OMINOUS: One thing I noticed is that the SPL site doesn’t have any interviews with players. I didn’t run this by Pudi yet so I am not sure if this will even be posted. Personally, I like interviews and feel that they can be pretty informative if you ask the right questions. So, thanks for having the time to speak with me.

So lets begin. Being a Brit, how pissed are you that England tied USA? You cry yourself to sleep last night?

SEBEK: Rofl. Godamn, yeah it was annoying. Rob Green was solid the entire game before and after that horrendous mistake, was a heart breaker. I maybe got off lightly though, if you guys would have won I’d never be able to show my face on Spark and Pudi would never let me hear the end of it.

O: That was just the icebreaker question. I really don’t give a shit about soccer. Before we go on about this SPL or about CaDF, I wanted to first focus on you specifically as a player. Can you provide a brief background about your spark career? I really don’t know much about your history on spark. I don’t think the majority of the community knows that much about you other than your guide status. So, how long have you been playing this game, which clans were you in and add anything else you can share to give everyone an understanding of you.

S: I started playing ARC during 2002, before that years APL and a few weeks prior to name registration going down for however long it was. Up until the APL, I was heavily in to Madwars, but I noticed that lobbies were being created for specific clan games and the whole idea of APL is what got me started on GO. For 8ish years of playing, my clan history is kind of small; PiE, xSa, agent, INVADER, NG, TnT and now CaDF. I played my first APL with TnT in 05 and shortly thereafter joined CaDF and have obviously been here since. I’m 21 now, joined when I was 16. I’m still the youngest person in the clan, lol.

O: Correct me if I’m wrong. You used the alias Perfect Flame. You joined CaDF and then changed your name to Sebek. What does Sebek even mean? Were you just trying to hide the fact that you were in TnT? Don’t be ashamed. I try to do it too.

O: TnT owned, I still think if Grak would have been active during the APL I was with them for, we’d have beaten XiN in the first round (and they subsequently made it to the finals ). Yeah I used to go by Perfect Flame but with the CaDF/TnT tag it was a really long name, longer even than CaDF-Dzaaneez Lani! So I started using “PF” but I never felt like it was an actual name so I wanted something else. Queue RedStorm and amongst his several suggestions was the name Sebek, an Egyptian God. I’d tell you more about the name but I think Pudi is doing an article on unique names and I’m in it, so I’ll let you read that to find out more. :]

O: Going from TnT to CaDF I think is a pretty big accomplishment. They must have been pretty desperate. However, recently you have been placed #1 or #2 on some top sparker lists. Were you surprised with the recognition the community has been giving you lately?

S: Nice sucker punch, jackass. Yeah I’m surprised to be getting rated #1 or even within the top 5 I guess, it was only last season that people had started rating me within the top 10. I don’t think my games really improved that much, so my rating is perhaps due to everyone else’s lack of form, lol. With no Mage, Slick, Puffy of KingKiller I guess people will be a couple of spots higher than previously and people need to keep that in mind, but even without those, I’m still a newbie compared to some of the people I’m being rated above. I don’t doubt that I’m capable of competing with everyone in this league though; I think I proved that last season.

O: So without bias, who would be on your top 5 list this SPL?

S: Listing them in an order is way too hard, I haven’t seen enough of people to really judge. Prior to the start of the season I felt like the #1 spot would be between ElA and Ford. In our game against sYn, ElA was playing pretty sacrificial but it didn’t really work, but he’s definitely capable of being the best based on what I saw. I know that there are few people I’d rather have on my team than TechMan. Nano’s ability to not die and consistently move around the field creating and avoiding rapes allows his team to do so much. Beyond these four there’s people like you with your spaghetti shots, Veritas maybe but after watching uAc’s game against SiC he seemed pretty stupid at times (sorry Verit, but you’re a huge reason they got their first cap) and I guess I could be in the running here too.
Turbo is going to beast though; no doubt he’ll land several missiles on your ass throughout this season Omin. MUCH LOVE OMAR.

O: I was about to say I agree with your response, until you typed out that last part. Missiles are extremely overrated. How do you feel about that? Do you find that most of the time you’re walking around with 3 missiles in your inventory?

S: I don’t use them really, but that’s largely due to the fact that I’m pretty passive most of the time. Puffball and Turbo, at least to me, are proving themselves to be consistently effective with them when they need to be. There were plenty of times last season and a handful already this season where they’ve outright won us a game because they can cripple a 1v2/3. I do think that if someone isn’t smart with how they use them then they’ll likely hurt their team more than help them, but the more refined they get the more useful they become.

O: That was well put.

S: I’m English, eloquence is in our nature. DUH.

O: In your response to the question before, you mentioned that there are few you’d rather have on your team than TechMan. I can agree with you on that. Personally, TechMan played an important role in my career when we were in mOd together. He definitely was one of the biggest contributing factors to my fragging ability. This leads to my next question – if you can pick one player you sought out and learned from, which player’s style did you leverage off of in order to improve?

S: With me being European the amount of times I’ve gotten to see or play against the other top players, particularly when I was improving, is extremely limited considering I’ve been here now for 8 years. My experience against top players always comes in leagues and rarely anywhere else. So I never really got to pick who’s style I really liked or thought was the one I wanted to try and imitate, so how I play now is largely down to my own doing. A prime example of this is the wiggling I do, it started because I had the thought of football/soccer players being “on their toes” and so they’re always bouncing from foot to foot to be able to react faster. I started hitting all my directional keys in the hopes of achieving the same thing and it’s just stuck. As with a lot of people I was somewhat in awe of Mage’s ability to rack up ridiculous scores, and there’s a handful of times I had the pleasure of being annihilated by him and Nano in pub GO’s. When it comes down to it though, I’ve focused on what I’ve deemed to be important based on my experience to best allow my team to win, or not lose. Any similarities in my game to other players aren’t outright intentional.

O: Did you started to recognize the important factors of winning while you were CaDF? Would it be correct to say that joining CaDF was the most important decision you made to increase your skill level?

S: Yeah I don’t think I can ignore the fact that I joined a clan that was the first to win three APL titles, there’s obviously a huge wealth of knowledge and experience there to tap in to and I still do it to this day. I’ve learned a lot from Tech and Parrot with regards to creating rapes, they’re hands down two of the best rapers I’ve ever seen and if the average player can emulate even half of their creativity they’ll be so much better for it. All of the more subtle strategies that maybe go unnoticed by most, such as leaving smokers, rotations, special usage and what not have all been what I’ve learned here. In TnT people recognized that I perhaps had a solid grasp of being a decent fragger (much like the young Swedes these days) but it was Joel who directed me and was telling me what to do (that guy could type more words whilst playing then I can to you now). CaDF has helped me become a much more sure footed and well-rounded player, and now it’s often me who’s teaching some of our newer players.

O: Let’s talk about CaDF – Aside from having the ugliest clan tag and clan name, I don’t think there was ever a year you guys didn’t have a good opportunity to win. Right now, I think it’s safe to say CaDF is the current favorite simply based on last year’s performance. CaDF was able put up the biggest fight vs last year’s winners (TM). This year, Spark’s best player Mage is taking a break from the league. The last time Mage did not play at all in the premier league, CaDF won (I believe it was 2005 vs XiN) I am pretty sure every clan is less worried with Mage out of the picture. Like you said earlier – Slick, Puffyfish, and KK are all also out of the picture this year. Under these circumstances, does CaDF feel confident in taking this year’s title?

S: Funny, Pudi’s article touted TBWA as the favorites. We’re obviously in the running, but we’re under no illusion that we’re going to have it easy. We’ve been humbled in seasons passed by clans such as sYn who knocked us out in the Semi’s after we finished with the #1 seed. With me and Puffball on our line, CaDF is maybe one of the “younger” favorites, with a clan like TBWA sporting players who has been playing for close to a decade or more. Like I said earlier, to many people I’m likely still a newbie so until I outright beat someone like Nano (I’m coming Terry, watch your back. Subbing out for me in those bubble games of years passed will bite you in the ass!) I’m going to always be mindful of the fact that for the majority of my time here, the people who we’re now perhaps touted to beat have been handing me my ass.

O: I believe you reffed our games vs. TM last SPL. So you’d still deem TBWA the favorites even after last year’s performances?

S: Yeah I’m the guy whose stopwatch broke, heh. I made a post in a topic on Spark-HQ about the best Spark clan or something, and I think I said that I believed with all things considered I’d have to say I believe we’re capable of beating TBWA. I suppose I still feel that way and I’m trying too hard to miss the egg shells with my answer. After last season I have supreme faith in my clans abilities, Puffball stepped huge for us last year and I don’t think anyone ever really recognized just how much of a season changer that was in lieu of Parrot’s connection issues. At our best I’d pin our line against anyone TBWA can offer and say we’d have a good chance of winning. Ford pointed out that TBWA struggled with TM but had beat our top line in scrimmages, so it may be a style thing, but I time will tell.

O: Moving on – I’ve been aching to speak with someone in CaDF about the uAc game that occurred last week. Frankly, I was a little shocked at who played and what the outcome was. A quick reminder to those reading this, it was Zeale32 (Puffball), Dzaaneez, TechMan, Sebek vs. Purex, Houdini, zizeL, and Shrink. CaDF won 1-0. Are you surprised at this outcome? What was your general impression on uAc’s performance or on the game in general?

S: Puffball was stoned out of his mind! He still did well though. We opted to play on green and I think uAc played a pretty heavily defensive game, shrinK mentioned something about their strategy being to have one guy push for our flag whilst the rest defended. We were happy with trying to break through their defense rather than letting them out, for fear of having the latter ruin us. I don’t think 1-0 is telling of just how much pressure we were creating and how many potent attempts we had, not including our cap. I think it could have potentially been 2-0, perhaps even 3-0, had we converted more of our chances and had a little luck go our way.

O: That’s an interesting strategy shrink has. By having 3 on defense and 1 on offense – I’d say its smart. This would force CaDF to keep 2 in base (assuming you won’t take the 1 vs 1 risk), and limiting your offensive pressure. I only was able to watch the first 5 minutes of the replay. I’m planning on watching it later. Were the majority of your attempts a 4 man push?

S: Yeah I think they were, just took a look at the stats sheet and we had 9 attempts. We had somewhat of a rocky start with Dz pinging out within the early minutes so it took some time to find our rhythm, but I’m still pretty confident that the score wasn’t a reflection of the gap in skill between the lines.

O: If you care to share, does CaDF create any general strategy before you guys enter into a league match?

S: No. We just know the kind of game we like to play, we play steady base and I don’t take any silly risks. If our offense falters we know to try and leave as many weak as we can and just start over. We don’t start a game designating someone as our flagger or whatever.

O: Right, I feel like designating flaggers and base players is outdated. The game evolved too much for that. Everyone should be able to play any role and at the given opportunity to do so. You guys still use Ventrilo while you play league games, correct?

S: Yea we do, we only started to do it last season though. Me and Dz did the most talking but this year it seems a few other people are becoming comfortable with it too. Makes things a lot easier.

O: Let’s talk about that for a bit. Do you feel that Ventrilo improved your overall teamwork? Do you guys have general lingo you use to keep things simple? Is Ventrilo something you recommend to all participating SPL clans that are looking to improve their teamwork?

S: It’s most definitely something I’d recommend clans use yeah, same with any competitive online team game really. We just make sure we communicate the basics, letting each other know who’s weak, possible plays to set up, coordinated specials and what not. To a degree we’re able to read one another, as I think any good team should be able to do, but Vent lets a team be that much more polished and cohesive. It’s definitely something that if used right can give a team the edge.

O: Lastly, lets look at your schedule. You’re playing SiC and iL Week 2. Do you have any advice to these clans, or any other younger clan, before they prep for playing a top SPL clan?

S: SiC knows what the deal is. Their line it seems is made up of Dream, Lore, Mica and Nosaj. 3/4s of that line was INVADER last season and they beat us during the regular season 1-0, and we never got a chance to redeem ourselves. So I’m out for blood against them this time. iLogic just need to try and take as much as they can from this season, the experience in itself will hopefully bring on their game leaps and bounds. Just try and see why a clan is beating you, where are you losing out to them, what is it they’re doing? It’ll be a rough season for a new clan like that, but just have fun and enjoy being a part of the biggest reason ARC has lasted this long.

O: Thanks for your time, Sebek, as well as your clear responses. Hopefully this will encourage more interviews amongst the community as well.

S: No problem. Thanks.