Interview with Poppy (Episode 1)

Hello everyone!
I'm bringing you a whole new concept for the future. I will be doing weekly interviews with players / people involved in this game.

Today I have interviewed Poppy, also known as Verve. He is one of the oldest Warcraft Soccer players currently playing. In this episode he talked about his background and thoughts on the game.


- Greetings, Poppy. Obviously, everyone playing this game know who you are, but can you introduce yourself once again for the current and future community members?

- Hey, im Poppy. I've been playing Soccer within this community for longer than I recall, you can catch me ingame on the tag: Verve

- How did you find and start playing this game?

- I first found the game after seeing it being hosted publicly in Battle.net, the first version I recall playing was that of 1.21. After developing an interest from playing public games I joined Clan FC, a clan who organised higher-skilled games of Soccer, in which I began to improve. After being ejected from Clan FC for falling out with a number of shamans I managed to find an alternative community of higher leveled players, namely the german community which still exists today, once meeting these people the map became one of the only maps I really played.

- How did you come up with your current nickname "Verve"?

- The band named the Verve are fairly well known, yet very close to home for me. That and it's literal definition made it an easy choice after the name Poppy was taken after a long period of inactivity.

- What is it about this game that interests you the most?

- The versatility, as styles of play vary between each individual. These different styles make the game ever changing, as one particular strategy to win a game doesn't exist it allows a lot of differentiation in results. The challenge of adapting myself to be able to counter and beat different styles of play attracted me a great deal.

- What is your preferred position and which player in real football, describes your playstyle the best?

- My strongest position is playing defensively or in the midfield, i'm not quite sure about who describes my playstyle as it varies. I typically intend to breakdown the oppositions ability to play, controlling the game and creating freedom for teammates. I guess in that sense i'd love to be referred to as a Makalele type of player ^^

- How do you feel about the competition between players in this game? Is there a big difference in skill between some players?

- The difference in skill can be obvious in some games, be it a lack of performing the basics to being tactically aware and having a structured formation.
All of which are paramount to playing the game to a high standard, although the finer points of the game are hard to become accustomed to for newcomers and less experienced players they are increasing in quality every day. Although the skill gap is fairly large as it is, I hope to see an increase in the quality of games as time passes and players begin to develop.

Where do you rank yourself, by skill lvl, in this game? Top 10, Top 5, Top 3?

- I was never particularly good at ranking myself, but I like to believe im in the Top 10 players that currently exist

- If you could only share one type of advice to everyone who are trying to become better, what would it be?

- Tactics. Be observant, that will make you one hell of a better player. I spend more time focusing on the people i'm playing against than I do playing myself, even simply noticing trends in particular peoples playing styles mid-game can give you the upperhand when trying to control a game.

- Thank you for the interview, Poppy. Cheers!

- Thanks for the interview Sir Gado.

Nice interview. Hope to see some more

Great idea about the interview! Very interesting to read