Interview Conducted on 01.11.06
by SoCzNedoK
-IW2PL Creator and Host
-War2 Champions League Editorial Staff

IW2PL: Hello, ~Valkrie. Would you please introduce yourself by giving us your name, age, and location?
~Valkrie: Chris, 22, Canada

IW2PL: Could you tell us how you came up with the name ‘Valkrie’?

~Valkrie: I was 12 and I had to write a short story for school and the main character’s name was Valkrie, so when I first started war2 on heat I decided to carry it over.

IW2PL: How old were you when you began playing War2, and did you play War1 before that?

~Valkrie: I was about 15 or 16 when I started playing online I think, I think I bought the game a year before that. And no I didnt play war1.

IW2PL: What do you think about the strategies right now? Have they changed a lot from when you first started playing online?

~Valkrie: Yeah well there is a lot less variance now than there used to be because the game has been overplayed to the point where there are only a few strategies that work, at least from the start of the game. I guess that changes once the game moves into its later stages.

IW2PL: You are among the top 10 ‘best’ players now in Pim’s league, do you feel that the list is acurate as far as the active players currently playing?

~Valkrie: Hehe well, there are two ways of looking at that I guess. You could say that those who had to qaulify prooved themselves, and those who failed to qaulify showed that they weren’t top 10, but I think some things got muddled in that process. Certain players who didn’t qaulify for whatever reason are certainly better than some of the players in the league. I have a feeling there will be quite a few sweeps going on.

IW2PL: What players specifially come to mind?

~Valkrie: well I think that ~kanuks~ and kingmage should be in it-of the players who expressed interest-but they ended up not being in it.

IW2PL: You’ve played many of the best War2 players during your 6-7 years in the game, are there any players you feared most in 1v1?

~Valkrie: well I haven’t cared enough for quite some time to feel fear at war2, I don’t know if fear is the correct word, but I did know it was “game time” when i was playing people like nerzyman, ash, khb etc…. I’m speaking mostly of early bnet days….

IW2PL: Which game settings have you always felt most confident in? As far as map and res etc.

~Valkrie: I used to be most confident on gow, but now as everyone else has sort of mastered gow I think I am most confident on maps like b2b/pos hsc and the like because all of the players haven’t learned to cookbook those maps quite as much yet.

IW2PL: Which do you think is more effective, cookbooking or playing as you go? Or what would you define as the opposite of cookbooking?

~Valkrie: The opposite of cookbooking is like being flexible with what you are doing, not knowing exactly what you are going to do beyond the first couple of minutes. Both strategies, or types of play, have their merits; it just depends on the map, position, etc… But some people tend to take cookbooking a bit too far; they demonstrate very little variance in the way they play. But there are also some people who take winging it a bit too far sometimes, so I guess the best thing is to find a happy medium and fluctuate around that or something.

IW2PL: Let’s play a game. Say the first thing that comes to mind when I mention something from WarCraft II
IW2PL: GOW
~Valkrie: boring
IW2PL: kanuks
~Valkrie: =(
IW2PL: pally
~Valkrie: what’s that?
IW2PL: paladins
~Valkrie: oh paladin
~Valkrie: haha
IW2PL: ^^
IW2PL: Micro
~Valkrie: important
IW2PL: lust
~Valkrie> =)
IW2PL: 247
~Valkrie: Pimster

IW2PL: One last question, what do you think of the current state of the War2 community, and the 2 new leagues that have arrived?

~Valkrie: Well honestly, war2 is definitely on its way out. The pool of players is smaller and smaller every time I come back for a month or two. The two leagues are nice, gives us something to play for, I’m just not sure there is enough player support to enable them to run smoothly for an extended period of time. It’s too bad they didn’t exist 3-5 years ago while there were still a fair number of players.

IW2PL: Thank you for your time ~Valkrie, it’s been a pleasure, wish you the best of luck with playing in the War2 Champions League and the IW2PL

~Valkrie: Thanks, later