With our commitment to giving the community one new interview with an old or current expert every 1-2 weeks, AocZone presents....
My earliest memories of Piers was watching himself, Dante and L_Clan_Chris playing 1v1 after 1v1 and trying to come up with new strategies on arabia, doing a 3 farm scout rush or a 3 range all skirm flush. I came up against him many times in the RTSUK & Ireland leagues but it wasnt until i met him in London for the Eurocup 2002 and watched him play Crouvex in the finals of it and beat him i knew he was something special.
Living: Taipei, Taiwan
Favorite Civ: Mongols
Favorite map: Blind random
Karl: Great, well first of all thanks for letting me interview you Piers, no doubt it will be a magical experience as we travel back in time like two traveling wives going back to relive our glory days, all the Geek fans will be jizzing their pants in anticipation of reading this
Geek: lol
Karl: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Geek: sure, I'm 24, currently living and studying in Taiwan, delaying the inevitable day when I have to get a job, a "proper" job...
Karl: still studying? how long you been studying for at this stage?
Geek: I basically didn't study at all when I was a kid (too much aoc?), and I realised when I was about 19 that reading and learning was actually pretty interesting, so I'm trying to make the most of it while I still can
Karl: good lad, your still young *cough*, plenty of time *cough cough*
Geek: lol, almost 25, bloody hell!
Karl: So do you play any aoc or other games now, you are single you would have time?
Geek: not really, I’ve got into chess in a pretty big way in the last 2 years or so, so I play that online
Karl: be a ringer for Ruso so, hes into that online board game jazz, I think chess and aoc seem to go hand in hand.
Geek: Oh ya…I should probs say I'm on a government scholarship here to study chinese
Geek: Yeah ive noticed quite a few similarities between chess and aoc although I think aoc is way more complicated and therefore relies on intuition (rather than calculation) a lot more.
Karl: So apart from chess, whackin off and studying what do you do in your spare time?
Geek: The usual stuff, hang around with friends, play pool and chess, eat curries, listen to good music and learn Chinese
Karl: Kinda like John Lennon
Geek: I….Guess…lol, also go hiking when the weather permits
Karl: What kinda choons you into?
Geek: Recently mostly Reggae and dubstep and a lot of old stuff
Karl: Weed accompany the reggae I hope
Geek: Not here in Taiwan, you’ll get 50 lashes
Karl: Favourite color in game?
Geek: yellow, although I only leave it on yellow for the first 5mins, then alt-g so im blue, otherwise I get confused with whos who in team games…also cant stand playing against grey/teal
Karl: Any sports you haven’t mentioned?
Geek: I love the odd bit of 5-a-side footy and table tennis.
About AoC and other games
Karl: When did you start playing AoC? When/why did you quit?
Geek: I’m terrible with dates, but I first played aoc when i was visiting my dad one holiday and I got totally hooked, just playing against the computer. But since I lived with my mum and didn’t have a computer I only ever got to play it every now and then. So I ended up buying a strategy guide that had all the facts and figures in it (prima I guess) and started coming up with strategies/build orders just on paper, then trying them out next time I played aoc, then after a while I ended up getting my own PC and…well, that was that, as for why I quit, at first it was because AOM came out and I switched to that, and then I finally left it was because I wanted to go back to school and gradually just played less and less untl I wasn’t playing anymore, just realised I didn’t give you any dates there lol…when was the argo 2v2 tournament?
Karl: Umm 2005/6?, you started around 2002?
Geek: earlier than that, I was in WCG 2002/2003, more like 2000/2001 I guess
Karl: You ever going to come back to Aoc?
Geek: I don’t think so :P though I remain very nostalgic
Karl: Seems we all do :P
Geek: haha
Karl: Tell us, what did you love about Aoc in particular?
Geek: At first I loved the variety of ways to play and all the different strategies and how it was easy to come up with new stuff yourself, later on I was more interested in copying the top players and trying to perfect my game on 1v1 arabia, which was also very satisfying, there was still a lot of creativity and variation even on Arabia, it was just much more subtle, especially because at the time the top players (i.e. the Koreans) wouldn’t record any games, so there was a lot of mystique about the whole thing, and I loved trying to work out how they did it, so basically I loved both the variety in the game but also trying to perfect certain techniques and strats.
Karl: And how was Aoc scene in the UK?
Geek: Pretty good, there was quite a thriving UK aoc community in the ol’ days and I was a member of the UKAK clan. I was also good friends with Sharif (Trippin) and we’d play together pretty often. Though we’d usually stop practicing with each other before any major UK tournaments (like WCG) since we were usually the main competitors.
Karl: Must have killed him that you qualified both times and him neither :S, UK sent 1 or 2?
Geek: 1 in 2001 for AOC, errr 2002 sorry, 2 in 2003 for AOM (Me/Trippin), though only the no.1 qualified for the eurogames in Paris
Karl: So, moving away from that for a bit, how would you describe your play style back in the day?
Geek: Hummmmm…well, when I very first got good (say about 2100) my playstyle was extremely messy, for a few reasons, firstly my computer was absolutely bollocks and I could only play on medium resolution, this made any sort of precise unit control impossible after mid-feudal age so I started from late Feudal and especially in castle I developed my playstyle that would inflict this messiness on my opponent too, which involved massive knight raids and knight floods and hope that after a certain amount of time my opponent would be overwhelmed with the flood of knights and I would win, this was actually extremely effective and I managed to beat a number of good players with this crude strategy….anyway…
As soon as I won my first cash prize tourney (I cant remember, think it was an L_Clan tournament on Highlands), I bought a better computer and my play style naturally changed from messy to more measured, though I still maintained a love of knight raiding/flooding My general technique in 1v1 is to try and dominate the map and maintain an economic advantage. I definitely prefer open games with multi front wars but seldom do people do what you want, so I guess I usually just try and adapt to whatever is happening in the game. Erm oh yeah and something else I like to do in 1v1 is try and keep a certain amount of constant pressure on the opponent, so I can keep him defending but also measure his progress, and when I sense he’s made some sort of decision (say, going for full feudal/castle attack or clicked the age upgrade button) ill do the opposite and try to create an imbalance. So if I think he’s clicked imperia I’ll go all out castle and if he’s preparing for a long castle age war, I’ll try and keep him occupied at home while I go for a quick imp.
Karl: Nice, alot of good insight, so where did you travel to play AoC tournaments?
Geek: I’ve been to: Kazakhstan, South Korea (x2), France, Czech Republic, Taiwan (x2), London, for Aoc and Aom
Karl: What tournaments were they?
Geek: Oh god, okay…I can’t remember much, Kazakhstan was a friendship cup with L Clan, South Korea was the 2003/2003 WCG finals, France was the eurocup cybergame finals, also been to London for WCG qualifiers and the Eurocup which you were at too :P
Karl: Hehe ya I remember well, I stayed back at the internet café and didn’t go for pints, the addiction!!
Geek: Haha
Karl: How did you do in AoM?
Geek: I basically didn’t like AoM at all, I played quite a lot at first, even managed to get No.1 on the ESO ladder for a period of time…back then everyone played Ra and did the same fast castle strategy, which seemed pretty unbeatable (roughly equivalent to Aztec on Arabia in my mind)…so I started playing Loki and doing pretty much the fastest rush possible whenever I played against Ra, I think half of the effectiveness was the fear factor to be honest, the other half being the favour bug :P I never really thought Loki was stronger than Ra but I thought it was good when people stopped playing Ra against me thinking Loki somehow countered them After that I gradually lost interest in Aom and played less and less, though I still participated in most of the tournaments.
Karl: Which was the most memorable or exciting tournament you traveled to in aoc?
Geek: It has to be WCG 2002 in South Korea, Seoul…the AOC players were all great friends and we had such a good time and the Korean players were awesome hosts, Kazakhstan was also totally amazing, Me and Sharif were only 16 and it was the first tournament we’d been to, they put us up in a 5-star hotel and everything…we’d go sightseeing during the day, then play some hardcore aoc in the evening and party at night.
Karl: And which was the most memorable online tournament?
Geek: Humm, oh right, I know the one…it was an L Clan tournament, I cant remember the exact settings but basically it was something like 1 on Arabia, 1 islands then the decider was on Regi Fortress, I was playing Steam for 3rd/4th place, 3rd place got $2000 and 4th place got nothing
Karl: lol…
Geek: Steam won Arabia, I won islands and we were playing the decider on Regi Fortress, I had (as far as I was concerned) won the game and was making the final push into his base to take victory then I see “you are victorious” screen pop up, so I say “gg” pleased with myself, then I noticed it actually says “you have been defeated” and it turned out he’d snuck into my base with a bunch of cavs and killed my king
Karl: Oh man
Geek: I was SO gutted, needless to say I was pretty damn careful with my king in any regi games since then
Karl: So…What was your favourite team or clan to play in and why?
Geek: Hmm, L Clan definitely gave me the best experience overall but since that’s such a big clan I’ll pick another one, I guess It’d have to be DjiNN, since I was with them as I was getting good, It was headed up by DjiNN_Queen (L_Clan_Inc) with DjiNN_Crouvex (L_Clan_Fry) and DjiNN_Steam (L_Clan_Ugnis), and DjiNN_RuhaM (another good English player). Crouvex really took me udner his wing and thought me a lot of stuff about Aoc and let me watch him play etc. It was an exciting time because I was hanging out and playing regularily with players better than me and there was a good clan atmosphere, it was also the time when I took on the name DjiNN_Geek, well GeeK
Karl: :P Ah ha, u were probably what rate then?
Geek: Joined at about 1800 (that was minimum requirement and I only got in because I knew RuHaM) then left at about 2100/2200, which was when I first joined L CLan
Karl: What was ur highest rate attained?
Geek: About 2300 back in the day.
Karl: I think koven was 2500 for a while then rest caught up
Geek: Ya that sounds about right, well I didn’t actually play rated after I got good, as soon as I got “access” to the best players in unrated, so I’d usually just log on and message someone, then we’d play a bunch of games unrated…since at that time everything was about winning tournaments rather than rated points.
Karl: Much Team gaming? Did u play in my TG’s at all?
Geek: I cant remember, well at first I hardly played TG’s at all, especially since my PC couldn’t hack it, but after getting the new PC I started brancinhg out a lot before that I just played 1v1’s and by the end I basically only played team games, since small weaknesses show up less, in technique anyway, not in strategy :P
Karl: Yes, im great at covering them up in TG’s.
Geek: haha, to be honest most of my fun was had in team games, 4v random map/civ with some of the best players in the world
Karl: Yea I enjoyed the same from 2002 up to probably 2007, all I played was 2k+ TG’s, hosting in Ladder, the very rare 1v1
Geek: I think it was the tournaments that kept me playing 1v1 after a certain stage. Actually even Aom was fun for a bit with mass random civ/map games, not that it lasted long.
Karl: How did you practice to get better when you were in and around 17/1800?
Geek: When I was around 17/1800 I actually much preferred watching rec games and reading up about strategies rather than playing myself but then I started working on trying to get my rating higher then I’d offer to play smurfs in rated and give them all my points as long as they recorded the games…then after much blood, sweat and tears I managed to make it to about 1900 and one day I came across a smurf 1900 or so and all wins and we chatted for a bit, then he said he was Chris, so I was obviously pretty excited, since I never played anyone that good, also he wouldn’t record…anyway, we played and I managed to stay pretty even with him through feudal and then castle age came and it was an extremely open map so I went for some big knight raiding and we had a pretty epic all-out castle war it was a totally open map and neither of us walled, in the end, after about an hour and a half, I managed to win which was pretty damn surprising, given that he was about 2400 and definitely one of the best players in the world already, needless to say I got totally lucky but anyway, he challenged me to a rematch and then another and then another and another then we ended up becoming friends…err I should point out that he won all the rematches with ease…anyway, since I wasn’t afraid to lose points and since Chris loved winning points, we ended up playing a lot of games, with him trying out new strategies on me and stuff and it was during this time that I really found my feet and after a few months my rating shot up to about 2100, at which point Chris said he didn’t want to play anymore because I was getting too good and this was about the time that the L Clan tournaments were getting big haha…so after that I fairly quickly went to 2200 and 2300. By then I was friends with the “expert community” so finding games with other high rated players was easy, I’d usually log on and message someone for a game, we’d go and play a bunch of games in ladder
Karl: When you were still learning who were your idols?
Geek: Firstly Koven like everyone and also RD_Champion...i really really liked champs playing style and tried to model myself on how he played. Koven played too precisely and conservatively for me (although of course I could still admire it) and then of course Chris, who had the biggest impact when I was becoming an expert. I also have a lot of respect for Halen…oh and also Crouvex
Karl: Gimme a shortlist of your clans…
Geek: DjiNN_GeeK, L_Clan_Geek, Atomic_13st, Mystic_Persia, UKAK_Reefa, ArtofZilla, CsI_Tea, pG_Geek (In AoM)
Karl: Are you still in contact with old players?
Geek: Very rarely, though I stayed friends with Sharif for a long time, still occasionly talk with some of the Taiwanese players too
Karl: Can you tell us some secrets or not know facts about some old expert players?
Geek: Yea a few but I don’t think they’d appreciate it :P How about this…ive never completed campaign mode!
Karl: Do you miss old AoC times?
Geek: Yep I miss aoc times loads. It was such a big part of my youth and I’ll always have good memories about it. On one hand I spent way too much time in my room when I shoulda been out partying (...or studying), but on the other hand the zone was about the most social place around, and I got to travel around the world for tournaments and have an awesome time.
Karl: Can you tell us more about WCG, u must have a ton of stories people would love to hear
Geek: I wouldn't even know where to start with that question. I had such a great time at both of the WCGs with all the AOC players, and Kkab and Grunt showed us how to party Korean style. I guess one of the funny things I remember was going to a posh Korean club with a bunch of other mostly under-aged players, and getting in for free because we were with some famous SC players. Oh yeah, and also seeing crowds of schoolgirls screaming after the SC players... those guys really have it good.
There are other stories of course, but they aren't fit for popular consumption
Karl: Can you remember an important AoC match which made an impression?
Geek: There are almost too many to name. There are the one's I've already mentioned with Chris and Steam, but here are a few more off the top of my head. The first one is a recorded game of Koven against some guy on highland, and I think it may have been a tournament game. Anyway, how koven played totally blew me away...I just couldn't believe it. At first he grushed, and his galley micro was just absolutely perfect, then he lands and starts pumping out archers. The other guy reacts with skirms, so Koven gathers his archers on the highground and starts targeting the skirms one by one with awesome micro, slowly building up an advantage. That game has always stuck in my mind as an example of playing technically flawless AOC... of course, last time I saw the game was a long time ago and I was probably about 1750, so who knows what the game was actually like:P
The second game was where I actually got to play against Koven. If I remember correctly I had just made it to about 2000, and through the recommendation of a friend I managed to get a game with the great one himself. This probably doesn't seem like a big deal now, but at the time there were very few recordings of Koven (or the other top Koreans), and I was nowhere near good enough to play with them usually. Anyway, it was a pretty standard game on Arabia. A few scouts, then a few skirms and pikes, then a fast (22 mins or so) castle followed by knights was in vogue, and that's precisely what we both did. I ended up resigning at about 25 minutes, but I took a lot away from the game. Firstly, wall only part of your base - you want to direct enemy forces down a certain path, not try and keep them out completely (or waste resources on loads of walls). Secondly, don't make too many military buildings before your economy is ready, it just hampers development and leads to stagnation. Anyway, I was so blown away (again) by his play that I was determined to try and work out how he did it, so after the game I counted all his villagers and looked at the ratios (etc) and essentially tried to work out how he balanced his economy during feudal age and early castle. In the end, after much thinking, I was able to match his development and production, and I was pretty sure I'd cracked how he did it (yes, there is a secret trick....go and count his villagers yourselves if you want to know!). This ended up having quite some influence on how I balanced my economy as well as its relationship to army production.
I also really can't help mentioning here that the next (and last) time I played a 1v1 with Koven a few years later I managed to win. It was a really mundane game and he wasn't at his peak but it meant a lot to me anyway.
Thirdly, the finals of the "Eurocup" against Tommy (Crouvex/L_Clan_Fry) in London meant quite a lot to me. Like I mentioned earlier, he used to let me watch him play and teach me some things when I was a rook, and I respected him a lot as a player. For whatever reason we stopped playing for a year or two, and the next time we met was for the finals of this tournament. I had the feeling that this was a kind of "master vs. the apprentice" moment. The other reason is that the PC cafe was packed with people, and everyone was crowding around our PCs to watch the games as we played, which made it extra tense. After some tough games I managed to win it 2:0, and got to take a big stack of £50 notes home.
Karl: Well Piers thanks for giving me your time :P Your long answers meant it took me 10x the original time thought lol…I know people will love to read it, Ruso was already hassling me on MSN to post this..
Geek: You're welcome, and a big hello to all my old friends and playing buddies if you read this!
Karl: I hope you join Voobly sometime soon and play
Geek: I'll see you on there as soon as I can get my hands on a decent PC and some free time
My earliest memories of Piers was watching himself, Dante and L_Clan_Chris playing 1v1 after 1v1 and trying to come up with new strategies on arabia, doing a 3 farm scout rush or a 3 range all skirm flush. I came up against him many times in the RTSUK & Ireland leagues but it wasnt until i met him in London for the Eurocup 2002 and watched him play Crouvex in the finals of it and beat him i knew he was something special.
Living: Taipei, Taiwan
Favorite Civ: Mongols
Favorite map: Blind random
Karl: Great, well first of all thanks for letting me interview you Piers, no doubt it will be a magical experience as we travel back in time like two traveling wives going back to relive our glory days, all the Geek fans will be jizzing their pants in anticipation of reading this
Geek: lol
Karl: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Geek: sure, I'm 24, currently living and studying in Taiwan, delaying the inevitable day when I have to get a job, a "proper" job...
Karl: still studying? how long you been studying for at this stage?
Geek: I basically didn't study at all when I was a kid (too much aoc?), and I realised when I was about 19 that reading and learning was actually pretty interesting, so I'm trying to make the most of it while I still can
Karl: good lad, your still young *cough*, plenty of time *cough cough*
Geek: lol, almost 25, bloody hell!
Karl: So do you play any aoc or other games now, you are single you would have time?
Geek: not really, I’ve got into chess in a pretty big way in the last 2 years or so, so I play that online
Karl: be a ringer for Ruso so, hes into that online board game jazz, I think chess and aoc seem to go hand in hand.
Geek: Oh ya…I should probs say I'm on a government scholarship here to study chinese
Geek: Yeah ive noticed quite a few similarities between chess and aoc although I think aoc is way more complicated and therefore relies on intuition (rather than calculation) a lot more.
Karl: So apart from chess, whackin off and studying what do you do in your spare time?
Geek: The usual stuff, hang around with friends, play pool and chess, eat curries, listen to good music and learn Chinese
Karl: Kinda like John Lennon
Geek: I….Guess…lol, also go hiking when the weather permits
Karl: What kinda choons you into?
Geek: Recently mostly Reggae and dubstep and a lot of old stuff
Karl: Weed accompany the reggae I hope
Geek: Not here in Taiwan, you’ll get 50 lashes
Karl: Favourite color in game?
Geek: yellow, although I only leave it on yellow for the first 5mins, then alt-g so im blue, otherwise I get confused with whos who in team games…also cant stand playing against grey/teal
Karl: Any sports you haven’t mentioned?
Geek: I love the odd bit of 5-a-side footy and table tennis.
About AoC and other games
Karl: When did you start playing AoC? When/why did you quit?
Geek: I’m terrible with dates, but I first played aoc when i was visiting my dad one holiday and I got totally hooked, just playing against the computer. But since I lived with my mum and didn’t have a computer I only ever got to play it every now and then. So I ended up buying a strategy guide that had all the facts and figures in it (prima I guess) and started coming up with strategies/build orders just on paper, then trying them out next time I played aoc, then after a while I ended up getting my own PC and…well, that was that, as for why I quit, at first it was because AOM came out and I switched to that, and then I finally left it was because I wanted to go back to school and gradually just played less and less untl I wasn’t playing anymore, just realised I didn’t give you any dates there lol…when was the argo 2v2 tournament?
Karl: Umm 2005/6?, you started around 2002?
Geek: earlier than that, I was in WCG 2002/2003, more like 2000/2001 I guess
Karl: You ever going to come back to Aoc?
Geek: I don’t think so :P though I remain very nostalgic
Karl: Seems we all do :P
Geek: haha
Karl: Tell us, what did you love about Aoc in particular?
Geek: At first I loved the variety of ways to play and all the different strategies and how it was easy to come up with new stuff yourself, later on I was more interested in copying the top players and trying to perfect my game on 1v1 arabia, which was also very satisfying, there was still a lot of creativity and variation even on Arabia, it was just much more subtle, especially because at the time the top players (i.e. the Koreans) wouldn’t record any games, so there was a lot of mystique about the whole thing, and I loved trying to work out how they did it, so basically I loved both the variety in the game but also trying to perfect certain techniques and strats.
Karl: And how was Aoc scene in the UK?
Geek: Pretty good, there was quite a thriving UK aoc community in the ol’ days and I was a member of the UKAK clan. I was also good friends with Sharif (Trippin) and we’d play together pretty often. Though we’d usually stop practicing with each other before any major UK tournaments (like WCG) since we were usually the main competitors.
Karl: Must have killed him that you qualified both times and him neither :S, UK sent 1 or 2?
Geek: 1 in 2001 for AOC, errr 2002 sorry, 2 in 2003 for AOM (Me/Trippin), though only the no.1 qualified for the eurogames in Paris
Karl: So, moving away from that for a bit, how would you describe your play style back in the day?
Geek: Hummmmm…well, when I very first got good (say about 2100) my playstyle was extremely messy, for a few reasons, firstly my computer was absolutely bollocks and I could only play on medium resolution, this made any sort of precise unit control impossible after mid-feudal age so I started from late Feudal and especially in castle I developed my playstyle that would inflict this messiness on my opponent too, which involved massive knight raids and knight floods and hope that after a certain amount of time my opponent would be overwhelmed with the flood of knights and I would win, this was actually extremely effective and I managed to beat a number of good players with this crude strategy….anyway…
As soon as I won my first cash prize tourney (I cant remember, think it was an L_Clan tournament on Highlands), I bought a better computer and my play style naturally changed from messy to more measured, though I still maintained a love of knight raiding/flooding My general technique in 1v1 is to try and dominate the map and maintain an economic advantage. I definitely prefer open games with multi front wars but seldom do people do what you want, so I guess I usually just try and adapt to whatever is happening in the game. Erm oh yeah and something else I like to do in 1v1 is try and keep a certain amount of constant pressure on the opponent, so I can keep him defending but also measure his progress, and when I sense he’s made some sort of decision (say, going for full feudal/castle attack or clicked the age upgrade button) ill do the opposite and try to create an imbalance. So if I think he’s clicked imperia I’ll go all out castle and if he’s preparing for a long castle age war, I’ll try and keep him occupied at home while I go for a quick imp.
Karl: Nice, alot of good insight, so where did you travel to play AoC tournaments?
Geek: I’ve been to: Kazakhstan, South Korea (x2), France, Czech Republic, Taiwan (x2), London, for Aoc and Aom
Karl: What tournaments were they?
Geek: Oh god, okay…I can’t remember much, Kazakhstan was a friendship cup with L Clan, South Korea was the 2003/2003 WCG finals, France was the eurocup cybergame finals, also been to London for WCG qualifiers and the Eurocup which you were at too :P
Karl: Hehe ya I remember well, I stayed back at the internet café and didn’t go for pints, the addiction!!
Geek: Haha
Karl: How did you do in AoM?
Geek: I basically didn’t like AoM at all, I played quite a lot at first, even managed to get No.1 on the ESO ladder for a period of time…back then everyone played Ra and did the same fast castle strategy, which seemed pretty unbeatable (roughly equivalent to Aztec on Arabia in my mind)…so I started playing Loki and doing pretty much the fastest rush possible whenever I played against Ra, I think half of the effectiveness was the fear factor to be honest, the other half being the favour bug :P I never really thought Loki was stronger than Ra but I thought it was good when people stopped playing Ra against me thinking Loki somehow countered them After that I gradually lost interest in Aom and played less and less, though I still participated in most of the tournaments.
Karl: Which was the most memorable or exciting tournament you traveled to in aoc?
Geek: It has to be WCG 2002 in South Korea, Seoul…the AOC players were all great friends and we had such a good time and the Korean players were awesome hosts, Kazakhstan was also totally amazing, Me and Sharif were only 16 and it was the first tournament we’d been to, they put us up in a 5-star hotel and everything…we’d go sightseeing during the day, then play some hardcore aoc in the evening and party at night.
Karl: And which was the most memorable online tournament?
Geek: Humm, oh right, I know the one…it was an L Clan tournament, I cant remember the exact settings but basically it was something like 1 on Arabia, 1 islands then the decider was on Regi Fortress, I was playing Steam for 3rd/4th place, 3rd place got $2000 and 4th place got nothing
Karl: lol…
Geek: Steam won Arabia, I won islands and we were playing the decider on Regi Fortress, I had (as far as I was concerned) won the game and was making the final push into his base to take victory then I see “you are victorious” screen pop up, so I say “gg” pleased with myself, then I noticed it actually says “you have been defeated” and it turned out he’d snuck into my base with a bunch of cavs and killed my king
Karl: Oh man
Geek: I was SO gutted, needless to say I was pretty damn careful with my king in any regi games since then
Karl: So…What was your favourite team or clan to play in and why?
Geek: Hmm, L Clan definitely gave me the best experience overall but since that’s such a big clan I’ll pick another one, I guess It’d have to be DjiNN, since I was with them as I was getting good, It was headed up by DjiNN_Queen (L_Clan_Inc) with DjiNN_Crouvex (L_Clan_Fry) and DjiNN_Steam (L_Clan_Ugnis), and DjiNN_RuhaM (another good English player). Crouvex really took me udner his wing and thought me a lot of stuff about Aoc and let me watch him play etc. It was an exciting time because I was hanging out and playing regularily with players better than me and there was a good clan atmosphere, it was also the time when I took on the name DjiNN_Geek, well GeeK
Karl: :P Ah ha, u were probably what rate then?
Geek: Joined at about 1800 (that was minimum requirement and I only got in because I knew RuHaM) then left at about 2100/2200, which was when I first joined L CLan
Karl: What was ur highest rate attained?
Geek: About 2300 back in the day.
Karl: I think koven was 2500 for a while then rest caught up
Geek: Ya that sounds about right, well I didn’t actually play rated after I got good, as soon as I got “access” to the best players in unrated, so I’d usually just log on and message someone, then we’d play a bunch of games unrated…since at that time everything was about winning tournaments rather than rated points.
Karl: Much Team gaming? Did u play in my TG’s at all?
Geek: I cant remember, well at first I hardly played TG’s at all, especially since my PC couldn’t hack it, but after getting the new PC I started brancinhg out a lot before that I just played 1v1’s and by the end I basically only played team games, since small weaknesses show up less, in technique anyway, not in strategy :P
Karl: Yes, im great at covering them up in TG’s.
Geek: haha, to be honest most of my fun was had in team games, 4v random map/civ with some of the best players in the world
Karl: Yea I enjoyed the same from 2002 up to probably 2007, all I played was 2k+ TG’s, hosting in Ladder, the very rare 1v1
Geek: I think it was the tournaments that kept me playing 1v1 after a certain stage. Actually even Aom was fun for a bit with mass random civ/map games, not that it lasted long.
Karl: How did you practice to get better when you were in and around 17/1800?
Geek: When I was around 17/1800 I actually much preferred watching rec games and reading up about strategies rather than playing myself but then I started working on trying to get my rating higher then I’d offer to play smurfs in rated and give them all my points as long as they recorded the games…then after much blood, sweat and tears I managed to make it to about 1900 and one day I came across a smurf 1900 or so and all wins and we chatted for a bit, then he said he was Chris, so I was obviously pretty excited, since I never played anyone that good, also he wouldn’t record…anyway, we played and I managed to stay pretty even with him through feudal and then castle age came and it was an extremely open map so I went for some big knight raiding and we had a pretty epic all-out castle war it was a totally open map and neither of us walled, in the end, after about an hour and a half, I managed to win which was pretty damn surprising, given that he was about 2400 and definitely one of the best players in the world already, needless to say I got totally lucky but anyway, he challenged me to a rematch and then another and then another and another then we ended up becoming friends…err I should point out that he won all the rematches with ease…anyway, since I wasn’t afraid to lose points and since Chris loved winning points, we ended up playing a lot of games, with him trying out new strategies on me and stuff and it was during this time that I really found my feet and after a few months my rating shot up to about 2100, at which point Chris said he didn’t want to play anymore because I was getting too good and this was about the time that the L Clan tournaments were getting big haha…so after that I fairly quickly went to 2200 and 2300. By then I was friends with the “expert community” so finding games with other high rated players was easy, I’d usually log on and message someone for a game, we’d go and play a bunch of games in ladder
Karl: When you were still learning who were your idols?
Geek: Firstly Koven like everyone and also RD_Champion...i really really liked champs playing style and tried to model myself on how he played. Koven played too precisely and conservatively for me (although of course I could still admire it) and then of course Chris, who had the biggest impact when I was becoming an expert. I also have a lot of respect for Halen…oh and also Crouvex
Karl: Gimme a shortlist of your clans…
Geek: DjiNN_GeeK, L_Clan_Geek, Atomic_13st, Mystic_Persia, UKAK_Reefa, ArtofZilla, CsI_Tea, pG_Geek (In AoM)
Karl: Are you still in contact with old players?
Geek: Very rarely, though I stayed friends with Sharif for a long time, still occasionly talk with some of the Taiwanese players too
Karl: Can you tell us some secrets or not know facts about some old expert players?
Geek: Yea a few but I don’t think they’d appreciate it :P How about this…ive never completed campaign mode!
Karl: Do you miss old AoC times?
Geek: Yep I miss aoc times loads. It was such a big part of my youth and I’ll always have good memories about it. On one hand I spent way too much time in my room when I shoulda been out partying (...or studying), but on the other hand the zone was about the most social place around, and I got to travel around the world for tournaments and have an awesome time.
Karl: Can you tell us more about WCG, u must have a ton of stories people would love to hear
Geek: I wouldn't even know where to start with that question. I had such a great time at both of the WCGs with all the AOC players, and Kkab and Grunt showed us how to party Korean style. I guess one of the funny things I remember was going to a posh Korean club with a bunch of other mostly under-aged players, and getting in for free because we were with some famous SC players. Oh yeah, and also seeing crowds of schoolgirls screaming after the SC players... those guys really have it good.
There are other stories of course, but they aren't fit for popular consumption
Karl: Can you remember an important AoC match which made an impression?
Geek: There are almost too many to name. There are the one's I've already mentioned with Chris and Steam, but here are a few more off the top of my head. The first one is a recorded game of Koven against some guy on highland, and I think it may have been a tournament game. Anyway, how koven played totally blew me away...I just couldn't believe it. At first he grushed, and his galley micro was just absolutely perfect, then he lands and starts pumping out archers. The other guy reacts with skirms, so Koven gathers his archers on the highground and starts targeting the skirms one by one with awesome micro, slowly building up an advantage. That game has always stuck in my mind as an example of playing technically flawless AOC... of course, last time I saw the game was a long time ago and I was probably about 1750, so who knows what the game was actually like:P
The second game was where I actually got to play against Koven. If I remember correctly I had just made it to about 2000, and through the recommendation of a friend I managed to get a game with the great one himself. This probably doesn't seem like a big deal now, but at the time there were very few recordings of Koven (or the other top Koreans), and I was nowhere near good enough to play with them usually. Anyway, it was a pretty standard game on Arabia. A few scouts, then a few skirms and pikes, then a fast (22 mins or so) castle followed by knights was in vogue, and that's precisely what we both did. I ended up resigning at about 25 minutes, but I took a lot away from the game. Firstly, wall only part of your base - you want to direct enemy forces down a certain path, not try and keep them out completely (or waste resources on loads of walls). Secondly, don't make too many military buildings before your economy is ready, it just hampers development and leads to stagnation. Anyway, I was so blown away (again) by his play that I was determined to try and work out how he did it, so after the game I counted all his villagers and looked at the ratios (etc) and essentially tried to work out how he balanced his economy during feudal age and early castle. In the end, after much thinking, I was able to match his development and production, and I was pretty sure I'd cracked how he did it (yes, there is a secret trick....go and count his villagers yourselves if you want to know!). This ended up having quite some influence on how I balanced my economy as well as its relationship to army production.
I also really can't help mentioning here that the next (and last) time I played a 1v1 with Koven a few years later I managed to win. It was a really mundane game and he wasn't at his peak but it meant a lot to me anyway.
Thirdly, the finals of the "Eurocup" against Tommy (Crouvex/L_Clan_Fry) in London meant quite a lot to me. Like I mentioned earlier, he used to let me watch him play and teach me some things when I was a rook, and I respected him a lot as a player. For whatever reason we stopped playing for a year or two, and the next time we met was for the finals of this tournament. I had the feeling that this was a kind of "master vs. the apprentice" moment. The other reason is that the PC cafe was packed with people, and everyone was crowding around our PCs to watch the games as we played, which made it extra tense. After some tough games I managed to win it 2:0, and got to take a big stack of £50 notes home.
Karl: Well Piers thanks for giving me your time :P Your long answers meant it took me 10x the original time thought lol…I know people will love to read it, Ruso was already hassling me on MSN to post this..
Geek: You're welcome, and a big hello to all my old friends and playing buddies if you read this!
Karl: I hope you join Voobly sometime soon and play
Geek: I'll see you on there as soon as I can get my hands on a decent PC and some free time