[Silentrare]

Hey MLG Forum-goers and welcome back to the twentieth edition of the Community Member Spotlight! This Spotlight in particular I'm proud of because it's for someone who has done so much for the MLG Forum Community. Matt "BLiTZ" Siegfried has been a valuable asset to the Call of Duty community and has been helpful to many other forum goers throughout the site. Recently, BLiTZ left being a Moderator and Referee for Major League Gaming to work for Pandemic. (Not the Studio, the Gaming Organization.) Currently we're both planning on wrecking up the Doubles Ladder for Borderlands on GameBattles and BLiTZ is still currently an avid World of Warcraft player!

Now, like usual BLiTZ hand picked his favorite Community Questions that you guys all submitted and I believe his favorite picks of 2009 and All-Time during the Speed Round will turn some heads and make some jaws drop.

So, without further ado, I give you............................................... ......BLiTZ

Credits

• Founder and Host- Silentrare
• Graphic Designers- -InDi- and DiZaN
• Former Gears of War Spotlights + Links-Phoenix-Skyllus-Fritzley-Rain x-Johnnny-CR0553D-FRAGrant
• Former Call of Duty Spotlights + Links-Aceolus- Perfect1on Owns- DiZaN- CollinGriff -BeeFy Eh- FeaR Moho-
  Cally-cLutch Eh-XpL Exi1e-Splatskiii-FeaR Pacman-Hastro nV
• Silent's Shoutout- I want to give a quick shoutout to HaloSamurai for passing his interview to become a Mini Games Admin on GameBattles, nice job Samurai!

BLiTZ's Basic Info

Player Name: BLiTZ
Real Name: Matt Siegfried
Birth Date: September 15, 1990
Hometown: Woodland Hills (by Los Angeles), CA
Current Team: F/A for MW2 GB kind of. I play under Pandemic for 1v1 tournaments.
Number of Events Attended: 8 MLGs but have been a spectator at stuff like Evo (MLG of fighting games) and Blizzcon (I’d say the MLG of WoW, but MLG’s WoW tourneys are the best by far)
Best Placing: Top 48 I think at Anaheim 06 for Smash. Best Gamebattles placing would be 1st in Borderlands but for MW2, 3rd in 1v1 Handguns, and 3rd in 1v1 SMGs.
Favorite Gametype/Map: CTF on Highrise

Favorite Class Setup:
Primary Weapon - M4 Holo (practicing ACR Holo)
Side Arm - P2000 or M9
Special Grenade - Stun
Perk 1 - Scavenger
Perk 2 - Stopping Power
Perk 3 - Ninja
DeathStreak- Painkiller for non-MLG :P
Killstreak- UAV/Predator Missle/Harrier usually, I play it safe!

Favorite Weapon: I really like the M4 honestly.
Headset: A40s with the MLG tags
Controller Settings: Default for all, no vibe
Other Exciting Games You Enjoy: Currently World of Warcraft, Borderlands, Rogue Warrior, Alien Breed recently. Waiting for Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce, Bioshock 2, Bad Company 2, Final Fantasy 13, and Lead and Gold
Hobbies: Obviously gaming is a huge part of my life, but I love TV/movies with friends, traveling, posting on Twitter and talking on AIM, and just chilling with friends somewhere talking about whatever
Favorite Gaming Memory: CoD4 with my team (and now good friends) Blackwater back in the day probably. Seeing the “Which top team do you respect the most?” thread on GB and having people say us, being first page and getting literally hundreds of IMs per week from strangers, the rush of 2-0’ing top teams like Ei o ExiLe’s (of MoB Gaming, #2 Gamestop ladder), and just having the best times I’ve ever had with online gaming <3

[Silentrare]

Spotlight Questions

Silentrare: So BLiTZ, how did you become involved with MLG and where does your gamertag come from?

BLiTZ: Well I got Xbox Live for Halo 2 for Christmas in 2004 and fell in love with it. Before then I had only really played 1v1s against my dad, who plays more Halo than I do these days, currently working on getting his 35 back in Lone Wolves! After about a week or two, I ended up in some customs with MLG in the name. I asked what this was and remembered hearing about this for Halo 1, which I never followed competitively really except watching a few Youtube videos of TDT. I signed up for the MLG forums under Noodle1126 that January and have been here ever since.

I originally chose Noodle from Halo 1, since it was one of the default names you were assigned, and I really liked the name. When MLG offered name changes, I felt like I should get something a little less ‘silly’ as I grew up a bit. My original WoW character still holds the name, though. It was kind of a combination of things that inspired the change. I used to blitz the hell out of my dad in Madden; it was actually the only thing I could really do well in that game. At a similar time, I loved playing Blitzball in Final Fantasy 10, and when I was going to choose a new name, I thought it encompassed a lot of things. It also of course means to attack suddenly, raining down bombs on people and whatnot, which I suppose describes my style in shooters.

Silentrare: You recently left being a Moderator and Referee for Major League Gaming to work for Pandemic. What persuaded you to come to this decision?

BLiTZ: Ever since I started following competitive video games, it was my dream to be with the best of the best. These PC teams that have been around since ’99-’04 always have multiple teams dominating multiple genres of games. Since I’m a World of Wwarcraft player, Pandemic was specifically one that interested me because they were the #1 team hands down back in day, while maintaining top teams in other games. Their President approached me through Twitter and after debating a while; I knew I couldn’t turn down this chance. Staying with MLG created a conflict since it’s a team that has competed at MLG and plans to in the future, so for now I’m taking some time off staff to be part of one of the best teams in history.

Silentrare: So, how's it been with Pandemic so far then?

BLiTZ: It's been great. We've tossed a lot of ideas around, talked to a lot of people, and hopefully soon we'll get the ball rolling on everything!

It was a choice that was very hard, since working for MLG was something I loved every minute of. Still, I knew that it was better to take this opportunity right now and return to MLG in the future than to miss out on this and wonder what it would’ve been like. It’s awesome how much respect I get from random strangers just from the Pandemic name next to me. People with a Counter-Strike or WoW background immediately strike up a conversation about it asking if it’s the same Pandemic from back in the day, and they’re always really cool guys. It’s a great conversation starter online and in pre-game lobbies.

Silentrare: So what do you plan on doing while working for Pandemic over the next few months?

BLiTZ: Well really I’m here to help give some insight on the console world. The guys there really have their expertise in the PC world, and although everyone has quite a bit of general console knowledge, their talents are much better spent focusing on the PC side of things. Pandemic’s really looking for a big change in this upcoming year; there’s a ton of HUGE new ideas being put into action that I can’t really talk too much about yet. While we brainstorm and start talking to people and putting work in on ideas, I rep the Pandemic name in various online games. Since changing my gamertag to include Pandemic, I climbed to the top of all six worldwide leaderboards for Rogue Warrior, ten #1’s in Alien Breed dominating single player and co-op leaderboards, which gained me recognition from their lead programmer, and of course taking 1st in the Borderlands 1v1 and 3rd in the MW2 Handgun 1v1.

I don’t want to give too much away with what we’re working on, but once everything underway, it’s going to be an incredible resource for both PC and console gamers of hardcore and casual nature. 2010 is bringing new sponsors, a new look, and a new attitude from the legendary PC squad. Console gamers will love what’s to come! You can follow the team on Twitter: @TeamPandemic, and of course you should be following me on my quest to 10,000 followers!

Silentrare: Can you give us a time period when we can see Pandemic make this announcement?

BLiTZ: There's no specific release right now we're aiming for. We want to make sure everything is ready for the website overhaul and all the new projects we have planned.

Silentrare: Alright then, can't wait to hear this announcement! So when you were a Referee for MLG, what game(s) did you normally ref during events and talk about a typical event day while reffing.

BLiTZ: Well I was a ref for Halo 3 for every event except the Saturday of Anaheim, when CoD4 was taking place. A typical day would be waking up way too early and grabbing a quick breakfast with the mod squad. We always tried to do ‘moderator breakfasts’ and whatnot, but it usually consisted of five of us stumbling around to the nearest food place to grab a croissant and some orange juice. After we woke up a bit we’d start doing stuff in the venue, helping out with any random tasks needed, like assembling the staff/pro/VIP/etc. passes for everyone to get. We patrol around the warm-ups to make sure everything is going smoothly, and then once the matches start we’re pretty much busy for the rest of the day.

There’s a lot of work to do and a ton of matches to ref in a day, but we get enough time between our series’ to hang out and talk to each other or run to a rushed meal. Since there’s so many moderators and other non-mod refs who have been around a while, everyone is always friendly. It’s great because when I try to explain to non-gamers what I do, it boils down to taking a weekend to go travel and spend time with hundreds of friends, from staff to players to spectators. It’s an incredible experience and if you’re willing to put in the hard work during the day, it’s one of the best jobs you could ask for.

Silentrare: I definitely want to be a referee for MLG once I turn 18. ( Three years is a long ways away.) Is it pretty easy becoming a referee for MLG?

BLiTZ: You basically just have to work extremely hard when you get a chance. Sometimes ref start out at the registration desk or doing something like that. Whatever opportunity you get, you just have to prove that you're a hard worker and that you'd make a good member of the team.

Silentrare: Do you want to talk about the Call of Duty 4 Finals at Anaheim? We all saw you on the Main Stage during the Live Stream! How'd it feel to be a referee for the Finals? Also, what Call of Duty 4 match was the most exciting to ref/watch at Anaheim?

BLiTZ: Oh man, Anaheim was awesome. None of us knew who was being picked for Vegas or CoD4, so I kind of just showed up expecting to ref Halo as usual. When we got our assignments, I saw that I’d be doing Call of Duty with Joel (Tiiitan) and my main man Fwiz. Even better, I found out that I’d be on main stage for the finals match! I was pumped. I texted a bunch of people from the forum like Beefy and told them to look out for me on the stream Saturday night. The fact that it was my first time being on main stage AND I was doing CoD with two incredible teams just made it the best night of reffing I’ve ever had.

It was pretty tough to pay attention during the finals because I was pretty nervous about getting all the matches going quick as to not delay the stream for the viewers at home. The whole series kind of blurred by me in an instant, so I kind of missed a lot of the good games I think. The earlier series’ were all absolutely incredible, though. LT vs nK was really exciting and of course the classic FeaR vs EnVy. Seeing and talking to all these players for the first time was pretty cool, since I used to play against some of them like BigTymer pretty frequently back on Gamebattles. The whole day was just incredible, since I really lost my passion for Halo 3 quite a while ago. Its fun to watch, but I can’t get into it like I can with CoD4.

[Silentrare]

(Spotlight Questions Continued.............)

Silentrare: Recently you won the first 1v1 GameBattles Online Tournament for Borderlands! How about you break down the Finals match and discuss how arena works in Borderlands for the people who may not play the game.

BLiTZ: You know, it was a pretty funny situation for the tournament. A bunch of top players on the ladder was boasting on the forums about how they’d enter a tournament if there was one because it would be ‘such easy money.’ As soon as I signed up, everyone currently signed up for the tournament backed out, and all the people saying how easy it would be were nowhere to be found. In the end, I had to convince friends of mine just to fill up the spots in the tournament. In short, I’m calling out the Borderlands community. You guys claimed you would win a tournament with ease, so where were all you when money was on the line?

The game’s pretty fun overall, though not the most competitive games out there obviously. It’s basically a quick 1v1 or 2v2 deathmatch in a closed in arena with a few hallways. It’s very dominated by the Siren and Hunter classes. I prefer the Siren myself, because of the mobility and freedom you get with the special ability you have. I don’t see the community picking up any steam after the tournament, but maybe I’ll try out the 1v1 ladder if people are active in the beginning of the new season. And of course you and I will be trying out a 2v2 team together once you level up!

Silentrare: Yeah I can't wait to destroy some newbies! Moving onto some PC Gaming Discussion, from the forums and constant discussion with you, you're very knowledgeable with competitive World of Warcraft. (See Expand Your Knowledge -MLG World of Warcraft by BLiTZ) With Orlando right around the corner, which of the four teams (Check Six, SK/EG, Complexity and Button Bashers) do you believe has the best chance at winning the Finals in Orlando?

BLiTZ: You know, even at an event with only four teams, it’s really tough to predict a winner. SK/EG has a four man roster with a few possibilities to switch up, but I think the top two will end up being Check 6 vs. Button Bashers. Button Bashers (the best Korean team, for anyone who doesn’t know) dominated MLG Anaheim and pretty much showed the world that they had more skill than anyone out there. However, Check 6 will be coming out with a new strategy to answer them, I hear They’re my pick.

Silentrare: I'm sure you're going to purchase the Online Spectator Pass for the WoW Stream right?

BLiTZ: This will be my first MLG spectating online in quite a while, so I'm excited to see the stream in action. Since I heard about the rewind feature, I'm sold on getting the HD stream. Can't wait to see these matches!

Silentrare: One last PC question, earlier this week back and forth debates went on about Starcraft 2 being on the Pro Circuit next year. What's your take on this? Do you believe Starcraft 2 has an actual chance at being on the Pro Circuit? Or will KeSPA (Korean e-Sports Starcraft Player Association) control the main audience for SC2?

BLiTZ: You know, it’s always a tough thing to predict what games are going to be for MLG. I think there’s a lot more variables than most people consider. I don’t claim to be an expert on the Starcraft scene, but I did bring up some points in the discussion thread about why the game may not hit the circuit. Starcraft is arguably the greatest competitive game of all time, across all genres, so it would certainly be worthy. I’m just not sure if the American scene is strong enough to stand on its own and sustain the type of audience MLG needs. I hope we will see Starcraft along with games like Quake and Counter-Strike at events in the future! The depth that the top players have taken those three games to is incredible.

Silentrare: Well, 2009 is at an end. What was your 2009 Game of Year and why?

BLiTZ: I’ve played a lot of great games this year, but without a doubt it would have to be Borderlands for me. Not just for the gameplay and the 4 player coop experience, but for showing that FPS-RPGs can be amazing, but still have a LOT of room to grow into. For arcade, without a doubt Battlefield 1943. I have around 70 hours logged, all of which were amazingly fun (unlike MW2 pubs ), and I’m still working on finishing up that last rank up. There have been some other great titles I haven’t gotten to yet, though, like Dragon Age.

I really think 2010 is going to be an exciting year for games. There’s a period of five weeks where EIGHT games are releasing. It’s going to be an extremely busy February and March for me, as I try to play them all seriously for some degree of time. Bad Company 2 will be my priority based on what I played in the PS3 beta, and of course I’ll be enjoying things like Bioshock 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, and other non-competitive games like Final Fantasy 13. All in all with the new WoW expansion, Halo, and Treyarch CoD coming at the end of the year, I’m expecting to be playing quite a few games!

Silentrare: I'm not gonna lie, Borderlands was my Game of the Year also, I have to thank you for telling me what a great game it was. Can't wait to wreck up some 2v2's during the new season on GameBattles!

BLiTZ Should be fun man! I already got started on my 1v1 team last night and I'm itching to get some 2v2 in!

Community Questions

Silentrare: Okay time for the Community Questions that BLiTZ picked! Hope you all like what chose!

Punk Aint Dead asks, "Would you rather play WoW for 10 years straight or play Call of duty for 10 years straight?"

BLiTZ: Interesting question. I’d have to go with WoW considering I’ve already almost approached the five year mark. It’s a game that will always have multiple fun things to do in it, whereas CoD may come out with some bad sequels *cough* and I may not put as much time into them. At this point I’ve put in so much time into WoW and I’ve loved every minute of it, so I could legitimately see myself playing off and on (which I have been for a most of it past 2006, especially during the Halo 2/Halo3/CoD4 days) until 2015 or so. The new expansions every two years always give tons of new stuff to do, and I have friends from school that play daily. My pick goes to WoW, though I think it’s likely I’ll still be playing both of these games after 10 years.

CallyxSA asks, "How do you maintain your college work, WoW playing, Pandemic stuff, being bad at Call of duty and being such a cutie all the time?

BLiTZ: Honestly I have to say that being such a cutie really takes most of my time and effort during the day, and being bad at CoD just comes so naturally to me! But seriously, it’s not easy.

There’s so many things I split my time on every day: going to class, doing homework, hanging out with friends, playing WoW, practicing competitive games, getting some 360 achievements (I’m around 42k now I think. It’s nothing compared to the true achievement hunters, but considering it’s probably my fourth priority past leaderboards, competitive gaming, and WoW achievements…I think I’m doing alright), keeping up with my tv shows, forum posting, and all this other stuff. I have no idea how I hold it together so well right now, but I will say it’s extremely tough balancing it all with school. Right now I’m looking into taking an intensive summer quarter abroad to get a bunch of classes done in a 4 week session and then taking my fall quarter off. I think it would free up some time for me while still getting my classes done and having a great summer!

Splatskiii asks, "Do you see yourself being seriously involved in gaming (as a staff member for a gaming company, among other possibilities)?

BLiTZ: Absolutely. Though I don’t exactly have one specific position in mind, I don’t see myself being happy with a full time career completely unrelated to gaming. Some interesting careers would be a full time spot doing something in the MLG offices or being a producer for a great title. The reason I say producer is that after telling CoD4’s producer a little bit about my interests, he thought it would be a good fit for me. He says that you have quite a bit of sway over major game decisions, which I would definitely want. I’m not sure what the future holds exactly, but I’m pretty sure it will be video game related at this point. I also plan on staying in the competitive scene via forums and playing. I’ll obviously have less time to play once I’m older and real life kicks in more, but I hope I can keep playing games seriously on the side.

[Silentrare]

TeeJay CTF asks, " What has convinced/lured you into competitive gaming and what has made you want to stay?

BLiTZ: The first game I really wanted to be better than everyone around me at was Perfect Dark for N64. I played that for hours on end with my Dad, practicing 1v1 and 4v4s with bots. I remember it distinctly being the first time I really wanted to play to improve my game, not just simply to mess around and have some fun. Halo 2 on Xbox Live was really what introduced me to the whole competitive gaming scene, although I had a vague awareness of Counter-Strike, Quake, and games like that being played on PC competitively.

Halo 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and WoW in 10v10 CTF were probably the three things that really started on me competitive gaming. Since then I’ve expanded my gaming interests quite a bit, and I try to play every promising new shooter that comes out. Most of them don’t have massive competitive communities, but I feel like learning to adapt to different mechanics of shooters really helps me as an overall gamer. I usually have main games I focus on, but I try to try as many different styles of games as I can. Racing and sports games are pretty much the big two exceptions, because I simply cannot get myself to enjoy those games. With the exception of Diddy Kong Racing and some Madden 03 and NHL Hitz 03, I usually leave those two genres alone.

I play a lot of stuff ‘competitively’ on the side that people probably don’t know about, such as being the first to finish games and achievement leaderboards, and of course in game score leaderboards as most people know. I compiled a pretty comprehensive list of some of the stuff, only the top 50’s. Somewhere I have some massive list of top 150’s and 200’s, but that was a long time ago :P You can that out by clicking here!

SideShoTz asks, "What's your favorite Pokemon?"

BLiTZ: I couldn’t decide between Squirtle and Pidgey, so I put it to a vote on twitter. It was heated going 1-1, 2-2, and 3-3, but then finally Squirtle got a crushing 7 votes in a row to take it. My favorite pokemon is now Squirtle!

Speed Round

Silentrare: Okay time for the Speed Round you ready!

BLiTZ: Lets go!

Silentrare: Favorite MLG Event in 2009?

BLiTZ: Columbus. First as staff!

Silentrare: Favorite MLG Event through 2004-2009?

BLiTZ: E For All 07, the first MLG Halo 3 event. Only because I LAN’d Shadowrun with Walshy, Ogre 2, Lunchbox, and Roy

Silentrare: Favorite Puckett Quote of 2009?

BLiTZBeing at events I don’t really hear good Puckett quotes, sadly. Sneaky beaver is the best of all time though

Silentrare: Favorite Matchup of 2009?

BLiTZ: FeaR vs EnVy Us, it’s just classic.

Silentrare: Favorite Xbox Live Arcade Game of 2009?

BLiTZ: Battlefield 1943 – easy!

Silentrare: Best Downloadable Content or Expansion Pack of 2009?

BLiTZ: Hmm, I guess Borderlands. Haven’t really played any good expansions lately.

Silentrare: Best Video Game Campaign of 2009?

BLiTZ: I feel bad saying Borderlands again, since the story/ending weren’t anything special, so I’ll go with Operation Flashpoint. That game is surprisingly fun.

Silentrare: Best Multiplayer Game of 2009?

BLiTZ Battlefield 1943 probably. Most underrated multiplayer game of 2009 would go to Call of Juarez 2, though. I’m sad that more people didn’t play it, because it really has some fun gametypes.

Silentrare: Best In-Game Soundtrack of 2009?

BLiTZ: Maybe ODST? None have really blown me away in a while, sadly.

Silentrare: Most Competitive PC Game of All-Time?

BLiTZ: Starcraft, with Counter-Strike and Quake not terribly far behind

Silentrare: Most Competitive Console Shooter of All-Time?

BLiTZ: Shadowrun definitely, with Halo: Combat Evolved second.

Silentare: Alrighty then, want to give some shoutouts before I sign you off?

BLiTZ: Shoutout to all my fans who have kept me going over the years. It’s crazy for me to think that there’s so many people out there that really care. Of course I gotta thank Pandemic for their interest in me, all of the friends I’ve met while gaming online and at events, everyone that I’ve teamed with or played against, and of course the core MLG CoD4 community that I enjoyed moderating for so long ; )

Closing Comments

Alright well that concludes the first Community Member Spotlight of 2010! Now, the next Spotlight won't be out for quite awhile now, however, I'm going to keep this closing short and sweet. Thanks for all the feedback and support to the Spotlight and I hope you all enjoy the end of the holidays!

Oh yeah and a few weeks back some of you kept asking about my AIM Status and why I was so excited and I refused to tell. I thought I'd break it to you now.

Chris Puckett will be on the next Community Member Spotlight.

[BLiTZ]

Thanks again Silent for the opportunity; I really enjoyed doing this interview and I hope everyone enjoys reading it!



If anyone has any other questions that I didn’t get to, feel free to ask me in this thread or on AIM!

[B3efy]

i<3blitz

[Aceolus]

Pretty interesting stuff right here. Good job on the CMS Silentrare and BLiTZ. I enjoyed the read.

[HaloSamurai]

Thanks for the shoutout Silent

[NineTwoSix]

I <3 BLiTZy

[Sm0othAsEggs]

BLiTZ is a boss, good read. Hope to see you again soon buddy.