Catchup with Phantasy

Mark 'Phantasy' Pinney is currently the scope for the Team Dignitas Call of Duty 4 Squad. They recently reformed this year and have been playing well, getting good results in online cups. Having represented Team Dignitas before Phantasy is back with new enthusiasm for the game.

We've caught up with Phantasy and asked him about the team aswell as his thoughts on what the future will bring.

How was 2011 for you?

Phantasy: 2011 for me was an up and down year, full of many achievements in some aspects but also lacking them in others. I hung up my mouse and keyboard at the end of summer 2010 when I began my adventure to university, although I wouldn't be away from games completely as that would be impossible due to studying a games design course.

This lasted until the beginning of summer 2011 where I realised I would be free from stress and deadlines for at least a good three to four months although throughout my away period I still occasionally checked TEK9 to keep up with the scene's news, it felt right that I should make somewhat of a "comeback" to the game for the summer LANs as this was always the most exciting time for CoD4.

Talk began between me and my old Dignitas team mate reflexzR, we both wanted the same thing, to play as minimal as possible but attend multiple LANs where we would attempt to always aim for first place, below top 3 was not an option. Skipping forward we found team mate's in the form of Trigger, killzx, and mark. We did attend multiple LANs throughout the summer and always placed top 3 which was splendid, but at least one first place would have been great too.

The biggest achievement for myself was that of starting my YouTube channel and acquiring a Machinima partnership. It makes CoD4 worth playing again to be able to create video's which are watched by thousands along with being able to interact with so many people who watch them.

Of course now I'm back in Dignitas with some great team mates, our online performances have been quite spot on, the latter cannot be said for our latest LAN performance though, I hope going into 2012 this changes.

What do you look forward to in 2012?

Phantasy: Improving our LAN performances and growing strength to strength along with trying to win as many online leagues and cups as possible until the summer comes around again. Our training over the last few months has been quite minimal due to different reasons, be that motivation or just real life taking priority which was mostly due to myself, of course that's if the game lasts that long as we're all aware of the very slow decline in the games activity.

Who knows, this time next year we could all be playing a different game but for now our main focus is improving our team work.

How can you switch between scope and SMG and play as well with it?

Phantasy: It's actually a really easy transition for me due to every single game I played as my main focus in the past (Medal Of Honor, CoD1, CoD2) I only ever really played rifle only, which means before CoD4's release I had probably racked up about five to six years of single shot weapon experience, I only actually started playing with a spray gun like the ak74u once I was forced onto it in my first serious team (Exabyte).

Even when I started CoD4 I planned to be a scope but because it was really bad back in PAM4 days I was content with the SMG and was stuck with it for the last 4 years. During that time I've insisted that one day I'll take the scope and play at the top level as I always indented, and now is that time. Luckily I'm also not in-experienced with playing the scope in CoD4 as nearly every single time I've mixed with friends, played in cups, basically anything but matches with my team I've used the scope.

It was really just a matter of taking everything I knew and using it in a more competitive environment, and so far it seems to be working quite well. I don't feel like I'm struggling to compete with the best scopes in the scene at all, maybe this is due to what most of them seem to call "my unusual play style" as I apparently use the scope different to everybody else. I'm extremely aggressive and use it as if I was still an SMG, just with a better gun.

Now that you have played with your new team for a few months do you feel you have gelled together?

Phantasy: As mentioned in a previous answer, I think we still has some team work issues to fix up before we can start winning anything substantial, our individual play is great as we're all very talented players with a lot of experience, although I don't personally believe that team play is everything in CoD4 I'm sure if we improved on it, we would probably see some better results, or so I hope.

With games like CS:GO and Tribes Ascend coming out could you see yourself switching games?

Phantasy: I've never been interested in CS, I've only ever played CSS a couple of times and didn't enjoy it too much, It's not really my type of game so I doubt I'll ever endeavour into CS:GO. On the other hand I have been playing Tribes Ascend a little bit since receiving a beta key and I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it, because I am definitely thoroughly enjoying it so far.

It can feel repetitive if you're playing by yourself in public but after playing with some of the guys in Team Dignitas such as r2k and Zaccubus I ended up playing for hours on end without feeling even the slightest boredom. I'm not sure how competitive the game will be in the future although I know it has been chosen for NASL for season 3 which is interesting.

I like the game because it's very skilled based in both movement and aim which is what I think are my best two traits in gaming, but it's not really in my plans to take that game too seriously right now, still focusing on promod.

Are there any shoutouts you would like to give?

Phantasy: I would like to thank our sponsors and fans for all of their support!

Be sure to follow me and Phantasy on twitter at @Nosferatoon and @phantasyftw and check out Phantasy's Youtube channel here.

You can view a fragmovie from i44 here: