Note: It was DauT's wish not to have a photo attached to the interview
Mr Asphalt: Hi again.. Although the name Daut is very well-known, only few people really
know who is behind this name. Can you please introduce yourself ?
Daut: Darko Dautovic, yeah daut comes from my last name, i am from Belgrade the capital of
Serbia , studying business university.
Mr Asphalt: So your future work will be in the business right ?
Daut: Will probablly get job in some bank.
Mr Asphalt: Have you ever wondered about being a pro-gamer. For exmaple like Arch_Koven or
is it unrealistic in Serbia ?
Daut: Yeah gaming is too small in Serbia to be pro-gamer, maybe sc2 will change that.
Mr Aspahlt: Starcraft 2 ?
Daut: Yeah i am pretty sure it will be a huge game everywhere.
Mr Asphalt: Can you tell us which games you have played and which one is your favorite?
Daut: Aoc was first game i played then 4-5 years ago warhammer got WCG so i played it for
few months was doing fine ( 5th in GGL tourney ) but serbia didnt send player for it so i quit
then later Rise of legends came with 100k tourney there was 3x online tourneys 10k$ (i won
first one and qualified for final like that) each and big final one 70k$ which i lost to grunt in
final and last game i played was CnC again for wcg that game was just horible ^^
Favorite game would be aoc of course although rise of legends was really great game shame it
died after 100k tourney.
Mr Asphalt: Iam glad to hear that aoc is your favorite game . How long have you been
playing aoc ?
Daut: 8 years i think , started about 1 year after 1.0c patch.
Mr Asphalt: Can you tell us more. Did you start playing immediately online or first you played
only with friends?
Daut: First i played only with couple of friends in lan and when i started highschool a friend told
me about zone and thats point where my life went into the wrong direction ^^
Mr Asphalt: Haha .How much time does it take to be 2k, do you remember ?
Daut: Well at first playing games was "a waste of time" but once i start winning cash it was
a different story ^^.
Hmm not really, remember maybe year or two, i remeber i got from 2k to 2300 in less than a
month road to 2k i was just watching top players and try to copy them and once i started
using my own brain it was easy to reach 2300+
Mr Asphalt: You were talking about when you first won cash. Was it alliance cup 2002 ?
Daut: It was legion BF tournament lost it in final vs chris i am still mad about that game ^^
was my first tourney and i got final presure got to me i had such a big advantage cant belive i
lost it ^^ Not really my desk is mess ^^.
AoCZone note - you can download the mentioned game here.
Mr Asphalt: Do you care about equipment while playing aoc? Do you have an ordinary mouse
and keyboard or some special stuff ?
Daut: I didnt change those for last 4-5 years just using stuff i am used to dont think
equipment is that important u will play best with ur own mouse even if its crappy old ball
mouse and some old cordless keyboard. I have optical logitech g7
Mr Asphalt: Interesting. Do you remember some really nice record which you consider interesting?
Daut: Mean lately or all the time? From new records i cant say anything is interesting, aoc is
getting more and more simple soon it will be 1 tc war and 1 unit mass ( CA).
Mr Asphalt: Not important ....just if some interesting record comes to your mind.
Daut: Well right now the only "interesting" recs that come to my mind are from old times like
arbalet cup 1 final and halen domination at wcg
Mr Asphalt: Your favorite civ/map ?
Daut: civ maya /map regicide fortress
Mr Asphalt: Somebody told me “Teuton for sure.” Was your favorite civ Teuton ?
Daut: I like picking teutons on arab u can skip feudal with them pretty easly and go for big kts
mass but their imp trash units are just horrible.
Mr Asphalt: Who is your favorite player in the world or who is usually the hardest opponent?
Daut: Well I dont like playing againts players that go all out in first feudal attack cuz i think its
luck based and it doesnt give players chance to show their full skills.
But the hardest opponent i guess would be chris cuz he knows me well and how to counter me.
Mr Asphalt: Favourite player ? Some teacher ?
Daut: Never had favorite player or teacher, but have to mantion kkab who was always there
for practice games during bcc2 it helped a lot.
Mr Ashpalt: From time to time some new players ask me, what they should practice at the beginning.
I usually recomed first learn FC, then boom and after that flush. What do you think about this?
Daut: Well u cant just practice some part of the game, you have to practice it all. Arab huns used to
be most skilled match up and best for practice now i am not so sure. Also it is good for practice not to play with walls but let ur map open for raiding, it teaches u how to stop enemy even if u get a bad map
Mr Ashpalt: Interesting point about walls never thought that way. What do you think is most
important in the game ? What makes you win if you play with an equally strong?
Daut: game/map control. If u control the game u can win even if u have less eco or even army.
Mr Asphalt: We skipped one question so I'll repeat it again
Not many people can understand what it means to be a TOP player. Sure it takes a lot of
time, in view of the fact that you have been one of best player for a long time. What is your
background ? What do your family or girlfriend think about playing games?
Daut: Like I said already, at first gaming was "a waste of time" once i start earning nice cash
it was a different story ^^ and it doesn't really take that much time anymore ,it took a lot of time to become
top but for example i played only like 5-6 games every other day vs kkab to win bcc2 that's
just few.
Mr Asphalt: Have you ever tried explaining to your parents whats going on in this game ?
Daut: Nop but they all make fun of aoc bells and sheeps and cows of course!
Mr Asphalt: Totally understand 11.
Daut: Yeah guess its an anoying sound to other ppl ^^
Mr Asphalt: Most dangerous opponent in "Master of the huns" ?
Daut: hmm goodboy i think because of his kamikaze rush, he doesnt even bother making vills so if
his rush pass i will be in trouble. I am pretty confident i can beat him after rush and i already
got some starts prepared how to stop it so it shouldnt be prob ^^.
I enjoy challange so it will be fun playing against chris again and goodboy
Mr Asphalt: Who do you enjoy playing with the most? Serbian friends or do you prefer high-rated
players.
Daut : Well with serbian friends it's not really about game it's just fun cuz we know each other
very well. I am a very competitive person so i love playing against good players and if i lose i cant stop
playing ^^
I enjoy playing with kkab, chris although i havent played against chris in years. All high-skilled players are fun
to play with.
Mr Asphalt: You have played for a long time, how would you compare aoc nowadays and
aoc in the past ? Was it harder to be on TOP in the past ?
DauT:
I think it was cuz nowadays, at least to me, the game seems so much easier to play, like everything is
already known and discovered. Everyone can play everything, there's no mystery in the game anymore.
Mr Asphalt: Without a doubt you are one of the best players in aoc ever. What is the secret to
being the best ?
Daut: When u lose (well even when u win) see what ur mistakes were and dont repeat them
Mr Asphalt: Have you ever wanted to quit AOC or RTS ?
Daut: Well i "quit" lots of times but tournaments bring so much excitment and motivation to
keep playing so i always came back.
Mr Asphalt: One of best friends of mine said you can know a player a bit better through his HK.
Can you share with us your most-used HK in the game ?
Daut: Groups ( Ctrl+1 2 3)
All default ,just idle vill = tab and go to stable = ctrl+q.
Mr Ashpalt: omg how can you play with that?!
Daut: big hands 11
well I've been playing like that for years, too late to change it now ^^
Mr Asphalt: Have you ever been to Prague? If we invited you to a lan, would you come ?
Daut: nope have never been there, well i wouldnt go alone but with a friend it should be fun.
Mr Asphalt: Ok, one final question: AoE has been around for more than 10 years. That makes
this game one of oldest still playing RTS games. How do you see the future of this game and
the whole AoC community ?
Daut: aoc will always be there mostly thx to ppl like canary and anycall who still keep
sponsoring tourneys and bringing high competition to the game, so even now after 10 years
we can see some new ideas and new starts.
Mr Asphalt:
Thank you very much Daut for the interview. I wish you the best of luck in "Masters of the Huns".