Gamestah|SpearDave: Hey mate, thanks for your time and welcome along!

x5`Wackety: No problems, glad to be here :)

Gamestah|SpearDave: So you are currently in x5, what role do you have within the team?

x5`Wackety: I have several roles in x5, first and foremost I play main soldier for the team, and as an extension of this I also lead the team both in a literal sense of always been at the front and also in terms of calling our pushes, fallbacks and what strategies we will use in order to overcome the current situations. I also run the team outside of the game and do most of the administration work such as organizing scrims and wars.

Gamestah|SpearDave: WOAH! Must keep you busy... how many hours a week do you put into x5 TF2?

x5`Wackety: All of my playtime in TF2 is in some way related to x5, I'm not really one for pubbing or pugging so if I'm in game I'm either scrimming, watching demos, developing new strats or playing airshot/duels to warm up my aim pre-game. My current playtime for the past 2 weeks is 52.7 hours so I guess that's how much time I put into x5.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Very nice. Speaking of warm up, what’s a standard warm up for you and for the team?

x5`Wackety: A standard warm up for me depends on what we have coming up in the night, if it's one of the nights where we scrim an easier team I might not even warm up at all, other times I'll duel or play airshot for a short while. For a competition map I'll usually play about 3-4 20 minute blocks of either of those things across the space of the day. For the other members of my team, before competition games they may also all come play duel_ovh together, but since half our team is big on Quake Live at the moment their warm up generally consists of clan arena in QL.

Gamestah|SpearDave: So how did x5 come together? Who was the binding force?

x5`Wackety: Definitely Haymo, he created the team following the death of his previous team, BEASTIN'. He recruited one of the BEASTIN' players, fluid, as well as Redact and Atticus whom he had previously played with in Team NmE. He also picked up fbl who at the time had no TF2 experience but was a top CS player, as well as LoveZombie who used to medic for spadebox. I joined after all those players were already in the team, and we later picked up bananabread and SoLe.

Gamestah|SpearDave: TF2 had a bit of a surge of teams being picked up by gaming communities or sponsors, such as MAD DOGZ - encore, Resurrection - qMx.. How did the x5 sponsorship come about, and do you think you have benefited from it?

x5`Wackety: Well I'm not exactly sure who approached who with our x5 sponsorship, but from memory x5 were on the lookout to get some more divisions under their belt and we caught their eye. I remember Titan doing a lot of the liaison work between Impact Gaming (our old name) and x5. I guess it was potentially a gamble for x5 at the time as we were a very new team at the time that hadn't yet proved itself in competitions. However I certainly hope the gamble has paid off for them. As for us, the benefits have been very significant. x5 provide us with forums, support, a good name and of course a high quality ventrillo and game server(provided by x5's partners cubosgaming.com). Without things like our own vent and gaming server growing to the level we have would have been far more difficult.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Very nice, Teams come and go, that’s the nature of it, but x5 have to be happy with you guys, being that you are sitting #1 on CGo and the current Div1 Title holders of ozfl.. So being at the top, who would you say are the greatest challenge to you? Who do you see as the upcoming team(s)?

x5`Wackety: I'd say bitchbangers and boyforce would probably be the two teams I see as being our biggest threat in the future, however currently I suppose that would have to be Team Rewound. Team Rewound have been decent contenders for a while now and with the recent addition of nesk to their lineup and the removal/loss of a couple of their weaker players I can only see them getting better. And of course YSW if they end up sticking around in the TF2 scene

Gamestah|SpearDave: Yeah looks like they want a G5 ;) So what would be the best match x5 have played?

x5`Wackety: I'd have to say our match defending the #1 spot on CGO against qMx. We were very amped for this game and put a lot of prep into it and it was the only match aside from our Foosh game with encore where we've actually thought we had a chance of losing going into it. Even though it was a 4-0 victory for us and not particularly close it would probably be my most exciting match so far in x5. Although our recent Title defense vs. 214 on Fastlane was a fairly close contender, mainly because we lost to them on Fastlane in the NZF Immolation Competition, so we were very determined not to let it happen again.

Gamestah|SpearDave: So looking back over your TF2 history, how/where did you start and move on to become lead Soldier and strategy caller for the current top team?

x5`Wackety: Well I started off my TF2 experience in Hyphen Gaming which way back in the day was the second/third best team around, and I played soldier and also I guess the equivalent of "main soldier" for an 8v8 team, though that term hadn't come about yet. After Hyphen disbanded I had a break from TF2 and gaming in general for a few months before I decided to get back into TF2.

 I had a brief stint in APR when I first started playing again, but after I decided that I wanted to play at the top level of competition again and not just be casual as I had originally played when I joined them, I departed to greener pastures in N!SF. I played main soldier when I joined the team and over time assumed more of a leadership role, towards the end of my stay in N!SF we were looking for a new medic and so I picked up the plate and became the new team medic, and we recruited nomey to replace me as main soldier. After a while both myself and nomey decided that N!SF wasn't really as competitive as we wanted it to be and he looked to reform YSW while I joined the short lived I Love Action team, where I played medic.

Following the death of ILA Redact messaged me, asking if I wanted to play soldier for his new team. And the rest as they say, is history :)

Gamestah|SpearDave: Some top clans there, not all of them still in TF2. Back onto current topics,in regards to  the medic internship x5 are offering, just how many applications did you get? And how longs the short list?

x5`Wackety: Well we've had 25 people apply for the 1 position so far. The shortlist is basically our attempt to trim that big list of 25

people into a smaller more manageable size list of people whom we can trial and look into further, as obviously it's not possible to trial 25 people in just 2-3 days. I won't name who’s actually on the shortlist, however only 4 of the 25 have made it on with 2 more people whom we've yet to make a decision on.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Wow, fierce competition, best of luck to x5 and the applicants. OK, a couple of quick ones to wrap it up, answer with the first thing that comes to mind... Favourite map?

x5`Wackety: Granary.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Solly you look up to the most?

x5`Wackety: Nesk.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Point you like attacking the most?

x5`Wackety: Badlands Spire.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Custom maps - thumbs up or down?

x5`Wackety: Thumbs up.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Most embarrassing thing you can do in TF2?

x5`Wackety: Fail all 3 rocket jumps on a Granary rollout

Gamestah|SpearDave: Which is the best taunt?

x5`Wackety: Hadouken!

Gamestah|SpearDave: What does competitive TF2 need right now?

x5`Wackety: More division 1 teams and players.

Gamestah|SpearDave: Is baf really an anteater?

x5`Wackety: He likes to think so

Gamestah|SpearDave: HAHAHA :) Well mate thanks again for your time. Any shoutouts?

x5`Wackety: Shoutout to my teammates for dealing with me telling them they messed up all the time without talking back, also to

x5 for being great to us. And also to quakelive.com (for Haymo).

Gamestah|SpearDave: Awesome, best of luck for you and x5 in your upcoming matches.

x5`Wackety: Thanks man, and to you with your shoutcasting :)

Gamestah|SpearDave: Cheers.

Information on Exile 5 can be found at their forums. Exile 5’s TF2 Team compete in the CyberGamer Open and the ozfortress league .

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