i39: Interview with Stimulus Jonesy

Will "wizinium" hunter sits down with Stimulus Jonesy at i39. Stimulus are one of the top seeds for this event and have Lighters and Soclon from Reason gaming mercing for them for this event.


Hey Nick, could you introduce yourself please?

Hi my name is Nick Jones aka Jonesy. I am 20 years old, I have been gaming since I was 12 years old. I started way back in the days of BF1942 and MOHAA but back then it was only for fun. I have been playing competitive COD4 for around 1 ½ years now starting back at i36 with nTEK then i37 with Crackclan and i.QPAD at i38, achieving top 16 every time. I am currently a 2^nd year university student at UWE studying Physical Geography.

You live in Bristol, not too far from Newbury. How was your trip down to i39?

The trip down was really good actually I don’t mind travelling to Newbury as it’s only about an hour and a half drive. But in my opinion the venue at Stoneleigh is much better.

People will know you from h2ktv shoutcasting with myself. We haven't really heard much of h2ktv as of late, are they planning anything in the future?

To be honest nothing that I know about, H2kTV don’t seem to be as motivated about COD4 as I am. The lack of an active video caster really lets H2kTV down as the coverage we provide is limited at the moment in terms of amount. Plans for the future well I would like to see us providing more COD4 coverage from H2kTV but I can’t see it happening at the moment.

I have spoken to h2ktv about shoutcasting the Enemydown league powered by Vita Nova, they seem they don’t want to cover it; do you have any comments about this?

Ye it’s bullshit and is down to one member of staff who I don’t really get on with and such a stupid reason makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall.

We see you in a team called stimulus. Could you give us a quick rundown on your roster and what each of you do in the team?

Well for i39 it’s me, Gsx, Nathzn, Lighters and Soclon. But lighters and soclon are merely stand-ins as we weren’t able to find a 5^th we were happy with and our scope was unable to afford to go to lan without support. After lan our line-up will be me, Gsx, Nathzn, Puzzle and a 5^th to be confirmed. I’m the team captain and as I have done in all previous teams worry about organising matches and all the stuff that comes with that. For i39 Soclon is our strats caller as he did it for dignitas and its working out quite well.

The rankings have just been released, do you these rankings are accurate for a change?

Well we eventually got seeded 5^th which I am happy with considering we have 2 merc’s and so can’t really be counted alongside the top teams of dig and i.Qpad.

You have picked up lighters and soclon from reason gaming for this event. What made you pick up those players and how well have you clicked going into i39?

Well, we had a set team of 4 players for around 2 months now but were struggling to find a 5^th and so when I heard reason weren’t attending I approached Lighters as he helped us out in Crack Clan at i37. I said we wouldn’t be able to offer him any support other than a hotel room floor and after thinking about it he decided he would join us for the event. Then 2 weeks before i39 our scope puzzle informs us he wouldn’t be able to attend so we asked Soclon if he would be interested. He said yes but only with support and we had a stroke of luck in the form that reason had 5 spare tickets to i39 which personally I couldn’t believe and now we are at the event!

We see you in a group with Dignitas,ShIT, Evil Violence, who? and iG . What do you think of your group? Do you think there is any team in your group that could cause an upset?

No not really it will be us and Dignitas that go through I can’t see it going any other way.

After another poor turnout for iseries this meant that you are expected to do well. With an inexperienced LAN team bar lighters and soclon, do you think this will hindery your chances? Have you learnt anything from the reason players?

I wouldn’t say I was inexperienced as this will be my 5^th iseries now and this will be nath and gsx’s 2^nd so we all have some experience but of course no-where near the amount of lighters and soclon. They have been great as lighters was at i37, helping us with tactics, positioning and how to compete against the top teams. I don’t think our inexperience will hinder us with soclon leading the team things can only get better; maybe you will be seeing us in the grand final.

Could you predict a top 3 for this event?

1.Dig 2.Rive 3.i.Qpad

I remember talking to you about the community back at i38 when it was a shambles. After a few months have pasted, What do you think about the state of the cod community at present and more inparticular the project Vita Nova?

I can’t believe the difference a few months has made when we were driving back from i38, I thought that it was the end of Call of Duty 4. But hats off the all the Vita-Nova crew the whole cod community owes you a great deal. We have amazing new EU lans such as SEC and amazing turn-outs at lans such at CIC7. I think there is only one way from now and that is up.

We have a poor cod turnout for the iseries again with hardly any top teams attending. Why do you think this is? Is it down to over priced tickets or poor location or even more of a mixture?

You hit the nail on the head, I mean if we came on Thursday i39 would cost us 105 pounds this lan would cost each just for entry which is ridiculous considering the entrance to CIC7 was 250e and that’s only 50 Euros each! I think the location is slightly southern biased but I don’t think that is a major contributor. It’s mainly due to it being a BYOC lan that costs a bomb to attend and also it takes MPUK 12 months to pay out any prize money!

Thanks for your time Nick, any last shoutouts?

Yeh shoutout to all my team , Seany, Drew, Arnie, Buzzly, D3th and wiznium.