insomnia40: Interview with Forin Beggars

In this interview, we talk to Paul "WELLSY" Wells of Forin Beggars. Forin Beggars started as a mix team solely for i40, but they have become a strong team in their own right. The side are all firm friends, with a long history of playing together.

Good evening Paul, how was your travel down here? Did it all go as planned?

No, we had to endure through three hours of traffic to finally arrive at the travel lodge. Once we got there we chilled for thirty minutes then headed out to the event. Once we arrived we got stuck at roundabout for a further half hour. When we finally got to the event, we had a further hour wait in the English drizzle.

As we outlined above, you’re not just 5 random gamers who’ve teamed up at the last minute for this event. Can you give us an outline of how you all know each other, and why the team is you 5?

Me and Swagga have known each other since vCOD and we finally met in real life at i37. At the same event we met Gavin (rework) and Harry (metal) and got on from first sight. Andy arrived on the scene at i39 where he was in iQpad with Rework. We decided to get together for the event because we were all without a team and knew we would gel together from our past experiences.

Now, obviously, you’re a mix team for this event. if you were compared to the more established and stable teams at the event, on paper you look to have the disadvantage. Do you think it’s a big disadvantage being a mix team?

I wouldn’t really class us as a mix team in all honestly, we were when we got together but since then we’ve really worked hard to develop strats. As time went on things were working out which motivated us further which resulted in solid results.

Some people consider mix teams to be dangerous in that they are hard to predict. Would you agree?

Yeah, when we first started, we were really unpredictable, due to the fact that we hadn’t physically played together as a five. But once we got some strats down, we kept the unpredictability but with a bit more organisation between us all.

Excluding the obvious ones (Dignitas and Fragmasters), who would you least like to draw in your groups, and why?

Definitely Vital, from playing them online we know they’re a good team. We know the players pretty well as well, from AEF and playing them online. Watch and learn too, because I think they’re underdogs.

Today we have seen extensive delays completely write off the CoD4 tournament. What are your thoughts on this?

It was a bit shit at first, getting here at 10am and having to wait till 9pm until actually finding out we weren’t playing till tomorrow.

What have you been doing to pass the time? Have you been frantically practicing like some of the other mix teams?

I’ve been keening it up in public all day, and we've all played a few games together. We also finalised our strats on a couple of the maps. Went to the bar a bit too!

If you were to predict the top 3 at the end of the event, who would they be?

1st will be Dignitas for fairly obvious reasons. Even without reflexr, Lighters is a big name in the scene, and a big player as well. Not including us, I’d say 2nd could be either vital or fragmasters, they’ll play it out for 2nd. 3rd will be the loser of that or watch and learn, they’re a real threat.

Are there any teams here that you think everyone is underestimating?

Not including the above teams, UV-Gaming and Signature, if ryanski’s legit.

You’ve been seeded 3rd for the event. Do you think that is fair?

I think it’s fair, in that we’ve beaten every team that’s below us.

What do you think of the other seeds? A lot of people have been commenting on the fact that UV-Gaming (formerly audax), haven’t been seeded. What’s your view on this?

I think UV should have been seeded, they are a good team. They’ve got a lot of good players, it’s just that no-one knows who they are.

To wrap up, what are your opinions on the way the I-Series has been run this time? Do you think they handled the server situation well enough?

The new check-in system has been a bit of a shambles, causing us to spend two hours in the rain. The internet cutting out 3 or 4 times didn’t help things either, especially finding games.

Thanks a lot Paul! Anything else you’d like to add?

Harry “Metal” Forrestal is legit. That is all.