Coach's Corner #12

 

COACHS CORNER #12: MICAHLELE

disclaimer: the opinions expressed by the 1 interviewed are by the 1 interviewed. the coach may have completely different views dont cancel me

 

M: Sup, I'm Micahlele and I'm currently the head admin of rgl highlander. I started playing competitive tf2 in season 16 of UGC, but only made it into the invite/plat group around s3 of RGL. I've been playing spy in invite the past couple seasons, but I've been looking into playing other classes for this upcoming season.

C: Okay okay.. How you doing today sir? 

M: I'm doing alright, could be better. Had a bit of a rough night but I'm just chillin now.

C: Yeah eh. I know those ones. So you like to run Spy eh? What got you into shpee ?

M: I got into spy because I saw all the videos on trickstabbing by Mr Paladin and stabby and thought it was just the coolest shit in the world. I was just another one of those 13 year old edgelord spy players with a huge ego.

C: Ya eh. I won't even lie I went through a Pub Spy phase where I was tryna figure out how to trickstab mans. I think it's just the action being flashy and having to super finnesse your opponent is what's appealing to the younger audience. You watch OMFGNinja ?

M: Never heard of him

C: Ahh okay. Him and Stabby stabby were the big trickstab spies back in the day. Moving on, do you like to play classes other than Spy?

M: I've been enjoying other classes more than ever before. Mostly scout, pyro, engie and med in competitive, but I like to play all the others in pubs or pugs.

C: That's nice. Playing 1 class over and over gets too boring. What pet peeves do you have when you watch other Spies POV?

M: My biggest pet peeve is when spies use the big earner and get trickstabs and think they're the hottest shit in the world. The knife is like trickstab training wheels bro. It's fun as fuck to use, don't get me wrong, but men shouldn't be flexing when they get trickstabs with it. The speed makes it too easy. Aside from that, a small thing is just when spies cloak really really early and waste half the meter before even getting behind. It's small, but annoying to me.

C: Okay okay. How do you practice? What's your routine?

M: If I'm being honest, the past 2 seasons really killed my drive for spy overall, so i barely put in the practice. Trust me when I say it shows that I haven't put a lot of work into my spy recently lmao. What I'd usually do for spy though, is maybe a little bit of kovaaks to wake up my aim, a bit of pubbing, just to get myself in the feel of the game. However, since I'm trying to offclass this season I've been putting in work. 

For pyro, I've mostly just gone to skial harvest and practice my flare punches and I've done demo reviews of myself and of spies to know their routines. (Shoutout to danny and arzt for helping me review and fix my mistakes)

C: Okay okay. You playing for a team currently?

M: I'm still lft rn, got some tryouts this weekend so hopefully I get picked up.

C: Yeah eh. Hopefully you do. Who are the fearsome players you think people should be on the lookout for this upcoming season?

M: In invite, I think team spu is going to be genuinely slept on. They are all pretty good, but I think townze and spu sniper are gonna get underestimated the most. 

For challenger, yeye is not to be messed with. Those mother fuckers have put in more god damn work than any other team I've ever seen, and it shows. If you don't know the story of yeye, they got put in AM, moved up to IM mid season, won IM. Next season, They won main. Now they're looking to be mid-high challenger and I absolutely would not be surprised if they took the dub this season. Mad respect to them for puttin in the work to improve so fast.

C: Sounds crazy... On another note who do you think is mediocre/overrated?

M: I've got a lot of hot takes for invite and honestly I don't really know which one to say so I'll try and give a short bit of each. Hood might just become knd once jacob loses a match and starts cutting people again just like with krusty krab and knd last season. 

It is entirely possible that mcm, mts, or team dog get left in the dust by the other top teams if they don't actually improve throughout the season. (Think cuties from last season)

On a more individual note, I think the perenne's engie is hella overrated. Her demo last season actually hella surprised me, but I don't think her engie is too clean. Not to mention she's gettin a bit of an ego from getting picked up on Hood. Time will tell though, won't be surprised if I wind up eating my words at the end of the season. 

C: Perhaps. I want to see Dimento play Sniper again. I need a good laugh. How do you feel about the current state of HL?

 

pictured: Dimento selfie

M: I think HL is in a pretty decent state right now. It's still definitely nowhere near what it used to be, but there definitely has been a lot of growth within the scene. Invite isn't being dominated by a dk/knd anymore, with the top spots all being pretty hotly contested these past 2 or 3 seasons. 

Advanced/Chal is a bit of a different story. Last season advanced wasn't the best, making it swiss was definitely not the play. I think the division split will help make challenger more of a feeding div to invite, like advanced was supposed to be, while the new advanced is a place for all the lower advanced teams from last season, and the high main teams of the past that just couldn't break the ice to get into advanced will be able to have good competition. 

I'm probably not going to head admin highlander again next season (spoiler alert, I very much want to step down), but I'm going to do my best this season to pave the road for seasons going forward. 

C: The division split sounds interesting. I wouldn't know too much about player count but I think that was the reason why Gold died back in the day, lets hope we don't repeat history. What does being the Head Admin of Highlander entail?

M: A repeat of the death of gold is exactly what I'm trying to avoid with advanced/challenger. As a head admin, I'm the one writing articles, setting up surveys, creating the matches that the div admins schedule, and delegate work to division admins to make sure the season runs smoothly. 

Outside of highlander specific duties, I also get to meet with the other head admins (like Makkabeus for 6s, exa for overall, Yotts for prolander) to go over reports and appeals every week, as well as talk about issues that may affect RGL in the short or long run, whether it's rule changes, or things we want to implement that aren't gamemode or tf2 specific.

C: Okay okay. How did you land this role?

M: I applied to be staff a bit over a year ago I think. I was already doing writing stuff for rgl at the time, but I wanted more. I became a div moderator, then a few weeks later wax stepped down and I took his place as IM admin. A season or two later I got a message from sigafoo saying “hey, are you free to vc”. Here I am thinking I fucked up and I’m bout to get my ass handed to me, but he actually asked if I was interested in head admining NR6s. Obviously I said yes cause hell that’s a big step up the rgl totem pole and more power/information for me. After season happened, exa wanted to step away from hl, and he asked me. I was extremely hesitant to take on the role, because I was starting my first semester of college at the same time. However, when I asked exa who the other options were besides me to replace him, he said there were no others he had in mind. So I said fuck it I’ll do it

C: Damn. How old are you?

M: I turned 18 about a month ago

C: Say word. Wait, so what year you start playing TF2?

M: 2015/2016I changed middle schools from 6th to 7th grade, and at the new school my new friends showed me steam, and then showed me tf2 and csgo.

C: Wow that's crazy. Those years were peak TF2 for me lmaooo. What are the most satisfying parts of your job?

 

pictured: the coach ready to read the RGL secret documents

M: All the information I get. As a head admin, I get access to almost everything rgl has to offer. I love it. I see every misconduct report, cheating report (Note: I am not a part of the Anti Cheat Team. I can see the reports, but am not a part of the team.) I love reading old documents (especially anything AC related I can get my hands on, that shit is super interesting and is why I have so much trust in the AC department).

C: Damn. Those do sound interesting. Can I see?

M: Sorry coach, no can do.

C: Why not? I'm no snitch. You can trust me.

M: You may be no snitch but I'm not tryna lose my position just yet. Plus, leakin shit only makes AC's life harder, and with the amount of demos they gotta go over, I can't be doing mans dirty like that.

C: Okay okay. On the other hand what are the most toughest parts of your job?

M: Getting death threats from people who don't even know me just because I'm an "rgl admin". People calling me a pedophile (while I was still underage funnily enough) because a sick fuck of a pug admin got exposed for being one. Along with just the sheer number of reports of doxxing and harassment that I have to go over each week. Really puts into perspective how fucked in the head some people are.

C: Damn. People really trip that hard over you being an RGL Admin? That's crazy. It's one thing to talk mad shit, but it's another to really feel some type of way that you want to inflict actual harm to another human being over video game rules.

M: Yessir. I'm just tryna exist and I got people sayin they wanna put a shotgun to my chin

C: Wow. You scared Micahlele? Sigafoo should've warned you about these type of dangers ...

M: I mean I know they're all empty threats, but it's just not fun to see people judging me solely on my position in rgl and not judging me based on me.

C: That's big facts bro. Human beings are used to making predispositions about people. And if you aren't taught right, you could fall into that habit without even knowing; and I think it's especially easy when you have a computer monitor in front of you instead of a human face. Is there anything you dislike about rgl that you're in the midst of changing right now?

pictured: ill fucking kill you micahlele you piece of garbage ill blow open your door with a shotgun and kill your entire fucking family you hear me dont fuck with me u goof kid

M: In rgl, the biggest thing that I can't exactly change, but I help by being there, is that I believe head admins should be really involved in their gamemodes community. Exa never pugged a lot, wasn't as involved as I would of liked. I'm certainly not perfect, but at least I'm trying to pug with players, mentorin teams (althought not as much anymore) and just trying to see and know more of the community. A head admin shouldn't be someone who is like worshipped on their own tiny pedestal. They should be someone who you see playing the game, you see in cast chats, you see in pugs (whether inhouse or rgl discord pugs). A leader who you can call a friend. 

Something I try to do as well, is I try to always speak what I think is best, and not what maybe the other rgl admins thinks is best. If I disagree with something the other admins say, you bet your ass I'm gonna debate them on it to try and get the best for the players.

C: Damn I totally agree with that. Back in the day I never seen Admins really communicate with the actual players; never seen Kumori run pugs/lobbies or interact with people outside of their own zone. It would cause sort of a split. It was so bad that I remember Karl put it best: "how about we let the Platinum players talk about playing and the admins just be admins" 

So Micahlele, do you think you're personally doing your best? do you think you're doing good?

M: I'm trying my best as an admin. Things aren't always perfect, it's impossible to have a perfect season. There's always going to be some drama, a weapon ban or unban people dont like, a map people complain about teams that die. I'm just gonna do my best to make each season the best it can be.I think I'm doing alright, but there's always thing I could do better.

C: Of course. That's a good attitude to have. I always tell my players on the Brampton Warriors: Don't get complacent, there's always room for improvement. What motivates you?

M: Knowledge motivates me. I think that's why I want to step down as an admin. There's not much higher I can go in RGL. The trade offs for me aren't there anymore. The knowledge gain is minimal, while the responsibilities/time investment grows larger and larger.It's why whenever I play an offclass scrim on like medic or pyro, I try to get it reviewed by someone who knows more than me so I can learn more, learning the mindset of that class.

C: Damn. Do you know a gentleman by the name of Dope ?

M: How could I forget dope. I knew dope before I even knew who dope was. He played on my like 2nd hl team on an alt named herro and he only told me it was him in RGL s2

 

pictured: the mind of Dope

C: LMAO Yeah.. Evading his RGL ban by alting is one of Dope's favourite pasttimes. How you guys figured out Horse71435678391 was his alt still confuses him to this day. But you know, I think having a discussion on TF2 Knowledge with Dope may benefit you. He is quite intelligent, and also possesses alot of knowledge on TF2 metagame. His ability to analyze plays and holds are second to none.

M: I gotta say, dope did give me one of the best pieces of advice for spy when I rang him during s2. Mans legit just told me "comm when u decloak" and I instantly grew arms on spy

C: That is indeed good advice. Last time I tried to follow Dope's advice he called me the worst league player he's ever seen right after. All right, you know what. I assume you'll be playing against Dimento's team so I'll leak a certain strategy they've been employing. It's called the Dope's Gambit. It is the greatest push yet also the strongest hold. In all my years of TF2 I've never seen anything like it. Be prepared when you face off against them. I can't explain what it looks like but you'll know it when you see it. I've yet to see a team successfully fend off against the TDG strat

M: Sorry to disappoint coach but I'm probs not playing invite this season. Was the Dope's Gambit ever employed by any of the Fred teams? I heard they had some interesting strategies

C: No. I would love to take credit for such a genius strategy but I cannot. It was formulated in the mind of Dope. I imagine if we did have the Dope's Gambit, maybe the Brampton warriors wouldn't have trolled it. If anything I'd like to say the perfect Dope's Gambit is 3x as strong as a CHUBBZ retake.

M: 3x as strong?! Chubbz retakes were nearly unstoppable. I know during s4, my team crumbled under the chubbz retakes during grand finals. 

C: Facts. And it also doubles as a hold as well, while the CHUBBZ retakes are only good for.. well.. retaking point.

 

pictured: Dope developing the Dope's Gambit strategy

M: May God have mercy on that teams that have to play against the Dope's Gambit. I'll be looking out for it during their casted matches.

C: Of course. I've been also working on this other game theory, you might have heard of it: TF2 Weight Classes. What are your thoughts?

M: It may be hard to verify, but I think it could work. You may be on to somethin Coach. I'll have to see if we can implement it to rgl.

C: Thanks man. I need more evidence to support my findings but I will send you my work later. Moving on, I want to talk about a man by the name of Galaxy Spy. From my interactions with him, he seems to have a hatred for you and stated that it's mutual. Is this true?

M: I don't hate galaxy. I don't like when he says he hopes I get covid and die but I don't hate the kid.

C: Oh shit.

pictured: Oh shit.

M: Have you seen the clip Coach?

C: Nope.. Do you have it on hand?

M: Of course. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU1edKvadyM

I simply joined the galaxycord VC to hang out with my good friend garam masala, and galaxy just exploded on me

C: LMAOOOOO

M: I was just relaxin eatin my panera bread cookie man

C: So... can you remind me what you did to Galaxy Spy?

M: Idk what I did man honestly. He thinks I'm the sole person who got him banned for bomb threats I guess.

C: Do you think his ban was justified? Before he... did all that on the video.

M: Yea, I can definitely see why the reporter was worried about it. The punishment is just the standard ban length for death threats.

C: Damn. What should Galaxy do to get unbanned?

M: Mans needs to shut the fuck up and stop talkin until he gets unbanned, cause what happens is he'll be in a discord right. And he'll say some absolute dumbfuck shit and then people screenshot that shit. what am i supposed to do then? "Yea, galaxy clearly hasn't changed his behavior according to these screenshots, but I'm just not going to factor this in when he appeals" My hands are tied there, I can't do anything about it. I've told galaxy too, if he just stops talking he'll be golden

C: Makes sense. Speaking of him saying things. I'd like to show you a clip from our recent Coach's Corner where we did a live revisit with the Galaxy Spy. In this clip, we asked a silly question regarding how he would fare in a fight with you. And he said he would easily knock you out, as he claims you are 5'6 and implied you sounded like a pussyboy. Do you agree with his claims?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEUvMPGnU-A&t=3520

M: I remember getting linked this as it happened, I might have said something in the twitch chat, don't remember. Basically galaxy would get whooped. Idk what's more embarrassing. The fact that galaxy would catch smoke from me or the fact that galaxy would catch smoke from a manlet

C: Damn okay okay. I like that. Listen, Micahlele... You interested in making some money?

M: I'm always game for cash coach. That's why Townze owes me $100 and galaxy owes me his spy unusual. (I haven't gotten either)

C: Damn. You deserve to be paid what you're owed. But yo... How about a 5 round match against the Galaxy Spy in the Octagon? Bowl's Lawyers are writing the contracts as we speak, I can't give all the details nor finalize them, but we're looking to do a 40/40 split between you and the Galaxy Spy with the remaining 20% of the purse going to the winner. what u think?

M: I'd have to see the fine print, but I'm interested. Haven't sparred someone in a hot minute. Covid kinda fucked up my plans to get back into martial arts but that's w/e

C: Damn what martial arts you do?

M: I did Jun Fan for like 8 years I wanna say, dabbled in a little bit of Kali and Wing Chun as well. But it's been ages since I've practiced

C: That's Bruce Lee's shit right?

M: Yessir

C: I had to search my brain around for a second. That's crazy lol. I do boxing but like you, corona fucked up my plans as well.

M: I quit when I went to highschool, and I was gonna start it again when 2020 started but that's when everything went to shit. Covid really do be fuckin everything up

C: Real shit lol. So what do you like to do outside of TF2? Any hobbies? Interests?

M: My interests kinda shift from month to month, depending on what I'm doin really. Right now I'm watching Avatar, The Legend of Korra. I never watched it when I was younger, but I'm really enjoying it now. I'm also trying to do some pokemon nuzlockes and failing horribly.

C: I know those ones. It's not a bad thing to have a new flavor of the month, keeps things interesting. Do you smoke Micahlele?

M: Nah, smoking kills your lungs. I had a good friend who used to smoke, he would always say how addictive n shit it was, so I'm probs never gonna start. Plus that shit's expensive, and why spend money on cigs when I can buy like pizza.

C: Yeah eh okay okay. Lets move onto our next segment. I got some pictures I want to show you and I want to know your thoughts on them. 

M: Yea sure let's do it

 

 

M: I remember fast forward bein one of the names I looked at when I was a wee steel player. The ones that always stuck out were like, >>, bv, and obviously dk.

C: Facts. Fast Forward is an iconic team with legendary players like... uhh..

M: Legendary players like my boy wax. He was always one of my favorite players back then.

 

M: Anime women smoking, seems like you've done your research coach. That's my shit.

C: You already know I got the baddies Micahlele. You're gonna like this next one. She's super sweet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M: Her kid's finna come out with 3 legs and 13 fingers bro that shit's not good for the baby.

C: Stay hating. In 10 years her kid's gonna be a real life X men.

 

 

M: That's the signature flu walrus pfp. It's a shame my mans didn't get unbanned with the rest of the fred players. That's just how shit goes though. fun fact, the same team i played with dope on back in the day, flu walrus played on later

C: Wow that's crazy. It really is a small community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M: Man's got some voodoo juju shit goin on man idk. I think Biden looked into madringme for this stuff. Have you heard madringme's curse?

C: Naw. Don't cast it on me though. 

M: https://www.twitch.tv/pabwo/clip/TalentedLaconicCockroachDogFace

M: If there's any man who can summon up 110,920 votes, madringme's got the shit for it

C: Damn, a man like mad ring me. I'd like to move onto our reader submitted questions. I got a couple from Saturation: how has your opinion of the attitude of the community changed from before you were admin at all, to when you became a medium power admin, to head admin

M: Before I became an admin I wasn't involved in the community too much, I didn't have much of an opinion on it. I knew the meme discord was the goto place for drama, and was involved in a little bit of the blue99 stuff, but it was silver then so I didn't have much to go off of.As a mod/div admin, IM players were really nice to div for. They were always fun to message and work with for issues, and never really had big drama issues.I'd say as a head admin, that's when my opinion of the community really went down the drain. The sheer volume of reports of people being horrible to each other. Just seeing what lengths some people will go to to be horrible. It just sucks

C: also when we linking up again big man

M: Hopefully when covid shit dies down I can head up into the city and see you again Yehuda. It's been about a year since you me perenne and wubs linked up.

C: from alto: biggest change you’d like to make that you know wouldn’t be well received?

M: This question actually has a lot of answers, but a big one I'd probably want is a season where a promod is used. Reverting weapons to old states, nerfing some, buffing others. More than just like medic attach speed changes

C: Interesting. From cutimus: Will you buy me a Whalelord please.

M: No cutimus I will not buy you a wailord 

C: from exaflamer: What were your thoughts about me prior to becoming an admin? Has this changed after you became an admin for a while?

M: I didn't really care who you were before I became an admin. We had minimal conversations and all I knew was that you played invite engie.I've already talked to you about my thoughts on you as an admin/after working with you as an admin. I think rgl needs a leader, and you're not a leader. You're still a good friend though.

C: Yeah eh. You know who's a Leader? 

M: The coach. The coach is a leader, not a follower

 

pictured: the coach stepping up to the plate; ready to lead TF2 into it's Golden Age.

C: Ah ah ah this guy knows. I think it's time for me to step up and lead TF2 towards a better future.

But on a serious note: I don't know much about the activity going on in RGL other than interviewing people, but after I got banned for something Exaflamer & asher dm'd me and help me get unbanned which I found to be unexpected. At least for me I don't expect anything out of people and to have someone go out of their way to help me, even if it's just video game shit, is something I value & appreciate. I'm not undermining what you said, but if Exaflamer goes out of his way to help other people; not just me, then that's a trait that I think is perfect for an admin.

M: I'm glad admins like exa and asher reach out to try and help people who have been wrongly banned. That's something I strive for inside of RGL, to make things fair for everyone. If there's been a misunderstanding or a ban shouldn't have gone through, I always try to stick up for them to make things right.

C: from BOSSMAN: what are some of the behind the scene responsibilities that you have had to take over as head admin.

M: Some things I'm responsible for, I write the articles that show changes for HL seasons, I try to have a word in restrictions on players playing in lower divs (If like evil wanted to play engie in challenger, he'd be restricted from spy). I also create all the matches that the division admins schedule. Also just going through reports and appeals with the other head admins like I mentioned previously.

C: no secret to it eh. couple questions from wallerino: what are your biggest pet peeves (both player sided and behind the scenes) as an admin?

M: Player sided, I hate how players will like guilt trip me or other admins over restrictions or decisions. Like man I'm doin my best for your sake and mine. You don't have to be a dickhead about it. 

Behind the scenes, sometimes I wish I got more feedback on changes/stuff I bring up. I'll post stuff, nobody talks, it goes through, a week later someone has a problem with it. I asked for feedback like a week ago and you said nothing, what do you want me to change now? I gotta thank the admins who do constantly give me support and feedback with stuff I bring up, but generally there's always an issue that never gets brought up until after, and I can't make any changes.

C: additionally, what are some of the most common misconceptions either about the league or about admins that you run across?

M: A big one is that players think rgl admins hunt through logs to try and find people saying slurs. Spoiler alert, none of us care enough to scour through your logs to give you a two week ban. We have to look at enough user submitted reports as it is. Hate to burst ur bubble, but someone reported you for saying the nword, and it wasn't one of us. 

Another thing that's AC related, is that people think the AC department can't show evidence because they don't have any. Knock knock buddy, that's how cheaters get better at hiding their cheats. Yea, let me just show you and your friends exactly how you got banned, so that way when you load up an alt and start cheating again, you'll know exactly how to not get caught again. That's just what the AC team needs.

C: So what you're telling me is that we need to start excluding snitches from the top level so we can start saying slurs freely again. 

M: Technically yea, there's holes in the plan for sure. One of them being you won't know who the snitches are. It's also easier to just not say anything. There's no need for it.

C: Hmmmm... Okay okay, I'll work on that plan some more. Before we conclude this interview, is there anything else you'd like to say? 

M:Yea, I'd like to thank you, Coach Bucks, for the interview. I've been a fan of these interviews for a while, and it's an honor to be a part of one. If you want a book to read during quarantine, I'd recommend worm https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ . It's 1.6 million words but hella worth the read. Other than that I don't think I've got much else to say

 

 

 

thank you very much to micahlele. thank you to the mans in pablos friends discord who helped me decide what dope quote to use. thank you to my interns rolling, odb & bff-forever who helped me w/ my shit. thank you to the readers who waited patiently for the 12th edition of coach's corner.