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This sunday (21GMT = 1PM PST = 3PM CST = 4PM EST), the finals of the third DGL season will take place. In this first part of our pre match interview we ask a few questions to team Tank, who have so far in this tournament not lost a single match.



the funkmaster: Hello, John and Bitey from Tank!
ocun: Let's sart with a general question first!

ocun: Tank is a new team, playing it's first season in the main division. Can you tell us a little more about Tank, how you started out?

Bitey: This would be my section, we started in a pro pug one day while I was going through lots of different names. My current name was simply Tank! So I ended up picking a pro team. John, Savior, Wildman, and Plasma beast were the orignal five tanks of the team.
Bitey: After that pug I believe most of us were unsatified with most of our clans matchs/scrims so we made a group that we would scrim against clans with.
916.John: That eventually became the roster for challenge cup
Bitey: From there you know how it was make pictures after beating a team and be silly for the most part then as john said the gag cup started
916.John: Basically some background history. I was in FePh, Savior was in ae, Bitey was in Rats all prior to Tank
the funkmaster: And joker was in dni.
Bitey: Plasma was Wnx

the funkmaster: Throughout season 3, Tank has been a team that seems to want to exude confidence. How confident are you feeling now, going into the final match or matches of the season?

916.John: well, I would say we feel sort of confident
916.John: I mean we started off knowing that we'd end up somewhere in the top 5
Bitey: My plan was for nr3
916.John: nr1? that's a push but we didn't think it was impossible. Things started looking better as the season went along.
Bitey: Well my goal for the team wasnt to be nearly as serious as the last I was in, fun came first
916.John: I took fun out of the equation
Bitey: He would lay down the more tacitcal way to have fun

ocun: I think Tanks confidence shows in the creativity they show during matches. The loadouts that are picked are quite new. On some maps we've seen light rushes followed by a mostly heavy team, or rocket launchers on offense where one would not expect it. Is this something we will continue to see, even in the finals? Or can we expect a safer and more traditional play style? Even in the finals when there is a lot at stake?

916.John: I wouldn't base our creativity as confidence. We just are a team that is more likely to try things and to see what works rather than to look at competitive Dystopia as medtopia
916.John: ...in terms of finals, I think that will just be a suprise that we'll have to see
Bitey: It wont be a suprize john, most likely we will use what feels best for the situation
Bitey: maybe it'll be a surpize for everyone else
the funkmaster: I think this creativity is more part of a larger trend which quite a few teams are in on, it does takes confidence to do it but late season 1 and allt through season 2 we did see the first few cracks in mediumtopia.
ocun: true
the funkmaster: Although, I think I would be correct in noticing that tank play a more traditional defence, without any major surprises in it. Perhaps that's the way to go for season 4? Trying to come up with a shakeup for defence?
Bitey: Defense is boring and uneventful
916.John: Well, the way I look at it is that Tank tactics aren't for everyone. Every team has to find the balance that works for them.
916.John: Not every team can pull off the 2 heavy offense
916.John: But in terms of defense, we do run the more traditional route because the traditonal route yields more consistency.

ocun: Yes i was wondering about those heavy rushes and loadout changes that occur quite often. Are those scenarios you practice? Doing a light rush followed by a heavy rush? Or is most of it just going with the flow.

916.John: Not really, we just feel it
916.John: Because we are open to adjusting, we feel what works. For a while the 2 heavy vaccine docks worked well but then people eventually discovered how to counter so we stopped but I mean we have things that work that people don't know how to counter effectively yet.
ocun: So in a way noone knows whats going to happen on sunday yet
Bitey: I think we have an idea
the funkmaster: I think I have some ideas :P

ocun: Last time NB played Tank, it came to a close victory on detonate. Has this result affected the way you prepared for the match of sunday? Are there any specific things you will be watching out for?

916.John: Well, that match was early in the season for us
916.John: I think that was our 2nd match against any of the top 5 teams
ocun: It was later actually
916.John: Oh yea that's right, our 2nd was on infect I believe.
Bitey: our 1st was infect and then it was detonate, against nb
ocun: on 22nd of November, pretty far in the season, but i guess that answers the question
916.John: Well I feel like we are more prepared now than when we were then. Also our starter lineup has changed slightly as the season went along which in my opinion helps to our balance and to our new tactics
the funkmaster: In that match we did see some signs of tactical staleness, you stuck with joker as ion heavy for way too long on 2nd objective for example when it didn't work, more recently you've loosened up and let joker play other things too
916.John: Early in the season, we didn't really have any maps that we were confident on because we are new to this still. We knew we had ism and we still are mostly a team revolved around ism.

the funkmaster: Are you more scared of cybernetic than detonate, given nb are the opponent? What was the reasoning in map choice?

916.John: Well, nb has pretty set tactics on detonate, you know what to expect
916.John: I don't think cybernetic is really much problem for us. We are solid in meatspace and we are solid in cyber
Bitey: Boring as ever john. We were guessing that it would be those maps the would want to play us on john. We wanted fortress and silo but they would want vaccine (Stalemap) and infect(badmap). Those maps were our 3rd and 4th choices

ocun: One of the things that impresses me most about Tank, is the amount of dedication the members have towards the team. What's your secret, for example, to get Joker out of bed early in the morning to play a match vs a team on the other side of the world?

916.John: We call him and call him a sloth
Bitey: It's not that early for joker 8am is not a bad time to getup
Bitey: I've been through things where I've had to wake up at outrageous hours before too, so it wasnt new to me. Most people wakeup for school in the morning so it just means going to be alittle early, or in johns case staying up later
ocun: I dont particularly feel like playing Dystopia when i get out of bed though
Bitey: I enjoy waking up to some serious bussness
916.John: Actually, usually he prefers the matches past noon but sometimes scheduling doesn't allow for that
916.John: the 10am gmt matches are 10pm for joker, which were usually preferred
916.John: it worked best for our team since we have many members that work mornings to evenings during the weekend so the early morning matches always worked

ocun: I think we will end with a final question. What do you think about NB? Is it something you expected, playing them in the finals?

Bitey: Apart from tank I was displeased with all the forfiets they got, and our miniboss wasn't supposed to lose
916.John: I think they are a really good team which heavily relies on tactics
916.John: They spend a lot of time setting up and planning tactics but from what I hear, they mostly try to ism in game because you can't really follow a plan because nothing ever goes according to plan
916.John: Some of the things they come up with are good though. Like on infect, they waited to cap third so that when they capped it, they did tons of damage to the thing (the communications tower) because you couldn't get out of spawn fast enough to stop it and such
916.John: they are basically the pioneers to sitting down and thinking about tactics for new maps
916.John: while tank... well we just go on ism
916.John: then what works for us starts getting repeated and becomes our tactic
916.John: But in terms of having nb for finals, honestly I thought we would have PsY
916.John: During normal season, we have yet to beat nb or PsY. We actually have trouble with PsY on scrims too so nb vs PsY was something i wanted to see

That concludes this interview! We whish both teams good luck, and may the best win!
Tank vs NB will be played this sunday at 21GMT = 1PM PST = 3PM CST = 4PM EST
You will be able to watch it on SourceTV (DGL US Chicago server) and tune in for a live shoutcast using the applet on the website: http://dystopia-league.net/live