Our second piece in our new wave of interviews, we introduce Byah: the leader of the alliance Odin's Misfits, and familiar face within the Rivals community.
Q: Hello Byah! As usual, let's start with your life
outside of Rivals. What can you tell us about yourself?
Byah: Thank you for having me! I try to keep a lot of details of my life
private, but I am starting to open up a little bit. This is mostly due to a
previous mobile game that I played; people went as far as looking up
information on Facebook and contacting a player's real-life acquaintances (be
it their work boss or their spouse) because of how seriously they took the
game. I go by Byah!, which is a reference to an infamous Dave Chapelle sketch
making fun of Howard Dean. If anyone pronounces my name Bye-ah, please watch
the sketch. It was originally just a temporary name for my Steam account and
when I played Smash Brothers with my friends, but it ended up sticking. I also
go by Time Manager on some platforms, which is a reference to my degree in
Business Management and that I sold watches for 8 years. Ironically, my actual
time management skills are terrible. I am 35 years old, though I still have
enough energy to be in my 20s. I am happily married and have a daughter of 6
years. I've been going through some harder times over the last couple of years
with various setbacks but am finally passing through the light at the end of
the tunnel. Gaming has always been a great escape for me, but I grew up with a
family that tried to limit my gaming. I have ADHD, and when I was younger not
much was known about it, such as that gaming can help it. I was fortunate
enough to meet my wife through gaming as well.
I have two small dogs (shih tzus) and a cat that has managed to outgrow them
both. One of the dogs was originally my father's but he passed away in 2007. I
was living with him at the time, so I had to learn how to have my own place and
manage myself very quickly
Byah
performing his signature catchphrase
Q: What was your gaming career like before this? Did you
play any other games competitively before Rivals?
Byah: There are only 2 other games that I can say I played
competitively. I have been a lifetime
player of Super Smash Brothers, and attempted to play in some local
tournaments. I am very good at Smash
Brothers, but the state champions are in another league entirely. Being better than the majority of players
your area and being able to tangle with the top in a given state are like the
difference between the top 100 and 10 in Rivals. The other game is Left 4 Dead 2. They didn't really hold tournaments, but at
my peak I was a part of a large group of extremely talented versus
players. Versus in Left 4 Dead is an
entirely different game when you have 2 teams who are able to coordinate as
both Survivors and Infected, and games often are won by the smallest margin of
points. Ironically, I met my wife while
playing in this group of players.
Beyond
those two games, I have a big interest in gaming. Some of my favorite series include The Legend
of Zelda, Assassin's Creed (To Valhalla!), Burnout,Grand Theft Auto, Fire
Emblem, Dynasty Warriors, and Goldeneye / Perfect Dark 64. I'd also like to give a shout out to a lesser
known RPG known as Golden Sun. And
finally, i am a huge fan of the entire
Command & Conquer series.
Q: Recently, you started your very own twitch channel?
Do you enjoy streaming? Whats your intention with the new channel?
Byah: I appreciate the shout out to my Twitch channel (Byah85)! I have
wanted to stream gaming since around 2014 / 2015 when I was playing a lot of
L4D2. Friends online kept telling me that I should give it a shot, but I never
really had a system that allowed me to stream well. In fact, my first attempt
to record and upload videos ended up frying my graphics card. I tried to stream
the Remasters since I now have a more powerful system, but it seems my current
PC is still behind the specs required to stream certain things. Twitch's mobile
app is how I am streaming Rivals, and to be honest it is much easier than I
expected.
I really enjoy streaming, as it lets me give others a window into how I play,
and it is just a great energy getting to interact with other players from the
community. I also enjoy being an entertainer, so this lets me get a lot of that
out. I assumed Rivals would not take off for me, and that I would be streaming
with maybe 5 viewers on a regular basis. The response I have had is surprising,
but very welcome. The Rivals community is easily the most chill gaming
community that I have ever been a part of, so getting to perform for the
community is extremely fun whether I win or lose. It has made me consider
adding console playthroughs and perhaps PC gaming in the future.
https://www.twitch.tv/byah85
Byah’s twitch channel, he starts his stream between 3 PM and 10 PM EST usually.
Q: As of this interview, the spring 2021 balance patch
is not out yet. What do you hope it includes? What changes would you like to
see that you do not see discussed often?
Byah: I really hope that Challenge
Matches are turned off in Tiberium League when the balance patch drops. Avinash has suggested that he is trying to
have the team do something, so I hope this is what they do. Challenge match abuse has reached an all-time
ridiculous level, with the top of ladder boosting being unacceptable. I will not linger on this topic, but there is
no justification for consciously CM abusing.
People are only doing it because they can get away with it. If you
played with friends and found ways to game the system, your friends would not
want to play with you.
There are a few balances I would like to see, but
virtually no buffs. Catalyst gunship
desperately needs nerfing. It could use
less HP, it could be slower, it needs base damage reduction so you cannot just
base rush with them as easily as you can now, and most importantly it needs to
have its 2-tile lock fixed. The amount
of time in which it can snipe a unit 2 tiles away is ridiculous; it also keeps
the gas cloud charging for longer than it should once a unit escapes range. I
also do not like the way the second gas cloud auto ignites, but I am not sure
if attack speed, gas charge, or fixing the lock on issue would help that.
APC needs a cost nerf of 10; it comes out too early
and requires too much to kill it in reasonable time for what it costs and how
long it survives. It could use a slight
vehicle damage nerf; i was surprised how much damage one did to a MLRS before
the APC popped. It could also use a
change in its priority or speed; it should not shove units off the way it
does. JJT I feel need a speed or hp
nerf. They are fastest speed and fly
over all obstacles, and too many matches involve spamming JJT to all pads
rapidly simply because they are fast enough to get there and durable enough for
it to make a difference. I am not sure
if they can be given a turn speed increase or not; i think the main issue with
JJT beyond spam is that they can just stop and go rapidly, shifting from
blocking to firing to repositioning all at a rapid pace. Drone swarms are particularly powerful just
because of how long they take to kill, but the only thing I can think of is
slightly nerfing their speed. Titan
needs a slight HP nerf, maybe a 10 cost nerf, but I do not think they need too
much since missile/laser spam can deal with them semi reliably. Flame tanks came out too quickly and have too
much vehicle damage. I think they could
use a speed decrease so that they cannot escape their counters as easily, and a
vehicle damage nerf because of how quickly they roast light vehicles. Giga Cannon isn't used a lot right now, but
its damage is off the charts. The third
charge stage is an obscene amount of damage, and a boosted Giga gets there way
too fast, not to mention the beam splitting.
It either needs a slower ramp up, less damage, or perhaps even only
having 2 stages of firing. And finally,
I believe that Artillery needs a minor damage, firing speed, and/or turning
speed nerf; as it stands, it is just super effective vs ground for very
cheap. You can prevent it, but if you
don't, then it is often game over.
Q: Your name can always be found in at least the top 50
on the leader board. Do you enjoy
ladder? What is your advice to new players who want to conquer the ranks?
Byah: I enjoy ladder a lot. It is fun to face various decks from various
players with a somewhat random map selection.
I have played the same 2 decks for ages, so learning how to overcome
different difficulties with them has always been a fun experience. I enjoy challenging myself, so I like pushing
the top of the ladder where the best players are.
I never expected that I'd ever consistently be top 50,
sometimes top 20. When I first started
the game, I had a lot of trouble putting my decks together. I was blind double harvesting into Wolverine
and Titan for GDI, and I was Scarab rushing with NOD. I finally settled onto my main decks, and
slowly began getting closer to the top 100.
When I finally broke the top 100, I was disbelief that I had been
capable of it. And yet over the seasons that ranking has got higher and
higher. Last season was my best, ending
rank 9 for GDI and rank 10 for NOD.
Streaming had me play more games than I normally play, but it still
insane to me that I am able to play the game as well as I do. I still try to tell myself that I'm just
extremely lucky.
I have a few pieces of advice for newer players, and
these are all things that have helped me succeed as a F2P player. The first is to save your diamonds. Prize pools are much better once you hit
Master League and saving your diamonds to buy premium tracks from Resource
Challenge and Showdown is your best use of diamonds to level up quickly. Second, you want to try and find one deck per
faction and level only those units. This
will save you a lot of credits in the long run, and it is good to have a
well-rounded deck for ladder that you can grow and learn with. You will get to a point where you need cards
more than credits, and that is a good time to dump extra credits into levelling
alternate units. Third, find yourself a
supportive alliance on discord; there are a lot of amazing alliances out there
and simply being in one where donations are always maximized, and positive
feedback is given can make a difference in your game experience. Fourth, NEVER surrender! I have surrendered only 2 times, and it was
done out of respect to my tournament opponent who had won the match within the
next couple of seconds. Beyond that, I
have always fought tooth and nail to the bitter end.
I did this even when fighting against level
differences of anywhere between 3 to 5.
There is always something to be learned in defeat and fighting an uphill
battle can help sharpen your skills rapidly.
It can help teach how to make use of multiple units, defensive
positioning, blocking, and tech switching.
Your units will catch up in levels over time, and if you are used to
fighting at a disadvantage then that will make things easier as that
disadvantage slowly withers away. A
great example of this is Spark; he fought high level and highly skilled
opponents with such a vast level gap initially that he is a beast to face at
even levels. Finally, remain patient and
calm. It will take time to max out your
units. I started playing on August 30,
2018, and my decks were not maxed until sometime in 2020. Cloning chambers make this a bit faster than
it was originally, but it will take time.
Be patient, remain calm in your defeats, and look for ways to improve
your micro. All of this will help
sharpen you as the level gaps between you and your opponents close.
Q: You are known for playing the same 2 decks since the
dawn of time. Can you talk us through how you found then and why you choose
these specific strategies?
The decks Byah has been using for more than 2
years.
Byah: They say that when the Big
Bang occured, my decks were forced and flung into space until they found their
way to me once again. The story of how I
started using these decks is a funny one, at least to me.
Starting with GDI, I was at an absolute loss once I
hit Masters League in my first / second month of playing. My original was strategy was to double
harvester into Wolverine and Titan! When
that stopped working, i put together a horrible deck combination of Rifle,
Missile, Shock Trooper, Predator Tank, APC, Hammerhead, and Jackson. I liked Jackson the moment I unlocked him;
the boost is just so good in so many situations and really helped me overcome
level gaps. Rifle and Missile were
needed so I had something cheap to spam early.
I actually hated Shock Troopers at first and thought that they were
useless. I ran them once and saw their
infantry killing power and never looked back. I went with Predator Tank because
I love how much damage it deals and can take, and I learned early on how to
work with it's raider. I went with
Hammerhead because I absolutely despise playing GDI air units, and I figured
the Hammerhead made it so that I didn't need to run additional air if I could
shut it all down. The APC was intended
to help me where Shocks couldn't get the job done, so I would try to use to use
the APC to counter Chem Troopers and higher levelled Flames and Shocks. Finally, at the recommendation of many people
on Discord, I replaced the APC in December 2018 with a Pitbull. I swore that Pitbulls were useless units due
to my tanks smashing them, but I quickly realized the versatility of the
Pitbull. And that is how I settled on my
GDI deck. I would have switched off of
it if I felt it wasn't performing well, but I always found the deck won more
often than it lost, and that was good enough for me. Two and a half years later and here I still
am, doing better than ever!
My NOD deck has a much more humble origin. I scarab rushed my way to Masters, and then
used a strange deck involving Giga Cannon, Stank, and Inferno to get my first
push into Tiberium. Once there, I had
trouble settling on a deck. In January
2019, Suzaku popularized an aggressive deck that was Militants, Laser Troopers,
Cyberwheels, Bikes, Scorpion Tanks, and Banshees with Seth. At the time, you could open bikes and switch
back to a normal opening if the rush didn't work. It was a hyper aggressive
style, and I loved it. That is why two
and a half years later I am still using the deck despite various nerfs to its
original power (bikes and wheels).
Banshee gets a bad reputation, but that unit's ground damage has saved
me more times than I can count. I still
enjoy how aggressive the deck can be. However,
I very recently discovered a new NOD deck that I enjoy using (Thanks
Bikerush!). This deck is Militants,
Laser Troopers, Cyberwheels, Bikes, Stealth Tank, and Inferno with Oxanna. There is just something highly satisfying
about smothering the field with fire bombs.
I just need to get my Stank and Oxanna to 15 from 14, so prepare to see
me switching between the two decks soon!
I have played these two decks through every meta due
to my absolute stubborn refusal to bend to the meta. I always told myself that if I lost a match
that there were ways to win that I simply didn't find. I always put the blame on my own skill and
mistakes, rather than throw my hands up and change. I honestly blame my Smash Brothers gameplay
for this. Like any other fighting game,
in Smash Brothers you usually have a main fighter or two and then other
fighters that you are okay with. I had a
heated rivalry with a high school friend that lasts to this day. As a result, I am used to what I call
"beating your head against a brick wall until you smash
through." I would train 1 v 3
against maximum difficulty AI and usually get my butt kicked, but the intention
was to sharpen myself by desperately fighting to survive. I applied this to Rivals as well, and this is
the main reason I have not switched decks.
I like my decks, and I have learned to overcome many different
situations and engagements with them.
I'd rather face difficulty playing something that I enjoy rather than
get easy wins but play something that I do not enjoy. The end result is that I have now sharpened
these decks against what should be impossible matchups, and I constantly linger
in the top 20/30 because of it.
Q: You plays these decks not only on ladder, but also in
tournaments. How does this affect your map choices if you get them? What makes
you switch to something different and leave the signature tanks behind?
Byah: I do use these decks in
tournaments, and very rarely do I change them up unless I think i can really
swerve my opponent. I am just so
familiar with my decks that changing them to fit a map or counter an opponent
ends up hurting me more than it helps because I just don't have that same
familiarity of how to handle different situations. With the new inferno deck under my belt,
perhaps we will start seeing that in tournaments as well. My GDI will likely never change, unless I
throw out a surprise fortress depending on the map.
When it comes to map choice, I would pick Random
almost every time if I could.
Unfortunately, tournament organizers often do not permit Random as a map
choices anymore (Thanks...). Random
would benefit me since I could just play normally without having to worry about
my opponent designing their deck to take advantage of the map. I have figured out which maps benefit my
decks. Large maps where speed and
mobility are required, such as Battlefield and Stonewall, tend to be where my
NOD shines. Smaller maps with multiple
pads that are semi close, such as Scorpion Tail and The Needle, benefit my GDI
since my tanks don't have to travel very far and my units can easily camp pads
and allow me to rotate my units quickly.
Maps where the pads are close together, such as Rorshach and Open Water,
are maps where it is basically a coin flip to decide which deck I should use;
they are also where I might throw out a surprise deck to try and swerve my
opponent.
It is extremely difficult to make me leave my tanks
behind. I love my tanks, and I have
learned how to utilize them with other units extremely effectively. It is almost handicapping myself to not bring
them with me. The only thing that will
make me switch off of them if is I am almost certain that my opponent intends
to bring a unit like Giga Cannon to the matchup.
Q: Your recent tournament finished include 4th in the
first Legion blitz event, and you had some success in Bikerush's world championship series
too, all while having your own team in all seasons of RTL so far. What are your
tournament ambitions for the future? Which one of the communities ran
competitions did you enjoy the most?
Byah: So, my first taste of RTL was
actually when Tommeh and I joined Maximus' team for season 4 (Dutch
Misfits!). I've hosted teams for seasons
5 and 6 and will be returning for season 7.
I really enjoy the team format, and it is a great chance to play against
players I may never play otherwise. This
season was our best finish, having lost in the semi finals to the eventually
champions The Barking Spiders. Perhaps a
visit to the Finals is in our future? If
the Misfits could score a RTL win, that would be an amazing
accomplishment. However, i am extremely
proud of everything that the Misfits have accomplished in RTL.
My two greatest tournament moments were from the
Legion Blitz Event and from the Bandito Tournament back in late 2019. The Bandito tournament saw me vs Alicia
Destiny for the USA Regional Finals. I
lost to her, but it was a thrill to have been able to have played on that
stage. I have placed variously between
5th and 13th in various other tournaments, with a few additional 4th places
that I cannot recall. That all led to my
my recent 4th place finish at the Legion Blitz event. Ideally, I would like to win a tournament at
some point, or at least advance to the finals.
I do not truly believe that I am good enough to consistently win
tournaments, but I would like to think that I could get lucky at least once!
Q: If you had one wish that you could make happen in the
world of C&C Rivals, what would it be?
Byah: I really wish that Rivals had
made enough of an impact for esports.
There isn't really any other game that I play where I rank as high as I
do in Rivals. It could have been my
ticket to becoming a household name! In
all seriousness, it would have just been amazing to play Rivals on a grand
stage like other games get to. As
mentioned before, the Bandito tournament was my first taste of anything close
to playing on a grand stage, and it was such a thrill. I would have loved for all of us to
continually have had chances to play Rivals in such a manner.
Q: Any last words?
Byah: Rivals is a fantastic game,
and the community is easily the best that I have ever been a part of. The majority of people are extremely kind and
helpful, and there is a healthy competitiveness between most of the top
players. I've never seen a game
supported by its community in the way that Rivals does. It has its flaws for sure, but I am happy to
be a part of the game and community. I
hope Rivals continues on for a long time and that the community gets to stick
together for a long time. Be
competitive, but be friendly. Never give
up, and remember that this is a game above all else. Nothing inside of Rivals is worth bringing
frustration to the real world you, even if you don't get a reward that you
worked hard for or lose a lot of medals in a short time. Take the game easy and enjoy it. If you need to step away from the game for a
couple of days to cool down, do it.
You'll come back in a much better frame of mind. Play Rivals, have fun, and be among friends
I look forward to facing all of you either on ladder
or in a tournament at some point.
Byaaaaaaah!
Written by kennyemmy, Entsorger
No comments:
Post a Comment