2002: Infantry Revisited - Lothlorien
Interviewee: Lothlorien
Interviewer: 7hm
Date: January 2002
Reason/Significance: Lothlorien tells his side of the story. The interview ranges from his experiences with the IDL, to his abuse of the *prize command (for which he was banned, he had already been axed), to his recent hiring as a Skirmish League referee.



7hm: Hello Lothlorien, mind if I interview you?

Lothlorien: Sure.

7hm: Firstly, congrats on your being hired as a Skirmish League ref.

Lothlorien: Thank you.

7hm: There has been somewhat of a hubbub about this. I noticed 2 posts in the general forum specifically directed towards this in a negative way.
Lothlorien: Yes.

7hm: How do you feel about these posts? I'm sure its not pleasant being recieved in this way.

Lothlorien: Its basically CTF players. I had my problems in the past but i'm trying my best to 'turn a new leaf'.

7hm: This isn't your first time as an SL ref is it?

Lothlorien: Nope. I reffed during season one as Fangorn. Enjoyed my time, even co reffed the championship games. I left after season one though and I'm happy to be back on Ucross's staff.

7hm: I noticed that Iceburgh said this:"Half the people don't even know what Loth has done" in the main post directed against you. And its true, very few of us know what you've done. Why did you leave after season one?

Lothlorien: I was recruited by Crack Trooper, one of the first head refs, and wasnt trained for the job. I rushed into my first few matchs and had many mistakes. Over the two years I have played, and I had my mistakes and problems. No one looks at what i'm good at or for, but what i done the wrong way. I understand that players can be angry towards me, which i deserve.

7hm: Well, time will tell whether this second chance is deserved, hopefully everything will work out. Actually, you seem to be getting into a bigger picture than I had intended, which leads me to my next question.

7hm: That question is thus, what happened with your modship? It came one day and was gone the next, and the result was countless rumours, which even if taken for true, say nothing of your motivation. Can you comment on this?

Lothlorien: I was axed as moderator by tim (also known as Dressed in Black), the head smod of Infantry. Airwalkr, a friend of mine, was banned for calling a smod (arb) a idiot and an abuser. As a mod, it was my duty to report arb for perm banning Airwalkr for four days. I warned and even threatened arb because I felt his actions were wrong. After that, tim axed me for threatening a staff member. Yankee, sysop and grahpic designer for Infantry, fired tim for this and countless other problems. He felt that my actions weren't that serious. After this point of time, I had recieved a mod weapon in public by a modded account. I wont lie, I used this weapon in public and avoided bans. After this, I found out Yankee wanted to rehire me but wouldnt since this happened.

7hm: Regret the prizing?

Lothlorien: Yes. I let Jerimy (Yankee) down.

7hm: :/

7hm: Well, getting onto a happier note, I hear you are in charge of the SDL now.

Lothlorien: Well, Prisoner still owns SDL but I'm currently running the webpage (which is at www.nmebase.com/sdl) and hope to have it up soon. We will be holding the last tourney soon. Everyone is welcome to come and watch or even take part. I will be a moderator for SDL in the Skirmish Players League zone.

7hm: That works well with you being a ref then.

Lothlorien: Agred, and I feel that our staff can handle this league. I also want to thank Ucross for allowing us to run our league in his zone.

7hm: On the subject of the webpage, do you have concrete plans for it? It's been so long I hardly remember what it looked like.

Lothlorien: Well, I'm going to place a temp design up for the players and get the league started. Krono and Humanoid Typhoon are helping me with the final design and database.

7hm: Is there a time frame as of yet?

Lothlorien: We will have our last tourney on the 24th but I'm hoping to have the layout up by the end of January.

Lothlorien: The hiring of refs and applications for dueling spots should start the following weekend.

7hm: That soon, hmmm. JackCrow will be Head Ref I hear, but do you have anyone else already chosen to ref?

Lothlorien: We filled out Moderators and Head Refs spots but we arent worry about refs at this moment.

Lothlorien: Our staff consist of Prisoner, Humanoid Typhoon, Jackcrow, Miller Lite -={SF}=-, Phony, adid, and a few others.

7hm: How will it all work for mod powers? Will Ucross be powering the SDL refs, or will they need to be SL refs as well for that?

Lothlorien: We are only sharing the zone with Skirmish League. We are hoping to have Ucross power SDL[Ref] alias.

7hm: I'm somewhat unsure of the league's rules. Will it be like IDL with duels happening whenever two players and a ref are available or will it consist solely of tournaments?

Lothlorien: We have four divisions which have 16 players in each. We are hoping to run four tourneys (which we have finished three). Each winner will recieve a spot in the season and playoffs. We will even give each one the option to name their division. Prisoner changes the rules constantly, but he will have a finalized version out soon.

7hm: So nothing is really finalised yet then?

Lothlorien: The tourneys we run help us collect the data which is needed to finish a well based system. Our staff is working hard and have been doing a great job overall.

7hm: Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with, though I have no talent as a dueler. :)

Lothlorien: Agred, I'm trying to shape up also. :/

7hm: Hey, you're not allowed to agree with my crappiness :)

7hm: hehe :)

7hm: yes... :) So onto another subject, I hear you are in TA now?

Lothlorien: Yes, and very content. Great players and well rounded too.

7hm: You were on Envy before this as I recall, were you squadless for long before TA picked you up? Or was it a squad hop?

Lothlorien: I left due to a few comments towards my religous beliefs.

7hm: ugh, not a fan of leaving under circumstances like that :/

Lothlorien: If you were a hebrew, like I, this type of comment would offend you.

7hm: I noticed a name change between squads as well, are you going to stick with Lothlorien for skirmish stuff now?

Lothlorien: I have used this name since I started playing Infantry. Fangorn was a secondary alias for skirmish. Although I played and reffed as Fangorn, Lothlorien was the one I mainly used.

7hm: Well, enough about skirmish, onto CTF, as you seem to be pretty active over there too :)

7hm: I hear you were banned from the CTFPL for double squadding, true?

Lothlorien: Nope. I was banned for 'abusing ?help'.

Lothlorien: I have never double squadded before. Although I have changed squads alot.

7hm: Yeah I heard CKY, BDS, SWAT, all within a short period of time. Are you on any ctf squad currently however?

7hm: Oh wait, not BDS :)

Lothlorien: I never played for BDS before. But I'm currently squadless and hoping to join an up and coming squad.

7hm: Is there a time limit on your CTFPL ban?

Lothlorien: The ban will be up after tonight (Wednesday the 16th).

Lothlorien: I will have to appeal my ban though. The person who has this job seems to have something against me so it may take some time.

7hm: I see...

7hm: So SDL, SL, CTFPL... do you happen to be involved with any gravball leagues as well? :)

Lothlorien: I'm a member of Godsend in Gravball. Alot of skirmish players and Gravball veterans.

7hm: Yeah I've heard about you guys, seem to remember even watching an SB. How do you feel about Godsend's chances this season?

Lothlorien: We are currently ranked second in Gravball rankings, but number one Grav Force 1, lost a well played game to The Alliance and I feel that we will move into first place.

7hm: Join Darkslayers or SS and you'll be in the top 3 in every major league. :)

7hm: On to another subject now :) I've noticed that you seem to have some problems with CTF players. Care to explain your reasons?

Lothlorien: I have joined alot of CTF squads during my playing years. The most noted were KR and Moogles. After Moogles faded a new squad called Chronic started up, I ended up stealing all the members and making my own squad. Alot of players hate me for that, but thats not the end. After faking a players name, I faded the squad I made, called Lost Society. Some players blame me for killing off Murderous Plush Toys, but others know that ISMA players were double squading and much more. Since then, I have been hated and both the CTF players and I have lost respect for one another.

7hm: I can see that, the complaints with you being named ref were almost as long as those about CS.

Lothlorien: It's understandable.

7hm: Hmmm, this is becoming somewhat random. :)

Lothlorien: agred

7hm: Care to comment about your situation with the IDL?

Lothlorien: Emperor has flamed me for this in the Skirmish League forums but not everyone knows the truth. Eikron asked Emperor and I to run the new season. Emperor and/or Eikron hired XXXXX to make a layout for the webpage and told me not to worry about it. After three weeks of harrassing XXXXX for the design, which he would not show me, I saw it only to learn it was just stolen html from nmebase.com, stolen images, and poorly made tables/colours. The staff was slow and really didn't care about IDL. Emperor is a friend of mine, but he states all the things I have abandonded, which are untrue.

7hm: Do you think the IDL will end up dying out completely? It seems to resurface every once in a while and then fading into the background.

Lothlorien: IDL is currently being handled by new staff. They finished a nice webpage but after starting the season, faded after two weeks. I dont really see this type of league happening.

7hm: Too bad, it would have been nice. Do you think that with official support it would have done better? CTFPL powers for example.

Lothlorien: Not really. The league is based on players showing up and not going inactive.

Lothlorien: A CTFPL squad has numerous players. IDL is limited to the players who want to play and inactive/retiring players.

7hm: Can the same not be said of the SDL? What makes the two leagues different?

Lothlorien: I find that SDL has a stronger Staff, more active players, and better showing rate.

7hm: Hopefully that wil be the case.

7hm: Well, I gotta go. I must say it was a very informative interview, and I want to thank you for your time and wish you good luck with your SL and SDL endeavours.

Lothlorien: Thank you very much and work on your aim, look like 007 sniper without his glasses.

7hm: OMG!

7hm: :)

Lothlorien: gg

-THE END-

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