The experts keep you honest. The experts also teaches you how to win, but presents only very few opportunities to practice winning. The beginner, on the other hand, will let you practice winning until it’s second nature. At that time, you must return to the experts.
- David Sirlin, Playing to Win
thePledge — Since about two weeks, a new face has shown itself over the TF2 horizon. With no experience in Team Fortress 2 whatsoever, he decided to take it open him and stream his adventure through the wide, open fields that is our glorious online shooter. With scout as his favorite class, the Force-a-Nature as his favorite weapon and “Later, bro!” as his general catchphrase, Jake’n’bake is storming through the public scene, and into our hearts.
Read on for the full article, including an interview with the man himself!
After the (amazing, might I add) feature to view all the live streams got added to this very website, I noticed there was a guy streaming who I had never heard of. Since it was eight o’clock in the morning and I was quite bored, I decided to tune in and see what was up. After a very warming “welcome to the stream Zhepledge” , I actually found myself interested in who this guy actually was. After watching the stream a little, the above quote came to mind. He seems like a competitive guy who loves to be the best. And playing with the pro’s, like he has done over the past couple of days, is exactly how to get there. To make sure that no-one actually has to go through this entire ritual themselves, I spoke to Jake and see what he had to say about himself, the stream and all his plans for TF2. Enjoy the interview, and please read on after that to find out how you can participate with the madness that is Happy Hour with Jake’n’bake!
(Pledge) Hey Jake! Thanks for doing this interview with us. Considering you’re a new TF2 player, can you give us an introduction about yourself?
(Jake) Hello back to you as well! Well, I am a pretty normal 20 year old guy living in southern California, I think. I am a full time student and I work part-time as a computer technician at a local retail store. As far as gaming, I am just a very competitive casual player if that makes sense. In the past, some of the games I have picked up and actually played at a high level include: World of Warcraft (Top 15 US Guild), Super Street Fighter 4, and Starcraft 2 (Currently Master level player). I have never really competed at a professional level of any sort, but I would like to think I am that good at times =P. Most people would just consider me a casual player when it comes to video games; but I tend to do my research and practice hard enough to at least be somewhat decent. Overall, I just like to have a good time when I play!
How did you first get involved with TF2? And what were the reasons for you to stick with the game until now?
I have always known about Team Fortress 2, as many of my co-workers have played casually and I have played Counter-Strike for many years just for fun. I just never really gave it a chance unfortunately until it was free-to-play. Immediately, I realized what I have been missing out on. To be honest, this game has such a great amount of strategic game-play that not everyone notices. This game has an awesome look to it as well as smooth, fast game-play. Probably my favorite feature of the game is having the class system in addition to be able to customize your class however you feel necessary. I just feel like it is a game that is very easy to have fun with, even when playing seriously, and I really find that hard to find in modern games. Oh, and hats! Can’t forget the hats! =D
You’ve recently started streaming your public TF2 adventure. What’s the main goal here?
Once Team Fortress 2 was free-to-play and I picked it up and fell in love with it, a great idea popped in my mind. As I have been a part of the Justin.tv community for a while, as a viewer and now wanting to broadcast, I realized that it would be a great opportunity to establish a Team Fortress 2 communtiy within Justin.tv. I have seen many games, mainly Starcraft 2, create a strong presence on this website mainly because that player base is so large. My idea was that with the recent news of Team Fortress 2 being free-to-play, there will be a large amount of new players like myself who would want to play and be apart of a community where they can feel at home. The goal I have, which is publicly written on my stream info for viewers, is to create and maintain the Team Fortress 2 community on Justin.tv. I want to be able to accommodate all Team Fortress 2 players, whether they are just beginning, or a professional player. The idea is have a place where any Team Fortress 2 fan or player can come hangout, watch some fun game-play on random servers, talk and interact with each other, and overall enjoy themselves and the game.
You said once on the stream that you were a very competitive person. Are you looking to get into 6v6 TF2 sooner or later?
I am pretty competitive, but I also like to have fun at the same time. As far as 6v6 competitive Team Fortress 2, it is not anything that I have really been looking at personally. The reason that I really haven’t really been thinking about playing this is just because at this point, my main goal is to just help this community continue to grow. I would be very excited to see some of the new players, including myself, one day be apart of the competitive scene and play at this competitive level at one point. But, as you know, me being a competitive person will eventually lead me to wanting to probably playing some 6v6 at a higher level when the time comes. At this point, I am very focused on becoming more knowledgeable about the game, improving my game-play, and expanding the community that we have. For me, I would hope to maybe play some 6v6 competitively later. I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go. xD
So, your quest to create a TF2 community has started. What’s next? Got any plans set in stone?
Yes, it sure has, and it is crazy to think how quickly this community is growing. It has been under 2 weeks and there is already over 800 followers on Justin.tv, 450 members of the steam group, and about 200 viewers regularly. So far, I have been greatly encouraged by the reaction I am getting from the viewers and even some of the competitive scenes, such as VanillaTF2.org. As far as what is next, the number one thing on my mind is continue this expansion. I want to keep streaming and involving the viewers and hopefully make this stream and community THEE place to be to watch some casual Team Fortress 2, or just hangout.
If this community continues to grow, I do plan on having in-game item giveaways for viewers as well as some contests and item giveaways out of game for the viewers and followers of the stream. I actually have one planned for my 1,000 follower mark which should be exciting. One other thing I have had in mind to be able to do for the community is to be able to create my own personal server that will be able to be joined by anyone in the community. I still have to do some research to get that started, but that’s just some ideas as this community is still growing like wildfire!
Where did your catchphrase “Later, bro” come from?
Alright so when I first started streaming and playing with some of the viewers I was noticing that I was killing most of them, a repeated amount of time. I didn’t want to say “I killed you!” or something like that because that just seems sort of mean or cocky. Eventually “Later, Bro” just came out. I guess I say “Later” a lot when I say goodbye to people and calling someone a “Bro” sort of implies that you want to be somewhat friendly with them in general. I guess that is the best way to say how that started. I just think it flows well, and isn’t the meanest thing to say when I dominate a whole team with me Force’ a’ Nature that is nicknamed “Later, bro.” Mwuhahaha!
Thank you for talking to us and keep doing what you do! Later bro!
Well I just wanted to thank you so much for even doing this interview with me. I never would of thought when I first started streaming that, within two weeks, I would have this much support from the viewers and already established Team Fortress 2 communities such as VanillaTF2.org. It is extremely encouraging to me to see such positive feedback from the community already and I cannot wait to see how much it can continue to grow. It can only get bigger from here, and I am excited for that! Again, thank you so much for your support! I strongly encourage anyone who is reading this and has not taken the chance to peek at what we have going on to do so. You may find yourself having a “Happy Time with Jake’n’Bake”. =]
With his laid-back attitude and his urge to welcome every single person who joins the stream, Jake has also got the attention of some of the top TF2 players in Europe. Previously seen (and got raged at by Jake himself) are hymzi , Darn, cookye and kaidus. I have also taken interest in his stream, as well as VanillaTF2′s own Martn. With his quickly growing stream, a large audience of public players and competitive players to back him up, surely it can’t be long before also the North American community will pick up on it.
Jake will be streaming every day at the moment, between about 23.00 PST and 04.00 PST, which comes down to 08.00 CEST and 13.00 CEST. Once again, his stream will feature on the right side of the very website when he is live, so make sure to tune in to some lovely public action where you can interact with people, enjoy some TF2, hop in to play with the viewers themselves and, most importantly, to make TF2 grow as a whole!
Some important links to get in touch with him and joining his project:
Steam Group – http://steamcommunity.com/groups/jakenbake728
Stream – http://www.twitch.tv/jakenbake728
You can find him on IRC occasionally as well, in # vanillatf2.
As a personal note from me, I’d just like to use this opportunity to tell Jake he’s doing an amazing job, and I’m hoping he will be using his newly received Stainless Pot! Thanks for reading everyone.
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2011-07-16 by ThePledge.
Recovered from the Internet Archive (archived copy) as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of VanillaTV's TF2 coverage. The original site is no longer online. All rights remain with the original author; reposted for historical reference.