RTCW 2020 Interview Series: #1 - Spuddy
Virus047: Welcome Spuddy! Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Let’s go ahead and jump right into this. Tell the community a little about yourself? What makes your nade tick?
Spuddy: Greetings. 35/m/St. Louis. Currently spending adulthood working at annoying jobs then quitting those jobs for as long as possible before finding a new annoying job. In the meantime, lots of reading, gaming and bass playing. :D
Virus047: What brought you to the game of Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RTCW) and more specifically the 1.4 OSP competitive community?
Spuddy: As a kid, I spent a good amount of time at my uncle's house playing Wolfenstein 3d and Spear of Destiny. I didn't even know they had made a new version until he gave me a copy of RtCW for Christmas 2002. I went through the single player and at some point decided to give multiplayer a try. At that point, we were still on 56k so I had some harrowing, laggy adventures on Trench Toast and Tram before we eventually got DSL. Apparently I stumbled into the ASC shrub beach server somewhere along the way, and Lt. Goose recruited me into that clan - a mistake I'm sure he regrets to this day. Shortly after that, I think around 2004, some of us from ASC broke off, joined up with Caff, Paladin, Biff and Dodo to form the first incarnation of the birds (or Teh Birdz, since we were super cool). We joined CAL and TWL, and that was my first experience with competitive OSP.
Virus047: You have been a long time member of The Birdz and various other incarnations of the same core group of players for years now. What makes this group work well together? What about this team keeps you coming back for more?
Spuddy: I honestly don't know. We're all horrible people who do nothing but shit on each other, prey on each other's weaknesses and do our best to do permanent psychological damage to one another. Several members have dropped out over the years in fits of rage because they couldn't handle 8-10 straight years of trolling. The Birdz group text is truly one of the 7 Wonders of the Asshole world. I guess I just stick around because to quit would be admitting defeat. And maybe deep down, a tiny part of me actually enjoys playing games with these fucks. Maybe.
Virus047: Scenario: You are an LT. and you and your teammates are pushing into Tavern on Village on Offense. Who is your Medic behind you that you trust to revive you should you fall in game?
Spuddy: I've always been the medic so it's hard to say :D. 15 years ago I would say Mutha or 8s. Today I would have to say Kittens or Nigel. Someone who goes in with their needle already out. Giggity.
Virus047: Who would be your least favorite Player or Team to play against? Why?
Spuddy: From a pure gameplay standpoint, the guy I hated playing against the most was Elusive. For whatever reason, he probably killed me about 15 times for every 1 time I killed him. No one else has even come close to owning me at the rate that he did *shrug*. Not sure there's a least favorite team to play against. I remember once in the early days, a team called Scourge beat us 4 vs 6 in a match on Assault so I wasn't a big fan of theirs afterwards.
Virus047: What is your favorite RTCW Map and what about that map makes it your favorite?
Spuddy: Close call between Beach and Frostbite. Beach just because it's what I spent hours and hours and hours on while learning the game, sniping, corner camping, venoming, so the nostalgia is real. It's also the map where we clinched our buzzard trophy vs Jolly Roger in season 55 when everyone else had quit. Frostbite because I think its a good combination of being well balanced but with almost constant action. There are no 30 second runs to the flag or the objective like there are on some other maps. Plus, well, you know what to do.
Virus047: You were involved in the now famous BOB3 events involving The Birdz and u5. Give us your insider take on these events and what really went down!
Spuddy: I don't remember a whole lot of details. I'm pretty sure one of their guys (alea?) had been caught hacking in ET, and we had the option of whether or not to let him play in our match. We didn't want to hear the crying and excuses if we forced him to sit, so we let him play and ended up losing the match. The main thing I remember is that it was around that time we developed the Merlot D for Village. It's still never been tested properly in a match, so I have to keep the details private just in case.....
Virus047: Taking the above mentioned event/match into consideration, what are some of your favorite memories of matches or individual in-game moments from your RTCW career?
Spuddy: Sorry if this opens any wounds, but I remember a doc run in one of the recent (past 5 years or so) cups vs Crossbreed on Ice. There was some sneaky hiding and one of the CB guys led me to the safety of my own team while I trailed behind him with a pistol. There are too many good memories from matches and scrims to list. Winning the watered down version of CAL Main was fun. And although totally meaningless, my coolest moment in recent times was in a 4v4 warmup round on Monday night on Escape. I was the last defender left alive, hiding in the ducts. The whole enemy team came running through the wine cellar in a conga line, I fell out of the ducts behind them with a 4 man nade and returned docs when they were 5 feet away from capping. :D
Virus047: You’ve played lots of other games besides RTCW. What other game in your opinion has the ability to match the competitiveness that RTCW still captures when it comes to league and match play?
Spuddy: Short answer: NONE! Long answer: Other than ET and Age of Empires 2 I haven't played any other video games in organized competition enough to be able to answer that. Games like Overwatch and some of the Battlefield games I'm sure have plenty of upside in their competitive matches, but to me the beauty of RtCW is that it's a very simple game, but can still match the intensity and suspense and teamwork of any other game I've played. 4 classes, a handful of weapons, air cans, artillery, needles, packs, dynamite, done. It feels like in other games, to be competitive means you have to learn 50 different characters with their various skills, passives, interactions and synergies with other characters, etc. And while that type of game can have its merits, I don't see any of us playing Overwatch or League of Legends in 10 or 15+ years.
Virus047: Obviously with The Birdz being as old as they are, various versions of this group played better than others. Which version of The Birdz teams YOU were a member of, would you think could play against the best Euro Teams playing CURRENTLY (Roz, RAW, KiH, etc.? Would you guys win on a level playing field (neutral site server/pings not an issue)?
Spuddy: Our best team would have to be the one that went toe to toe with fX (but still lost 3-2). We were competitive with anyone in NA at that point. Mutha was probably our best overall gun/player we ever had, and Troll was our best panzer. With those 2 guys, we could mix and match the rest of us depending on who had shown up for scrims and whatnot, and we stood a decent chance against anyone. Could we beat the current top Euro teams? No, I doubt it. But we might steal a round here and there, and probably wouldn't get spawn camped :)
Virus047: You spent some time playing Enemy Territory (W:ET) competitively. What about that game was enjoyable and why didn’t more RTCW teams transition over like The Birdz did for a time?
Spuddy: I wasn't a huge fan of ET. The things I enjoyed most were the antilag, the hitsounds, and the vsays (ATTAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!). Who knows why more teams didn't try it out. To me, it goes back to the point of simplicity. ET added a bunch of new stuff like rolfnades, landmines, escort objectives etc., but that didn't necessarily make it any more fun than RtCW. Some of those things just made it more annoying. If a team were going to move on to a game other than RtCW, they had plenty of other options that were at least as good as ET, so I guess that thinned the herd.
Virus047: Having played RTCW for as long as you have, you played with and against some amazing talent and personalities. What is the ONE player currently NOT playing any longer you wished would come back? Why?
Spuddy: Definitely Troll/8e. He was an amazing panzer, very underrated. His personality fit right in with us as well. Quick to laugh, quick to rage. Overall a very good player and fun guy to have as a teammate and on comms. The aforementioned group text claimed him as a victim, unfortunately....
Virus047: Any shout outs or messages for the community?
Spuddy: There are too many fun teams/players I've played with and against, so I wouldn't want to forget anyone. One special shoutout to Tranza/Tracid from ASC - very cool Australian dude who was on LSD 60% of the time and who first showed me around some of the maps other than Beach.
Virus047: Thanks for your time! Enjoy!
Spuddy: Oh no, sir, thank YOU.
NEXT INTERVIEW COMING SOON!