It would be hardly suitable to say that the recent
GameReplays.org 2v2 Tournament was exciting or that the winner was unexpected. At the end, with the strange events that expired and with such an unknown team holding the golden title, many players had questions. The champions of the tournament, Team Fruit, spoke with
GameReplays.org about the tournament and their team.
Below follows the transcript of the interview.
GameReplays: So you two are now officially the best
Company of Heroes 2v2 Team in the world...or at least on
GameReplays for that matter. How does it feel?
FruitApple: Well, first of all i want to thank the whole
GameReplays tournament team, the vid/shoutcasters and community in general, but to answer the question, well, that’s a good question. I would say it was really unexpected, not just for us, but especially for the community; we were a rather unknown team, no one expectated us to win, but it feels good to win against such a great teams.
rainbowsix007: First of all, the tournament was a great competition, and it was a lot of fun. I never thought that we would win. I’m happy now that it's over, and we are going out as the winners. The final was a great game which was played very well by everyone. It's an honor that we are supposed to be the "best team." Hopefully there will be more interesting competitions in the future.
GameReplays: Did you cry when you won?
rainbowsix007: Well, I did not cry, but I wrote "GEILGEILGEILGEILGEIL" to Apple right after the final match. I was just happy, partly because of the money.
FruitApple: lol?
GameReplays: lol is your answer? Nice.
FruitApple: Hahaha. No, I didn’t cry about the win, but I was happy about the last game, which was really great.
GameReplays: When you kicked out the
Reborn team in round 2, as well as the other big teams later on, the question popped up, “Who are those guys?” To be honest, this question remains, so why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?
rainbowsix007: Well, I'm 19 years old. I took my Abitur exam this year. In 2 weeks I’ll start my civil service in an hospital.
FruitApple: I'm 20 years old, finished my school this year, like rainbow, and I'm living in the great city of Cologne. I'm going to hopefully start to study biology this year.
GameReplays: Cool. When did you start playing
Company of Heroes?
rainbowsix007: I think I was 16 when I bought
Company of Heroes. I installed it, but I didn't know how to have fun playing it; I always lost. Then I think at 17 I started to play
Company of Heroes again, and I had more and more fun playing it. Now it’s absolutely my favorite PC game.
FruitApple: Well, my first experience with
Company of Heroes was around the release date. At the first time I played just over hamachi with a great community (dont know how many members, but I'd bet 60+). Out of this old community the “clan” Fruit rose. It only consists of old hamachi community members.
GameReplays: Sounds interesting. What’s the highest level you achieved in a
CoH ranked game?
FruitApple: Hmm, in 1v1 I got level 9, in 2v2 13 or 14, and 2v2 AT 14.
rainbowsix007: In 2v2 I got level 20 in all factions, in 2v2 AT level 20 as allies. I'm level 12 at the moment with Apple as axis.
GameReplays: When you signed up to participate in the tournament did you truly think you would win?
FruitApple: I knew a lot of the teams, and I looked forward to a few nice matches, but from our 2v2 experience I knew we would be able to win a few rounds. To be honest, our team was put together about 30 minutes before the tournament began; fruitstrawberry was unable to compete because he was on vacation. However, I knew that with rainbowsix007 I had a good chance of winning.
GameReplays: I know rainbow was a last minute replacement. So did you train at all?
rainbowsix007: Well, at first I thought that I would be in the tournament with someone else, but we did some things wrong in the sign up. So no, I didn't really train with Apple for the tournament, but we did many games together.
FruitApple: You can take a look at your axis replay pack; that has a few of our matches in the 10 days before the tournament started.
GameReplays: Apple: Did you get mad at strawberry when he jumped off the boat so short before the kick off?
FruitApple: No, not really; he warned me a few days before. Besides, how can I be mad at some tasty fruit?
GameReplays: Hehe yeah that’s right. How well do you know rainbow? RL or just internet?
FruitApple: Just over internet.
GameReplays: Ok, back to the tournament. We know you don't use voice communication. There even were comments like, "There's no way they gonna beat Sdkfz with just in game chat." The simple question: Why not?
FruitApple: Hmm... In my opinion, voice chat is overrated. We handled well without voice in the past, plus, it makes it more fun.
rainbowsix007: I was never a friend of voice programs, and I never did it with anyone. Just as Apple said, it works quite well not using voice chat. To be honest, I only use TS in FPS.
FruitApple: Plus rainbow has a voice like Mickey Mouse. I would laugh more than play!
Rainbow: lol sure, stfu.
GameReplays: What was your toughest fight in this tournament? Which one was the most exciting game?
FruitApple: The final was the toughest fight in this tournament because, after the first match (we were axis), i knew we needed to change something in the third game. The most exciting game was the semi-final on Duclair; it was a new experience because we never played on that map before.
rainbowsix007: I think the most exciting game was the final. We knew that Ra11/scrooge were a well known team with very good players (look at their stats!). Since we lost the first game, we were even more excited. I agree with Apple that we feared the matches on Duclair because we didn’t know the map.
GameReplays: You didn’t train on Duclair at all?
rainbowsix007: We played twice as allies against CPU normal and CPU hard. As axis we didn't play it.
FruitApple: Not against humans; we did a little basic 1 hour match before the semi began against the CPU, mostly to talk about some important map points
rainbowsix007: It's a great map.
GameReplays: I fully agree.
GameReplays: Does your team have a “leader” who calls the game moves?
FruitApple: Nope, we are even. When one has an idea, we try it out! Mostly we agree; that’s what makes a good team I suppose.
GameReplays: Teching and doctrines are decided by each other by themselves?
FruitApple: Yep
rainbowsix007: But sometimes we also ask what we should do/choose/tech etc. So we do compromises.
FruitApple: A "roter faden" is how we say it in German.
GameReplays: Do you have a set strategy you use all the time? Or do you decide that on the fly?
FruitApple: On the fly.
rainbowsix007: We do have a basic strategy of course; one will go t2, the other t3 etc. However, the games themselves are often quite different
FruitApple: Yeah, that's true. The advantage of on the fly decisions is that you are more flexible and able to react to your opponent's moves.
GameReplays: In the tourney, in the last game for example, you used a very powerful support vet + vetted Pumas strategy. You used that several times. Wouldn't that be your "basic strat" so to speak?
FruitApple: Yes because we didn’t have an exact build order
rainbowsix007: And of course the nebelwerfers were very important to a successful game.
FruitApple: We knew what our goals were, so it was okay that our build order varied from game to game.
GameReplays: Haha we'll get that analyzed by our strategy section.
GameReplays: How many games do you play per week?
Both: About 4 games per day (each). It varies a lot
GameReplays: What are your favorite Doctrines/Regiments/Command Trees when playing 2v2?
FruitApple: As axis, Terror and Defensive, or double Terror
rainbowsix007: As allies, myself as Royal Artillery and Apple as Infantry.
GameReplays: What’s your favorite 2v2 map
rainbowsix007: Rails and metal, hands down.
FruitApple: Hard to tell, I would go with Rails and Metal as well. Each map has its good and bad qualities.
GameReplays: What is the one unit you never, or almost never, use?
rainbowsix007: VOLKS
FruitApple: WM Officer
GameReplays: No Volksgrenadiers? That's interesting!
FruitApple: No, Volks are important. Bring them with a halftrack to the front to reinforce Paks and Mortars; it’s cheaper than Pioneers!
GameReplays: In your opinions, what are the most OP and most UP units?
FruitApple: Kangaroo because of the price. I don’t know what the most underpowered is, but halftracks are the most underused.
rainbowsix007: UP: marder, OP: Commandos
GameReplays: Do you have any comments about balance for us?
rainbowsix007: Since patch 2.6 the game has been quite balanced. I think it is harder as axis to win sometimes. I like the game now balance wise
GameReplays: Any words for aspiring
Company of Heroes players? Or any other final words you would like to say?
rainbowsix007: Find a team mate you like and play AT with him. You will have the most fun you can get. Play random just when you don't have an AT partner. It's the secret recipe to fun and success, and you get better and better.
FruitApple: Think different! Try different approaches and don’t fight at the predetermined places.
FruitApple: Thanks a lot for the great tournament, I'm looking forward to further tournaments.
rainbowsix007: I want to thank the people in charge for such a great organized tournament and all of the involved players for so many great games. Thank you all. It was a lot of fun.
GameReplays: Will you be willing to defend your title in subsequent 2v2 tournaments for?
rainbowsix007: Hehe.
Both: Of course.
rainbowsix007: Yeah, we're waiting for it!
GameReplays: Ok guys, thank you for the interview. We wish you good luck and have fun with your gaming and real life careers.
FruitApple: thanks thanks thanks =)
FruitApple: u 2
FruitApple: thanks for the interview
rainbowsix007: Yea thank you for such a great interview
FruitApple: thanks to the community
FruitApple: thanks to the gr staff
So there you have it. Some of the most experienced teams in
Company of Heroes were defeated by an ad-hoc team using no voice communication. It is impressive indeed, to say the least. Well, hopefully we'll see Team Fruit around again to defend their title in the next
Here are a couple pictures as well! FruitApple is up first:
And RainbowSix sent in a picture as well:
GameReplays.org 2v2 Tournament, but first is the 1v1 Tournament planned for this fall.
