US Meet the tinks: Pizza

[Trilium]

Interesting. =) Good read.

 

[notoriousthf]

A lil correction about RS. They were called pures, not exactly pkers, as there are/were also maxed out pkers as well.

 

[Gulbon]

Last night, I was approached by a certain gentleman wishing to educate the 19s bracket on himself. Unwilling to pass up the opportunity, I quickly got out pen and paper and recorded the following interview with none other than Pizza. He took the time to give detailed answers to a variety of thought-provoking questions.

1. How did you get your start in twinking?

Going into high school, I played RuneScape. Shortly after I started high school, a friend of mine on RuneScape, who I had played with since I started playing RuneScape back in 6th grade, asked me if I wanted to play WoW with him. I wasn’t sure at first, but he convinced me to play WoW by telling me about twinks. He described them to me as characters similar to the ones we had on RuneScape (Pkers is what they were called on RuneScape) where you would stop at a certain level and max out your character in order to beat other players at that same level. My best friend in real life since kindergarten also played at the time so that really sealed the deal for me on switching from RuneScape to WoW. So I actually started playing Vanilla WoW with the intentions of twinking. My first WoW character ever was a 19 twink Sergeant Hunter. Some of you might know him as Justinbieber @ Bleeding Hollow - Community - World of Warcraft

2. Who were your influences as a young twinker? How did they influence you?

I had two major influences as a young twinker, Farmthis and Atax.

Farmthis was the GM of the first 19 guild I joined, Limbo. He was also my first role model in the 19 bracket. Queuing with his guild is where my love for this bracket originated. His guild also introduced me to premades. The premades I did with his guild were what led me to making Pizza Hut (Raw Talent’s original name).

Atax was the GM of the Alliance guild Crushridge Legends. I premaded against his guild while in Limbo and later with my own guild, Pizza Hut. Needless to say, we lost every game. At one point his guild Crushridge Legends was the top 19, 29, and 39 guild in Cyclone. As if that’s not impressive enough, he was a Merciless and Vengeful Gladiator on his main at the time. He was my idol back then and still is today. I admired how well he ran his guild and how dominant he was in WSG. Watching him play and lead his guild to victory time and time again is what gave me motivation to keep improving as a player and to continue working on my leadership skills as a GM.

3. You have led an active guild in the 19s bracket for over six years now. What have been the secrets to this continuity, when other guilds so often rise and fall in the blink of an eye?

If I had to credit one thing for my guild’s continued success it would have to be my love for the bracket. Most players who join my guild play the bracket much more often and for longer periods of time after they join my guild. If you’ve ever wondered how my guild can queue all day long with a premade group into pugs, it is my love for the bracket rubbing off onto my guildies.

Something important to think about, when looking at guilds that have risen and fallen, is whether their GM quit or not. Generally, when the GM of a guild quits, the guild will die shortly after. I have played this bracket without taking an extended break over the last six years. This has prevented my guild from running into this problem. Great guilds with strong leaders have died off over the years as their GMs moved on from the bracket itself or the game entirely.

4. Out of the entire 19s community, you are possibly the most polarizing figure. Why do you think you became so hated (and loved)? Do the haters ever get to you?

I’ll start with why I think I’m so hated. There are actually quite a few reasons. The top reasons I can think of are GY containment, AFKing, and the attention my guild and I receive. My guild has always been notorious for graveyard containment as one of our primary strategies. This is generally at the expense of the opposing team. It is understandable why players dislike me over this, but it’s more of a strategy than anything else. We don’t do it with the intentions of causing grief. You’ll never catch us holding the flag in the graveyard to prolong games. AFKing is a bad habit I developed back in BC before statistics were even around. I’m not sure why I started AFKing, but for whatever reason it has stuck with me to this date. I’ve been doing it for so long that stopping at this point wouldn’t change peoples’ opinions of me to a level where it is worth it. I think I’ll always receive hate for doing it whether I stop now or continue AFKing. Reading TwinkInfo, you can see how often my guild and I are mentioned in threads. As sad as this may sound, this has led players, who are jealous of the attention I receive from my own actions and those of my guild, to hate on me. Think of any celebrity in the real world off the top of your head. Even the nicest celebrities will have people that hate on them because they wish they were in their shoes.

Even though I am hated I also have a lot of fans. I’d like to believe I have more fans than haters, but that might not be true. I have primarily gained my fanbase through my success as a player and my guild’s success in this bracket over the years.

I tend to focus more on my fans than my haters. Generally I won’t respond to anyone who is negative towards me or my guild, whereas I will respond to anyone and everyone who is positive towards either of us.

5. How do you view yourself as a person and player in the 19s?

As a person, I view myself as one of the nicest and most mature in this bracket. I don’t hold grudges against anyone and treat everyone equally. I believe that if you don’t have something nice to say, then you shouldn’t say anything at all. The three reasons I listed above for why I am so hated has really tainted the view people have of me who have never talked to me before. Generally, once someone who dislikes me actually talks to me for the first time, they like me. A lot of my guildies were once haters before they had the chance to sit down and talk with me. I’m sure many of them wouldn’t hesitate for a second to admit that.

As a player, I view myself as the face of the 19 bracket. I’ve been around this bracket since day 1, and am the household name for 19 twinks. When it comes to my skill level at 19s, I think I can play at the highest level on whatever class I decide to play on. Not because I’m necessarily better at the game as a whole than other players, but because of my love for 19s. This gives me the motivation I need to continue to improve my gameplay on whatever class I am playing until it is at an equal or higher level than my competition.

6. Looking back through your years in the bracket, who do you view as your greatest competitors? This can be individuals, guilds, or both.

My greatest competitors, when it comes to players, would have to be Kathordine and Atax.

Kathordine was the GM of The Twinks Unite, which was an Alliance guild on the same server Pizza Hut originated. Since we were on the same server, we had to run into each other in BGs before cross realms, in the weekly fishing tournaments, the Gurubashi Arena, and even outside of our major cities! He also played a Hunter, and was one of the few Hunters I had to compete with back in the day for the ‘top spot’.

Atax was another one of my greatest competitors. Back in the day, he was widely known as the best 19 Hunter and the best GM. As both of those things were what I was striving towards, he was who I wanted to be. This made him my biggest threat.

My greatest competitors, when it comes to guilds, would have to be Crushridge Legends and tRain cOw.

Crushridge Legends is pretty self-explanatory. They were the top guild in Cyclone for a good 1-2 years running and I was looking to dethrone them and take over that top spot with my guild. Crushridge Legends was the first guild to beat mine in a 10v10.

My second greatest competitor was tRain cOw. I can’t say they were really viewed as that strong of a competitor against my guild while they played. I always thought we were much stronger than them in all aspects. I never viewed them for what they were truly worth until after we ended up losing to them in a premade at the end of Cataclysm.

7. How do you justify graveyard containment?

This article sums it up better than I ever could: Resurrection Vectors and Graveyard Control in Warsong Gulch | Cynwise's Warcraft Manual

8. Being a leader in the community, everything that you do is under a microscope. Do you fear that some of your behaviors, like graveyard containment and winlogging, may be taken up by those who idolize you? Do you think this may have a negative effect on the bracket?

Sadly, I do think some of my behaviors are taken up by those who idolize me, and do have a negative effect on the bracket. I don’t regret graveyard containment, as it is a WSG strategy used by high rated RBGers, but AFKing I could have done without. If I could go back and start over, I would never have started the whole AFKing trend. As I stated earlier, I’ve been AFKing for so long that stopping at this point wouldn’t do much. The damage has already been done, and is irreparable.

9. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do in real life, to give some additional perspective?

I am now preparing myself for going to graduate school to get an MBA. I just graduated from college two weeks ago with a major in accounting. After I get my MBA, I plan on working for an accounting firm somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona.

Some of my main hobbies outside of WoW include basketball , working out, watching movies/TV shows/YouTube, doing goofy things with my real life friends, and listening to music.




If anyone has any further questions for Pizza, please feel free to ask them here (serious inquiries only).

You know, every time I tried 19 I always stopped because of the GY farming, and I always assumed that you were an elitist snob. On my F2Ps I'd even /rude you because I disliked you. Reading this though really changed my mind (Even though I stopped playing 19s in my little time trying 19s, I've always lurked the 15-19 forum haha), you're not that much of a bad guy as I thought you were just from seeing your tactics. I guessed I judged poorly.

I have a question though. Is there every a moment where you feel that your GY farming containment hurts the bracket?

Is it worth the win at the expense of killing the bracket you love? (Didn't mean this one in a rude way.)

 

[#ko]

i too had a bad opinion of pizza n wt when i first came over from bloodlust, when i was first approached to join the guild i was reluctant.. best choice i ever made ^.^ playing with twinks like pizza n slyddur made me a far better player then i was n made me into the twink i am today <3

 

[Curley]

Waw Tawent #1 twink.

 

[Òreqt]

plan on working for an accounting firm somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona.

Say Hi to Phe for me would ya

Edit: Whaddup with that rogue,mage & Healers that just gather dust?- I do want to see him go #1 on a non- OP class doe

 

[Eliot]

Thanks for doing this interview piece Dorigon and Pizza.

To provide some background, I joined the 19 twinking scene quite a long time ago. When I joined a was a clueless keyboard turning spell clicking blood elf paladin, and I loved every minute of it. My first opinion of Pizza (back when he was a female troll hunter) was he was an exceptional player.

Over the years I've developed a strange misguided opinion of who he is. Having rarely talked to him I was left to make things up as to who I thought he was. I'll admit I hated Pizza and I hated his guild. Was this hate justified in any way? Nope. I'd like to apologize to Pizza and Raw Talent as in my hatred I become exactly what I didn't want to be and even worse. This article helped me realize Pizza has never been rude to me, he has never said a single bad word to me. I was the one at fault, not him.

Keep going Pizza, props to you for having an idol and becoming the best player you can be. I'd love to have a chat with you someday.

 

[Pizza]

You know alot of people didnt want to see a Interview from Pizza, When I started reading this I expected something close to what Curley had done about being number 1 and his guild is the best.

With that said I want to apologize first and foremost to Pizza, He has gotten this image of himself to the 19 community of almost being a tyrant. Untouchable as he has a solid core of Elite Guards that follow his every command slaughtering the innocent over and over. This interview humanized him, brought a new found respect on my part. I still do not agree with the GY containment but at the end of the day I do understand why it is done, You want to be the best you gotta have your best strategy. Probably with the different views for what is best is why I disagree so much with GY Containment

Thanks for the good read, it was a well written interview, kind of wishing there was more cause I started reading and it was over in no time, which is a good sign of a well written piece.

Apology accepted my friend. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it.

This was very interesting to read. I only saw the gy containment, and afking pizza that we all don't really like. But this interview has shown to me a whole different side of pizza that I haven't seen because I've made him out to be an evil person. But I actually have to admit, this has made me respect him as a person more. I'm aware he does bracket damaging things, but he seems to be a real nice guy on the inside. It was also interesting to see pizza's background. Finally, I like that pizza has future goals like wanting to work at an accountant firm. Thanks for writing this interview!!

Cogbrew

You know you're my favorite Monk, Cogbrew.

I first started twinking because i watched some of Darkchewie's videos on Youtube. Before i even created a 19 my main goal was to join WT, because all the best players were in there from what i could tell. I then made my 19 and started working on everything that i would need to become one of the best druids i could be, jumps, profs, and team skills in general.

As i had always played horde i never experienced getting GY farmed (contained) and i was happy being ignorant. I then started browsing the actual forums on Twinkinfo instead of just druid guides, that is when i noticed all the threads about people getting farmed and how WT and Pizza were spearheading the harvest of innocent Alliance. After that i started paying attention to the games i went in and how our team was always gravitating to GY or messing around in mid.

Before talking to a single WT member or even Pizza himself i decided i didn't want to be part of the genocide of Alliance, so when i saw Proxy recruiting i thought we could change the bracket for the better. That is why i am such an objective player. So i changed realms and went to join up. I met some pretty cool people in my new guild and i enjoyed the activity on Vek. All the while every time we got into a game with WT they would go to GY and hearing other peoples opinions on farming further reinforced my idea that WT once was the pinnacle of light is now the spire of darkness.

Yesterday i was in a BG and talked to Pizza and i realized that my whole image of him could be off, this interview shows me that it was. thought i would share how i came to loathe the name Pizza and his guild Waw Talent at the time. To Pizza, if i ever had any unprovoked hostility towards you or your guild i apologize, it was unfair of me to be rude when i had never once talked to you.

We all say things we don't mean, Shift. Great games tonight btw. I believe you were in quite a few of them.

You know, every time I tried 19 I always stopped because of the GY farming, and I always assumed that you were an elitist snob. On my F2Ps I'd even /rude you because I disliked you. Reading this though really changed my mind (Even though I stopped playing 19s in my little time trying 19s, I've always lurked the 15-19 forum haha), you're not that much of a bad guy as I thought you were just from seeing your tactics. I guessed I judged poorly.

I have a question though. Is there every a moment where you feel that your GY farming containment hurts the bracket?

Is it worth the win at the expense of killing the bracket you love? (Didn't mean this one in a rude way.)

We don't farm the graveyard. We just contain the opposing team in it until we can cap the 3 flags. It's moreso to get the games over faster in hopes of getting into a competitive game.

I don't think what we're doing has a negative impact on the bracket. A lot of times it actually results in the Alliance forming groups inorder to combat us containing them. This brings some very competitive games.

Thanks for doing this interview piece Dorigon and Pizza.

To provide some background, I joined the 19 twinking scene quite a long time ago. When I joined a was a clueless keyboard turning spell clicking blood elf paladin, and I loved every minute of it. My first opinion of Pizza (back when he was a female troll hunter) was he was an exceptional player.

Over the years I've developed a strange misguided opinion of who he is. Having rarely talked to him I was left to make things up as to who I thought he was. I'll admit I hated Pizza and I hated his guild. Was this hate justified in any way? Nope. I'd like to apologize to Pizza and Raw Talent as in my hatred I become exactly what I didn't want to be and even worse. This article helped me realize Pizza has never been rude to me, he has never said a single bad word to me. I was the one at fault, not him.

Keep going Pizza, props to you for having an idol and becoming the best player you can be. I'd love to have a chat with you someday.

No hard feelings man. The past is the past. I'm down to chat with you at any time.


Thanks for the kind words everyone. Means a lot.

 

[Sketchbag]

Dori strikes again! I know what bromance means, but is there a term for bromancing 2 men at the same time? After yowza's mousepad, i'd like my shirt signed too please!

Well conducted inty..id like one of these on a monthly basis, but a sort of RT internal diary setup. Share those secrets wudcha

 

[Drugs]

too long. made it to around question 3

 

[augiddin]

<Removed>

 

[Drugs]

<Edit for Quote>

 

[Myrm]

If you are going to troll, you are going to get banned.

I understand that the concept of "playing nice" is a foreign one to most of you, but if you are just going to troll, I have no problem permanently banning you right off the bat with ZERO warning.

 

[Dorigon]

Dori strikes again! I know what bromance means, but is there a term for bromancing 2 men at the same time? After yowza's mousepad, i'd like my shirt signed too please!

Well conducted inty..id like one of these on a monthly basis, but a sort of RT internal diary setup. Share those secrets wudcha

Hm, maybe, though there are those outside the guild that I would like to interview as well.

(sorry for hijacking Pizza's interview thread for other matters!)

 

[Lolpzlate]

I'm all for twinks helping twinks and do appreciate certain things Pizza has done for the community but these have to be quite possibly the most cringe worthy and most brainwashed responses I've seen in a long long time haha. I feel like a new religion is about to spawn or something.

 

[Cìren]

Graveyard... "containing" hahaha really!

Oh oh and "AFKing is a habit I developed from the beginning of time. I don't even know why I started doing it". Here let me fill you in, it's called poor sportsmanship/ superiority complex.

You're quite a character pizza, will the comedy ever end?


I don't mean to be fully negative. I can appreciate Pizza for his never ending dedication to the bracket. And for playing quite a controversial character in this mixed bag of nerds we call a community.

 

[shanker]

GY containment as strategy:

- is not a catch all excuse term
- invalid with 4-7 players left on the opposing team
- invalid definition unless in a premade or RBG
- invalid when no one is going for the flag or flag holding is occurring

lol...wasn't called GY containment when many were GY camping and justifying it going for 100k then 250k kills for titles. that started the damage in this bracket, AFK/win logging and more.

nice and mature players

- do not use compensation theory/explanations to justify what they should know is GY camping to (DPS, kill, heal, etc.stat farm)
- do not supposed GY contain for 20+ minutes or till other team finally gets smart and quits resing and then decides to finish the game

keep up your nice and mature play style, the bracket needs more of it

 

[Flamer]

GY containment as strategy:

- is not a catch all excuse term
- invalid with 4-7 players left on the opposing team
- invalid definition unless in a premade or RBG
- invalid when no one is going for the flag or flag holding is occurring

lol...wasn't called GY containment when many were GY camping and justifying it going for 100k then 250k kills for titles. that started the damage in this bracket, AFK/win logging and more.

nice and mature players

- do not use compensation theory/explanations to justify what they should know is GY camping to (DPS, kill, heal, etc.stat farm)
- do not supposed GY contain for 20+ minutes or till other team finally gets smart and quits resing and then decides to finish the game

keep up your nice and mature play style, the bracket needs more of it

you're trying too hard here i can see the sweat dripping off ur face

who is ur twink


on topic: great interview dorigon really cool!!

 

[Mocha]

GY containment as strategy:

- is not a catch all excuse term
- invalid with 4-7 players left on the opposing team
- invalid definition unless in a premade or RBG
- invalid when no one is going for the flag or flag holding is occurring

lol...wasn't called GY containment when many were GY camping and justifying it going for 100k then 250k kills for titles. that started the damage in this bracket, AFK/win logging and more.

nice and mature players

- do not use compensation theory/explanations to justify what they should know is GY camping to (DPS, kill, heal, etc.stat farm)
- do not supposed GY contain for 20+ minutes or till other team finally gets smart and quits resing and then decides to finish the game

keep up your nice and mature play style, the bracket needs more of it

Shanker you're starting to sound like me!!! I agree 100% Anyways I just wanted to say that if I had another like to give today it would be right here!

Best of luck pal and cheers to having the community's best interests as a primary focus!

Mocha

 

[soskanky]

On topic, great interview Dory and Pizza.