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CPL Winter Event Competitor Interview #2: Gary Sanchez
The anticipation continues to grow as the Cyberathlete Professional League’s next event approaches. Competitors are training both online and offline in hope that they will have the skill and the power necessary to win first place. GameZone continues its coverage of the upcoming Winter Event with an interview with professional cyberathlete Gary “Siege” Sanchez. Gary tells us how he got started in the CPL, how he’s preparing for the upcoming competition and much, much more.
Question: Tell me all about yourself. How old are you and where do you live? What kinds of video games appeal to you the most?
Gary Sanchez: My name is Gary Sanchez and I'm 19 years old, from Watsonville, CA (Near San Jose). Any game that you can compete at a professional level has some appeal to me.
Q: How did you get involved with the CPL?
GS: I formed and led a San Jose area team, after competing in a few LAN Tournaments we won a CPL Divisional, then a Regional, one thing led to another and before we knew it we were attending the CPL's 2002 Summer World Championship in Dallas, TX. Since then we've participated in CAL-I (an online division related to the CPL) and we're looking forward to attend the CPL's 2002 Winter Championship.
Q: It must be incredible to know that in just a few weeks you'll be able to show off your incredible gaming skills to the entire world. Is the anticipation killing you?
GS: At the moment, we're just trying to stay focused and prepare for the competition itself.
Q: How have you been preparing yourself for the championship? Once you knew that you were going to be in the CPL, did you start playing games more excessively?
GS: While we were at the last CPL we had decided that we were going to be attending the Winter CPL, so since then we've been preparing by changing our roster, practicing as much as possible (real life has a tendency to limit the amount of time you can spend on the computer), and just going over different map strategies and positions. I wanted to put together a lineup from the get-go instead of waiting until the last minute so that the team would know each other's playing style and have established their team play; there's always room for improvement.
Q: What will you do if you win? Buy a new car? Put a down payment on a house? Go to Disney World?
GS: Disney World eh? Hmm....I'll get back to you on that one.
Q: Have you been involved in any other video game tournaments?
GS: We've been to over 15 LAN Tournaments for Counter-Strike, most of them were local (in CA), and others include Texas, New York and Arizona.
Q: Are you planning on participating in any other CPL events?
GS: That's the plan.
Q: Which game(s) would you like to see in a future CPL Championship?
GS: Counter-Strike 2? Need more Counter-Strike like games!
Q: When did you first start playing video games?
GS: Hmm, I got a Nintendo when I was like 5? I didn't start playing games seriously until about last year though.
Q: What would you say helped you improve your skills the most: playing against complete strangers, or playing against your friends and/or teammates?
GS: Playing against friends or teammates doesn't teach you anything new, especially if you play with them a lot. Playing against complete strangers can give you a different perspective. The best way would be to play with your friends/teammates against complete strangers.
That’s exactly how I feel. The more strangers you play, the better you’ll become.
Q: As some of the best players in the world, what advice would you give to the many gamers out there who are dying to make it into the CPL?
GS: Don't quit your day job.
Q: What kind of a PC do you use at home? Compaq or HP? Intel or Athlon?
GS: Personally, I have an HP (most gamers build their own), Intel P4, NVIDIA GeForce3, and I use a Plantronic DSP 500 headset or Sony MDR-V600's. I have 1024mb of rd ram and my ISP is crap.
Q: I'm right-handed, but after playing a game or surfing the Web for too long, my right index finger tends to get a little sore, so I've learned to mouse around with both hands. What do you do to prevent your hands from being permanently damaged?
GS: Wow, both hands, you'll have to show me one day. I try not to use the computer too long without taking a break, seems to work.
Q: As a "slightly" obsessed hardcore gamer, I have to ask you: have you ever gone without eating so that you could play a game longer?
GS: I just wasn't hungry.
Q: Counter-Strike's default settings are good, but I usually like to customize my game's control scheme. What settings do you use?
GS: I use the CPL GUI and default settings on LAN, when I'm the net I tend to lower my rates since my ISP is crap. My controls are pretty basic, WASD for movement, however, I have my spacebar as duck, shift as jump, and caps lock as walk.
Q: What is your favorite game of all time?
GS: I played Ultima Online for a few years, that was fun until they changed all the rules around and took the fun out of PvP.
Q: Thanks to NVIDIA's incredibly powerful GeForce graphics cards, PC gaming is looking better than ever. What games are you looking forward to playing the most this fall? Are there any console games that you interested in playing?
GS: I don't really care for console games, [but] Golden Eye 007 for N64 was fun playing against other friends.
Q: Speaking of which, what do you think of multiplayer gaming on the consoles?
GS: It gives people another medium to experience multiplayer gaming; variety is good.
Q: Would you like to develop a game of your own someday?
GS: Never know, I'd hate to limit myself by answering yes or no. :D
Smart move.
Thank you for your time, Gary.
Check out
the interview with the CPL President - Angel Munoz
Cyberathlete Professional League makes superstars out of gamers
with international PC game competitions
Check out the interview with CPL competitor SirScoots
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