We put a final nail in the coffin of Assembly 2010 coverage for the Team Fortress 2 Professional tournament and interview the champions
I am a man of my word, if nothing else. When I say I will interview Power Gaming, I interview Power Gaming. When I say I will go to Helsinki and cover Assembly 2010, I go to Helsi...
Oh... well, er, I’m only human right?
No you fuckwits! Haven’t you been paying attention? I am James J. motherfucking “Admirable” McDonnell from Cadred.org! I make and break careers in European Team Fortress 2.
So obviously, the Power Gaming players were queuing up for an audience with me; five of the bastards! The awe-inspring soldier duo of, Jani "hocz" Laakkonen and Tuomas "Punpu" Kunnamo, the controversial scout partnership of Tuomas "vallone" Vepsäläinen and Tony "cookye" Hänninen and last but not least their player-turned-manager, head honcho and former Cadred writer, Juha "Moose" Pättö.
Interview with Power Gaming, Assembly 2010 Champions
Ahoy there Power Gaming, champions of the world! How the hell did you manage to win Assembly 2010? :D
vallone:
<@pwr\hocz> no jos et oo tuhannen päissää niiku viimeks ni eiköhä meil oo mahkut voittaa
Moose:
that means: if you're not completely wasted like last time, we have a good chance to win (speaking to vallone)
that'd be the biggest reason, most likely :D
cookye:
yup
Punpu:
we made the tactical choice to lose to dignitas the day before finals so we could sleep longer
You might not be far off there, Punpu, a few of the Group B teams definitely complained about the late night Thursday/early morning Friday situation. Do you think things were well run this time around? What improvements would you like to see for future events?
Hocz:
Yeah some clans had to play late and wake up early, we had nice times tho
everything else was fine except the random disconnects that happened
Punpu:
and there were quite alot of those :p
vallone:
i like turtles
Moose:
but even with those, it was the best tf2 lan yet, imo
Hocz:
oh yeah, and cookie's mic didn't work until the final
cookye:
yup
The best LAN ever,even though there were no Irish attending? I don’t understand D:
How many men did vallone kiss this time? He was really whoring himself out at i39...
vallone:
haha this time i think hmm..... once.
Hocz:
no beer, no queer
Punpu:
cookye did that part pretty well
cookye:
yup
A sober Power Gaming at ASM*(Source: coolclan.eu)*
So what’s next on the agenda for this resurgent Power Gaming team? Multiplay’s Insomnia 40?
Moose:
Unfortunately i40 was never in our plans and it's too late and costly to start arranging it now. The team really didn't have any officials played before Assembly, so sending such a fresh squad to England was a bit too risky. Even though personally I think they'd have a good chance at i40 as well but in the end the prize money isn't enough to justify the trip this time.
Hocz:
:(
vallone:
:(
cookye:
:(
Punpu:
:(
Hocz:
yup
Moose:
We'll definitely attend the future LANs if they have something worthwhile to fight for. Assembly Winter and Gamers Assembly come to mind.
or whatever that French LAN was called :D
That’s pretty surprising actually, I thought Power Gaming at i-Series was a dead cert! I guess you guys know you can’t fluke two tournaments in a row? :D
Punpu:
gotta give some time for dignitas to gather themselves
vallone:
yup
Mmm I hear Darn has been crying himself to sleep every night since Assembly. What happened in Helsinki to turn things around from getting pummelled 6-1 in the Group Stage to winning in two straight maps?
Hocz:
they paused the game and crafted hats.. after that we got mad
Punpu:
you should have seen vallonen's face
vallone:
(next)
Moose:
Seemed to me like Dignitas stopped playing seriously for a moment in 1-4 situation on Badlands.
Hocz:
Yeah and we had a good warmup for gp and bl as we just had won TCM a moment before in those maps
Punpu:
(they should have picked granary)
Moose:
Also hocz made the tactic of the year: diggy didn't come to middle at all in the beginning. They rushed when they felt ready but stayed back until then. Then hocz asked the guys "why don't we just go on the CP and cap it before they come?". Someone replied to him "we can't, it's stickied" and he just said "well... shoot the damn stickies!"
So they did and the rest is history.
vallone:
yup
Who do you think gave you a tougher game at Assembly, TCM-Gaming or Team Dignitas?
vallone:
Dignitas.
cookye:
deffo
Punpu:
yup
Moose:
besides granary, the TCM game seemed rather easy
Hocz:
dignitas was better
Would Haunter have made the difference?
Moose:
Who knows, but they've pretty much always done worse on LANs than online so I doubt it.
Punpu:
would have been a close game though (as if it wasn't)
Moose:
If they manage to beat dignitas at i40, I might believe it.
Otherwise, no.
Hocz:
well Haunter's main class is soldier and I believe he does some calling aswell, so yeah I think he would have made some impact to the team
I’m still in shock after hearing that you guys are going to skip out on i40. I mean you just won €4000, why don’t you pay your own way? Is Newbury really that much of a shithole?
vallone:
i have to pay my rent
cookye:
same
Punpu:
too much organizing for our tiny heads
Hocz:
I'm planning to get back to Finland just that weekend so I'm just going to stick to that plan
Hocz:
damn swedes
Moose:
And yes, it is a shithole :D
Mwhaha, I’m just busting balls. Has there perhaps been a change in the attitude of Power Gaming management towards supporting TF2 or is it really just bad timing and unfortunate circumstances?
Moose:
Bad timing, I don't think there have been any changes that way. At least Glen still loves the game :D
PwR is still one of the best MGOs to support a TF2 team, if not the best.
Power Gaming on stage at ASM*(Source: coolclan.eu)*
What is the official Power Gaming policy on cookye’s hacking? Is it OK as long as you guys keep winning the big bucks?
Hocz:
:D
cookye:
yup
Moose:
If he'd hack, he wouldn't be in the team.
Simple as that.
Hocz:
it has been fun to follow the threads in gotfrag though
Moose:
We watched a lot of pov demos from him before recruiting him though, just to make sure.
Hocz:
but gotta say it's a pain to play against him in lan or online, no wonder people get annoyed
I’m sure you guys have read the epic thread(s) on GotFrag debating and analysing his every movement of the mouse, do you find it frustrating or amusing? Will the debate ever be settled?
Moose:
I don't think anyone really cares about what users on gotfrag say. They're 90% trolling on the site anyways.
Hocz:
I find it amusing that people judge things based on a fragvideo, those clips were actually in some of cookye's povs that we watched before recruiting him
Punpu:
yeah they go like, "he never misses!" Isn't that kinda the point of a frag movie?
Hocz:
yeh, that could be an idea though, make a fail video
Moose:
I think cookye likes to troll himself quite a bit, especially when it comes to gotfrag.
How prevalent do you think the problem of cheating is in competitive TF2? Do you think there are any players at the highest level who are “machine assisted”?
Punpu:
the russians, every single one of them
:P
Hocz:
I don't think cheating is an issue in high level competitive TF2. You basically know every player and know how they play and how good they can be. It might raise some suspicion when some new player comes on board tho
vallone:
“machine assisted” ? like a rocketjump script ?
Nah hax bro, fucking wiseguy!
Moose:
I heard hocz is machine assisted and uses a script to rj!
Hocz:
rumours
Moose:
what a noob
Punpu:
even if a single player cheats in a team he can't win the whole match by himself so cheating isn't that much of a problem, comparing to counterstrike for example
Moose:
Could use a proper AC client in TF2 as well imo, ESL Wire isn't that good with all its problems but it's still better than nothing.
Hocz? Is he that guy who polishes Punpu’s boots? Team Dignitas singled Punpu out as the difference between the two finalists at Assembly. How does it feel to be carried by a modern day legend?
Hocz:
yeah Punpu did a very good job, but for my defense I have to say that we can't both play exactly the same way, so I had a little different role this time :)
vallone:
and hocz was too sleepy
Moose:
too sleepy man
Yeah so you are Punpu’s bitch?
Hocz:
we take turns
Punpu:
who let you out of the basement?
vallone:
:D
Hocz:
:D
Moose:
They're both amongst the best. Don't have another team around with a soldier duo like ours :D
Punpu:
except in the usa
they know how to airstrafe :/
**Moose:**Punpu can airstrafe when he's homing towards an incoming rocket though.
As seen on the Assembly promo video
vallone:
wanha
Hocz:
what is that airstafe ur talking about
Punpu:
you need to update your rj script
the new version has that!
Hocz:
ahh damn
When airstrafing goes wrong (Source: assembly.org)
Hahaha :D
Do you think we will ever see a EU vs NA match played at LAN? How much do you think would have to be in the prizepot to make it financially feasible?
Hocz:
that would be nice and I hope it will happen, even if we couldn't play them it would be best entertaintment of the year to watch it
Moose:
Maybe if there'd be another LAN like the PCGamer Showdown.
Or something like WCG or ESWC.
vallone:
of coz we watch.. its cookye vs NA
Hocz:
what comes to prizepot.. I don't know, I would personally play them even if I didn't get any prize for it
Punpu:
prizepot won't matter, they won't be getting it anyway bwahah
vallone:
free beers would be nice
It seems like few players manage to break in to the top tier of European TF2, with generally the same players being recycled over time, although you have managed to bring cookye to the next level and bring mafu back from obscurity. Is the game dying at the top? What can we do as a community to support the future generations of players?
Moose:
It definitely isn't dying, the top 4 teams are closer than ever before. However, it is worrying that there are so few top players around. We only have a couple real stars in TF2. It'd be awesome to have Fox back in the game, or some other top Quake / CS players.
Other than that, I really can't say how to make the players better.
Hocz:
I think we're doing fine, just keep the online tournaments coming, do casts, whine about cookye, get some more tf2 lans
would be nice to see more top players though, perhaps some quake / cs stars that would grind their way to the top tier of tf2
OK guys, to finish off I need everyone’s participation. I’ll make a statement and you all tell me which Power Gaming player it most applies too...
Funniest drunk?
Hocz:
mafu
vallone:
darn
Moose:
mafu
Punpu:
mafu
cookye:
mafu
vallone:
i think mafu won
Ladies man?
Hocz:
cookye
cookye:
mafu
Punpu:
mafu
vallone:
mafu
Moose:
mafu
Scariest motherfucker?
vallone:
mafu
Moose:
mafu
Hocz:
mafu
cookye:
mafu
Punpu:
mafu
Hocz:
this is easy
Best name beginning with 'm' and ending with 'u'?
Moose:
Moose
oh shit
Hocz:
markku
Punpu:
Munpu?
vallone:
who's the best demoman in pwr?
vallone
Alright that definitely died on its arse. Thanks for your time Power Gayming, and big congratulations on the Assembly victory :)
Hocz:
Thank you!
vallone:
ty
cookye:
thanks
Punpu:
cheers
Moose:
np
That’s your lot for Assembly 2010. Give yourselves a big pat on the back, job’s a gud ‘un. See you at Assembly Winter 2011!
Originally published on Cadred.org on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:44:09 +0100 by James J. McDonnell.
Archived from ASM: Power Probed as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of Cadred.org's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and Cadred.org; reposted for historical reference.