Dator recalls his best moments in ET!
I recall downloading demos of Blue)x( (team Locked on Target) and studying how he played
Ceres: Thank you for taking the time to do an ET interview after 10 years since you stopped playing! When did you first start playing ET and how long did it take you to eventually figure out that you want to compete?
Dator: So ET was released in May 2003, and if I remember correctly I was on a team within the first six months. I had played RTCW very casually but when ET came out, I started to take it much more seriously.
What got me into competing was playing on the Locked Box pub server and going against the top players at the time (Locked on Target/ )x(, Rotators/ (), & Suave/ suave>> stick out the most). I can elaborate a bit more on this if you want some history of the teams I joined or anything like that
Ceres: That was my next question, hah. Walk me through your teams very briefly with possible rosters if you remember them. Also, did you go under any names other than Dator?
Dator: I believe the first team I was part of was |FAST|. They had a pub server I played on frequently before locked box and eventually impressed them enough to ask me to join the team. It was right around the same time I started to play on locked box and get more acquainted with the community through IRC and I was only on the team briefly.
This was the only team I was on before Rotators. I did try out for both Locked on Target and Suave but was unsuccessful. I didn't use any names but Dator in ET.
Ceres: Who formed the Rotators and how did you guys come up to be such a dominant team especially when the game was still played 7 VS 7?
Dator: Good question. I believe Chilly and Bignutz formed the Rotators. I think they had played some RTCW previously and then had transitioned over to ET.
The roster as I recall when I joined included chilly, Bignutz, Blacklabel, Madness, Klew, apathy, & Bloodymist (definitely forgetting people). Inferno had just left the team. Illshot may have already been on the team or joined slightly after me? Stiegl joined later on.
Haha, I honestly forgot it was 7v7 back then. I don't recall anything specific about that. In general, we practiced a ton. I don't remember exactly but it was at least 4-5 nights of scrims / matches. When we weren't scrimming or playing a match we were likely either playing in pubs or walking through strats. I think we had simple but innovative strats early on in the games life which helped us be successful. It also helped that the roster had lots of individual talent. Our comms matured over time. I don't think Bloodymist actually ever used voice chat until we transitioned to Deathtouch/ dT :).
Ceres: As far as I watched back in the day, n0fx and St1fler also played for you but might have been aliases of other people
Dator: Yes!! Those weren't aliases I just couldn't remember their names. H3rf was another guy on the roster.
Ceres: What brought the end of Rotators? Was it the competitive scene switching to 6v6 instead of 7v7?
Dator: Not the switch to 6v6. Basically some of the roster had lost interest. So the core players who still wanted to grind practice and get better decided to start something new. Right around the same time I believe Suave was going through some similar roster shake ups so Seed joined our team who was an awesome talent.
Ceres: Ah, Seed :) Anything interesting you want to share from the Rotators days? There was limited info available back then so I am hoping you remember something specific.
Dator: I remember it was a lot of fun. Not much drama or egos. Back to your earlier question about why we were successful I probably should have mentioned that our biggest rivals were Suave. We had really competitive matches with them. The game wasn't as mature so going back and watching the matches the gameplay is much sloppier which probably helped us as well.
Rotators VS Suave TWL Season 2 Finals /casted by Trillian & WaCKSteVeN
Ceres: Walk us through the formation of Deathtouch. Was Dator, ConF, Klew, Illshot, Madness, Seed, Stiegl, Bignutz, Bloodymist the original planned roster?
Dator: ConF joined later I believe. So Dator, Illshot, Madness, Seed, Stiegl, Bloodymist would have been the starting 6. Klew and Bignutz as reserves.
One of the guys on the roster, who previously played RTCW, was friends with a guy who was initially in team Deathtouch, and I honestly don't recall why we decided to join that team in particular. I really just went along for the ride. I don't remember his name but it was his team, Deathtouch.
Ceres: Was Seed the strongest player you could rely on in Deathtouch as it was lead to believe by demos and matches back in the day?
Dator: The whole roster could be relied on. Seed was a really good player for sure. I think he mainly played field ops but could do it all. Bloodymist was really really good and our engineer. MadnesS was the panzer guy. Stiegl was a jack of all trades but pioneered the mortar in matches. Illshot was like me but actually revived people :)
Ceres: How did you determine which players to use? Sometimes you were using Bloodymist and Klew while other times you would use ConF or Bignutz.
Dator: It was based on who was available and had practiced that week.
Ceres: Did you guys have a leader kind of leading the way or was everyone providing just enough for the team to run itself?
Dator: No real leader. If anyone it was Stiegl. He would make in game calls from time to time but we were so in sync a lot of it was automatic.
Ceres: As per the previous question about Rotators, anything interesting you want to mention about Deathtouch? Obviously there were many epic matches. Maybe give me a little something about the rivalry with Fatal Attraction/ .fa. ?
Dator: Yeah .fa. had been around a while and back in the Rotators/Suave days I would say they were like a tier below the top. But they steadily improved and recruited some really good players. There was one match in particular I remember we had not dropped a round in a tournament or playoff and they were the first team to take one from us. I don't recall the teams being super friendly with each other so the matches were definitely intense.
2004 TWL Match: deathTouch VS Fatal Attraction
deathTouch VS Euphoric - CAL-I Season 3 Groupstage - Trillian Shoutcast
deathTouch VS c&f - CAL Invite Season 3 Finals - Trillian Shoutcast
Ceres: Walk us through the Atlantic battles against Europe's best. Who was leading you guys, who determined the rosters, who did strats and so on? I believe you played in 3 of them in 2004 while the rest of the roster was always different.
Dator: Yeah great question. Hmm let me think. I know that I think we lost all of them. There was someone who coordinated with the European side but I don't recall who. Sorry, I'm pretty fuzzy on this.. I just know they kept asking me to come back and play so I did.
As for strats, big reason why we lost was we did very little practicing together with the actual team, maybe one scrim if any and then just kind of all try to figure each other out in the match. The European side always seemed to be way ahead in their tactics. Like they were playing chess and we were playing checkers. They had some really good players including 2 players with similar names (talking about darkie and darky here).
The high ping did suck though. They tried to get a server in Iceland for the match but it really wasn't great.
EU vs. USA - Atlantic Battle #1 - TosspoT Shoutcast
EU vs. USA - Atlantic Battle #2 - TosspoT, Trillian, Kee_RinG Shoutcast
EU vs. USA - Atlantic Battle #3 - TosspoT Shoutcast
Ceres: Were you not interested in playing in more of these during 2005 or were you not picked?
Dator: I was not playing as much in 2005 so I don't recall being asked.
Ceres: Since a lot of players were viewing your demos, your matches, idolizing you (as much as can be said about that so far back in the day), was there a player you looked up to? Maybe someone who taught you things?
Dator: I recall downloading demos of Blue)x( and studying how he played and trying to copy the style. He was one of the first people who handed me my ass so I knew studying his play would help me get better. Never actually met him so don't think "look up to" is the right wording but certainly he was an inspiration to practice and improve my game. Muddy from )x( was another one. There were more along the way but very early those were the guys.
To be continued...