[Interview]WorpeX

[FML|Mage]

So recently our good friend Ugrilainen started a history of PlayFFA that is a fantastic read.  Everyone can check out the latest chapter here.  This got me thinking about FML though.  While we've done some brief history before, we've never done anything in depth.  I'd like to correct that problem at some point, and the first step towards doing that was sitting down with our found, Worpex himself.  The below are the results of our conversation broken into two parts purely due to the fact that we wrote too much and FML won't let me post it in one go!

FML|Mage:Hey what's up everybody, this is Mage and today I have with me the one, the only, the Mr. Worpex  I know that it's been a while since we did an interview, and usually we do interviews with recent FFA winners, but I think everyone will enjoy this one.  We plan to delve into Worpex's background, as well as a little bit of FML history for those that are interested.  So, with all that said, why don't you say hello and tell us a little bit about yourself.
FML|Worpex: Hello all!! I'm Worpex.  I'm from the states where I do desktop and network support for a school district. I've been playing Warcraft 3 since the start of Frozen Throne and during that time I’m mostly known for running Leagues and Tournaments. I was also on the admin team for WCR for a few years and run a few league teams which were never really any good.
FML|Mage: I know that's where I first heard your name, you've certainly been around the community for quite a while and I believe we actually barely missed overlapping in clans a few times.  Besides the FFA Masters League, which was your favorite league to run and give us a brief description of it.
FML|Worpex: My favorite was The WC3 Olympics. It was a clan league which I developed a completely unique and new battle structure. In this structure, each team designated 1 of their 4 players as the "Champion". That player plays all 4 of their opposing clans players including their champion. There was a total of 7 1v1 matches in this and the winner was the team with the most points at the end.
FML|Worpex: It ended up being very successful and some starcraft 2 league still uses the format, although the name escapes me.
FML|Mage: I actually remember that well, it was a very cool mix of standard and NGL.  What led to the downfall of that league?  And were there any memorable teams that competed in it, either in terms of fame and prestige or personalities?
FML|Worpex: There were a lot of great teams that competed although I'm not going to name any because there were simply too many! At one point, it was in the top 3 international clan leagues in WC3. WCO ran for 3 seasons before we decided to close the league on a high note. One of the founders of the league, Holcan, decided to step away from the league and the rest of the team (Myself, BaronFel and Tosh'iki) felt we couldn't find an adequate replacement. Furthermore, the clan scene in wc3 was on a huge downward spiral at the time and clans were disbanding left and right.
FML|Worpex: With that said, at the time of it ending, fellow FML player, Delorex, was actually rank 9th out of 294 players which played in the league!
FML|Mage: That's pretty awesome actually.  Did any of the other current FML players participate in WCO that you can remember?
FML|Worpex: Yes, quite a few. Rebuke was rank #3 overall, so he also did well although he hasn't been active in FML for a few seasons. Other players were, Rain, Duck, F10EX and Mog!
FML|Mage: <3 Moggy.  What time period was WCO during?  I know it was a few years ago, but I suspect that people will be curious as to the exact time if you happen to remember.  Also, are there any remnants of it still such as the website or news coverage of it in case people are interested?
FML|Worpex: 2008 to 2010. The website has been down for years, sadly. There might be some sites with old articles left but I don't know where. :/
FML|Mage: Ah okay, well if anyone is interested after that let us know and we'll see what we can find out. 
FML|Worpex: Yeah I have rankings on my computer and some other useless information.
FML|Mage: Moving on though to what I suspect most people want to read though, why don't you give us a brief history of how FML got started and we'll get into more detail after that. 
FML|Worpex: FML got started in early 2006. I had just gotten kicked out of the admin team for TFL and I had wanted to start up a new league which would be unique and fun. At some point I realized that no one had ever done a FFA League and ran with the idea. I had no idea at the time that Clan Lone and FF4 had a huge scene with their own ideas about how FFA should be played. I had just wanted to do something new!
FML|Worpex: I named the league the Forsaken Melee League for its 1st season and it was met with immediate hatred. The solo scene hated it, the FFA scene didn't like the rules and few people thought the league would be successful. It turns out though, If there is anything more in the world which makes me work harder, its people telling me something won’t work. HA! I showed them! Here we are in 2014!
FML|Mage: You certainly did, all on your own and with no help from anyone!  Oh, wait.  That's not quite right.  Why don't you talk a little bit about the admin team that you started with.
FML|Worpex: Yeah, I wish I could say it was all on my own I definitely can't! Luckily, despite there being a lot of people who didn't think FML would work, there were also a lot of players interested in played in Season 1. Those were the people who got FML off the ground and through its first season. FrozenPrince and Lok-Ta-Ogar were the first 2 admins. Prince actually started the league with me and we bounced a lot of ideas off each other and later picked up Lok-ta to help out with match admining.
FML|Worpex: After the first season, FrozenPrince rage quit the league and we ended up picking up Renaud as a replacement. He was a perfect fit for the team! At the time he only did a lot of match-admin work but now he’s grown into our master of code and web administration. :D
FML|Mage: Yeah, I can honestly say I have no idea what we'd do without Renaud!  I know you mentioned that you had some issues with Season 1, would you care to go into what some of the problems were, and how you went about fixing them?
FML|Worpex: The major issues were with the rule book as well as our website. During the first season the league went through a major hacking attempt which almost prevented us from even making it to season 2! The rules were also flaky. There were a lot of loopholes in the rulebook at the time and the scoring for the matches was poor. It rewarded playing for second place instead of taking the win.
FML|Mage: Huh, both of those sound like bundles of fun.  How'd you fix them?  I presume the easy answer here would just be well we changed the rules and got a new site!  But something a little more detailed please
FML|Worpex: Well that’s pretty much how we fixed the vast majority of the issues. We had a lot of community input! I basically took season 1 as a learning experience for myself and started to actually learn what FFA actually is about in WC3 - since I honestly had no idea there was actually its own community for it when I started the league. Much of the rule book was rewritten for Season 2 including the addition of the now widely accepted and used 25-10-10-5 scoring system as well having the placement go by match score instead of when the players leave. Furthermore, we changed the league over to the FFA Masters League at the start of Season 2!
FML|Worpex: The Community and Clan Lone helped a lot during the time. Much of the changes were suggestions from them although I honestly don't remember specific names or else I’d give credit to them.
FML|Mage: Of course, of course.  Don't feel bad guys, you aren't important enough to be remembered XD!  So I know that Sky_Fierce won Season 1 thanks to our Hall of Fame, but I have no idea about how the season went.  Are any of the players from that season still playing?  And how would you rate the quality of play back then?
FML|Worpex: The season was mildly successful. Many of the players were from Clan FF4 since clan Lone didn't trust FML at the time and didn't like the rules. The play quality was definitely far lower then then it was now. Ugrilainen actually made a video of the Season 1 Final which can be found on YouTube here
FML|Worpex: I don't believe any of the Season 1 players are still active although I could be wrong. I know the final was with Nooblex, Sky_Fireice, Lok-ta-ogar and FrozenPrince.
FML|Worpex: Lok-ta came back recently although appears to have left again.
FML|Mage: Ah, I see how it is rigging the finals with admins ^-^. 
FML|Worpex: :D
FML|Worpex: Renaud didn't get 2 KoFFA titles by himself!
FML|Worpex: (jk)
FML|Mage: From here we have two trails I want to follow, and I'll let you pick how we go about them.  I'd like to cover the other seasons chronologically, and I'd like to cover the admins since I personally actually don't know the early history of either very well.  Which do you want to do first
FML|Worpex: Honestly, I’d rather cover the admins. Chronologically would make my brain hurt, after season 1 the seasons start to blur together. haha
FML|Worpex: a rough overview would be better, I can't remember exactly what happened in each individual season anymore
FML|Mage: Wrong answer!  We're going to pull teeth on this one, but we can do that later.  So you mentioned that Lok-ta-ogar rage quit after Season 1.  Who was the next admin to be hired, and when was it
FML|Worpex: FrozenPrince Rage quit!
FML|Worpex: and I mentioned Renaud was the next already
FML|Worpex: noob
FML|Worpex: :D
FML|Mage: Bah, you type a lot you can't expect me to read it all!  Oh, wait that's probably not a good thing to say during an interview =D
FML|Worpex: hahahaha
FML|Mage: Okay, so you had lok-ta-ogar and renaud as your co-admins.  How long did this team last?
FML|Worpex: Shit, there is an important admin here that I can't remember the name of. XD
FML|Mage: Haha, what a great leader folks!
FML|Worpex: OH I REMEMBER NOW
FML|Worpex: So the next admin to follow was FML-Rad
FML|Worpex: and he was pretty Rad. He was with the team for quite a long time actually! He took a lot of work off the plate of the rest of the team by actually showing up for matches (which I was notoriously bad at) and keeping the website updated. Lok-Ta left the admin team after season 3 I believe and then we hired another amazing admin in the name of..... UGRILAINEN!!
FML|Worpex: I believe the team stayed as Ugri, Rad, Renaud and Myself for a few seasons.
FML|Mage: Yeah, I think this is probably the team that most of the FML players are familiar with.  Rad actually made a reappearance not too long ago.  Oh, Spoiler, Rad leaves the team at some point!
FML|Worpex: This is around the time things start to get a little blurry for me. I don't remember when exactly people left and other admins came in. I ended up taking a break from FML to focus on other leagues, including WCO. Renaud became the Head Admin for season 6 I believe and then passed that off to CriticalBasterd for Season 7. KillinDay then was the head admin for Season 8!
FML|Mage: I suspect that this is something of a revelation for a lot of our newer players.  How did you feel about leaving FML, it was after all somewhat of our baby?  And obviously you're here now, how'd you end up coming back to it.
FML|Worpex: Well, I was a bit tired of FFA after season 5. I had begun to get more involved with the solo scene and wanted to try my hand at another solo league. I felt a bit bad about leaving, but I also never technically left. I stepped down from the head admin role but still did work for the league whenever they needed me. I knew the admin team which i was leaving behind was more then capable of running the league by themselves so I had no worry about them running it into the ground.
FML|Worpex: However, it did eventually run into the ground. The league never started back again after season 8. Killin had left the admin team as well as Ugri, SMRT and many other key members. This was also around the time that WCO became huge in popularity so I was busy with that. I don't believe S9 ever got started and FML just faded into the sunset......

[FML|Mage]

FML|Worpex: ....until about a year later a man named "JumpToad" sent me a message on MSN. He asked if he could run a new season of FML! I had no reason not to say no at this point. FML had been gone for quite some time and no one else wanted to run it.
FML|Worpex: However, it quickly came to my attention that "JumpToad" was actually the malicious player named "Nebu" who hacked FML many times in the past. His intent started out innocently enough.
FML|Worpex: However, things started to get crazy. He started to implement insane rules into league including a limit on towers and giving bonus points for using unusual hero combinations. Furthermore, he had started to build an incredibly shady Replay website, which was later found out that he was using to steal players passwords.
FML|Worpex: Eventually, he accidentally crashed the Official FML website and disappeared.
FML|Mage: Ah yes, every good story does need some drama.  How long had Nebu been around?
FML|Worpex: He was the man who hacked FML in season 1!
FML|Mage: And so the mystery is solved!  Had he played in FML after season 1?
FML|Worpex: Yeah, I think he did actually. He was pissed about not being accepted into the qualifers for Season 2 which is why he hacked the website in Season 1. :D
FML|Mage: I presume the qualifiers opened during Season 1?  Or is our mysterious hacker a time traveler as well?
FML|Worpex: yeah, like usual. The finals still hadn't been played yet
FML|Mage: Damn, time traveling is a much better story...
FML|Worpex: Fine, he is a time traveler!
FML|Mage: So I'm guessing that after Season 8 FML didn't just die.  Seeing as how we are currently in our 18th season, something must have happened to get it back on track.  Care to share?
FML|Worpex: Yes!
FML|Worpex: You can attribute that to Mr.Sparkle.
FML|Worpex: Season 9 wasn't even halfway through before Nebu called it quits so FML had been dead for about a year and a half.
FML|Worpex: WCO was also long since dead and I was bored one day, clicking around on the internet. My clicking led me to FFAReplays.com where Mr.Sparkle had just uploaded a lot of old FML replays
FML|Worpex: To my surprise, there was a lot of comments on this games from many people I remember and most of them mentioned how much they missed the league and the glory days of FFA!
FML|Worpex: So, to make a long story short, I revived FML and decided to start at Season 10 since I was convinced S9 was cursed and because S10 was a bigger number and sounded more impressive. :D
FML|Worpex: I sent a message on MSN to some key admins: Renaud and Ugri and both were interested. FML was back!
FML|Mage: This is actually right when I got into FML, since I had been out of the solo scene for a few months at this point.  How hard was it to get the league started back up from a logistics stand point.  After all your website must have expired/stopped working, and I suspect you may have lost contact with a lot of the people originally in FML
FML|Worpex: Actually, I was shocked at how easy it was! I had the contacts for only a handful of people but Ugrilainen has the contacts for practically everyone in the FFA scene. The website didn't take long to make as I had plenty of experience from the past. Everything came together perfectly and the timing couldn't have been better. Almost all of the Solo leagues had gone under when we brought FML back up so many of the solo players were itching for some games. S10 was a huge success!
FML|Mage: Season 10 also had what is probably one of the best FFA games ever, it continues to age well and you have no idea who's going to win until the last moment.  For those that haven't seen it you should definitely check it out!  Why don't you quickly run us through Season 10 in a bit of detail since it was the first season back, and then we'll go more quickly through the next ones
FML|Worpex: For me and I think most of the other players, S10 was a nostalgic season. We all just enjoyed having a place to play with old friends and have fun. The admin team made an announcement at the start of the season that we would not do a S11 if S10 wasn't a success or there was too much badmanner. We had almost no drama during S10. It was clean and it was fun!
FML|Worpex: I won't spoil the Finals, but it was likely the best finals we've ever had in FML. It was between 4 legendary players: htrt, Magadansky, DasElend and Humans7ar
FML|Mage: Yeah, I have nothing but fond memories of that season despite my abysmal performance in it!  Now if we talked in detail about every season we'd be here forever so let's just go over some of the highs and lows over the next seasons.  Try to keep it chronologically in order but I'll leave it to your discretion to decide what you consider important and what you don't.
FML|Worpex: FML has only been highs for me! :D
FML|Mage: Haha yeah, I'm sure.  So go ahead and discuss those highs then you noob.  And perhaps some challenges you've faced, such as decreasing time to run it as you got older, community issues, and how you keep players interested 10 years after the game came out in what is admittedly a pretty niche game type at the best of times.
FML|Worpex: Well, I'll start with the lows as that’s easy. Most of it has just been drama which has happened over the years: Some hacking allegations, pre-teaming attempts, blatant suicides, feeding and seeing friends leave the FFA scene!
FML|Worpex: The highs were joking around the shoutbox, watching some great games live, Ugri having twins, Mage's amazing shoutcasts, reading these really long interviews, playing in rediculous game types which Persuade invented and building/testing/playing with new maps!
FML|Worpex: Keeping people interested has luckily, not been an issue! We hired 2 amazing admins which do that for me! Mage and Persuade who have both been keeping the whole community and myself coming back for more each and every week!
FML|Mage: Awww, I'm blushing. 
FML|Mage: Do you have any plans for FML going forward?  Anything you'd like to impliment, or improvements you'd like to make?
FML|Worpex: Of course! Renaud has been working hard on some great new updates to the website which I’m very excited for, but don't want to release too much information on. The future of FFA is still very much in question and it’s all about the community. I love running FML and as long as the community still wants the league here and continues to be supportive, we will keep making improvements and becoming bigger and better!
FML|Mage: Great news to hear I think, so to all those reading this, just make sure that you continue to stay interested!
FML|Mage: Before we wrap things up (it's been 2 hours for those curious), anything you'd like to cover that we haven't gotten to?
FML|Worpex: Yes, my new book "Anu'barak and Me" will be onsale next month which will go into detail about everything in FML ever.
FML|Mage: A NY Times bestseller for sure!
FML|Mage: Turns out that there was actually some creepy beetle bestiality going on behind the scenes of FML.  Interested now?  Make sure to add it to your Amazon Wishlist then!
FML|Worpex: Cut that out of the interview, they don't need to know about that!
FML|Mage: Don't worry FML|Worpex, I'll be sure to do that. 
FML|Mage: *instert awkward segway*
FML|Mage: Let's go ahead and wrap this up though, any shoutouts you'd care to give?
FML|Worpex: Shoutout to for Mage for listening to me ramble on, Renaud, Persuade, Pinballmap, Ugrilainen and everyone else in the FFA community! <3 <3 <3
FML|Mage: I am so removing Persuade from that list!   
FML|Worpex: lol
FML|Mage: And a big thank you for taking time out of your "busy" day to do this interview.  I look forward to many more years of FML, and a great many more hilarious shoutcasts with you!

[FML|Mage]

Let us know what you think, and any suggestions about content, formatting, etc are always welcome!

[Ugrilainen]

Well Frozenprince ragequited because i fought him over the 2nd rank get 10 pts rules. he wanted 15 and we raged at each other.

I thought Renaud replaced Rad. I never was in a team with Rad AND Renaud thats for sure

(Reading chapter 2. Now)

[Ugrilainen]

<3

[FML|Mage]

Lol, trust Worpex to have a shoddy memory ^-^ Can't edit the interview, but I plan to talk to you and Renaud when doing the history and if 2 of 3 agree on something it will become fact haha.

[Ugrilainen]

Oh this fact I remember because it was my first drama and wpx actually had to chose between me and prince as admin. thats how I entered fml

rad was there when I arrived, then he left and renaud came I think ( confirm renaud?)

I cant really remember which season it was and when i left FML. I know I left when Worpex left because I kinda like the guy

[FML|WorpeX]

Haha, its very possible I got names mixed up. Ugri might have replaced Lok-ta and then Renaud joined Later. I swear it was Rad,Renaud,Ugri and me as the "A-Team" for a good 3 seasons though. Maybe its just wishful thinking. :D

Yeah I remember thats why Prince Rage quit. I sided with the right person there. Also sided with the admin who actually did work.

[Ugrilainen]

Yeah and whats fun is that you publish this just when I planned my trip to Canada, will pass by Ottawa and meet Mister T from the A Team :D

[FML|Mog]

Nice interview! I can't wait for anubarak and me to come out :)

[FML|WorpeX]

I'm waiting for the Interview where Mage interviews himself!

[Ugrilainen]

You should change your avatar and make something cryptlordish, or maybe a signature...

[MattiasG]

Why the hell am I not being interviewed for fuck sake?! ._.

[FML|Renaud]

Can't wait to read!
Which should be in about 16h