insomnia40: Interview with vital.dBGamez

By Peter "ptER" Mather

We have with us now one of the underdogs here at insomnia40, vital.dBGamez. A partial mix team for the event containing three from the vital core line-up alongside two Epsilon team members (Matthew "Pezzr" Perry and Peter "ptER" Mather). On paper they are a strong side, who could rival the third and possibly the second seeds. However, only time will tell.  

To answer some questions on behalf of vital we have Dan "Soakr" Helps (yes, that is his real name). He arrived in the team in May after he left mySki due to motivational issues. Since then he has become a real asset to vital, and he's with us now to answer a few questions.

How did did you fare on the journey to the event? To my understanding there was a complication  which postponed your arrival time by two hours? 

Jay (mr64) was just finishing things up with his girlfriend before he set off, aprently he lasted a bit longer than usual, which set him back quite a bit. On top of this we ran into a lot of traffic as we went near Reading on the way here. By the time we got here we we're in a bit of a grumpy mood, but as soon as we met ptER we all cheered up immensly.  

A week before LAN there was a lot of controversy when you decided to remove Joss "CAS" Payne and  Craig "mzaii" Ferguson, for two slightly more well known players. How did you react to the  community's critisism? 

We saw where they were coming from, but there is always two sides too a story, which of course not everybody could possibly know about. Unfortunatly we had pressure from our organisation to start pulling in some decent lan results after a dissapointing performance at AEF. The players who were actually involved seemed to have moved on at a faster rate than some members of the community.   

Leading on from the previous question, a lot of people in the community have expressed a desire for  your team not to achieve results at this lan. How do you respond to these criticisms? 

It just makes us more motivated on the day really, we want to prove that our decision to bring in two more experienced players wasn't unjustified. At the end of the day, everybody is entitled to their own opinion. 

As a partial mix team, how are you getting on with the two recent tempory additions to your line  up? 

We had a laugh about ptER using wall jumping scripts on transformice (althought he does pretty well without them), but in all seriousness w e seemed to have bonded quite quickly with a lot of body contact happening frequently, mostly from Mr64 in all honesty with you though. 

As you've only been playing together for less than a week, how well prepared are you for the  competition ahead? 

Well, were not really well prepared. We've played for two days before we came here, and one of those nights we only played one game. We're pretty much relying on pers onal skill and experience to get us to the finishing line and with our two new additions we don't really see that being a problem.  

You have been seeded fourth at this event, do you believe this is accurate, or do you believe that  you should have been seeded elsewhere? 

Well, in all honesty with you, seeding dosn't really matter. If you get seeded higher you have much more pressure to perform although it is nice to be recognised as a formiddable team even though it is only I-series.  

You have been classed as the Dark Horses of the event, along side Forin Beggers, how do you feel about this title? 

I've heard horses are pretty well hung, and with the black connotations to go alongside this I'd say were already a foot closer to the finishing line.  

What are the plans for your team after the event, are you planning any line up changes, or are you  going to see how things go?

We're going to see how things go really. Obviously line up changes aren't something you would strive for, but we will of course look at all available options to push the team forward.  

At the last lan event, you played with a European lineup, but we see you fielding a UK based team  this time round. Do you feel the lack of a language barrior is beneficial to you, or are you  hindered by the lack of diversity?

It's definatly a lot easier to communitcate with each other both offline and online if there isn't a language barrier, but it's always fun to mock someone not from this country, as mr64 always says.  

Throughout the lan, there have been many complications with the network, which have hindered the  progression of the competition. What have you been up too while you have been waiting?

Mainly just socialising and meeting people we've met in the past and also people we've never seen before. Alongside this we've been going keen on transformice and doing a true call of duty players duty, trolling tek9 when the internet has been up, which has been pretty rare.  

A lot of people have been stating that there has been a distinct lack of organisation at this  event, how do you feel in regards to this? 

From the sham that was i39, you would have thought they would have improved their service and customer care due to previous feedback. However, it feels like instead they have made a step backwards, which isn't something you want to see when you pay quite a large amount to enter and compete.  

I'm sure you've had a lot of time to check out the competition, is there anybody out there that you  are particulary worried about, that could threaten your predicted position? 

Naturally there are the obvious teams such as Fragmasters and Forin Beggers. Accompaning these there are the lesser known teams which could cause upsets. We'll just see how the day goes tommorow.   

Ok, that's about it. Is there anything more you wish too add? 

Shoutout to dBGAMEZ, fucapo energy gum and immortal servers. Of course, we have our managerial staff, stokely, drunkz (who unfortuantly couldn't make it due to a minor surgery), geosnipe for working so hard so far at this I-Series and finally Cas and mzAII for understanding our situation.

Thanks a lot for your time, Dan, and good luck in the competition!