10 Questions with the lead wolf - ZeD!

The RTCW community requested some more interviews and therefore there was no other member of the community who played a larger role than the man himself ZeD!

Enjoy!

1. Hey there Zed! Let's start off with what is your role in the RTCW Fall Cup, where you're from, who you play for and how long have to been involved with the RTCW community?

Well my role is Cup-Supervisor and im responsible for everything basically whats going on with the cup (shoutout here to : voice & : homie). Im from country called : Estonia , Tallinn(capital) . It's a small country next to russia,finland,lativa,sweden. Well my RtCW/ET started off with playing the SP on the release on 2001 december or something, can't remember exactly. I played ALOT public and I played it untill ET was announced and out. Before that I didn't play any official games or for any clan. Then in 2003 I somehow realized about the clans and teams and playing in competition altho whats funny about this is that 2002/03 I knew about the fragmovies , teammovies etc. which is weird if im thinking about it now, I could have started earlier. So yeah here I stand since 2003 in competition, ET took alot of my attention ( guilty as charged ). RtCW is and will be my true love but ET is fun aswell in some aspects.

I must admit, I had to google map where Estonia is. I blame my high school geography teacher...
Hahaha Np =) happens alot, I dont know alot about states aswell like you do so its ok =)

2. How did the idea for a RTCW cup happen, was it a collaboration between community members?

Well we had this group of people always idling in irc and playing some random mix games every night basically. I would say like 20-40 people who played (2012). So Sipperi hosted a Draft-Cup which got some players attention and I even casted it (thank god theres no recordings for it anymore =D). It was nice and thanks to Sipperi here. So me and homie were discussing about nations cup with like possible 10-12 teams which never got further from the idea but it was nice idea, we could probably do it now but it would ruin in some ways of the activity so think there's time for that in future but not right now. So what I have always wanted is that the community would run and people would play and keep on playing and like what they have (I hope they like it right now :P ), my e-penis grows and gets hard when I see activity in RtCW. Its amazing how it actually took off, the cup has been amazing in spectator point of view ( kind hard for me but I love that its live and kicking so Ill keep doing it , even better next time ;] ). So my request here would be that you guys should play more and get more people!

3. What has it been like to help organize the cup and were there moments when you thought that maybe this might not happen?

Well this is kind of funny but when I first started making some pre-cup stuff to prepare I was kind of positive about because I knew that the community is small and I could bring it to some sort of life in my way of business. Gladly it worked and I am happy that it worked because I started with my idea and my own vision about this. There was nobody to dictate me around or a huge community to pressure me. Of course now I listen to people since we have plenty of them and I'm trying to make things work for everybody and make compromise and keep them here, not just one time only thing. So what I did was I did set my goals high, first it was like 16 teams which was my dream. I asked for help from some people, they turned down on me and said I was crazy with my Warwitch & co idea and the 16 +/- teams. I am sooooo happy that it turned out to be a almost double of it, 24 teams from all over the globe, yes exactly, Australia & US & EU. Amazing stuff! Thank you all the players and teams!

4. Your team Mortis has moved on in the consolation bracket after defeating teh birdz, it looks like you'll be facing Amnesia in the next round, how do you see that matchup playing out?

Well I know whats the story behind .@: aka Amnesia. Right now I think we would beat them BUT they have some good players that might bring trouble, double trouble, double fullhold! Hah :D. I think we might end up in a tiebreaker but who knows. I know they haven't practiced alot. Maybe it's on the stream and people can witness it live on air and decide on their own. What I hope for is a good matchup ! =)

5. You must be very pleased with the talent that has come back to play in this cup. Talk about what it means to a community when the players involved are well known top tier players. Does having great talent join the league help to bring other teams on board or can that be something that makes the lower level teams not want to come back? in your opinion

Well it's always nice to have old faces and old stars back, no doubt about it ( kARMA, inside joke here, sorry :D ) and thats only a good thing because who wouldn't want to play against or with he's idol. I feel like people are either scared or too lazy ( again ) to install the RtCW, don't be its pretty easy these days. Just get the 1.4 pack and your basically ready to go! Also what I know whats missing is the amount of the public servers, I'm currently working on the new installer for the RtCW to make it even more easier ( thanks to Fiester ) and working on getting public servers running so people can enjoy and get more familiar ( ET players for example ) or get in shape if they have been in long hiatus!

6. One of the major attractions for teams joining this RTCW cup has been the addition of streams and shoutcasts. You've managed to bring back the very talented Warwich and now I see that DeeAy will be joining the cast. How important was it to you, and the success of this tournament, to bring on these talents?

Well it was one of the key things about this tournament. I actually did NOT thought about getting them and like one day after my idea bells were * ringing * Hey, maybe if I get those casters back , it could be a huge success, so what I did was directly contacted Warwitch and guess what, the moment he said "YES, I'm on board" I knew it's gonna be HUGE & SUCCESSFUL cup, from that moment I did not worry about anything, I knew that I will have my audience and all I need now is to contact old players and teams that were still around in some ways. Big round of applause to the Warwitch and all the co-casters!

7. Recently you announced the addition of a 3 vs 3 RTCW ladder. What made you decide on a 3v3 format as opposed to 6v6?

Well I think 3vs3 ladder is a smoother way to approach to the scene just by looking at the format, you only need 3 members and your ready. I know that ET players like 3vs3 ladders alot, the activity is pretty impressive after the years in the ClanBase ladder still so I thought it's a good way to get some players from ET to meet their idols from RtCW or even friends. Definitely will do 6vs6 ladder once the 3vs3 ladder picks up! Big round of applause & respect for OCLeague.com!

8. Let's talk about server configuration. There were some minor complaints that certain cvars were restricted that maybe shouldn't have been. For example simple items and r_uifullscreen. Will there be a re-write of sorts on the server config and if so what are some of the cvars that are being looked at for a possible change?

Yes, as many of you know I was actually pretty lazy with some of the stuff regarding the tournament. I did not made any big changes from the last config that was still there for a long time so I used this I did not want to shock the players who were still around so it stayed pretty much the same. I will tho change things to more flexible since the current one is VERY restricted, don't think config has to be that strict and NON user friendly. Hold on I will ask community opinion about this and I wont dictate around since I want everybody to stick around and play and get more players so nowhere to go but forward and keep doing what we do best, play RtCW!

9. Given the age of RTCW and the dwindling community, what is your thoughts on a roster cap? We've seen some teams in this cup with upwards of 18 players on the roster. That could have been two teams with subs. I know not everyone on a roster is active but is there any consideration on putting a limit on roster sizes so that there can be more teams involve?

Well it's quite good point actually but I think it might be something to look over for the next cup actually since I have to agree with you, eg. there could be more teams if the 12 player team would split if everybody would be active there. So another point to look into this, eg. 10 or 8 roster limit but i will look into this thing once the new cup is approaching. Good point! :D

10. Finally, can you give us some insight on what the future holds for RTCW? Any plans on another cup? If so, can you give us some details?

As I mentioned once the 3vs3 ladder picks up some activity, maybe some 6vs6 ladder, who knows?! How can I forget this one to mention it here :D New cup will come in february, so stay tuned because we will have[flag= us] Warwitch & co ( Sabo, Nail, deeAy, Bridger etc. etc. ) on the board 101% to cast all the games once again and this is your chance to get casted by him! Next cup will be bigger, better and smoother than this one! Will make huge changed towards make this better experience for the spectators and all the players who are still here! There so many great things to talk about whats going to happen next etc but this interview would include tl;dr comments :D. So instead of these comments, keep your eyes and ears opened for the information on the next cup. Start playing now RtCW #rtcw.wars

Any shoutouts you want to make?

Oh boy, well special shoutouts to : voice, homie, Warwitch, bully, MerlinatoR. Theres just too many people that I would like to thank, the ones who know will know. I will tho like to give huge shoutouts in the tournament movie, so you can see there. BIG SHOUTOUT TO THE RTCW COMMUNITY, EU & NA, THANKS FOR KEEPING RTCW ALIVE AND KICKIN! KEEP DOING IT AND WITH PASSION AND BRING ALL YOUR FRIENDS INTO THIS! Peace! Thanks for the interview and shoutout to you aswell rampage!! <3

Thank you for your time ZeD. I know I have personally enjoyed my time with the return of my favorite game and I thank you for keeping it alive! Looking forward to the next cup, hopefully we can get a few more USA teams involved!