Being A War ReporterAn interview with CCCombobreaker, a war veteran, who is currently one of the Trial Overseers. I am glad to have the opportunity to interview him, and despite the busy schedules, I appreciate him for still being able to find the time to answer my questions. Below are the contents :
First question: what does your name stand for? Is there a story behind it?Well back in 2006 I was playing
Yu-Gi-Oh! and the
WoW card game competitively but because I was attending college, my practice partners and I lived far apart. So we all got
LackeyCCG which was a free card game engine we could download all the card images into and play. At that point I did't have a unified gamer-name, so I made my avatar the image from the magic card "
force of will" and named myself combobreaker, which is ironic because I love combos in all card games and generally dislike having my combos get countered. My first elements account was in 2009, and since I was using combobreaker as my name in card games at the time, I made my elements account ccccombobreaker (4 'c's). But I was new and terrible and never went to the forums or wikis. So when I started playing again in 2011 I made a new account with 1 less c - cccombobreaker (3 'c's) so I could start over. Often in PvP people would SA "sweet killer instinct reference" and eventually I googled that. Apparently it is a fighting game where people get a bonus for breaking out off their opponents combos and the announcer yells "
C-C-COMBO-BREAKER". If I could change my name I would, but it is way too late for that.
Second question: How long have you been playing elementsthegame? How did you stumble upon it? How does elementsthegame attract your attention?I sort of answered that in the first question, but a long time. I got the link initially from a guy I play Magic with on LackeyCCG, but he never got far in Elements and never joined the forums or anything. Initially as a terrible noob (I think in December 2009), then as a learning-lurker, and then
I joined the forums in 2011. I keep coming back because Elements is the card game that rarely ever releases new cards. I love working in a stable meta or a small card pool. I have had tournament success in other CCGs, but they just keep printing new cards and I don't like
power creep or
complexity creep, and buying new cards just to keep up is expensive. So I always end up back at Elements.
The new shards really threw me off for a while, and so I went away from Elements for a long time - I even missed a war :-(. Nowadays I generally try to be here for war and take some time off after that. I miss a lot of people that used to be part of the community and taught me so much, but there are still a lot of really neat people here. As an on-again off-again player it is neat to see how new people have come in with new ideas and how a lot of other people who used to be new have stepped up. Although it is a little weird when I see people in the forums with 800+ posts that I have never heard of...
Third question : You have been involved in war for 3 times, how did you find war has progressed? Based on the trialist that enrolled so far, do you think war will be different this time?The smaller teams and the evolution of roles on the team are the things that jump out at me. My first war, the Lieutenant was actually the secondary leader of the team, not just the player who got 3 extra ups this round. I would like to see a return to set roles, and then giving those meaning and varied challenges and approaches via event cards and such. I think there is a lot of interesting things that could be done I that area. And the shrinking teams is sort of a necessity with the fewer players overall. But that needs to be accounted for in other ways (roles, auction updates).
Also no spectator mode takes a lot of excitement out of war. There are few things like having your team watching your match and giving you advice real team in a team chat. I learned a lot that way from Kirch33 and Mithicairon and Sevs. Also watching epics matches between other Generals or watching the finals made a huge difference in people hanging out towards the end of war when their teams were eliminated.
I think that who is appointed WarMaster will influence what this war is like a lot more than who the Trialists are. There are a lot of positive changes that can be made. Then the Masters/Generals will need to make the most of it. I look forward to working with some new team and doing our best to win the War. And ZANZ PLZ FIX SPECTATE.
Fourth question : What is your expectation for this trial? How do you think this trial will differ from previous trials in determining the suitable master?I applied to be a TrO because I felt the Trial needed a little more hype and focus on War. I know they are separate events, but to me they are so innately linked as a part of what makes Elements great- the community and connections and friendly competition. So we brought back a phase 1 where Trialists do something for the community but also can have fun pushing the limits of the game all in the theme of War. I like coming into chat and seeing people theorize about how to get maximum damage or comparing their records for the Time challenges.. The other interviews I've read have been great insights into really neat members of the community, helping us get to know each other. We wanted to give people options, but give those options meaning and weight that carries though the whole Trials. Like I hope that people look back at the phase 1 submissions again before voting in phase 3, and that they Trialists have to consider how the tasks affect their options in phase 2. I think it helps bring out key traits that are important Masters to have - the ability to think ahead, work within constraints, reach out to other players, and recognize what is missing or needs improvement within their Element.
Fifth question : May I know why do you choose to be the trial overseer this time? Is it because you are interested to take up the task, or is there other reasons? I already touched on this some, but I can add that I felt myself capable and saw there was a need. For a long time in my life I did a lot of spectating and complaining. And over the past couple years I've really taken to heart "Be the change you want to see in the world." So rather than just seeing who else might step up, I put in my own application. It's important for the Vets to help run things, because the new players can't, and there has been a lot of burnout in the community because a few people were asked to do so much. It is better all around if a lot of people do a little, so I wanted to help some. I still wanted to take part in War, but did not want to be a General, so I figured Trials Overseer was a great position to step up for.
Sixth question : As a fire trialist, I am kind of curious to know which element you are most interested to watch? and there may not be enough trialist in earth trial. Why do you think is the reason in your opinion?
Well, there are a lot of great potential showdowns shaping up in the Trials. It's a little sad to me how few Masters are defending, but that means this Trials will be the beginning of a new era of sorts, with lots of new leaders trying to carve out their place in Element's history. It's hard to judge now who could be the next
Laxadarap leading a "lower tier" element almost to greatest victory! And having been out of the community for a few months leading up to now, I still don't have a really good grasp on who ought to be feared and how much.
I have no idea why people are so down on
. I was on
for 2 wars, and I feel like it is one of the stronger elements. It is a little harder than some of the other "powerful" elements to use because the 2 key cards it has Grabboid and Pulverizer both require off-element quanta to activate, which makes it tricky to use them in the same deck. Also in the War meta, teams almost always can account for EQ by doing ridiculous splits, which makes it hard to use Earths best denial tool. I am looking forward to see if anyone else joins that Trial, because I think
deserves a strong and battle tested Master.
Seventh question : Have you been experiencing difficulties so far as a trial overseer? Are you receiving any pressure from the community to make this trial as interesting as possible? What is your own aim in achieving a pleasant trial to everyone who join and also the community who are watching ? I think the hardest thing is anticipating how everyone will try to ignore or bend the rules wherever possible. I tried to be as detailed and specific when listing out all the rules, but sometimes you miss things... like chaos mode in the trainer. Like I said earlier, it feels like the community has embraced the return of Proving of Worthiness as I keep seeing people discuss parts of it in chat and comment on each other's Trials posts. I'm sure we'll get some "it's just a time sink" feedback, but I really think it's important that the Trials provides something for the community other than match results. And what tasks people choose and how they complete them can give more insight into how they see the game, or what they value. There was a little push back at first about the Phase 1/Phase 2 interaction, but I think most of that is sorted out now, and we will post people's unlocks to help make sure it is as clear as possible before Phase 2 starts.
We haven't gotten a lot of push from the community to make it more interesting really.
Zawadx and I both started with what we liked and didn't like from last war. Then we took all the things we liked and did out best to fit them together. That's sort of how Trials works as far as I can tell, and I'm sure if there are different TrOs next time, things will change some more. I think there was a greater risk of too much change than of letting it get stale or uninteresting.
So I guess this is the part where I say I hope everyone has been enjoying Phase 1, or at least finding new and interesting ideas or approaches they hadn't considered before. I will say that people are blowing the War Training Challenges apart in a way I find super impressive. And as we get into more battle-oriented rounds, I'm sure there will be a number of interesting or innovative decks and hopefully some unexpected upsets, and through it all the goal is to make sure the best people to be Master come out on top while the community cheers them on and started getting all psyched up for WAR!!!!!!
