Justin "PrimeTime" Loeb recently sat down with Pandemic.TF2's soldier, Kyle "Relic" Mims, to discuss CEVO-P, the Pandemic roster swap, and the team's thoughts and goals as they look towards the future of the Fortress community.
PT: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview Kyle. First off could you introduce yourself, give some background on your past e-sports experience, and tell us why you started playing Team Fortress 2?
Relic: Hi, I am Kyle Mims also known as 'relic' in-game. I have played competitive/professional Q2CTF, Painkiller, and Quake 3 for a little over 11 years now, hard to believe. I got started in TF2 by carnagejohnson who has been my LAN/practice partner for about 9 of those 11 years. He was playing for Eximius at the time. I would watch him and finally retired Q3 to start playing competitive TF2.
Kyle "Relic" Mims
Relic: I was curious at first as to why he would want to let go the best TF2 team at the time who had dominated every LAN/online tourney/league there was. The opportunity itself was a no brainer, being in gaming for a number of years I knew of Pandemic's teams and their great success in a number of games, so to play under the name and represent one of the top gaming organizations was a gaming dream come true.
PT: What are you guys planning for 2009? Are there any big events you are looking forwards to?
Relic: Man, we want 2009 to be our year and to strive to perfection and improve as a team. The older teams I was on based their teams performance on wins/loses as opposed to improving as a team then getting the results. Nvision/Quakecon are the two big LANS we will attend, Nvision(if it happens) will be our #1 priority seeing that TF2 will be the main game, and Quakecon more of a fun quake LAN to go and mess around with old buddies. I just hope that the economy doesn’t put a drag on anything but sadly am seeing some of the effects of it already.
PT: You guys were called the underdogs heading into the CEVO Grand Finals, how did it feel to win it? How would you rate your overall playoff performance?
Relic: It feels great to win CEVO, feels like a big weight is lifted off our shoulders/big confidence boost and are ready to try and repeat in ESEA. Overall my playoff performance was average. This being my first CEVO season and my transition from starting as scout to soldier has been quite an experience. Seems I learn something new every time I scrim/match. Thanks to the team for helping me and making the transition enjoyable.
PT: Compared to other FPS games, CEVO has a much smaller prize pot for TF2. What do you think the community as a whole could do to increase participation, and get a bigger fan base?
Relic: I think getting the word out that Team Fortress 2 is a great game to watch/play.. and giving the opportunity could really blow up. What is lacking is publicity/organization to adopt the game. *cough* MLG *cough*
PT: In your opinion, is there anything that the leagues should look into and possibly change to the game? (Particularly in terms of maps being played, certain class abilities, rulesets, etc.)
Relic: I like the game as is, I think they did a great job making the game and keeping it somewhat balanced, which is hard to do when you are coming out with class specific items every so often. As far as maps go, I only like a couple, badlands/granary. The other maps I don’t particularly care for (freight/fastlane/well). I have tried a few of the custom maps on
fpsbanana but they seem more eye candy than an actual competitive map.
PT: ESEA recently announced they will have a larger prize pot for Season 3, along with an Invite division for TF2. Will ESEA be the league that really gets TF2 off the ground and gets more players and fans interested in the competitive side of the game, or will it take more than just a league to make a difference?
Relic: That’s the first I’ve heard of that, cool! Anyway I think ESEA is a great organization and could definitely steer TF2 in the right direction. But again to make the game a true success there needs to be more LAN events. aka see Painkiller - World Tour. There was a different LAN for Painkiller every month for a year in a different place leading up to a grand final, was awesome.
PT: Where do you think the game will be in a year from now? Will it be strong for years to come, or start to slow down in a few years?
Relic: I see the game progressing to the point it will probably be a totally different game in a year :P. I still love the competitive nature of it as well as the team play. If there are no competitive LAN events, I see the game not lasting tho.
The bread and butter of every team's assault, the Soldier.
PT: Your in game class is the solider, if you have to give a few tips to a new player what would you tell them?
Relic: Coming from a Quake3 background and being able to spam rockets all day long to TF2 where soldier only has 4 rockets with 20 in clip, and you have to reload them!? Was the biggest challenge for me. My advice would be to play patient and wait for shots to present themselves as opposed to trying to create something that isn’t there. USE SHOTGUN too!
PT: Any final comments to teammates, friends, or the community?
Relic: To my teammates, I love you all with all my heart especially my trusty medic glue. Friends/community we appreciate all the support given to us as well as some individual attention to our members, KABOOM. GO PANDY GO. Thanks and God Bless!
