Interview with joepoe and doekoe

Hey, first of all, tell us something about you and your nick, you have very similar nicks, how  did you create it?:)

Doekoe: It was like 5 years ago.. maybe more, and there was a big music hit in holland which had the word `doekoe` in it and I liked the song.. I didnt knew what the word `doekoe` ment but I found out that it ment money. In that period I was playing CS 🙂 and my nickname was mad L, I knew this was very lame so I changed it to … I actually remember. I was playing on a public cs server and I was playing de_train,while running from Terror spawn to A long and I figured out that doekoe was a fun nickname, so I hided behind the trashcan and changed it. Later, joepoe me and some other classmates played a game together (RtCW). Joepoe had the nickname Jack (the ripper) back then, but since his name is Joep and we are very good friend we came up with joepoe which is way cooler!!

(doekoe)

Joepoe: Hello, I´m Joep´oe´ van den Eerenbeemt, 20 years old and currently living in Leiden, Holland. Ive been playing games since I was about 12 years old and I stepped into the pro-gaming scene with KREATUREN back in vcod. KREATUREN later became fnatic.cod with wich we had loads of national successes. Ive been playing cod2 for about 1 year now, started out playing in mixes with Fuku and Sko but later I was asked to join nD together with rapz solz and zem. Now about a year later Im in H2k and ive never been happier with a team. About the nicknames, doekoe was the first to be honest, doekoe means money in dutch street language and because we were irl friends and me real name is joep, I thought it would be funny to change my nickname into joepoe so we had a simularity. 

(joepoe)

You were inactive for a while, how you can explain the fact that, you have become better after your inactivity?

Doekoe:  Haha I dont know if I am better now then before my inactivity, so I wouldnt call it a fact ;). I can say, it was hard for me to get back on level after my inactivity. I played with alot of good players when I started again with CoD2 (the srs players). They wanted me to get back on level very quick so they gave me some advises, but to be honest that really didnt work for me. I wanted to figure everything for myself, having your own playstyle is way better then taking advise from other players because every person is different. Thats why I dont watch demos etc. Maybe once or twice to steal some tricks but thats it.

Joepoe: Ive stopped playing vcod because the clipping really bored the crap out of me, then I started playing cs:s but that didnt last long. After that I fell into the dark pit thats called World of Warcraft. But a good real life friend Noodl brought me back to cod2. At first I was downright sucky. But since H2k fell apart and I was able to form my own team we started improving like hell. So I think its just that we learned alot from some of the best cod2 players around and used that experience in our own team.

You returned back from inactivy in big style, at the first you owned eurocup and qualified for lan finals and now, you almost win OOF2, what is the key for your success?

Doekoe: The key for success is teamspirit. I like my teammates alot. This is also the reason you will allways see me playing with Joepoe. Cant play a teamgame without someone I know really well. We had some different lineups in H2k, and I can say this is the best lineup we had. Our latest addition tEkin made our team really strong, everybody wants to go to LAN just to see eachother again and have fun. Next to that, all our players are really mature (maybe except for qwertYYY(17 yrs) but he is good for our team in other ways) mitox, joepoe and me are 20 years old and tEkin just became 23. So that makes our team mature and wise ;).

¨
(doekoe with girlfriend)

Joepoe:  I´d say in 1 word: TEAMPLAY I think me and doek have a unseen teamplay since we have been playing together for 5 years or so and in H2k weve made teamplay the keyword. Our team consists of 5 strategical players who can lead a team. This means every1 knows how a team works and can see where backup is needed. Also having 5 ingame leaders helps with the communications alot, every1 calls the needed and calls flaws in the opposing teams. This is why we beat individually more skilled teams.

How did you enjoy OOF2, i mean organization, city etc.. 

Doekoe: The organization did the best they could. Every team had one bad pc, but they couldnt do anything about that. But what I liked about OOF2, is that its easy to talk with the admins etc. Probably because its a COD2 tournament only, but still its nice. The city, Antwerpen, is really nice and pretty. funny thing happend, we were having a waterpipe on a terrace and people were taking pictures of us who were walking by. They probably thought we were junkies or something.

Joepoe: OOF2 was great, we had a hard bracket and the only real problem I experienced were the lack of GOOD computers the first day, and the time we got between matches in comparison to the WB players. Antwerpen is a great city, looks great and has a great places to go out. Basicly it was a great lan for us. 

(joepoe with girlfriend)

What you can tell us about your semifinal and final game? Final was very close, you won dawnville and lost second map 11:13, what was your feeling after dawnville, did you think that you can win? 

Doekoe: We were in a winning vibe. After every match we went outside and talked thru some things, tactics and how the enemy plays etc. And to just relax a bit because being concentrated so long is sometimes really exhausting. After we won dawnville I became more nervous because I realised more and more how close we were to win. When the first half started on toujane, they played really strange. I had some bad luck and we couldnt play our own game, but were forced to play their game if you know what I mean. The half ended 8-4 with tek9 being axis in their advantage, which is kinda bad from our side. Personally I didnt play good, got rushed by shotgun and sniper, my half score was like 1-10 or something. I had to step things up as axis and I believe I did, ended up second on the scoreboard. But after the loss we congratulated eachother with the 2nd place, we told eachother we played well and that we could be proud. But in my mind I was kind of dissapointed.

Joepoe: After Dawnville we knew we had the momentum. They were looking a bit down and our smacktalk seemed to work, also we knew these players were not to be underestimated. But anything could happen so we told the team that no matter what, we were damn proud of our accomplishment. I think in the finals we gave it away by giving tek-9 to many rushrounds on defence, that really boosted their morale. In the end im proud that we got so close and im hoping for a good rematch on the EC finals. 

Before match with eSuba, you were on the toilet with qwerty, what did you do there?:)

Doekoe: Before every match I had to take a piss. Its a ritual haha. But we just talked about the up comming match while peeing haha.

Joepoe:  We had a routine with the team, before every match we´d do our thing. For me this was taking a moment for myself by buying a energy drink and then taking a piss, and when I met doek and Qwerty there we had a last minute talk about who to watch out for and where to push. So basicly it were last minute tax.

In agreement with last world ladder, you are number six on the world, what do you feel now, are you satisfied with it? Do you feel, that you can get higher?

Doekoe: I am satisfied yes, but I also think that we could be higher. Its the first step in the good direction. I hope to prove that on up coming LANs.

Joepoe: We are satisfied with the ladder but we know we will have to get higher up. Atm were the only team in europe beating tek-9. Also well try to rank above eSuba (no-offence) because we know its a reach-able goal. And finally we want to show the USA that we can take down their teams.

What do you think about European scene now? Do you think that serious-gaming comeback will take tek9 a little down?

Doekoe: Yes I think serious will beat tek9 again. Remember that srs won cpc2 with kasparov but they have solz now back in their lineup and I find them better with solz. The European scene overal is very active and the top teams can beat eachother any time. I know for sure that fukyuu is gonna be a top10 team.

Joepoe: I think serious will take down tek-9, looking at the results of tek-9 you can draw 2 conclusions. 1. since sko left (and ozzie took over) they started winning or 2. since Serious went inactive they started winning. I think Serious was dominating the scene before they left and might be able to do so again. But keep in mind that theyre shining moments were without smoke. So well have to see how that will affect their play (mostly because I know that NO1 in the team likes the SG)

What do you think about fnatic academy? Are you satisfied with your clan, or you are going to try it? Tournaments like fnatic academy arent normal. I think, that its great opportunity for some teams.

Doekoe: It sure is a great opportunity. Ive played for fnatic back in the CoD1 days and I can say it really is a professional organization. The management is really nice and they will let you attend every event. I?m not gonna say anything about our team attending or not.

Joepoe: We are atm satisfied with H2k. What fnatic does is great, they allways try new things and thats what makes them unique. I wish all the teams competing most of luck. The only problem I see in the system is that, because of the amount of prizemoney that they give away some players might cheat online in order to get to the lan finals, but online gaming will allways have its downsides.

Tell us shortly about your team mates.

Doekoe: Joepoe, a very good friend of mine. Hes a really smart player and I just cant imagine not having him on the team. He is the taxmaker and the ingame leader.

Mitox, our foreigner and clutch player. He keeps the team cool/calm and has great insight in enemys weaknesses. Hes also a very unique player.

tEkin, our daddy and ninja. Allways in a good mood and very important to us especcially on LAN.

qwertYYY, our crazy sniper. He comes up with the tricks and makes gaps in enemy defences. He is very good in offending, because hes so aggressive, so hes very important to the team.

Joepoe: Mitox3: Our private clutcher, when he´s in a 1v2 or 1v1 and the bomb is down, we know were gonna win that round. Also I think mitox3 is the most skilled SG in Europe atm but we cant put him on a full SG task since playing SG to much will get you bored like hell 😀
Tekin: One of our most stable players, allways keeps his spots down and we can pretty much give him half a map to cover. Great teamplayer and I think the best motivater in whole cod.
Qwerty: Individually our most skilled player, has great aim and is very smart ingame. The reason we gave him Sniper is because he is at his best when he can peak anywhere in the map. He´s not a camper, he´s a hunter. Creating wholes for us to breach defences.
Doekoe: Doekoe has incredible aim and teamplay, when im in a 2on5 with him I know we can pull it off by using teamplay. Also he´s still improving every day. It wouldn´t surprise me if he will become the best allround player in cod2.

What are your plans in the next six months?

Doekoe: Most important to me the upcoming months is school, but you arent interrested in that. We are attending wonderbase and eurocup finals, and I want to win them both. Cant say much about anything after that but I hope everybody still plays CoD2 and not another game ;).

Joepoe: In six months I want cod2 to have some huge events in europe (WVSG) and I want THIS team to be in the top3 of every bigg event we attend. Also ill be living
together with my girl by then (hopefully). 

What do you think about CoD4?

Doekoe: Im not so interrested in CoD4. hope everybody keeps playing cod2. I`ve just played cod2 for 1 year so Activision, let me play it a little longer please!

Joepoe: Well look at it when it comes out with a decent pro-mod (like PAM or so). Plus I don´t know if every1 in my team will keep playing new games as they come out.

Any shoutouts?

Doekoe&Joepoe: shoutout to Noodl, Frank, Bartiebil, Nala, Xandra, tEkin, qwertYYY, ketjes met zijn tetjes, all the nice people from OOF2 😉 also shoutout to the H2k management, Qpad, Thermaltake, CDR winkel, Bouncer 4 You, Sennheiser etc. And thank you Serge for doing this Interview.