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Team Fortress 2: pangu from The Doctors Interviewed

By: Joe Szymkowicz - Published January 17, 2008 at 8:05 PM EST - Writer Archive
GotFrag's Joe Szymkowicz talks with pangu about the TGL Roughneck Finals, the move to The Doctors and his thoughts about the present and future of Team Fortress 2.


After his run with The Experiment to the Grand Finals of the TGL Roughneck Finals, GotFrag spoke with Timothy "pangu" Brilhante about some of the current events going on around the Team Fortress 2 community.

Though Team Fortress 2 is a relatively new game, how do you think the competitive community is growing?

It seems to be diminishing actually. The previous CEVO and TGL tournaments both had 100+ teams signed up. CEVO-S1 is already underway and there are only about 22 teams in the amateur division and 15 in professional. The competitive future of this game is looking pretty lousy, and there are a bunch of reasons why. An obvious one would be the case of players per team: 6v6 or 8v8? If the competitive future is to survive, we should probably unite and figure this one out!

What do you think the game needs, if anything, to become even stronger competitively?

I would have to say more teams, a united roster format of either 6v6 or 8v8, a good map pack, and coverage!

Coming into the CEVO tournament, who looks to be the strongest teams?

Probably 20ID, The Experiment, Skull Gaming, and Saget In Tights. These are all very skilled teams and shouldn’t have any problems making it into the playoffs.

You recently left your old team, TGL Runners-up The Experiment, to join The Doctors' squad. Any reason behind the departure?

Well, I just want to say it was a blast being apart of The Experiment. They’re all great guys and I wish them all the best.

A few nights ago, Mark “wombat” Larsen approached me and asked if I was interested in joining The Doctors. The answer is clear, without hesitation I said yes. Anybody who knows me well enough would know that I’ve been friends with the guys for awhile now, and that I’ve been wanting this to happen for a really long time. I’m excited it’s finally official and I’m definitely looking forward to getting to know the guys a lot more, they are absolutely hilarious to listen to. :}

Speaking of The Doctors, how have The Doctors been preparing for this first season of CEVO? How would you rank yourselves against other teams playing in the competition?

Right now we are just getting back into the game- shaking off the rust. Once the regular season begins we’ll be practicing a lot more. As for the competition, it should be pretty exciting with some big grudge matches bound to take place. I think based on performances in the CEVO and TGL tournaments- it would be safe to place us in the top five.

While you were a member of The Experiment, you caught quite a bit of flak for your affiliation with The Doctors. Would you like to explain the situation and the history behind your ties to them?

Well it was nothing more than a couple of dumb arguments over absolutely retarded stuff. Basically I’ve known a few of the guys from Quake, specifically Adam “northman” Gray. We have been pretty good friends the past few years and he’s done quite a bit for me. Thanks Adam! :}

Being one of the game's top Snipers, you were especially affected by one of the latest Valve updates; how do you feel the competitive community is reacting to recent "fix"? Do you feel Valve is helping out competitive play by making changes like this?

I think competitive communities will almost always suffer from their casual counterparts. Probably one of two things should happen- a competition mod comes along, or Valve could step up and allow certain aspects of the game to have optional settings. Just don’t dictate when the sniper can and cannot zoom. In one of the recent updates, they did take a step in the right direction by allowing the rifle to have an optional re-zoom after a scoped shot. If they really want to end the majority of bickering left about this topic- they should remove the short delay that keeps you scoped in after a shot.

Do The Doctors have any plans to compete in the tournament that will take place at i33?

It was mentioned, but no we don’t have any plans.

What do you think the future will hold for the game?

To be honest, I hope the “large scale” gameplay changes Valve announced will benefit both casual and competitive communities. Otherwise we could really see the competitive scene shrink, or even die out living up to the “pub game” comment.

Thanks for your time Tim, do you have any final thoughts or shoutouts?
I would just like to say hello to my new teammates, friends, family, a quick shout out to Dan, Tyler, and Nick- Thanks for the support guys. Thanks for having me Joe. :}

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