Blitzkrieg Masters Amsterdam 2018 - Interview with EndPoint

Team EndPoint are arguably one of the best teams in global Battalion 1944 at the moment, making them strong favourites for the upcoming Blitzkrieg Masters Event. Formed from the embers of Dominatorz and PENTA team, great former teams present at the beginning of Battalion 1944, the squad led by the Call of Duty veteran in Mark 'mark' Horner packs the experience and individual skill necessary for the winning formula. All the players have played either Call of Duty or CS:GO at a high level; they'll be trying very hard to win once more at the upcoming event. The following is an interview with their leader in mark, who does ave a strong character and a great sense of humour, to make for a unique interview. 

1.) How are you preparing yourselves for the upcoming event, the first ever Battalion 1944 Major? 

The same as we did for Gallantry, practice, practice, practice and more practice which is the motto we live by! We aren’t able to play as many hours a week as other teams but we make sure when we are practising, it’s 100% focus and we make sure not to waste any time. I personally have even stopped drinking (as much) and started going into the outside world to exercise, it’s a freakin’ scary world my friend. I am also considering mirroring Phaai’s haircut in the hopes it makes me play as well as he does.

2.) For how long has your team been waiting for an opportunity to play Battalion 1944 at this level?

At Gallantry we proved that we are currently on our own level when we are fully focused and everyone is listening to calls - we are the best team at adapting mid game. We showed this when we had situations of us losing 8 or 9 rounds in a row, sometimes going down 0-9 but pulling it back to win 16-10. The first day of the Gallantry event was a one-off as we really weren’t in the best of conditions to be playing (landing at 1 AM the night before, not enough sleep), plus I wasn’t hungover or drunk for day 1 which impacted our group stage performance.

3.) What are your goals heading into the event? What placing are you aiming at?

I’d like to say something cute like to make friends for life and meet all the new gamers but that’d be a lie, we’re intending to win the event and anything less than top 3 would be a disappointment for us.  If we didn’t think we could win, we wouldn’t be wasting our time going. It will be fun to meet some mega old faces again from 2008 for sure, not really bothered about the rest though.

4.) What was your experience in the online qualifiers? Where there any negatives and positives you’d like to point out? 

We didn’t have to play the online qualifiers, because that’s a route for noobs.

5.) From the online qualifiers, what is your team’s judgement on the level of competition at this time in the title’s lifespan? How much room for improvement is there? 

Personally, I think Gallantry will look more ‘competitive’ in terms of the number of teams in the top 12 that could have made it to second place to fight us in the final. Going into the major, from what I’ve seen recently and at Gallantry, I think there are about four teams with a good shot at winning. I feel like the thing that really helps us as a team is the fact that we have so much LAN experience between us; everyone has been to many events and even won LAN events in this decade (yes Method, looking at you oldies banging on about 2005 still like you’re relevant) which helps us keep a positive mindset no matter how poor things are looking in the game. 

6.) If not yourselves, what teams form the top competition for the first place spot?

I think it’s going to be CRG, Avenue and Demise if they keep on improving as they were before Gallantry (they have some great strategiess and they innovate a lot) and perhaps one of the NA teams. That last bit was a joke, because I have found NA teams to be underwhelming. It’s hard to call for other teams at the moment, as a lot of them were recently formed as mixes for the qualifiers and we won’t be able to see how good they can be until the major, to be honest. We will be keeping a close eye on the competition and we’re making use of some mad innovations for practice that no one else has figured out or made use of yet courtesy, of your boy Pronic. I’ll share that one for free after the major though, we’ll keep it quiet for now. Also, take note noobs, we won’t be underestimating anyone when it comes to game time. On a more serious note though, I’d love to have another final against CRG that doesn’t start at 2 AM in the morning!

7.) Do you plan to keep competing in Battalion 1944 after the Major is finalized? 

As long as there are things to play for, and we believe we can win, then yes. I am personally excited to see what Bulkhead have in store for MU3 and growing the game from there. Who knows though, depends on what life throws our ways I guess as going to Japan for a while seems fun. Black Ops 4 might also be a curveball, rumours spreading that they are going to be throwing money at PC so we might all end up having to play a COD game with crappy airstrikes if we want to play a game that actually has some big money in it.

8.) How do you view the updates which have recently hit the title? Have they all been general improvements?

Yes. The economy system in MU1 that was reverted to before the first LAN made every other team stronger as they could use their favourite weapons unpunished. Now people are slowly learning you need to balance your economy and make decisions as a team, for the team, not for 1 guy to get 3 kills and cost you the next 3 rounds because he’s lost the one gun he can shoot with. I am a massive fan of the current economy system, there is a heck of a lot more depth to it than people currently understand, from what I’ve seen and heard of some noobs moaning about it. I am also really looking forward to the MU ‘2.5’ update with the movement mechanics being updated and some tweaks to smokes and player models amongst other changes. 

9.) What would you change, if you could, in Battalion 1944 mechanics, maps and weapons? 

Some of the maps could do with re-scaling in terms of being a bit bigger I think, but over time with mod tools (if we get them) people will learn to make their own maps that could be adopted by the community. I would really like to see how the game plays if we double the price of every weapon and double the max tokens per player, and when you kill someone you instantly get 1 token whilst 1 token is still left on the floor to be picked up. That way you get rewarded a bit for early nade kills/long range picks as well as the late clutch nades people are becoming big fans of.

10.) Any advice for those Battalion 1944 rosters which are struggling to reach the level of competition needed for the event? 

Noobs. Practice, practice, practice, practice and practice. If it still doesn’t get any better…. practice, practice and keep on frickin’ practising until it does. 

I don't think it's difficult to believe that I did have to remove a few words from the interview, but overall, the message is clear. 'Noobs' better watch out, because Mark mark Horner and his roster of rEpln, synde, cozje and reflexR don't look like they'll be taking any prisoners at the event. Will they take it or will somebody upset them? Perhaps an overlooked NA team?