ITS: Cryptic

The TF2 division has been through a lot in its history with TAW and now the man in charge of TAW operations in the world's most whimsical first person shooter is none other than Cryptic, a UK based leader who has made it his mission to get the whole of TAW involved with the cartoonish mayhem Valve has provided him, even if it means forcibly moving the entire clan into his TS server to do it. QuinoaAOC got a moment to chat with the DC of TF2 and the results were just a glimpse into the mind of this driven leader.

Let’s start by telling everyone a little about you,

Alright, I'm Cryptic, mostly because I speak in a dodgy Tees-side accent! Atleast these days I seem to make a lot more sense, just practice "init" (colloquial slang)

 

What might someone be surprised to know about you?

There is plenty, to be safe though I'll just talk about my first clan |FuN|, we played Medal of Honor; Allied Assault in the Community MOHAA league, back then we were in the premier division, I had the handle Ch402 back then (2 instead of 5 because that is too mainstream) I can't tell you want what the acronym means...it's against TAW policy :D, but the N does stand for noobs. It was a good time and I learned the value of humility, I mean we called ourselves noobs, and we still stayed in the premier division!

Oh also, from 12 to 16 I trained In the Korean martial art we called "Musado," until the local club had to disband (8th rank, 4 from black) (more on that later) (its not Thai-Kwon-Do)

Do you have any special hobbies or activities outside of online gaming/TAW?

I have a dog, a black Stafford terrier with white chest called Tux, I look at her training as a hobby, it just isn't work to me, me and my Dad are going to start taking a metal detector with us on our walks.

So...tell us about the infamous two Gump Medal winning script test. Any single action that results in two Gumps must be a fun story, what happened?

 

Ok so I had just gotten the DO position at the time, The Game was DC at the time and had given me the link to bespoke script.

Next, I was sitting in TS with Gant, so I figured it was just us two there, no better time to test my script! After all if it went wrong...it was just us two to find out...

So I look at the instructions, and find the command to "move all to channel" /ma t [channel ID]

"Huh, must be this one, ok Gant I'm just going to move us both into the TF Lobby now"

[Press enter]

~User has been~User has~User~U~

...

...

~You have been banned from the server~

Well it didn't take long for me to realize the magnitude of my derp, I hoppend onto steam and IM'ed Gant...

"I used the wrong command didn't I"

Luckily Gant was good enough to locate Cutthroat and tell him how much of a berk I am, and I was back in the server after a trip to the kettle for some tea and laughs.

Someone made a joke about me using the script properly to empty the TF channel of all the idlers, instead I did it manually ;) by the way, I haven't gotten it wrong since!

What brought you to TAW? I see you started in Red Orchestra 2 and moved into Team Fortress 2, what brought about the change? 

Technically chance, I was the first person to join RO2, month(s) before release, being part of FuN I was extremley anxious to get a modern WW2 shooter and decided I needed to join a clan to get the best experience out of it.

Anyway the game release, and we had plenty of success until BF3 drew close, members started dropping out, and the RO community as a whole became a difficult place to recruit in, with the masses talking about "switching over."

The ship was sinking and I wanted to hold on to the bitter end, but I reluctantly decided it was a waste of effort, seeing that the TF1 battalion could use my tick on the register and with it being my single favorite game online, it became an easy decision pretty quickly.

You have only been in TAW for nine months and have already achieved a place among the TFO and a rank of Lieutenant Colonel. What do you fell you brought to the table that resulted in such a rapid rise through the ranks?

In a word; "Tenacity." In two words; "Yes Sir/Maam!." I credit the tenants of my martial arts club (the United Kingdom Musado Association) for teaching me Musado...korean for "the way of the warrior spirit."  I left a long time ago but still live by the rules I learned.

On top of that I have had plenty of role models, in and outside of taw, I won't go naming them, they know who they are. 

My only ambition so far has been to do what I do successfully, I never asked for any promotions, a few I almost turned down (or did in RO) because I was enjoying my current post.

 

 

Are there any other games you play regularly outside of Team Fortress 2?

Civilization (5 mostly) and Killing Floor are two of my favorite games. I have a huge collection too but those 3 games make up most of my gaming diet.

Being that TF2 is a Free to Play game, do you feel this will help or hurt the TF division in the long running struggle to maintain a division? 

If you go looking on forums etc you see plenty of people whine about the change over, all of them ridiculous, how could it hurt? The people who complain and threaten to quit aren't the kind of people we want anyway! (TF2 was never expensive anyway!)

The change can only serve to help because more people get into the game, more people pay what they want to enjoy the game they love, and that keeps valve funding the development of a game that released around 4 years ago! (not sure of the exact dates.)

In conclusion, with a well made game, with constant support from the developer and a well established community, the F2P model is good for everyone, PS it isn't a struggle here either, simply because of the loyalty inspired by the game and its producer, our members are simply hooked on TF2! woo constant updates! 

TF2 has had its ups and downs as a division like any other. What do you believe to the cornerstone of its continuing success in TAW?

 TF2 is the cornerstone of TF2, I think the last answer covers this well, it really is such a great game on many levels, I believe that to be the secret to our success, oh and tenacity, did I say that yet?

Mustn't forget, we have hats too!

What are you looking forward to improving in the division that will help it appeal to other members of TAW and to public players in general? 

Aside from simply recruiting and playing on our server I look forward to seeing some stable competitive teams in the mix, with the TF2 community comes several different styles of game play including highlander (there can be only 1...of each class)

The idea is to have more ways to play the game and to have an identity for TAW within the TF2 community, and like I keep telling people before they go out to recruit...to make more friends than enemies!

 

Every Division has it's strengths and weaknesses, be it from the membership, the game itself, or the developers support of the game. What are the strongest, and weakest, characteristics of TF2 as a division and a game and how to you use them to your advantage as a DC?

Oh that is a tough one, I think it would have to be the sheer size of TF2 as a whole that has impacted the division as-well as itself the most, for better or worse.

With so many well established groups out there, it can be difficult to be seen in the community, we have a lot of competitors and TAW's family friendly ideals it make a tough market indeed, at the same time there is nothing like a bit of healthy competition is there?

Any  parting comments or things you would like to add about TF for other TAW members?

 

Sure, If you try this game, you will fail a LOT, and if you chose to persevere, you will encounter a lot of good and bad advice, my only advice to players starting this game would be to find your own strengths and weaknesses without looking too much at finer details like what other people do and "what looks good on paper," it's a diverse game! (also, myself and a lot of others exploit common behavior to our advantage! :D )

I'm sure a lot of people would love some fresh meat down here, guests are always welcome (hint). It's a great place to kick off your training wheels with no need for shame (public servers can be harsh, but that isn't reserved to TF2).