This morning i had the chance to sit down with Yomma, team leader of the Cod4 division of Packard Bell to talk about the new line up and relevent topics concerning the new team.

<Trowa> Good Afternoon Yomma, please could you introduce yourself for the readers incase they don't know who you are.


<YoMma[PB]> Evening James, I am YoMma and I am the Team Leader of the newly
announced Packard Bell team.


<Trowa> So Packard Bell have picked up Wakko, Payne, Junior, Hunter, Mavy and Yourself up as the PB Cod4 Team. Your played with Wakko, Payne and Hunter as part of team Prize-Play however there were 5/6?) of you in that team. Was it an easy decision realising you had to drop some players from your previous line up to make the port?



<YoMma[PB]> Well it wasn't so much a case of dropping people. We started out with an original lineup which we were forced to change as some members had a lot of RL stuff going on so we moved from there, trying out players in attempt to find what worked best. Eventually we finished up with this lineup which is a bit of a dream lineup for me as it brings the most stability.


<Trowa> With Junior coming from 4Kings, Wakko, Hunter and yourself coming from r3gaming and Payne who played under the xcite.uk css team at previous i-series. That is some team history to an extent with Junior's previous teams, Hunter Payne and yourself coming 2nd in Crysis at i32(beating 4k and digni in prelims) and also winning the stalker tournament at i31 leading to the qualification and participation in the I-power games in portugal where you placed 3rd in Europe where you had to play not only Stalker, but BF2142, and Quake 4 !
If every reader knew the teams history with each other and as individuals would you say that there would have been less of a debate as to whether or not your team 'deserve' to be part of such a large organisation such as Packard Bell ?


<YoMma[PB]> Well...I guess it would silence people who suggest things like "They will fold in 2 weeks" and comments of that ilk. I think if people knew the back-story then it would answer a lot of their questions certainly.


<Trowa> So you have known Payne and Junior since you were 11 (start of secondary school) and you are now 21. That's quite along time to have known 2 of your team mates. You have also known Wakko since i23 and known Hunter since i27. Do you think that after knowing and spending so much time with a lot of your team mates pre-Packard Bell will provide a secure basis for your team and it's future together ?


<YoMma[PB]> Well that's been our aim with this for a long time. The UK scene, as everyone will attest, is rife with line-up changes, in house bickering and a general lack of harmony. Our aim is to buck the trend and settle on the most stable lineup we can. It certainly helps when your teammates are people you know very well and can trust. There will always be something that can affect even the most stable line-ups, but we have tried to minimize that and create a line-up as stable as we can and stick with it for the long term.


<Trowa> What role does Jason play from Packard Bell in your team ?


<YoMma[PB]> Well the idea of Team Packard Bell is primarily his creation. Jason and his colleagues made this all possible, they are also some of the driving forces behind the iPower Games. He keeps in touch with us and keeps us abreast of news etc. He also organises LAN attendance for us and things like that.


<Trowa> It has been announced that you and your team will receive a free new wickedly specked out computer courtesy of Packard Bell. That shows a great deal of confidence and investment in the team. Do you feel any pressure to perform and get the results whilst under the Packard Bell name ?


<YoMma[PB]> An important part of playing is not being under too much pressure. It's been made clear to us that we aren't under any pressure or unneccessary duress and we can focus on our game. The PCs will be a great boost to the side because it will allow people to raise their game using a machine that is stable and with much greater power than some of us are used to. It is a nice investment, and certainly one we appreciate. But of course, we couldn't really be Team Packard Bell if we didn't use Packard Bell machines! Sponsors have to have the exposure they need, it's all part of the business.


<Trowa> Essentially, Payne, Hunter and yourself were successful WoW Players and part a guild ran by one of your ex team mates you played with at the I-power games (Spyryt). Of course you were all had an FPS background but there was a brief period where you were primarily WoW Players playing minimal FPS' on the side. Was it a natural transition for yourself and your WoW team mates to make the transition to Cod4 ?



<YoMma[PB]> Well like it does for most players, the WoW thing came at a time where I felt there wasn't really a competitive FPS game that I wanted to play. I played CSS for a long while but grew disullisioned with it and then I played CoD2 for i27 but it didn't have much of a "grab" factor for me. So I personally played WoW to have some fun with some friends and once CoD4 was announced and the release date set, I knew which direction I could eventually move in. This move started last summer picking up STALKER to try and qualify for the iPower games, which we did and it all moved from there.


<Trowa>You will be attending CLUK LAN at the end of February and then i33 on the easter bank holiday. What do you plan on gaining from these first 2 LAN's ?


<YoMma[PB]> Experience, experience, experience! Although we've all attended LANs before, we haven't attended as a team. So really we will be looking to gain LAN experience primarily. Second to that we're always looking to improve our game. There is always room for improvement, and LAN is a great place to do that.


<Trowa> i33 is the UK's largest and arguably the UK's most prestigious LAN to participate in and win. Where would you like to finish in the Cod4 tournament at i33 ?


<YoMma[PB]> The iSeries is always good fun and recently it's been getting much better for competition. This prize purse is something the CoD community has been crying out for for a long time and its good to see the CoD community finally getting a well prized tournament. In terms of our position I'm not one to brag or boast. We have our targets and I guess we will see how it pans out in March


<Trowa> Multiplay recently doubled the prize fund for Cod4 (making the prize money higher than that of the css tournement. Do you think that this will show the rest of the world that Cod4 is here to stay?


<YoMma[PB]> Well I certainly hope so! CoD4 is definitely the rising star in the eSports world and it's good to see people going out there and helping to develop it by supporting the scene with these big money tournaments. I think with the sort of growth we have seen since release we can certainly expect to see the game around for a long while :)


<Trowa> With the announcment of Call of Duty 5 in development, do you think that Cod4's lifespan will be cut short if Cod5 is released later this year on PC ?


I don't think so no. There has been talk that CoD5 will make it onto PC unlike CoD3...But as far as I am aware its another 3rd party development rather than an IW production so I think we can expect CoD4 to carry on past that. I suppose time will tell.


<Trowa> What are the long term and short term goals for team Packard Bell Cod4 ?


<YoMma[PB]> In the short term, our focus is on CLUK19 and i33 and we're putting our energy into those two events at the moment. In the long term, our focus is on keeping the team together and keeping the team active and playing. There's no use in practicing for a LAN, playing at the LAN, doing well only to go inactive after it and waste a lot of hard work.


<Trowa> Ok, cheers Yomma, thanks for the help giving an insight into team Packard Bell. Do you have any shout outs or final words ?


<YoMma[PB]> Shout outs to my team mates - to Packard Bell and also to a certain "Omar" who is always on the team's mind :)


PB Enemy Down
#packardbell