Hey guys, please introduce Team ufx!

cl0ck: Sup

czm: Hi. I take credit for coming up with the name "Ultrafrag Xtreme".


Community favorite cl0ck and czm


We have seen you compete in the Anima Gaming TDM Showcase tournament in February, what are your thoughts looking back at that tournament?

cl0ck: Any TDM cup in America that can field enough teams to play is always fun. Unfortunately there just isn't the desire to play TDM for most people in our country. The event itself was great, AG always runs good cups.

czm: I remember that we won and that I had a nice streak at the start of the second map.


Was that the first time you played TDM together? How did the current Lineup get together?

cl0ck: That was indeed the first time we played TDM together, though czm and I played a bit together back in Q3 as well. The lineup was almost a no-brainer. Rapha and I were competing in the 2v2 cups and really enjoying it and discovering some pretty solid team chemistry, so when DH was announced we knew we wanted to take part of it and really try and represent America in this gametype. From there asking czm was a no-brainer as he is always down for TDM and one of the smartest team-players you will ever meet. Then of course DaHanG was also a very obvious choice based on his ability to switch from Q2/Q4/Q3 and be at the top across various game-types. I think we were really trying to assemble a 'work smart not hard' sort of team due to the lack of competition in America. We knew that most of our time would be spent analyzing demos and figuring out what we could do better, rather than actually playing high volumes of games.

czm: We had played casual pickups together, but not much as a team.


How has the preparation been going since?

cl0ck: As I said before, going in to this we knew we weren't going to be getting a whole lot of game-time practice, so a lot of our preparations have just been watching demos and trying to fix each others mistakes. Practice has been going great. It's really nice to be on a team of motivated, incredibly smart people. There are a couple teams in America that we play. Wish there was more, but you take what you can get I suppose.

czm: Sometimes the preparation feels like it is going well, other times it does not. Also, what cl0ck said.


Have you been following the European TDM competitions? Any thought about the current upswing of TDM in the European community?

cl0ck: Ya we have all followed them pretty closely. I think the jolt of TDM activity in Europe is great. This is a hard question for me to really answer because being from the US it has always appeared that the TDM scene in EU has been booming. I think its great that there are so many players from Q3 that I used to know and play against that are coming back for this. It will really be a cool event to sort of catch up with friends from the past and re-live some old rivalries.

czm: cl0ck follows them and reports back to me.


The upcoming CSN TDM online tournament with a prize pool of $800 has only 6 sign-ups atm. What needs to be done in order to get some life into the NA TDM scene again?

cl0ck: Ya that really is unfortunate. All the best players really just stick to CTF and Duel. I think a part of that is because it is very comfortable, and people in America are very competitive, so the thought of getting their team involved in an unfamiliar mod such as TDM and deal with the growing pains because intimidating. I believe a draft TDM tournament would be very successful in America and could really boost the community for us. Besides that, I'm not sure there is much anyone can do.

czm: The issue you mention is part of a larger problem with the popularity of QL. I wrote down my thoughts on this back in Feb 2009 and they have not changed much since; maybe I'll share them publicly somewhere.


Please share your memories about past TDM LAN events with us.

cl0ck: Man, I'm not too sure many players would even remember the only TDM events that Americans had. I suppose the most recent and memorable (or unmemorable) moment for an American would be clan 519's disappointing performance at LA7. Before that, all my memories come from the TDM events we had in 2000-2002. Teams like clan Kapitol, ichorvile, omniscient, kung fu clan, 519. The matches that came from that era I really don't think could ever be recreated. So many amazing players that played back then.

czm: To complement cl0ck's "feel good" response to this question, let me recall a few "moments of glory" from my Q3 TDM career (mostly with cK).
- DCCon7 (Jun 2000): losing twice to clan DONG (a pickup team).
- Battletop NYC (Sep 2000): hopping between couches in a hotel room to demonstrate how to do the RA jump on dm6 without getting railed.
- FRAG4 (Sep 2000): spook won't stop talking about how badly e9-voo owned us on dm6. railing all four r3v players on dm7 in a 10 second window and hearing the crowd "go wild".
- QIL4 (Jan 2001): not getting owned on dm7 by the stickmen after they practiced that map a few hundred times.
- ECL (Jun 2003): stepping into a bucket of ice and tripping. playing well against kfc after eating my first steak (post 18 or so years of vegetarianism).
- AMERICUP (Sep 2005): d4Rkl0Rd didn't show, and my +60 net couldn't beat gator's -70.
- Online tournaments Apr 2000-Apr 2002, such as Eastern Quake League, Spring Survival, DoubleTeam, Xtreme Gaming League, QIL4 (season), Badlands, Resurrection, Knightmare Invitational Tournament (KIT), Resurrection 2: let's go with two memories. First, the perfect 24-0 QIL4 season. Second, the hilariously epic KIT east coast finals against the stickmen: down by one point, seconds to go in overtime, deciding map of the series, one rocket left, two enemies on a catwalk...fill in the blank. Made me feel like retiring ASAP. I randomly switched to a logitech "dual sensor" mouse right before that match and ate an enormous bag of sunflower seeds.

16 year old czm: "I feel a bit bored playing tdm now since I know that most of the time, no matter what I do, my team will still win. So to summarize, playing 4v4's with cK helped me at first, but for awhile now it's only made me worse"


Are you excited to play TDM on LAN again? How did the game change since than?

cl0ck: It will be very exciting to play TDM on LAN. For me personally, the game has changed A LOT since the last time I have competed in a team-based LAN. Mostly because the bulk of my team-based LAN experience came from Q3, so it was very familiar for me to go from online to LAN and be able to transition moderately well. I am looking forward to being able to play QL on LAN as I really think it will favor me. I'm getting older ya know, reflexes aren't what they used to be so I think going to LAN where things seem to be a little smoother and obviously very even will be great and I'm really looking forward to it.

czm: The game is different now. For example, it's easier to aim.


What is your goal for the DreamHack tournament?

cl0ck: I think there are a few different goals. czm and myself have been apart of this game for a long time, we've both done very well in team-based events both online and LAN throughout the 10+ years we've been on and off playing this game. I think this event sort of marks a milestone for us. TDM is by far my all-time favorite gametype and definitely is czm's. I think for the two of us going to this event, doing/playing well and just in general sort of having fun will be good enough. There will never be an event with this much competition and history behind it, and probably never an international TDM event again (fingers crossed for qcon). I can't really speak for czm but I think he shares similar thoughts when I say that for the two of us participating in this event will be a great closing chapter of our e-sports careers.
As for rapha and DaHanG I believe this will be their first international team-based LAN (not counting qcon) so I know they are pumped. They really have been putting in 150% to becoming the best they can at TDM and to see how much better they have gotten over the past 3 months or so is pretty impressive. They are however competing in the duel event too, so I know that is on their minds a bit. I think as long as we all play well and do our best we will leave happy.
As a whole, we are very confident in our ability to do very well at DH. We want to win this event and we know that we can.

czm: It would be nice to play well and mesh well as a team.


What team is the tournament favorite in your eyes?

cl0ck: You know that's a really hard question to answer. I had some ideas regarding teams I felt may be slightly better than others, but man, its pretty tough. I mean take a look at the team list, there is so much talent there. I think that the majority of teams attending are capable of beating any other team givin the right circumstances. Not too many events you can say that about. I don't think its fair to really list a favorite, it is clear that all of those teams are very talented and highly capable.

czm: I haven't looked at the list of teams yet. Based on the demos I've watched I'd peg PURRI's team as a favorite.


What's your take on the Mappool? (Hidden fortress, Deep Inside, Intervention, Realm of Steel Rats, Grim Dungeons, Purgatory, Dreadful Place)

cl0ck: Love it. Could not have made a better map pool. I think the 2 new maps are great, deep inside is obviously a classic, cpm4 as well. Intervention was always a great underplayed map. dm14 is the staple of TDM, being very old and historic. Hidden fortress will be interesting, I really like it but I dont really see it being played much in tournaments, I wonder how much attention it will get at DH.

czm: Same?


DaHanG and rapha, how important is the TDM competition to you compared to the Duel one?

czm: Hopefully I'll manage to sneak into the duel tournament, too.

DaHanG/rapha: It's really hard to answer that question because they are both really important. It is a different sort of situation for me than we are used to. Normally we have gone in to events focusing on only duel, but with TDM being played, we have been putting a lot of time in to that as well. They are both equally as important to us- we are really looking forward to competiting in this event, dreamhack is always a great time.

Thanks for your time and good luck in your matches!