Coach's Corner #4
COACHS CORNER INTERVIEW #4: EXAFLAMER
disclaimer: the opinions stated by the interviewee aren't reflective of the coachs views. dont cancel me.
exaflamer: Hi there. I am exa_ (also known as exaflamer). I am known for playing engineer in Invite/Platinum, being the head admin of RGL, as well as admining hlpugs.tf and engineer.tf.
COACH: How are you doing today?
e: I'm doing okay today. I've been waking up late from summer break as usual, but I had some RGL work that I had to finish. Will need to start getting ready for university online classes in a couple of weeks.
C: That's good to hear. How long have you been playing TF2 for?
e: I started playing TF2 back in 2011, which was 9-years ago. My cousin introduced the game to me, because he had bought the orange box and let me play on his laptop. I believe I was around 11-years old at the time, but I was hooked when I played the game. I did not start competitive TF2 until UGC S11 (in 2013).
C: Wait, so you were a HLPugs Admin at 16/17
e: I helped out with admining HLPUGs when I was in college, so I was 18 at the time iirc.
C: Ah okay. Regardless, that's crazy. I only ever known you as an engineer player. Do you like playing other classes as well?
e: I like playing other classes as well for sure. Scout, sniper, soldier (in that order) are my favorite classes that I like playing in pubs, pugs, etc. I definitely want to play other classes like scout/sniper in a lower division of HL in the future, but for now, I've always just stuck with playing engineer since it is easier for me to find teams on this class. :)
And if I do find time to play 6s, I definitely want to play Scout and improve there.
C: Yeah eh, okay okay. So you're an admin @ engineer.tf, tell me about it.
e: engineer.tf is essentially just a community centered around competitive engineer discussion. It was created by wax, mothership, and me. Anyone can join the Discord and get mentoring help, discuss the class, and more. It's a pretty cool community.
C: Yeah eh. I feel like I'm a Demon on engineer. How do I know if I'm qualified to mentor? And if I am, how do I apply to become a mentor?
e: When looking for potential mentors, experience is pretty much the important part. We prefer players that have had a decent amount of experience on the class, most notably in Advanced / Invite. It also depends on how many people need mentoring help. Currently, I believe our mentoring list is full. I would definitely contact mothership or lasky about this if anyone is interested.
C: That's tough. I guess I won't ever be able to teach others my strat of level threes on payload offense. What is a pet peeve of yours that you think engineer players should do but just don't do?
e: I often see engineers just do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. That's something that I've noticed from some of the newer engineers is that they are not able to adapt to situations in games as well and it hurts them a lot. This class is all about just adapting and filling in the holes of your team, so it's important.
pictured: the coach trying to figure out exaflamer's pistol/wrangler game theory
C: As vague as that explanation sounds, it's actually 100% true and applies not only to engineer. Alot of people make the same individual plays/teams constantly do the same push and get countered and they'll do it again without switching it up or making plays to ensure that it'll work this time. It's really silly to watch and see them fail over and over again. To get to the top of HL at least you have to be both proactive and reactive at the same time. The gamemode is mad chaotic by nature, you're bound to get a key pick or find someone outta position, so you gotta act on it fast or else you will lose your oppourtunity quickly.
e: I suppose an example is just an engineer placing a certain mini-sentry in the same spot the entire game and not changing it up or just rolling out the same way in every midfight & a lot of it is just playstyles too, since I feel like certain engineers play a certain way that may not work for their team. When you play for different teams, the way you play the class has to change to fit your team -- it is difficult for some engineers to get used to this. Or even something like just using the wrangler more on maps like Product, Ashville, or even Lakeside is something that I still see engineers not use much, as they prefer using the pistol. So, I would definitely say that engineers not using the wrangler much in Invite and instead wanting to use the pistol is something that makes me upset still. :/
C: Damn. That's tough. I like having 200 ammo pistol. It's not as good as wrangler but it's fun, but then again I only ever play engineer when ringing/running pugs so my opinion doesn't count. How do you practice? What's your routine?
e: Yeah, I could go onto a whole tangent about the wrangler v. pistol, but it may be better for a different time, haha.
I normally just hop into a DM server for 15-30 minutes before a scrimmage/match and just play scout and practice my DM there. It has been something I have been doing for several years now and it helps me a lot. I don't think mge servers help me as much, so I prefer DM servers for sure since I'm able to just turn on music, not be stressed about my aim, and just warm up
C: That's good. What music you bumping when you're DMing? I know a man like exaflamer is bumpin' some NBA Youngboy.
e: I listen mostly to lofi, hip hop, instrumental music, etc. I just prefer songs that are relaxing, since it helps me just stay calm
C: Ah okay. Looking at your history, it says you were a part of the Corn ducks. Who is the better brother: bigR or scooter?
e: Definitely bigR for sure. He's probably still my most favorite team leader I've had playing with
C: Damn. This man said for sure. I hope scooter doesn't take it the wrong way...
e: He's just an overall great person. I don't talk to him much anymore, but everyone on corn ducks deserves a shoutout. Big Grin
C: All right all right. I'm sure very few of them may remember me as the guy who bullied rightjustify frequently. Moving on, tell me about your current team
pictured: $k scout syath
e: The team that I am playing on is called Krusty Krab eSports. It was a team that was started by logan and nyxi, but the two of them quit unfortunately. It was then picked up by Kresnik and we have had to do roster shuffles pretty much every week. Our roster that we currently have should be the final roster to end the season
C: Yeah eh. What's the roster you currently have?
e:
scout: syath
soldier: JJSlim
pyro: Billysaurus
demo: Jarrett
heavy: Kresnik
engineer: exa_
medic: Blake
sniper: Dimento
spy: vizie
C: Damn. So when you gonna cut your Scout?
e: Hopefully we do not have to, we have had to change our roster every week and I do not want to play with a different flank... Maybe once we win though, we can cut him. :>
C: Of course. As the greatest Coach in TF2 history, I'm telling you that a player like that is simply gamelosing. Not the type of player you would want on your team. But moving on, what are the strong points of your team?
e: The strong points of our team has to definitely be JJSlim on our flank and Jarrett on our combo. Jarrett probably has the best main calling of any demo, has solid DM, and understands how to play this format. JJ also does a lot of work on our flank and is able to make plays for our team when we needed him the most.
C: That's good. What are the weak points of your team?
pictured: dimento on sniper
e: The weak points of our team has to definitely be just lack of experience that we have together as a roster. Our combo was initially logan on demo, then we switched to bowl, and then we now have Jarrett. We also have a new medic (Blake) and pyro (Billysaurus). And for our pick classes, we now have Dimento on sniper and vizie on spy.
They are all good players, but there are still coordination issues that the team has had with not playing in many scrims and matches together yet. But we hope to fix these issues as we go through our playoff matches
C: Dimento on Sniper? I would have given up by that point... How do you feel about playoffs so far?
e: Playoffs have been pretty fun so far. Our first playoff match was against Impostors, which was their first Invite playoff match as a team. It was definitely nice to see them in this environment and I hope they are able to do well in their matches.
We will be playing against MCM in our upper bracket finals match, so this will definitely be our most important match. We will be doing our best to prepare for it.
C: Okay okay. Who are the fearsome players you've faced off against so far this season?
e: I honestly would say evil. I would say he's the best spy this season and he has proven it with the plays that he makes in every scrim and match, And having to 1v1 evil when he has the revolver is a coin flip. An honorable mention can be had for watterson, since he just runs into your team and headshots you. :|
C: Now, anyone who you feel is mediocre or overrated for the team they're playing for?
e: I do not have anyone in mind for that. I think the players that have their Invite spot definitely earned it.
C: Good answer. What do you think are the win conditions to win playoffs and secure the coveted Dub?
e: For our team, it is just making sure everyone is on the same page. We are still out of sync with our pushes, some miscommunication where everyone needs to be during pushes, etc. Once we fix these issues, I would say that should give us the edge to win against the other teams.
C: Okay okay, how do you feel about the current state of invite HL? Overall do you think this season was good?
e: I think the current state of Invite HL is pretty competitive honestly. I know people like to say that the skill level has decreased and whatnot, but I thought the top 4 teams and even the remaining seeds were all competitive and close with each other.
It definitely is not great that we had a couple of team deaths in the beginning of the season. I think if those teams survived, it would have definitely made Invite a lot better, but it is what it is. However, overall, I would say this season was really fun and good, despite the roster shuffles that my team had to make.
pictured: triiiple's christmas gift
C: What are your thoughts on aim assist? Should it be allowed in league play?
e: Definitely not. If you are referring to RGL, then no.
Unless we supported a console game on RGL, since if I recall correctly, r6 console players use aim assist in their leagues.
C: Okay okay. Lets move onto our next question: What do you do as head admin of RGL?
e: Since I am the head admin of RGL, I am essentially overlooking all the departments in the league. I help look over 6s, Highlander, Prolander, production, graphics, anti-cheat, PUG team, etc. I also have to deal with reports that come in every week, write league articles, help with updating rules and respond to DMs and thread posts. Overall, I just have to make sure the league is running smoothly.
C: Damn, that's alot on your plate. And you voluntarily do all of this?
e: Yeah, it is all volunteer work. I do not get paid to do this, so it is just out of my free time
C: That's crazy. If it were me, I wouldn't do it. Hell I probably wouldn't be able to handle doing one part of your job without being annoyed. I want to ask about Pugs, so is there going to be a reboot of hlpugs.tf?
e: Well, RGL is working on a new pugging system to support its existing formats. The developers that worked on http://hlpugs.tf are helping with it, but it should fix a lot of the current issues and bugs that you see with the hlpugs site. I have written about this in a few articles, but since it is still being worked on, I can only provide vague details about it.
C: Ah okay. When do you hope to release it?
e: There is no rough ETA on this, but we hope to enter a beta state for testing pretty soon. There will be an announcement on this in RGL when this does happen.
C: Okay okay, how will you hope to fight off the trolls that run rampant in pugs throughout the HL Community?
e: RGL does have a stricter moderation system, so I expect for that to carry over in its pugging platform. It's inevitable that people may not take games seriously, but there just needs to be clear and concise rules, as well as enforcement to deter and promote an environment where that is not accepted.
pictured: the anti-troll taskforce
C: Big facts. As I mentioned in the last Coachs Corner, I've assembled a team of like-minded individuals who are DONE with these trolls. We call ourselves the Anti-troll taskforce. We hope to be the catalyst that will Change Pug Culture.
e: That's good to hear. Hope to see you playing :)
C: Oh... Uhh, Yeah.. Lol. So.. about the reports you receive every week, what are they about?
e: There's a report system that RGL has for misconduct. On average, we get about 10-15+ reports every week and they are often reports about slurs being used in matches, harassment occurring, etc. From time to time, we get more egregious cases involving sexual harassment, doxxing, etc. that we need to spend more time reviewing and verifying
C: Damn that's crazy. Honestly before this week I didn't know this was a common occurence.
e: Yeah, it's more common than people may think. We do not issue penalties for all the reports though. We often have just discarded reports that did not fall in our rules, told people to block the person, or warned people to cut it out.
C: All righty, How did you become a Head Admin at RGL?
e: So, I originally just started out with admining Highlander when RGL introduced their first season of that format. I was the head admin of Highlander for about 4 seasons. Sigafoo wanted to take a break from RGL, so he offered me the spot to take over the league & I essentially agreed. It is a lot of work for sure, but I have been able to manage it so far thankfully
C: Ah okay, how did you become an admin for HL in it's first season?
e: It started out when Jacob asked me if I would be interested in helping out hosting a Highlander season under RGL. I agreed, since at that time, I thought it would be a good opportunity to help the community and provide another platform for people to play this format on. I had pretty good experience with admining hlpugs and had a decent reputation in the community at the time, so sigafoo trusted me to admin as well.
C: Understandable, so what keeps you motivated to continue being head admin? It's a big task from how you're describing it.
e: I know there are people that care about the league. I know that there are people that are appreciative of some of the work that we do. I am also pretty optimistic of the direction of the competitive TF2 scene, so that is why I still spend my time as a head admin.
C: That's good to hear. What is the most satisfying part of your job?
e: The most satisfying part about admining would be to just being able to help people. I think I get a lot of joy out of helping people, so doing volunteer work like this allows me to do so.I also like seeing new players try out competitive TF2 and having good experiences, those tend to make me happy.
C: That's good to hear. What are the toughest parts of your job?
e: The toughest part of this job is honestly just the amount of questions and messages that you need to reply to and answer. I often get messages when I'm trying to sleep, when I'm at school during a lecture, or just eating dinner with family. Like when it overlaps with my real life routine, that is when it starts to become a problem, and I describe admining as basically a 24/7 on call job because you are often expected to always be present and reply to messages and deal with disputes. As such, there are not many breaks that you may get. It can definitely affect one's mental health and well-being when they do this constantly every day for several years
C: Damn that's tough. What are the things you dislike about RGL that you're in the midst of changing right now?
e: There are some rules that need some slight tweaking after the season. I also brought up the mental health and well-being about admins, so I want to try to fix that by potentially rotating new admins every other season or giving breaks to staff members. There are other things that I dislike that are not on the top of my head right now, but we are always trying to improve the league -- that's the point anyway.
C: That's good. Always room for improvement. What is your personal end goal for RGL?
e: The personal end goal for RGL is to just get to a state where the league can be the best that it can be with good player numbers. If I can do that, I think I would be pretty happy.
C: I'm sure alot of people want to know the person behind the monitor. What do you do outside of TF2? Any hobbies? Interests?
e: Well, I mostly just play other games if I am not playing TF2. I have been playing Valorant and Gunfire Reborn recently.
People in this community also know that I play basketball and love watching it. I do follow the NBA a lot and watch a game pretty much every week. In particular, I follow the lakers since that is the team that is from my area. Smile
C: Yeah eh. I like the Raptors, although I'll admit I'm a bandwagon fan. During the playoffs run last year the energy in the entire city was so crazy. Everyone was repping Raptors and everyone was so high energy and friendly. It honestly felt like a long ass holiday straight up. There were a handful of times where I'd just be in a public place and someone would just yell "Lets go Raptors" and everyone in the room would chime in, me included. I wish I was in Jurassic park for finals though, but unfortunately I had work early in the morning. At the very least, I saw a lot of what happened that night through stories & whatnot. Super crazy.
e: Yeah, the raptors are really good though. I would say that they are a really underrated team though in the NBA, so I don't know if they are a "bandwagon" team currently if that makes sense. Ever since Kawhi left, it seems that people have forgotten about the raptors, when they are still a title contending team.
C: Yeah. I know nothing about ball, I just know the shoes and I watch my friends play 2k and discuss it. From what I know you're Viet right? What's your favourite Vietnamese food?
e: Yeah, I am Vietnamese. I am not from Vietnam, but my parents are and they immigrated to the U.S.
My favorite Vietnamese food would have to easily be pho though. I eat that way too much.
C: Facts I like that and banh mih. Super fire. All right now I got some pictures I wanna show you. I'd like to know your thoughts.
e: Sriracha sauce is so good with pho honestly. I legit would dress up like this for Halloween too.
C: Yeah eh. Get rj to send it to you.
C: My arch nemesis... Coming back to the scene..? I will be ready.
C: Of course. What do you think about his hairline though?
e: Oh, I didn't even notice it until you brought it up. LOL. Yeah, that is really something
C: Yeah. Bowl's really insecure about it unfortunately.
C: Glad you liked it. Lets move onto our reader submitted questions. From teats mcgee: exa whats your favourite type of beans?
e: I don't eat them, so I don't have a favorite. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
C: From Corporal Nick (everyone congratulate him on his promotion): If you could take a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
e: I'd probably go to Japan. I just like their food, culture, etc. and it would definitely be a great experience for me. (I'm not a weeb, trust me.) I always wanted to go there though, so it's on my bucket list.
C: Yeah my boy said the same thing. They're 20 years ahead of us not to mention it's completely different over there.
C: From dog: can you please stop harassing my good friend micahlele, as his legal representative, i would hate to have to press charges against you and or the league which you represent.
e: Once he stops sending me :3 in my DMs...
C: From concepting: if you were to play another class other than engineer in comp what class would you play?
e: If it is for Highlander, it would probably be either scout or sniper since those are the classes that I play the most outside of engineer.
For 6s, it would be scout.
C: From high impact dolphin: how do you think the engineer meta has been progressing lately, and where do you think it's headed?
e: The engineer meta has progressed quite a bit in recent seasons actually. On stopwatch at least, engineers are using the shotgun or panic attack over the rescue ranger. It is definitely a much more aggressive strategy that can work.
As for where it is headed, it is hard to say, since that can depend on if/when Valve releases another balancing update that can shift how the class is played. Though currently, I think with how strong sniper is in the format, engineer just has this role of babysitting the sniper or staying back in the push to deal with flank -- so it is not as fun as it could be.
C: I have a series of questions from Dimento: who were the engineers you looked up to when you were a young egg?
e: The engineers that I looked up to the most when I was newer to the scene were definitely dK Josh (wrangler jumping and just overall aggressive plays), ender (I would consider him to be the best engineer), and spamfest (most creative engineer).
C: favourite map and why?
e: For Highlander, my most favorite map would be Ashville currently. It is just a fun and well balanced map, even with the nobuild in shutter. It just rewards all the classes for doing well and punishes sniper pretty severely, so it works well in this format.
C: If you could go back in time with me to when we decided to move players from UGC to RGL would you change your mind and not do it, or would you still make that move with me?
e: Yeah, I would still do it. Considering the decline in numbers every season in UGC at the time, the fact that the format was not taken very seriously by the admin team in UGC, and just overall sentiments -- it was a change that needed to happen.
C: From timeless: If X player wants to play HL, but can't find a team in, let's say invite/advanced, and he can't play his main in the next div below because he would be class restricted, what is X player supposed to do? Just sit out a season?
e: It would have to depend on the player, class that they are playing, and even the team that they are trying to roster on. A lot of of how we deal with class restrictions in the league is done a case-by-case basis, since there are so many variables that go into the eligibility of a player playing the lower division.
Class restrictions are ultimately there to deter sandbagging though, and it is in the better interests of the league to class restrict a player then have them harm the division and experience of other players having to deal with said player.
That being said, we have been lenient with players with experience levels being at the bottom of a top division and dropping down. An example would be Chill Penguins and how they went 0-7 in Invite and dropped down to Advanced with no class restrictions. Their team surprisingly did not make playoffs in Advanced, but it displays that they did not need to be class restricted.
C: Got a few questions from shay: say lakers aren't in the equation, who you got for the NBA title this season? and why is it the clippers?
e: If the Lakers do not make it out of the western conference playoffs, I would probably be rooting for the Raptors honestly. I think their team is really underrated and want to prove that they are still a title contending team without a super star.
Not rooting for the Clippers, because I want them to lose. Smile
C: Ah ah ah okayyy. Best player ever?
e: I'm going to stick with Kobe Bryant.
C: Favourite player ever?
e: It is also Kobe Bryant. I grew up watching him and he was my biggest role model.
C: From wish: who is your favourite fred team member that got banned?
e: Interesting question I suppose. I would say flu walrus, but this is because inside of him -- I believe he is a good person. He also hangs out in the http://engineer.tf discord and would talk to me about engineer tips/strats, so he has been a chill person from the times I've interacted with him. He just made a mistake, but I hope he learns from it.
He just made a mistake, but I hope he learns from it.
C: I hope you guys unban him. I'm sick of hearing him complain everyday about being banned from Highlander. Why do I have to suffer as well...
From saturation: how often do you think the issues brought up by players in the league are valid as opposed to people just acting immature and making problems out of nothing? What are examples of when their complaints were valid?
e: There are certainly issues that players have brought up that are valid. At the same time, there are often instances where it seems that players may be just making threads, because they see others doing the same thing.
Examples of valid complaints would be 2uh's thread about the match point system, a thread about how we need more HL staff members that can be available on match times, etc. There are certainly issues that people have brought up that have been valid and we have adjusted ban lengths for. Considering this is a community-driven league, it is important to consider community feedback.
However, with the amount of threads that you may see on TFTV, it often just seems that people are making threads with the sake of causing drama when their ban was issued fairly and they had violated a rule that we have been enforcing for years. There are still threads that people make when they get penalized for using a slur in a match/scrim.
C: I have a series of questions from Wallerino: do you guys have any plans to make any commonly used rules more easily accessible? The rulebook is lowkey starting to look a little harder to read than the US tax code.
e: As stands, I can definitely see how the rulebook can be inaccessible for others. I have been an admin for years and regularly navigate the rulebook, so it is fine for me -- but others do not do so obviously.
The more commonly used rules, such as slurs and harassment, are on the top of the document. However, I do agree that it would make sense to continue to make the rulebook more accessible. I do not have any ideas currently on this, but I would have to talk to the other admins about it.
C: Given what you've seen, would you have any personal advice to give to people who might be afraid to bring up/report harassment issues?
e: The personal advice that I would have is to not be afraid of contacting a head admin or using our report system. We keep our reports anonymous, which helps with that. We also do our best to work with the reporter during the investigation.
I also would say that if you file a harassment report to be mindful of who you share the evidence to. If it is sensitive/private material that you do not want leaked, then sharing it to non-RGL administrators is a potential risk.
C: Did u have a single enjoyable moment on AD? if so, pls pick your favorite
e: My favorite moment on AD would probably be just any moment where we teased wish. He's such a fun teammate to play with
C: Are u edating yipyapper yet? :3c
e: no.
pictured: shaggy when he cant talk to kids online no more
C: From minty: could you shed some light on the shaggy situation a little bit more. all we know is hes banned?
e: The ban reason, as stands, is essentially the most that we would be willing to share about the situation. There was a thorough investigation that was done and a conclusion was made based off the verified evidence.
C: From jel: If you weren’t head admin, would you still be involved with the tf2 community?
e: If I weren't the head admin, I would probably still be involved with the TF2 community, yeah.
I would definitely try to find ways to support the scene if I can, however I can. I still am involved with mentoring and such, so that would probably be an area that I would like to pursue more.
C: Before we conclude this interview, anything on your mind that you would like to say?
e: Shoutouts to Micahlele and all the other RGL staff. :>
Thanks alot to Exaflamer for being the 4th guest on the Coachs Corner. Thank you to very much to you: the reader for making it this far. I'm kinda bust. Nominations are open, you may also re-nominate people that were cut from the strawpoll incase you fellas didn't know. The deadline is tommorow evening when I come back from work.
Feel free to post suggestions, critiques, hate etc. Thanks!
EDIT: i got caught lackin by carcin. ya like drake said ___ caught me slippin once ok so what, credit to him tho
EDIT 2: NOW ITS ALL FIXED OK BYE
EDIT 3: CREDIT TO ROLLING FOR LOOKING THIS OVER WHILE I WAS AT WORK. ITS GOOD NOW FELLAS.
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