Zak: Hello FeAge, How are you !?
FeAge: I am fine thanks, how are you ?
Zak: I am great, it's nice to speak to you again.
FeAge: Yea, thanks for having me.
Zak: Yea and really, I just wanna ask you some questions about GML because it's not long now until the first week actually starts and it's quite exciting to be honest with you.
FeAge: yea actually I am gonna play today I hope. Vs Jordan is gonna be my first game so I hope I do fine.
Zak: Yea good luck for that, I am sure Jordan is hoping he do just as well as well but really good luck anyway.
FeAge: He's a really strong player it's gonna be hard games so I hope I can do my best on this.
Zak: Yea definitely, and do you know I actually wanted to start with you talking about why you are in the tournament because a lot of people have been saying that perhaps you shouldn't be in this tournament and I honestly think they're wrong to say that but obviously we've not had your point of view and your opinion on this yet so do you have anything to say on that matter.
FeAge: Well.. a couple of things like for example first is that people don't' know but they think it's because we're good friends that I got chosen but the reality is that you guys had the staff discussing in a private forum about which player you should pick, right.
Zak: yea exactly, um. it has been suggested that you're only in this because we're friends, but that's not true at all, it wasn't me making all the decisions on my own and regardless of the fact that we're friends or not I am still friends with the other players in the tournament as well.
FeAge: Yea absolutely.
Zak: and it doesn't make any difference at all.
FeAge: like that's the thing.. people doesn't know that I wasn't the first option, right. Some people, some good players, like RiuT for example were invited to play but they refused right, so uhh. I options got really few, right.
Zak: We did have an initial short list of who we wanted to invite, but obviously not everyone wanted to or everyone could so we ended up with the in our opinion, the best possible 8 that were available.
FeAge: Yea thing is people don't know but I had to play against DreaIVIs to decide the last spot right, we were gonna do best of 5 or something like that
Zak: Yea
FeAge: I agree to play, DrealVls had agreed on the first time I think, but later he refused later , because he said he wouldn't have time to play, so people don't know, like the details. but that's what going on and also..why would I refuse to play a tournament that involves money you know. I am gonna try my best, I am gonna practice as much as I can because I want my piece of money.
Zak: yea exactly, I personally I believe that you would put a lot of effort to do this, I know for a fact that Chris for instance isn't practicing at all before tournament, but may be you could tell us about the practice you've been doing before you've actually started.
FeAge: That's the thing, on my first round I got Jordan and personally I think he is my hardest opponent, seriously not kidding, I've really big trouble trying to play against him every time I play against him I have big difficulties so I am trying to study his style and trying to come back with something like I can do to counter it you know. I've been watching some record games, Dogao and St4rk have given me games about his game play style and we're trying to help each other you know, the Brazilian guys. I helped Dogao with the practice against Chris, we did some maps and what style Chris would do , you know and now I think we're gonna try to do the same with Jordan I am gonna practice his style. The usual thing I do you know my style is not really working against him so I need to do something differently this time because he's a really strong player against my kind of style of game play so.. I need to try something else. So yea I've been practicing with my friends here. That kind of under the blankets, that's what you say ?
Zak: yea definetly and I know for a fact that you and dogao has been practicing so much for this and to be honest you two probably have been practicing more than anyone for this tournament so anyone who counts you out or doubts you is really in for shock I think.
FeAge: mhm. not just that but St4rk is really helping me out this time so I have to thank him as well and also I might not be the champion I am gonna try to be of course but if I am not I am gonna do my best you know and try to do the best I can, so.. I'll try to be in the highest level I ever had in this tournament.
Zak: Well that's great to hear from you and obviously we've gotta cast our mind back to WCL7 for instance where you did a phenomenal performance in that tournament .
FeAge: yea That's the thing, that's the key to be try to beat better players. You have to be confident you know, so I was really really confident against DauT and RiuT, that's why I came up with some new things on these games like RiuT's I knew from the dark age since he asked me if he could restart the game I knew I was gonna win that game you know and also vs DauT I knew I could win that game so confidence is a really big thing in 1v1.
Zak: Yea definitely and it's good to see that you're trying to find that confidence, so actually talking in a little bit more in-depth about the GML obviously we have the eight players that we've chosen you've already said that Jordan is like to be your most difficult opponent but who do you think will be your easiest opponent for you to beat.
FeAge: uhh.. I don't know man, like every player is the best player on 1v1 in my opinion like... I've no idea who's gonna be the easiest, I am not gonna put names up there you know because if you describe and say some player there, he's gonna like have some.. like he'd really want to kill me.
Zak: hehe that's bit tactical.
FeAge: yea that's the thing I don't want to say a name here, when we play he's gonna play twice better just to kill me. you know, but I think every player, I am not saying that Jordan is going to be my most difficult player like Viper is also damn hard to beat you know. DauT as well. Every player is good in one kind of map or one style and some of them are good in everyone, every map and every style so it's gonna be really hard but I hope I can do good.
Zak: okay how do you think the map pool is going to affect you in this tournament, do you think it'll be good for you or do you think it could provide you problems.
FeAge: hehe that's the thing, It's kinda hard because if I am good in one map, for example I am really confident in Arabia right but I can really choose one time and that's the thing if I choose vs a good player on that map I am also helping him right. So it's gonna be hard to decide which map is good against other players, that's why I think players will study each other a lot more this time you know to see what's there weak points and they're gonna come up with different maps and different strategies because you can't really use the best ones you can play, you had to play something different and keep the best ones to the hardest players.
Zak: Yea you're gonna be choosing seven maps out of the fifteen so there is a wide variety of maps that are going to played. Do you have any idea which would be your top 3 maps for instance that you feel really confident on.
FeAge: I love to play Arabia and also I think... one of maps I like to play is Idk man.. Arena is cool, arabia arena and I think the last one could be Baltic. or Islands, Islands, islands is really cool, I love islands. and that's the thing, Islands.. I am kinda confident on this map, because for me to go against the best islands player, dogao and viper also wins this map and I actually play really good against them on this map so it's a good thing for me.
Zak: Okay well that's great, also then as well I want to ask you about the way the GML has been laid out how do you think that could perhaps be improved in the future.
FeAge: uh I would say if we could have a new division like for lower players to make part of this tournament you know have a chance to get and play with the highest ranked players would be really cool you know like StarCraft has this system right where for less players from the first season go to the second one and the first one from the second one..
Zak: Yea they move up and down defending on there positions at the end.
FeAge: hehe yea sorry for my bad English. So yea that would make lot of players get excited and practice as much as they can that will be really cool. but that's of course, that's one thing we need the sponsors right. so we should do that for sponsors, because honestly without the money it's hard to do such big tournaments you know.
Zak: mhm. esp. to get players such as DauT and Chris involved and even Tim and may be if they do play to get them to play to their best level.
FeAge: That's one thing people say like they say players are mercenaries you know like they play just for money, it's not true, like I know for a fact that Chris DauT and other players that play usually only tournament games like money tournaments right. They love this game. They love Age of Empires but they try only to play the tournaments that involve money because they don't really have the time to play other tournaments like they've work and they have .. I know that DauT play other games right so he doesn't have really lot of time to play other fun games and fun tournament with no prize, they still love the games.
Zak: of course, so you've been playing quite a lot of tournaments recently haven''t you, why don't you tell us about those.
FeAge: You ask me about tournaments ?
Zak: Yea other tournaments that you're taking part in around this time.
FeAge: Oh yea, I've been playing a lot of tournaments actually, I am trying to schedule every game because I think I am playing four rounds each week right now so.. I am almost getting AW for the tournaments. I've to be careful, I have the RTS league, AoC-Liga, I've the brazilian tournaments, I've this one, the GML and I have the voobly one. ( FeAge played in SY-Cup too ) so a lot of tournaments man.
Zak: Yea well it's good though I suppose because you've got a lot of practice in a highly competitive environment.
FeAge: mhm. because this is the thing, GML is only two games right. It's not like best of five or best of seven so it's good to play tournaments when you've only few games to play because then you can see if you're doing good on the decisive matches right.
Zak: of course, what do you think of the fact that there are only two games per set, do you think that's too little or do you think that's actually an OK number.
FeAge: The problem if having two games only is that if a player is on a bad day it can be really really tricky for him you know because every player have a bad day you so if he's on his bad day, he's probably gonna lose the two games, because if you have a bad day you can come back from a best of five if you start paying attention on what you're doing but just two games can be really tricky, so players would have to pay attention since the first game. right.
Zak: yea but then again surely every tournament game should be like that, every tournament game should be played to the best a player can and if they don't think they are able to then may be some practice games before would be more appropriate.
FeAge: yea absolutely, another guess I think it's even better because usually tournaments on final have best of eleven, best of seventeen, so so many games gets really boring to play you know so I think the few the best.
Zak: Okay that's great, it's been great talking to you and thanks for agreeing to do an interview.
FeAge: oh that's it, we done ...
Zak: I think we're.
FeAge: you not gonna make me drink or something.. call me next day.
Zak: yea I am just gonna leave you on the sidewalk hehe used and abused. Well we've been talking for 15 minutes already I don't want it to drag one because there are lot of people obviously with very little time and yea we've covered a lot of topic so I am pretty happy with that.
FeAge: yea but you're not gonna say something like what's your message to players and things like that..
Zak: Yea we could do that, so what's your message to rest of the players.
FeAge: umm, There's like a phrase I heard I read on the internet and I think it's great like, The bigger your dreams, the bigger your chances to success you know. So if you want to do something you want to be good at this game, practice as much as you can, don't try to listen to what other people have to say because people say you can't but honestly nothing can stop you.
Zak: hmm useful piece of advice. I read a great quote the other day ' we write our own destinies, we become what we do
FeAge: yes absolutely, really good one, that's the thing like try your best, not just in this game, in life you know.
Zak: Yea, in everything you do.
FeAge: Yea and try to get some Hot Bitches as well.
Zak: hahaha typical there we go ending on the notes that we always end up going back to when FeAge's in the conversation.
FeAge: hehe I love the girls man. I want to go to china because I was playing in the Chinese tournament and they said there was a lot of girls in the background cheering for them so yea I am really looking to go to china.
Zak: I think it could be or might be better for that, you see like in StarCraft 2 pros with some girls in bikinis handing them water bottles and things, that can be you.
FeAge: yea that's crazy, it's gotta be me, it's gotta be me.
Zak: yea just need to get AoC to that level.
FeAge: hehe Okay then
Zak: hehe yes thanks a lot anyway. I'll see you later
FeAge: thank you for having me
Zak: okay bye
FeAge: bye bye
FeAge: I am fine thanks, how are you ?
Zak: I am great, it's nice to speak to you again.
FeAge: Yea, thanks for having me.
Zak: Yea and really, I just wanna ask you some questions about GML because it's not long now until the first week actually starts and it's quite exciting to be honest with you.
FeAge: yea actually I am gonna play today I hope. Vs Jordan is gonna be my first game so I hope I do fine.
Zak: Yea good luck for that, I am sure Jordan is hoping he do just as well as well but really good luck anyway.
FeAge: He's a really strong player it's gonna be hard games so I hope I can do my best on this.
Zak: Yea definitely, and do you know I actually wanted to start with you talking about why you are in the tournament because a lot of people have been saying that perhaps you shouldn't be in this tournament and I honestly think they're wrong to say that but obviously we've not had your point of view and your opinion on this yet so do you have anything to say on that matter.
FeAge: Well.. a couple of things like for example first is that people don't' know but they think it's because we're good friends that I got chosen but the reality is that you guys had the staff discussing in a private forum about which player you should pick, right.
Zak: yea exactly, um. it has been suggested that you're only in this because we're friends, but that's not true at all, it wasn't me making all the decisions on my own and regardless of the fact that we're friends or not I am still friends with the other players in the tournament as well.
FeAge: Yea absolutely.
Zak: and it doesn't make any difference at all.
FeAge: like that's the thing.. people doesn't know that I wasn't the first option, right. Some people, some good players, like RiuT for example were invited to play but they refused right, so uhh. I options got really few, right.
Zak: We did have an initial short list of who we wanted to invite, but obviously not everyone wanted to or everyone could so we ended up with the in our opinion, the best possible 8 that were available.
FeAge: Yea thing is people don't know but I had to play against DreaIVIs to decide the last spot right, we were gonna do best of 5 or something like that
Zak: Yea
FeAge: I agree to play, DrealVls had agreed on the first time I think, but later he refused later , because he said he wouldn't have time to play, so people don't know, like the details. but that's what going on and also..why would I refuse to play a tournament that involves money you know. I am gonna try my best, I am gonna practice as much as I can because I want my piece of money.
Zak: yea exactly, I personally I believe that you would put a lot of effort to do this, I know for a fact that Chris for instance isn't practicing at all before tournament, but may be you could tell us about the practice you've been doing before you've actually started.
FeAge: That's the thing, on my first round I got Jordan and personally I think he is my hardest opponent, seriously not kidding, I've really big trouble trying to play against him every time I play against him I have big difficulties so I am trying to study his style and trying to come back with something like I can do to counter it you know. I've been watching some record games, Dogao and St4rk have given me games about his game play style and we're trying to help each other you know, the Brazilian guys. I helped Dogao with the practice against Chris, we did some maps and what style Chris would do , you know and now I think we're gonna try to do the same with Jordan I am gonna practice his style. The usual thing I do you know my style is not really working against him so I need to do something differently this time because he's a really strong player against my kind of style of game play so.. I need to try something else. So yea I've been practicing with my friends here. That kind of under the blankets, that's what you say ?
Zak: yea definetly and I know for a fact that you and dogao has been practicing so much for this and to be honest you two probably have been practicing more than anyone for this tournament so anyone who counts you out or doubts you is really in for shock I think.
FeAge: mhm. not just that but St4rk is really helping me out this time so I have to thank him as well and also I might not be the champion I am gonna try to be of course but if I am not I am gonna do my best you know and try to do the best I can, so.. I'll try to be in the highest level I ever had in this tournament.
Zak: Well that's great to hear from you and obviously we've gotta cast our mind back to WCL7 for instance where you did a phenomenal performance in that tournament .
FeAge: yea That's the thing, that's the key to be try to beat better players. You have to be confident you know, so I was really really confident against DauT and RiuT, that's why I came up with some new things on these games like RiuT's I knew from the dark age since he asked me if he could restart the game I knew I was gonna win that game you know and also vs DauT I knew I could win that game so confidence is a really big thing in 1v1.
Zak: Yea definitely and it's good to see that you're trying to find that confidence, so actually talking in a little bit more in-depth about the GML obviously we have the eight players that we've chosen you've already said that Jordan is like to be your most difficult opponent but who do you think will be your easiest opponent for you to beat.
FeAge: uhh.. I don't know man, like every player is the best player on 1v1 in my opinion like... I've no idea who's gonna be the easiest, I am not gonna put names up there you know because if you describe and say some player there, he's gonna like have some.. like he'd really want to kill me.
Zak: hehe that's bit tactical.
FeAge: yea that's the thing I don't want to say a name here, when we play he's gonna play twice better just to kill me. you know, but I think every player, I am not saying that Jordan is going to be my most difficult player like Viper is also damn hard to beat you know. DauT as well. Every player is good in one kind of map or one style and some of them are good in everyone, every map and every style so it's gonna be really hard but I hope I can do good.
Zak: okay how do you think the map pool is going to affect you in this tournament, do you think it'll be good for you or do you think it could provide you problems.
FeAge: hehe that's the thing, It's kinda hard because if I am good in one map, for example I am really confident in Arabia right but I can really choose one time and that's the thing if I choose vs a good player on that map I am also helping him right. So it's gonna be hard to decide which map is good against other players, that's why I think players will study each other a lot more this time you know to see what's there weak points and they're gonna come up with different maps and different strategies because you can't really use the best ones you can play, you had to play something different and keep the best ones to the hardest players.
Zak: Yea you're gonna be choosing seven maps out of the fifteen so there is a wide variety of maps that are going to played. Do you have any idea which would be your top 3 maps for instance that you feel really confident on.
FeAge: I love to play Arabia and also I think... one of maps I like to play is Idk man.. Arena is cool, arabia arena and I think the last one could be Baltic. or Islands, Islands, islands is really cool, I love islands. and that's the thing, Islands.. I am kinda confident on this map, because for me to go against the best islands player, dogao and viper also wins this map and I actually play really good against them on this map so it's a good thing for me.
Zak: Okay well that's great, also then as well I want to ask you about the way the GML has been laid out how do you think that could perhaps be improved in the future.
FeAge: uh I would say if we could have a new division like for lower players to make part of this tournament you know have a chance to get and play with the highest ranked players would be really cool you know like StarCraft has this system right where for less players from the first season go to the second one and the first one from the second one..
Zak: Yea they move up and down defending on there positions at the end.
FeAge: hehe yea sorry for my bad English. So yea that would make lot of players get excited and practice as much as they can that will be really cool. but that's of course, that's one thing we need the sponsors right. so we should do that for sponsors, because honestly without the money it's hard to do such big tournaments you know.
Zak: mhm. esp. to get players such as DauT and Chris involved and even Tim and may be if they do play to get them to play to their best level.
FeAge: That's one thing people say like they say players are mercenaries you know like they play just for money, it's not true, like I know for a fact that Chris DauT and other players that play usually only tournament games like money tournaments right. They love this game. They love Age of Empires but they try only to play the tournaments that involve money because they don't really have the time to play other tournaments like they've work and they have .. I know that DauT play other games right so he doesn't have really lot of time to play other fun games and fun tournament with no prize, they still love the games.
Zak: of course, so you've been playing quite a lot of tournaments recently haven''t you, why don't you tell us about those.
FeAge: You ask me about tournaments ?
Zak: Yea other tournaments that you're taking part in around this time.
FeAge: Oh yea, I've been playing a lot of tournaments actually, I am trying to schedule every game because I think I am playing four rounds each week right now so.. I am almost getting AW for the tournaments. I've to be careful, I have the RTS league, AoC-Liga, I've the brazilian tournaments, I've this one, the GML and I have the voobly one. ( FeAge played in SY-Cup too ) so a lot of tournaments man.
Zak: Yea well it's good though I suppose because you've got a lot of practice in a highly competitive environment.
FeAge: mhm. because this is the thing, GML is only two games right. It's not like best of five or best of seven so it's good to play tournaments when you've only few games to play because then you can see if you're doing good on the decisive matches right.
Zak: of course, what do you think of the fact that there are only two games per set, do you think that's too little or do you think that's actually an OK number.
FeAge: The problem if having two games only is that if a player is on a bad day it can be really really tricky for him you know because every player have a bad day you so if he's on his bad day, he's probably gonna lose the two games, because if you have a bad day you can come back from a best of five if you start paying attention on what you're doing but just two games can be really tricky, so players would have to pay attention since the first game. right.
Zak: yea but then again surely every tournament game should be like that, every tournament game should be played to the best a player can and if they don't think they are able to then may be some practice games before would be more appropriate.
FeAge: yea absolutely, another guess I think it's even better because usually tournaments on final have best of eleven, best of seventeen, so so many games gets really boring to play you know so I think the few the best.
Zak: Okay that's great, it's been great talking to you and thanks for agreeing to do an interview.
FeAge: oh that's it, we done ...
Zak: I think we're.
FeAge: you not gonna make me drink or something.. call me next day.
Zak: yea I am just gonna leave you on the sidewalk hehe used and abused. Well we've been talking for 15 minutes already I don't want it to drag one because there are lot of people obviously with very little time and yea we've covered a lot of topic so I am pretty happy with that.
FeAge: yea but you're not gonna say something like what's your message to players and things like that..
Zak: Yea we could do that, so what's your message to rest of the players.
FeAge: umm, There's like a phrase I heard I read on the internet and I think it's great like, The bigger your dreams, the bigger your chances to success you know. So if you want to do something you want to be good at this game, practice as much as you can, don't try to listen to what other people have to say because people say you can't but honestly nothing can stop you.
Zak: hmm useful piece of advice. I read a great quote the other day ' we write our own destinies, we become what we do
FeAge: yes absolutely, really good one, that's the thing like try your best, not just in this game, in life you know.
Zak: Yea, in everything you do.
FeAge: Yea and try to get some Hot Bitches as well.
Zak: hahaha typical there we go ending on the notes that we always end up going back to when FeAge's in the conversation.
FeAge: hehe I love the girls man. I want to go to china because I was playing in the Chinese tournament and they said there was a lot of girls in the background cheering for them so yea I am really looking to go to china.
Zak: I think it could be or might be better for that, you see like in StarCraft 2 pros with some girls in bikinis handing them water bottles and things, that can be you.
FeAge: yea that's crazy, it's gotta be me, it's gotta be me.
Zak: yea just need to get AoC to that level.
FeAge: hehe Okay then
Zak: hehe yes thanks a lot anyway. I'll see you later
FeAge: thank you for having me
Zak: okay bye
FeAge: bye bye