Up Close & Personal with RAN Battle Royale Malaysia Gamers

The Global Tournament to find its competition winner has finally reaches its peak.

Congratulations with winning the 2nd runner up prize in the “Ran Global Tournament Bangkok 2007” and thank you, for letting me to have this interview with you.

Afro : Basically, we're known as AfroGunso, Evo, Fai, Whong, Pepsi and Cappuccino. AfroGunso is AfroGunso in game, Evo is known as Rainsky, Fai is known as Qizhii, Whong is known as Milkenjie, Pepsi as Bbface while Cappuccino is known as dragon360 in game. All of us plays Ran Online English version.

Evo : Well, I'm basically the lazy type of person. However, when i start to enjoy a game, i can start digging about the game as hardworking as anyone can be.

Pepsi : Yeah, more or less I'm almost the same as Evo is. Basically.

Fai : Right, myself, i would say a rather playful person. I'm also a metro sexual. Don't get me wrong. It means, I can take care of myself with more style compared to others. I care about how i look a lot. Hey, i even helped Pepsi styled his hair in a proper way so he'd look presentable.*Laughs*

Whong: Well, my difference with these guys is that, I'm the really lazy type of guy. I like to sleep and i seldom play game. I mean, i do, but not for long time though.

Cappuccino : I'm kinda active in game. Nothing much.

Afro : Laughs don't need to ask about me. I'm the type that people dislike most. I seldom go leveling. I only talk to people most of the time and somehow, it gets them angry, I just don't know why. Laughs

Q : Can you give us a general introduction of the classes in your team? Why did you choose that?

Evo : Rainsky is a swordsman. I chose it because in the starting, I found it quite easy to leveling and back then, it was only good with the 127 skill. Not to mention that it's a strength hero and it's hp rate is a lot compared to most of it.

Fai : Qizhii is a brawler. It's a strength hero and I liked it because I can usually do a one hit kill.

Pepsi : Bbface is a archer. It's a DEX hero and trusts me, during PK time; it's the best time for me. Besides, it's easy to level with an archer.

Cappuccino : dragon360 is a brawler. It's a strength hero. I chose this hero because, well, there are only 2 male characters for me to choose and most of the guys are using swordsman. However, back then, I would say AGI hero is easy for leveling. But now, strength hero is good for PK time.

Whong: Milkenjie is a swordsman. I chose it because I find it having good defend rate along with damage as well. Not to mention I can use it to lure mobs easily during party.

Afro: I choose swordsman because Evo recommends it and he sponsored pots for me!

Q : Roughly, when did you guys started to play Ran Online?

Evo : I started on Ran Close Beta which is 28/7/2004.

Afro: Same thing but I even played the Hong Kong and Taiwan server.

Whong: I played on Ran Close Beta on 28/7/2004

Fai : I started on around 2005 when it was Chinese New Year.

Cappuccino : I only remembered i played on year 2005. It's already Open Beta by then.

Pepsi: I started on Close Beta on year 2004 July 28th.

Q : What does your team focus in Ran Online?

Afro: Basically, we focused on teamwork, skills, and leaderships. For leaders, you have to keep calm and level headed.

Q : What is your favorite game character in Ran Online ?

Afro: My favorite would be the Shaman

Cappuccino: Brawler

Whong: Swordsman

Evo: Without doubt, mine, Pepsi and Fai would be the archer.

Q: What or who inspires you into the game?

Evo: Afro was the one who suggested us this game; therefore, before we knew it, we're all kinda addicted into the game.

Q: What will be your top tips for playing this game?

Afro: That would be without doubt, hardworking. It's something where you put more attention and heart into it to understand the game. Not just pure bull hardworking. Don't be lazy. Get into party to leveling more as it’s faster to level up with more people as those people would help to lure mobs with you instead of you alone going around fighting one or two monster only.

Pepsi: I'd say playing continuously without sleep. That is how i ended to where i am today.

Evo: For me, I'd say play smart. You'd have to move around constantly as in like, not just sit around and do nothing but talk to other players and share experiences. Things like how to add to your defend rate and attack rates...things like those.

Q: How do you feel after your victory ? What's the best part of it?

Pepsi: You can't exactly say it's our victory as we just got the 2nd runner up place. But whatever it is, we're not exactly satisfied with the result we got. I believe we can do much better than this if we had more preparations. I think it's slightly wasted. However, every family member of mine were surprised and happy as they go like, hey, i didn't know that by playing game, you can even go out to overseas and get into this like this, you know? Other than that, I've experienced how the Thai actually played and I feel that they were very calm all the time.

Evo: Personally, I think it's a great experience for me even though we can't get the championship. I don't think the practices are all wasted. I planned out the whole thing and faced the facts that we may not get the championship. For beginning of the whole game, I've gotta thank Kelvin to giving me some tips and news on the game. Just like Pepsi, yeah, I'm happy to be able to surprise my family this way.

Afro: I'm just proud being able to represent the country in something. Even if it's just a game.

Q: What about the worse part ?

Afro:We have no experience in such big events. This is our first time and it actually got us quite nervous as it pressured us a lot and because of this, our plan actually didn't go the way we wanted it to.

Q : What will you be looking forward to next year ?

Cappuccino : Of course! Another new and big tournament such as this hopefully in Korea as it's a gaming heaven there and we wish to seek more experience as well as learn from higher level people. Even this game origin is from Korea.

Q: How or did your life changed when you got back home after participating in the tournament?

Afro: We hate to admit this but we actually underestimated the players there but after the tournament only did we found out it was wrong to underestimate your opponents as well as other players. We all start out afresh once to be at the high level. Why bother underestimate others?

Q : What was the biggest challenge in the competition ?

Evo: We planned to have two shaman but we've only got one person who knows how to really use it. We never thought that the Thailand side would actually have a DEX Archer. It's damage are high. Basically what we planned never really did fail but it's just that we got scared by them. They have two shaman and 2 archer and we have no support that's why we failed.

Q: What do you think that you've done the best? And what do you think you need to work more on ?

Evo : I think in the end, we're all able to utilize all our knowledge in sense where the shamans will resurrect but they can't if one of the opponents are standing over the body stopping the shaman to resurrect us. This we actually learned from the Philippine's tactic.

Pepsi: Shaman's skill. Nobody really knows how to use it. You may be able to use it normally in the game but it's a total different story when you're in for PK as a shaman is best used as a supporting hero.

Evo	Pepsi	Whong

Q : Do you need to make any plan for the tournament itself ? What sort of preparations have you made that for?

Whong : We plan to use DEX archer. We trained a lot for it because its damage it’s high. That is why we choose it as one of our plan.

Q: Who or what motivated you to compete in this tournament?

Fai : Needless to say it would be the prize money of course! The prize itself and more importantly, the experience we got from the tournament, thanks myRosso for giving us this golden opportunity.

Q : How did you train for the tournament ? Who encourages you to do it this way ?

Evo : Basically, we discuss most of the time at 'mamak' . We have a mentor who only tells you where you went wrong and what you did wrong. He never tells us what is correct and that is what builds our team spirit as well. It was harsh but it works. Besides that, we played a lot of RAN Online guild war and PK as well so we knew how to control.

Q : What class does your team select on the event day? Why made the decision?

Pepsi: That was because only the four of them has more teamwork compared to the rest with Evo as their leader. We selected Evo as our leader as he does care for other's opinion. However, during the match, he tends to want others to agree with his way instead of the other way round. In the end, when things get to the peak, he tends to loses himself as he sees only himself in the game. We selected one shaman and two archers and one swordsman. We decided on that as this is what we're good in.

Q: If you had to do it all over again for the tournament, what would you change?

Cappuccino : We would choose the same basically. Two archer and two shaman. We have knowledge in the shaman skills but we do not know how to fully utilize it. We can get one shaman to purely focus on one archer while another does the same. Less distraction more attention.

Fai	Afro	Cappucinno

Q : What have you learned in this competition and what was the most helpful in your gaming life?

Fai : Well, basic thing is, we knows that shaman is very important. But we prefer that we know other character as well too. However, each of us would only master one so that we can fully concentrate on that particular character we're most familiar with and we would have the advantage as we know every different character.

Q: Previously, there was an article once on the papers criticizing about cyber cafes and online games. What is your opinion in online games? Any advice for the players?

Afro : I'd hate to say it but you see, most players doesn't know how to control themselves. They tend to get influenced easily by the game, therefore, neglecting their studies if they are studying, neglecting their work if they are working. But there is an advantage to playing online games too. Things like, i would stay at home more often if i were playing games and not go out so often spending money unnecessarily outside and as you know, since there is some item trading in Ran online, we earn money too. Not just Ran online, there is some other games as well that could earn a lot of money. Some who are so much business minded would earn even more in games compared to when they work outside.

Evo: My point of view is that, if you just tend to look at nothing but the game itself, for instance like just purely all about leveling, then, yes, your work or studies will be neglected. But somehow, in some other games, who knows, like, Chinese games, I'd tend to learn something about history. In Ran online, because i played in English version, my language is slowly building up to be much better because I chat a lot with other players. Besides, being involved in a game is a fun thing as I would have more topics to discuss about with my friends when i go out.

Pepsi: I think if as long as one knows how to differentiate their own time like what Afro and Evo said, yes, then there would not be a problem at all for them. If you know how to think, you could even earn money. But if you don't, then you're just really wasting money.

Fai : I just have one thing to say, which is, I knew even more friends than i do last time and it made me much happier. I've got friends all around the places through games.

Q : How will you share out the prize? What will you do about it ?

Evo : Do we still need to say? Of course, we'll use it to treat friends to eat and buy necessities for ourselves. Well, with this much of money, we'd rather to spend it on ourselves better than donate to others.

Thanks a lot to the six of you and once again, congratulations to you all for getting 2nd runner up in the Ran Online Global Tournament at Bangkok! We hope to see you again for another event in the future again.