Well hello there! This is my first instalment of what may well be a regular interview slot here on DoDSource UK, and who better to kick it off with than a UK Day of Defeat veteran, known for his times in 1.3 playing in such teams as badappleZ, Team Logic, Reason Gaming and of course my own team clutchmasterz which later went on to become dtekt in Day of Defeat Source. That’s right of course it’s the one and only Dave “phn” Wood!
Well Dave if I haven’t done a good enough job of introducing you, could you please introduce yourself to the viewers.
Hi, my name is Dave Wood, im 23, I've been playing DoD for what will almost be a decade now I'm currently unemployed but prior to that I was working in Hull as a software applications developer and network engineer for 3 years
Great well down to business! I for one know you have had trouble of keeping track of your DoD career, hell we all do! But if you could give the viewers a quick rundown of your history in DoD up until today.
Hmmm where do I begin I started playing in 1999 with a team called DSC (DeathSquadClan) they were a North American RainbowSix team who were pretty successful on CWN (clanladder.com, which now ceases to exist). One of my mates from school had found out about a new mod for Half Life, namely Day of Defeat, and we started playing with our 28.8k modems and 200ping, complete noobs of course, running around with mediums and spawn camping where possible (since there was no spawn protection in the early versions). I then decided to start a DoD euro division under the DSC name. After realising that we sucked badly, we disbanded and my mate stopped playing. I carried on however and went onto join [*UKSF*], who, at the time had some decent players like BeZ and zaP. Shortly after I joined however they went onto form the legendary saintz! I spent a couple of years at UKSF who were a fun team more than anything, before I went onto join badAppleZ after being harassed constantly in pubs to join them by angryratman. This was my first competitive team, and I made a lot of good friends there. At some point during the time I was in badAppleZ, DoD 1.0 was released, which, like every update of DoD, i hated at first. TWR suddenly became the dominant force in Europe with the new release, and I recall actually getting a trial there, and topfragging! But I never actually joined, apparently I lacked team play and baited a lot The scene then seemed to decline a bit, TWR eventually folded for some reason or another, and the majority of their members merged with us at badAppleZ, and we became Logic.dod, a top 5 eu team. At this point I was selected for the UK national team, and got to play alongside some DoD legends, such as An1maL. I took a break from DoD for a considerable amount of time after that, but spent a short amount of time playing for Reason-Gaming, I have no idea who was in the team but we were pretty decent After coming back from a break, some guy named turtz asked me to come play for his team, clutchmasterz. I thought they would be pretty shit, since I hadn't heard of any of them before, but he seemed like a decent guy so I decided to join. I soon began to realise that they were actually pretty good, we started playing under the name dtekt very shortly after I joined, and had some success winning stuff like the Swisha Memorial Cup. 1.3 was more or less dead by this point, and we decided to do what most others had done already, and start playing Source. After a couple of months we were playing at a good level, and beating teams top eu teams such as supremz. We picked up a couple of awesome players, namely Nuker, RiN and seiken, and started rolling teams. After some discussion within the team, I decided to leave, I was the weakest rifle in the team, and had no motivation to play the game. So again, I took a break before coming back to play in badAppleZ, which bared no resemblance to the once great badAppleZ! After leaving them I played in a couple of other teams (apparently) but I have no recollection whatsoever: D After another long break I came back to DoDs, and 4nkor asked me to join Epsilon (who later became among the apes, and now zP!) I probably spent a couple of months at the most playing with them, before I got completely bored again and stopped playing. So, after yet another break I came back to DoDs which more or less brings us to the present day, playing with neutronics.
Sorry to put you through that, haha! Just seems to be a formality in these types of interviews so we will swiftly move on, but staying on the same sort of track, after all the years in dod what has been the favourite team you’ve played in/with and why?
It's a difficult question, I had an awesome time in badAppleZ with angryratman, Relic, m34tc0re, Rei, and Mappi, they were an awesome bunch of guys who actually let me come and stay with them in Stoke-on-Trent a few years back, we spent the 3 days getting hammered, but the best time was probably playing with turtz , ristous, antti, lennox etc at clutchmasterz/dtekt/TLR (who I got to meet, and get totally blaked with at i34), we used to have such a laugh at vent, and would pretty much roll anyone, no one liked playing us, it was awesome
As seen previously you have played in quite a few EU teams, and have gone back to playing in what is a heavily EU team with neutronics! Do you prefer playing in EU teams over UK teams, and how do you find coping with the language barrier in such a diverse EU team?
I definitely prefer playing in UK based teams, as I've said previously, the best times I've had were at badAppleZ and dtekt, who were both UK based teams, but I don't have a problem playing in an EU based team, everyone speaks good English, and are easy to understand, there's the occasional outburst of German rage, but I just ignore it or come out with one of the few German phrases I know
I see, there seem to be a lot of talented un-clanned UK players knocking about, looking to create teams, so you haven’t been tempted by these?
I can't say I haven't been tempted but I'm happy playing with neutronics at the moment, I spend 3 evenings a week playing football so I wouldn't like to commit to a new team without being fully active, and thanks to our Spanish-sized line-up at neutronics I am able to just play when available, and still remain a core member of the team
Good to see! Loyalty ! Neverless keeping on topic of the UK scene, you’ve been around longer than the majority of us, and been through all the game changes, how do you think the skill level fairs today in the UK scene compared to the glory days of An1mal, zaP, bez etc? Also in general do you think there has been a decrease or increase in individual skill over time?
It's hard to judge since the classic DoD, and Source are 2 completely different games, there will always be players who are exceptional, such as An1maL, who is probably still the greatest DoD player of all time, and players like NmE, as well as BeZ and zaP who you mentioned, but now we have quality players like jo3y, brn, Lindo, yourself, RiN and of course LUK3 who in my opinion is the best player in the eu at the moment . So no I don't think the skill level has dropped, but I do think that there are a lot less UK players playing DoD than there was a few years back.
Interesting like you said, there doesn’t appear to be as many UK players in the DoD scene, and of course this website trys to bring them all together. But there seem to be on going feuds and tiffs between players within the community, and constantly seeing newer players commenting on the egos of some of the more experienced players. Has this always been around? Or are we actually egomaniacs?!
Yes! This is something that has been around for as long as I can remember. When I played in the UK team in 1.3, although I can't remember who specifically, people would refuse to play because they hated other team mates so much. I can't really think of anyone who I would call an egomaniac, some people just dislike it when others blow their own trumpet.
*Trumpet Sound* Being one of the most liked players in both the UK and EU scene, and a player a lot of us used to look up to and still do. Who would you say is the player you most looked/look up to?
This is probably going back quite some time, but Hn from his time in Sk-Fr, he was insane, after seeing his movie it made me want to get good at the game, and is probably the reason why I stuck the game out for so long. From a UK-perspective, I'd probably say Fish or Spetznaz_1 from SOE, those guys were insane rifles!
Way before my time! And that’s saying something! Of course being so experienced you must have a lot of good DoD memories, what would you say is your most memorable DoD moment?
Beating Holland in the Nations Cup in either 2004/2005, I can't remember. Blythe completely wrecked us on Chemille, then playing Anzio, we basically needed 2 caps with 1 minute left, and we did it with about 4 seconds to spare, making the final score 590-580, one of the closest matches I've ever played in
What! Surely it had to be meeting me on lan! Talking of LAN’s, zP! Lan just gone and a whole new bunch of LAN’s lined up dotted around Denmark and Germany, and knowing your love for the ganja, will we be seeing Dave Wood @ zP LAN #2
I'd love to go to zP! Lan #2, I would definately have attended the one just gone if I'd had a team, and money, but i'm 90% sure i'll be attending the next zP! Lan
Another formality and it just has to be done, it’s of course the dream team question! Can you give me your all time UK and EU line-ups.
UK: Fish NmE An1maL
RiN Cassius
LUK3
EU Hannibal, K-Fear Link Nb River lntc (snipe)
Okay now for the fun part of the interview! Basically it gives the UK scene a chance to ask you more personal questions, around what might be random subjects. Could be serious, funny, controversial, either way it’s going to be worth a read! So ill kick it off!
Question from RiN: Your one of the oldskool dod players and someone who when i was geeking it up in ED, was a player I looked up to and wanted to aspire to. What keeps u motivated and driven to play dods after all this time?
Having someone to look upto and aspire to be as good as, but more importantly good friends, I know for a fact I wouldn't still be playing this game if it wasn't for all the friends I've made along the way
Question from Jo3y: What was playing with An1mal like?
Awesome he kind of came out of nowhere, I think, if I’m not mistaken, he started out playing in a team called tN (terraNostrum) under the name Twirly. Within a few months he was insane, other than playing a couple of matches with him in Team UK I never really played with him, or spoke to him that much But of course it was a great personal achievement to have the opportunity of playing alongside, in my opinion, the greatest dod player of all time
Question from bAc: Who is better myself or turtz.
nobrainer.. turtz <3 Ben
Question from bnzr: When playing in badAppleZ, did you think Unk0wn most over-rated retail UK rifle ever, and do you think deadlock was better than An1mal?
Unkn0wn almost instantly had a reputation being the brother of the legendary UK rifle Nimzicki, so I think through no fault of his own he was overrated, but is a great guy, and someone I had the pleasure of playing with. As for DeadLock, he was a great rifle, I can't believe I've forgotten to mention him at some point, but I still don't think he was anywhere close to An1maL. Good question though
Lindo: Who is the strongest player you have played against?
I would say An1maL but that would be boring. There's so many guys I’ve played against who've made me want to quit because they've raped me so hard. I think someone worth mentioning who a lot of people probably won't remember is the Danish light BosseGiraffe, he had sick aim and reflexes. Others worth mentioning are probably lntc, when he played light, Link, and LUK3
Question from rellie: Having been privileged to play with Epsilon and myself in TLR, how does it feel to be scraping the bottom of the barrel with neutronics!
Neutronics are a nice bunch of guys, when I started searching for a team I knew I wouldn't get any amazing offers from top teams, and I wanted a new challenge, I thought I might have ended up doing the classic disappearing act after a couple of weeks, but we have improved a lot as a team, and for once I'm actually one of the strongest rifles in the team, which can't be said during the time I played at dtekt and Epsilon competing against the likes of Nuker, Korsakov, ristous and seiken.
Question from r0bbz: How many grams of weed do you smoke per/week and do you think it has a positive effect on your gaming?
When I had a job, and therefore had money, probably about 10g a week, more if I was with my mates, but now that I'm poor I try to make it last as long as possible, I've been known to make 3.5g last almost 2 weeks.. ;D and no way.. There’s no way it has a positive effect on gaming, or anything else for that matter. Maybe if I just smoked one joint before a match and just got a light buzz it could have a positive impact, but realistically, that never happens, I'm sure turtz and the rest of the guys I've played with can tell you what a negative effect it has on my gaming. There are countless times I've tk'd or just generally been confused whilst playing due to smoking too much
Question from me: Who would you say is the most over-rated and under-rated players to come from the UK?
Personally, I think Lindo is under-rated a lot, probably because I never got to play with or against him, but I quickly realised after playing against him that he is an awesome light, and is amongst the best in the UK at the moment. Over-rated Unkn0wn, for reasons I explained above: D
And last but not least, another Question from Jo3y: As everyone seems to like you, is there anyone who you don't like?
If I’m being completely honest, which I am, there isn’t anyone I don’t like that I can think of, that said, i used to think bunz was a complete tool, always flaming on zP, and flaming me on irc and steam, but my opinion changed after i met him at i34, I think if u take what he says seriously you aren’t going to like him, but when you realise he is just fucking around he’s a decent fella, and a good laugh
Okay well that wraps up the interview, thanks a lot for your time deif! Couldn’t of asked for better person to interview, and I’ll make sure to keep all the smiley faces in, just reminds me of #dtektdods Do you have any last shout-outs or thanks to make?
Thanks for taking the time to interview me, it's a pretty big one really enjoyed it though, loving all the questions from everyone I think it'd take way too long to write shout outs to everyone, and I’d no doubt miss out a lot of people, so shout outs to everyone who I’ve had the pleasure of playing with past and present, particularly bA, and dtekt, and everyone at i34 who made it an awesome weekend - bAc, RiN, the bunz, frag, rellie, and of course, Matthew 'turtz' Coppard
I'm currently unemployed but prior to that I was working in Hull as a software applications developer and network engineer for 3 years 
Hannibal, 
K-Fear
River 
lntc (snipe) 
