The next interview will be coming with someone who is not so unknown, IG_Oliveran. The main reasons for us to bring him in were that not only he is one of the best and most loyal veterans among the community but he also has done a lot for IG_Battleground server and we want to know more about that.
We hope you guys will be happy and hyped about it, interview should be up on Monday or Tuesday.
Q : Like we did for Erminas last time, I think a little presentation is in order so we can get to know more about you :
Hello! I'm IG's Oliveran. I'm currently the leader of IG's Warband clan. I'm from Sweden, close to Stockholm, and I'm 21 years old. I currently work half-time, study full-time and I'm trying to live a 'student life' while keeping up with my hobbies (Karate, tennis and, of course, gaming - especially Warband).
I started -Warband- back in the summer of 2010, though I played the old M&B from beta (don't remember exactly, but something like 0.687) back in roughly 2006 I think.
I joined The Kingdom of Swadia (TKoS) with one of my IRL friends, Hubbel (most remember him as either BD_Hubbel or IG_Hubbel, a good dueler) during late 2010, and then later in June 2011 we both applied for Guard of Istiniar - also known as IG. Ever since, I've been in IG, and since around mid 2012, I've been one of the staple infantries in IG. I've played in all tournaments for IG ever since. (All from "Harman's Tournament" to the first ENL, the ENL cycles, all WNL's, both ECS's, and also this WPL ofcourse and Nations' Cup since 2011 - I've been the team leader and commander of the NC team since 2011 too - despite not actually being registered as the leader). Only missing out on one because of a half-year hospitalization due to disease (ehec; for those of you who wants to know). That also changed a lot of things for me, overcoming problems I've personally struggled with - close-to-death experiences do change people on the inside sometimes!
Q : You have been a long term veteran for the Guard of Istiniar, and even if you were not alone, the fact the clan is still alive at the moment must eventually (partially atleast) come down to your presence. What it is like to work every day for IG as a leader, and how have you been able to do that for so long despite the ups and downs?
An everyday-time thing for me in IG is to talk to most of our members - even if it's just a few sentences. I try to keep up contact and activity of all members (at least socially). Also, I keep a very active watch on the forums, and manage things like ban appeals, server issues, discussions and changes in the clan. It's not always been easy, and with all ups and downs it's been a lot of extra work. Every time we lose a sequence of players, it's lots of extra things to manage. All from getting new players, to make sure others can feel like they still want to stay even though some of their friends left!
I ran the team, to a pretty big extent, alone during the first ECS and WNL4. It's often been taxing, and taking critique when doing things alone can be especially hard. I do think that the effort I put in back then, is showing now - IG's still alive, and got a team to play for the next tournament - and a good team at that! I'm happy with everyone in the team right now, and feel at home in IG. It's the members that have kept me running through the ups and downs (special mentions go to Kekn, Triari and Crazyboy).
Q : Like the Defenders of Faith, the Guard of Istiniar is one of the oldest clans of the game. However recently, you guys have been (often unjustly) criticized for your lack of results. How do you feel knowing that the community tends to compare the current IG to what it was back in the days when you were ruling the scene?
My personal opinion is that people - generally - don't understand what makes a team good and bad. For me, it's four *simple* things:
1) Game knowledge ('can I survive this or not?', 'Should I be aggressive or passive?', 'Looking at my teams class setup, how should I play?', 'What weapon is the best to have up right now?')
2) Communication (being non-negative [note: doesn't mean being positive], making good calls, not talking over each other, knowing when to say something and not ['kill the archer on left' can result in very horrible deaths, since most people blindly and trustingly go for the call, and can lose a round in an instant])
3) Skill (not losing 0-7 to New_Player ...)
4) Awareness and map awareness (awareness = spotting enemies before they get you, so you're never taken by surprise... map awareness = your understanding of reports and how you put the puzzle of enemy positions and the locations together - to form a picture of where there's crossfires, where you should fight and so on)
In IG; we've had an unlucky mix of players who often lacks two of the four (instead of, for example just one - skill can be replaced by the other 3, and awareness can be replaced by good communication [warnings etc.] and so on). As we've lost most of our players through time, those key players who's had all four (a few mentions so you can relate to the skill and experience of the lost members: Harman, Nedsat, LeRoux, Razer, Toi, CristoTheVicious, SpheRe, Bauglir... The list goes on) at one point or another (or still currently has them) it’s made the team lack that extra 'umph'. Comparing old IG with the current is unfair, because first of all most of the current top players have been in IG for at least half a year, and gotten tons of experience, skill and understanding of team play from IG before leaving. Secondly we've had constant roster changes. Just compare the first ECS roster (Corey, Rempica, SpheRe, Triari, Sifon, Kekn) to our current roster (Kiano, Dreaon, Emir, Kiron, XerXesJesus, Mynes, Pepa16 - these are not full rosters, just examples of how many good players we've swapped for other good players over the past year.
All-in-all:
If you compare old IG to the new IG, the only correct thing you can say is that the team's different. Saying that the team performs bad compared to the old IG, and you look at it subjectively, you'll realize that we've performed way above what should be expected considering the players, the activity of the players and the skill of the players at that current time. I.e. don't compare teams now from then unless they got pretty much the same roster.
Q : It's also a fact that you're probably one of the most dedicated admins of the IG_Battlegrounds server. What does it ask to keep what we can consider as the best and most competitive Warband Server, an enjoyable place to play in?
It's a lot about trying to be active. We're constantly trying out changes, giving them time to be tested (and possibly, open up a wound and let it mend - a good example of this is the 10-second cavalry change, which I will probably put back soon). It requires awareness as a person (lots of admins don't read chat, miss out on situations that makes rage-polls and angry team kills), and patience ("OMG I only said these 15 curses because he team killed me by accident, it's not my fault, I want an unban now OMG I'm so unreasonable please unban me!"), and on top of that, a bit of empathy (understanding why others get mad, and to judge when it's okay to make a bad decision as a player and when not to). An admin without empathy, patience or awareness will always end up making a bad decision at one point or another.
Q : As an individual, you're considered one of if not the best player in IG at the moment. How did you improve and keep your skill on such a high level and why are you, in your opinion, still quite underestimated by some players in the community? Do you also think that your experience and knowledge of the game is something that can allow IG to get better?
Keeping skill is a trivial matter once you have the 'four basics' down to a decent enough level (remember - knowledge, communication, skill, awareness). It's about being able to keep your mental aspects up (awareness, communication, knowledge), more than the physical aspects (skill - muscle memory).
I think people are very result-blind and role-blind. First of all, if you look at my score from a viewpoint of that I'm first of all a commander, secondly a player that plays all three classes, thirdly that I'm affected heavily by my emotionally mental state when I play, and fourthly that I'm in one of the teams that struggles against the top 3 teams in the community, and then look at my results, you're going to change your mind. For an example, in WNL4, I had one of the best K/D rations (at 1.5) considering the amount of rounds I played, and the teams we faced. In ECS2 I got into the top 20 players who killed the most enemies (44 kills in 4 matches, 60 rounds gives 44/60 = ~0.73 kills/round. Compare this to another player who plays mostly infantry, like Scar with 58 kills; 5 matches * 16 rounds = 80. 58 kills, so 58/80 = ~0.725 kill/round, compared to my 0.73 - and we lost two matches badly vs AE and F!), and was the only one to do so who was not in one of the top 3 teams, and I even played all three classes during the tournament to boot. Though kills are neither a fair nor good way of measuring game-impact, it's a very, very general measurement of impact for the team.
While I will not say that I'm necessarily underestimated (nor will I say that I'm either a top player nor commander), I want people to consider my versatility (can play all 3 classes at a quite high level), my impact as a team mate (communication, awareness, help in making decisions when I'm not commanding) and the way I try to affect groups when I play (if you ask any IG, IR, ex-RF [disbanded] or Castellan members [teams I've scrimmed with at least more than once], you'll know that I never let the TeamSpeak I'm on have a negative atmosphere) before they judge me (as a player and/or leader). Basically, the reasons why I think people might underestimate me are because they've not grasped the idea of how a competitive player should be to truly be the back-bone of a team he/she joins.
Of course I think my experience and knowledge helps IG - it's kept IG alive and going at a good competitive level, and I'm always striving towards improving the team!
Q : To conclude this interview, if there is anything left you would like to share with us, then now is your special moment!
Well yes! Of course I can say that I'm trying to improve IG; but that'd be nothing without every single one of my lovely team mates. Big shout-out to the actual clan IG <3
Special mentions also go to people I talk with every day (that also lets me take out the very little anger I actually do have about Warband), that keeps me in this game - a few names are CristoTheVicious, Aeronwen, Boris, Piccolo and la/le baguettes (a few of the RNGD's - you guys know who you are!), Waurio - there's more, but the list would be too long.
Also, I thought that, well, this is the place to show a few of my videos. Feel free to watch them! Especially the merc-videos.
I have to admit that I enjoyed reading this ALOT. This has been really entertaining and at the same time, what I've been hoping to happen, controversial. What Oli said is true, the impact he has on your game as a merc is insane. Like the positive atmosphere, the input tactial wise and his raw skill combined made me wanna get him to play for Castellan; I'm glad he stayed in IG in the end tho (If you've got time I highly recommend you to watch these videos).
Oliveran forgot to mention that he is always ready to help out those of us in need of training/practice. Really one of the nicest (and most underestimated) Warband players.
He is and stop being mean to people, if you don't want them to be mean to you. It depends on how you perceive an infantry, but let's talk about match performance. He's such a complete and solid package that I would personally rate him one of the best infantry in the community, while Bendetto even forgot to put him on his list at first. A lot of people just didn't notice it, since he usually commands and that affects your gameplay in a negative way.
