to play all
the other top players, so really and it also shows your diverse skill because you gonna play
all the different maps. and you try to figure out what your opponents weakness are, and
what your strengths are. Which is tough (?) for people to realize because I mean, you
might think you're the strongest on the xyz map and then you play it 6 times and get your
ass kicked and you're like aaah, I was wrong, entirely wrong.
Zak: Indeed yea, so one of the goals, we actually wanted to achieve with this, is that there
should be a wider sort of meta game around and opponents and player can actually sort of
think and plan quite wisely about who they're gonna be playing and what map to choose
and what civilization you should be choosing even.
Chris: Yea the major, it's really like the list is actually most of the standards maps in the game, to
be honest and there's a few, that don't' get to play to often, like oasis for example, you
almost never see that map. and you know, I won't even be sure what's the best civ. in that
map to be honest, and black forest, I mean I am not too sure like if it's explored on black
forest or not, but if it's not explored, you might see some interesting strategies, just
fascinating.
Zak: The maps will probably be played on standard settings so the black forest would probably
be explored. okay, one final thing, if this league is success would be interested in coming
back for future seasons.
Chris: Definitely, oh yea that'll be lot of fun.
Zak: It's good to hear.
Chris: you keep running tournaments, I'll keep coming back.
Zak: Well we're hoping, if this is a success we can come back in may be three months and have
a twelve player league rather than eight player league and so if that is the case, I am sure
you will be on the invite list if you're interested.
Chris: mhm. definitely,
Zak: Well that's great, it's been pleasure talking to you, and I hope you have all the best in this
tournament.
Chris: Thank you very much, it was enjoyable.
Chris: Hey Zak I am doing pretty good, how about you?
Zak: Yea I am doing pretty good, thank you, it's just, I am really happy to have you here doing
an interview, It's been a long while since you've spoken and I am sure lot of the
community are very excited to having you being interviewed as well.
Chris: Thanks for having me
Zak: Don't worries. So I've got a few questions for you anyway and we may as well just jump
straight in. So the first question I've got for you is, It's been a while since I've actually seen
you playing on the AoC Scene, so what's actually made you decided to come back and
take part in the GML.
Chris: Um. well I am always up for a good age of empires 2 Tournament, um back in , I think it
was around march, Tyrant held a Battle for number one tournament where they just had
two players involved and they didn't involved any of the rest of the top players
Zak: Yea
Chris: so when they did that, I made a suggestion that they should have some kind of league
with people in it, like all the top players and seems like that's come to (?)
so I am happy about that.
Zak: Yea, it was something that we actually thought about a long while ago and after putting
on a lot of thought about it we decided, you know what? we just gonna go for it and just
do it and we're very happy that you could actually accept the invitation and join in, it's
great to have you back anyway, so where you've been practicing much before the start of
the tournament.
Chris: Umm.. Probably Not. I am pretty busy in life so I haven't really spend a lot of time
practicing, probably around eight games in the last two months. just on a friend's smurf
account
Zak: ah. okay. so um.. are you feeling confident that you're gonna have the ability in this
tournament to perform well.
Chris: I always feel like I'd perform well, It really comes down to day though, I mean we all have
some good days and some bad days .
Zak: Do you think though that perhaps if you would have put in a little bit more training
before then it would affect the outcome or do you really believe that your ability of AoC is
deep within you and you can just sort of play out at any time.
Chris: Well I am hoping I can pull it out at any time. umm in the past it has been a little on and
off, at least I am playing a bit of Warcraft 3 right now, yea just trying to get ranked on
US East but , it's a tough game
Zak: Nice
Chris: But.. um. they'll always keep my speed up a little bit and my micro.
Zak: Actually while we are on the topic actually of other games, have you ever took part in any
StarCraft 2 for instance.
Chris: ahh, no I haven't, I installed the game, tried it and I didn't like it, so I haven't played the
game ever since but I love almost all the other Real-Time-Strategy games. I don't like
Starcraft series I don't know why.
Zak: I think that the skills you gain through playing one RTS can be quite easily transferred to
another, so as you were saying playing Warcraft 3 could actually really help you out as well
even if you aren't playing age of empire at the time.
Chris: Hopefully
( laugh )
Zak: yea, we'll see how that one goes. So actually how confident are you feeling about the
tournament then, where do you actually think you're gonna finish.
Chris: I hope First, to be honest, but I am not 100% sure of that of course not
( both laughs)
Chris: It really depends on how well I am playing, I mean, I've had indestructible times and I've
had my ass kicked by 1900 rated players eight times in a row before so.. we'll see how it
goes.
Zak: Yea hopefully you're just feeling good on the day and sort of really ready and get stuck in
there really. We'll see. It's good to know anyways, it's good to hear players are really
feeling it up and wanna give a 100% so who do you actually think would be going to the
the toughest opponent in this tournament and why do you think they'll be the toughest.
Chris: I think it'll probably be Darko ( DauT ). I mean that guy has been playing a million
different strategy games for like 12 years along with me, and we've been rivals for a long
time. He's got a lot of tournament experience too which is something the other players
lack.
Zak: okay, well, so in the tourney, it's gonna be the rivalry between you then.
Chris: Definitely. it's been a long time.
Zak: For those of you who don't know, Darko would be referring to DauT of course.
Chris: yes
Zak: yes, and on the contrary to that, who do you think actually gonna be the easiest opponent
in this tournament and why?
Chris: Well. I think that the easiest opponent this time around would probably be FeAge. He's
been a good player in the past, like if you take him a year ago or two years ago, umm.
when he was playing in Legion for World Clan League. He was playing really good, but I
haven't seen him in too many tournaments and he is a bit inconsistent I find.
Zak: okay
Chris: But he might still do very well and surprise everyone so..
Zak: Yea I think a lot of people actually sort of share the same opinion as that. a lot of people
has been thinking that perhaps FeAge won't perform so well and I don't really know 100%
why because he's actually taking part in three tournaments simultaneously and he's been
practicing a lot, it's just that, the community haven't being see that.
Chris: But FeAge it's interesting because he can.... he is able to play really well.
Zak: Yea
Chris: It's just, like his peak skill is really high, but his average skill when he .. cuz he, he plays a
lot, his average skill is little bit lower than I think some of the other players that are in
this league.
Zak: But of course there always has to be the easier opponent and in this situation it could be
FeAge but we'll have to wait and see, but who knows, who really does know.
Chris: Yea it's two games around I mean.
--- ( (?) incomprehensible, volume fades down ) ---
Zak: Okay so, out of the map pool we have 15 maps in the map pool, what do you actually
think would be your strongest map in this tournament.
Chris: I am not too sure, but I will probably pick Arabia quite often just because it's my standard go-to map and if I haven't been practicing, well, I mean that's the Bread and butter of .
(?) I think it'll be my strongest.
Zak: And as to your weakest, what will that be.
Chris: Weakest is, I probably have a few weak maps on that list, definitely, I mean all the water
maps are not my strongest suits. Islands, migration, umm even Nomad to some extent.
you know (?) Even Fortress Regicide against some of the better Post-Imperial players,
might be tough but I think those are the main ones. That give me trouble.
Well we'll see how they go, I am sure if you got that skill, you can pull through anyway.
Zak: So do you actually have any sort of special way in which you prepare to face a particular
opponent, such as watching recorded games of their past games recently or anything else
along with those lines.
Chris: No I don't, ummm. I kinda go with the feeling. Depending on what map I figured I should
choose against them and what I feel like I am gonna be good a playing, but in terms of
preparation, like oh, you know trying to get a good night sleep the day before, you know eat
healthy on the day and stuff like that just so your focus is a little bit better and you know
when you're playing recreationally you usually play music in the background but for
tournaments, it's usually a lot wiser to just stuck with the game music so you can hear
when soemone's attacking you
Zak: Of course yea, would you actually have any tips to any player out there who're looking to
sort of get really serious, for actually how they could improve with things such as that
Chris: Definitely, the best way to improve is through playing people who are better than you, all
the time, and just play one on one against someone who's better than you and after you've
done the game, take five minutes and just think about why you won and why you lost and
what you could've done better and if you just steadily improve those things I mean there's
so many small things in a game like you know, my economy wasn't efficient or I fought on
that uphill there and it didn't work accord, I didn't noticed this, and most times it's pretty
obvious, but if you keep improving these, you're bound to get better.
Zak: Nice, Sage words right there. Have you ever actually played a game where you've actually
thought to yourself, you know what, that was perfect I can't think of anything that I could
have done better that game.
Chris: They're very rare, in fact let's say, well you can get very very close to that, you can never
get ideal. I mean, there, for example. if you're playing one on one Arabia and doing scout
rush, someone else is doing scout rush, I mean, one or two hits here and there might be
the difference between the game, it probably won't, but you know it can be. And you
know deciding weather to put a spearman there because you feel like it, there's
sometime like guessing situation,
Zak: almost like a sixth sense.
Chris: yea you're trying to predict what you're doing, but you don't always think that fast in real
time and even if you do I mean it still sometimes, you've two spearman and three spots to
guard, whatchu gonna do.
Zak: of course
Chris: hehe, we all guess.
Zak: Yea. Nobody's perfect, it's all about finding those little holes in your opponent's gameplay I suppose.
Chris: And abusing them.
Zak: of course, okay so what you actually think is going to be the final order after the last round
of the league,
Chris: Well I am hoping I end up on top, but we'll see about that, and I am just gonna assume
that, cuz you know..I can't say anyone else.. I am just kidding, and well. order from that would
probably be daut, Viper, tim, jordan,oh I don't know .. dogao might,.. I don't know dogao
has an interesting style on so many water maps he might pull something out of his ass and
do well in this.. in this tournament. Good boy is a tough one for me for me to predict, because I've only played around 5 games against him, and those five games were probably good but I haven't seen him around or
anything like that he's kinda one of those chinese players who's often...
Zak: yea often off the radar, yea definitely.
Chris: So normally one doesn't normally expect from him, or what he's good at. I guess I've seen
his Arabia map play before, but I haven't seen him on Islands or any of those ..
Zak: Yea that's one of the reasons we kinda wanted him to be involved in this tournament as
well, we know he's a great player and we kinda wanna get some recordings out of him and
actually see for ourselves in a competitive environment what he can pull out from the
bag,
Chris: yea I'd be interested to see that too, even if I have to play against it.
( both laughs )
Zak: of course
Chris: I think Dogao and.. then probably dogao then good boy and then feage would be my
guess, but I won't place any money on that.
Zak: There's been a lot of discussion on AocZone recently actually and everyone seems to think
differently, there's really isn't no way to tell until it's actually over but of course we can all
try and predict as best as we can.
Chris: Definitely, there's only, I mean it's really it sound like a best of 9 with each player. I mean
it's best of 2 pretty much or you know 2 games, so there's a tunnel lock, especially with
migration on that map list and nomad on there, I mean you can pick one of those map just
to be (?) random lucky map, if you wanna
Zak: Yea of course yea, brilliant.
Also as well I just want to ask one last thing, what do you actually think about the layout
of this tournament, it's actually very different than anything else we had in the past and
the fact that we know there's gonna be only two games per set, how do you think that's
actually doing to affect things.
Chris: Well to be honest I think it's brilliant, because you get to play against everyone, I mean
it's not like a tournament where there's a tough side of the brackets and there's an easy
side. And you know, so you gonna get a lot of good games out of it, and you get to play all
the other top players, so really and it also shows your diverse skill because you gonna play
all the different maps. and you try to figure out what your opponents weakness are, and
what your strengths are. Which is tough (?) for people to realize because I mean, you
might think you're the strongest on the xyz map and then you play it 6 times and get your
ass kicked and you're like aaah, I was wrong, entirely wrong.
Zak: Indeed yea, so one of the goals, we actually wanted to achieve with this, is that there
should be a wider sort of meta game around and opponents and player can actually sort of
think and plan quite wisely about who they're gonna be playing and what map to choose
and what civilization you should be choosing even.
Chris: Yea the major, it's really like the list is actually most of the standards maps in the game, to
be honest and there's a few, that don't' get to play to often, like oasis for example, you
almost never see that map. and you know, I won't even be sure what's the best civ. in that
map to be honest, and black forest, I mean I am not too sure like if it's explored on black
forest or not, but if it's not explored, you might see some interesting strategies, just
fascinating.
Zak: The maps will probably be played on standard settings so the black forest would probably
be explored. okay, one final thing, if this league is success would be interested in coming
back for future seasons.
Chris: Definitely, oh yea that'll be lot of fun.
Zak: It's good to hear.
Chris: you keep running tournaments, I'll keep coming back.
Zak: Well we're hoping, if this is a success we can come back in may be three months and have
a twelve player league rather than eight player league and so if that is the case, I am sure
you will be on the invite list if you're interested.
Chris: mhm. definitely,
Zak: Well that's great, it's been pleasure talking to you, and I hope you have all the best in this
tournament.
Chris: Thank you very much, it was enjoyable.