interview: UK Gamers from the World Cyber Games 2004
Just before the team left for the World Cyber Games in San Francisco
Mstation bumped into them at their stand at ECTS, part of London's
Games Week. We sent along some questions to try and find out more
about what makes a competition gamer. As it turned out, there were
no medals for this team ... this time.
Pureball is the top Warcraft III player in the UK.
Zaccubus is the top Unreal Tournament 2004 player in the UK.
Mstation - How many people in total are part of the British squad for the World Cyber Games?
Pureball - In total there was 2 warcraft iii players, 2 Unreal Tournament players, 1 Project Gotham racing player and 5 Counter Strike players so 10 in all 11 including team leader.
Once you get there, is it pretty non-stop, or do you do "feature" like say, events in the Olympics?
Zaccubus - There's an opening party and time to relax before u get to play in the group stages and closing party to so its not all gaming :D
How many competitions have you been through so far to get to this stage?
Pureball - In total i have been to around 7 major events in The UK and abroad.
Do you do any sort of special training for an event?
Pureball - Normally i will practise 5 or 6 hours a day 3 or 4 weeks prior to the event i am going to.
Zaccubus - Not really i just get a couple of games a day to practise. Around 3 hours a day maybe 6 if i really need it.
What special attributes do you need?
Zaccubus - Very fast hand to eye co-ordination and being able to think on ur fingers.
Is there one country that stands out as being the one to beat in the games or is it wide open?
Pureball - Each country is different depending on each game , but in the world of RTS Gaming Korea is the country to beat.
A recent report said that over 50% of gamers had suffered some sort of injury. I guess (I hope!) that these are pretty minor, but do you do anything to minimise the risk of something like RSI?
Pureball - Using wrist rests for your mouse and keyboard is esential as you will some times practice 5 hours a day and over, taking short breaks inbetween games can also help solve the problem
How did you get started in competition gaming?
Pureball - I started gaming at an early age as i saw my uncle using the old spectrum/amiga machines so it kind of progressed from there.
Zaccubus - I just started playing counter-strike when i was 14-15 years old and went to a couple of lans where i heard u could win money and prizes for playing computer games. Started from that.
Is there a particular game you remember as having first grabbed you?
Zaccubus - Counter-strike was really the first game that grabbed me and atfer 2 years of playing it i moved to unreal 2003.
Pureball - One of the first games that grabbed me into the gaming scene was space invaders for the spectrum (I'M NOT THAT OLD REALLY) i used to play it at an early age and i got hooked , the zelda titles and mario brothers followed.
Do you have a favorite game and console at the moment?
Zaccubus - For a console game it would be Zelda the for the game cube Fav pc game has to be ut2004 and dawn of war
Pureball - At the moment i'm playing dawn of war for the pc and burnout 3 for the playstation 2 , and of course warcraft (my game of choice)
Thanks a lot, and good luck in future comps.
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