[Bacon Brawl #3] We've Got An Exclusive!

Introduction​

Welcome to the 3rd edition of the biweekly news article that involves a pork product even though the original creator is nowhere to be found! Not much happened the past two weeks, but we managed to grab some great interviews and and some exclusive insight on coming updates! If you're wondering why we missed the deadline, we have absolutely no reason besides I didn't realize it Sunday passed because I thought it was Saturday, and then I have to work on some Drivers Ed lessons so I had to push the release to Wednesdayu!

Interview With B0squet!​

This week we covered two interviews, and the first one is an mcpvp moderator! B0squet was a CTF moderator on MCPVP and is currently a Brawl Moderator for CTF. Our interviewer Kevshadowslayer has asked B0squet some questions for us to get to know him more!

How did you come across Minecraft and CTF?
Back in the ancient, timeless epoch of 2011, I came across a video series of a guy playing “Minecraft Multiplayer.” The game seemed pretty cool, so I bought it right away! Well, not right away. Actually it was many months later. I guess I needed to work on punctuality a bit. Anyways, I first started playing CTF the next year (around the spring of 2012), but it always played second fiddle to the SMP servers I was involved with. I saw it as more of a minigame, so I usually just showed up on Fridays to play using the donor classes. Which, yes, means that I was, at one point, a ‘freeday noob.’ I started playing CTF more regularly around the spring of 2014, after the SMP server that I was staffing on shut down, and since the people in that community went their separate ways for the most part, I figured it couldn’t hurt to see what the CTF forums were like. Guess that turned out okay.

How did you become a part of The Templars
Being active and doing a decent job of headshotting people. I mean really, that’s what it boils down to. I was playing 2-4 hours a day on EU servers, and since TT had recently lost an archer and needed someone to fill his role, @Snowleak14 messaged me in-game to see if I wanted to join. I accepted, and a bit over a year later, I’m still on the team. ^^

How did you become a mod, and what is your favorite part of being a mod?
Back on MCPvP, around December of last year, I applied for CTF staff, took their version of a hacker test, and so on. I ended up finding out about a month later that the hacker test didn’t narrow the applicants down as much as they wanted, and long story short, those who didn’t get immediate responses weren’t being considered further. While that did end up being the case for a number of MCPvP’s other gamemodes, though, the CTF team at the time decided to do its own thing, and contact people who (a) they thought might make good mods, (b) had expressed interest in being mod through the aforementioned application process, and (c) wear the color purple regularly. That, of course, is where they made their greatest mistake since the one time Quar doubted Bob’s fashion sense; promoting me. I transferred over to Brawl with most of the CTF team, and then witnessed this network’s staff make the exact same mistake. Oops. Anyhow, the best part about being a mod (aside from having more opportunities to call Hana short, that is) is being able to watch @arandombob_157 lord his omnipotent power over all you peo- wait a second… I don’t remember writing that… um, anyways, the best part about being a mod is having more organize community events. I’ve always had a blast with both the team scene and CTF’s various other events, so being in a position where I can help make them happen is amazing. The staff’s already got a bunch of plans lined up for CTF once it exits Beta, so stay tuned.

Why do you main archer?
When I started playing CTF, I had an atrocious graphics card, and I would get major fps drops when I tried to melee people. I didn’t have to worry about that too much with archer, so that’s how I got started. Since then, I’ve come to really enjoy the mindgames behind archer duels, and that keeps the class more than fun enough.

What is your opinion on how the merge between CTF and Brawl is going?
All in all, I’d say it’s going well enough. The last week or so was a bit rougher, since we had a variety of issues pop up (over 800 different errors at one point), but CTF is back up & running, and it’s been stable since the last bit of downtime. There are, of course, some persistent issues (a few chat commands not working, lingering bugs, xp still showing up, etc), but it’s running much more smoothly now, and we’re headed in the right direction as far as gameplay mechanics go. It’s been interesting watching the two communities mesh as well. The playerbase has evolved a lot, both in game (new faces, various returning players, etc.) and on the forums (which is a bit unfortunate, since I’ve yet to see one of combsmsb’s heavy reworks in months. It’s a tragic loss, I’ll have you know.)

What is your opinion on the Wool vs Banner argument?
Honestly, the argument itself is focused on the wrong issue; most of the criticism of using banners, especially early on, was that they ‘look stupid.’ That argument (or complaints about aesthetics in general) is not going to really hold a lot of water unless it becomes an overwhelming community consensus (spoiler alert: that’s extremely unlikely). The gameplay changes caused by changing wool to banners, on the other hand, are a deal more relevant. Is being able to see the flagholder/flag more easily worth the loss of visibility for flag defense? Should a player’s helm be removed if he/she has the flag, or does that nerf offense too much? Is a flagholder being more visible a good thing? If the answers to those questions and the like favor bringing back wool, then by all means, bring back wool. Otherwise, I see no reason to remove banners.

What is your opinion on the Instakills vs Non-Instakills CTF version debate?
A majority of those actively involved in the CTF community prefer instakills (by a 3:1 ratio, as it were). That’s a fact, and, at a bare minimum, it won’t change for a while. Whether or not instakills are gradually removed, though, Pyro will definitely be going through a rework in the not-so-distant future, and Assassin will eventually have to see some kind of revision if the 1.9 combat update does away with blocking.

What is the most OP class in your opinion and why?
In my opinion? I’d probably say Chemist. Unlike most other classes, which play some roles well but struggle with others (like, say, Pyro’s great for defense and recovery, but has a very hard time capping), Chemist is a jack of all trades. Now, I don’t feel that there’s anything wrong with an all-around class as long as it doesn’t excel in any of the individual areas. That’s what chemist is, though; the class is very effective on offense thanks to its speed and massive healthpool, is a solid addition to defense/recovery thanks to its speed coupled with high dps, can support both defense and offense with regen & buffs and still has the advantage against most other classes in one on one PvP situations. That said, whether a class is ‘OP’ or not is largely subjective, so I don’t believe that’s a definite answer by any means.

What hobbies do you have outside of CTF?
I play a few strategy games (Civ V, SC II, competitive mons, etc) outside of Minecraft, so that eats up some time. Otherwise, I play pickup street hockey now and then (and follow the NHL avidly), mess around a bit with graphic design/video editing and I’m involved in Model UN. Guess that’s not too interesting, but it is what it is. Maybe I should take up Archery. ^^

How much aimbot do you use?
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually use aimbot. Instead, I have managed to bestow my arrows with life and sentience, a trait which allows them to chase players around the map. One of these arrows even pulled off a pair of frontside 720s before veering left to take out @Xelia.

Interview With Chickenputty!​

Along with B0squet, Kev got in touch with one of the Brawl admins and asked him some questions for us to get to know how he got to the status he is, and what he thinks of CTF.

What was your road to becoming an Admin on Brawl, and what is your favorite part of being an Admin?
I use to play with orange451 (previous developer) back in Minecraft Alpha on a different server community and I hopped on MC-War and found orange there after losing track of him for a few months. Orange immediately made me Moderator and I had no idea what my pink name meant. I left the server for a month or two, came back, and I still had Mod. At this time I had just left that other community and decided to hop on Brawl’s Ventrillo to begin helping out. After helping orange and Chap for a few months, I was promoted to WarZ Mod on around 3/10/2013. I was later promoted to WarZ Administrator on 4/7/2013 and Administrator on War later on (we only had those two servers back then).

I enjoy having the ability to actually make things happen. If I see something that needs changing I will do so or figure out a way to make it happen.

How did you get the name “chickenputty”?
Back in 2007 a girl in my (5th grade?) class wanted to instant message me on Yahoo. We had a whiteboard in our classroom that stated what was for lunch that day and it was something and chicken patties. I ended up making the a into u during indoor recess. So, when I was making my Yahoo account that day after school I made my name chickenputty instead of my previous aliases. I’ve kept the name ever since.

What is your opinion on the MCPVP transfer and the gamemodes Brawl now possesses?
I think that the new servers are a great addition to Brawl. We have always needed sword player versus player gamemodes and the new CTF and HG servers are fantastic additions. The MCPVP community has been very understanding and patient with the whole merge, which helps out greatly.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Brawl?
Assuming Brawl contains computers, nope.

What is your opinion on the Wool vs Banner?
#banner

In my opinion, the banner was a great addition to Minecraft itself and there is no reason why we wouldn’t use it for a flag. The banner is very easy to see across the map and looks good while it’s placed. We can always make your character spit wool in addition to the banner.

Do you have a favorite CTF class, and if so, why?
In the short amount I played, I was either archer or ninja. Both kits make you plan out your attacks, whether you’re taking a shot or sneaking up on an enemy.

Map Review​

Shadow has reviewed on video two maps this week, Great Divide and the Airlock Rework!

Matches​

This is a great milestone in Bacon Brawl history, a random informer had contacted us and given us exclusive information for us to announce to those who read this newsletter. Due to matches not being up as of now, we have not been able to cover any match overviews. Rest assured, we have some inside information on the future of Matches and it’s rather exciting.


“CTF Teams will basically be run by a committee of staff members who will be involved with reffing matches, events, and general decision making regarding CTF Teams. As of right now, the initial members will be those who were previously CTF mod on mcpvp and may eventually include brawl staff that are involved with CTF. This lets staff of any rank be able to contribute their part to CTF Teams. The Match server is scheduled for post beta CTF but Nom is working on the final touches on CTF, such as stats”

The Wiki Team​

A while ago, applications for the Wiki team opened up for those who are good at writing. The results have come in recently. 3 MCPVPers have been accepted to the wiki team: Furtles, Dragonoids, and Tenshirox (That’s me!). The Wiki is essentially a information source for all of Brawls gamemodes. Although Wiki team members have access to nearly all pages, us 3 will focus on getting the MCPVP pages up and running.


I’d like to personally thank all of you, as I used the Bacon Brawl/Bits articles as a reference to my writing skills and I am sure it contributed to my acceptance.

That is it for now, I hope I remember that Sunday isn't actually Saturday next time!
Because of the subscription system being inefficient I have decided to change it from now on. I cannot tag the new subscribers at the moment because I am short on time but from now on if you wish to subscribe put your Forum name here!


Previous Bacon Brawls!
All Previous Going Ham/Bacon Bits
0) This Is Just The Beginning
1) Soon
2)Picking Up The Pace

Spoiler: Subscroobles

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